The best I have seen

Over the last few years, we have had  the "core 4" plus 1 (Bernie), they have helped bring us many years of world series championships and playoff runs.

Alas, now they are gone, Who will be on the team for the next run at five in a row as they did back in 1949 thru 1953 or the 8 wins from 1947 thru 1958?

So many years of watching some of the greatest Yankee teams of the 40's/50s' and the bad of the 70s' and 80s' with some so-so years in between.

One thing I can say for sure is, I have had the privilege of watching some of the best Yankees of my lifetime. This is my list of the best of that time;

A-Rod--SS/3rd

Mickey--CF

Joe "D"--RF

Bernie Williams--CF

Yogi--C

Munson--C

Elston Howard--C

Cano--2nd

Frank Crosetti--SS

The "Scooter"--SS

Jeter--SS

Mattingly--1st

Clete Boyer--3rd

Bobby Richardson--2nd

Roger Maris--RF

Whitey Ford--SP

Eddie Lopat--SP

Allie Reynolds--SP

Mel Stottlemyre--SP

Vic Raschi--SP

Red Ruffing--SP

Ron Guidry--SP

"Mo" and Righitti--BP

Some truths and misinformation about pitching

I keep hearing the same old story about pitching...

Keep the ball down...now that is the silliest thing in the world...but, true to some extent! If one has a sinkerball, curve, change-up yes, by all means...keep it low! 

Every pitcher is different, every pitcher has different pitches, so one can't pitch to the  Cookie Cutter style!

If one has a good fastball, change and let's say slider, yes and no. change and curve...down! Fastball inside just above the hands or up near the letters and above. If any of you watch, even the pros will swing at the high hard one...the reason being, it looks as big as a softball and as easy to hit but, unless your name is Yogi...don't go for it...87% of the time you will miss it completely or pop it up.

Do I have stats to back it up? Nope, none at all, just watching and learning from those that had what I never had...a good fastball.

More proof is four guys we have on the Yankees, Bird, Brett, McCann and Ells all three of them will go for it on any 2 strikes count (almost)...and miss it. That and a killer slider down and away will make a hitter humble! Unless you are Mo, then add the Cutter in at the hands.

I am waiting for EVO to learn to go up with his Fastball once in a while instead of down, it is easier to drop the bat on a low pitch then swing up on a fastball (around 93/100 mph) around the eye level.

One of the greatest assets for a pitcher is C&C (Command & Control) with it a pitcher with a 90 mph fastball and two off-speed pitches can become the #1/2 on some staffs with a long winning career to look back at when they hang up the spikes.

Yankee Fans are Spoiled!

I am well over 70 and have seen many of the greatest Yankees from back in the 1940's up to this day. And have had trouble understanding some of the fans of this day and age...You are spoiled! May goodness we haven't been to the playoffs in three years...fire the manager and GM!

I have seen or heard (radio) 18 of the 27 WS wins and also the great depression of 1960s and 1980s those years we won very little at all.

The times have changed, the team can no longer buy the WS win as they have done in the past.

One must build a dynasty like they had in the 1940s 1950s, one does that by making good trades and bringing up the kids...you know, guys like Joe "D", Whitey Ford, Yogi, Elli Howard, Stottlemyre, Rizzuto, Guidry, Munson, Mattingly and one of the greatest of them all Mickey Mantle. Well, let's say Mantle and A-Rod are two of the greatest Yankees of the last 65 years.

So, let me say this; Give Cashman and (I hate to say this) Hal time to try it the new way...the way Cashman has been trying to do for years. Build the farm system and use the players as homegrown players and trade the players for missing pieces we need.

These next three years are the turning point for this team and the whole system itself.

We have players with potential ready and willing to come to the Bigs. There are a plethora of pitchers  and International signings are going to start lighting it up this year.

Ortiz not for prime time HoF!

I am A Yankee Fan first and foremost, as with Daniel, talent is talent, but my vote against him is he was given special treatment as a hitter and only a one-way player. I know he was a good glove at 1st base, but he would make it as having been a DH over the majority of his career in Boston.

This would be another one-way player to get into the HoF because he was a nice guy and the face of the team. His name was on the Mitchell Report and has had (it has been said) known use of PED's along with his buddy Manny but wasn't given tests like the other players.

His style of hitting was to make the plate only 10" wide, the outside 10"! He stood on the batters box line and leaned over the plate giving the pitcher less than half the plate to throw the ball for a strike. A pitcher would miss the to the inner half of the plate, it was long gone. If it was a strike on the outer half of the plate it was a double or single (HR, sometimes) because he could still reach it and put good wood on it. At first, some of the pitchers would throw inside to him and (sometimes) hit him, getting tossed out of the game just for throwing a strike. With all that body armor, he could care less if you came inside on him because if you didn't hit him he would step back and put a charge into it. I think everyone knows, if you are in the Show, one can hit a fastball...right, well how is it possible for a right-handed pitcher to throw anything but a fastball to him? If one throws a curve he will let it hit him or if not inside enough to hit him...it is in his wheelhouse and gone. Splitters and chang-ups would get him out...good ones!
So, even though Ortiz is a great baseball talent and on that alone should be a shoe-in for the Hall. Forget about all the innuendos of PED use.

I say Nay for the HoF...Only because he had the advantage of playing 1/3 of the games each year as the team's DH and didn't wear down as most other players did.

