You Can Get With This Or You Can Get With That: Week 5

We interrupt your baseball playoffs coverage for our weekly fantasy football column. Ben P is back again with some great advice of who to start and who to sit in Week 5 of the National...Football...League:

Sit Favre out this Sunday (Yahoo)

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Get with Carson Palmer not with Brett Favre

I know, I know, Minnesota just stole the disgruntled Randy Moss from the Pats. This is good news for Brett Favre who has struggled without a healthy Sydney Rice. However, there are two reasons why I don’t like his match-up this week. Numero Uno being that this is Moss’s first week with the team. Moss will have had very little time to develop a little chemistry with Favre and to learn the Vikings playbook. I think Favre will force a few too many balls to his new toy. Numero Dos is of course the Jets Defense. They haven’t been playing up to the lofty standards they set for themselves last year, but they’re still very good. Even if Revis doesn’t play again or is limited, Cromartie has played well for the Jets and matches up well against Moss. I think the Jets get their licks on Favre and he doesn’t get away with a couple of the balls he throws up for grabs.

Carson Palmer makes a much more intriguing option. He has looked fairly inconsistent this year and he’s going against a surprising Tampa team that is off to a good start. However, Tampa hasn’t really been tested (they’ve face Delhomme, Moore/Clausen, and Batch) and I think Ronde Barber has lost a step (he looked very slow returning an interception earlier this year). Palmer and T.O. are coming off of a big week making beautiful passing music together. Palmer has a lot of weapons in the passing game and the Bengals are not afraid to give him lots of opportunities to use them. Palmer is no longer elite, but I think he has a solid game this week.

Get with Beanie Wells not with Ryan Mathews

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The Yankee Clipper: Back-and-Forth Game 1 Goes to the Yanks

Deep breath. After two dominant pitching performances to start out the playoff day by Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee, the Yankees and Twins played a see-saw, back-and-forth affair last night under the stars at Target Field. But while Francisco Liriano looked early like he'd join Halladay and Lee as number 1 starters who dominated, the Yankees late rally toppled the Twinkies once again. A few notes:

Maybe not "ever" but last night's Tex Message was exciting

1. The Grandy Man Can. Sometimes, you need to throw out the book and Joe Girardi (the man who keeps the book with him at all times) did just that last night starting Curtis Granderson against Liriano. Granderson--who couldn't hit lefties in general for most of the season--came into the game 4 for 22 against the lefty Liriano with 12 strikeouts. And in the second inning, with two on and two out, those struggles reared their ugly heads again when Granderson left the runners stranded. That was the first of 10 consecutive batters that Liriano retired including a Granderson strikeout in the fifth. So with two on and two out and the same Liriano on the mound, some wondered whether Joe Girardi may go to the bench and pinch hit Austin Kearns who has had success in limited time against Liriano. But Girardi stuck with Granderson who hit the ball about as far as you can without hitting it out and his triple was the biggest hit of the game. Granderson deserves a lot of credit for going to Kevin Long and making sure he worked on his swing and the dividends have paid off immensely. Ben Shpigel of the New York Times calls Long the Yankees "Most Valuable Repairman", Brien@IIATMS breaks down the 6th inning, and the New York Post's Joel Sherman said that Granderson went from being a "bad idea" in mid-August to an October hero.
2. Tex Message Received. As LoHud's Chad Jennings wrote, the other place that Girardi went against most people's instinct was when he stuck with Mark Teixeira struggled through the first two months. Every day he wrote his name into the lineup in the number three hole. And last night's majestic shot into the October sky again showed us that despite his slow starts, Teixeira will eventually come around and contribute. An earlier double, though, was just as big as it snapped Liriano's streak of 10-in-a-row retired and set the table for that big 6th inning. Last season, Tex hit a line drive in Game 2 of the ALDS that everyone at Yankee Stadium was yelling "get up, get up" so it would be a home run--and it was. Last night, Tex hit a high fly ball that everyone yelling "stay fair, stay fair" (including Joe Girardi who the cameras caught saying it with the rest of the fans)--and it did. Tex's second game-winning home run against the Twins in two years and off the Jesse Crain which TBS replays right before the home run showed Teixeira hitting a blast earlier this year against at Yankee Stadium. According to ESPN New York's Wallace Matthews, Tex did this all with a cortisone shot in his ailing wrist. Teixeira has played through pain much of the second half of the season and his Tex MSG got the Yankees Game 1 of the series.
3. The Great Mariano.

