Buck Showalter's team just won a game to help the Yankees. Either that's a software glitch in The Matrix - have you, by chance, been seeing any mustached Italian plumbers flying overhead? - or the world is ending. Either way, Armageddon outahere.
Or maybe it's just a prelude to Buck's upcoming three-game set at Yankee Stadium. Just watch: He will manage like it's the World Series. Expect a Pickett's Charge from the bullpen.
Sixteen games remain. But if we expect Showalterian tomato cans to beat the rising A's, we must be vaping the scents of Elon Musk. Oakland lost last night because Brett Anderson returned, and he didn't have it in the early innings. Baltimore quickly scored four runs and then held on for dear life, winning 5-2.
Anderson's rust raises an issue for the Yankees. We somehow must win while easing both Aaron Judge and Aroldis Chapman through major league, in-game rehabs. With Chapman, that could be particularly torturous, if he comes into a closer situation. Some of the most painful losses of the season could be lurking in the final two weeks. It's hard to imagine a more torturous path than what the Yankees have already endured, but make no mistake: The worst could be yet to come.
Forget the won-lost record. It's been a nightmare season: A team bursting with talent and potential, which seemed poised to launch a dynasty, is now lurching desperately toward the finish line, gasping for breath and hoping for a last-minute transfusion. Meanwhile, our nemesis is rolling to perhaps its greatest season ever, and they will soon control our fate - six games against Boston - where they can, in essence, sit back and play with their food. If Boston falls behind in a game, they simply pull the starters and take the night off. If it's close, they can run full bore and try to knock us out of the home field advantage. I cannot imagine a worse situation for the Yankees to be in. But make no mistake: They have earned this dilemma.
Yesterday, two veteran warhorses of the Yankiverse popped up like Marley's ghost to weigh-in on the debacle. Mike Francesca called the 2018 Yankees the "worst 90-win Yankees team ever," which is sort of weird. Meanwhile, Bill Madden lifted his forehead from the bar long enough to dictate a screed blaming Aaron Boone if the Yankee collapse continues.
Well, if the Yankees blow this, I dunno who to blame. All I know is that the most ridiculously painful losses of the season may still be yet to come. The world might not end. It's just going to feel that way.
There is only one man to blame, duque. The buck stops at Hal Steinbrenner. it is his team and the strings are his to pull, or his to delegate. Hal bears full responsibility for all decisions regarding hiring and retention of all personnel.
ReplyDeleteother than award ceremonies and such, has ANYONE of us EVER seem Hal at a game? With George, I'd see him several times each season. never rubbing elbows with us untouchables but in his box, watching the game and giving us a little wave when captured by the camera dude.
you know what attending Yankees fans did when we say George? we fucking CHEERED, that's what we did!!! we knew that George wanted exactly what we wanted: a Championship season.
Do you think fans would cheer Hal?
ReplyDeleteLet's page back in time to April. The Yankees starting rotation was:
Sonny Gray
Monty
CC Sabathia
Tanaka
Severino
I know that we all expected Sevy to have a great year. He did, up until Summer.
Sabathia: I thought he'd prove to be a bad investment. He wasn't, but that might be dumb luck. This is a guy who becomes furious if the other team bunts on him. Why? He can't field his position. He can't run to first base to cover, either. By any reckoning, this sitch is ridiculous.
Tanaka: At least some of us thought his arm would fall off. It didn't. He's been erratic, tho, hasn't he? He's improve a bit -- last year, 35 HRs given up in 30 starts, this year "only" 23 in 24 starts. His ERA is down. His W-L is 11-5. That's not a full season (24 starts thru mid-September)....is it?
Monty -- bad luck, I guess. I wonder if we'll ever see him in a NYY uniform again.
Gray -- I don't think anyone had confidence in this guy, including Gray himself. We're all hoping we don't see him again in a NYY uniform -- altho he's still under contract for '19.
2 of the 5 starters vanished from relevance (the fact that Gray got a start this past week is scary). The other three guys are right there sometimes, not really there others.
When I looked at this in April, I didn't see Monty going down. But I did think each of Sabathia and Tanaka might be unreliable, and that Gray was a bad idea. I didn't see a 90-win season. M
aybe you did? I don't know what you thought back then....
