Sunday, July 30, 2006

Look At All These Roaches

An hour ago, I heard Mr. Dunbar got Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle from the Philadelphia "Would You Like Anything Else With That, Yanks? We've Got a Ryan Howard Burnin' a Hole In Our Pockets..."es for "a couple of minor leaguers." And I was pissed. I had no idea the "WYLAEWT,Y?WGaRHBaHIOP"s would be giving up both of those dudes in one trade.

But as of two minutes ago, the Yanks are actually giving up four minor leaguers. And I looked at Abreu's numbers, and was surprised at how shitty he's doing this year compared to what he usually does. Eight homers? "I wasted my whole day on you for EIGHT dollars?" You know who also has eight homers, and is hitting five points higher than Abreu? Alex Gonzalez. So, overall, whatever, we knew the Yanks would get somebody, at least they're giving up a lot more of their crappy farm system. You know if this deal goes through, they'll have to pay Abreu 22 million bucks through the end of next year? I think Steinbrenner knows he's about to die, so he's just throwing caution to the wind. Or something.

Pat and I got to see another Papi extra innings walk-off win yesterday. Pictures and video of all the fun coming Monday night, because tonight I'll be at Fenway again. Quick note about yesterday: I got to see Papelbon enter the game to his new song, "Wild Thing." When I heard about this, I thought, Well, it is a little cliched and obvious, coming from a movie that surely every baseball team has spent time quoting since the day it came out, and was done with Mitch Williams to the point where he actually gained the song's title as his nickname, but, whatever, who cares, it's a good song, and all that won't make me any less psyched to see Pap come in to a game. However, after seeing it happen live, I don't like it. Again, I like the song, but it doesn't work as a closer song to me. It worked with Rick Vaughn, but that was different. I feel like the song for the everyday closer needs to have buildup. "Wild Thing" just kicks right into the chorus. And later it has those slower parts. Kind of the opposite effect I'm looking for. I want to have the crowd cheering along with the buildup of the song. That way the song and the fans, uh, climax together. Doesn't work with "Wild Thing." Also, Papelbon was never wild.

Comments:
Bill Simmons always complains that most tv networks, when choosing dramatic/lead-in/in-game/whatever music for games, completely ignore the fact that there has been music made after 1980 (with the unfortunate exception of "Welcome to the Jungle," which was(is) an exceptional American rock song until it was pulverized into dust by overplay). So if it's the team choosing "Wild Thing," that figures. If it's Pap choosing it, that's just dumb. Then again, we're not paying him to be a Rhodes scholar. Just get three outs is all we're saying. My point? None. Did you know you can go to Vans.com and custom design your own pair of sneakers? I did it and in 3-5 weeks I will post pics of my superfly creation...enjoy the game tonight...bastard...
 
Here we go...
 
The Yankees didn't really give anything up from their farm system though. All of these guys are below AA and most are struggling. They didn't give up Hughes, Tabata, or Duncan - who are really the only three names in their system. They essentially just took over the Lidle / Abreu contracts.

The scary thing is that these small market teams can keep signing guys like Florida and Delgado, and then trade them for nothing when the contract becomes unmaintainable. I don't think it works as well with pitchers, but it seems to work with OF's and 1B.
 
The Yankees gave up nothing and got a guy that has been one of the best players in baseball over the last ten years, and who is posting a 425 OBP in a down year (compared with your comparison- Alex Gonzalez- who's in the 325 neighborhood).

They're replacing Andy Phillips in the lineup w/ Bobby Abreu and Sidney Ponson with Corey Lidle, and all it cost was a pile of money.

Not much way to look at it but being sucky for the Sox.
 
If Lidle can only post an 8-7 record with a 4.74 ERA in the National League, what do they expect him to do in the real league? He's certainly an upgrade from some of their other pitchers...but he isn't scary in the least.

And Abreu? Congrats to the Yanks on picking up ANOTHER ego for that clubhouse. Woo-hoo...is THAT going to be a fun place to be. :-/ Raul Mondesi says 'hi'.

I'm worried about Theo trading Lowell or Loretta for a rent-a-player or a fielder we don't need when we all know how much we need pitching - but I'm also very happy that it seems Theo has no plans of trading the farm.

I love these trades. In recent history, they haven't really worked for the Yankees and only make them look more obnoxious. :-)
 
I was at Saturday's game, too. I thought I saw you and Pat in the 10th humanoid seats, but I wasn't sure.

The other drawback to "Wild Thing" is the accompanying bad dancing and offbeat clapping. Naked beer bellies jouncing--not good.

I'm going to tonight's game against the Cleveland Indigenous Peoples. I'll get another picture of the white board lineup card on Yawkey Way. Have you seen that yet? I don't know when they started doing that.
 
The Bosnian--First of all, terrible job by missing the reference. There was a song called "Rumors" back in the 80s("Look at all these rumors..."). A parody of that song was made, about a dude who was surrounded by roaches. So, I was just talking about this trade, which at the time was still not done, hence a rumor, hence "Roaches."

Secondly, I thought you were my friend, now you're calling me a zit? That's harsh, man.

Thirdly, you know I'd gladly sacrifice my own team to see the Yanks go down. Meaning, if they somehow could make baseball fair, I'd be all for it. Kinda like the workers at the restaurant at the top of the twin towers. You know some of those dudes got less than minimum wage, and probably weren't eactly referring to the rich peope that had to suffer the same fate as they did as "heroes," if you know what I mean. Too soon?

BSM: As you can see by the beginning of the post, I was definitely pissed when I heard the news. You could ask my girlfriend, she suffered the brunt of it since she was in the car with me at the time. She eventually had to convinve me that the Phillies weren't rooting for the Yankees to win the World Series this year. But, like I said, I looked into it, thought about it, and it's not as bad as I thought. I don't think A-Gon is Bobby Abreu, I'm just saying, for a superstar, his average is lower than A-Gon's, which makes me feel a little better about it. I also heard a guy from Philly talking about how much better they'll be without him. And Cyn's points are valid, too, I think. So, I have found other ways to look at it, and it helps me get through the day. Besides, it seems likee all these big moves backfire on the Yanks, and I can't wait to see what happens with this one.

Empy: Haven't seen the caucasian board. And we were nowhere near the bleachers on Saturday, so it wasn't us. Although I did videotape that CF bleacher section on my zoom, but didn't see you. If you were there, I'll check it again.

Matty: Nice job. Too many topics brought up to respond to, heh heh.
 
//That way the song and the fans, uh, climax together.//

Somehow I rather think that might put Papelbon off his pitching... he's but a boy, you know.
 

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