The ceremony was nice, everything after that: not so much.

Last year on Mariano Rivera Day, the Yankees scored just one run and lost to the Giants. Today on Derek Jeter Day, the managed to lessen their offensive output. The Yankees scored no runs on just four hits as they lost to the Royals 2-0. Jeter got a hit and a walk, so I guess there's that.

The Royals scored the game's first run in the top of the second. Shane Greene escaped some trouble in the first inning, but he got himself right back in some in the second. Josh Willingham and Mike Moustakas led off the inning with back-to-back weakly hit singles. Greene came back and got the next two outs, bringing Nori Aoki to the plate. Aoki softly grounded one to the left of the mound. Greene got to the ball fine, but he tried bare-handing it and his throw wound up being weak and wide left. That error allowed Willingham to score and made it 1-0.

An inning later, the Royals added more. Alex Gordon reached to lead off the inning when Carlos Beltran dropped a fly ball. Salvador Perez flew out, bringing Eric Hosmer to the plate. During that at bat, Gordon stole second. Hosmer then singled to right. Gordon stumbled around third as he came home. Beltran's throw came home in time, but Brian McCann immediately threw it to Jeter and got Hosmer out in a rundown. It seemed like McCann could've tagged out Gordon in time, but who knows. The run scored and it was 2-0.

Greene wasn't particularly good, but he managed to get through five innings without the score getting too out of control. In his five innings, he allowed five hits and three walks while striking out four. Neither of the runs were earned, but one was directly because of him. Adam Warren came in for Greene to start the sixth. Warren pitched two scoreless innings, striking out two.

After that, there were scoreless bullpen contributions from Shawn Kelley, Josh Outman and Esmil Rogers. But as we headed to the bottom of the ninth, the Yankees' offense had yet to do anything. Yordano Ventura shut the Yankees out for six innings, while Aaron Crow and Kelvin Herrera each threw one scoreless.

The middle of the Yankees' lineup was due up in the bottom of the ninth. However, they had to go up against Wade Davis. It got off to a good start when Beltran led off the inning with a single. Davis came right back to strikeout McCann for the first out. Mark Teixeira came up next and he hit a slow-roller down the third base line. The throw just beat him to the bag for the second out. That left the game up to Stephen Drew. That ended how you would expect. Drew struck out, ending the game and give the Royals a 2-0 win.

The Yankees will have the day off tomorrow before welcoming in the Rays for a series in the Bronx starting Tuesday.

Box score.

A host of Yankee greats and roaring fans gave Jeter a proper goodbye.

The New York Yankees held a ceremony to honor retiring shortstop Derek Jeter on Sunday. The game won't be his final at Yankee Stadium -- the Yankees have at least 11 home games remaining -- but New York set aside a special day to make sure it could show its appreciation.

"I want to thank you, the fans." #yankeeshttps://t.co/Z62Hzu6vIV

— Brendan Kuty (@BrendanKutyNJ) September 7, 2014

Among many other things, the gifts given to Jeter included a $222,222 donation to his Turn 2 Foundation, a trip to Tuscany and a massage machine. His boyhood idol, Michael Jordan, was there. So was Cal Ripken. A few dozen of the best Yankees of all time were in attendance as well.

The ceremony also included an impassioned speech from Jeter:

"Anyone who is here today, anyone who is at home watching, anyone who has ever been over the course, over the last 20 seasons, thank you very much. You guys have watched me grow up over the last 20 years. I've watched you, too. Some of you guys are getting older, too. I want to thank you for helping me feel like a kid the last 20 years."

He seemed to make an homage to Lou Gehrig's famous speech as well:

"In my opinion, I've had the greatest job in the world. I've had a chance to be the shortstop for the New York Yankees -- and there is only one of those. I always felt my job was to try and provide joy and entertainment for you guys, but it can't compare to what you brought me. For that, thank you very much. I've loved what I've done. I love what I do. More importantly, I've loved doing it for you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you very much."

Mickey Mantle did the same thing. He always wondered how Gehrig said what he said at his own ceremony, but in the moment, he understood the Iron Horse's sentiment.

Jeter picked up a hit and a walk on the day, but the Yankees lost to the Royals, 2-0. Most people might forget that part of the day, though. After 20 years of playing for the most storied franchise in baseball, Derek Sanderson Jeter made an impression on the game that will find its way to Cooperstown soon enough.

The Yankees are already in full-blown celebration mode when it comes to Derek Jeter's career and it's kind of disappointing.

You may have heard that Derek Jeter will be retiring at the end of this season. His brilliant career resume will no doubt gain him entrance to the Hall of Fame on his first ballot, but it's no secret that his farewell tour is leaving a lot to be desired. That is, it's not a secret to anybody but Jeter himself apparently.

Excellence on and off the field has been the calling card of Jeter's nearly two decades in the big leagues. While no list of all-time great shortstops is complete without him, what made him the player that defined his generation was how he handled it all. New York City has a bit of a track record when it comes to derailing the careers of young, highly successful athletes. It easily could have chewed up and spit out Jeter too, just 26 years old by the time he had won his fourth World Series ring, but by all accounts he was a model citizen.

His many rumored relationships were drama-free, his charitable donations were frequent and abundant, and his vices were seemingly non-existent. Better yet, he was the ultimate team player. Thanks to a calm demeanor, he instilled confidence in his peers, many of them experienced veterans. He was quick to deflect praise and place it on his superiors, he never complained publicly, even to umpires, and he preached winning above all else. Basically, he was the epitome of selflessness when most people in his position wouldn't be, and that's why he was named Yankee captain in 2003.

That's also why Jeter's farewell season seems so curious to some people. He can't hit anymore, his fielding, which was never great to begin with, continues to be poor, and his once reliable base running has even been shaky at best. By any measure he's been among the worst shortstops in baseball and hurting his team, yet he's still playing everyday and batting second nonetheless. One can make the case, and Howard Megdal did earlier this week, that Jeter is now acting selfishly by continuing to stay in the lineup everyday when his team has better options behind him. Especially now that the Yankees are entering must-win territory just to stay alive.

However, Jeter's not the first future Hall of Famer whose body has quit on him before his mind was willing to. It's also not entirely fair to call a player in that situation selfish. There's little doubt that he truly believes he's still the Yankees' best option to play shortstop and bat second, just as he had been for his entire career up to this point. If that's the case from Jeter's perspective, then from that same perspective the selfish act would be calling it quits and letting his teammates down. The pride, drive and determination that allowed him to be an elite player until he was 38 years old just doesn't fade that quickly, the gift eventually becomes a curse. Sad? Unfortunate? Absolutely. Selfish? Not exactly.

Which brings us to Derek Jeter Day. Today the Yankees celebrated one of the greatest players in franchise history with their trademark pomp and circumstance. In front of a packed house they showered him with compliments, gifts, and praise. He deserves every bit of praise that he got today but the timing of it all is extremely disappointing. Jeter resting on his laurels when there's still work to do is just about the last thing you would expect out of him. This is a guy who has preached winning and teamwork above all else now allowing the focus to get away from that when it's needed most and placed squarely on him. Even if the Yankees' playoff chances are in the snowball in hell range right now, you'd have to believe that Jeter, as captain, more than anybody else, still believes. It certainly would have been within his power to say thanks, but no thanks to this type of thing because it would put his needs ahead of the team's. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case. It's his action, or lack thereof, here that seems a bit selfish and incredibly unlike the Derek Jeter we all know and love.

To make matters worse, Jeter and his teammates will now play out the rest of the season wearing a patch to remind them and their opponents just how great their captain was. Even as a young player, he was never the type to flaunt his personal achievements, only his rings, which were a team effort. Now he'll be making up for lost time. Sure the Yankees did the same for Mariano Rivera last year, but at least they waited until the last homestand of the season which kept the exposure of his patch to a minimum. Three weeks worth of the Jeter patch just seems excessive and again, un-Jeterian.

So how should the Yankees and Derek Jeter have handled this situation? How about his very own day next year complete with a monument dedication and number retirement ceremony when he's, you know, actually retired. Then he could have sat back and enjoyed a game at Yankee Stadium as a spectator with friends and former coaches and teammates. That probably would have been the classy move. The type of move that we've all grown to expect from Mr. Jeter.

The Yankees endured another mediocre week due to a maddeningly inconsistent offense, and unless they can put together a big winning streak soon, the playoffs are starting to look like a dream best saved for 2015.

Record this week: 3-3 (2-1 against the Red Sox, 1-2 against the Royals)

Another week, another mediocre performance.  The Yankees managed to steal a series from the Boston Red Sox with a pair of homers in the bottom of the ninth in the series finale, but they couldn't muster much offense against the red hot Royals. The Yankees now sit 4.5 games back in the Wild Card, and have faded over the past month - they got within half a game of the second Wild Card on August 8, but since then, they've gone just 12-14 and slipped down the standings.  While the Yankees have sputtered along, other teams like Seattle (17-10 since August 8^th), Kansas City (18-9) and Cleveland (17-8) have all surged at the right time (especially with how Detroit has looked recently).  The Yankees are now hanging on for dear life at the edge of the playoff picture. If New York is to have any chance at the end of the season, the winning streak we've all been waiting for has to happen, and happen now.

Quick hits:

Derek Jeter sent off in style (except for the actual baseball game) - The Yankees held Derek Jeter Day in the Bronx on Sunday, bringing in many big names like Dave Winfield, Cal Ripken Jr., and even Michael Jordan, to the honor the Yankee captain.  Jeter capped off the ceremony with a touching speech to the fans, saying, "I've loved what I've done, I love what I'm doing, but more importantly I love doing it for you."  Of course, the Yankees had a game to play after the pageantry, and, while Jeter at least got a hit, it marked one of the only four hits the Yankees got all afternoon in a listless 2-0 loss to the Royals.  It'd be nice for the Yankees to win one of these send-off games, but I guess even Jeter magic can't propel this team to offensive decency.  What a year.

