Category Archives: ramblings & musings

Why Did You Go, Robby Cano?

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Derek Jeter, Robinson CanoThis post was written by Prof. George Clancy. Die Hard Yankee Fan, Knicks Season Ticket Holder, and Wierdo Cowboy Fan

Why Did You Go, Robby Cano?

I was in the blistering cold for the Yankee game last night, and listened to (and sometimes participated in) the numerous chants that cascaded down upon Robinson Cano during the game. It went from loud booing every time his name was announced, or when he made a fielding play, to chants of “You-re a sellout” and late in the game, the bleacher creatures chanted “No October” as the Mariners closed out their victory over the Yankees, ending a miserable evening at Yankee Stadium for all parties involved. Yet today, the narrative in all of the papers is how the Yankees fans embarrassed themselves for booing Cano. It amazes me that for five years, the critics of the new stadium have voiced repeatedly how quiet the stadium seems, but on a night when 10,000 brave fans sounded like a packed house, now the critics are focusing on what the noise was about.
Cano had a very productive, if not great career as a New York Yankee. He was durable, batted for average and power while playing a gold glove quality second base for the Yankees while only missing the playoffs twice since 2005. Yankee fans remember how he was called up by Cashman in 2005, in an attempt to bring young life to a team of veterans that was seemingly treading water in the early months of the season in 2005. He had a vibrant smile that never seemed to disappear, reminding the fans that beyond the million dollar salaries and cash grabs by owners building new stadiums, the guys on the field were playing a kids game.
Cano also had his faults. His stats in the playoffs were not up to his regular season standards, with his .222 playoff batting average being close to 90 points below his career regular season batting average. Every Yankee fan can tell you that Cano rarely hustled out of the box on groundouts to run to first (Even though C.C. Sabathia stated last night that it was one of the reasons why he was able to stay so healthy). Early in his career, there were rumors of Cano spending too much time partying with Bobby Abreu and Melky Cabrera. In 2008, Joe Girardi removed Cano from a game for not hustling on defense, stating, “I wasn’t happy with the effort on that ground ball, so I took him out.” When Cano was asked about being removed, his response was, “Ninety-nine percent of the time, I play hard.”
That missing 1% is what always irked the Yankees fan. When Yankees fans discuss their favorite players, they always talk about their hustle, giving that 110%, which is 11 points lower than Robbie’s 99%. Yankees fans always felt there was another level to Cano, that for some reason he wasn’t reaching. You can listen to all of the stories about Cano showing up early to work on hitting and fielding(I have actually seen him stay after practice in spring training to take extra swings), but there was always that feeling amongst the fans that he could be a top five player if he bridged that gap.

Players like Pedroia, who have less physical gifts than Cano, are beloved by their fan bases for their hustle, grit, and always leaving the game with a dirty uniform (Pedroia giving the Red Sox a hometown discount probably doesn’t hurt either when he was approaching free agency). Nobody accused Pedroia of not leaving it on the field, even if I believe part of that is Cano was so naturally graceful, he made extraordinary plays look too easy. Cano’s big issue is how he handled his upcoming free agency. When Cano left Scott Boras’s agency in April, 2013 to join Jay Z’s new agency, Yankees fans rejoiced because they were under the mistaken impression that due to Jay Z’s friendly relationship with the Yankees (Performing at Yankee stadium, even performing before a Yankees World Series game), that Cano would try to work with the Yankees to sign a long term deal that would allow them to try to stay under the $189 budget they had set as a goal to limit the luxury tax penalty the team was paying. Then throughout the year, Cano was making statements about wanting to be paid $300 million while his team was struggling to even stay in the playoff hunt. Finally, the season ended and the moment of truth approached. The Yankees offered Cano a 7 year, 175 million dollar contract; the Mariners responded by offering him a ten year, 240 million dollar deal, which Cano quickly accepted. Derek Jeter defended Cano’s decision the other day, asking a journalist if he would write for a different paper if they doubled his salary, which is not exactly a good way to justify the decision. An extra 65 million is hardly double 175 million dollars. Also, The Yankees offer was for $25 million per year, while the Mariners offer was for an average of $24 million per year. Granted, have an extra $65 million guaranteed is a nice luxury any of us would love to have, but you have to ask yourself if Cano thought he would still be playing at a level deserving a $25 million dollar salary at the age of 38, why not accept the Yankees offer, play on a competitive team in the bright media spotlight of New York and sign an extension at 38 if you can prove you are still an elite player who deserves that type of contract. Or did Cano make a quick money grab, knowing that in the post PED era, players decline at a rapid pace in their mid-thirties, especially power hitting middle infielders? Cano knew he would never be the type of player at that age to deserve that contract, so he took the guaranteed money and helped Hova attempt to build a solid negotiating reputation in sports management.

