YEA OR NAY

Welcome to the first edition of yea or nay. Every Friday I’ll opine on some of the week’s best and worst, giving players, coaches, team’s either a yea or a nay. Pretty simple, right?

One note before we begin. I turn 35 this Saturday and I’m at the point where I don’t really need a birthday present. If I want something, I’m old enough to go and get it. I’m not going to wait for my birthday.

But my wife keeps pestering me and asking what I would want, so finally I tell her that I’ve been wanting to sign up for NetFlix. I suggest to her that she signs me up and queues up some movies that I would like. Surprise me, I tell her.

So she did it and I received my first movie the other day. I was very excited and I tore open the packaging and found…..

License to Wed.

Oh my god.

Now, I’m not the best at remembering things. Most times by accident, sometimes on purpose. But I know for a fact that these words never crossed my lips.

“You know, that License to Wed Movie looks pretty awesome.”

There are two ways to look at this conundrum. Either, after nearly 11 years of marriage, my wife has no idea who I am. Or, after nearly 11 years of marriage, she is fed up with watching movies I like and is taking matters into her own hands. She’s sat through Roadhouse approximately 39 times, to the point where she can actually recite Dalton’s dialogue.

Whatever the case may be, I immediately demanded the password for our account and remedied our queue list. Across the Universe was on deck, so it’s a good thing I did. I Am Legend, I eagerly await your arrival.

One other movie note before the baseball. The Ruins comes out this weekend and in case you haven’t read the Scott Smith novel, I advise you to be prepared. The book was terrific, but it was extremely graphic. And that was just using words. While reading it, I cringed thinking what it would look like on the big screen. If the director stays true to the novel, this will be one hell of a movie with some truly gnarly scenes. Go see it. Baby, we’ll go see your movie next time, I swear.

Let’s do it.

YEA! This isn’t baseball, but I had to reiterate possibly the funniest thing I’ve heard in YEARS! Last week, Isiah Thomas was quoted as saying that he had NOT been contacted to possibly be the next head coach at Indiana. Now that is a shocker.

Isiah actually felt compelled to tell people this. If Indiana was smart, they would have issued a press release immediately following this stating “We unequivocally have not even thought about contacting Isiah Thomas about being our new head basketball coach. In fact, we’d appreciate it if Mr. Thomas would stop mentioning our University altogether.”

YEA! To the most overrated manager of our generation, Joe Torre. The new skipper has already put his stamp on the Dodgers by saying to heck with one dimensional Juan Pierre. The fact of the matter is Juan steals bases but nothing else. Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp have much more to offer. Torre is one of the few managers who can get away with benching a guy who is making 7.5 million dollars. But Ethier and Kemp are ready. Pierre will get 2 maybe 3 starts a week and will be the main bat off the bench. Hopefully, Joe sticks by his young guns.

NAY! To Joe Torre. I never heard of a situation like the one that occurred Wednesday night in Los Angeles. Rain was in the forecast, so the Dodgers decided not to start Chad Billingsley. How does this conversation go?

“Chad, it’s raining, windy, cold….I’d hate to see you go out and get hurt trying to pitch in this kind of weather. Hey Hong-Chih! Get your ass on the mound. Game starts in 15 minutes.”

So they coddle Billingsley, only to then throw him on the mound anyway in the fifth inning. And you know what happened? It started to rain again and Billingsley faced three batters before the game was delayed. If you are in a head to head league and that was your start from Billingsley for the week, you know where to send your hate mail.

YEA! To those of us who drafted Reds young stud Johnny Cueto. Cueto dominated in spring training and kept on rolling in his first start of the regular season. The 22 year old was perfect through 5 innings and finished giving up just one hit over seven innings, while striking out 10!!!

Here is the most important thing to note. Cueto might be a great find all year long, but his stock will never be higher. The chances of him piecing together another outing like this are minimal. If you can get a great deal for him now, do it. Don’t wait until he gives up 5 runs in 3 innings against the Brewers. I’m not saying to give him away, but definitely put him out there and see what kind of bites you get.

