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Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Are the Yankees talking themselves into a monster trade?

Long, long ago and not far from here... my young wife and I went house-hunting. We had a strict, cast-iron limit on how much to spend. Under no circumstances, we would stick below $120,000. This was non-negotiable. We wouldn't go higher. No way. No fucking way. Carved in stone. Nothing, NOTHING, could edge us above that number, and I'd punch you in the mouth for even suggesting it. 

So... we eventually spent $141,000. Kaboom. What can I say? Mission creep. Once you hit the Viagra fog of negotiation, reality changes. Once that erection starts to sprout, all self-enforced limits fly out the window. 

I wonder if that's happening with the Yankees.

Case in point, Giancarlo Stanton. Not long ago, the notion of trading for Stanton would be a punch line. As we've been told a thousand times, the Yankees are committed to shrinking payroll below the horrible, mind-numbing luxury tax cap. We've been hearing about this since 2011 - waiting to escape the crushing burden of A-Rod's contract. We let Robbie Cano jog off to Seattle. We passed on multiple free agents. The Marlins are lashed to Stanton for $285 million - $32 million a season at times - through 2028, and that's only five years before the asteroid. No way we'd take on such a killer contract, right? That's doomsday, folks. It would kill us, right? We all know this, right? 

And yet, according to the little birdies, the Empire recently checked in with Miami, pondering a deal. Insane, right? Crazy. Of course, pondering a deal is not making a deal. It's just coffee talk, right? One can chalk a phone call off to due diligence, right? But, but, but... remember our $141,000 house? 

Absurdity happens in tiny, M&M-sized increments. We invade Iraq in 2004, and guess what: We're still there. Trump is a joke, and guess what: He's President. Not long ago, Blake Rutherford was the jewel of the Yankee lower farms, an untouchable. Now, he's gone, and we got a .205 hitter, a fading closer and a middle innings bullpen lug nut. I can't help but believe that if Chicago straight-up proposed that deal a month ago, we'd have laughed. Guess what: It's now reality. Everything just oozed in on the fog.

So, now we wait for the verdict on Sonny Koufax Gray. You can feel the uptick in the NY tabloids, unable to conceal their proudly bursting erections. They want a deal, need a deal, HAVE TO HAVE A DEAL. If it means giving up Jorge Mateo, who on the editorial staff of the NY Post gives a shit? Nine out of 10 Yankee fans have never heard of Mateo - and lately, all they've heard has been about the greatness of Sonny Koufax Gray.  Here's "Seven mid-tier prospects who could get traded." Not enough? Here's the case for the Yankees being the 2015 Toronto Blue Jays (getting Price and Tulowitzki) at the deadline. (And, by the way, Toronto is still paying for those deals.) 

You can feel it happening. Today, we absolutely would never trade Clint Frazier - ever, no matter what. But if he goes 0-for-10, well - that's different. Reality changes when you breathe that wonderful fog. I'm not saying the Yankees will deal Frazier - clearly a fan fave right now - but the devil in any trades will be in the details. And neither the Yankee-owned media nor the buy-out obsessed print outlets will sweat those details. They can already taste it, and who cares about long-term strategies? The asteroid will take care of long-term strategies, right? Quick, Miss Bixley, get Miami on the line! I got a rocket in my pants! Hello, Marlins? Whaddaya want... 

20 comments:

Parson Tom said...

this is upsetting because it rings of truth. the front office doesn't have a plan.

Anonymous said...

I hate left wing liberals from NEW YORK.

Local Bargain Jerk said...


I hate left wing liberals from NEW YORK.

Do you hate us because we consider trolls to be immature pieces of shit?

Parson Tom said...

maybe, since he used all caps on just one word, he's a hater because we're from New York and no other reason than that and he actually is quite fond of left wing liberals from other states, like New Jersey. Those left wing liberals from Vermont, I hear they're a lot nicer. Or maybe he's all fired up because he just got back from the Boy Scout jamboree and nobody here will let him demonstrate his new knot-tying skills. Tough to say. Need more information.

KD said...

I am a conservative living in the belly of the beast (NJ) but let me tell you something, Anonymous: I may not agree with all things my liberal friends say but I will defend to the death their right to say it. I'm serious. I have a Browning A5 Magnum 12 gauge, a case of 00 buck, and an itchy trigger finger.

Feel free to use my words at parties without citation. Really impresses the ladies and I suspect you need all the help you can muster, what with that tiny pecker and all...

Anonymous said...

"I hate left wing liberals from NEW YORK"

Anonymous - You haven't used up your entire 144 characters. That can happen. Writing is hard. May I suggest SAD, FAKE NEWS, SAD, BLAME HILLARY and SAD.

Doug K.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Actually, we invaded Iraq in 2003.

Was that a good or a bad thing? I don't care: not here, not now. (I'm also not sure what "left-wing liberals" are. Are there "right-wing liberals? Are they the ones who supported the Iraq invasion?)

But I digress! Keep your eyes on the ball, men! The Yankeesverse is in imminent peril. Over the last few days, one NL ace after another has been going down in flames: Kershaw, now Strasburg.

But will that mean someone will snatch Sonny "Satchel Paige" Gray away from us? Or will it simply lead Cashman to up the ante?

And why does Cashman talk about how any future deal will "hurt"? After a good deal, aren't you supposed to skip away from the marketplace, whistling and chortling?

I'm for a deal that won't "hurt." Or no deal at all.

Anonymous said...

WOW, SOME PEOPLE OWE ME SOME RESIDUALS ON ALL THE CAPS BEING USED.

