Joe Hollywood

It looks like Joe Torre is in as the new manager of the L.A. Dodgers. My initial reaction: poor fit. Much as I love Torre, his weakest two points as a manager are figuring out the bullpen and working with young talent.

First, the bullpen. Since the dual threat of Mike Stanton and Jeff Nelson left, the Yankees have had only had one middle reliever/set-up man who could be relied on for the 8th inning with any regularity: Tom Gordon, circa 2004-midway through 2005. What did Torre do with Gordon? Effectively destroyed Flash's arm, pitching him in 80 games in 2004, then 79 in 2005, for a total of 170.2 IP in those two seasons. Aside from that 1.5-year period, Torre hasn't had or developed a shutdown, eighth inning reliever - unless you count 2006 Scott Proctor, another guy with a dead arm due to overuse by Torre. Torre has a reputation for riding a guy on a hot streak in the bullpen, which is an issue especially when you don't have a particularly deep relief corps.

This poor usage becomes key when considering the case of the Dodgers. Currently, the Dodgers have a superstar level closer, one who, believe it or not, has been better than a certain other closer over the past two seasons. The difference was especially evident last season, when Takashi Saito put up a 327 ERA+ and Rivera posted a 142. The problem is, Saito will be 38 this season. 24-year-old phenom Jonathan Broxton (who saved one of my fantasy teams with great WHIP, ERA and K/BB stats) is the closer of the future out in L.A. Torre coming in could be bad news for Broxton, who can ask Proctor about it. As poorly used as Gordon was, check out Proctor's IP stats: He went from 44.2 in 2005 to 102.1 in 2006. There's a reason Proctor looked washed up at the beginning of the season: He had a 131% IP workload increase from 2005 to 2006! What makes matters worse for Broxton is that the Dodgers have few other effective 8th inning options. They've got Joe Beimel, who's decent. Problem is, Beimel is the only effective lefty in the Dodgers' pen, so Torre will need to pick his spots on when to use him. After Beimel, the next options are 38-year-old Rudy Seanez and ... wait for it ... Scott Proctor! The universe must hate Proctor. Anywho, the long and short of it is that Torre will be tempted to overuse Broxton the way he did Gordon and Proctor, since he will have few other good options.

The next problem might be an even bigger one: youth vs. experience. Torre will have to decide if he wants to give some of the Dodgers promising young talents like Tony Abreu, Matt Kemp and Andy LaRoche more at bats this season in the hope of developing them into a strong corps alongside James Loney, Andre Ethier and Russell Martin. His other option is to stick with proven but declining regulars Nomar Garciaparra, Juan Pierre and Jeff Kent. From a long-term perspective, the answer is clear: Give the kids some burn with the hope that they develop quickly to help you in the short-term, but with an eye on having at least six of your starting eight position players in 2009 in their early to mid 20s. If everything goes well, the Dodgers, who already shed the large Luis Gonzalez contract, could try to move those three during the season while they hopefully still have some value. In other words, in the space of a little more than 9 months, the Dodgers could have a spectacularly strong, youthful core and shed a large amount of payroll in the process, especially in the case of Pierre, who is owed $28.5 million from 2009 to 2011.

A lot of this will fall on Torre: If he doesn't develop the young guns, the Dodgers might have to resign Garciaparra and possibly Kent as well for 2009 if LaRoche and Abreu aren't ready. Problem is, Torre might not want to wait on the younger players. The Dodgers contended all year before falling out of the race in the last couple of weeks. If Torre thinks he could have pushed that team to the playoffs, Abreu, LaRoche and Kemp could sit on the bench while Torre wastes a season of their development. In all of his years as the manager of the Yankees, Torre never had to deal with a youth movement of any kind, and so only really developed four position players in his time as the skipper: Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Alfonso Soriano and Melky Cabrera.

All in all, this relationship could be pretty ugly. The combination of young talent and a manager with a penchant for playing veterans could be a recipe for a disappointing couple of years in L.A.

