fbpx

Tag: Jose Bautista

Blogs • Email Exchanges • Yankees

Apr 6, 2015

Jealous of the Blue Jays’ Power

The Blue Jays’ lineup is what the Yankees’ lineup once was and the middle of the order is going to be hard to navigate through this season.

Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista

Last week it snowed in New York and this Monday, the Yankees are opening the season in the Bronx against the Blue Jays. It would make more sense to probably play this three-game series in Toronto where there is a dome, but for the first time in forever there is some good weather in the forecast for Opening Day at the Stadium. Either way, baseball is back and that’s all that matters.

With the Yankees and Blue Jays opening the season in the Bronx, I did an email exchange with Tom Dakers of Bluebird Banter to talk about the Blue Jays’ powerful 3-4 combination, the new additions of Russell Martin and Josh Donaldson to the lineup and the state of the Blue Jays’ rotation with Marcus Stroman out for the season.

Keefe: It seems like for a while now it’s been common for preseason predictions to say this is the Blue Jays’ season. And once again that’s the case. The Blue Jays might have the best offense in the league. With a heart of the order that includes Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion and Josh Donaldson, it’s going to be a nightmare for any pitcher to navigate through that every game and that’s not including Jose Reyes at the top of the order or the pesky and former Yankee Russell Martin, who seems to get the biggest of hits.

How excited are you for this Blue Jays lineup?

Dakers: Every spring for the past several years, we thought that the offense was going to be a “world beater”-type offense. A team that would lead the league in scoring. And each year, due to injuries and players not living up to their potential, we ended up with a good, but not great offense.

This year, we are going to have that great offense. One through five, we are better than anyone in the AL. With Donaldson taking the spot of the always-promising, but never-quite-living-up-to-that-promise Brett Lawrie, we should be so much better. Russell Martin’s ability to take a walk won’t hurt. Six through nine in the order doesn’t strike the same amount of fear in opposing teams, but I think they will be better than most imagine.

I think Michael Saunders and Justin Smoak will be helped a bunch by moving from the rather large Safeco Field to the far more offensive friendly Rogers Centre. And I think rookies Dalton Pompey and Devon Travis will do their part to get us back up to the top of the order again, quickly. I’d be very surprised if we aren’t in the Top 2 or 3 in runs scored this year.

Keefe: The Yankees haven’t had a truly formidable 3-4 combination since 2009-2010 when Mark Teixeira and A-Rod were still productive and healthy and could be counted on for their usual power numbers. The Blue Jays have 3-4 combination that every team in the league envies and dreams of in Jose Bautista and Ediwn Encarnacion and each time they don’t hit the ball a mile in an at-bat it’s a sigh of relief. It seems like both of them get their best swings in against the Yankees and both of them seem to be good for a couple of home runs each series against the Yankees.

I miss the days of having steady and reliable production from the middle of the order. How much fun is it to watch those two every day? (I ask because I forget what it’s like.)

Dakers: It’s pretty good. We know that, barring injury, we have 30-plus home runs coming from both Bautista and Encarnacion. If we can get guys on base in front of them, they should both have 100 RBIs easy. This year, for an added bonus, we have Josh Donaldson following them. Donaldson, moving from Oakland to Toronto, might end up hitting the most home runs of the three.

As a Blue Jays fan, I’ve been blessed with getting to watch some great 3-4 hitters over the years. We’ve had Carlos Delgado-Shawn Green, Delgado-Vernon Wells and George Bell and Jesse Barfield, but I think we might end up looking back Bautista and Encarnacion as the best 3-4 hitters in team history.

Keefe: On the other side of the ball, the Blue Jays aren’t set up as nicely. The devastating torn ACL to Marcus Stroman, leaves the Blue Jays without a front-end starter. They still have R.A. Dickey, Mark Buehrle, and Drew Hutchison, which is better than the.

Aside from the Roy Halladay years, the Blue Jays have lacked a true ace in recent years. Maybe Dickey was supposed to be that when he went to Toronto from the Mets before the 2013 season, but he hasn’t been able to continue his 2010-2012 success over the last two years in the AL.

Does the Blue Jays’ pitching worry you?

Dakers: As the pitching sits, on Opening Day, I think we are OK. Many are picking Drew Hutchison to have a breakout season. Mark Buehrle and R.A. Dickey keep giving us 200-inning seasons. And Aaron Sanchez and Daniel Norris have tons of potential and look ready to deliver on that potential. The problem really is that, with Marcus out, forcing both Sanchez and Norris into the rotation, we are paper thin at the position. If one of the starting five were to be injured for any length of time, we would be left with hoping someone like Johan Santana or Randy Wolf can remember how to get guys out or be treated to the likes of Liam Hendriks or Marco Estrada.

Now, we can live with the odd spot start from any of those guys, but multiple starts from anyone one of them could really derail our season. So, Jays fans have to hope for something that we never seem to get, the baseball gods to bless our rotation with health. Maybe this will be the season it happens.

Keefe: Last year, when we did an email exchange for the first Yankees-Blue Jays series in April, you said you weren’t a fan of the Dickey trade and it didn’t work out, but that you were hoping he could be a good member of the rotation.

What are your feelings on Dickey after two years of watching him with the Blue Jays?

Dakers: The good part about Dickey is he takes the ball every five days and will give us six decent innings. Not great innings, but he usually will keep the team in the game. This year, with our offense, that should be enough. But, if you are expecting him to be the guy that outduels the opposition’s ace, it’s not going to happen.

If you have an understanding of what he can give you, 200 of slightly above average starting pitching innings, well, there is a value to that. Unfortunately, the Jays traded for (and gave up pieces that should have got them) the NL Cy Young winner, and what they got was an innings eater and someone that’s OK, but is definitely not ace material.