COPYRIGHT INFRINGMENTS ALL OVER THE PLACE.

LETS REMEMBER HOW WE NEED TO QUELL POLITICAL TALK ON THIS PHENOMENAL BLOG.

IT SHOULD BE 98% YANKEE BASEBALL.

RUMORS HAVE SONNY GRAY FOR ESTEVAN FLORIAL (NOT SURE WHO ELSE)

STAY TUNED....

....AND NO POLITICS! (ESPECIALLY WITH MY CAPS).



13bit said...

I agree that it should be mainly baseball BUT, if individuals want to use political figures as punchlines, I have no problem with it, especially when most of the world agrees.

13bit said...

GO LBJ!!!

JustSaying said...

Aaron Judge and Clint Frazier will be NYY outfielders for the next ten years. Gardy has been consistent and Hicks has been on a tear. In 2018 it is highly likely we sign Bryce Harper, who will join Judge and Frazier in the OF for the next ten years. A glutton of OF in the farm system.

Blake Rutherford, optimistically, couldn't contribute until at least 2020. So why does this blog make it out like we just traded the farm? There's no telling what could happen to him! He could have a setback like Gleber and not be up until 2021. I'll take the upgrade to our ML roster and be happy with a playoff berth this year and a World series next year, and the year after that, and the year after that until we celebrate Aaron Judge Day at the stadium in 2038.

Joe of AZ said...

NO!!!!!! I CAN ALREADY SEE HOW THIS PLAYS OUT.... THE SAME WAY CHACON, lOAIZA, LIDLE, PONSON, LIEBER, VAZQUEZ 1.0,2.0 all played out. TERRIBLE Gray Comes starts 2 great games injures himself with some random undisclosed injury he had before he was traded. Never comes back the same and at this time nxt year he'll be meeting the same destiny KKKris Karter did.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Let me get this straight: we can't say what would have happened with Blake Rutherford—or Tito Polo, or Ian Clarkin—but we can be SURE that Bryce Harper will sign with us in 2 years?

That he will not get injured, or get caught juicing, or just find wine, women, and song more enticing than playing baseball everyday, as so many young men do? That he will not turn in entire clunkers of years, as he did last season?

We could deal away Rutherford for next to nothing, because we felt that Estevan Florial had a higher ceiling...and now we want to deal away Florial, too?

I'll leave aside JustSaying's outrageous taunting of the JuJu gods, and try to placate them with a propitiatory goat. But as a great man always says, "There's no predicting baseball."

You build in redundancy, because something will surely go wrong. If Sonny Gray were the very last piece in the puzzle who we needed to win the World Series, trading a terrific young outfielder might be worth it. He's not. Instead, he's an oft-injured pitcher who has done all right for a mediocre team.

Not good enough. As our sages here tell us, we don't build for playoff appearances. We build for dynasties. We're the New York Yankees.

Anonymous said...

Horrace, I hear you on the Harper thing. I picked him but it's really INSERT HIGH PRICED STAR HERE. What pisses me off /freaks me out is stuff from the New York Post like " General manager Brian Cashman made it clear last week that despite Clint Frazier’s hot start to his career, the outfielder’s time in the majors is almost certain to be brief this time around." Followed by "In 63 plate appearances entering Tuesday’s game against the Reds at Yankee Stadium, the 22-year-old has a .908 OPS and he has 11 extra-base hits in his first 16 games. The only Yankee with more to start his career was Joe DiMaggio, who had 13." Sounds like a keeper to me.

And I hate that Florial is in the Gray conversation. And Andujar. I just think that Cashman has this fixed idea in his head about who gets to play and when (see the above quotes) and that sucks.

Doug K.

Alphonso said...

Cashman cannot resist blowing up our " go young "strategy so that some paid off , in the pocket, sports writer will claim him a genius. Consequently, get ready for the ship wreck.

Cashman will not allow a scintilla of reference on his CV to any phase of, " re-building." So he will blow this thing wide open.

From my perspective:

1. I will not read or listen to any speculative talk. Consequently, I will be caving in New Mexico until August 1. If I die or drown, at least it will be quick. Unlike the drain out and agonizing next decade of Yankee baseball if Cashman does what I now expect.

2. I will give up baseball if we lose any of four guys I have in mind.

We lost Ben Gamel when we weren't looking. That level of predictable stupidity will not be again overlooked.

Leinstery said...

According to Suzyn, 7 scouts are in Toronto looking at Sonny Gray. Let's hope the Yankees get lost in those other 6 teams. Also, nice triple play Frazier. What a pick up.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Alphonso, I feel your pain. I am twisted in agony on the floor myself. The idea of losing Andujar is even worse than that of giving up Florial.

As you guys have said more than once, the beat writers pushing this simply because they want something to write about. Simply covering a bunch of great young players as they make their way into the majors and become champions bores them silly.

Instead, having written a few thousand, "Who will the Yankees trade for Cy Gray?" pieces, they will now write thousands more "Analyzing the brilliant Cashman steal of Sonny" pieces...to be followed up, inevitably, in 10 years with thousands of: "Where the next Yankee dynasty was derailed: 'I still think it was a good move, no matter how many Triple Crowns Florial wins,' says retired GM Brian Cashman" pieces.

Anon, you are completely right about the DiMaggio stats. Cashman murders literature. If we had brought up Roy Hobbs, Cashman would've sent him back down so that the guy who died running into the fence could still have a spot on the roster.

"We're expecting a resurrection any day now," said the optimistic Knights' GM.

Alphonso said...

Amen, Horace.

Wezil1 said...

Lots of erections in this post. And they are not helpful when trying to think clearly.

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