Kuzul

New York’s baseball history is rich with history dating back well over a century with multiple teams always battling for the Big Apple’s spotlight.  For the last 50 years, the same two teams have drawn the border through the city.  Both the Mets and Yankees have produced Hall-of-Famers and championships, but also players who have donned each uniform.   Here are five of the best to play in Queens and the Bronx.

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Going into Saturday’s game with the Cleveland Indians, New York Yankee Derek Jeter is only nine hits away from 3,000 hits and baseball immortality. 

Once a player reaches his 3,000th hit, he becomes a shoe-in for the Hall of Fame. Derek Jeter is without a doubt one of best Yankees’ of all time, but is having him bat in the leadoff position the best move for the New York Yankees in their quest at another World Series title?

The 36-year-old shortstop is in his 16th season as a Yankee, his production is down and the Yankees find themselves two games out of first place and only a one-game lead in the Wild Card race. It is only June, but the Boston Red Sox are heating up and change might be necessary before it is too late.

Jeter is only batting .256 with two HR and 18 RBI. He also has an OPS .655 which is one of the worst of any leadoff hitter in all of baseball. He has seven stolen bases and has been caught twice, not exactly leadoff material.

The questions seems to be if not Jeter, than who should lead off? The New York Yankees actually have several options, but Manager Joe Girardi is committed to Jeter, and his team is suffering.

Robinson Cano would be a good fit for the leadoff spot and so would Brett Gardener. Cano is currently batting .281 with 12 home runs, 40 RBI and a .829 OPS. Much better than Jeter’s numbers.

Gardener’s numbers are about the same as Jeter’s with a .266 BA and 15 RBI. His OPS is higher at .725, and he has more stolen bases with 13. Speed is very important at the top of the lineup, and Jeter is not the player he once was.

With the season-ending injury to relief pitcher Joba Chamberlain, the Yankees are going to have to score even more runs in order to keep leads. The Yankees need a jolt at the top of their lineup, and if they wish to make another run at the post season, Joe Girardi is going to have to make some very difficult decisions.

DH Jorge Posada is batting a career low .214 and LF Nick Swisher is also having a terrible season with just a .215 BA. Look for both of these players to be out of the starting lineup by the end of July if they can’t turn it around.

Derek Jeter should reach hit number 3,000 during the middle of next week. Stay tuned to ESPN as they will cover most of his at-bats once he reaches hit 2,999.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Courtesy of Yankees ‘n More

As I watch Jorge Posada live on the 1nterstate while serving as the New York Yankees, um…, well…, “designated HITTER” (much for irony?), I am left asking myself one simple question:

Exactly what does Posada have to DO to finally lose his job???

Sucking every single day hasn’t been enough to cost Posada his job.

Throwing a tantrum in the manager’s office hasn’t been enough to cost Posada his job.

Even QUITTING ON THE TEAM and causing a MAJOR distraction hasn’t been enough to cost Posada his job.

Hell, after that tantrum/quitting/distraction thing, the Yankees not only refused to take a stand with Posada (who balked at being asked to bat 9th), they actually CAVED to him! The next time Jorge hits 9th this season will be the FIRST!

UN-FREAKIN’-BELIEVABLE! And a real nice message to send to the rest of the team, too.

By the way, in case you haven’t been paying attention, the Yankees currently have a big slugger at Triple-A who is pounding the ball FLAT on a nightly basis. No, I’m not talking about Jesus Montero.

I’m talking about Jorge Vazquez (29) who hit his 18th home run of the season for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Thursday night. To go along with those 18 bombs (in only 43 games), Vazquez has 45 RBI, a .303 avg. and an OPS of .984!

Yet NONE of those things… Hell, for that matter, ALL of those things, is still not enough to cost Jorge Posada his job.

So just exactly how do the planets have to align for Posada to be replaced???

More troubling still, if the Yankees refuse to stand up to Posada, despite EVERYTHING screaming that they should, what are the chances they will EVER stand up and do the right thing with Captain Crap?

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The hated enemy, the Boston Red Sox, took over first place in the American League East division last night, pushing the New York Yankees into the unfamiliar position of being a second-place team.

Boston and New York are tied in the lost column. It’s never too early to be aware of the lost column. The Yankees can make up the two wins by which they trail the Red Sox. Losses can never be made up.