Keefe: The Blue Jays won 83 games last year, but haven’t finished higher than third place since 2006 and haven’t made the playoffs since 1993. They made what seemed to be a franchise-changing trade with the Marlins two years ago and that didn’t work out. Now they have signed Russell Martin and traded for Josh Donaldson.

The AL East is wide open with no clear favorite this season. You could make a case for any team other than the Rays to win the division this year and every team other than the Rays could win it.

What are your expectations for the Blue Jays this season?

Dakers: I expect them to contend. I think they can be win around 89-90 games, and in a fairly weak-looking AL East, that should be enough to contend. I think their offense is a couple of notches better than last year, I think the team defense is much improved and I think the pitching staff can be better (in large part because I think that Russell Martin is a far better defensive catcher and massively better at framing pitches than Dioner Navarro was).

What they need is health and lots of it. They aren’t deep at any position on the diamond, so an injury or two might have us using Munenori Kawasaki far more than any of us would want, yet again. I mean, I don’t want to knock Munenori, he’s a great guy and a cult favorite in Toronto, and if you are going to have to use a replacement level player, it might as well be a very entertaining one. But if he ends up getting 250 plate appearances again this year, it will be tough to contend.

Read More

Blogs • Email Exchanges

Jul 25, 2014

It’s Been a While Since Yankees Worried About Blue Jays

The Blue Jays are back to being relevant and are now another team the Yankees have to worry about in the postseason race.

Brett Gardner

The Yankees had to get off to a hot start to begin the “second half” and after going 6-1 (it could have and should have been 7-0 if Joe Girardi wanted it to be) against the Reds and Rangers, they are back in the division race and lead the race for the second wild card. I was strongly against the addition of a second wild card, but I might have to rethink that if it’s the only way for the Yankees to get in the postseason this year. Even with their recent run, the Yankees still have the Blue Jays right on their heels.

With the Yankees and Blue Jays meeting this weekend in the Bronx, I did an email exchange with Tom Dakers of Bluebird Banter to talk about the Blue Jays being back in playoff contention, how they have dealt with the injuries to their lineup and if they should try to deal for David Price.

Keefe: I can’t remember the last time the Blue Jays were this involved in the playoff race at this point in the season. I kind of remember them hanging by a thread late in the 2008 when the Yankees’ season was over and I was hoping that my some sort of miracle they would go on a run and prevent the Red Sox from reaching the playoffs. Unfortunately it didn’t happen. But they were barely in the race. This year they are in prime position to reach the playoffs for the first time since 1993 with 59 games still left, trailing by 3 in the division and tied with the Yankees as of Friday morning for the second wild-card spot.

This would be quite the story if I wasn’t a Yankees fan and didn’t need the Blue Jays to fall apart, so that the Yankees’ path to the postseason would be easier. But I am a Yankees fan and do need your Blue Jays out of the race.

However, since the Blue Jays are part of this now three-team race for the division and five-team race (right now) for the second wild card, it means we have a meaningfuk Yankees-Blue Jays series (for both teams) in July and will likely have a meaningful series between the two in August and September.

What’s it been like to have the Blue Jays back in contention and how do you feel about their postseason chances?

Dakers: Oh it has been good, depending on the moment. Three wins in a row over the Red Sox felt good. Blue Jays fans, on the whole, seem to be pessimists, but 21 years since the last World Series will do that to a fanbase.

How I feel about their playoff chances changes with by the hour. Over the last month, it has been pretty tough, losing your 4, 5 and 6 hitters would be tough for any team. But, as we get closer to their return, you get the feeling the team could go on a run and keep in it right to the end. It would help if the Orioles would lose occasionally, but I do feel good our chances.

Keefe: Eighty percent of the Yankees’ Opening Day rotation is on the disabled list, Mark Teixeira is injured again (shocker!) and Carlos Beltran still can’t play in the field. The Yankees have had been banged up, but so have the Blue Jays with Edwin Encarnacion, Brett Lawrie and Adam Lind all on the DL.

On Thursday against the Red Sox, Dioner Navarro (.266/.308/.380) hit fourth for the Blue Jays, Dan Johnson hit fifth (.227/.367/.318), Munenori Kawasaki hit sixth (.272/.325/.316), Juan Francisco hit seventh (.242/.315/.407), Ryan Goins hit eighth (.181/.224/.278) and Anthony Gose hit ninth (.237/.338/.282). That looks like a lot of the lineups Joe Girardi has been forced to put together this year because of injuries, but somehow, the Blue Jays not only won, they scored seven runs with that lineup. (The Yankees wouldn’t have scored since they usually score two runs with their full lineup.)

How have the Blue Jays managed to stay afloat with the injuries to their lineup and managed to score runs with some of the names they are putting out there?

Dakers: Well, really they haven’t been staying afloat. On June 6, we were 38-24, sitting in first play, 6 games up on the pack. Since then we’ve put up a 16-25 record, dropping to 3 games back, but then everyone in the batting order has either been on the DL or just been banged up enough that they couldn’t hit, but things are getting better. It has been very tough scoring runs.

Back in May, with everyone healthy we were scoring 5.5 runs a game. This month it is 3.9 runs per game. You wouldn’t expect much better with Encarnacion, Lind, Lawrie, Jose Bautista and Colby Rasmus all missing time with various injuries. Even the players they picked up to fill in have been getting hurt. Cole Gillespie was picked off waivers, play one game and then went on the DL. Nolan Reimold got into 4 games, after we claimed him, before he ended up on the DL. It hasn’t helped that the few that haven’t been hurt have been slumping.

Thankfully, it looks like the offense is turning around and next week should see the return of most Encarnacion, Lind, Reimold and Lawrie. Their return should give the team a lift.

