The answer to your query is clear.
When all those " regulars " return, the team begins to lose again. Regularly.
We begin a trajectory that resembles a team playing .400 ball ( downward slope ), rather than a team that has won at an .800 clip ( upward slope).
Tomato cans notwithstanding, the existing team of back-ups and rag-a- muffins are playing baseball. They are hitting home runs without trying to hit home runs. They are manufacturing runs the old fashioned way. They are running the bases and playing defense. Some are making notable, outstanding plays. We have even seen successful bunts and steals of third base.
There is passion among these players. For each other and for the game.
When the regulars return, we go from a team that is fun to watch and unpredictable, to a team that is deadly boring to watch and totally predictable. We go from guys making contact and taking walks, to guys who strike out mercilessly. We go from hustle to disinterest.
The team of today is getting clutch hits. The team to arrive never hits in the clutch. The "veteran" team showed no ability to mount a comeback win. The team on the field makes regular medicine of that. The "original" line-up couldn't beat tomato cans at home. The team on the field wins at home and away.
Baseball reality ( the stupid traditions and decisions of ownership and management ) will inevitably subsume the dream. Those highly paid " veterans do not deserve to lose their jobs due to injury." Right? But that happened to Wally Pipp did it not? And how did that work out for the Yankees?
Frankly, I have grown to dread the day when Stanton returns. When Hicks returns. Even
Andujar ( my personal favorite young kid ) can't play defense like Gio.
Why in the world would anyone " mess" with a formula that is winning? Leave Stanton with his nerf ball and his batting tee. Let Hicks remain in traction on a beach in Florida. Trade Andujar for a starting pitcher. Let Tuto have a private room with a window overlooking the East River.
I fear that the the chess match of " moves" is about to begin and, sadly, some of these young over-achievers will become part of trade packages. Guys who were " dead and buried" have attracted attention, and that is a good thing for them. Only not for us. And not for the fans, the team or the franchise.
Money will win out. Hal will not allow his highly paid losers to sit, while he happily allows the underpaid winners to be disbanded. Because winning is not his object. It is only our object. We will talk for years about the team that was and how it became the team that wasn't. Could the no names have won it all through grit and love of the game?
Gloom and doom are growing on the horizon, as the $300 million contracts return to the line-up.
Let them keep winning until they can't.
Only you have the power to determine if we see Frazier again, if Estrada remains a Yankee, if Stanton sets a new record for striking out, if Tyler wade can continue to disrupt and contribute. And Voit stays hot.
You are our "death star" manager. Keep us thriving and dangerous.
Help us now.
Without your intervention, it is otherwise far too clear what is to become of this scrappy, successful , competitive team.
Respectfully,
Everyone
Great post! It's what everyone is thinking.
ReplyDeleteyep on all counts
ReplyDeleteI disagree.
ReplyDeleteYou know how this goes, Alphonso. We've all seen it before. The new, hustling guys put a little spark in the team and liven everything up.
It's great. They show a little ginger, as Harry Wright liked to say.
Then they come back to earth.
Tauchman is already looking more and more like the guy who has hit .168 in 72 major-league games. Wade has plenty of speed and hustle, but he can't hit and right now he's a part-time outfielder who can't judge flyballs.
Look, what this really comes down is the two, unpassable kidney stones on this Yankees roster: Stanton and Sanchez.
Do we not want Judge back? Of course we do. Frazier? He WAS one of the Whiz Kids, for cryin' out loud. Andujar? We may have to talk about another position—assuming Gio does not return to being the .230 hitter he was in his first .167 games, as opposed to his last 19—but of course we still want him.
Hicks suffers mainly from being constantly overrated by Brian Cashman. Other than that, he's a very useful lug nut to have.
Really, the big lumps we're talking about are Ics and Giancarlo.
Ics is a necessary evil because, let's face it, Higgy is not a big-league ball-player and there is no alternative in sight.
Stanton will be back because of his contract—which, I admit, is every bit the millstone you said it was, Alphonso, when I was one of those falling for his Miami garbage-time statistics.
But there is a very solid plus side to all of this. We've seen what Urshela can do, and he's at least worth keeping on as our Toe replacement. Ford has at least shown he is an OBP machine, and should move up on the ratings chart ahead of Bird, who I think even Cashman has reached the end of the line with. Wade has shown...something, if not enough.
Look, I think most of us are old enough to remember Brian Doyle hitting .438 in the 1978 World Series. It didn't mean he took over at second from Willie Randolph the next year.
Oh, and Tulo should be tossed off a bridge somewhere.
ReplyDeleteDon't look now, but today's game has already seen two of the currently active players sent for medical exams - Curtis Lemay and now the 3Bman whose name keeps eluding me.