But clearly, with such a rotation, the team was rolling the dice (big time). Hal's limits on the salary cap disabled Cashmoney from spending HUGE to bring in another arm or two in the spring......which is the only way this GM knows to operate.
Instead, the team waited until the trade deadline approached, and traded away pieces of its future for short-term rentals of Happ, Lynn, and Britton -- all of whom could be gone when the season ends. Not Cashmoney's strength, is it?
WITH THIS PERSPECTIVE -- if you agree with it, which you ain't gotta -- it would seem to be safe to say that:
A. If the NYYs get into the one-game playdown, whether held in the Bronx or in Oakland, they should thank their lucky stars. If you have a GM who only operates by overpaying for talent AND you restrict his ability to overpay, THIS IS WHAT YOU GET. So: It don't matter where the stupid game is played, they're damn lucky to have this shot.
B. The season will end soon. I believe the future will see us, the fans, mourn at least a few of the potentially talented young people who were sent away. It's possible that when looking back at 2018, we don't remember the slow W-L deterioration, but the fact that we no longer have Billy McKinney, or X or Y or Z. Or all of the above.
C. Note that we're not going to find out a lot about the future of the pitching staff in the rest of this month. Chance Adams was just promoted to the major leagues (for the bullpen?) Sheffield still isn't even on the 40-man roster (so we won't be seeing him, even in games that are out of hand). Maybe Mike King has got something (???) --also not on the 40-man. Perhaps Cessa and German can come to Jesus somewhow in the off-season (?).
What dismays me is that the quality of the 2019 season is going to turn on spending a huge heap of money on one or more pitchers, and Harper/Machado or both, AND solving the catcher problem. And solving the first-base horror.
Sooooooo......might we all be having these same discussions at this same time next year? I believe it to be possible.
Sorry to mouth off at such length. I thought the question of where the bullshit wildcard game will be played not all that damn important.
I know everyone hates Mike, but he nailed it with this.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yoKiXzRGEc
ReplyDeleteJFoB:
Agree with all but Lord, as you say, it's dismaying.
We suck. I think I might have mentioned this before.
ReplyDeleteI blame it on Bird. I always have.
ReplyDeleteI have to say, I agree with almost everything Francesca says here. He hits it right on the head.
ReplyDelete(Of course, unnoticed by Francesca or anyone else is how right almost everyone on THIS blog had it about this team, months ago. It's what everybody forgets: Cassandra was RIGHT.)
Francesca is too tough on Chapman, who had to pretty much call 911 to get off the field when that crack Yankees medical staff didn't seem to notice that his leg was collapsing.
But otherwise, he is quite right in saying that this year's collapse goes beyond just the statistics:
"I don’t trust them. I don’t like them. They seem almost listless. They seem almost resigned to these outcomes"
Amen!
Joe FOB, I agree. Looking at this team at the start of the year, I thought that it's only Achilles heel was the starting pitching.
ReplyDeleteWhich was my stupidity: when starting pitching is your Achilles heel, it's like having two Achilles legs, gonads, and lower abdomen.
BUT, as you point out, the thing is that the Yanks' starting pitching has held out much better than we might have expected.
The Yanks are 4th in the AL in pitching overall, and 4th in starting pitching.
Sure, there have been disappointments. I didn't expect much from Sonny Gray, but I thought he could be a decent No. 4 or No. 5 starter, racking up wins against the tomato cans. Montgomery was bad luck—though frankly, I was always wary of his stuff.
But this starting staff COULD have worked out much, much worse, considering the state of Tanaka's and CC's health.
One caveat...
...which is this:
ReplyDeleteIs the starting staff the hidden killer of this team?
I mean this in the sense that, did the constant inability of the starters to go more than five innings, even in games where they were winning and pitching well, slowly drain the bullpen?
Could well be. It's unlikely any starter on this staff will get to 200 innings, If Tanaka and CC have a bad outing or two, we will only have one starter with more than 150 innings.
Joe FOB makes an excellent point: if Coops was not going to spend big to get another starter or two, we should have been auditioning everybody from the farm this year.
Instead, all we have are mediocre rentals, who may not even sign with us if we want them to. A terrible waste.
And finally, this:
ReplyDeleteAs even the Mike Francescas of the world have come to notice, outside of the pitching, this team is a shambles.
