Sunday, September 2, 2018

Every win brings us closer to that wonderful one game season

It's getting to the point where, barring an incredible collapse, we are a sure bet for the Wild Card game. Hooray.

Boston will have home field advantage. 

Soon, IT IS HIGH may need to transition from a Yankee fan blog to a "For God's Sake, Somebody Fucking Please Beat Boston" blog. Somehow, I think Cleveland represents our best proxy in this necessary war. Thus, the Indians pickup of Josh Donaldson might be the best thing that happened this weekend.

Considering the Yankees' incredible understatement of Aaron Judge's wrist injury, Cashman's suggestion yesterday that Aroldis Chapman might not pitch again in 2018 means he actually may never pitch again, period.

Yankee fans shout "Luuuuuuuke" when Luke Voit comes to bat, and "Booooooo" when it's Greg Bird. So it sounds the same.

Starting to fear the worst about Luis Severino. He can't seem to last four innings. If he is the Wild Card starter, as people keep suggesting, Boone better yank him after one spin through the order. (Of course, my choice would be Tanaka; there is no better big game pitcher on the Yankees.)

It was nice to see Tyler Wade steal second yesterday. It's what I thought we'd see a lot of this year. Not too late to make an impression.

Finally, happy Gleyber Day Weekend, everybody. Have one on me.

39 comments:

TheWinWarblist said...

You gotta play them one game at a time.

Anonymous said...

MAYBE WE SHOULD BE HAPPY CHAPMAN DOESN'T COME BACK?

ALTHOUGH HE WAS HAVING A GOOD YEAR, HE WAS SPIRALING DOWNWARD AND JUST ABOUT EVERY ONE OF HIS LAST BUNCH OF APPEARANCES WERE A DISASTER, (OR NEAR DISASTER).

I THINK WE SHOULD KEEP TRYING BRITTON AND D-RO AS CO-CLOSERS. (WHOEVER EMBRACES THE ROLE BETTER, WINS THE JOB FOR THE POST SEASON).

THE ONE THAT DOESN'T WIN THE ROLE CAN BE THE "ROAMING" RELIEVER AND COME IN AT ANY TIME, EARLY OR LATE IN THE GAME.

DELLIN STAYS IN THE 8TH (NOTHING ELSE).

GREEN 6TH AND OR 7TH.

HOLDER AND KAHNLE (ANYTIME BEFORE THE 6TH).

HAPPY GLEYBER DAY BROTHERS.

TheWinWarblist said...

all caps, Chapman was playing on a bad knee. Hard to write off such a dominant player based on his performance while hurt.

I've always believed a reliever's role was to sit their ass down in the bullpen until the phone rings for them. Then they're supposed to come into whatever inning or situation and get hitters out. I'm funny that way. Sit your ass down and then get hitters out when you're called. Not a big fan of roles. Except maybe LOOGYs.

Anonymous said...

If they have lost Chappie for the year, we are fukked in the postseason.

Anonymous said...

I AGREE WITH YOU WARBLIST ABOUT RELIEVERS AND THEIR ROLES.

.....BUT WE BOTH KNOW, IN TODAY'S GAME, WITH "TODAY'S PLAYER", IT'S ALL ABOUT "WHAT'S MY ROLE?"

IT'S NEVER THAT SIMPLE, ALTHOUGH IT SHOULD BE.

WE CAN OVERCOME THE LOSS OF CHAPMAN IN THE POST SEASON, BUT IT'S BRITTON WHO IS THE KEY. HE NEEDS TO REVERT BACK TO SOMETHING CLOSE TO WHAT HE ONCE WAS.

Ken of Brooklyn said...

Happy Gleyber Day one and all!!!
Just trying to stay zen during this stretch, at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised by anything good , bad, REALLY bad or meh in the postseason stretch.

JM said...

Why the fuck can't Boone get injured? Or Cashman?

Love,
A Fan

Alphonso said...

Chappy should see the knee guy at Hospital For Special Surgery.

If he is done, let's fix him.

We have to get used to the idea that this is not a world championship team. Have you been watching?

It is a patch work quilt of some interesting talent, some horribly mediocre, fill-in players and recently, some old guard former star players. In other words, nothing has changed.

We are what we are. A team kind of attempting to re-build with youth. A team that largely ignored their pitching deficiencies and keeps trying to add power to the engine, rather than build a new engine

Our team, when healthy, is good. Our season is good. We are respectable. But we are not in the same league as Boston or, on some days, the White Sox.

