Jorge Posada Benched

So Posada, a Yankee since 1995 (technically, though he really only became a permanent fixture in 1997), has been benched indefinitely.  A tough fate for a long-time core member of the team, but it was an inevitability.  It's the question every athlete must answer eventually -- do I quit while I'm ahead, or do I keep playing until I can play no more?  Posada chose the latter.  It gave him several more years in the MLB, but it meant that one day his skills would deteriorate and he would be benched.  Some would say that it was a sign of great respect from the Yankees that he wasn't traded when he first began to lose his touch.

A sad day for him, no doubt, but one that marks the end of an illustrious career -- Posada is easily one of the most offensively successful catchers in baseball, and his record will carry him to Hall of Fame renown.  He'll probably be given a pinch-hitting spot here and there, but his declining batting average suggests that it won't happen too often.  But in the end, what does that matter?  He'll be remembered not for this sub-par 2011 season, but for over a decade of top-notch play offensively and defensively.

What's your favorite Posada memory?  Share it here!

Glen Sather -- Is the tide turning?

If there is one thing all New York Rangers fans love to hate, it's Glen Sather.  And he has earned it.  Let's make a list of some of his abysmal decisions (in case you think they were just the product of feverish nightmares):

1. And this should ALWAYS be number one because it is the most epic fail of all trades, ever.  The Oilers, of which Sather was GM at the time, traded FIRST Adam Graves AND THEN Mark Messier to the Rangers in 1991.  It sounds like a joke, but it isn't.  Sure -- worked out amazingly for the Rangers.  The problem?  Now Sather is ours.  And before that, in 1988 he traded Wayne Gretzky to the Kings.  One of the reasons for all these trades is likely Sather's piss-poor drafting in the 1980s.  Suddenly the Oilers found themselves full of old guys, and the talented players wanted none of it.  Sound familiar?  Good; let's move on.

2. In 2000, Sather joined the Rangers as GM.  Why did the Rangers organization permit this travesty?  Drugs, maybe.  In the first four years of his joining, the Rangers didn't make the playoffs once.  He hired a coach (Bryan Trottier) who had never been head coach of anything before.  That worked out exactly as well as you'd expect.

3. He signed Scott Gomez for a seven year contract at $7 mil per year.  Compare that to Cally and Duby's recent signings of just above $4 mil/year for 3/4 years (respectively).  And then when Sather traded him away to Montreal, who did he get in exchange?  Chris Higgins.  Yeah.  (As a side note, thank-fucking-God Higgins did not get his name on a Cup.)

4. He resigned Rozsival in 2008 to a $24 mil, four year contract.  No one is sure to this day what he was smoking.

5. Chris Drury.  That's it; I don't need to explain.  You know.  His contract: $35 million over five years.

6. Wade Redden.  Six years, $39 million.

I think you get the picture.  But amidst all of this stupidity, Sather seemed to learn, at least, how to draft.  Lundqvist, Callahan, Dubinsky, Staal, just to name a few -- all his choices.  Kreider is a future possible addition to this list.

Then it started to get crazy, as though Sather was suddenly seized by the enormity of his screw-ups.  Wade Redden was placed on waivers at the beginning of the 2010-2011 season.  And then, January of this year, Sather did something unthinkable: He got another team to trade us someone for Rozsival.  Wolski may not be anywhere near a Dubinsky, but Rangers fans were mostly in agreement that we got the better end of that trade.  And then, during the 2011 offseason, Sather bought out Chris Drury, and acquired Brad Richards.

Who knows what 2011-2012 will bring?  But maybe the tide is turning for Sather.  Or, maybe this is a cruel trick that is meant to build our hopes just to crush us yet again.  Which will it be, Sather?

Yankees starting pitching

The Yankees have recently implemented a six-man starting pitching rotation -- CC, AJ, Hughes, Colon, Garcia, and Nova.  Some have questioned this decision, worried perhaps that our best pitchers will decline in quality if they can't pitch every fifth game.  While this concern might be legitimate, I think it's worth it (and worth noting that CC has been promised every fifth game no matter what).  By every postseason, the Yankees' five-man rotation ends up a three- or four-man rotation.  Sometimes we do well despite that, as in 2009, but it's a suboptimal situation to be in when it matters most.  If we start with six, maybe we might actually have five by the postseason!  And the way AJ is going (again), does he even really count?  Isn't he just a "rest day" for our real five-man lineup?  (Honestly, the Yankees treat him like a tenured professor -- no matter how much he screws up they won't send him down.  Why???)

Another argument against a six-man rotation is that the roster space would be better used for a strong hitter.  The Yankees, however, have a roster full of strong hitters already.  If they were going to use a roster spot for anything besides a starter, it should probably be a bullpen slot, which might be the Yankees' weakest area (again, not counting AJ).  Maybe that would be a better choice for Girardi, but with the uncertainty of Hughes' future performance (despite a great one last time around) after his injury and Nova's relative inexperience, it behooves the Yankees to give them both time to show their stuff.  And if one or the other proves much better, the other can be sent down or even given a chance in the bullpen -- we know that worked for Hughes in 2009, so why not now?

The Yankees are playing great ball.  They can worry about going down to five starters in September -- for now, let's make use of the talent we have and see how far it can take us.

Mark Teixeira sets new MLB record for switch-hitting homers!

