Yankees played Moneyball better than anyone in 2009

There was one very logical reason for Michael Lewis not to base his 2003 best seller “Moneyball” on the New York Yankees: Americans don’t like rooting for Goliath. It’s in our fabric to favor the underdog, the little guy who everyone counts out. That’s what made the scrappy Oakland A’s the perfect choice for Lewis. They were the team competing with the Yankees with only a fraction of the payroll thanks to a quirky general manager and his staff full of number-crunchers who never let their gut-feeling get in the way.

But if Lewis’ book was about a progressive franchise exploiting market inefficiencies to overcome all the odds, then the 2009 season proved once and for all that the market has fully corrected itself. Thanks in part to “Moneyball,” in part to the guys at Baseball Prospectus and in part to the simple evolution of the game, every team now realizes that on base percentage is far more important than batting average and that RBIs or Wins aren’t the most telling statistics when assigning value to a player. Everyone has caught on.

And when everyone follows the same blueprint, Goliath becomes an even bigger favorite.

To say the Yankees bought their World Championship this wouldn’t be fair to the guys who got it done on the field all year, but it wouldn’t be totally inaccurate either. The Yankees bought this season the same way they bought third place last year or the Wild Card before that or those runner-up finishes earlier this decade.

What made the difference this year was they bought the right players this time around. With all due respect to the core four, as the media suddenly refers to Jeter, Rivera, Pettitte and Posada, the Yankees would have missed the playoffs again if they had not signed C.C. Sabathia and Mark Teixeira last winter.

We forget how poor the world’s richest sports franchise looked at the end of last season. They didn’t have a legitimate number two starter, let alone an ace pitcher. And for all the complaining about Alex Rodriguez not coming through in the clutch, the truth was ARod had very little protection in the lineup. An overhaul was needed.

Enter Sabathia and Teixeira. In Sabathia, the Yankees signed the most reliable starting pitcher in all of baseball. In Teixeira, they brought in the perfect complement to Rodriguez, the guy who would ensure ARod was going to see more pitches to hit. For the first time in recent memory, the team went out and purchased the best possible players, two guys in the prime of their careers, as opposed to the aging stars they usually seemed to end up with.

For a team that has had the highest payroll in baseball for over a decade, the Yankees may have spent their money more foolishly than anyone in the game. They couldn’t seal the deal with Manny Ramirez or ARod in 2000. They couldn’t land Vladimir Guerrero in 2004 or Carlos Beltran the following year. They even passed on trading for Johan Santana before last season.

Sure they were buying up loads of free agents every year, but they never seemed to land that top guy. That changed this year and the Yankees reaped the benefits. Sabathia and Teixeira, more than anyone else, delivered this championship.

And that’s how Moneyball really works. You perfect the art of winning an unfair game by exploiting your biggest strength – being unfair. It took almost an entire decade to figure it out, but now that they have, we all better watch out.

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In weather like this, there's no such thing as home-field advantage

It is 72 degrees and sunny in Vallejo, CA today. According to idcide.com, the temperature rarely falls below 60 this time of year and you’re more likely to witness an earthquake than see more than an inch of rain fall in the month of October. Sounds like a nice place, right?

That’s where C.C. Sabathia grew up and there’s no question he’d rather be making his ALCS game one start in his hometown’s weather conditions. Instead, the biggest start of his career will come tonight at Yankee Stadium, where game time temperature will be somewhere around 40 degrees and rain is expected for the duration. It’s a night in which the game might normally be postponed, but the weather is expected to be worse the next few days and Major League Baseball doesn’t want to see the entire weekend washed away.

So the Yankees and Angels will meet in an environment more fit for playoff football, where the only people more miserable than the fans will be the players, who won’t be able to wear winter coats on the field. But while the Yankees have certainly played in colder weather, don’t expect the same October electricity that came from the crowd when the team was playing across the street. The energy that somehow managed to warm up the stadium on even the most frigid nights will be missing as more fans opt to watch the game from inside the bars, restaurants and gift shops instead of their almost-frozen over seats.

That’s been the problem with the new Yankee Stadium all along. It brought in a new crowd. A pretentious crowd. Because the team essentially priced out many of the diehard blue collar fans, the there are a lot less Bobby’s from Bronx and a lot more Robert’s from New Canaan attending games in the new stadium. There’s a good chance the crowd tonight will be as subdued as a tranquilized hospital patient.

