Ladies and Gentlemen, as you may already know today is the day the Celtics come into MSG and get their old wrinkly keesters (that was spelled WAY off) kicked up and down the court by our Knickerbockers.

For now however, I'd like to extend my appreciation to everyone here who's made the Knicks first playoff run in seven years JUST the roller coaster ride we expected.

Jump the jump for some brown nosing and severe appreciation!

Continue reading this post »

To make it easier on anybody who wants to volunteer for Baseball Courtroom the schedule is this:

Sundays will be the days when the new Week begins. Tuesdays will be when the positions are posted (if we have volunteers) and Thursdays are when the jury decisions are posted.

Unfortunately there hasn't been much Yankee news recently, so I decided to go with something irrelevant to this season. Jump the jump for details. Note: Brandon C. will be taking on a smaller role. He will only be participating as a member of the jury. Emails need to be sent to me for volunteering. Email after jump.

Continue reading this post »

The jury decisions are here. After learning more about how these FanPosts work I think you'll find that it looks a lot easier on the eyes. If you liked the old look better feel free to let us know. 

Continue reading this post »

Here are the positions for this weeks debate:

Jeterian 2's Position:

Andy Pettitte had one great career. He was a true Yankee and helped the Yankees win 5 World Series championships. Though the Hall of Fame is not a team accomplishment. It is a single player accomplishment. It is for the better players of their generation and of all-time. I think when Andy Pettitte retired the other day we all were on the edge. And I have to be honest here Andy Pettitte is borderline for the Hall of Fame. It just depends how you see his career.

I'm taking his side for the Hall of Fame, and it's not just because I'm a Yankees fan. Us Yankees fans will look at Pettitte's career to be greater than the general fan. Still Pettitte was a work horse and had a lengthy career. My take on this will be broken down into sections on how I believe Andy Pettitte is a Hall of Famer. 

So lets get right into this. The first section will be where does he rank as a Yankees pitcher. The Yankees are the greatest sports franchise, ever. We have had many great players in our history. While pitching isn't and concrete as out hitting we still had some great pitchers. Yet if we had to make a staff of 5 of the greatest Yankees pitchers Pettitte would probably be on it. Lets take a look at his stats. 

Andy Pettitte accumulated a fWAR of 66.9 over his career. Taking out his years in Houston, Pettitte had a WAR of 55.7 as a Yankee. Some of the greatest Yankee pitchers post-1980 can't touch Pettitte's WAR as a Yankee. David Wells, David Cone, Mike Mussina, Dwight Gooden, and even Roger Clemens don't have a higher WAR as a Yankee than Pettitte. The next closest WAR total as a Yankee is Mike Mussina, who sits at a 38.2 WAR. Clearly Andy Pettitte is the Yankees best pitcher since 1980.

Pettitte also ranks very high in Yankees history. As I used fWAR above (fangraphs), I am forced to use bWAR (baseball-reference) because fangraphs does not have pitchers WAR before 1980. Baseball-reference does. His bWAR would be 42.7. That ranks behind Whitey Ford, Mariano Rivera, Red Ruffing, Ron Guidry, an Lefty Gomez. So Andy is 6th all-time on the Yankees career leaders in WAR. Being one the greatest franchises in baseball history will help Andy Pettitte's case in getting into the Hall of Fame. 

Now how does Pettitte use the rest of his numbers to get into Cooperstown? Still sticking to WAR as of now I'll present to you his fWAR/200 and bWAR/200. Which is WAR/200 innings pitched. So Andy's fWAR/200 is 4.4 which is really good. His bWAR/200 is 3.3. Which is a full run below his fWAR/200. It's not fair to go based on one of the other so when you average them out his aWAR/200 (average) is 3.8. Which is what I think is just above the mark the declares someone a Hall of Famer or not. If you want his total aWAR it would be 58.9. And that would be another just above borderline result.

Pettitte never had a string of seasons that you just said wow, but he was consistently good year in and out. You knew you could rely on him coming out for a lot of starts and a ton of innings. He had 13 seasons of 30+ starts out of 16. Pettitte had a GB% of 48.8% and a LOB% of 71.5%. He induced a lot of ground balls which stranded runners on base. His rate stats are also good. Maybe not superb, but good enough for the Hall. His K/9 6.63, 2.83 BB/9, and 0.77 HR/9. Pettitte had a 3.88 ERA and a 3.75 FIP. His best year had to be 1997 where he had a 7.4 WAR and a 2.96 FIP. You knew what you were getting with Pettitte and you knew it for 16 seasons. 

