New York Nine

Baseball the way it was meant to be, down and dirty with brutally honest analysis

Monday, February 9, 2009

The Steroid Era happened, whether you like it or not


In the wake of the announcement of A-Rod's positive test for steroids there's been a great deal said about what to do with him and other steroid users. Many say he should be blacklisted forever, tainted for all time and never allowed to join the hall of fame, along with the other offenders, but is this really realistic? Indeed, one of the facts that seem lost in the A-Rod report is that he was one of 104 players who tested positive for steroids, 104! That comes out to about 2 players per every team's active roster of 25, and that's not a number that can be dismissed. Chances are there are other players who are big stars on that list who we would be equally surprised about, and this is after players were told about the beginning of steroid testing! Who is to say that there weren't even more players who were using who stopped prior to the testing?
We may never know who is on that list, but we do know that there were many, many players taking steroids during this strange era in baseball, and who could blame them? We're talking about professional athletes, men who make their fortunes by how far they can hit a baseball or how hard they can throw it, natural born competitors who have strove to be the best their whole life, if they were given an opportunity to improve their lot and gain an edge on the field, why wouldn't they do it? Sure steroids were illegal, but they were not prohibited by baseball, and they were everywhere. Players were openly using it the locker rooms, trainers were supplying anyone who wanted them, and the owners didn't care, they just wanted results, and who could blame them?
In short it was an evironment where it is not hard to see steroid use being rampant and quite accessible for everyone. They were everywhere and players of all sorts of talent, from the marginal utility player to the best of the best, bonds, clemens, and now a-rod were all there ready and willing to do what it took to be the best. Sure there were players who didn't do it, but they too were compilict in the whole affair. Where were the players shouting in outrage of steroid use? There weren't any because it was something that everyone had more to gain from. Everyone was complicit. Everyone was guilty.
Now this tained era in baseball has since been brought to light and some of the worst offenders have been shown for what they did and the court of public opinon seeks to place all the blame of entire industry on the shoulders of a few, but is that really fair? Yes these players of guilty of using performance enhancer that gave them an unfair advantage, but so were many of the players that they were competing with. Indeed, how many juiced home runs were hit off of juiced pitchers? Do two wrongs make a right?
My point here is that baseball writers and many others want to try to sort through this mess of a time in baseball history and decide who was "clean" who was free from guilt. They want to re-write history and say that this person's accomplishments do not count because he cheated, but is that just? For sure, some of the offenders who have broken records have been revealed for their misdeeds and baseball writers want to punish them by not allowing them into the hall of fame for that, and I find this positively pure arrogance. Whether they like to admit it not, these things still happened, these players still made an impact in actual games on both sides of the field, and now they want to say that they didn't happen, that these events are not worthy of recognition because of the era in which they played in. Who are these writers to say what did or did not occur?
Cheating is as old as the game, Babe Ruth was known to use corked bats whenever he had the chance, are we to say that his achievements did not exist because some of those home runs were hit with an unfair advantage? No because for some reason writers for some reason think that corking a bat or spitting on a baseball is somehow a less egregious offense, somehow less horrible and because of this cheaters like Ruth or Gaylord Perry are in the hall of the fame.
I'm not absolving these men of guilt nor am I saying that what they did was right, but their accomplishments don't deserve to be eliminated just because they were one of the unfortunate ones to get caught. It happened, the damage has been done and should be rectified and recognized for what it was, but let's not pretend to close our eyes and say it didn't happen, it did.

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Saturday, February 7, 2009

Like A-Rod needed any more bad press


Well it seems as though the one good thing everyone could say about A-Rod has just gone out the window. A-Rod's always been easy to hate, from the girlish slap play in the 04 ALCS to his seemingly perpetual choking in big spots and in the postseason, and most recently his infidelity with...Madonna? Dude she's like a hundred years old now isn't she? But you despite that you could always say he's gone his whole career without a hint of tarnish from the steroid era, the one slugger who did it clean and who would break the wretched Barry Bonds' home run record and restore order to the universe. Well it seems even that is has disappeared with the news that A-Rod was caught using sterioids in 2003 in his MVP season with the Rangers where he hit 47 home runs. Damn A-Rod can't you do anything right?


