It seems the other team in the upcoming stupid trade has one hell of a young player coming its way.

[1] I hope not. Montero is going to be a monster.

Did everyone see this (from espn)

Lee said the way Yankees fans treated his wife and the wives of his Rangers teammates during the postseason had no impact on his decision. He denied reports that someone had spit on or poured a drink on his wife, Kristen.

“No one came up to my wife and spit on her. Nobody poured anything on her,” Lee said. “You go to any stadium, the opposing team stands and starts cheering, especially in the postseason, fans are going to say things to them, they’re going to do things, that’s part of it. That story was way overblown and was false and had zero to do with the whole thing. Hopefully we can put that behind us because it was a non-issue.

Note that Piliere describes Ian Kennedy as a “solid big-league starter.”  If the Yanks had held onto him, one of the SP holes would be filled.

I sure wish the Yanks would hold off on making a trade for a name SP and give their youngsters a chance.  I’m concerned that any trade they make will give up more value than they receive.

—But, they were much more warranted two years ago, and even more so the year before.—

That’s an awkward way to say it.

That is great news.  I can’t say I’m all over the scouting reports, but I do think the Piliere seems like the most positive on the Yankees system in general and Montero in specific, which means he add the scouting version of SG’s “secret sauce” to his reports.

Seriously, I feel like I read that Keith Law, just for example, doesn’t think Montero will stick at catcher.  Who’s right?  I sure hope Piliere is.

Also remember, just a week ago it was reported that Martin can’t even put full weight on his leg yet.  “Montero is expendable!!” is just a story to sell newspapers now that the Cliff Lee saga has come to a merciful close.  I guess Martin passed his Yankee physical, but I bet the standard of that physical was not “ready to play now.”

[6] The Montero vs. Martin storyline will be interesting. If the Yankees give Montero a legitimate chance it’s reasonably likely that he will hit well enough to warrant a majority of the starts at catcher. But I wouldn’t be surprised to see the majority be something around 65% or about 100 games.

[6] Piliere does seem to be more positive than most on Yankees’ players, but he also seems to spend a lot more time around the Yankees than other scouts.

I’m for taking chances with the kids.
I’m really looking forward to watching Montero catch.
And as for the staff - whatever will B, will B.

Kei sera, sera.

Well done, sirrah, but I wouldn’t go that far.
On the other hand, some might say Igawa long way for a cheap laugh.

Proulx Petitte Syrah a bargain@ $18

Quick hook Casey

The Yankees should probably go ahead and trade the B’s, since they’re probably going to put them in the bullpen if they keep them.

The guy born 30,000 days ago shoulda been pitching and that’s why Casey became a Met.

Looks like Andy will come back for another season, that’s very good news.

Yogi! Mel Allen with a Serling miscall

Wasn’t Houk the manager?

Does anyone remember when Dennis Miller was funny? Watching his latest hbo thing makes me miss Carlin even more. Sorry I mentioned them in the same post.
Blasphemy indeed.
Hey… Guns on the millatree channel, I’m in.

18 next year

[18] Stengel got the boot over it.

19 re Dennis Miller its been a long time

I really enjoyed the Knicks game, though they lost in heartbreaking fashion.  Pierce acted like an asshole after making the winning shot.  Classless.

He started Ditmars in games 1&4, Ford in 3&6, Ford pitched two shutouts.

[16] Hear, hear!  I heart Andy.

Ditmar. Not to be bitchy. Terry manned up the next 2 post seasons.

[23] He was not acting. Effen tool.

Terry won in 62, was it Cepeda or McCovey that smoked the final out with the bases loaded?

7-4 two inning save for Mo?

F…ing bush league infield

[28] Willie Mac. I was 34 months old. Remember it well. Tore Bobby Richardsons glove off.

Pierce is obnoxious, always has been.

Hey there YZ. Willie McCovey could hit the brian schottenhiemer out of a baseball. So could Willie Stargell.
Lotta Willies back in the day.

Is the Andy thing confirmed or merely a Heyman tweet?

Amazing instinctive base running or dumb luck?

[28] McCovey.  It was 2nd and 3rd.  I think there was some question of: do you walk McCovey to pitch to Cepeda who was on deck?  1-0, Game 7.  A few inches to the right or left and Yanks lose the series.

Cepeda or McCovey pick your poison.  You just can’t predict baseball.

Bob Feller RIP.  That ornery old sonofabitch.

[38] Ack, that’s a shame.  I visited his museum once when driving across Nebraska.

Remember when nicknames like Rapid Robert were cool?

I remember that series pretty well.  I was a Giants fan, then.  Willie Mays was a great clutch hitter.  He hit a double right before McCovey’s line drive, but unfortunately the runner on first was unable to score. 

That was the year that torrential rains in SF postponed Game 7 for several days.  They used a helicoptor to try to dry the field, giving rise to the quip that the Giants had Hiller (2B), Haller (C), and Hellercopter.

Feller and Kerry Wood the only pitchers to strike out their age.  Try that Wakefield.  Names like Vinegar Bend Mizell in Feller’s day.

41 I was in chem lab not paying attention to the sulphuric acid while listening to a transistor radio.

Does anyone remember when Dennis Miller was funny?

Coming up on 10 years, now. He was funny as hell when he was a liberal, I loved his work and cringed at much of his point of view.

Now he’s a conservative and while I agree with rather more of what he has to say, he’s just not funny anymore.

I’ve caught him on the radio a few times and he sounds like he’s forcing it.

I was swimming around in my father’s balls.

He has one schtick and its expiration date is passed.  He goes on Oreilly and
never departs from consevative orthodoxy.  Jon Stewart on the other hand has been known to take (admittedly fewer) shots at liberals including Obama and especially the congress.  He did a wicked takedown of liberal icon Olbermann.