Keefe: The Blue Jays are considered to be long shots to land David Price, but as long as there is chance that’s something I would have to think you are at least remotely excited about. It doesn’t seem like the Yankees have enough in their farm system to trade for Price, but it is odd to see the Rays willing to at least consider moving him within the division.

No matter which team Price ends up with (if he does end up getting traded), he will instantly bolster that rotation and make that team either primed for a playoff run or have them set up nicely for the division series if they’re already playoff bound.

How badly do you want Price, if at all, and what you be willing to give up for him

Dakers: Honestly, of course, I like him, but I wouldn’t want to give up what it would take to get him. Our minor league system isn’t as deep in prospects as it was a couple of years ago. Any deal for Price would have to include Marcus Stroman, Aaron Sanchez and/or Dalton Pompey our Top 3 prospects.

Stroman has been part of our rotation for the last month or so and he’s been nothing less than brilliant. He took a no-hitter into the seventh inning against the Red Sox in his start yesterday. I really wouldn’t want to lose him. Aaron Sanchez came up this week to help out in the bullpen, he pitched two clean innings in his first appearance. I would like us to keep both of them. Dalton Pompey is a center fielder, with speed, defense, knows how to get on base and has found some power this season in Double-A. And he would be a hometown boy, he was born just a few miles from Toronto. Many think the team considers him untouchable in trades.

Without at least two of those three we don’t get Price and I hope the team isn’t willing to pay that much.

Read More

Blogs • MLB

Jul 14, 2014

The 2014 All-Animosity Team

With Major League Baseball ready for the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game, It’s time to announce the 2014 All-Animosity Team.

John Lackey

The Midsummer Classic is this week and that means it’s time for the four longest days of summer: the four days without baseball. I mean real baseball and not the Home Run Derby or the All-Star Game because without real baseball to watch and talk about, the baseball world becomes talking heads spending Monday and Tuesday debating who should and who shouldn’t have made the All-Star Team and how the All-Star Game can be fixed. And then those same talking heads will spend Wednesday and Thursday spewing meaningless “second-half” predictions and giving us their “midseason” awards for Cy Young and MVP.

Instead of complaining about the Home Run Derby format or Chris Berman’s broadcasting techniques and instead of debating if the Home Run Derby messes up a hitter’s swing or if the All-Star Game should determine home-field advantage, I thought now would be the best time to announce the one midsummer roster that matters: the 2014 All-Animosity Team.

It’s the Fifth Annual All-Animosity Team and once again the team consists of one player at each position, along with a starting pitcher, a closer and a manager from around the league. The standards to be considered for the team are simple and only one of the following three requirements needs to be met.

1. The person is a Yankee killer.

2. The person plays for the Red Sox.

3. I don’t like the person. (When I say, “I don’t like the person” or if I say, “I hate someone” I mean I don’t like the person who wears a uniform and plays or manages for a Major League Baseball team and not the actual person away from the game. I’m sure some of the people on this list are nice people. I’m glad we got that out of the way since I can already see Player X’s fan base in an uproar about me hating someone who does so much for the community.)

So, here is the 2014 All-Animosity Team with the winners from the previous years also listed.

C – Mike Napoli
(2013 – Jarrod Saltalamacchia, 2012 – Matt Wieters, 2011 – Jarrod Saltalamacchia, 2010 – Jason Varitek)

Jason Varitek hasn’t played baseball in four years, Jarrod Saltalamacchia is in Miami and Matt Wieters had Tommy John surgery. Usually if I’m having trouble, I can always turn to the Red Sox, but A.J. Pierzynski just got cut and David Ross isn’t worth giving the time of the day to. With a limited number of unlikeable catchers, it was hard for me to not break my own rule of not putting any Yankees on the team and put Brian McCann in this spot. So while Napoli has never caught in any of the 214  games he has played for the Red Sox and hasn’t been a catcher since 2012, I’m penciling him in here.

Even with David Ortiz saving the Red Sox’ season against the Tigers in the ALCS and then hitting .688 in the World Series, Napoli was the face of the 2013 Red Sox. With his Duck Dynasty beard, he became the face of a team built on the notion of “We can win a championship if every single thing goes our way” and every single thing did go their way for the whole season as they got bounce-back seasons from their entire roster and overachieving seasons from several players who had become perennial underachievers.

After agreeing to a three-year, $39 million deal and then having that deal voided because of a failed physical, Napoli was almost not even part of the 2013 Red Sox. He signed a one-year, $5 million contract with $8 million of incentives and then went on to hit .259/.360/.482 with 23 home runs and 92 RBIs, which isn’t very impressive, but what is are his 2013 numbers against the Yankees: .375/.453/.804 with seven home runs and 20 RBIs. This year, Napoli has cooled off a little against the Yankees (.306/.405/.667), but he still has three home runs against them and one game-changing home run against them when he got a two-strike fastball from Masahiro Tanaka in the ninth inning at Yankee Stadium a few weeks back before calling Tanaka “an idiot.”

1B – Chris Davis
(2013 – Chris Davis, 2012 – Adrian Gonzalez, 2011 – Adrian Gonzalez, 2010 – Kevin Youkilis)

I wasn’t going to put Chris Davis here with a .199 average at the break, but after his two-run home run against the Yankees in the bottom of the fourth inning on Sunday Night Baseball gave the Orioles a 2-1 lead in an eventual 3-1, rain-shortened win, I had to. Eff you, Chris Davis. And eff you, rain-shortened losses in a huge division game that is the difference between being three games back or five.

2B – Dustin Pedroia
(2013 – Dustin Pedroia, 2012 – Dustin Pedroia, 2011 – Dustin Pedroia, 2010 – Dustin Pedroia)

For as long as I have an All-Animosity Team and for as long as Dustin Pedroia is the second baseman of the Red Sox, he will be in this spot. So as I have done the last few years, I will just put down what I have about Pedroia.