I've always defended A-Rod since he's been a Yankee, he's a douchebag for sure, but he's our douchebag, and our douchebag is arguably the best player in the game. Yes his numbers in big spots did make me cringe at times and I hated listening to the drama with him and Jeter, but it's always been about baseball, and the guy just produced. Indeed, despite his seemingly "un-clutchness" he's been an integral part of this team since he showed up in 2004 producing like no yankee since, well Mickey Mantle, and he's already got more home runs than him!


But it seems as though that now will always been tainted, that will forever been overshadowed by this startling news, that the white light of clean baseball has gone out, his home runs will never been seen without a great deal of scrutiny and doubt and its a shame. Now of course he's never tested positive while he's been a Yankee, by all accounts he's been clean since we've known him, but how can you be sure of it? Who is to say that he isn't now using some more advanced undectable method of jucing? You can never know for sure and because of that he can no longer be viewed the same way. He's one of them now, right next to Bonds and Sosa and all the rest, juicers, cheaters, theives. Indeed, what can I say anymore that redeems him? What about Alex is now admirable and honorable?


Perhaps I am making too much of this, perhaps there is an explaination to it, or perhaps this was a one-time loss of judgment on the part of Alex, but the problem remains that I can no longer say anything with certainity about him anymore. I for one am anxious to hear his reponse, but I doubt it will change anything, the damage is done, his reputation forever blackened.

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Only lunatics (like me) need apply





Well I went and bought the game that confirms I'm totally crazy, MLB Front Office Manager, a baseball video game that you don't even get to play baseball, and I have to say I like it, but I don't love it by any means. In truth, I've been trying to avoid buying it but for forty bucks I figured it was worth a shot and I'm glad I did.


If you're expecting a lot of action and excitement this game is really not for you because its completely a niche game for people like me who love the thought of running a baseball team. As the general manager you have comprehensive control of pretty much aspect of your organization, signing players, making trades, setting rosters and most importantly scouting. I haven't gotten too far in the game so I haven't had a chance to tinker around with it too much but its clear that this is one of the highlights of the game. You must decide how to allocate funds for scouting all over the world and following prospects all the way through the ranks. In this section alone I could see many hours being spent trying to find the next big star all over the world.


The setup of the game is primarily menu-based and at times these can be confusing. The main screen has a lot going on as far as what needs to be done for the day, emails and whatnot and it can be overwhelming. I know personally it took me a long time just to figure out what the hell everything does in the game so you end up spending a lot of time just poking around trying to figure out what does what. But the most frustrating part of the game I found is how the game doesn't really tell you if you're doing something wrong. Say for instance you want to advance to the next day because you proposed a trade to another team or to advance to the next step, well sometimes it just won't go to the next day and you're just kind of stuck. They give you no clues as to why it won't advance to the next day so you end up combing over all the menus to try to figure out what the hell is going wrong. Sometimes your rosters are not filled or the pitching rotations are incomplete, but they never give you any indication why they won't let you do it.



Despite this somewhat unhelpful setup, the game is very comprehensive and engaging if this is your cup of tea. You get to do everything you ever wanted to do with your team trade this guy move that guy, but its not easy. Indeed, there are many factors you need to consider when making moves, whether that be money, no trade clauses, player morale, happiness of the owner, so if you plan on running through this game haphazardly you're not going to do very well.



Overall, I enjoyed this game and plan on playing more but it is ultimately not entirely satisfying. While I love putting thogether the team and developing talent, I do all of those things because I want to go play with that team and wipe the floor with everyone! To just put the team together and see the lineup but not be able to actually play as that team kind of sucks, but that's what you accept when you buy the game, that's why its only forty dollars instead of the standard 60 for a PS3 or XBOX 360 game. For what it is its a very well thought of game, very comprensive and engaging, but when MLB The Show comes out next month I can' t say I see myself playing it a whole lot.

