Going Again

Back To New Zealand
Where the sheep miaow and they do miaow well... hang on, that's not how 'Stone Henge' goes, but you get the vibe.

I'm heading out with somee folks from Japan to do some location scouting in NZ for a ninja movie. There are mountains of problems to be solved, but at least they're moving. The director will be coming out in the second week, which should be interesting.
Stay tuned for more announcements from me.

Gone Already
It's official: The 2007 Edition of the Yankees plain suck.

i wish I had answers for you. The Yankees are playing so poorly that I’m not sure who you can blame. Torre met with them for nearly an hour before the game and nothing came of it. They had a long pre-game workout. They have tried changing the lineup. They have tried pretty much everything.
Right, except firing somebody. At some point that will be next. But this team has bigger problems than its manager. A lot of players are getting old at the same time and no manager alive can change that.

They are the recent dynasty's answer to the 1977-78 Yankees' decline in 1982. As Graig Nettles said of the 1982 team, this team got old awfully quick.

The Rocket will be arriving too late. Here's another thing you might want to look at:

1. Denial - It’s only 20 games. It’s only 30 games. It’s only 40 games. Look at their pythagorean record…

2. Anger/Resentment - Joe Torre needs to be fired. Bobby Abreu sucks. Robinson Cano sucks. Johnny Damon sucks. Jason Giambi sucks. Kyle Farnsworth sucks…

3. Bargaining - If the Yankees can just get to .500, then when Hughes and Clemens are in the rotation with Moose, Wang, and Pettitte they’ll be unstoppable…

4. Depression - The Yankees fall to 21-28 with their loss to the Toronto Blue Jays tonight.

5. Acceptance - The 2007 Yankees are a bad baseball team. With their payroll and their performance they’ll go down in history as one of the biggest flops ever…

I finally accepted the truth tonight. The 2007 Yankees are not going to make the playoffs. I’ll still watch the games whenever I can, and I will still root for them to win every night, but I have no expectations any more. Some of my favorite baseball memories came while watching some relatively bad baseball in the late 80s and early 90s. I’ll just hope they win when I watch, and if they don’t win that day, I’ll hope they win the next one. The last thing any Yankee fan should do is whine and feel sorry for themselves. We’ve gotten to see some of the best players and best moments any fan could hope for, for the last 12 years.

When those guys say this, I think it's a eulogy for the last 12 years of Yankee baseball. This team is going to be blown up and rebuilt. Who knows if Torre will be around or if Cashman will be around. It's not like they have ready replacements if they get sacked now; and sacking them really would be an admission the season is over in May.

It's going to be hard to rebuild. May as well start guessing early...
A-Rod will walk, and chances are they'll let him. 3B will be a hole.
Bobby Abreu will be alllowed to walk. RF will be another hole.
Johnny Damon will be a hole if kept so Damon may even get traded, though it's hard to see any takers.
Giambi will be around by dint of his albatross contract. 1B is still a hole.
Matsui would be better trade fodder than either so he may get traded for something.
Posada is old, so he's technically part of the problem in spite of his performance- Not that there are any ready replacements. So Catcher is another hole, but something tells me he'll be re-signed.
Anyway, it's months before the deck chairs get re-shuffled, but it already looks like a mess that needs to be cleaned up.