I have never seen so many highly touted, young players take such a giant step backwards in the same season.
Sanchez, Bird, Severino...even Judge and Stanton. Hell, even the likes of Didi, Hicks, and Green took at least medium-sized steps back.
And...so did pretty much everyone else on the farm: Florial, Mike Ford, Chance Adams, Gilliam, Tyler Wade, etc., etc., etc.
THIS IS MORE THAN COINCIDENCE!!
Oh, and Joe FOB: I think the only way we are NOT having this conversation next year is if we have bought a team of established stars. Then we will be having a conversation about how disappointing they are.
ReplyDeleteInjuries are on the Juju Gods but...
Poor team construction is on the Owner and GM (Still love 2018 Luxury Tax
Champions - that's just inspired.)
"Listless" is on the manager.
"Young players take such a giant step backwards in the same season" is on the coaches.
The collective wisdom on this sight is spot on.
Doug K.
How about using the "Turbo tax luxury tax savings" they use it to buy a quality coaching candidates
ReplyDelete.. I've never hated ANYONE like I HATE BOONE he ruined this team.
I can't help but notice the things they are missing were the EXACT attributes of Mr Binders... U know grit,k mental toughness, discipline...DISDAIN FOR LOSING...yes he made his fair share of in game blunders but he was SPOT ON in intangibles...imo. I was all in for replacing him with someone who had the same simialr strengths BUT strong also where Binders was weak "positive communication". Instead we get Mr Rogers... Who can't impart a lick of nothing ...
He's destroyed my team
Just curious, duque--what were you expecting Showalter to do? Take a gracious dive on behalf of the organization that dumped him after he laid the foundations of a dynasty? Time to get just a wee bit serious.
ReplyDeleteI hear ya, Joe F.—but I think it was an organization-wide effort.
ReplyDeleteMa has failed completely to motivate or become his own man. But the organizational philosophies, especially on hitting, are really, I suspect, what has ruined this team.
McCutcheon is filling in nicely after a real slow start. I especially like his Jackie Robinson hat tip crossing the plate. Too bad he won't be around next year.
ReplyDeleteIn other news, Boone sucks and the coaching sucks (for reasons noted above and in hundreds of other posts here). Unfortunately, short of a tragic blimp accident taking out Hal and Coops, I don't see the situation changing. At least we can bitch and moan about it here.
Geez, I came here to request our very own Win-Warblerist to add a yodel for me to his curtain call, and what do I get? 15 comments of the usual bitchin' and moanin' low. You guys make Libby Holman seem like Mary Sunhine.
ReplyDeleteDid no one notice that the Yankees won 11-0 on the same night that the redstockings lost 0-8 to the Met? The NEW YORK Mets?
Now that's more like it.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Cincinnati Kid, on his "Drive on Mendoza," got up to .194. Woo-hoo!
Meanwhile, thanks to those Metsies, the magic number is now 2. WOO-HOO!
Despite Chubbsy Ubsy's good night, I have something to say.
ReplyDeleteAhem...
AHH! AHHH!!! Aha-ah-haaaaa!! HaaHaahahahahaaaaaaaaahhhh!!
AAaAhhaaaa-haha-haaa-hhhhhHHHHHHHHaaaaAAHHHHHHHHHHHaaaa-ah-ah-ah-aaaaaaaaAaAaHaHaHaaaAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!!!
AND ALL RISE YOU MANKY BASTARDS!!! ALL FUCKIN' RISE!!!
ReplyDeleteAOBF, I am here for you!! I was on call and only got to listen to the the last inning in the Cayman on the way home. But I am here. Never doubt that. Warble warble!
ReplyDeleteLast night's blowout of the Blue Jays: the storm before the calm.
ReplyDeleteMust to correct the record on one thing: Francesa is a dumb blowhard.
ReplyDeleteAll this, sure. This team is currently bifurcated because coaching/management want one thing, and the players want another. Their "game plan" is flawed, and they can't adapt. Josh Bard let us know that the night he filled in for Ma. Management has taken over, installed a stooge into Casey Stengel's office, and fucked it all up. And Hal, o wise one that he is, crawls out of his personal sewer to tell us all that everything is fine. We are doomed.
ReplyDelete
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