Yeeeeaaaaah, I'm Gonna Have To Go Ahead And Disagree With You On That One

Blez from Athletics Nation has an excellent interview with Jason Giambi containing some interesting tidbits (h/t Joe P. from RAB). One of them would have altered the course of Yankee history, and the other one is just plain hilarious.

Blez: How do you view yourself as a defensive first baseman? There have been a lot of people who have said that you've had better days as a defensive first baseman, yet your fielding percentage is pretty high. So how do you view yourself?

Giambi: I view myself as great. I get the job done and that's what I'm out there for. The one thing that I know that I'm good at and you can ask Chavy and the younger guys and even Jeet (Derek Jeter) is that I've helped win a lot of guys gold gloves because I'm really good at picking balls out of the dirt. I think it's because when I was younger and playing in the Coliseum I got tired of running for the ball around all that foul ground.

If by "great" you mean "marginal", "poor", "below average", "terrible", "clumsy", or "really shitty", I totally agree. Find me one other person who would describe Giambi's defense as great without immediatley breaking out laughing, please. I love Giambi, but that is just ridiculous.

I'm not huge on defensive statistics. They all seem to have some judgement calls and subjective components built in. Until someone invents an intricate system of lasers that measures every single thing happening on a baseball field at once, we aren't really going to be able to understand the little things that separate bad from decent from good from great.

However, since there is no such laser system, I took a look at Giambi's UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating) over at FanGraphs and here's what I found.

Key:

DG = Defensive Games Played

RngR = Range Runs (The number of runs above or below average a fielder is, determined by how the fielder is able to get to balls hit in his vicinity.)

ErrR = Error Runs (The number of runs above or below average a fielder is, determined by the number of errors he makes as compared to an average fielder at that position given the same distribution of balls in play.)

UZR = Ultimate Zone Rating (The number of runs above or below average a fielder is in both range runs, outfield arm runs, double play runs and error runs combined.)

The shading coincides with the number of games he played, so the darker the gray, the fewer games at 1B.

The only "seasons" he even masquraded as an average first baseman, he played 43 & 14 games. That's a lot of red for a "great" defensive first baseman.

Fackin' Youk

So I had one of my two fantasy drafts last night. First round, I selected Ryan Braun with the #5 pick. Great, a Brewer... I strongly dislike the Brewers -- from the Selig connection, to all the hard miles they put on Sabathia, and their GM Doug Melvin bitching after he signed with the Yankees.

In the second round I picked Johan. I want to see Johan fail. Why? Because I'm a Yankees fan and if Johan fails, the Mets fail. Also, as an ardent Phil Hughes supporter, I want vindication and do not want the pressure of equating Johan on the young Mr. Hughes.

Third round, I took Prince Fielder to have the pleasure of manning my First Base. Great, another facking Brewer. Please refer to the aforementioned Braun commentary. Thankfully, this league does not count defensive statistics.

The Fourth Round came up. I could use a Third Baseman. With a good OPS. Who is available? Not Wright nor A-Rod nor Evan Longoria nor Brandon Phillips. Who else is available? This blog's Anti-Christ. Kevin fackin' Youkilis.

Did I pick him? If you guessed that I answered this question in the affihmative, you would be correct. Fackin' great. My most hated player is on my team. How much do I hate this guy? I write for a blog named "Fack Youk." I had the Greek/Jewish God of Walks on my team last year too (when I won the league!), so this is nothing new to me. Why did I pick him? Does this mean that I like him? Does this mean that I have to quit writing for "Fack Youk?" Fellas, please forgive me. I promise that I will not root for him.

Like my ownership of ProShares UltraShort S&P500 (ticker SDS) in which I benefit from Barack Obama operating the economy in a manner similar to how Chuck Knoblauch operated at Second Base, namely throwing everything away, I treat it as a hedge position. Why not benefit from his production? Why should he have to screw me twice by screwing the Yankees and my fantasy team when I play against him? Fackin' A, fackin' Youk is on my fackin' team again...

What is your worst fantasy conflict of interest story?

Weekend Slideshow Recap

This weekend was another barn burner, friends, which begins to explain the lack of posting.

If I didn't put in 7 hours of work today, or anyone besides Boston Bren, Kev-O, Burkey and our new lady friends from Jacksonville gave a shit, I could have written 1500 words on this weekend and still leave out some hilarious moments. (Like when Michael Kay walked in front of our section at the Big East Tournament on Friday night, and I drunkenly shouted/sang his radio show theme song and he gave me an acknowledging point).

