Thursday, September 7, 2017

The end is near, and we have nobody to end it

Yankee pitching over the last 30 days.
And so it begins, the final act of the 2017 potboiler, "Ten Little Yanks." In the manner of all great Hollywood whodunits, Basil Rathbone has gathered all the suspects together in the game room, beneath the chandelier. One by one, he outlines the reasons why each wanted the young, drunken gadfly  Steinbrenner heir dead. Eventually, one of them - usually, the butler - breaks, pulls a gun, shouts his confessional speech, and impales himself on the wrought iron fence. Roll the credits. Hooray for Hollywood.

Today, after Tuesday's horrifying ninth-inning loss, Joe Girardi will summon the Yankee bullpen together like the collection of murder suspects that they are. Over the season, each has committed some nefarious crime against the Yankees. According to reports, Joe will name Aroldis Chapman - the living embodiment of Yankee boondoggles - as final act closer. El Chapo, the man who nearly single-handedly gave Boston the AL East, will be put in charge of nailing down the one-game Wild Card post-season nothing-burger.

The above chart displays Yankee pitching over the last 30 days. As you can see, it's a tale of three closers - David Robertson, Dellin Betances and El Chapo. One at the top, one in the middle, and one far down at the bottom, looking up at those paragons of bullpen prowess, Chasen Shreve and Bryan Mitchell. So whom is Girardi going with? Of course, the one with the biggest contract.

In a three-Kleenex Hollywood movie, Girardi would be the wise, white-haired manager whose loyalty to Gary Cooper wins the World Series. If only it were so. The sad fact is that Girardi, who took up managing the Yankees 10 years ago with a great portfolio and golden future, has devolved into a bad TV show - the other day, in a rainout theater, he and Meredith made pizzas - and collection of print-outs, because he can't use laptops in the dugout. Instead of grand expressions of loyalty, he follows shit-eating, corporate policy. And the guy the Yankees long ago brought in to the save our shattered, Scott Proctored bullpens has become the death of late inning games.

Of course, it's not all Girardi's fault. The Yankees' vaunted minor league system - of which we've heard self-congratulatory praise all year - never developed a big bullpen arm. (Chad Green, the closest we have, arrived last year.) Other teams unveil hard throwers. To stay afloat, the Yankees had to trade for Robertson, Kahnle and Garcia. The Ben Hellers, the Gio Gallegoses, the Holders and the Smiths - they either fell apart or never got a chance. Take your pick. 

Either way, this movie is coming to an end. And we have no final act. 

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

IT'S PRETTY IRONIC THAT THE GUY WHO IS NUMBER 1 ON THE LIST, ISN'T EVEN CONSIDERED IN THE CLOSING DUTIES.

HE IS GOING TO GIVE CHAPMAN THE CLOSING JOB AGAIN STARTING TODAY, I BET....

HOLD ONTO YOUR BALLS.....

....AND PUT YOUR CRASH HELMETS ON.

Anonymous said...

REST IN PEACE STICK MICHAEL....

A TRUE YANKEE....

JUST HEARD THE SAD, SAD NEWS.

JM said...

See ya, Stick. A man who knew and understood baseball, unlike the bozos we have in charge now.

As for the closer arrangement, no argument from me. I've been saying Robertson should be our closer since he got back. But the Yankees management never listens to me.

Anonymous said...

......AND THAT ASSHOLE MYSTERY anonymous LAST WEEK, WAS TRYING TO SAY MICHAEL WAS IN AT THE TABLE ON ALL THE LATEST DEALS MADE BY CASHMAN.....

THE POOR GUY HAD A HEART PROCEDURE EARLIER IN THE YEAR.

JUST READ WHAT I WAS TRYING TO TELL THAT DOUCHEBAG THAT EVEN THOUGH SLOWED BY AGE, CASHMAN WOULD OCCASIONALLY SEND MICHAEL OUT TO SCOUT YOUNG MINOR LEAGUE TALENT, AND HE TRUSTED STICK'S OPINIONS.

Parson Tom said...

getting back to the bullpen:

Failure is a self-perpetuating philosophy in the Yankees' development of young pitchers, especially those who need a little time to develop. No patience, going back 40 years to Jim Beattie. Perform or else we're going to publicly humiliate you, send you back to the minors, trade you, jerk a knot in your tail or some combination of all.

In spring training, Ben Heller looked great this year. They've given him only a few sniffs at it since then, and he hardly qualifies for frequent flier miles on the Scranton-New York Express. Jonathan Holder hasn't been great, but he wasn't awful, either. Could he have grown into a reliable reliever? We'll probably never know. Cleveland is enjoying having Nick Goody in their bullpen, which means they are winning the Andrew Miller trade -- again.

But everybody knows we won that trade because we have minor-league Hall of Famers Clint Frazier and Justus Sheffield on our prospect list. Yeah, well, we had one of the two best relievers in the major leagues, under contract through this year, and a very serviceable Nick Goody. When is somebody outside of this blog going to recognize that the front office and field management is stumbling around in the dark with no real idea where they're going or what they're doing.

Austria's Only Baseball Fan said...

Here's some news, good and/or bad depending how you look at it: Chase Headley's average is now higher than that of Aaron Judge. I've always appreciated the way Headley seems to keep pushing himself to get out of a slump and is usually successful.

Parson Tom said...

As a leading cheerleader for taking the bat out of Headley's hands, I must acknowledge the truth of what we hear from Austria. Headley has been quite good for a couple of months. And he did a real nice job at 1B, too.

Anonymous said...

GOOD POINT ON THE MILLER DEAL PARSON....

....BUT I STILL REALLY LIKE CLINT.