WasWatching.com Water Cooler Talk 11/19/08
Posted by Steve L. on November 19th, 2008 · Comments (27)
Feel free to use this post as a place for you to comment on anything Yankees-related (or within reach of tagging the bag of being Yankees-related on a decent slide) today. It could be a casual conversation offering, or, something you saw in the news, or something very detailed that you want to share that’s within the territory of Yankeeland.
Or, comment on something that someone else has posted here in the comments…
Have fun. Play nice. And, remember, keep it Yankees-focused.
Anyone else hear Swisher on the FAN yesterday? Sounds like a Giambi-type guy
Can you believe that Bernie is still talking about wanting to play?
Can you believe that Bernie is still talking about wanting to play?
———————
I hadn’t heard that. Wow, he might want to get over it already or else he’ll end up old and bitter like Ty Cobb or Willie Mays.
IMO, Mays is bitter for a different reason…
As for Bernie, this snippet’s taken from Newsday;
Bernie Williams, part-time musician and now actor, still won’t commit full-time to retirement. Williams, who will have a featured role in the upcoming movie, “Keeper of the Pinstripes,” remains hopeful that his baseball career is not quite over.
“I’ll be 75 and still not announce my retirement,” Williams said last night at a pre-production party in Manhattan. “I’m still within this two- or three-year period where I can say, ‘You know what? Let me just work out … ‘”
Williams, who turned 40 in September, has kept himself in shape and insists that he’s only two or three weeks away from being major-league ready if a team did call. And what if he did hear from a GM shortly before spring training?
“I don’t know,” Williams said. “I’d think very long and hard about it though.”
IMO, Mays is bitter for a different reason…
—————-
Understand completely. I really didn’t mean to seem insensitive and I know Mays’s reason is 200% legitimate.
Having said that, sometimes it’s best to let go of the bitterness and just enjoy your memories and your place as one of the game’s most beloved players. He doesn’t have to forgive the slights and injustices, he merely has to recognize that in the short time he’s got left, it’s probably healtier to go out with love than with anger.
Bernie too.
*healtier = healthier
From the NY Post
“I’m looking to keeping my options open, keep working out,” explained Williams, who last played in 2006. “It’s been a great two years. I’ve had the opportunity to do things that I never really had the opportunity to do when I was playing. I had the chance to travel. Take my kids to school, watch my kid graduate from high school, a lot of things that I never would have never had the opportunity to do if I had been playing the game.”
He still has a hunger for the game and never officially retired. Williams is one of the most popular Yankees of all time. In 2006 he batted .281. Williams could be the perfect mentor for a young player like Brett Gardner, who batted .228 in his 127 Yankee at-bats last season. Williams, looking fit and solid, said it would only take a “matter of weeks” to get into baseball shape.
Williams’ musical career, though, is soaring and his business agent Steve Fortunato said that is where Williams is concentrating his efforts.
Sounds like that even though Bernie’s not officially retired, he’s in that mindset.
From Rosenthal:
“The Padres told the Yankees a Jake Peavy deal is possible even without Phil Hughes. They’ve scouted Hughes anyway, but he’s off-limits.”
Anything from Rosenthal is dubious at best. But, assuming this is true, the Yanks should not add years and money to Peavy’s existing deal. He either comes to NY with his contract or not. There’s no reason to overpay for him.
Of course there is a deal without Hughes, but that deal would also include some combination of Cano, A-Jax or Montero PLUS giving Peavy a Santana-like deal. I don’t think anybody wants Peavy that bad.
Anyone think the Royals would be willing to move DeJesus now that they’ve traded for Crisp? Any thoughts on what you think it would take to get him?
IMO, Mays is bitter for a different reason…
============
i’m trying to think of what you’re talking about here, maybe because I’m younger I missed something? Or maybe it’s just not coming to mind? Either way I’m curious
Coco Crisp to the Royals?
Remember when the debate used to be Melky vs. Coco?
bfriley76 – where would you play DeJesus? He’s a better LF than a CF, no?
I haven’t looked closely at the difference between his CF and LF defense, I just thought it might be and interesting option now that the Royals have excess outfielders. Just spit-balling really. I’d have to look deeper to see if it was something worth seriously considering.
i’m trying to think of what you’re talking about here, maybe because I’m younger I missed something? Or maybe it’s just not coming to mind? Either way I’m curious
———————-
Willie Mays endured tremendous levels of institutional racism in baseball. Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby were the first two guys to break the color barrier but the racism continued throughout that first wave of first and second generation of baseball integration. And I’m not just talking about in baseball but in life too.
“Remember when the debate used to be Melky vs. Coco?”
ha! yeah, turns out it doesnt matter because they both stink on ice.
Willie Mays endured tremendous levels of institutional racism in baseball. Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby were the first two guys to break the color barrier but the racism continued throughout that first wave of first and second generation of baseball integration. And I’m not just talking about in baseball but in life too.
===============
ah
its amazing how much the world has changed in that brief amount of time
“Remember when the debate used to be Melky vs. Coco?”
ha! yeah, turns out it doesnt matter because they
both stink on ice.
______________________
Except that Coco will lead off and play CF in the majors next year, and Melky will likely be at SWB, if not a backup somewhere else.
AS for Melkman VS Coco” I am not a Cereal” Crisp, gimme a break. Coco is a great defensive centerfielder, but offensively? He was a comparative Black Hole on a team of Youk, Dustin the Wolf Boy, Lowell and Big Flapi. Melky was a good centerfielder who really lost it offensively, but some AAAA team will give him a chance as a starter. On a good team he is a fourth outfielder at best, then again Coco was an odd man out in a great team so there is not much of a difference though Crispie is a better player than Melkman……
Crisp batted .315 in the second half of the year. All of his numbers were up closer to what he accomplished in Cleveland when his OPS+ was way over 100. Obviously he lost something since then, but no team would prefer Melky to Coco, given a choice between the two.
My point stands, Crispie is not Beltran or anything close. As an aggregate , Crispie hasn’t been an offensive juggernaut with the REd Sox so much so that Ellsbury became the golden boy with everyone up in New England. Crisp is better than Ellsbury( we have a larger sample size to see that and Ellsbury is still a sapling yet) BUT makes what 5,5 mill more!!?? The difference ‘tween Coco and Melkman is about 5 mill in salary so I beg to differ.No team? If Coco is offered for McClouth and Melky is, the Pirates are going with the lesser and cheaper coice. Not every team has Yanke/Red Sox/Met money so I don’t buy that argument though money aside I prefer Crispie though there are small market teams that don’t want to outlay for a veritable hole in the lineup.
No one said Crisp was Beltran. And I meant to say that if money were no object, any GM would prefer Coco to Melky.
At least Melky didn’t cost the Yankees Kelly Shoppach, and (then big-time prospect) Andy Marte (who the Red Sox could easily have used to acquire someone else). Talk about a lopsided trade.
At least Melky didn’t cost the Yankees Kelly Shoppach, and (then big-time prospect) Andy Marte (who the Red Sox could easily have used to acquire someone else). Talk about a lopsided trade.
————–
No doubt. The Red Sox thought they were getting one thing and ended up with something less than what they expected. That being said, Marte sucks complete shit.