Now, Pittsburgh is supposedly adding Josh Harrison, who I thought was a Steelers linebacker. (Actually, I wish; we could use a pass rush.) Harrison is a 30-year-old, right-handed 3B with Chase Headley genes. Last year, he hit .272 with 16 HRs (Headley was .273 and 12.) The HR total was by far the most in Harrison's slappy career; he hit 4 in 2015 and 4 more in 2016. His batting average has declined for four straight years. (Okay, his WAR was 3.3; that beats Headley's 1.8; hooray for Sabermetrics; they justify bad trades!)
If it's true that the Pirates are adding Harrison, it means the Yankees are probably adding Miguel Andujar to a bundle that already included Clint Frazier - and didn't you just know it? We'd be sending two great prospects for two thoroughly mediocre players - Cole and Harrison? Wow. That adds a little piss to the holiday eggnog, eh?
Listen: We must not hurl bile at trades that haven't been made. The devil is always in the details, and rumors are - after all - the fakest of fake news. Nothing more excites a Gammonite than a mysterious tweet, and their ensuing blather fires up our blood pressure the way Fox News gets grampa to scream at the TV. Also, most Cashman trades come without warning, like asteroid strikes. Our scientists think they can predict them, but then you read where a rock the size of Giancarlo just missed us, like a high-and-tight fastball from Betances.
Still, I don't understand the molecular attraction that the Yankees seem to have for Gerrit Cole. They've always wanted him, even after he scorned us by refusing to sign out of high school. Last year, this guy couldn't keep his ERA below 4.00 in the National League, and he gave up 31 HRs in a well known pitchers park - (325' x 399' x 320', ranked 26th for power-hitting by ESPN.) What's going to happen in Yankee Stadium (which was ranked 10th.) Last year, Masahiro Tanaka gave up 35 HRs, and we nearly sent him back to Japan. If Cole shows the same stuff of 2017, he could eclipse Tanaka's Tanker totals by Sept. 1. Yeesh. If the Pirates think this guy has a future, why are they so willing to trade him?
Bad deals don't improve by adding players, and this one looks like a Cashman Classic: He chases another contract-controlled "power arm," like so many dismal acquisitions - (Javier Vazquez to Jeff Weaver to Michael Pineda) - of the past. You can't predict baseball, but here's a rule of thumb: If you keep trading prospects, eventually you get generationally burned.
Of course, it hasn't happened yet. Maybe it won't. Maybe it's just a Christmas ghost story. But if we wake up Monday and Clint Frazier is a Pirate, the Grinch will be smiling in my household. Bah.
I hope and pray this does not happen. Of course, we know what hopes and prayers are worth, don't we?
ReplyDeleteAnother lousy cASSman move? The second coming of Michael Pineda or Jaime Garcia?
ReplyDeleteYesterday, I was a happy man. Yesterday, I was footloose and fancy free, feeling good enough to take random jabs at the Mets. Yesterday, there was even speculation that Cole was headed for the Carmine Hose, a consummation devoutly to be wished.
ReplyDeleteThen...he's baccckkkk! Arrrggh. Today, the weight of the world has returned to my shoulders.
Just the way this is being done is sheer agony, a sort of water torture.
I'm sure it's true. It was Cashman's modus operandi all over it. Turn down the first offer, so it looks like you're a really tough negotiator. Insist on some idiotic throw-in like a Josh Harrison. Then, just when it looks like the deal is dead—
This is so stupid it redefines stupid. Of all the stupid deals Cashie has been involved in over the years, this is the stupidest.
Gerrit Cole for any ONE of these three players is a bad, bad trade for us. If he were just trading Chance Adams for Cole—DAIYANU! (And how can you trade a guy who has a name like a character out of a 1930s boys' adventure book?)
If it were Gerrit Cole for LUIS CESSA, for cryin' out loud, it would be a bad deal. Anything short of Cole for Ellsbury, even up (all right, you can throw in Cito Culver), would be a bad deal.
Even that, I'm not so sure about. What Cashman doesn't ever seem to get is that players such as Cole are not simply placeholders, or useful back-ups. They are actively detrimental to our team, people who will hurt us in so many ways.
Santa is bringing us Gerrit Cole!
ReplyDeleteThis is terrible news. Nope hope left. I just pray they manage to hold onto Cito Culver.
ReplyDeleteCashman must stand pat. He is like the once-lucky guy at the card table, who just drew an inside straight.
ReplyDeleteHe is, however, drooling over the success of the deal. The pile of chips in front of him seems endless. He got the luckiest package in history when Giancarlo appeared. Now, he is flush with false competence. Cashman actually thinks he had something to do with the deal.. That anything he touches is ...well, remember Midas?
We need a good Xmas. Not another one filled with dismay and regret. Cash in your chips, Cashman, and go home. Honor your name and do nothing more.
Another deal, one which pisses Andujar and Frazier into the Xmas punch, deserves retribution. Cashman's driveway will be lined with tacks and set ablaze.
It worked before.
That's the perfect analogy, Alphonso. He just can't leave it alone, and walk away from the table.
ReplyDeleteHe has worked his whole life in a very fluid business, one where negotiations go on constantly, and constantly change. And yet, the least setback throws him off completely.
He thought he had figured out the master stroke: get Ohtani for a bargain basement price, and that will solve both the problems of having enough arms and a sufficient bench. Genius!
When Ohtani said no, he was thrown into a tailspin. Even a big, fat gift like Stanton—the equivalent of some idiot, out-of-town mark sitting down at the table and blowing his whole bankroll on one hand—couldn't stop him.
He had his blood up now, and he had to listen to all the know nothings. All the riffraff, the hookers and the hangers-on crowded around the table, throwing in their two-cents' worth:
"Hey, Clint Frazier has no role now!...Hey, you can't start TWO rookies and expect to make the World Series!...Cole was good once, he'll be good again...You can vindicate that draft pick. Cashie always gets his man..."
Now is the time to call it a night, and wait to see what the morning—i.e., spring training.
But no. He's got to switch to Fast Eddie Felson mode (to mix my betting games). To send out for another pint of J.T.S. Brown, and taunt Minnesota Fats, oblivious all the while as to how HE is the sucker at the table.
IT'S THE STRIKEOUTS!
ReplyDeleteIT'S THE FUCKING STRIKEOUTS!
THAT'S WHY HE WANTS COLE.
DOESN'T MATTER THAT HE IS A MEDIOCRE PITCHER NOW.....
MICHAEL FULMER IS A SMARTER CHOICE, AND BATTLE TESTED IN THE A.L..... BUT ALTHOUGH HE HAS SHARP STUFF, HE DOESN'T STRIKE OUT MANY GUYS. (ABOUT 5 OR 6 PER 9 INNINGS).
COLE HAS ABOUT 8 K'S PER 9 INNINGS.
HEY COOP! ...
HINT!
THE PITCHER BATS IN THE N.L....
THAT'S WHERE THE EXTRA STRIKEOUTS ARE COMING FROM WITH COLE.
.....BECAUSE OF THAT BULLSHIT STAT, WE ARE GOING TO TOSS AWAY MORE TOP PROSPECTS.
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