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Chris Berman introduces the Connecticut Whale

Although considered a tool by some, Chris Berman deserves to be commended for supporting Howard Baldwin and the new Connecticut Whale.  Bonus points for incorporating the Brass Bonanza in the background.  Even with a minus-1 for relying on his lame catchprase, and a minus-2 for the cheesy joke at the end, Berman comes out ahead for adding some star power to minor league hockey in the capital city.

Connecticut readers, if you are at all interested in hockey or supporting the Whalers' future return to the NHL in Hartford, you should consider going to one of these AHL games.  You can always get seats down near the boards, and the hockey talent is pretty good (especially with Wade Redden -- and the 6-year, $39 million contract he got from the New York Rangers in 2008 -- hitting the ice every night).  And how can you beat 2 games for $15?

Tonight's Pitching Matchup: Yankees vs. Twins Game 1

As I tried to do all of last season, I'm going to try to put up a match-up report for each game of the playoffs in 2010. Here's a quick recap of what each pitcher has done against the opposition:

CC Sabathia vs. the Twins hitters (including playoffs)

	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	HBP	GDP
Alexi Casilla	13	13	9	2	0	0	1	0	1	.692	.692	.846	1.538	0	0
Jim Thome	30	27	4	0	0	4	6	2	14	.148	.233	.593	.826	1	0
Denard Span	7	7	2	1	0	0	0	0	1	.286	.286	.429	.714	0	1
Michael Cuddyer	59	55	12	3	0	1	7	3	11	.218	.271	.327	.598	1	1
Joe Mauer	28	26	6	2	0	0	2	2	10	.231	.286	.308	.593	0	0
Nick Punto	42	39	8	1	0	0	2	2	6	.205	.244	.231	.475	0	1
Orlando Hudson	9	9	2	0	0	0	0	0	3	.222	.222	.222	.444	0	0
Delmon Young	18	18	3	1	0	0	0	0	5	.167	.167	.222	.389	0	1
Matt Tolbert	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.333	.000	.333	1	0
Jason Kubel	5	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	.000	.000	.000	.000	0	1
Total	214	201	46	10	0	5	18	9	54	.229	.272	.353	.626	3	5

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/6/2010.

The Jim Thome line (detailed here) is a very weird one. They only faced each other 2006-2009, but in the 27 official at-bats, Thome has 14 K and 4 hits--but the 4 hits are all home runs (with 3 coming in 2008). Alexi Casilla is the one other player with some success, though 13 PAs is not a large sample size. Sabathia started one game in the playoffs last year against the Twins (Game 1 of the ALDS) and he got the win, pitching 6.2 innings, giving up 8 hits, 2 runs (only one earned), striking out 8 and walking no one (though he did hit a batter). Both runs were scored in the 2nd inning thanks to an RBI single by Michael Cuddyer and a passed ball (full recap of that game can be found here). Overall, the hefty lefty has held the Twins in check, most importantly Joe Mauer who has only reached base 8 times in 28 plate appearances vs. Sabathia. Overall, Sabathia is 13-8 with a 3.05 ERA in 191.2 innings vs the Twins in the regular season.

Francisco Liriano vs. the Yankees hitters (including playoffs)

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NYaT Roundtable: Division Series Picks

The Yanks' bobblehead and I

As I walked through midtown today, I saw a giant Yankees and Phillies bobblehead right outside the Major League Baseball offices (the picture on the right). TBS was sponsoring it and it reminded me that they're back doing broadcasts (sans Chip Caray) and playoff baseball is back. We're also back here at NYaT to give our picks (and quick thoughts) about the division series starting this afternoon:

New York Yankees at Minnesota Twins

Jay: "Yankee pitching (even sans AJ Burnett) keeps Minnesota in each game, but Yankees scratch out enough runs to escape in five games. Small ball and an effective bullpen help the Yankees win games on the road." Yanks in 5