If you couple the lack of excitement in the stadium with the fact that, like Sabathia, the majority of Yankees players grew up in much warmer surroundings, you have to wonder how much of a home-field advantage the team really has.

With the exception of Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada, who have played plenty of October baseball in the northeast, the Yankees lineup is filled with guys who grow up in the south or in Latin America, where wind-chill is not in anyone’s vocabulary. It’s the same problem every team faces at the beginning of each season. Most guys aren’t slow starters because April is their unlucky month. It’s just that most parts of the country are still really cold in April.

Of course, the Angels have to deal with same elements. But they aren’t the home team. Their job is to steal one on the road in what should be a hostile environment. That won’t be the case tonight. The Yankee Stadium crowd will be more interested in putting on their snuggies than watching baseball and juggernaut Yankee offense might very well freeze over.

Good luck, C.C. So much for that advantage.

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Random Rumblings: Sabathia has the option to just go home

• When Alex Rodriguez signed that $252 million contract eight years ago, the Texas Rangers were crucified by baseball people for giving the then-shortstop almost $100 million more than any other team offered. But for a franchise with no real history of winning, that’s the only type of bid that was going to land the game’s best player, especially with at least one northeastern team in the mix.
  
  Now, C.C. Sabathia is in the same situation, about to sign with one team for significantly more than anyone else was willing to give. Only this time, it’s not a second rate team from out west ponying up the extra cash; it’s the Yankees, the world’s most famous sports franchise, who had to do everything but literally kiss the extra large ass of their new ace to get him to come to the Bronx.
  
  It’s finally clear just how little interest Sabathia had in New York. Not only did he need $60 million more, but also the right to opt out in three years if things become too hard, if the pressure is too much for the cool California kid to handle. Say what you want about how poorly ARod handles everything in his life, but he does face the media every day and the guy wants nothing more than to succeed under the biggest spotlight in sports.
  
  Sabathia can learn a lot from the most scrutinized athlete in the country. He can learn how to say all the right things when everything is going well and how to handle himself if/when Tony Bleacherseat starts calling him a bum. Or he can just run away.
  
  The Yankees have given him that option.
  
  
• By the way, would it be too much if the Yankees asked LeBron James to throw out the opening pitch at the new Yankee Stadium?
  
  
• Why is that Kevin McHale, a man responsible for one good thing (drafting Kevin Garnett) in the last 13 years with the Minnesota Timberwolves, continues to get a pass from those that cover the NBA when Isiah Thomas is lucky to even be allowed into any building in the league?
  
  
• Spare me all the nonsense about what a good guy Jason Varitek is now. Here’s a guy that didn’t hit .250 in batting practice last season, who was unwilling to accept arbitration from the Red Sox. If he actually believes he’s worth more than the $10 million he probably could have made, then he is just as clueless as the fans who gave him a pass for hitting like the right fielder on your son’s little league team last season.
  
  
• You ever see those NFL/United Way active generation commercials. Part of the reason our children all look like mini-C.C. Sabathia’s is because ESPN has made it cooler to say “all-in” than “I got next.”
  
  But the World Wide Leader can remedy the situation. It just needs to push Speed Pool down our throats the way it does the WSOP. Think about it: Pool hustlers that actually hustle.
  
  Now that’s a generation of kids that I want to meet.
  
  
• It really sucks to be the UConn football team. Not only do they have to celebrate the New Year in Canada (yes fellas, New Year’s Eve is December 31 everywhere) but they’re also getting screwed when it comes to the gifts the International Bowl provides. This year, all Connecticut and Buffalo players will receive: A Timely Watch Co. watch, Two-piece Armor Gear rolling travel duffel bags and computer backpacks. In comparison, a number of other bowls are giving iPods or “Best Buy Parties” where players can spend up to $400 on electronics.
  
  One star gifts for one star recruits, I suppose.

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Random Rumblings: Pressure is on for Favre

• It seems like every time Brett Favre’s name is brought up, we hear about how regular and easy to relate to he is. But for the NFL’s everyman, New York might be the one spot where is he different than just about every man.
  
  New Yorkers don’t lace up their cowboy boots and wear their Wranglers out to a ball game the way folks in other parts of this country might. And they definitely do not fall in love with athletes who look like “they are just having fun out there,” the phrase most often used to describe the Jets new quarterback.
  
