Rough game today, huh? Not the way the Yankees drew up Phil Hughes first start of the year no doubt. Here are some thoughts for discussion/open thread:
1. I found this whole Brian Cashman v. New York Mets thing to be pretty amusing. I was a little baffled why Cashman would have opened his mouth about it at all since it just makes him seem like an idiot. If you KNEW he was too broken, why sign him at all? Moshe makes a good point, that the Yankees have a little flexibility to take on additional risk. No one would deny the Mets overused Feliciano. Dan Warthen’s claim that Feliciano “wanted to pitch every day” doesn’t mean that’s actually a good idea. I have never met or heard of a player ask for less playing time. Cashman is smarter than to open his mouth on this, so I’m confused as to why he promptly inserted his foot into it. Theories?
2. The world beater Orioles swept away the Rays this weekend. Now usually I’m pretty accustomed to how things work in this department. The Orioles always seemingly get off to a good start and that also seems to happen against the Yankees a lot. I doubt many people would seriously predict that the O’s were winning the division this year. However, one of these years, with the improvements they’ve been making and with the young talent they’ve assembled, the O’s are going to stick. I don’t think it’s going to be this year though. Watching Zach Britton today reminded me again that they ARE coming.
3. These, first series of the year, narratives kill me. Winning two games in a series is not “getting off to a hot start” in baseball. Pretty much the entire month of April is the “start”, so I won’t be buying into any of the following headlines:
“Toronto on a roll!”
“Miracle Mets are Back!”
“Red Sox flop reveals serious concerns”
“Yankees the clear class of baseball”
It’s a real long season folks, so let’s not get too carried away just yet.
4. Two minor league things you should all be aware of. First and most excitingly (for me anyhow) Minor League Splits is back (kind of). They’ll be rolling out some more features under some new owners and get that important tool back pretty soon. Additionally, Josh Norris of the Trentonian is in Florida following some of the minor league spring training games. You can follow his updates on twitter or read his stuff here.
5. Finally, I thought Peter Gammons had a really good piece today about the importance of multi position players in today’s game. This is something I totally agree with. We know that the Yankees have been developing many of their position prospects to play at multiple spots. Gammons mentions Martin Prado and Ben Zobrist as every day players who are similarly versatile in the field. It certainly gives teams a lot more flexibility and better prepares them to respond to injuries during the season. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more Yankee prospects follow this path.
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4 Responses to 5 Thoughts/Open Thread
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TIQ IQ
1-I didn’t get it either. What Brian said is 100% accurate, but he has to know how that will play publicly coming from him.
2-A great way to look at these snapshots in April is picture the same thing happening in the middle of July. If the Os swept the Rays and the Sox got swept by a good team, it would just be a minor bump in the road. Nothing worth reacting to. 3 games is 3 games, whether it happens in April, July or…dare I say… October.
3-Yep.
4-With Manny and Dellin there, the Trentonian is a must-read blog this year.
5-That’s why I wished the Yanks would have retained Jerry Hairston Jr a few years ago, even though his bat was nothing to write home about.
I might be missing something but I thought Cash was asked a question about what he thought of the Mets using Feliciano so much and in the context of that, he gave the appropriate answer.
Much ado about nothing to me.
never would have taken the ex met.. scott downs was out there and let him go by..i thought he was top on the list ,cash wanted him last year.anyone know why he passed on downs..
I’m really not sure so I’m asking here…wasn’t Downs a Type A free agent?