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Post by kaybli on Jan 2, 2019 15:54:05 GMT -5
Not so meaningless in my book. Any tradition that’s held onto for 39 years and is still favored by fans (especially music) can’t be all bad, nor meaningless. It does bring joy to my heart when I hear it, and Ruthie has begun to anticipate it as well... New York, New York was played at my wedding reception because me and so many of guests were Yankee fans. It was strange site seeing a bunch of drunk people, all dressed up doing that chorus line leg kick dance at a Chicago wedding reception.  |
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Post by inger on Jan 2, 2019 17:10:20 GMT -5
New York, New York was played at my wedding reception because me and so many of guests were Yankee fans. It was strange site seeing a bunch of drunk people, all dressed up doing that chorus line leg kick dance at a Chicago wedding reception. I’m adding in a garter on every leg in my version...But no one is drunk in my version...just slightly enebriated... |
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Post by chiyankee on Jan 5, 2019 9:45:02 GMT -5
Something to think about while eating your morning oatmeal:
I miss Bob Sheppard.
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Post by inger on Jan 5, 2019 9:58:37 GMT -5
Something to think about while eating your morning oatmeal: I miss Bob Sheppard. You may hear a voice booming down a crisp and succinct “THANK YOU”... |
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Post by greatfatness on Jan 10, 2019 11:55:56 GMT -5
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Post by inger on Jan 10, 2019 12:28:58 GMT -5
The word great is so over-used inrelation to sports, but this man was such a rarity that I’m comfortable saying that he was a great hitting coach. Sorry to see he’s battled illness and is leaving us so soon. There’s one special meaning for me, as usual an odd one. The father-in-law of one of my elder brothers was a very kind and religious man who had some facial twitches and mannerisms that were noticeable. The first time I ever saw Rick Down on TV, my reaction was, wow! That guy looks just like Mr. Martin, right down to the facial twitches and mannerisms. If ever there was a doppelgänger this was one. In any event, I recall the names of a handful of hitting coaches. Many of them had their day in the sun, like Charlie Lau and the helicopter swing that George Brett and others from the great Royals teams of the late 70’s-early 80’s. I can’t think of any that impacted the game and helped so many hitters as Down for such a long period. There likely are some, but not many. He accomplished the rare feat of becoming a star among coaches. That takes a special personality... |
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Post by chiyankee on Jan 11, 2019 10:49:13 GMT -5
Austin Romine is officially back with the Yanks.
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Post by domeplease on Jan 11, 2019 11:18:39 GMT -5
www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/the-yankees-are-loading-up-in-their-bullpen-and-its-changing-how-they-spend-elsewhere/ar-BBS4KNP?ocid=U147DHP Recently, the Yankees announced they were spending $13 million a year on a pitcher who will likely slot in as their fourth- or fifth-best reliever. It's hard to know what's crazier about that fact -- that no one was all that surprised by the move, or that the Yankees might soon sign a potentially superior relief pitcher for eight figures a year, meaning Mr. $13 Million-A-Year could be the sixth option out of the pen.
Our mystery reliever is Zach Britton, the two-time All-Star who in 2016 enjoyed one of the greatest seasons of all time by a relief pitcher.
That year, he recorded a perfect 47 saves in 47 tries, struck out 74 batters and allowed just one home run in 67 innings, and flashed a microscopic 0.54 ERA. Those numbers thrust him into heady and rare territory for relief pitchers, as he finished fourth in Cy Young voting and 11th in MVP voting.
Things have gone downhill from there, numbers-wise if not necessarily salary-wise. In 2017, Britton suffered a forearm strain that caused him to make just two appearances between mid-April and early July. His previously excellent control then abandoned him, as Britton posted an ugly 22-to-14 strikeout-to-walk rate the rest of that season, in the process ending his incredible run of perfect save opportunities at 60.
A knee injury ended his season early, and a torn Achilles suffered in December 2017 pushed his 2018 season debut all the way back to June 12. He wasn't particularly sharp thereafter, fanning a modest 34 batters while walking 21 in 40 2/3 bumpy innings.
So why did the Yankees sign him to a three-year, $39 million deal that includes an option for a fourth year, also at $13 million?
The first reason is Britton's sinker. The Yankees are hoping that a full, healthy season will see Britton recapture some of the strikeout prowess he showed in 2016, and even more so trim the alarming walk rates that plagued him in each of the past two seasons. Even if that doesn't happen, though, Britton remains an asset, because of his preposterously high groundball rates.
In 2017, 72.6 percent of the balls in play hit off Britton were grounders; that number hit 73 percent in 2018. Those were the highest figures in all of baseball by a wide margin, yet somehow lower than Britton's 2014-2016 campaigns, when 75.3 percent, 79.1 percent, and a stupefying 80 percent of the balls in play hit against him killed hordes of unsuspecting worms.
