Parroting the company line again.

Corporate stooge.

I don't get it.

I can’t stand playing a nine-inning game in four hours.

Must explain your ABs.

Last night's game had 14 runs and was 3 hours 16 minutes. That seems reasonable...The four hour 5-2 game the night before? Nigh inexplicable...

Hurley at NESN...However you feel about Teixeira's comments, though, you have to give him this: The man is doing his part to speed the games up. He went 0-for-4 on Tuesday night and followed it up with an 0-for-3 on Wednesday, and he's now hitting .125 with 16 strikeouts against the Red Sox this season.

Ouch.

I never thought I'd say this but Teixeira is nowhere near the hitter that Jason Giambi was. Yeah, he can pick it, but lord he throws away too many at bats.

I never thought I'd say this but Teixeira is nowhere near the hitter that Jason Giambi was. Yeah, he can pick it, but lord he throws away too many at bats.

Giambi was the kind of hitter that when he got hot, he'd carry the team for two weeks.

It helped a lot that he was cheating.

Giambi was great whenever he was hot, but he also missed nearly 40 games a year and was a slug in the field. Not to mention that he even played first base for all of about 70 games a year while he was on the Yanks.

This seems to be the active Yankees thread. I'm in deep despair about tonight's game. I can't remember a time in my fandom that I was more completely certain that the Yankees have absolutely no chance to win a game. I think if they played 100 Burnett/Lester tilts at Fenway, the Sox would take like 99 of them. The only real good news for me is that this may be the last time I see AJ pitch in a Yankee uniform ever again.

I never thought I'd say this but Teixeira is nowhere near the hitter that Jason Giambi was. Yeah, he can pick it, but lord he throws away too many at bats.

Why would you never think you would say that? Jason Giambi is/was just a much better hitter than Teixeira. The hope was just that tossing in the other stuff, Teix would be somwhere in Giambi's value range. Unfortunately, the hitting has fallen apart earlier than expected and the contract is already looking albatrossy.

This seems to be the active Yankees thread. I'm in deep despair about tonight's game. I can't remember a time in my fandom that I was more completely certain that the Yankees have absolutely no chance to win a game. I think if they played 100 Burnett/Lester tilts at Fenway, the Sox would take like 99 of them. The only real good news for me is that this may be the last time I see AJ pitch in a Yankee uniform ever again.

I'm actually extremely excited about tonight's game. Pumped to see Jesus rise from [Scranton.] Really pumped to see AJ get beaten all over Fenway so that we can stop starting him. I will be extremely disappointed if the Red Sox let him off the hook.

If the Red Sox let Burnett off the hook, the Yankees retain a good shot at the division.

If the Red Sox let Burnett off the hook, the Yankees retain a good shot at the division.

Sometimes one must cut off a finger to save the hand.

I'm hoping to see AJ plunk several players tonight, but given his command there's a solid chance they would be Yankees players.

I'm actually extremely excited about tonight's game. Pumped to see Jesus rise from [Scranton.] Really pumped to see AJ get beaten all over Fenway so that we can stop starting him. I will be extremely disappointed if the Red Sox let him off the hook.

Me too. I'm just sort of numb to AJ's starts... through some quirk of scheduling, it seems like I've seen every single one of his starts this season, and at this point they've lost the capacity to hurt anymore. In a world without the wild card, I might feel different, but now? Meh. Also, who isn't excited about the first coming of Jesus?!?

Me too. I'm just sort of numb to AJ's starts

I'm in the 'meh' camp too. There are worse fates than to be the team with the second-best team in the AL. Besides, I generally subscribe to the "winning 1 of 3 in Fenway is good enough" school.

If the Red Sox let Burnett off the hook, the Yankees retain a good shot at the division.

Really going out on a limb there saying that the Yankees have a shot at the division if they're tied in the loss column after September 1st.

The wild card team should be allowed only 1 home game - game 3 in a 5 game series and 2 games - games 3 and 4 of a 7 game series in the later rounds.

Best case scenario for the game is that AJ plunks Ellsbury and Pedroida to start the game, gets into a bench clearing brawl, which results in he and several Red Sox being suspended.

The wild card team should be allowed only 1 home game - game 3 in a 5 game series and 2 games - games 3 and 4 of a 7 game series in the later rounds.

Even if they are, oh, ten games better than the division winner they are facing?

Everything in the quoted bit is right on the money. It continues to be strange that the league does nothing to address such an obvious problem. Why not just try a pitch clock at the Arizona fall league and see how it goes. Try something, the problem is only getting worse.

The wild card team should be allowed only 1 home game - game 3 in a 5 game series and 2 games - games 3 and 4 of a 7 game series in the later rounds.

The only way that works is if you allow the team with the best record to choose which team it wants to face in the Divisional Series.

And even with that, I'm not in favor of it. I can understand handicapping teams at the start of the playoffs (even though it's not something I support, a playoff between two wild cards is defensible). But once a matchup has been established, I don't believe in further handicapping/aiding the chances of the two participants beyond the standard HFA. And with unbalanced schedules making the determination of a league's best team uncertain, you can end up rewarding/penalizing the wrong teams anyway.

And, it should go without saying, I have no idea why you posted that in this thread.

Everything in the quoted bit is right on the money. It continues to be strange that the league does nothing to address such an obvious problem. Why not just try a pitch clock at the Arizona fall league and see how it goes. Try something, the problem is only getting worse.

