Monday, February 9, 2015

Will the Yankee season hinge on Mookie Betts?

Yesterday, I browsed a few Redsock blogs, which are as bursting with hope as the Yankiverse is of suicidal despair.

A big reason is Mookie Betts, their 22-year-old stud-muffin 2B, who they've moved to CF. According to some voodoo analyses, Betts projects to be the next Andrew McCutchen. In fact, the Redsocks even call him "Little Cutch."

After reading this, I felt better. Whenever Redsock Nation bloggers agree that this is Boston's year, rest assured that this is not be Boston's year. In fact, when the frat boys tap their victory kegs in March, the team is usually done by July.

Still, I get nervous. Betts is a year younger than our 2B, Rob Refsnyder, and he streaked through the minors. If we had a young CF like him, he'd arrive in Tampa on a giant robot tiger with Katy Perry. We have the excitement machine known as Stephen Drew.

Last spring, Boston hailed the emergence of Jackie Bradely Jr., as if he were Jackie Yastrzemski Jr. Now, they now wouldn't accept the guy as a Burger King promotional giveaway. If Betts turns out to be Jackie Bradley III, we're saved - because that anticipated infusion of youth won't be coming.

But if Betts does turn out to Little Cutch - or if that Cuban, Rusney Castillo, is "Brett Gardner with power" - well, folks, we are screwed. The next five years are going to be like watching that guy go through the python. Remember the old Yankee-Redsock rivalry, where we were the hammer and they were the nail? If they find a 22-year-old future MVP CF, we're going to be a long time in the python.

The Yankees' strategy this winter has been for everybody else to suck. We did nothing to markedly improve our team. (Signing Yoan Moncada would be a psychological boost, but he probably can't save 2015.) Still, the plan might work: Baltimore lost some big hitters, Toronto is still Toronto, and for Tampa to be good again, they need another 10 years of drafting first. That leaves Boston - and Mookie Betts.

Hate to be so negative. But when you say your prayers for the Yankees, ask God to send Mookie Betts a hernia. For us to feel good, he needs to be bad.

1 comment:

  1. http://nypost.com/2015/02/07/this-yankees-farm-hand-could-have-an-impact-sooner-than-later/

    Add another one to the graveyard boys. Luis Severino, we hardly knew ye.

    ReplyDelete

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