Cliff

To add into things a bit further, last year I was really excited about how things were going for the Yankees. Ian Kennedy, Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes.. thinking of those three reminded me of the Big 3 for the A's. ;p We also had Chien-Ming Wang. Can't forget Pettitte.. thats five potential starting pitchers all from the farm system. Ah well.. winning it with those five I'll atleast admit wouldve been more satisfying ..

I have a different take on this. Some people might agree or disagree. Personally, I love seeing homegrown players coming up through the system. To see Andy Pettitte pitching again, Rivera still throwing. Jeter at SS, the success of Cano. It pissed me off when Soriano left.. and so forth.. anyways, I'll continue. The Yankees pay a boatload for Jeter, Rivera, Posada and Pettitte. They also pay a boatload for A-Rod, Tex, CC and Burnett. This is what I think should happen, place a salary cap on free agents. The team that scouts & drafts a player should be rewarded for doing so. Personally, I see no problem with the Yankees paying what they do to keep their homegrown talent. They scouted them, drafted them, signed them, developed them. They should be allowed to pay what they have to in order to keep their talent. In recent years, the Yankees have been holding onto that talent. The A's on the otherhand, along with the Rays, Pirates & Marlins... do not.. whose decision is that? They trade away that talent without putting forth any effort into keeping them. Its not like the owners are hurting for cash.. it goes right to their pocket. Putting a cap on free agent spending will allow teams to spend less in order to keep their own talent, and it'll also force teams to hold onto and develop their own talent. I hate seeing different teams year in and year out.. I hate when people get traded, I'm not a fan of change. ;p

UFC of the 90's, and MMA now.. two entirely different things to be honest. Hoyce Gracie used to dominate people 2x his body weight.. thats not going to happen anymore. Old UFC basically was your toughest dudes in the ring beating the s*** out of eachother. Hair pulling, all that stuff.. allowed. Now? Its a lot more controlled, and monitored. It doesnt take as much to stop a fight these days opposed to then. UFC for a point in time was blacked out from television. They had to do a lot of adjusting to host events like they do now. The fighters that are mainstream are actually skilled, as opposed to more all out brawling type of fighters that once showcased the sport.

and they'll always have s***** attendance until they spend some sort of money...

This is what gets me.. the Yankees are critisized for their payroll, but how much of it goes to Jeter, Pettitte, Rivera, and Posada? There was a debate that, "oh, since theyre so expensive you can't debate that they were homegrown." Well, my take on it is this... I'm glad the Yankees will dish out money to keep homegrown talent. Whats wrong with that? Atleast they're not the Marlins.. goodbye Josh Becket, AJ Burnett, Dontrelle Willis, Miguel Cabrera. If the Marlins did decide to actually dish out, my god.. that team would be stacked. What does that show the fans? That they aren't worth the money? They'll ship out an entire team to keep payroll under what Arod makes in a year.. but does nothing to keep the fans in the park. The Yankees make a lot of money, they turn around and put it right back into the club. Whats the harm in that? Atleast I know any tickets and memoribilia I purchase, its going back into the team, not the owners pockets.

He also has the most wins to clinch a series in postseason history.

And the Yankees have never lost a series being up 3-1... excluding 2004.

Rivera?

MLB.COM has a lot of stats.. they have a whole entire database of stats. Whats your point? Like I said.. you're seriously going to put me down because I used MLB.COM to look up McGwire's stats? Thats real lame.. I'm not putting bank on McGwire's OBP.. not at all. It doesn't mean s*** to me if he doesn't cross the plate.. especially with the inability to score if the ball doesn't land beyond the fence. *AGAIN* McGwire scored 36.5 times a season in his career if you eliminate his homeruns. McGwire was pitched around... a lot of power hitters are pitched around. OBP is going to be up.. especially when you have no one in the lineup to protect you.

*yawn* I did.. he's still a one dimensional hitter.

So I'm going to assume Mark McGwire was *NEVER* pitched around at all, correct? I guess hs ability to hit homeruns with the lack of his teams ability to drive him in did not matter at all? So the fact that his .obp and .ops was high, has nothing to do with the fact he was a power hitter, who had no one in the lineup to protect him to drive him in after utilizing that awesome hitters eye of his. Works for me.