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Friday, February 6, 2009

The Elephant in the Room


I realize this is a year off, but this is arguably the most difficult an troubling issue the yankees will have to face for years to come, the fate of the captain, Derek Jeter and his expiring contract next year. Right now Derek is one of the highest paid players in the game, in the top 5 I believe, and its hard to argue that he's worth all those millions for what he's been giving you the last two years or so. While he did have an MVP caliber season in 2006 (he should've won in my opinion) his offense has been on the downslope, getting his average up to .300 barely this year as well as diminshed power, reduced OBP and a penchant for hitting into double plays, 24 last year alone. In addition, its hard to say that Derek's exactly gold glove worthy these days at short, routinely pegged as the worst shortstop in the game, most notably by Bill James in his fielding bible the last three years.
And yet its not exactly like you can just tell him to get lost, the guy is a freaking icon. The advertisements, the women (six in the maxim top 50 last time i checked), and most importantly the winning. Four rings, seven all star appearances, with a slew of clutch performances and big hits along the way to becoming the face of the franchise and the greatest shortstop in yankee history. What can you do with him? Can you leave him at short and allow him to be a liability and cost you runs all season long? Can you afford a riot in New York when you don't re-sign him and lose his tremendous value, both tangible and intangible, in production and dollar signs?
A great deal of ink has been spilled on this subject (I guess its a lot of typing has been done but that doesn't sound nearly as lyrical) and there are a lot of people who have a lot of opinons on the matter. Baseball prospectus suggests to move him to center field, rob neyer says just keep him there until his contract is up and let him walk, but I find neither of those solutions perticuarly satsifying, but I can't seem to come up with a solution that both is smart baseball wise while recognizing Jeter's importance to the team.
Re-signing Jeter to me seems to be a no-brainer, as a Yankee fan I shudder of the thought of seeing him somewhere else, getting his 3,000th hit in another uniform in another city instead of staying here where he belongs in pinstripes. But as anyone who knows baseball knows pitching and defense wins championships and when you have a shortstop who can't field and his hitting is slipping you have to consider other options.
On the flip side, moving Jeter to another position is tricky to say the least. A-rod and Tex have the corner positions locked up for some time and moving a guy who's been an infielder to centerfield is no sure bet, who knows how well he'll be able to adapt to playing out there, there is no way of knowing.
I think the best way of dealing with this is moving him next year, to left field. With Matsui and Damon's contracts up as well left seems to be the perfect fit for Jeter to utilize his speed and range while not being burdened with the prospect of being a centerfielder, a position that requires one to be the leader in the outfield. Its where Yogi went when Elston Howard came up and I think its a position that Jeter could be in that wouldn't hurt the Yankees tremendously while still providing them with a high OBP and batting average from a corner outfielder.
It's not the best solution by any means, and I'm not entirely sure its the one that is the best for the yankees, after all Matt Holliday is a free agent this year and he's a left fielder, but its a move that has to be made sooner rather than later. Jeter is a great player, a first ballot hall of famer and one of the few guys to have a real chance to break Rose's all time hits record. But shortstop is an extremely crucial defensive position and the Yankees cannot sacrifice that in the name of sentimentality. I just hope Cashman's been thinking about this problem too, I'm sure he can come up with something better than me.

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Wrong, wrong again


Well it seems as though my "expert" anylsis of the case of Ben Sheets was faulty to say the least. According to recent reports Ben is going under the knife for flexor tendon surgery on his eblow, a surgery that will likely force him to miss the entire 2009 season. What's worse is Sheets was close to signing a 2 year deal with the rangers until these eblow problems surfaced and the contract was put on hold indefintely. Now he's got no job, no one to pay for his surgery and his career as a major league pitcher in doubt.
I for one feel for the guy, he's pitched on lousy teams his whole career that didn't give him the run support he needed to distinguish himself as one of the game's best (Bill James lists his 2004 season as the second worst bad luck season for a pitcher going 12-14 but with a 2.70era striking out 264 in 237 innnings) and the one year they're good and make the playoffs he's too injured to take the mound in the brew crew's first playoff series since 1982. In addition he's had a run of bad luck in injuries that has also hurt his reputation by being regarded as "injury prone." And now after all the good he's done he gets some more bad luck, getting injured in his contract year and now he's looking at the prospect of being jobless for awhile.
Of course this is a business and baseball teams are not in the business of awarding multi-year deals with guys who are down on their luck. I don't blame the rangers for withdrawing their contract offer to a guy who won't even pitch for at least half of the length of contract. Still, I hope Sheets can rebound from this set back, get healthy and return to form quickly, he's only 30 years old there's still hope, but its not looking too good for the national league all-star game starter.