Pedroia is like Tom Brady for me. He has that winning instinct that you just don’t see all the time these days, he plays hard and he’s the type of guy you want on your team. But if I didn’t put him here again it would just be weird.

3B – David Wright
(2013 – David Wright, 2012 – Robert Andino, 2011 – Kevin Youkilis, 2010 – Chone Figgins)

David Wright is the face of the Mets. And for that alone, he gets this spot.

SS – Jose Reyes
(2013 – Jose Reyes, 2012 – Jose Reyes, 2011 – Jose Reyes, 2010 – Jose Reyes)

Sometimes I miss the days of the Jose Reyes being the Mets shortstop when Mets fans would try to engage me in fights about Reyes being better than Derek Jeter. And sometimes I miss the days when Mets fans would call WFAN and talk about how Reyes is “the most exciting player in baseball” as if there were any true way to measure a statement like that. But I always miss the days when Mets fans would call and say the team has to re-sign Reyes before he hit free agency after the 2011 season. Since Reyes left the Mets for free agency and signed a six-year, $106 million deal with the Marlins (and was then traded to the Blue Jays), he has played in 332 of a possible 420 games and has become a shell of his former self offensively, even playing for an offensive power like the Blue Jays.

I can only dream about the state the Mets would be in right now if they had Reyes playing shortstop a $16 million per year for an under-.500 team trying to rebuild and can only imagine the types of calls that would be flooding the sports radio phone lines with the trade deadline looming and Mets fans waiting on hold for hours to share their fantasy trades for Reyes. I miss the days of the Jeter-Reyes debates, even if they were one-sided and ended the same way as all the Jeter-Nomar debates, and I miss Reyes being a Met and giving that fan base years of false hope.

LF – Wil Myers
(2013 – Carl Crawford, 2012 – Delmon Young, 2011 – Manny Ramirez, 2010 – Manny Ramirez)

Here is what Wil Myers has done this season: .227/.313/.354 with five home runs and 25 RBIs.

Here is what Wil Myers has done against the Yankees this season: .375/.429/.813 with four home runs and 14 RBIs.

That means 12 of Myers’ 45 hits (27 percent), four of his five home runs (80 percent) and 14 of his 25 RBIs (56 percent) have come against the Yankees. Excuse me while I throw up.

I watched Myers round the bases on his inside-the-park home run from Section 203 at the Stadium on May 4 and watched him encourage all of 203 to continue to taunt him as he continued to beat the Yankees. Unfortunately, he is 23 years and will likely taunt me for years to come.

CF – Adam Jones
(2013 – Ben Zobrist, 2012 – Josh Hamilton, 2011 – B.J. Upton, 2010 – Vernon Wells)

I was shocked to realize Jones hadn’t been been part of the All-Animosity Team before, given his knack for killing the Yankees offensively and defensively. This year Jones is hitting .324/.359/.514 with two home runs against the Yankees and it’s usually Jones in the middle of any Orioles rally against the Yankees or the one killing a rally with a Web Gem. I miss the days of a young Adam Jones, who hadn’t realized his power yet and could easily be struck out in a big spot.

RF – Nick Swisher
(2013 – Nick Swisher, 2012 – Jose Bautista, 2011 – Magglio Ordonez, 2010 – Magglio Ordonez)

Before the Yankees started a four-game series in Cleveland last week, Nick Swisher was hitting .197/.287/.317 with five home runs and 39 RBIs in what was becoming a disastrous season for the Indians’ highest-paid player making $15 million this season. Swisher’s struggles this season brought a smile to my face the same way I was smiling when he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in the one-game playoff last season.

But during the four-game series against the Yankees, Swisher went 5-for-18 with two home runs and five RBIs, including the two-strike home run against Tanaka in his last start before he hit the disabled list. And since the start of the Yankees series, Swisher is 9-for-10 with three home runs and seven RBIs. There’s nothing quite like the Yankees letting a sub-.200 hitter in July get hot and start to turn his season around againts them, especially when it’s the hated Nick Swisher. OK, maybe “hated” is the wrong word to use when talking about Swisher since he is extra sensitive.

SP – John Lackey
(2013 – Josh Beckett, 2012 – Josh Beckett, 2011 – Josh Beckett, 2010 – Josh Beckett)

I never thought any pitcher other than Josh Beckett would earn this spot, but Lackey had been knocking on the door for a few years and finally busted it open this season.

Let’s put aside his personal life issues and even his double-fisting beers in the clubhouse and even his belittling of the media, who do sometimes need to be belittled, and let’s talk about Lackey’s contract status.

Lackey signed a five-year, $82.5 million deal with the Red Sox from 2010-2014 with a club option for 2015 at the league minimum is Lackey misses significant time with surgery between 2010-2014 for a pre-exisitng elbow injury. Lackey did miss time because of surgery and missed the entire 2012 season and is now saying he will never pitch for the league minimum ($500,000) and will retire before doing so.

John Lackey is pure scum on top of scum and I’m not sure how he has a single fan. He signed a five-year, $82.5 million A.J. Burnett deal before 2010 and in the first two years he went 26-23 with a 5.26 ERA. Then he missed the entire 2012 season. Last year he went 10-13 with a 3.52 ERA on a division-winning and World Series-winning team. It doesn’t surprise me one bit that he is upset that he would only make $500,000 next year, but it’s a little ironic that he didn’t think he should only be making $500,000 when he had a 1.619 WHIP in 2011 or when he threw zero pitches in 2012. Poor John Lackey.

