And the Boss is Not Happy...

[jerseyhoya34]

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7536433/

Can't say I'm as bitterly disappointed as he is... My NY Mets are actually playing .500 baseball.

[Bahstin]

Giggle.

Giggle, giggle.

Last place.

Giggle.

[Cambridge]

Obviously I'm not accusing you Jersey as you've expressed your allegiances in the past...

But I'd like to note that I've noticed an increasing murmur of support for the Mets amongst the "Yankee fan" contingent at work. Of course, it being a Boston office they are getting blasted by the Sox fans and their reaction, while at first stoic has begun to wilt. Strange. Already I've heard "You know, I grew up a Mets fan. My father loved them. And I'm rooting for them, for him." "I went to the WS in 1986 and it was the greatest experience of my life." "Any team from NY is my team. Who cares if it's the Mets or the Yanks."

And a whole host of other pitiful justifications and arguements.

Let's just say that I'm amused.

[TBird41]

Basically he's paying Bernie and Giambi the same amount of money as Tampa Bay is paying their entire roster in order to have the same record as them

This is AWESOME!! ;D ;D

[RDF]

As a Yankee fan, this is the BEST thing to happen to the organization. The Yankees were getting worse with each "big name" added and what seperated the teams from '96-'01 was the fact they won with guys from within and those who weren't "names" as much as tough minded players. I have disliked this recent group and been vocal in my dislike. To me the problems are numerous and it starts with Front Office's obsession with names over results. They looked at name and not performance. I never liked Giambi as a player because I saw him as a 175 lb slap hitting mullet goon at Long Beach State and all of the sudden he turns into the Incredible Hulk?? Business wise, the guy never hit well at the Stadium and you sign him to play half of his games there and expect great results? Well once he has been off the juice he and his brother have proven to be frauds who don't have Big League Talent.

A-Rotten is everything Yankees aren't or shouldn't be about. He's a player who shrinks in big moments, and for those who say he carried NY in playoffs, I point to a little thing that goes unnoticed but is HUGE in Playoff/Championship Caliber baseball, he twice failed to get in runs in top of 9th that would've given Yankees a 2 run cushion instead of leaving it a 1 run game. Runner at THIRD BASE with 1 out, a big time player gets that done--A-Rotten gagged. He's a clown and I still point the downfall of last year to him firing up the Red Sox. He's a self absorbed jerkoff.

Pitching is awful right now but I blame Stottlemyre for that. He's an overrated Pitching Coach, just as Torre is a Manager. What happens when you win is that you get way too much credit and often people don't look at why you win/lose. Torre is same guy who was fired for being a crap manager everywhere else, he just came along at right time and his nice personality fit in with a team that was self motivated and had great approach to game. He's a quality man, and a strategic failure as a manager. He showed that last year in overusing his bullpen in regular season and mismanaging the Playoffs.

Stottlemyre is awful. He's only seen success with teams LOADED with talent and veterans who already have established themselves. Anyone who needs teaching/guidance fails under his tutelage. He's been bullet proof because of his sickness and team's success.

The reason successful teams fail is that they fail to see what is actually happening and only look at end result. If you want to stay on top, you self scout and make changes BEFORE things get to the point they are now. People like Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada have always been overinflated by most Yankee fans and media. Posada has been main catcher since '00-which was Yankees worst Championship team and he's a crappy receiver and streaky hitter. Anything that breaks he can't hit. Williams is a great person and was a good hitter for a stretch of time. He's just gotten too old and bat slowing down. His defense has always been average to below average but his speed used to make up for his numerous poor jumps on balls. Now it doesn't. He can't throw and never could.

What Yankees failed to do was identify the number one rule in baseball--you have to be strong up the middle. Jeter is lone player who's above average up the middle. 2B with Cairo would've been solid and should've been acceptable. CF and Catcher need upgrades, they failed to address it and you see what's happening. Add that to the "Mel's retiring, no he's coming back" and you have the same overrated "guru" not doing much to teach/instruct his high priced and aged staff. There is a reason that when players leave NY, they often find their groove again pitching. They get DE-Stottlemyred.

