What a Difference a Year Makes

Ah, remember the halcyon days of last off-season?

Somehow, everything seemed to be breaking just right.

Sure, there were the nettlesome pick-ups of Brandon Drury and Neil Walker.  But the dreaded second shoe did not fall:  the Gleyber and Andujar were not traded away for pixie dust.

We didn't give away the farm for Gerrit Cole.  And everyday, there seemed to be another little gift coming our way:  Chase Headley—gone!  Todd Frazier—gone!

How often it has been this way.  I still remember so well being in college back in 1978, and reading about the Yanks' latest acquisitions.

The team had won two straight World Series, three straight pennants.  And yet here was Old George signing up every free agent pitcher in sight:  Tommy John, Luis Tiant (thereby further weakening an already shaky Red Sox staff).  Even, it was reported, Bruce Kison.

(Kison ended up backing out, leading George to blast him in the press.  Ah, remember when we had an owner who actually cared who was on the team?)

I don't wish to eulogize the Mad King too much.  Once he lost it, he was well-nigh unbearable, and squandered nearly everything.

But he did understand the need for redundancy, particularly when it comes to pitching.

Too many of the great baseball experts, even of the sabremetrical variety, rely on the past.  What they should understand is that ballplayers—and again, particularly pitchers—are like so any atomic particles, never sticking in one place for very long.

I remember all those magazine/newspaper covers, marveling over the six or seven or eight top starters George had supposedly lined up for an upcoming season.  The writers laughed or raved—but what they refused to ever learn, and what we knew, is that inevitably two or three or more of them would be hurt of ineffective.  It is always the way.

What Prince Hal needed to do was pile up the starters—and the position players—this off-season, particularly with Coops having now squandered most of the farm system for nothing.

Sign Corbin, sign Eovaldi, sign Happ, plan on giving a real shot to Sheffield and Mike King, and then hang on—knowing there's an excellent chance that by next April, Sevvy will be in rehab, CC's knee will be permanently blown out, and Tanaka will be Tommy John'ed.

Instead, we once again have last year's—or the year before's—ace from the Space (Needle).

I will tell you what is going to happen to Mr. Paxton.  If he gets through spring training unscathed (an iffy proposition), he will allow a bevy of home runs and wild pitches (working with Sancho), before making extended trips to the DL.

This will go on for two years or so, interspersed with the occasional good start that leads everyone to say that he's finally turned it around.

But hey, can't wait to see all the top talent we get for Sonny Gray!