CL – Fernando Rodney
(2013 – Fernando Rodney, 2012 – Jose Valverde, 2011 – Jonathan Papelbon, 2010 – Jonathan Papelbon)

It was actually hard to fill the closer role this season, but watching Rodney celebrate saves over the years and then turn in an ugly line (1.1 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 1 HBP) in two appearances against the Red Sox in the ALDS en route to their third championship in 10 years was enough to put him back on the team.

Manager – Mike Scioscia
(2013 – Mike Scioscia, 2012 – Bobby Valentine, 2011 – Mike Scioscia, 2010 – Joe Maddon)

I really wanted to put Mike Matheny here for his managerial decisions in the World Series, especially his decision to bring in Seth Maness and his awesome pitch-to-contact stuff to face Jonny Gomes in Game 4. Thanks, Mike! But I don’t care enough about Matheny or the Cardinals for this spot considering how many choices there are from the American League.

This spot has gone to Joe Maddon and Mike Scioscia and the legendary Bobby Valentine (whose Stamford, Conn. restaurant I ate at on Saturday and it was actually good) in the past and once again it goes to Scioscia, whose Angels are finally playing up to their payroll for the first time since 2009. And because the Angels are looking like a lock for either the West or the first wild card, that means we are going to have to hear about how great of a job Scioscia did in 2014 despite having Mike Trout, Josh Hamilton and Albert Pujols in his lineup. Don’t forget, no team goes first to third and plays fundamentally-sound baseball better than Mike Scioscia’s team!

Read More

Blogs • Email Exchanges • Yankees

Apr 4, 2014

The Derek Jeter-Jose Reyes Debate Is Over

The Yankees head to Toronto to face the Blue Jays after a disastrous opening series and that calls for an email exchange with Tom Dakers of Bluebird Banter.

When I saw that the the Yankees were going to open the 2014 season in Houston, I penciled them in for a 3-0 start to the season. At worst they would open the year 2-1. After back-to-back disastrous games to open the season, the Yankees head to Toronto at 1-2 and with an offense that has looked like a continuation of last season despite the addition of Brian McCann, Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran.

With the Yankees and Blue Jays meeting this weekend, I did an email exchange with Tom Dakers of Bluebird Banter to talk about Jose Reyes and the Blue Jays since their November 2012 trade with the Marlins, the decision to trade prospects for R.A. Dickey and what it will be like for Blue Jays fans to no longer see Derek Jeter in the Yankees lineup.

Keefe: For nine years years in New York, I was forced to be involved in Derek Jeter-Jose Reyes debates, the same way I was forced into Derek Jeter-Nomar Garciaparra. Mets fans would cite Reyes’ abilities and excitement against Jeter’s accomplishments and championships. I would have to defend Jeter against fans who believed that the Yankees would have achieved the same success with Jose Reyes in the lineup over the years. But over time, the potential for Reyes was overshadowed by him becoming the face of everything that started to go wrong with the Mets after their 2006 NLCS Game 7 loss and has continued to go wrong since their September 2007 collapse. Like the Jeter-Garciaparra debate, it seems like the Jeter-Reyes debate has headed the same way.

Sure, when Reyes is healthy and playing, he is a dynamic and rare talent, especially for a shortstop. But “when he is healthy” isn’t something that happens that often. Since 2008, Reyes has played at least 133 games just once and after one inning this year, he’s back on the disabled list with a hamstring injury.

What are your thoughts on Reyes and since I’m asking, what are/were your thoughts on that entire deal with the Marlins?

Dakers: I liked the trade, at the time, but then I figured Emilio Bonifacio would be able to play second base (boy was I wrong) and that Josh Johnson would become our ace (0-for-2). My least favorite excuse for a bad move by a general manager is “anyone would have done the same thing.” I want the GM that does moves that turn out better than anyone would have expected. For a team that prides itself on due diligence and scouting, I don’t know why they didn’t notice that Bonifacio wasn’t good with the glove or that Johnson’s arm was hanging by a thread. But then, we all make mistakes.

A season later and all we have to show for the trade is a mid-rotation innings eater (definitely not a bad thing to have, but not something that will put you in the playoffs) and an often injured shortstop who is entering his 30s who is owed a ton of money over the next four years. I think it is safe to say the trade didn’t work out.

Reyes, when healthy, has been a lot of fun to watch. Unfortunately, he broke his ankle, two weeks into last season and when he came back he wasn’t 100 percent. Favoring the ankle slowed him, and it was very noticeable on defense. For a good part of the season he had the one step and a dive range, only he rarely dove.

This year it is a hamstring problem. I’m hoping it doesn’t keep him out long but I don’t think we are ever going to get a full season out of him.

Keefe: R.A. Dickey became one of my favorite non-Yankees (and there aren’t many of those) during the 2010 season when he put together an 11-9, 2.84 season for the Mets. And his season should have been even better considering he had seven starts where he pitched at least six innings and gave up two earned runs or less and lost or received a no-decision.

I was nervous about Dickey joining the AL East last season following his 2013 Cy Young campaign in 2012 because he had given the Yankees some trouble in the Subway Series in the past and you never want to add front-end starters to other teams in your division. Dickey wasn’t the same pitcher with the Blue Jays (14-13, 4.21) that he had been in the NL, though given the team’s performance and the stat conversions from the NL to AL, it’s not like he had an awful year. But to me at least, I wasn’t as scared of the knuckleball specialist I had been in the past and I think that has carried over into this year. Though I’m sure I will regret saying that when the Yankees face him on Saturday in Toronto.

What are your thoughts on Dickey as a Blue Jay? Were you for the team adding him to the rotation and do you trust him as a front-end starter?

Dakers: No, I wasn’t thrilled with the trade. Trading two of your very top prospects for a 38-year-old pitcher, even if he throws a knuckleball, just seemed wrong to me. The idea was to put the Jays over the top, and if it worked it would have been worth giving up Travis d’Arnaud and Noah Syndergaard, but it didn’t.

