The Best of New York Baseball Bracket Challenge: Third Base

Voting just completed for middle infielders (where Derek Jeter took that in a land slide) and first base (where "The Iron Horse", Lou Gehrig took it easily). Now it's time to vote for the hot corner. We have some more below including information about a similar voting process at MSG and results from the past two polls. But make sure to vote on the right and let us know in the comments why you voted the way you did. And to switch it up this time, we'll give the Mets candidates first. Without further ado, the best 3Bs in New York (stats from FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference):

Mets

David Wright: Since he made his debut in 2004, Wright has been a fixture at third for the Metropolitans. And despite his wacky 2009, he deserves a spot on this list for his time in Queens. His .309/.389/.518 splits are excellent (and are all among the top 23 among active players) and he's added to that a .391 career wOBA. That wOBA total is 10th among all 3B (min 2500 PA) and ranks ahead of such names as Eddie Matthews, Miguel Cabrera, Harmon Killebrew, Kevin Youkilis, Wade Boggs, and George Brett at the hot corner. In 2007 and 2008, Wright won the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger both years. He also finished in the top 9 in MVP voting in each year from 2006-2008. The big question for Mets fans is "can Wright rebound from a low power output in 2009?" Even without answering that question here (he only hit 10 HR and 52 XBH total), the truth is that the guy still hit .307/.390/.447. But this is a guy who averaged 73 XBH a year from 2005-2008 which is impressive for a third baseman. He just turned 27 in December so he should have plenty of time to build on these credentials. But even through age 26, he looks very similar to Scott Rolen and Duke Snider and adds the element of speed to his repertoire as well (119 SB). Since he broke into the league, Wright has been worth 32.0 WAR according to FanGraphs and has been an invaluable player to the Mets. (picture from the New York Times)

Howard Johnson: When David Wright needed some help with hitting this off-season, he went to hitting coach Howard Johnson. Why? Because HoJo was a pretty good hitter back in his day. A .251/.341/.459 hitter with the Mets, Johnson held his own at the hot corner. His two best seasons were 1989--when he led the league in runs with 104, hit .287/.369/.559 with a .416 wOBA (a career high), 41 2B (a career high), 36 HR, 41 SB (a career high), and a 169 OPS+ (also a career high)--and 1991--when he led the league in homeruns and RBIs with 38 and 117 respectively (both career highs), scored 108 runs (a career high), and hit a major league leading 15 sac flies. Both years he finished 5th in the MVP race, made the All Star team, and won the Silver Slugger. HoJo was originally drafted by the Yankees in the 1978 amateur draft but did not sign. He was eventually drafted in the first round by the Tigers before being dealt to the Mets in 1984. Johnson still leads all Mets 3B in HR, RBI and SB. Johnson also became the first Naitonal League infielder to go 30-30 in a season in 1987. (picture from JetsandMets.com)

Just missed: Robin Ventura (who only played 444 games with the Mets and his numbers lagged behind the two Mets candidates) and Wayne Garrett (played more games at 3rd than Wright but was nowhere near the offensive producer)

Yankees

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ESPN Red Sox/Yankees Sunday Night Baseball Promo

GREAT Promo for the Sox/Yankees Season opener:

I'm ready for the rivalry!


Featuring Clay Buchholz, Adam Scott & Nick Swisher

Swisher sure loves his media appearances.

Lost with LOST: The LOST Genie, The Bible, and the 9th Commandment

Quick programming note: due to the Jewish holiday of Passover and me moving, 24 and LOST recaps for the week will be delayed. But that doesn't mean that I don't have a ton to say about both. I wrote about 24 on Friday and now it's time to rub the magic lamp, check in on our bible studies and get ready for LOST as I enjoy my new Firefox theme:

The 9th Commandment

We've been agreeing with EW's Doc Jensen that LOST's 6th season has followed the 10 Commandments to a T. I wrote on 3/17 (post the Sawyer-centric episode and greatly named "Recon"): "[We knew that tonight's episode] had to be Sawyer because of our 10 Commandments telling us the 8th is 'thou shalt not steal'. The 9th? Do not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Not sure what that means to LOST, but I'm excited to find out." But then I was left questioning--after Richard's "Ab Aeterno" episode (that Jay so excellently recapped here)--if we were still following those commandments.

"Do not bear false witness against your neighbor" isn't exactly what last night's episode was about. No one lied in court or accused their neighbor of something that they didn't do. But it doesn't mean the episode wasn't devoid of "lying". When Ricardo was in Spanish jail and awaiting execution, the priest came to him an asked for his confession. He lied. Sort of. And this may have been a reason that the priest would not accept his confession. As Doc Jensen wrote: "It made me wonder if the priest declined the confession because he saw that it wasn't genuine. Ricardo didn't really consider himself guilty of a crime. He called it accidental. He called it killing instead of murder. He didn't view himself as a sinner who needed God. Rather, God was a means to an end — a last gasp hope to be reconciled with Isabella in the heaven of her faith."

Or the priest, Father Suárez (whose namesake has tons of juicy LOST themes associated with his name including a lot about metaphysics and predestination), was lying himself. Suárez refused to grant Ricardo forgiveness, claiming that there is no absolution of sin for murder (which, I'm told, is contrary to Catholic doctrine). Suárez then told Ricardo that he would only gain absolution through penance...but he wouldn't be able to achieve it because he had been sentenced to be hanged. That leaves Ricardo in a pretty desperate state of life. So desperate that he had to say yes when Suárez walked through the door the next day and offered to extend his life by selling him into slavery. Maybe Suárez lied to break Ricardo down and make the offer that much sweeter.

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NYaT's farewell to the Izod Center

I recently joined my girlfriend, Elissa, for one last trip to the Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ.  I grew up in nearby Wayne and traveled to the Meadowlands for literally countless games.  I obviously went to a lot of Yankees games as a kid, but I attended far more Devils and Nets games at the Meadowlands.  And who could blame me?  It was twice as close to home, and easily half as expensive!  Perfect for weeknight excursions...plus some weekend games sprinkled in for good measure.

The Izod Center was also known, at various times, as Brendan Byrne Arena and Continental Airlines Arena.  The building, which opened in 1981, was ironically one of the oldest arenas in the NBA/NHL, but until the completion of Newark's Prudential Center in 2007, it was the youngest arena in the NY metro area.  Nobody would call it a beautiful arena -- the USA Today once ranked it as the worst NBA arena -- but many would call it cavernous since it seated over 20,000 for basketball and concerts, plus 19,040 for hockey.

I guess you could say the Izod Center was a mixed bag.  On one hand, it was extremely accessible from Route 3 and the NJ Turnpike, and it had a ton of cheap parking (until the recent construction of the new Meadowlands Stadium and the Xanadu shopping complex, anyway).  On the other hand, it had only one main concourse for all 20,000 spectators to use.  You can imagine the postgame people traffic, not to mention the bathroom and food lines during intermissions.

