Mr. Schaden, meet Mr. Freude
Fun exercise: find a Yankee fan, give them your best innocent smile, and ask sweetly “Hey, I missed the game last night: what happened?”
In the remnants of the Bronx Bombers’ season we find two nuggets of interest to Mariner fans. First, Derek notes that the Yanks may be interested in Daisuke Matsuzaka. (My most recent take on Daisuke and the free agent starter market is here).
Second, Mel Stottlemyre is on his way out as New York’s pitching coach, and the Issaquah resident is a possibility to fill the vacancy left by Bryan Price.
Update: from msb in the comments, Corey Brock talks about pitching coach candidates in the TNT without mentioning Stottlemyre. Also, here’s Larry Stone’s take in the Times.
Comments
43 Responses to “Mr. Schaden, meet Mr. Freude”
Yeah, but can Stottlemyre work well with Kevin Brown next season? *wink*
Larry Stone is also retailing the Stottlemyre rumor in the Times.
In other M’s pitching news from the Times today, Ryan Franklin still won’t admit to using steroids, but his brother will.
How much worse can A-Rod have made himself look to the NY fan base? Killing a potential 9th inning rally (started by Captain Jeter himself, no less) by hitting into a double play with the season on the line. And goes .133 in the ALDS, with a critical fielding error. What’s A-Rod going to do for an encore, run over Joe Torre with his car in the Yankee Stadium parking lot?
Running over Joe Torre might actually endear him to the fans (or at least Steinbrenner). Somebody has to take the fall for the past five years.
As someone on another board put it, what will Fox/ESPN find to talk about in the rest of the games, now that New York and Boston are both out?
Want to really get a Yankee fan’s goat? Mock Yankees radio announcer John Sterling by saying, “Ballgame Over, American League Division Series Over, Season Over, Dynasty Over, Yankees Lose Thhuhhhhh Yankees Lose!!!”
A-Rod wasn’t alone in his failures, though. Matsui was 4 for 20 and left eight on base by himself last night, Bernie hit .211 in what is probably his final playoff series, and Sheffield went homerless. Not to mention in Games 4-7 of last year’s ALCS, when one win would’ve put the Yankees back in the Series, A-Rod was 2 for 17 and Sheffield was 1 for 17. Not exactly what George Steinbrenner had in mind when he picked those guys up. Did you see that the Angels and White Sox’ combined payrolls were about $35 million less than the Yankees? Wow! Someone’s cleaning out his desk and office upon returning to NY.
When do the “Lou back in the Bronx” rumors start?
Shoulda had Bernie Williams in CF. Sheffield woulda had plenty of room to make that catch.
(*evil laugh*)
They started about 3 months ago…
In a semi-related note…Check out the tentative 06 Ms schedule.
We have 28 games in August against Bal, Oak, NYY, LAA & Boston. In the midst of that we have 3 with TB.
That month has a 17 day strecth w/o a day with 11 straight in Texas, Oak and LAA. August is going to be ugly if we play like this year.
(2006 Ms Schedule)
[quote]# Replacement Level Poster said:
October 11th, 2005 at 10:36 am
When do the “Lou back in the Bronx†rumors start?
They started about 3 months ago…[/quote]
Well they ought to be kicking into high gear now then.
#6: “Lou to NY” stories were part of the NY dailies coverage today of last night’s game.
ARod did have a .435 OBP during the Division Series. Of the regulars, only Giambi and Posada were higher. Coincidentally, Vladi’s OBP was .429 and he too did not have an RBI in 5 games.
Why can’t we send Hargrove to NY and get Lou back here?
What will be the official “Steinbrenner Rash Overreaction” move of this offseason?
a) Releasing Bernie Williams with a publicly humiliating comment.
b) Naming Tanyon Sturtze pitching coach.
c) Announcing that the ’06 Yankees offense will be built around Bubba Crosby.
d) Taking away all employee parking spaces.
e) Shackling Joe Torre and Brian Cashman in a cellar to re-enact the movie “Saw.”
f) Making a full-press push to bring back Roger Clemens.
f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f f
Steinbrenner’s official statement on the Yankees’ official site is priceless. His plan is to do better. Brilliant! Are Yankees fans really so dull that they need to be told the plan is to do better? Perhaps they expected the Yankees have gotten bored with winning and have been aiming for getting close but not going all the way?
Yeah, but as further proof of the ineffectiveness of the guys hitting behind him, ARod only scored two runs in the series; Vlad had five. Collectively, you’d have to call ARod, Matsui, and Sheffield the “Anti-clutch”
So did everyone else enjoy doing the little
“Yankees lose the pennant! Yankees lose the pennant! Yankees lose the pennant!” song and dance…? (which, btw, was the txtmsg I sent to a couple of friends in NY).
Pulling now for an Astros/White Sox series (great pitching vs explosive hitting) though seeing Clemens+Pettitte facing their old club would have been amusing.
#4 – “As someone on another board put it, what will Fox/ESPN find to talk about in the rest of the games, now that New York and Boston are both out?”
