• Since they’re not going to be playing this October, maybe there’s a way to keep the Yankees in the public eye:

    In general, I can’t stand reality shows; the only ones I watch are Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares or whatever my fiancee watches that I happen to catch a glimpse of out of the corner of my eye while doing something creative and intelligent that I’m benevolent enough to share with the townspeople. That being said, I have an idea that will keep the Yankees in the spotlight this October and that is having cameras follow the principal players in former manager Joe Torre’s departure as they watch him managing the Dodgers in the playoffs. It could work and it could work BIG!!!
    Think about it. What kind of reactions would Randy Levine, Hank Steinbrenner, Hal Steinbrenner, Felix Lopez (they could film him taking care of the lawns on the fields in Tampa) and even Brian Cashman elicit as the Yankees are cleaning out their stadium without any post-season revenue and Torre simultaneously has his new team receiving the national exposure and is cementing his reputation as a “wizened baseball genius” with his thirteenth straight post-season appearance? It was Levine and the Steinbrenners who wanted Torre out and Cashman didn’t go out of his way to save his longtime partner, so why not give them a forum to vent as their decision, in the short-term at least, looks horrendous?
    They could even extend the coverage to broadcaster Michael Kay, who did the equivalent of dumping on Torre’s Yankee managerial grave only after the manager was gone indicating some vague sense of protectiveness over the Yankees organization by not saying what he really felt about Torre over those long years as if that was part his responsibility as a supposedly “unbiased” broadcaster.
    It would be even better for the show if the Dodgers had to play the Mets at some point during the playoffs, so those that are embittered enough to wish ill-will on Torre and loathe the idea that the Mets are still playing and the Yankees aren’t would have to make a choice between rooting for their former manager or rooting for the Mets or even at some point having to root for the Red Sox. Just imagine…
    I’m half-kidding about this, but there is a point. While I’m sure that the majority of the Yankees organization wishes Torre nothing but the best, you can’t tell me that it’s not going to make those that pushed him out the door crazy if he coaxes the Dodgers into the playoffs after their handpicked successor, Joe Girardi, had such a struggle in his first season as the manager; you can’t tell me that many of the players still in that clubhouse who fondly remember Torre’s handling of everything inherent with the job of managing that team don’t miss him and wish he were still there.
     I’m trying to imagine the irony of the Yankees hierarchy sitting in their offices watching the playoffs in either the NLDS game five or NLCS game seven and chanting, “Let’s Go Mets!!” over and over again so they don’t have to hear about Joe Torre managing in another World Series with the Dodgers while the Yankees are plotting a way to overcome the embarrassment of a $210 million payroll that finished in fourth place. After everything that happened, it would be kind of appropriate…and a ratings winner!!!

• Chris Lincecum should strike now and write a book about his son Tim’s workout regimen:

    With the number of blog hits I get from people looking for information about Tim Lincecum’s workout, mechanics and stretching program, Chris Lincecum should write a book about how he taught his son to pitch. I’ve already advised those that end up here looking for information not to follow advice they find on the internet without truly understanding what they’re doing—-Blog 8/31, but they’re still searching for it and doing so at their own peril. There’s a market for such a guide and he should get it out there while his son is still healthy and it’s such a hot topic.

• Rays 4-Red Sox 2:

    Here’s something I don’t quite understand, Troy Percival was removed from the game because his back tightened up from all the warming up and sitting down throughout the game; but if he wasn’t feeling right, why was he well enough to start the bottom of the fourteenth inning, but suddenly not well enough after he’d loaded the bases with nobody out and needed to be replaced because of the injury?

• Giants 4-Diamondbacks 3:

    I generally don’t question pitch selection unless there’s an egregious and obvious error; many times, the pitch is the right one, but is in the wrong location; but after the latest Diamondbacks loss, I have to wonder what catcher Miguel Montero was thinking in calling for closer Brandon Lyon to throw a high fastball instead of another curveball to Giants utilityman Eugenio Velez with two outs, two strikes, two runners on base and a one-run lead.
    Maybe the Diamondbacks scouting reports said that Velez was vulnerable to a high, hard fastball and Lyon does throw in the upper nineties, but Velez had also looked clueless on two curveballs thrown by Lyon; Montero called for the high fastball; exaggerated the call by making a rising motion with his catcher’s mitt; and was only in a half-squat because he wanted the pitch so high. Lyon made the pitch and Velez ripped it into the gap to score the tying and winning runs and send the Diamondbacks spiraling out of San Francisco.
    And whe
re was Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin during all of this? During his playing career, Melvin was a defensively minded catcher who only lasted in the majors as long as he did (ten years) because of his defense and handling of pitchers; doesn’t he see what’s happening on the field and let his catcher know what he should be doing not just based on scouting reports, but by observation? I guarantee if Lyon had thrown a hard curve in the dirt, Velez would’ve struck out; but he threw a fastball up in Velez’s eyes and the results are there for all to see, especially for a Diamondbacks team in full and apparently unstoppable free-fall.