As those of you who know me personally are aware, there is a special place in my heart for Mark Teixeira.  The best first baseman in the league, a top-notch hitter, and a charitable person off the field who works to help Harlem kids have better futures -- what's not to love?  And last night, he added a major accomplishment to his resume -- the MLB record for switch-hitting homers!  In the 3rd inning against the White Sox he hit a right-handed two-run homer and then followed it up with a left-handed solo home run in the 7th, marking the twelfth time he's done that in one game.  And as if that wasn't enough, that second homer marks his 31st of the season, making him only one of four Yankees ever to hit 30+ home runs in each of their first three seasons on the team (the others being Babe Ruth, Roger Maris, and A-Rod).

It pretty much goes without saying that Tex should get a Gold Glove this year.  Whether or not he gets the Silver Slugger -- there's stiff competition in the likes of Adrian Gonzalez -- he's continued to be a tremendous asset to the Yankees offense, and now has a special place in the record books just for him.

No new Islanders stadium

Well, the referendum results are in, and Nassau County residents decided that they do not want to pay more taxes for a new arena.  Check out the reaction from one Islanders fan here:
http://www.lighthousehockey.com/2011/8/2/2310789/charles-wang-reacts-islanders-nassau-coliseum-referendum-defeat
As you'll see, he retains some faith that the Islanders might not leave the metro area or even Nassau County, but I echo his concern that the Islanders are truly stuck between a rock and a hard place.  No one is being permitted to build a stadium on his/her own, and the public doesn't want to pay for it either.  I get it -- the economy sucks and no one wants money spent on entertainment that has questionable financial returns.  But it really brings to the fore the issues I mentioned in my previous blog.  They have four years to decide what to do, but the Rangers and MSG need to bear in mind during that period that they have a vested interest in what happens -- where the Islanders move affects them greatly, both in terms of the rivalry and in terms of demand for tickets to games at MSG.  The fate of the Islanders is now out of Nassau County's hands, but the Rangers would be well served to keep an eye on whose hands pick up the slack.

The fate of the Islanders

As I write this, Nassau County residents are turning out in droves to vote to save their beloved Islanders and keep them in Long Island in a new stadium.  Oh wait, did I say that?  What I meant was, almost no one is voting.  As of 6:30 p.m., voter turnout is very low.  Now, there are still two and a half hours until polls close, so there might be a post-workday rush.  Time will tell.

Voters are reportedly split on whether or not a new stadium should be built.  On the one hand, they don't want to pay any more in taxes to pay for the stadium.  On the other hand, developing the area with a new stadium might bring a fresh influx of money.  But the Islanders have some of the lowest fan turnout at games of any NHL team, so something has to give for them to bring in money.

How this will impact Nassau County residents isn't so much the point of this blog, though.  What I'm interested in is how this will affect the Rangers and New York City hockey as a whole.  If the Islanders move very far away, the Rangers lose a rival that fans love to hate, and Rangers-Islanders games at MSG would be far less exciting.  Now, the Islanders might not go far.  Some say it's possible they would move to Brooklyn's new stadium, but that stadium isn't equipped, as MSG is, to transform easily from a basketball floor to an ice hockey rink.  It is also possible they would move to another place in Brooklyn or Queens.  However, many die-hard Rangers fans aren't too keen on the idea of the Islanders trying to claim a piece of the New York City hockey pie.  That doesn't mean it couldn't happen anyway, but New York City residents would be no more likely to shell out tax dollars to pay for another stadium than Long Islanders -- hell, they're probably a lot less likely.  Yet another option for the Islanders is moving to Connecticut or another nearby state in the Northeast that lacks a hockey team and could use the revenue.  But the further away the Islanders move (with whatever new name they would acquire), the more it would strip New York of another great rivalry.  And if the Islanders do move very far away, it might compel more Long Islanders to make the trip to MSG to watch hockey... which would increase attendance at Rangers games (a plus), but drive up prices because of increased demand (a minus).

On the whole, it would be best for NYC hockey if the Islanders stayed put.  We would keep our favorite rivalry and not have to risk Long Island sticking its fingers into our turf.  But it's not up to us, is it?

Mariano Rivera and the All-Time Saves Lead

In the aftermath of the fanfare surrounding Derek Jeter's achievement of 3000 hits, Yankee fans have returned, largely, to focusing on the team as a whole and the games it can win.  While attention to winning games should never waver, I'm finding myself perplexed as to why we aren't attending to one of the next tremendous achievements on the horizon -- one that is so rare and so special it should be all over the newspapers even now. What I refer to is Mariano Rivera's approach of the record for all-time saves.  This isn't a Yankee-specific record, or a record that players periodically break.  This is the MLB record for most saves EVER in a career.  At the moment, Trevor Hoffman holds the record with 601 saves, and that target has been stationary since Hoffman's retirement.  Rivera has 586, only 15 short of the mark.  When Rivera breaks this record -- and I say when, not if -- it will be monumental.

At the moment Rivera is 277 saves ahead of the active closer behind him -- Francisco Cordero of the Cincinnati Reds with 309.  What that means is that no one in the next several years even stands a chance of catching him.  How appropriate for a career-long Yankee, the team with the MLB record for World Series wins (as though that needs to be said) that is so far ahead of the team behind them (the Cardinals with 10 wins) that they will not be caught in my lifetime, if ever.  I look forward to watching Rivera's march toward history.