More work to do
The Yankees need more than Richie Sexson to address their issues
Fan Comments
Of course, it's only 8 a.m. We covered the Richie Sexson signing on Thursday, and nearly anticipated the Joe Blanton trade in our hypothetical about dealing Mike Mussina to a contender such as the Phillies, identifying the need (eliminate Adam Eaton) and the prospect to go (Adrian Cardenas) — not that the need and the bait wouldn't have been obvious from the wrong end of the Hubble telescope. In fact, the solution to any trade, or world peace, or finding the TV remote that got lost under the sofa, is to identify who has Adam Eaton. At work today, when your boss says, "We've got a problem, Brian. The company plowed all its resources into subprime loans and we're going to have to lay off half the staff and shoot my dog," you say, "Why don't we just get rid of Adam Eaton instead?" Suddenly, the clouds will lift and everything will be all right. Bonuses all around!
If only the same thing would work with Melky Cabrera. It will soon... In the last book I edited, "It Ain't Over," Jay Jaffe wrote a chapter called "The Replacement-Level Killers" about how some teams that finished a close second were undone by the worst players on their rosters. He selected an All-Star team of players who were the crucial difference in close races. The interesting thing about those players is that with some exceptions, like Bob Boone of the 1984 Angels, the players didn't have offensive seasons that were miles below replacement level. They were just a little below.
For those that came in late, replacement level is loosely defined as freely available talent, equivalent to your typical Triple-A veteran or the 25th man on a 25-man roster. To get replacement-level production from a player is far from acceptable. It's not close to average. It's usually a good distance below average. If a player is below replacement level, he's not only not helping, he's actively pushing the team backwards. As Jaffe showed, giving extended playing time to just one player at replacement-level or below can break a team's chances. The Yankees play two, Robinson Cano and Cabrera. Those players alone, if replaced (or somehow electrified) by players who were just moderately effective hitters it could mean a huge swing in the standings, perhaps as many as seven or eight wins over the rest of the year.
Chances are no matter what happens the Yankees will be on their couches in October for the first time since 1993, but no matter what moves the make from this point forward, if they don't address these bleeding wounds, they're not going anywhere.
THE AROUND (AND ABOUT)
• Thursday night, the Orioles lost to the Tigers by a score of 6-5. In their last 25 games, the Orioles have played nine one-run games and won one... Melvin Mora hit a home run in last night's game, always a good occasion to bring up Mora's contract, which runs through 2009 with a club option for 2010 - signed May, 2006, when Mora was 34 years old. Teams need cost certainty on 37-year-old third basemen.
• Headline on MLB.com: "Guillen leaves Tigers to be with wife." He considered leaving the Tigers for Madonna, but found he had to stand in life.
• Maybe we shouldn't give too much credit to any one factor for the Mets' 10-game winning streak, but it can't be a coincidence that the Mets took off once Luis Castillo went out of the lineup. Damian Easley has hit .389 over the last 15 games, and though at 38 years old Easley covers less territory than Lichtenstein, Castillo was something of an island himself. An awesomely bad contract from America's most overrated general manager.
• For the last two days, I've woken up with Al Wilson's recording of "The Snake" ("Take me in, tender woman, sighed the snake") stuck in my head, a song I have not actually heard in years. Before that it was the Simon & Garfunkel take on "Richard Corey." I think I'm losin' it.
• I keep meaning to mention "Wall-E," which I caught last weekend. It's kind of a post-apocalyptic Chaplin film, wonderfully acted and beautiful to look at. I know everyone is going to be focused on "The Dark Knight" this weekend (as will I), but if you've not seen the latest Pixar yet, make time to do so. As always with Pixar, you get a cartoon short as well. This time it's a Warner Bros-ish duel between a magician and his rabbit. Like the main feature, it's short on dialogue and long on fun things to look at. Not every Pixar film is an instant classic, but "Wall-E" is in a class with "The Incredibles" and "Ratatouille"-but given its subject matter, how we could have a planet slipped out from under us while we were busy fumbling with our iPods, maybe a little beyond them as well. It's discomfiting when an entertainment points out that entertainment is infantilizing us all, as if you should run from the theater in a galvanic fury lest you turn into one of the movie's living couch potatoes, but of course you don't, because it's too good, the popcorn too sweet, and there's another film coming on in a few... Zzzzzzz.
