NICK SWISHER HITS THE HALL OF FAME BALLOT!

The Bronx Elvis did it! The question is, did he really have what it took during his playing days to make it to Cooperstown?

I for one loved when Swisher was in New York. He brought a new energy there and it was needed in such a corporate atmosphere.  But the reality is, I just don't see how this guy can be voted in. Not now for sure... but probably ever. If a guy like Jorge Posada lost his chance after just one time, there's no way Swish gets in. It's just my opinion of course.

Anyway, the Associated Press writes:

"Curt Schilling, Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds are the leading candidates returning to baseball’s Hall of Fame ballot in a year without any favorites among the new names....Newcomers also include Dan Haren, LaTroy Hawkins, Aramis Ramirez, Michael Cuddyer, Nick Swisher and Shane Victorino."

And New5 Cleveland writes:

"Swisher has found himself on the Hall of Fame ballot.

Swisher played for the Tribe from 2013 to 2015. During his 12 year career Swisher also played for the New York Yankees, Oakland A’s, Atlanta Braves and the Chicago White Sox. Although he didn’t see much success in Cleveland, Swisher was named to the American All-Star Game in 2010 and was a member of the 2009 World Series Champion Yankees. He appeared in 12 postseason series over seven seasons hitting .165 with four homers, eight RBI and 16 runs scored in 47 games. 

While it is unlikely Swisher has a large number of votes, he can stay on the ballot for 10 years providing he is not elected and he’s named on at least 5% of all ballots cast each year, which is also unlikely to happen."

And that's the key for Swish... try to stay on the ballot, because it's all about timing and maybe that's where he'll have a shot.

I personally don't think he has any shot, but damn I loved him in pinstripes!

Congrats to all the new entries. It's always fun to see who gets voted in.

BYB HOT STOVE: VOLUME XVI

Shocking- Alex Rodriguez shows up early to spring training.  Experts predicted he would show up on Tuesday and he arrived Monday.  I am not surprised.  He likes to make a grand entrance and there you have it.  Thinking about making grand entrances, I think we have some teams that are going to try and make some of their own with the changes they made to their clubhouse.  Teams like Toronto, San Diego and Chicago's two teams could be in contention, serious contention this year.  Many say that San Diego is not organized quite yet, but there's time to simmer and let the team gel.

There are yet other teams who will not be making much of a grand entrance, and one of those teams is the Red Sox.  According to a report filed by MLB.com's Ian Browne, "Despite the glut of outfielders the Red Sox have, general manager Ben Cherington thinks it's possible that all of them could still be with the organization when the season starts. "Good chance," said Cherington. "I think, as I said before, look, one of the things that we knew needed to be better was the sort of total output from the outfield in 2015. In order to win more games, we needed to get more out of the outfield -- the whole team, but the outfield certainly was one area." That's their focus? Really?  And maybe the reason for this is because rumor has it that Shane Victorino is on the auction block.  Yeah, they also got that guy Yoan Moncada.  Okay, may they want grand entrance, but they still aren't going to get it from us in New York.

Jon Heyman is reporting that Cliff Lee may be a good option for the Red Sox this season.  "The Red Sox have a much more obvious need for a frontline starter now and are also known to like Lee, and with Boston and Philadelphia still believed to be at a standstill in their Cole Hamels talks, it is fair to wonder whether Lee could become a consideration for them."  I think the Yankees had their chance with Lee as he "eschewed higher offers from the Yankees and Rangers to return to Philly at a time it looked like the Phillies would continue their impressive dynasty." That clearly didn't happen.  With Lee's injuries, he "does not have value (now) because of age and injuries and most of all what he is owed,” one AL executive said. So far, the Sox are impressed with Lee's performance this spring. Yet as an interesting twist, the Phillies would be interested in bringing back Victorino.  The Flyn' Hawaiian could be back in Center City! Crazy! There are also talks that the St. Louis Cardinals could have an interest picking up Lee since they were not overly aggressive in adding pitching this off season.

A K-Rod deal could be at any moment.  According to Heyman, the Brewers and Marlins are chatting up with veteran closer Francisco Rodriguez.  "Milwaukee hasn't named its closer, and K-Rod had a nice year for the Brewers in 2014, saving 44 games, posting his career best 0.985 WHIP and making his fifth All-Star team.Steve Cishek is Miami's closer, but the Marlins are looking to beef up the pen in an effort to contend this year." Remember the fish added our beloved David Phelps this winter and I feel that this is going to come back and bite us in the ass.  Also available is Raphael "Untuck" Soriano.

