Inspired by the pen of El Duque:
We have Stanton for the next 27 years ( or close ).
By my calculation, in just five more seasons, he will have struck out 1,602 times in his Yankee uniform. He will have two hits in important at-bats, but no RBIs in any playoff game.
Jacoby Ellsbury's contract will have expired by the time Stanton's does.
People may argue that the players we gave up to get him have been adequately replaced. Maybe so. But you are discounting the negative impact of the liability you now have acquired. And his price tag secures him here, for an endless period of disappointment.
Don't let go of that feeling you have when the tying or winning runs are on base, with two out, and Stanton is coming up to bat. And you are certain he is going to strike out on three pitches in the dirt.
And you are proven correct.
We have Boone until Cashman or Hal are slashed by a stingray.
Our cherry-cheeked, smiley, polite manager comes at a reasonable price for " I am not cheap" Hal Steinbrenner.
And so we have to live with a " yes" man instead of a baseball man. The advantage that other teams get with crafty moves, are not available to us.
Boone didn't give our best hitter in 7 decades an at bat in the biggest game, and at the most critical moment of the season. And don't tell me this decision came from the top. He is the fucking manager and he manages the players in the dugout.
His list of stupidity goes well beyond the distance covered on the I-10, from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast.
The Curse of Neal Walker will linger forever.
All season long, this .219 hitter threatened the career of Miguel Andujar.
Initially, Andujar was slated for Scranton or for Kansas City, because Cashman was so fortunate to persuade Walker to wear the pinstripes. But Miguel hit too well and too often for the Yankees to send him down, or trade him.
But the Walker curse carried over to the final, humiliating loss to Boston in Yankee stadium, where our only clutch hitter was kept on the bench. And Walker played the entire game.
And Boston partied on our home field. And mocked us. And mocked Walker. And Boone. And Cashman. And Hal ( " I'm not cheap!" And they breathed a sigh of relief when Andujar stayed on the bench. They jumped for joy.
And if Walker is here next season, so shall the curse endure.
The Bird Factor.
The Yankees, from the top down, get an idea in their heads and it never changes. Regardless of the facts staring them in the face. They still have Bird penciled in as the starting first baseman, next season.
This illogic also applies to Gary Sanchez, the best catcher who can't catch or hit. He will start forever, even if he hits under .200 and has 55 passed balls and 35 errors.
And they will re-sign CC so he can reach some new strikeout threshold, while pitching 4 innings per game.
The truth is; the Yankees are not that good identifying and developing player talent.
We once were considered to have deep, high prospect talent in our minor league system. Greg Bird and Gary Sanchez were, a few seasons back, at the head of the list. Sheffield was on that list.
That farm system is now considered mediocre. It has always been an achilles heel for Cashman.
He was bailed out, once, by the Cubs and Indians. No more. He is on his own. And we have zilch coming up.
Montgomery, German, and the guy I call Lasagne.
The Yankees have no pitching. You think these guys will emerge as Aces? How did our top pitching prospect ( Sheffield ) do with his cup of coffee? Even in meaningless games, he showed nothing. If he weren't a lefty, he would be bagging groceries in Mexico Beach, Florida.
German flashed in meaningless games against terrible competition, and went dim. Lasagne was hammered in September. Montgomery looks like a 9-9 guy, when at his sharpest. If the surgery worked.
The braintrust, and the keepers of the Steinbrenner fortune, will not figure out how to do anything better than to order up a wagon full of AJ Happs and Loretta Lynns in the offseason. Or, they will give up our best young talent for a big name, who has nothing left.
The Yankees are stupid and helpless when it comes to acquiring or developing top pitchers.
Severino collapsed. Collapsed. He was awful and hurt the team. That is our current ACE.
And Larry Rothchild helps us how, exactly?
The Home run Menace.
The Yankees are not a baseball team. They are a traveling " home run derby" circus. They can't hit situationally, they can't bunt, they don't get clutch hits, they can't run, and their defense is below average. They swing for the fences, and satisfy themselves that having 12 guys on the team with 10 or more HRs means something.
And then they go home in early October and start making shoe commercials.
The team has been constructed in a similar fashion to the NY Football Giants. It is missing the key elements necessary to win against quality competition. No offensive line :: no pitching.