Carlos Beltran providing solitary spark to heart of the order - Carlos Beltran has struggled with elbow issues this season, and certainly hasn't been the hitter Yankee fans expected when Brian Cashman signed him in the offseason.  Still, Beltran certainly hasn't been the problem with the offense lately.  While the heart of the Yankee order (mainly Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann) has struggled, Beltran has been quite good since the All-Star Break.  The veteran has hit .269/.350/.429 with a 120 wRC+ in the second half, becoming just about the only offensive threat in the middle of the Yankees' lineup.  He hasn't been terrific in his first season in pinstripes, but Beltran hasn't been nearly the problem that some other hitters have been.

Position Player of the week:  Brian McCann

Even though Brian McCann has struggled through much of his first season in New York, he did get off to a great start this week, notching six hits in the first two games against Boston.  During one of these games, McCann went four-for-four with a homer and three RBI in a 5-1 Yankee win.  Over the course of the six games this week, McCann hit .316 with two home runs and four RBI.  While he struggled against the Royals, so did almost everyone in New York's lineup - McCann's big start to the week gives him the edge here.

Pitcher of the week: Hiroki Kuroda

Kuroda had the best start of any Yankee pitcher this week, throwing seven innings of one-run ball against the Red Sox while giving up just four hits while striking out eight.  Kuroda has been extremely steady during the second half, posting a 3.12 ERA with a 3.20 FIP and giving the Yankees some consistency during a season that has seen quite a bit of turnover in their rotation.  While the Yankees got some other fine performances this week (especially by Michael Pineda, yet again), Kuroda was better than all of them.

Now that he has posted content to the site, Dan Weigel dedicates a post to explaining to the readers, who, in fact, he is. In the picture, he is the one on the far right.

This isn’t an intro in the traditional sense of it being my first piece, as those who pay attention to authors of the content on the site have likely already stumbled across a piece or two with my name attached. This may have sparked questions like "Who is that?" or "What’s the deal with this new guy at the site?" If you are a person who considered such questions then this will be a worthwhile article for you. For those who have not, thanks for clicking on the link and you have fulfilled your obligation as a reader of this article.

I come from a baseball background and have been around the game for as long as I can remember. As a fan, I’ve been going to Baltimore Orioles games my whole life, but also frequented the local Harrisburg Senators and Reading Phillies (now the Reading Fightin Phils), which is where I began to develop my enjoyment of the Minor League game. As a player, I played T-Ball all the way through High School baseball in Lancaster, PA and then headed off to Bucknell University for a memorable four years as a member of the Bison pitching staff. I’ve been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to continue my career internationally (I’m actually writing this in a foreign airport on my way there), and have found that my firsthand experience as a player has been extremely useful in my roles as a writer and evaluator at the site.

As I have grown, my involvement within the game increased to include practical work experience over the summer video scouting with Baseball Info Solutions, writing with sites such as Minor League Ball, and evaluating Minor League players. It’s been a smooth transition from a kid who played and enjoyed baseball to a recent college graduate who interacts with the game in slightly different yet equally enjoyable ways.

Despite taking a new, more professional approach to the game, there are many ways that I still experience the game as a kid. As a pitcher in college, I was known for going all out while shagging (even before my starts) and along with our other Saturday starter, wearing excessive swag (arm sleeves, eye black, stirrups, batting gloves, shades, etc) on "Swag Sundays" when we were not scheduled to pitch. Even as a pitcher, I have great respect for the art of the pimped home run, and save celebrations (namely Jenrry Mejia’s) are also essential to my enjoyment of the game. Finally, like my father and brother, collecting baseball hats and shirseys is an essential and neverending part of my livelihood. Minor League hats are the latest pursuit, and though my collection is in its infantile stages I have managed to acquire gems such as the Hagerstown Suns, Albuquerque Isotopes, Trenton Thunder (who easily have one of the best logos in MiLB), the Norfolk Tides and the Wilmington Blue Rocks (light blue, of course). In summation, I am a student of the game, fan of the game, player of the game and contributor to the game, but most importantly I find enjoyment in the game. As I have grown, it has been less about rooting for the Orioles and against the Yankees and more about finding pleasure in our national pastime. There is so much to enjoy in the game and I am thrilled and thankful that I am able to enjoy it in so many ways.

As for content, with the Minor League season ending and me out of the country, I won’t be putting out any more Minor League scouting reports, but will continue the trend of blending scouting and statistics in my articles. The best examples of this are in my "Looking Past the Stat Line" series, where I examined the current profiles of four prominent pitching prospects from multiple perspectives. Furthermore, as a pitcher and a student of pitching, it would be fair to expect the majority of the subjects in my future articles to be pitchers.

That being said, I will be in Australia for the upcoming Australian Baseball League (ABL) season, and may write some pieces about the state of the game in a country with a sports landscape that is ruled by cricket and rugby. How much of this I actually do is really dependent on how much you guys enjoy it, so feel free to say what you like, don’t like, and what you want to know about the ABL or the sport in general in this country.

Finally, in the attempt to avoid having the entire comments section of this piece be paraphrases of Drake saying, "How much time is this author spending on the intro?" I’ll end the piece here. The last word goes out to everyone taking the time to read and engage with the site. I’ve enjoyed and appreciated the frequent insightful comments on my (and all) content at the site, and I hope that continues in the future. Here’s to the terrific Minor League Ball community that we (both I the writer and you the reader) are fortunate enough to be a part of.

. . .

Dan Weigel is an author of Minor League Ball. For more on him, reread this article.

Luis Severino went from a completely unranked prospect at the start of the season to a top 50 overall fantasy prospect and the likely top prospect in the Yankees' organization. What has changed, and what can we expect from Severino going forward?

Probably the most meteoric riser that appeared on our midseason top 50 fantasy prospects was Luis Severino, who was not ranked in the top 200 before the season, and, frankly, wasn't even in our top 10 for the Yankees only. Yet there he was, #48 in the midseason list. To give you an idea of how far away we thought Severino was from the top 10 for the Yankees, it's worth noting that we didn't even include him in the discussions for our top 10. With that though, the Dominican right hander has jumped into the picture for both the Yankees and fantasy owners, and that time could be coming sooner than previously anticipated.

Severino was signed as an international free agent at the end of 2011, and debuted with the Yankees' Dominican Summer League team in 2012. He produced a solid line that season (45 K, 17 BB in 64 innings pitched), but statistics from that level generally tell us even less than stateside minor league numbers. The Yankees moved him quickly in 2013, sending him stateside to the Gulf Coast League, and then to finish the year in full-season Charleston, their Low-A affiliate. The performance was solid again (53 K, 10 BB in 44 innings pitched), and early reports on how that performance was achieved led him to appear near the back end of the top 10 for both John Sickels and Baseball America this past offseason. Sickels had this brief note on him in his rankings:

Fast-rising right-hander showed mid-to-upper-90s fastball and improved slider and changeup along with very good 53/10 K/BB ratio in 44 pro innings (despite reports of shaky command). Just 20, could be some shiny-new-toy syndrome pushing him up lists ahead of guys closer to the majors, but he has legitimate mid-rotation potential, or could develop into a fine reliever.

While there was definitely some helium surrounding him at the start of the season, Severino went out and showed what made that helium last. He returned to Low-A Charleston to start his year, making 14 starts and throwing 67 innings before a promotion to High-A Tampa. That stop wasn't long, though, as he made just four starts before moving up heading to AA Trenton to finish the year. Overall, Severino finished the season with 127 strikeouts against 27 walks, allowed just 93 hits, and finished with a 2.46 ERA in 113 innings pitched.

The reports on Severino find a pitcher who uses three pitches, all of which have the potential to be at least average or better. His fastball is considered above-average to potentially elite, with mid-90's velocity that can be dialed up a bit more at times. Both his slider and changeup are expected to be at least useful offerings, with potential to be even better and capable of providing a decent amount of missed swings and weak contact. He gets a ton of ground balls (53% this season per MLB Farm), which definitely bodes well for his long-term outlook when combined with his repertoire and ability to throw his pitches for strikes.

The questions surrounding Severino coming into the season stemmed from whether Severino could stick in a rotation on a long-term basis, or whether he would end up as a high-leverage reliever instead. While the questions weren't extremely loud then, his performance this year has really cemented the likelihood that he will pitch in a major league rotation rather than the pen. He set a career high in innings this year, so the team may decide to try to build up his innings further in 2015 before using him in the majors.

In terms of ETA to the majors, Severino seems likely to return to AA to start the 2015 season, but could see time in the Bronx before the end of next year. Once in the majors, Severino has the potential to be a mid-rotation starting pitcher, both for the Yankees and for fantasy purposes, providing excellent ratios and a solid strikeout total.

This is but one of the legends of which the people speak...

Derek Jeter. The name alone just makes you want to clap, clap, and then quickly clap three more times after the initial first two claps. It's downright Pavlovian at this point. It's what happens when you spend the better part of two decades growing up watching a player of his caliber play the game of baseball. His legendary status will be cemented among the greatest that ever wore the Yankee pinstripes. It's fitting that his soon to be retired #2 will be the final single digit number that is retired in Monument Park, for there is no one on this roster more deserving of the honor than the Captain. Selfless to the letter and carrying himself to a higher standard than the majority of the players around the league do, the legacy of Derek Jeter will be one of dignity, honor, and respect.

Oh I'm sorry, did my high praise of Derek Jeter make you ill? Here, let me try another narrative.

Derek Jeter is the single most underrated player to ever walk the Earth. All he does is hit. Sure, maybe he'll beat out a grounder or two but look at all the facts. He is one of the worst shortstops to ever play the position. You don't even need to look at the stats, even though you should. If you watched him grow up around such great defensive shortstops like Omar Vizquel, the evidence is as plain as day. Unless you're blind as a bat, of course. Jeter selfishly didn't move to third base when Alex Rodriguez, a far superior shortstop, came to the Yankees. Now his bat is a liability and he won't move out of the 2-hole in the lineup for the good of the team. Maybe he'll be a first ballot Hall of Famer, but if you ask me he deserves to have his number retired in the jerk store.