“Well, Tim, see that fastball that Garcia just blew by Guerrero? Now Derek Jeter would have hit that for a home run, I’m sure – if the Yankees were still in the playoffs, of course…”
Pulling now for an Astros/White Sox series
aka “Fox’s worst ratings nightmare”
I bet Fox chiefs Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes are on the phone right now in a conference call to Karl Rove and Bud Selig, saying: “What the hell happened? We had a DEAL for a Yanks-Red Sox ALCS. Since when does cronyism not count in the White House anymore?????”
aka “Fox’s worst ratings nightmareâ€Â
Yeah, that’s another reason (anything that pokes another stick in the the rupe’s eye is good by me). Though I would think StL/ChW would be worse from their pov; football may be the sport in Texas, and Cards fans might be more loyal, but Houston is a far larger market and Texas larger still. Plus with the Cardinals playing (and meekly folding) in the WS last year, there’s far more novelty factor for the rest of the country.
From what I’ve seen on FOX’ studio coverage, every time the playoff board shows the White Sox logo, Kevin Kennedy or Jeannie Zelasko takes their telestrator and writes the number “1917”, signifying the White Sox’ last World Championship. Guess we know which team FOX is pulling for now.
Personally, the ALCS will still be interesting (Sox in six is my pick), but I’m really looking forward to Houston-St. Louis. I predict another seven gamer there, and the Astros, as poorly as they’ve hit this year, are scarier than San Diego so I think they have a good chance at an upset. Plus, Isringhausen has been very shaky lately.
dave paisley said: “Well, Tim, see that fastball that Garcia just blew by Guerrero? Now Derek Jeter would have hit that for a home run, I’m sure – if the Yankees were still in the playoffs, of course.”
“AJ handled that tricky hop well, Joe, almost as well as Joe Torre handled taking over for me as catcher for the Cards way back in ’70. Speaking of tricky, it will be interesting to see just what happens to Joe and the other Yankees now that the off-season is upon us. well, upon us once we get these last few games of the year out of the way…”
I think a White Sox – Astros series would be great.
We could a full seven games with a total of 12 runs scored.
24 – ….and 100 innings played.
Jeff, I enjoy reading your stuff :- )
Ya gotta pull for Sox-Cards cuz it will drive the Cub’s fans nuts:-)
Am I the only one that hates Fox’s incompotent baseball coverage? I mean if I’m going to watch a game I want to see more than closeups of the players and fan’s faces. I want to see the field, how the players are set up, etc. I want to see the damned game.
#28,
I think you’d be alone if you liked Fox’s coverage…
I’ll take Joe Buck and Tim McCarver over Bob “Mickey Mantle card in my wallet” Costas anyday. I can only hope that playoff coverage never goes back to NBC.
Jim Leyland has set his new Detroit staff
ahh… i gotta give props for the schadenfreude reference. how many readers missed that?
Mr. Shaden Mr. Freude
for those that did (the teen demographic, most likely)…
shadenfreude it is a german word that essentially means deriving joy from other peoples’ pain or misfortune.
*sigh* i just wish we got to display it more often instead of being on the recieving end.
Tyler,
I am definitely not in the teen demographic as my grandchildren would attest to and I didn’t know the schadenfreude reference. Maybe it is only understood by those in their 30’s and 40’s and those who speak German.
So, thanks for the explanation.
I thought it was a pretty common word. Or maybe I’ve just listened to the Avenue Q soundtrack a few too many times.
schadenfreude : literally “shameful joy”
God bless the Germans for inventing this wonderful feeling.
Well, as in all things, you should know it from the Simpsons if nowhere else. Lisa may have even used it in two episodes.
Actually, “schaden” means damage. “schadenfreude” literally means “joy from damage”.
Wow, look at that… Lou Pineilla joins the Fox Broadcasting team for the ALCS game. Ah, and the Pepsi commerical where ARod and Vladi are taking shots at the moon. Considering their .430 OBP and 0 RBI’s in the Division Series, shouldn’t it be re-shot showing ARod getting hit by a pitch and Vladi hitting a dink single?
Apparently this passes for news — in the top baseball story currently at ESPN.com, Mike Hargrove says the Mariners aren’t considering Mel Stottlemyre. Sounds similar to the M’s not even talking to Dusty Baker when they hired Melvin. If a candidate like Stottlemyre looks like he’ll be available soon, why be in such a big rush to hire someone else. Stottlemyre lives in Issaquah so there’s reason to think he’d come here.
Hopefully Bavasi or someone else in the organization overrules Hargrove and they consider him for the pitching coach job…
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2187913
The story really says nothing, as Hargrove was unaware that Stottlemyre might be available. But you have to appreciate the AP writer’s sarcasm: “Trumping those two [coach] openings are the team’s needs for a catcher, a left-handed hitter and a starting pitcher or three.”
In other “news,” Mariners GM Bill Bavasi ruled out signing Jim Thomsen as a back-of-the-rotation starter.
Methinks the beat writers are getting a wee desperate.
I don’t know what your stuff is like Jim, but based on what we saw on the mound in 2005, I don’t think this front office would rule you out.
Jim, are you a lefty? Perhaps the Ms can DFA Matt Thornton and put you in there for those 1-lefty batter situations in the sixth or seventh innings.