Monday, July 28, 2008

Max Kellerman's Monday Musings Vol XX - Of Baseball and Intuition

Today's Max Kellerman show was a solo act as Brian Kenny is on vacation for the week. While the show has previously been supplemented with remarks from Louie Gold and Robin Lundberg, Max was forced to carry the show, as the only other voice from the 1050 studio belonged to the update guy - Bob Gallerstein. Its a shame that listener support to bring Robin and Louie back on the air has basically died off. I can't remember the last time I heard a free Louie and Lundberg call. Meanwhile, last week Max made a fleeting reference to the empty suits' ban on comments from the crew, saying that Ray the Board Op is the only guy that they (I can only assume that this means the empty suits at ESPN corporate) have not told Max that he may not speak to.

Max had a couple of interesting angles when he was not inflating the collective ego of the Yankee bullpen. He posed a question as to whether Mets fans wanted Manny traded by the Red Sox to a Manuel. I did not realize that Manny's previous hitting coach was (the current Phillie Manager) Charlie Manuel.

Max also asked which option New York sports fans would prefer - Brett Favre to the NY Jets or Manny Ramirez to the NY Mets. Although I am a fan of both teams and try to watch every Jet game on TV, I would still prefer the ManRam to the Mets trade since they have a better chance of winning a championship. I love my Jets, but they have little shot at winning the division and no possibility of making the Super Bowl.

The Yankee bullpen puffery continued with gems such as Jarrod Washburn being inferior to Dan Giese. I can't imagine any baseball professional who would choose a 31 year old rookie who has pitched 19 games in his career over a left handed starter who consistently gives you 200 innings and a WHIP around 1.3. Another pearl was that the Yankees "don't even need" Damasco Marte because he is the fourth best pitcher in the pen. While Edwar Ramirez and David Robertson (other than his stinker this evening) have given decent performances in limited duty, you simply cannot underestimate the value of getting a left handed reliever (the only one on the team) with a career WHIP of 1.25. Again, a pitcher with a proven track record of results would seem to be more valuable. But I can't complain too much as the discussion about getting the monument ready for Brett Gardner has died down.

An interesting point that Max Kellerman made in relation to the Marte/Nady had to do with instinct and knowing when to make moves (such as trading assets). Max pointed out mistakes made by general managers who held onto prospects for so long that when the player finally was traded, the value had greatly diminished. Examples pointed out by Max were Aaron Heilman and Jose Tabata.

The idea of trusting one's instinct when your little voice tells you that you need to act, reminds me of a story that I recently heard from R' Burg of Israel NCSY. He talked about a woman (I believe her name was Esther) who on a Friday morning got a strong feeling that she and her husband should go visit her sister in Ashkelon for shabbos. She called her husband who tried to talk her out of going because they had already made plans that their children and grandchildren who lived nearby would walk over for Friday Night supper. As she had already been cooking up a storm, what sense did it make to go away?

Esther managed to convince her husband that they should go away for shabbos. When they returned home, they found that a kassam launched from Gaza had hit their home. R' Burg related that when he visited Esther's home, she pointed out that the rocket had entered through a second story room where her grandchildren played and then travelled down through the house (leaving shrapnel embedded in the walls of the staircase) before landing in the dining area. Had she not trusted her instincts, she and her children and grandchildren would have been home when their house was attacked and the results could have been catastrophic.

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