Does all this seem familiar to you? What I've attempted to do here is boil down both of the Derek Jeter narratives that you are likely to constantly hear in the next month. His farewell tour is coming to an end and the frustration from both Yankee fans and non Yankee fans are coming to a head. Fans of other teams will complain about his farewell tour due to the pomp and circumstance of it. "Why should our team have to give him a gift? He never played for us." and "Oh no, it's filling our stadium with tons of Yankee fans." On the other side, you'll have Yankee fans stating such things as "Why did Jeter have to announce his retirement at the beginning of the year? Now it's going to be a distraction!" to the always hilarious "Derek Jeter has a clause in his contract that says he has to always hit in the 2-hole." (I'm still on record as that being the funniest thing anyone has said all year long). When discussing the matter, both sides tend to come off as petulant little children. Either Jeter is selfless saint or he's an egotistical jerk. Sports fans, amirite?

This virulent stream of praise and complaints is less about Derek Jeter, the man and more about Derek Jeter, the legend. The Yankees organization, as well as MLB as a whole, have spent the better part of his career building him up to be the face of baseball. Mind you, coming up from the farm and winning four World Series championships in five years definitely looks good on the resume. Jeter represents winning and greatness. This is not so much praise as much as it is a fact. Baseball was only a year removed from a strike and fans needed a reason to come back to the stadiums. Suddenly this young, fresh-faced, good looking, good hitting shortstop comes up from the farm and is a part of a chain of World Series victories that would last for five years.

It seems expected for a Yankee fan to bring the "ringz" into a Jeter discussion, but it has to be done. If you're a young baseball fan with a slight itch to play baseball it's kind of hard not to want to do what Derek Jeter did. The legend of Derek Jeter is the young baseball fan's dream of coming from the farm to the majors and instantly being a success story. There are players, really good players, that come up and have a fantastic career without once ever winning a World Series. Their careers are recognized, but usually after their baseball playing days are coming to a close. Derek Jeter came up and instantly helped the Yankees to win four in five years. That's damn near unheard of. Whether you think it was just that incredible of a team for that time frame or simply lucky that there were no major injuries, there's no denying what happened those years. There's also no denying what came afterwards: the Internet.

Around the time Jeter first started playing, I would hop on my computer and log onto AOL Baseball Chat to talk about the Yankees with some chatters named Seeknay, YanksRGreat and other total strangers who wanted to know my A/S/L. Now I'm writing articles about what is coming from the end of Jeter's amazing career. The Internet has changed everything, especially the flow of information and the speed at which one can convey said information. Even though defensive statistics are supposedly not the most reliable, they show that Jeter was not really that great on defense. Normal eyesight can tell you that, but the math at least backs it up. Somehow, that information blew up into this huge narrative of how Jeter is overrated. On the flip side, you have a ton of people buying into all these stories of his selflessness, spreading the word of his "flip play" heroics to the point of making other fans sick. Thus, here we are at the crossroads of these two narratives. Selfless or egotistical? Iconic hero or jerk store? The fact is that at the end of the day, we really don't know too much about the man. We only what he gives us to work with. So what did he give us to work with, besides playing baseball?

Nothing. Which is the greatest thing of all.

Derek Jeter never spoke out of turn. He never came off as brash, selfless, or egotistical. He is not an attention hog at all. Jeter simply did as he was asked to do, never causing a fuss about anything at all. Make no mistake, people were waiting for something, anything, bad to come out about Jeter. Nothing ever did and some people are still waiting. The closest we got to that was his contract negotiations a few years ago, and even that was pretty minor in the grand scheme of things. Overall though, Jeter gave people nothing to work with. He just played baseball, which is all he ever wanted to do. He never put himself above the organization by asking to be moved to third base for A-Rod. He never put himself above the manager by asking to be moved down in the lineup. That's not his job, nor should it have been. He just played baseball and did what was asked of him. It's everyone else that spread the narratives around.

Sportswriters and broadcasters tell the tale of how Ron Washington told a rookie named Elvis Andrus how Derek Jeter was the player he should aspire to be like. Players from other teams talk about how they grew up idolizing him and wear #2 in honor of Jeter. Fans that grew up watching him play discuss their favorite Jeter moments, how clutch of a hitter he was, how much he hustled, and so on. A lot of these things could be said in many different ways about Yankee icons and baseball icons from the past. The only difference between then and now is the Internet. Information and word of mouth doesn't just travel fast anymore. It travels in an instant. We are just now starting to see the full scope of a society where communication and information are instantaneous with everyone. Let's just say that the "purple monkey dishwasher" aspects of playing a global, instant, constant game of the classic kids game Telephone is not always a good thing. As I stated in another article last week, imagine if SB Nation, Twitter, Facebook, and other forms of social sports media outlets existed during the Joe DiMaggio & Ted Williams debate. That sound you just heard was me violently shuddering from the mere thought of that net outrage.

So here we are in the final month of Derek Jeter's illustrious Yankee career. The narratives and the legend of Jeter will continue to spread like wild fire. He will be compared to Yankee greats of the past, and will be referred to as both the greatest Yankee of all time as well as the most overrated Yankee of all time. In the end, none of that really matters. What really matters is that a young kid had a dream to one day play shortstop for the New York Yankees. That's all he ever wanted to do, that's exactly what he did, and we had the pleasure, or dismay depending on what team you root for, of witnessing him play for the past two decades. Move past the selfless/egotistical narratives, the money, the entire legend of Jeter saga and simply focus on one simple fact.

Derek Jeter is a kid who just really wanted to play baseball. That's all he did. He just happened to do it really well And like he said to Mariano Rivera at his final game at Yankee Stadium last year, "time to go."

Note: If you actually read through all 1,600+ words of this, play the YouTube video below. You've earned that piece of Triforce!

Who has hit the longest home run at Comerica Park in the HitTracker era?

Matt Keegan, former Pinstripe Alley writer, summed the game up pretty well when he said, "Miguel Cabrera is absurd and should be outlawed". He was referring to Cabrera's two home runs, which provided most of the firepower for the Tigers in their close win over the Yankees on June 2nd, 2012. His first home run in the fourth inning was the monster blast, traveling 466 feet before colliding with an ivy wall in center field. The next home run put the Tigers back on top in the eighth, sailing 444 feet into the crevice outside the center field walls.

Cabrera came into the game batting .315 with 9 home runs on the season. He was the Tigers' powerhouse, blasting no fewer than 30 home runs in each of his four seasons in Detroit. Little did the world know that Cabrera was going to trounce all of his previous numbers by launching 44 home runs in 2012 and capturing the first of two consecutive AL MVP awards. Pitchers feared Cabrera, who helped lead the Tigers to the ALCS the previous year, and he was in the pinnacle of his career. He established his dominance in 2012 by maintaining such impressive statistics over the whole season, qualifying as first in SLG, HR, and wOBA, as well as second in ISO and wRC+.

Hiroki Kuroda was Cabrera's unlucky opponent that day. At the age of 37, Kuroda had a very rocky start with the Yankees. Entering June 2nd, he had compiled a 3.96 ERA and put up very inconsistent starts. Five of his ten starts were deemed as being quality, but in the other five, Kuroda had allowed 22 ER in only 24.2 innings, resulting in an 8.03 ERA. Fortunately, his season evened out and eventually settled at a 91 FIP-. For what it's worth, he was somewhat plagued by home runs, qualifying as 16th in the MLB with a 13.0 HR/FB%.

Hiroki walked to the mound in the bottom of the fourth inning, and Cabrera awaited the first pitch from the batter's box. Kuroda went through the motions and released a 91 mph fastball up above the zone for a taken ball. He wound up and delivered again, this time hurling an 84 mph slider. Everything seemed as usual about the slider itself except for the actual placement; the ball flew directly to the center of the strike zone, and Miguel Cabrera took it deep (Video). One powerful swing at the right time in the right place rendered the slider useless as it spun through the air towards centerfield, eventually meeting the ivy wall 466 feet away and becoming Comerica Park's longest home run in the HitTracker era (Since 2006).

With the enormous force behind it, the ball traveled an extra 58.4 feet, or 14.3% farther than his average home run in 2012. Additionally, the baseball left the bat at 113.3 mph, 8.3 mph faster than his usual home run. All in all, Cabrera did some major damage. The solo shot boosted the Tigers' odds of winning by 12 percent and his later shot trimmed the odds even more, increasing their chances of winning by 31 percent. It's safe to say he was the game's MVP (Just look back at Matt Keegan's comment).

The problem with the home run pitch wasn't the actual slider but where the slider went in the zone. In 2012, players batted only .233 versus his slider, which was ranked 25th in value among all qualified pitchers' sliders; however, only 4.44% of his sliders ever crossed the plate in the center of the strike zone. Most of them traveled to the bottom-right hand corner (Catcher's POV) because of the pitch's solid break and vertical movement (9th among qualified pitchers). This slider was not very different from the others in terms of movement, descending 2.7 feet vertically and breaking at 7.9 inches. As you can see from the left Pitchf/x zone profile below, Kuroda's slider is vulnerable to extra-base hits in the middle of the plate. 16 of 29 batted balls from zone 5 (center) went for extra-base hits, and similar numbers resulted from the lower-left hand zones.

So in one part, the placement of Kuroda's slider led to the mammoth home run; the other part of the equation was Miguel Cabrera's mastery of the middle of the plate. Now looking below at the right zone profile, you can see how Cabrera fared against pitches in the middle of the strike zone. In the center band of three zones, he slammed 20 home runs off a possible 112 balls in play, or 17.9%. Not to mention, he batted .312, slugged .578, and put up the highest HR/BIP percentage of any type of pitch off sliders he saw in 2012.

Miggy's dominance and Kuroda's poor placement was all that was needed to fuel this extreme home run. Comerica's longest shot wasn't actually that far when compared against other ballparks' longest, so it wouldn't come as a surprise to see it broken sooner rather than later.

*Note - Miguel Cabrera's HR was actually tied with Magglio Ordonez' home run in 2007 off Julio DePaula. Cabrera's was selected for two reasons. First, it wouldn't be nearly as interesting to analyze a home run where there is no Pitchf/x data, and secondly,  Cabrera's would have traveled farther if Standard HR Distance is taken into account. SHRD negates wind, temperature, and altitude for a more precise (but less practical) home run measurement.

