Of course, space is reserved here for Dellin Betances, the all-star hurler who should not be allowed within 300 feet of a meaningful post-season game. ?Seriously. At what point would a Wild Card game be considered safe enough to bring in Betances, the ticking bomb who is capable of blowing any lead?
Between Betances and Aroldis Chapman - who might not suit up for the one-game season three weeks from now - the Yankee bullpen is capable of imploding without rendering a base hit, as Betances did yesterday. Five run lead? Ten? Who cares? No lead is safe, when the first four pitches install a man on first.
Yesterday, the Yankees returned to their blighted ways of the second half: They left runners in scoring position, failed to make critical plays in the field, and lost to a lesser team in the throes of its own dark collapse. All the ingredients of a sweep were there. Seattle was lying on its back, neck exposed, waiting for the kill stroke. And the Yankees managed to blow it.
When the Yankees play as they did yesterday, it becomes utterly impossible to imagine this team winning the 2018 World Series.
Three times, Luke Voit reached second base with no outs. Three times, the Yankees failed to score him. In a one-run loss, it's hard to achieve more frustration than that.
So now, it's Minnesota, where Tyler Austin will surely hit a few home runs against us, and Sonny Gray will - God, who knows what he'll do? The lead over Oakland has dwindled to three games, and we've reached the point where Yankee announcers now feel compelled to mention that if the teams are tied, the Yankees will win home field on a technicality. Yes, we've crumbled to the point of hoping other teams fall apart, and clinging to the fine print of rule books written by Bud Selig.
This is the home stretch. This is the point where good teams run away from the competition. This is crunch time. And the Yankees are 5-5.
We had such great hopes entering this season. And now, we watch games float out the window with lead-off walks on four pitches. Be afraid. Be very afraid. At some point, coming soon, Dellin Betances is going to enter the Wild Card game against Oakland...
Do you feel secure?
We're doomed.
ReplyDeleteNo, I do not feel secure. I even expect this organization to start Sevey in the one game season, instead of our true clutch pitcher. of course, I am typing about The Professor. Tanaka must start that game.
ReplyDeleteif Sevey is given the ball, I will follow the game on the internet until after he is pulled or he gets out of the second inning. Then I'll turn on the set. I just don't want to watch a repeat performance from last year.
It's my feeling that everyone in Yankee management now believes the season is over. I note this morning that Judge is reported to be still feeling pain from swinging the bat ("4" out of 10), and Chapman is still dubious at best, which are slight but notable changes from previous reports. This seems to be an attempt to leak the news out slowly that they will not return for the rest of the season. I think the Yankees will go into the Wild Card game with the roster they currently have and roll the dice there, but as far as advancing to the ALDS, I'm thinking management would rather not. They would rather start thinking about next year.
ReplyDeleteAnd so would I, although I really have no clue where I'd begin. This season leaves us left with far more questions than answers, and when you compare the high expectations set from the first part of the season to the current low expectations now evident, I know I would rather hit the re-set button and go from there.
They've used the phrase "homegrown" to describe this current crop of Yankees, but like any plant you grow, the most important ingredient is the quality of the soil, or in this case, the quality of the instructional/coaching staff. I'm in full agreement that the Yankees' homegrown players don't improve because the soil is thin. Anything that doesn't start with a complete examination of the management and coaching of this team is starting from the wrong place.
I was watching the Twins/Royals game where Jorge Lopez was going for the perfect game, and at one point I saw Twins pitching coach Garvin Alston talking to Jose Berrios after an inning, discussing something about his grip and delivery. In game coaching, in other words. Has anyone ever seen a TV shot of Larry Rothchild talking to any pitcher? Ever?
So endeth the increasingly sad and pathetic JuJu.
ReplyDeleteFor years, we have all been saying that a fish begins to stink from the head down.
ReplyDeleteWell pt ( apoorplayer). Could not agree more.
The Yankees even turned a " near Cy Young award winner" ( Sonny Gray ) into an icon for The Twilight Zone.
Another example of a thriving plant allowed to die.
Duque, my respect for you is unlimited, but I still don't think Ol' Bloody Paw ("We're monitoring the situation") is the problem.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that first-batter walk was bad. And it was followed...by a whole lotta nothin'. Didn't matter. Seattle dared to run a guy who had all of 7 stolen bases this year, then bunted him into scoring position, allowing him the strong possibility of scoring on just a minor break—which turned out to be our newly acquired defensive wizard's (forever to be known as NADW Hetchy) poor throw to the plate.
The Yankees also got their leadoff man on via a walk, in the top of the same inning, and then pinch-ran the best available such guy on the bench.
Did he try to steal? No. "Stealing's bad/ This I know/ Because the Sabremetric bible tells me so."
Was he bunted over to second? No. Because .222-hitting Neil Walker was up. "Bunting's bad/ This I know/ Because the Sabremetric bible tells me so."
But, lo and behold, Wade then moved to second on a wild pitch, as the Seattle catcher was struggling mightily with his pitcher (Huh. Where have we seen that before?)
Should Wade have thus tried to steal third?
Nah. He stood on second until Luke Voit flied out. Then went to third on ANOTHER wild pitch.
