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Tuesday, November 3, 2015

It's time for some uncontested truths regarding next year (and, more importantly, 2017)

Well, here we are - one year older, one year more brittle, buried in a steaming heap of bad contracts... but with a glimmer of hope. It's another fuming, unfulfilled Yankee off-season erection.

OK... it's time to deal with seven uncontested truths.

1. Next year, the AL East won't be as mediocre as it looked last June. Toronto will have the killer lineup, Marcus Stroman, and money enough to sign a big free-agent pitcher. If so, 2016 looms as a battle for the Wild Card. Boston won't be awful forever, the O's run good year/bad year, and Tampa always has a wave of stud pitchers. (Can we please poach somebody, anybody, from the organization whose headquarters is a few blocks away?) We could field a better team next year and still finish fourth. But here's a worst-case scenario: Like a rat on a treadmill, we continually finish third, a few games above .500, chasing the Wild Card birth for the rest of eternity.

In simple terms, 2016 is when the Yankees either commit to youth or stay down for several years.

2. Somebody has to go, and it might be Brett Gardner. Let me stress something: Every deal depends on what we get in return. We cannot trade somebody just to wave goodbye. But we need a RH-hitting outfielder - please, no Chris Young on a three-year deal - and we'll have to give up somebody. I would pledge my right nut to trade Jacoby Ellsbury, but why bother? He's at the lowest point of market value. We'd get Gregorio Pettit. We might as well hope for a rebound season. Chase Headley? Same deal. Beltran? We're stuck. So I guess it's Gardy.

Gardner is a six-month star in an eight-month league. He is simply too brittle to play on a team full of geriatrics. And it wont' get better. Once, he was famous for his slow starts. Now, he's the guy who cannot finish. I wish there was another way. But there's a reason why the loudest boos in the Wild Card game rained down on Gardy. Those horrible one-handed swings? We felt betrayed. And the only reason why he should return would be that we cannot get fair value in a trade. If so, keep him.

3. If we trade any prospects - thinking Gary Sanchez or Greg Bird - the deal needs to fetch us an equally young player. Let's face it: Sanchez is blocked by Brian McCann and John Ryan Murphy. Bird is stuffed by Teixeira. (BTW, we should have concerns about Bird's high strikeout rate.) We must not - as has been rumored - package a bunch of kids for Jeff Samardzia - who would become the 2016 version of Rick Rhoden.

Any move the Yankees make needs to get the team younger. NO HOWIE KENDRICKS.

4. We need to sign a front line pitcher who does not cost our first-round draft pick. There are a few, most notably Price or Cueto. If Hal Steinbrenner pleads poverty, he should be hooted out of NYC. By this time next year, Sabathia and Teixeira will be off the books. Hal needs to float a big contract for just one season. He can squawk about how expensive pitchers are, but it's the going rate, and Hal seems to be living in 2006, thinking free agents will sign three year deals and accept less to play with the Yankees, because they always make the playoffs. What a joke.

The only guys willing to sign three year deals are players like Carlos Beltran, who don't have three years left. In other words, NO HOWIE KENDRICKS!

5. The Yankees must commit to Rob Refsnyder at 2B. Good grief, other teams do it with rookies all the time. Yeah, he has fielding issues. Three years ago, he played RF. He's made dramatic strides. Did you see the news yesterday about Ian Kinsler of the Tigers? He's shortlisted for the Gold Glove. Kinsler was the consummate good-bat/bad glove 2B. He made himself into a good fielder. I believe Refsnyder has the same work ethic, and the Yankees spent all of 2015 dicking him around. This year, they should give the same support that they gave Didi Gregorius last April. If they do, I believe it will pay off. In other words, NO HOWIE KENDRICKS.

6. Nothing should block Aaron Judge's development - even if he tanks. The Yankees desperately need a RH hitting OF. They desperately need a young star. They desperately need a new David Winfield. Trouble is, the jury remains out on Judge. He didn't dominate in Scranton the way we wanted. At almost every level, it has taken Judge time to sort things out. Next summer could be his indoctrination to MLB pitching, and it might not be pretty. But make no mistake: The Yankee future is tied to this guy. He is the closest thing we have to a budding star, and we have to clear a path for him, just to see what we've got.

