Jorge Posada is managing this game. Pete Abe reports that Mike Mussina is his pitching coach (predicted exhange between Mussina and Sean Henn at the mound: "Sean, who do you think you are?! Pavano?! Get this guy out!") and that Jeter will be his bench coach as soon as he leaves the game. I can see Posada as a major league manager one day, and the crafty Mussina as a pitching coach. But I don’t see Jeter as a future bench coach. Actually, I can’t envision Jeter as an old man.
Anyway, this is the last game of the season. Certain pitchers could be pitching for a spot on the post-season roster, so I guess that’s the game’s draw. Otherwise, I’ll be checking out the NL, rooting for Willie, my favorite player growing up (check out the new Authors page at the top left), and the Mets to survive.
Comment away!
Damon LF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Giambi DH
Betemit 2B
Cabrera CF
Mientkiewicz 1B
Molina C
Henn LHP
wow! The Mets are getting crushed already. 4-0 top of the first.
7-0.. ouch. Poor Mets.
Mussina doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who will want anything to do with baseball once he finishes playing. He just doesn’t ooze “baseball lifer” to me. He almost seems to not like what he does, frankly, which most certainly isn’t true. But he exudes disdain, generally, at least to me.
I hope Johnny Damon was put in charge of the groundskeepers or clubhouse crew for that day – some training for his future.
Moose disdains stupid questions from the media. And not surprisingly, he gets them a lot. So that\’s the popular image. PeteAbe had Moose sharing a brew with the coaches after they clinched. Who\’s to say if he\’s a lifer, but I certainly wouldn\’t be surprised if he became a coach after a few years off.
Meanwhile, where\’s the love for Posada around here. With one of the best seasons of all-time for a catcher, he\’s punched his ticket to Cooperstown.
With one of the best seasons of all-time for a catcher, he\’s punched his ticket to Cooperstown.
Without getting into the HOF debate itself, that is not a very good reason. David Ortiz has had probably the three best seasons ever for a DH, and he’s not a HOFer yet.
Also, Posada’s OPS+ is 10th-highest for a catcher in a season. Javy Lopez had the second-highest, Mike Grady the sixth-highest and Chris Hoiles seventh.
A better argument is that Posada’s career OPS+ is fourth-highest among all catchers with 1,000+ games, tied with Bench and Gabby Hartnett, both Hall of Famers, and behind Mike Piazza, Mickey Cochrane and Bill Dickey (all future HOF or currently).
Hotlines are standing up in NY right now for the Mets Fans.
Many (including SF\’s) questioned before this season whether he was truly HOF worthy. Now it\’s beyond any reasonable doubt. Glad to see SF\’s now arguing his case!
I have to say I’ve questioned his case myself. But his ranking is very impressive. Unless he falls off a cliff over the next five years…
Falls off the cliff? Over five years? I know don\’t expect him to get more than a three year contract. And even then there\’s nothing in his record to suggest he won\’t put up at least a 100 OPS+ each year. Even then, that would only help his case by upping his counting stats.
It\’s pretty amazing that the Yanks will have developed three HOF\’s (Jeter, Jorge, Mo) in a three year span (1995-1997).
Also: Ron Villone is the bullpen coach. One of these things is not like the other…
Bobby gets 101 RBI for the season!
Rob, the question is whether he’ll sign during the exclusive negotiating window. I’m sure Posada resigns with the Yanks, but if he reaches the open market, you can bet the Mets are going to throw something silly at him that the Yankees will have to approach to some degree.
So … why are the Yankees the only playoff-bound team that isn’t having a Rally Monday? Even the Padres are having one and they haven’t even clinched the wild card yet.
We err.. “act like we’ve been here before”? =P
A question: have the postseason rosters been announced yet? I didn’t see anything in the papers or on the web…Help!
I am pretty sure they have until Noon on the day of Game #1 to submit the roster for the postseason. Not sure that it’s been done yet.
Good news, Yankee fans! 7 of 10 ESPN “experts” have picked Cleveland over the Yankees! 8 of 10 chose Boston over the Angels.
I look forward to the Yankee-Angels matchup in the ALCS.
Can’t say Pettitte getting shelled, Mo blowing a 3-run save, and Mussina returning to (de)form(ity) is a great way to bust the door down into the post-season, but we’re here. Let’s hope our starting pitching can just keep it tight vs. the top two Cleveland hurlers and the bats can get to work. Should be a tough couple games. Oh, and I would be happy to see Phil Hughes started in a game though don’t expect it to happen. I’d like to see how the kid does in playoff pressure. Can’t wait till Thursday. This lllluuuuulllllllll in between games just stinks.
IH are you going to Sunday’s game?
Hehe, Andrew, I was just going to post that Tim Kurkjian picked the Yanks to go to the World Series, so that gave me great optimism (though I actually respect Kurkjian)…
Trisk: sorry – stepped away for a couple hours. On your question, yes, I’ll be there Sunday. You?
IH: I met a guy at the Giants game last night, friend of a friend, who is getting married Sunday. He has seats in the RF bleachers, front row and offered them to me. Aren’t you in the RF bleachers also? I have to sell my Giants tickets first, if I can I will be there also.
My partial-season tix are in the RF bleachers, but my post-season tix are spread all over the place. For Sunday (and also Monday) I am stuck up in Tier 30. The only RF bleachers I have are for WS game 6 (hoping it might actually come to that).
Sunday is the game I couldn’t even get a pair of tix to so I had to buy a single ticket. I’ll be rooting aside Vinny from the Bronx and Chuck from Queens.
Front row of the RF bleachers is nice. Let me know if you are there early. You have my e-mail and I have a b-berry – we can meet up before the game.
By the way, is that your book on this site??
My tix on Monday are in the LF bleachers, row T. I’ll be sure and take a good pair of binoculars – looks to be a good view of the bullpen, though!
I liked this quote from Torre on what he did while Posada guest-managed yesterday’s game:
“I sat with Wang, which is really boring. That’s one thing I found out: There’s not a whole lot going on.”