Monday, July 27, 2015

It's Cashnado Week in the Yankiverse, but while we imagine who the Yankees might get, let's also ponder what we might have to give up

Sunday, the all-star mega-superteam Royals banished three sprites to Ohio for the great and mighty Johnny Cueto - the Koufaxian Hall of Famer, now 7-6 on the season. This prompted a loud chorus from the Yankee Blogger Rapid Response Teams, demanding that Brian Cashman pull off a counter-deal. Shriekers gonna shriek, dealers gonna deal. The official scream line is that we need somebody to outduel the great and mighty Cueto - 7-6 this year - in Game 7 of the ALCS, and it can't be Pineda or Tanaka, because they've been flat in their recent starts. Nope. We need Cole Hamels or that traveling Willbury from Chicago, Jeff Somethingorother, whose name I won't bother to spell until he is a Yankee... which, depending on the price tag, I hope is never.

Something's up. Girardi has named Tuesday's starter as "Mr. TBA." Hint hint: He expects Lord Cashman to empty the incubator for somebody. Mr. TBA. To Be Acquired.

Across the Yankiverse, there is a growing antagonism for anyone who remembers the late 1980s, when the Syd Thrifts, Murray Cooks and Woody Woodwards of the world dealt away a possible Yankee dynasty... only to watch bad teams get worse. These days, nobody wants to hear the idea of standing pat and building a team slowly, from within. Those who cry for deadline deals own the call-in shows, and as soon as a kid is traded, the YES Network mirror machine gins up the Manny Banuelos treatment: "Nope, he was never all that good, was never gonna amount to anything. All that previous hype you heard from us, it was just to build him up for a deal."

In fact, lingering fan rage from the 1980s was a reason why Watson and Stick resisted the urge to trade Bernie, Andy, Jorge, Mariano, et al. (Jeter, the high-pick golden boy, was never going to be dealt.) But the Lost Boys period from 1986 through 1994 seems to have vanished from the fossil record. Come July 31, Yankee web sites yowl like 17-year-olders with exploding erections (which actually, a few of them are) - thinking about who the Yankees will get... not who they'll give up.

I don't claim to know more about prospects than Cashman, but I do know this:

Great Yankee teams don't win one World Series. They win three.

I'd love to repeat 2009... but spare me 2010-14, if winning one year means that we give away the next four.

We won't get Cole Hamels for a handful of magic beans. (It's gotten worse, because he threw a no-hitter Saturday.) Philly will demand at least one of our best prospects, plus a package of young players. Do we want to give up the next generation for 15 starts?

Hell. I'd rather take my chances with Adam Warren going against Cueto.

Last year, the Yankees were riddled with holes, which Cashman could fill via cheap solutions. Brandon McCarthy. Chase Headley, etc. We gave up Vidal Nuno and Yangervis Solarte. (Better players than the "experts" claimed, but not dynasty killers.) This year, to keep with the KC Kardashians, Cashman will have to hydrofrack our farm system. We won't get something for nothing.

Cashman hasn't yet dealt away too many greats. I think he's terrified of the one horror deal that will be inscribed onto his tombstone. Still, the more you stare into the abyss - as Freddie Nietzsche said - the more the abyss stares back.

This sudden public push to trade Gary Sanchez - a 22-year-old power hitting catcher at Triple A - is based on the ridiculous assumption that, "Oh, we have McCann and Murphy, so we don't need Sanchez." WTF? In 2017, McCann will be 33, and Sanchez will be pushing 25. Do we really want to give him up for maybe 15 starts?

Something's up. Mr. TBA is coming. Let's face it: Shriekers gonna shriek, dealers gonna deal. But for a moment, imagine the 2016 Yankees as defending World Champions! We can see them next July in fourth place, floundering with 41-year-old Arod and an injured Teixeira... or as a team of emerging youngsters - Judge and Severino, Sanchez and Refsnyder - just maybe the next Bernies and Marianos.

Damn, let's not get hung up about the next 15 starts. Let's think BIG.

4 comments:

  1. Absolutely 1000000000% El Duque! Really really looking forward to these newbies and all tomorrows home run calls from The Master,,,, Here Comes the Judge-Here Comes the Judge, Everybody's Heard About the Bird, It's A Dirty Sanchez- in the Upper Deck, and of course, He has Seoul!

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  2. I figure he'd go with the Flip Wilson routine or else "Hear Ye, Year Ye, The Court is in session ... The Judge gavels one to left."

    I'm afraid the network won't allow him to do the "Dirty Sanchez" -- but that is a great idea.

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  3. I'm catching the game next Sunday in Comiskey.

    Right now the projected pitchers are Nova and Samardzija.

    Maybe see Samardzija's Yankee debut?

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  4. What's a Dirty Sanchez?

    Who's Smardzjia?

    What day is it?

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