Derek Jeter Showed His Captain Skills Early On

As the Tampa Bay Rays were struggling to win games this past week, sparks flew in their dugout following a lollygagging-esque play from B.J. Upton. 24-year-old Evan Longoria wasn't happy about Upton's hustle and confronted him in the dugout. Tempers flared and the two teammates had to be separated. One comment I heard was that this type of confrontation (and that of Derrek Lee and Carlos Zambrano of the Cubs) was very un-Yankee-like. But ESPN's Buster Olney shared a story in his blog today that proved that wasn't exactly the truth:

The [Upton-Longoria] incident brought to mind another confrontation between a rising star who, like Longoria, was 24 years old. Late in the 1998 season, the Yankees were playing at Baltimore, with New York having already wrapped up the division title, Joe Torre had taken to resting his regulars in the late innings, in preparation for the playoffs. David Wells was pitching against the Orioles, and in the sixth inning, Torre replaced left fielder Tim Raines and center fielder Bernie Williams with Ricky Ledee and Chad Curtis, respectively.

A pop-up was hit into short left-center field, and when the ball fell between shortstop Derek Jeter, Ledee and Curtis, Wells -- who had moved to back up bases, held his arms far out to his sides, his body language screaming, "Are we really trying?"

That was a team with many veteran players, from David Cone to Paul O'Neill to Joe Girardi to Tino Martinez, but it was Jeter who got in Wells' face about the gesture. And what he said, in so many words, was, "We don't do that kind of thing on this team." Wells was contrite, and apologized to the others involved.

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My All-Star Team: American League Hitters

The Major League Baseball All-Star Game in baseball is probably not a game that should count and sometimes the fans seem to get the wrong players elected--but then again, that doesn't make it different than any other form of democracy. And sometimes, people certainly get picked for the wrong reasons as The Common Man showed  last week. In the end, the Mid-Summer Classic is all about being an exhibition of baseball's best players. So I'm going to take only the best players, rule-about-taking-one-player-per-team be damned! Here's my list of the best candidates for the All-Star Game starting with the AL guys who will be swinging the bat (all stats min 100 PAs):

Catcher: Jorge Posada, Victor Martinez, and Joe Mauer. Mauer is the leading vote getter for all of Major League Baseball so he's in without a doubt. But if you were picking a player on pure stats, this wouldn't be the year to take Mauer at first glance (his numbers perfectly mirror his 2007 output). But when you drill down, Mauer has still had a pretty great season and is worth of an All-Star nod. Although not as adept defensively, Posada and Martinez may beat Mauer with the bat this year. Although he's been battling injuries (and therefore spent quite a bit of time at DH as well as only racked up 171 PAs), Posada leads all the catchers in OPS (slash lines of .287/.398/.538) and wOBA (.406 to Martinez's .363 and Mauer's .356). Martinez leads all catchers with 29 XBH so far this season. Amazingly (considering his lack of speed), one stat that favors Jorge this season is GIDP: Mauer has 14, Martinez 9 and Posada 1. "Counting" stats: Mauer .304 avg, 3 HR, 21 RBI; Martinez .291 avg, 9 HR, 37 RBI; Posada .287 avg, 9 HR, 25 RBI. Honorable Mentions: John Buck (.271/.309/.532, .356 wOBA, 12 HR, 38 RBI) and Mike Napoli (.251/.329/.478, .354 wOBA, 11 HR, 27 RBI). Picture from The Star-Ledger.

Firstbase: Justin Morneau, Miguel Cabrera and Kevin Youkilis. All three players are having monster years and all three are early candidates for MVP. Morneau's numbers are off the charts (almost Mauer like) with a ridiculous slash line of .340/.448/.622 and a wOBA of .452 to go along with 15 HR and 47 RBI. That wOBA is the highest (among all players who have qualified for the batting title) in the Majors. Second is Youk (.440) and third is Cabrera (.437). Mourneau's OPS of 1.070 leads all 1Bs trailed by Cabrera (1.041) and Youkilis (1.026). The WAR numbers tell the difference thus far though. Due to extremely positive fielding numbers, Morneau takes the lead with 4.3, Youkilis is seen about even and Cabrera is marked down for his defense. Cabrera leads in the counting stats while Youkilis has been hitting the tar out of the ball recently for the surging Red Sox. Morneau has the lead and should start but the other two should be named replacements on the team. Counting stats: Morneau .340 avg, 15 HR, 47 RBI; Cabrera .328 avg, 19 HR, 60 RBI; Youkilis .312 avg, 14 HR, 47 RBI. Honorable Mentions: Paul Konerko (.296/.396/.574, 17 HR, 51 RBI, .413 wOBA) and Billy Butler (.330/.383/.491, 7 HR, 37 RBI, .381 wOBA). Picture from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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Evan Longoria Talks About MLB 2K10 and $1 Million Prize

At the end of January, I saw a headline on Darren Rovell's CNBC blog that piqued my interest: "Baseball Video Game Franchise Offers $1 Million Prize." Well, OK, what's the prize for? It is going to be rewarded to the first person to pitch a perfect game. Only 18 players have ever thrown a perfect game in Major League Baseball history and 2K Sports is betting that no one is able to do so in their baseball game in the next two months (though they say it's possible and they think someone will do eventually).