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Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Wait a minute...Barry Bonds took steroids????

This report just came in a few hours ago, but honestly who the hell needed to hear this to know Barry Bonds did steroids. According to new evidence revealed by the judge for Bonds' perjury trial Barry's urine tested positive for steroids in a 2003 test which of course seems to be pretty damning evidence in the case. To backtrack a bit Bonds testified in the now famous BALCO case that he had taken the "cream" and the "clear" but he did not know that they were performance enhancing drugs, but when asked point blank whether he had ever taken steriods his answer was a pointed no.

Obviously if the attorneys for the state know what they're doing this should help their case and help them win a case that has been going on way too long. I don't perticularly like Barry Bonds and in fact you could say I loathe him but I think the prospect of him going to jail for a very long time because he took steriods seems very silly and ridiclous. Especially when you consider that so many people have admitted to having done them it seems kind of crazy that one of those guys could spend the rest of his days in a state penitentary for it.

Then again, perhaps this is just karma coming back at Barry, many others admitted to doing it, like Giambi and Pettitte, and while they were criticized they were pretty much forgiven for their past trangressions. Guys like Bonds and Clemens who very clearly were using PEDs to break records were given a chance for penance they refused, and in fact they threw it back in disgust that they would even be accused of it. So in return these greatest of cheaters are seeing their sins paid back ten fold, forever disgraced and despised for trying to cheat the system and the game so many love. Maybe a conviction in a perjury case is a bit extreme, but Bonds deserves some sort of punishment for the mockery he made of the game and I hope he gets it.

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Monday, February 2, 2009

Jeff Kent...Hall of Famer?


Hasn't been a whole lot of activity going on these last few days so I figured I would

mention a few words on Jeff Kent retiring a few weeks back. It is fair to say that Jeff Kent is one of those guys that people have strong opinons about, he's a polarizng guy that makes no bones that he doesn't take shit from anyone. For some, this attidude is laudable and praiseworthy, a relic of a bygone era when baseball players weren't pampered celebrities but a bunch of hard nosed toughs who gave everything had to the game. For others, he's a despicable racist bastard, a hard-assed loner who has been trouble everywhere he went. Yet as polarizing he is as a person it is hard to argue with his numbers and unbelievable production he had as a second baseman.
His 351 home runs as a second baseman are 74 more than Ryne Sandberg hit at the position, and he ranks second all-time in RBIs among second basemen to Nap Lajoie. There are 12 players in the Hall of Fame who have amassed 375 homers, 500 doubles and 1,500 RBIs. Andre Dawson, who logged 67 percent of the Hall of Fame vote this year, also is moving closer to Cooperstown.
Jeff Kent retires with 377 homers, 560 doubles and 1,518 RBIs. In addition he also won an MVP in 2000 with the Giants, as well as a nine time all-star.
Whats even more remarkable is how unremarkable he was until he was 29, never hitting more than 21 home runs, never driving in more than 80 with a batting average in the .270s. He only turned his career around when arriving in san francisco where he was undoubtedly aided by having barry bonds in the lineup, but nevertheless he flat out produced. Driving in at least 93 for the next nine seasons, Kent truly blossomed as a 30 something and emerged as a serious hall of fame candidate.
And yet suprisingly there has been zero evidence that he used steriods, and in fact he has been very vocal in his displeasure for its widespread use in the past years, something that probably hasn't helped in the popularity department.
I think it may take a a year or so to get him in, but I don't see how Kent doesn't end up in Cooperstown as one of the all-time great second baseman to ever play the game. He won't win any competitions for best teammate, but I doubt he'd care too much.

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