Honestly, this is getting tired.
The Yanks yesterday scored all of 2 runs off a starter with a 5.31 ERA. They scored 0 runs off relievers with 4.30 and 4.11 ERAs.
Trying for a home run on every at-bat and every pitch, no matter who the pitcher is and what the situation is, is stupid, and we have all known this since Little League.
Not trying to manufacture a run even when your best home run hitters are injured, out of the game, or dragging their asses lower than a Tijuana whore on Sunday morning is even stupider.
Yeah, if "Monitoring the Situation" Betances hadn't walked that first guy...we were headed for a truly classic, 15-inning 3-2 loss, instead of a nine-inning, 3-2 loss.
Hell, I can't even get mad at Neil Walker for once. He'd have served the cause nicely if he'd laid down a sacrifice bunt—of which he has exactly zero this year, probably because he has never been asked to do it.
Forget "doing the same thing and expecting different results." Expecting a .222 hitter to bang a booming double or home run against a late-inning reliever instead of expecting him to bunt, may be the new definition of insanity.
We have to face the fact that the management of this team constantly sets players up for failure through its own pigheadedness, and until that stops it won't matter who we bring in.
apoorplayer...right on with the coaching critique! I've mentioned many times that Rothschild is the worst pitching coach the Yankees ever had. He makes Dave Eiland and Mel Stottlemyre look like world-class pitching gurus. As noted, decent pitchers usually get worse after being acquired here and then thrive again once they leave. Rothschild always has that aolof if not slightly contemptuous look on his face when talking to a pitcher. He really needs to go.
ReplyDeleteAnd every hitting coach (especially Long) that the Yankees hire insist left-handed batters pull the ball. How many .280-.300 hitters have they molded into .220-.250 hitters?
No stressing of fundamentals like bunting, going the opposite way to move the runner over or drive in a runner. Nothing but pull the ball and swing from the heels. Oh and no hit-and-run or base stealing. You can see why they lose so many one-run games.
Face the facts, the Steinbrenner sons have become the John Dolans of MLB. Only with less oversight.
@Carl...I've had the same feeling about Rothschild. Moving forward, teams will be developing players more and spending less on free agency to keep payrolls down. I haven't seen this bum help develop one pitcher since he's been here. And if someone comes back and tells me Mo was developed, well, Mo found THAT pitch all by his lonesome. That was the extent of his development.
ReplyDeleteAnd...here's a little hint from the Paper of Record, of all places, regarding Tippecanoe's revival in Minnesota:
ReplyDelete"It reunited Austin with the Twins' hitting coach, James Rowson, a former Yankees minor league instructor."
Hmm.
Oh, small sample size, I know, I know! But this guy is a minor league instructor, everybody in the farm system is hitting like gangbusters, and he leaves...and nobody can hit a thing. But Austin can hit when he's back with him...
Yup, at this point, don't blame the players, even the airheads and lard-asses.
ReplyDeleteNot that I am into the blame game, but somebody must be held responsible and we all know that it won't be Cash, who truly does remind me more and more of Putin. Who was talking about Kremlin on the Hudson the other day? Or Kremlin on the East River.
Anyway, we all know Cash is dirty, filthy deep in this cataclysm of shit and failure, but we must, as HOSS says above and I have been drooling about for months, SHIT CAN THE ENTIRE COACHING STAFF, from Single-A to the Majors. Conditioning staff, too.
The Yanks had done slightly better than expected. I had them winning 2 out of those 6.
ReplyDeleteThe Twins and Jays should be easy pickings but I'm having the Yanks down for 3 out of 6 just because "Yankees." Interesting is that the A's are facing our Achilles Heels, the O's and Rays during this time. I would bet anything that they'll hand those 6 games to the A's and then when we'll play them in two weeks they'll act like it's the World Series. We'll probably end up tied in the Wild Card after these 6 games. I think we'll ultimately end up at least 3 games back of home field advantage and the A's will probably rest their players the final week to prepare for that game, while we'll use up our players trying to overtake them.
Some happier news, Astros were very tough against the Red Sox and they won two of three and could have had yesterdays game as well. They seemed to have worked out whatever was bothering them a month ago when the A's had actually passed them in the standings.
Come to think of it, does the A's have a good chance to beat the Sox? I'd love to see that happen. Anything as long as the Sox doesn't win in the playoffs, you know?
may the redsocks challenge the Atlanta Braves for post-season ineptitude.
ReplyDeleteHere's what I wish would endeth--the endlessly recycled comments noting the end of the juju. OK--duly noted. Now find some other trope to pound into a fine powder.
ReplyDeleteHrrmm ... let me think on the point you just made Anon ... hrrmm ... I see where you are coming from, I do, but also ... snort my taint.
ReplyDeleteThus endeth the Juju. Keep it up. WW! I look forward to every post of yours.
ReplyDeleteNo, you're right, of course, 13bit. It's way past time Betances and Sanchez, among others, stopped acting like big, petulant babies. And it's time they all realized that their ginormous paychecks rest on them performing to the best of their abilities, every game—even on day games after night games!