Dickey is 39 now and he isn’t the normal knuckleball pitcher. He throws a harder version of the pitch than most, so I’m not sure that he will age as well as most did. Last year the drop in velocity was blamed on a sore neck, sore back. This spring he says he’s 100 percent healthy, but he had a rough spring and his first start of the season didn’t exactly make Blue Jays fans think that he’s going to get his second Cy Young Award. Pitchers, even knuckleball pitchers, do lose something as they age, and maybe R.A. has lost a little bit too.

He did finish strong last year, he had a 3.57 ERA in the second half of the season, so I’m not without hope that he’ll be, maybe not the pitcher he was in 2012, but a good member of the rotation.

Keefe: After watching Vernon Wells for nearly a decade as a Blue Jay against the Yankees and then for another two years as an Angel, he became a Yankee in 2013 thanks to a ridiculous amount of injuries. I was actually optimistic about Wells joining the Yankees near the end of spring training last year and I fell into the same trap that the Angels must have when they traded for the backloaded $126 million man.

The Yankees needed Wells. They needed an experienced major leaguer who could provide power, even if his lowest batting average and on-base percentage went against everything the Yankees had been built upon since the mid-90s. But with Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Curtis Granderson injured to start the year, the Yankees had to find depth somewhere. And at the time, paying $13.9 million of his remaining $42 million seemed like a bargain. I mean the Yankees have spent much more money on worse players.

On May 15, Wells hit his 10th home run and had 23 RBIs in just 38 games and 143 at-bats, and was boasting a .301/.357/.538 and the Yankees were rolling. I thought Wells had revived his career at the age of 34 by putting on the pinstripes and it seemed like the Yankees’ latest reclamation project was working. The problem was the Yankees’ entire 2013 team became a reclamation project, eventually failing, and this included Wells as he would hit just one more home run with 27 RBIs over the rest of the year in 281 at-bats, hitting .199/.243/.253.

Wells didn’t work out with the Yankees the same way he didn’t work out with the Angels after not working out with the Blue Jays following his big contract. What happened to Vernon Wells after signing the $126 million in his prime? For Blue Jays fans, what was it like to watch his career fall apart after his success from 2002-2006?

Dakers: What was it like? Sad. Just sad.

Vernon was a favorite of mine. It really isn’t his fault that the team offered him way too much money. He really was the sort of player every fan says he wants on their team. Runs out every grounder hard, always hustles, good teammate, and all around good guy. Unfortunately, he also tended to pick of little nagging injuries, hamstring problems and wrist problems. He also tried to play through these too often. We do like guys to be tough, but sometimes it’s best to take some time off to heal.

The nice part was that Alex Anthopoulos was able to trade him before his salary went up through the roof. His last season with us he was paid just over $15.5 million, and he had a pretty good season, the next season he was paid just over $26 million. It was the prefect moment to trade him, especially since the Angels took almost all of his contract.

Keefe: On Opening Day 2003 in Toronto, Derek Jeter went down with a shoulder injury when he collided with catcher Ken Huckaby at third base. That was on March 31 and he didn’t return to the Yankees until May 13.

Before breaking his ankle in Game 1 of the 2012 ALCS and missing the rest of that series and nearly all of the 2014 season, that shoulder injury in Toronto was the closest I had ever come to not having Jeter in my baseball life. He has been the Yankees shortstop since I was in fourth grade and I have grown up with him as a staple in the Yankees lineup and my life every spring, summer and fall.

Since this is Jeter’s last season, what has been like for Blue Jays fans watching him against your team all of these years? I always get the Yankees fan perspective on experiencing Jeter for all of these years, but you never hear about what it’s like watching him from the outside. The ovations and ceremonies on the road during the Derek Jeter Farewell Tour are one thing, but will it be weird for Blue Jays fans to not see him in the Yankees lineup when they play starting next year?

Dakers: Well, playing against the Yankees has changed so much, over the last few years. Jorge Posada is gone, Mariano Rivera is gone and Alex Rodriguez has been mostly gone. With Jeter missing last year and not really being the same player he was in the past. And now Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson gone it doesn’t seem like the same Yankees as in the past.

An infield made up of an old Mark Teixeira, Brian Roberts, Brendan Ryan and Yangervis Solarte (who?) doesn’t really exactly strike fear in our hearts.

Yeah it will be weird not seeing Jeter out there. He’s been around for so long. He’s the last link to the great Yankees teams of the 90s. Last year, without him, they just weren’t the same team (though we still couldn’t win against them). It will be interesting to see if the Yankees can come up with a new “face of the franchise.”

Keefe: Entering the season, I was confident about the 2014 Yankees because of their free-agent signings and because of their revamped rotation and because I knew there couldn’t be the same series of devastating injuries of last year. I expected them to take care of business in Houston to open the season and I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The Yankees scored just seven runs in three games and without the Yangervis Solarte you asked about and Ichiro, who has become the Yankees’ fifth outfielder, they might have left Houston 0-3. But even 1-2 is pretty disheartening considering the Astros lost 111 games last year.

As for the Blue Jays, after their franchise-changing trade with the Marlins, they became the team to pick to win the division and contend for the playoffs. But like the Yankees, injuries and underachievers ruined last year for them and now they seem to be forgotten in the AL East.

What are your expectations for the Blue Jays this year?

Dakers: Honestly? This has been the most frustrating offseason of my life as a Blue Jays fan. Last year the team was ‘all in’, making huge trades, signing free agents, building a buzz about the team. This year, nothing.

