NYY Stadium Insider takes the Yankee Stadium Tour

Click on the photo above for a full page of photos and videos from the Yankee Stadium Tour

I've been a Yankee fan my whole life, but have never taken the time out to go on the "behind the scenes" Yankee Stadium Tour. Being that the current Yankee Stadium is closing after this season, I figured now was as good of a time as EVER to drop the $15 and get the behind the scenes look.

Before I gush on about how AWESOME it is, let me get the minor complaints out of the way...

1) Note to the Yankees - there is no need to hawk LAST YEAR'S media guide for $5 to paying customers on the tour. We get robbed blind enough by the Yankees. Those media guides were produced en masse and are all headed for a garbage dump and soon. At the end of the tour, they gave away the most cheesy keychain in the history of the world - would it have been that tough to give out the OLD media guide instead???

2) If you have a kid, and he/she/it is under the age of 5, don't bother taking them. They won't get it and all they will do is disrupt the others while they are trying to hear the tour guide give some of his nuggets. The annoying kid yelling "down, down down" while in the press box portion of the tour caused most of the tour participants to not hear what the tour guide was saying. I nearly demanded some money back from the dude with the annoying kid. I ask you this - why drag your under 5 year old kid through the boredom? They will never remember it and they won't enjoy it.

3) The clubhouse was part of the tour, but they squeezed 50 people into one quarter of the clubhouse and closed off the rest of it. Unfortunately, the part of the clubhouse that you were allowed in was not where the famous Munson locker is and I could not get a glimpse of it. That was a big disappointment.

Ok, I got the negative Nancy out of me - on to the good stuff. This tour is well worth the money for any Yankee fan over the age of 5. It is an experience you will be able to cherish forever, especially with this stadium being blown up a year from now. Getting to visit the areas of the stadium that are always off limits, even to the most diehard of fan is a real treat. I have been going to Yankee Stadium for 25 years, but until today I had never been into the press box, the clubhouse or the dugout. It was worth the wait. Just being in those places and thinking about all of the history that had taken place in the very spot you were standing was invigorating.

NYY Stadium Insider has a special web page dedicated to the tour. Definitely check it out - there are some cool pictures there.

If you are interested in taking the Yankee Stadium Tour, surf on over to the page on Yankees.com and get the 411. Do take note of the red fine print at the bottom of the page, detailing the MANY dates upcoming when your tour will NOT include the clubhouse portion of the tour. If you want to see the Yankees locker room, you will want to AVOID those dates.

*During the Final Season of Yankee Stadium, tours will not be available on the following dates: May 3, 4, 8, 17, 18, 24, 25, June 5, 7-9, 19, 21, 22, July 4-6, 19, 20, 23, 30, August 2, 3, 16, 17, 28, 30, 31, and September 13 and 14th.

*Due to additional events taking place during the dates of March 17-April 7, April 16- April 23, and July 10-17, there will be no tours available.

*The following dates are for when the Clubhouse will NOT be available during the 2008 Stadium tours: April 8, 29, 30, May 1-9, 16-26, June 3-10, 16-23, 27-30, July 1-9, 18-24, 28-31, August 1-4, 14-18, 25-31, September 1, 11-19.

Once again, I can't stress enough how worth it this tour was for $15. Although it was a blustery, cold winter day in March, the tour was exceedingly enjoyable and NYY Stadium Insider HIGHLY recommends it!


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

PECOTA 2008 Projected MLB Standings Redux - Yankees are still #1

I'm sure all 12 of the loyal NYYSI readers remember this blog post when I pointed out that Baseball Prospectus' infamous PECOTA projections had the AL East Shaping up like this:

American League, ranked by projected 2008 record

East	W	L	RS	RA
New York Yankees	97	65	880	727
Boston Red Sox	91	71	838	746
Tampa Bay Rays	89	73	785	714
Toronto Blue Jays	79	83	768	772
Baltimore Orioles	66	96	746	885

Well, now BP has been kind enough to point me in the direction of a Google spreadsheet showing how their projections have fared since 2003. Obviously, any stat geek will tell you that isn't exactly a huge sample size, but it isn't anything to sneeze at.

