This trade of Ben Gamel is not acceptable.
This kid has it all ( okay, perhaps a bit light on HR power....but take a look at Brett Gardner and Jacoby these days...no Mickey Mantles there, either ); consistency ( back to back seasons
over .300 ); excellence ( MVP of International league ); youth; speed and desire.
A lot like Jay Buhner, except Jay had more power.
And the Yankees have a laughable outfield, particularly when Hicks was hitting below .200. Once he got hot ( last 30 days near .300), he gets injured. Gardy is not a threat at anything on offense; Jacoby is a .260 singles/doubles guy, whose contract will haunt us like A-rod; Aaron will hopefully be good in a year or two; we traded Jake Cave; and so now, maybe, we sign a cast-off.
Ben Gamel was worthy of watching And now, because Cashman was patting himself on the back for dumping a few guys for, " prospects," he goes a step....a large leap into the abyss...too far.
The Yankees give up a kid everyone wanted to see, for two more no name RHP's whom we will never see, or hear of again. Seattle doesn't trade away two future Pedro Matinez's for anyone. They trade rag- armed losers.
Sure, these two could, in 3-4 years, become part of the Scranton/ Bronx taxi squad , when we are striving for a .500 season....like, let's say, Kirby Yates. Or that loser whose name is all W's, Y's and Z's. But the likelihood is; you will only hear of either one ( and I promise; right now, no Yankee fan can name them without re-reading about the trade ) when Dr. Andrews is consulted. That will be news. More surgeries for Yankee pitchers who have never been above A ball.
This is a Cashman step too far. Ill advised. Arrogant. And idiotic. All because Cashman has failed forever at his essential task; building a farm system which will feed Yankee championship runs.
So now we have a whole lot of, "better prospects," than we had before. But no one who has proven, yet, they can play at the major league level. Duque remarked on one of our new prospects, when he saw him at a Scranton/Yankee visit to Syracuse. He described him as muscular beyond belief....muscle bound, perhaps? Tim Tebow, perhaps? If a guy can't move his arms, or get them into a winter coat, he belongs in a Christmas Comedy, not in a ballpark.
Gamel is major league ready. An exciting youngster. An overlooked, over-achiever.
And now he is gone for two sickly Pinedas.
The worst move of the decade.
You heard it here first. I hate this trade and will hate this until we win three world series in a row.
100% correct !!! Once again the gross incompetent Cashman has acted to the detriment of the Yankees.
ReplyDeleteWhy can't the Yankees get rid of this boob??? He can be replaced by a clam, which is much more intelligent,
I heartily endorse Alphonso's sentiment. When I heard the Mariners acquired Moishe Ben Gamel, all I could say was "oy vey." I predict his bat and his locks will flourish when unleashed from Pinstripre Rules.
ReplyDeleteAll I heard was they had a glut of OFs in AAA and Mason Williams and Jake Cave is rated higher and yada yada.......I'm sure their thinking was as Jack Curry mentioned yesterday was, in Gamel's case, was to sell high, get some more pitching prospects. As we are all aware, this class of pitching FAs this coming winter is nothing short of dismal. As we have seen with the Mets, you can't have enough pitching prospects. I get the thinking but we had to give up a good player to get more arms. It really has becomes the "arms race" hasn't it?
ReplyDeleteI am so glad Alphonso laid it all out there. I did not have the courage to be the first one, but now that he has opened the floodgates, here it comes:
ReplyDeleteKeeping Gamel and jettisoning Ellsbury and/or Gardner would have been the smart thing to do. You're on the hook for the same amount of money, but instead of some past-his-prime guy with no power and diminished speed, you've got the same player seven years earlier, while he's still fast and hungry. Cost is the same. Results are better.
Which brings me to my big beef with Yankee management: Contracts uber Alles!
Contracts are worth more than talent. Everybody is all giddy about the sell-off this season. And oh, boy, one of the hitters is performing well, and by golly, a couple of these pitchers look like they have the talent and the intestinal fortitude to be productive in the Major Leagues. Let's nominate Cashman for the Nobel prize and somebody should buy Girardi a membership at the gym because they're both so fucking smart.
