On the Yankees beat

Registration would be a better solution because it kills two birds with one stone.

It would prevent spammers from running wild as well as preventing Anon posters from constantly changing monikers and posting fly-by-night nonsense in order to get a rise out of the regulars.

Kat, just so it's clear, we're cool with the preventing spam part. It's not a problem typing in 6 numbers. It's common to blogs (some require letters) all over the place. If the correct numbers are entered your post should go through. It doesn't. That's the problem. Understand that if one doesn't know what they're doing the post will never go through and you should understand what affect this will have on the health of the blog. If you don't have someone there that can fix this you might want to put the word out to consider some new staff. This should be an easy fix.

I think Viper's idea is excellent.

I’m with Peter as well, people at my company would be fired if an IT issue took this long to resolve. Not sure if you guys handled this in house or outsourced this to a 3rd party for installation, either way, someone needs to be held accountable. This should have been a quick fix.

I know you're just a beat writer Kat, so I don’t want to bash you on this minor issue, but this may need to be escalated for resolution.

Completely agree Viper....

Blog Wish-List
--------------------
1. Blog User Registration
2. Member options such as a profile and avatar
3. Ability to be updated of posts through email
4. Ability to give posters positive and negative "credit" so people are encouraged to only say intelligent things that actually benefit the blog.
5. Ability to actually post hyperlinks

All of this would probably require implementing a whole new type of Blog software. But it would be worth it and would attract more people.

DRU: I couldn't resist an opportunity to have fun with stats.

You like to compare Bernie & Melky, so I decided I would too.

Let's start:

Bernie at 23, began his time with the Yanks. Melky, at 23, just completed his 2nd year with over 450 ABs (Bernie's first year with over 250 ABs was at the age of 25). So, how do they fair:

Let's assume that Melky does not improve at all, but still gets to the same 7,869 ABs that Bernie had in his career. Using Melky's current averages, how would he do:

Hits: 2,167 (169 less than Bernie)
HRs: 115 (172 less than Bernie)
Total Bases: 3,050 (706 less than Bernie)
BBs: 760 (309 less than Bernie)
SOs: 991 (221 less than Bernie; this time, less is good for him)

So, not bad, but not that good either. For comparions sake though, I decided to project Bernie's career based on his first three seasons (I decided this was fair because technically Melky has played 3 seasons too and the ABs were pretty close, 1,148 for Bernie and 1,024 for Melky). This is what I came up with:

Hits: 2,063 (137 less than Melky)
HRs: 137 (21 more than Melky)
Total Bases: 3,050 (dead even)
BBs: 891 (130 more than Melky)
SOs: 1,364 (372 more than Melky; this time, more bad for him)

The additional Hits for Melky washes out against the walks for Bernie in terms of OBP and the more HRs for Bernie is washed out to me when you consider the Total Bases are dead even. So, Melky gets the edge by the DRASTIC difference in strikeout rate.

Fielding, Bernie was faster, but had no arm. Melky has a gun, but doesn't run as well. Not sure exactly how that one washes out, but I think you know where I'm going.

I could go on and on and on with this one, but I decided that was enough. For those that wonder how much Melky can improve, I remind you to recall that lost 21 year old in the outfield against Boston. After that 6 game stint, who honestly thought he'd ever make it back? People were laughing and hoping to never see him again, but then look what he's done. At 23, Melky is ahead of where Bernie was in every category except for the number of walks that Bernie took, though I think those walks, in a sense, hurt Bernie in that it increased his strikeout rate early in his career. He was too patient.

I guess I just couldn't resist a good stats post!

*Bernie's first year with over 450 ABs, not 250ABs was at 25.

DRU,

I had tried to answer your Varitek question, but I was not allowed to post

I think Varitek has one more full year in him.
I hope the Red Sox put Crisp and maybe Moss and a young pitcher in a package and try to get a deal involving a young catcher that can be groomed as Varitek's replacement.

Kind of like how Girardi and Posada split time (and picked up some rings) and after a few years it was Posada's ship

Sox need to do that before they get stuck with a Mike DiFelice behind the plate or overbid on another Molina brother

Zeppo Molina

According to FoxSports' Ken Rosenthal the Mariners and O's are really close on a deal that would send Erik Bedard to Seattle and Adam Jones, George Sherrill and another prospect to Baltimore.

