Wednesday, May 15, 2019

The re-enactment of 2013 is taking shape: In Kendrys Morales, the Yankees just brought in Pronk

If you were forced to pick the absolute worst season in this Yankee decade of despair, 2013 would be a good bet. It was the year of Lyle Overbay, Jayson Nix, Vernon Wells and Travis Hafner, an eight-month colonoscopy which ended in us finishing third in the AL East, without even a wild card birth to show for our pain. But here's a fun fact: On this date in 2013, that horrible year, the surprising Yanks led their division by two games, with Wells hitting .301 and looking like Comeback Player of the year! Nobody saw the iceberg dead ahead.

Thus far in 2019, the Yankees have sold one main hopeful narrative: A plucky gang of overachievers has kept the club above water, while the dream team heals from a spate of injuries that would have ruined any other franchise. It's boosted our morale, despite lineups that, at first glance, look Scranton-worthy.

Yesterday, the Death Star blinked. 

The Yankees resorted to their time-honored tradition of obtaining sluggers in the twilight of their careers, rather than give youngsters a chance to succeed. They traded a (lucky) player-to-be-named later for the 36-year-old DH, Kendrys Morales, who has hit .204 this year with Oakland. Maybe Morales has a month left, but he hasn't hit for power and average since 2015, when he was 32. 

I'm sorry, but to see him in the middle of the batting order inspires many emotions, none of which will be confused with hope. 

Yesterday's deal means: 

1. Giancarlo Stanton isn't close to returning. Somehow, he's hurt himself, again. It used to be that the upside of an injury was that the player wasn't likely to get hurt, again; thus, he'd be ready for the stretch run. That's not the Yankees. Jacoby Ellsbury has become a punch line, thanks to an endless conga line of tweaks, Greg Bird is right behind him, Luis Severino's mysterious lateral strain - while in rehab - casts a shadow on his future, and now we now know why Miami was so desperate to trade Stanton, the reigning league MVP, in the winter of 2018. The Marlins just wanted him gone. So the Yankees implicitly used Stanton's contract to justify ignoring Manny Machado and Bryce Harper this winter. Wow. Did we get taken to the cleaners, or what?

2. Mike Ford can go to hell. Poor guy. If he's lucky, he's the player to be named. He came up, hit a big HR and got a few hits, but Morales will claim the next month, no matter what. That's the difference between the Yankees of May and what's to come: Young players face repercussions for going 0-4. But the aging veteran deserves at least 200 at bats to get himself going. So Morales will DH every day, and the newbies - Clint Frazier, even? - can sit, or maybe further hone their depressions in Scranton. 

3. Not sure how this affects Luke Voit. (Bird is clearly done.) Morales is probably an even worse fielding 1B than Luke - last year with Oakland he started 23 games at 1B; two errors - so if Luke continues to slump, who's on first will become more than a comedy bit. I guess Morales can play the position, though he hadn't yet this year. I mean, on a team of DHs, we just bagged a full-timer. Wow. 

4. The worst part will be how the Yankee hype machine kicks into a Fox News election mode: As you read this, The Master is surely writing his homer holler. (Can Kendrys? Yes he can!) And the YES birdies will chirp extra hard to make this move look like what it's not: Admittance that the "no names" team is done, and we are back to normal - with a slow, slog-filled lineup of Pronks and Overbays.

Hey, you know what? The worst season of this decade of the damned... it might just be yet to come. 

23 comments:

13bit said...

Ab-so-fucking-lutely

JM said...

They just couldn't leave well enough alone. Why do we need this guy? Looking at our record, why do we need Stanton?

We're winning! Fans are excited! The kids are amazing!

Let's fuck it up!!

Anonymous said...

HOW ABOUT PUTTING KENDRYS IN SCRANTON AND LEAVING HIM THERE UNTIL HE STARTS TO PRODUCE?

USE THE GIO GONZALEZ SITUATION AS THE TEMPLATE.

GONZALEZ WENT TO SCRANTON AND HAD 1 GREAT START OUT OF 4 OR 5 AND OWNED A HIGH ERA.

NOT GOOD ENOUGH, SO WE LET HIM GO.

DO THE SAME THING HERE.

P.S.) GREG BIRD'S TICKET BACK SHOULD BE THE SAME....RED HOT, DOMINANT PRODUCTION IN SCRANTON IS THE ONLY WAY BACK.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Logan Morrison must be hurt at Scranton.

Didn't Cashmoney know that Head Caseley is available? Or even Matt Holliday

HoraceClarke66 said...

Morrison is doing bupkus. But Ryan McBroom is hitting .308, with 7 HRs, and a .945 OPS.

Mike Ford was far from a world beater in the 10 whole games we gave him to shine. But he did homer and drew 8 walks in 37 plate appearances—supposedly the sort of game all the sabremeretricious are looking for, right?

This goes into the category of "be careful what you wish for."

