Archive for May, 2009
I getting bogged down with messages from fantasy team owners wanting to know what’s going on with Andy Pettitte’s injury. The answer is I DON’T KNOW YET. Be patient, and by the end of the day we should know if he’s going to be alright for his next start or if this is a bigger problem. Remember, this is a guy who 3 years ago wasn’t sure if he would retire and said he’d probably quit if he got injured again.
It looks like the Yankees are going to make a tidy profit by selling off bits and pieces of the old Yankee Stadium. In collaboration with Steiner Sports, a sports memorabilia dealer, the Yankees are selling such items as pairs of seats, pieces of sod, and even the dirt from the infield. The prices seem outrageous to me, but apparently people are buying this stuff up.
A tin sign that says “M10 Alcove” has a price tag of $200, while a handicap sign showing Jorge Posada how to get to his locker is selling for $400. If you want a pair of seats from the stadium be ready to shell out $1,500, or $2,000 if you want a specific seat. If you’re cheap (and I use the term mildly), you can pay $700 for a pair of bleacher sets. In other words, it’s a piece of a long metal bench with very short legs. A square foot of sod will set you back $120, or you can pay $50,000 and get the “NY” logo from behind home plate. Specific 80 foot long strips of sod from along the basepaths in the infield are selling for $6,000. Remember that this sod is likely replaced on a semi-regular basis, so it’s probably not the same grass that ARod was running during his infamous slap play or where Travis Fryman interfered on that throw to Knoblauch.
What amazes me is that fans are actually buying random 1×1 squares of sod for $120, when they could buy the 4×35 strip running from the mound to home for $2,500 (that’s 140 square feet, or $17.86 per 1×1 piece). Why not buy the large strip of sod and then parcel it out to people who could then buy a “significant” piece of grass for a lot cheaper. Even at $50 a square you could make almost triple your money back, and the buyer would be paying less than half of Steiner Sports’ price.
The Demolition of Yankee Stadium blog has some new pics of the ongoing Yankee Stadium demolition. It looks like most of the seats are now torn out and the field surface has been removed. Many of the signs are also gone. I know these graphics may make a lot of people sad, so view at your own risk.
The Yankees’ longest winning streak of the season now stands at 5 games after winning 3 consecutive games via a walk-off hit this weekend. Johnny Damon was the latest hero for the Yankees, hitting a home run in the 10th inning Sunday to seal a victory for the Bronx Bombers over the Minnesota Twins. On Saturday night it was A-Rod coming through in the clutch (really? hoorayyyy!) with an extra inning walk-off home run. The Yankees also had a rally against Twins star closer Joe Nathan on Friday night that was capped by a walk-off hit from Melky Cabrera. Nathan’s 3 runs allowed in that inning temporarily destroyed by fantasy pitching stats this week. They were resurrected by Clayton Kershaw’s near-no-hitter on Sunday, but that’s neither here nor there.
Johnny Damon has got to be one of the hottest hitters in baseball right now. His 3 for 4 on Sunday moved his batting average up to .324 on the season. Mark Teixeira seemed to be turning things around at the end of the week, but then finished Sunday with an 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts.
The Yankees are slowly climbing their way back to .500 and relevance in the AL East with a win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night by a score of 8-2. Andy Pettitte gave up just 1 earned run in 6 innings of work and Brett Gardner got the only home run of the game, his first on the season. Mark Teixeira was 2 for 4, bringing his average up over the .200 mark for the first time in a week. Let’s hope he can keep it up there, and hopefully well beyond. Francisco Cervelli started the game at catcher and looked pretty good calling pitches and fielding his position. He did throw out one attempted base stealer, Marco Scutaro. It also helps when you’ve got Andy Pettitte on the mound holding base runners to a 2 step lead.
The short answer to this sensationalized headline is “no”. Brian Giles probably takes the title, because he has about the same batting average as Teixeira and fewer home runs. But I think it’s interesting to point out that at this juncture in the season Mark Teixeira, who I happened to expect a huge year from and selected #1 in my fantasy draft, is among the worst players in baseball. He is batting over 100 points lower than what’s considered average, and his power output is lower than the league average for first basemen. Basically, if you took a good hitting pitcher like Carlos Zambrano and gave him the at bats that Teixeira has had this season, Zambrano would come out on top, and by a LOT.
Apparently this is old news, but I was dozing off when this went by on the ticker: Casey Fossum has signed a minor league contract with the Yankees. Fossum was an excellent lefty for the Red Sox for a few months of one season, which was 6 or 7 years ago if my memory serves me right. Fossum might be expected to step in and fill in as a reliever on the big league club very soon, as the Yankees bullpen situation is getting desperate. He pitched 41 innings for the Tigers last season, but has been limited to just 3 innings in the first month of the season as a member of the Mets. He also pitched for the Devil Rays, back when they were actually called the Devil Rays.
Joba Chamberlain gave up 4 runs in the first inning, then settled down and ended up striking out 12 Red Sox batters before being taken out after reaching 100 pitches in the 6th inning. The Red Sox are clinging to a 4-3 lead. Johnny Damon has a 3-run homer in the game, but it has been Jason Bay once again hurting the Yankees with a home run in that 1st inning.
At the moment Josh Beckett has been taken out of the game in favor of Hideki Okajima. It’s raining really hard and I wonder if this game will be finished without interruption. Coke got some big outs in the top half of the 7th inning for the Yankees in relief of Chamberlain. Oddly enough, Coke is a product Joba’s mom doesn’t sell to undercover police officers.
Yankee Stadium Poster
Watch out A-Rod, the fans are going to be on you once again for hitting home runs when it doesn’t count. Rodriguez hit 2 homers today in an extended spring training game. He also played 7 innings in the field. Nothing has been confirmed, but speculation has it that A-Rod will be in the Yankees lineup on Friday as they play the Baltimore Orioles.
I apologize for my absence over the weekend, I had a little case of the Swine Flu (don’t make out with Alvero Espinosa’s wife) but I’m now fully recovered thanks to some substances prescribed to me by Joba Chamberlain’s mom. Anyway, the Yankees were hot over the weekend but then looked like crap last night against the Red Sox. The highlight of the game was Mark Teixeira’s two home runs, which bring his average up to around the Mendoza line and make him slightly better this season than Brian Giles, the Worst Player in Baseball (TM).
Jorge Posada strained his hamstring on a routine slide into second base and will go on the DL. Apparently this is a regular occurrence for 80-year-old men who still play professional sports. Jose Molina will take over the catching duties. Apparently part of those duties include not touching the rail or fence behind home plate on foul pop-ups, because Molina failed to catch 2 last night as he gracefully avoided getting hurt by the evil metal railing. The Red Sox ended up winning the first matchup between the two rivals in the new Yankee Stadium, and are now 4-0 against the Yanks this season. Phil Hughes started the game and did not look very good.
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