Perfect Pitch Communications: The Nub

��<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> <head> <meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=unicode"> <meta name=ProgId content=Word.Document> <meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12"> <meta name=Originator content="Microsoft Word 12"> </head> <body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='tab-interval:.5in'> <div class=WordSection1> January 2009 Archive <o:p></o:p> January 2009 Archive <o:p></o:p> (Posted 1/31/08)<o:p></o:p> Two Respected Pros Hurt Themselves<o:p></o:p> Two good guys - one in NY politics, the other in baseball - have suffered self-inflicted wounds that could prove professionally fatal to the politician.  He is Governor David Paterson, who allowed his selection of a senator to bat for Hillary Clinton to degenerate into a media melee.  Joe Torre hurt himself less, but drew blood, by agreeing to play ball with SI s Tom Verducci, author of the book The Yankee Years <o:p></o:p> We worked briefly with Paterson some years ago when he was mulling a run for city office.  His intelligence, wit and candor about vision-related insecurities were impressive, less so his ultra-cautious decision-making.  Torre, of course, earned the respect of fans everywhere because he carried himself with dignity through the many highs and few lows of his 12 years with the Yankees, indeed, through his entire career.  <o:p></o:p> Unlike Torre, who never sought attention, Paterson apparently succumbed to spotlight-itis.  The privilege of choosing Hillary s successor gave him enormous transitory power, to which he couldn t resist clinging.  The longer he put off announcing his choice - would it be Caroline Kennedy? - the more attention he received.  The extra innings showed Kennedy to be error-prone, and allowed the inevitable tension between hired PR consultants and staff people to tear the gov s team apart.  The resulting contradictions pitched to the media about Carolyn s status hurtled out of Paterson s control.  Tom Robbins provides a devastating game summary in this week s Village Voice: <o:p></o:p> Nothing that the governor or his people say about the entire affair is to be believed.  They lied all Wednesday night (1/21) when the rumors about Kennedy's exit from the race first surfaced. Then they lied some more on Thursday. It was a nanny problem, they said.  Taxes.  A bad marriage.  This<a href="../../../../../Users/dickstar/Downloads/Documents/PerfectPitch%20blog/the_nub.html">file:///C:/Users/dickstar/Downloads/Documents/PerfectPitch%20blog/the_nub.html</a> from a politician who confessed to affairs with women on the state payroll.  Kennedy's people fired back and, at day's end, Paterson sued for peace, admitting there had been no such last-minute surprises about her. <o:p></o:p> The box score shows Paterson has made enemies of: Caroline (and the Kennedys), and Mike Bloomberg, who supported Caroline.  He s made friends of: Chuck Schumer (the appoiutee s alleged sponsor), and Kirsten Gillibrand and her mentor Al D Amato, neither of whom are popular in vote-heavy NYC.  No way does the governor come out on top in that rundown.   <o:p></o:p> More significantly, Paterson s miscues have strengthened AG Andrew Cuomo s poll numbers to the point where he will be tempted - his reported disclaimer notwithstanding - to take on Paterson in the Dem gov primary next year.  Cuomo s rationale: the accidental governor, like Caroline, just wasn t clutch under pressure.  Paterson has time to regroup.  But he can t allow any replays between now and election time next year.<o:p></o:p> Although negligible by comparison, Torre s wound is a cut in stature.  Much has been written questioning Torre s decision to tell tales about Carl ( Everybody hated him ) Pavano, Alex ( A-Fraud ) Rodriguez, etc.  More damaging, however, is the book s suggestion of a streak of self-pity that leaves both Joe and Yankees GM Brian Cashman diminished.  Here is an excerpt, describing Torre s feelings after Cashman failed to pitch hard to get the Steinbrenners to give him a two-year contract following the 07 season:<o:p></o:p> I thought Cash was an ally, I really did," Torre says. "You know, we had some differences on coaches, and the usefulness of the coaches. I know he �didn't think much of (Ron) Guidry. And [former bench coach Don] Zimmer.  You know, Zimmer �didn't trust Cash, and I disagreed with Zimmer vehemently for the longest time.  Then, you know, you start thinking about things ... I have a, I don't want to say it's a weakness, but I want to trust people.  And I do trust people until I'm proved wrong.  And it's not going to keep me from trusting somebody else tomorrow, because it's the only way I can do my job."