Today, let's look at pitching. Once again, I remind you that this merely a dumb parlor game, a notch above Charades. For all the advanced metrics in the Bill James universe, nobody has ever come up with a perfect way to evaluate pitchers. That said, age is as a good a factor as you'll find.
If we assume that age 29-30 represents the peak years for major league pitchers - you can debate otherwise, but I've got the mic, so the hell with you - here's how the Eco-Yanks and Gas-guzzling Socks stack up:
Yankee starters
Paxton (31): -1
Sabathia (39): -9
Happ (36): -6
Tanaka (30): PEAK
Severino (25): +4
Total: -12
Redsock starters
Sale (30): PEAK
Eovaldi (29): PEAK
Price (34): -4
Porcello (30): PEAK
Rodriguez (26): +3
Total: -1
Obviously, with three pitchers at peak fertility, Boston is primed to birth one of the best rotations in baseball. If Eovaldi approaches last season's output, they have four Cy Young candidates. Add the mysterious knuckleballer Stephen Wright, 35, and we're in for a long summer. This is why the Yankees should not sleep on Dallas Keuchel (31).
However... Let's look at bullpens:
Yankees
Britton (31): -1
Chapman (31) -1
Betances (31): -1
Kahnle (30): PEAK
Green (28): +1
Holder (26): +3
Ottavino (32): -2
total: -1
Redsocks:
Barnes (29): PEAK
Workman (31): -1
Hembree (30): PEAK
Everybody else: TBA
Fact is, Boston has such a meager bullpen - at least for now, anyway - that our comparison is worthless. Here is where the Yankees should rule. It's hard to imagine the Redsocks not signing a few pitchers soon, but the Yankees will still have a superior bullpen. At least in the parlor.
UPDATE: Pitcher Michael King (23), who shot through the system last year to make himself a long-shot starter, has arm troubles. So it begins...
I still have bronchitis. I'm tired and worn out. And the Yankees aren't helping. A Keuchel, a Harper...something might jolt me into health, but I don't see it anywhere on the horizon. Instead, I see Larry Rothschild lumbering across the screen, blotting out the sun.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Rothschild, did you see the Lydon La Rouche, the crazy anti-Semite who kept running for President over the decades, finally died? He claimed the world economy was controlled by the Knights of Malta and the Rothschild family, and that the Beatles and Stones were part of an insidious English plot to corrupt our youth with music that promoted loose morals, such as "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (sure, that's where it starts) and "Let's Spend the Night Together" (see? see?).
Oh, the wackjobs who strut and hate across the stage...
I'm with you all the way, John M. "See you, Lyndon! Don't let the door hit you on your way out to the cosmic toilet bowl where you belong."
ReplyDeleteAnd the Yankees tried to "improve" their staff on the cheap. They were buying in the "recently expired" section of the pitcher's section in the supermarket. Looking for bargains, Mister Cashman was. How frugal he is! How happy that makes Hal! "We can get good mileage out of this guy, Hal. No need to pay for fresh meat. This stuff tastes just as good. Let's give it to Larry to tenderize and spice up with some of his special sauce."
I'm tired of the cheap-ass bullshit from one of the richest owners in sports. This is a big sham. This is the same mentality behind billionaires wanting tax cuts. There IS NO TRICKLE DOWN, YOU SCHMUCKS. There is only the squeaking sound, like a balloon getting bigger and bigger, of Hal's money bags expanding. You got your fucking stadium, you got your tax breaks, you cheeped out and got under the luxury tax. Now, what are we doing here? Oh yeah, we need to put a team on the field. "BRIAN! rush out to the Dollar General and get us some pitchers, but don't spend too much. I have to save up for that spare yacht."
Fuck this management. Fuck the coaches. Fuck the pitching coach, the gilded moron who sits on a vibrating cushion in the clubhouse all day, sucking his thumb. Fuck Randy and Lonn. These guys do not care. Of course, they would LOVE to have a winning team. We know that, but they are pretty comfortable even if we don't win. THEY ARE NOT HUNGRY. THEY DON'T CARE. And let me tell you, why should some player want to come here anymore. Boston is the place to go if you want to win. You can even install your wife in New York and play in Boston. Others, in other sports have done this. No need to actually play for a New York team.
FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU.
You can talk any bullshit talk you want, but we fans KNOW IT when you don't walk the walk, and you assholes in Yankee HQ are not walking the walk. You can't bullshit a New Yorker, Hal, you fetid piece of Florida pond scum. Dry up and blow away. Let a real baseball fan buy your asset. Why do you even call it a team? It's just another holding, you flaming pile of monkey shit.
Damn, Mike King being hurt is a ballcrusher. I was really hoping that guy would be the out-of-nowhere pump into the arm for this staff once CC went down.
ReplyDelete(Not singling out CC. Severino, Tanaka, and Paxton are all very strong candidates to hit the DL as well.)
Which brings up another question. Beyond the massive fail of the instructional coaches an managers on every level of the Yankees' system, a huge number of young, quality arms have fallen apart of late, too. What goes?
(I know, I know. Hal doesn't like to hear such questions...)
Hope you get a Harper and feel better, John. I’m down myself and last night took a spill on the icy driveway. Now I’m sick PLUS unable to walk. Yeh getting old!