. . .

All statistics courtesy of FanGraphs, HitTracker Online, Baseball Savant,Brooks Baseball, and Baseball-Reference.

Justin Perline is a writer for Beyond the Box Score and The Wild Pitch. You can follow him on Twitter at @jperline.

Amid the shaky crowd of shortstops entering free agency who might replace Derek Jeter, a new challenger approaches!

It sadly appears that the end of the Yankees' 2014 season is right around the corner, doomed to their first string of consecutive seasons without a playoff berth since the rebuilding years of 1992 and 1993. Top pitching prospect Luis Severino wasn't even alive yet. It will also be the end of an era as shortstop Derek Jeter will step away from the game, leaving the Yankees with a hole to fill at shortstop. Aside from arguments that they probably should have been on the market for better shortstop insurance in 2013 than Eduardo Nunez and Jayson Nix when Jeter was rehabbing following his 2012 ankle injury, they will be on free agent market for a shortstop for the first time since the hasty 1994-95 off-season that went quickly after the player's strike ended. With then-top prospect Jeter hurt, the Yankees invested in Tony Fernandez. So who will they invest in for 2015 and beyond with Jeter gone?

The big names on the upcoming shortstop free agent market have been known for months--the Dodgers' Hanley Ramirez, who can't stay healthy and is pretty much a shortstop in name only at this point, and the Orioles' J.J. Hardy, who has lost some power this year but still plays great defense and otherwise-nice offensive numbers. Other than them, it's a dark cloud of mediocrity or worse led by Stephen Drew, Asdrubal Cabrera, and Jed Lowrie. Yippie skip. The Yankees have been fortunate to not have had to dig through the free agent market for shortstops in decades. It's obviously a very difficult position to fill, evinced by Boston's difficulty finding a consistent replacement for their beloved Nomar Garciaparra, who was traded in the middle of 2004, and the fact that the Reds still have yet to truly succeed Barry Larkin at shortstop over a decade after his retirement. It's rough out there.

However, according to the Boston Globe's Nick Cafardo, there might be a new name to enter the ring: 27-year-old Korean shortstop Jung-ho Kang (or Jeong-ho Kang). Don't let his age deceive you--Kang appears to be someone who could start playing in the majors leagues as soon as he's signed, without needing time in the minors. Cafardo says that Kang's team, the Nexen Heroes, plan to post him this off-season:

Kang is going to get posted for a major league job. The righthanded power hitter, who has 38 home runs and 107 RBIs in 107 games this season, is 27 years old and will stay at shortstop or convert to second or third base. He’s listed at 6 feet, 180 pounds, but he looks bigger. The Cardinals were interested early, but a few teams have been added to the mix. Kang has major power and with the absence of it in the majors, he should get some serious money.

Kang's success in Korea goes beyond the traditional stats as well, though the home run numbers are gaudy enough to be intriguing regardless. Check out his Baseball-Reference numbers as he's matured over the past five seasons with the Heroes:

That's doing work while staying remarkably healthy as well. The Korea Baseball Organization seemed to vary in exactly how many games were played per season, but to date, Kang has played in 96.5% of Nexen's games over the past five years. As a bonus, Kang also made an appearance in the 2013 World Baseball Classic, appearing in three games while going 2-for-9. One of those hits was a crucial eighth inning two-run homer that put Korea on top over Taiwan, who eventually won the pool despite the loss:

That... is not meager power. The offensive numbers in the KBO are very nice, especially considering the league's average triple slash over those five years. This year in particular, the league is hitting .291/.367/.447, putting Kang's numbers far better than the norm. He leads the league in slugging percentage and OPS, and he is not far off the league lead in other notable offensive categories as well.

Kang is also a defensively savvy shortstop from the scant reports about him that have been published, though major leagues teams are no doubt aware of just how good he is. Highlight films can make just about any player look better than he is, but it's still worth noting that the plays he makes here (aside from the monster dingers) certainly catch the eye:

As Cafardo mentioned, the Cardinals have been tied to Kang, but other teams have recently entered the fray as well. Scouts from several teams appeared at an August 27th game featuring Kang, though the Yankees were not among them. Of course, that doesn't mean the Yankees are ignoring him, either. As we learned with the Masahiro Tanaka sweepstakes, the Yankees had their eye on Tanaka as far back as 2007. They certainly know more about Kang than you, me, or most anyone not currently covering Kang or working in Major League Baseball.

It's difficult to get a gauge on the true talent of these international players from what little is available. It's also worth noting that no position player has ever successfully journeyed from the KBO to the major leagues before. (Shin-Soo Choo and Hee-Seop Choi were both amateur free agent signing at a young age and never played there before hitting the majors.) The KBO is also believed to be a much lower talent level than MLB, not to mention the Japanese counterpart NPB, so Kang's numbers must be used with caution. It's the same league where former Orioles washout Felix Pie (75 OPS+ in 425 games) is hitting .340/.391/.550 with 32 doubles and 16 homers. Beware of such demonry.

Nonetheless, with talent like Kang's seemingly set to hit the posting market, we can only hope that the Yankees are keeping a close eye on him. Shortstops who can hit for some power don't come along very often. The Yankees need a shortstop for the future, and it's hard not to think about the possibilities that Kang could offer. If the Yankees' more informed scouting and internal metrics don't project much success in the pros for Kang, I'll understand if they don't pursue him. If they think there's a good chance that he could make it in MLB though, they should definitely put a bid in on him.

Plus even if he flops, then we could have an awful lot of fun with this:

Sold.

Derek Jeter was honored by the Yankees on Sunday. Let's honor the honor with words.

Derek Jeter is retiring at the end of the 2014 season¹. The 14-time All-Star² has been on the Yankees for his entire 20-year career³. He's been a popular player⁴ in baseball, and he was honored by the Yankees⁵ on Sunday.

Let's talk about Derek Jeter. Let's talk about Derek Jeter Day.

1.
Ken Rosenthal's first sentence in this column is probably going to win a Ledey at the industry awards this offseason.

There was simply no good way to do this.

Exactly. How do you honor a player who is supposed to be known for doing his job without pomp and circumstance? That's supposed to be Derek Jeter's whole thing -- at least that's supposed to be the public and recognizable image, the obvious starting point. Just a man tryin' to win ballgames. Just a guy doin' his job. Just a fella who will dive into the stands if he needs to. Just quiet greatness, with nothing flashier than the occasional jump-throw.

You can either honor that player with pomp and circumstance, which will make everyone (including the player) a little weirded out and uncomfortable, even if everyone agrees a good time was had by all. Or you could honor the player with the ceremonial equivalent of what Jeter's supposed to represent -- "Watch Derek Jeter Tip His Cap Day," in which Jeter comes out before the game, tips his cap for a few minutes, then goes back to playing baseball because there's baseball to be played, everyone.

Except that would be even more flashy, more noticeable. The absence of pomp and circumstance would turn into weaponized pomp and circumstance. Attempting to create a special, quiet Jeter-themed ceremony that was only as flashy as its subject would be obnoxious beyond words, as if he's the one player too special/stoic/classy for a big retirement production. He had to sit there and take it, just like the rest of us.

There was simply no good way to do this.

So true. There is no retirement ceremony for a first-ballot Hall of Famer that's the equivalent of a destination wedding, with only five guests wearing flip-flops and leis. Jeter and the Yankees made the best of a tough task, for the most part.

2.
One of my dumber story ideas before Derek Jeter Day: look for current major leaguers who might have anything approaching a Derek Jeter Day in the future. It's dumb because, ha ha, there are no major leaguers who will have anything approaching a Derek Jeter Day in the future. That's kind of the point of Derek Jeter Day.

Take Andrew McCutchen, one of the most likable and talented players in baseball. He's the face of the Pirates, a symbol of restored greatness and pure talent. In terms of value, he's been comparable to Jeter through age 27. Now script the path that gets him a year-long Andrew McCutchen tour at every ballpark he plays.

1. At least a decade more of high-quality play
2. With the same team
3. With multiple championships

There's another part that McCutchen's already nailed, which is coming into the franchise at just the right time, seeming like an angel of providence for a franchise stuck in the mud. But what those bullet points really translate to are freakish amounts of talent, health and luck. Talent, because of course. Health, because talent can't help a player if his wrist or ankle or back isn't letting him swing the bat like we all know he can. Luck, because it's not like Jeter was drafting (or financing) his talented teammates himself. He's a bad GM away from being Ernie Banks.

It doesn't have to be multiple championships. Ripken had the record. But to go from respected All-Star to someone getting the legend treatment, there has to be something more. It's been two years, and I don't remember a thing about the Chipper Jones retirement tour. If there even was one. Was there a Chipper Jones retirement tour? Feels like there were a couple ceremonies, but I can't remember. And that was a Hall of Famer, one of the best players who ever lived. Moving from Chipper to Jeter takes something more than just a Hall of Famer being with the same team for an entire career. A billion straight NL East titles couldn't do it, even if that's more remarkable than people give credit for.

There has to be talent, health and luck, but in such large quantities that even just one of them is unlikely. All three over a two-decade career is exponentially difficult to expect for anyone. Maybe McCutchen will be the next one. Maybe Buster Posey or Clayton Kershaw or Mike Trout will be. The odds are that none of them will be.

Again, which is the point.

3.
That's why Jeter Fatigue is the dumbest thing about the 2014 season. The Jeter Fatigue Fatigue I'm suffering from makes me lethargic and sleepy. Please stop.

If you don't recognize the uniqueness of Jeter, why it's probably worth ignoring the constant feting and praise from a fawning media to evaluate him as a player and historical anomaly, you're beyond help. You're so wrapped up in the presentation of the game that you're forgetting that they actually play games worth presenting. I have a one-step method of avoiding Jeter Fatigue, and I encourage you to follow it:

• Curate your own baseball highlights

That's a fancy way of saying "Don't watch SportsCenter if this bugs you so much." Don't watch highlight shows. If you're upset at the disproportionate attention paid to a topic, pick which topics you'll pay attention to. Go to MLB.com's video page, and click on the plays that interest you. Do it on your computer, do it on your phone. You are a news director now. Mash that stubby little finger into your newfangled device and watch the baseball you want to watch.