Also according to a couple of sources, the Mets are now in the lead to get Santana by giving up almost all of their farm system, seems if the Mets are willing to include Fernando Martinez the Twins will do the deal. The deal isn't all that much better than what NY or Boston are reported to offer, but the Twins would prefer to send Johan to the National League.

Not sure if all this has been posted before, if it has, feel free to mock me for the horrible waste of time that another post is in your busy lives (yes, that was sarcasm)

HYD great work! As you point out, Melk's age is a huge factor. We can 100% assume that Melk will improve over time to be a solid MLB player. He may never win a MVP, but as we have both illustrated, he may be the next Bernie Williams ( also a switch hitter ). I know its difficult to see this so early in his career, but by age 25, he should be solid with all this early seasoning.

Sully...Zeppo..lol...from the Yanks standpoint, my biggest fear was when Posada left . The Yanks have an excellent plan and I have to tip my cap to them.

1. They signed Jorge for 4 years ( 1 year too many in my mind )
2. They signed Jose Molina ( the good Molina…LOL ) who is a great defensive catcher and actually hit 300 for us in limited time. Molina's experience, game calling and defense should be a major asset with the young staff.
3. In two more years when Molina's contract is up, they have another defensive wiz in Cervelli. If Jorge left, he would have gotten a shot to team up with Molina this year. Now he gets two more years of seasoning and should be ready to back up Jorge by 2010.
4. Once 2011 rolls around they will have two major options to replace Jorge. 1st is Jesus Montero, he swings a MONSTER CLUB. I was really high on him to be the next great Yankee catcher....UNTIL...I read about Austin Romine. This kid has it all...power to all fields, average, game calling, ROCKET arm. By the time Jorge is ready to hang em up, Austin should be ready to team up with Cervelli to give us an EXCELLENT combo behind the dish. At that point, Montero will be shifted to 1B or DH. If either Cervelli or Romine fail due to ineffectiveness or injuries, the keys will be given to Montero..not a bad backup plan!

Either way the Yanks really thought ahead and squashed any fears I had about who the next C would be. Im sure the Sox have someone in the pipe to take over, if not, they better start looking. Thanks for the input Sull.

Damn you Chip!

; )

j/k, thanks for the info!

FYI...

Not only is George King probably the worst Yankees beatwriter in the business, but he is officially the worst guest host in the history of Yankees Hot Stove.

How this guy still has a job covering the Yankees is beyond me.

What do some of you think of this???

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7659616

Is Melkey being shopped elsewhere as the Twins deal seems moot at this point?

Oooops spelled "Melky" incorrectly!

Whats up with this???

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01102008/sports/yankees/lane_might_join_yanks_at_1st_base_827724.htm

No wonder I don't come here anymore! Here is the link broken in half....hopefully it posts!

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01102008/sports/yankee

s/lane_might_join_yanks_at_1st_base_827724.htm

Here's my complaint: This blog sucks. Kat is insipid and brief in her comments and clearly has not embraced the format. I'm going over to Bronx Banter or LoHud. At least those guys care about readers.

Realist, I'd rather leave Melky alone but if he were to go I'd like to see Gardner get a shot. Cameron would bring some righty power but he K's way too much and he's getting pretty long in the tooth. Trading Melky in the Santana deal is one thing, trading him for prospects is fascinating. Isn't he just this side of being a prospect himself? He's certainly still developing. I guess I could understand if he brought some LH pitching prospects. We want to keep the farm well stocked but trading him to make room for Cameron doesn't seem right.
Lane is more interesting. I like competition and he would be some for Duncan and he'd give us some depth in CF & RF. I have my doubts that he would be quick study at 1B though.
None of this thrills me.
I, for one, haven't given up on Giambi. I'm thinking maybe he's finally over his steroids withdrawal and will be relatively healthy this year just in time for a new contract. Money is a great motivator and the better his year, the better his next contract. His problems and shortcomings are well documented but he's still clutch with a good OBP. Maybe there's too much for him to overcome but if he can regain some of his form and swing a big stick Girardi will find a way to keep him in the lineup.

Yankees yesterday signed Jason Lane to a minor league deal.

Doubtful that this signing has anything to do with a potential deal that would include Santana. Lane isn't a very good corner outfielder defensively, so odds are he won't be a factor for CF. Most likely, if Melky were traded, Damon would be the CF. They're essentially just going to hope that through the season Giambi, Duncan, Betemit, and Lane get hot at different times and between the four of them play a passable first base.