But overall, despite its lack of charm (as compared to, say, MSG or Detroit's Palace at Auburn Hills) it served its purpose extremely well.  It had great sightlines and acoustics, so it was a very popular tour stop.  Everybody and everything from Bruce Springsteen to the Dave Matthews Band to the American Idol tour to the Red Hot Chili Peppers (who actually recorded their "Snow [Hey Oh]" music video there) played at the Izod Center.  And what about sports, you ask?  Here's a rundown.

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Running Series: Yankee Stadium Deconstruction Update 3/28/10

The upper deck of the Old Yankee Stadium has now been completely removed.  Thanks to Craig Calcaterra of Hardball Talk, you can see the final section of the upper deck come down.  (Fast forward to the 1:00 mark)

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End of Week Link Roundup

It's a little late this week...but better late than never, right? Here's the end of the week link roundup with a great picture of Magic-Bird in college from the SI Photo Vault. It is Tourney time and West Virginia players are getting goofy in hotel rooms. Here we go:

Give Me Some Peanuts and Cracker Jacks

• Did you hear the Yankees made some roster decisions this week? Of course I'm talking about Gardner and Granderson getting their roles defined as Jason @ IIATMS writes and Bryan Hoch of Bombers Beat talks about Ramiro Pena winning the utility job. Ben at River Avenue Blues takes a look at the roster.
• The Yankees also sent Rule 5 pick Jamie Hoffmann back to the Dodgers and inspired Matt at Fack Youk to say the Yanks are done "Hassling with the Hoff". Aaron Gleeman at HardballTalk says that the Yankees are only done with Hoffmann...for now and MLBTradeRumors talks about the Yankees chances of getting Hoffmann back. I agree with Fack Youk: you already sent one Major League pitcher (Bruney) to get Hoffmann once...it's not worth another one to do it again.
• They don't have Chad Gaudin to use as bait anymore as Joe at River Avenue Blues writes and Fack Youk writes some more about it. My feeling: the Yankees will be looking for the exact same pitcher at some point this season. Mark it down.
• The New York Times' Tyler Kepner starts us off by talking about how close the Yankees were to getting Mike Cameron and Bronson Arroyo multiple times...but it just never happened.
• MLB FanHouse loves a Yankee prospect, a former Yankee prospect impresses according to The Arizona Republic, and MLBTradeRumors on a potential future Yankee prospect. The Atlanta Braves best prospect is going to start in the Major Leagues according to ESPN.
• I agree with David Pinto of Baseball Musings: Vin Scully is a real class act. Joe Posnanski of SI writes about another class act: Ichiro. And an old Rob Neyer article on Thurman Munson I found recently that made me laugh.
• TMI blog on how much better the Red Sox will be defensively and TMI on the best and worst base runners. Johnny Damon may lead off according to Baseball Prospectus (via ESPN) but that doesn't mean he will be a good fit in Comerica Park according to TMI.
• The New York Times' Howard Megdal says that anti-semitism may have hurt Hank Greenburg reach Babe Ruth's home run number. As sensitive I am to anti-Semitism, I'm still not sure about this. Big League Stew isn't getting with it either and neither is Craig Calcaterra of HardballTalk.
• Jason @ IIATMS previews ESPN New York as the site is in development. As a site is built, old Yankee Stadium comes down as HardballTalk writes. TMI says that the Mets plan with be Johan, Maine, and pray for...Perez.
• Flip Flop Fly Ball says a lot about homosexuality in the major leagues with just a graphic
• Stats time: Chase Utley goes for perfection from ESPN, Joe Posnanski responding to Nomar about "heart", TMI blog gives their argument for OPS and TMI blog on Quality Starts,

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24's Clock Has Hit Zero, Dammit!

Jack has tortured interrogated his last suspect. Word came down tonight that 24 has officially been canceled. I was actually a big fan of this occurring, but it's still sad to know that Jack, Chloe, Freckles, and the rest of CTU are coming to an end. My feelings were that a movie would be the way to finish things up and I'm still not ruling that out of the works. I'm not sure where this season will rank in the show's history, but after the past few weeks, my hope is that the show will be going out with a bang. Regardless this season seems like the last we'll see Jack kicking ass on TV.

So how did the news come down? Well, I found out from Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe on the show) tweeting about it on her Twitter account. Read this account from top to bottom to get how it went down. The two with the recycle-looking signs are tweets from other users, the last one (meaning the first you see) being the funniest:

And Yahoo! TV got Kiefer Sutherland's view of things and includes news about the movie still in discussion and the finale date. (H/T Dad):

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The Best of New York Baseball Bracket Challenge: Middle Infielders

What a night in college basketball last night. An upset and a double OT thriller that almost killed Gus Johnson. But that tournament has nothing on our bracket challenge for best in New York baseball. We've voted for the best closer (Mariano Rivera), the best right handed starter (Tom Seaver), the best southpaw starter (Whitey Ford), the best catcher (Yogi Berra--with poll results after this article), and we're still voting on the best first baseman over to the right. Now we're going to go with the best middle infielder. There weren't enough candidates for both second and short on the New York Yankees and Mets so we'll combine them and give each team a few more candidates. Here we go (with statistics from Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs):

Yankees

Derek Jeter: He won the Rookie of the Year in 1996 and brought winning back to the Bronx. He's finished in the Top-11 in MVP voting 8 different times. He won the All-Star MVP in 2000...and then won the World Series MVP the same year. He's a 3-time Gold Glove winner (probably undeserving), a 2-time Hank Aaron Award winner (also probably undeserving), and a 3-time Silver Slugger (definitely deserving). He's also won a Babe Ruth award and a Roberto Clemente award so he's got a lot of the legends in the game covered. Jeter's a career .317/.388/.459 hitter in the regular season with a .375 wOBA--the only shortstops in history with higher in Major League history (min. 4000) are Honus Wagner, Alex Rodriguez, and Arky Vaughan (meaning higher than Nomar Garciaparra, Ernie Banks, Barry Larkin, Robin Yount, Cal Ripken, Jr., etc.). Jeter has 2,747 hits which means he should reach 3,000 sometime in 2011--and become the first Yankee to hit 3,000. He doesn't just lead in hits amongst Yankee middle infielders either; he also leads in runs (1,574---4th among active players and 49th in ML history), doubles (438), HR (224), RBI (1068), HBP (143--5th among active players and 21st All-time), and SB (305--9th among active players). And no Yankee middle infielder hit over .293 (min 800 games) so no one is within 20 points of his average (which is 6th among active players) and his .388 OBP (15th among active players) is tops among Yankee middle infielders as well. He's now played 138 games in the postseason (which is approaching a full season) and his numbers are great there too with a .313/.383/.479 slashes, .377 wOBA, and 20 HR against superior pitching. Amazingly, 2008 was the only year he didn't get to the playoffs in his sure-to-be Hall of Fame career and last year collected his 5th World Series ring. Since FanGraphs started tracking it in 2002, Jeter has been worth 40.1 wins (only Albert Pujols, A-Rod, Barry Bonds, Lance Berkman, Carlos Beltran, and Chipper Jones have had higher totals over this period), equaling about $144.7 million--but he's truly been invaluable. The Yankees captain is still going and going strong so these numbers are sure to increase as time goes on. (picture from the NY Daily News)

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View from the seats: Devils vs. Rangers at The Rock

Last row in the house! Jay, Andrew, Ben, and Glenn watching the
Devils try to hold on to a 3-2 lead late in the 3rd period.

