12/21/24
May 15, 2011
Posada Asks Out of Yankees Lineup: After being dropped to ninth in the batting order, New York Yankees designated hitter Jorge Posada asked to be taken out of the lineup Saturday before the team's 6-0 loss to the Boston Red Sox. "I told him I couldn't play today, and that I needed time to clear my head, and that was it," said Posada, who then contradicted himself by adding, "My back stiffened up a bit. I was taking a lot of groundballs at first base and working out, and it stiffened up"
You gotta wonder, though, where Posada's head is at. He's a DH now, experiencing one of the only real extended slumps of his excellent career. With the Yankees offense struggling, they need Posada to either lead them with a great attitude or perhaps retire. Pulling himself from the lineup against the Red Sox, of all teams, only makes things tougher, going forward, for the team as a whole. It's just very un-Posada like for him to not want to play. If a few days off or so helps him turn things around, then I'll be the first to admit the situation was blown out of proportion, but at this point we need to wait and see.
posted by dyams at 11:34 AM on May 15, 2011
With the Yankees offense struggling, they need Posada to either lead them with a great attitude or perhaps retire...It's just very un-Posada like for him to not want to play. If a few days off or so helps him turn things around, then I'll be the first to admit the situation was blown out of proportion, but at this point we need to wait and see.
(emphasis mine)
Seems kind of like you're contradicting yourself, dyams. Posada's got to fish or cut bait...but we need to wait and see?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 06:05 PM on May 15, 2011
Just meant we have to wait to see what his decision winds up being. I am just assuming the back issues are a smokescreen. I want him to get his head back together, then come back and start hitting the ball. It's his attitude that has me concerned though. I can't believe his hitting ability could just disappear so quickly, even though he is 39 years old.
posted by dyams at 06:35 PM on May 15, 2011
Just meant we have to wait to see what his decision winds up being. I am just assuming the back issues are a smokescreen.
Apparently he's apologized to Girardi and said, "I let some people down", which would seem to support your take on it.
(and yeah, I hope he gets his head together too...he's been a great extra-base hitter for the longest time, and the Yankees sure need him now)
posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:32 PM on May 15, 2011
I am just assuming the back issues are a smokescreen.
A very bad one at that. What a crazy day for Posada.
He says he's okay with batting 9th, pulls himself out of the lineup an hour before the game. Says it has nothing to do with batting 9th, that it's his back yet doesn't mention it to anyone when he pulls himself out of the lineup. "Sources" say he threw a 'hissy-fit', his wife gets on twitter to defend him, we hear from his father. Cashman gets on tv to talk about posada, posada doesn't like it, Cashman says that posada knew he was going to make a statement. After the game posada says it was only his back, yet calls it an excuse, says he deserved to hit 9th, but feels 'disrespected'.
He just really screwed himself with the back excuse. Would have been better to just go with the 'I need to clear my head excuse'.
Today he apologizes:
"I think I've learned from this. It's not about Jorge Posada, it's about the team. I let some people down. Everything happens for a reason. You live with your mistakes, you move on."
Last night was a mess, but I give him credit, at least from this comment, for coming completely clean about what happened.
posted by justgary at 07:44 PM on May 15, 2011
That's why Cashman should have just given Posada some time to pull it together. Now the Yankees played this whole saga in the media, and it's a big issue now.
posted by bperk at 08:30 PM on May 15, 2011
I think Posada's apology puts this to rest.
posted by rcade at 11:58 PM on May 15, 2011
"I think I've learned from this. It's not about Jorge Posada, it's about the team. I let some people down. Everything happens for a reason. You live with your mistakes, you move on."
Well, he hit about .800 yesterday in the cliche department.
posted by cl at 07:37 AM on May 16, 2011
I think Posada's apology puts this to rest.