Peter: No offense, but rooting for Giambi to be a solid contributer all season long is like rooting for Carl Pavano and Kei Igawa to win 20 games each this season.

"if one doesn't know what they're doing the post will never go through"

So what's the trick? I only get through once in a while.

Jon K:
Here's a refresher on what I posted a while back to help people circumvent this nonsensical system:

1. Write your post and COPY it (that is important).
2. Type in your code and hit the "submit" button.
3. If you get rejected, click "return to original entry" or whatever the link is.
4. REFRESH your page (should give you a new code)
5. Paste your post in the box, enter the new code and submit.

This should work every time, but even if it doesn't you just do it again and it will.

Obviously the worst part about the codes is the disruption of "flow" of some of our baseball conversations and I really hope this gets fixed.
I'd rather deal w/ spam than this.

Call Initech

Here's a novel approach to fixing the blog:

have the IT guys check their code at the point that the security number is entered on the screen. The edit that's there isn't working which is why the error is popping up. Also, they should have done some volume testing to see if the code can handle a lot of people hitting it at one time.

Or was this function outsourced to Mars or something?

Jim's workaround can be effective if you're willing to repeat the maneuver as many times as it takes -- sometimes as many as eight.

My present position is that I try straight-ahead once, try Jim's workaround once, and quit. If you get this you'll know that it worked this time. What you won't know is how many times I and others have given up on an individual post, or how many people have given up on the blog.

Who besides Jim A., and very rarely Chip or Michael PTRS, is here REGULARLY that was here a year ago, or even six months ago?

How many real conversations happen now? With responses back and forth? That was the strength of this blog. Kat is not a 'natural' at this, but some of the best blog owners have very few or repetitious or just not very smart commenters. We were the strength of the blog, and we're fading out, partly because the poorly implemented system keeps us from interacting with each other, and partly because we're not interested in what's left.

Have a good weekend all. Hopefully Kat can fix this debacle and the new people, like myself, can keep some of the vets interested enough to come back.

Gosh I hope Im doing a good enough job here, nothing would upset me more than not pleasing the royal family.

; )

Di,

I haven't really had anything to contribute to the discussions which is why I haven't been posting.

What I do to get around the problems with posting is after I typed my comments, I highlight them and copy. I then enter the security code and hit the post button. If I get an error, I go back to the beginning as if i was coming in for the first time and then paste my comments in the empty comments box. A new security code appears and I type that in and hit the post button. My comments then post to the blog.

If you or anyone else that's posting tries to put the same security code in that gave the error, the error condition continues.

Chip, no offense taken. I see your point although a bit extreme. Giambi will probably never stay healthy again plus he doesn't have the steroid boost to help him hit. I think Giambi being healthy and regaining some of his old form has a better chance for fruition than Pavano or Igawa even playing for the Yanks, let alone winning 20 games, especially Pavano since he's not healed yet. No offense. Now if you used Mussina as an example.... Don't get me started on him. I have him in the same boat as Giambi. His contract is up and he needs 50 wins for the Hall. I believe he didn't take last year seriously enough and he has a chance, like Giambi, to rebound this year. I don't think he'll win 20 but I can see him winning a spot in the rotation and winning double figures if he can regain his control.
I rarely root for players but I always root for the team to win and I hope everyone is a star in the process. I just think Giambi really really needs to have a good year for several reasons most noteably, his contract is up. Players commonly have good years in the last year of their contract. How about .280, 30HR protecting ARod? I also think it's interesting that Cashman hasn't brought in much competition for him. I'm not sold that Duncan can take many at bats from him, Lane is another righty, Betemit is utility. None of them are significantly, better defensively. I can see a lot of Giambi early and Betemit in the late innings against RHP. Now if they sign Mientkewicz, that would be some stiff competition for Giambi. He's a great defender and if signed, I would think him the favorite to play most at 1B. If I'm rooting for something to happen here I'd prefer they sign Mientkewicz or have Duncan excel and Giambi can go on his merry way.
I haven't given up on Matsui either.
Diane, a little different than Jim A., I close my browser and come back to Newsday and then paste the post. I has always worked the 2nd time.

Just like John G.

The Mets blog seems to work fine and there are no complaints.

Peter,

Thanks for the hint.

Dru,

Everything is not about you.

Oh Diane, relax, it was just a joke.