Last season everything that could go wrong did. Injuries? Damn near everyone on the team dealt with some sort of injury. Three members of the season opening starting rotation went down with major injuries. On offense Jose Reyes, Brett Lawrie, Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Melky Cabrera and Colby Rasmus all spent time on the disabled list. Most of them for long stretches of time. Other players had their baseball skills seemingly removed. It was just an awful season.

Going into this offseason, the team had three vital needs: improving the starting rotation, finding a major league second baseman and getting a catcher that could get on base more than once a week. Of the three, the only move the team made was to let J.P. Arencibia leave and sign free agent Dioner Navarro. Oh, and they let Josh Johnson go, in a addition by subtraction move.

So we end up with a rotation made of up R.A. Dickey, Mark Buehrle and three guys who had a collective 10 major league starts last year: Brandon Morrow (who missed most of last year with a nerve problem in his pitching arm), Drew Hutchison (missed all of last year coming off Tommy John surgery) and Dustin McGowan (who has made a total of four starts over the last five years, because of various arm problems). It isn’t a rotation that should fill one with confidence, but odds are they have to be better than last year.

Personally, I see a .500 team. The Injury Gods almost have to be nicer to the Jays. There is a ton of talent there. A great offense (when healthy), a great bullpen and a starting rotation that has a little more depth than last year, even if we didn’t make a big free agent signing. If the team finishes more than five games above or below .500 I’ll be surprised.

Read More

Blogs • MLB

Jun 26, 2013

The 2013 All-Animosity Team

It’s time for the Fourth Annual All-Animosity Team, which consists of one player at each position, along with a starting pitcher, a closer and a manager from around the league.

It’s time for the Fourth Annual All-Animosity Team. Once again the team consists of one player at each position, along with a starting pitcher, a closer and a manager from around the league. The standards to be considered for the team are simple and only one of the following three requirements needs to be met.

1. The person is a Yankee killer.

2. The person plays for the Red Sox.

3. I don’t like the person. (When I say, “I don’t like the person” or if I say, “I hate someone” I mean I don’t like the person who wears a uniform and plays or manages for a Major League Baseball team and not the actual person away from the game. I’m sure some of the people on this list are nice people. I’m glad we got that out of the way since I can already see Player X’s fan base in an uproar about me hating someone who does so much for the community.)

So, here is the 2013 All-Animosity Team with the winners from the previous years also listed.

C – Jarrod Saltalamacchia (2012 – Matt Wieters, 2011 – Jarrod Saltalamacchia, 2010 – Jason Varitek)
Matt Wieters has been so bad this year (even against the Yankees) that I couldn’t justify putting him in the lineup. So I gave the nod to the one they call “Salty” in Boston even if I don’t have any real animosity toward him since I welcome his at-bats against the Yankees.

Congratulations on making the team, Salty! Even if you don’t deserve to be here. We’ll just consider it the same as when Jason Varitek made the 2008 All-Star Team because Terry Francona was the manager despite Varitek hitting .218 with seven home runs and 28 RBIs at the break.

1B – Chris Davis (2012 – Adrian Gonzalez, 2011 – Adrian Gonzalez, 2010 – Kevin Youkilis)
You have to be good to make this list and Chris Davis isn’t finally good, he’s unbelievable. Not unbelievable in the sense that he is getting help like Melky Cabrera did, but unbelievable like Jose Bautista became between his age 28 season and his age 29 season.

Davis has 28 home runs and 72 RBIs in 77 games this season and is hitting .333/.409/.716. If Miguel Cabrera didn’t exist, Davis would be a potential Triple Crown winner, but Cabrera does exist and has him beat in RBIs (77) and average (.368).

Last season he hit only .220 with three home runs and nine RBIs against the Yankees in 15 games. But this season Davis is hitting .409 with two home runs and three RBIs in just six games against the Yankees with 13 still left to be played.

2B – Dustin Pedroia (2012 – Dustin Pedroia, 2011 – Dustin Pedroia, 2010 – Dustin Pedroia)
There isn’t much left to be said about Dustin Pedroia that I haven’t already said about him over the last three years here. So I will just put down what I put for him the last two years.

Pedroia is like Tom Brady for me. He has that winning instinct that you just don’t see all the time these days, he plays hard and he’s the type of guy you want on your team. But if I didn’t put him here again it would just be weird.

3B – David Wright (2012 – Robert Andino, 2011 – Kevin Youkilis, 2010 – Chone Figgins)
Another change at third base where we have had a different player each season. This year I’m going with David Wright and the only reason I didn’t go with him in the past was because he plays in the National League and only sees the Yankees in the Subway Series. But it’s David Wright: the face of the Mets. He deserves to be on this team. He has deserved it all along. Sorry for the delay, David.

SS – Jose Reyes – (2012 – Jose Reyes, 2011 – Jose Reyes, 2010 – Jose Reyes)
Is anyone still debating whether Derek Jeter or Jose Reyes is the better shortstop? No? I didn’t think so.

It’s no surprise that the Blue Jays tied a franchise record with 11 straight wins and briefly climbed over .500 and people are wondering if it’s a good idea to insert Reyes into the lineup when he returns from a high ankle sprain. If it were any other player of Reyes’ supposed caliber, it would be a no-brainer, but when you’re talking about a player like Reyes, who brings with him nine years of Mets stink and a year of miserable failure with the Marlins, well it’s a little more complicated.

Obviously the Blue Jays are going to put the guy they owe at least $96 million between this season and 2017 back at shortstop since chemistry in baseball is overrated and unnecessary. But hopefully Reyes’ return sends the Blue Jays back to where they were two weeks ago.

LF – Carl Crawford (2012 – Delmon Young, 2011 – Delmon Young, 2010 – Manny Ramirez)
It’s unusual for me to put a National League player on the team if they aren’t a Met, but Crawford is a former Red Sox. However it’s surprising for me to put Crawford on the team because prior to joining the Red Sox, he was (along with Ichiro) my favorite non-Yankee in the league.