Whew, that felt better. Anyways, it's good for baseball that his overpriced team is failing and it's good for Yankee fans too. You don't win with buying "stars". You win building a TEAM and one with shared goal of winning Championship--nothing else matters. I am glad this is happening and predicted it to fellow Yankee fans. If they continue to chase after "stars" I'd rather see them fail and end up like 1980's then win. I will always be a Yankee fan, but if my team is going to be dumb enough to ignore the formula that was responsible for their success, they deserve to face the failures that follow. Bad character players --Brown, Giambi--and over the hill players who used to be good don't deserve to get "benefit of doubt". This is Sports and you either produce or get gone. I'd use this season as a training camp for younger players to see who can help in future and where you'll have to look outside of organization for help. Why keep trotting out overpriced, overrated players who play with no effort/inspiration?

Kudos to other organizations and fans for laughing and enjoying the failure--it should be laughed it. It's not right to have a $200 million dollar payroll when most of that salary is tied up in people who've never done a damn thing to bring a Championship to your organization. If they had this payroll with guys who helped them win and continued to, then most wouldn't have a problem--because you are rewarding those who've won and helped. But the Mercenary approach stinks--Giambi, Sheffield, A-Rotten, etc.....The fact is that George's horse produces what his baseball team plays like--MANURE.

With all of that said, I've got my tickets to entire Yankee-Twin series and will be there watching--good or bad. I won't switch allegiances, but I do want to see improvement and as a organization, a year like what we've seen is needed to get things straightened out. If not, then many years of this will be needed. It's better to be a contender or awful in Professional Sports because mediocrity means you'll be stuck in a rut longer.

[nychoya3]

Well, I disagree with most of what RDF says, but I'm a Yankee fan, and I got to chime in. I will agree that I'm less upset than I should be, because their failings are of such a "I knew it all along" variety. The issue isn't paying ARod or Sheff - those guys always produce. The stuff about hitting in the clutch is bull. The issue is that they had money to spend this offseason, and they spent it in the dumbest, most moronic, most arrogant way imaginable. They paid Jaret Wright, Carl Pavano, and Tony Womack. Are you kidding me? What the hell did we expect. Wright is already a bust, Pavano is being paid twice what he's worth, and Womack is now going to sit in left field and the lineup like a huge black hole sucking up rallies. Awesome.

They have the worst defense in the league, and if you think Jeter is helping them, check the stats. The guy is fun to watch, but his range is non-existent. Has he EVER got a ball hit to his left? Other than Randy (you can't go wrong with Randy Johnson), their pitchers aren't striking out the side. They need guys who can catch behind them, and the Yankees don't have that. Thinking that Bernie could handle center this year pretty much sums it up with the braintrust at the Stadium.

The Yanks could have signed Beltran, John Lieber, and resigned the vastly superior Miguel Cairo for the money they spent on the awful group they brought in. This is called justice, folks. The Yanks have always spent money, but they've done it wisely. Now they're spending like arrogant morons, and their core is getting old quickly to boot.

They won't finish in last, but this team was lucky to win as many games as they did last year. They will have to be even luckier to make the playoffs this time around.

I'm a Yankee fan by birth, but a Moneyball fan by persuasion. I won't stoop so low as to pull for the Mets (though I will say, objectively, that they have a lot of good young players), but an Oakland-LA Dodgers World Series would please me at least as much as a Yankee appearance. Oh, and may hellfire rain down upon the Red Sox. Now.

[the_way]

RDF said:

As a Yankee fan, this is the BEST thing to happen to the organization. The Yankees were getting worse with each "big name" added and what seperated the teams from '96-'01 was the fact they won with guys from within and those who weren't "names" as much as tough minded players. I have disliked this recent group and been vocal in my dislike. To me the problems are numerous and it starts with Front Office's obsession with names over results. They looked at name and not performance. I never liked Giambi as a player because I saw him as a 175 lb slap hitting mullet goon at Long Beach State and all of the sudden he turns into the Incredible Hulk?? Business wise, the guy never hit well at the Stadium and you sign him to play half of his games there and expect great results? Well once he has been off the juice he and his brother have proven to be frauds who don't have Big League Talent.

A-Rotten is everything Yankees aren't or shouldn't be about. He's a player who shrinks in big moments, and for those who say he carried NY in playoffs, I point to a little thing that goes unnoticed but is HUGE in Playoff/Championship Caliber baseball, he twice failed to get in runs in top of 9th that would've given Yankees a 2 run cushion instead of leaving it a 1 run game. Runner at THIRD BASE with 1 out, a big time player gets that done--A-Rotten gagged. He's a clown and I still point the downfall of last year to him firing up the Red Sox. He's a self absorbed jerkoff.