Sarah: Yanks in 4

Ben P: "The Yankees offense has enough to carry them over the Twins in this series. The Twins do everything well, but nothing great. CC wins his two starts and the Yanks find a way to get one more win." Yanks in 4

Ari: "Minny is missing some big pieces. And they don't have many to miss. Yanks gut this one out." Yanks in 4

CC Sabathia will target the Twinkies tonight at Target Field (CBC)

Elissa: "Just like with the Rays, it all comes down to pitching. The Yankees have a shaky starting rotation at best. Andy Pettitte has only pitched in 3 games since coming off the DL (3 underwhelming outings), Phil Hughes has been relatively ineffective in August and September, A.J. Burnett needs no explanation on why he's a liability in the rotation, and although CC pitched outstanding in the 2009 playoffs, his previous experiences in Milwaukee and Cleveland were less than stellar. I really don't see how the Yankee's pitching staff can pull it together this week." Twins in 5

Ben W: "Yanks need to turn on the switch and there's no better opponent to do it against than the Twins. Liriano matches up well against Sabathia but he's still CC. After that it's Carl Pavano and the illustrious Brian Duensing. The Yanks will put their faith in Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes. The Yankees know better than any other team that you start over again in the postseason and that their poor September is but a piece of history. Look for the Yanks to play like they did for the first five months of the season." Yanks in 4

My opinion: "The Yankees and Twins have met quite a bit recently in the postseason and despite optimism things would change, they've stayed the same. Although the Yankees have holes after their #1 starter, the Twins holes look just as bad--and worse considering the Yankees have an edge in the top tier of their bullpen. If the Twins had Justin Mourneau and Joe Nathan, I would feel differently about this series, but without them, I'm not sure the Twins have enough firepower or pitching to go toe-to-toe with the defending champs." Yanks in 4

Texas Rangers at Tampa Bay Rays

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NYaT Roundtable: Top Storylines/Memories of the 2010 Regular Season

With the 2010 season in the books, I decided to ask the NYaT writers what were their favorite moments/memories from this regular season were and here's what we came up with:

Strasburg made lasting impressions (Canadian Press)

Andrew:
1) Armando Galarraga and James Joyce. In a year of perfection on the mound, this near perfection may be my greatest memory. The incident, the backlash, the apologies, and the way everyone handled it in the end may make this one stick in my mind longer than Roy Halladay or Dallas "Get Off My Mound" Braden
2) Stephen Strasburg and Aroldis Chapman. This could also be represented by Buster Posey, Neftali Feliz, Austin Jackson, Jason Heyward or anyone else we listed for the NL Rookie of the Year race. It was a great year for young arms (who threw absolute gas), prospects making impacts and big debuts--though the Strasburg injury taught us all that the highs are as great as the lows with baseball prospects at times.
3) Saying good-bye. How about this to sweep away my childhood? Ken Griffey, Jr. retired, Bobby Cox and Cito Gaston hung it up as well and George Steinbrenner and Bob Sheppard died--the last two contributing to a very emotional All-Star Game as Derek Jeter stepped to the batters box to lead-off the game.

Jay:
1) Stephen Strasburg (7 IP, 2 ER, 14 K, 0 BB) wows baseball universe in MLB debut
2) 5 no-hitters, including 2 perfect games within a 20-day span
3) Troy Tulowitzki's unbelievable September (.303/.366/.754, 15 HR, 40 RBI, 30 R)

Ben P:
1) The San Diego Padres Big Year- Coming into the year, the Padres probably had one of the weakest teams on paper. Behind some very good young pitching, they finish just one game out of the wild card and 2 games out of the division, proving that you can still get it done with a tiny payroll.
2) Stephen Strasburg -When healthy, Strasburg more than lived up to the hype. His stuff and command were about as good as anyone else in baseball. His injury is bad news for Washington fans, as well as the MLB.

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NYaT Gives Out Our MLB Awards: National League

We did our American League picks earlier today. Now let's look at those award winners (or losers) from the Senior Circuit:

Joey Votto has been huge for the Reds in '10 (CBS Sportsline)

National League MVP: Joey Votto.
Followed by:  tied for second Albert Pujols and Carlos Gonzalez (Adrian Gonzalez, Ryan Howard and Troy Tulowitzki).