As the much-smarter-than-me Nate Silver points out:

Overall, though, the PECOTA projections have tended to get more and more accurate over time. The average error in our won-loss projections since 2003 has been as follows:

2003    5.91 wins
2004    7.71 wins
2005    5.14 wins
2006    4.94 wins
2007    4.31 wins

Basically, PECOTA is getting closer and closer to being "deadly accurate" as they claim on the cover of their yearly baseball book. That is good news for us diehard Yankee fans/stat geeks/ computer worshippers. By now we all know that PECOTA is projecting the Yankees to be the best team in all of baseball.

Now lets take a look at how well PECOTA has predicted Yankee win totals since 2003:

YEAR	PECOTA	ACTUAL	DIFFERENCE
2003	109	101	-8
2004	106	101	-5
2005	95	95	0
2006	94	97	+3
2007	93	94	+1

AVG: -1.8

The lesson here? When all of the MLB preview magazines come out with their "ballsy" picks featuring the Yankees finishing in third in the AL East, don't get up in arms. Simply take heart that our friend, the lovable computer PECOTA, says good things are in store for the 2008 New York Yankees.

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

NYYSI saves you money: Yankees vs. Tigers Tier Box MVP - CHEAP!

This is the inaugural "NYYSI saves you money" post in which we will point out some good deals to upcoming Yankee games.

In this case, the game in question is the Yankees vs. Tigers on Wednesday April 30 at 7:05 PM.

When you search online at yankees.com (ticketmaster), you find no availability in the Tier Box section. However, if you sign up for Goldstar Events you can get Tier Box MVP seats between home and third for a significant discount ($35 instead of $65 box office price) for this game.

Once you sign up for the site, you can go to this link and check out the other options for that game (worse seats down the line in the Tier Box section).

Be aware that signing up for Goldstar will mean that they send you weekly updates of New York area ticket specials such as this one. I am sure you can opt out, but I just wanted everyone to be aware of that before signing up.

The $35 price above is DEFINITELY a good deal, but I'm sure supplies are limited. RUN!

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

The House that the New York Rangers brought down?

Let me preface this by stating that whoever thought of the hockey in stadiums idea to drum up interest in a fledgling sport is genius. Being a pretty big Ranger fan, I was pretty pumped when I heard that there were talks of bringing the New York Rangers to a stadium in the New York area. Unfortunately, it looks as though that stadium will be Yankee stadium, and it will be the last game in the history of the "House that Ruth built".

Momentum has built in recent weeks toward finalizing a deal that would have the Rangers play the final game in the storied history of the current Stadium, the Daily News has learned. The Yankees, who will move into their new Yankee Stadium for the 2009 baseball season, are said to be completely on board with having the NHL close the 85-year-old original.

Again, I love the idea of hockey in stadiums to get people interested in the sport again. However, a LOT of people are paying top dollar to see the final regular season game at Yankee Stadium on September 21, 2008. In addition, I'm sure people will spend even MORE money to see the playoff games in the "old" stadium if the Yankees make it that far. To make the final sporting event in the historic Yankee Stadium be a gimmicky regular season hockey game is pretty anticlimactic.

I heard that there is a dump in Flushing, Queens that is closing down after this season. Maybe they have some interest in hosting a hockey game?

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

Deadly Accurate NYYSIOTA Statistical Projections

Since we have a large enough sample size in Spring Training games and Spring Training games are always an EXACT indicator of regular season play we can make the following projections of the presumed starting lineup:

Johnny Damon: .333/.333/.556 with 0 HRs.
A disappointing OBP for a leadoff hitter, Damon will draw exactly zero walks this year. He will hit for power yet it will be all off doubles as he will hit zero HRs.

Derek Jeter: .214/.313/.286 with 0 HRs
We can expect a horrible year for Jeter, below replacement level. Indeed, he will hug the Mendoza line and hit for no power whatsoever.

Bobby Abreu: .533/.563/.733 with 40 HRs
Wow, would you look at that, a monster of a slugging year for Abreu. He will also destroy the single season batting average record by hitting .533. Yet, his trademark patience will be gone only drawing a handful of walks all year

Alex Rodriguez: .444/.615/.889 with 65 HRs
A-Rod will have a record breaking year. He will break the record for single season slugging percentage. He will also pass Roger Maris' mark of 61 HRs making him the single season non-steroid HR record holder. Amazing!