All but six seasons did Pettitte not reach 200 innings pitched, and he just missed 200 IP in two seasons. He could go deep into ball games and not allow runs to cross the plate. He changed the way base runners ran on him with his pick off move. The greatest pickoff move of all-time. I remember attending a few Andy Petttitte pitched games, and I've seen a pick off or two in them. 

While the Yankees were a great team you must look at Andy's ability to pitch in big playoff games. He's one of the better playoff pitchers in MLB history. He has the most playoff wins as a pitcher, but I don't like using wins. Some examples of this was 2009 post-season performance. He pitched in every series clinching game for the Yankees. He pitched in game 6 of the ALCS and won it. He pitched in game 6 in the World Series and won it. A few times I rather have the older Andy Pettitte out there than C.C. Sabathia. 

A guy I learned SABR from taught me well on how to analyze a player's career. He looked up to Tom Tango a huge saberists. He once said the following...

"As I’ve talked about in the past, the best way to get a sense of someone’s place in history is to compare the player to his peers.  And typically, you get about 20-25 players elected to the Hall of Fame for every decade of birth years (with about one-third of those pitchers)." - Tom Tango

If this is true than Pettitte looks like he could be in the clear. Tom Tango recently put a list of Andy's generation of pitchers and ranked them. He had Pedro, Mussina, and Rivera above Pettitte. Tim Hudson was 5th just below him. This helps Andy's case a bunch. 

Another case for Pettitte is that Tom Glavine is most likely a Hall Of Famer. If so than Pettitte must be too. They have almost identical statistics. Another point to Andy's case is that he did it in 1,400 less innings. Pettitte might also be considered better than a pitcher who is already in the Hall of Fame. Catfish Hunter, though debatable it's also very close. 

Pettitte : 66.9 fWAR, 4.4 fWAR/200, 6.63 K/9, 2.83 BB/9,0.77 HR/9, 3.75 FIP 

Glavine : 68.5 fWAR, 3.1 fWAR/200, 5.32 K/9, 3.06 BB/9, 0.73 HR/9, 3.95 FIP

My last case is for the people who look at Pettitte's chance of not getting in due to HGH. HGH is not a PED. I found this post on fangraphs.

"HGH isn’t a PED though. For a while it was thought to be, but then the medical studies came out. If you have higher than normal levels, there’s no positives to it and it does a lot of harm. It’s still a felony to use and against baseball rules as well, but there’s no plus to using it."

Also I'd like to point out there is there was PED enhancing drugs during the other era's. They were called greenies or amphetamines. They improved reaction time, feelings of alertness, and a decrease sense of fatigue. Why do I bring this up? Well baseball takes a lot out of you. It's a 162 days a year with not a lot of off days. You will often feel tired before a game after a long road trip. But wait, I'll just take a greenie and I'll be awake and ready to play. You know who lived on greenies? Hank Aaron. So when you judge the players of today lets look at the players of yesterday. 

I think I've done my best to prove that Andy Pettitte is a Hall of Famer. If I couldn't convince you well let's agree to disagree. Theres no doubt the #46 will be in monument park, but I'm not doubting that a gold plaque in Cooperstown, NY won't be there. 

Sources : Fangraphs, Baseball-reference, Disco, and Tom Tango 

Jump the jump for Drizzzy's position.

Continue reading this post »

One of my favorite things about sports is the emotion captured through pictures. The ability a shot has of recreating a moment and passing it on for generations has been as big to a part in generating America's interest in sports as the game itself. My favorite part of these shots is your ability to look at them and feel the emotion of the game being played. Some of the greatest shots can make you sad, excited, or even angry. For anyone interested in sports ability to capture emotion, this is for you.

After the jump, well look at some of my personal favorites. Feel free to add any of your own.

Continue reading this post »

I think we've gotten far enough along that there is no need to keep going over the rules. If you don't know them, click my profile and read one of the previous Courtrooms.


To avoid beating the UZR horse, which has died, we will be switching the topic.

Jump the jump.

Update has Jury and Debater picks.

Continue reading this post »

Not that it needs to be said since we all know. But just in case you've got some pesky Sox fan friend or something like that, this is for you.

We'll look at some category's from the 1927 season and compare to the Sox players stats from last year.

Continue reading this post »

Everyone knows this Sunday is the Super Bowl. If you're like me you've been itching for football. I came across these on YouTube and they're awesome.