Thanks for being patient. Enjoy Joe.

Awesome.

So on the same day this happened, A-Rod opted out. What a day for Yankees fans. What a day. On the plus side, they're gonna hire another Joe. But this has to rank up there with the worst days in the history of the Yankees. In this millenium, Red Sox 2, Yankees 0.

First off, A-Rod. What timing. I guess it fits; he's always had a tin ear for public relations, so why not announce his departure from the Yankees in the early innings of the Red Sox second World Series win in the last four seasons. Furthermore, with Crabbe and Goyle in charge, the Yankees might not get better anytime soon — My belief is that Cashman is gone after this season.

What kills me is how spoiled the city of Boston is right now. The Sox. The Celtics. Boston College. Even the Revolution are in the playoffs and the Bruins don't look half bad. Oh, and then there's these guys. Never have I been as jealous of one city in my life. Also, nothing against him personally or even as a writer (I like his columns), but every time I see his face, I want to beat it in with a socket wrench.

On the plus side, the Yankees won't have to worry about any of their players checking out sketchy he-shes anymore.

I've been suitably shamed

So despite posting before each of my cowriters, they have both posted their respective biases before me. I guess it's about time to get that out there. I lived in New York until I was 11, so most of my allegiances lie with N.Y.-area teams: I'm a fan of the Yankees, Knicks, Rangers and Giants (born Super Bowl Sunday 1987). Since I moved down to Maryland before I became a soccer fan, I root for the United, though my favorite player has always been Tony Meola, whom I've loved since his Long Island Rough Rider days.

OK, so it's out there now. Keep those in mind while reading my posts.

The Airing of the Biases - Willmott Edition

Ah, cyberspace.

So when JAmoros alluded to a sports blogger joining the herd earlier, guess what? He was talking about me. The name's John; you can call me Willmott (no bonus points for guessing what my last name is). I'll be checking in to offer my takes on various different things in the realm of sports, collegiate, professional and otherwise. I'm also a provocative person; if something says something stupid, expect me to point it out (especially true in the case of JAmoros - I won't hesitate for a second to call him an idiot).

One thing I don't want to have happen here is for someone to read and come complaining about a hidden bias that I have somewhere. I'd like to think that I'm pretty upfront person in terms of what I'm all about. Case and point: I'd like to start out here by airing my biases for all the (digital) universe to see.

I'm from the D.C. area, so I naturally like the teams from here ('Skins and Nats for sure, I can take or leave the Wiz and Caps). I also go to the University of Maryland; "Die-hard" doesn't completely describe my love for the Terps. Similarly, I hate the teams that go against these squads frequently. This means you, NFC East, non-Maryland ACC teams, and the Atlanta Braves. Everybody (save for JAmoros) hates the Yankees - I'm no different.

I'm also a big stickler for the minutiae; uniforms, announcers, and so on. Feel free to make your own observations to that end.

Get it. Got it? Good. I can tell this is going to be the start of a beautiful relationship.

The Right Stuff

Just read an interesting article from Mike Lupica about The Boss. I agree with much of what he writes and have this to add: From a fans perspective, Steinbrenner is the best owner in professional sports, period, bar none. The reason? At the end of the day, he wants to win and will do literally whatever it takes to do so. He'll plunk down $200 mil without blinking an eye, because he believes it gives him a better baseball team. Yeah, occasionally big contract guys don't pan out, but it's no longer because The Boss thinks he knows baseball better than anyone else. He lets his baseball people run things and signs the paychecks it takes to win.

As a side note, how did this article happen? As a Yankees fan, I take pride in the fact that winning is the only goal. IT'S PROFESSIONAL SPORTS!!! There aren't any participation trophies here. Fans shell out hundreds of dollars a game to watch millionaire athletes play games they did as children, living vicariously at times through their favorite players. And Pearlman thinks the fans no longer enjoy watching the Yankees because the process is no longer fun? Please. If that's your viewpoint, you're a Mets fan.