There are at least two people we encountered over the last few days who are deserving of their own post. One is a Floridian friend (Claire, you forgot the rest of your bottle of Jim Beam at my apartment, baby). And let's just say that you Mets fans are going to be extremely ashamed of one of your compatriots. I get the feeling that one might be relatively popular around these here internets.

We again successfully infiltrated a team's pregame party at Stout (Lousiville), which is where the blurry cheerleader shot was taken. It was an extremely difficult feat. Without wearing any team colors, I was like "Woohooo! Go Cards!", gave the guy at the door with the porno mustache a high-five and walked right in. I can't take credit for the idea however, as Kev used the same brilliant technique to gain entrance into Pitt's party last year.

After we left the shindig, there was a fellow in a Syracuse sweatshirt and a ridiculously bright orange wig standing outside of the room. I walked up to him and said "Dude, you should try to sneak in to the Louisville party. Just tell them you lost a bet...".

The pictures at the end of the show were taken on the ferry to Weehawken. I could tell you what I was doing there, but then I would have to kill you.

If you watch closely, there may even be one picture of this guy.

/directs thumbs towards self.



Now look at those tags. If there wasn't a character limit, there would have been about 20 more.

Amsterdam Ale House

Formerly Westside Brewing Co, seeing the sign for Amsterdam Ale House made my day. And it was only 9:30.

Guess that guy on the Beer Advocate message board was right...

What's The Difference?

I have a question.

What's the difference between A-Rod's comments regarding Jose Reyes and Derek Jeter's in reference to David Wright?

A-Rod:

I wish (Reyes) was leading off on our team or playing on our team. That’s fun to watch.

Yes, he said he wished Reyes was playing for the Yankees, but listen to Jeter talk about Wright (emphasis mine):

The thing with him, I respect the way he handles himself in New York. I think he shows all the right leadership skills - he leads by example and he's not phony. What you see is what you get from him. It's not an image he's trying to portray; I think that's how he is as a person.

If that isn't a blatant shot aimed squarely at A-Fraud, I don't know what is. (Well, maybe this.)

Had you read the Jeter quote before right then? I hadn't before I dug them up in the Daily News today. Why wasn't there a massive public outcry? Which of those quotes would you rather have aimed at you? This is just personal preference, but last thing in the world I want to be called is phony.

PeteAbe, where were you on that one? When A-Rod made his Reyes comments this is what you said, "It’s truly amazing the fixes this guys gets himself into. It really is."

And here is what you said about Jeter's comments on Wright, "__________". (It didn't even make the blog.)

Listen, I've had as much fun as A-Rod's expense as anyone. This post was responsible for the biggest day in the history of our site (thanks in part to PeteAbe). But let's not kid ourselves into thinking that Derek Jeter has some bulletproof persona and incredible media savvy and A-Rod is just some bumbling buffoon who fucks up pretty much every time he opens his mouth. Actually, I'm okay with the second part of that.

But the self-fulfilling prophecy of Jeter's "public genius" is amazing. Beat writers and media types love Jeter because he's charming and straightforward and therefore they automatically give him credibility. He can get away with saying something almost exactly in line with what A-Rod says, and it gets buried at the end of a Daily News article, while everyone flogs A-Rod for taking shots at the Teflon SS. The funny thing is A-Rod probably just didn't chose his words well, but you can tell there was some angst and frustration behind what Jeter said.

The short answer to the question I posed at the top: The person who said it.

Until I started writing for this blog, I didn't realize the importance of who is actually saying something. We probably all have blog feeds with multiple authors and prefer one to another. If for some reason they posted a Christmas Ape post at KSK under Big Daddy Drew's name, I would probably think it was funnier, given my appreciation for Drew's past work.

Similarly, when Jeter opens his mouth, people expect him to say something uncontroversial and because of that, his quotes are presented as carefully calculated insights. A-Rod is no stranger to saying and doing inexplicable things, so when he says something asinine, everyone thinks to themselves, "I fucking knew it", right before they clobber him for it.

It's human nature. I don't mean to call out PeteAbe for not liking A-Rod because he's the best Yankee blogger we've got, and if any of us were in his position, we'd probably hate A-Rod's guts just as much or more.

Case in point:

Jeter says he admires the way both Pedroia and Youkilis play "every game like it's the last game they're going to play. You appreciate that."

I didn't hear anyone say: "ZOMG, did he just take a shot at the sometimes lackadaisical-looking Robinson Cano?!/?1!?/11!?1 He's no Captain."

Dr. Dre, would you please tell these mahfackers:

Second Thoughts...

While Syracuse and UCONN rocked the sports world with their epic six overtime clash, right around the corner from my apartment, a much smaller number of attendees were rocked in a much different way.

