When one door closes, another opens, goes the old saying. Today’s news not only finds Joe Girardi accepting the Yankees’ offer to manage, but the man he replaced and the man he beat out headed to the dugout of the Dodgers. Reports out of LA have the Dodgers firing Grady Little and hiring Joe Torre, …
The Boston Red Sox swept the Colorado Rockies right out of the World Series on Sunday night, but before the game was even over, news from Yankeeland swept that off the front page. Late in Fox’s broadcast, Ken Rosenthal reported that agent Scott Boras had informed the Yankees of Alex Rodriguez’s decision to opt out …
When the Yankees were eliminated from the 2007 postseason, my friend Nick was some 8,000 miles away, floating on a boat in Halong Bay, Vietnam. He’d gone off the grid with the Yanks trailing two games to one, with George Steinbrenner’s ultimatum still hanging in the air. As the outs dwindled, I pictured Nick lying …
I’ve got a Prospectus Hit and Run column up at BP today, loosely focused on the Rockies, who finished up their sweep of the Diamondbacks on Monday night. As improbable as their 21-1 run has been, the Rockies’ claim on National League superiority is legitimate. They finished the regular season with the best run differential …
Continue reading ‘Rox, Sox and Endlesss Organizational Talks’ »
By now, the Yankees are old news. Contrary to my sanguine assessment of Chien-Ming Wang’s chances while pitching at home, Wang made another early exit as the Yankees fell, 6-4. The loss didn’t merely end the team’s 2007 campaign, it may have drawn the curtain on the Joe Torre era. Since Tuesday, the national media’s …
The Yankees live to fight another day, thanks to some timely hitting by Johnny Damon, a spark on the basepaths by gimpy Hideki Matsui, some lousy defense by Cleveland’s Trot Nixon, and fine relief pitching from Philip Hughes. The latter was necessary after Roger Clemens departed in the third inning, trailing 2-0 and having aggravated …
Not a lot to say about the spot the Yankees find themselves in going into this evening’s ballgame. I watched Friday evening’s taut and thrilling pitching duel between Fausto Carmona and Andy Pettitte on TiVo delay, getting to the bugfest — the ickiest non-injury scenario I’ve ever seen on a ballfield — around 1 AM. …
Much to my chagrin, it looks as though I was right about one thing from my series preview of the Yankees and Indians: Chien-Ming Wang is not the same pitcher at home as on the road. Wang got the snot kicked out of him, allowing eight runs on nine hits and four walks in just …
My preview of the Yankees-Indians series, which starts this evening, is up at Baseball Prospectus. Yankee fans reading this may not be too happy to know that I’m picking against the Bombers. As a fan, I won’t be unhappy if I’m wrong, but as an analyst, I’m basing the call on a few things: • …
Exhilarating and exhausting week here at Futility Central, full of travel, deadlines, and media: • On Monday (Labor Day), I worked from home and watched most of Pedro Martinez’s comeback outing, which I then discussed with Joel Blumberg on WGBB SportsBreak, which aired later that afternoon. As I said during the discussion, I was quite …