The bottom line is the Yankees fans and Robinson Cano had a messy breakup this fall. When you break up with someone, in the beginning you tend to remember the bad parts of your relationship to get over the hurt of being broken up with. You hope that her new boyfriend is ugly or worse off than you (Which the Mariners are doing with their 11-14 record). You hope your ex puts on a few pounds or doesn’t look as good as they used to (Which Cano is doing with his .296 batting average and having only one homerun all season). Finally, sometime you make a drunken phone call or send out hateful, mean texts to your ex, saying things you hope lets them know how hurt you are under your false bravado. It’s part of getting closure. Maybe in future years, Cano gets light applause or as his career winds down, the Yankees will make a video montage to thank him for his years here. Who knows, maybe one day he will return to the pinstripes, as former Yankees greats often do. None the less, the NY media should not criticize the Yankees fans for booing a player for moving on, but instead celebrate the passion the fan base has for their team, even if it comes off as a loud phone ringing at three a.m. on a Friday night.

George Clancy

“Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.”
-Peter Drucker

The A-Rod suspension domino effect

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dominoes

Yesterday morning the news finally broke, the national mystery was solved… how long would Alex Rodriguez’s suspension be? The answer, 162 games; the entire 2014 season as well as the post season, should the Yankees make it that far. Now I’m not going to discuss whether or not the the full year suspension was warranted or not, in this article I am going to examine how this effects the Yankees and A-Rod going forward.

For the short term, the Yankees need a third baseman. Sure, they have Kelly Johnson, Eduardo Nunez and Dean Anna, but none of these players are ideal. Nunez is an embarrassment defensively, Anna is a relative unknown, and at best Johnson is an average 2nd baseman, which means he will likely be a below average 3rd baseman. This means the Yanks need to go out and find themselves someone to man the hot corner, and this late in the off season the pickings are slim.

The only real options right now are Mark Reynolds and Michael Young. While neither one is going to give the Yankees an all star caliber 3rd baseman, I think the better choice is Mark Reynolds. At 30, Reynolds is 7 years younger then the aptly named Michael Young, that would make him one of the youngest members of the team. We also saw how well Reynolds performed last year in his limited time with the Yankees, hitting 6 home runs in only 120 plate appearances. As for defense, frankly neither player is very good, though at least Reynolds posted a positive dWAR with the Yankees last year (a whopping .3, but still better then Young’s -.4 with the Dodgers in a similar amount of time.)

All in all, the choices aren’t great, but Reynolds is better then anything else that is readily available, so hopefully the Yankees pick him up, I doubt he would cost more 5-6 million, that shouldn’t be an issue with the savings the Yankees are getting by not having to pay A-Rod this year.

And of course as I was writing this article the Yankees go out and sign Scott Sizemore to a minor league deal. Sizemore has had 6 plate appearances since 2011 when he tore his ACL… Twice. Defensively he should be better then most other options. But his career batting numbers (.238/.328/.381) are pretty terrible, not exactly the power hitting third baseman the Yanks need. considering his injury history, lack of recent playing time, and poor batting, I’m not wild about the move, but since its only a minor league deal i suppose there is no real harm in it.

Taking a slightly longer view of the situation, we see that the Yankees are now significantly below the $189 luxury tax threshold. Now, if they sign Tanaka they will likely be right up against it and more then likely will end up blowing past it. But what if they don’t sign Tanaka, what then?

My guess is if the Yankees are unable to land Tanaka, they will end up signing a lesser free agent pitcher for the four spot, and then going in house for the fifth starter. Now, when I say a lesser free agent starter, I’m not talking about a Santana, Jimenez, or Garza. I’m talking about a Capuano or Arroyo. These guys would let the Yankees stay under $189 million so they can reset the luxury tax.

Now this may sound like a good thing, and for the far future I’m sure it is; but this is the Yankees we’re talking about. Going with scrap heap pitchers for the back end of the rotation, a bunch of old men and stop gaps manning the left side of the infield is as close to a rebuild year as we have seen in a long time. You add in the fact that the Yanks signed three big name free agents already, and you have the recipe for a messy season. This off season may not be remembered for what they went out and acquired, but for what they lost.

The final domino in my little metaphor, is Alex’s future with the Yankees. Will he return for the 2015 season, could the courts grant him an injunction and let him play this year, does he even appear in spring training? First off, I doubt the team will want him in Tampa this spring, though I’m not sure they can keep him out, he’s on the roster, and apparently the suspension doesn’t include spring training so we may see him down there, if he is with the team I’m sure there will be a media circus around him. We all know the Yankees don’t want to deal with that, so for everyone’s sake I hope they manage to keep him out.

As for the far future, I’m not sure we have seen the last of Alex Rodriguez in pinstripes. he will still be owed $61 million for the 2015-17 seasons. That’s a lot of money to write off if the Yanks give him the boot, they may be better off keeping him around as a DH, it’s slightly better then flushing the money down the toilet. If they do cut him, some other team that doesn’t care about what they are putting on the field could pick him up (I’m looking at you Miami Marlins.) They would have to pay him the major league minimum, while the Yankees still have to shell out millions of dollars.

