Duque says, "we dodged a bullet," when Cliff Lee turned up lame. I disagree.
We tried to make that deal with the same enthusiasm and foresight the Yankees exhibited in using a top draft pick on Andy Brackman, knowing he was headed for career ending surgery. We tried to sign Cliff Lee utilizing the same planning and keen insight it took Brian Cashman to use a top draft pick on that pitcher whose family told us, in advance of the major league draft, that their son would first attend UCLA, before signing a MLB contract with anyone.
The sad truth is; we had no "prospect" package that the Phillies would take for an expensive and damaged 35+ pitcher, who has no remaining ability to play this game at the major league level. You would think they would take Zealous Wheeler, Cito Culver, Eric Almonte, Slade Heathcott, Mason Williams, Gary Sanchez, Tyler Austin, Austine Romine and Pat Venditte along with cash, bonds, or cereal coupons to rid themselves of the Cliff Lee debacle.
But they would rather have nothing from the Yankees. They would rather eat his contract, and hold an empty bag for the next several seasons, than have any group of "prospects" from the Yankees' minor league system. Every team has seen that the Yankees simply don't have any talent in the minor leagues. The Phillies are already in that box. Why nail it shut with "Yankee prospects?"
Last night it was clearly demonstrated that this Cashman-conceived, Yankee team can't beat a Boston team that has unloaded all of its aging, costly, dirty laundry, and is testing some of their young talent. Boston is not waiting for kids who will get a September call-up and watch the game from the dugout, as happens with Yankee "prospects." The Red Sox are using prospects now who will start, and regularly play at the major league level. To, heaven forbid, learn something about them for the future.
Mr. Cashman does not believe in this tactic. He won't even let Almonte play regularly. He yo-yo's him and, as a result, the kid never can find himself. So, at the trading deadline, Brian brings in a 30 year-old utility guy named Prado, who will be played out of position in the outfield ( as opposed to Almonte who is an outfielder). What message does this send to Yankee prospects? How does adding another .220 hitter, with no power, help anything?
Brian apparently doesn't get it that the mediocre players he just acquired are from the same mold as the mediocre players he has just jettisoned, only a bit younger. The result will be the same; pack your bags and go home on October 2.
In the meantime, in Cashman's obsessed pursuit of his still-born and illogical dream to earn the one-game play-in, thereby salvaging the season, the Yankees will ruin Tanaka, Bettances, Warren, and Kuroda on the way. This team is already boring and predictable. Cashman is simply extending the torture. If Derek wasn't on his retirement tour, no one would come to the stadium.
We are descending into a hell, fans, that most of you have never experienced. It has happened before. I have lived it, El Duque has lived it and so have many others on this blog. And it just sucks.
I speak of a hell where the Yankees simply cannot compete, no matter how hard they try. A hell where baseball legends are built from laughable baseball antics. A hell Where Horace Clark becomes famous, and Yankee games become the butt-fumble of jokes. A hell where rivals don't exist, and even our historic nemesis feels sorry for our futility. A hell where even a Don Mattingly is wasted.
The hard truth is: Cashman has ruined the franchise, and it is far too late to recover. Based upon what I see from our, "prospect talent pool," I feel that the hell of our future will endure at least 10 years ( the word " forever" looms as long as Cashman is in charge). Does anyone really believe that there is a Derek, Bernie, Pettitte, Mariano, Jorge, Cano or even a Gardener in pinstripes somewhere? Is there a single name about whom we should legitimately be excited?
Can't everyone see what actions Yankees must take?
It is time for a complete do-over. It is time to change everything from top to bottom. To throw out all the people, ideas, and structure that have brought us to this point. It is time to re-start the franchise with fresh ideas and energetic, innovated individuals who are not cemented into a formula that no longer works. A formula that hasn't worked for years: the A-Rod contract type of thinking; the signing of Ichiro kind of thinking; the 3 years for Beltran kind of thinking; the trade for Pineda kind of thinking; the pathetic draft selections kind of thinking. That all has to go.
If all we do is "tinker," we are damned. And all Cashman has done for years, is "tinker." The Yankees, under Cashman's leadership is now a proud franchise slipping into embarrassment and ridicule.
The NFL can be seen on TV this Sunday. An organized scrimmage is better than watching the Yankees descend into hell.
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18 comments:
Amen Alphonso, AMEN!!!!!
But how do you really feel?
please John M. no one wants to know how you feel
Dear Anonymous, whoever you are...
Take a step back.
You - or someone with your name - used to infect this site with some funny, keenly observant and damn near brilliant posts. But for a good while now, you've become consumed by a vendetta that, frankly, is getting a bit creepy.
