Four days earlier, they'd signed Brian McCann, the Munson-like catcher who'd once beat up a showboating runner who was trying to touch home plate. And Ellsbury's signing came the same day we reached a deal with the vastly underestimated Hiroki Kuroda.
Two months earlier, Boston had won the World Series. This was our chance to get even. Hal Steinbrenner was returning to the strategy that won the 2009 championship: Buy the best free agents on the market, and let the fates meld everything together. Some folks wondered if a tweak-magnet like Ellsbury should get a seven-year deal, but we just partied. You saw that Yankee lineup - McCann, Tex, Jeet, A-Rod, Gardner, Cano... how could they miss?
Well, we now know that Ellsbury was a smokescreen, that talks had gone south with Joggie Cano. Five days later, he'd sign Jay-Z's ridiculous deal with Seattle, creating a Yankee vacancy at 2B that continued until last May, when Gleyber Torres arrived. (Fingers crossed that if Gleyber moves to SS, the vacuum doesn't prevail.)
As a Yankee, Ellsbury has been all that the critics feared. In terms of injuries, he serves to remind us that, sometimes, when everybody says it's raining, it's raining. He never hit above .271, and now, in year six, he is returning from a wipe-out season and hip surgery.
Two key words here: Hip surgery.
In 2015, in his pre-sainthood, Alex Rodriguez was viewed as a medical miracle after returning from hip surgery to hit 33 HRs. He played DH, and his batting average dropped to .250. He had power, not much else. But Ellsbury has always been a speed/defense CF, without a DH's pop. The chances of him returning to anything remotely like his old form are - WAIT... WTF? WHY ARE WE EVEN PONDERING THIS? THE GUY IS NEVER COMING BACK, HE'S 35, CRIPPLED, AND WAS BARELY ABOVE AVERAGE IN HIS LAST INCARNATION, AND WHY ARE WE EVEN THINKING HE MIGHT EVER PLAY WELL FOR THE YANKEES OR ANYBODY? WTF? WTF? W.T.F?
Excuse me. I lost my spiritual Gamin there for a moment.
Still... One point about Ellsbury must always be remembered. It was never his fault. He signed a stupid contract. It wasn't stupid for him. His family will be fed forever. If we boo him, if we savage him on this blog, we are misplacing our venom - we are letting the front office get away with it. This is not on Ellsbury. It never must be.
Yesterday, I had to retch as the Yankees played their little p.r. mind games. With a straight face, Cooperstown Cashman said the Yankees hope to have Ellsbury back, that they believe he still has some baseball left to play, and that he could help this team.
What a joke. It's wink-wink, cue-the-booing tape. And the Gammonites play along. Meanwhile, between every paragraph, there is the unspoken suggestion that Ellsbury is the culprit, that if not for his contract, we'd have signed Bryce or Manny, or even Patrick Corbin - that it's all because of Ellsbury that we have to sit out the big auctions. And now, with Aaron Hicks down, we have no CF, and it's all because Ellsbury is once again hurt. Step right up, boys and girls! See the terrible, horrible Jacoby Ellsbury, scourge of the 2019 Yankees.. and beyond! Don't forget to throw your turnip! Don't worry! He's used to it!
The truth is, if our front office cared about Ellsbury, they would pay him the money, release him, and let the guy fare for himself on the open market. He might get an actual shot with another team. The odds of him ever playing well again are insane. But they won't jettison him, even if it means a roster crunch. They want him around. They want to keep Exhibit A on display, so when the big free agents come up next winter, they can point to the Chief and say, "See? Look! That's what happens! That's why we're staying away!"
It's not on Ellsbury. Let's never blame him. And let's never forget: The Yankees will get their money's worth, just by having him play a new position: Straw man.
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15 comments:
Why do we keep saying Gary is a bad defender? Above average arm, above average framing, good game caller. His only flaw on the defensive side is blocking pitches in the dirt. Let's not ignore the facts.
On the other hand, as bad as 2018 was for him, he was still better than 90% of AL catchers. Of course he needs to improve, and it would be a shot in the arm, but no, he's not the liability he's acussed of being.
As long as the Yankees are collecting insurance money, they're keeping Ellsbury. The moment he's ready to play, he'll be all but released
I'm thinking they'd keep him on the roster hoping for another injury and collect on the insurance again. That would make the most finical sense with him.
If healthy, he probably wouldn't get released until the 2020 trade deadline to make room for somebody they just obtained. I seriously doubt anyone would trade for him nor even give him a major's contract when released. I doubt he'd accept a minor contract and he'd probably end up being a hitting coach for some minor league team in 2021.
Let's resign Ells, lock him up until he's 45. Such a useful propaganda tool.