THURSDAY, July 17: Posted at 8:54 p.m. EST
YOU MUST BE THIS TALL TO RIDE YANKEE STADIUM
It seems as if the Yankees have signed defrocked Mariners first baseman Richie Sexson for the rest of the year, thereby improving the all-important average team height category. It feels like we've been talking about Sexson since last year, and I'm pretty sure that we have been. To recap: Sexson has been miserable, but he has still put up good numbers (.344/.423/.623) against lefties in a small sample. His career rates against the portsiders are .265/.369/.510.
The Yankees have needed some help with southpaws all season long. They are 15-15 against lefty starters and have hit just .257/.338/.394 against lefties overall. Yankees right-handers, whoever they are (you never see them without their masks), have hit just .233/.316/.358 against the guys they're supposed to kill.
Sexson has been miserable since last season. He closed out 2006 in a mad flurry, hitting .337/.417/.608 over the final third of the season, but it's like his bat died of exhaustion at that point. The Yankees should be pretty careful with his usage, as he's just 98-for-520 against righties over the last year and a half. That's .188. He's also a miserable career hitter at Yankee Stadium.
The nature of the deal is this: the Yankees aren't paying much, the high upside seems to be a slight improvement in their results against left-handed pitchers, and the impact on the bottom line will be minimal. There is nothing season-changing at work here. There is so much more to be done. Or not done. "Not done" would probably be the more realistic choice. Speaking of which ...
ACTION ITEMS (THAT WON'T HAPPEN)
The non-waiver trading deadline is exactly two weeks away. This is the time that teams not in contention traditionally shed upcoming free agents, trying to get a little immediate value for players that likely won't be back the next season. The Yankees don't really know if they're contenders or not. They probably aren't, but all it will take is a good two weeks to convince them that they are. Actually, given the way the team historically approaches things, a bad two weeks will convince them that they're contenders as well. The Yankees will inevitably be buyers, but for the sake of this discussion let's pretend that they will be sellers. Here are the players whose deals are up, along with some possible trade scenarios.
BOBBY ABREU
How has his performance been this year? Middling.
Should the Yankees be thinking about re-signing him? Almost certainly not. He will turn 35 next March, his hitting is trending downwards, and he has perfected the ancient art of negative range as practiced by Sumerians who didn't play baseball and tended to stay around the house.
So should they try to trade him to a contender? Over his last 40 games, Abreu has hit .258/.341/.409. For the season he's hit .274/.345/.436, which is a bit below par for a right fielder these days. Teams that need an outfielder or designated hitter, even one that appears to be fading fast, include the Angels, Diamondbacks, and Mets.
What should the Yankees expect to get if they did trade Abreu? The problem with the three teams above is that the first doesn't believe in trading prospects for veterans, the second has prospects, but not much in the way of position players above A-ball (those went in off-season deals for Dan Haren and pals), and the third has a very thin system, even if the Yankees were inclined to risk trading with the local competition. In any case, given that this would be a rental, coupled with the fact that he's one of the highest-paid players in baseball and hasn't shown too much, whoever would take Abreu probably shouldn't expect the moon.
JASON GIAMBI
How has his performance been this year? Shockingly good, especially in May and June. April and July were the opposite, but the overall production has been convincing. He also hasn't killed the Yankees in the field, though when you say "Giambi's range" it probably applies to a large plot of land he has purchased for grazing cattle, not for his work away from the bag.
Pick up his 2009 option? At $22 million, he's a very pricey player, so no. The Yankees could try to get a cheaper short-term deal out of him if they wanted to push their luck.
So should they try to trade him to a contender? They would have to get him to waive his no-trade protection, but yes.
Who needs a first baseman/DH? The Diamondbacks again, with Conor Jackson spending more time in the outfield lately, although they seem satisfied to swing a deal for Tony Clark, who never should have left in the first place. Angels designated hitters haven't hit at all this year, and Casey Kotchman has been in a long slump at first, batting .247/.277/.370 over his last 40 games (though he's still quite good on the fielding job). If Oakland wants to pretend they're still in it, a Giambi reunion would help them a great deal, though it would mean finally giving up on letting Daric Barton complete one of the worst seasons by a first baseman in recent memory. Paul Konerko has hurt the White Sox this year, but he's signed through 2010 and DH is locked up by Jim Thome, who has been mashing over the last six weeks after a miserable start. It's not a good fit.
