Dave Pinto at Baseball Musings has the scoop on the MLB/DirecTV deal.
I’d try to sum it up for you, but I’m confused as all holy hell.
Dave Pinto at Baseball Musings has the scoop on the MLB/DirecTV deal.
I’d try to sum it up for you, but I’m confused as all holy hell.
Notable:
Much has been made of the state of the Yankees bullpen. There are loads of choices, but realistically there are only two spots to hand out. Mo, Farnsworth, Proctor, Myers and Vizciano can be considered locks. You can bitch about Myers all you want, but I don’t think anything will affect his status as a LOOGY in this pen. Such is life.
Your task: select and justify the final two bullpen spots from the following list.
Karstens, Rasner, Britton, Bruney, Villone, Ohlendorf, Sanchez, Beam, Henn, Bean (just for fun)
Personally, I’m going with Rasner and Britton. There’s no reason to let Britton fester in the minors if he can repeat or even improve on his performance last year. If he doesn’t work out, he still has options, and can be replaced by another member of this list.
I like Rasner because of his performance so far this spring. Okay, so he’s only pitched twice, but he has looked good both times. At 26 years old, it’s getting to the point where he either peforms or he he might not ever. Might as well get a glimpse now.
As for the others: I’d rather see Karstens, Sanchez and Ohlendorf develop as starters at AAA; Bruney has spent much of the spring sick and/or hurt, so he could use some more time to build up strength; Villone was greatly overworked last year, and who knows how long he’ll last this year; I’m not completely sold on Beam as a major league reliever.
Chime in, everyone. The comments are waiting.
Ever since I shattered a controller playing Madden — my annual indication that I’m done with the game until it is re-released in August — I’ve been awaiting the release of MLB2k7. I was reluctant to buy the game last year, because I thought MVP was the be all, end all of baseball video games. But after playing the craptacular “MLB: The Show,” I was left with little other choice.
I fell in love with the game, though. The pitching system was sleek, and I eventually grew used to the Tiger Woods-esque hitting system. I actually like it a ton better than the MVP hitting system, which at one time I thought was the closest simulation possible. In short, I was sold.
I’ve had March 5th circled on my calendar for a while now, and planned to buy the game on my lunch break this past Monday. You can imagine my excitement and ensuing disappointment when on Saturday night I found out that it had been realeased on Feburary 26th. Why disappointment? I had made the discovery at 10 p.m., when all major retailers were closed. I searched endlessly, but there was no place within a reasonable driving distance open 24 hours.
The worst part of all: I live in Bergen County, NJ. Anyone familiar with the area knows that, by law, retail and other “non-necessary” businesses must be closed on Sundays.
Bah, like that would stop me. Across the New York border it was, and I came home with my beloved copy of the game. Within minutes, I had a GM career set up and ready to go with the San Francisco Giants. The reason being: I was excited as hell to use both Matt cain and Tim Lincecum. But wait…no Lincecum? What the hell?
This led me to browse the Yankees roster. And guess what? No Phil Hughes. This was particularly troubling, because he had appeared in MLB2k6. But I shook it off and continued my season with the Giants.
The gameplay, hyped as being revamped from last year, is still just like the original. It’s still highly possible to miss a routine fly ball, though the ground ball fielding is a bit improved. Hitting has the same old flaws: the bunt button doesn’t always work, you can’t pull back diagonally on the R stick in any way, or you won’t step, and I even had an at-bat that was started with the hitter facing the catcher. And pitching is exactly the same as 2k6.
The GMing aspect is also exactly the same. You can cut people and shave that money off the cap; rarely do you see a Boras-esque contract demand; your minor leaguers don’t progress well; trades are ridiculously lopsided. The latter is linked directly to the ludicrous player ratings — J.D. Drew is a 100. Hell, Randy freakin’ Winn is a 95.
I sit here today without a longing desire to get home and play the game, when a year ago I would be comping at the bit. Not only do I feel like I wasted $30, but I also wasted my time driving to New York to purchase it. My recommendation: just play 2k6.
It ain’t the prettiest box score you’ll ever see, but the Yankees continued to pummel their exhibition opponents today, defeating Cole Hamels and the Phillies, 10-5.
Pavano’s line: 2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 0 HR, 2/3 GO/FO. His strikes to balls isn’t available in these sparse box scores. We’ll see if he complains of pain tomorrow.
Thankfully for Kyle Farnsworth, Carl Pavano has dominated the “he needs to earn his keep” talk this winter and spring. But sooner or later, Farnsworth will return to the spotlight; it’s kind of inevitable when you’re being paid $17 million to pitch 65 or 70 innings per season. What we’re all wondering is whether there’s a chance that the Kyle Farnsworth of 2005 will appear this season, or if we’re stuck with v2006.
Because relief pitchers work with such small samples per season, they are prone to violent swings of luck. Farnsworth is a perfect example of this. His ERAs since 2000, when he switched to full-time relief: 6.43, 2.74, 7.33, 3.30, 4.73, 2.32, 4.36. What the hell caused such fluctuation, particularly between the 2.32 and the 4.36 (what we paid for vs. what we got)?
We can scan the statistics all you want. Yes, his strikeouts per nine was slightly below his norm (10.23 in ’06 vs. north of 11 in his better years), he allowed an above-average .314 batting average on balls in play, and he displayed extreme flyball tendencies (0.78, which is alarmingly bad).
Anyone who watched him pitch, though, can give you the underlying reason for these trends: he hung the crap out of his slider. As if that wasn’t enough, he also chose to throw said hanging slider far too often, especially for a guy who throws 98 m.p.h. with ease, 101 when he needs a little something extra.
Perhaps to compensate for a pitch he didn’t control well last year, Farns is reportedly working on a changeup this spring. He probably hasn’t broken that out since his days as a starter, so I can’t imagine it being much more effective than his slider, which can only improve from last year. According to the man himself, it may not even be an issue this year:
“I think the main thing is that I was trying to be too perfect,” said Farnsworth, who went 3-6 with a 4.36 ERA in his first year with the Yankees. “A lot of times I found myself trying to be a pitcher instead of just doing what I do best.”
What he doesn’t do best is throw a changeup. Keeping the fastball low (and hence induce more groundballs) and throwing a few sliders to keep hitters honest will be the keys to Farnsworth’s return to form in 2007. And he’s right: he’s not a pitcher. He’s a thrower, so throw the freakin’ heat.
Unfortunately, the team is somewhat dependent on him. He’s at the back of the bullpen, but at this point I feel uncomfortable with him there. He of course has a chance at redemption — some people take a while to adjust in New York. I’m just very concerned that we’re stuck Farnsworth v2006 for the next two years.
Photo: SI.com
The official site has Humberto Sanchez out two to four days with an inflammed elbow. Pete Abraham reports that he’s out “10 days or so.”
Any pipe dream of Sanchez making the Opening Day roster seem to be out the window, not because he’ll be injured, but because he might not get enough work in. Not that it was going to happen, anyway.
Taking 10 days off sounds like the best idea at this point. Better to resign him to Scranton and let him heal fully, rather than rush him back and risk further injury. He does have a history of elbow troubles…