Unless you go all the way and win the ring, it's a done deal that you'll give up more than you'll receive. And if you go for broke and fail - like the 2015 Blue Jays with Bautista and Encarnacion, who added Tulowitski and Price at the deadline to build perhaps the strongest AL East lineup in this decade - you can then turn to shit and flop for the next five years.
What happens in the next three weeks will determine the future of the Yankees as much as did the deadline trades of 2016, which brought us Gleyber Torres, Justus Sheffield, Clint Frazier, Billy McKinney, Ben Heller and Dillon Tate.
And this is what we know:
Cooperstown Cashman is going to make deals. Why?
1. He has extra money in the team's luxury tax threshold bank. Like a squirrel hording nuts, he has kept a special trove for a late-July buying binge. He's proud of himself for doing this. It meant walking away from several free agents who looked relatively cheap at the time. Having saved his war chest, he's not going to sit on it.
2. He has a deep system that will face a 40-man roster talent crunch next winter. Either he trades prospects now, or he will have to do it in December. For prospect-huggers such as us, this is still painful. But we must accept that some exciting young players - especially infielders - are blocked long term and need to be sent to another franchise. It's inevitable that one future star will get away. We can't keep them all.
3. As The Master might say, you cannot predict Cashman. He is a genius at bucking rumors and suddenly making a trade that nobody anticipated. That's what he does. That's why the Manny Machado rumors - it looks like we're out of it - never carried weight. Cashman would be tarred and feathered if he traded Miguel Andujar for a three-month rental, and he wants plaques not only in Cooperstown but Monument Park.
It's going to happen soon. In the meantime, let's just get this stupid all-star game out of the way with nobody tweaking a gonad. Seriously, the worst part of the all-star break is not going four days without baseball. It's that ridiculous game.
All-Star Games are so 20th century. At best, they let fans take a look at the good players from the league they're not familiar with. And that's not really as necessary as it used to be before inter-league play.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of which, AL pitchers should be able to run 90 feet without destroying their careers. Who the heck is conditioning these guys? I thought good legs were needed for pitching?
Running. Ha! That's for suckers. Legs are over-rated. Buttocks and shoulders and forearms. All buttocks and shoulders and forearms.
ReplyDeletewhen I was a kid, the AL lost year after year. I was constantly being humiliated by my friends, all fans of the NL. I guess that's why I still have interest in the contest and always rejoice when the AL wins.
ReplyDeleteI'm with John M. The all star games were great when there was no interleague play and limited TV. Otherwise, we never see Ernie Banks, Roberto Clemente, Raph Kiner and maybe even Roy Sievers.
ReplyDeleteNY people got to see great Giants Dodgers and Yankees,, but other markets were pretty limited.
But today it is boring. Just give everyone a week off..
Alphonso, I appreciate the Roy Sievers shout-out.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm with KD. The first full baseball game I ever saw was the 1967 All-Star, which my father let me stay up to see for all 15 innings.
That was pretty dull, too, for the most part. Sure, everyone was a future Hall-of-Famer, but mostly they just struck out, largely because some idiot wanted the game scheduled at twilight in Anaheim, so everyone back East would see the game in primetime.
The only runs came on three, solo home runs. Mickey Mantle struck out in his only at-bat—and the only at-bat by any Yankee—and to add injury to insult, this Mets rookie I'd never heard of named Tom Seaver earned the save. And then the next month, we moved to Massachusetts.
But I was hooked. Though when it came to the All-Star Game, as KD points out, we always lost. And the Yankees in the game always stunk.
I remember how Mel Stottlemyre got the start in 1969, because the game was rained out, and Denny McLain had flown back home—where he was probably being stomped by the Detroit mob—and Frank Howard promptly dropped a flyball to make Mel the loser. There was another year, I think, when Guidry actually walked in the losing run.
So to have the AL win all the time—and Yankees to occasionally be named the game's MVP...YES!
THE RUMORS KILL ME....
ReplyDeleteTYSON ROSS..TYLER SKAGGS..
COOP'S ON HIS ANNUAL NATIONAL LEAGUE PITCHER "SCOUR-THON".
WE JUST KNOW EITHER ONE OF THESE NAMES WOULD BE A DISASTER IN THE AMERICAN LEAGUE.
(BIG SIGH)......
I hear ya, ALL-CAPS. At least Happ looked hapless again in the All-Star Game tonight.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, here is more proof of what "experts" these guys all are, and how they are really giving us the hot skinny. Check out this sage from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and particularly his last line:
https://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/birdland/trading-carlos-martinez-a-real-possibility/article_12f34112-820d-518e-8158-0be8e4909e2e.html
Yes, the Yankees line up from the outside looking in, and you could see how the Yankees have close-proximity prospects of interest. And, yes, Martinez would bring a high yield return. Aaron Sale-esque, if not quite completely Sale.
You heard that right: "Aaron Sale." The guy is looking for an "Aaron-Sale type deal." Oh, they're insiders, all right.
ReplyDeleteI really want the world to know about this great man who brought back happiness into my life again after my husband left me and the kids 3 years ago for another women online when i contacted Dr Believe he cast a love spell for me within 48 hours my ex husband start calling me and begging for forgiveness for everything that have happened between us. I was so happy to have my family back together with love again here is the email of Dr Believe via believelovespelltemple@gmail.com a man with the great powers you can also call him or add him on Whats-app: +2348156148821
God bless you
I am very grateful for your help in my marriage.