It's amazing to think back to the fact that the only way Votto made the All-Star Team this year was because of a fan vote for the last spot. Who were his biggest competition? Carlos Gonzalez and Ryan Zimmerman, two people he'll be battling for to win the MVP this season. Amazing. Albert Pujols is just having another one of his years but with both the Cards and Rockies not making the playoffs, I think that Pujols and CarGo are out. Same going for Adrian Gonzalez who had a fantastic year for a surprise Padre team, but went flat the last week of the season as his team did the same. But Votto (.424 OBP and .600 SLG lead the league, .324 average was second) has been fantastic for the surprise Reds, overtaking Pujols' Cards and winning the division for the first time in a long time. Amazingly, according to FanGraphs, Votto hit ZERO infield fly balls all season. None. Unless Luis Castillo is on the other team, infield fly balls are the one guarantee out (outfield fly balls can find grass or go beyond the wall and ground balls can find a hole but infield pops find gloves almost all the time). The one thing working against Votto and CarGo, though? Home parks that favor hitters. That didn't stop every single one of our voters, from putting Joey Votto first on their ballots making him a unanimous pick for NL MVP.

National League LVP: Jason Bay.
Followed by:  Melky Cabrera and a tie for third between Jeff Francouer, Nyjer Morgan, Oliver Perez and Pedro Feliz (Jose Reyes, Luis Castillo, Manny Ramirez, Matt Kemp, Nate McLouth, and Pablo Sandoval also receiving votes).

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NYaT Gives Out Our MLB Awards: American League

What a year 2010 has been. No-hitters, perfect games, great rookies, saying good-bye to veterans, and watching playoff races come down to the very last day of the season. Well now that it's all over and we're turning the calendar to playoff baseball, here we are at NYaT to hand out our postseason awards to who we think is most deserving (panel consisting of Ben W, Jay, Ben P, Ari, Elissa, and myself). First up, the American League:

Hamilton looks to take home the AL MVP (Cleveland Plain-Dealer)

American League MVP: Josh Hamilton.  
Followed by: Robinson Cano, Miguel Cabrera and Evan Longoria.

Despite missing nearly all of September, Hamilton wins this award in a run-away. He got 4 out of 5 first place votes (Ben P put Robinson Cano ahead of Hamilton) and took home our crown. Hamilton had a very similar season to Joe Mauer's 2009 MVP season and although Robinson Cano and Miguel Cabrera were very, very good, Hamilton was better. The Rangers went 21-6 in June and Hamilton hit .454/.482/.815 for the month with 9 HR and 31 RBI. MVP material, indeed. This was a tough race to pick, though, with many good candidates not even listed such as Adrian Beltre, Jose Bautista and Carl Crawford. But Cano, Cabrera and Longoria were the only competition that Hamilton really did have for this race.

American League LVP: Chone Figgins.  
Followed by: Brandon Wood, and a tie for third between A.J. Burnett, Mike Cameron, Milton Bradley and Pat Burrell (Aaron Hill, Carlos Pena, Franklin Gutierrez, Garrett Atkins, and Matt Wieters also receiving votes).

It was a relatively close race between Figgins and fellow-AL West disappointment Brandon Wood, but Figgins huge contract gets him the "win" here. It really wasn't all Figgins' fault, but after being the one offensive free agent signing, he gets the blame which could have gone to Jose Lopez, Franklin Gutierrez, Casey Kotchman, or the rest of the Mariners historically anemic offense (minus Ichiro). Figgins was far from the worst, but a .259/.340/.306 line and highly negative UZR was far from what the Mariners were expecting when they gave him 4 years, $36 million (with an easily vesting option for another year). FanGraphs put Figgins worth at 0.5 WAR while Baseball-Reference was a lot more generous at 1.3 WAR. Either way, it's part of the reason that the Mariners have cleaned house in the clubhouse and have started to change around front-office personnel as well.

American League Cy Young: Felix Hernandez.  
Followed by: CC Sabathia and David Price (Jon Lester also receiving a vote).