I'm not suffering from Jeter Fatigue because when I go to MLB.com and see a video of Jeter receiving two human twins encased in carbonite as a gift from the Twins, I don't click on the video. Not when "Giancarlo Stanton hits baseball through rift in space-time" is right next to it. So when Jeter Day came up, I was legitimately interested.

Remember this trick for the future, when the next superstar player gets too much attention. You have the power until the Ministry of Sports Appreciation starts mind-beaming the highlights into your brain in a dystopian hellscape. We're at least 10, 12 years away from that.

4.
Michael Kay and John Sterling were co-emcees for the ceremony. One of the strangest things about the Yankees franchise over the last two decades is that for all the greatness, for all the unbelievable good fortune and talent that's passed through Yankee Stadium over the last 20 years and the 100 years prior to that, the Yankees fans still have to spend hundreds and hundreds of hours with those guys every season.

It's as if the baseball gods want us all to have something the Yankees don't, an olive branch for how the last 100 years have gone. It's inexplicable, and the contrast between those two and Derek Jeter and the Yankees was never more on display.

5.
Replacing letters with numbers was dumb when New Line Cinema tried to shove Se7en down or throats, and it's dumb 20 years later. The squiggles in a "2" and an "S" go in totally different directions! Doesn't anyone see this? There are straight lines in a "2." There are none with an "S." The top of the "2" points that way, and the bottom points that way. The top of the "S" points that way, and the bottom points the other way.

It bugs me so danged much. And, for what, to get Jeter's jersey number crammed into a word -- respect -- that was chosen mostly because we can cram Jeter's jersey number into it?

Now that's something worth complaining on the Internet about. Not Jeter Fatigue.

6.
This has little to do with Jeter Day, but it's worth mentioning in passing. This is also a silly tradition that has to stop:

Photo credit: USA TODAY Sports

Is that seriously supposed to go somewhere in Jeter's house? What about the paddleboard he got from the Angels? Is he actually supposed to drag that thing down to the water, something that's so Yankees'd out that even Benny from Long Island, who calls into WFAN five times a day to talk about the Yankees, wouldn't be caught dead with?

They're all different versions of this:

And they will live in Jeter's basement, actual or metaphorical, for the next 100 years. Stop it, teams.

7.
Rosenthal also noted the black "#2" wreath used by the Yankees was almost funerary, as were the celebrity remembrances that played on the scoreboard. It was all a requiem for a career that hasn't ended just yet in a season that's still partially alive.

Except maybe that's perfect. The Derek Jeter Era perfectly coincides with the Damn Yankees era of our time. Before Jeter, there was a morass of Steinbrenner escapades and uninteresting teams. After Jeter, there was sustained success. He's leaving at a time when it's easy to be pessimistic about the future of the Yankees, who have an aging roster that might not be helped with the top five free agents in each of the next three offseasons. This could be a set of bookends so obvious and on the nose, that it would make you roll your eyes if Hollywood concocted it. The Yankees rose out of the ashes with Jeter. Now they just might be a pile of ashes again.

You'd have better luck betting against the Harlem Globetrotters, so don't take this for a Yankees-are-totally-doomed prediction. Just an educated guess, that's all, and those educated guesses have been wrong for about a decade now. This time, though, the Yankees won't have Derek Jeter. They haven't had the real one for the last two years, and it hasn't worked out for them. When he's gone for good, maybe so are the Yankees as we know them.

There was simply one good way to do this. Have an appreciation/wake for Derek Jeter's career and try to forget about the crumbling infrastructure that may or may not get patched before it all crumbles. When you think about it like that, it turns out that Derek Jeter Day had less to do with him than you might have thought. He was just doing his job, and it was really all about the team.

Would the Yankees be having a better season if they had re-signed some of the players they let go over the offseason?

Now that the season is winding down, and the playoffs are slipping further and further out of reach, it's hard not to wonder what the team could have done differently to put themselves in a better position. Should they have re-signed any of the players that they let walk over the offseason?

The first player that comes to mind is obviously Robinson Cano. There is no doubt that the team would be better with him on it. Although his power numbers are down this season, he's been leaps and bounds better than the players the Yankees replaced him with. He's batting .319/.386/.458 with 137 wRC+. He's also been worth 5.2 WAR despite hitting just 12 home runs so far. Comparing him to Brian Roberts and Stephen Drew is just sad. Before being designated for assignment, Roberts hit .237/.300/.360 with 83 wRC+. At the time, it seemed like no one could possibly be worse than him, then Drew came along. As a Yankee, Drew is hitting an abysmal .133/.223/.265. Yes, Cano signed for $240 million, and yes the contract is a ridiculously long, 10 years, but second base has been a train wreck without him. Maybe the high level of play the first few years would have made up for the long contract? Just imagine how much his bat would have helped the offense. Guess we'll see how it works out for Seattle, and hope that the second base situation works out better next season.

In terms of the outfield, it appears that the Yankees would not have been better off if they had kept Curtis Granderson. With the Mets this season, he's batting .212/.314/.362 with 17 home runs and 97 wRC+. Carlos Beltran has been roughly the same, hitting .237/.303/.412 with 15 home runs and matching Granderson's 97 wRC+. The main difference is that Granderson has a positive WAR (0.6) compared to Beltran's -0.2. Grandy could have helped in terms of defense, but probably not enough to make that big of a difference. There's also no question that Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury have been the two most consistent hitters on the team.

The Yankees also let Chris Stewart and Jayson Nix walk over the offseason, and both were good decisions. How Nix even has a job at this point is laughable. His wRC+ is -1 and he's been worth -0.9 WAR. He's also managed to play for three different teams this year. Sorry Nix, we don't miss you. Meanwhile, since resuming the backup catcher's role, Stewart is having a much better season (.282/.361/.308), but a healthy Francisco Cervelli is still a better player.

Interestingly, both Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain have pitched much better during their first season away from the Yankees. Hughes has a 3.55 ERA, compared to the 4s and 5s he put up during the last four seasons. Furthermore, he has a 5.5 WAR, when his career high was previously 2.5 in 2010. He has greatly reduced the number of walks he's allowed, and his 0.67 HR/9 is the lowest of his career. With that being said, it's hard to tell how much of this is due to the change of scenery. After several bad seasons in a row, it was time for him to go. Even with all the injuries to the rotation, pitching really hasn't been the Yankees problem this season anyway. Chamberlain has had his best season in a few years, as well, with a 3.42 ERA, 8.62 K/9 and 0.49 HR/9. Still, the bullpen isn't the reason the Yankees are losing, and like Hughes, Joba had struggled for a few seasons. As for the Yankees' former LOOGY, Boone Logan has spent a good portion of the season on and off of the DL with left elbow inflammation, which has probably contributed to bad numbers. Through 25 innings, he put up a 6.84 ERA, 5.13 FIP, 2.86 xFIP, with 2.16 HR/9 before finally being placed on the 60-day DL where he will finish the season.

When it comes down to it, the only loss that feels like it has negatively impacted the team has been that of Cano. After seeing what second base looks like with Roberts and Drew, do you still think the Yankees made the right decision in not bringing him back? Do you think Hughes and Chamberlain could have put up the same numbers with the Yankees this season if they had stayed in the Bronx?

The Tanaka bidding war certainly made the past offseason more interesting. Here are more Asian ballplayers that could have an impact this upcoming winter.

One of the defining stories of the past offseason was the race for the Japanese right-handed pitcher Masahiro Tanaka. The baseball world was stunned when the Yankees invested in a seven-year, $155 million contract (plus the $20 million posting fee) on the ace.

Without having thrown a pitch in MLB, Tanaka became the 19th-highest-paid player ever and, believe it or not, for the first half of the 2014 season, he seemed to worth every penny of it... until he was diagnosed with partial elbow ligament tear. The Yankees are counting on his late-season return, but unfortunately for them, Tommy John surgery may be a possibility as well.

Tanaka is not the only Asian import that has thrived in 2014. There is Yu Darvish, who had his usual brilliant season until he was shut down with injury. Hisashi Iwakuma, having an even better season than he did last year, has established as a solid No. 1 or 2-type starter in the majors.

Hyun-Jin Ryu, the first direct import from Korean Baseball Organization, is second in National League with a 2.60 FIP - behind only teammate Clayton Kershaw. Hiroki Kuroda, Tsuyoshi Wada, Junichi Tazawa and Norichika Aoki have all had consistent playing time in the Majors.

Success of such players has turned more heads towards Nippon Professional Baseball and Korean Baseball Organization for talent searching. We may not see a Tanaka-tier talent head over to the States this offseason, but there are some names that you might hear this winter.

RHP Kenta Maeda, Hiroshima Toyo Carp (NPB)

MLB fans have been talking about the Carp ace for a while. After Tanaka headed to the states, many crowned Maeda as the next big import, and the righty himself has expressed interest as well. Pitching for the same team where Hiroki Kuroda was once the ace, Maeda is having a solid 2014 season: 10-8, 2.86 ERA in 148 innings with 37 walks and 121 strikeouts.

Watch some video of Maeda pitching. The righty's main strength is that he can throw multiple pitches - fastball, slider, curve, splitter and changeup - for strikes. The knock against Maeda is that none of the pitches are especially plus.

According to a Baseball America scouting report (subscription required), Maeda does not have a "great fastball plane" due to his size and "some scouts aren't sold on Maeda's stuff playing in the big leagues, but those who like him think he has a no. 4 starter potential." The article does praise Maeda's fastball for having "good sink and run," as he commands them well.

One of the reasons why Maeda is not regarded as highly as Tanaka is because he is lankier and shorter -- listed just under 6 feet and around 178 pounds, while Tanaka is listed at 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds. But if there is any area where Maeda has proven to be better, it's the health and innings-eating. He led the league in innings pitched in the league in the 2010, 2011 and 2012 seasons. In 2014, he has dealt with few issues -- but nothing serious.

