Don Mattingly....

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...Mets' hitter beg to differ.

...and Gregorius got better in the 2nd half while virtually everyone else sucked...end of story.
 
blgridesagain said:
Cespedes was the tonic....hitting is contagious.
His acquisition was the reason this offense turned around, provided confidence.
Granderson hit .183 vs LHP (.558)..
Kevin didn't work too much magic with Grandy in reg season .
What we see now in the post season is pure players....rising to the occasion.

And if we want to point to a single impressive improvement...it was the hitter Gregorious became in the second half.

Yanks offense SUCKED for the last two years with Long.
Bottom line- end of story.
Click to expand...

Well what the hell are the Mets waiting for than, fire Longs ass & make Cespedes the roving hitting instructor.

You can't make this shit up folks.
 
Getting rid of Kevin Long looks to be the beginning
of the yearly Yankee scapegoat special.....Kevin Long
stands smiling today as Cashman & Co are eating crow
about now..........and deservedly so!
 
Rick2583 said:
Well what the hell are the Mets waiting for than, fire Longs ass & make Cespedes the roving hitting instructor.

You can't make this shit up folks.
Click to expand...

...actually, it appears that you can.

cagedlion said:
Getting rid of Kevin Long looks to be the beginning
of the yearly Yankee scapegoat special.....Kevin Long
stands smiling today as Cashman & Co are eating crow
about now..........and deservedly so!
Click to expand...

...that's about the size of it.
 
Rick2583 said:
Well what the hell are the Mets waiting for than, fire Longs ass & make Cespedes the roving hitting instructor.

You can't make this shit up folks.
Click to expand...


Do you doubt the Cespedes acquisition was the biggest most obvious reason for the Met turnaround in the second half?...and if you were keeping track, the Mets' offense sucked before he arrived.

One question...I just "made it up":
Did the Yankee offense rank near the bottom in most categories the last two years Long was there?
 
blgridesagain said:
Do you doubt the Cespedes acquisition was the biggest most obvious reason for the Met turnaround in the second half?...and if you were keeping track, the Mets' offense sucked before he arrived.

One question...I just "made it up":
Did the Yankee offense rank near the bottom in most categories the last two years Long was there?

Cut the crap out, will ya?
Click to expand...
 
yankeesince59 said:
...Mets' hitter beg to differ.

...and Gregorius got better in the 2nd half while virtually everyone else sucked...end of story.
Click to expand...


You forgot the part about the Yankee offense the last two years of Long.
Convenient.

Gregorious WAS a project....and now can be described as a successful project.

I forgot to include Granderson hit two HRs vs vs LHP during the reg season along with his .183 BA and .558 OPS....during the REGULAR SEASON.

But feel free to continue to labor over Long's dismissal by the Yanks.
Whatever floats your boat.
 
...lmao at citing only LHed pitching....the other 75% of the time (when facing RHed pitching) Granderson's slash line was .280 .388 .504 .892 w/24 HRs.
 
cagedlion said:
Getting rid of Kevin Long looks to be the beginning
of the yearly Yankee scapegoat special.....Kevin Long
stands smiling today as Cashman & Co are eating crow
about now..........and deservedly so!
Click to expand...


Why? The Mets aren't allowed to go to the World Series?

Harvey was a first round pick, #7 overrall in the 2010 draft.
deGrom was a 9th round pick the 272nd player chosen in the 2010 draft.

One was an obvious understandable pick - Harvey.
The other came out of "nowhere" from Stetson University - deGrom.
And THEY are the prime reasons why this team is where they now are.

And Alderson and Long had nothing to do with it.


Take a look at what deGrom did in three starts vs the Dodgers and Cubs.


I'll avoid the sour grapes.
 
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Mattingly23NY said:
and from the authors own additional words:


'Can you smell the bat burning?'
By Peter Gammons

http://espn.go.com/gammons/s/2002/0705/1402438.html

Ted Williams got what he always wanted. When he walked towards a San Diego playground before the 1991 All-Star Game in his hometown, a man stopped his car, turned to his son and said, "There goes the best hitter who ever lived." It was Williams' mantra, and it was repeated at Fenway Park in 1999, when, surrounded by Henry Aaron and Mark McGwire and Willie Mays and the rest of the All-Century team, Tony Gwynn spoke those very words.