So we lost to the Red Sox this time by not closing the deal with rookie sensation Moncada.  Not sure why we didn't pull the trigger.  But, that seems to be the story of our lives these recent years since getting burned by this year's spring training early arriver ARod.  We did not want the Red Sox have him, so we paid big.  Moncada? Good move?  Not sure- can't overthink it.   Let's just get to work boys.  Move on and get it going!

--Suzie Pinstripe, BYB Senior Staff Writer
BYB Hot Stove Columnist
Twitter: @suzieprof







You've made BYB the fastest growing Yankees fan site in history. Now shop at the Bleeding Yankee Blue store!  Follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and LIKE Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook!  Also, don't forget to check out the BYB Hub!

WHAT TO DO WHEN THERE'S NO REAL BASEBALL NEWS

When a top story is Shane Victorino of the Red Sox texted a funny picture of his "abs" to his manager John Farrell... you know BYB was correct in keeping non-stories to the cutting room floor. There is literally no exciting news in Yankeeland or the Baseball world really...

Then again... here I am showing you a picture of Shane Victorino's "abs" in his text to John Farrell. It's his real text.

I know... I fell for it... sorry.

So, I had an idea. I decided to ask all of my writers to quick take pictures of their own abs and send them to me quick! Why, not right?  Let's have some fun, shall we?  Let me give you an official warning. We're the most in shape staff on the web. We work out like crazy in between family and work and kids and activities and writing.  Some of us write and workout at the same time.  It's a vicious cycle, but we do it for all of you! I wouldn't be surprised if we suddenly become sex symbols...

Here's Steve Skinner:

Suzie Pinstripe:

Jeana Bellezza:

Erica Morales:

Alexis Garcia:

Dan Lucia:

Mike O'Hara:

Wolfgang Von Bunt:

Ike Dimitriadis:

and of course... me:

Shall we shag now or shall we shag later?

Enjoy your Friday.




You've made BYB the fastest growing Yankees fan site in history. Now shop at the Bleeding Yankee Blue store!  Follow me on Twitter @BleednYaneeBlu and LIKE Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook!  Also, don't forget to check out the BYB Hub!

BYB EXCLUSIVE: KEEPING THE BASEBALL CONNECTION GOING

We like to interview interesting and unique individuals with good stories and good causes here at BYB. We've done it for the past three years. After that, they become a Bleeding Yankee Blue family member for life.  It all started with our first interview... Read EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: STEVE KARSAY.  Since then, it's advanced to other interesting people, like Bob Lorenz (HERE), Dante Bichette Jr (HERE), Laura and Jorge Posada (HERE). Even our pals Charles and Joey Moses (HERE) and our friend Ty Hensley (HERE). You can read all of them on our website... on the left side. 

Well, I have another interesting treat for you today. Kris Totten helps run Akadema, a baseball supply facility. He's also a former minor league baseball player.  Bottom line, I find the dude interesting. Plus, as part of Akadema, they donated the bat for the Jack DiSalvo Scholarship this past spring, a scholarship BYB was front and center on.  The winner of that scholarship was Augustine Graziano. Read all about it in, TEAM DISALVO FOLLOWS THROUGH BIG TIME! His picture is below:

Recently, I even received my very own Bleeding Yankee Blue engraved bat from Akadema.  A very nice gesture from a very nice guy.  So, I became curious... what makes Kris Totten and Akadema tick.  I decided to interview Kris and pick his brain for the BYB audience.  I hope you enjoy this... I sure did.

BYB: First off, thank you for the bat and the great work you did donating for the Jack DiSalvo scholarship earlier this year.  How did Akadema begin?

(In Photo: Jack DiSalvo)

Kris Totten: You're welcome. It was a pleasure to be associated with such a great event like the Jack DiSalvo Scholarship.   I know Mr. DiSalvo did a lot for his community and was a big mentor to a lot of the kids he coached. We need more people like him around.

(In photo: Larry Gilligan)
Akadema began in 1997.  It started out just doing fielding gloves, batting gloves and wood bats. Lawrence Gilligan, who played MiLB with the Cardinals and White Sox didn’t think there were good fielding gloves available at that time. That was in the late 80, early 90’s, and so the brainstorming to form a baseball glove company began.  I joined shortly thereafter once I got done following my dream of playing my own pro-ball career. (It was minor league ball with the Seattle Mariners.) 