Is this what you want to be... the guy who relentlessly - even obsessively - attacks a poster on a Yankee fan blog that, by its own definition, doesn't take itself seriously? We are simply trying to survive the Yankee apocalypse with our sense of humor and our brains intact.
A while back, you wrote hilarious stuff. (Or maybe it was somebody else. That's the bugaboo with using the public name.) Either way, you seemed to have stopped trying to write well, in order to attack harder and be more hurtful.
Listen: In my life, I have gone down that road. There were times when I became so wound up about things that I couldn't write a single sentence about them that made sense. Right now, the anger in your posts is the only thing that is coming through. It's beyond trolling. Take a step back.
Thank you El Duque, VERY well said!
There are no prospects the phillies would take for their old players because Ruben Amaro junior is a LITERAL idiot that doesn't know the market.
Seriously look around at some of these other GMs and Cashman is much better.
He's not as good as Beane, or Friedman, or probably Cherington or Mozeliak or Epstein among others, but thank god he's no Ruben Amaro or Dayton Moore, or Jack Z or Towers or whoever the twins and angels and plenty others have.
Also the yankees probably didn't even offer anything for Lee because doing so would have been idiotic.
Dear El Duque,
Does what you write apply to John M. who is posing as an anonymous, not anonymous, Ken and god knows who else? Talk about being creepy....and not funny and not keenly observant.
You should change the column to MMC. Monday Morning Quarterback!! Please stop with the unintelligent negative rants. It's so easy for you to sit back on your couch eating chips and dips and criticize the moves months after. Give credit to Cashman for being so career driven to reach GM of the top sports franchise in sports. For that I give him kudos. Set your goals and you shall achieve. He was not handed the job, he earned his position. What GM is perfect, none!
Dear Anonymous,
If I write something, I sign the post, period.
I'm no writer, and don't pretend to be. I love the Yankees, and this site is the only refuge that I've been able to find for a VERY long time. I'm not versed in the jargon of the the game, I'm just a guy who tries to listen to as many games as I can on the radio, and that means I'm fortunate to be able to experience the Yankees through the wonderfully warped and colorful lens of The Master and SW.
I feel that El Duque is without exaggeration, the Mark Twain of sports writing. What I love most about his site is that he does not take himself or this team too seriously, AND, that he encourages and supports an extremely diverse population that also loves and suffers along with this team.
AND< the BRILLIANCE and brutal clarity of Alphonso's writing, wisdom and insights!!!!!!!
Ken is Ken, and I am I, Duque is Duque. Most people use a single identity online. Although, to be fair, a sociopathic or psychotic individual often has a streak of paranoia, based in the belief that others act in the strange, aggressive, unbalanced way he/she does (which helps to further self-rationalize the symptomatic behavior).
And as a fairly recent newspaper article reported, scientific research has shown that people who are troll-like, nasty, faceless attackers in comment sections of blogs and sites are indeed sociopathic, even psychopathic, to varying degrees.
These conditions, though rarely acknowledged by the afflicted, are treatable with therapy and, in cases involving violence, neuroleptic drugs. Electric shock therapy is sometimes used. In certain situations, neurosurgery is used to target very small parts of the brain in order to reduce feelings of aggression and fear.
Baseball is rarely used to treat sociopathic or psychotic behavior. In fact, a fastball to the noggin can actually cause brain damage that results in precisely the disorders we're discussing. For that reason alone, I think the prudent medical action here would be for the patient to hang out somewhere that may be more useful...say, a psychiatrist's office, or a hospital pharmacy. And do so anonymously, if that can be arranged, though I doubt it.
Oh, crap, almost forgot--yeah, I think Alphonso has pinned the tail on the GM with this post. With every "move" the front office makes, it's clear that the Yankee marketing theme this year should have been Mediocrity R Us. Unless the "tradition" they talk about in the commercials has something to do with Horace Clarke and the Folly Floater. I suppose they are traditions, in some sense.
mediocrity r us....great line john.
I comment here via my Mid-Atlantic representative who keeps me apprised of east coast concerns and regionally significant public restrooms.
Very funny Guys, now someone else has posted under my name,,,,,, I guess I've finally made the BIG TIMES!!
All of this bullshit would probably end if there was an individual ID required along with your post. Not sure if El Duque wants to go that route, but I'd love it.
Ken, I don't think that would be a good idea.
Can't we all just get along?
"Electric shock therapy is sometimes used. In certain situations, neurosurgery is used to target very small parts of the brain in order to reduce feelings of aggression and fear."
Nice
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