Here on some of my favorites after the jump:

Continue reading this post »

Its been a very long week 3 but I can finally say this week is over. For anyone who hasn't read the positions, here they are:

Yankees2s Position:

Why Jesus Montero should start 2011 with the New York Yankees

I have done a bit of thinking on whether or not to take this position in the argument, but I’m now convinced that Jesus Montero should start the season in the MLB. Here are my points to support my positioning…

1)    He’s ready for the big time. Who is to say that Jesus Montero isn’t ready for the MLB yet? He’s been in the Yankee minor league system since 2007 at the age of seventeen and has performed very well all the way up the ladder. In 123 games last year down at Scranton, he hit .289 while belting 21 homers and driving in 75 runs. His hitting is unquestionable. He hits for average and definitely hits for power… while he’ll draw his fair share of walks. Here’s something to stick in your pipe… he hit 14 homers after the All Star break last year while hitting .351. Scranton hitting coach Butch Wynegar has gone on the record as saying that Montero’s ability to hit opposite-field as well as pull the ball is the best he’s ever seen in a prospect. Let’s take a look at the top 50 prospect list from 2009 real quick. I promise that there is relevance to this point….

            1) David Price

            2) Matt Wieters

            3) Neftali Feliz

            4) Brett Anderson

            5) Cameron Maybin

            6) Travis Snider

            7) Trevor Cahill

            8) Tommy Hanson

            9) Colby Rasmus

            10) Gordon Beckham

Some top tens from 2010 are 1) Jason Heyward, 2) Stephen Strasburg, 3) Mike Stanton, 4) Buster Posey, 5) Brian Matusz, 7) Neftali Feliz and 10) Madison Bumgarner.

What’s the point behind all of this? Jesus Montero is currently the #9 prospect in all of baseball. Top ten prospects over the past two years have, overall, had significant playing time and success when moved up to the MLB. If traditionally prospects with high rankings have had that much success, why not call up Montero now and see what he can do?

2)    There’s no telling what Russell Martin the Yankees are getting. As we all know, the Yankees signed the former Dodger catcher Russell Martin to a one year/$4 million contract. He’ll be twenty-eight years old when spring training begins… so he could possibly be entering the prime years of his career. He’s shown glimmers of fantastic play in the past through being voted to the ASG twice while winning a gold glove and silver slugger. Any baseball team would take his 2007 self as their starting catcher. However, those glory days seems distant now. Take a look at the below statistics… brought to you by baseball-reference. These are his averages per year from each time period.

            ’06-’08 Martin – 142 G / .285 BA/ .373 OBP / .433 SLG / 14 HR / 72 RBI

            ’09-’10 Martin – 120 G / .249 BA / .350 OBP / .330 SLG / 6 HR / 40 RBI

As you can see… the first three years of his career were fairly brilliant. The last two years… not so much. Steady decline in every category has me scratching my head. He cites personal problems as distractions and blames them for his poor play over the span of those two years. While I’m not one to sit here and judge… I suspect that his "problems" will not suddenly go away when he comes to New York. In fact, New York seems to cause more problems than most other places with its nosey media. Sure, Martin’s defense is solid… but his bat has been sub-par recently. Montero’s bat would definitely add some pop to the bottom of the order and make it that much more prolific.

3)    Great learning experience. With Montero called up to the MLB level, he would be sitting in the dugout with two catchers that have been in the spotlight for a time period and thrived. Jorge Posada and Russell Martin can teach Montero things about catching that could be valuable while they’re around. It also doesn’t hurt that Girardi was a former catcher himself. We’ve read before that pitchers like CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett have learned a great deal from Andy Pettitte about pitching and that other relievers sit out in the bullpen and work with Mariano Rivera. These are invaluable lessons that he could benefit greatly from.

Rebuttal: For those of you that say, "Well… he’s 6 foot 4 inches, 225 pounds, and can’t move quickly enough behind the plate to be a MLB catcher", I ask you this simple question. What more will he learn at the minor league level that he won’t learn in the majors? There is no magical pixy-dust in Scranton that will make him a better defensive catcher at this point. Sure, he’s not the ideal "catcher"… but he’s more serviceable behind the plate than Posada is at this point and likely better than Francisco Cervelli (sorry to disappoint). There is no room for Montero to move to DH or 1B and he’s ready to be moved up from the minors. 