Yesterday, Fat Jon informed me via text message of an internet rumor that Trey Anastasio and Paige McConnell from Phish might be joining the Allmans on stage at the Beacon Theater that night (part of their 40th Anniversary Run). I took this pretty seriously because Trey lives on the Upper West Side and I've had the chance to chat with him before at a street fair (extremely cool). Phish had just wrapped up Hampton and it seemed to make sense.

If you have been reading this site carefully, you could have probably guessed that this was right up my alley.

Allmans + Phish + Beacon = Me

I left work and walked right over to the Theater and check out the ticket scene. It was about 7:00 and the show didn't start 'til 8, but there were far fewer scalpers out front than usual. Since Fairway is right across the street, on my way to get groceries, I'll get caught in the crossfire if there is a show that night. As a result, I've got a pretty good feel for the atmosphere despite not going to all that many shows there.

The mix of scalpers outside of the Beacon is always a treat. There are the stereotypical skeevy-looking, quasi-homeless fat old white dudes with tattered jackets on. You could pick these creepers out of a scalper line up in a heartbeat. They tend to cluster towards the corner of 75th and Broadway, while the black dudes stay closer to 74th. They are the characters. They also look about one bender from being a full blown vagrant, but unlike the standoffish white guys, they are more friendly and engaging.

Within 12 seconds of walking up alongside Beacon Wine & Spirits, one of the guys was grumbled, "Do you need any BUD maaaaaaan?". Yes. This is how I would like to acquire some drugs. Right on a crowded street corner in Manhattan. Don't worry, there aren't six cops within 50 feet of us. All set in that department, champ. Do you have any tickets?

He directed to a bearded gentleman in a camouflage coat with the hood up who informed me that he had one ticket in the Orchestra, Row 9, for $175. I didn't even bother to bargain with him since it was so far out of my price range. I scoured around for a little while longer to no avail, and went back to my apartment to regroup.

I re-emerged at 7:30, hit the ATM and decided I would be willing to push my budget to about $100 or so to adjust to the sellers market I detected. When I got back, it was even worse. The buyer to seller ratio was roughly 50:0. No joke. I walked around until 8:15 and did not see one ticket change hands, at any price.

I was pretty disappointed, but just headed over to Fairway and picked up two crab cakes and a sirloin that was sliced off the ol' block 10 seconds before my boy Ralph the butcher bagged it for me. It was a decent consolation prize.

I checked the setlist after the 'Cuse game and indeed, Trey and Paige showed up (along with Buddy Guy).

Set 1
Little Martha
Trouble No More
Leave My Blues at Home
Who’s Been Talking (old Howling Wolf Song)
Black Hearted Woman
You Can’t Lose What You Never Had
The Sky Is Crying (with Buddy Guy)
You Don’t Love Me (with Buddy Guy)
Southbound (Buddy Guy/Page/Trey)

Set 2
I Know You Rider (w/Trey & Page)
In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed (w/Trey & Page)
Dreams
Jessica

Encore
Statesboro Blues (extended version)

Here is an awesome review of the show (where I pulled the pics from).

$175 for 9th row seats doesn't seem like that bad of an investment anymore. This post would have been roughly 2000 times better. There is an unoffical guest list floating around that details who is going to be playing with them at the Beacon, and so far it has been pretty close. Boz Scaggs is up tonight (Loan Me A Dime?) and Clapton is playing on the 19th & 20th (Mean Old World?).

Well, since I probably won't be able to get tickets to any of those without falling into a never ending spiral of credit card debt, I think I'm going to have to settle for Moogis. For $125, you can watch every one of the shows live or on demand. It's not just confined to the Beacon run, you can watch performances from 2007 at Piedmont Park. They claim to be adding more shows as well.

Who wants to have a simulcast party???

Otto's Pimp Hand Is Strong

That was honestly the greatest college basketball...check that, basketball game I have ever seen. What more can you ask for? 6OTs, back and forth all night, long range 3s, big dunks, walk-ons getting huge rebounds (Thomas), etc.

I am a huge Cuse fan as many of you know, so this will sound homeresque, but refs don't call shit on UConn, not just in this game but all season. Thabeet especially, he gets a lot of blocks but he fouls with the body every fucking time. That asshole should have fouled out in the first half.

This game was way to long to recap the entire thing, but here are some take-aways for the kids taking notes at home:

*Devendorf's 3 at the end of regulation was after the buzzer, but it was so fucking close and he got fouled on that shit.

*Stanley Robinson fucking sucks and has sucked all year, but had the best game of his career last night, which seems to happen an awful lot against Cuse.

