Kuzul

“Come on Mr. Lee and do your stuffCome on Mr. Lee and do your stuff‘Cause you’re gonna be mine‘Til the end of time” By Eric Marmon Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports recently tweeted (and the NY Sports Digest re-tweeted…why haven’t you signed up for our Twitter account yet?) that there are seven to eight teams interested in Cliff Lee. Unfortunately for NY Sports fans, the Yankees can only be one of them. Let’s dissolve one myth first: No team in Major League Baseball is going to offer Cliff Lee as much money as the New York Yankees. Truthfully, there are small countries that couldn’t offer Lee the kind of money the Yankees will be able to. They may not offer him a blank check in the same way they did for CC Sabathia two years ago, but they are expected to offer him a deal that would make him the richest pitcher in baseball. On top ...

By Mark C. Rinaldi There are five American League pitchers who are truly deserving of the Cy Young Award. The award is given to the best pitcher, but personally I feel there should be some worth placed on the players value to the team. For example, Zack Greinke is a great pitcher, but the Royals could have finished in last place without him. Here are my predictions to how the voting will shape out. But before we get to the top five, lets take a look at the outsiders, in alphabetical order. Cliff Lee—Lee was less than spectacular with Seattle, and he took his time getting assimilated to the heat in Texas. But the Rangers would have been watching the playoffs from their La-Z-Boys without him. Carl Pavano—He is the best pitcher on a team that easily won its division. He won 17 games and was among the league leaders in innings pitched, ...

By Shani Muschel Do you call yourself a sports fan, especially a New York sports fan? Then unless you’ve been living under a large rock covered by a large building in Timbuktu, you’ve been hearing about Rangers’ owner Chuck Greenberg’s ‘outlandish’ criticism of Yankee fans this week. Still haven’t got the memo? Then let me break it down for you. In a guest spot on ESPN radio, Greenberg publicly called out Yankee fans, bashing them for their poor behavior this offseason. “I thought Yankee fans, frankly, were awful,” Greenberg told ESPN. “They were either violent or apathetic, neither of which is good. So I thought Yankee fans were by far the worst of any I’ve seen in the postseason. I thought they were an embarrassment.” Greenberg swiftly followed up his statement with a call to Hal Steinbrenner in which he apologized for his remarks (presumably at the behest of one Mr. Bud Selig). ...

At the end of the day, it’s a business. That’s the line always thrown out during any player's contract negotiations, especially when the player is a fan favorite and a longtime resident. That said, if there was ever a guy bigger than the business, Derek Jeter would be it. However, during an interview with Michael Kay on 1050 ESPN, Hal Steinbrenner gave the impression that there would be no special treatment for the Yankee Legend: “There’s always the possibility that things could get messy,” Steinbrenner said. “We absolutely want him back. We absolutely want [Mariano Rivera] back. They’re career Yankees. But having said that, we’re running a business here. So if there’s a deal to be done, it’s going to be a deal that both sides are happy with.” Hopefully, people won’t blow this out of proportion (which may be a little hypocritical of us, considering the headline). This just seems ...

OK Yankee fans. No more thoughts about the loss. The time for looking forward is now. We’ve already discussed Girardi’s fresh new contract, as well as looked at some of the players YOU want gone and the main reason why Cliff Lee won’t be allowed to come to New York. But we know you need to move on, and trust us, we do to. So, to help us start thinking about our 2011 New York Yankees, we sat down with MLB Pitch Effects Auditor Stephen Florival to talk about some of the biggest questions still spinning the heads of Yankee fans.   Was the 2010 NYY season a success? Steph: Normally championship or failure is the status quo in Yankee land, however the 2010 season was a failure for other reasons.  The manner in which Texas ousted the pinstripes was alarming.  The Yankees were thoroughly out-pitched and out-hit and also looked the ...

By Eric Marmon Interesting read in the NY Post today, which took at a poll on their official website asking fans of the New York Yankees who they want back in pinstripes in 2011. The most noticeable was, when asked who they wanted to start the majority of games behind the plate for the Bronx Bombers next season, Yankee lifer Jorge Posada received just 32.5 percent of the vote, while Triple-A phenom Jesus Montero received 67.5 percent. New York’s displeasure with Posada doesn’t come as a complete shock. Of the Yankees “Big Four”, the catcher seems to be the least beloved. And the fact that he seemed physically unable to throw out base-stealers by the start of fall (a major necessity with guys like CC and AJ pitching), combined with his drop in production and 39-years-of-age make Jorge an easy target for fan frustration. That being said, Montero is a complete ...

Like The Who said, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” Technically, your New York Mets have yet to officially name Sandy Alderson as the new General Manager, but that’s mostly out of respect for the World Series than anything else. Mets fans everywhere can rejoice as the hiring of Alderson is set to start a whole new era of Metropolitan baseball. Or is it? The “Sandy Plan” was the topic of an article in this mornings NY Post by Dan Martin. It’s a good read for any Mets fan who wants to know more about the new guy in charge and who had little interest in watching the Knicks open the season in Toronto. Even as a Yankees supporter, I recommend checking out the article. That being said, the following quote from a former Alderson co-worker should come with a few red-flags:“It’s a totally different job when you have the revenue ...

By Dr. Louis Marmon Baseball has loads of issues. The bats shatter and impale baserunners. The games are too long, and so is the season. Since when is the World Series supposed to be played in November? It is also clear that Bud Selig isn’t creative enough to figure out a way to effectively use instant replay. He claims that these issues require further study before he can make any changes since he doesn’t want to diminish the fans' experience. But there is one thing that Selig can do immediately that will enhance the game for everyone watching: Stop the spitting. Why is that every time the camera pans on a baseball player he is spitting something? Most of the time they aren’t chewing anything. There isn’t any gum, tobacco, chaw, pinch, snuff, seeds or any other substance in their mouths except their own natural secretions—which, at least the last time I checked, are not ...

By Cooper L. Train Congratulations, fans of the New York Mets. We have a new leader and he has a girls name. Multiple new sources are revealing that the Mets have extended an offer to Richard Lynn “Sandy” Alderson to be the team’s next GM. No official announcement has been made yet, because Major League Baseball has a rule that no major moves are allowed to occur during the World Series. (You’ll remember in a similar instance, former Yankee owner George Steinbrenner elected to die during the All-Star Break on the only day during the summer no games are played, so that his passing wouldn’t interfere with day-to-day baseball activities.) Many expect the Wilpons to get a special exemption from Bud Selig that would allow them to announce Alderson’s hiring on Friday, when the Rangers and Giants are off for a travel day. Speaking of Bud Selig, the rumor going around is that Sandy Alderson came ...

After the Rangers advanced to the World Series Friday night, Rangers manager Ron Washington celebrated like a proud father. He ran around the field and hugged his players and his coaches. He enjoyed being soaked in champagne/ginger ale. There was no doubt he enjoyed the moment because he knows how fortunate he is to be in this situation. He could have been out of a job in March or at the end of April. Sports Illustrated reported that the Rangers manager tested positive for cocaine last year in March. This resulted in him doing a press conference where he apologized to players and management for his actions, and he volunteered to resign. Fortunately for him, Rangers president of baseball Nolan Ryan rejected Washington’s resignation. He decided to let his beleaguered manager manage until such time that the players gave up on him. After a mediocre April, there’s no question Washington was up ...