We’re going to be out for much of the day and evening, so we thought we’d get you started early on tonight’s game thread. We’ll say this, it seems like a good night to be out on the town; Toronto will be throwing ace Doc Halladay, one of (if not the) best pitchers in the league at the Yanks, who always, understandably, have trouble against him. To compound the offensive problems, as if that were necessary, Kelly Stinnett will be starting behind home plate. Worse still, he will be catching Jaret Wright. So things don’t auger well, but the funny thing about baseball is that sometimes things just work out exactly how they’re not supposed to. We hope that’s what happens tonight. Consider this your place for comment on all the action.
But before I’m off, let me recommend Alan Schwarz’s terrific piece on Greg Maddux in today’s NYT. And let me put up this abbreviated Jeter Meter:
AVG: .408
OBP: .516
SLG: .684
RBI: 19
R: 18
Not long before we start hearing those MVP chants.
I hate to break your bubble, YF (and YFs), but Jeter isn’t even the best hitter on his own team. GiamSTEROIDSbi is hitting an ungodly .327/.544/.808 and right now he’s your AL MVP. GiamSTERIODSbi also has 7 homers to Jeter’s 3.
… the funny thing about baseball is that sometimes things just work out exactly how they’re not supposed to.
Yup, like when the Sox throw Josh Beckett up against Paul Byrd, and lose 15-2. Keee-ryest.
(Or was it 15-3? I’ve been hitting myself over the head repeatedly with a giant mallet all day, trying to forget last night.)
Dont get me wrong, I despise the Yankees, I usually use the word hate as well. However, Jeter is almost always the MVP of that team when each season comes to an end, it goes deeper then offensive numbers. The award isn’t MVOSP (Most Valuable Offesnive Statistical Player) it’s simply MOST VALUABLE PLAYER.
I could of course make a case then for why A-Fraud wasn’t the MVP last year because he wasn’t even the most valuable player on his team.
Theres no question that Rodriguez is a better player both offensively and defensively than Jeter is. Theres also no question that right now Jeter’s stats are great, but GiamSTERIODSbi’s are a bit better. Similarly theres no question that its still April, which is a bit early for an MVP campaign, which makes the premise of this argument silly.
That’s why PaPi was MVP last year, over A-Rod… Did A-Rod have better numbers than Papi? Absolutely. But the Yankees would have done far worse without Jeter than they would have without ARod, and neither was as valuable to the Yankees as Papi was to the Sox.
But the baseball writers remain split on what the award means anyway, and it changes from year to year.
By that, I meant Papi “should have been named” MVP, of course. I might be accused of revising history, but not that much…
All I know is as long as Jeter is hitting well and the Yankees remain a .500 team, he won’t be winning any awards, but he sure as heck will be helping me maintain 1st place in my fantasy league :-)
Man, out for the whole day moving crap and the Yankees thread is non-existent. Looks like a potential rally goin on now though
Matsui’s up. Ryan’s in for a 2 inning save. Hideki can tie it with one swing of the bat…
Matsu flies out to right.
Time for Old Man Bernie
Old Man grounds into DP. Oh well.