<o:p></o:p> It s hard to believe Torre agreed to do the book to gain a measure of vindication.  He didn t need it.  Nor did he need the money the book will make.  Whatever the reason - and the latter is the more likely - many of Joe s fans can only wish he had taken a walk rather than playing along with the book offer.                                     - o -     (The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.) <o:p></o:p>  <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> (Posted: 1/27/09)<o:p></o:p> Team Obama Taking Sides in Mideast<o:p></o:p> Team Obama s first-inning at-bat as part of the deadly game in the Middle East has ended, with the score Israel 3, Palestinians 1.<o:p></o:p> The scoring, based on the verbal swings of the Team s top man, is offered as a service to George Mitchell, the former lead investigator into baseball drug use.  As we know, he is now assigned to the chewed-up field in the Middle East.  Mitchell must persuade both Israel and the Palestinians that the Obama team will be an unbiased umpire in the effort to bring the sides together.  How tough a sell that will be was confirmed when Obama stepped to the plate last Thursday.  <o:p></o:p> Fans were waiting to see if he would hit straight away or toward one side or the other.  Would he call attention to such things as Hamas rocket attacks, arms-smuggling into Gaza, suicide bombings, the vow to destroy the Jewish state?  Or, on the other hand, would he deplore Israel s recent three-week attack on Gaza, the expansion of illegal settlements on the West Bank, the blockade of humanitarian aid to the Gazans, the unilateral breaking of the previous cease-fire, etc.<o:p></o:p> What Obama did was produce runs for Israel by hitting out at Hamas for (1) rocket attacks and (2) the smuggling and then, rather than deplore the attack on Gaza, he (3) defended the Israelis right to defend themselves. The president did make a pitch for humanitarian aid for Gazans, enabling Team Palestine to scratch out the theoretical run that kept it from being blanked.<o:p></o:p> The game has a long way to go, and it might end in a tie.  But we re obviously far from that now; indeed, since Barack s first-inning statement, Team Obama has thrown its gloves behind a last-minute Bush/U.S. commitment to help Israel prevent arms from entering Gaza.  As the scoreboard-watching continues it s clear Mitchell will need a change in stance by the skipper if he is to succeed as peacemaker. <o:p></o:p> President Obama s bipartisan approach, so dismaying to progressives, received an indirect defense from Princeton prof. Melissa Harris-Lacewell on Bill Moyers Journal over the weekend.  Harris-Lacewell suggested that Obama has to do whatever it takes to prevent the Republicans from badly eroding the Dem majority in the 2010 Congressional elections.  She recalled what happened to Bill Clinton in 1994, two years after his election: the GOP regained control of the Senate and House, setting the stage for the Newt Gingrich-led conservative comeback.  It could well be a persuasive rationale for what historian Thomas Frank (another guest on the Moyers show) insists is the chump s game of centrism.                                        -     -     - We have Mets VP Jeff Wilpon to thank for providing us with the laugh of the month.  He said the team hadn t expressed interest in signing Manny Ramirez because (GM) Omar (Minaya) hasn t brought it to me as an option.   The Mets have one of the weakest batch of corner outfielders in the majors two (Daniel Murphy and Fernando Tatis) are converted infielders, another (Ryan Church) can field but fans too often for a 270s hitter with only middling power.  Why would Omar not want to try for Manny?  There mu$t be a reason.  <o:p></o:p> Given the alternatives, Newsday s Wallace Matthews suggests that Mets fans brace for disappointments:  Think about that the next time the Mets need a big hit late in a game, you re looking for Manny Ramirez to bound out of the dugout to save the day, and out comes . . . Marlon Anderson. <o:p></o:p> Fashion alert:  Black baseball caps with White Sox lettering are fast becoming popular headgear in NYC.  A safe guess: Most of the wearers are fans of the Chisox fan in the White House.                                       - o - (The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.) <o:p></o:p>  <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> (Posted: 1/24/09)<o:p></o:p>  Barack, Sox, Bombers Lead Popularity League<o:p></o:p> President Obama may be a White Sox fan, but he ranks with the Red Sox and Yanks in the popularity league.  Just as polls show Barack gained the highest approval rating ever recorded as president-elect, so, based on surveys as well as home-and-away attendance figures, the Bosox and Bombers are the teams baseball fans most want to see.  