The Yankees spent mightily this past offseason to revamp their bullpen, and despite a pair of left-handed bumps in the road, the first half of the season appeared to vindicate their decisions. Mariano Rivera was his usual stellar self, and newcomers Tom Gordon and Paul Quantrill gave the Yankees the reliable pair of setup man …
Sometimes I’ll slap my forehead when I read about a ballgame that I’ve missed and easily could have watched. And then there are times I thank my lucky stars that the game slipped my mind. The numbers say Sunday’s Yankee game was well qualified to fit the latter category, and the numbers don’t lie: ten …
Is it too late to add Javier Vazquez to the pile of Yankee starting pitchers who have gone sour under Mel Stottlemyre’s not-so-watchful eye? All signs point to “no”. The biggest trade the Yankees made over the winter, one designed to inject some fresh blood into their pitching staff, appears to have flopped. Not that …
Travel, rain, and the initial stages of wedding planning (definitely not my favorite kind of spreadsheet) have made my week nearly a total a loss from the blogging standpoint. Rest assured that I’ll be getting back to the good stuff soon enough. I did get to see the end of Wednesday night’s Dodger game, with …
While I was bushwhacking my way through the flora of the Wind Rivers range in Wyoming (as opposed to the bushwhacking I might have been doing back in New York City), good ol’ Will Carroll invoked a recent conversation of ours to lead off one of his Under the Knife columns at Baseball Prospectus: It …
Just a quick note to thank everybody for their responses to the Gary Sheffield series thus far. It’s been a blast to write, and I’ve learned a ton while researching his career, challenging my own thinking on his various controversies as well as that of others. As I’m leaving town today for my annual trip …
Continued from Part I Unlike the upstart Marlins, who had begun the process of dismantling their team once they’d won a championship, the Dodgers still carried a perennial expectation of success when Gary Sheffield arrived. The team had been leading the NL West when the 1994 strike hit, they won the division in 1995, then …
Alex Belth already shed a clump of hair over this yesterday, but Sunday’s Yankee loss — capping a sweep by the Angels in which the Bronx Bummers scored just four runs — contained yet another rally-hampering sacrifice bunt from Derek Jeter. In the bottom of the third with nobody out, the Yanks were up 1-0, …
“There aren’t five hitters I’d rather see swing the bat than Gary Sheffield, but there aren’t five ballplayers I’d less rather root for…” Back in December, as his handshake agreement with George Steinbrenner appeared to unravel, I wrote those words about Gary Sheffield, along with several others even less favorable. I stand by the first …
My email forwarding doesn’t seem to be working (grrrr) so until further notice, please use jayjaffe@nyc.rr.com. If you’ve sent me something since 6 PM Friday, I’d appreciate it as well if you would resend it to that address. Methinks I’m going to be in the market for a new web host soon.