Lost with LOST: Where's the money, Ricardo??

Andrew has written excellent recaps for the first 8 episodes, but he is understandably quite tired.  So he's calling for his closer to finish out the 9th.  Just call me The Sandman.

As every Lost fan will tell you, nothing is a coincidence on this show.  Everything happens for a reason, and those reasons are often quite subtle (or not so subtle).  Lost will also embed subtle literary and cultural references, which sometimes advance the plot, but often exist just so that eagle-eyed viewers have something fun to catch.  As I will discuss in detail later, this episode featured a whopping example of the latter.

Fittingly entitled "Ab Aeterno" this fantastic episode focused entirely on Richard Alpert.*  But we begin at some point in the pre-2007 past, where bandage-wrapped Ilana finished her visit with Jacob.  Jacob shows off his multilingual talents by conversing in Russian.**  He tells her that her job will be to protect six candidates, that the names of the six are on a list, and that Ricardus*** will know what to do next.  Why didn't Jacob just tell Ilana what to do next?  Because it would be very un-Lost to actually tell the characters (or the audience) what the hell is going on.

*In Latin, "ab aeterno" means "from eternity," and the phrase is commonly used to mean "since the beginning" or "for long ages."  I think it fits this episode perfectly, not only to describe Richard's gift (or curse) of immortality, but also to describe the struggle between Jacob and the MIB.  It could also refer to length of the episode, which checked in at a plus-sized 65 minutes.  Just kidding.

**This makes sense, as Ilana also speaks Russian.  But it does not explain why Jacob does not later converse with Ricardo in his native Spanish.  I'm inferring that Jacob can speak all languages, or at least the languages that his candidates/protectors/representatives speak.  So why speak Russian with Ilana and revert to English with Ricardo?  This issue is neither here nor there, but arguably worth mentioning.

***This episode introduced two new names for the eternal Richard Alpert: the old standby Richard, plus Ricardo and Ricardus.  Richard is clearly his Anglicized name, and Ricardo was his name in Tenerife.  So where did Jacob get "Ricardus" from?

Flash-forward to 2007.  Ilana tells the Losties that some of them are candidates.  Sun helpfully volunteers that they are candidates to replace Jacob.  Thanks for showing up, Sun.  You really earned your paycheck for this episode.  A brief but awkward silence ensues as some of the others (i.e., Miles, Lapidus, Ben) realize that they are not candidates.  Bummer.  Always the rational one, Lapidus asks what they should do next.  Ilana says that Richard knows what to do.  But Richard chooses to play dumb and rambles on about how they're all dead and the island is actually Hell.  Savvy and experienced viewers immediately dismissed this theory and waited for Jack to declare Richard crazy.  Which he promptly did.

Wait, did you hear that?  That was definitely a whoosh.  Not a flash-sideways whoosh.  A flash-back whoosh!  Back to the 19th century we go...

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The Best of New York Baseball Bracket Challenge: First Base

We're moving right along here on the New York Baseball Bracket Challenge at NYaT. Mariano Rivera was picked as the best closer, Tom Seaver as the best righthanded starter and Whitey Ford as the best lefthanded starter (results below). The catchers are still being voted upon on the righthand side, but Yogi Berra looks like he's going to take that one (though still time left to vote and look at how impressive Bill Dickey's resume was as well). Now it's time to look at the first basemen (stats from Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs).

Yankees

Lou Gehrig: I'm not sure there's this great a player who really seems to be so underrated. Playing with Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio can do that to you, though. Amazingly, only 7 guys have played in 800 games for the Yankees with at least 60% of those games at 1st base (according to Baseball-Reference) and no one even seems to come close to "The Iron Horse". Gehrig won the 1927 and 1936 MVP, but amazingly came in 5th in the 1934 voting despite leading the Majors in HR (49), RBI (165), BA (.363), OBP (.465), SLG (.706), and OPS+ (208). Yes, the man won both The Triple Crown and the slashes Triple Crown and was behind 4 people in the MVP voting. That's incredible. Gehrig had a career wOBA of .474 in the regular season which is third all time right behind Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. On the all-time career list, Gehrig is 17th in average (.340),  5th in OBP (.447), 3rd in SLG (.632), 3rd in OPS (1.080), 10th in runs scored (1,888), 26th in HR (493), 5th in RBI (1,995), 4th in OPS+ (179), 8th in runs created (2,223), 5th in adjusted batting runs (984), 7th in adjusted batting wins (90.3), and 7th in extra base hits (1,190). And this was all before the disease named after him cut his life short. Oh, and he had a nice consecutive games played streak without the aid of a DH or modern medicine. The guy also mashed in the playoffs hitting a ridiculous .361/.477/.731 (yes, that's a 1.208 OPS) with a .512 wOBA, 10 HR and 35 RBI in winning 6 out of 7 World Series--his best performance may have been in the 1928 World Series when he hit .545/.706/1.727 (2.433 OPS!) with 4 HR against the Cardinals. Simply an amazing player. (picture from Art.com)

Don Mattingly: Well, someone else had to be nominated with Gehrig. Tough spot for Donny Baseball. But he's definitely deserving of it. His career slashes of .307/.358/.471, wOBA of .361, and OPS+ of 127 made him one of the more feared hitters in the Majors. His end-of-career downfall due to back troubles seems to have clouded some memories of Mattingly, but he could really handle the bat. He won a batting title in 1984, won an MVP in 1985 and his 1986 season--where he came in 2nd to Roger Clemens in the MVP voting--may have been his best (his 1987 was nothing to sneeze at either).  He won 9 Gold Gloves at 1st and even though defense isn't excluding any candidates, it's certainly worth mentioning. He also won 3 Silver Sluggers and made 6 All Star games. the problem for Mattingly is that his power was basically gone from his resume after the 1989 season. He would only hit double digit home runs twice and never showed the offense he did in his peak. He finally made the postseason in his last season in Pinstripes and did not disappoint with a .417/.440/.708 performance including one memorable home run that shook the Old House to its core (I was there so I can testify that when Gary Thorne yelled "hold on to the roof", he was correct). As Sweeny Murti wrote in 2008: Of the top 25 players on the Yankees career games played list, only one never got to play a World Series game at Yankee Stadium. But it's safe to say that none of the other 24 ever received the ovations that Don Mattingly did in the 1995 Division Series." True that, Sweeny (though Mattingly may have been cursed). And it was well deserved for perhaps my favorite baseball player of my youth. (picture from About.com)

Just missed: Tino Martinez (if the Yankees had signed Tino instead of Jason Giambi, he may have replaced Mattingly on this list...and a lot of Yankee headaches may have been avoided)

Mets

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24 Recap: So I’m About to Marry a Mass Murderer…at the Jersey Shore

If they made a list of worst television girlfriends I would think you would have to put Denny right up there. But do you know who else from this past year goes right up there? Sammy “Sweetheart” from Jersey Shore. And you know what the tell-tale sign of a bad girlfriend is? When she makes the boyfriend get into fights for her only to stab him in the back when the time comes. But if you take this comparison a little further, Ronnie and FP jr have a ton of same personality traits: bad accents, ridiculously delivered lines, undeserved loyalty to a lying girlfriend, and they beat the crap out of people when they fight. I’m sure I could take this analogy a bit further, so as I go through the recap of this game changing episode—with a plot so full of holes, you could drive a fleet full of zodiacs with nuclear rods on it, a human resources department so inept at CTU that Tobey Flenderson from The Office would refuse to work there—we’ll figure out who the rest of the members of 24 equate to which members of Jersey Shore.