7. We have to abandon the HR offense. It's death. It's the offense where Brett Gardner hits 17 HRs but steals only 20 bases. It's absurd. It's where our leading hitter is Carlos Beltran, at .274. Our great teams of the late 1990s put the ball into play. At best, the HR offense gets you nine innings of a Wild Card.

Does anyone now think the 2015 Yankees could have beaten Houston, gotten hot and knocked out KC? What a joke. And yet a month ago, we were all suggesting just such a thing.

Home run hitters do not hit good pitchers. Yesterday, the Yankees changed their batting coach. Next year, they need to change their ways.

14 comments:

JM said...

Is there any way we could get Howie Kendricks?

Anonymous said...

TOTALLY AGREE ON EVERYTHING (EXCEPT CUETO BECAUSE HE WOULD COST US A FORTUNE, AND IN THE A.L., HE JUST WON'T EVEN BE CLOSE TO BEING WORTH IT)...."NO HOWIE KENDRICKS" IS CORRECT! (AND NO BEN ZOBRIST!-AND ZOBRIST LOOKED GREAT IN THE WORLD SERIES- BUT HE WILL BE 35 NEXT SEASON)! NOOOO!.......BUT LIKE THE ALCOHOLIC, TRYING NOT TO DRINK, BUT TEETERING, CASHMAN WILL LOOK AT THE "MINI-BAR" IN THE HOTEL ROOM, AND OPEN UP THE DOOR. (EVER SEE DENZEL IN THE MOVIE "FLIGHT"?)....THE SONOFABITCH JUST WON'T COMMIT TO OUR YOUNG PLAYERS!...YOU JUST KNOW HE WILL SAY TO HIMSELF, "GOTTA GO WITH THE ESTABLISHED VETERAN", AND VIOLA!-HOWIE KENDRICK (OR BEN ZOBRIST)!!! THE SCARY PART IS IF YOU TOOK THE FANS' PASSION AND EMOTIONS OUT OF THE MIX, I REALLY BELIEVE KID CASH WOULD ACTUALLY BE CRAZY ENOUGH TO BRING BACK STEPHEN DREW CITING, "HE WAS ONE OF THE MOST PRODUCTIVE 2ND BASEMAN IN THE A.L AFTER JUNE 1ST" -THAT LITTLE MOTHERFUCKER- HE KNOWS THE FANS WOULD SET UP "LYNCH MOBS" TO STRING UP THE BOTH OF THEM (CASH & DREW)-SO HE PROBABLY WILL REFRAIN FROM DOING THE DREW THING AGAIN. (BUT THE FACT THAT I EVEN USED THE WORD "PROBABLY" IS A TESTAMENT TO HOW FUCKING DOPEY CASHMAN IS..........ON ANOTHER NOTE: ISN'T IT SO SWEET TO SEE METS FANS DISAPPEAR LIKE COCKROACHES AFTER THE SPRAY?...TIME TO PUT AWAY THE MET FLAGS, MET JACKETS, MET HATS, MET KEY CHAINS, AND MET DOG BOWLS!!! THEY ARE SO FUCKING PREDICTABLE!

Alphonso said...

This is depressing.

Cashman cannot engineer any trade that isn't littered with names such as those peppered throughout your post as, " the type of players we cannot wind up with." They are all over your post because that is all we ever get. Rhoden, Young, Beltran, Headley,. Need I add Kelly Johnson, Stephen Drew, and numerous other losers?

Sanchez could very well turn out better than either McCann or Murphy but, in a trade for him right now, you get Hendricks.

Your home run theory is right on…..how many did KC hit in pecking the Mets to death? Contact hitters, speed, baseball intelligence and great defenders is the key. The Yankees, by contrast, are slow, old and dumb.