Hideki Matsui:
He will spend the whole year on the DL. A tough break for the former Iron Man.

Jorge Posada: .000/.000/.000 with 0 HRs
Jorge will play as bad as you can get statistically for the whole year. In all his at-bats he will never get a single hit, walk, or HR. A 7 year old would have a better year at the plate than Posada will have in 2008. His new contract will go down as the worst contract in history.

Jason Giambi: .333/.333/.667 with 45 HRs
Giambi will actually manage to stay healthy all year, a first for him since 2003. He will put up a great number of HRs but his eye will deteriorate drawing zero walks the entire year.

Robinson Cano: .500/.500/.563 with 0 HR
Cano will actually hit exactly .500 for the season! Incredible! He characteristically will be too anxious at the plate drawing zero walks, but who cares when you're batting .500!

Melky Cabrera: .417/.500/.583 with 0 HR
Melky will be the fourth Yankee starter to hit over the .400 mark. It's a good thing we didn't give him away in a trade for Johan Santana!

Also, notably Shelley Duncan and Wilson Betemit will both hit around 53 HRs this year in limited plate appearances. Unfortunately, based on our Spring Training record so far we will go a miserable 70-92 this season and miss the playoffs by quite a margin. Joe Girardi will be fired after only one season and Brian Cashman's contract will not be renewed. Read the full post, after the jump

Francisco Cervelli has a fractured wrist, Elliot Johnson had better watch out

Update: 3/10: After SKYROCKETING to the number 14 video on ALL of youtube.com today, the video was taken down by MLB for "copyright infringement". The permalink version is still available to download below (just click on the picture).

UPDATE: 3/9/08: Peter Abraham just reported that Cervelli will miss 8-10 weeks. A pretty tough blow for a kid who is seen as the heir apparent (defensively at least) for Jorge.

In case you haven't seen one of the most hardcore home plate collisions in a long time, check out the video below.

Sorry about the poor quality, I screen captured it.

click below for the permalink version when Youtube inevitably takes down the video:


Someone needs to remind Elliot Johnson that this is Spring Training and that he is a nobody. Yankees play the Rays again on Wednesday. Could be some interesting payback.

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

Alex Rodriguez - True Yankee For Life

Nothing funny, or witty, or informative to say here, just want to link you to this awesome article on what it took for A-Rod to be back in Pinstripes:

A sextet of big-market teams were quietly lining up to bid for Alex Rodriguez in early November. Meetings were scheduled with both Los Angeles teams, the Dodgers and Angels, and according to people close to Rodriguez, the Mets, Red Sox, Giants and Tigers all were showing interest, as well. But A-Rod desperately wanted to remain a Yankee.

"Mentally, I never did see myself going anywhere else,'' Rodriguez said in a recent interview with SI.com.

"New York brings out the best in you. And the worst,'' Rodriguez said the other day. "You have to be able to look in the mirror and be honest with yourself I didn't want to go to a place and hide and have my weaknesses be swept away. New York has made me a better man. And it's made me a better baseball player.

"I love New York. My family loves New York. I love the Yankee family,'' he added. "I finally had gotten to a situation where I was feeling comfortable with everything there is to New York -- from the players to the coaches to the fans. My relationship with the fans has come full circle.''

After A-Rod opted out of his original record $252-million contract, he still wasn't thinking much about the six teams that were chasing him. He mostly worried that his chance to remain a Yankee was gone, and that he was again being portrayed as a money-hungry mercenary. "I'm getting buried in the press. Everybody's saying I'm greedy. The MVP will mean nothing,'' A-Rod would tell friends at that time. To the surprise of some, he didn't have the unyielding gut it would take to carry out the entire opt-out strategy.

"Proving my loyalty to the Yankees was very important to me,'' Rodriguez said to SI.com.

"I really think God put me here for a reason,'' he said to SI.com. "And I've been through a lot. My family loves New York. My daughter loves it. She loves her apartment, loves Central Park. That's the family side, which is very important to me. The other side is professionally. I just don't think there's anything more special than putting the uniform on and playing for the Yankees."