The Nothing Strategy.
Last season, the yankees came within a short straw of getting to the World Series. They allowed their youth to mingle with the veterans, and created an energy and enthusiasm for the game.
But this focus was founded out of necessity, rather than reason. The minute Brian Cashman got back behind the cash mini-gun, he blasted away to acquire a rasher of cheap veterans, who were hanging on to the edges of the game.
Neal Walker was the death nell of this season, and was the iconic acquisition of doom.
We traded all of our outfielders to the point we had to start an aging, lifetime mediocre minor leaguer in right field, as injuries derailed the team. Who would ever think injuries would occur in a 162 game season? Is contingency planning a thought in the Yankee braintrust room?
In the last game, we started a catcher who can't catch or hit. We started a former MVP who had never once been in a playoff game, and whose entire season gave evidence of an inability to produce when it mattered. We started Neal Walker instead of the best rookie we have had since Joe DiMaggio. And the list goes on.
But it shows this; the manager hasn't a clue on how to win a big game, at a big moment.
It Can't Happen Here.
Many of us on this blog have been Yankee fans for 6 and 7 decades. We have, mostly, known great success. Now we are in a barren desert spanning nine years of failure. Next season will mark a decade without a Yankee championship.
We tend to think that the Yankees are always going to win. We tend to think democracy in America cannot devolve into autocracy in America. We always think there will be adequate rain and fresh water. And that the dollar will always be the international currency of trade. We think no one will again push the nuclear button. We believe our coastal cities won't ever be under water.
It is possible that the yankees will not win again in any of our lifetimes.
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17 comments:
"The team has been constructed in a similar fashion to the NY Football Giants. It is missing the key elements necessary to win against quality competition. No offensive line :: no pitching."
Quite possibly the truest thing ever written. But there is hope! Last week the Giants finally gave up on Eric Flowers. A surly, thuggy guy with poor technique who they anointed as the Left Tackle. Do the Yankees have anyone like that?
"The truth is; the Yankees are not that good identifying and developing player talent."
I still can't agree with this one. Even if Otani wins ROY we take 2nd and 3rd. Judge was last year's ROY and almost MVP. That's pretty good. Totally agree about the inability to develop or identify starting pitching. It's pretty gruesome.
As to them not winning again in our lifetimes... It's possible. I've seen my x-rays. I know the Knicks won't. The Giants are starting to look like that as well. I have to figure that if they keep making the playoffs (even the Bud Selig game) sooner or later this pig will find a truffle.
If worse come to worst we could always freeze our heads and then defrost them for the playoffs and if we lose freeze them again until the next year. I'm sure they will win eventually. The Cubs did.
Doug K.
Incredibly right on target on all counts. What stands out in my memory were the hosannas and that ever-true "too good to be true" feeling that kept us waiting for the next miracle from a messiah named Bird. Time's about up, huh? Sort of a distorted replay of the Joba Chronicles, but without the balloons, cotton candy, and deep-fried anything. And those gnats! We'll not even get a frothy memory like that from the first baseman for the rest of our epic-hungry souls' duration.
I can't recall wearing any of my Yankee t-shirts this summer, but none of them bear the name of anyone still in pinstripes (I wonder if I can use American E-Bay, since no one in Austria - except me - has heard of any of these guys). I was pondering buying a new cap, as the one I have been wearing to the point that people sort of don't expect to see me without it, still has dirt from The Real Yankee Stadium on it (how I miss the feeling of walking out of that concrete maze of ramps to the seats on a sultry summer night!). But I will wear this cap till it and my crumbling body meld into a heap of dust.
The real question of Neal Walker is not Neal Walker but who will be the next Neal Walker? Before Neal Walker there was Matt Holiday and Chris Carter and before them, Steven Drew.
Who gets 300+ ABs at the expense of a rising talent in 2019? And who is blocked?
Doug K.
Cashman seems untouchable despite his mostly awful trades and decimating a once number 2 rated farm systems for a group of rentals
I predict especially with the terrible trade with Oakland A's we will regret it not only as Sonny Gray is a bum pitcher but the players we gave away maybe the real deal
Also CC apart I dont think he can spot a good pitcher via a trade if he met one in his soup.
