I lost this post once, so all I've got is a list of links.
It turns out the Yankees spend way more money than anyone else. Does that mean Yankees fans should feel guilty about it? I know one thing, all that money can't buy Brett Gardner a sense of humor. C'mon buddy, lighten up! Increased payroll also increases expectations, evidenced by this image from nomaas.org:
Due to the Yankees' fairly average record so far, the new Yankee Stadium may be making more headlines than the team itself. And they are not the good kinds of headlines. They've made some poor decisions with the stadium but they seem to be trying to respond to some of the harsher criticisms.
This is pretty cool - photo gallery of the old stadium being torn down.
Other things that interest me (I've got to get to work, so these are quick) -
Teams gaming the disabled list rules?
Terrible defense - Scouts say A-Rod is a statue, but that's OK because, "A bad defense is good for business, because fewer outs made = more plate appearances for the other team = more concessions sold = PROFIT!"
--PROBABLE PITCHERS--
Liriano v. P. Hughes
Blackburn v. J. Chamberlain
Slowey v. A. Burnett
Perkins v. A. Pettitte
I think that every time I've written Pettitte's last name I've used at least one too few letter t's.
Can't wait to see Hughes in action. He hasn't been on top of his game so far this year, and I'd love to see if the Twins can turn their suddenly hot offense on him and the home-run prone Yankee Stadium. (Over 10% of fly balls off Hughes have been long balls - but that stat reeks of small sample size.)
Also - anyone know what happened to Hughes slider? FanGraphs claims that he completely ditched it for the cutter, which he now throws almost 27 percent of the time. Interestingly, (or not), Hughes throws his fastball less than 50 percent of the time so far this year. That number was at 66 in 2007, when he made 13 starts for the Bronx Bombers.
Should be a fun game. Expect to see me in the game threads.
Top Jimmy was on the radio last night (the dangers of listening to the Twins game driving around - you get stuck with KSTP afterwards) ripping into New Yankee Stadium (despite having no been there yet) because they spent a bunch of money to improve the lockerrooms, dugouts, etc. but didn't bother to improve the press box. Yes, because that's what all of us are really concerned about...
Anyway, they started taking calls and that got me to thinking. Wouldn't it be great if the Nation flooded their phone bank during a Top Jimmy segment and asked a bunch of questions that, to the average fan might be confusing, but would be subtle digs at him?
For example:
"Which nickname do you prefer: Top Jimmy or Shecky?"
"If you have to rate each member of the bullpen on a poultry scale, what would their ratings be?"
"With CC Sabathia now in the AL East, which AL Central player now has thighs that most resemble butterball turkeys?"
I won't be watching tonight, but I have to wonder how Bremer will react to the new stadium. Will he be talking about how this will be great next year in MPLS? Will he be talking about how it's a launching pad? Will he talk about how the seats behind the plate are empty?
Damn, I'm gonna miss out on that palaver.
Does this go here or in the Keeping up with ex-Twins? From one of the links above:
Apparently, Manny was Ortiz's supplier.
I will be breaking my New Yankee Stadium cherry on Saturday afternoon. Hopefully the boys show up and play a good game. I would like nothing more than watching Joba fist pump after K's while he's down 4 runs. Took out a small loan, only $84 for a $90 face value seat. A few $9 beers and a Twins victory would be a good day.