Paradoxically, the Yankees’ problem, as ridiculous as it sounds, is their offense.

They lead the league in runs scored with 253 and average 5.16 runs a game, which is excellent, but the concern is how and when they score.

About 50 percent of the Yankees’ runs are result of the home run. The problem is that they score only about 50 percent of their runs without hitting a home run.

The first five batters in the Yankees lineup are solid, but Derek Jeter (.254/.308/.318) and Robinson Cano (.273/.312/.481) have been less productive than in the past.

The number six through number nine hitters’ decreased production from past years has been less noticeable thanks to the fact that top of the order hitters have covered for them.

Curtis Granderson is having an outstanding season and has 16 home runs with a .620 slugging average. Mark Teixeira has hit 14 home runs. Alex Rodriguez is doing well as well, hitting .288 with nine home runs and a .500 slugging average.

Russell Martin, Jorge Posada, Nick Swisher and Brett Gardner have tailed off. If the top five don’t produce, the Yankees often are in trouble, especially when they fail to hit the long ball.

Joe Girardi recently kept Swisher out of the lineup to give him time to work with batting coach Kevin Long.

Last night against the Seattle Mariners, Swisher walked and singled to raise his batting average to an awful .206, but with the Yankees trailing by a run, Swisher took a called third strike leading off the ninth inning.

Swisher led off the ninth inning because in the eighth inning, with Swisher at bat, Eduardo Nunez stole second to put the potential tying run in scoring position with two outs.

That is the kind of baseball that wins games, but then Nunez was picked off second, which in inexcusable.

Nunez expressed remorse after the game.

“I feel bad. It’s a big play in the inning,” Nunez told MLB.com’s Brian Holch. “The tying run is me. To get picked off, I feel so bad. It happens.”

Overall, the Yankees have the most prodigious offense in the major leagues, but upon close examination, the Yankees have scored nine or more runs in a game seven times, which has accounted for 80 of their 253 runs.

The problem is that they have often have trouble scoring in low scoring games when one or two runs can turn the game around.

In the 4-3 loss last night, Yankees pitchers held the Mariners hitless in chances with runners in scoring position, but the Mariners scored all of their runs on ground ball outs.

The Yankees will make the playoffs, but in October, when they don’t face the opposition’s fourth and fifth starters, they must score playing “small ball” as well as getting some home runs, but hitting home runs in the playoffs is usually difficult.

Winning 15-3 and 12-1 is great, but it is winning 3-2 and 2-1 that produces world champions.

Ask the 1960 Yankees.

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 To view the article this rant is based on, click here. 

Take a look at this video. Yankees fans should get a warm feeling inside; Sox fans, not so much.

I don’t mean to incite nostalgia, good or bad. Or maybe I do, but not in the way that you might think.

I’ve harped on this quite a bit, but I am going to continue to harp on it for quite a while. It may not be a fixable issue, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t constantly irritate me for the foreseeable future.

While you’re either basking or melting in the glory of this video, take a hard look at the stands whenever the camera pans away from the field. There’s hardly an empty seat in the house.

Yes, this is one of the most thrilling moments in the history of the sport. Not only that, but it took place in extra innings of perhaps the biggest game between the two franchises that constitute sports’ most tenuous rivalry—and at the apex of that rivalry, no less.

So no, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the stands are full.

But let’s think about this. This was a four hour playoff game, meaning it ended after midnight. I looked it up, and it turned out that this was a Thursday. I would think there would be plenty of people on hand that night who had work early the next morning. Or who had kids who had school that Friday. Or both.

But they all stayed. There might be a few who walked out that night, but there sure weren’t a lot.

Transport this moment to the new Yankee Stadium in 2011, and I would think it would have unfolded quite differently.

The crowd on hand would surely be delirious. There would be plenty of fans who remained. But there would also be plenty of fans who didn’t.

How do I know this? Well, I think anybody who’s spent enough time at either of the two venues would vouch, but let’s quickly jump in the DeLorean once more.