• Heads must roll in San Diego for the good of the organization:

    Buster Olney linked an article yesterday in which Padres GM Kevin Towers wouldn’t guarantee manager Bud Black’s return next season—-Article. It would be of infinite arrogance and a total lack of interest in the remaining fans of the team if no one took the fall for this soon-to-be 100 loss disaster, but should Black be the one to take the blame and pay the price?
    The Padres, a Moneyball team led by their team president Sandy Alderson, install the manager and instruct him on just about every aspect of his handling of the team and pay him a relatively meager salary in comparison to other organizations. Black’s done a bad job this year, there’s no question about that; but look at their roster. With the lack of power that Black has is an implied lack of responsibility. If he doesn’t get credit for the wins, then he shouldn’t get the blame for the losses either.
    I’m convinced the Padres are arrogant enough to move forward with the same crew that created this mess, but they’re not that stupid (I don’t think) that they’ll move forward without doing something to placate an angry fan base and let them know that they’re making a move even if said move isn’t going to make much of a difference one way or the other. Heads are going to roll in San Diego; the question is if they’re going to be the right heads; if they’re sacrificing Black and no one else, then it would be little more than a sham to deflect blame from the real culprits who spawned this woeful and hapless organization into their current state, most prominently team president Sandy Alderson.  

• Rays 7-Yankees 5:

    If the Yankees even want to have any chance at all of making an unlikely run at a playoff spot over the final three weeks, they have to win every game they possibly can; and in a game against the team in their division that leads them by ten games before the first pitch’s even been thrown, it amounts to a two game swing in the standings; for the Yankees, last night’s game against the Rays was, in essence, a playoff game. You wouldn’t have known that by the way Yankees manager Joe Girardi managed as if it were a game in mid-May.
    Darrell Rasner was a godsend to the Yankees injury-tattered starting rotation when he was recalled as a desperation stopgap in early May. A pitcher who could only be referred to as a journeyman/Triple A filler did an excellent job in five of his first six starts in May and early June. Such a string of performances for a pitcher of Rasner’s severely limited talent wasn’t going to last and it didn’t as he fell into the pattern of battling his way through five innings or so and keeping the games within reason for the Yankees offense to try and slug their way through. Last night, it couldn’t have been expected that Rasner was suddenly going to revert into what he was in early May.
    It was clear by the second inning that after Eric Hinske and Dioner Navarro singled and Rasner wild pitched Hinske to third that the game was one or two pitches away from blowing up completely. It was at that point that Girardi should have gotten someone up in the bullpen. He didn’t.
    Gabe Gross ripped a double to right scoring Hinske and sending Navarro to third. Still no action in the bullpen.
    Jason Bartlett hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Navarro; Akinori Iwamura singled to center to score Gross; 3-0 Rays. Still no action in the bullpen.
    B.J. Upton singled to center and only then did pitching coach Dave Eiland visit the mound and Alfredo Aceves began warming up in the bullpen about three batters too late. Carlos Pena then walked to load the bases (the Yankees were lucky Pena didn’t hit one out of the park) and Girardi finally yanked Rasner. Alceves, with the bases loaded, allowed a seeing-eye grounder by Willy Aybar into right field to score two more runs and give Rays All Star Scott Kazmir a 5-0 lead. Even with the Yankees comeback in the ninth inning to make the score a respectable 7-5, the game was out of reach in the second inning and there was no reason for it on several levels.
    The swing between an eleven game deficit in the standings and a nine game deficit is mountainous. The Rays are still a young team that isn’t sure whether or not to believe that their sudden leap into contention is real even with all of their success this season; a series of losses to a team like the Yankees—-especially having them come into Tropicana Field and sweep them three straight—-when the Rays have been so dominant at home this season may have planted a seed into the minds of the young players that a collapse was possible. After the anecdotal evidence of what happened with the Phillies and Rockies in 2007, how much would it realistically have taken for the Rays to start doubting themselves? What would they be thinking if the Yankees came in and beat them so convincingly? Despite all of the struggles the Yankees have had this season, their aura is still there. The veteran warhorses like Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera and Andy Pettitte aren’t going to go down without a fight and the Yankees’ mere presence still within unlikely, but doable, striking distance may have sent the Rays into a tailspin.
    While the Rays are traveling to Toronto to play the blazing hot Blue Jays this weekend, the Yankees are heading to Seattle to play the atrocious Mariners. What would be going through the minds of the Rays if they lost to the Blue Jays on Friday (it would’ve been their fourth loss in a row) as the Yankees were battering the Mariners? Would the Rays start getting nervous? Playing tight? Making mental and physical mistakes? Would things snowball and spin out of control as they did with the Mets last season? Let’s say the Yankees sweep the Mariners and the Rays lose three out of four to the Blue Jays putting the Yankees within 6 1/2 games of first place as the Rays head to Boston and then New York; what would be going through the heads of the fragile, young Rays if it started to appear possible that the Yankees were going to catch them? We won’t know because Rasner was allowed to pitch to three batters too many and let the game get out of hand with a crooked number 5 up on the board in the second inning. You could almost feel the reeling Rays relax as they built that 5-0 lead and it was because of Joe Girardi staying too long with his starting pitcher; a starting pitcher that should have been on the shortest of leashes given the circumstances and importance of this game.
    The argument that it was too early to go to the bullpen is an empty alibi as well. It’s September; the Yankees are carrying fifteen pitchers including Alceves, who pitched very well; and Dan Giese who would have been better options than leaving Rasner in to get shelled and put the game out of reach. In fact, one of the long relievers should have been stretched and ready to start loosening up before the game even started given how shaky Rasner’s been since June.
    There’s no excuse for this kind of gaffe in what amounted to a playoff game for the Yankees. They had to win this game if they wanted to still be on life support as they headed back home to play the Mariners, but they’re not because of their manager. This entire season has been more of a learning experience than anyone anticipated for Girardi, and in what was his first unofficial playoff game—-a must win—-he failed miserably because he didn’t act and it cost the Yankees any chance of climbing back into the race which was, for a day at least, a realistic possibility. The game might have blown up no matter what Girardi did with Rasner, but if he’d pulled him when he should have, at least he wouldn’t have been the one to light the match.