True. As much as it pains me to say it, I'm with Teix here.

The wild card team should be allowed only 1 home game - game 3 in a 5 game series and 2 games - games 3 and 4 of a 7 game series in the later rounds.

That reeks of stacking the deck against one of the playoff participants. I'm ambivalent about the Wildcard, but if you have it, you've got to treat that team (or teams) fairly. The real problem is that the advantage often given to 1st place finishers, a bye in the 1st playoff round, isn't thought to be much of an advantage in MLB due to the danger of accumulating "rust".

I'm with Teix here

My pointless complaint of the day. What is the deal with people referring to Teixeira as "Teix"? Is it pronounced "Tesh"? Does anyone ever call him "Tesh" except as a joke? And if so, "Teix" doesn't read as "Tesh" anyway. If it's meant to be pronounced "Tex", then his nickname is Tex. End pointless complaint.

Lemme try to sew this all together - if the division winner would be the only team from the East to make the playoffs, would AJ Burnett be starting? Would the Yankees start a rookie starting his first MLB game - even a heralded one - at DH?

I said it last month. August and September of 2011 are all about playoff seeding and postseason rotation setting for these two teams. We're the idiots for paying endless attention to these exhibition games. People in the stands and watching at home have a greater stake in the game result than do the managers.

Try something, the problem is only getting worse.

Not that I disagree with the idea of doing anything about game pacing (although it doesn't bother me as much as it seems to bother, well, everybody) but is it really getting worse? I remember the Yankees playing plenty of four-hour games with the Orioles and Red Sox in the '90s. It certainly could be getting worse but I don't think it necessarily is?

Looking at the chart <a href="http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100613&c>here</a>, it seems like it's only getting worse for Yankees-Red Sox. I think that says a lot about the atmosphere of these games, whether postseason berths are in the bag or not. Personally speaking I can stand 18 high-tension games a year that run long, as frustrating as it can be to invest four hours in a game and come away with a bitter loss. Is it really worth instituting rule changes (and enforcing a never-ever-enforced pitch clock rule counts as a rule change) for the sake of Yankees-Red Sox games? I thought it was generally frowned upon here when Bud did something in the exclusive interest of Boston and New York.

From Maury Brown's column:

The games may take four hours, but fans in New England clearly don’t care. Case in point Wednesday night’s Red Sox-Yankees game earned a 15.2 household rating (26 share) in the Boston DMA, NESN’s highest game rating of the 2011 season. The two previous season high ratings were also Yankees games (14.0 on Tuesday, August 30 and 13.6 on August 5th).

The length of games will only become an issue with by MLB when viewership drops and revenues decline.

What is the deal with people referring to Teixeira as "Teix"?

To differentiate between Teixeira and the numerous other folks in and outside of baseball with a nickname of Tex?

http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl/player_search.cgi?search=Tex

What is the deal with people referring to Teixeira as "Teix"?

"Tex" is corny. And many of us find it hard to remember whether it's "ei" or "ie" after the x. "Teix" saves us 4 keystrokes and some ethnically insensitive spelling.

I am however deeply disappointed that nobody here has posted AL vs. NL average game times yet.

I'm excited about a post-season of TEX-NY-BOS-DET. I'm excited about possibly winning the division. I'm excited about possibly winning 100 games. I'm ecstatic to see the Sox back in the playoffs. And I pray that TB can somehow claw back into the wc hunt..preferably not against the Sox, but admittedly that'd be a hell of a story if they collapsed.

I'm *not* excited about the Angels replacing Texas, cause I think they'd just roll over for the Sox or Yanks...but admittedly again if they beat the Sox in 3 with Paps blowing the last game, that'd be so anti-climatic, that it would be climatic. I don't see them beating the Yanks under any conditions.

I don't see [the Angels] beating the Yanks under any conditions.

The Angels have had no problem kicking our asses for the last 10 or so years.

The only way that works is if you allow the team with the best record to choose which team it wants to face in the Divisional Series

I'm surprised the press hasn't taken up a call for this. Think of all the bulletin board material stories they could write about the decision process.

So Sterling's really saying "Teix Message"?

The games may take four hours, but fans in New England clearly don’t care. Case in point Wednesday night’s Red Sox-Yankees game earned a 15.2 household rating (26 share) in the Boston DMA, NESN’s highest game rating of the 2011 season. The two previous season high ratings were also Yankees games (14.0 on Tuesday, August 30 and 13.6 on August 5th).

I wind up watching YES when the two teams play even though I'm a Red Sox fan. I mainly do it for a change of pace. I think NESN amps up the crowd noise too much and does other goofy things like food criticism by Heidi Watney and has too many guests in the booth.

Every game I've been to at Fenway has been more than 4 hours. 2 rain delays and last Tuesdays YankSox game. The rain delays were much more exciting. I was nearly asleep by the 9th inning. Granted I also got there early and watched BP from the Bleacher Bar, so i was there for nearly 6.5 hours.

Man, if the Yankees had lost that game Thursday, they'd be tied in the loss column now, and totally have no shot at the division.

(Yes, I am being a dick)

Man, if the Yankees had lost that game Thursday, they'd be tied in the loss column now, and totally have no shot at the division.

(Yes, I am being a dick)

Don't sell yourself short. You're not just being a dick, you're also being a moron. (-: