Bronx Side Story: Tonight tonight, it all begins tonight?

In the Yankiverse, as in outer space, no one can hear you scream. 

The reason, though, is not the vast airless vacuum beyond earth's atmosphere. It is far more simple than magnetism or gravity: 

No one can hear you scream, because everyone else is too busy screaming to listen.

Tonight, the Yankees will either quiet their demons or launch a growling, barfing Greek chorus of horror-filled howls... all of them, yelling for a trade.

Let me back up a moment... 

Now and then, pivotal moments emerge that can define a baseball team for not just the current race, but for years to come. Generally, we cannot see these events in advance; they just explode in front of us, suddenly rearranging the future in overtones that are rosy or starkly bleak.

Tonight, when the Yankees unveil 23-year-old Jonathan Loaisiga, it will be the first time in many seasons that they have elevated a kid all the way from the Double A lemonade stand, and it might just represent a sea change in the way they view rookie arms throughout their farm system: Are they trade chips or future planks of the rotation? 

If Loaisiga pitches well - let's say five-plus innings and three-or-less runs - it will relieve the enormous pressure on Brian Cashman to trade a bundle of prospects for a wily veteran rag-arm. The Yankees do have the chips to deal. The question, though, is whether they'll occupy the drivers' seat in negotiations, or if they'll be standing on the entrance ramp, begging for a handout (that will not come.) 

If Loasiga gets hammered, tomorrow's headlines across the Yankiverse will scream for the kind of trade that defined Yankee mediocrity throughout the down periods over the last 30 years. Whenever the Yankees have sucked, you could always draw a straight line to one or two massive, giveaway trades, in which they dealt ascending talent for a beer-belly whose wheels were on the verge of flattening. If there's one thing that turns the Gammonites into a shrieking Taylor Swift backup chorus, it's a rookie pitcher's debut massacre. If Loaisiga gets bombed, the shouts will be for Cashman to do something, ANYTHING! to fix the Yankee rotation. And that's what leads to a Jaime Garcia.

Yes, I know what you're thinking: That I'm just another Jesus H. Montero prospect-hugger, who'd still be clinging to Zolio Almonte if given the chance. But Yankees have built the best team in baseball by giving rookies an opportunity. Close your eyes, and it's easy to imagine Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres, Miguel Andujar and Luis Severino in other uniforms, while we toggle Chris Davis and Jose Bautista in the DH slot. And you can also see Gary Sanchez or Greg Bird being run out of town - (a disastrous scenario, by the way) - just because they're mired in slumps. 

The Yankiverse is a place of screams. Tonight, they'll all be directed at a 23-year-old kid up from Trenton. Let's hope he tunes them out. It might just be the difference in the future of this team.