There are already multiple major league teams said to be interested in Maeda's service. Despite being considered the next big Nippon Professional Baseball import, he does not stack up to Yu Darvish or Masahiro Tanaka's level.

Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker compares him to a one-time Atlanta Brave Kenshin Kawakami -- but with "advantages to youth and health." Kawakami had a 3.81 ERA/4.21 FIP in his first MLB season, which seems acceptable for mid-to-back-end of the rotation. But a team that is willing to invest in a soild contract for Maeda may hope for more.

SS Jung-Ho Kang, Nexen Heroes (KBO)

Kang has already expressed interest in pursuing a major league career and his strong 2014 campaign has helped -- a lot. The slugging shortstop leads the Korean Baseball Organization in OPS (1.219) and WAR (9.3) and is second in home runs (38).

Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe wrote about Kang on Saturday, describing the shortstop as a hitter with "major power" and projecting him to get "some serious money." As you may see in this video, Kang hits for power to all fields, and his .320 average since 2012 suggests that he also has a good hit tool.

Originally a catcher drafted out of high school, Kang shows strong arm strength across the diamond as well. Here is a montage of his plays as a shortstop.

The history of success for Asian infielders in MLB is quite scarce. Hiroyuki Nakajima, who signed a two-year deal with the Oakland Athletics in 2012-2013 offseason, has not sniffed the majors, and in 2014, he has performed mediocrely in... Double-A (105 wRC+ in 73 games).

Tsuyoshi Nishioka, who signed with the Twins back in the 2010-2011 offseason, put up a putrid 38 wRC+ in his two-year MLB career. Kaz Matsui showed 30-homer power in NPB but never hit more than 9 in a season in the Majors (and also made 23 errors in his first season with the Mets).

Akinori Iwamura did compile 5.5 fWAR in his first two seasons with the Tampa Bay Rays, but after hitting 62 homers combined for 2005 and 2006 seasons in Japan, he only hit 16 in four-year ML career.

Will Kang finally turn things around for the luck of Asian infielders? We shall see. Based on reports out of Korea (including a recent one where the managers of the Heroes received complaints from MLB scouts for giving Kang a day off), he seems destined to be stateside if the Heroes are willing to post.

The free agent infielder class after this season is not particularly strong - after Hanley Ramirez, Pablo Sandoval and J.J. Hardy, there does not seem to be a candidate for noteworthy signing. Putting Kang in the infield market mix could make things more interesting.

RHP Chihiro Kaneko, Orix Buffaloes (NPB)

Like the Hiroshima Toyo Carps, the Orix Buffaloes are not known for being a powerhouse of the league. However, they do have one of the finest pitchers in Japan in Chihiro Kaneko. Chihiro leads Nippon Professional Baseball in ERA (1.98) while limiting walks (2.03 BB/9) and striking out a lot (10.24 K/9).

Despite surpassing Maeda's performance, Kaneko is not as much talked about, because of his average stuff. With a fastball around 90 mph, Kaneko relies on mixing pitches and smarts to get the hitters out. According to NPB Tracker charts, the righty also features curve, slider, changeup, forkball, shuuto and cut fastball for his set of tools.

Here is a video of Kaneko pitching. At least based on this footage, the righty does not seem to have any problem locating pitches on the corners to generate called strikes and weak swings.

Even though Kaneko has established himself as one of the notable targets for major league teams, it is unclear if he will test the water to head stateside next year. The righty will be eligible for domestic free agency after the 2014 season, and MLB teams would have to wait until the 2015-2016 offseason for Kaneko to be eligible for international free agency.

There is a possibility that Kaneko may ask to be posted by the Buffaloes. Or he could choose to stay with the Buffaloes or sign with other NPB team like, let's say, the Yomiuri Giants, who are already linked to the righty and are "the Yankees of the NPB, known for their long history of success and ability to hoard talent."

Unlike previous players mentioned in this article, Kaneko is said to have a lukewarm interest in MLB. It will be interesting to see if his mind changes at all during the offseason or if he will choose to preserve his talents for Nippon Professional Baseball.

LHP Kwang-Hyun Kim, SK Wyverns (KBO)

Back in 2010, Kim rivaled Hyun-Jin Ryu as one of the best young pitchers of Korean Baseball Organization. Earlier in his career, in 2008 as a 20-year old, Kim garnered the league MVP award by leading in wins (15) and strikeouts (150) while posting a 2.39 ERA.

In 2014, the Korean lefty is having his first healthy season in four years. From 2011 to 2013, Kim suffered a few shoulder injuries that robbed him of effectiveness (4.84, 4.30 and 4.47 ERA's respectively) and innings totals (74.1, 81.2, 133). This year, he leads the league with a ERA (in 151.1 innings pitched so far), the only starter under 3.00 in KBO.

Thanks to his performance, Kim has attracted scouts to the Munhak Stadium of Incheon, where the Wyverns call home. According to Clint Hulsey of I R Fast from July 2013, Kim throws his four-seam fastball around 87 to 92 mph and mixes it with sinker, slider and curve - none of which described to be particularly plus. Hulsey speculates that Kim "would have to convert to reliever" in order to survive in the majors.

The evaluation may be more positive this year. He has hit as high as 96 mph deep into starts. In an Aug. 8 start, he averaged 91.3 mph while hitting 95.7 mph, which is encouraging considering his recent history of shoulder troubles.

Here is a video from his start from June (and another here for a good measure). Because he does not possess great command (4.07 BB/9 this year), Kim is prone to giving up walks and may allow more mistake pitches, which are less forgivable at the major league level.

Kim is a fascinating case: if his stuff can fool MLB hitters, he could be a worthwhile investment in the back-end of the rotation or in bullpen. I can see a team that is willing to take a chance on a lefty starter -- but not necessarily desperate for a rotation depth -- give him a chance.

Kim is not as safe as a commodity as Ryu, due to the history of injury and lesser command. But because of other side of his history of being dominant in Korea, at least a few teams should be interested in taking a flier.

The Yankees have off tonight. Other baseball is on tonight, as well as football. Use this as your Open Thread for the evening.

Comment of the Game

Blanky wins yesterday's COTG award with this GIF of something that happened in Football. Yeah, that's pretty much how un-interesting the non-Jeter celebration part of the game was.

Best GIF of the Recap

Yesterday's BGOTR was a sloth strumming a banjo, posted by the GIF Sergeant himself. BlackandGoldTSgt once again comes through with a perfect GIF to describe yesterday's game. They don't call him the GIF Sergeant for nothing.

Honorable Mod Mention

Matt F once again wins the HMM award with a classic Naked Gun reference.

Best Comments of the Day

LTL thinks Tim Raines should be in the Hall of Fame. This reporter agrees with him, and so did others who rec'd his comment. It wins.

The magic of Madden's GIFs have the potential to always be award winners. This gem from LTL was no exception

Fun Questions

• What was your favorite thing about Derek Jeter Day yesterday?
• What are you watching tonight? Baseball or Football?

On a side note...

Ugh Mondays right? @nflcommish

— Brandon McCarthy (@BMcCarthy32) September 25, 2012

Can we please keep him?

The young hurler will miss at least one start before his status is reevaluated.

Kansas City' Royals left-hander Danny Duffy is scheduled to miss his next start after being diagnosed with rotator cuff inflammation, an MRI revealed. Per Andy McCullough of The Kansas City Star, the club plans on reevaluating Duffy in three to four days, at which time they may choose to shut him down for the remainder of the season.

The 25-year-old southpaw left Saturday's start against the Yankeesafter just one pitch, leading many to worry that recent Tommy John surgery survivor may have blown out his elbow again. The loss of Duffy for the remainder of the season could be devastating to a Royals club that is clinging to just a one game lead over the Detroit Tigers in the AL Central. On top of that, the team doesn't have much depth beyond its starting five, and there certainly has to be some concerns about Yordano Ventura possibly holding up through October.

A one time highly regarded prospect, Duffy has been brilliant in his first season back from Tommy John. He has emerged as a potential rotation building block for the Royals, teaming with the 23-year-old Ventura to form a very formidable young duo that could help lessen the blow of potentially losing James Shields this winter. In 141.1 innings this season, Duffy has a 2.42 ERA, 3.68 FIP, 6.88 K/9, 3.18 BB/9, and 3.5 WAR.

It's About the Money | Brad Vietrogoski:Michael Pineda is not getting any run support from his offense.

New York Daily News | John Harper: There have been so many celebrations and ceremonies at Yankee Stadium that they all seem stale at this point.

LoHud | Chad Jennings: Joe Mauer, Omar Vizquel, and Jason Giambi talk about Derek Jeter's skill set.

ESPN | Paul Lukas: After all the celebration of Derek Jeter, the commemorative patch might finally be overdoing it.

It's About the Money | Brad Vietrogoski: Tyler Wade, Greg Bird, and Mark Payton all saw their stock rise at the end of the season.

LoHud | Chad Jennings: A look at the best and worst performances from the Yankees farm system, including a look at potential Rule 5 picks.

Pinstriped Prospects | Geoff Magliocchetti: Ty Hensley is finally putting his injuries behind him after returning to the mound this season.

New York Post | Joel Sherman: With so many questions about Masahiro Tanaka, Carlos Beltran, Alex Rodriguez, and others, it's hard to figure out the offseason.

ESPN New York | Andrew Marchand: Derek Jeter has become more accessible in his final season.

Breaking down the two most underrated pitchers in baseball, and finding one strikingly similar approach on the mound.

Let’s play a game based off statistics between the 2013 and 2014 seasons. Consider the following:

Name Player A.

Here’s a hint: By FanGraphs’ version of Wins Above Replacement, the aforementioned quartet of pitchers have been the fourth-, fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-most valuable southpaws, respectively, in baseball over the last two years.

Now, can you name Player A? Probably not.

Let’s play another game. This time, though, we'll look at right-handers during the same time period. Consider the following:

Same thing: Name Player B, who was a supplemental first round pick in 2008 and owns some run-of-the-mill minor league numbers (3.69 ERA, 7.8 K/9, and 3.3 BB/9) .

