On behalf of the team here at IIATMS, we wish all of you a happy and healthy holiday season. Thanks for coming by and choosing to spend some of your time with us.

Here’s to a great 2012!

-Jason & team

Sorry to dive into this morass a bit, but thought this was interesting:

Were you surprised that Ryan Braun tested positive?:

“No, I was not surprised. In fact, three weeks before that, I was in Vietnam and I was interviewed by somebody from the New York Daily News. It was when the growth hormone testing was being introduced. And I don’t think growth hormone is effective as a performance enhancer. At that time, I basically said that what they’re doing is using fast-acting testosterone — creams, gels, orals, patches — and they clear so quickly, sometimes in a matter of hours. … They could conceivably, after a game, use testosterone to help with tissue repair and healing and recovery and by the time they’d show up at the park the next day, their PE ratio would be normal. I always knew there was this giant loophole that you could drive a Mack truck through.”

…

Do you think there will be another player implicated in this after Braun’s situation is over?:

“This is a wake-up call. … I’ve been pitching this before this Ryan Braun case broke … I said here’s the loophole: They’re using fast-acting testosterone; they’re not using anabolic steroids. … You need to use carbon isotope ratio testing and you will bust lots of people. I said a significant number of players would test positive. … Three weeks later, here’s a positive.”

Anyone else feeling like this is going to end well for Ryan Braun? Me either.

This should come as no surprise: The Yanks are not going to be the high bidder on Yu Darvish. We all heard the reports that the winning bid was going to exceed the insanity of the RedSox bid on Daisuke Matsuzaka, so the realm of fiscal insanity stretches far beyond the Bronx and Boston:

The Yankees are “not getting him,” a person with knowledge of the situation said today, on condition of anonymity because the posting process is still ongoing. Darvish’s Japanese team has until Tuesday to decide whether to accept the highest bid to negotiate with Darvish.

The Yankees submitted a bid. But the only way they can emerge with Darvish is if it proves to be the highest on the table, and the person with knowledge said the Yankees’ bid will not be high enough to top those they believe were submitted by a pair of American League rivals, the Rangers and Blue Jays.

“A ridiculous number,” the person with knowledge said, while declining to offer exact figures.

(click “view full post” to read more)

Forgive me, it’s been too long between rants.

This continued line of reasoning is chafing me to the point of rage and it has to stop:

Still stinging from the $46 million they spent on Kei Igawa and close to their budget limit, the Yankees were never considered the leading candidate to acquire Darvish.

That I found it in the NY Times is immaterial; it’s been cited in every MSM outpost and nearly every other place that I check into with any regularity. Thankfully, there are some of my fellow bloggers who share my views, including Brien here and here, otherwise I’d wonder if it was me who was completely losing it.

To decry the failures and misfortunes of the Hideki Irabu and Kei Igawa forays is understandable. To cite them as a sound business and strategic rationale for not going after Yu Darvish is patently absurd. Not a little bit misguided. Flat out ridiculous.

(click “view full post” to read more)

With a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, both Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson inked big time contracts with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. While both are particularly noteworthy for different reasons, recent reports have surfaced that indicate that they chose to forgo contractual offers of greater money. Now, I don’t yet know (nor will I ever really know) the particulars of each offer not taken so we can only react to the face value of the purported deal. We have to ignore, for now, the likely inclusion of significant deferrals and other fiscal levers which would shift the time value of money into the longer term, thereby devaluing the current value of the offers.

Given that, let’s welcome each to the Anti-IIATMS Hall of Fame.

(click “view full post” to read more)

As you probably heard with regard to one of the many items in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, there will be a ban on low-density maple bats. Well, sorta:

The ban would only apply to new major leaguers. Other players would be grandfathered and could continue using low-density bats if desired.

In other words, every player who has ever appeared in an MLB game can still use the low-density bats as long as they are active. As you also might remember, I’m pretty vocal about this whole bat thing.

Rather than rant, I contacted Phil Rauso of BatGlove for his closer-to-the-issue thoughts on the new rules:

(click “view full post” to read more)

The BBWAA announced their list of 2012 nominees yesterday and while the list is largely forgettable, it is “headlined” by our own Bernie Williams. I don’t think there is anyone here who genuinely believes that Bernie is a lock HOF’er, but I’m reasonably confident that Bernie is on the short list of everyone’s favorite Yankee players over the last 25 years or so. I know he’s on my list.

Bernie was very good for a moderate amount of time, but rarely considered “great”. Considering the era he played in, with the players he played with and against, his overall numbers scream “damn good” but not elite.

(click “view full post” to read more)

First, a word from the Big Man himself, announcing the deal:

Now, onto the good stuff, which Larry alerted us all to…

Bob Klapisch has a much discussed (mocked?) article today about the Yankees lack of a killer instinct. In it, he cites the bad performances by Nick Swisher, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, etc. because they lacked some critical piece of chromosomal infrastructure:

The past-era Yankees had a ferocious trait that couldn’t be quantified. It was an intangible expectation of victory – even if that very term now is politically incorrect among baseball’s intelligentsia.

Wow. And while the small sample size statistical references are not favorable, Bob’s coup de grâce is his conclusion, citing the following statistic:

That would explain why the Yankees were just 4-49 when trailing after the seventh inning, and 2-50 when down after eight. Is that all because of bad luck, or can it be traced to a killer instinct that never was honed?

That, naturally, got me thinking and when I am home from work with time on my hands, that’s a problem…

(click “view full post” to read more)