12/18/24
October 16, 2012
Swisher Knocks 'Negative Attitude' of Yankees Fans: New York Yankees outfielder Nick Swisher is upset about the "negative attitude" Yankees fans have displayed during the team's recent playoff woes, even suggesting the road trip to Detroit for game 3 of the ALCS might be beneficial: "I'm one of those guys that if you give me a hug, I'll run through a brick wall for you, man. It just seems right now like there's just a lot of... I'm trying to find a way to word this the right way. ... It's tough. It's really tough. You want to go out and play for your city, play for your team. Right now, it's just really tough." A New York Daily News sports editor's comment accidentally made it into the story when posted online: "Should go right on the web. He's out of his mind for saying this stuff now."
*sniff, sniff* Mmmmm, that's the sweet sweet smell of schadenfreude. Time for chicken and beer in the clubhouse, guys!
posted by Rock Steady at 09:32 AM on October 16, 2012
A-Rod would not be focusing on such a critical game, supporting his teammates
Derek Jeter broke his ankle BECAUSE ARod didn't support him enough.
posted by grum@work at 11:11 AM on October 16, 2012
Swisher gives the Bleacher Creatures left handed salutes during roll call and now he wants hugs?
posted by beaverboard at 11:51 AM on October 16, 2012
Nick has a career .584 OPS in the post-season spanning three teams (although most of his experience is in New York), so I wonder what his previous excuses for poor performance are.
posted by dfleming at 02:25 PM on October 16, 2012
I think Nick has a bad case of premature elucidation.
posted by cixelsyd at 02:51 PM on October 16, 2012
If Swisher had caught the foul ball that was bartmanned as he charged into the stands, a runner would've scored from third. He got a lucky break not getting to it.
posted by rcade at 03:34 PM on October 16, 2012
Negative fans is right: they won't even bust A-Rod's slump!
At least we now have some evidence of somebody on the Yankees squad trying to score this series....
posted by grum@work at 04:07 PM on October 16, 2012
Swisher has always seemed, I don't want to say unstable... maybe really high-strung? Yeah, I'll go with that.
Bald Vinny is working overtime on twitter to make sure Swisher, his wife, and the media know that the bleacher creatures are only a part of right field, and they had no part in any threatening going on. Gotta protect his brand.
Swish should take a lesson from A-Rod on how to get past all the booing and negative comments.
posted by justgary at 04:35 PM on October 16, 2012
Swish should take a lesson from A-Rod on how to get past all the booing and negative comments.
I'm just going to assume that that link leads a story about how one should have an affair with Madonna.
Edit: So close, so close.
posted by Joey Michaels at 05:04 PM on October 16, 2012
Girardi has benched both A-Rod and Swisher for tonight's game. No word on why Robinson "2 for 32 in the playoffs" Cano escaped this shake-up, but even the diminished A-Rod is a better player than Eduardo Nunez and Brett Gardner. His worst OPS- this year, at .783- is higher than Gardner and Nunez have ever posted in any season of their careers (well, Gardner had a whopping .804 this year... in 16 games).
This is a classic NY management trick. If it doesn't work and they lose tonight, no one will remember these guys for going 0-4, or they'll still say that A-Rod was to blame for the NY loss in the series... but if one of these two journeymen somehow get a lucky bloop and the Yankees win tonight, everyone will praise Girardi's "genius".
Also, a sidenote for WAR-fans and Trout supporters: Brett Gardner had a WAR of 7.0 in 2010; can someone explain how his 7.0 is computed when he had an anemic batting line, and played left field 75% of the time?
posted by hincandenza at 07:18 PM on October 16, 2012
So your solution for the manager of the team is to do nothing? That's a great strategy.
That's the difference between Girardi and you. He has to put himself out there and make a drastic change. All you have to do is watch your TV and make the decision to bash the Yankees whether they win or lose and label a lineup change as a "management trick."
The simple fact is the Yankee "stars" got the team in this mess, and now they have to face the best pitcher in baseball with their backs to the wall.
posted by dyams at 08:11 PM on October 16, 2012
Also, a sidenote for WAR-fans and Trout supporters: Brett Gardner had a WAR of 7.0 in 2010; can someone explain how his 7.0 is computed when he had an anemic batting line, and played left field 75% of the time?
Defence. If you compare Carl Crawford and Gardner's 2010 seasons, Crawford was a clearly superior offensive player, a similar baserunner, but Gardner gets major points on defence which give him a higher WAR for the year. It's a weird case, to be honest.
posted by dfleming at 08:34 PM on October 16, 2012
Actually, dyams, the sabermetric response would be exactly that: you might make platoon lineup changes if they are called for, but the idea that a few bad games means you abandon your horses is silly. Girardi doesn't have to make drastic changes; people like Cano, Swisher, and ARod (well, maybe ARod) didn't suddenly forget how to hit; they're just slumping. It's a small sample size. The Yankees "stars" got them 95 wins and top seed in the AL, and yet Girardi is choosing to not have those stars get them out of their mess.
This happens to teams all the time: they slump and can't seem to hit the ball, and lose 5 in a row. The next week, they're putting up 8 runs a game and everything's finding a hole, and they win 5 in a row.
The only difference is that in October, if your team slumps for one week, you stop playing until the following April.
posted by hincandenza at 09:09 PM on October 16, 2012
Girardi has benched ... A-Rod
So your solution for the manager of the team is to do nothing? That's a great strategy.
Well, my strategy would probably put in the guy at 3rd base who has at least one damn hit this post-season.