Give up?

Player A is none other than the White Sox’s second-best left-hander – and possibly third-best once Carlos Rodon makes his debut – Jose Quintana. Player B, who slots in right behind Adam Wainwright in the Cardinals' rotation, is Lance Lynn. Quintana, according to fWAR, has been the tenth-best pitcher in baseball since the start of 2013; Lynn, the 23rd.

And the funny thing, however, is that the sum of the parts far exceed the expectations of the individual pieces. Neither owns a dominant fastball. Quintana will never pile up many whiffs, but has shown above-average control/command; Lynn’s the opposite – he has missed a solid amount of bats, but his control has been below-average.

Neither has thrown a ton of groundballs, but both rank in the top 15 for lowest homerun rates over the last two seasons. Lynn’s surrendered just 0.53 HR/9, the sixth lowest total. Quintana’s given up 0.72 HR/9, and that includes a wonky 1.04 HR-rate from last season.

Oh yeah, and neither cracked Baseball America’s Top 100 Prospects at any point in their minor league careers. Plus, in Quintana’s case, his first organization – the New York Yankees– released him just one year before his MLB debut.

So, how has each pitcher gotten it done? Well, a lot of it has to do with their curveballs. According to BrooksBaseball.net, Quintana features a four-seamer, two seamer, changeup, curve, and cutter. Three of those have been rather pedestrian – or even below-average – over the last two seasons. Consider the following:

Quintana’s two most used pitches – his fastball and curve – have, to no surprise, been his best pitches, with opponents slugging just .369 and .334 respectively. But it’s his curve that’s been the most lethal.

And where has he thrown it? In a nearly unhittable part of the plate, of course, for both LHs and RHs.

Quintana has started the pitch in the left-handed batter's box, and has let it finish down-and-in on LHs or low-and-away as a backdoor breaking ball to RHs.

As for Lynn, well, the results are strikingly similar.

Opponents have hit a lowly .221 against his four-seamer and a barely-there .206 against his curveball over the last two seasons. And look where he has located his curveball the majority of the time:

Down-and-in to RHs and low-and-away to LHs.

An intriguing piece to note for Lynn is that his curveball has been far from his go-to offering in his repertoire:

Quintana and Lynn have had a tremendous amount of success throughout their brief Major League careers, and given their respective ages – Chicago’s southpaw is just 25 and St. Louis' unsung starter is 27 – both could conceivably improve in the coming seasons, especially if they keep locating their curveballs as effectively as they have.

Statistics courtesy of FanGraphs, Baseball-Reference, and BrooksBaseball.net.

For more analysis check out Joe Werner's site: ProspectDigest.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @JoltinJoey

Cheer up sports fan, there's still plenty of good people doing good things for society that happen to be athletes.

Obviously there's a bit of a pall over the sports world thanks to the actions of a certain athlete in a certain league that made matters much worse by totally and completely botching their discipline of said player. But you can read up on that awfulness just about anywhere else. Let's focus on one of the better aspects of sports: charity work! Like Mariano Rivera's farewell last season, one of the nicest parts about Derek Jeter's exit has been that the opposing teams sending him on his way have been donating to Derek's charity: the Turn 2 Foundation. Their goal is "to create and support signature programs and activities that motivate young people to turn away from drugs and alcohol and "TURN 2" healthy lifestyles.". Sounds like a good cause to me, but he's far from the only member of the Yankee family with their own charity doing valuable work.

Mariano Rivera

Mariano Rivera Foundation

The Mariano Rivera Foundation is a community-oriented organization with emphasis in Youth Oriented Programs.

CC Sabathia

PitCCh In Foundation

The PitCCh In Foundation’s mission is to enrich the lives of inner city youth.

David Robertson

High Socks for Hope

mission is to lend support to charities and organizations helping those affected by tragedies and to provide humanitarian services for individuals in need.

Former Yankees:

Robinson Cano

The RC 22 Foundation (the url will make you sad)

The mission of the RC22 Foundation is to positively impact the lives of underserved children and communities both locally and globally.

Curtis Granderson:

Grand Kids Foundation

aid positive youth development via education, physical fitness and nutrition - providing tools and resources for educational and societal advancement.

Joe Torre:

Safe at Home Foundation

edu­cat­ing to end the cycle of domes­tic vio­lence and save lives

There's obviously more that members of the Yankees family are doing to give back: Jacoby Ellsbury works with The Navajo Relief Fund, Mark Teixeira works with Harlem RBI. And of course there's the Yankees own Hope Week efforts that run every year in June that involve many noble causes.

Not to get too preachy on everybody early on a Tuesday morning, but there's more to making the sports world (and society as a whole) better than just punishing and admonishing the wicked. There's also rewarding and assisting the noble and good. So if you awoke today feeling depressed about the state of sports in general, donate some money to one of your favorite player's charities. There's good and bad in just about any interest you can have: lets push the needle back to the good for following sports a little by helping out the less fortunate.

How long will fans of the Bombers have to wait for another playoff berth? This season isn't over yet, but the Yankees don't have much of a choice other than to hope for a resurgence from their aging veterans.

The Yankees are stuck. After an offseason for the ages that saw the team drop $438 million on four big-name players, general manager Brian Cashman will head into 2015 with little payroll flexibility and a team that's relying heavily on the success of high-earning players who are no longer the stars they once were.

It was once difficult to imagine the Yankees being associated with anything other than payroll freedom, not constraints. But the team's dependence on veteran signees has dug the Yankees into a hole they can only climb out of when those players start to perform—or when their contracts expire down the road.

Past Yankees teams, the ones that appeared in five World Series in six years from 1996 to 2001 and again in 2003, relied on a mix of homegrown talent and big deals to veterans like Jason Giambi, Hideki Matsui, Roger Clemens and Mike Mussina. The 2009 championship-winning squad used a similar formula, though admittedly with greater reliance on offseason signings.

In other words, the Yankees used to be a "normal team," in the sense that they had a good mix of young and old talent. Now there's a whole lot of the latter, and not much youth at all. What's more, those older players have created a concentration of wealth that Cashman would probably look upon with horror if he'd seen it coming back in his debut season of 1998.

The degree of that problem is truly astonishing. The combined 2015 salaries of Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia, Masahiro Tanaka, Jacoby Ellsbury and Brian McCann will total roughly $128 million, more than the Houston Astros' payroll over the last three seasons combined.

Yes, six Yankees players will make more in one season than an entire team made over the course of three. And those six players have combined to post a WAR of 9.7 this season, a total that is disconcertingly close to Angels outfielder Mike Trout's 6.6 WAR. (Obviously, A-Rod hasn't played in 2014, though it's anyone's guess as to how much he can still contribute anyway.)

Incredibly, the Yankees already have $172 million committed to 2015 salaries in total, and when you throw in possible extensions to players like closer David Robertson, starter Brandon McCarthy and third baseman Chase Headley, Cashman could be heading into the offseason with his work nearly finished thanks to a payroll that figures to total over $200 million with extensions factored in. Those three players—Robertson, McCarthy and Headley—will also command significantly more than they did in 2014, including McCarthy, who somehow has a 1.36 ERA with five wins in six starts at Yankee Stadium this year.

Success in one of the worst pitching environments in the game turns a pitcher into a valuable commodity, and as Pinstripe Alley's Michael Brown noted, teams out of the financial running for top starters like Max Scherzer and Jon Lester will likely turn their attention to McCarthy this offseason. If the Yankees  get into a bidding war with pitching-starved teams like the Red Sox or Phillies, McCarthy might come at a very steep price.

Certainly the loss of players with big contracts like Hiroki Kuroda ($16 million this season), Derek Jeter ($12 million) and Ichiro (a rather tame $6.5 million in comparison) limits the damage a bit. But A-Rod's salary jumps back up to $22 million after he made around $3 million in 2014, on top of Brett Gardner's $7 million salary hike as the result of his extension and the $6 million A-Rod will make if he hits six more homers to match Willie Mays' 660.

★★★

2014 isn't a lost season for the Yankees just yet, and 2015 doesn't have to be either. Though the Bombers won't go far if McCann posts another sub-.700 OPS and Beltran maintains his replacement-level production, to name a few issues, the team is loaded with players who have been there and done that. There's a lot of potential for the Yankees to be a good ballclub (heck, a playoff ballclub) next season, even if they haven't shown many signs of it yet.

Most importantly, Tanaka will be back and should contend for the Cy Young award if he stays healthy. McCann is hitting .316 in September and looks much more comfortable at the plate. Dellin Betances is allowing less than half a hit per inning, and he'll combine with Robertson to hold down the eighth and ninth innings if the latter re-signs. Barring injuries, the Yankees could have a solid rotation of Tanaka, McCarthy and Michael Pineda, along with Sabathia. Even A-Rod might provide a few hundred quality at-bats with the luxury of the DH spot.

2015 is a season of uncertainty for the Yankees, but many of the team's core players figure to remain the same. And yet, if the team is willing to move up into the mid-$200 million range, as could very well be the case, we might see more big-name players joining the Bombers by the time next season rolls around. The sky—or the confines of Steinbrenners' checkbooks—is the limit.

Fifteen years ago today, the Yankees lost a dear friend and valued member of two World Series championship teams.

It's difficult to imagine a disease more cruel than ALS. It turns its victims from fully functional humans to people unable to care for themselves at all, rendering even tremendous athletes like Lou Gehrig immobile before long. Hell, they become immobile within just a couple years, but the process does not feel fast at all. When Gehrig was diagnosed with ALS, he had been slowly losing his motor skills over the previous several months and by the time he was fully retired and honored on July 4th, it was extremely difficult to walk. It's tragic that ALS struck a Yankees icon once, but sadly, it's happened more than once. Fifteen years ago today, Hall of Famer and '70s great Catfish Hunter passed away from ALS. He was only 53.

