Question: What do you think of Joe Torre’s tell-all The Yankee Years? Will you read it?
Answer: What do I think of Torre’s tell-all? I don’t think of Torre’s tell-all, really. I don’t have anything against the idea of a current manager putting together a book of experiences from a previous team, but isn’t this just the sports version of People magazine? Tom Verducci is a great writer (Torre’s “co-author,” a euphemism for “Joe talked about some stuff and Verducci wrote the thing”) and there will be fantastic research that he’s done to uncover really interesting quotations and comments from current and former players. But so what? What in the world could be in that book that is of any sports value or would tell us anything we didn’t know? What that guys did steroids? David Wells was a jackass? Shocker!
Here’s my guess? The biggest news in the book is that Torre isn’t the super duper nice, calm guy that he always played when managing the Yankees. There’s a great anecdote about two rival football coaches who screamed about each other before a big game and then called each other out in angry terms in interviews after the game. The feud was huge news. Of course, the coaches were then spotted by a reporter at the bar later that night, drinking beers together. When the sports writer looked at them, surprised, they both laughed. “It’s only a movie,” one of them is reported to have said.
That’s my analogy for what I figure will really come from this book – all that we saw and heard, all the denials and feigned ignorance of Cool Joe Torre circa 1996-2008 – it was all just a movie. And now he’s pissed and he’s not above exacting some revenge. Just because it’s reality TV doesn’t mean it isn’t still just TV. And so Torre’s pulling back some of the curtain for any gawkers who want a peek. Me, I don’t have a moral opposition to reading the juicy details or anything, I just have other important things I have to do.
To celebrate the first season in Citi Field, the new home of the New York Mets, the organization has designed a whopper of a logo. The patch will appear on uniforms throughout the season and already has fans and foes alike making derisive comparisons to the domino’s pizza logo. If nothing else, the new logo seems to lack any punch, and is so overly simplistic, it’s hard not to be embarrassed for the guy that designed it.
What were the Mets thinking when they adopted an ugly and amateurish design that could have been put together from a Windows Paint application? Even stranger, there’s no mention of the word “Mets” “New York” or “Citi Field” anywhere on the patch itself. The sole indicator of its purpose is the year 2009. It could literally be the inaugural patch for the debut season of Kara DioGuardi on American Idol.
Knowing that comparisons to the New York Yankees’ inaugural season logo were inevitable, maybe the Mets’ management was trying to distance themselves from seeming to follow in the Yankees’ footfalls. But I don’t think “laughingstock” was the message they were hoping to convey. Here’s hoping this is all a feint and the real logo debuts on uniforms before the start of spring training.
Question: So the Red Sox traded Coco to KC for a reliever, possibly a setup man. What team benefits more from this trade and from the Sox’s perspective do you think this was a wise trade?
If the Red Sox benefit even a little from the trade, you’d always have to give them the edge in terms of benefiting more than the Royals because the Royals rearrange pieces on a losing chess board. Until they overhaul their entire operation, one would be wasting time to spend even two sentences
evaluating minor improvements to their team, which – crap! – I just did.
Anyway, I would think about the answer to the question of benefit from the Sox perspective in two ways – how much does the exchange of talent impact the construction and performance of the pitching staff and how does the exchange of talent impact the construction and performance of the outfield. As an optimist, here’s how I see it: If Ramirez comes in and fills the role of tandem setup man with Okajima effectively, that maintains a strength in the bullpen that every team needs and the Red Sox possessed only during the final month of the season with Masterson in the pen. That’s helpful for depth, but where it could turn really positive is if that allows the Sox to comfortably move Masterson back into the rotation, enhancing an already impressive batch of young starters. Young arms are the backbone of a long-term contending team.
As for the outfield, the optimistic assessment is that the removal of Crisp, while decreasing the caliber of defensive play somewhat, frees up Jacoby Ellsbury to stop looking over his shoulder as Crisp tries to take his playing time and simply focus all of his emotional energy on being the best leadoff hitter and center fielder he can be. And in that Crisp was a fantastic defender, but a middling .270 hitter with no power, the loss of him as a fourth outfielder isn’t too much of a loss. It opens up the
opportunity for the Sox to go out and find a fourth outfielder that offers some of the skills missing from the Sox bench.
If I’m right about some or all of that, it’s a strategic move that, in itself isn’t all that fascinating, but as it moves the pieces on the roster, the Crisp-Ramirez trade has the possibility of being a catalyst for some genuine improvement.
Question: Who is the team to beat in Major League Baseball next season? Any chance we see Tampa Bay and/or the Phillies back in the playoffs?
Answer: The team to beat in Major League Baseball is, at this moment, the Philadelphia Phillies. But, the good news for those of us outside Pennsylvania is that the label applies to the World Series champion only during the time between the final out of the Series and first major player acquisition of the winter hot stove season. It’s like the title “Most Powerful Man in the World.” It only applies to the President of the United States while in office. After that, all bets are off.
And here’s the real story – We’ll get a real and true “team to beat” for 2009 over the next 6 weeks. By the time the ball drops on Times Square, most trades and signings of significance will be done and we’ll have a sense of which rosters got better, which got worse, and which don’t matter at all.