He was a man whom John Wayne and Robert Ryan tried to emulate, was John Glenn's co-pilot in Korea, was the last man to hit .400. He also batted .388 at the age of 39 in 1957 -- without one infield hit. Was that his greatest hitting achievement? "Nah," he said, "that was the year my bat slowed down, but the league didn't adjust to me. I was late on a lot of balls and got hits to center and left-center. They were out of position a lot. No big deal."

No big deal? .388!

He was too stubborn to use the whole field, but his patience and simple creed -- "Get a good pitch to hit" -- defines the approach to plate discipline that marks the Yankees and A's of this era. He loved hitting, its science, and all its attributes. When I was driving Ted and Wade Boggs to Clearwater for a dinner of hitting talk with Don Mattingly in spring training of 1986, Ted asked Boggs, "Have you ever smelled the bat burning?"

"What are you talking about?" Boggs replied.

Ted didn't reply.

At dinner, Ted repeated the question to Mattingly.

"People think I'm crazy, but yes," replied Mattingly. "It takes a perfect rising, four-seam fastball, a perfect swing, a foul straight back ... and you can smell the burn of the seams and the bat."

"Only the guys who whip that lumber have smelled it," said Ted.

__________________________________________

When all those great players surrounded Williams at Fenway at the '99 All-Star Game, he motioned for McGwire to come closer. He asked the same question.

After the game, McGwire repeated the story of how Ted called him over and asked if he'd ever smelled the bat burning. "I told him I had," said McGwire. "But can you believe that he knew who I am?"

"What are you talking about, smelling the bat burning?" asked an All-Star teammate.

That teammate didn't understand that Ted, McGwire and Mattingly speak a language of their own, the language of the gods.

In 1991, ESPN producer Debby Wrobleski and I were trying to do an interview with Williams concerning the 50th anniversary of .406 and other subjects. At 6 a.m. one day, the phone rang. "So," boomed the voice on the other end. "When the hell are you coming down here?"



He said he had no more than 30 minutes ... and finally had to get ready for a court date after the interview had run more than 100 minutes. He recounted why he wouldn't sit out the second game after passing .400, and that the best right-handed and left-handed pitchers he ever faced were Bob Lemon and Herb Score. With the interview over, he called me into the kitchen. There, he'd set up six glasses with ice, two plates of nachos and cheese and crackers for the six people in our crew. "They probably got tired and hungry and thirsty listening to my BS," he said.

In snapshots, he could be one of the warmest men on the planet, as he was the first time I met him doing a sidebar at a Senators-Red Sox game in 1970, when he was managing the Senators and I was a cub reporter; after an hour in his office, he said, "Kid, you're OK. You like this game."



He could have been bitter about all the time he missed in World War II and Korea and with injuries, but when he did a commercial for the Hall of Fame he so loved, he listed being a Marine as one of his two greatest accomplishments. Oh, he'd also have hit more than 521 homers had he used the screen above The Green Monster, but he never whined. In fact, he always stayed in tune with the game. One day he called Dan Duquette out of the blue and said, "Nomar Garciaparra is the best damn player who ever played for the Red Sox." He loved McGwire and Barry Bonds, and one time he told me, "Every time I watch Paul Molitor hit, I close my eyes and see Joe DiMaggio."

Molitor saw the interview on ESPN, and said he was floored. Soon thereafter, Molitor was at the B.A.T. Dinner in New York, and when he went into the room with the head table, Ted was sitting in a corner telling stories with several of his contemporaries. "Get over here," Williams hollered to Molitor. "I want these guys to meet you. You're one of the greatest damned hitters who ever lived, kid."



But it had to be his way. When the Sports Illustrated baseball preview issue came out with Boggs on the cover and featuring the three-way discussion on hitting, Ted charged me, waving a copy of the magazine. "See ... see ... look at Boggs' bat," he hollered. "Is it an uppercut? You're damned right it's an uppercut. See ... see ... Ted was right, Walt Hriniak was wrong. Period."