I could be mistaken, but I do not believe Hunter's death from ALS is as nearly well-known as it ought to be. To most people, he's just a funny nickname from the past, a baseball Hall of Famer probably most famous for signing the first big money free agent contract in 1975. I think a decent portion of baseball fans remember his fate, but so many more do not.

Every year, the Yankees welcome back many of their alumni for Old Timers' Day. Catfish should be there. This year on that occasion, the Yankees honored his teammate and closer Goose Gossage with a plaque in Monument Park. Catfish should have been there. In 2008, they bid goodbye to the old Yankee Stadium, where he won countless fans over his five years in pinstripes. Catfish should have been there. Eleven years ago, the Yankees retired his teammate and fellow slider expert Ron Guidry's number 49 in a ceremony at the old Yankee Stadium. Catfish should have been there. ALS robbed us of Catfish.

***

A good ol' farm boy out of Hertford, North Carolina, Jim Hunter learned his famous control from his older brothers and rose to prominence dazzling scouts who visited his high school in Perquimans. One of the last future Hall of Famers to sign as an amateur before the advent of the MLB draft, charismatic Kansas City Athletics owner Charlie Finley signed him and gave him a $50,000 bonus, even though he had been injured in a hunting accident. He immediately made an impact, coming up to Kansas City as a teenager in 1965 without ever pitching in the minor leagues and becoming a two-time All-Star by age 21. Finley conjured a fictitious story to give him his famous nickname, and a legend was born.

In 1968, the A's moved out west to Oakland, and Hunter immediately gave his new fans a highlight with the greatest day of his career. He twirled just the ninth perfect game in major league history, setting down 27 Twins in a row while also notching a three-hit day. No pitcher in modern baseball history has ever been younger than Catfish when he threw his gem. Ever the carefree guy though, he joked to teammates and reporters that his hitting was the star of the show that day, not his pitching.

Of course, Catfish would go on to later prominence with the A's when his teammates around him rose to his levels of excellence and the 1972-74 A's became the only non-Yankees team to ever win three World Series championships in a row. Catfish was the clear ace, making four more All-Star teams in Oakland while averaging an incredible 38 starts and 281 innings per year, not counting postseason. He had his best season in his last year in Oakland, 1974, when he won the AL Cy Young Award with a league-best 2.49 ERA (73 ERA-) and 0.986 WHIP in 41 starts and 318 1/3 innings (!).

After the third straight title, Hunter and his agent discovered that Finley had violated terms of his contract and when they brought the case to an arbiter, he was declared a free agent. It was a nearly unprecedented situation and it set off a frenzy in which numerous teams bid for his services. In the end though, it was new Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who sought to make his stamp on the game by showing how dedicated he was to trying to improve his team through his wallet. He spent the most, offering Hunter a five-year, $3.35 million contract, which was accepted by Hunter on New Year's Eve.

Manager Billy Martin knew just how potent and durable Hunter was, and he absolutely used him like a workhorse in his first season. That year, Hunter pitched a career-high 328 innings and 30 complete games, unheard of marks by today's standards that also easily led the AL. The All-Star was brilliant with 8.1 rWAR, a 2.58 ERA, and a league-best 1.009 WHIP, but the Yankees missed the playoffs. In '76, Hunter wasn't as effective, though he was an All-Star for the eighth and final time and he was still roundly regarded as the staff ace. The Yankees won both the AL East and their first AL pennant in 12 years.

The years of wear and tear took their toll on Catfish over the next three years, as he struggled with injuries and effectiveness. The Yankees achieved their goal and won the World Series in both '77 and '78. Catfish was able to channel the ace of old in the Yankees' stunning rally during the second half of '78, as he pitched to a excellent 2.23 ERA from the beginning of August onward, throwing 80 innings with just a 0.967 WHIP. Without his efforts, the Yankees probably don't come back on the Red Sox that year to force the one-game playoff.

Nonetheless, further arm ailments in '79 forced him into early retirement as his contract expired at age 33. A diabetes diagnosis that required three insulin shots a day and the sudden death of his friend and catcher Thurman Munson that August certainly didn't help matters, either. The humble Hunter was never bitter about his departure from the game, as he felt great joy just working on his 1,000-acre farm in North Carolina growing corn, soybeans, and peanuts. He was a constant presence at Old Timers' Day who always received a huge round of applause for his efforts in bring the Yankees back to prominence in the late '70s. When the BBWAA voted him into the Hall of Fame in 1987, the five-time champion chose to wear a cap with no insignia out of respect to both the A's (who later retired his number 27 in 1991) and the Yankees.

It seemed like Hunter would just continue his pleasant life of normal baseball retirement, and he did until the winter of 1997. Hunter noticed he couldn't lift his shotgun with his right hand while hunting. He thought it was just a tick bite, but it was far, far worse. Hunter ventured to numerous medical centers and was stunned to learn that he was diagnosed with ALS. His motor skills continued to deteriorate, as he could barely grip a baseball. The Associated Press detailed his struggles:

...it progressed quickly, leaving the once strong-armed pitcher unable to function without help. He talked of how Helen, his high school sweetheart and wife of more than 30 years, helped him through each day, dressing him and cutting his food.
"Once in a while," he said, "we sit there and cry together."

When he visited the Yankees in spring training of '99, his old teammates were extremely saddened by the fact that he could barely shake hands with arms that "hung limp at his side." On August 8th, he fell and hit his head on the concrete steps outside his house. That sent him to the hospital for the final time, where he stayed until September 4th. That day, with his condition growing ever more critical, he was sent home for his last days. On September 9, 1999, the jovial man who brought smiles to so many teammates' faces passed away at age 53. When the Yankees and some of Hunter's former teammates-turned-coaches celebrated their 25th World Series title that fall, they did so with black arm bands on their jerseys in remembrance of Catfish Hunter.

It's just a damn shame that Catfish was taken from us so soon. You can help in both his and Gehrig's honor by donating to ALS research at one of the many organizations fighting for a cure to this terrible disease. More people should know about Hunter's fight against ALS and keep his memory alive. The unparalleled Bob Sheppard said it best during the first game at Yankee Stadium after Hunter's passing:

"Jim Hunter was more than a Hall of Fame pitcher.

He was a Hall of Fame human being."

The same thing we do every Tuesday, Pinky.

Bowtie McFunnypants checked in on several teams in his latest roundup, focusing largely on the Braves and Rays and saying astute things like Dan Uggla "was on a Hall of Fame track" prior to joining Atlanta.  He did, however, give some insight into Reds CF Billy Hamilton's offseason plans, since he's apparently interested in being a better and more frequent bunter (yay).  Also included are some awkward quotes from Brandon Phillips, who basically says that he's one of the best players in baseball and once Hamilton figures out how great he can be, he can be, too.  Oh, Brandon.  Hopefully this just means Billy will show bunt and pull it back before the first pitch of every at bat from now on.

Speaking of which, Phillips has a .687 OPS and 91 OPS+ over his last 1100 PA and 1000 AB.  Three years, $39 million.  Double Woodford on the rocks please, barkeep.

Here's FanGraphs' Dave Cameron muddying the waters about On Base Percentage again.  Cameron gets a Dusty Baker Honorary High-Five for writing an article about base clogging without actually saying the phrase "base clogging," but he makes a very solid observation regarding the speed of players once they reach base and how that relates to overall runs scored.  The theory, of course, is that runs are ultimately what determine whether a team wins or loses, and while OBP is generally required to make said runs happen, having David Ortiz on 1B from a walk versus having Billy Hamilton on 1B from a walk is a scenario that creates markedly different results from a runs perspective.  So, a walk is a walk is not a walk is a single is not a single is a walk, essentially, and it may mean that picking up an RBI batting behind Hamilton's .300 OBP may actually be just as easy as getting one behind Ortiz and his .360 OBP.

Hamilton has scored 41% of the time he's reached base so far in 2014, which ranks as tied for the 2nd most frequent in the National League among players with at least 550 PA (behind only Anthony Rendon and tied with Dee Gordon).  Considering how many times he's been thrown out while trying to steal, that's pretty impressive with how sub-mediocre the rest of the Reds offense has been.  To connect the dots, here's where ESPN's Christina Kahrl notes that the success rate on trying to bunt for hits has been as low as 22% league-wide for a decade, and Hamilton's 2014 mark was roughly 31% when this was written in late June.

This is what happens in New York in October when the Yankees, Mets, Jets, and Giants are all terrible, apparently.  Oh, the humanity.  #chill

Over at Redleg Nation, Doug Gray wonders why the recent September call-ups haven't yet seen the light of day.  It's baffling, as he notes, that Donald Lutz has never in his now two year Reds career started two games in a row.  It would be one thing if the veteran regulars had been producing at a reasonable clip and playing the call-ups would risk deflating the team's ability to the point of offering a decided advantage to the teams playing the Reds now as opposed to two weeks ago, but I'll reiterate what was discussed in last night's game thread:  since the All-Star break (now nearly 50 games), the Reds rank dead last in all of baseball in runs, hits, total bases, RBI, batting average, on base percentage, slugging, and OPS (duh), and "lead" many of those by quite a wide margin.  The team as a whole has a .605 OPS since the break, well ahead (behind?) the New York Mets and their 29th ranked .640 mark.  So if playing the whippersnappers doesn't really make the team worse, why act like it?

Finally, the Enquirer's John Fay took a quick peek at the idea of trading starting pitching for hitting this offseason, opining basically that Johnny Cueto is amazing and TINSTAAPP.  He makes some sound points, too, considering the rise of the wealth of pitching within the organization has synced exactly with the recent run of success, and deviating significantly from that path may not necessarily be as obviously successful as many seem to think.  In a perfect world, I think signing Cueto takes the crown as the offseason's top priority, followed closely by trading Mike Leake for a pre-arb bat of some distinction.  Why Leake?  Well, a trade of Mat Latos this winter would be a sell-low move, for one, but I also think that there's a greater chance that Latos would decline a qualifying offer after the 2015 season than there is that Leake would, so I'd swap Leake for a hitting prospect at net a draft pick (and one more season) out of Latos.  But, as 2014 has taught us all, the world is far from perfect, so who the hell knows what we'll see.