Don't delude yourself into thinking that we have the nucleus of a good pitching staff. Compare our starters to the Mets; or the depth of our bullpen to that of the Royals. It is laughable. And while Cueto was brilliant in his home start, I worry about guys who have a reputation along the lines of, " Johnny is only comfortable starting in front of the home crowd"

I think we have to " wait it out." Use all the old guys, use the crap pitchers, and stock the roster with our young prospects. It's like starting a rookie at cornerback in the NFL; he'll get burned like hell for the first 8 games but, if you have the right athlete, opponents will stop throwing to his side by the end of the season.

Last place gets us a lot of good picks ( again, I fear that Cashman can't make them .) Coming in 3rd is like making out with your ugly first cousin. Just not worth anything.

There is no point in trying to anything with this team except; keep and play our young prospects; encourage the old guys to retire; get younger, faster, smarter and better athletes.

Replacing Cashman would be the best thing we could do. But there is no chance.

End of story.

We'll suck. But maybe get better someday. More of the same old formula means mediocrity forever.

Anonymous said...

KEEP YOUR CHIN UP ALPHONSO....SOMETIMES JUST ONE OR TWO KEY ADDITIONS AND A SURPRISE YEAR FROM A FARMHAND, CAN MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE (TORONTO AND THE METS)....ALTHOUGH I KNOW WE ARE AGAINST THE 8-BALL WITH CASHMAN, AND WITH HAL BEING "I'M NOT CHEAP", CHEAP. IT WON'T BE EASY, BUT MAYBE, HAL WILL COME TO HIS SENSES AND REALIZE NOBODY WILL WANT TO SEE THIS DULL TEAM, AND OPEN UP HIS PURSE STRINGS...PLAYING OUR FARMHANDS (REFSYNDER, BIRD AND JUDGE AT SOME POINT, IS A MUST)! TRY TO KEEP THE FAITH.

Alphonso said...

Faith is a killer. Give me another mantra please.

Howie Kendricks said...

Wow. And I bought your book.

ceeja said...

What if the Yanks had gotten into the World Series and then their offense collapsed against the Mets? Hearing Joe Buck talk about how unhittable Harvey, Sundegaard, and DeGrom were would have been painful. Even Matz would have shut us out.

Why don't we just tear the team apart and rebuild? Keep the pitching -- it's fairly young and promising.

Sanchez/Murphy C
Bird 1B
Refsnyder/Ackley 2B
Didi SS
Pirella/Jagielo 3B
Austin LF
Heathcott CF
Judge RF

Would we lose 100 games?

OK, Keep some of the vets

McCann/Murphy C
Teix/Bird 1B
Ref/Ackley 2B
Didi SS
Headley 3B
Gardner LF
Ellsbury CF
Beltran/Judge RF
A Rod DH

Jeez. I'm with Alphonso

Anonymous said...

THAT HEADLEY IN THE LINEUP IS STICKING IN MY CRAW...(ANOTHER KID CASH CLUNKER).

Anonymous said...

BTW, GUYS PLEASE LEAVE UP THE PICTURE OF THE POST SAYING, "AMAZIN' DISGRACE"...IT WARMS THE COCKRELL'S OF MY HEART EVERY TIME I SEE IT....

jdrny said...

I would love to see ceeja's first lineup with the kids on the field. How bad could they be compared to the team with
the leading batter at .274. ????

Forget about it !!! Not even in spring training.

BernBabyBern said...

"By this time next year, Teixeira and Sabathia will be off the books"

That's why Hal won't sign anybody until next year. We're stuck this year, adn it might just get ugly. And some of the other Yankee bloggers have fallen in line with that ... "Yeah, we'll be crappy this year, but just you wait until Hal gets some money to spend!! Then it'll be great!!" Can you imagine The Boss saying that he doesn't have the money now, but just wait until some space opens up in the budget?

And Kansas City winning the World Series was the WORST possible outcome for the Yankees. Now Hal can say, "See? Big market, small market, it just doesn't matter. Why should we spend money when a team like the Royals can win it?" and he can run out and spend more YES bucks buying polo ponies for the yacht club and hookers to accompany team officials on business trips while we're stuck with Chase Headley playing third base.

Ugh.

Parson Tom said...

Hal gets a little change in his pocket and you know he's going after Howie Kendricks.

Anonymous said...

I GOTTA FIND A WAY ON TO THE YACHT CLUB....

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