The difference, of course, is that popularity in politics means people are rooting for you, in baseball, it can mean being the team or teams fans love to hate.<o:p></o:p> Obama, so new on the field, is not in the same league with our three presidential icons George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.  Each of the three earned his legendary status by guiding the country through crisis the fight for and challenge of independence, the Civil War and the Great Depression.  If Obama deals successfully with our present economic crisis, he might rank just behind the big three, along with the likes of Thomas Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt. <o:p></o:p> Obama received an 82 percent approval rating in a CNN/Opinion Research poll before taking office.  That compared to 67 percent transition score for Bill Clinton and 65 percent for George W. Bush.  Obama also had a margin in double-digit range over the senior George Bush and Ronald Reagan.  <o:p></o:p> Fans knew Obama was serious about his baseball when he agreed to state his preference for the White Sox over the Cubs and to knock the scene at Wrigley Field in the process:  "You go to Wrigley& you have a beer, beautiful people up there.  People aren't watching the game.  It's not serious.  White Sox, that's baseball."    <o:p></o:p> Although Reagan and two Bushes were real baseball fans, the prize for true spectator fanaticism belongs to Richard Nixon, who said this about his affection for the game:<o:p></o:p> "I never leave a game before the last pitch, because in baseball, as in life and especially politics, you never know what will happen."<o:p></o:p>  Between 1923 and 2000, it was safe to predict Yankees success: the Bombers won more than a third of the World Series held in that period 26 or 76.  The Yanks also hold the record for most appearances in Series history (dating back to 1903) by far 39 (of 104).   <o:p></o:p> The newly nationally popular Red Sox are Papi-come-latelys by comparison: seven WS titles in 11 appearances.  Their last WS loss: the memorable battle with the Mets in 86.                                             -     -     - For many, the highlight reel of Inauguration day showed a departure, rather than an arrival. Garrison Keillor, who saw the happening live, described it on Salon:<o:p></o:p> The great moment came& as the mob flowed slowly across the grounds.  I heard loud cheers behind me and there on the giant screen was the Former Occupant and Mrs. Bush saying goodbye to the Obamas in the parking lot behind the Capitol, the Marine helicopter behind them.  The crowd stopped and stared, a little stunned at the reality of it.<o:p></o:p> They saw it on a screen in front of the Capitol and it was actually happening on the other side.  The Bushes went up the stairs, turned, waved and disappeared into the cabin, and people started to cheer in earnest.  When the blades started turning, the cheering got louder, and when the chopper lifted up above the Capitol and we saw it in the sky heading for the airport, a million jubilant people waved and hollered for all they were worth.  It was the most genuine, spontaneous, universal moment of the day. It was like watching the ice go out on the river.                                         - o - (The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.) <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> (Posted: 1/20/09)<o:p></o:p> The Dirt on Caroline s Political Uniform<o:p></o:p> DOUBLE STEAL said a tabloid headline about the $1.2 billion and $6.3 million the city handed out in tax-free-bond dollars to the Yankees and Mets last week.  The term implicates NYC skipper Mike Bloomberg who has the clout financial and political to make things happen.  We know that Bloomberg has used his clout to do more than allow the ball teams to steal public dollars for what is largely private benefit.  He and 29 members of the City Council also stole the right of NYC residents to vote on the term-limits extension. <o:p></o:p> So much for the record book.  The word now is that Mike has another theft in mind.  Wayne Barrett reports in the latest Village Voice that the mayor may have co-opted Governor David Paterson in the Bloomberg-backed campaign to get Caroline Kennedy named to the senate seat being vacated by Hillary Clinton.  If the campaign is successful, Caroline could be expected to become a Bloomberg-friendly senator who, as a key early Barack supporter, might just - in Barrett s words - get Obama to sit on his hands in the 2009 (mayoral) election. <o:p></o:p> For playing ball with Mike, if he follows through in that game, Paterson would have a key (non-Democratic) friend of his own when he runs as the incumbent in the 2010 gubernatorial election, possibly against Rudy Giuliani.  