I attended Game 1 of the 2009 World Series at the Stadium, easily the biggest game in the Bronx since the Yanks collapsed in ’04 against the Sox. It was a close game, but a miserable one. Cliff Lee blanked the Yankees. They looked so hopeless offensively that Chase Utley’s solo home run in the first felt like a debilitating punch to the crotch. You didn’t even get hit that hard, but you also couldn’t manage to bring yourself to your feet after collapsing in a heap. When he homered off CC again in the sixth—another solo shot—it felt more like a visit to the guillotine than a punch in the groin. The Yankees simply weren’t recovering from that. At least on that night.

So yes, it was a bleak game, and the crowd’s mood was understandably somber. I was too. But if you looked around the stadium that night, there were clusters of empty seats everywhere. The stadium wasn’t even full when the game started, with visible vacancies in sections all around the ballpark (except the bleachers, naturally). But when Utley went deep that second time, people started leaving. In the World Series. In the sixth inning. Of a two run game, for christ’s sake.

Part of what made the Boone home run so special was that it served as the culmination of a massive comeback.

In that game, the Yankees trailed by four after three-and-a-half innings. After six innings, they had managed just three hits off a still effective Pedro Martinez. Yankees fans had no reason to think Grady Little’s bullpen phone didn’t work—those first 5 innings were as bleak as they could possibly be. Even after Little left Pedro in for the 8th, the right-hander managed to get Nick Johnson to pop out to lead off the inning. As Derek Jeter stepped into the batters’ box, baseball-reference’s win probability chart had the Red Sox having a 94% chance of winning the game, meaning the Yankees had just a six percent chance of survival.

When Chase Utley went deep for the second time in 2009, the Yankees still had a 25 percent chance of winning the game.

They were far from dead, and the thought of losing that game could not even compare to the dread Yankees fans would have experienced if Grady Little had even had a shred of sense in him.

You have two big games in October. Two playoff games in the Bronx where the opposing team had a knife to the collective throat of the Yankees and their fans.

In one game, the home team and their faithful spectators stuck around, standing and sweating for four hours with 50,000 compatriots, feeling defeated until their fears were vindicated as bedlam was unleashed in the Bronx.

In another, 35,000 sat in their seats, lamenting their favorite team’s fate long before it was sealed. Thousands more put the WCBS broadcast on their respective car radios, and turned the volume down as they drove home on the turnpike or highway of their choosing.

For a full-length and explanatory rant on this phenomenon, click here.


Jesse Golomb is the creator and writer of Soap Box Sports Byte. He currently works for Baseball Digest. If you enjoyed this article, or want takes on the rest of the Major Leagues, the NFL and more, you can read the rest of his work on soapboxsportsbyte or follow  @SoapBxSprtsByte

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The 2011 MLB season has already shown numerous ups and downs for some of the great players around the league through only the first two months of the year.

High profile commodities who were suppose to be their team’s centerpiece have heavily faltered and seem to be working towards a disappointing 2011 campaign.

The lack of success from these elite players have corrupted not only fantasy teams and their winning ability, but the winning capabilities of previously successful major league squads.

Whether it’s a lack of pitching from a strikeout artist, a speedy outfielder unable to gain his balance on the base paths or an MVP first baseman who’s just starting to come around, the lack of production between the months of April and May is evident.

Wherever you want to start the discussion, hitting or pitching, the conversation of biggest disappointments so far this season will always come to a close with these 20 players.

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It was easy to pretend that we thought he could still field his position as long as he was hitting.  But now he is not hitting, and it is pretty hard to avoid the conclusion, top-to-bottom, that Derek Jeter‘s days are numbered.

Or, well, his days as a productive major league contributor.  Because, of this you can be sure: whether he is capable of playing or not, the Captain will be playing for at least three seasons as he plays out his contract.

But he will probably be done as a run producer well before he is done playing.

Here is a look at 10 future Hall of Famers for whom the end is within sight.

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They say you can’t argue with results.

The New York Yankees are 20-16, two games behind the first place Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East.

Could they be in first place? Sure. After all, it’s still only May 14, and there’s plenty of baseball to be played.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint, the optimists will say.

But the Yankees are not without their flaws. No team in baseball is, but perfection is an obsession in the Bronx.

Just look at Derek Jeter. No player personifies the, “What have you done for me lately?” mentality better. Jeter has been the face of New York baseball for 16 years, helping the Yankees to five World Series titles, but you would never know it by reading the newspapers or the comments section of any Yankees forum.