[46] Concur.

My own political leanings tend to the right of George Smith Patton, Jr., and even I find myself stopping short and saying “seriously ? c’mon that’s just stupid”. And face it, liberals are just funnier and more creative.

liberal icon Olbermann.

This is one of the saddest things I’ve ever read.

I think Dennis Miller’s Damascene conversion after 9/11 didn’t wear very well, especially when I think even conservatives ended up pretty unhappy with George W.  I remember Miller saying something like “I’m never gonna criticize Bush”—well, how funny is that?

Also, comedians don’t necessarily age well.  In part comedy is a young man’s game.  I know OTF loves Carlin and his early work was great but he became tedious.

K. Wood going back to the Cubs.  I enjoyed his work last season but I’m not gonna miss him.  Fungible.

[50] Yes.  Why is that?  There are exceptions, of course—Redd Foxx says hello!  But Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, all outrageous when young, soon turning tepid.  Chapelle, ask not for whom the bell tolls . . .

It’s a good year to be a FA middle reliever.  I’m gonna teach my daughter to throw lefty, just in case.

[51] There go our dreams of winning the 2003 NL Central this year.

#45 for the win

[52] Being outrageous is hard to sustain.  People get used to it, yet the temptation is to repeat the shtick that works.  Also there’s just something about older people trying to shock, or trying to wrap up legitimate outrage in humor…it becomes annoying, unfunny, fuddyduddy.  Most people become more materially successful as they age and maybe legitimate outrage is harder to muster, or if legitimately felt seems ridiculous coming from someone living in a mansion.

If they trade Montero it probably means that there is something terribly wrong with the way they balance baseball and business considerations.

Stewart ain’t exactly old but he gets funnier and smarter every year.  When he was young
his MTV talk show tanked and many thought he’d bomb when he replaced Kilborn.

Late-in-life Pryor on his drug problems was hilarious when not too painful to listen to.

The CW in poetry is that the best work is done by the young and the old - in middle age you run out of topics, but age, and the deaths, and the ghosts, and her having gone away in spirit from you bring back the need and materials to write.

Is love like youth wasted on Karl Jung

Eddie Izzard is aging well.  Robin Williams tends to deliver.  Maybe Steve Martin?  There just aren’t that many.

So much for the AJ sucked because his wife and dog left him theory:

A.J. Burnett’s marital status became a topic of discussion on the Internet yesterday after ESPN Radio host Colin Cowherd said the Yankees right-hander went through a “terrible” divorce this past season. That led to speculation that personal problems caused his dismal season.

Darek Braunecker, Burnett’s agent, shot down the report.

“Colin Cowherd has no idea what he’s talking about,” he said. “A.J. Burnett is not in the process nor was he ever in the process of getting a divorce. It’s unequivocally false, and it’s really irresponsible of Colin Cowherd to report that. We’ve taken issue with that.”

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/yankees/agent_not_getting_divorce_SeHHKSay2RAYRnEbY9SARI#ixzz18HC4JJB2

[61] Eddie is da man.  Well, the executive transvestite, anyway.  I should pull out my copy of Dress to Kill and watch it again.  It’s been a while.

As for Dennis Miller,

I think maybe it’s a combo of going conservative and simply that his act got old.  Even if he were still liberalish I’m not sure he’d be very funny at this point.  So, while it would be nice for me to think that when his views diverged from mine he ceased being funny, I doubt it.

I can’t wait for “Where Do We Go From Here (8th Inning Edition)?”.  Really all these other posts are just appetizers.

I like Wood, but I rather have a suplemental pick. Remember this is a very talented draft and if Cashman doesn’t sign a type A FA, they will have a very good draft for a change

A lot of those guys just sold out. Eddie Murphy wearing dresses, Chris Rock in that Sandler movie “Boring Old Guys” or whatever it was, etc. Chappelle refused to play the game and basically went Mike Mussina.

They didn’t offer Wood arbitration I thought. So no pick.

[68] True. Sorry. The suplemental pick will be because Vazquez signed with Florida.

[40]
Frog, are you talking about about Rap-Rob?

Lots of funny older comedians. And it’s only a certain generation that relied on outrage or shock-value.  George Burns was terrific.  Don Rickles was funny.  Cleese seems to be aging well.  Pryor, in his comeback, I agree, was pretty good.  Some lose the timing, some don’t.

[70] Bob Hope was never particularly funny, but he was able to sustain that for an incredibly long time.

FWIW, I think Pryor was brilliant in the immediate aftermath of the freebasing cocaine/burning himself up incident (see “Live on the Sunset Strip”).  After that, however, there was a swift and sad decline.

Carlin’s Carnegie Hall concert (circa 1983) is a virtuoso performance.  Pretty sure he was at least in his late 40s.

Is Letterman aging poorly?

[51] OTOH, would re-signing Wood (plus adding a Jenks) have compelled them to reconsider Joba’s role?

[73] I am not sure if signing Wood was a good idea, but getting Jenks is a no brainer.

[74] Amen.  Don’t understand why we’re not in on that in a big way. 

I still say they should see what the price (in prospects) is on Heath Bell.  If the Padres are disarming, and AGon is only worth that dreck from the Red Sox attic, prying Bell (also in walk year I believe) shouldn’t be so hard.  Maybe mid-season…

I’m really amazed that no one has at least asked Cashman if Chamberlain is now being reconsidered. The rotation as is has Nova and Mitre in it. Chamberlain is better than both of those guys, even if he doesn’t improve on what we saw in 2009.

Letterrman’s still funny