No, they are not. They are still playing Texiera .. and McCann .. and ... Gardner and ... Ellsbury and fucking Chase Headley. All of these guys are every-other-week producers, but they have contracts. And that is all that keeps them in the lineup. The win last night against KC was an open invitation to steal a win, but it took 13 innings because the best anybody could muster was sacrifice flies.
Look at it: The top two producers in this lineup are the 2nd baseman and the shortstop. I'm impressed with both of them and enjoy watching them play, but my God, the first baseman, the left fielder, the center fielder, the DH and the fucking 3rd baseman, whose lack of talent has been evident for three fucking years, all get to lug their contracts up to the plate four or five times a game, where they proceed to do nothing.
Look, I never subscribed to the G. Steinbrenner belief in of a superstar at every position. I always loved the bench contributors like Mike Hegan, Roy White, Oscar Gamble, Cliff Johnson, David Justice, Chad Curtis -- when he wasn't getting all righteous on everybody, etc. But good Lord, this team has no consistent threat, other than a rookie catcher. Everybody's job should be insecure and nobody should be pencilled into the lineup just because they're healthy, especially not Texiera and Headlley and probably McCann, too. (That's one-third of the lineup that is consistently awful.)
If there are players like Gamel -- before this stupid trade -- use them. Cashman and Girardi seem to live in fear of the excitement and energy that young players bring to the game. Of course, I am just a duffer. I know nothing. I'm certainly not qualified to comment on River Avenue Blues because I would suggest that "Moishe Ben" Gamel should have replaced Ellsbury/Gardner. I mean he only won International League MVP two years in a row, and everybody knows that the guy we picked up from Minnesota last winter is much better than that, even if he is hitting .210 and still doesn't seem to have a clue even when he's been hot for a month.
That win last night was not inspired. It was an exercise in Chinese water torture ultimately rescued by a Yankee win. John Sterling was sick to his stomach after the 11th inning, and I don't blame him. This lineup has so many holes, and yet everybody with a contract is secure in the knowledge that they will be able to step up the plate four or five times each game. If they actually produced runs, that would be fine, but as it is, our fucking 3rd baseman hits about as well as Chicken Stanley.
(Applause)
ReplyDeleteHoly shit. How does Cashman, as dumb as he is, manage to keep shedding points from his IQ at such a furious pace? Somebody please donate his brain to science before he trades again.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE THE PASSION TOM M...... ALPHONSO IS CORRECT AGAIN..... WHAT WE BASICALLY HAVE DONE BY GETTING RID OF GAMEL, IS COMMIT TO AARON FUCKING HICKS! ....AARON .215 HICKS (AND HE'S "HOT"!)..... WE COULD HAVE ACTUALLY SENT HICKS DOWN TO TRIPLE A AND REPLACED HIM WITH BEN GAMEL...... FROM WHAT I HAVE BEEN SEEING ALL SEASON, WE WOULD HAVE HAD TO BE A BETTER TEAM WITH GAMEL ON THE ROSTER...... IT'S CASHMAN AND THE "MYSTERY SCOUT", WHO I HAVE A FEELING IS CASHMAN, THAT HAS RUN AMOK.... IT IS UNFUCKINGBELIEVABLE...... ONCE AGAIN, IT LOOKS LIKE WE JUST DISCARD A DECENT PLAYER, BECAUSE HE IS "IN THE WAY" OF PLAYER DECISIONS THAT MUST BE MADE....FORGET ABOUT THE FACT THAT HE LOOKS LIKE A SOLID YOUNG TALENT...... I AGREE, WE WON'T SEE EITHER PROSPECT COME TO FRUITION........I WANNA PUKE.
ReplyDeleteI fear the worst, expect the least, and hope for the best. As Duque pointed out yesterday, the list of past AAA MVPs is a basket of nobodys who have done nothing. Maybe Gamel will be the exception. Maybe not. It's all a crapshoot, more or less.
ReplyDeleteBut I've been in the anti-"pay the contract" column for years now. The decisions made this year as to who plays and who doesn't have been abysmal. What else is new?
ReplyDeleteBlogger Tom said...
...it all.
Great post.
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