Chloe O’Brien as Snooki

Misunderstood at first (or mistaken as slightly “off”--I mean Chloe does look a bit autistic) but knows how to get things done. Also, she’s not a big fan of violence or people telling her what to do. The most disappointing thing about the ending of this episode is that for 59 minutes, Snooki er, Chloe shined. It was her finest piece of work. It was like the episode where Snooki finally got back into the group and was partying with her pals only to get punched in the face by a school teacher. Damn you, harsh world! The dialog between Chloe and Bubba (who doubles as the boss, Brian, here in so many ways) was great this episode. We start the episode off with Bubba whining about losing all aerial surveillance and drone capabilities. Bubba, that’s been a problem since hour 1 this season, why should anything change now? Looking a little shaken up, Chloe asks Bubba if he’s all right and gets the great response: “No, Chloe, I am not okay.” Poor Bubba; first 'Nam, now this!

Things get worse for Bubba when NSA arrives. I could list the amount of times that NSA has screwed things up on this show (all of Season 2 with their moles), but you could tell from the start they weren’t going to be good news for the CTU crew. NSA is on site and pulling power plays. The guy who helped design it is there and he’s not happy what Bubba has done with the place. Does he mean the hole blown through the side of the building or the fact that they allow moles into their operation? Such a loaded statement there when you think about it (don’t think too hard).

Well Chloe is trying to fix things but she’s getting distracted by everyone. First Denny shows up and Chloe tells her to get the heck out of her way. Then she tries to go to Bubba or Arlo the Horndog (who is definitely Pauly D—a good enough guy who just wants to go get drunk and get laid) for help but both aren’t giving her the support she needs. Then she goes down to convince the NSA guys to listen to her but no one is having a bit of her. So, after a quick phone call with Freckles, who tells her to “do what she needs to do”, Chloe does just that. She walks back into the room where NSA is working, demands they follow her plan to drill into the trunk line, and when they don’t listen (and her anger builds), she pulls a gun. “You’re probably an OK guy when you’re not at work,” Chloe said to the NSA guy as she made him leave the room. Poor Chloe/Snooki and their guy troubles.

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The Best of New York Baseball Bracket Challenge: Catcher

The NCAA tournament is heating up and so is The Best of New York Baseball Bracket Challenge here at NYaT. The preliminary rounds are about done for the pitchers (more poll results below) after closers, right-handed starters and left-handed starters were all voted upon, so now it's time to move on to their battery-mates. One rule for the hitters in our bracket challenge: only offense is rewarded. We'll mention defense as we see fit, but since I can't tell you how good a catcher Bill Dickey was, we'll just have to compare him to Jorge Posada on the offensive merits. And this one was a difficult category for that.

The Yankees have had 5 catchers play 1000 games for them and all 5 were legitimate candidates for this poll. Elston Howard and Thurman Munson both won MVPs, Bill Dickey and Yogi Berra both are in the Hall of Fame and Jorge Posada is one of the best offensive catchers of his generation. I decided to take three from them and only one from the Mets. So, without further ado, let's get to the candidates (all stats from Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs):

Yankees:

Yogi Berra: 3 MVP awards. 18 All-Star games. 10 World Series rings. And from 1951-1956 when he won 3 MVPs, came in second twice, third once and fourth once, there was perhaps not better player in the American League--especially considering the position Berra played. 358 HR and 1430 RBI were amazing numbers for a catcher and his 704 BB to 411 SO ratio was simply amazing for any position. A .370 wOBA (weighted on base average from FanGraphs) ties him for 10th all-time among catchers with Jorge Posada (min. 5500 PA) and his 5.5% strikeout percentage is a great testament to his ability to make contact. Berra was a great postseason performer too, putting up a .357 OBA and batting .274/.359/.452 with 12 HR across 14 World Series. His best World Series was probably in 1956 against the Brooklyn Dodgers where he hit .360/.448/.800 with 3 HR and 10 RBI. Amazingly, it took Berra two ballots to get into the Hall of Fame and even when he was elected, it was only 85.6% of the vote. But he was finally enshrined in Cooperstown in 1972. (picture from Dave's Dugout)

Bill Dickey: I didn't realize how good Bill Dickey was until I went back and looked through the statistics. His .394 career wOBA is second all-time among catchers to Mickey Cochrane (min. 2000 PA). That's higher than Mike Piazza, Joe Mauer, Jorge Posada, Berra or almost any other catcher. Dickey leads all Yankee catchers in the slashes Triple Crown: batting average (.313), OBP (.382), and SLG (.486). His 617 XBH ranks him second behind Berra and despite over 1500 less ABs, Dickey only trails Berra by 179 hits. Here's one of the most amazing stats: Dickey only struck out 289 times in his career (to 678 walks) and only struck out more than 22 times twice in his whole career. Dickey never won an MVP award, but playing next to Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gerhig really hurt him in that cause. Dickey's 1936-1938 was one of the best three-year runs a catcher has put up in Major League history. Dickey was an 11-time All-Star and won 7 World Series rings (in 8 chances). The two most amazing parts are that Dickey only played catcher in his 17 years in the bigs and that it took a ridiculous 9 years to get Dickey into the Hall of Fame. (picture from CharlesPaolino's Blog)

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When Athlete's Drug Testing Goes Way, WAY Overboard

I'm all for drug testing. I don't care if it's players being tested, managers, clubhouse attendants, Dave Dombrowski...whoever it is, I really don't care. These people put themselves out in the public light and have earned every suspicious eye. I think the drug testing should be as thorough and as comprehensive as science has possible. If they come out with a good HGH test, I'm all for it. There's one thing I'm not for, though, and that's what happened in Sweden according to Deadspin: you cannot suspend someone for taking medicine for high blood pressure.

