East Coast Bias
By Eric

So I’m out here in New Jersey immersed in the New York media market, and needless to say, my first week of the baseball season has been heavily influenced by it. Thanks to Bud Selig and the evil sports empire that DirectTV seems bent on becoming, my viewing options have so far been limited to Yankees games on YES, Mets games on SNY, and whatever national games are shown on ESPN and ESPN2 (which this week has consisted of several Mets and Yankees games…of course). And then the other day I came across this bit of news:

MLB Reaches Deal with Cable Companies for Extra Innings

It seems the good folks at MLB finally came to their senses and realized, "Hey, maybe we shouldn’t isolate a huge section of our fan base just to make a few measly bucks." Brilliant! Marketing genius! Chalk one up for the little guy. Of course I’m stuck here in the grips of Cablevision, and I would not be at all surprised to see them screw this up and refuse to carry the MLB channel in 2009. If that happens, it could very well be the last straw for me. I may just have to go Tyler Durden on them.

Ok, on to some baseball. I had the "privilege" of attending the Yankees-Devil Rays game last night, an event I was much more excited about until I saw the weather forecast. It was absolutely the coldest game I have ever been to, completely freezing. It even started snowing in the later innings. But while the weather was miserable, the game was exciting, especially for a Yankee-hater like myself.

Here’s what the game featured: Derek Jeter making not one, but two errors at shortstop in what turned out to be a one-run game, Andy Pettitte getting pulled in the top of 5th with no outs and two men on in what was an auspicious return to the Yankees rotation and the Devil Rays scoring two runs on passed balls, including the go ahead. All in all, minus the frozen toes, it was a hell of a game.

As a quick sidebar, my day was made when I heard the fan behind me make what had to be one of the stupidest baseball-related statements in the history of the sport. Facing a new pitcher whose fastball was peaking in the mid-to-upper 80s, the fan behind me commented that the Yankees were going to start being more aggressive on the base paths and try to steal more, because this pitcher threw slower. This completely blew my mind.

Now, as a base runner you steal on a number of things, a pitcher’s mechanics or a catcher’s arm, but you certainly don’t make a go-no go decision on a five or six mph difference in fastball speed. I ran some quick math and crunched some numbers. The difference in the amount of time it takes an 85 mph pitch to get to home plate compared to a 90 mph pitch is .03 seconds, an imperceptible amount of time. For some perspective, a blink of an eye is about .5 seconds. So much for Yankees fans being the smartest in the game.

Anyway, back to the game. I know you can’t make conclusive evaluations based off of one game, especially one where the weather conditions were less than ideal, but if I were a Yankee’s fan I would be a little concerned. It’s not possible to overstate Andy Pettitte’s struggles yesterday; he couldn’t place a pitch to save his life. When he was pulled after four innings he had already thrown somewhere around 85 pitches and had given up four runs (only two earned). Against a better team, that run total would have been much higher. Now he’ll have better days, but it took the Yankee’s fans less than three innings to go from giving him a standing ovation to booing him, an ominous sign.

The Yankees relief was extremely shaky too. I know this team is built around a killer lineup, but I wouldn’t pencil them into the playoffs just yet. Those big hitters (cough … A-Rod … cough) failed to come through with men in scoring position a number of times, and that bullpen is going to lose its share of 10-9 ballgames. In a division as tough as the AL East, they’re going to have a hard time keeping up with just their bats. Of course the Torre Yankees are notoriously slow starters and Steinbrenner will get itchy and open up his farm system and wallet to pick up a reliever or two before the trade deadline and change all of this, but even then it might be too late.

On the flip side, the Mets look like the real deal and should live up to expectations as the team to beat in the National League. Granted, the Cardinals are probably not going to be a great team this year, but the Mets controlled all three of those games and did not really show any major weaknesses. John Maine looked great in his start giving up only one hit, walking two and striking out six in seven innings of work. If they get Pedro back at some point this season (and maybe even if they don’t) they are going to be a tough team to beat.

Since I don’t even want to talk about the Cubs, let’s go ahead and wrap this thing up. Barring a bone-headed move by Cablevision, I promise less fluff and more baseball next time (let’s be serious, Joe’s the fantasy stats and analysis guy in this partnership anyway). And if you find out that Cablevision decided against carrying MLB Extra Innings, just remember to tell them that I always seemed a little crazy…