4)    If the Yankees don’t use him now, he’s bound to be trade-bait. This is a small point… but I feel there is good relevance to it. Cashman was willing to trade Montero in a package for Cliff Lee... who is to say that he won’t pull the trigger on another stellar pitcher that a team offers up? The Yankees are looking a bit desperately for starting pitching these days. If they aren’t willing to call up their best prospect to play at the MLB level… why not trade him away for a real solid starting pitcher that could help the Yankees this year as well as the near future? There are other catchers behind Montero with better catching ability… but not the same formidable raw talent that he possesses. Montero is the gem of the bunch... and other non-contenders would gladly look into dealing with the Yankees. 

Overall… I firmly believe that Montero should start the season in New York. Let him grow under Posada and Martin while mixing in solid playing time. Who is to say that he can’t split playing time with Russell Martin? I suppose we’ll see what happens in spring training… but that’s my take.  Of course, all of these statistics are coming from baseball-reference.com (Thanks!).

greatscott723s Position:

Here is my argument:

It has been quite some time since the Yankees have had a hitter like Jesus Montero come through their system. He's zoomed through the system, from the Rookie League in 2007 to AAA Scranton in 2010, hitting 93 doubles and 55 home runs in the past three years while putting up a stellar .518 SLG and wOBA exceeding .400. Given Jorge Posada's age and Francisco Cervelli's punchless bat, there were many calls for Montero to take over the starting catching position in the majors from now on, but the Yankees decided to sign Russell Martin to tentatively start at catcher. The question is where does this leave Montero? Should he start the season in the majors or in the minors?

Jesus Montero is, barring injury, not likely to win the MLB starting gig as catcher. The Yankees didn't give Russell Martin $4 million just to sit on the bench to start the season. While he may outhit Martin in Spring Training, Martin's defensive prowess is well-known. He has won a Gold Glove award, and has a career CS%  of 31% to back it up. Even better, he threw out 39% of baserunners last year. So many AL East teams have players (i.e. Carl Crawford, Jacoby Ellsbury, Rajai Davis, B.J. Upton, etc.) that have run roughshod on catchers like Jorge Posada in the past, and if what we're hearing from the scouts is correct, Montero (CS% of 23% in his minor league career) projects to be a catcher just like Posada. Martin improves the team on defense in this category for once!

There's also the pitching staff- Martin is an established big league catcher that Yankees pitchers will be more comfortable pitching to than a rookie. I do think that eventually, the Yankees should wean Montero into the starting catching job like they did with Posada; that's how the pitching veterans got used to him. Joe Girardi caught the majority of the games and Posada was his backup in 1997, but they switched roles in 1998 and continued this in 1999. The difference between Posada then and Montero now though is that Posada was 25 for most of the 1997 season, not the mere 21 years of age that Montero is now. The Yankees needed to see what Posada would do because he was running out of years in his twenties (they also liked his bat in the lineup, Girardi hit even worse in '97 than he did in '96). Montero is 4 years ahead of Posada's development and has plenty of time to grow a little more as a catcher, so why not give him that shot? Yes, of course he can probably hit major league pitching NOW, but his hitting abilities aren't going to evaporate if he's in the minors for a little while longer. It's not like this team that scored 859 runs without him last year is short on offense. 

Jesus Montero cannot be a big league backup catcher either. He is not Francisco Cervelli, who has arguably reached the apex of his MLB potential- a backup catcher. What does Montero have to gain from only playing once or twice a week if that? He wouldn't even be able to get into a hitting groove if he did that. Cervelli, who has no real hitting groove, can be the backup at the start of the season. To me, Montero can only be in the big leagues if he's doing one of the following:

1- He's the everyday catcher 2- He's splitting time with Martin at catcher, getting 3-4 starts a week

Since Montero will not be the everyday catcher in 2011 because of the Russell Martin signing (unless there is a terrible injury or Martin proves to be absolute crap), his only option to be in the bigs is #2. This cannot happen until June at the absolute earliest because of the arbitration clock. Give Martin a real chance to get acclimated and handle the pitching staff before forcing him into platoon. I'm not saying that I would be against a platoon later on in the season if Martin underachieves, but the Yankees and their fans need to at least allow Martin to START the season as the everyday catcher. Remember- the ideal situation is that Martin hits & defends well, thus reducing the need to rush Jesus to the majors with a ton of pressure on his shoulders to "fix" the catching situation. Let's give the veteran defender Martin a chance to be the everyday catcher before we accept the 21-year old Jesus as our lord and catcher. 

Jump the Jump for the jury ruling.