 

Brett Gardner one of the backbones of the Yankees

Brett has always been underrated, remember when all the experts were saying he would only be a 3rd or fourth outfielder. Yet every year someone always wants to trade for him.
Even last year look what happened when he was hurt (he tried to play for a week hurt) they took him out because of his injury and the team slowed down.

Every team needs someone like him in the lineup, and the Yankees have he and Ells...which is even better for the hitters behind them.
He is playing out of position as a left fielder, he hasn't got the offensive power tools for that spot but then again he has some things other power hitters don't have...speed, clutch hitting, all-out hustle and never quits!
I saw him play in Trenton back in 2006 and mentioned him on a blog I was on as being a very good guy to put on the fast track. As things have a way of happening with guys that aren't big time power hitters and the team needing right handed hitting at that time, they took their time with him...too much time!
As an all-out player, he needs rest, which he hasn't gotten for a long time because of Ells injury. Ells goes down and Brett slows down at the plate, too much time without rest is his worse enemy!

Why Buy Players, What about our Farm

Why do some fans want to buy pitchers when we have enough now? Most everyone complains about the farm system, but keeping kids on the farm is not the way to go. We lost a good pitcher in the rule 5 draft, plus a few others. One can only protect 40 players then what do you do?

It has to be a "Use'um or lose'um thing. Depending on injury reports we have about 5 pitchers to fight it out for the number 5 spot and the same or more for the bullpen all of them are good... are they a good enough force to be reckoned with...no one knows until they pitch against live major league hitters. A few of them have a few innings under their belt already and did well.

Who was it that said, we had to have the best players at every position, the core 4+1 came from the farm...so can others. Jeter, Mo, Posada and Andy all came to spring training not knowing if they would make the cut...except Jeter, he was the replacement for our injured SS.

Once a player gets to AAA and does well...after 4-5 years on the farm...they can develop a real bad attitude quickly.

The history of minor league players is hard to figure out. One reason is because some are better than what they have shown on the Farm or not as good. There have been many players come up to the Show and take-off like a pro and then fizzle out, conversely, much more adjusted to the game and became Jeters and or Andys.

One prime example was Don Mattingly, he was a double and Avg. hitter, so they said, but he adjusted. The great Mickey Mantel was sent back down because he didn't adjust to the big show and the speed etc. Brett is another one, all the experts said he would be a good 4th or fifth outfielder at best.

A-Rod...One of the Games Great Talents

One of the greatest talents to play baseball in my lifetime, and he screwed it all up thinking he needed that something extra. What a jerk, fans may say his ego got to him, I say nay, nay! 

I think it was his lack of self-confidence, not his ego! Playing with the two teams before the Yankees, he got little recognition for his game, it was always Nomar and Jeter. Is there anyone out there in the baseball world that can honestly say; "A-Rod wasn't the best SS or player in baseball"? When one stipulates he hadn't used drugs until he joined Texas. take his first 8 years and compute what might have been without the dirt he inflicted upon himself.

What A-Rod said of Jeter was the truth, just think about it. If Jeter had played for any other team than the Yankees or Boston he would have been a very good singles hitter playing SS and nothing more! All those years A-Rod was the best SS but who knew, not the baseball fans! Jeter would never have played SS for 20 years on other teams as he did with the Yankees. Being the poster boy for the Yankees made him out to be much better than he really was. Pitchers didn't worry about him or any other singles hitter, but they pitched very tough to guys like Tino, Bernie, A-Rod, O'Neill, Giambi and Posada. Power hitters don't get 3,000 hits 
very often...A-Rod will be one of nine power 
hitters to make the 3,000 hit club, joining 19 single hitters in said club! He will also be one of three in the 3,000 hit and 600 home runs club

Jeter gave the Yankee fans someone to look up to and kids to emulate for over 20 years and go in the HoF because he played for the Yankees just the same as Joe T got into the hall for the same reason. Being on the right team at the right time gives one a much better chance than others with as much if not more talent going into the Hall.

You fans are Spoiled

You guys are spoiled, you grew up with the core 4+ and thought it was going to be that way every year.

Hell, I grew up with the greatest winners of all-time, 16 World Series Wins out of 21 tries. Then the depression hit the Team, nothing at all from 1965 thru 1975 and again from 1982 thru 1994.

And now because of three years not making the playoffs some of you sound like the world is coming to an end and want to pick up your balls and go home. Some fans you are!

Yes, there are many problems with the team from Ownership on down to some of the contracts we have that are not productive.

As I have stated a few times, the good teams had about 4-6 home boys and some of the rest were FA or trades. Which was detrimental to the Farm system, we always gave up too much for a player near the end of his rope. Everyone (King George etc.) forgot the keyword in any endeavor, "Balance" in the sports field, war, business or life...one must have Balance! Spend when needed, trade when needed but balance all that with the kids down on the farm.

Bryan's article above is a good one to read and think about, do you see how he has replaced players with our very own Farmers? Now that is the way to go, have any of you given a thought to the next 5 to 10 years at all? I kind of doubt it very much? Have any of you ever played 3 Dimensional Chess, you should try it, the first kills only mean something in the "now" of the game but, not the outcome of said game.

For all we know, the Yankees are being taught to play like "Chess", not paying too much for guys ready for the downslide and using our own guys when they show they are good enough or better than what is on the market.

If there had been a 26-30-year-old very good SS out there to be had (without giving up players we could use ourselves) then one goes for it...because of "need", not because we wanted him.