Like David Pinto of Baseball Musings I'm really angered by these revelations. And this is not the first time I've heard of ridiculous suspensions like this. Zach Lund was suspended in 2006 for taking anti-balding medication like Propecia according to the New York Times--even though he had disclosed his use of this to his sport and started using it before it was ever banned by an anti-doping agency--and Washington Capitals goalie Jose Theodore was suspended for the same thing in 2006 according to ESPN. This past Olympics, female Russian hockey player Svetlana Terenteva tested positive for using cold medication, but according to the New York Times, she was only reprimanded. Yes, taking cold medication when you play a Winter Olympic sport is very wrong.

And, yes, according to the National Post, Paralympians do cheat. But as that article says, the goal of those cheating athletes was to boost blood pressure. But Glenn Ikonen, a Swedish Paralympic curler, tried to lower his blood pressure, to--you know--save his life. I'm not sure if the anti-doping agencies have seen the news, but high blood pressure kills. And as someone who takes a beta blocker, this isn't something you take lightly, even in your 20s. But Ikonen isn't in his 20s...he's 54 (in the picture above from the Telegraph, Ikonen is the old dude in the middle)!

"I am shocked. I couldn't imagine this. I am an old man. I'm 54 years old. I would never take anything I can't take," Ikonen said in a statement released by worldcurling.org.

I'm shocked too, Glenn. Shocked and appalled. A two year ban for trying to save your life (according to The Local, Ikonen checked before it was a banned substance so he wasn't trying to hide it)? Shame on you, anti-doping agency; you truly are shown to be the biggest "dopes" of all.

More than 6,300 Tickets Available At Fenway Park For Opening Day

Red Sox fans were quick to criticize Yankees fans last year who kept out of Yankee Stadium early in the season due to high prices in the Legends Seats, but those Red Sox fans should be pointing the fingers at themselves. After having trouble selling out the American League Division series last season, the Red Sox still have over 6,300 seats available left for Opening Day this year according to today's Boston Herald (picture to the right from the article). And Sox fans can't blame this one on the Red Sox virtual waiting room (AKA as The Eighth Circle of Hell). This is just a case of fans not wanting to pay the price to see their team.

It's not like the Red Sox are playing the Orioles or the Blue Jays. Or that it's a Tuesday in mid-April. This is Opening Day on a Sunday. According to the Red Sox website the seating capacity for night games is 37,402. That means that 17% of the park still isn't sold two weeks before the game. And those tickets that are being sold are down about 30% for last year's opening day when the opponent was Tampa Bay. Yankees fans, it's a buyers market and a great chance to invade Fenway Park on Opening Day for the depending World Series champion, New York Yankees.

And the Red Sox don't seem to think that anything is wrong: "Ron Bumgarner, the Red Sox ticketing senior vice president, had a more positive pitch, saying the team is experiencing 'incredibly high demand' for Opening Day and the season...'I’m surprised that anyone would think sales are off.'” Um, Ron, I think we have plenty of statistics to support that notion.

The comments on the article showed that Red Sox fans weren't feeling too sorry for anyone. Check out some of the bitterness being spewed from "Red Sox Nation":

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End of Week Link Roundup

As Spring Training gets heated up so does the tourney. So we present you with a great pic from the SI Photo Vault of Patrick Ewing vs. Michael Jordan in the NCAA tournament (spoiler alert: Jordan won this and almost every battle). It's just as sad as all the busted brackets. Now onto the links

Yanquís Béisbol

• The ESPN.com TMI Blog tells us why Derek Jeter should hit 6th and NoMass says they've been telling us that for a while. I don't care what the statistics say, it's a horrible idea.
• Speaking of Jeter, he and Mariano Rivera were named in Brian McNamee's brief according to ESPN.com
• Speaking of Rivera, The New York Daily News goes over how Rivera became "Mo" and while the New York Times thinks the Yankees' "Core Four" is due for a down year, Rob Neyer of ESPN.com doesn't think so.
• The New York Times Ben Shpigel takes a look at Jesus Montero and John Sickels of Minor League Ball talks to the Yankees' Mark Newman about the next big prospects. MLBTradeRumors has details about one prospect the Yankees missed out on
• Buster Olney has some really good bits about Jorge/AJ and Nick Johnson within this ESPN blog post.
• LoHud's Chad Jennings takes a look at how all the ex-Yankees are doing. Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has a nice piece on Jose Tabata and the Seattle Times writes about Kanekoa Texeira. Another ex-Yankee, Chuck Knoblauch pled guilty.
• Jason @ IIATMS says why Joe Mauer in Pinstripes is not a good idea, Rob Neyer says why it's not a good idea yet, and Craig Calcaterra of HardballTalk posts about the ridiculous Pujols-in-Pinstripes FOX Sports mess. Mike from River Avenue Blues talks about the possibility of Elijah Dukes in Pinstripes and Mike Silva at NY Baseball Digest says that The Boss would have signed Dukes (I disagree because of the lack of track record there).
• This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes has a really nice post on good moments in down Yankee years and Deadspin predicts that this will be a down Yankee year...or just rails on Yankee players and fans. For all the Yankee spending, the Baseball Prospectus' "All Paid By My Former Employer Team" only has one Yankee and that's really nitpicking it with Melky Cabrera. MLB.com's Bryan Hoch has his Yankee team of the decade. Oh, and Ronan Tynan's an asshole.

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The Best of New York Baseball Bracket Challenge: Lefthanded Starters

We've done closers (and Mariano Rivera won in a landslide--more results on that later) and we've done right-handed starters (with Tom Seaver currently holding the leader there). But now it's time to do lefties. These weren't easy choices, especially for the Yankees. Since I get to make up the rules, I'm bending them a bit for this category to include 3 candidates for the Yankees. Let's get to the lefties (stats by Baseball-Reference except FIP from FanGraphs):

Yankees

Whitey Ford: "The Chairman of the Board" is an easy choice for this list (it got harder between the second two). He's won more games than any Yankee pitcher who pitched with either hand and his .690 winning % is absolutely remarkable (if you take away his last two partial seasons, it jumps to .705). No lefty comes close to his 2.75 ERA (min. 1000 innings). And unless Andy Pettitte pitches a few more seasons, he'll have the most strikeouts among lefties as well. He threw an amazing 45 shutouts in 438 starts. He led the league in wins 3 times, won 2 ERA titles and won one Cy Young. He was a 10-time All-Star and won the World Series MVP in 1961 when he went 2-0, giving up no runs to the Reds in two starts. If you compare his FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) to Andy Pettitte and Lefty Gomez, Ford dominates them both in the regular season and the playoffs and Ford's H/9 is less than any Yankee lefty except Al Downing. On his second try, Ford was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1974. (picture from Yankeeology)

Lefty Gomez: It came down to Gomez and Pettitte for the final Yankee spot...and I decided to list them both. Pettitte now has three more wins, but Gomez has the higher winning percentage and gave up less HR/9 (0.50) than Pettitte or Ford. But where Gomez really shined was in the playoffs where he went 6-0 with a 2.86 ERA and helped the Yankees go 6-0 in the World Series under his tenure (Ford's Yankees were 6-5 and Pettitte's Yankees are 5-2). More impressive were his pitching Triple Crowns he won in 1934 and 1937 (two seasons he led the league in K/9 and SO/BB as well). The one big knock on Gomez is that his career span was too short, having fizzled out by 34--which is one of the big reasons it took 27 years and a Veterans Committee vote to get him in the Hall of Fame. But make no mistake: Gomez was one the best Yankees lefties in history. (picture from Wikipedia)