All of us were dreading the return of Giancarlo? The JuJu gods—egged on by Cashman's book about how he foxed that idiot Jeter—sent us Morales instead.

Alphonso was right, and I was very wrong. I thought, we're getting Stanton for nothing. What could go wrong? Well, this. And it keeps getting worse. Never mind Bryce or Machado; just picking up Martinez—off to another great start for Boston—would have made all the difference.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Speaking of sports teams run by buffoons...we have to say congratulations to Zion Williamson.

Had he been drafted by the Knicks, a recurrence of his frightening knee injury surely would have been in the cards...assuming he wasn't traded first for Kendrys Morales.

Again, in the mode of being careful what you wish for: for all that we moan and groan about Hal and, before him, Mad George, remember that the Dolans came within a hairsbreadth of taking over the Yankees in the 1990s. Dwell on THAT for a moment!

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Hoss, the Logan Morrison comment was sarcasm -- as in another Cashmoney (old) bright shiny object, worthless but stupidly snatched at.

TheWinWarblist said...

I have only profanity.

Joe Formerlyof Brooklyn said...


When sportsfolk look back on this 2018-19-(and maybe more) era, they are gonna be forced to identify Cashmoney's obtaining Stanton instead of JD Martinez as one of the worst choices any GM ever made.

Forget Stanton's injury(ies). When they are both healthy, JDM is the better player.

Carl J. Weitz said...

Kendrys Morales? You have to be kidding me, Cashman. In the last 3 years that guy has bounced around more than an aging Rolling Stones groupie. Is our minor league system so bereft of talent that we have to bring this guy in?

Cashman has used up a lifetime of good fortune over the last 9 months acquiring other teams castoffs and failures and having them produce. Cashman is like a crazy contestant on that game show " Press Your Luck" trying to further defy the odds and Yankee fans are all screaming "No Whammy, No Whammy!"

JM said...

Whammy.

ranger_lp said...

They need to bring up Ryan McBroom so I can hear the Master's HR call..."McBroom goes McBoom!!!"

HoraceClarke66 said...

Sorry, Rufus. It was 10 in the morning—still the crack of dawn for me.

ranger_lp said...

"And McBroom sweeps the bases clean..."

13bit said...

I have only feces to spread around. Profanity may be comforting, but I need something visceral - in the truest sense of the word - to convey my feelings towards El Casholo the Wizard's latest reversion for form.

Fuck you, Brian.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Actually, Joe FOB, Stanton was a slightly better player, at least statistically, when we got him.

Even after Martinez's banner Boston time, Stanton leads in OPS, .905-.888, and Stanton averaged 33.4 homers a year, to 24.2 for Martinez. AND Giancarlo seemed a little more likely to be able to stay in the lineup.

The key difference—as Alphonso was astute enough to observe, and I was not—was that we took on 11 more years of Stanton's contract, while Boston signed J.D. for 5. (We also gave up at least an all right starting player for Giancarlo, Starlin, who we could have traded for something else, like pitching.)

Martinez, to be sure, has a classic juicer's profile (Stanton may well be a juicer, too), and maybe in another year or two he'll be completely done and collapse with typical, weird juicer physical problems.

But so what? Boston won't have to worry about him for long. Whereas we will have Stanton until the rising sea levels are lapping at second base in the Stadium. That's the disaster.

Anonymous said...

An innocent question: all you guys, including duque, who were braying a month ago for Cashman to shell out the GDP of Switzerland to acquire Harper and/or Machado: you've been awfully quiet lately. Time to admit maybe you were way fucking wrong about this? A little intellectual honesty and integrity, perhaps?

el duque said...

I still think they should have signed one of them.

One, if not both.

Yes I do.

JM said...

Ditto.

Anonymous said...

duque--have you looked at their numbers lately? Are you serious? You're just replicating the very prejudice that you justly deplore in Cashman--according veterans endless respect and opportunities--even in the face of dreadful performance--that he denies to younger players. It seems that no volume of empirical evidence can upend your mistaken judgments--how Trumpian of you.

Anonymous said...

Addition by subtraction--the Yankees need to release Gardner. But that would entail Cashman admitting he made a mistake in signing him. Good luck with that.

Anonymous said...

Au contraire, stat-boy, oh,so full of yourself - - us geezers are NOT replicating Cash-puss's folly, as you charge:

First off, the two players you insist we should not desire, are 26 & 27 years of age - - a full five years younger than Morales, at this juncture. Either, or both, really of them should have some good baseball left.

Also, you ask if we have looked at their numbers lately - - if one of us had asked that of you, regarding some player, you would just scornfully hit us with "small sample size" - - one of your favorite stat-boy phrases...and implying that we are Trumpian in ANY way is just plain bottom-of-the-swamp. Your diaper needs changing - - go find yer' momma. Speaking for myself, I reject whole-heartedly your defition of "honesty & integrity" Bite muh craink-shaft, as a wise man once said in a magazine I adored. LB (No J)

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