There is one final domino to fall in all of this (I love my little metaphor,) and that is the real future of third base for the Yankees. Internal options are lacking, we saw what David Adams could do last year, Eric Jagielo and Dante Bichette jr. are at least a year or two away, and Ronnie Mustillier may be able to hit, but he can’t field. Chase Headley is a free agent next year, and the Yankees have tried to trade for him in the past. My guess is they look into signing him next off season, though that would pretty much put the last nail in the A-Rod coffin.

With the arbitrators ruling this week the Biogenesis story comes to an end. The players have all been punished, and baseball will be steroid scandal free for at least a few years months. We have our answers, but all they have done is lead us to new questions, questions we may not know the answers to for a very long time.

Hope You Guys Like Hockey

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With football season ending prematurely and basketball season never starting, it’s looking like hockey will be the only thing to watch this winter. That is a sad sentiment, considering that watching hockey on tv is not exactly great theater.

And yet, we trudge on. We participate in half hearted discussions about the Cowboys remaining schedule and JR Smiths struggles to find his pot, I mean his shot. We all know JR has no problem finding the former.

All the while, we know what really interests us. It’s questions like, who got non-tendered? What’s the latest with the posting system in japan? And who’s gonna be the backup catcher? You know, the important stuff.

So what does it all mean? It means that Baseball still reigns supreme. That going to a New York Baseball website in December IS a good use of your time. And that subscribing to Big Apple Baseball’s podcast on iTunes is exactly what makes you a winner.  So go out there and win the day, cause you’re part of the Big Apple Baseball Community, and we’re the biggest bunch of winners on the intraweb.

 

What Was Better Shea Or Citi?

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Image provided by bloggingmets.com

Image provided by bloggingmets.com

So I think most people would think Citi, right off the bat. They would think, how can a place nicknamed “shit-hole Shea” be better than Citi field, or shitty field as I like to call it. First off a note to the Mets. Stop calling your stadiums names that can so easily be turned into something shitty. But more to the point, I think Shea was a much better place to watch a baseball game.

Was it a better place to get high-end BBQ, burgers and sushi? No. Better place to enjoy the game from the comfort of an indoor restaurant/club? No. Better place to not wait forever to pee? No. But Shea was the better place to watch and enjoy the on-field product, the game.

Shea Stadium crowds cheered, yelled, chanted and generally acted like they were at a ballgame. Citi Field crowds are spread so thin that the cheering is minimal. The fans are either on line for one of the 100 food options, or in a semi-private club, or they’re standing behind seats that are better than their own, or they’re walking around and taking in all the non-baseball things to do. The game at Citi has become secondary.

Whatever the reasons, fans are not in their seats and are not cheering nearly the same way they were at Shea. Now, I dont think the people have changed. The same ticket holders in 08 at Shea are, for the most part, the same ticket holders today. Yet, the feel of the ballpark is drastically different.

This isnt to say all mets fans dont cheer anymore, the 7line army certainly does, as do other pockets of fans. But as a whole, Citi does not rock the way Shea did. I’m sure part of it has to do with the fact that the Mets themselves havent been nearly as good since leaving Shea, and if/when they get good again maybe Citi will rock too (the atmosphere was pretty good for the All-Star Game).

But for the time being, it’s pretty cut and dry. Shea, although it lacked in ammenities, was the better place to watch a ballgame.

Deep Thoughts By Luke Lowry

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What to write?.. That is the questione’… As I sit here, in late October and watch a very memorable World Series, I can’t help but imagine how cool it’d be if the Mets were in it. I can see it now. David Wright playing the David Ortiz role, hitting .750. Game 6 being the hottest ticket in Mets history. And hey look over there, it’s Cowbell man saying he needs me to get the crowd pumped up. Ok Cowbell man, l can do it. Whats that? This isn’t real and I should just run blindly into the next paragraph without a segue.

I’ve never gotten to truly enjoy a Mets World Series. In ’86 I was 3 and in 2000 I was a senior in high school and lets just say I was a little preoccupied with other things (like being a punk and general horrible person, apologies to Laura Nealon. More on my horribleness in columns to come) In ’06 I was all in, was at Shea for Endy’s catch in game 7, but it wasn’t meant to be. Now, if this group of young Mets, plus whatever reinforcements Sandy Alderson brings in, can get to a World Series. What a wonderful world it would be. Now I don’t claim to be an A student. Sorry, got side-tracked there, just watched Animal House. So, where was I… Right, so I’m not an A student. Whoops, need to go back further. Oh yeah, the Mets and the World Series. Now that’s a combo that does not deserve to be put on double secret probation.