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| Current spring training batting leaders |
Bird has led the Ancient Empire to a 13-6 record - first place! - in the 2019 Meaningless Grapefruit standings. Best meaningless record in baseball. With less than two weeks to play, they lead the always-meaningless Nats by one-and-a-half empty games. Moreover, last place Boston (8-14) has been eliminated from the meaningless pennant. (They will, however, advance to the meaningful Grapefruit post-season, starting March 30.)
Bird is the Paul Lynde center square to the Yankees meaningless pennant quest. Look at those numbers! LOOK AT THEM, DAMMIT! The guy's on fire! He's crushing it! When has he ever hit like this?
Hmmm. Well, on further review, I have an answer to the above question:
In the meaningless spring of 2015, Bird hit .353. And in the 2016 Grapefruit League, he hit .451. Last year, he meaninglessly sucked - .154 (which foreshadowed his .199 regular season.)
So... what should we make of Bird's joyous, red-hot, meaningless spring?
How about this: Nothing.
Let's not bother getting hyped for a guy who could go down as the millennials' all-time version of Kevin Maas. Moreover, Bird is apparently destined for Scranton, no matter what he does. Supposedly, the Yankees have decided that a) Luke Voit (.290 this spring) won 1B fair and square last season, and b) they won't carry two 1B on the 25-man roster. (That could change due to Aaron Hicks' injury, but I still can't figure how an extra 1B fills that hole.)
I'm not one for proposing trades. Generally, I think of each Yankee as one of my children. I want them to live nearby, be happy, and return their mother's calls, for Kricesake. But here's a thought:
If the Yankees really plan to send Bird to Scranton next week, if his great spring as meaningless as we suspect, they ought to trade him. If they pile him onto a bus to Wilkes Barre, he will be demoralized and crushed. He will get off that bus as another Jose Pirela, Mason Williams, Zolio Almonte, Slade Heathcott, Andy Philips, or Brigadoon Refsnyder. If he goes from battling Voit to competing with Ryan McBroom, his batting average will plummet, and when the time comes to trade him, or promote him, or do something with him, we will have nothing for him: Zip, zero, zilch, Zolio...
Bird is having the best spring in Florida. (Oh, and here's another heartbreaking stat: Estevan Florial leads the AL in meaningless steals, with 5.) He's at peak foliage. If the Yankees are as cheap as they seem to be, and if they won't spend to sign Dallas Keuchel, then Cooperstown Cashman ought to hit the phones and spin another one of his meaningless deals. Strange as this may sound, I've really come to root for Greg Bird. I don't want to see him mired in Moosic. Let's not create another Brigadoon.
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21 comments:
Speaking of Brigadoon --
Refsnyder is hitting .143 this spring for Arizona. Last year: .167 in 84 ABs for Tampa. AZ signed him in Nov as a free agent.
Reminder: He was traded in mid-2017 (to Toronto) for McBroom. Besides NYYs, Toronto, Tampa, and AZ, he was also on the Cleveland roster (never played for them, tho).
Please remind me: Why were we all in love with this guy?
Let's think this through before tossing the Bird out with the bird bath water.
In 2015, he burned up spring training. He went back to the minors until August, when he came up and stole the show with 11 home runs in 157 at-bats and a .261/.343/.529 slash line. He burned it up in 2016 and 2017 spring training seasons and promptly got injured. We never saw him again in 2016 and he was clearly coming back from injury when he returned in 2017. In 2018, he sucked all year (with time off for injury at the start of the season), which makes me wonder how healed he was to begin with.
So here we are...... he's had another great spring. He's put some meat on his bones, which is probably good, since I think his super-taut, 1% body fat approach to fitness made him more vulnerable to injury.
I don't think his spring training performances are mirages, its just that he has broken down every other season he came out of spring training hitting hot. Let's see if putting a few pounds on his body made him more durable.
Go get'em, Birdie! I want this guy to succeed here, not anywhere else. I'm always confounded by the tag "injury prone," especially when it's a guy like Nick Johnson or Bird who I would like to see out on the field on a regular basis. Bird's Aug-Sept performance in 2015 -- that long ago? Cripes! -- was the only bright spot to an otherwise dismal season. His 2016 playoff homer against the unhittable lefty Andrew Miller was about as special as anything we've had since Byung Yung Kim was serving up late-innning gopher balls.