And it's only the 6th inning, for chrissake.
Right at this minute, on defense, Wade is at third. Maybin, Tauch, and Gardner are in the OF.
As it turns out, this trip to SF provokes these words: Thank God For ICS!!!!
I hoped to think such a thought, but I didn't guess that I'd get to type it.
I love everybody.
ReplyDeleteEspecially Cashman, Hal, and the Booner.
ReplyDeleteI DON'T KNOW........
ReplyDeleteWE HAVEN'T HIT LIKE THIS IN 10 YEARS! (AGAINST GOOD TEAMS OR BAD)!
THIS IS JOYFULLY INSANE.
LOVING THE RIDE.
...and Sale got the loss again and lowered his ERA to
ReplyDelete6.30
LOV-ing it.
ReplyDeleteAnd speaking of Bataan, we dodged bullets left and right today. The General—okay, it seems. Go—okay, it seems. Phew.
And then it looked as though Thairo nearly broke his foot on second base.
But...it looks as though we survived.
Also, another excellent game fro German, who deserved better from his defense, particularly Maybin. Very nice, all around.
ReplyDeleteBy the time we get to Phoenix...we'll be 6-1 on this trip. Sorry, that's all I got.
Hoss, I'll take all you got and whatever Bitty has leftover!
ReplyDeleteSale must snort Larry Rothschild's droopy scrotum.
Fuckers; they all be fuckers.
~Unlimited Love Machine
ReplyDeleteEnough left over for this whole blog.
Who cares if we win or lose? Peace and love, baby.
Rothschild teabags Sale whenever they both have days off.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Warbler—I LOVE the idea of that!!
ReplyDeleteJoe - who or what is ICS?
ReplyDeletethanks
Ice Cream Sandwich = Gary Sanchez.
ReplyDeleteI'm not entirely sure why he has the moniker. It used to belong to Jesus Montero because his penchant for eating them over working out was one of the reasons that he never panned out. Perhaps Gary's perceived laziness is being attributed to the same cause.
Doug K.
You are on the mark, Doug K!
ReplyDeleteHmm, we have to come up with something that works better with "Doug K." Maybe, that's Special, Doug K!
I dunno. But essentially yeah, that's it. The nickname just sort of transferred—perhaps unfairly—from Montero to Sanchez. He keeps hitting like this, though, and we will stop using it.
@HC66...but if he continues with the passed balls....?
ReplyDeletehey hoss
ReplyDeleteBy the time we get to Phoenix, we'll still be hurtin
Oh, and Larry's balls will be sinkin closer to the floor
If he hits a home run a game, he can pass all the balls he wants.
ReplyDelete"I dunno. But essentially yeah, that's it. The nickname just sort of transferred—perhaps unfairly—from Montero to Sanchez. He keeps hitting like this, though, and we will stop using it."
ReplyDeleteYou fuckers serious? He hits 20 bombs in his callup in 16, hits like 35 in 17 and sucked in 18 due to injuries and you're surprised he's hitting like this? And that's why he's ICS? Cuz after 1.5 fabulous years he had a down year? Try calling your wife an ICS when she's pregnant 2 years into marriage and then continue to call her that after she gives birth. Think you're gonna live to regret that? lol
Funny how you clowns probably can't touch your toes and would need oxygen after running to 1B sitting there on your couches calling Gary an ICS. I'm sure you all called Cano lazy when he came up too, smh.
We're not yelling at ICSanchez as loud as Severino did in the dugout after Sanchez waddled down the 3rd base line to retrieve a passed ball ... with said waddling allowing Jake Bauers to score from 2nd. Here's the video in case you forgot what a delight it was.
ReplyDeleteWhether or not we clowns can touch our toes isn't the point; nobody's paying us millions of dollars to do it.
ReplyDeleteI should have included the link to this video instead of the one above. This shows both ICS's lazy play AND Severino letting him know his opinions about it afterward.
Severino's back is to the camera so you can't read his lips, but you can bet he's saying something along the lines of "demasiado helado y barquillos".
Warblist Babbitt, sermonizer on how we need to be "better than that," persists in vitriolic ageist psychopathy about Larry Rothschild. That demented fag Warblist needs help, and fast.
ReplyDeleteWhy isn't the third baseman running to retrieve this ball?? The runner is already on third, then Sanchez has to leave the plate area to go get it. The ball is near the third base coaching box for crying out loud, and the third baseman just stands there and does nothing.
ReplyDelete"Why isn't the third baseman running to retrieve this ball??"
ReplyDeleteThe third baseman is well... at third, where the throw should have gone -- before the runner got there.
But only if ICS had recovered his muffed catch as quickly as 99.9% of catchers would have.
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