  Ask Alex Rodriguez. Results are all that matters.
  
  Unlike ARod, Favre is alreafy recognized as a winner, but he also has a much smaller window to prove himself to fans in New York. Two years, tops. That’s why it won’t be too surprising if, after a couple of poor games from the old gun slinger, Jets fans start turning on Favre the way the crowds in Green Bay will undoubtedly turn on Aaron Rodgers.
  
  
• Only two weeks ago, I called Manny Ramirez the greediest athlete in the history of sports for complaining about his contract situation with his team in a playoff race.
  
  While I stand by that thought, I do think that the Red Sox were wrong for not a) offering Manny a contract extension earlier this season or b) telling him that his option would not be picked up at the end of the season.
  
  Anyone on the Sox side will tell you that the team is by no means obligated to do such a thing, but considering all that Manny did do for the organization, it would have been the right move.
  
  
• Two issues I had while watching Team USA defeat China in basketball this morning:
  
  1) Does LeBron James really need to make that silly “who me?” face every time a whistle gets blown? It’s reminds me so much of ARod.
  
  2) In the first half, commentators Doug Collins and Mike Breen went off about how bad the referees were in international basketball after one official called a palming violation on a Chinese guard. The truth is, just before the call, I said to myself, “it’s really looks like he’s palming the ball.”
  
  
• C.C. Sabathia should be the National League Cy Young.
  
  
• Memo to the Yankees: It’s difficult to change your setup man constantly over the course of a season and still remain successful. Yes, the Yanks had to put Joba in the rotation but they didn’t have to trade Kyle Farnsworth.
  
  Now they’re paying for it.
  
  
• Congratulations to Sacha Kljestan, who scored for Team USA on a pass from Freddy Adu this morning against the Netherlands. The first sports article that I ever wrote was during my freshman year at Seton Hall and the topic was Sacha and his brother Gordon. It’s nice to see a classy guy succeed.

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Small Ball
C.C. Sabathia is a pretty classy guy and so are a lot of Indians fans.

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Random Rumblings (The problem with MMA)

(NOTE: The Random Rumblings column appears every Monday, featuring quick thoughts on various issues in the world of sports.)

• It’s the epic individual matches in sports like the Federer/Nadal Wimbledon Final that really makes you miss what boxing used to be, or if you’re under 30, what you’ve heard boxing used to be. Now, Mixed Martial Arts is all the craze, but even that sport lacks a truly great rivalry, or for that matter, a truly dominate figure.
  
  Every time I start to hear about a great MMA fighter, he ends up getting beat shortly after. That goes back to Ken Shamrock and Tank Abbott and has continued through Chuck Liddell and most recently, Quinton (Rampage) Jackson.
  
  The hardcore fans will point to parity as the driving force in the sport and some use the “anyone can be knocked out at any time” excuse that has become cliché. But the truth is, we don’t want just anyone to win. We want a top guy that can knock everyone out and we want one, maybe two guys right that there trying to take him out.
  
  Until that happens, count me out.
  
  
• Jerry Manuel couldn’t have been more on the money when he said his Mets were second to the Yankees in New York during the Subway Series. And his point couldn’t have been more valid when the All Star teams were announced and his biggest star, Jose Reyes, was not voted in as a starter.
  
  Look, Derek Jeter has done more in the sport, but there is no question that Reyes is the best shortstop in New York. But Jeter is going to be the All Star starter for the rest of his career and Reyes is going to consistently lose out to a Florida Marlin.
  
  
• That said, the Florida Marlin in question, Hanley Ramirez, is probably one of the top three players in baseball, so it will be nice to see at least one deserving starter from a small market.
  
  
• In almost any clutch situation, I’d take Manny Ramirez over almost any other hitter in the history of baseball, but in the ninth inning last night with the scored tied, Terry Francona might as well have let Craig Hansen hit against Mariano Rivera instead.
  
  Considering the week he had, there was no chance of Manny just being Manny in that spot.
  
  
• Smart move by the Brewers in trading for C.C. Sabathia. They had an ace in Ben Sheets carry them through half a season, and once the inevitable happens and he breaks down, they’ll have ace to carry them to the playoffs.
  
  
• You would Cynthia Rodriguez would have timed it better and waited for the playoffs to file for divorce, but then again, that would mean the Yankees would actually have to make it to October.

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