The Pinstriped Morningside Heights

這是從 BP 的 The Week In Quotes 裡面節錄出來的。第一則是 Rickey Henderson：

"The Yankees have that guy [Tony] Womack [a second baseman] playing left field. If I can't play that position at least as well as he can, I'll hang up the spikes right now."

--outfielder and future Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, on why he still feels he can play (San Francisco Chronicle)

這段話不啻打了 Tony Womack 和 Yankees 一個耳光。不過很抱歉，Rickey，我不認為你現在能打得比 Tony Womack 好。

我並不是懷疑 San Francisco Chronicle，不過這段話有點不像是 Rickey 平常說話的方式。他通常會說 "If Rickey can't play that position at least as well as he can, Rickey will hang up the spikes right now." 我不知道這是什麼習慣，不過 Rickey 通常是以第三人的方式來替自己發言。

另外一則讓我汗毛站起來，這是 Cashman 對於三振的看法：

"Ultimately, the strikeout, you get no value from it. There's no moving of the runner, no way for the defense to feel pressured. It's worthless. To me, it's the biggest offense you can commit on offense."

"The guys who can hit home runs and still be productive despite being big whiffers, I still term those guys as inefficient. I'll look at that and say, 'Look how much better this person can be.'"

--Yankees GM Brian Cashman

Cash，還有一種東西比三振更糟，那玩意兒叫做 GIDP。當然三振對於打者來講不是好事情，否則我們就不會希望投手要有好的三振能力。但是在選擇球員組織球隊的時候，有很多東西比三振更重要，絕對不能 把三振與否的優先順序放的太前面。不管 Cashman 怎麼說，從過去這些年 Yankees 建隊的過程來看，Cashman 的優先順序應該還是以 OBP 和 SLG 優先，速度和三振還在其次，這並不是錯誤的事情。這可能剛好是反 Moneyball 操作讓 Cashman 沒有犯太多錯，因為 BA、OBP 和 SLG 都高的球員通常是 FA 市場上比較貴的，而這些明星球員是 Yankees 追逐的對象。Steinbrenner 曾經誤以為速度是贏球的要件，那種想法在 80 年代著實害慘了 Yankees。