Andy Pettitte: Pettitte may have been an easy choice as the top Yankee pitcher had he not left for Houston in the middle of his career. And what he does in 2010 and beyond could propel him there. But even without all that, he's still in the running. 192 Yankees wins with an excellent winning percentage and a 4.02 ERA in a hitter's era in the best hitting division in baseball certainly help his case (and a FIP of 3.74--though that includes Houston as well). So does the record number of series clinching wins in the playoffs (though it overshadows some bad pitching performances as well especially the 1998 ALCS, the 1999 World Series, the 2001 World Series and the 2002 ALDS). He also took home the 2001 ALCS MVP, going 2-0 with a 2.51 ERA in that series vs. Seattle. He walked less guys per 9 and struck out more per 9 than Gomez or Ford. And although he never won a Cy Young, he came in the top-6 four different times with the Yankees including a 2nd place finish in 1996. His durability has been amazing, too, starting in 31 games or more in every season except for one (2002) while with the Yankees. (picture from New York Magazine)

Just missed: Ron Guidry (whose 1978 season was one of the best pitching performances in Major League history and who had a couple of other dominating years but just didn't have the raw data needed to place in the top-3, in my opinion)

Mets

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NYaT Roundtable: Joba, Hughes and the 5th Starter Debate

You know that your team is going into a season with few question marks when you get into a heated debate about who the 5th starter is going to be. But that's where we are in Yankee-land. It's not a small issue either--with Andy Pettitte and Javier Vazquez reaching free agency after the season ends, the Yankees may need to fill quite a few slots behind CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett. And with the workload that Sabathia has undergone the past few seasons and the health question marks surround Burnett, this is not a small issue. But I wanted to throw it out there to my friends and blog contributors and see what they think. So we started a roundtable debate on Joba and the 5th starter role. I thought it was a wonderful idea by Pinstriped Bible and I thought we could continue the debate

The Yankees 5th starter debate is not just Joba Chamberlain vs. Phil Hughes but where the rest of the group fits in. Here's what resulted (started on Friday night):

--Andrew: Everyone knows where I stand on this issue because I've written about it before: let’s let Joba, rule-less, go through an entire regular season and see if he can duplicate the success he showed last year before they jerked him around with Joba Rules III. Before they willy-nilly instituted those rules, Joba showed flashes of brilliance, going 7-2 with a 3.58 ERA and dominating in three starts right after the All Star Break. The Yankees then pulled the rug out from under him and he struggled mightily in his mishmosh of a role. I rather give it to Joba and see what he can do over an entire season than give it to Phil Hughes who may be able to throw a max of about 125 innings.

I'll open the floor, though: what do you guys think?

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The Best of New York Baseball Bracket Challenge: Righthanded Starters

Mariano Rivera looks like a runaway winner in our closer bracket (as he should be) with only one lone vote going to the old-school Goose Gossage. We'll keep the voting going on the right until it's over but we need to start on our next group. Let's move on to the righthanded starting pitchers.

Yankees

Mike Mussina: Hey, I was surprised to put his name on this list too. But let's look at the evidence. He won 123 games from 2001-2008 at a .631 winning percentage. He put up a 3.88 ERA in a hitters division during one of the bigger power breakouts in the history of baseball. His wins leave him 7th among Yankee right handed starters but despite throwing a ton less innings than many of the other guys on the list he was 2nd in strikeouts and among pitchers with at least 1200 innings, he was 1st in BB/9 (1.84), 1st in K/9 (7.41), 3rd in WHIP (1.212), and first--by far--in SO/BB with a 4.02 rate there. He had some memorable playoff outings for the Yankees including 2001 against Oakland (the "flip play" game) and 2003 in relief against the Red Sox (the Aaron Boone game), though his most dominant outing as a Yankee was his perfect game through 8 2/3 against the Red Sox in Fenway until Carl Everett broke it up. (picture from Seven Good Innings)

Red Ruffing: It was tough to choose between Allie Reynolds and Red Ruffing. Amazingly, these two missed each other on the Yankees by one year. Each pitcher was 7-2 in the World Series for the Yankees with an ERA under 2.80. Each one won 6 World Series with the Yankees. And both had better winning percentages than Mike Mussina. But Ruffing pulled ahead because of the sheer numbers: 231 wins is 63 higher than the next closest Yankee righty. He had over a walk less per 9 innings than did Reynolds and had a better SO/BB ratio. It's really close between the two, but I'll go with the Hall of Famer Ruffing who came in the top 8 in MVP voting 3 years in a row (picture from A Yankee State of Mind)

Just missed: Allie Reynolds (who was probably jipped both here and in Hall of Fame voting) and Roger Clemens (who, if he hadn't gone to Houston for those years, may have been near the top of the list).

Mets

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Ron Washington chastised for doing his best Keith Hernandez impression

This just in: Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington tested positive for cocaine during the 2009 season.  Washington claims it was the "one and only time" he ever used the drug that Keith Hernandez popularized back in the 1980's.

Sources have apparently informed ESPNDallas.com that Washington will not be fired.

And why would he be?  There is no good reason why MLB even tests managers for drugs and PEDs in the first place.  What does it matter if some manager is on cocaine or marijuana or even HGH?  It's not like he's going to pitch the 8th inning or enter the game as a pinch-hitter.  I realize this is a slow time for the media, and they're scratching at the bottom of the barrel for new stories at this point in spring training, but come on....someone please tell me why this is news.  Does anyone really care if Ron Washington snorts an occasional line of coke?



Photo credit for "first time user" Ron Washington: DailySkew Baseball

Photo credit for "coked out" Keith Hernandez: Bottlenecknyc.

UPDATE: Admitted non-specific steroid user Alex Rodriguez once said that, as a 10-year-old, he never would have believed that Keith Hernandez used cocaine while playing Major League Baseball.  Interestingly, and most definitely hypocritically, Rodriguez also stated that Hernandez's cocaine use "tarnished the purity of the game."  Open mouth, insert foot.

(H/T Andrew for the A-Rod article)

Lost with LOST: Cops & Robbers and a "Matthew Abaddon"-esque Episode

When Matthew Abaddon (of The Wire and Fringe fame) came to pick up John Locke from Charles Widmore, Locke asked Abaddon what he did for Mr. Widmore. Abaddon's response? His job was to get people to "where they needed to be". Well, that's really what I felt was the purpose of last night's episode of LOST: to set up the "war" that Widmore talked about with Locke and to get us as the audience to where we needed to be. It was filler. Sure it was nice to see Charlotte again (looking hot) and I'm always interested in the Sawyer plots as he does the good-guy, bad-guy cop routine in his real life. But we didn't really answer any questions, we didn't get any big character developments, we didn't learn that much more about the Sideways World and the plot hardly moved. And at first glance, I can't say I loved it. That didn't mean that there wasn't plenty to talk about, though. So, like Matthew Abaddon, let me try to get you where you needed to go.