We would like to declare:



No more late 90's Yankee nostalgia people. The A-Rod era has officially begun, with many championships to follow!

Talk about it in the NYYSI 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

Rotoworld.com showing their Red Sox bias ONCE AGAIN

Shocking, I know - but rotoworld.com once again showed off their Red Sox bias yesterday. Hey rotoworld - you guys are a great aggregate of fantasy sports NEWS... Nobody (except maybe the ignorant portion of the Red Sox fan base) wants to hear your opinion on what you think players may think about other players.

Here is the quote in question:

Joba Chamberlain pitched two innings out of the pen and allowed two runs against the Twins on Wednesday.

It was the first official outing for Joba, who was perfect for two innings in a college game last week. He gave up a two-run homer to Garrett Jones today and then drilled Matt Tolbert on the ankle with his very next pitch, earning himself some nasty looks from the Twins dugout. Chamberlain seems like an awfully nice guy off the field, but after what happened with Kevin Youkilis last year, he may be on his way to earning himself a reputation on the field.

Yea, OK guys. Joba Chamberlain was throwing at someone named Matt Tolbert after giving up a HR to a some dude named Garrett Jones. Lets break it down like this:

- It was a SPRING TRAINING GAME
- Matt Tolbert is a NON-roster invitee to Spring Training.
- Joba only threw 20 out of 36 pitches for strikes in his outing - he was wild and out of sync all day.

So fantasy players of the world, I have some quality information to provide, directly from rotoworld.com: don't bother drafting any Yankees for your fantasy baseball teams this year. They are awful people with bad intentions in life and are all going to hell (we all know that is what matters most in fantasy baseball... er... wait a second).

Yankee pitchers will do mean things like throw balls at non-roster invitees to Spring Training and even worse at Kevin Youkilis during the regular season. Don't even get me started on the Yankee batters. They try to kill birds during batting practice. The squirrel on the foul pole in right field? I'll say only this - you think it is a coincidence that he is only up there when lefties are coming up to bat? Evil Empire.

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

Yankees 2008 Preseason Team Health Report as per Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus

Update: 3/6/08: The Yankees Team Health Report is now up on BP. Giambi has been changed to a red (probably because the Yankees have been playing him in the field and intend to do so in the regular season).

Here is what Will has to say about Joba (this will be the only sample I will provide, as it is paid content):

RP Joba Chamberlain : I still don't believe that they'll send him to the minors to “stretch him out.” Maybe the Yanks will stick to the plan and maybe it will work. It's at least a plan, which is more than most teams with talented young pitchers have. I have no idea if it will work. If he were to stay in the pen all year, he's a very low yellow.

Original post follows:

Will Carroll has a fancy system of deciphering different player's injury risk each season. For example, Will says:

Each of the players in my system gets a rating: red, yellow or green. Unless you're color blind, these are easy to understand and since I live in Indianapolis, the auto-racing analogy is one I tend to fall back on. Underlying these simple colors are actually a band of probabilities, chances that each player sees an injury that lands him on the disabled list. A simple 15-day visit for a strained eyelid or a season-ending shoulder injury both "count" and there's no differentiation. For each player, there's always some level of risk. One never knows when Prince Fielder is going to run someone over at home. Red, the worst rating, is just short of a coinflip. For these players, the best possible rating is a 45% chance of being injured. If you're a glass half-full type, that's a 55% chance at health. You just have to hold your breath all season long that Jonathan Papelbon's shoulder holds up, that Brian Giles' knee responds to microfracture surgery, or maybe that Joba Chamberlain's usage pattern will keep him from following Kerry Wood's path to pain.

He hasn't written his column on the Yankees yet, but the spreadsheet has been released for the starters.

In the green:

Robinson Cano Derek Jeter Alex Rodriguez Melky Cabrera

In the yellow:

Jason Giambi Jorge Posada Johnny Damon Hideki Matsui Andy Pettitte Chien Ming Wang Mike Mussina Ian Kennedy

In the red:

Phil Hughes Joba Chamberlain Mariano Rivera

Uh-oh. I think it is the biggest fear of most Yankee fans that Hughes and/or Joba get hurt for an extended period of time this year. Obviously, this is FAR from a perfect system. As Will Carroll readily admits:

It serves as a reminder that these ratings are only probabilities. Just as you or I could walk outside the house and get hit by a bus, the greenest of green ratings isn't going to help if Prince Fielder crashes into you on the basepath.