The Yankee braintrust seems to hatch its plans in secret and then hopes that events will bear them out. If they've already decided that Voit is The One, I think they're making a mistake. Bargain hunters like Tampa and Minnesota will swoop in with offers for Flotsam and Jetsam as soon as Bird becomes available. A sweet swinging lefty at 1B with opposite-field power is just what the Yankee lineup needs. I hope he can stay on the field.
ASSHOLES. ASSHOLES. ASSHOLES.
BRIAN CASHMAN should be put out to pasture. Let him put his Spidey suit on and jack off on people from his climbing wall. I'm done with baseball stupidity.
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2019/03/yankees-rumors-gio-gonzalez-interest-luis-severino.html
I agree with Mediasavvy. Bird hasn't hit in the regular season after 2015 because he has been hurt. Last year he never looked right or able to balance and shift his weight. If he is healthy, he can be one of the Yankees few (only?) .300 hitters. He has a great eye, great OBP with power to all fields. Oh, and he hits left-handed...one thing the Yankees lack. If they send him down or trade him, it will be another Cashman blunder. If he plays regularly, he will hit 35 plus HR.
In any event, I think that while Hicks is hurt, Bird will platoon at first and do some DH-ing as well.
please let Gio say no.
the only lefties the Yankees seem to care about all play for opposing teams. we don't want to give them easy access to our RF wall (see Judge and his 20 foot vertical leap and our lefty pitching) yet lefty bats in pinstripes are sooo not needed. Our statisticians say so! this is crazy shit.
Duque: when do you collect our guesses for win/loss? I have a hard time seeing this team win more than 88 games. It's harder still to imagine them finishing above the fucking redsocks.
P.S. John, welcome to the Initials Only Club.
Gio would be another lame-ass addition to the roster. Funny comment on that MLB Trade Rumors site...one guy said Gio throws 95 pitches by the fifth inning and would tax the bullpen. Another guy said, "he'll fit right in."
And that's the state of the Yankees.
Go Bird. Or is that go, Bird?
It's Go Fish, Bye Bye Birdie and Fuck Off Gio...l
His trade value right now is zero. If he goes to Scranton and stinks, his trade value will still be zero. Nothing lost there.
If he goes to Scranton and hits, he would (a) boost his trade value, and (b) be insurance against a Voit collapse, and (c) be a DH/bench bat option for the Yankees.
Scranton is the only place that makes sense for Bird to start 2019
Why are we evaluating roster spots based on Single and Double A pitching? It doesn't make sense...Voit has earned the starting role based on last year's performance...it's Voit's position to lose. And if that happens, Bird comes up and hopefully steps in and not break anything bodily.
Yet Voit, Bird and everyone else is hitting against those same A and AA pitchers. So what does that say about Sanchez and Frazier?
Voit has had a small sample size. I like Luke's power and how he hit at the end of last season. Bird isn't Mattingly at first but his defense is superior to Voit's. Voit is no seasoned veteran and shouldn't be given the starting job nor a guaranteed roster position. If it were my decision, Id keep both and send Frazier to AAA and let him get a decent number of at-bats and see how he hits.
@Carl Weitz...no room for Voit and Bird since the Yanks will be carrying 13 pitchers. Frazier is probably starting the year in SWB also as they will have Wade step in for Hicks initially until Aaron is off the DL.
4 INFIELD SPOTS.
TULOWITSKI
GLEYBER
ANDUJAR
VOIT
BIRD
LEMAHIEU
WADE
7 SONOFABITCHES...
YOU FIGURE, WE JUST SPENT $24 MILLION FOR LEHAHIEU, SHOULDN'T HE BE THE ONLY SWING MAN?
DO WE REALLY NEED TO HAVE WADE TOO?
IF WADE MAKES THE TEAM, WE DROP BIRD DOWN TO SCRANTON.
I WOULD HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THAT IF BIRD WASN'T HITTING.
....BUT HE FINALLY IS. (AND WE HAVE NO LEFT HANDED HITTERS).
