[QUOTE=Morbo]
I would like the Giants and Yankees to play each other in an interleague game, and have Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds collide on a play at first base, resulting in career-ending injuries to the both of them. Does that make me a bad person? 
[/QUOTE]
The thought of this happening is going to make me smile for the rest of the day. Thank you.
[QUOTE=Morbo]
I would like the Giants and Yankees to play each other in an interleague game, and have Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds collide on a play at first base, resulting in career-ending injuries to the both of them. Does that make me a bad person?
[/QUOTE]
Studies have shown that very-low-speed collisions are unlikely to do that much damage. However, I’m hoping that someone will jam Bonds with a good inside fastball that causes his bones to shatter upon impact.
Oh, and Silenus? Wilson Betemit hit pinch-hit homeruns in consecutive games. How much more power do you want? 
[QUOTE=Morbo]
I would like the Giants and Yankees to play each other in an interleague game, and have Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds collide on a play at first base, resulting in career-ending injuries to the both of them. Does that make me a bad person?
[/QUOTE]
Not necessarily bad. Machiavellian, perhaps, but not bad.
[QUOTE=Asimovian]
Oh, and Silenus? Wilson Betemit hit pinch-hit homeruns in consecutive games. How much more power do you want?
[/QUOTE]
I want someone who’s batting better than .155, that’s for sure!
Two fluke homers does not a power hitter make. Although they might just save him from a trip to the minors.
[QUOTE=Marley23]
There are things it’s rational to criticize the Yankees for and things there aren’t. I never thought this was a done deal, and I think this happened because, despite the resources, the Yankees didn’t have that many other options. They weren’t going to trade Hughes or Sanchez or a top prospect, and they weren’t going to get too far with whatever castoffs were out there.
[/QUOTE]
But the reason that everyone gets frustrated with the Yankees is nicely encapsulated in your last sentence. See, for most teams, you either blow your financial wad preseason, or you save money to make a move later. The Yankees alone don’t have to make this choice.
“The Yankees weren’t going to trade Hughes or Sanchez or a top prospect” because they didn’t have to; they could buy a Hall-of-Famer. Any other team in baseball looking to get a top flight starter is going to have no choice but to part with a prospect to get him. Don’t want to trade your prospects? Well, then you make do with Jeff Karstens and Sean Henn and whatever marginal, low-priced help you can find on the waiver wire. But making do with what they have is never something the Yankees have to consider. Because of the money.
And that ruins the story. Every year, every team has its own story, and the winner’s story is usually a story of hardship conquered, one way or another: overcoming injury, working with a small payroll, patching together a bunch of stiffs in your rotation but surviving thanks to a huge lineup, supplementing a low-cost bunch of middle-of-the-road hitters with a savvy trade for an All-Star. This is never the Yankee story. The Yankee story is: “We had weaknesses at the beginning of the year, but we bought players and accepted poorer teams’ salary dumps until eventually those weaknesses went away.” How can you root for that? It’s a crappy story!
How can you be impressed with anyone on that team? Cashman? He can make twenty moves and if five of them work out, the team will be awesome; what other general manager works with that kind of cushion? Torre? Who even knows if he’s really a good manager? When the going gets tough, the Stein gets Torre a Hall-of-Fame pitcher. Maybe Torre and Cashman are good and maybe they aren’t, but there’s no good way to tell because they get so many more resources than anyone else.
The funny part is, leave out the Clemens signing and the Yankees were well on their way to becoming an actual feel-good story. The once-mighty champs struggling, with a rotation full of journeyman and a slumping and overworked bullpen, but they pull it together, get great seasons from A-Rod and Jeter, make a brilliant deadline deal sending Sanchez and two other contributors to Houston for Roy Oswalt, sneak into the playoffs behind suddenly overfed Boston, and win the Series? I’d have been rooting for them.
[QUOTE=silenus]
I want someone who’s batting better than .155, that’s for sure!
Two fluke homers does not a power hitter make. Although they might just save him from a trip to the minors.
[/QUOTE]
Crimeny, man! He has to have power AND hit for average, too? Be reasonable! cough Frankly, I wouldn’t cry if they sent him down for a little while to get his head on straight again.
But you can put me solidly in the “this is our year” camp. I will be seated in Dodger Stadium more times this year than in any prior season, and I plan to take full credit when we have our victory parade down Figueroa this October!
Just out of curiousity, how are the rest of you Dodger fans out there feeling about the potential return of Yhency Brazoban? I can’t help but think he’s good trade fodder.
THINK BLUE