I have said this all year. I have said it for 2, maybe 3 years, actually.
The problem with the Yankees is Brian Cashman. Get rid of him. Bring in a talent. Clean house.
And begin anew.
Cashman has only one strategy and it consists of the following tactics:
1. Have idiots in charge of the draft. Waste picks by trading them, or focusing on family friends like Mariano's kid, Dante Bichette's kid, or Cito Culver.
2. Trade everything we have, picks and prospects, for pitching. Which, as it turns out, is not the fuc**** problem.
3. Keep making the team older and slower. Pay outrageous sums to players whose best years are so far in the past as to create laughter from the teams who deal them to us. It must be like Christmas every day during the off season for them. Wasted players whose contracts other teams were prepared to eat, all of a sudden are redeemed at par and usually we throw in a bonus in the form of a, " player to be named." The shock and laughter at the Yankee's stupidity must bring tears.
4. Fire the guy who cleans the locker room when we fail to make the playoffs. But keep the incompetents who are in charge of scouting, evaluating and developing talent. Doesn't anyone notice that we have no one we are willing to bring up from the minors at any position other than pitching? Whose responsibility is it that we have no talent? Whose?
5. Constantly, without fail, make trades that hurt us and help others.
6. Sign 15 year-olds from the Dominican, and give them millions. By the time they are major league eligible, they are zonked out on drugs and/or don't give a crap. They are already
millionaires ( zillionaires compared to their lives in the Dominican), and could give a crap about working hard, traveling forever and, perhaps, being revealed as without talent.
I am telling you, as I have endlessly, that Cashman and his band of useless hangers on are the problem.
Incompetence, incompetence and incompetence. The three musketeers of Cashman's approach.
We have spent millions, loaded and re-loaded the team and, if Derek were already gone you would see a total collapse. These .225 hitters are trying as hard as they can because they are on his team. Don't even contemplate what next year will be like.
They score 2 runs a game, and have no clutch hitters at all, save perhaps Ellsbury.
Cashman has failed in front of everyone's eyes. Isn't it time?
What will it take to dump him? His damn contract will be up at the end of this season. Which, to us, is today.
Let me guess:
ReplyDeleteYou watched last night's game, start to finish.
You were kind enough to publish on your site one of my articles on the Yankees last Thanksgiving. I truly understand your pain and quite frankly have had enough myself. I have given up for the year and am seriously reconsidering my future allegiance. My thoughts are posted at
ReplyDeleteAbsolomBracer.com
http://www.absolombracer.com/?p=653
Last night after the Astros took the lead, I opened the window, shook my tiny fist, and yelled "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it any more!"
ReplyDeleteand just to teach the Yankees a hard lesson, I won't be buying any $16 steak sandwiches at the game this Friday. Kinda harsh, I know, but I'm pissed!
I'm convinced Cashman is either a double agent, takes mega under the table bribes from these other teams, or has a cache of photos and is blackmailing one or more of the Kinky Boots Steinspawn,,,, could also be a perfect storm of all 3,,,,,,
ReplyDeleteEnough is ENOUGH!
I still think you are way too easy on the Steinbrenner. Maybe its just because there's nothing we can do about them.
ReplyDeleteThey're the ones that made us flirt around with the Plan $189, wasting all of 2013; demanded the for soriano; gave ichiro a 2 year deal, etc.
They have the money to absorb the risks from bad contracts no problem, but we don't because we have to flirt with luxury cap rather than going full Dodgers.
The player development has not worked out but do you have any actual data showing that cashman picks have developed historically worse than average for their slots? I will say the wariness of Cuba and Japan has been stupid but independent prospect evaluators have generally liked the Yankees' last few drafts. They've been good and signed too many free agents to actually have top 20 picks.
I also think the hit rate for trades has been generally quite good. The Granderson trade worked out in terms of prioritizing present value at the time, as those teams were actually good. Pineda/Jesus was terrible but somehow we won that trade anyway. The Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte trade was probably a bad one, but hell Marte turned out to be our designated "get Ryan Howard out" guy in the world series.
This team is bad and will probably be bad next year. The McCann signing turning out bad was just bad luck, but Beltran was obviously overpaid for at the time, as was Elsbury. I don't think Cashman is any particularly bad GM (he's better than at least half of them tbh), I think the issue is that he is basically contractually required by the Steinbrenners to never step on the brakes and reload for a season. Maybe a new guy could convince them to let him do that, maybe not.
Dear Anon….
ReplyDeleteYour inference is correct. I don't bother to attack the Steinbrothers because I cannot undue their inheritance.
They are, no doubt, contributors to the mess. I think they are baseball dumb and, worse, don't really care about the franchise. Certainly, they do not care in the same manner as their father did.
The Yankees remain a valuable asset and with the experienced Cashman at the helm, they likely feel that the franchise is in good enough, proven hands.
So they let Brian do as he wishes.
That is a prime reason why I think there will continue to be no substantive changes in the way the Yankees are run.
Cashman will get a substantial contract extension. No one of importance will be replaced for upgrade.
And we will trundle on. Only when masses of people stop buying tickets, watching and listening will the Steinbrothers begin to show interest.
Because the franchise value will begin to erode.
Sadly for us, they have so much money that almost nothing matters.