Continue reading this post »

Here they are:

Yankees2s Position:

Why Jesus Montero should start 2011 with the New York Yankees

 I have done a bit of thinking on whether or not to take this position in the argument, but I’m now convinced that Jesus Montero should start the season in the MLB. Here are my points to support my positioning…

 1)    He’s ready for the big time. Who is to say that Jesus Montero isn’t ready for the MLB yet? He’s been in the Yankee minor league system since 2007 at the age of seventeen and has performed very well all the way up the ladder. In 123 games last year down at Scranton, he hit .289 while belting 21 homers and driving in 75 runs. His hitting is unquestionable. He hits for average and definitely hits for power… while he’ll draw his fair share of walks. Here’s something to stick in your pipe… he hit 14 homers after the All Star break last year while hitting .351. Scranton hitting coach Butch Wynegar has gone on the record as saying that Montero’s ability to hit opposite-field as well as pull the ball is the best he’s ever seen in a prospect. Let’s take a look at the top 50 prospect list from 2009 real quick. I promise that there is relevance to this point….

            1) David Price

            2) Matt Wieters

            3) Neftali Feliz

            4) Brett Anderson

            5) Cameron Maybin

            6) Travis Snider

            7) Trevor Cahill

            8) Tommy Hanson

            9) Colby Rasmus

            10) Gordon Beckham

 Some top tens from 2010 are 1) Jason Heyward, 2) Stephen Strasburg, 3) Mike Stanton, 4) Buster Posey, 5) Brian Matusz, 7) Neftali Feliz and 10) Madison Bumgarner.

 What’s the point behind all of this? Jesus Montero is currently the #9 prospect in all of baseball. Top ten prospects over the past two years have, overall, had significant playing time and success when moved up to the MLB. If traditionally prospects with high rankings have had that much success, why not call up Montero now and see what he can do?

 2)    There’s no telling what Russell Martin the Yankees are getting. As we all know, the Yankees signed the former Dodger catcher Russell Martin to a one year/$4 million contract. He’ll be twenty-eight years old when spring training begins… so he could possibly be entering the prime years of his career. He’s shown glimmers of fantastic play in the past through being voted to the ASG twice while winning a gold glove and silver slugger. Any baseball team would take his 2007 self as their starting catcher. However, those glory days seems distant now. Take a look at the below statistics… brought to you by baseball-reference. These are his averages per year from each time period.

            ’06-’08 Martin – 142 G / .285 BA/ .373 OBP / .433 SLG / 14 HR / 72 RBI

            ’09-’10 Martin – 120 G / .249 BA / .350 OBP / .330 SLG / 6 HR / 40 RBI

As you can see… the first three years of his career were fairly brilliant. The last two years… not so much. Steady decline in every category has me scratching my head. He cites personal problems as distractions and blames them for his poor play over the span of those two years. While I’m not one to sit here and judge… I suspect that his “problems” will not suddenly go away when he comes to New York. In fact, New York seems to cause more problems than most other places with its nosey media. Sure, Martin’s defense is solid… but his bat has been sub-par recently. Montero’s bat would definitely add some pop to the bottom of the order and make it that much more prolific.

 3)    Great learning experience. With Montero called up to the MLB level, he would be sitting in the dugout with two catchers that have been in the spotlight for a time period and thrived. Jorge Posada and Russell Martin can teach Montero things about catching that could be valuable while they’re around. It also doesn’t hurt that Girardi was a former catcher himself. We’ve read before that pitchers like CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett have learned a great deal from Andy Pettitte about pitching and that other relievers sit out in the bullpen and work with Mariano Rivera. These are invaluable lessons that he could benefit greatly from.

 Rebuttal: For those of you that say, “Well… he’s 6 foot 4 inches, 225 pounds, and can’t move quickly enough behind the plate to be a MLB catcher”, I ask you this simple question. What more will he learn at the minor league level that he won’t learn in the majors? There is no magical pixy-dust in Scranton that will make him a better defensive catcher at this point. Sure, he’s not the ideal “catcher”… but he’s more serviceable behind the plate than Posada is at this point and likely better than Francisco Cervelli (sorry to disappoint). There is no room for Montero to move to DH or 1B and he’s ready to be moved up from the minors. 

 4)    If the Yankees don’t use him now, he’s bound to be trade-bait. This is a small point… but I feel there is good relevance to it. Cashman was willing to trade Montero in a package for Cliff Lee... who is to say that he won’t pull the trigger on another stellar pitcher that a team offers up? The Yankees are looking a bit desperately for starting pitching these days. If they aren’t willing to call up their best prospect to play at the MLB level… why not trade him away for a real solid starting pitcher that could help the Yankees this year as well as the near future? There are other catchers behind Montero with better catching ability… but not the same formidable raw talent that he possesses. Montero is the gem of the bunch... and other non-contenders would gladly look into dealing with the Yankees. 