Crawford signed his seven-year, $142 million deal with the Red Sox and then hit .255/.289/.405 in 2011 before playing just 31 games for the Red Sox in 2012 prior to being traded to the Dodgers. He complained about the media coverage in Boston while still playing there and whined even more about it after leaving. He didn’t like the fact that he was criticized for hitting 41 points below his career average in his first season as a newly-signed free agent. So Crawford made sure everyone knew his feelings were hurt on his blog on ESPN Boston and then with reporters because it’s no fun playing baseball when you’re due $142 million over the next seven years and people are mean to you.

CF – Ben Zobrist (2012 – Josh Hamilton, 2011 – B.J. Upton, 2010 – Vernon Wells)
With Dustin Pedroia having a stranglehold on second base for as long as this team exists, I needed to find a way to get Ben Zobrist into the lineup. And the only way to do that was to put him in left field or move Crawford to center and put Zobrist in left, but that would mean putting two people out of position. And I don’t want to take Crawford out of his comfort zone since we all know how much he doesn’t like hitting leadoff or playing center field.

Why is Zobrist on this list when he’s a career .261 hitter and the most overrated fantasy baseball player ever because he has played every position in his career other than pitcher and catcher? Because he’s the most feared hitter against Mariano Rivera since Edgar Martinez. Zobrist is 3-for-3 lifetime against Number 42. Those hits? Two doubles and a triple.

RF – Nick Swisher (2012 – Jose Bautista, 2011 – Magglio Ordonez, 2010 – Magglio Ordonez)
I started doing the All-Animosity Team in 2010 and I have waited since then to put Nick Swisher in right field, but because he was on the Yankees, I couldn’t. (The same way I couldn’t include Nick Johnson in 2010 or A.J. Burnett in 2010 or 2011.)

My feelings on Swisher are well documented (especially here) about his time as Yankee and how badly I wanted him out of New York. I’m happy with the way he went out by turning his back on the fans, who put up with his nonsense and clown act for four seasons, but I’m unhappy about the way he was greeted like he had something while playing here when he returned with the Indians.

SP – Josh Beckett (2012 – Josh Beckett, 2011 – Josh Beckett, 2010 – Josh Beckett)
The face of the franchise keeps his spot as the ace of the All-Animosity rotation despite moving to Los Angeles. And if you haven’t kept track of Beckett now that he is in the NL West, let me fill you in.

Beckett is 0-5 with a 5.19 ERA in eight starts. He has a 1.500 WHIP and has made it past the sixth inning once. He’s been on the disabled list with a groin strain, but is also experiencing numbness in his pitching hand and hasn’t started a game since May 13.

Back in December before his first full season with the Dodgers (or what would have been his first full season with the Dodgers if he hadn’t landed on the DL again), this picture surfaced from TMZ showing Beckett riding a surf board that his wife was paddling. I want to know if he had to use one of his 18 off days to enjoy this activity? Oh, no, that’s right. I forgot that he doesn’t just get 18 days off between April and September. He also gets the six months off when he isn’t “working” or pitching 33 times a year. Then again, he hasn’t made 33 starts since 2006.

Can someone remind me again why the Dodgers bailed the Red Sox out?

CL – Fernando Rodney (2012 – Jose Valverde, 2011 – Jonathan Papelbon, 2010 – Jonathan Papelbon)
Rodney earned himself this spot on Sunday after his theatrics following the Rays’ 3-1 at Yankee Stadium as his charades rivaled Jose Valverde’s (a former All-Animosity Team member).

Rodney wears his hat to the side in a way that hasn’t been seen since Abe Alvarez did so for the Red Sox in four games between 2004 and 2006 and on top of it all, people think Rodney is good to great when he really isn’t.

Last season at the age of 35, Rodney saved 48 games for the Rays with a 0.60 ERA and 0.777 WHIP in 74 2/3 innings. But prior to 2012, Rodney had a 4.29 career ERA and 1.367 WHIP with the Tigers (2002-09) and Angels (2010-11). This season, Rodney is back to being his old self with a 4.83 ERA and 1.453 WHIP and I’m happy to have the old Rodney back even if he did embarrass the bottom of the Yankees order on Sunday.

Manager – Mike Scioscia (2012 – Bobby Valentine, 2011 – Mike Scioscia, 2010 – Joe Maddon)
With Valentine out of the league and serving as the athletic director at Scared Heart University in Connecticut (how is he qualified for that job?), the managerial job goes back to Mike Scoiscia.

Scioscia is widely regarded as a baseball genius, and to some the best manager in baseball, who teaches the game the right way and has the most fundamentally sound team in the league. (What? You didn’t know that they go first to third better than any team in the league?). As of Wednesday, the Angels are 34-43 (.442) and 10 games back in the AL West. The only team with less wins than them in the American League is the Houston Astros, a team with a payroll of $26,105,600, which is $1,894,400 less than A-Rod is making this season and he has played zero games and written one newsworthy tweet this season to earn his paycheck.

The Angels haven’t been to the playoffs since 2009 when they lost in six games to the Yankees in the ALCS. In 2010, they went 80-82 to finish 10 games back and in third place in the AL West and 14 games out of a playoff spot. In 2011, they went 86-76 to finish 10 games back and in second place in the AL West and five games out of a playoff spot. In 2012, they went 89-73 to finish five games back and in third place in the AL West and four games out of a playoff spot.

Scioscia’s teams have one postseason series win (2009 ALDS vs. Boston) since reaching the 2005 ALCS and have five postseason appearances in the 10 years since winning the 2002 World Series. It might be time for Mike Scioscia to stop being given unnecessary praise.

Read More