• Blue Jays 9-Twins 0:

    This Blue Jays hot streak in which they’ve won five in a row to put them seven games over .500 is the worst thing that could be happening to the organization because, if they end at 86-76 or thereabouts, the Blue Jays front office may again look past everything
that’s happened from April until September and allow GM J.P. Ricciardi to continue in his job when he should be fired.
    How many more years is Ricciardi, whose bluster was one of the reasons he got the job in the first place, going to get to have his team in realistic contention? 2008 will be the sixth time in seven years that the Blue Jays have been “sort of” okay, “sort of” competitive, but not really in any position to make a genuine playoff run. Under Ricciardi, they’ve never won more than 87 games; never ended any closer than eight games within a playoff spot, but again, they’re having a late hot streak to make their record look respectable on paper and possibly save Ricciardi’s job.
    If Ricciardi’s failures were only in the standings and he had some basis for the decisions he’d made that haven’t worked (getting Scott Rolen for Troy Glaus for example), it’d be one thing; but just about every season in which he’s been the Blue Jays GM has been pockmarked with some off-field controversy from players fighting with the manager; to Ricciardi lying to the press and blaming the press for it; to the contract-related release of Frank Thomas; to the embarrassing episode in which Ricciardi criticized Adam Dunn on his radio show…*

    *Just one question: why does the GM of the team have a call-in radio show anyway?!?

    ….among many other things. And the team has never been in contention by season’s end. Amid all the complaints that it’s hard for the Blue Jays to contend in a division with the Yankees and Red Sox, it’s conveniently missed that the formerly woebegone Rays have surpassed all three teams a year after losing 96 games. And where are the Blue Jays? They’re in fourth place; not in contention, but not ending so terribly that a GM change would be fait accompli.
    Whether or not the Blue Jays notoriously patient (to their own detriment) ownership realizes it, they’re never going to take the next step under Ricciardi. They need to bring in a Brian Cashman-type GM who’s not going to have a radio show; who’s not going to openly spar with the press over petty matters trying to exert his machismo over them; and who’s not going to preside over a team whose record never reflects the season they actually had. Former Angels GM and now Senior Advisor Bill Stoneman, who pitched two
no-hitters in Canada for the Montreal Expos and ran the team before
moving to the Angels, is someone I would want to speak to if I were advising the Blue Jays, but since this hot streak may save Ricciardi’s job, finding a suitable replacement won’t be necessary and history shows that this team’s going to be in this same position a year from now and they can repeat the process all over again.