He’s done. He can’t hit anymore. It’s time to bat him ninth.

We’ve heard it all.

What’s keeping Jeter atop the Yankee lineup?

It was a lack of options, but the Yankees can’t say that for much longer.

After struggling for most of the season, Brett Gardner is now red hot. He has 13 hits in his last 31 at-bats (.419) with a scorching .526 OBP in May.

Jeter has gotten off to a hot start in May as well, batting .300 and raising his season average to .268. But he has just four hits in his last 19 at-bats since going 4-for-6 in a 12-5 win over the Texas Rangers on May 8.

Who’s more likely to stay hot? The younger, faster Gardner or the quickly aging Jeter?

Jeter’s spot atop the lineup is more out of respect than anything else. But the chances to bury the Boston Red Sox and Rays in the standings are now gone. The Yankees are now on a three-game losing streak, their second of the season and are just 3-7 in their last 10 games.

If there was ever a time to finally make the change, it’s now.

But it’s unfair to single out Jeter.

Jorge Posada has also struggled mightily. Yes he has six home runs. Yes he has 15 RBI. But he’s batting a putrid .165 and hasn’t homered since April 23.

Unlike Jeter, Posada will certainly be gone after this season, so the sense of urgency to move him or replace him is weaker. But like Jeter, there are replacements waiting in the wings, and the longer the Yankees wait, the sooner the fans will start to notice.

After failing to win the backup catcher job in spring training, top prospect Jesus Montero is tearing up Triple-A pitching. Montero is batting .325 with two home runs and 11 RBI in 28 games for Scranton Wilkes-Barre.

Montero has been more known for his bat than his glove, a stance which was only reaffirmed in the spring. The prevailing thought is that the Yankees would rather have Montero play in the minor leagues to keep his trade value up in case the Yankees pull the trigger on a trade during the season.

Montero would have already been gone had the Yankees been able to trade for Cliff Lee last August.

But as Posada struggles and Montero continues to hit, how long can the Yankees stick to their plan? Montero’s defense has most scouts projecting a DH or first base job in the youngster’s future. Mark Teixeira isn’t going anywhere of course, which leaves DH.

And while the Yankees would love to leave themselves with the flexibility to rest their aging veterans like Alex Rodriguez at DH, if Montero can come up and do a better job than Posada, the Yankees could live with his weak defense behind the plate should they chose to make him the backup.

Francisco Cervelli only has 14 at-bats since coming off the DL, so there’s no reason to move him out from behind the plate. And Russell Martin continues to be the best pick up of the offseason.

But as Posada struggles, the Yankees can’t feign ignorance much longer.

The biggest reason the Yankees can be comfortable with the status quo is the surprising production they’ve received from Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia. Two pick ups off the scrap heap this offseason, Colon and Garcia have far surpassed expectations.

Colon is 2-2 with a 3.74 ERA. Garcia is 2-2 with a 2.61 ERA.

It’s great to see, and imagining where the Yankees would be had their rotation not shaped up the way it has might make you sick. But despite the overachieving, the Yankees are still just 14th in the majors in stater’s ERA (3.88).

And what’s the over/under on how many starts the Yankees will get out of their reclamation projects?

Garcia was limited to just 12 starts from 2008-2009 but bounced back with 28 last season for the White Sox. Colon hasn’t made more than 20 starts since 2005 and was limited to just 19 over the last two seasons.

It’s safe to say both have been better than expected, and the best thing the Yankees can do is ride the both of them into the ground. Keep sending Colon and Garcia out there every fifth day and if, or when, they break down, cut them loose.

If that happens, would the Yankees hesitate to call up their top pitching prospects, Dellin Betances and Manny Banuelos?

Both are starting for Double-A Trenton right now and have been pitching very well. Betances is 2-1 with a 1.00 ERA in four starts. Banuelos is 1-0 with a 2.77 ERA in six starts.

The Yankees are very protective of their young prospects, perhaps to a fault. And after watching Phil Hughes land on the DL after an inexplicable drop in velocity, the Yankees might be fearful of adding onto the innings total of their young “B’s.”

