Gary Sheffield Released

Gary Sheffield, just a single home run away from hitting his 500th, was released today by the Tigers. The grouchy OF/DH is still owed 14 million dollars from the Tigers.

Sheffield is best remembered by Yankees fans for his near-MVP regular season in 2004, and his contribution during the 4-game collape in the ALCS that season. He's also remembered in the Bronx for calling Joe Torre a racist, a claim Kenny Lofton disagreed with (Although he, too, hated Torre).

Now the question is, where he deliver his 500th Sheff special? You'd have to assume whatever team signs him would only want to use him as a DH, ruling out NL teams. Maybe Toronto could be a fit for him? Whatever the case, I doubt there are going to be many teams open to the idea of signing Sheffield, whose career appears to be in a steep decline. Read the full post, after the jump

Driving force behind the "Lonely Yankee" revealed - backstabbing Joe Torre

I'm sure you'll read about Joe Torre's backstabbing book, set to hit shelves in early February (I'll be doing my best to somehow pirate it so Torre doesn't see a penny of my money).

It looks as though this is going to be a yearly incident. Spring Training is set to arrive and Joe Torre tries to stir up controversy in the Yankee clubhouse - even though he is long gone, fulfilling his "dream" of managing the Los Angeles Dodgers. All of that aside, this incident has caused me to have somewhat of a revelation. Remember that "lonely Yankee" article in Sports Illustrated a couple of years ago by Tom Verducci? Yes, that same Tom Verducci who co-wrote this soon to be Joe Torre exposé. It was pretty obvious at the time that Verducci had some unprecedented access to the clubhouse to be allowed to write an article ripping apart every aspect of the team's best player. Now, it is clear that Joe Torre was the driving force behind the polarizing article that came out just days before the 2006 playoffs - the fateful series against the Tigers featuring Torre's famous panic move of batting A-Rod 8th in the key game.

Since Torre left for greener pastures in Los Angeles, I have been pretty forgiving. Last March, I questioned the outward bashing of Torre in some articles out of Spring Training. Joe Torre was a leader of men during the late 90's and early 2000's and led the Yankees to an unprecedented run at the top of Major League Baseball. He did his time in New York and we can all commiserate with someone getting tired of the daily grind of doing the same job for over a decade. That being said, his bitter and petty obsession with the franchise since his departure has me thinking that there may never be a "Joe Torre day" at the new Yankee Stadium.

Talk about it in the Stadium Insider Forums! Read the full post, after the jump

Dwight Gooden's sad relapse into drugs/alcohol

This depressing article recently surfaced on nj.com:

Darryl Strawberry was standing outside the Mets' clubhouse, pulling hard on a Newport. It's the last remaining vice in a life otherwise devoted to charity; he's created a foundation to help autistic children, the ones he says "have that pain in their eyes that I can relate to." But of all the souls Strawberry has touched, one remains beyond his grasp.

It's been a full year since the former slugger spoke to Doc Gooden, and the conversation did not go well. "He just blew me off," Strawberry said through a curl of blue smoke. Not that Darryl was surprised: He'd heard that Gooden was in the middle of a long, downward spiral, relapsing into a web of drugs and alcohol. Friends of the one-time pitching legend say he's crashed through the walls of his support system, which means he's no longer being tested, no longer attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and has stopped speaking to those who used to safeguard his recovery.

Instead, Gooden's life has turned into a blur of the old addictions. After serving seven months in prison in 2006 for violating his probation because of cocaine use, Gooden is believed to be living on his own in St. Petersburg, Fla., although no one's sure what he does for money.Gary Sheffield has set aside $1 million for his uncle, but refuses to make it available to Gooden until he seeks help.

Not even that incentive has been enough to keep Doc clean. Ray Negron, one of Doc's former handlers, tracked down Gooden in November. He, too, had heard the worst, and was ready to come to Gooden's aid. But like Strawberry, Negron ran into a wall of denial.

Pretty cool of Sheff to put that cool million aside for his uncle.

We here at NYYSI are just waiting for Sheff to blame this all on Joe Torre's racism and for the media to blame it on A-Rod being a slumlord.


Sheff and Doc in simpler, geri curled times

Talk about it in the NYYSI Forums! Read the full post, after the jump

Joe Torre is gone, but not forgotten - not in a good way

Players unmotivated? CHECK

Pitching staff mishandled? CHECK

Falling asleep on the bench? CHE--- ummm, never mind, NYY Stadium Insider has yet to confirm that rumor.

So far this Spring, numerous Yankee players have sounded like fans on a Yankee message board while taking not so subtle shots at their former manager.

Let us review:

Out of shape/unmotivated:

"I knew I was in bad shape last year," Abreu said.

"I don't want to make excuses for myself [about why]," said Abreu, 33. "I was in bad shape. I knew for sure that I needed to be in better shape this spring."

Abreu, who said he weighs 215 pounds now, estimated he weighed 226 when he reached camp last February. It's obvious that he has slimmed down just by looking at him.

source

"Yeah, I could have been a little out of shape last spring, and I understand what I need to do."

Damon says he got serious about working out in the gym that he built in his house in Orlando. As a result, he says that, at 214 pounds, he's only four pounds lighter than when he reported last year, "but I think it's distributed a lot better."

source

The Yankees had become comfortable with Torre, perhaps too much so. It didn't help that the Yankees hardly ran at all last spring -- "We learned you have to do more than take grounders and BP and then hit the showers," Mussina said -- which left the team unprepared by Opening Day.

source

Mismanaged bullpen:

"With Torre - and I'm not trying to bad-mouth anybody - sometimes you would go out there and try to be so good because you were scared of doing bad," Bruney said. "You can't pitch like that. (Joe) Girardi understands that you make mistakes - and I'm going to make them."

source

"I always have confidence in myself. But it's tough when you do lose the confidence from your manager to maybe prepare yourself, day in and day out when you have no clue about anything," said Farnsworth, who allowed 108 runners to reach base via hit or walk in 60 innings last season and was 2-1 with a swollen 4.80 ERA in 64 games. "It happened a few times last year."

source

So, Abreu and Damon didn't exactly rip into Torre, but they admitted what we all knew just by watching the terrible starts of the past few years - the players had no motivation. When you are making millions of dollars, it is easy to forget that there is a reason you are making that money. Apparently, Torre wasn't reminding his players to take care of their bodies, or inspiring them to do so in any way. Moose pretty much said exactly that.

As for Bruney and Farnsworth - they have about as much credibility as Buddy Groom when it comes to Torre-bashing. They sucked last year, and even someone who handles bullpens as poorly as Joe Torre realized it. Farnsworth had no excuse. Brian Bruney would have been better off playing the overuse card after Torre ran him out there for 25 of the team's first 51 games, amassing 24.3 IP. Not classic Torre abuse, but still more than Farnsworth's 21 appearances in that same stretch, or Mariano Rivera's 19. Hey Brian - you got sent down to make room for Joba - I think it was a good call.

Whether the Torre-bashing is fair or not (he only won 4 championships as Yankee manager), I think Yankee fans and Mr. Torre are going to have to get used to reading a lot of these things in the papers this year, especially if the Yankees get off to a fast start under G.I Joe Girardi.

Meanwhile, we'll try to secure that long lost video footage of Sleepy Joe doing his thing on the bench.


Talk about it in the NYYSI Forums! Read the full post, after the jump