It's extremely difficult to do major damage at the plate when a pitcher can so easily seduce you into pounding balls into the turf. At homerific Yankee Stadium, with its tantalizingly short porch in right field, a left-hander with that kind of bowling ball action wields more value than he would anywhere else, even if Britton never regains the elite command he showed three years ago. Britton has fired that flummoxing sinker more than 90 percent of the time in each of the past five seasons, and very few batters have ever managed to do very much with it.
The second reason the Yankees threw that much money at Britton is the Bombers' eagerness to take a growing trend to the extreme. At a time when teams are shifting a greater percentage of resources toward building strong bullpens, the Yankees are outspending everyone, in an effort to be stronger and deeper than everyone, while also steering clear of monster deals for starting pitchers.
When New York acquired Britton from the Orioles on July 24, the lefty became the third Yankees reliever on last season's staff to make more than $10 million, joining David Robertson ($13 million) and closer Aroldis Chapman ($17.2 million).
The term closer carries extra weight here. Last season, more than ever since Tony La Russa built the modern bullpen archetype in the 1980s, we saw more teams do funky things with their bullpens.
The Phillies refused to anoint a closer all year long, with manager Gabe Kapler at first growing so trigger-happy with his amorphous pen that he brought in a pitcher who wasn't even ready to pitch.
The Rays blew up the concept of the modern closer and the notion of the typical starting pitcher in one fell swoop, as erstwhile ninth-inning guy Sergio Romo started five games, part of an "opener" strategy that gained traction as the year wore on.
Amid all that reliever flux, the Yankees used Chapman fairly conventionally, enabling the flame-throwing southpaw to record 32 saves, while recording more than three outs only twice in 55 appearances. It was the rest of the pen that became a breeding ground for rookie manager Aaron Boone's whims.
Robertson and Britton had both spent multiple seasons as traditional closers, while human redwood Dellin Betances had notched double-digit saves in both 2016 and 2017. Yet despite all that closing experience, Boone rotated those three big arms through a variety of high-leverage situations that rarely involved loud closer music pumping through the PA system -- not unless Chapman was unavailable to ring up the final out of the game.
The Yankees' approach to modern bullpening, then, seems to be simply flooding the zone with as many beasts as possible. Right before Britton signed, The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal noted that the Yankees could sign Britton and former Rockies right-hander/New York native Adam Ottavino.
Ottavino was a revelation in 2018, punching out an incredible 112 batters in 77 2/3 innings while pitching to a tidy 2.43 ERA despite spending half his time at pitcher-smushing Coors Field. The story of how Ottavino made himself into a sudden pitching star at age 32 while practicing in a vacant Manhattan storefront is almost as amazing as his out-of-nowhere emergence into the second-most-coveted reliever on this year's market, behind only lights-out closer Craig Kimbrel.
Given the Yankees' stratospheric revenue streams, General Manager Brian Cashman could have unlimited resources to acquire every pitcher in the known universe, if his bosses would let him. They do not.
The advent of the luxury tax has given even the richest teams a great excuse to talk up the value of frugality and efficiency, over simply getting the best players at top dollar. The result is that the once-Evil Empire Yankees might somehow currently trail the Phillies and White Sox(!??!?!?) in the race for Manny Machado, and might also be underdogs in the battle to sign Bryce Harper. READ MORE...
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Post by inger on Jan 11, 2019 12:29:56 GMT -5
The notion that Britton is expected to be the Yankees “fourth or fifth” reliever is simply preposterous. He’s a strong safety valve in the event that Chapman’s knee continues to bark and limit his effectiveness.
The extreme difficulty Betances experiences holding runners makes him a poor choice to close out games on a regular basis.
In my opinion, there is nearly an equal chance that Britton will lead the Yankees in saves this season as Chapman, whose best days may be behind him.
Chapman’s remarkable fast ball has been generated by a tremendous amount of upper body torque-producing turn that has in subsequentky put an unusual amount of strain on his knee as it has twisted under that turn. His arm seems to be fine, but unless the base can somehow be stabilized (surgery?) the arm alone seems to be limited to “only” about 99 MPH, and his command suffers...
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Post by noetsi on Jan 11, 2019 19:47:22 GMT -5
maybe chapman can become a cyborg.
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Post by chiyankee on Jan 13, 2019 21:45:35 GMT -5
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Post by domeplease on Jan 16, 2019 11:02:32 GMT -5
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Post by chiyankee on Jan 16, 2019 16:09:01 GMT -5
This news is very miscellaneous:
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Post by chiyankee on Jan 17, 2019 12:46:02 GMT -5
From a direct source:
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