***OH NO. NO MO'?***
Mariano Rivera has been so good for so long, that whenever the media rates closers, they don't even include Rivera anymore. Why? Because he's so far above the rest, you can't compare them to him, so it comes down to "The best of the rest."
You look at some of his stats and it's impossible to register how good he's been for so long. He's in his 15th year as the Yankees closer and in only ONE of those years did he have less than 30 saves (2002 - 28 saves). Now he's had three bad outings in a row. We've seen blips before, but you knew they were just a little bump in the road but he still looked overpowering. But recently, he's looked all too hittable. So when the Yanks try to turn games into six inning affairs, it's worthless if the ninth inning isn't lights-out, game-over.
I've never worried before - now I am.
***EXCUSE ME?***
The MVP discussion starts to become hot and heavy this time of the year, with the so-called favorite changing every few days. Adrian Gonzales seemed like a lock a month ago, then it was Jacob Ellsbury and now Curtis Granderson is being noticed. Of course, Jose Bautista has had his backers all year. This year, however, the analysts seem to favor players on winning teams, unlike past years when all they looked at were stats. I have always felt that a player on a last place team may be the best player around, but he isn't helping his team win...because they can't win. I know, I know, it's not his fault, but consider this: the media is very quick to point out that not everyone is capable of handling playing in New York or Boston, where the pressure to win is enormous. The Yanks never made a serious run at Zack Greinke from Kansas City, because they gave a lot of credence to the thought that he couldn't handle New York. Okay, let's assume the 'winning team' theory has merit and move on to another thought.
How much does defense play into your vote for MVP? Two players with basically equal stats, one a left fielder, the other a shortstop. Who is more valuable? I would think you should lean toward the shortstop. How about two third basemen with equal stats? Then defense could be influential.
But here's my point: How do you distinguish a good fielder from a bad one? I don't mean two fairly equal fielders, I mean one outstanding and one terrible one. Ah, the sabermetric advocates have the answer. After a 'few' assumptions and thousands of numbers, they have come up with a number for you: The Defensive Runs Saved statistic. Think about this one. How can they actually put a number on how many runs a fielder can "save" in a season? There has to be so many 'IFs' involved in this formula, that the first paragraph explaining it has got to have 50 of them. They claim it takes into account everything, from the type of pitchers on his team (fly ball vs. ground ball) to the size of his field in the outfield.
Steve Berthiaume, of ESPN wrote an article explaining this and even he seems to have trouble believing his own numbers: "As with any defensive metric, there is always a subjective element." Of course, with all these sabermetric numbers, they skip over this quickly and NEVER tell you what it is. This new stat has determined that Curtis Granderson is the "worst" defensive centerfielder in baseball. Is Granderson a Willie Mays out there? Of course not, but he's not a Dick Stuart type either. Stuart, for those who don't know, was a Red Sox first baseman known as Dr Strangeglove. His teammates would shake hands with him saying, "Dick, give me some steel." If you've watched a lot of Yankee games this year, you can tell that Granderson's biggest problem is the murderous sun glare in Yankee Stadium's center field. And here's a couple of stats for the sabermetric guys to chew on: Grandy has 3 errors (10th in the majors) and 6 assists (6th in the majors).
***THEY SAID IT***
Kei Igawa, the free-agent disaster of a Yankees pitcher demoted to the minors, is out of mind but certainly not out of sight. "Yeah, he's passed me on the drive down to Trenton," GM Brian Cashman told The New York Times. "He drives faster than his fastball." -- Dwight Perry
The best reason to keep going to Mets games: "Because when you call up to order tickets and ask them what time the game starts, the clerk says, 'What time can you be here?' " A comment made by a reader to the NY Times
The PGA tournament first round leader is actually the #2 ranked American golfer in the world. Yeah, I didn’t know his name either.’ -- Janice Hough
"The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association has kicked a member off the U.S. Ski Team after he urinated on a fellow airline passenger. Imagine running afoul of the rules of the U.S. Snowboard Association. We're not exactly talking military school here." -- Brad Dickson
CP-
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