Yes, there's pressure. I don't feel the Yankees are successful unless they had a legitimate shot at a World Series title each year. Shouldn't that be what it's all about? Am I missing something here? Should I hop on I-95 and go watch Miguel Tejada botch a couple of grounders and glide through plays because he knows the Orioles are going nowhere? Is this somehow more fun because for a fan, because you get to experience more joy when the Orioles finally win a title? I don't know. I was pretty pleased in 1996. And 1998. And 1999. And 2000. Silly me, but I haven't been quite as happy since then.

I guess what it boils down to is, would you rather start thinking in June about what prospects your team will pick up in a midseason salary dump, or would you rather start creating your normal October schedule, because your team is going to play seven months every season?

BOG

Title Talk
Is it just me, or does anyone else smell a potential Boston College vs. South Florida BCS title tilt? South Florida's toughest remaining game might be this coming Saturday at Rutgers, depending on how much love you want to give Cincinnatti. Boston College, meanwhile, has some tough games remaining in the ACC, but at the moment looks head and shoulders above the rest of the conference. I think Ohio State has too many tough matches left to say they'll escape without a loss, despite probably being the best of these three squads. It could come down to how much love BC and USF get from BCS voters, as neither team plays in a true power conference.

A match made in heaven
Does anything more need to be said? This could be like The Mighty Ducks, just in reverse. Get ready for a possibly magical season out of this club.

In the beginning

So let's kick things off. I've been reading blogs and such since around the time I started high school, so I decided it's about time to start writing one. My goal is to cover sports and politics, my two main interests, along with a smattering of history, literature, movies, T.V. and other topics, through daily postings. We'll see how that goes. To get things started, let's just do a quick baseball post then a bog.

Bring back Torre, Mo and Jorge. And that other guy who hits a lot.
It seems as if there is almost no way this will happen, but all four of these people need to remain in New York if the Yankees hope to be a real contender next season. Torre is sadly the most dispensable, as it appears Don Mattingly, Joe Girardi and others are waiting in the wings. Still, the man has done the best managing of his career over the last couple of years, dealing with major injury problems, Sheffield, the Clemens circus, ineffective relief pitching and a mercurial superstar. Despite all of the issues this season, the Yankees came back from 14.5 back to nearly beat Boston out for the division, before being knocked out of the playoffs by a more complete team.

The sad thing is, if Mo, Jorge and A-Rod all return, N.Y. would again have one of the best teams in the league, especially with a rotation of Wang, Pettite, Hughes, Chamberlain and Kennedy. Muss would be expendable if they can move him. Ohlendorf and Clippard are still available in the minors as decent fifth wheel options, and Edwar Ramirez (who does have good stuff) would have a full offseason and spring training to work with the pitching coaches. Lose any one of the three players above, and the Yankees need to trade to fill major holes. If Chamberlain moves to the pen permanently to replace Rivera, the Yankees lose a guy who could be one of their top-three starters for several years. Lose Posada or A-Rod, and they need to move some combination of Hughes, Chamberlain, Kennedy or Ohlendorf to get major league production back. The farm system is pitching-rich (they also have Brackman, Betances and Cox, who should succeed Rivera), but they shouldn't need to trade one of those four right now.

SPORTS BOG
John Schuerholz is leaving his post as GM of the Atlanta Braves but will stay on as team president. Frank Wren takes over. I remember Wren from his short-lived tenure as the Baltimore Oriole's G.M. To be fair, his owner was Peter Angelos, who seems intent on making 1980s version of George Steinbrenner look like the greatest owner in pro sports.

Michael Vick's high school took his jersey out of the trophy case. This is really more sad for the school than for Vick. The guy is probably the most famous alum ever from the school, and now they've got to disown him or face mobs of angry parents or dog owners. Another victory for Ron Mexico.

Father Time is back on the sidelines with the Carolina Panthers. It's just been one crotch shot after another for Steve Smith. On the plus side for Vinny, he could extend his touchdown streak Sunday if David Carr can't play.

Check back later for a politics post.