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End of Week Link Roundup: The Mother of All Roundups

It's been weeks since I emptied out the links folder and as the news hits of the Mets finally cleaning house, I thought it was a good time for links. So...here...we...go:

The Yankees are back in the postseason (The Star-Ledger)

Yankees

• The opportunity to take the division is knocking for Andy Pettitte and the Yankees writes LoHud's Chad Jennings. Andy Pettitte's back is hurting says the New York Daily News' Mark Feinsand. Joe Sheehan of SI says that home-field advantage isn't that big of an advantage in the end. Cliff Corcoran of Pinstriped Bible says to bring on the Rangers. Although I can't agree, FOX Sports' Jon Paul Morosi says the Yankees would be better off being the Wild Card. The New York Times asks if the Yankees really want the Twins or Rangers? One not smart commenter has no clue who the Yankees will play (H/T @jaydestro)
• Joe at River Ave Blues also wrote that slumping was nothing new for the Yankees and Katie Sharp and Mark Simon of ESPN tell us why the Yankees had a bummer of a week two weeks back. Kerry Wood is back in the playoffs for the second time since Steve Bartman ruined things for his Cubs writes Ben Shpigel of the New York Times. Stephen R. at TYU on Phil Hughes and the ALDS. Mike at River Ave Blues on Phil Hughes and the ALDS.
• Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus reviews the year the Top 11 Yankee prospects from earlier in the year and how they finished 2010. Taking Justin Smoak over Jesus Montero may have been a mistake to crush the Mariners front office and ESPN's Buster Olney has more on the decision.
• Larry of Yankeeist talks about not second-guessing the manager and Moshe at TYU talks about Girardi and bunting. NoMass says Girardi can leave for Chicago.
• Albert Lyu of FanGraphs has an awesome visual of Mariano Rivera's cutters. Jorge Posada wants to be able to catch A.J. Burnett in the playoffs as Vizzini from NoMass writes.
• USA Today reported a few weeks back that the Yankees had $2B debt--though this wasn't unusual for a company that size. 50 years later, a Mickey Mantle slide demands expert analysis says the New York Times' Richard Sandomir. The Yankees and Red Sox 2010 schedule has been released and The Boston Globe's Peter Abraham has the details (the Yankees open Fenway and then won't play again there until August). Jeff Pearlman on the George Steinbrenner monument. Jack Maxwell of YES ranks Jeter's fake HBP among the top nine fakes in sports. Notyourtypicalgirl's Blog on what it's like to sit beyond the moat at Yankee Stadium.

Cy Young, MVP and the rest of the awards:

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You Can Get With This Or You Can Get With That: Week 4

Last week Ben, our resident fantasy football expert, predicted you go with Joe Flacco at QB and he delivered with 262 yards passing, three touchdowns and no interceptions. This week Flacco's back on his list...but on the other side. Let's check out who you should start and who you should sit Week 4 in the National...Football...League:

Flacco was huge last week, but this week he'll run into a Steel wall (Reuters)

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Get with Chad Henne, not with Joe Flacco

Joe Flacco, who came through for us last week, is not the guy you want in your corner in week 4. Flacco goes against the consensus number one D in the league, the Steelers of Pittsburgh. Plus, Ray Rice is hobbled with a banged up knee and might not even play this week. Rice is one of Flacco’s favorite safety valves, so if he’s not on the field when Harrison and Woodley start coming after him, there are going to be some throws that go places they shouldn’t. I think this will be a low scoring battle of the trenches, where both teams will play the field position game and rely on their defenses. Flacco won’t rack up the yards and will probably turn it over a couple times.

Chad Henne is the superior option. He goes against the young New England D, which surrendered 3 TD’s to Mark Sanchez and almost 250 to Ryan Fitzpatrick. Translation: you can throw against the Pats. Henne is starting to build a nice connection with Brandon Marshall, as evidenced by Marshall’s 10 catches last week. The Pats have nobody that can match up with Marshall’s physicality and I think he goes off for another big game. Chad Henne is sure to benefit.

Get with Shonn Greene, not with Peyton Hillis

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