Dear God, this is horrible, rotten, sickening, deathly news. It reminds us that baseball seasons are infinitely cruel, and "depth" is always a mirage. With Aaron Hicks out indefinitely - (there's no other way to say it) - the Empire has stunningly been reduced to putting bow-legged Clint Frazier, in CF, or turning to the always expendable conga line of career minor-leaguers. (Frazier doesn't want to be called "Red Thunder" any more. How about if we call him "Red Wall Paste.") Of course, there is also Gardy, who played CF back in the day. How many players, how many positions, should we displace?
Damn, this is depressing. Florial was having a great spring, becoming a name to check in daily box scores. He might have started in Trenton, where he could conceivable leapfrog the Wilkes Barre experience and come straight to the Bronx. Now what? Another year in Tampa? Meanwhile, a sense of burgeoning Ebola virus infuses the roster.
The Yankees made no inroads this winter. They basically exchanged Sonny Gray for James Paxton, and maintained the same team (minus Andrew McCutcheon) that fell to Boston in four. Now, they'll start 2019 without Hicks or Luis Severino, while somehow expecting CC Sabathia to pitch every fifth day, between widow-maker artery blockages.
Yesterday, Tampa unveiled a new defensive strategy: The four-man outfield. The Yankees, in response, have a two-man outfield... and a three man rotation.
We are rumored to be on the verge of signing Gio Gonzalez. Words cannot describe the lack of hope this news engenders.
This winter, the Yankees had their chances. They went cheap. Every time. It's amazing how depressing the news of a broken wrist can be. But the Yankees' best and greatest hope... well, we're back to judging prospects by their signing bonuses. And with the Yankees, that's a damn lousy track record. So who do we watch now, Everson Pereira? Dear God, this is sad.
COOP LOVES GETTING THAT 2ND OR 3RD "CHEAPER" OPTION.
ReplyDeleteCAN'T GET FELIX HERNANDEZ?...GET MICHAEL PINEDA!
CAN'T GET A GOOD 2ND BASEMAN?....GET STEPHEN DREW!
CAN'T GET A GOOD 3RD BASEMAN?....PAY $52 MILLION FOR CHASE HEADLEY!
CAN'T GET BRYCE HARPER?.....PAY $70 MILLION FOR AARON HICKS!
CAN'T GET MANNY MACHADO?....PAY $24 MILLION FOR DJ LEHMAHUE!
CAN'T GET DALLAS KEUCHEL?....LETS WASTE MONEY ON GIO GONZALEZ!
COOP JUST KEEPS COMING WITH HIS, "LETS TRY TO WIN IT ALL WITH HIGH "WAR" PLAYERS, AND CHEAPER ALTERNATIVES."
IT ISN'T WORKING.
....AND IT WON'T.
Funny that high WAR players don't work out sometimes, or often with the Yankees. I've heard that if I understood it and how it was calculated, I would know how vital it is to judging a player's value, as opposed to watching him play, seeing how he performs in various situations, or looking at woefully outdated stats like BA, RBI, ERA, and others that have proved their lack of worth over nine, ten, or more decades. Anyway, Cash, keep going with the Moneyball approach, and ask Beene how many rings he has so far.
ReplyDeleteWorse is that he is now more likely to be being traded now with whatever halfway interesting prospect we have left for a troubled 6-5 3.43 ERA pitcher (but with 2 years of control) at the trade deadline....or we can get Gio, basically the same thing, but make that a terrible 10-11, 4+ ERA instead...Man, what idiots! Let's give him 3 years, $18 million a year too.
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ReplyDeleteOK.
1 - did Florial have a chance of coming north with the team? NO -- because of the Gardner contract. It was unlikely E.F. would be a factor in 2019, at least on the NYY team.
2 -- re Vampifella -- I disagree, because it DID seem likely to me that Cashman would trade E.F. in 2019. Based on past performance, it seems like something Cashman might do. Now, it (seems to me) is extremely less likely. Trading for a guy with a questionable wrist is idiotic. Most, if not all, of the other 29 GMs might not be that stupid.
This might or might not be good news, in 2020 or beyond. We might keep Florial now, and he might come back from this nightmare. Or not. Or he might heal, and then Cashman will trade him anyway.
3 -- Yes, Judge took time coming back from his wrist. But he seems all the way back now. Would you rather have had him rush his return in 2018, and now be.....less of a player? So they lied about it.
Do you really expect The Truth? From anyone?
If you are a citizen of the U.S., one thing you should be expecting by now is LIES -- about sports, owners, players, the NE Patriots, Michael Jackson's interesting choice of sleeping companions, Nancy Pelosi's bank account, Donald Trump's ability to control himself, and how great it is for the common man to be able to invest in common stocks. And more.
