Seems to me, the owner lays out his profit quotas, the front office assembles the team, and the players win or lose. The manager's job is to set a preordained lineup, chew gum, gaze wearily into the abyss and rationalize everything on the post-game show.
The 2018 Yankees are and always will be Cooperstown Cashman's creation. In comparison, Aaron Boone has all the input of a maple tree.
That said, some losses mock God, revealing themselves in a slow-motion retch, and you can hear the screams of fans into their TVs, as Boone's decisions strain the contours of human logic. Yesterday was such a cosmic event. I suppose you could blame the players - four fucking strikeouts with the bases loaded - but Boone's decisions iced the shit cake.
Which brings me to Tommy Kahnle...
Where to begin? With the fact that the Yankees gave up one of their best prospects, Blake Rutherford, to get him last summer? Or that he was cuffed around by Houston in the 2017 ALCS? Or that 2018 has brought a career meltdown, an ERA near 5.89, a declining fast ball and service time in Scranton?
No. Let's just ponder his last recent cringe-worthy appearances. Before yesterday, in his last 2 and 1/3 innings, he'd given up two earned runs, including a grand slam that killed us in Minnesota. Before yesterday, to say Kahlne had been struggling was like saying North Carolina is "moist."
So, yesterday, with a game on the line and the bullpen fresh, what does Boone do? KAHNLE, OF COURSE! Toronto is managing like game seven of the World Series, going lefty-to-lefty, platoon-to-platoon, while Boone is looking to - what? - get Kahnle on track for next April?
Boone had already used Mean Chad Green and Jonathan Holder. And in the previous inning, when Andrew McCutcheon lifelessly fanned with the bases loaded on three fukking pitches, Boone had David Robertson warming in the pen.
But the call... Kahnle, of course!
Single. Double. Walk. Bases loaded, and nobody warming in the pen. Larry Rothschild walks out. They converse. Larry Rothschild walks back. Soon after, Kahnle gives up a two-run single that effectively kills our day.
And, get this, when Boone finally brings in another pitcher, it's Stephen Tarpley, up from Scranton. Single. Another run. It's 8-1, and this game is over. We just don't know it yet. We mount one of those squandered comebacks that you wish didn't even happen. I'd rather lose 8-1 than 8-7.
In the end, the Yankees use both Dellin Betances and Zach Britton - for nothing, because with the game on the line, it was Kahnle, of course!
Today, they will bring up Justus Sheffield and Domingo German. Yesterday was Kahnle... of course!
I am starting to believe that 2018 will be remembered as the year Joe Girardi was rediscovered to be a great manager. As Joni once sang, Don't it always seem as though, you don't know what you got 'till it's gone...?
I am not at all sure that Boone is making any of these decisions. Somebody check his ears for a Bluetooth gizmo.
ReplyDeleteIt was the plan, you see...the process...the matchups...saving the bullpen for Boston...ohmygod...what are we turning into? What is wrong with me when every day I listen/watch with hope, and every day some ridiculous occurrence happens that breaks my brain? Only the offseason can help me now. I look forward to the post-season, which I am now pretty sure will be Yankee-free. Or perhaps Yankee-lite.
ReplyDeleteIs there any possibility that Hank came out and gave Boone his blessing more as a "kiss of death" than actual support? Somebody please tell me this is possible. Fuck Boone with Jor Girardi's binders.
ReplyDeleteCan't disagree with the elemental stupidity of putting Tommy in at that time.
However, you skated thru the fact that CC Sabathia couldn't get out of the 3rd inning.
Also, you failed to praise Miggy. If the future of this team isn't Miggy, Glyber, Didi, and Judge -- well, it's going to be even uglier than my imagination has it.
With nothing but important games between now and Oct. 1 - unless we blow it quickly - one bright idea might be to adopt the Reliever Starts/Bullpen Game approach for the games when CC is spozed to start. Give him the 4th inning. Start Lasagna (what kind of a day is bad when you start it with Lasagna?).
There have enough pitchers in the bullpen to do this right now, ain't they?
ALSO: From where didja get the idea that Sheffield is coming to town now? Still not on the 40-man roster.....