Anon, I'm completely astounded by this claim that Sanchez was better than 90% of all AL catchers. His defense was lousy, and yes, that's mostly on his inability to block pitches, but I also saw him flummoxed time and again when he didn't even know which way to hold his glove as a pitch came sailing in. And those passed balls and muffed pitches let opposing runners advance and sometimes score.
His hitting was terrible. Just awful. So I kind of wonder where he excelled over other catchers in such huge magnitude that it made up for his, by MLB standards, complete collapse from the year before.
I'm guessing this has to be the New Math at work, where it proves the last thing we should believe is our lying eyes.
stat baby farts in the wind
let us never forget the ICS lack of urgency on pitches that squirt away from him. that's his M-f'en trademark.
RE The Chief: my redockian minion friend told me all about him after the Yanks gave him the contract. "Good luck! You'll never get that GQ model on the field for more than half a season." Exactr quote, as I recall.
2013.
THAT WAS THE FREE AGENCY THAT KILLED ALL FUTURE FREE AGENCY FOR US.
INFAMY FOR SURE.
Not going to matter until Ells resumes baseball activities...and don't hold your breath.
It's not true that Gary was better than 90% of MLB catchers last year, but he wasn't the worst. According to FanGraphs he was the #16 ranked catcher last year in terms of WAR (minimum 150 plate appearances) despite missing much of the season. Batting wise he was worse--ranked #32 in wRC+ the MLB, which is even below Romine.
I think it's appropriate that we're now discussing Sanchez on this Ellsbury post, in that I've come to distrust the info that Kremlin-on-the-Hudson gives us about Sancho, too.
First, yes, I thought he had the potential to be a very good, maybe even a great defensive catcher—before 2018. He had a stellar arm and was indeed very good at framing pitchers. Yankee hurlers did much better with him behind the plate than with Romine or the other alternatives.
True, blocking pitches was always a problem. But given our staff's propensity for throwing every other pitch in the dirt—from the Larry Rothschild Pitching Manual that drove Sonny Gray out of New York—I didn't think he was even so bad at that, considering his height.
Then, last year it all fell apart, and I was right up there with everybody else in ridiculing what the Yanks let us think was his terrible attitude and lack of hustle.
THEN it came out that he not only had a bad groin pull but an injured shoulder that needed an operation. In other words, he was out there with two serious injuries, still trying to play, and not using the big hurts as an excuse.
Kind of changes one's perspective, doesn't it?
So, bottom line, I don't know WHAT is really going on with Gary Sanchez—much as I have never really understood what was going on with Jacoby Ellsbury.
I am, however, sick and tired of an organization that uses lying to its fan base as a constant tool in avoiding any responsibility.
And one caveat on Ellsbury: it DID seem that he had the suspicious, "one great year" in Boston.
Was that from juicing, on a team that does a lot of it? I dunno. But if so, he deserves some blame. These guys who juice for a year, sign the big deal, then get off the PEDs are essentially stealing from all of us.
HOSS, I BET ELLSBURY HAD THOSE "STEADY HANDS" WE TALKED ABOUT DURING THAT "ONE GREAT YEAR".
LOTS OF "STEADY HANDS" GOING ON IN BOSTON FOR QUITE A LONG TIME NOW.
THIS ISN'T TO SAY THAT I ONLY SUSPECT RED SOX PLAYERS....
....BUT THEY DID HAVE MANNY (CAUGHT TWICE), AND PAPI, (FINGERED AND CAUGHT, THEN JUST PLAIN LIED ABOUT IT, "OJ STYLE", AFTERWARDS)....
BANK ON JD.
I WOULD PUT MONEY ON MOOKIE TOO.
....AND LETS NOT FORGET STEVEN WRIGHT, (CAUGHT).
You're quite right, ALL-CAPS, from everything I heard.
This was what was so ridiculous about the Mitchell Report, in which a part-owner of the Sox concluded that the only juicers in baseball were Yankees, Mets, Barry Bonds, and one or two others. No Red Sox!
In fact, accounts of the Sox teams from those years had just about everybody juicing. Nomar was an obvious culprit. Also, as you say, Big Papi and Manny. Bill Mueller went from somebody who could not hit more than about .260 with 8 home runs in Colorado and Wrigley Field to an AL batting champ no one could get out. Millar and Trot Nixon were similarly suspect. Then there was the year or two when the entire, mediocre Sox bullpen suddenly could not be hit in in the postseason. Schilling was also a constant suspect.
Again, plenty of Yanks were juicing, too. But you had people like that old Times sports columnist, Serena Roberts, actually writing that the Yanks should give back their championships from 1999-2000 because Clemens was on the team. Nothing about the Red Sox.
And yes—they're STILL doing it!
HAHA, HOSS...
CLEMENS?
DON'T BLAME US FOR HIS JUICING....
HE STARTED WAY BEFORE HE GOT TO US, WITH YOU KNOW WHO!
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