“perfectly” = no wheelchair to get Mo to the 1st base line the 2028 Old Timer’s day.
 
“refuse to fully divulge” = has been eaten out from the inside by carnivorous midges and is about to vanish in a “whoosh” of sawdust-like particles.

Yankee doctors don’t seem too effective and it seems like every injury takes forever to heal.
What’s happened to CC’s fastball? Is his command issues related to overthrowing?
Does he even warm up as his first inning this year has been 90-91 and later it gets to 93 and tops at 94.  SG, this has to be different than in 2009-10, no?
Seems most of our guys lose velocity after becoming Yankees. Burnett comes to mind, but maybe I’m generalizing too much.

Great and unexpected turn of events last night.  I had to listen Monday on Xm and the Braves announcers were doing their best to denigrate the Yankees. Snide comments about the large salaries, etc.  Got to believe the organziation is still pissed about 96 and 99.  By the way, I have to give Chipper a lot of credit, hitting homers in that park no easy thing and he’s played there the majority of career.  Got to think Aaron may have found it more challenging as well.

I watched the game on MLB last night and Kay noted the unusual home and away games with Braves and stated the scheduling seems strange. This has been a pet peeve with me for years but nobody seems to have any answers for the system or lack of system that designs the yearly schedules. I assume it is outsourced by MLB, but the people that do it are insulated it seems from any second guessing or scrutiny.  I have never read a story from the press on how they go about doing the scheduling except for some talk about balanced vs unbalanced. Anyone got a take?

SG, this has to be different than in 2009-10, no?

Not sure about inning breakdowns, but his average fastball was 0.7 mph down from the same time last year heading into yesterday’s game.  But I’m concerned about his velocity this year and have been all year.

Got to think Aaron may have found it more challenging as well.

Hammer didn’t have to play in Turner Field which I think has generally suppressed HRs slightly.  It was originally built for the 1996 Olympics and converted to a baseball field afterwards. 

Fulton County Stadium was a bit more of a HR friendly venue.  It was often called the Launching Pad.

Seems most of our guys lose velocity after becoming Yankees

The Yankees tend to sign guys who aren’t all that young anymore (not that CC is old).  Pitches often lose velocity as they age.

There are examples of guys picking up velocity.  They tend to be young.  The example that springs to mind is David Robertson.

Hasn’t Nova added velocity too?

Those guys came up with the Yankees.
I think the idea is that pitchers sign with the Yankees and gravitate to about 91.5 mph.
We should make a list; the (possibly entirely inaccurate) sense is that it’s not all older pitchers and that the drop in velocity isn’t just a bit each year, as one might expect.

No mention of the 6 run inning. No mention of the Grand Freaking Slam. No mention of Lou Gehrig, Alex Rodfuckingriguez, or the Modamned record.

I hate ESPN. I hate them so very, very much.

Maybe nothing about the record tying grand slam but I did see on their website that they had a 5 minute segment with Vanilla Ice on Sports Center.

I think velocity tends to peak really early, like age 21-22 early.  So it stands to reason that anyone the Yankees acquire will not throw as hard as they did prior to their acquisition. 

It feels like a Yankee thing, but look at Tim Lincecum’s velocity drop right after his MLB debut or look at Felix Hernandez this year, or look at all sorts of pitchers from all sorts of teams.

As Rob notes, there are exceptions.  But it’s generally a safe bet that when you get a pitcher he won’t be throwing as hard as he did before you got him.

Do people really still watch ESPN?  I don’t even know what channel it is on my cable.

Anybody seen the pix of the Polish riot police quelling the hooligans in Warsaw?  THOSE guys are stormtroopers.

Do people really still watch ESPN?  I don’t even know what channel it is on my cable.

No, but I still use ESPN.com.

[11] That.  Mostly for its soccer news.

I have never read a story from the press on how they go about doing the scheduling except for some talk about balanced vs unbalanced.

I read an article on the third party who does the scheduling years ago (late 1990s, I think). They made it sound like it was almost impossible to do, with all of the moving pieces involved. So I chalk stuff like the home and away with the Braves to that - that it was the only way to do the schedule. Now, the Yankees opening on the road against their rivals all the time…I somehow still blame Selig.

[13] The fact that Yankee road games on Wednesdays when it is a getaway day, almost never seem to be afternoon games so that teams can maximize revenue (more fans at night games) is annoying.  That of course may have no basis in fact and Yankees may play same proportion of day/night games as everyone else doesn’t matter.

Pretty sure I read somewhere reputable once that this was fact, but I could be wrong.

[3] According to wikipedia, the Braves are one of the teams without an official rival, so we are probably filling in that portion of the schedule for them.

[14] Is John Sterling reputable?

13-Brian- your way more generous than myself on this. I’m not normally a conspiracy guy but methinks Bud Selig doesn’t like handing the WS trophy over to the Yankees. He’s had to do it five times.  The Yankee schedule always seems to have a lot of anomolies that don’t seem to be particularly balanced.  The anonomous nature of how schedules are done let alone who does it really baffles me. Particulary in this age of blogs and instant information. MLB network doesn’t say much either on this as far as I know, but then why would they? Anybody besides me getting sick of Kevin Millar’s behavior? Al Leiter on the other hand is great IMO.
Anybody know why Slade Heathcott not yet playing, speaking of slow healers. They ought to commission an award for slow healing and name it in memory of Nick Johnson.

Anybody know why Slade Heathcott not yet playing, speaking of slow healers.

Fairly major shoulder surgery last summer.  I think Extended Spring Training is almost complete and when done he’s going to be playing in Tampa.  He’s on Tampa’s roster…I imagine he’ll be playing soon.  I hope.

Edit: Can’t find much, but here’s something Chad Jennings posted posted back in March:

The Yankees other elite center field prospect is Slade Heathcott who’s out with a shoulder injury. I know there was an earlier report that Heathcott would be ready in May, but Newman said today he’s not expected back until June. Either way, he’s not going to be ready to open the season.

So since March he was supposed to start playing this month.

15 Braves used to be Townie’s official rival.  Boston-> Milwaukee->Atlanta

I think that’s the third major surgery he’s had and he’s generally been hurt overall for other reasons.  I don’t have any real hopes of him playing past AA in any significant capacity.

Yeah, I’m thinking multiple shoulder injuries for a baseball player are generally not conducive to a good career.

I kind of remember Jason Heyward being a physically big, physical looking guy as a rookie, now he looks like a high school kid in his big brothers uniform. 

B-ref has him at 6’5” 240.  If he is 6’5”,  I would guess the guy I saw on TV yesterday could have been at most 215-220 lbs, but it wouldn’t surprise me to find out he was much lighter, and even several inches shorter. 

His body has changed before the 2011 season, and it doesn’t look like the body changes guys usually make after they stick in the show.  Some guys add some girth, some guys add muscle mass, but very few guys get skinnier and more lanky.

It’s possible that illness or injury have led him to compete with a different body after his 2010 campaign. If that’s not the case, I wouldn’t be surprised if Heyward had some interesting opinions on supplements and diet, maybe it’s been covered a million times already.

I don’t know that he’s a viable corner outfielder with this body, (or at least a desirable one) and it will be interesting to see if gets bigger again, or if he continues to try to compete looking like a tall 14 year old kid wearing a Jason Heyward mask.

I know it’s Off Subject, sorry, it’s just been bugging me. nevermind.