Paterson s problem - as detailed by Barrett - is Caroline and the taint her stint in the political field has brought to her reputation.  Not only has she been swinging like an amateur in response to media lobs, she permitted her record as a player of note to be puffed way out of proportion (abetted  hugely by the NY Times), a record with some embarrassing negatives, like a failure to vote in half the elections since 1988.<o:p></o:p> Some day later this week, Paterson will likely announce his senatorial choice.  It may have been a coincidence that, after Barrett s article appeared, the governor said he was doing some new thinking about whom he should appoint.  Whatever triggered that do-over decision, it suggests Paterson knows his performance at this at-bat is a test of  leadership mettle one that could profoundly affect his future..                              -     -     -     Interesting stats involving, among others, C.C. Sabathia, Johan Santana, Josh Beckett, A.J. Burnett and Mike Pelfrey emerged from a recent interview former Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson gave to fullcountpitch.com.  Illustrating the importance of pitch counts, Peterson noted that batters only hit .200 against Santana during the 25-to-50-pitch period of his performances.  But that BA goes up to .284 when Johan reaches 100 pitches.  For AJ Burnett and Josh Beckett, who seldom are asked to go over 100, the differences between 25/50 and 76/100 are .232/.298 (AJ) and .224/,292 (Josh)  Sabathia is the dramatic exception to the losing-gas rule.  His BA yield between 25 and 50 pitches is .214.  When he goes over 100, he holds batters to .179.  Now we know yet another reason besides W-L and durability stats why the Yankees were willing to give up as much as they did to get CC.<o:p></o:p> Peterson identified the main reason Pelfrey isn t as effective as the Mets would like: batters seldom miss making contact with the strikes he throws.  That adds up, not only to few strikeouts, but the obvious alternative - more balls in play that can become hits.  Batters swung and missed at less than 8 percent of Pelfrey s strike-zone pitches.  Mike s saving grace, according to Peterson, is his ability to induce ground balls.  In that category, he s 15th  best in the majors.                                        - o - (The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.) <o:p></o:p>  <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> (Posted: 1/17/09)<o:p></o:p> Make Way for Prez Barack and& Baseball <o:p></o:p> Three days to President Obama and three-plus weeks to pitchers and catchers: life can t get much better than this.  For many of us, anticipation is the best part of imminent change, the new departure seldom matching our hoped-for delight.  Barack s democratic coronation Tuesday will mark the end of his triumphal pre-season; too soon he ll be tested in games that count and will start hearing boos.    <o:p></o:p> The Mets Omar Minaya could have been speaking for most baseball GMs when he looked ahead the other day and said that, barring unforeseen setbacks, We feel very good going into the year.   Why not feel good?  No one s lost a game yet. In a like upbeat mode, Hillary Clinton spoke of Obama s arrival on the global field as the dawning of this new American moment. <o:p></o:p> For Team Obama, the new moment will surely seem much like the old: tricky questions requiring careful answers, like how best to deal with the threat posed by Iran?.  As a candidate, Obama said that, even with nuclear arms potential, Iran did not represent a threat to the U.S.  He thought it might be possible to reach out and get the Iranians to play ball with America.  As incoming president, he has changed his stance, He now says, as Hillary Clinton did this week, that all options are on the table with regard to Iran.  The emphasis in the response suggests that, at least at the start, the new White House team will be field a foreign policy as combative as its predecessor.<o:p></o:p> NY Times David Sanger says new presidential teams need time to get a handle on the spook games they ve inherited and the info coming out of those games.  There are covert actions, Sanger says Obama will be presiding over before he fully understands them.   When John F. Kennedy was in a similar situation, he found himself the fall guy for the Bay of Pigs debacle.  Until Leon Panetta gets into position at the CIA - an approval process that could take time the kind of mischief-making traceable to the U.S. occurring in places like Bolivia, Venezuela and Georgia, as well as Iran, may well continue.  If that happens, the boos aimed at Obama will drown out the memory of these highly hopeful days of anticipation.                                          -     -     - The Red Sox are the reclamation champs of the hot stove season.  The signings of 41-year-old John Smoltz and 38-year-old Takashi Saito give them two potential comeback-of-the-year pitchers as well as the taking-a-risk-on-damaged-old-guys title.  The Sox also took advantage of the bargain deal accepted by 33-year-old Mark Kotsay.  We suggested not long ago that Kotsay who made $7.3 million last season could be had for a few million this time around.  He signed for $1.5 million (plus incentives), a chump-change figure for the Yanks and one even the straitened Mets could have afforded.  Always on the lookout for bargains, Omar Minaya missed one in the versatile Kotsay.  Omar probably had to pass on Smoltz and Saito.  After wasting millions on Moises Alou and Orlando Hernandez, among others, he has likely been barred from further old-timer signings by Fred Wilpon.   <o:p></o:p> Free-agent-signing predictions is a fool s game.  Yet, that Atlanta HAD to sign Derek Lowe was clear, a prophetic no-brainer.  The same can be said about the Dodgers and Manny.  A three-year, $75 million contract should get it done.  But don t hold us to those numbers.   <o:p></o:p>                                      - o - (The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.) <o:p></o:p>  <o:p></o:p> (Posted 1/13/09)<o:p></o:p> Ball Fans, Taxpayers Can't Follow Their Money<o:p></o:p> Baseball fans would like to know how their teams are doing financially, and where the money is going into the farm system, free agent signings, stadium improvements, or the corporate pocket.  Taxpayers have a similar wish - to know where the various federal bailout dollars their money is going and has gone.<o:p></o:p> Everyone in those two groups is out of luck.  Forbes magazine publishes annual team valuations, but those are profit-and-loss estimates, not authenticated figures, which are kept private. They make the(ir) numbers up, scoffs Rob Manfred, an MLB exec v.p.  It s important to realize that the(y) are not real in any sense of the word. <o:p></o:p> At least Forbes provides baseball s fans with estimated figures.  Taxpayers, who should have access to how their money was distributed, are left in the dark by the people responsible.  A Government Accountability (GAO) report released last month said, in effect, there was no way to monitor where the bailout money went:  It blamed the program s rapid (startup) pace which hampered watchdog efforts, meaning government and taxpayers may not be adequately protected.   The Treasury Department s inspector general echoes the GAO s distress call:  We don t know right now how we re going to do proper oversight of this thing, he says.<o:p></o:p> The closest thing to oversight available to the public has been provided by Bloomberg,net  An analysis, by reporter Mark Pittman, suggests that members of Congress are almost as ignorant as the rest of us because they were snookered by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.  Pittman reminds us that the secretary sold the program to Congress as a way to buy securities that had fallen in market value. (But then) Paulson shifted his emphasis to direct capital injections to banks to prevent the financial sector from foundering. <o:p></o:p> The Bloomberg scorecard lists Paulson s injections as  purchases of 174 shares in a range of banks from hugely profitable Goldman Sachs to comparatively tiny Saigon National Bank, of Westminster, CA.  Pittman says those buys will yield a fraction of a return to the taxpayers than one that could have been negotiated by private investors like Warren Buffett (who exacted a 21 percent stake in Goldman Sachs compared to a 2.7 percent now held by Paulson and the government).  <o:p></o:p> Paulson defended his deal in a Bloomberg TV interview: We did successfully& design a program that would& get (us back to) normal market conditions.  Supporters of Paulson like the NY Times David Brooks agree: Most critics acknowledge, he says, that the financial system is not in the extremely fragile state it was in a few months ago.   While conceding on the Lehrer NewsHour that there hasn t been enough oversight, Brooks offered a rationale for the disappearance of hundreds of millions of bailout  dollars:  Let's remember: You spend $350 billion quickly, that's really hard to do well. I mean, in wartime, when you have to do a lot quickly, you get a lot of waste. <o:p></o:p> Why is Congressional oversight so hard to do?  That s a question the media should require Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to answer.<o:p></o:p> Baseball owners argue that fans shouldn t care how teams spend their money, as long as they are receiving an attractive product.  That may not be a persuasive argument in Pittsburgh or Kansas City, where teams are on tight budgets and fans on short rations.  