And who is a better batter in the post-season in general.
And who is a better batter in his career.
And who has better numbers against Verlander in his career.
The answer, by the way, sure as hell isn't "Eric Chavez".
So, in summary, doing "something" is sometimes worse than doing "nothing".
posted by grum@work at 09:10 PM on October 16, 2012
Delmon Young apparently really wants to win the ALCS MVP trophy this year...
posted by hincandenza at 09:32 PM on October 16, 2012
*sniff, sniff* Mmmmm, that's the sweet sweet smell of schadenfreude. Time for chicken and beer in the clubhouse, guys!
I suppose if your team is watching it all on TV, schadenfreude is the best smell you can come up with, no?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:52 PM on October 16, 2012
I don't buy the Girardi hype. Then again, I wouldn't want to be Girardi. He's saddled with a group of "me first" guys on long lucrative contracts.
Joe Torre is happy writing books.
posted by cixelsyd at 12:19 AM on October 17, 2012
Thinking back to various Tiger teams of yore and the bat brandishers they featured, I am quite surprised to learn that Delmon Young is now the club's career leader in postseason HR's.
Most of which have been served up by Yankee pitchers.
posted by beaverboard at 12:35 AM on October 17, 2012
Seeing how busted up A-Rod was over not playing made me feel really bad for him....giggling, smiling, mugging for the cameras saying, "Hi Mom."
Opinions will obviously differ as to Girardi's strategy, but the combination of watching Rodriguez prove incapable of even putting a ball in play during his at bats, as well as his laid-back, rarely-any-effort approach while on the field, was getting on my nerves. He could get away with that when he was younger and a dominant player, but those days are gone. I'd like to get a feeling from the guy that he has a fire to produce and lead this struggling team. He never had to have that approach when he could lead with his bat and glove. His attitude on the bench last night probably was as telling regarding Girardi's decision than A-Rod's inability to even connect on a foul tip.
posted by dyams at 07:27 AM on October 17, 2012
Eric Chavez: 0-for-15 with 7 strikeouts
How long is this ridiculousness going to continue?
Girardi's proved his point that he's not afraid to bench his highest paid player. Congratulations, Joe. Now how about putting in a player at 3B that might actually help your team win a game.
People can speculate all they want about whether ARod is struggling and his mental state at the plate, but it simply can't be any worse than what Chavez is doing up there.
posted by grum@work at 08:47 AM on October 17, 2012
if one of these two journeymen somehow get a lucky bloop and the Yankees win tonight, everyone will praise Girardi's "genius".
Damn, if only there had been someone on base for Nunez in the 9th. That Girardi is a genius! And ARod lost that game for the Yankees.
posted by tahoemoj at 11:27 AM on October 17, 2012
As a Yankee fan, I can honestly say they all fucking suck, practically top to bottom. I'm not going to blame Girardi, not going to blame Chavez...nobody in that lineup produced crap, and thinking they are going to magically come out of their "slumps" versus Verlander is ridiculous.
Yeah, maybe Swisher and Rodriguez would have magically emerged from their plate-blindness last night and ignited a Yankee rally. More likely, though, is that A-Rod would continue embarrassing himself and the team.
Yankee haters all over are just mad Girardi robbed them of yet another opportunity to laugh at and bash A-Rod.
posted by dyams at 03:37 PM on October 17, 2012
What? No, if anything I fully support A-Rod and think he's one of the best hitters the game's ever seen. I think Girardi is being an idiot by pulling him. And they don't suck- again, this team won 95 games. Teams slump, but no one notices when it happens in April.
I've saved the rest of my response for today's thread on the game last night.
posted by hincandenza at 03:54 PM on October 17, 2012
I'm quite surprised, as are most, at the Yankees' performance so far in the ALCS. Where can one put the fault? Is it A-Rod, Jeter's injury, a general lack of offense, Girardi's management? Who knows, but NYY trail 0-3 in the series, look like they are dead, and the post mortems are being written by the knights of the keyboard. I'm not optimistic, but I still look back at the ALCS of 2001, when a "dead" team from Boston proceeded to pull out 4 straight, a couple of them in the last at bat. There's still hope for the Yankee fans among us, so those of us who might wish the New Yorkers ill can not yet relax.
As my old granny used to say, "Do not make estimates of the total yield of immature poultry prior to the completion of the incubatory process"
posted by Howard_T at 04:16 PM on October 17, 2012
2004, Howard. :) And a lot of Sox fans love the side effect of that series, that now every time a team drops to 0-3, we get a graphic on screen about the only team to come back from down 0-3. The gift that keeps on giving; for example, my facebook status last night asked the question "Wow, the Yankees are down 0-3... hey, has any team every come back from down 0-3? I'm sure it must have happened at least once, right?"
posted by hincandenza at 05:19 PM on October 17, 2012
You're correct, of course, hincandenza. I wrote the comment, then had to shut down and fix dinner (beef and broccoli with rice, yummmmm). It hit me while I was cutting up an onion that I had mis-typed. The tears began to flow. Hope the Yankees have more than one thing upon which to base a comeback.
Granny also used to say, "Placing the totality of one's embryonic poultry within a single wicker container is a dangerous practice."
posted by Howard_T at 09:18 PM on October 17, 2012
Oh just shut up, Swisher! The Yankees sucked up the field, you couldn't hit your way out of an open ended paper bag! The fans have every right to have been negative. When you suck, you suck, just admit it and go forward!
posted by catsgolf at 07:58 PM on October 18, 2012
Negative fans is right: they won't even bust A-Rod's slump!