What should the Yankees expect to get if they did trade Giambi? It's complicated. On a per-plate appearance basis, Giambi has been one of the 30-best hitters in baseball this year. That should be worth something. On the other hand, he's making a ton of money, even considering that it's only 40 percent of the season a team will be paying for, and he will also have to be bought out at season's end for $5 million. The net cost of $17 million would still make Giambi one of the most expensive players in the game. The Yankees would probably have to subsidize any trade to get a prospect of worth back. Add in the positional limitations and Giambi's own power to veto a move, and the Yankees don't have much room with which to operate.
KYLE FARNSWORTH
How has his performance been this year? A strangely mixed bag. If not for the home runs he's given up every two pitches, he'd be pretty near perfect. He's also been quite good lately: in his last 15 games he's allowed just three runs - two of them on homers.
So should they try to trade him to a contender? You would think he'd have some value right now.
Who needs a power reliever? The Cardinals, the Brewers, the Tigers if they think they're still in it ... the Red Sox, but don't hold your breath.
What should the Yankees expect to get in return for the rental? Teams on the cusp of the playoffs tend to get a bit crazy and overvalue players like Farnsworth. A realistic price might be something like one of the Cardinals' B-/C+ outfield prospects like Brian Barton, Jon Jay, or the 25-year-old, utilityman-with-pop Joe Mather.
LATROY HAWKINS
How has his performance been this year? Pretty bad, but also mostly irrelevant given that he's been established as the team's blowout pitcher. Twenty-two of his thirty-three appearances have come in games in which the Yankees trailed by three or more runs or were up by four or more.
So should they try to trade him to a contender? They could try...
What should the Yankees expect to get? Not a whole lot, unless there's a GM out there who totally overestimates the value of veteran relievers and is willing to overlook the whole season.
MIKE MUSSINA
How has his performance been this year? Quite good once he adjusted to his diminished stuff four starts into the season. In his last 15 starts his ERA is 3.10, though there are some unearned runs hiding in there that makes the real package more like 4.00. As usual, the Moose has had excellent control, walking just over a batter an inning during that span while averaging six strikeouts per nine.
Worth trying to extend/re-sign him? You might want to give it the season to see if the league catches up to the new Mussina, but if he keeps pitching well, sure - if he accepts that 40-year-olds don't get multi-year contracts.
So should they try to trade him to a contender? He would probably have some value, but he also has a no-trade clause. How badly does he want a ring and/or a chance to win 20 for the first time? A number of teams could use another starter, but Mussina and the Phillies always seem like a pairing waiting to happen given the former's loyalty to his home state. Given that the Mets are closing in, the Phils could be feeling a bit anxious as well. Getting Adam Eaton out of the rotation could make all the difference.
What should the Yankees expect to get? Sticking with the Phillies, they are far from prospect-rich. However, second baseman Adrian Cardenas looks like the real thing and if acquired would start pressing Robinson Cano in something like a year, and if anyone needs pressing, it's Cano.
CARL PAVANO
If only: Maybe someone will send flowers.
ANDY PETTITTE
Forget about it: He has no-trade protection and is always threatening to retire, so it doesn't seem very likely he'd want to pack up and go to Detroit.
Worth trying to extend/re-sign him? As long as he keeps wanting to go year-to-year, sure.
BRIAN CASHMAN Let's see how he deals with the above, first.
MONDAY, July 14: Posted at 2:34 p.m. EST
MURCER: ONCE YOU KNOW, YOU CAN'T NOT KNOW
Since I got word that Bobby Murcer had passed away, I've been trying to think of what to write. Several weeks ago, Jon Lane of YESNetwork.com asked me to write a little blurb based on my own interactions with Murcer. This is what I said:
I want to be like Bobby Murcer, whose attitude in the face of a much more difficult illness than I have had to deal with puts my own sullenness to shame. I spoke to him once about illnesses, his and mine, and he spoke of God. My system of beliefs and his are not the same, but he said it with such evident simplicity that it was nonetheless greatly moving, like receiving a blessing from a holy man. I'll take that any day I can get it, and if anyone else needs it, I'll be glad to pass it on.
I didn't want to be more specific than that at the time. It was, after all, a private moment. Now that he's gone, I feel comfortable saying a little more. It was about a year ago. I came upon Bobby sitting in the dugout. Many, many people were coming over to wish him well, and I waited a long time for my turn. He seemed in very good spirits, if not quite as loose as he did when I had seen him before the cancer. The description that comes to mind is serene. He was wearing sunglasses and his head was shaved. If you didn't know why he looked that way, you might have thought he was auditioning for a role as a World War II general.