NAY! To the Detroit Tigers. The best offense since Murderer’s Row better get off their high horse. Just because you have an amazing lineup doesn’t mean pitchers are going to be throwing BP when they face you. 5 runs in three games against the Royals is pretty embarrassing. If there is any manager who can scare a team into hitting, it’s Jim Leyland. They looked pretty awful getting swept three games at home, but fantasywise, you might want to swoop. This won’t happen again.

YEA! To Jorge Posada. Now that he’s got his fat contract in pocket, there’s no harm in taking a couple days off when he’s got a boo-boo. I’ve always hated Posada, with a burning passion. I’m not surprised one bit that he’s pulling this stunt.

NAY! To Gary Sheffield. Torn tendon in your finger, ouch. Have you ever tried to grip a baseball bat with 9 fingers? It’s not easy. I don’t see this ending well.

YEA! To speedsters Michael Bourn and Carlos Gomez. Both guys are getting full time at bats for the first time in their careers. They might not combine to hit 10 homers this year, but they are both leading off and are both going to run a whole lot. I could see 40 steals from both.

NAY! To all the closers. April is always a particularly tough month for closers. You need to consider that in spring training, most of these guys only get to pitch 7 or 8 innings. For the first month of the season, things can be pretty batty.

In the first three days of the season, Eric Gagne, Kerry Wood, JJ Putz, Trevor Hoffman, Brandon Lyon, Tom Gordon, Matt Capps, and Huston Street all got knocked around.

Chad Cordero didn’t even get the opportunity to get busted up before he got injured.

All this does is reinforce the fact that you cannot, must not, spend early on closers in your drafts. There are plenty of saves to go around. Spend your money elsewhere.

YEA! To Mike Napoli. Two homers in his first three games. Napoli has always hit and I even compared him to a poor mans Russell Martin, because he can steal the occasional base as well. Napoli just hasn’t been able to stay healthy. He started all three games of the Twins series and any threat from Jeff Mathis seems to have gone by the wayside.

NAY! To the Phillies for getting one hit by Tim Redding and some National schlubs. You guys should be ashamed. Just once, could you guys get off to a decent start? JUST ONCE!!

Kudos to the Phils for coming back against the Nats on Thursday, despite the best efforts of Jamie Moyer. I know the Phils had 4 errors, but I think Moyer is officially cooked. It’s been a nice run old man. Now beat it.

YEA! To my Mt. Laurel girls T-Ball squad. We haven’t had a game yet, but we look kick ass in practice. I’ve just got to teach 3 or 4 of them where first base is and then we’ll be ready to roll.

NAY! To Mike Hampton. Or, more appropriately, to anyone who drafted him. He’s the National League equivalent of Carl Pavano. The guy hasn’t pitched in 3 years. He finally gets to the mound and is getting ready to make a triumphant return from a gazillion arm surgeries and….he strains a pec. You should be ashamed if you drafted him. He’s back on the DL. Good riddance.

YEA! To Alex Gordon. Three games, two homers. What you saw in the second half of last season was just the beginning. Big stuff on the horizon.

YEA! To Jerry Owens. It sounds like the speedy center fielder for the White Sox might be back sooner than expected. Chances are he went undrafted in your league. Go pick him up right now, if you have the room on your bench for a couple weeks. You’ll thank me later.

NAY! To the San Francisco Giants. I can’t really comprehend what they are doing out there. You spend a ton of money on Aaron Rowand. A ton on Barry Zito the year before. Why even bother? Brian Bocock is your starting shortstop. Think about that for a minute. Brian Bocock. Jose Castillo is the best they can come up with at third. That’s the Jose Castillo who hit as many home runs as I did last year. He did it for the Pirates…I did it in my dreams.

And finally…

YEA! To Chuck E. Cheeses. My son is having his fourth birthday party there this weekend. His birthday is Friday, mine is Saturday. I’m looking forward to gorging myself on pizza and then playing massive amounts of skee-ball. My goal is to come home with a whoopee cushion and one of those Chinese finger trap thingies. Wish me luck!!

Happy Birthday Owen!