ReplyDeleteYeah, isn't it fun getting to the falling down age?
ReplyDeleteI took a spill on the subway a couple months ago, without even having had anything to drink. My foot just hit a wet patch and my leg splayed out. Then, as I tried to get up, my glasses fell off and my calf muscle cramped up.
I ended up crawling off the subway, laughing to myself. I kept thinking of that thing that Mantle said, after another boozy evening late in his career, when stepped out of some fancy club and toppled over in a snow bank:
"Well, this is a great place for America's hero to be!" Or some such.
Age is the great leveler. Sooner or later, we ALL reach the physical dexterity of a late-model Mantle on a drunken tear.
Geezers,
ReplyDelete1) Please stop falling.
2) I can relate. I just joined a gym for the first time because my legs were getting a little on the rubbery side. I'm not big on non ball based exercise but my legs are so out of shape that if I tried to play basketball I'd have to use the two handed set shot.
3) The age of the rotation. The bulk of the negative numbers comes from Sabathia. He will either pitch well (which is possible - There's some vintage Bartolo in him) or he will get hurt (please don't die). And the age numbers will be moot.
4) Lyndon's running mate was Curtis LeMay which was the root of Duque's calling DJ LeMayieu Curtis LeMayieu a couple of weeks back. He was a very bad man as well. (LeMay not Duque.)
5) Bummer about Mike King. I had high hopes for him too.
6) Just wrote about the Sevi signing under Alphonso's picture blog. But in case you don't go back and read it. Basically, I'm glad for him and it's good for the team.
Doug K.
GOODBYE MICHAEL KING....
ReplyDeleteREDS SAY THEY HAVE A "STEAL" WITH SONNY GRAY...
UN
FUCKING
BELIEVABLE.
Thanks, Doug K., I appreciate your concern. And what's up with Sevvy?
ReplyDeletei'm afraid you are a little off with LeMay. The Big Bomber ran for VP with George Corley Wallace, back in 1968.
Leay's preferred method of action, late in WW II? Have two planes go in and dump incendiaries over a Japanese city, forming a giant, target "X".
Then...in came wave after wave of bombers.
Hey, I get it. This was in a war that had long ago gone out of control, and the Japanese did disgusting things to...well, everybody they got any power over.
But still. The sheer horror of it...
Yeah, guys, it's a bit unsettling to take a hard fall, isn't it? Roughly five weeks ago, I took the hardest one I remember ever taking, in my more than seven decades on this planet (the real one). Won't go into details, but I ended up banging my shoulder really hard against the arm of a chair in my bedroom. For the past month, I had the most beautiful maroon blotch on my shoulder area, and it hurt to use my right arm....but now, the blotch has faded and is almost gone, and my arm still works. I figure I was just lucky I didn't hit about six inches to the left - - in which case, I may have exited without even saying g'bye to my blog bro's....so there's that, I guess.
ReplyDeleteAlso - - I, too had plantar fascitis roughly twenty years ago; my doctor told me to just keep rotating my ankle every which way as much as I could stand, thus breaking those fascia - - no heel cups for me...after about three months, it was mostly a bad memory - - just like the time I ran a nail completely through my shoe & foot when I was a teenager - - or the loose heel chips which lurk - - and still stick me every now & then, just to remind me. Point is, though, I'm still here - - and very glad that you old boyz are, too.
Bring on Harper, or FUCK THE WHOLE YANKEE STAFF AND OWNERSHIP!! No more big tax abatements for them, if they're going to stiff the fans...maybe Rumpy could do another of his special non-emergency declarations, just for his Ol' Bud, Hal. LB (No J)
Hoss,
ReplyDeleteYes, Wallace / LeMay. So not only do I have weak legs but my mind is slipping.
Funny thing about Wallace. I have an autographed picture of him that is signed "from your pal George Wallace" (for the record I never met him. I'm also an Honorary LT. Col in the Alabama State Militia. Signed by him as well. - Don't ask.) It's like having an autographed picture of Himmler.
As to foot issues. I switched to wearing Ecco shoes a long time ago and all that stuff went away. I highly recommend them.
Doug K.
Yeah, Doug K., I will second your endorsement of Ecco shoes; for many years, I wore either those, or the old-style Clark's from England - - the ones with the really heavy and rugged soles. Both were great, in their own ways. Sadly, I can wear neither now; two years ago, my left foot swelled up badly, and wouldn't subside. I went to my Dr., and he sent me to the vascular lab. They diagnosed five blood clots in my lower left leg, and one - - just for good measure - - in the right leg. Result: I took Xarelto for several months. Meanwhile, my legs developed new - - but vastly inferior - - blood vessels. As a result of that, I have to wear "stretchy" shoes now, and even those can cause problems, if I have them on too long. For the past two years, I have only worn Pedors. They look kinda' geeky, but I can't complain - - at least, I can wear shoes.
ReplyDeleteLB (No J)
Jesus, we are getting old. By the time my bronchitis is gone, I'll be going under the knife for a torn meniscus. The only good thing about that is I don't have the usual arthritis in my knee that would make surgery moot (hi, Rev. Jackson!). And the surgery will help prevent arthritis from developing in the future.
ReplyDeleteI asked the didoct if I'll be able to play basketball, and he said sure. Which is great because I never could play before.
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