Fake news didn't start with the 2016 election. Do you remember 2002? I was a regular reader of the NY Times. That . . . thing was so avidly pushing for the invasion of Iraq that I thought the reporters, editors, and pundits there should be forced to wear cheerleader outfits (yes, the gals and the guys) -- and bring pom-poms to TV interviews.
Note: Also, Colin Powell lied.
4 -- I don't know what to think about Gio. I watched him in my area (DC-VA) with the Nationals -- seemed like an "in-and-out" kind of pitcher. You'd go to a game, Gio would be the starter -- and he's either be near-perfect or showering by the 3rd or 4th innings.
Should NYYs get him? My guess: They know the absolute real honest-god truth about Severino (even if they won't express that truth out loud). If they spend $$$ to obtain Gio, the meaning is -- Sevi will come back later. Maybe. Not sooner, and maybe not until Aug-Sept 2019 (if then). If they don't get Gio, the. they must believe Sevi will be OK.
5 -- Correction: The GM of the Oaklanders is Beane. Former Mets player.
6 -- The above comments from ANON really got me pissed off. Why? He mentioned the name "Chase Headley." I was really, really close to forgetting that fiasco. I was starting to think he was a figment of my imagination (like Carl Effing Pavano or the Fat Pussy Toad).
Now, I'm gonna have a rotten Sunday. Thanks a big Effing bunch!!!
John M.--you and your philistine fractured logic. Care to name any high WAR players who didn't work out for the Yankees? Of course there are no ironclad formulas--just better and more evidence-based ones, and old-fashioned, outmoded ones that are the only ones you understand. And Billy Beane has done wonders on NO MONEY using advanced analysis, while you sit posting your loser-boy know-nothingism on the Internet, making unsupported statements, fracturing logic, and generally making an ass of yourself.
ReplyDeleteCan the Yankee coaching staff just ONCE gather all their best young outfielders in a meeting at the start of spring training and tell them, "These games don't count. Don't crash into any walls." Simple, right?
ReplyDeleteALL-CAPS, your baseball logic is once again impeccable. Not to mention your logic in general.
ReplyDeleteThere is curious breed of people who are determined to believe that "closer" or "not as bad" is the same thing as "good enough."
"Huh, I need a ten-foot ladder? Well, I only have a four-foot ladder now. But I CAN get a six-foot ladder! That's closer, right?"
This is the logic Coops Cashman operates by every day of his working life.
"Huh, Stephen Drew really sucks? Well, he's better than playing whatever we have down in Scranton, right? Or just leaving the position open?"
No, he is not. He is not better if what you are trying to do is win, as opposed to losing by less. Finishing 20 games out of the division lead—territory we're headed for now—is not significantly different from finishing ten games out. Only in the minds of the statistically addled.
Joe FOB: hilarious, as always. And hey, I would trade Coops for Billy Beane, and even throw in Randy Levine and Lonn Trost.
ReplyDeleteBut the miracle of Beane's "Moneybag" approach is mostly myth.
The Oakland A's of the early 2000s were successful mostly because they had terrific starting pitchers, Jason Giambi, and a great left side of the infield, with Eric Chavez and Miguel Tejada.
None of this had anything to do with Moneybag. Among other things, at least two of those three everyday players were juicing.
Every year, Billy Beane would preach that things like fielding and fundamentals were not nearly as important as things like on-base percentage. And every year—or at least, 2000, 2001, 2003—the A's would be eliminated from the playoffs because of bad fielding and gob-smacking, boneheaded breakdowns in fundamentals.
(I give you Terrence Long, Jeremy Giambi, and Eric Byrnes. You are welcome to them!)
No more politics, especially the false equivalence bullshit, please.
ReplyDeleteJoe FB....your take on the NY Times being a "cheerleader" for the Iraqi invasion couldn't be more wrong.
ReplyDeleteJudy Miller wrote lies fed to her by the administration and then the administration (Rumsfeld, Cheney, Libby and others) used her stories to validate their claims. There was a huge rebellion and backlash by most of the reporters and editors. They were not cheering her on. She was a willing dupe and her reporting was extremely biased and shoddy. And although there were a few editors that did not vet her stories properly because they wanted that constant big scoop, it was not because they had an agenda to push (going to war).
It's no surprise that this witch went on to work at Fox News and eventually that mother of all Fake News outlets, Newsmax.
I agree with 13bit: we're getting pretty far out on the political limb.
ReplyDeleteCan't we all just get along and bash our favorite team's incompetent penny-pinchers?
HC66 -- Every front office in baseball now uses the advanced analytics that you don't understand, including that of the Rays, another team with a minuscule budget that won 90 games with a rag-tag roster because of the relentless application of advanced insights, including the use of openers, which will, within five years, become commonplace throughout baseball. EVERY team that has had major success in the past twenty years has relied extensively on advanced analytics. And you are a fucking moron--in fact, the worst kind of moron: the moron who doesn't realize that he's a moron but thinks he's actually smarter than non-morons.
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