With more data behind the scenes--five years of injury data plus the continual improvements to PECOTA--the system is getting more accurate. It will never be perfect and I'll never stop tweaking it, but we are rapidly approaching the point where the gains will be smaller.

Throwing Mariano in there is just another slap in the face. I'd say the Yankees can least afford for those guys to go down due to the importance of pitching.

I was thinking recently about how SOME injuries are simply inevitable. The pessimistic side of me has been thinking "who will be the first Yankee to miss time due to an injury in 2008?" So, who do you think it will be? Why not discuss it at the NYY Stadium Insider forums?

Will Carroll does MLB team health reports for every team in baseball. The team with the most "red" players (highest injury risk) in the AL East is the Toronto Blue Jays with a whopping 9 players as high injury risks. The Red Sox have 3 including golden boys Elisbury and Buckholz. That should make you all feel better about Joba and Phil's red status.

Just some food for thought on these last day before Spring Training games begin... Read the full post, after the jump

Yankee flex ticket plan fiasco revisited

It comes as no surprise that there is some ugly follow-up to the flex ticket plan fiasco that I had described in a previous blog post. It turns out that I wasn't just a bitter and spurned potential ticket buyer when I described the system errors I was experiencing. We have the following report from a new member to our message boards, venting about his experience with the New York Yankees and their ticket sales department:

Hi all,

I bought the 20-game flex plan. That was when, about 4-6 weeks ago? So I made plans and arranged my whole summer around these 20 games I was supposed to go to. Yesterday I find out that the Yankees have credited my credit card back for the money I spent (well, most of it). Apparently they can't fulfill the request. No particular reason given. Here's the kicker - it cost me $1297.00 and they only refunded me $1242.00. They're charging me a service charge!! THEY SCREW THE WHOLE THING UP AND THEY WANT TO CHARGE 'ME'!!!

Obviously, this is outrageous for a couple of reasons...

First of all, when you click purchase and enter into that binding agreement to purchase the tickets, the Yankees shouldn't have the option to just say "oops, our system messed up, we can no longer fulfill your request". It was fairly predictable that demand for these tickets was going to be extreme. The Yankees even acknowledged that fact, sending out emails boasting about a new, fair ticket system that would help streamline the process. By slotting people into certain time frames based on seniority, season ticket anniversary date, etc, they were hoping to prevent these problems. It looks as though it was an utter failure, as loyal fans who signed on to purchase tickets at their specified time and thought they scored tickets are now being told the Yankees can't fulfill their request. It is despicable, and the Yankees should be held accountable in some way.

Next, the Yankees should OBVIOUSLY refund the entire amount. They ought to apply some sort of ticket credit for future Yankees games, but Yankee fans should know better than to hold their breath for something like that. For the Yankees to keep a service fee when all they did was provide a disservice to their customers is a travesty. I'm certain that these unfortunate customers will be able to fight the Yankees/ dispute the charges with their credit card companies. However, why should these customers be inconvenienced time and time again? They already spent the time making sure they got online to purchase the tickets, only to be told a month later that they couldn't fill the request. Now, they have to spend time fighting the service charges that they were charged for a lack of service? No way.

The Yankees have already faced ticket service charge litigation in the past. After the Yankees lost early in the 2002 playoffs, Eliot Spitzer forced the Yankees to refund 90% of the service fees they had charged. One would believe that the Yankees are still forced to follow this procedure to this date.

I am simply sick of these disgruntled middle-age caucasians who run the ticket office offering NOTHING in the way of customer service. This kind of mistreatment of paying customers needs to be brought to the forefront and FAST. I would recommend calling 718-293-6000 and raising your concerns, but I know for a fact you will get a short, angry response and no resolution to your problem if you even get through (most of the time the lines are busy).

