Go out and win one for the paycheck!

Posted on October 7, 2009 by Ted Berg

So apparently Derek Jeter is calling upon his teammates to win the World Series for Mr. Steinbrenner.

Is there any chance this works outside of movies? Like, even a little? Does “go out and win one for our owner” motivate Mark Teixeira any more than “go out and win one for the sizy bonus check we’ll all get”?

Maybe Jeter really expects Robinson Cano to be all, “oh, well now that you put it that way, I will try to win the World Series,” but I have a feeling baseball players can self-motivate around October.

Items of note

Posted on October 7, 2009 by Ted Berg

Peter Botte had a nice writeup in the Daily News this morning about the first World Series at the old Yankee Stadium. Apparently, coming into that World Series, Babe Ruth himself had a reputation as a postseason choker. Who knew?

Also, I love that Ruth, according to this, had no problem with Casey Stengel’s Cadillacing on home runs. Really sort of contradicts all the sanctimony that swells up whenever a player doesn’t properly “respect the game” or “play it the way it was meant to be played.”

Speaking of the bad postseason reputations, there have already been a ton of words spent about the kinder, gentler 2009 version of A-Rod and how perhaps this will be the October in which he stops choking.

It’s not that I believe A-Rod will choke again; I certainly don’t. He’s one of the best hitters in baseball and should be expected to succeed in all situations. What’s frustrating about all the hype leading up to it is it’ll cut down on the mea culpas from journalists everywhere if and when he does hit a clutch home run.

And I was really looking forward to those.

Finally, in another story with close ties to Babe Ruth, Julia Moskin of the New York Times provides one of the most important pieces of investigative journalism of our time. Enjoy.

First, do no harm

Posted on October 6, 2009 by Ted Berg

In my column on Monday for SNY.tv, I outlined an offseason plan for Omar Minaya hinging on the Hippocratic mantra, “First, do no harm.”

What I mean by that is, since the Mets — regardless of who they bring in this offseason — will need a whole lot to fall their way to compete in 2010, they shouldn’t trade young players with the upcoming season in mind.

The column has sparked an interesting thread at Baseball Think Factory. Comments on that site frequently prompt me to adjust or rethink my position, but that’s not the case here.

If the events of 2009 exposed something about the Omar Minaya Mets, it’s the lack of organizational depth that I’ve been harping on for years.

Commenters there argue that Minaya has not dealt any of his top prospects, but that’s not really my issue. The problem with Minaya is that he trades so many of his mid-level prospects that the organization was left this season with Chip Ambres and Jesus Feliciano as its best hitters in Triple-A, both with sub-.750 OPSes.