Added to his insistence of signing so called veteran reliable players rather than give a youngster a chance.
Not forgetting sticking us with Stanton forever I dont care if Machado and Harper's next contracts makes his look small.It is still a long expensive payroll burden which I dearly hope he opts out of.
We learned nothing from the Arod or Ellsbury contacts it seems.
The owners wee only interested in getting under luxury tax. They will consider this a good season no doubt
Keep hearing how our pitching coach is highly regarded in the sport by everyone.
Yet I dont see players improving under his watch in fact most seem to get worse once they join the Yankees
Hitting coach well what is the point the team either try to hit a home run no matter what the game situation is and I lost count of the amount of times they either swung at a pitch in the dirt or stood like a statue as a fastball went right over the middle of the plate for a called strike 3
This 100 win season has to be taken with a pinch of salt with so many team purposely tanking in fact if we had beaten Baltimore as often as we should considering the joke they are then we may have even won the division.
But for me Boone is the worst.
No other manager in my opinion would have handled the starters so badly and messed about bringing on or in some cases not bringing on the top relievers the way he did against Boston.
Giving the managers job is the only occasion where the Yankees seem to be happy with someone with little experience of the Major leagues as they certainly dont do that with young players.
JACK AND COKE.
A glorious blaze of indignation, Alphonso, which I heartily endorse with one small caveat.
As Doug K points out, his Yankees team seems to have become quite good at IDENTIFYING talent.
What it lacks, almost to a terrifying degree, is the ability to ever develop that talent, or even keep it at the level it has once attained.
What's really stunning to me is how many Yankees, on the major-league club and in the minors, have drastically deteriorated over the past couple years. What this means is that other teams adjust to them—and nobody on our side is able to readjust.
Hey Alphonso! I'm 45 so I have some hope they'll win another in the 34 averaged years of life expectancy that I have left. I'm pretty sure I'll outlive Stanton's contract at least.
But hey look at it this way, I've only experienced 5 Yankees championships (too young to remember '78) while some of you guys have seen at least a dozen or so! And you got to see Mickey Mantle and Yogi play too, if not Gehrig and Babe Ruth as well. ;) Wanting another championship at this point sounds like a spoiled Millennial thing to do.
Hoss,
"What it lacks, almost to a terrifying degree, is the ability to ever develop that talent, or even keep it at the level it has once attained."
If you are saying that the coaching for the most part sucks... I hear you. It goes back to Duque and Alphonso's point about the total lack of fundamentals and situational hitting. It's unconscionable.
That said, I still have to give them props for
Judge
AnDujar
and Gleybar.
That's 1/3 of the starters. (and at least some of Sevi, basically he was Cy young for 1/2 a year. I'm not sure his drop off in on them.)
Certainly Sanchez regressed to the point that we all want him to go away and Bird dropped off a cliff (But is that coaching or injuries?) I just don't know.
DD got better here. Hicks got better here. Stanton? I don't freaking know... He got worse but the year before was an MVP season so he was bound to. That said, he had the worst really good year (statistically) ever. I hope they trade him.
They are a very frustrating team. I'm not really comfortable defending the coaching. Particularly Rothchild but the collective result was 100 wins. Nothing about them makes sense or is enjoyable.
Doug K.
OK, HANG WITH MY LOGIC HERE....
I ALWAYS PROFESS ON THIS SITE HOW I BELIEVE THE NL IS INFERIOR TO THE AL.
STANTON CAME HERE, A DEVASTATING HITTER, AN MVP. (IN THE NL).
I DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY WERE THROWING HIM OVER THERE, BUT IT SURE LOOKS LIKE HE HAS NO CLUE HOW TO HIT A SLIDER, OR EVEN TRY TO ADJUST TO ONE.
....AND WHENEVER COOP GOES FOR A PITCHER, LIKE A MOUSE DRAWN TO CHEESE, HE AUTOMATICALLY CHASES AN NL PITCHER.
IT NEVER WORKS OUT, (ALWAYS A DISASTER)...FOR 20 YEARS NOW.
NOW, HERE WE ARE AGAIN...I KEEP HEARING THE NAME PATRICK CORBIN AS OUR BIG PITCHER PICK UP FOR 2019.
