Should I Cool It or Should I Blow? Episode Five

All right, wrapping it up here.

I take it nobody's contemplating trading The Gleyber, right?  And we're all for keeping Hicks, if only so we can make him the new Gardy and complain about his many shortcomings, in between praising him for doing so many things kinda sorta more-or-less pretty well?

Good.  So let's get on to our final subjects...

Me tienes que decir...

G.:  Okay, so Duque gave it to us straight today:  we will not be trading Giancarlo Stanton to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a passel of terrific kids.  Bummer.

So what DO we do with him?  If he WERE to opt out after 2020...we would all be dancing in the streets.  It would mean that Stanton had just put in two stunningly good years, at least one of which probably netted us a ring, and what we would should do is wish him a fond farewell as he rides off into the seriously declining part of his career.

But again, what are the odds?

So if we do keep him...what do we do with him?  Try him on first?  Get him a new hitting coach?  For starters, I would say at least hit him back-to-back with Judge.

Severino:  I know, I know.  He's still our ace, and our best bet would be trying to get him back on track.  And maybe all the writers are right for once, and it really is just a case of tipping his pitches.

But I gotta say, that late-to-the-bullpen moment in the biggest game of the year had D-R-U-G-S written all over it, and I don't mean the performance-enhancing kind.

I hate to libel anyone, and you can never tell for sure with Kremlin-on-the Hudson.  But something smells and smells bad here.  Working out a deal would still get us a lot, and might mean shipping away a future implosion.

Aaron Judge:  No way, right?  He's the face of the franchise, maybe the saving face of all baseball in the grim, Red Sox-dominated, all-relief-pitcher-all-the-time, winter-is-coming epoch that is rapidly descending upon us.  A guy who looked mighty clutch at the end of the season.

What's more, he's somebody who pays attention to his whole game.  He's not just a slugger but also a terrific fielder and a very good baserunner.

But submitted for your consideration:  Judge is a very big man, who has now been seriously injured twice in as many seasons.  Each time, it put the Yanks into horrific tailspins.  Were these just flukes—or just the start of an injury-laden career?

Then there's that lurking, .212 batting average on the road, with only 22 ribbies—stats brought UP by a good last series in Boston.

Is this the future, too?  Yet another Yankee who does nothing but swing for the fences, and doesn't get the calls on the road?

Granted, that is more of an organizational problem than just the Big Guy's.

But let's remember:  this is one of the very few Yankees we could probably get a great deal back for, right now.  Shouldn't we at least think about it?

So you got to let me know...