Unfortunately, Williams got only one chance at a World Series, in 1946, and in an exhibition before the first game, he was hit by a pitch, damaged his wrist and could barely swing the bat against the Cardinals. So he is left with the memorial that he was beloved by teammates, and when Fenway Park holds his memorial service on July 22, he will be remembered as the greatest damn hitter who ever lived.
Click to expand...


And Kevin Long didn't have a hand in all of this?
 
...no, and neither did Pentland.

...but it is nice to see the acknowledgment that hitting does in fact have more to do with the talent of the player rather than some hitting coach, which has been many people's contention from the beginning.
 
yankeesince59 said:
...lmao at citing only LHed pitching....the other 75% of the time (when facing RHed pitching) Granderson's slash line was .280 .388 .504 .892 w/24 HRs.
Click to expand...

Grandy has always been good vs RHP for his career.
.270/.861
For the 2015 reg season he was feeble vs LHP which is what needed serious "help" from Long (or any other bat coach) if possible, which was my point.....thought it was obvious, guess not.
 
...who gives 2 shits what Granderson did in 126 ABs vs LHed pitching when he had 454 ABs vs RHed pitching in which he went .280 .388 .504 .892 ?
 
yankeesince59 said:
...no, and neither did Pentland.

...but it is nice to see the acknowledgment that hitting does in fact have more to do with the talent of the player rather than some hitting coach, which has been many people's contention from the beginning.
Click to expand...


Yep, which is why I didn't/don't get too excited when the Yanks or any other team changes it's batting coach........
I'll admit I may disagree with and question why a batting coach was let go after a team was hitting well for the season right through August and September.
Otherwise, not a significant blip on the radar screen.
 
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yankeesince59 said:
...funny how things conveniently change based on prevailing winds du jour.
Click to expand...


I'm not the one who jumped all over the Yanks' (Cashman's) ass for dismissing Kevin Long.
I have been consistent with this...including the Pentland issue.

Some want it both ways.....they call it "scapegoating" when a team fires it's batting coach and blame the hitters when things didn't go well.

And I stand by my opinion on the Yanks' letting Kevin Long go, and I stand by what I said in post 48:

I'll admit I may disagree with and question why a batting coach was let go after a team was hitting well for the season right through August and September.

If this sounds conflicting, just take a step back and look at the Yanks' various team batting categories for the two last years of Long.
I'm sure it will not be confused with letting go a batting coach after the team hit well for the season right through August and September...as I said, in post #48. Totally consistent.
And I had no qualms over the Yanks dumping Long (or Pentland) under the circumstances.

We know about Long's last two seasons with the Yanks.
Pretty dreadful.

Pentland?
In August Yanks dropped to 5th in league in scoring.
12th in BA, 11th in OPS.
September- Yanks were 11th in league in scoring.
14th in BA, 15th in OPS.
It is what it is.

I have NO PROBLEM whatsoever with the Yanks letting go Long and Pentland....nor am I going to take any cheesy childish shots at them for doing so.
Yanks were not -imo- out of line for dropping Long and Pentland.
Are we done here?
 
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yankeesince59 said:
...editing after the fact, rules !



{back to "ignore'}
Click to expand...


Nothing changes what YOU or I said and believe regarding Long.....or Pentland- nothing at all. Remains the same.

As I said, and as we know, YOU were and are the standard bearer for Long and found big time fault with the Yanks dropping him.
And you were the one who tried to cash in with cheesy cheap shots at the Yanks for dumping Pentland and ALSO first bringing Long up AGAIN in thread as the Mets are in the WS...."his guys"...lmao

They would've finished out of the money without Cespedes and either Harvey or deGrom.....and certainly would NOT be in the WS without deGrom, Harvey, Familia and a historic batting display in two weeks of October by Murphy......and your boy Kevin Long has almost nothing to do with it.

Play it safe and stay on ignore.
I guess we ARE done here.
Was fun while it lasted.
 
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Bottom line, Long never should have been the fall guy. That honor should have gone to someone further up the ladder.
 
If Mattingly gets that Marlins job I'd make a trip to the Jupiter ST facility or the Miami Park itself. Watching Stanton crack those 400 plus foot bombs would be an extra bonus.
 
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