Sunday, October 1, 2017

The first last day of the season, and already thinking of 2018

It's hard not to sit, drink and ponder next year. I mean, by now, it's a mental tick. Since June of 2016 - when A-Rod and Tex simultaneously went knock-kneed, rousing calls for a top-down Yankee rebuilding plan - we've been awaiting the summer of 2018 like a doomsday cult. That's when our Yankee spaceship will arrive, piloted by Admiral Brian Cashman, ushering in the 1,000-year dynasty of peace, prosperity and starting pitching. Sure, this year brought some pearls - Gary and the Aarons - but we still can't swim with the Indians or Astros, right? Next year brings the mother ship, right? 

Next year will be our third straight spring awaiting Greg Bird. Nothing wrong with that. It's just true, that's all. We awaited him in 2016, after he dominated in late 2015. Then Bird missed the year with surgery. This April, we awaited him after he dominated in spring training. Then he missed five months with a bad paw. Next spring, we'll be awaiting him again, and there's nothing wrong with that, right? Next year, Bird arrives. Right?

Next year will bring the true explosion of Red Thunder, aka Clint Frazier, whose brutal gymnasium workout videos we have watched like lechers since August 1, 2015, when we received him for Andrew Miller. He's already grown larger than life - he's Red Thunder, goddammot! - and he looks like a guy who demands greatness of himself. This was his awkward opening, the kind Aaron Judge suffered through a year ago. Next year! 

Next year will bring Glyber Torres, who should be here now but for a bum elbow. Torres was recently ranked the top prospect in baseball by some bullshit service, which is crazy, because nobody should rise in rankings while missing time from injury. It just shows how stupid these services are, and how at least some of them cater to hyping large markets, just so they can push crazy fans' buttons - like mine - and get us thinking of next year. Knowing this, I still say...  next year!

Next year, we could see Miguel Andujar at 3B, possibly the first home grown Yankee star to play third base in our lifetimes. Think about it. We've had nothing but nobodies. The one great 3B raised by the Yankees was Mike Lowell, who we traded for four bars of soap. Before that, it was Mike Pagliarulo, a prototype of the modern player, in that all he did was hit homeruns and strikeout. We have never grown a star from our our dirt. Andujar could be it. As a result, expect him to be traded, while we re-sign Todd Frazier. Still... next year!

Next year, we would see Chance Adams, and a renewed, less intimidated Tyler Wade, and maybe Justus Sheffield and/or Dillon Tate, and maybe Billy McKinney (who will learn first base, just in case - awww, what could possibly happen to Greg Bird?) Next year, next year, NEXT YEAR... that's what we've waited for. Next. Fucking. Year.

In the meantime, there is Tuesday. What's to say. It's one game. We will win or lose. Anything can happen. Today, we will find out definitively whether the Indians (101 wins) or Astros (100 wins) will be rewarded by facing the wild card winner. Whomever it is, if we beat the Twins, we will be facing a vastly superior team in a five-game set. Well, anything can happen. You can't predict baseball, Suzyn. Ahh, but there's always next year... NEXT YEAR!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Spot on.

Doug K.

cabish47 said...

Indians have clinched top spot by the tiebreaker.

Leinstery said...

Everyone please take a gander at Mets twitter. Salivating about Syndergaard's two inning performance against the lowly Phillies. They're already dreaming of 2018 success.

"OMG he threw 100 mph. A 94 mph changeup HOLY COW!"

Suzyn's Bitch said...

I get wet just thinking about it!

HoraceClarke66 said...

And of course, the Mets pushed Terry Collins out.

Because, you know, he was the reason why half the team got injured, and he was the guy who brought Jose Reyes back in his dotage, and it was he who traded what little they had to deal for...I was going to say, "magic beans." But the guys they got were really more like lentil beans.

So they fire the manager.

What a weird, weird franchise.

Parson Tom said...

And as weird and awful as the Mets are, I guess we have the law firm of Cashman & Girardi to thank for the Yanks' relative stability. Much as we all love to obsess about their worst warts, these results pretty much guarantee that they'll be working together a few more years. Even if Girardi does sometimes seem to need an imagination injection.

HoraceClarke66 said...

And, compared to that other baseball franchise, they're geniuses. Or compared to pretty much any other team in town.

Stranger still.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Loved John Gibbons managing against us in general as if it were the 7th game of the World Series, and sticking his closer in today. I guess he wanted to avoid last place, which was taken by the team of a certain genius at large.

Gotta say, I like this Domingo German. And Heller.

And the Times made a pretty strong case for Judge as MVP today...

Joe of AZ said...

Well Yanks got the clunker or the way SO we should be fine come Tuesday

Anonymous said...

MET FANS ARE HILARIOUS....

ALL EXCITED ABOUT SYNDEGAARD'S "SHOWCASE"....

AGAINST THE PHILLIES, NO LESS......

THEIR FANS ACTUALLY THINK GETTING SYNDEGAARD BACK MEANS THEY WILL BE WINNERS AGAIN.

I THINK THEIR BRASS THINKS THE SAME THING....

WHY ELSE WOULD THEY BE PUTTING ON THESE 1 AND 2 INNING "SHOWCASES" WITH HIM?

IT'S INCREDIBLE HOW THEY ALL FAIL TO REALIZE THEY HAVE:
1.) NO CATCHER
2.) NO 2ND BASEMAN
3.) NO 3RD BASEMAN
4.) NO REAL 1ST BASEMAN (C'MON? DOMINICK BROWN)?
5.) NO REAL CENTERFIELDER (CONFORTO DOESN'T BELONG THERE)
6.) NO BULLPEN (FAMILIA COMING BACK MAY HELP, BUT STILL ATROCIOUS)
7.) HORRIBLY OVERRATED STARTING PITCHING THAT NEVER STAYS HEALTHY EITHER.

TELL THEM ALL THESE TRUTH'S, AND THEY WILL ARGUE WITH YOU....

NUTS.


Parson Tom said...

I like Gibbons. He's one of those guys who will throw himself on a grenade for his team. (Giradi gets this right, too.) Avoiding last place should be a strong incentive for using your closer in an otherwise meaningless game. "Hey, at least we were better than Baltimore!" Plus, taking 4 of 6 from the Yankees in the final two weekend and the season series, Toronto gets to say they ended on a hopeful note.

Why are you guys wasting your time arguing with Mets fans? Not worthy of your attention, not with our season still on the line while they're cleaning out their lockers. With all those young pitchers getting injured or otherwise derailing, the Mets got screwed by the Juju Gods, and now that they traded off all their veteran talent -- sending Addison Reed to Boston was akin to Russian collusion for a New York team -- they do look like the dregs.

HoraceClarke66 said...

The way baseball is set up today, they could conceivably rebound.

Everyone gets healthy and stays healthy, Rosario lives up to his potential, etc., and voila! They get into the wild card, or even take the division, and then who knows?

But the same could be said for almost all of baseball, in an age when one-third of the teams make the postseason.

What you really need to do to ensure continued success is what so many of us here have been raving about. You have to build in redundancy, with high-potential kids constantly coming up, to make up for the inevitable injuries and flame-outs.

The Mets don't want to acknowledge that, which is why so much of their history is bringing up a brace of pitchers—remember
Isrinhausen, Pulsipher, and Wilson? Tim Leary?—and hoping for the best.

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