This update is powered by this cool Rube Goldberg-inspired music video:
- Nine facts you may not know about Mo, including:
1. Of the 39 relievers with 200 or more saves, only Mariano Rivera has pitched for one team.
4. For the third straight season, Rivera threw only one wild pitch (this follows four straight seasons of no wild pitches). He has thrown only 12 in his career. Last season, his Yankees teammate A.J. Burnett and the Mariners’ Felix Hernandez each threw 17 to the backstop.
6. For the third straight season, Rivera threw three four-pitch walks (one intentional) to bring his lifetime total of four-pitch walks up to 50, which includes 31 intentional walks.
- Derek Jeter, future part-owner of Yanks?:
The Yankees need to find a way to make Derek Jeter a Yankee for Life. There’s really only one way. At some point the Steinbrenner family would have to take him into the ownership group.
. . . Jeter, of course, is in the final year of his 10-year, $189 million contract. The Yankees and Jeter will come together on a new deal at some point, but Jeter needs to be a Yankee for Life and there is a way to make him one. The Yankees need to work out a deal with Jeter where they allow him to become part of Yankees ownership after his playing days are complete. Players cannot be part of ownership, so this would have to be a separate deal.
. . . Jeter is set on being an owner when his playing days are done. Without specifically talking about the Yankees, Jeter told The Post yesterday that being an owner is “definitely a goal of mine.”
- A story on how Nick Swisher acclimated himself with the Bombers last season:
. . . The free-spirited Swisher credits Posada, Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera for encouraging him to be himself.
“You have to be yourself; that’s the only way you’re going to be comfortable,” Jeter said. “The more comfortable you are, the better you’ll play.”
“Coming into a new team, you’re walking on eggshells early, trying to get to know everybody’s personalities,” Swisher said. “I was just trying to be a piece of the puzzle. The first couple days of camp, I was a little quiet, but this team welcomed me in and let me be myself. I can’t thank the guys enough for that.”
- Good news: Jesus Montero is the #4 rated prospect by Baseball Prospectus. Bad news: He’s the only Yankee on the 101-person list.
- How is Bernie Williams coping with his retirement from the game?
Back on Monday.
Additional Bad news on Goldstein's prospect list: Arodys Vizcaino, the teenage prospect sent to the Braves in the Javy Vazquez deal, is #45. Austin Jackson is #49, but that bothers me less.
What to do with Jeter is quite a pickle. No way he can wear another team's colors but, your Yanks' new regime looks serious about not overpaying for the 'old dudes' .
Phils / Yanks grudge match today. I'm sure it will be intense . . .[cough]. I got my first fix for my baseball jones last night, listening to the Phillies play Florida State on FSU's internet radio broadcast. I'll be scratching my arms today because I can't catch the game with NY. FSU ran out of pitchers after 6 innings so, the Phillies gave them 6 outs in the bottom of the 7th then called the game. Like whiffle ball rules.
[1]
According to Kevin Goldstein, Melky wasn't the prime chip the Braves wanted in the Vazquez deal, it was Vizcaino.
What is the thinking behind prohibiting players from holding equity interests in clubs? Seems pointless, unfair, and outdated to me.
[4] the player would have to give up his MLBPA membership as to avoid a conflict of interest, I would imagine.
[5] Yep, tough to bargain against yourself. Hard to believe the union serves any purpose these days, but I guess the owners do have pretty solid historical record of exploiting their labor.
Listening in on Mike & Mike on the way to work this a.m., talking about Joe Mauer& how the union would lean on him to go for a big contract, not just for himself but because that would set a higher bar for all the other guys coming after him. Certainly Mauer should get a nice fat contract, but what if he would rather leave a not unsubstantial amount of money on the table so that the Twins could spend it on other good players. Look at A-Rod in Texas, a superstar on a team of rookies & scrubs.
More and more, I am losing regard for the myriad of prospect lists out there. Aside from the very top picks, it seems like the rest of the rankings are a crapshoot. Also, only Keith Law seems as if he actually watches the prospects in person, so his is the only list I give much credibility.