In cities like New York and Boston, owners are willing to spend extravagantly because the operational bottom line does not matter.  It s maximizing the long-term value of the franchise that counts.  Hence, there s apparently little point - for fans and, especially, for investors to second-guess the Yanks superstar deals.  <o:p></o:p> Those deals do serve to drive more frugal owners crazy, however.  The Mets Fred Wilpon looks tight-fisted compared to his cross-town counterparts, the Steinbrenners.  There s a sense - right or wrong - that Wilpon cares only about fielding a competitive team, not a dominant one, which is a consistent Yankees goal.  Relatedly, the Forbes valuations indicate that MLB teams make enough operating money most years to obviate any of their being out of pennant contention before the season starts.  Because they seem to be slipping into the non-contending category, the Braves must know they can t let prime free agent Derek Lowe get aw<o:p></o:p>                                   - o - (The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.) <o:p></o:p>  <o:p></o:p> (Posted: 1/10/09)<o:p></o:p> Bias at Bat in Coverage of Deadly Game in Gaza<o:p></o:p> Attentive fans know that beat reporters, whether watching the White House or the White Sox, become semi-embedded with the players they re covering.  Familiarity often breeds& team spirit.  When was the last time you read anything negative about the Chisox s African-American GM Ken Williams?  Or the newly elected national leader who wore the White Sox cap while he was vacationing in Hawaii?  <o:p></o:p> The old reporting standard of calling political games the way Tony Kubek called Yankees games (for which he took a lot of corporate hits) - straight down the middle - has given way to a more grooved approach.  The reporters swing in support of the home team over the opposition, something that used to be rationalized under the label analysis.   That s less the case now, particularly noticeable during the conflict in Gaza. <o:p></o:p> The other day, the NY Times ran a seemingly standard front-page piece by Jerusalem correspondent Steven Erlanger.  It told what Israel was trying to accomplish militarily in Gaza how it hoped to avoid civilian casualties, resolved to rely less on air strikes, etc.  Any questioning of the major offensive strategy went unaddressed.  Similarly, a story via the UN from Gaza in the Muslim News spoke only of the violence, the casualties, the hardships.  The Hamas rocket-fire that helped trigger the devastation - and which continues - went unreported.<o:p></o:p> In the midst of the one-sided reporting, this down-the-middle comment provided needed perspective on the deadly game in Gaza.  The author: UN Middle East envoy Robert Serry:<o:p></o:p> "The protection of civilians, the fabric of life, the future of the peace talks and of the regional peace process has been trapped between the irresponsibility of the Hamas attacks and the excessiveness of the Israeli response."                                                                                   - (Quoted by Chris Hedges, TruthDig.com)   <o:p></o:p> Among Team Obama s many challenges: extricating the peace process - and the bloodshed - from the trap.                      -     -     - The consensus in hot stove chatter is that the deal market has turned cold as we move to barely a month before pitchers and catchers.  Two former Red Sox heroes may feel the chill in different ways.  ESPN s Peter Gammons told a Boston radio audience that Jason Varitek won t come near matching what he could have made by accepting the Sox s arbitration offer: How Scott Boras looked him in the eye and said, 'By the way, I turned down $10 million [in arbitration],' is beyond me.  He turned down arbitration -- he would have made a minimum of $10 million, maybe $11 million.  And there are a bunch of guys like that -- Jon Garland, Orlando Cabrera.  There are a bunch of guys who are not even going to come close to what they made in arbitration <o:p></o:p> Boros and Manny Ramirez rejected a two-year, $45 million offer from the Dodgers.  That was before Raul Ibanez (Phillies) and Milton Bradley (Cubs) agreed to three-year, $30 million deals, and Pat Burrell signed with the Rays for $16 million for two years. Joe Sheehan, of Baseball Prospectus, believes Manny will regret hanging tough: Right now, the best contract for Ramirez is the one that he no longer has available to him: his one-year, $20 million option that was voided when he accepted a trade to the Dodgers.  At the time it seemed silly to suggest that Ramirez wouldn't do better than that.  