A True Yankee bids sayonara to Hideki Matsui

Godzilla Swag

Hideki Matsui has retired according to Daigo Fujikawa. Godzilla  will make the announcement at a press conference in New York, where he still lived. He last played for the Rays this past season and with Oakland and Anaheim since leaving the Yankees after his stellar 2009 World series. Matsui hit .292/.370/.482 (124 wRC+) with 140 total homers in pinstripes, and his best season came back in 2004, when he produced a .298/.390/.522 (140 wRC+) line with 31 homers. He started his Yankee career in 2003 with a Grand Slam in his Yankee stadium debut (video!) and of course ended it by destroying Pedro Martinez in game 6 of the 2009 world series, earning the world series MVP honers.

As most of us know Matsui was an extremely reliable player, ending his consecutive games played streak of 538 games played only by breaking his wrist while sliding in the outfield for a ball in 2006. Hideki was without a doubt a reliable player in the postseason as well, batting  .312/.391/.541 (143 wRC+) in the postseason.  This is on top of the fact that Matsui was Huge in Japan and before he came to the big apple, he had hit 54 Home Runs and won his third Japan Series Championship  and League MVP with the Yomiuri Giants.
Matsui was my all time favorite player since he came over from a Japan, I have a Matsui shirt that I have had since 2004 and a Matsui Jersey sitting in my closet. I do not know if I will ever be a bigger fan of another Yankee player than I was of Matsui and I will always resent that fact that the Yankees did not bring him back in 2010, especially since Nick Johnson busted so bad.

Matsui was a great Yankee.  He will go down in history as an excellent teammate, a great person and a True Yankee.

Tragedy in Connecticut

I need to write this, but at the same time I know that I cannot really sum up my feelings about this because it hits close to home. Obviously I live in Connecticut, less obviously I am a teacher so this hits really close for me. I was in class, 6th graders, when the reports first started coming in and at the time none of the teachers really knew what was going on, but as the day went on more information started coming in and the picture began to emerge of just how horrific this was. By the end of the day I was in the library and all the teachers were talking to each other about any news that was coming in and at the same time we were trying to keep the students from finding out, so they did not start to panic.
I didn't know anybody directly who was affected by this, but I spent a lot of time trying to figure out if I knew anybody who was teaching there and thankfully I did not. Its Sunday now and I have to think about what the students will be like when I come in. Will they be scared, will they be upset or will they just push it out of their minds and pretend it didn't happen.
Obviously baseball cannot pay tribute to the victims, but highlighting the diversity of Connecticut in sports terms, all six sports teams in action between Boston and New York have or will pay tribute to the victims and the president will speak in Newtown today. Nothing can be said to bring these 26 people back and I do not know if we will ever know exactly why Adam Lanza killed these people, all we can really do is remember those who were killed.

Yankees sign Youk

Kevin Youkilis will be the opening day third baseman for the New York Yankees after agreeing to a 1 year $12 million deal. After Chavez and Reynolds signed, Youk was really the only option and his right handed bat will balance out the lineup nicely. This signing is perfect for the Yankees as its 1 year, Right handed power bat and third baseman. That being said I am personally going to come out and say that I do not like Kevin Youkilis and I still don't like him. I always thought Youk was overrated and to be quite frank he is, but as I said he fits the Yankees need and gives David Adams some time in AAA. Next up, Ichiro.

Lamenting the loss of Russell Martin

 

Well the Yankees lost out on Russell Martin to the Pittsburgh Pirates. First off lets have that sink in, the Pittsburgh Pirates outbid the New York Yankees for the best free agent catcher on the market. The worst part is that Martin gave the Yankees the chance to match the offer of 2 years $17 million and they said that they did not have the money.
Without a doubt Catcher is the most difficult position to play in baseball and if the season started today they would need to rely on a combination of Austin Romine, Chris Stewart and Francisco Cervelli. Obviously Romine has potential but he has only had a limited time in AAA, after missing most of last year with a back injury. Also the Yankees pitching staff the last two years has been great, thanks in no small part to Martin being behind the plate. Martins defense is often undervalued by Yankees fans but his receiving skills and play calling are extremely important to making this pitching staff as good as it has been. Without Martin the Yankees will see a noticeable drop off from catcher defense, not to mention the loss of his offense, as the only current regular right handed bat in the lineup is A-Rod. Say what you want about his batting average but Martin hit 40 home runs in his two years as a Yankee and the balance he helped provide to the lineup cannot be undervalued. Last year the Yankees had four lineup regulars that could bat right handed in Swisher, Tex, Martin and ARod and now they will likely only have two. Those four guys hit 87 Home Runs last season and 45 of those are leaving with Swisher and Martin and its extremely unlikely that the Yankees will be able to make them up with whomever they have to replace those two. The fact that the Yankees refuses to pony up the extra $5-6 million is really going to cost them, especially with him poor the catching market is right now.