Pitching is awful right now but I blame Stottlemyre for that. He's an overrated Pitching Coach, just as Torre is a Manager. What happens when you win is that you get way too much credit and often people don't look at why you win/lose. Torre is same guy who was fired for being a crap manager everywhere else, he just came along at right time and his nice personality fit in with a team that was self motivated and had great approach to game. He's a quality man, and a strategic failure as a manager. He showed that last year in overusing his bullpen in regular season and mismanaging the Playoffs.

Stottlemyre is awful. He's only seen success with teams LOADED with talent and veterans who already have established themselves. Anyone who needs teaching/guidance fails under his tutelage. He's been bullet proof because of his sickness and team's success.

The reason successful teams fail is that they fail to see what is actually happening and only look at end result. If you want to stay on top, you self scout and make changes BEFORE things get to the point they are now. People like Bernie Williams and Jorge Posada have always been overinflated by most Yankee fans and media. Posada has been main catcher since '00-which was Yankees worst Championship team and he's a crappy receiver and streaky hitter. Anything that breaks he can't hit. Williams is a great person and was a good hitter for a stretch of time. He's just gotten too old and bat slowing down. His defense has always been average to below average but his speed used to make up for his numerous poor jumps on balls. Now it doesn't. He can't throw and never could.

What Yankees failed to do was identify the number one rule in baseball--you have to be strong up the middle. Jeter is lone player who's above average up the middle. 2B with Cairo would've been solid and should've been acceptable. CF and Catcher need upgrades, they failed to address it and you see what's happening. Add that to the "Mel's retiring, no he's coming back" and you have the same overrated "guru" not doing much to teach/instruct his high priced and aged staff. There is a reason that when players leave NY, they often find their groove again pitching. They get DE-Stottlemyred.

Whew, that felt better. Anyways, it's good for baseball that his overpriced team is failing and it's good for Yankee fans too. You don't win with buying "stars". You win building a TEAM and one with shared goal of winning Championship--nothing else matters. I am glad this is happening and predicted it to fellow Yankee fans. If they continue to chase after "stars" I'd rather see them fail and end up like 1980's then win. I will always be a Yankee fan, but if my team is going to be dumb enough to ignore the formula that was responsible for their success, they deserve to face the failures that follow. Bad character players --Brown, Giambi--and over the hill players who used to be good don't deserve to get "benefit of doubt". This is Sports and you either produce or get gone. I'd use this season as a training camp for younger players to see who can help in future and where you'll have to look outside of organization for help. Why keep trotting out overpriced, overrated players who play with no effort/inspiration?

Kudos to other organizations and fans for laughing and enjoying the failure--it should be laughed it. It's not right to have a $200 million dollar payroll when most of that salary is tied up in people who've never done a damn thing to bring a Championship to your organization. If they had this payroll with guys who helped them win and continued to, then most wouldn't have a problem--because you are rewarding those who've won and helped. But the Mercenary approach stinks--Giambi, Sheffield, A-Rotten, etc.....The fact is that George's horse produces what his baseball team plays like--MANURE.

With all of that said, I've got my tickets to entire Yankee-Twin series and will be there watching--good or bad. I won't switch allegiances, but I do want to see improvement and as a organization, a year like what we've seen is needed to get things straightened out. If not, then many years of this will be needed. It's better to be a contender or awful in Professional Sports because mediocrity means you'll be stuck in a rut longer.

As always, another fine post by RDF. I'm an Orioles fan. And the team I wished the O's were like was the 96-01 Yankees during those years. Talk about gumption, talk about clutch. I HATE the Yankees. But you could never count those teams out. An opposing team could never feel safe until the final out was made against the Yanks. Time and time again they would pull it out in the clutch, in the playoffs. It was some dynasty. Now it seems my O's are getting there, but have a long ways to go. But like all dynasty's, they come crashing down, and when they land they land hard. The Yanks have been putting band-aids over bullet-wounds when it comes to the problems of their franchise. They need to break-down and rebuild that team again. You can buy a team, but you can only build a franchise.

[TBird41]

The end of the Yanks loss tonight was down right UGGGGLY. Like Sheldon Williams ugly. I mean, wow, practically every veteran did something really dumb. Gooood times.

Luckily for the Yanks, the Twins stomped the DRays (which is sad b/c I wanted the Yanks all alone in last, but not at the expense of the Twins).