(In photo: Kris Totten)
My career MiLB ERA of 5.00 wasn’t getting me anywhere in this game, so I had to get a real job.  Akadema has since expanded into a full blown sporting goods company now almost 20 years later. It offers metal bats, apparel, uniforms, turf shoes, etc. It's great.

BYB: Who are some of your clients. Give us some big names.  Do they use Akadema bats during play throughout the season?

Kris Totten: Right now, Akadema fielding gloves are currently being used at the MLB level by the following players:  Shane Victorino, Derek Holland, JB Shuck, Kevin Pillar, Vin Mazzaro, Jason Pridie, Craig Breslow and Abraham Almonte.  We have dozens of high end MiLB players under contract as well that should break into MLB at some point this year, so that's exciting.

 BYB: You're a baseball fan and I believe a Red Sox fan looking at your Google + Avatar.  Am I right? How the hell did I even allow you to be interviewed on our site?  Who was your favorite player growing up and why. Currently, who do you love to watch play?

(In Photo: Roberto Kelly)

Kris Totten: Ha Ha. Actually, I'm not a Red Sox fan. I'm a true Yankee fan, I promise. My favorite player growing up was Roberto Kelly and for no other reason other than  I liked the way he set up in his batting stance. I know, it's a weird reason, but I always tried to emulate him growing up and play like did. He was a good player and he made the game look easy to me. 

Oh, and the reason for the Manny image on my Google + is simple;  Manny Ramirez was our first “big sign” with Akadema, and he continues to promote the brand to this day in Iowa, so I feel obligated to promote him when I can.

My favorite player today is Mike Trout. He is the future of the game, simply the best player in the MLB. It pains me to say it, but Mike used Akadema batting gloves and fielding gloves coming up through the minors, but Mike is no longer using Akadema. That being said,  I wish him nothing but the best. He's a very humble kid. He plays the game the right way and has a skill set that no other player in the game can match. Plus, he is a Jersey kid, so you gotta root hard for them.

BYB: If someone is interested in looking at the Akadema products, how can they do that?

Kris Totten: If you are interested in Akadema you can visit us personally if you are local. We are located in Hawthorne, NJ.  Or you can visit our website at www.akademapro.com to view our product line.  973.304.1470 is the office line and we are open Mon-Friday 8:30-4:30. 

BYB: Do you do engraving like you did for us here at Bleeding Yankee Blue? How does that work if some of my BYB readers are interested in doing it?

Kris Totten: Yes, engraving is an option we offer on any of our wood bat line. That can be done on our website. We have a feature on our site for this, or you can call us directly to order any wood bat of your choice and have it engraved with your name, nickname, team name, etc. We also offer custom bats with colors as well.

BYB: You're a big baseball fan, a Yankee fan. So, here's a scenario; You're the manager of the New York Yankees for 1 week.  Looking at the state of the Yankees right now, their pitching troubles, their weak bats, what do you do to change that?

Kris Totten: Wow, that’s a tough question.  The veterans they have are getting older and not producing like they have earlier in their careers and the new guys they have just don’t have enough experience at the MLB level. 

Masahiro Tanaka is obviously a bright spot for them and guys like Yangervis Solarte and Jacoby Ellsbury have cooled off since their hot starts. Outside of going after some players via trade, not sure what the Yankees have to offer player-wise that will bring the type of player or players in via trade that can be immediate impact players that can turn it around. But I would certainly  love to see the current roster of players rally and motivate themselves around the fact that it's Derek Jeter's last hoorah and push themselves into a position to make a strong run to get into the playoffs and send Jeter out a winner!

BYB: If you could meet 1 baseball legend of all time and sit and have a beer with them, who would it be and why?

Kris Totten: Mickey Mantle and/or Babe Ruth. Why? Because they loved to party and somehow found time to become 2 of the best players to ever play the game.

BYB: Final Question... Do you read Bleeding Yankee Blue? If so, what do you think?

Kris Totten: To be honest, no I have never read Bleeding Yankee Blue before you and I were first introduced to each other a few weeks back.  I have since and do regularly and I do enjoy it, you do a great job!

Thanks Kris, and thanks to Kris for a great interview. Oh yeah... and  the great Akadema bat! You did a great job with it, and it's proudly displayed in my office!