I AM ALL FOR VOIT, BUT I'M AFRAID SENDING BIRD DOWN NOW AFTER FINALLY SHOWING SOMETHING AT THE PLATE WILL BE THE DEATH KNELL FOR HIS CAREER.
IT WILL DESTROY ANY TRADE VALUE TOO....NOW THAT HE IS HITTING IT IS AS HIGH AS IT'S BEEN SINCE THE ANDREW MILLER BLAST.
....BUT IF WE SEND HIM DOWN NOW, HE WILL BE OVERLOOKED AND PUT ON THE BACK BURNER BY MOST, OR ALL, FRANCHISES.
KEEP BIRD. KEEP VOIT.
DROP WADE.
WE CAN ALWAYS BRING BACK WADE IF IT ISN'T WORKING OUT.
LETS PLEASE START OFF THE SEASON AS STRONG AS WE CAN.
Here's the thing.
They traded for Voit and he exceeded all expectations. He was pretty close to amazing. He's done a very good job in Spring Training. (Even if Bird is doing better). They should not take the starting job away from him. If he continues to play at or near that level he gets to stay. If he doesn't then you can bring up Bird. (Assuming Bird hasn't been injured in AAA.)
And if Bird collapses mentally that's got to be on him. He lost the starting job now he has to wait for an opportunity just like the one Voit got and then make the most of it.
Voit more than did what was asked and Bird has been a disappointment for one reason or another for years. He gets at least the month of April and into May to prove he's for real. If familiarity shows opponents a hole in swing and he can't adjust then bring back Bird. But Voit has dibs.
Just my 2 cents.
Doug K.
ALL-CAPS is my GM.
What do we need?
A left-handed hitter.
What is Bird?
A left-handed hitter.
We've been waiting on this guy for the better part of three years. Some people told us, 'Bird just needs to get his strength back and he'll hit again.'
Some people scoffed at that prognosis. All right, I admit it: I was one of them. 'Scoff, scoff,' I scoffed. 'We'll never see Bird hit again.'
Well, it could be I was wrong. It's happened at least once before. I'm willing to find out.
Right now, we have 4 outfielders on the Death Star. Three, if Clint is really going down.
Luke Voit played 14 games in the OF in the minors, and 1 in the show—without making an error. He can't play left as well as Stanton? He can't sometimes DH while Stanton plays left?
Why not? Because we HAVE to keep Tyler Wade, the man with the .161 major-league average? Since when did Cesar Tovar die and make him, well, Cesar Tovar?
It will really be better to have our no 13 pitcher on the roster than a Bird who is finally hitting like we all hoped he could? Malarkey. Baloney. Nuts. The Guard dies but never surrenders! Well, you know what I mean.
All we are saying
Is give Bird one more chance!
Looks like Tovar died: July 14, 1994...and Wade was born Born: November 23, 1994.
Reincarnation!
I've never heard of Tovar before, so I was curious about him. Appears he retired 4 years before I got into baseball and he had played 15 games for the Yanks. Totally unmemorable.
I can sort of see why they had signed him, he was actually a good player at one time and had a few good to very good years. It was worth a one month shot but then again he was only hitting .178 with the A's in 29 games that year and it seemed like such a foolish to do so.
There has to be more behind the story. I'm guessing it was a minor controversy at the time especially after he gave a crappy .154 in 13 games for the Yanks and then retired. Still Wade has worse numbers. I rather they give him the Bird and let Bird on the team.
I'm 16 months off ankle surgery. I've worked hard to walk again. They doctors said it would take around 6 months. I'm now 2 months pain free, but I still can't run straight ahead. Its possible that the Yankees want to see Bird run straight ahead day after day for at least a month. Can he hold up to the grind? If he can and if he is healthy the Yankees have a good first basemen. Let Bird go to Scranton and show he can handle the grind for a month. If Voit can show that he is an everyday player over that same time span, then it would be the time to flip Voit, as his stock will be much higher than when he arrived via trade.
Ranger _lp:
I don't think the Yankees will go with 13 pitchers for most of April with 5 days off and the inevitable rain/snow cancellation(s). That would leave Bird & Voit on the roster with Hicks on the IL. Wade has shown less than zero in his short time in the Bigs.
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