Take Me To Your Leader

Sawyer has always been an interesting character. It seems that Sayid is a killer and will always be a killer. Kate is always running from something or someone. But Sawyer has evolved as a character. He may be the best damn liar FLocke's ever seen, but we've seen him move from unforgiving con man to head of security for the Dharma Initiative and from "I don't care about women" to a protector of women. But above all, Sawyer has never really told the truth. So I knew that when Sawyer made deals with Widmore and FLocke this episode, he wasn't telling the truth either.

The last time a war was coming, Sawyer pitted both sides against each other as well. That was way back in Season 2 when Jack and Ana Lucia were trying to get the weapons from Locke and while they were fighting over them, Sawyer (and Charlie) stole all the guns. It was our first look at a con man's work from Sawyer on The Island. He tried to do the same thing when he saw The Others and the Dharma Initiative fighting and realized he could fit his way into that situation as well.  

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Three Reminders: Poll, Fantasy Baseball and NCAA Tourney Pick'em

Three reminders for you on this Tuesday night before LOST as the New York Rangers fight for their playoff lives with the Montreal Canadians.

First, we have the poll going on the right side for the best closer in New York. Right now, it's a runaway win, but there's still time to vote.

We also have a free Fantasy Baseball league with two open spots and a NCAA Tournament Pick'em League with NYaT bragging rights on the line.

Picture from the Albany Times Union

Should We Read More Into Today's Yankees Starting Lineup?

Brett Gardner in center. Nick Johnson hitting 2nd. Robinson Cano hitting 5th. Nick Swisher hitting 8th. A while back we debated the Yankees starting lineup but now it seems to be coming to some sort of conclusion. As Chad Jennings of The LoHud Yankees Blog wrote, today's lineup looks like the expected Opening Day lineup:

1. Derek Jeter SS
2. Nick Johnson DH
3. Mark Teixeira 1B
4. Alex Rodriguez 3B
5. Robinson Cano 2B
6. Jorge Posada C
7. Curtis Granderson LF
8. Nick Swisher RF
9. Brett Gardner CF

Two big observations there: the Yankees have faith in Cano turning around his putrid RISP numbers from last year (and, let's all admit, it might just have been bad luck) and the Yankees have more faith in Gardner playing center than Granderson. As I've said, I don't usually put a lot of stock in what goes on in Spring Training but when Ben pointed out to me that Granderson looked awful in CF, it worried me a bit. Maybe it worried the Yankees too. Leftfield at Yankee Stadium is a hard position to man so having Granderson play there is not a large knock on his abilities. And if the small sample size we have of Brett Gardner holds, this will actually make the Yankees (marginally) better defensively.

Nick Johnson hitting in the two-hole is not a surprise. Although some feel that he will "clog up the bases", I rather a guy clog up the bases by getting on base 4 out of 10 times than one who speeds through the bases 3 out of ten times. If Johnson can stay healthy, the top 4 of that lineup is probably the best in baseball. I thought that Swisher may hit a little higher in the lineup, but I don't think his hitting 8th is truly a reflection of his ability. I think, rather, it's a reflection of how deep the Yankees lineup is. I wonder if, by season's end, the Yankees will have moved him up a bit, though.

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One-Year MLB.TV Premium Subscription for $20 (Update: Looks Dead)

One of the best non-sports sites on the internet is SlickDeals.net and today they have an amazing deal:

MLB.com offers a One-Year MLB.TV Premium Subscription for $19.95. Thanks ricardosud

Includes:

• LIVE Game DVR Functionality
• HD Quality Picture (where available)
• Home and Away feeds (where available)

Usually this package costs $119.95 YEARLY and for some reason this link lets you buy it for $100 less. Not sure if they'll cancel all these orders or what, but I would take advantage of this deal while it lasts. It's an amazing price for a great service. Even if you can't watch in-market games, it serves as a good back-up just in case you're out of town or root for a team that is out-of-market. I love good deals almost as much as I enjoy seeing a good baseball game and this combines both of them. Enjoy!

Update 1:00 PM: I've been informed this may be dead. It was good while it lasted and hopefully they honor those who signed up.

On Shortstop Anchors In Baseball

Craig Calcaterra on HardballTalk tries to remember Derek Jeter's predecessors in light of a Mike Vaccaro's New York Post article today about how the precense of Derek Jeter may have cost the Yankees on Cuban free agent Adeiny Hechevarria (Jason @ IIATMS has some more thoughts on the matter). Calcaterra concludes: "There are new prospects every year. Anchors at shortstop are pretty damn rare." I decided to check in on how rare "anchors" really are, and found out that, especially in the past twenty years, they're pretty damn rare.

Gone are the days where guys like Cal Ripken, Jr., Alan Trammell or Dave Concepcion manned shortstop for one team for so many years. I plugged into Baseball-Reference's Play Index any player who played 80% of their games at shortstop from 1989-2009 and played in at least 1200 games (which is basically 8 seasons). There were only 18 players who fit that criteria. Here are the results below sorted by Franchises Played For:

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24 Recap: You Down With EMP?

Now that was a lot better, wasn’t it? Sure there are plot holes bigger than New York City potholes and a sideplot dangerously close to Worst.Sideplot.Ever. status. But we finally have some action and some intrigue and something to look forward to as the season progresses. My hope coming into this episode is that 24 would find a way to salvage their last (my hope anyways, despite reports to the contrary) season with a furious finish. Well, while it’s certainly not great, we’re seeing glimmers that at least we’ll end this show on a bang. But before we get that far ahead of ourselves, we had a bang of our own this episode: welcome back EMP!

Getting the [Electromagnetic] Pulse

24 is not the first to use the EMP. Ocean’s 11 did it with Don Cheadle. And in 24’s 4th season, with Habib Marwan as a threat, and Jack and Paul Raines (Audrey’s ex) hot on their trail, a corporation (McLennen-Forster) set off an EMP to destroy all their own files*. So while I was surprised to see it again, I wasn’t shocked. And this time, the EMP was actually used by terrorists instead of some corporate execs trying to avoid a slap on the wrist.

*Side Note: Then the corporation took the impending blackout as a chance to send a private militia after Jack and Paul which resulted in Jack having his one nice moment with Islamic people in the first 6 seasons of the show (when he had to take over their ammunition shop to cover from the militia). It also resulted in Paul getting shot and Audrey ridiculously switching allegiances from Jack to Paul even though Paul had been stalking her life since the separation (and refusing to give in to a divorce) and Jack and her had fallen deeply in love—and Jack had just risked his life by going solo against a base full of terrorists and blown them all up to save Audrey and her father. Audrey, you are an ungrateful bitch.

