(In case you're wondering, in RISP last season, Giancarlo Stanton hit .241. And everybody's fave Yank, Mr. Grit himself - Brett Gardner - hit .208.
Let's face it: "Big Toe" Torreyes was always the last kid picked on the sandlot. And with the Yankees, no matter what he did, it was never enough. He was never viewed as a starter, and the most attention he ever received came from standing next to Aaron Judge, so he could look like a carnival dwarf. Last September, when the infield was banged-up, the Yankees traded for Adeiny Hechavarria to play SS and 3B. (And last year, with runners in scoring position, Hech hit .221. You could look it up.)
Okay, am I cherry-picking a stat to make Big Toe look good? Of course! The bg bad truth is that Torreyes slumped in August and that his glove could never compare with Hechavarria's. But over his entire career, Torreyes's batting average with runners in scoring position is .303. And that's why the fans loved him. He. Came. Through.
Tuesday, the Yankees waived Big Toe to sign Parker Bridwell, a 27 RH power starter who was cut loose by the Angels. That last phrase is troubling. He was cut loose by, gulp, the Angels.
At 6'4", Bridwell definitely looks better coming off the bus. He looked promising in 2017, going 10-3 with a 3.64 ERA, then missed almost all of last season due to elbow inflammation. Who knows? My guess is that Cashman is still smarting from the resurrection of Nathan Eovaldi, and he's on the prowl for a similar pitcher. And maybe it'll turn out well. But I cannot let Ronald Torreyes leave without a proper sendoff. Pound for pound, inch for inch, and when the chips were down, he was one of our best. And now he's a Cub.
Here's to the great Yankee Big Toe! Stand up, everybody. We won't see many like him come our way again.
Big thumbs down to Cashman for his treatment of Torreyes this year and his eventual trade. As someone said elsewhere, he was a great 'glue guy.' Solid, predictable defense where ever you put him, and clutch, clutch, clutch at the plate. Not much for home runs, but on a team that set the major league record for homers, the Yankees didn't need another home run hitter. Had they not demoted him, he would have been an upgrade over everyone except Austin at 1st......
ReplyDeleteAnd as was apparent this year, the Yankees really could have benefited from having Toe in the lineup, instead of Walker, Shane Robinson or Mr. Migraine. Wow, those were wasted roster spots! Torreyes would have been more useful than any of these three, had he not been wasted by roster moves...........
Call the disappearance of Torreyes - and his eventual trade - another lost opportunity during the misbegotten 'Boone' era, and a triumph of the trust fund babies in the analytics department, over baseball experience, wisdom and commonsense.
Good luck, Toe! I know Cubs fans will love your pepper as much as we did. I hope you make the Yankees look foolish.....
Amend my comment about 1st to "everyone except Austin and eventually Voit."
ReplyDeleteWe'll pay for this, in the same way we paid and maybe still are paying for snubbing Tino and signing Giambi. Karma is a bitch, and even more powerful than Hal in thigh-high kinky boots.
ReplyDeleteBrian aka: "The Genius," aka "Mastermind," aka "Einstein," aka "The 3-Dimensional Chess Player" Cashman, whose street name is "Crackhead Cash," the pimp for "Food Stamps Hal," has just confirmed, as though we needed more confirmation, his stupidity, lack of imagination, arrogance, and baseball ignorance. He also pushed me into writing a horrible, run-on sentence.
ReplyDeleteIt's almost like he's too clever for his own good. If he looks like a clutch hitter and hits like a clutch hitter, he must be...a dead weight. Ditch him. Get this pitcher. I have a hunch about this guy. And look at all the other AMAZING pitchers I have had hunches about over the years.
Hal will let it go unchecked until they start to lose money. I will remain the broken record about this for the foreseeable future. It's just a shame that he keeps doing stupid shit and nobody but my friends and the good fellows and comrades on this blog know it.
Just to start my day: Fuck you, Brian!
ReplyDeleteTORREYES WAS GREAT IN THE CLUTCH, AND HIT A LIFETIME .282 FOR US.
PROBLEM IS, IN COOP'S WORLD, HIS OBP WAS NOT GOOD ENOUGH. (ABOUT .308).
COOP'S WORLD IS A WORLD WHERE WE KEEP CONSTANTLY GETTING GUYS ON BASE.
.....WITHOUT WORRYING ABOUT WHO CAN KNOCK THEM IN.
I'm with you all the way, ALL CAPS. I think we should start a sub-thread called "Coop's World" where we can blow out our scenarios.
ReplyDeleteI decided to enter the carol rewrites, in the spirit of the season, with a song that's so simple that it's difficult to rewrite. I had to take some liberties with the structure, as I did not want to repeat lines in the last verse. This song marks the beginning of suicide season for me every year - not me, personally. I really do enjoy life, contrary to what you might think from my fan-ranting here about the Bronx Cheerios - but that season when the imminent holidays bring on an air of desperation to so many other poor, blighted souls. The first time this comes on in a supermarket or at a gas station, usually right around now, the hairs stand up on the back of my neck and I know we have to collectively gut it out for another six weeks. God bless Jose Feliciano. To the tune of "Felix Navidad":
You’re a fool, Brian C
You’re a fool, Brian C
You’re a fool, Brian C
And Prince Hal is a greedy ass.
You’re a fool, Brian C
You’re a fool, Brian C
You’re a fool, Brian C
And Prince Hal is a greedy ass.
I wanna tell you to fire Boonie.
I wanna tell you to fire Larry.
I wanna tell you to fire Marcus
From the bottom of my heart.
rinse and repeat, and maybe bring Jimi back from the dead for a killer solo near the end.
Amen, 13bit and ALL-CAPS!
ReplyDeleteI remember reading some quote from Knute Rockne—no, I did NOT hear it live, I'm not THAT old!—about a game where Notre Dame was outplayed but won anyway. The other coach groused that they should really decide football games by numbers of first downs achieved.
Rockne retorted that yeah, they should start doing that the minute baseball games were determined by the number of men left on base.
But that's exactly what the likes of Cashman and various analytics freaks believe.
13 bit - That was a fun one.
ReplyDeleteDoug K.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Duque's post and everyone's comments. Big Toe, like Rodney, never got any respect. But I can't help but feel that there was a grudge held against him when he took a month leave of absence which the Yankees gave a cryptic reason for. It wasn't until he returned to SWB and then to the Yankees that Torreyes said "thank goodness my wife is OK". A few months earlier, one of his twin daughters who were born premature died due to what was reportedly "hospital negligence". One can only imagine the connection between his wife's illness and the baby's death.
ReplyDeleteHopefully, I am wrong about any grudge
Carl Weitz, I hope and pray that was not the reason. But if it was...
ReplyDeleteWell, not to go there yet, without evidence. But all the more reason to hang on to Toe.
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