 Overall… I firmly believe that Montero should start the season in New York. Let him grow under Posada and Martin while mixing in solid playing time. Who is to say that he can’t split playing time with Russell Martin? I suppose we’ll see what happens in spring training… but that’s my take.  Of course, all of these statistics are coming from baseball-reference.com (Thanks!).

greatscott723s position:

Here is my argument:

It has been quite some time since the Yankees have had a hitter like Jesus Montero come through their system. He's zoomed through the system, from the Rookie League in 2007 to AAA Scranton in 2010, hitting 93 doubles and 55 home runs in the past three years while putting up a stellar .518 SLG and wOBA exceeding .400. Given Jorge Posada's age and Francisco Cervelli's punchless bat, there were many calls for Montero to take over the starting catching position in the majors from now on, but the Yankees decided to sign Russell Martin to tentatively start at catcher. The question is where does this leave Montero? Should he start the season in the majors or in the minors?
Jesus Montero is, barring injury, not likely to win the MLB starting gig as catcher. The Yankees didn't give Russell Martin $4 million just to sit on the bench to start the season. While he may outhit Martin in Spring Training, Martin's defensive prowess is well-known. He has won a Gold Glove award, and has a career CS%  of 31% to back it up. Even better, he threw out 39% of baserunners last year. So many AL East teams have players (i.e. Carl Crawford, Jacoby Ellsbury, Rajai Davis, B.J. Upton, etc.) that have run roughshod on catchers like Jorge Posada in the past, and if what we're hearing from the scouts is correct, Montero (CS% of 23% in his minor league career) projects to be a catcher just like Posada. Martin improves the team on defense in this category for once!

There's also the pitching staff- Martin is an established big league catcher that Yankees pitchers will be more comfortable pitching to than a rookie. I do think that eventually, the Yankees should wean Montero into the starting catching job like they did with Posada; that's how the pitching veterans got used to him. Joe Girardi caught the majority of the games and Posada was his backup in 1997, but they switched roles in 1998 and continued this in 1999. The difference between Posada then and Montero now though is that Posada was 25 for most of the 1997 season, not the mere 21 years of age that Montero is now. The Yankees needed to see what Posada would do because he was running out of years in his twenties (they also liked his bat in the lineup, Girardi hit even worse in '97 than he did in '96). Montero is 4 years ahead of Posada's development and has plenty of time to grow a little more as a catcher, so why not give him that shot? Yes, of course he can probably hit major league pitching NOW, but his hitting abilities aren't going to evaporate if he's in the minors for a little while longer. It's not like this team that scored 859 runs without him last year is short on offense. 

Jesus Montero cannot be a big league backup catcher either. He is not Francisco Cervelli, who has arguably reached the apex of his MLB potential- a backup catcher. What does Montero have to gain from only playing once or twice a week if that? He wouldn't even be able to get into a hitting groove if he did that. Cervelli, who has no real hitting groove, can be the backup at the start of the season. To me, Montero can only be in the big leagues if he's doing one of the following:

1- He's the everyday catcher 2- He's splitting time with Martin at catcher, getting 3-4 starts a week
Since Montero will not be the everyday catcher in 2011 because of the Russell Martin signing (unless there is a terrible injury or Martin proves to be absolute crap), his only option to be in the bigs is #2. This cannot happen until June at the absolute earliest because of the arbitration clock. Give Martin a real chance to get acclimated and handle the pitching staff before forcing him into platoon. I'm not saying that I would be against a platoon later on in the season if Martin underachieves, but the Yankees and their fans need to at least allow Martin to START the season as the everyday catcher. Remember- the ideal situation is that Martin hits & defends well, thus reducing the need to rush Jesus to the majors with a ton of pressure on his shoulders to "fix" the catching situation. Let's give the veteran defender Martin a chance to be the everyday catcher before we accept the 21-year old Jesus as our lord and catcher. 

 After a LONNNNNNG week 3, we can finally say here are the debates! Keep an eye out for the jury opinions!

This week our topic is should Jesus Montero start the season in MLB or should he start the season in the minors. This doesn't necessarily mean he needs to be starting at C. He could be any string, but should he be somewhere on the Yankees opening day roster?

Continue reading this post »

Here before the jump is the positions.

Wraithpks Position

The Yankees should not make a move to add another pitcher right now. Let's deal with free agents first. Is there anyone still available who would honestly be much better than a rookie? The only guys left are pretty much locks for a 5-6 ERA, best case scenario. So, I think we can all agree that free agency is not an option right now.