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The Best of New York Baseball Bracket Challenge: Closers

Tonight starts a series we'll do during basketball tournament time: "The Best of New York Baseball Bracket Challenge". We'll be looking at the best of New York Yankees and Mets and try to figure out who is the best of New York. Let's start with the closers in New York (each position will get two candidates per team. Vote to the right who you think is the best of each position in New York as they all go head-to-head. Vote quickly before the next bracket goes up. We'll start off where most games end: with the closers.
 
Yankees
 
Mariano Rivera: He's considered the best among closers. With 526 saves, he's pretty close to the top just in that stat but let's look at the other evidence (stats from Baseball-Reference unless noted): His 2.25 career ERA is top among AL pitchers as is his 1.013 WHIP and 0.5 HR/9. His 202 career ERA+ is highest ever for a major league pitcher. He's led the league in saves three times and his past two seasons--at ages 38 and 39--he put up two of his best seasons as far as his peripherals go. But where he truly excels is in the playoffs where he's 8-1 with a 0.74 ERA and 39 saves in 133.1 innings. His peripherals are unbelievable with a 0.773 WHIP, 5.5 H/9, 1.4 BB/9, 5.10 K/BB, and 0.1 HR/9 (he's only given up two HR and none since 2000). According to FanGraphs, Mariano Rivera is second in major league history with 80.1% LOB and in the playoffs he's even higher with 90.1% LOB. He is at the top of the class among closers and he's still going strong. (picture from the New York Times)

Rich "Goose" Gossage: Dave Righetti has more saves with the Yankees (meaning that Gossage is third among all-time Yankees) but Gossage was the better closer. In fact, he's what everyone likes to call "an old-school closer". He saved games when saves were more than just an inning. While Rivera is 11th All-Time for saves greater than 1 inning, Gossage is second. And while Rivera has an extremely impressive 0.68 ERA in those conditions, Gossage is even better with 0.55. But when you make the criteria greater than 4 outs, Rivera ends up tied for 63rd while Gossage is third behind Rollie Fingers and Bruce Sutter. And if you take it up to two innings or more, Rivera is tied for 277th while Gossage is still 3rd--and he has a 0.68 ERA in those situations. Gossage was what closers used to be before they were what they are today--just pitchers used when the save stat comes into play. (picture from NJ.com)

Just missed: Righetti (224 saves but he's going up against two of the all-time greats) and Sparky Lyle (won a Cy Young but just missed the cut)

Mets

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Giants beat Jets in "secret coin toss" to win 1st game in New Meadowlands Stadium

The NY Daily News is reporting that the New York Giants have defeated the New York Jets in a "secret coin toss" to win the right to play the first home game in the New Meadowlands Stadium.  (H/T Michael J. Nichols)

This means that the Giants are already undefeated in their new home, while the Jets are 0-1 and are once again opening the season on the road...a feat they accomplished in 19 out of the 26 seasons they played in Giants Stadium.  But here is my favorite part of this story:

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NYaT's Free Tournament Pick'em League

Are you interested in joining our free NCAA tournament pick'em league? Well the details are below so make sure to sign up to earn NYaT bragging rights. No cash involved--just the chance to reign supreme over all NYaT readers! And if you're interested in our fantasy baseball league, there are a few spots left.

Hello NYaT reader, I would like you to join our group in Yahoo! Sports Tournament Pick'em! To accept the invitation, just follow this link. For reference, here's the group information. Group ID#: 118751 Password: nyat -- Tournament Pick'em Commissioner http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1

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Red Sox Ticketing System Is The Eighth Circle of Hell

I've heard Yankees fans complain recently about the Yankees ticketing system and why they think it's unfair. But the truth is that those trying to buy Red Sox tickets have it worse. On January 30th, Red Sox fans (and those, like me, who don't like the Red Sox but want to buy tickets) entered the Red Sox virtual waiting room for their "automatic" ticketing system. This is the worst system I've ever seen. No matter what time you get onto the system, you get put into the same pool that keeps on refreshing and refreshing. There is no advantage for getting there early except for more frustration. Once you get in, the system is usually too overloaded to get any tickets and, at times, you get kicked out of the system...and right back into what Red Sox fans have deemed "The Eighth Circle of Hell".

I decided to capture a few select reactions from Red Sox fans on Twitter. Here's the results:

chriscorcoran sets up our review:

Some have done this year-after-year. DiagoFuji is sick of doing this yet again:

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End of Week Link Roundup

This week's link roundup comes with a great picture of Darryl Strawberry on his birthday from the SI Photo Vault and a reminder to sign up for NYaT's free Fantasy Baseball league. On to the links!

Not-Yet-Opening Day Blues

• The New York Post writes that Francisco Cervelli's concussions could give the Yankees headaches and they are absolutely correct. This is the problem with not having a major-league-quality backup in camp. David Pinto of Baseball Musings writes that Cervelli will have to wear The Great Gazoo helmet (that David Wright wore last year for two games), but Craig Calcaterra of HarballTalk says that it's no laughing matter.
• The Yankees sold 3 million tickets before they even made season tickets available for the general public according to USA Today. Wow. New Stadium Insider has news on the Yankees' promotional dates and The Girl Who Loved Andy Pettitte has some ticket whines (I agree with her)
• Nomar retired with the Red Sox and the Boston Herald found it strange and Pretty In Pinstripes calls it "bullsh*t". FanGraphs looks at Nomar's career, ESPN's TMI blog looks at what might have been had Nomar not gotten hurt, and Rob Neyer of ESPN says this is a lesson for all.
• Baseball Prospectus ranks the Yankees farm system near the bottom of baseball (you would expect that after trading for guys like Granderson and Vazquez this summer) and Kei Igawa is trying to work his way out of the minors according to the New York Times
• Joe Girardi and Jorge Posada filming a commercial from USA Today. Granderson in the Jetermobile courtesy of The New York Times. And more from The Times on the Yankees "gamble" for Nick Johnson. 
• Ian O'Connor of The Record says that Jeter still wants Yogi's rings and Anthony McCarron of The New York Daily News looks at Jeter's place in all-time Yankees history. 
• Sam Borden of the Yankees LoHud Blog has some good reasons why you shouldn't get too caught up with Spring stats but this anti-stats rant that Craig Calcaterra talks about is quite odd. Baseball Prospectus takes on the "Hot Hand" theory within this piece.
• Baseball Prospectus looks into the contracts of the AL East teams and Peter Schmuck of The Baltimore Sun says that unbalanced scheduling is unfair (I don't agree with him). Joe Posnanski looks at the Rule 5 draft. The New York Times writes that Major League Baseball will now stream all of ESPN's events (odd, but true)
• Former Yankee Morgan Ensberg has a good blog says Craig Calcaterra and Kevin Youkilis is looking for a good shave from WHDH-TV (H/T Jenn). A Philadelphia writer takes on a New York reader courtesy of NoMass. Jonah Hill may be in the Moneyball movie according to Cinema Blend.

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