Kevin Baker's book is here!

Kevin Baker's book is here!
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Saturday, June 3, 2017

Let's Replay The Eighth Inning !



Four solo homers in one inning.  Count 'em , Danno.

One, two , three, four.

All off of the same pitcher.

 That has to be a record.

Bang, bang, bang, bang.

Here is the $64,000 question:  Can we extend this winning streak to two games?

Time for bourbon and a steak.

Who's buying?

6 comments:

The Sayonara Kid said...

I was watching on MLB Network and stuck listening to Michael Kay's Giant Head call the 8th. Can I get confirmation on a rare "back-to-back-to-back and belly-to-belly-to-belly" call???

Leinstery said...

I can confirm the rare "back to back to back and uh belly to belly to belly" made an appearance. I missed Holliday's and Castro's but I caught Didi's and Gardy's.

Anyways (John voice), I've been drinking and I have the blasphemous thoughts in my mind right now. Buckle up, I think Cashman might be the best GM in the league. Now he may be insanely lucky, but he also might be some savant that can spot the diamonds in other teams trash heaps.

I can think of two examples of Cashman buying low on other teams and selling high on ours. 1)Didi for Shane Greene. Didi had lost the staring job to some schmuck and Shane Greene had just had a decent debut, don't remember the numbers but he looked promising. So Cashman trades this guy for a backup. Now I remember I was complaining when Greene was 3-0 with a 0.00 era and Didi was horrible in the field and at the plate, then Greene fell apart and Didi turned it around and is a .300 hitter and a gold glove shortstop. And I can't tell you what happened to Greene.

2)Hicks for Murphy. Murphy was a good backup catcher who seemed as if he could be a decent starter and Hicks was a bust. Now Hicks may have had a shit year last year, but that was par for the course up until this year where if not for, Judge he'd be the best player in the outfield. Hicks, like Didi started slow but has developed into a key part of the team. Now maybe Cashman didn't know dick and some guys underneath him saw the potential, and maybe I'm not giving any credit to the coaches who developed these two, but I don't know their names so I'm giving the credit to Cashman.

The other part we must consider are the trades he didn't make. Remember 2015, the Yankees were in first but the Blue Jays were big time buyers near the trade deadline. Cashman said he was looking to get some help, but told teams he'd absolutely refuse to trade 4 players; Judge, Bird, Sanchez, and Severino. Well as of right now I'm glad he didn't trade anyone of them for a 2 month rental on Lance Berkman 2.0 or an Eric Hinske. Now this is something I read recently and don't remember where, but in 2013 Cashman went to Food Stamps and said that chances are they won't resign Joggie, and they weren't winning anything so it was time to trade him. Food Stamps said no. Imagine what they could have gotten for Joggie, they could have started this rebirth in 2013 as opposed to last year had Cashman gotten his way. And of course the fleecing of the Cubs was also his work.

Montgomery had a good start and I'm here praising Cashman. Up is down and down is up. I've probably jinxed the team through next season with such crazy rhetoric. I apologize in advance.

Anonymous said...

You probably should apologize, Leinstery - - this is the same Cash-Puss who saw great merit in Pavano, Kei Igawa, Vazquez TWICE, Vernon Wells, at the end of his career, and so on, ad nauseam (certainly contributes to MY nausea, anyway).

Is Cash-Puss a better judge than Food Stamps?? Oh, hell, yes! So, however is my wife, and she just dips in every so often while I'm watching - - but I swear she knows the players better than Food Stamps does.

When it comes down to it, though, my money is on the scouts' savvy, and Cash-Puss getting credit for it, for the most part. LB (No J)

Leinstery said...

Wowsers, where do I start? Perhaps cutting back on the alcohol should be the first step. I should walk it back a bit, so I'll say he's not as bad as he used to be. And I already apologized for saying everything, no need for another.

Now let's break down those four you threw out. Pavano, understandable signing, 2005 had Mussina and nobody else. Pavano had just beaten them in the World series in 2003 and had a good year in 2004. Who could have foresaw that buffoon would be perpetually injured? Who knew bruising your ass could keep you on the dl? No one. It really is a terrible signing in hindsight, but understandable at the time.

Kei Igawa, yeah that was bad. A total overreaction when they didn't get Daiske. Oh well, isn't he the winning-est pitcher in minor league history or something?

Javy Vasquez. Can't defend him on that, even as a joke. I loathed Vasquez and when I heard they brought him back I nearly had an aneurysm.

Vernon Wells wasn't a signing but a trade, for two scrubs who never sniffed the majors. It was 2013, the peak of the scrap heap era for Cashman, and half the roster from the year before was injured or gone. Wells was a Yankee killer for years, and was still only 34-35, so it's not like he was so old he was totally over the hill. He hoped that the short porch could help milk a decent year out of him. And he stunk, but it really had no effect on the organization and it happened in a year that was totally forgettable. That's really just bleh.

And yes, the scouts and coaches probably do most of the work, but he still makes the decisions. You can directly credit him for telling Food Stamps that the fans would revolt if they didn't sell last year. The dense fuck had no idea until Cashman told him. Hal said that and the Tampa debacle were his deciding factors.

Alphonso said...

Leinstery,

Drink more, not less. Your insights are great.

I am not a Cashman supporter by any measure. I think he slots into that category of business executive who is well-connected, slavish to the party line, and who is rewarded for incompetence. In general, he has layers of excuses ( it is baseball, after all, which cannot be predicted ) which protect his most egregious moves. Nonetheless.....those deals last year, where the Cubs and the Indians went into World Series panic modes, and, due to many losing seasons, each of those teams had accumulated huge stockpiles of emerging talent, Cash did come up pretty big for us.

The final test is soon to come. It is likely we do not have the pitching to take us to the promised land. Although, if Tanaka can find himself, and we get a healthy El Chappo back....we might. Anyway, there remains a 2017 risk that Cashman will go " off the game plan," and make a murderous trade before the deadline.

If he doesn't do anything stupid, he might earn some Kudos ( though never from me ).

Only if we win it all this season, and Glyber Torres becomes a big part of that ( playing third ), might I soften.

What are you drinking? Jack and coke? I'll join you.

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