I wonder how Cash regards the recent Governors Cup results. Riders fell in 5, to repeat champs Durham Bulls. Rob Refsnyder was series MVP. Vindication for Cash? After all, what says AAAA better than IL postseason MVP? Or maybe irritation? Ref hit lasers all over northeastern Pennsylvania while fellow once upon a time prospects like Sanchez and Bird flailed and sat, respectively, in the bigs. A hurricane forced 5 games in Scranton, and Ref the Asian born Bombers cast off terrorized the once but no more imperial Yankees' AAA team while more heralded peers, well, sucked. Once upon a time Roger Angell might have made a great New Yorker article about it all.
ReplyDeleteI think that NYC sports reporters should take a share of the blame for this lackluster, mess of a season. They were clamoring for a manager who would kiss their patooties and make them lattes after the game. They started the whispering campaigns about Joe (or at least facilitated Cashman's whispering campaigns) and they have been giving Boone all the media protection he needs to survive.
ReplyDeleteAnd what did we get for all of that? A SOCK PUPPET whose chief skill is spin-doctoring.
Amateur hour is over. Boone is clueless without orders from above. He has no business managing a MLB team without previous experience. And the STUPIDEST idea Cashman ever had was to hire a manager with even LESS EXPERIENCE THAN THE ROOKIE-filled team he had to manage.
Bring back Joe. It would be worth it just to see the crestfallen faces of the idiot press pool.
Hey, Betances blew a game recently. Robertson and Mean Chad have sucked at times. Tommy K deserved an invitation to the party. Fair is fair.
ReplyDeleteThe press treated Boone like a genius while the Yankees were steam-rolling the league, and they are never quick to turn on the mouthpieces who feed them the scraps that fill their stories. Whether they admit it or not, both the press and management have personal and professional relationships that they want to protect. Another reason why the Deadspin/early Bill Simmons model of observation without access is frequently more honest and accurate.
I feel Boone is not making all these decisions either. Why did the YES folks harp about the dress rehearsal for the postseason? Why aren't the YES folks talking about how the Yanks better get their shit together as we might NOT make the postseason? From the vantage point of this fan, Chicago dumped Kahnle on us. It just so happens that we "caught lightning in a bottle" and Tommy overachieved last year. But Kahnle has come back to earth. For that matter, the whole pitching staff has come back to earth. WHAT IS ROTHSCHILD DOING ABOUT THIS? Larry...Larry...WAKE THE F UP LARRY!
ReplyDeleteYesterday was the first pineapple I can remember that was served when the Yankees never had the lead,,,,,And I cannot listen to Boone's glass half full bullshit after these games, it's beyond pathetic and pure Disney channel double speak!
ReplyDeleteDuque, you have hit the nail on the head. Just as this Yankees team is perpetually confused about its goals for any give season, it is now confused about its goals for any given game.
ReplyDelete"We are rebuilding. No, belay that! We're contending! No, we're contending AND rebuilding!"
Yesterday, we were down five runs early. Hmm, guess it's time to trot out some of our 15 mop-up men, no?
No! Out comes one of our best relievers. He holds the line, and through six innings, we've cut the lead to 5-1, with no less than Tyler Clippard waiting in the wings for the Blue Jays...
Time to give up! In comes Kahnle, then Tarpley.
No, wait, we've rallied! Put the good pitchers back in!
Ugh.
Hey Ease up guys...trust the "process" after all baseball just punches you in the mouth sometimes.
ReplyDelete- Ma Buffoon Boone
The most interesting things in yesterdays game were the dugout shot choices made by the game's producer.
ReplyDeleteBoone has been taking a lot of criticism for being complacent and blowing bubbles instead of showing passion. Consequently the narrative had to rewritten.
They showed us numerous shots of him getting mad, looking VERY concerned, yelling at the ump, and other displays of emotion.
What was odd though is that after "showing spirit" Boone sort of looked at the camera in a way that said, "OK did I show you enough fire?".
Did anyone else notice this? Perhaps I'm reading too much into it but I've always been a reader.
Doug K.
If Boone's only job is to implement what Cashman tells him to do, then the Yankees have no manager and the lifeless performance we see are the natural consequence of leaving a team full of rookies without a leader.
ReplyDelete
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