Getting on base doesn't mean jackshit if you don't score. That simple. With his lack of baserunning abilities and lack of speed, he was NOT a threat on the basepaths. He was responsible for getting on base 2,943 times. He scored 1,167 times. 583 came from hitting homeruns. 584 runs scored any other time. Subtract homeruns, 2360 times on base, he scored 584 times. While walking 1317 times. if I was a pitcher, I would have no problem pitching around Mark McGwire. I'd take my chances of having him on the bases instead of hitting a homerun off me. McGwire averaged 36.5 runs scored a season if you do not include his homeruns. That includes his walks & hits minus homeruns. Like I said.. his walks dont mean jackshit. Edit: And since you're so fascinated with walks & power.. seriously. Do you not think that his power ability had *NOTHING* to do with the amount of walks he had? C'mon dude.. be real.

Wtfux0rz?! Dude, seriously.. those strikeouts do not matter? So you're trying to rationalize his ability to strikeout as a good thing because he was slow? Wow, okay.

No, its not fundamentally wrong. It supports that Mark McGwire had the ability to hit a homerun and thats just about it.

Okay, I'm sorry.. he could hit homeruns and walk. You win. He is a two dimensional hitter. Myy bad. So I guess the fact he struckout 1/3rd of the time means nothing. =)

I'm sorry, but I don't recall reading mlb.com articles about Mark McGwire. I'm rather certain I said I received his stats off mlb.com Big difference from an article, and a database. Dude, the 70xbh hits.. HOW MANY came from the homerun?! Like I said, he averaged FIFTEEN DOUBLES PER SEASON. That is def. NOT considered *ELITE* by ANY means. Ontop of that, his amazingly AWESOME 1:1 hit to strikeout ratio.

So you're trying to tell me that he could walk, and hit homeruns? Okay, great. How helpful were those walks, really? 1167 runs in his career, with 583 homeruns. So more than 50% of his runs scored came from his own longball. Out of 1,414 rbi's.. 954 of those came from the homerun. And pleeeease, do not forget the 1:1 strikeout to hit ratio.

Seriously, youre a f***ing retard and a waste of time. So you're putting me down because I looked up his stats from mlb.com? My god.. you're f***ing pathetic. And here you go again.. you take his stats, and use them as a baseline? "As long as a player hovers above the .260 (.263) and above the .390 (.394)" Dont forget the "he never struck out 160x in a season" ... just add one to his career high of 159. You're a clown, seriously. And an XBH machine? Seriously... shhh. Like I said. he averaged 15 doubles a season. Do you think 15 doubles in a season is very good? His XBH's were all homeruns.

Yea, no s***? Thank you. Eliminate his ONE-DIMENSIONAL ABILITY to hit homeruns.. I guess that 1:1 hits to strikeout ratio will really help the cardinals.

No? How was he not? LOL MLB! OH MY DEAR GOD. I got stats off MLB.com. Whats wrong with that? Am I supposed to be a computer who remembers his batting average, homeruns, doubles, and so forth? Who the hell considers a .263 lifetime batting average "decent". Are you retarded? And what do you have to say about the 1:1 ratio of hits to strikeouts? And like I said, I got his STATS OFF MLB.COM. Where the hell did you get his batting average from? Your chin after he removed his sack off it?

What am I making up? And where did I say he was a one dimensional player? *READ* I said he was a one dimensional *HITTER*. Its a good thing hes the cardinals HITTING COACH and not the FIRST BASE COACH. Because his talent at first base is going to make him a better hitting coach? Seriously, what s*** am I making up? His stats? That I took directly from MLB.com?

160x.. thats good? So what you're trying to say is Mark McGwire kept himself out of the BOTTOM of the league when it came to strikeouts? Okay, so he didnt strikeout 160x, but he did strikeout 159x. Hm. Lets add 1 and use that as a fair comparison. How about you take into consideration that for every hit he has, he has one strikeout. Just damn near a 1:1 ratio for strikeouts to hits. He also had 5 seasons where he had more strikeouts than hits. 1,626 hits, 583 homeruns, 252 doubles, 6 triples. He averaged 15 doubles a season.. which is AWFUL. Out of every 3 hits he has, he has atleast one homerun. Like I said, one dimensional

....so, the Cardinals are trying to hit homeruns and only homeruns? McGwire was one of the most one-dimensional hitters in all of baseball.

All the right moves tonight. Leaving CC in for 8 innings despite the fact he'll be pitching on three days rest was a good decision to me. Burnett is notorious for a high pitch count.. so we still have Chamberlain & Hughes 100% rested. Expect to see them in the 7th and 8th no questions asked.