Thanks to Leviathan for the heads up.
Apparently, Joe Girardi has had just about enough of all the ARod controversey and is putting his foot down. Warning to Xavier Nady: watch your ass:
“It’s something that I have to balance and juggle, and possibly make some tough decisions when spring training ends – or the decisions might be made for us,” Girardi said. “To me, when you come to spring training, you’re all competing. You have to prove yourself in this game over and over and over. We expect all our players to do that…they want to play, and that’s how you want it…X had a great year for us and showed us a lot. For us to know what’s going to happen April 6 right now, you’d like to be able to predict but we can’t…we’ll make the decisions…It’s important that, as players, you understand that you’re doing what’s best for the team…When I played here, that’s the way the team was. You had veteran guys that didn’t necessarily play every day, but we thrived as a team. That’s why the team concept is so important. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the good of the team and it’s important that players buy into that.”
I make it rule not to look to far into what the uncomfortable Joe Girardi says in interviews [primarily because I can't listen passed the first 6 words]. We all want Xavier Nady in RF over Nick “the Hick” Swisher, who doesn’t really have a position and is $21M of “utility” for the next three years.
The great championship teams had a low-key blue-collar right fielder who just wanted to do his job in peace. Pardon us Yankee fans for wanting just the barest hint of the same. A little island of normalcy was nice to hope for.
As a note, the spotlight-avoiding Nady has earned fans on the other side of Hell’s Gate, where he played well with the Mets, and has built quite the underground following in the metro area.
Give us a break, Joe.
The All-Star game, the season series against the Mets, and the season series against The Red Legs are all bragging rights. When all is said and done on October 4th, all anyone will care about is the division winner, and the wild-card. IDEALLY, you would like to have both (The division title AND The season series against The Red Sox and The Mets). BUT, if it were one or the other, I would rather go 5-13 against The red Sox, 2-4 against The Mets and let their fans get their taunts in, if the end result was a division title or a wild-card.
I will go 0-19 and 0-6 if I get to see them win in Oct.
JRZ: The only time that The Beaners should concern you is if it comes down to a one-game playoff in the 163rd game, ala 1978. Other than that, just shoot for the 95 wins, and the playoff birth. Everything else is just bragging rights.
ALthough, 18 games is a lot of head-to-head matchups. I would say try to go AT LEAST 7-11 against The Beaners, to tread water. Then make up the difference in your other 144 games. If you can go 12-6 against The Red Sox, that will just give you some more leeway in your other games.
Played .500 against em last year and beat the rays head to head.Thats w/ out Wang for 1/2 the year no CC or AJ…I could go on and on.Its amazing they won 89 games last year with the mess that the pitching was.To add CC, AJ and get Wang back….shit, I think 116 is attainable and I dont care who sees me say it.
What is the Baltimore rotation on opening day? AND what is the Os rotation in Sept.?
Jeremy Guthrie, Koshi Uehari, Rich Hill, and pray for rain. One proven star (Jeremy Guthrie), one Japanese Star (Uehari), and one pitcher that has had two solid seasons in the last 4 years (Rich Hill).
That’s why we’re looking more to 2010 and 2011, because we have Jake Arietta (picther of the year in Advanced-A), those four pitchers that had excellent seasons at AA-Bowie last year (Chris Tillman, Jason Berken, Brad Bergeson, and David Hernandez), and Rich Matusz, (hot shot number one draft pick from The University of San Diego). Of those six hot prospects, four of them should be in the majors by 2010, and all six of them should be up by 2011. At least three of them should crack The Birdie starting rotation, depending on how Uehara and Rich Hill pan out.
Guthrie, Uehara, Rich Hill, and pray for rain.
Thats what I wanna hear Joe.The kids I was talking about were the “AA Boys”.How many you see in the rotation in Sept.?
Like I said, Matt Wieters is the least of my hopes and concerns. I don’t care how many homers Matt Weiters hits, and I don’t care if he winds up with a batting average of .345. Matt Weiters can’t pitch, that’s the bottom line.
I feel comfortable sending out a healthy Joba against any of them….thats the key…they stay healthy both the Sux and TB will be in the rear view mirror – fallout out from A-Roid thats another story…hope it doesnt happen
JRZ: I don’t know about Septemeber of this year, but I would say AT LEAST two of those six prospects will be starting for The Orioles by April of 2010. And that’s assuming that Rich hill and Uehara pan out. If one of them doesn’t pitch well, that means THREE. And if neither Rich hill nor uehara pitches well, that means FOUR of those guys will be starting for The Birdies in April od 2010.
CAN-YANK: I would feel comfortable sending out 66 year-old Wilbur Wood against our fourth and fifth starters this season. 2010 will hopefully be different.
JERZ: I think that of the four AA Boys, two od them will probably start for The Orioles in 2010. That’s because Jake Arietta and Brian Matusz are more hot-shot status right now. Arietta might not be ready until 2011, but Matusz should be up by 2010. Matusz pitched four years at a division I College, so players like him usually climb the minor league ladder a lot faster than the kids who sign right out of high school.
How many Os pitching prospects are in the top 100(any pub.) I am doin a bunch of shit here right now Joe and I apologize that you dont have my complete attention.
JRZ: That’s cool. STARTING pitchers, I would say the six that I mentioned (Arietta, Matusz, Tillman, Berken, Bergesen, and Hernandez). There is one reliever that I like a lot, but I’m pretty sure that he is NOT on the top 100 list. His name is Jim Miller. Miller pitched a few games for The Orioles last season, after spending almost the whole season as the AAA-Norfolk Tides’ closer. I like Miller partly because of his stuff, and partly because he was literally sitting right next to me in the last two innings of a game at Durham Bulls Stadium. We were in the front row next to The Tides’ bullpen, and Miller was just casually sitting half in the stands, half on the field. The minor leagues is great, because the players can literally be next to you.
I talked to Mickey Rivers kid during a ST game last year the same way.GSM Field is a minor league stadium also.Bullshitted for 3 or 4 innings.I was in the seat right in the front row corner next to the BP and the kid was sitting there in street clothes.Feelin bad now for never asking his name and having to call him Mickeys kid.
New vids are up.
Joey G is using a soft target here, not good. Nady’s a good dude
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2009/02/22/2009-02-22_svelte_brian_bruney_set_for_weight_of_8t.html
NY DAILY NEWS ARTICLE!!!
“SVELTE BRIAN BRUNEY Set For Weight Of 8th inning and Maybe More”
By Bill Madden
Looks like someone besides me is waiting for their “BRUNEY SLEEPER” T-Shirt. BUDDIO: I have first dibs when those shirts come out, right?
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