But the fans know they’re pitching well. And the moment Colon and Garcia begin to show flaws, the screams for mid-season call-ups for Banuelos and Betances will echo throughout Yankee Stadium.

For now, the Yankees can keep sending out the same lineup and rotation every day, satisfied that they’re only two games out of first. But two can quickly become four or six if the Yankees continue to struggle, while the Red Sox and Rays surge.

It’s not in the Yankees’ nature to be quick on the trigger, but they have to at least keep their guns loaded.

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In the middle game of a three game set between the Boston Red Sox and the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards earlier this week, a rubber match was taking place between Boston’s Josh Beckett and Baltimore‘s Jeremy Guthrie.

That is, until O’s outfielder Luke Scott smashed a 425-foot two-run homer onto Eutaw Street in the bottom of the fourth to break the scoreless tie.

Understandably, Scott admired his ball as it carried off into the night. Who wouldn’t? If you hit a ball that far, you’re going to want to see it go.

Unless your name is Josh Beckett.

The Red Sox‘ pitcher didn’t appreciate Scott watching his hit fly, and appeared to be yelling at Scott as he stared him down multiple times as he rounded the bases, and even after he reached the inside of the dugout. The game’s plate umpire, Fieldin Culbreth, had to calm Beckett down.

In Scott’s next at-bat in the game against Beckett, the pitcher didn’t retaliate, though that could be due to the teams being caught in a close ball game, as well as a sure-fire ejection had Beckett drilled Scott.

After the game, Beckett told reporters on the subject that “Those things have a way of working themselves out.”

So is Beckett planning on drilling Scott the next time the two teams meet? Or will he have a fellow pitcher do so?

On the flip side, this is what Scott had to offer to reporters when asked about it after the ballgame: “When I got into the dugout, the guys said he was yelling or something like that. I’ve got all the respect in the world for Josh Beckett. He’s one of the best pitchers in the game. I respect every pitcher who takes the mound against me. He is a tremendous competitor, and there are emotions. I’m an emotional person, so I can understand people getting emotional.”

What’s so bad about one admiring a lengthy home run they hit? Personally, I’m not exactly sure. If I were a pitcher and someone beat me in that fashion, I would understand them wanting to give it an extended look.

That’s baseball, as well as life. People naturally want to take a look at their accomplishments, and for Beckett to get upset over it further proves that he has the emotions of a pre-teen going through puberty.

Beckett is well known for being one of baseball’s most notorious cry-babies, and though there have been all too many examples proving as much, one sticks in my head.

I can’t remember what season it was, but my guess is between three to five years ago. It was, again, a game at Camden Yards between the Sox and the Birds with Beckett on the bump.

Melvin Mora, a longtime Oriole during the last decade, was on second, taking his lead, when all of a sudden, Beckett turned around and started walking towards Mora, shouting at him the whole time.

I don’t remember specifics, such as if the benches cleared or if Beckett was stopped by umpires/teammates before he reached Mora, but I do remember that no punches were thrown. It was a rather controlled incident, in terms of a baseball altercation.

I also remember why Beckett suddenly became incredibly pissed off.

He claimed that Mora was stealing his catcher’s signs, something that Mora denied post-game, was very obviously not doing, and that happens in baseball all the time by the players. It’s part of the game, just like how New York Yankees‘ captain Derek Jeter faked being hit by a pitch in a game late last year between his team and the Tampa Bay Rays. Teams find any way they can, within the rules of the game, to get a leg-up on the competition.

Again, that’s baseball. For Beckett to react the way he did was simply childish.

God only knows why Beckett feels that he needs to be the unwritten rule police on the diamond. If he decides to retaliate against Scott the next time the two meet, it’ll just be another example of the man’s immaturity.

The time to unnecessarily retaliate was in Scott’s next at-bat, which as I said, he failed to do. But a better alternative would be for him to grow up and play the game of baseball, not throw a fit over it. He should try to put a K next to Scott’s name the next time he faces him, instead of a HBP.

Apparently, Beckett can’t handle getting beaten in a game very well, and if I were a part of the Red Sox’ management, I would have looked into getting him help for that a long time ago.

And just for the record, did he ever have a problem with Manny Ramirez and/or David Ortiz for doing the exact same thing so many times over the past decade? Didn’t think so.