Now, looking at the deals signed by his peers, it seems silly to suggest that he will. (Note: Sports Illustrated s Jon Heyman hardly fits the description of silly. Yet he says Manny will do much better than $20 million per in a three-year deal with the Dodgers or Giants.)<o:p></o:p> Another prominent player on the wintry outside looking in: Andy Pettitte, who seems to have made a costly mistake in declining the Yanks $10 million offer   The Mets, meanwhile, must hope the cooling market affects their dealing with Derek Lowe and his agent Boros.  Gammons says the Yankees wanted Lowe more than they did A.J. Burnett, but that Burnett;s agents beat Boros to the negotiating table.  Because of the loss of face involved, it s unlikely Boros will let Derek sign the three-year $36 million deal the Mets are offering.  Unlikely, that is, unless the recession has become a starker baseball reality than pinstripe spending made it appear.                                      - o - (The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.) <o:p></o:p>  <o:p></o:p> (Posted 1/6/08)<o:p></o:p> Patience Asked of Bosox and Barack Fans<o:p></o:p> Bosox partisans, like supporters of Barack Obama, are pitching the same virtue to fellow fans.  Be patient, they say, things will work out, decisions made to your liking. Members of the Sox Nation are restive over the team s minimal off-season activity (compared to the Yankees) adding Brad Penny but losing Mark Teixiera.  People like Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan advise them to cool it, reminding them that GM Theo Epstein has earned their confidence: Theo& has been right more often than he s been wrong. <o:p></o:p> A recent Gallup Poll found that 93 percent of liberal Democrats surveyed were confident  Barack Obama would be a good president.   On specific issues, however, there is progressive dismay:  Obama s stance for expanding the war in Afghanistan is a source of particular concern.  Many liberals opposed the consensus view that the war in Afghanistan was right , unlike the one in Iraq.  A small, police-action force could have been used, they said, to try to ferret Osama bin Laden out of his dugout.  That would have been preferable to the carnage Team Bush unleashed in vain.  <o:p></o:p> Historian Howard Zinn recently amplified the argument in a speech at (NY) State University, Binghamton (recorded by Pacifica s Democracy Now. )  At the time, he said, some progressives asked Why are we bombing Afghanistan? Because, oh, Osama bin Laden is there. Uh, where? Well, (we) don t really know, so we ll bomb the country. You know, if we bomb the country, maybe we ll get him.  Sure, in the process, thousands of Afghans will die& <o:p></o:p> We know now that Osama has, indeed, become Osama bin Forgotten. Failing to find him, Team Bush has made the Taliban as well as Al Quaida a major target, killing more and more innocent civilians in its endless military campaign.   Zinn said he likes Obama and understands the need for patience:  But I m a citizen. I have to speak my mind.  At one point in the campaign, (Obama) said, It s not just a matter of getting out of Iraq.  It s a matter of changing the mindset that got us into Iraq.  That was a very important statement.  Unfortunately, he has not followed through by changing his mindset.                            -     -     - There s an occasional faint sign that the Mets are following through on an effort to upgrade their farm system.  One such has emerged from the Puerto Rican Winter League in the form of 22-year-old righthander Dillon Gee.  Latest stats show Gee with a 4-0 record in 10 games and a 43-13 strikeout/walk ratio in 48 innings.  He divided the 08 season between Single-A Saint Lucie and Double-A Binghamton, going 10-6.  Meanwhile, the Mets 20-year-old super-prospect Fernando Martinez has been showing power in the Venezuelan League.  In 41 games, he was batting .314, with seven doubles, five triples and six home runs.<o:p></o:p> The Yankees may have a budding slugger in first baseman Jorge Vazquez, who was batting .348, with 12 doubles and 15 HRs in 54 Mexican Pacific League games.  The 26-year-old hit .339, with 18 homers in 56 games in regular Mexican League season.  The Red Sox would seem to have future third-base help in 24-year-old Jorge Jiminez, who has hit .346 in 27 Puerto Rican League games after batting .352 for the Single-A Lowell Spinners before a late-season promotion to Double-A Portland   <o:p></o:p> Since Omar Minaya and Brian Cashman know at least as much as attentive fans about needed team improvements, they must be aware that: <o:p></o:p> - The Mets will be left with only a wild card hope in 09  if the Phillies sign Derek Lowe. <o:p></o:p> - Joe Girardi likes Oliver Perez - He has a chance to good - and would likely welcome the challenge of to harnessing the free agent s unstable pitching talent.