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Depends on the player. There's room in baseball for both types; you have both types on the Yanks right now...

What Raf said.

Are you talking about the majority of the team being made up of people of this ilk, or just the new guys coming in?

I like dudes who are good at playing baseball.

I like a good healthy mix of the two. Too many stoic, poker-faced guys is what the Yanks looked like in 2004/2005.

Neither one type nor the other means anything about how good or bad the player is, but as a fan, it's more fun rooting for guys that at least give off the appearance of caring (Paulie).

Assuming both guys have similar levels of production, I'd rather have the latter. I agree that it's more fun to root for firey guys who bust it down the line. But, if that guy is Chad Curtis, I'd just as soon pass. Pauly O'neill was great in that he was a red ass AND exceptionally talented.

~~~but as a fan, it's more fun rooting for guys that at least give off the appearance of caring (Paulie).~~~

Huge ditto for me.

I dunno on the Chad Curtis thing.

But, then this becomes the debate of "Would you rather have Brosius and Tino than A-Rod and Giambi."

The way I see it, this is A-Rod vs. Jeter.

//The way I see it, this is A-Rod vs. Jeter.//

I would put them both in the "Poker-faced, major-league-cool" category. Yeah, they're both "hustling players", but I see the second category as more of the Johnny Damon type.

But, then this becomes the debate of "Would you rather have Brosius and Tino than A-Rod and Giambi."
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That's simple: you take the A-Rod of '05 over Brosius (post-season heroics aside) ANYTIME, but you probably take '98 Brosius over the '06 A-Rod.

You take the '96-'99 Tino over Giambi (since defense counts for something), but take the Giambi of '02-'06 (injury years included) over the Tino of '00-'05.

It's fun to see guys like Melky hustle -- and I'll admit to being an Eric "Captain America" Byrnes fan (nothing better than a guy who will run through a wall) -- but ultimately isn't it just about who's more productive?

Anyway, sorry to bring up something TOTALLY unrelated to the topic, but am I going insane or is Tanyon Sturtze in a Quizno's commercial? In the commercial they are comparing Quizno's sandwiches to Subway's and in the middle there's this big guy sitting at a table and he says, "It's a lotta meat." His hair is longer than it was with the Yanks, and the gap in his front teeth looks bigger, but damned if that doesn't look like everyone's favorite out-of-the-bullpen brawler Grand Tanyon. Who knows -- maybe I had simply had too much to drink when I saw it.

I don't know how firey Tino and Brosius were. Hard-nosed, sure. Classy and professional? You bet. Also both were highly regarded, at least through the mercurial prism of the media, as great teammates and all-around good guys. But it's hard to believe that anyone with a modicum of sanity would prefer Brosius over A-Rod .

brockdc, it's hard to imagine until you talk to some whacked out Yankee fans who like to blather on about True Yankees and Mystique and Aura.

Also, what's this bullshit about Giambi being poker faced and cool and professional and whatever.

Exhibit A: He looks like the bouncer at a strip club.

Exhibit B: He sweats more than Patrick Ewing.

Exhibit C: He called out A-Rod according to SI.

Exhibit D: When he was with Oakland, he turned around on the basepaths to yell at Tejada for not taking an extra base.

So the point is, that MLB and Yankee culture turns these guys into automatons. Before joining the Yankees nobody would have ever dreamed of calling Giambi poker faced and major league cool. Whatever in the F that's supposed to mean anyway.