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I’m not a sabermetrics guy.

Instead of numbers and formulas, I prefer to rely on what I glimpse with my own two eyes, and judge what I see not with a calculator but with instincts that have been honed through a lifetime of watching baseball.

For the last year, sabermetrics supporters and analysts have been saying that Derek Jeter is done.

I have not believed them.

When I looked at Jeter I saw the same thing everyone else did; an aging shortstop with diminished range and offensive production that was rapidly declining from Hall-of-Fame level to simply average.

But I gave Jeter the benefit of the doubt. If anyone has ever deserved it, it is the Yankee Captain. The goodwill and respect that Jeter has earned in his professional career are not things that are easily erased. His accomplishments can never be taken from him, and have certainly earned him a lifetime pass among baseball fans.

I explained away Jeter’s subpar 2010 season as the simple result of a player entering a different phase of his career who was having trouble with the adjustment. He wasn’t done by any means—he just needed to alter his game.

For the pro’s pro, this would be no problem. His struggles in 2010 would be quickly forgotten once things got back on the right track.

Or so I thought.

Watching Jeter in 2011, I fear my hypothesis on his recent shortcomings is not looking so good.

I am unfazed.

Baseball is a game of ebbs and flows. Slumps are commonplace, even for the game’s best. Although Jeter has continued to struggle this season, it is important to remember that the current MLB season has given us only the smallest of sample sizes. There is ample time for Jeter to right the ship.

And I remain optimistic that he will be able to do just that.

Although Jeter has clearly been frustrated with his bat speed and lack of success at the plate, his work ethic is unparalleled. There is no doubt that he is putting in the work necessary to bring his game back to an acceptable level.

After all, if David Ortiz can hang on and remain productive in the autumn of his career, it is only logical that Jeter can do it too. Especially considering that Big Papi is nowhere near the athlete Jeter is, nor does he posses the legendary drive of Mr. November.

Some will argue that baseball players, even legendary ones, tend to drop off and drop off quickly in their professional golden years. Once you lose that extra step, that half-second of bat speed, you become a dinosaur simply waiting for extinction.

While this is generally true, I still cannot believe that Jeter has fallen to this level quite yet. He is in the midst of a slump, that much is undeniable. And that slump has come at the worst possible time following his 2010 struggles.

But Jeter still has something left in the tank—I’d be willing to wager on it.

Although he has not been good in 2011, the reports of his demise have been greatly exaggerated. He isn’t Mickey Mantle playing first base just yet. He isn’t even Lance Berkman playing first.

Jeter will pick it up. He probably won’t get to a batting average north of .300 again, and he probably won’t be an 80 RBI guy either.

However a declining Jeter, taken over the course of an entire season, is still a pretty darn good player.

Last year, Jeter was often and publicly maligned for his efforts.

But he still hit .270 with a 179 hits, 67 RBI and a .710 OPS. As I said, I’m not a huge numbers guy, but there are a lot of teams who would take that kind of production from their shortstop, especially if they came with Jeter’s leadership and intangibles.

Like for instance, basically any National League team located outside of Philadelphia or Florida.

For Derek Jeter, last year was a regression. For most players, it would be considered a productive campaign.

I still believe that Jeter isn’t done yet. The great ones always seem to have a trick or two up their sleeve before the end comes, and he is one of the greatest. He is out of his prime, to be sure. But primes don’t last forever. Just because he has peaked doesn’t mean he is totally out of gas.

For Derek Jeter this slump, like many others in his career, will pass. It just happens that because of his age and decreased defensive range, this slump is more widely discussed and panicked over than others.

Once Jeter shakes off his early-season struggles, he will be productive once again, albeit at a lower level than ever before. But productive nonetheless.

For the Yankees, who don’t have any realistically appealing options to replace Jeter at shortstop, the best move is to ride out the storm while standing behind the man who has supported the franchise for his entire career.

It’s not as if New York, flush with talent as always, can’t absorb a few bad weeks from a normally productive player. The Yankees have the talent and flexibility to give Jeter the credit he deserves, and hope that he can work through this rough patch.

To count Jeter out completely is a mistake. He has proven too many times that he is a player who will bare his teeth and rip your heart out if you doubt him.

Slump or no slump, he is still that player.

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