*Paul Harris and Eric Devendorf seemed to pull their heads out of each others asses and realized you can't drive on Thabeet.

*Syracuse shot 78.4% FT as a team. WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON HERE?!?!?!

*16:27 was the Cuse:UConn turnover ratio, enough said.

*I know it was 6OTs but Paul Harris had 22 rebounds, 4 players has over 20pts, and Flynn was 16-16 from the line.

The game changer was when Thabeet fouled out. AJ Price is really good, but he can't guard Johnny Flynn and with out the shot blocking threat he had an open lane to the hoop on every possession. If you were at the Washington Tavern (WTs or Ts) you would know this cause i was screaming it. I am not sure who the player of the game was but it had to be Flynn. Here is his line:

67 minutes, 16-16 FT, 11Ast, 7 TO, 6 Stl, 34 Pts

As such, I have officially assigned the new entry music that should be played as Johnny steps on to the court at all games at the Dome and the Garden ('Cuses' home away from home).



As for tonight, I think it will be tough because they are so tired, but on the other hand WVU isn't very good against the zone. No matter what happens Cuse just played themselves into a 3, possibly a 2 seed. So I ask you this, all homerism aside, do you really want to see your team in the same bracket as Syracuse?

As mentioned before we were watching this at WTs, which was awesome, except for the length of this game. This is because when your at a bar watching a 2 hour game that becomes a 4 hour game in the middle of a DWI blanket patrol, you could run into some problems.



(Everyone got home ok, please drink responsibly)

Ending Fuck You's
-John Cahill (head ref)
-The entire University of Connecticut
-The entire State of Connecticut
-Announcers, even though I couldn't hear them, I could sense the awfulness
-Duke
-Youk
-You and you motherfuckin' mama

7ZZZzzzzzz

F___ing SIX?????

Five

4?

00.0

Yeessssssssssss!
Yeeeesss?

Ummm...
No?

Fuck.

Kellerman! Simmons! Francesa!

Neil Best of Newsday has been on top of the Kellerman story since it broke (err, I tipped him off about it and was not attributed)

And yesterday afternoon he transcribed a portion of the B.S. Report (at the 45:09 mark) where Simmons addressed the story about Kellerman and the rumors concerning Francesa. (I'm just going to blockquote the whole thing):

Bill Simmons: "Max Kellerman left his ESPN Radio New York show today. Uh, I'm throwing our hat in the ring. Our collective hat."

(Simmons' friend) JackO: "Fantastic. He left it? Why, he just gave it up?"

Simmons: "I don't know. Details have not come out."

JackO: "There was some ugliness?"

Simmons: "Who knows? I had a reader email a month ago and say he was at a restaurant where Max and Mike Francesa were having dinner together."

JackO: "Really? Uh, oh. The new Mad Dog, do you think?"

Simmons: "Mike and the Max Dog?"

JackO: "Mike and Max. It works."

Simmons: "Mike and Max?"

JackO: "Got the alliteration down."

Simmons (with a Francesa accent): "We'll be back, 'Mike and Max,' after this. 'Mike and The Max,' maybe?"

JackO: "Yeah, but that's his first name, he can't become The Max."

Simmons: "Let's say, hypothetically, Francesa and Kellerman, does that show work, or not?"

JackO: "You know, I've only seen Max Kellerman on TV. I've never listened to his radio show, so I don't know what he's like. It might be a case of too many lead dogs trying to be there, you know."

Simmons: "It's like a Kobe-Shaq."

JackO: "I'm not sure how it would work. One guy's got to be the second banana and know his role."

Simmons: "2003 Kobe and Shaq, not 2000 Kobe and Shaq. It would be interesting. I could see the show being great for like three months and them like fighting to the death."

JackO: "If you've already been the star of your own show it's tough to go back now and be the supporting actor."

Simmons (with a Francesa accent): "Hey, Max, let me tell you something, you're in the big time now. This is my show. You are a second banana, my friend."

JackO (with a Francesa accent): "You know, you don't bring a knife to a gunfight."

Simmons (with a Francesa accent): "I'm Jordan, you're Pippen, got it?"

Simmons: "But that would be interesting. Keep an eye on that."

The restaurant story is pretty interesting, but I would be curious to know if it came before or after Kellerman was notified that his air time was being cut back.

A Kellerman/Simmons show would be phenomenal, but obviously that's not going to happen because Kellerman can't go back to ESPN and Simmons can't leave. Even though I imagine he was kidding, I'd probably listen to a Simmons/JackO show. I give it a try at the very least. Too bad it would never happen because 1050 would never bring in such a personality so closely associated with Boston into the New York market, even if Simmons had JackO to balance him out.