Hopefully enough people will read this blog entry that were affected and there will be some sort of group that can band together and write into the newspapers or someone with a bit more influence than myself. I don't want the Yankees to get away with treating their loyal fans like this. It makes the team look bad to out of towners and it obviously sucks for us here.

As always...

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

Even More Pics from Spring Training

DAMN IT FEELS GOOD TO BE A GANGSTA Read the full post, after the jump

PECOTA Projected Standings - Yankees are # 1

UPDATE: Projected standings have been revised

American League, ranked by projected 2008 record

East	W	L	RS	RA
New York Yankees	97	65	882	727
Boston Red Sox	91	71	837	738
Tampa Bay Rays	89	73	785	714
Toronto Blue Jays	79	83	768	775
Baltimore Orioles	65	97	746	889

I guess it is getting a little carried away tracking this so closely, but what else is there to do in February.

Original Post (2/16/08):

Its an exciting day as the first round of PECOTA projected standings have been released. To my surprise, PECOTA projects the Yankees as the best team in the land and finishing with 96 wins. Check out PECOTA's projected AL standings (courtesy of Nate Silver over at Baseball Prospectus:

American League, ranked by projected 2008 record

East	W	L	RS
New York Yankees	96	66	885
Boston Red Sox	93	69	840
Toronto Blue Jays	83	79	766
Tampa Bay Rays	82	80	788
Baltimore Orioles	69	93	742
Central	W	L	RS
Cleveland Indians	89	73	835
Detroit Tigers	89	73	842
Chicago White Sox	77	85	780
Minnesota Twins	74	88	709
Kansas City Royals	71	91	741
West	W	L	RS
Los Angeles Angels	89	73	810
Oakland Athletics	78	84	732
Texas Rangers	74	88	788
Seattle Mariners	73	89	691

I'm gonna go ahead and blame this guy

YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE EATEN CURT SCHILLING, BECKETT - NOW PECOTA PROJECTS YOU IN SECOND PLACE!!

and lets take a look at this quote from Papelbon yesterday:

"If we're not the team to beat," Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon said Thursday, "I'd like to know who is. I think that our No. 1 thing is to stay healthy. If we do that, I don't know who can really compete with us."

Obviously, PECOTA is just a computer running projections, but considering what they are showing, maybe Paps shouldn't so damn cocky? An attitude like that is why people all over America are starting to hate the Red Sox as much as they hate the Yankees.

As a final note - I didn't post the NL projected standings, but PECOTA also projects the Mets with 96 wins as the best team in the NL. Subway Series 2008 anyone?


Link to PECOTA 2008 MLB projected standings (paid content)

Link to Nate Silver mini-analysis of projected standings Read the full post, after the jump

Revisiting our December Predictions

As January rolls along it is time for the serious baseball fan to take a three month nap. But what would one see upon waking up?

-Johan Santana will be a Yankee. Phil Hughes, Melky Cabrera, and a prospect will not be a Yankee. NO

-Brian Cashman will look more pale, tired, and dejected than normal. YES

-Hank will ride Cashman to work every morning. YES

-Jamie Lyne Spears will be three months pregnant. She will already have lost custody of the child still growing in her womb. The real father will be revealed as R. Kelly. YES

-The two frontrunner’s of both political parties will be spewing pounds of bull out of their mouths like usual. Hillary will be attacked from the right for not serving in Vietnam even though she is a woman. It will be discovered that she is not a woman but in reality an unfeeling robot of doom. Bill will buy old magazines containing pictures of Jamie Lynne Spears. YES

-Curt Schilling will have made 40 more blog posts. Unbelievably and unconceivably to the human mind each one will be more pompous and self-righteous than the last. In his final post he will declare himself God and will claim to have cured ALS single-handedly. YES

-The Marlins will say the hell with it and have another fire sale. Of their top AAA players. They will have single-A teams with 70 man rosters all building up for 2035. YES

-All the midges in Cleveland that faithful night will have completed their short life cycle. Thank God. YES

-Derek Jeter will have slept with more woman in those three months this entire site and forums have in their lifetimes. YES

-He also will have contracted all 174 varieties of herpes. NO

-Clay Buchholz will plan the Ocean’s Elevens’s style heist of Dell Computers Inc. YES

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