So I say, bite the bullet now. Get guys to the hospital and send them to the rehab facilities in Switzerland. Quit thinking that Judge is going to parade into the dugout and hit 30 homers in September. Quit hoping for Sanchez to get hot and bring his season average to .200. Quit believing that McCuthcen still has it.

All of those hopes and wishes lead to poor decisions.

Running this team in panic mode, because someone thinks this is our year to win it all, is harmful to the future. A Cashman ( and ownership ) symptom we have seen for decades.

It is true. If you get to the playoffs you have a chance.

But not a realistic one. We ran out that string last year. We got a slim chance, got hot, and almost ran the table.

This year, Tampa sweeps us. And we barely split with the Marlins. The Orioles fight us to the last breath.

Stop the horror. We have already picked up every old, former star available ( can't believe we didn't sign Donaldson to replace Andujar at third )

Enough.

Face the truth. We are not winning it all this season. no way.

Live with it and move on.



JM said...

The Master just said Mike King was the International League player of the month, going 3-0 in five starts with an ERA just north of 1.00.

Anyone know this guy?

JM said...

Alphonso is right, by the way. Just saying.

Carl J. Weitz said...

John M....he was the guy the Yankees got when they traded Garret Cooper and Caleb Smith to the Marlins after they did the Stanton trade. From what I've read about him, he wasn't supposed to be this good.The Yankees just needed to remove 2 excess players from their 40 man roster.

Anonymous said...

It's not that they can't win the championship (Hell if Brian Doyle can hit .438 in the World Series, anything can happen.)

What I believe Alphonso is correctly identifying is that there is no magic about this team, no Aura and Mystique (who sound like they should be booked this Labor Day Weekend at the Dancing Thong out by the airport.)

They are as he described. However, once you make the playoffs... who is to say? And we will make the playoffs.

I was reading the Post today and saw these tidbits:

Sale back on DL
Red Sox a pedestrian 6-4 over the last ten.
Andrew Miller Hurt
Verlander Last five starts: 6.57 ERA and .948 OPS against.
I think Oakland just lost their top two starters.

That's the current competition. Everyone has issues and everyone has time to get right. Once the playoffs start they are their own thing. We could be out of it by the 4th inning of the play in game or who knows?

But Alphonso makes a very good point. These Yankees are not something special... Until they are and Luke Voit hits three home runs in a game 7. It can happen. Probably not. Because they are not a great team.

Doug K.




JM said...

Jesus, do we have to trot out Lynn every fifth game? He's mediocre at best. Lousy trade, smelled desperate, proving to be ridiculous.

Nice job, Coop.

13bit said...

Alphonso, you are dead on. I could not agree more. It's almost torture to go through this charade of the one-game wild card kabuki dance every year. They almost fooled us all early on, but great teams find a way to grind them out and this team folds like well-greased folding chair.

Same as the past 10 years - no serious hitting. Sure, homers, but but homers cannot sustain you, especially against good teams in the playoffs. Pitching is erratic and not enough of it. To some extent, with the pen, we're still getting used to LAM - Life After Mariano - but I have actually garnered hope from the past few years. It IS possible for us to get saves since Mo returned to his home planet. We just have to have good baseball talent managing in the dugout, which brings us to...

BOONE HAS TO GO. THE SECRET BINDERS GUY IN THE BASEMENT HAS TO GO. THE COACHING STAFF HAS TO GO. RANDY LEVINE NEEDS TO BE SENT UP IN A METEOROLOGICAL BALOON AND WE CAN LET THE JETSTREAM TAKE HIM AWAY. AND CASHBALLS HAS TO GO.

Give The Master and Suzyn lifetime contracts and start taking DNA samples so we can clone them both. I'm all in on modern technology.

JM said...

Kahnle is shot. He doesn't have it anymore.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Wow, ice cream bar looks like he hustled.

Leinstery said...

The Master calls for us.

But seriously, Bird, with Stanton on the bench?

Rufus T. Firefly said...



Dare to take that called third strike.

...even if the game is on the line.

Sheesh!

TheWinWarblist said...

This is pathetic. It's like we're fielding a tripe A squad at this point.

Joe of AZ said...

This fuckin blows..... hard.... wheres the killer instinct in this team they resemble more of a male fraternity safe space...sorry to say Joey binders doesn't lose 4 outta 7 games this late in the year against last place teams... To echo 13bit this coaching staff needs to go ASAP!

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Leinstery,

I missed the Master's shout out. Every time I hear the 1-800 cars for kids commercial I switch to the YES audio.

As for Stanton pinch hitting, I think his splits against righties stink. I'm too lazy to verify, but pretty sure that's the case.