That was the general consensus on ESPN's baseball telecast last night, each of the three thousand times they brought it up to say it should be a dead issue. I actually like Bobby Valentine as a studio analyst, but that was the first time I heard him do a whole game-- he is awful. It was like listening to an EPL color person, with him constantly talking about how everyone sucks at their job. When he finished with the players, he turned on the NYC crowd for not cheering right.
posted by yerfatma at 09:25 AM on May 16, 2011
...not cheering right?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:26 AM on May 16, 2011
Apparently not constantly waving pom poms when your team is losing on a drizzly, miserable Sunday night is totally unacceptable. Of course, those fans were only subjected to a night game because every damn Sox/ Yanks tilt has to be on in prime time. Because it will totally make America like it was when we had 3 major networks and no other options.
posted by yerfatma at 01:11 PM on May 16, 2011
...not cheering right?
Yeah. I'd guess Bobby spent too much time in the Japanese leagues, where cheering is organized--and constant.
posted by billinnagoya at 05:59 PM on May 16, 2011
I think Posada's apology puts this to rest.
That was the general consensus on ESPN's baseball telecast last night...
I strongly disagree. In fact, I don't see how this can be seen as anything but the beginning of a huge problem for the Yankees. It closes the Posada 'incident', but in the big picture it's putting a band-aid on a growing wound.
There is only one way for the Posada situation to disappear, and that's the same way the Ortiz situation was solved in Boston: he has to hit. If he doesn't, this is only a reprieve from an uncomfortable situation. A DH not hitting is a useless roster spot, and the Yankee front office won't be able to ignore that regardless if he's part of the 'core four'.
Posada apology only one 'peace' of Yankees' puzzle
But as successful as the Yankees were at executing Public Relations 101 yesterday, the underlying problems that caused the rift persist: Posada's poor offense, the abundance of aging/declining legends and a roster that has betrayed significant flaws.
Posada drama? Ain't seen nothin' yet
As messy as this Posada situation threatens to become, it is really the least damaging of the many bad contracts Yankees management has entered into over the past five years.
Cashman's a smart guy, and I think he had his reasons for throwing Posada under the bus. The end of the core four is coming fast, and I think he's sending a message that he's not going to baby them or give them special consideration. The Jeter contract, based on past performance, already looks like a mistake.
And we're not even talking about the biggest weight around the Yankees: Arod's contract. He's 35 and is obviously in decline. He'll be making 20 million in 2017 when he's 42. How did this contract happen?
It's going to get ugly when you have older players with big contracts when instead of slowly declining, their numbers fall off a cliff. The Yankees appear to have several, and there's nothing that's going to solve that problem except for those players to start hitting again.
posted by justgary at 06:32 PM on May 16, 2011
Yankees Upset with Jeter Support of Posada
For a second straight day the Yankees went into full damage control to defuse simmering controversies involving first Jorge Posada then Derek Jeter.
But even within the Yankees' rather successful attempts to defuse explosive possibilities, they continued to reveal the schism that exists between two of their iconic players and the team's front office.
Early Monday, Yankees officials were expressing irritation at Jeter for exonerating Posada for wrongdoing in the aftermath of the DH's refusal to play Saturday night after being placed ninth in the starting lineup.
Jorge Posada, who told Brian Cashman he wanted out of Yankees, denies refusing to catch in spring
In the heat of his anger and frustration Saturday night, Yankee icon Jorge Posada told general manager Brian Cashman amid a flood of F-bombs that he not only wanted out of the No. 9 spot in the Yankee batting order - he wanted out of the Yankees, too, according to team sources.
...After a day of apologies and reconciliation on both sides, it appeared the fences were mended Monday, at least until Posada and the Yankees disagreed on another matter: Whether Posada refused to catch during spring training.
It's obvious there's much more going on behind the scenes. Also, not over.
posted by justgary at 02:32 PM on May 17, 2011
It's tough when star players for franchises get old. It continues to look as if it's setting up to be nothing more than a mediocre season for the Yankees, so maybe they need to get this crap out and dealt with this year, and prepare to move forward for next year.
posted by dyams at 10:20 AM on May 18, 2011
Cashman talks too much. He has made this way too big of a deal than it should have been. If Posada got his feelings hurt and made too big of a deal about being dropped in the lineup, let him have a day or at least a couple of hours to think on it before you have tell the media. Geez. He did the same thing with the Jeter contract talks.