THE YANKEES HIT PARADE

I really do appreciate the rivalry between the Yankees and the Red Sox. The games are always entertaining. But tonights game was just long. Or maybe it felt that way. Hey look, I have to give credit where it is due. The Red Sox are our biggest rivals, not because they suck, but because they can meet us tick for tack. But tonight, their fielding reminded me more of "The Bad News Bears." Rather disappointing.

Okay, that's the remake clip, not the original. But let's be honest, Billy Bob Thornton was pretty inappropriately hilarious in this film. Just me? Fine!

Our ace, CC Sabathia, did an incredible job today. He pitched 6 innings, only giving up 2 runs. After last nights game, it's exactly what we needed. He gave our bullpen at least a nights rest. But the real heroes in this game were our bats. Jacoby Ellsbury did an excellent job of leaving his old home of Boston something to remember him by, going 3 for 6 with 3 RBI's. Mark Teixeira hit his first home run of the season, in a moment of "is it or isn't it." The ball hit just above the line, and the ump waved his hand around, signaling a homer. Brett Gardner spent some time stealing bases in the 3rd. Was an excellent reminder of his speed.

Top prospect Shane Greene made his major league debut tonight. Of all teams, and of all places to make your debut with the Yankees, I imagine that Boston is the most nerve wracking. He is charged with 3 runs, and struck out Shane Victorino. Welcome to the big leagues, Greene!

There was a moment in the 1st inning where Gardner was called safe, which made me question these new catching rules. Now it worked in our favor this time, but for the sake of fairness, I have to ask "what the heck?" The new exchange rules state that if a fielder catches the ball for the out, but looses control of it on the exchange, the runner is safe. Uh, say what now? Hey, MLB! Fix that! I foresee so much confusion due to this in the future.

The defense by the Red Sox was making basic little league mistakes out there. It was a train wreck. Good news for us, but resulted in 5 errors for them. They sent out five pitchers, including Mike Carp as relief. That makes two positional players that the Yankees see pitching in the same week.


Final: Yankees 14 - Red Sox 5

--Erica Morales BYB Senior Writer 
Twitter: @e_morales1804

 

 

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THE YANKEES HAVE GIVEN ME WRITER'S BLOCK!

I have been officially blocked.  Much like the Yankees and their miracle ride to the playoffs, a roadblock has been keeping me quiet on Twitter, Facebook and Bleeding Yankee Blue over the last week.  I guess the recession of tweets began just after the opening game of the four-day series against the Red Sox on September 5th.  I thought we had that game; I mean Mo was one out from the first few notes of New York, New York chiming through the stadium of electric fans, which saw one of the best comebacks of the season.  Of course, that comeback is fiction, for we came back and then gave it away to the Sox in extra innings and so began my steady decline from writing.  Yes, friends, the Yankees are giving me writer’s block.

I thought I would write about our Cinderella story- our relentless battle back into playoff territory; nope, not happening.  Then, I pitched a story about how I became a Red Sox fan (for Yankees’ sake of course).  I just couldn’t stomach it.  Some fans were coaxing me this week.

Thanks @DougStro and @yankeefrank23 for keeping me honest but even though our banter this week was real, I still had trouble figuring out what to say.  It’s like I was on the disabled list myself- I guess I am in good company with the Captain, now ARod, Gardner, Phelps, Teixeira, among others.

Then there was the Boston Massacre repeat this weekend- I am really in a funk. I ran the Philadelphia Rock and Roll Half Marathon on Sunday and I was bombarded with Shane Victorino and Dustin Pedroia tees along with Phillies and Eagles apparel along the route.  I was serenaded with “Fly Eagles, Fly” and I wanted to vomit. I came home from the race to an Eli Manning disaster, followed shortly by ESPN’s coverage of the Sox sweep.   I was happy the Bombers didn’t play on Monday, so I could recoup.  Then it was Tuesday in Toronto and I had a relapse of writer’s block.

Derek Jeter, who is usually my knight in shining armor in September, really got me down with this quote that wound up as my Facebook status late last week, “This whole season has been a nightmare. It is fitting I am going out this way."  Even the Captain is down in the dumps and I don’t blame him. 

So, help me, fans… in this month of despair and this season riddled with injuries, help me get out of my writer’s block.  What can I write about that you want to read about?  How can we help each other get through the last couple of weeks of the season and then regroup for the spring?  Tweet me @suzieprof with you thoughts and ideas!  And if you have a remedy for writer’s block, send it fast!  God Speed!

--Suzie Pinstripe, BYB Opinion Columnist
Twitter: @suzieprof




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