Alphonso said...

Stanton would have struck out on a ball in the dirt, 4 feet off the plate. Bird almost hit the miracle shot.

But that is the problem with Bird; " almost" is, in the end, nothing.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

"Just another long out here at Yankee Stadium."

Circa 1968, I forget which announcer.

13bit said...

'68 feels just about right for this team...so much "almost" that you can smell the skunk shit in the distance, to borrow inspiration from Alphonso's next post...

HoraceClarke66 said...

Giancarlo against righties this year: 33 HRs, .254 BA, .796 OPS

Bird against righties this year: 8 HRs, .193 BA, .653 OPS

So, Bird was there...?

HoraceClarke66 said...

Alphonso, I've been saying this for years. Hell, I said it LAST YEAR: Stop competing, keep rebuilding.

It's conflict of purpose that will screw you up every time.

And you're also right that we should fix the broken, now. Most stupidly, we should have fixed Chapman after he came in against the Mets and could not throw a strike to save his life. That was July 21st, and he was obviously in serious trouble then. Had he been shutdown then, he might have been coming back for the playoffs about now. But no.

JM said...

Last year, Joey Binders rode the kids into contention, then for the street run, played mediocre and worse veterans. I remember thinking, what happened to those exciting young guys? And we talked, or slowed to a crawl, maybe .500 when we could've made a run at the division.

At least, that's how I remember it. As inexplicable to me as putting this rookie in today when we had pulled to within 3. We're not trying to win anymore. Or should I say, just enough to get into the one-game derby.

JM said...

Stretch run... fucking auto correct.

JM said...

Tanked, not talked.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Warblist, I agree. That's what I loved about Andrew Miller. "You're paying me several million dollars to play baseball? Hell, yeah, I'll do whatever you want!"

And Doug K, you're right, this team doesn't have any magic. Last year's team did, when all the world seemed new, and they could take any reliever apart in the postseason.

You see teams like that sometimes such as the 2002 Angels, who had a ton of hitters, some young power arms, and this mysterious new kid, K-Rod, in the bullpen all of a sudden.

Sure, it also probably helped that they were juiced up the wazoo. But still. They had that magic. This team is just staggering to the wire. Unfortunately, they will probably have to fly to Oakland for a day, before it's all over.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Sorry, my bad on that Stanton stat. He has 33 homers all told, of course—but only 21 against righties.

Good-rum! Good-rum! He went 7-16 on the weekend, with big hits, it seemed, in almost every game. Good grief.

HoraceClarke66 said...

And ALL-CAPS...Happy Gleyber Day right back at you! And everybody here!

Leinstery said...

Every time Bird almost contributes I think of Sean Connery in "The Rock"

"Losers always whine about their best, winners go home and fuck the prom queen"

Anonymous said...

ALPHONSO'S POST ABOVE WAS CHILLING, BUT ACCURATE.

LET ME ASK A QUESTION?

WHAT THE FUCK WAS WRONG WITH GETTING DANIEL MURPHY?

HE IS A PREMIUM LEFTY HITTER THAT WE DESPERATELY NEED.

SHORT PORCH.

HE CAN PLAY FIRST BASE.

HE CAN DH.

HE RAKES, RAKES, RAKES IN PLAYOFF GAMES.

I HEAR HE COST NEXT TO NOTHING FOR THE CUBS.

....AND I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT THE LUXURY TAX. JUST MAKE IT WORK.

CASHMAN SUCKS BIG ELEPHANT DICKS.

35 FUCKING GAMES OVER .500, AND I FEEL LIKE THIS TEAM LOSES EVERY DAY.

13bit said...

"Stop competing, keep rebuilding" absolutely IS the correct thing to do, but the Yankee brass would look at you with faux piety and pronounce it heresy, even though they MUST know that our standard tactic has become FAR WORSE than that course. We "compete" for a spot that is almost guaranteed to pan out poorly AND we give away our future every time. This same bullshit charade has gone on for years. WHO IS THE ONE MAN RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS STRATEGY? We know who: Styrofoam-Balls Cashmoney.

HoraceClarke66 said...

And the crazy thing, 13bit? Even by just concentrating on rebuilding, they would almost certainly still be pulling down wild card spots, the league is so bad.

HoraceClarke66 said...

And yes, ALL-CAPS, Murphy would've been great. And why not A-Jax, Austin Jackson, instead of Shane Robinson?

Carl J. Weitz said...

The Yankees wont fly to Oakland because they will have the better record. The top 2 A's pitchers are on the DL with their best, Manaea, out for the year.

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