Saturday, May 04, 2013
Jack O’Connell: Yanks’ bats silent against Athletics
(cutoffman.mlblogs.com)
It’s one thing for Michael the Kay and Sen. Al Leiter to screw this up last night…but the BBWAA high muckety-muck? “Rookie shortstop Adam Rosales smoked a first-pitch fastball to left-center for his first career home run.”
Read More...Sabathia was taken deep on the first pitch of the game. Rookie shortstop Adam Rosales smoked a first-pitch fastball to left-center for his first career home run. Sabathis settled down nicely but needed major help from second baseman Robinson Cano to get out of a fifth-inning ...
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1. boteman posted on March 16, 2013 at 11:30 AM # hit 0 | hit 0I can honestly say the only way I knew that Brian Daubach, Brendan Donnelly, Matt Herges, Cory Lidle, Kerry Lightenberg, Frank Menechino, Kevin Millar, and Damian Miller were replacement players was that the video games had to use made-up names for them because of the Union issue. I'm pretty sure Melky Cabrera is going to carry the stigma of being a PED user for longer and for a wider audience than Kevin Millar's stimga as a scab. He seems pretty chummy with players on his show on the MLB Network, and I seem to recall him being a popular guy on his teams; it doesn't appear like union members have disowned him.
Asking from ignorance, how exactly did the permenant stain of scabiness effect these guys?
EDIT: Chris Truby and Ron Mahay were replacement players too! Never knew that.
It didn't. It affected them.
Oh course, taking steroids may have helped his performance to the point where he was leading the batting race and putting up numbers for a big contract.
I'm sick and tired of guys like Chris Truby and Albert Belle crossing picket lines and such.
Disconcur. MLBPA has at every opportunity thrown minor leaguers and prospects under the bus for the benefit of their vets. If those players cross the lines, the PA frankly deserves it. It did nothing to earn their loyalty.
His faux pariah status also meant he was actively denied the chance to play in the postseason and win a world series.
I get what you're saying, but they did win the WS. I think that gives Bochy some leeway on not being second-guessed on the decision not to bring Melky back mid-playoffs.
Please. How could it have helped the team to be without a player who had hit to a 136 OPS+ over his last 1200 PA? Chemistry? Nobody knows that, and nobody includes Bruce Bochy.
When did this used to be? The BALCO raid was Sept 2003, Bonds won the 2004 MVP.
without having to go the Hester Prynne route (look it up, you lazy kids!) where you wear your sins forever.
I think he may have missed the point of that book.
Some guys wept and fessed up; some still are silent. That is the key to redemption in America. Go the Oprah route, and all is forgiven.
I think he may have missed the point of that book.
Just what I was thinking. It's necessary to impose our societal revenge upon Colon and Cabrera, following the example of Captain Ahab.
I don't see how anyone can view what Pettitte did as "fessing up."
The statement he released after the Mitchell Report in which he purported to be "fessing up" was a pack of lies. It was only after the Daily News uncovered further use by him that he amended his fessing to include the further use that they found. To this day he has only fessed up to what he has been caught doing.
As to Giambi, I recall that his fessing-up press conference consisted of a bunch of vague statements.
Yeah, but he has Clemens for company. And I bet none of them would swap with A-Rod, despite trials and all, it's probably more satisfying to have a heel image than A-Rod's rep.
More than that, Bonds and Clemens are ########. Giambi, Pettitte, and McGwire aren't.
Well, your first sentence was correct.
Obviously none of us know what these guys are like in private, but Bonds and Clemens have negative public personas that none of the other guys have.
I used to think that the main difference between the evil ones and the "let's not talk about it" players was that the latter group got to keep playing after they were tainted, winning back fans favor by playing well (and not getting caught). But Cabrera is starting to look like a counter-example which does seem to bring it back to "how dare you break a record or lead the league in hitting while cheating."
I think a big part of the reaction to him was how perfectly he "fit the profile," if you will. He went from scrubby outfielder on the brink of washing out of the game to an all-star over the course of 18 months before getting caught. Anyone who wants to believe in the power of PEDs to ruin the game would be drawn to that data point, and anyone who wants to argue that they have a negligible impact on performance will have to debunk it. His case is a natural point of contention.
The argument that the steroids didn't impact Cabrera is an easy one: his performance boost was due not to an increase in power, but an increase in BABIP.
But part of the negative reaction to him is also that he tried to set up the fake website or whatever.
Yes, because Olympic sprinters keep taking steroids to hit more dingers.
Is this responsive? Are you saying that he gained an increase of some 70 points of BABIP due to an increase in speed caused by the steroids?
Hell, his line drive % didn't even increase.
It was supposed to mean that PED use is ill studied and assuming it's benefits would only present in one way (like increasing power) is just as faulty as asumming that it's benefits don't exist.
Additionally, it's incorrect to state that his power didn't improve. His ISO and HR/FA were higher in 2011 and 2012 than his career rates.
Which one is it Ray, you can't have them both. Either he is the vastly improved 136 OPS+ guy, who got snubbed out of a WS. Or he is the same old Melky with some BABIP luck, in which case leaving him off the roster is no big deal.
No; it could be (3) the increase in BABIP is a new skill which has nothing to do with steroids.
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