But, if I could look into my crystal ball, I’d say that by spring training we’ll be talking about the New York Yankees having completely restocked their big league roster with trades and signings. Going into their new stadium, they’ll spare no expense. So, just like every year since the mid-1990’s, experts will predict the Yankees to return to form and claim the AL East – and trendy followers will believe the Rays will duplicate their magical 2008 and either take the East or get the Wild Card.
Realistically, as the season actually gets played, we’ll also be talking about the Red Sox, Angels, and Cubs. In short – the “teams to beat” will really be the same ones we always think are the teams to beat. Those teams will have the most impressive rosters on paper and the most experience navigating the treacherous attrition of the 162 game season. Them and one or two shocking teams that made a big signing or two (Kansas City Royals in ‘09!!!).
And when it all shakes out, the Rays will be a big disappointment, the Red Sox and Angels will irritate everyone by continuing to win, and the Mets will lose their final 25 games in a row and finish one game out of the Wild Card, with newly signed outfielder Manny Ramirez tripping on his shoelace in the 9th inning, allowing both the tying and winning runs to score.
Answer: Yes. And I’ll go one further – they should pay what it takes to get him signed. Of course, please note that I say, pay what it “takes,” not pay what slimeball Scott Boras “asks.” Most of the fans despise Boras and are sick of his politician-like lies and half-truths and ridiculous expectations. And worse, that he often gets what he asks for (and then rolls around gleefully in his money while we spit at our computer screens). But, that’s not the central point in this case. The point with Jason Varitek is pretty simple: There’s no one out there that can do a better job in 2009 or 2010 catching for the Boston Red Sox.
So, will it require giving him a much higher salary than he might otherwise be offered (like $10 million a year instead of $4 million)? Yes. Will it require giving him a third year, when we don’t know if he’ll be hitting over .200 or playing in more than 80 games by then? Probably. But, while we all fall victim to the emotion of saying, “just forget it, I’m sick of dealing with all this drama for a guy who can’t hit anymore,” all the yahoos who call sports radio can’t answer the most obvious follow-up question: Then, who catches?
There are several free agents that will cost a few bucks less and produce at somewhat comparable offensive levels to Varitek’s ‘08 season, and may even do a better job throwing out runners. But, is that really worth all the uncertainty? Varitek is battle-tested playing in Boston, penetratingly knowledgeable both of all the Sox pitchers and nearly every single American League hitter, a fiercely loved leader in the clubhouse, and tough as nails. For whatever you might save in the near term to get someone new – and let’s remember, it doesn’t matter what his salary is, ticket prices have no connection whatsoever to the team’s payroll – it will cost you far more in unanticipated consequences.
Sign Varitek, and realize that it is truly A Wonderful Life. You just don’t realize how grim the alternative is in a world without Tek
Question: Is Brett Favre Having a Renaissance Year?
Answer: It is hard to argue that Brett Favre looks reenergized with the New York Jets after squirming his way out of Green Bay during the offseason. He picked a good time (assuming he really had any competitive offers from other teams to consider) to join the Jets, who themselves have been playing second-fiddle to the New England Patriots for a long time, and could reasonably command the AFC East division this season.
After 10 games, the Jets are 7-3 (vastly improving on their 4-12 record from last year) and added a number of high profile good players to complement Favre along the offensive line (notably Alan Faneca and tight end Bubba Franks.) They didn’t wallop the Tom Brady-less New England Patriots, but they did pull out an overtime win in week 11, and have managed to dominate their division at least with wins over Miami in week one and Buffalo in week 9. That positions them for a great run over the final stretch of the season.
But since you asked about Favre, a little of Favre goes a long way. His problem has always been control issues when he’s trying to press down the field. That much, even at 39 years old, hasn’t changed even when he shed his Green Bay legacy. But New York has managed to tone that down by degrees without limiting Favre’s effectiveness and while integrating him into a new system. Frankly, I doubt anyone would have expected the coaching staff to have this much success.
Maybe by the end of the season, the stats will tell a different tale, but this is the same Favre that we saw in Green Bay. Even in 2005 when the Packers went 4-12, Favre’s overall stats have been fairly consistent from year to year. He thrives with a strong ensemble cast around him and plays hard and strong with little subtly. The control all comes from a good game plan and a willful coach. Now, who could have guessed that would come from Eric Mangini, who plays spoiled brat an awful lot, but maybe what Mangini needed was someone like Favre to gameplan for.
The Jets face off against the undefeated Tennessee Titans. A win puts them in rarefied company of spoiling an undefeated season, but a respectable loss wouldn’t be the worst outcome. The Titans are a physically tough team and they have the mystique of an undefeated team.
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What were the Mets thinking when they adopted an ugly and amateurish design that could have been put together from a Windows Paint application? Even stranger, there’s no mention of the word “Mets” “New York” or “Citi Field” anywhere on the patch itself. The sole indicator of its purpose is the year 2009. It could literally be the inaugural patch for the debut season of Kara DioGuardi on American Idol.