ReplyDeleteBut expecting ballplayers not to drink and chase skirt on Saturday night is a lost cause.
Going back to at least part of the game the way it was played for over a century should not be—not quite yet, anyway, I would hope. And what I resent is just the damned illogic of it all.
Just as you don't send a big home run hitter up there to bunt, you don't send a quickly declining, mediocre, .222 hitter who has stunk it up all year to swing for the fences—not when a sac bunt would do us just fine.
Grrrrr! Go 'Stros!
And before anybody jumps salty on this, I think Sabremetrics is, for the most part, a great and wondrous thing.
ReplyDeleteIt revealed how we were misinterpreting the game played right before our eyes—how vital just getting on base is, how going for the big inning and the three-run homer is usually a superior strategy, etc.
But like the Russians they truly are at heart, the Yankees (and many other teams) have taken a basically good philosophy to crazy extremes.
There are times when even a major-league hitter has no chance of homering, but can take a ball to the opposite field for a big hit.
There are times when you can't risk taking third strikes—especially with the state of umpiring today—and you need to keep fouling off pitches (which also wears down the pitcher).
There are times when you are offered such an expanse of open territory with today's shifts, that you might as well plunk a ball down there—and thereby lessen he chances of them pulling a shift on you again.
There are times when it pays to bunt and steal a run home.
All of sports is situational—baseball, even more so. Hell, almost all of life is situational. Those who don't figure this out risk becoming rigid, archaic ideologues. Looking at you, Comrade Cashie...
Warbler - I was puzzled by your “snort my taint” comment so I consulted the very useful Urban Dictionary to understand its meaning. I discovered that, unless you are a woman, what you really wanted to say was “Snort my gooch”.
ReplyDeleteYou’re welcome.
uh....I’m going to say nothing here...
ReplyDeleteStratman, Sister please! You assume much! I know exactly what I said, and I stand by it. Taint is the medically accepted term for all genders perineal transition area and you're embarrassing my friend 13bit who has the most tender sensibilities. He usually reads this blog blindfolded lest he accidently see intemperate language in our highfalutin discourse. Dear sweet sweet 13bit, whose delicate and disturbingly small head should be rocked between my bosom.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteOK. This is a serious question:
Is there someplace I can go to get most of the stuff above translated into American English?
No.
ReplyDeleteWhy do I have a bad feeling that this "Judge" situation is going to END badly.... Like Mark Texiera Badly...
ReplyDeleteWhat a coaching staff!!! Conditioning sucks, hitting sucks, pitching (coach) sucks, Fielding sucks, chemistry sucks
BUT BOY DO THEY KNOW HOW To GRIND AN INJURED PLAYER TO PIECES
Ancient philosophy that cash and Boone are governed by:
Nothing spells SUCCESS like FAILURE
The best way to go forward is backward
Sanity is doing the same thing repeatedly no matter how many times it backfires
The best indicator of future success is what a player did ten yrs ago in the national league
Walker...nuff said
What a mess...as Warblist would say (and say it better)
So endeth the juju
Joe - for future reference:
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_plain_English_words_and_phrases
Exciting offense tonight -_-
ReplyDeleteHow is JA Happ doing this?
ReplyDeleteThat was a gift.
ReplyDeleteDoes ice cream sandwich have pictures of Gibson and a hooker?
It t’aint your balls and it t’aint your pooper.
ReplyDeleteI am ready for my medical degree.
... and his average is all the way up to .183
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteWelcome back The Kra ken!
Oh good God...my small head is exploding at the intemperance on display here.
ReplyDeleteYes, there are a lot of drinkers on this site. Tastes vary, but volume averages fairly high.
ReplyDeleteThat was a nice half inning. May actually be safe to bring in Toonces now.
ReplyDeleteThe bullpen has to get 6 more outs. And not give up more than six runs. Yeesh. Maybe Toonces gets the night off. Put a band-aid on that finger. Rest.
ReplyDeleteThe Twins are good for what ails ya!
ReplyDeleteCrazy hitting tonight, lads! Entire runs driven in, even with the bases loaded!
ReplyDeleteSanchez has two hits! Bird has two walks!!
Cessa seems like a nice kid. I want to bite him in the nuts right now.
ReplyDeleteYa see, if you give up three hits for every out you get ... oh, never fucking mind.
ReplyDeleteSanchez is a triple short of hitting for the cycle.
ReplyDeleteI would root for him to get it, but I'm afraid it might kill him.
AHH! AHHH!!! Aha-ah-haaaaa!!
ReplyDeleteAAaAhhaaaa-haha-haaa-hhhhhHHHHHHHHaaaaAAHHHHHHHHHHHaaaa-ah-ah-ah-aaaaaaaaAaAaHaHaHaaaAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!!!
So...another 90-win season. That makes 62 out 116 seasons, by my calculations.
ReplyDeleteThe next highest total, I think, is 48, for the Giants, who had a 20-year start on us.
It is also also our 16th 90-win season in the last 23. Not quite the 18 out of 19 from 1947-1965.
But still.
Actually, that should be, 17-18, 1947-1964. Management regrets the error.
ReplyDelete
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