<o:p></o:p>                                 - o - (The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.) <o:p></o:p> (Posted 1/3/09)<o:p></o:p> U.S. Made Similar Errors on Two Fields <o:p></o:p> The other day, former Mets manager Davy Johnson deplored the way the U.S.botched its role as would-be world leader: We assumed that if we threw our gloves out there and took our hacks, we were going to win, he said. The rest of the world& was a lot better. <o:p></o:p> Johnson was talking about Team USA s cavalier approach to the first World Baseball Classic (WBC) in 2006.  But his words certainly applied to Team Bush s leadership in the foreign policy field.  The presumed cheering that our military would receive in Iraq was the perfect symbolic error, but the record book is replete with others, most familiar, some not.  A recent, largely unnoticed federal scorecard, for example, confirmed a devastating truth about a $100 billion effort that was supposed to keep the Iraqis cheering after the shock and awe innings. Five years after embarking on its largest foreign reconstruction project since the Marshall Plan in Europe, it said, the U.S. government has in place neither the policies and technical capacity nor the organizational structure that would be needed to undertake such a program. <o:p></o:p> The dimensions of other misplays - in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Latin America, etc. are becoming more and more evident.  In the Middle East, domestic politics has so skewed our outlook that a pitch for an even-handed stance toward the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is construed as anti-Israeli.  In going to bat for the relentless offensive against Hamas, Barack Obama has all but dashed hopes for an end to our one-sidedness.  Author/actor Wallace Shawn expressed the dismay of many Americans in an article in The Nation: <o:p></o:p> It is& unbearable to think that among the first words we would hear from our new, clearly rational president would be preposterous sentences trying to persuade us that Israeli policies which seem to be appalling are actually quite normal and acceptable. Certainly nothing our new president could do would be of greater value to the world--and greater value to the Jews--than to abruptly end the sickeningly patronizing habit of supporting an irrationality which was born in tragedy and will end in more tragedy. <o:p></o:p> Diehard Obama fans cling to the notion that he will straighten out his political swing by the time he steps to the plate on the 20th.  Davy Johnson assured Yahoo s Gordon Edes that Team USA would be focused and ready for the second WBC in early March.  With a roster that includes pitchers Roy Oswalt, John Lackey and Joe Nathan,  and position players Derek Jeter, David Wright, Chipper Jones, Jimmy Rollins, Ryan Braun, Grady Sizemore, etc., Johnson would seem to have a better basis than the Obama fans for optimism.                               -     -     - The Mets and Red Sox have something in common: both teams say they will not break the bank to sign free agents this winter.   The Mets, we know, need to add a solid starter to their rotation, the Sox are looking for position-player reinforcements.  Boston made a generous bid for Mark Teixiera, only to be outbid by the Yankees.  So be it, they said.  The Mets said they would not spend beyond their means after Derek Lowe declined an offer of more than $36 million for three years.  Although the teams are taking a similar spending approach, they re in different talent-flow ballparks.  The Sox had twice as many minor league all stars (among those selected by Baseball America) as the NYMs in 08, and finished ninth of 30 in aggregate W-L minor league standings, while the Mets came in 25th.  The obvious moral: teams cannot maintain economic discipline and hope to win without a productive farm system.                                  - o -               (The  Nub is a team effort skippered by Dick Starkey.  Comments to <a href="mailto:dickstar@aol.com">dickstar@aol.com</a> are welcome, as are subscription requests.  Previous Nubs can be found by scrolling below.) <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> </div> </body> </html>

the_nub archive

The Nub Archive
Jan 2010	Feb 2010	Mar 2010	Apr 2010	May 2010	Jun 2010
Jul 2010	Aug 2010	Sep 2010	Oct 2010	Nov 2010	Dec 2010
Jan 2009	Feb 2009	Mar 2009	Apr 2009	May 2009	Jun 2009
Jul 2009	Aug 2009	Sep 2009	Oct 2009	Nov 2009	Dec 2009
Jan 2008	Feb 2008	Mar 2008	Apr 2008	May 2008	Jun 2008
Jul 2008	Aug 2008	Sep 2008	Oct 2008	Nov 2008	Dec 2008
Jul 2007	Aug 2007	Sep 2007	Oct 2007	Nov 2007	Dec 2007
			Apr 2007	May 2007	Jun 2007

Dugout Banter (“The Nub”) | Home Plate | Barnstorming Skills
Scouting Reports
Copyright 2007 Perfect Pitch Communications