THE MOUSE RUNS FOR THE CHEESE YET AGAIN.
CORBIN HAS A 3.15 ERA IN THE NL WHICH USUALLY MEANS WE NEED TO ADD A RUN TO A RUN AND A HALF TO THE ERA.
NOW WE ARE AT 4.15 TO 4.65 ALMOST GUARANTEED.
NOT THAT GOOD. (HERE WE GO AGAIN).
COOP NEVER WINDS UP WITH THE RIGHT GUY.
KEUCHEL NOT CORBIN.
GO WITH THE "BATTLE-TESTED" GUY WHO HAS PROVEN HE IS A WINNER IN THE AL.
HE WON'T THOUGH.
CORBIN IS COMING.
I GUESS WE NEED SOMEBODY, RIGHT?
.....AND PLEASE...NO MORE CC...
I think the word is really "exasperating," Doug. This goes way beyond "frustrating"!
You make some good points. But the regression is even on the part of some of their most productive players.
No one has an explanation yet for why Judge can't hit on the road anymore. They don't seem particularly worried about the breakdowns of Sanchez or Sevvy.
Yes, Hick was lived up to some of his potential, which is nice to see. But you know, when he came to the Yankees, he was a .256 hitter with some pop. Now...he is a .248 hitter with some pop.
Much like Gardner, he would make a perfect No. 4 outfielder—but like Gardy, too, they will probably insist on trying to keep him as a starter.
Acquired or developed, it makes no difference. Look at Sonny Gray. He got worse and worse, and now he's hidden in the bullpen. Torres basically played well, but his pitch selection and glove became a subject down the stretch. Same thing with Andujar's fielding.
Even Gleyber seemed to really decline the last two months.
Didi did indeed become a much better ballplayer. But even he seems to have reached a certain plateau where he is stuck. Even The Gleyber, for all his success this year, seems to be falling back.
Hoss,
I could go with exasperating. After tonight we could also go with Manningesque.
Also just saw that you said you will do a "Keep Em or Dump Em". That's great. It's funny because you called it "Dump Em or Keep Em" which around here is probably more apropos.
Doug K.
This team needs THE PURGE!!!
When an All stars regress this badly ala Sanchez, stanton, didi, Bird, torres (when it was time to make adjustments), judge(on the road) that falls squarely on the coaches shoulders and "THE PROCESS". Did anyone else notice when thr Gleyber began going all in for the Homerun after being our most productive hitter simply because he fucken put the ball in play. You think he wasn't coached to do that? His average suffered. God I can only hope anDUjar had a language barrier keeping him from applying the poisonous garbage his coaches were telling him as the reason he hit near .300. I think Prof Tanak or even Sevy win a Cy young with a competant Pitching coach not named Larry.
Torreyes was the Yanks Nunez( but kept the helmet on) he had heart soul and kept the clubhouse upbeat full of chemistry. Hell last year he even had The Binders loosening up a bit. The moment they opted to keep pasty Neil walker .219 and crushed Toe the excitement of the season died right there.
You could see it all over the core players countenance and they never recovered their chemistry.
And boone...nuff said, this team won 100 games simply becuase they had too much talent NOT to not because any positive contribution of the coaching staff.
Nevin gets a pass cuz he's the only one who looked like he gave a damn this year.
Yankee brass is rotten from the fish head on down.
Oh and FUCK BOONE. If he's back next year I'm taking my place in the grave pictured above
Agree complete on the PURGE, Joe.
Completely
Sadly, yes.
Walker over Miggy in the last game, and over Toe all season long, will be the defining idiocy of 2018.
That, and Stanton sucks.
The most frustrating thing is that the person who most need to go are the owner and the GM. We can't fire Hal. I wish we could. Like fire him up in a grill or fire him out of a rail gun into the stratosphere. I digress. Hal is not interested in winning. He's a spoiled little rich shit who inherited a money making locomotive. His idea of "winning" is making more money that last year. He has no love of the team or the sport or competition or WINNING unlike his crazy POS father (good rest to his corrupt, confused and benighted soul). The miserable scabrous puddle of liquefactive necrosis is not George. He doesn't give a shit whether the Yankees win or lose as long as the stadium is packed and selling $27 nachos grande platters and $65 martinis.
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