I told Bobby that I didn't mean to intrude, but that I was a fellow survivor -- a term that seems ironic now, kind of a lie. With many cancers, you don't know if you're truly a survivor or just experiencing a delay of game. Yet, "survivor" is a thing we say to ourselves, and to each other, to make the whole ordeal emotionally manageable. There's a great Peanuts strip where Lucy is told that to live life to the fullest, we must live each day as if it is our last. Lucy freaks, goes screaming off panel, overwhelmed by her suddenly imminent mortality. That's what living with cancer is like.
You have to say "survivor", because if you didn't, the resulting depression would just be too strong. I've been diagnosed twice now, but I have been fortunate enough that although this cellular malware has attacked me twice, I've not been given a death sentence, at least, not right now. I might get to see my children grow up. And yet, I can't help but wonder, sometimes, at what point it will all break down, about what my real odds are given how so many things have gone wrong so quickly. That's not something I could have said to Bobby Murcer at the time, and I didn't need to. It would have been cruel, cruel to both of us, but more importantly, he knew without my saying it.
Bobby asked me several detailed questions about my own cancer -- I hadn't even been diagnosed with cancer No. 2 yet -- and the scars it had left behind. I gave him what has become a standard line for me: ocular cancer cost me vision in one eye, but given that I got the rest of my life in exchange, it seemed like a fair trade, and all things considered, I felt I had been quite lucky.
"Luck had nothing to do with it," he said firmly. "If you're still here, it's because God wants you to be here."
For a moment I didn't know how to respond; religion and I have long had an antagonistic relationship, and I was not used to dealing with this kind of sentiment. I quickly reflected that this was the whole problem: the self-described religious types I have tended to encounter in my personal life were bigots, those who would use the tenets of their belief system to raise themselves up while condemning others. Religion was a wedge to break people apart. In this case, I realized, Bobby was saying something that (1) reflected a sincere belief, one that was bringing him comfort, (2) this assessment of God's belief in me was basically generous and bestowed on a stranger to boot and (3) I felt uplifted. The politics of religion had no place here, nor my disputatious nature. This felt like a gift.
Now smiling widely, I still didn't know what to say in response to something like that. It was a completely new experience. I clasped his hand, said something like, "I hope so," followed by, "That is very, very kind of you to say." I told him to keep on fighting, then finally withdrew so that he could spend more time in the company of friends rather than well-meaning fellow sufferers. He might have forgotten about it five minutes later. I'll always cherish the moment.
The title of this section, "Once You Know, You Can't Not Know" was inspired by a recent piece in New York magazine by my good friend Kevin Baker about his own struggle to come to terms with his hereditary Huntington's Disease. The phrase refers to something he was told by a genetic counselor before he was tested for the presence of the disease: if you have it, you have to live that knowledge even before you might have to live with the disease.
As Kevin writes in the article (it's a great piece, and I urge you all to read it, harrowing as it can be), even though he doesn't yet have any symptoms of Huntington's and might not for many years, he still spends a lot of time thinking about it. Right now, insofar as I know, my body is not being ravaged by cancer, but I spend a lot of time thinking about it. Kevin writes that he lies awake at night. I lie awake at night.
That's what living with the reality of mortality is like, at least for me. I don't know if Bobby Murcer met the dawn the way I do. I'd like to think that he did not, that the serenity he showed me was something that he was able to maintain throughout the struggle, that his belief in God gave him peace. When and if the time comes for me to resume the struggle, I want to be like him. It's funny -- I'm too young to have seen Bobby Murcer play during his prime with the Yankees. I remember a few pinch-hit at-bats in the early 1980s, remember pulling for him to hit when he came off the bench during the 1981 World Series, and, of course, I remember his dramatic hitting after Thurman Munson's death, but I can't really say if that memory is so vivid for me because of the first time I saw it -- when I was going on nine years old -- or because it has been so frequently discussed since. As a ballplayer, he had few chances to become a hero to me, but sitting together in the dugout at Yankee Stadium last year, he became one of the biggest heroes of all.
WHEN BASEBALL WRITERS CAN'T FIND SOMETHING USEFUL TO WRITE ABOUT
I have great respect for the indefatigable Ken Rosenthal of Fox -- this might be the only time you see me have "of Fox" in a description of something and begin in even a mildly positive vein-but his calling out Alex Rodriguez for not participating in the Home Run Derby is ludicrous:
Barry Bonds was heavily criticized for declining to participate in last year's Derby at his home park. A-Rod deserves the same heat for the same offense, and let's not hear about how the Derby might disrupt his precious swing.