How about making a trade? First of all, a potential trade partner is not going to part with a good pitcher if they are still in competition for a division, so I wouldn't put much hope in landing one of the White Sox young pitchers since they look to be a good team who could win the Central. If you look at the list of free agents for 2012 (aka, guys likely to be moved by the deadline), the only guy on a probable non-contender who is interesting at all is Wandy Rodriguez. Siera predicts his 2011 ERA to be 3.6, but you know that would balloon against the heavier lineups in the AL East. He would likely be somewhere in the 4s.

So let's assume that Wandy is the only attractive trade option. You know they are going to ask for Jesus. They won't get him, but they would likely get one of the B's and Romine, with possibly some more players. I don't like trading a prospect who could possibly be better than Wandy, along with a legit starting catcher. I feel like whatever we trade will be a regret in a couple years, like the Vazquez trade ended up being.

It comes down to this: pitching can be a crapshoot. Look at some of the trades for "established" starters we've made recently: Kevin Brown, Randy Johnson, Javier Vazquez twice, Jared Wright, etc. In fact, I can't think of a trade for a starter in the last decade that had really worked out well.

So, why is a young guy a better option? First, let's get this out of the way: I believe we will make the playoffs either way. Our fifth starter won't start games in the playoffs, so we're essentially swapping Ivan Nova for whoever we would trade for. Personally, I don't mind having Nova as our fourth starter. Most teams don't have a solid pitcher in their fourth rotation spot, and Nova could potentially be solid.

The great thing about trying kids, though, is that if one sticks, we now have a good young pitcher who is cost controlled for six years. Imagine if they gave the fifth spot to Brackman and he hit his ceiling, we could have a right handed Randy Johnson (the Mariners and Dbacks version) under a cheap contract for six years. This lets us spend money at other areas of need. Imagine where we would be right now if we hadn't given Phil Hughes a chance?

In conclusion, it would be great to acquire an ace from another team, but there just isn't one available. Any pitcher we get will be a middle of the rotation guy at best. Why not use one of our own farm hands, who probably won't be much worse but could set us up for years if they succeed? What's better than trading for a Zack Greinke? Growing your own Zack Greinke (minus teh crazy).

KingLous Position

 Hello member's of the jury. As you know I am here to debate why the Yankees should sign/trade for a starter.
Let me start off by saying we don't need a superstar, we just need a solid pitcher. A Kevin Millwood an innings eater. Would it hurt to get a 15-20 game winner? No it wouldn't. Should we part ways with Jesus Montero or the Killer B's? If the player is young and is a 15-20 game winner.  

Now onto the 2011 season and how we will fair with the current Rotation. Now we can expect CC to still be a 20 game winner with an ERA of 3.30-3.95 and Hughes to possibly have another season similar to the 2010 season. But, the big question marks are Aj and the 4th and 5th spot in the rotation. Burnett is unpredictable, at some points he looks like he could be a 30 game winner if he wanted to at other points he looks like a rookie who just got called up. Now onto the 4th and 5th seed. We all know the Nova and Brackman are going to compete for starting spot in the rotation. And I believe Nova will win it due to him having more experience in the Bigs. Brackman is most likely either going to be sent down or will be in the bullpen. Now the 5th spot is rumored to go to Mitre if the Yankees don't get a pitcher. All I can say is expect to see Yankees lose games by 5-10 runs. He started 3 times last year for the bombers. In those three starts he allowed a total of 8 runs or 8.2 innings pitched. When he wasn't starting he allowed 12 runs over around 46 innings pitched. If we are to use Mitre it must be from the bullpen.  

Now here are some options for the Yankees.

1. Kevin Millwood: The last time this guy had an injury season was in 2004 for the Phillies. Where he pitched 25 games and 141 innings pitched. In all of his seasons he averaged around 195 innings pitched. He also has a career ERA of 4.11. Now we don't need to pay him much around 2.5 million will do so that is perfect.

2. Gavin Floyd: We heard rumors of this guy coming to us since late November. Now as you know he didn't have a career year last year. Which means we can get him for cheap. Maybe Brackman and a draft pick. Another upside is he is young, he is 27. He also is like a younger Kevin Millwood, over his last 3 season he averaged 192 innings pitched.

3. Carlos Zambrano: AS@#$OLE! Enuff said. But, out of all of the guys I just listed he is the best option. Over his career he averaged an ERA of 3.50. He also has 116 career wins with 74 loses. Now the biggest problem with Big Z is that he has anger problems. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW_HvOgzseE Also that huge contract he has. If the Yankees do get Z they will need to have the Cubs pay the majority of his contract.