The contest started this past Tuesday and runs for 60 days so I'm sure there are many unemployed folks (and those employed too, I'm sure), spending their days trying to make up for the bad economy by claiming the prize. This is the 10th anniversary of the franchise and it's continued to evolved to where it is today. Here is Evan Longoria, the MLB 2K10 cover and spokesperson, talking about the game and the prize:

Good luck on winning the $1 million. You have until May 2nd

Today's Matchup in New York

A battle of two big, hard-throwing righties today in the Bronx. Let's see how the opposition has faired against them in the past:

                    PA  AB  H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB  SO   BA   OBP   SLG   **OPS**   SH  SF IBB HBP GDP G_miss YR_miss
+-----------------+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+---------+---+---+---+---+---+------+-------+
Nick Swisher        5   4   2  1  0  1   1   1   1  .500  .600 1.500   2.100     0   0   0   0   0               
 Alex Rodriguez      9   6   2  0  0  1   2   2   0  .333  .444  .833   1.277     0   1   0   0   0               
 Jorge Posada        7   5   2  0  0  0   2   1   1  .400  .429  .400    .829     0   1   0   0   0               
 Robinson Cano      14  14   5  1  0  0   2   0   1  .357  .357  .429    .786     0   0   0   0   0               
 Derek Jeter        16  14   5  0  0  0   1   1   1  .357  .400  .357    .757     1   0   0   0   0               
 Brett Gardner       6   5   1  0  0  0   1   1   3  .200  .333  .200    .533     0   0   0   0   0               
 Johnny Damon       10  10   1  0  1  0   1   0   1  .100  .100  .300    .400     0   0   0   0   0               
 Melky Cabrera       6   6   1  0  0  0   0   0   0  .167  .167  .167    .334     0   0   0   0   1               
 Ramiro Pena         3   2   0  0  0  0   0   1   1  .000  .333  .000    .333     0   0   0   0   0               
 Mark Teixeira       7   5   0  0  0  0   1   2   2  .000  .286  .000    .286     0   0   0   0   0               
 Hideki Matsui       5   4   0  0  0  0   0   1   2  .000  .200  .000    .200     0   0   0   0   0               
+-----------------+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+---------+---+---+---+---+---+------+-------+
Total              88  75  19  2  1  2  11  10  13  .253  .333  .387    .720     1   2   0   0   1               

It's a mixed bag, with some with great success (Swisher, Posada, Cano, A-Rod, and Jeter) and some without any success (Damon, Melky, Pena, Tex or Matsui). It's a small sample size, however.

And for Joba vs. the Rays:

                    PA  AB  H  2B 3B HR RBI  BB  SO   BA   OBP   SLG   **OPS**   SH  SF IBB HBP GDP G_miss YR_miss
+-----------------+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+---------+---+---+---+---+---+------+-------+
Evan Longoria       1   1   1  0  0  0   0   0   0 1.000 1.000 1.000   2.000     0   0   0   0   0               
 Carlos Pena         4   2   0  0  0  0   0   1   0  .000  .500  .000    .500     0   0   0   1   0               
 Willy Aybar         3   3   0  0  0  0   0   0   1  .000  .000  .000    .000     0   0   0   0   0               
 B.J. Upton          3   3   0  0  0  0   0   0   2  .000  .000  .000    .000     0   0   0   0   0               
 Carl Crawford       2   2   0  0  0  0   0   0   1  .000  .000  .000    .000     0   0   0   0   0               
 Gabe Gross          1   1   0  0  0  0   0   0   0  .000  .000  .000    .000     0   0   0   0   0               
 Matthew Joyce       1   1   0  0  0  0   0   0   0  .000  .000  .000    .000     0   0   0   0   0               
 Dioner Navarro      1   1   0  0  0  0   0   0   0  .000  .000  .000    .000     0   0   0   0   0               
 Ben Zobrist         1   1   0  0  0  0   0   0   0  .000  .000  .000    .000     0   0   0   0   0               
+-----------------+---+---+---+--+--+--+---+---+---+-----+-----+-----+---------+---+---+---+---+---+------+-------+
Total              17  15   1  0  0  0   0   1   4  .067  .176  .067    .243     0   0   0   1   0               

It's a very small sample size, but only Longoria has been able to get a hit off of Joba and he's not even going to be in the lineup. Let's hope Joba can build on his last start where he went 8 innings. Yankees baseball about to start from the Bronx