A steroids free show for you tonight! Eschewing talk of doping and media reports for the evening, Stacey and I discuss the Mariners giving Felix Hernandez the largest contract ever for a pitcher, and then we wrap up our tour of the A.L. East competition by breaking down the division’s prohibitive favorites north of the border with Ruhee Dewji of Double Switching. Enjoy!
In tonight’s episode, Stacey and I examine the likely implications of the latest Biogenesis news to Alex Rodriguez, Kevin Youkilis’ new batting stance and, um, face, and I explain why I don’t really care for MLB Network in general and Clubhouse Confidential in particular. Enjoy!
On tonight’s program, former IIATMS contributor Chip Buck joined Stacey and me to talk about the offseason goings on of the 93 loss also-rans Yankees’ bitter rivals in Boston. Here’s a preview: none of us see the Red Sox competing for a playoff spot this upcoming season. We also discuss the possibility that the Yankees have their Opening Day roster in place already, spend a little bit of time laughing at Boston sports fans, and I finally get enticed into a legitimately angry monologue directed at the Yankees’ ownership group. Enjoy!
For tonight’s show we were joined by Bryan Hoch of MLB.com, who talked about Justin Upton, the messaging coming out of the team’s front office, and whether Yankee fans would rather see Carl Pavano, Javier Vazquez, or an IRS agent in a Yankee uniform in 2013. In the later part of the show our own William Tasker joins us to check in ahead of a crushing defeat for his Patriots on Sunday from the Northern reaches of New England. He sounds off on the Yankees’ offseason, brings a bit of historical perspective to the discussion, and joins Stacey and I for a rousing round of making fun of Javier Vazquez. We also mention the just passed anniversary of the Michael Pineda trade, and my laughably terrible ability to guess the proper pronunciation of names. You weren’t totally spared the effects of my football (and cough syrup) induced delirium either, though I contented myself with a brief musing on the emotional difference between watching football and baseball, and only for a minute or two, I promise. Enjoy!
As a wrap up of sorts to our Hall of Fame coverage for this year , Stacey and I chatted with Craig Calcaterra about today’s announcement of the voting results, and what they’ll mean for future ballots and future voting patterns amongst the BBWAA voters. Craig spends about as much time writing about the Hall and the voting process as just about anyone, so his thoughts on this are definitely worth a listen. After that we switched gears entirely back to the offseason, with updates on the latest rumors and pressing issues surrounding the Yankees with Mark Feinsand of the Daily News. Enjoy!
For tonight’s edition of On the Money, John Sickels of Minor League Ball joined us to talk about his list of the Yankees’ top twenty prospects. Topics included why Mason Williams is just a smidge below Gary Sanchez and Tyler Austin in Sickels’ eyes, the state of the system’s pitching talent, whether there’s any hope remaining for Dellin Betances, and why you shouldn’t get too discouraged by Dante Bichette Jr.’s disappointing debut in full season ball. For the latter part of the show, our own Tamar Chalker joined us to talk about prospects, non-prospects, and idiosyncratic regional weather patterns. I won’t lie, we run a bit longer than originally planned, but it was great to catch up with Tamar as we prepare for a new season, and great to get a chance to talk about the guys who show up in The Farm Report far more often than they do on the top prospect lists. Enjoy
Really fun show to do tonight, in no small part because we spent the whole time talking about the Hall of Fame. That meant lots of steroids talk, for better or worse, but I think we had an unusually enlightening chat on that front with Jeff Pearlman of Sports Illustrated. Jeff is a pretty strongly anti-PED guy, which it won’t take long to learn from listening, but he makes some good points (even if I don’t agree with them), and adds the perspective of a guy who was covering baseball at the time to the conversation.
In the second half of the show, Mike Bates (The Common Man) of The Platoon Advantage and SB Nation joins us, and unlike Jeff pretty much winds up at exactly the place I am on most of the topics, so no fireworks here. As usual though, Mike makes several worthy arguments of his own, and we make it a point to get away from steroids and into the actual ballot, namely the guys on the margins of worthiness. So if you’ve been looking for someone to take up the cases of Larry Walker and Kenny Lofton, you’ve definitely come to the right place.
Oh, and of course we find time to make fun of Murray Chass. Enjoy!
Matt Imbrogno of TYA joined Stacey tonight for the final On the Money of 2012. We talked about the offseason thus far around MLB, venture off into many tangents about steroids, Jack Morris, and the time I wrote a post about medieval witchcraft. We wrap it up with our parting thoughts on the year that was in Yankeedom, for good and ill. You can listen to the show in the player below, or go to our BTR page to download it. Enjoy!
Rob Abruzzese joined Stacey and I this evening, and we found quite a bit to talk about, covering everything from the R.A. Dickey trade to the unusual offseason the entire A.L. East is having, and finally covering quite a bit of what’s going on with the Yankees before the Hot Stove season takes its traditional lull during the Christmas holiday. Enjoy!
IIATMS MASTHEAD
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Jason Rosenberg, Larry Koestler,
Moshe Mandel, Brien Jackson
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Michael Eder, Stacey Gotsulias, Matt Imbrogno
Writers
Tamar Chalker, William Tasker, EJ Fagan, Mike Jaggers-Radolf, Brad Vietrogoski, Domenic Lanza
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