Yes, several recent Derby participants -- Bobby Abreu, David Wright, Alex Rios -- had their home-run production decline after they competed in the event. But those drop-offs might have occurred anyway. These are the best hitters in the game. They can't adjust?
First, we're talking about a batting practice exhibition. This isn't like refusing to sign autographs for kids or staying in the dugout during the National Anthem. It is, in the grand scheme of things, nothing. It also just happens to be the most excruciatingly boring exercise ever, and having A-Rod in it won't make it any more interesting. The Yankees could reanimate Babe Ruth for the day and it might be worth paying attention to.
Hey, if you do this daily or semi-daily writing gig long enough, you will be confronted by at least a few occasions when you hit the keyboard and are confronted by the dreaded Slow News Day. You could go back to bed at that point, but it's tough to get paid for sleeping, so your alternative is to look around for a molehill you can build into a mountain. This was likely one of those days for Rosenthal.
OVER AND DUNN
In that same column, Rosenthal mentions that the Reds are not finding takers for Adam Dunn, who is a free agent after the season. Dunn has his well-known limitations, and I'm not going to rehash them here, but if the Yankees want to be in this thing this year -- or next year -- he'd be a terrific get as the post-Giambi designated hitter (with occasional stops in left field and at first base). In the short term, if the Yankees want to pretend they are still in this thing, they need another bat, and that will be true even when Johnny Damon and Hideki Matsui come back. Broadcasters and pundits still act mystified when they consider the collapse of the Yankees' offense, but the simple truth of it is, as the Bob Dylan song goes, the times they are a-changin'. Just four Yankees are having strong offense seasons: Damon, Matsui, Jason Giambi and Alex Rodriguez. Everyone else has been some flavor of mediocre or worse. The executive suite can either acquire another bat -- and it doesn't have to be Dunn -- or acknowledge that they're packing it in for the season.
HEY, I DON'T KNOW IF I WOULD BE BRAVE ENOUGH
If they do pack it in, and maybe even if they don't, do you think any of the beat writers covering the team will ask Joe Girardi how it feels to be the first Yankees manager to finish out of the playoffs since 1993? It's an unfair question, completely unfair, because it was the team design that has been inadequate more than his approach to it.
THE AROUND (AND ABOUT)
• I marvel at the continuing power showed by Matt Joyce of the Tigers. His slugging percentage in the Minors from 2005 through 2007 was .438, and he looked like he would be one of those 12-homer-a-year outfielders in the Majors. He slugged .500 at Toledo this year, and now has nine home runs in 94 at bats in the big leagues. Better lights?
• Speaking of Tigers, I've been slow in noting Justin Verlander's sustained excellence after a terrible start. He was pounded in seven of his first eight games and began the second week of May with a 6.43 ERA. Since then, he's made 12 starts, nine of them quality starts (six innings, no more than three earned runs). His ERA for those 79 innings is 2.73.
• I ordered a chicken-steak sandwich for lunch, but now I'm not sure I really want it. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but all that sodium ... not good. I swore off red meat many years ago, so chicken-steak is as close as I come to one of the great foods the world has to offer -- the cheesesteak sandwich. Of course, poultry isn't treated humanely, the oceans are overfished and we're turning our vegetable crops into ethanol, so I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to do next. This time next year, I may be down to edamame on a bun.
• And another thought about things that are served on buns: why the heck do some manufacturers add corn syrup to hot dogs? If only Upton Sinclair had gotten that into "The Jungle."
• The Indians are reported to be shopping . Blake isn't a great player by any means, but he has the versatility to be helpful to any team in a race that needs to avoid replacement-level problems at three of the four corners. No, he's not the lefty-killer the Yankees need. The Twins could use him as a third baseman. The Angels could put him at a different position every day, ditto the Marlins and the Diamondbacks. He's not worth a great prospect, but he could have a disproportionate impact on some teams.
• On Sunday, Daniel Cabrera walked six Red Sox and only gave up two runs in 4.1 innings. Jeremy Sowers walked seven Rays and only gave up two in four innings. It's 1950s baseball -- walk many, score little, sell lots of beer.
• C.C. Sabathia on Sunday: 122 pitches -- because the Brewers have zero incentive to keep him healthy beyond the end of this season.
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