4. Justin Duchscherer: Injury prone but, can pitch. Small contract=win win situation.  

Well there is my argument and all I can say is hope you agree with me. GO YANKEES!!!!!!

Continue reading this post »

For anybody who hasn't participated or doesn't know the rules, here they are! Remember that Brandon C. is a permanent jury member. Leaving 4 spots for you jury wannabes!

• To be chosen as a jury you just need to comment telling us you would like to be a jury member. First come first serve. You MUST HAVE AN EMAIL ADDRESS YOU DO NOT MIND SHARING WITH US and CHECK AT LEAST ONCE A DAY!
• To be chosen as a debater, comment with your opinion on the topic and let us know you would like to debate. YOU MUST HAVE AN EMAIL ADDRESS YOU DO NOT MIND SHARING WITH US.
• Once the jury and debaters are chosen I will edit this FP (and put Updated into the title) with the four jury and two chosen debaters.
  
• The debaters will then be given a day (two at the max) to type up their reasoning behind their position as well as a factual argument to support anything they have to say. I want debaters who are going to take this seriously and give us something that could really sway an opinion! Once the debaters have finished they will need to email Brandon C. and I their positions.
• Once we have the positions we will email each of the jury with them. I will then update this post again with each position so the community can read, comment, and discuss each position. 
• After some time, I will post the jury picks, and crown a winner. There will never be a tie seeing as there are 5 jury, so don't worry about that!

If you participated as a member of the jury or as a debater last time, you will not be picked again unless it is absolutely necessary for us to continue with this week.

Jump the jump for the topic and members for this week.

Continue reading this post »

Since the How to Play? post had everything for this week I'll just jump right into Marisa and nyyrocks29 positions on the topic.

Continue reading this post »

First off I'll start by telling everyone that Brandon C. is going to be helping me out in running the BC and has become a permanent member of the jury. This leaves 4 spots for whoever wants in. Now for a quick (hopefully) summary of how this works.

• For right now the jury will be chosen based on a first comment first jury system. You want to be a jury? Be one of the first 4 people to comment telling me you want to be a jury. In order to be a jury you MUST have a working email address that you are comfortable sharing with either Brandon or myself.
• Choosing the debaters will be a bit different. It isn't first come first serve like the jury, but it doesn't hurt your chances to comment first. In order to be taken into consideration to debate, just comment letting us know you want to debate and GIVE US YOUR POSITION ON THE TOPIC. (which I will be giving you shortly)
• I can't do this without you guys. Please do not be shy, everyone's opinion is welcome.

Follow me after the jump for the topic and how the debate is run. I'll try to explain as quickly as possible.

Continue reading this post »

Some of the things that keeps me coming back to PSA are the diverse and interesting opinions that I see and read when I'm on here. Whether it was the sabermetrics lovers and saberhaters going at it or the Free Joba vs Pen Joba, there was always an opinion to be shared. The thing that drives me nuts about a lot of these discussions is the tendency for them to fizzle out over time. 

Personally I love debates. I love reading people debating over if RBI is a good stat or not or if UZR is a trustworthy stat. It's part of the fun of this blog. Recently while on a trip back home from NYC I was thinking about a fun way for people who are debate-savy like myself to enjoy a good debate without having to worry about being insulted or called crazy. I ended up "stealing" something my history teacher in high school used to have us do from time to time. The Baseball Courtroom.

Continue reading this post »

It's April 11th, 2010, or as a Rangers fan might remember it, the day their 2009/10 postseason hopes were squashed in a shootout at the hands of the "Broad Street Bullies". The game itself is no longer important but the message the Flyers sent out to the sports world that year is something every Giants fan should take to heart.

Leading up to the game I wasn't sure what I hoped for. On one side, you had a chance to kick the rival Flyers out of contention while grabbing a spot for yourself. Great huh? Not so much. Anybody who has followed the Rangers since their run with Mark M (which I was too young to experience myself) knows that the Rangers have had their fair share of the 8th seed, the disappointing seasons and the feeling that your team had the talent and blew it. This year looked like another one of those years. On the other side? A playoff spot against the heavily-favored Washington Capitals. The potential David and Goliath moment of the New York Rangers 2009/10 NHL season (if beating the Flyers and entering the postseason wasn't enough for you at that point).

Where am I going with this? What's it have to do with the New York Giants? Jump the jump and find out.

Continue reading this post »