Home field advantage should just go to whoever wins the "interleague season". Better league = home field advantage. Simple.

It is his middle name...Im being serious here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Martin

that should have read FACT... not face!

Interesting face IBM...Russ Martin's middle name is Coltrane. His dad was a big fan...

"Anyway, I think it's been an interesting deal so far. I think all the teams have done well from the deal." Its early yet but Jackson has been something worse than awful so far this year. Coke's been pretty good though.

"And also, hitting homeruns now is a BAD thing? Why do people say this? " This is the biggest canard being propagated by the "analysts". As you said, its not as if they are just gonna turn into outs instead of long balls. In fact, one could argue that the high HR rate is quite good right now considering the problems the offense is having as a whole. A few big swings can make up for the lack of production from the others. Its not as if the team doesnt have a track record for having a high power offense as it is comprised. In the comments from that article the author hedges and says he just isnt ready to put the Yankees in the league's "elite" whatever the hell that means as Im not sure other than maybe texas who would qualify for this categorization in his world.

Its sam-YF, not Andrew! Yes indeed there is nothing like Mariano. And for the record, after watching both of them for the years mentioned in the comparison, Id take either version of Mo in any given game over Papelbon. (who was indeed dominant for most of that 3 year stretch.

"I think the case for these three comparisons is very strong, if not incontrovertible" Id certainly say it is arguable in the case of Rivera v Papelbon: WAR during this 3-year stretches (from baseball-reference) Rivera 96-98: 12.7 Rivera 06-08: 9.9 Papelbon 06-08: 9.6 Also, as an aside about Rivera, unrelated to the above, an amazing fact is that his career WHIP as a relief pitcher is currently under 1.00. Truly insane if you havent seen that already.

Luck may play some of a part in the offensive numbers but not so much on the other side of the ball. Its not just bad luck that the sox have allowed the third most runs in baseball this far in. That stat has far more to do with the historically bad start than line drives not falling in for base hits.

Ahh first place.... AJ now has more W's than the Sox. :)

Manny Ramirez has just announced his retirement after being informed by MLB of an issue in the drug testing program.

While the song and dance has been annoying its so very different from Favre. Favre has called press conferences to announce his retirement on multiple occasions and has had all his decision making be so much more public than this. Pettitte has largely kept out of the press as much as he can control. I just dont see him as a diva like favre. Its impossible to tell of course but he seems genuinely conflicted about what to do each year.

That would be like saying Josh beckett has been any better than 'good' as a red sox (ERA: 4.28) or better than "pretty good" as a Red Sox in the post season (ERA: 3.88). I know that if Cafardo made such a statement about him we'd see a post here from Paul disproving any such myths too.

I dont see it quite so simple as the yankees thinking they would have a 1/2 punch at the top with AJ and CC. I think that was what the yankees hoped for but Id think they were banking on at least a above avg pitcher to give them solid innings (more like a #3 type guy). He was better than that in the first year of his contract and worse than that in the second year. To be honest, the deal seemed reasonable to me when they signed him and if im gonna be consistent, I cant say that they made a mistake in offering it to him. Id say the same thing about Carl Pavano despite the utter disaster he was in the 4 years he was with the Yankees. I prefer to make my judgements of contracts based on the information about the guy at the time of the signing. When the Yankees inked AJ, I was happy albeit a bit worried about the back end of the contract. But I think that later part can be said about most MLB free agent multi-year deals.

"The Yankees screwed up. They gave a contract to Burnett that he has surely not been deserving of as of yet" Id have to disagree on that John. AJ was a big part of the 2009 championship team and I really dont see them winning without him there. That in of itself goes a long way into making the signing worthwhile IMO. Yes there are issues on the back end of the contract and he was bad last year but given what was out there and the SP free agent landscape in the years following AJs contract, it was the best the Yankees could do. Im not trying to parse here but saying they screwed up is a bit harsh, Im not sure what else they would have done with that money or roster spot any better than signing AJ.

Not sure if the Kirabti comment was tongue-in cheek but it is the case that both teams outspent the nominal GDP of Kirbati! (which according to that link was $130 mil in 2009)

His family is there Brad. I guess he's made enough over the years.

"...He was, in most categories, measurably better...." This isnt even true. Just look at the numbers Paul himself posted. Jenks led in category (HR/9) by a small margin and was tied for first in another K/9. He also had the worst ERA of any of these pitchers and second to worst ERA+ (which was 99 vs. Joba's 98). Finally, Jenks' BABIP is inline with the others except for Mitre. I realize its a career high for him but my understanding of that stat is that high values no matter who the are for expected to regress down to a certain mean. If true, I guess the same improvements we can expect from Jenks we can expect for the others. The point of all this isnt to say that Jenks is a bad signing (he's not). Its just to show that there are other ways of developing relievers than going out and signing free agents.

Come on Kreug, you know there is no chance of that. The stats say that AJ is done and Jenks is the second coming ;)

ommmm

Fine. Then he is just as good as then the options I mentioned at 4-8 times the price. Brad said that he is better than any non-rivera Yankee reliever which as you demonstrated isn't the case.

Comparisons of IRS% in these cases is highly misleading since Jenks came in the vast majority of the time to start the 9th inning since he was the closer. Furthermore, the times he did inherit runners were almost all in in 2 out situations making it easier to get out of the inning without allowing runs in. The numbers back this up as Jenks inherited 16 runners all year, while Robertson had 32, Logan had 33, and Joba 37. Its not clear at all what Jenks would have done if he was used in the same situations. Bard by comparison had a 30% IS, in line with the other Middle relief that you compared Jenks to.

He's a perfectly fine signing I was just telling John im not all that upset about missing out on him. There are others who can accomplish what Jenks is capable of.

Not sure where the number comes from just repeating what Olney (who i trust) said.

"outside of Mariano Rivera, Jenks is better than any option in the Yankee Bullpen.' Ill take Roberstson and Joba over Jenks any day of the week. Logan and Mitre both had much better numbers than Jenks last year.