Cashman has the Yankiverse so well trained that it is proclaiming him winner in the Ivan Nova deal, merely based on his analysis

First off, I love Mike Axisa. He my fave Yankee blogger, and I read River Ave Blues every day. But with great power comes great responsibility, and sometimes, in my opinion, he drifts too far in praising the Yankee front office.

In recent weeks, he's not alone. Most of the Yankiverse has been drunkenly toasting the great Brian Cashman for his trades. The Yankees are being hailed as "winners" even though - and dammit, we all know this - it will take years to learn if we got anybody relevant, and meanwhile, some teams might win a World Series (or two) from the players we traded. Obviously, the 2016 Yankees were going nowhere, so any return beats nothing, right? That's the consensus, but it's a pretty low bar here for success. The fact is, we traded two more seasons of Andrew Miller, Carlos Beltran might have returned on a one-year qualifying offer, and Aroldis Chapman - who so much loved being a Yankee - might feel more inclined to stay a Cub, after we peddled his butt.

Still, Cashman is taking victory lap after victory lap. Here's Axisa yesterday, writing about two unnamed players supposedly coming from Pittsburgh for Ivan Nova. 

I’ll be happy with anyone with actual prospect value. That the Yankees are getting two players is just gravy... The Yankees were smart to trade Nova for whatever they could get rather than lose him for nothing after the season, and it sounds like they might actually get a pair of halfway decent prospects in return.

Axisa devoted a post to praising Cashman for receiving players who aren't named. It sounds like we might actually get somebody decent - according to Cashman. Basically, we're saying no chickens in the coop were harmed, according to the fox. Of course, Cashman will say we got a good deal. He made the deal. What's he going to say? We got snookered?

My beef is with normally critical bloggers who still basically accept whatever Cashman tells us. The Yankiverse is way too quick to cheer, and way to slow to analyze. We haven't played in an AL playoff since 2012, and Cashman is the man who got us here. We can't blame Hal for every bad trade, and cheer Cashman for every one that works.

The other day, for Pittsburgh, Nova threw seven innings and gave up three runs. That's a quality start. Of course, Nova is Nova, and I, too, was glad to see him go. But some pitchers flourish in the DH-less National League, and Nova could be one of them. Meanwhile, Yankee bloggers are praising Cashman, based on Cashman. He could have said, "We got five magic beans!" and the bloggers would go, "Wow! Five magic beans? Cashman is a genius!"

I know, I know, I know... I'm just being spiteful. But after tomorrow, when A-Rod makes his final appearance, the Yankee season will become an afterthought for all but extreme Yankee fans. Nobody else in baseball gives a whack about Tyler Austin, because practically ever team in baseball has their own version of him. We spent $200 million, and we're out of even the Wild Card race by mid-August. Seriously, folks, does Cashman deserve such unbridled faith?