With apologies to Stephen Sondheim.
"It started out like a song.
We started quiet and slow
With no surprise
And then one morning I woke to realize
We had a good thing going..."
After their loss to Chicago on April 14th, the Yankees were 6-9.
Since then, they have been 18-7. That's .720 ball, slightly better than the .714 pct.—including the postseason!—that The Greatest Team Ever racked up in 1998.
Better than the 1927 or 1939 Yankees. Better than any teams in history, save for the 1954 Cleveland Indians (.721), the 1902 Pittsburgh Pirates (.741), and the 1906 Chicago Cubs (.763). (None of which, by the way, won a World Series.)
Projected over a whole season, that would give us 116-117 wins.
I know, I know. Those other, gaudy records were compiled over entire seasons. But that's the whole point.
Chances are, the hustling Yankees Second Line has done so well in part BECAUSE they haven't been much seen before.
There IS no book on them, not really. Major-league teams, for whatever reason, don't seem to much scout even high minor leaguers or marginal major leaguers (witness the Yanks' countless fruitless efforts against little-known pitchers.)
Or major-league players don't bother with the scouting reports. Hey, they have other things to do with their spare time, like visiting the top museums on road trips, translating Dostoevsky, or protesting the new income tax rates.
Whatever. The fact is, they don't know these guys.
"It's not that nothing went wrong.
Some angry moments, of course,
But just a few
And only moments, no more,
Because we knew
We had this good thing going."
Sure, the league was bound to catch up to our youngsters. Eventually.
But do you know who they already DO have a book on?
Kendrys Morales. Just as they had one on Chris Carter. And Neil Walker. And the aging, flailing Brian Roberts, and Tony Womack, and Raul Mondesi, and all the other has-beens or never-wases Coops feels the need to return to.
Keep the kids. Bring up more kids? Double down on your bet with the gamble that Ryan McBroom or even Ford for a few more games, will produce like Morales never will again, before they catch up to him? Ride that to the return of the regulars?
Nah.
I was going to write that this is Cashman performing the definition of insanity again, doing the same thing the same way and expecting different results.
But it's more than that. It's Cashman also taking something that ain't broke, and "fixing" it. It's reinventing the wheel.
Or maybe it's fixing the reinvented crazy wheel. Or something like that.
Dumb, dumb, dumb. Well, it could be worse. We could be the Knicks...
"And while it's going along
You take for granted some love
Will wear away.
We took for granted a lot.
But still I say:
It could have kept on growing
Instead of just kept on.
We had a good thing going...
Going...gone."
Wednesday, May 15, 2019
"We had a good thing going...going...gone."
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19 comments:
At the risk of sounding like a broken record
Mike Ford walks a lot
If the pitcher makes a mistake he has power to hit a home run
Adequate fielder at 1B
I fail to see why giving him more bats could be any worse than with respect to Morales who is at the end of his career and isnt exactly much of a threat nowadays
Seems like Cashman and the front office prefer established players even if they are a good few years past their best to younger hungrier rookies
Give Ford a fortnight in the big leagues if he doesnt hit fair enough then give McBroom a go he cant be any worse
Completely agree, Scotland, on both counts.
McBroom, especially, must be tearing his hair out just now.
So J.A. Happ leaves after 64 pitches, having allowed 3 solo homers in 5 1/3 innings.
Yeah, that stud hoss is going to take us far in the playoffs...
OK. I know I'm 9 cents short of a dime.
But: The NYYs just took Happ out with one out in the top of the 6th.
Total pitches: 64.
My assumptions:
a. This is the first game of a double-header, right?
b. You don't want to kill your bullpen in the first game, duya?
c. In fact, you might want to stretch Happ out just a bit in this sitch, would you not?
Unless they are rolling Happ out to start the Friday game vs. Tampa, I'm not sure WTF is going on here.
Facts:
1 - bullpen MUST now throw 3 2/3 innings in this game.
2 - in German's last 3 games, he's pitched 6.2, 6.0, and 5.0 innings. It's possible the bullpen will have to throw 3 innings in Game 2. Maybe more.
3 -- So, if my math is working, that means -- with the break that German doesn't fall apart in the 2nd game -- the bullpen works at least 5.2 innings today, maybe 6 (worst case, more).
Mitigating against all this, the NYYs have Thursday off. I guess Lorna Boone wants to get everybody into the game today........??? Maybe there are a lot of Parents in the stands?
To my way of thinking: If Happ is not injured (ask the damn Swan) -- this makes no sense.
Aye, Scotty, give the Ford and McBroom lads a shot at the haggis. There's only a wee chance Morales does more than waste a roster slot. Ye kin bet your single malt on that, preferably Oban.
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Best laugh all day, JM.
And yeah, Joe FOB, the guys in the booth were wondering the same thing: WTF? Nor did Happ seem injured.
I always think the better part of managing is pulling the pitcher too soon instead of too late (the Sparky Anderson doctrine). But this did seem extreme. They're also going to have to get Happ on track—the Happtrak?—sometime.
But...a nice combination of the Yankees First Line and Second Line. 4 homers, one by Sancho, 2 by The Gleyber. GREAT D, a nifty DP started by El Conquistador, and a typical, sterling, game-ending pick by Gio.
And the pen looked good—Chapo back over 100. The CollBull W/L improves to 13-14.
Morales and a rusty Hicks. German better hold the Birds to this one run.
Don't know if y'all saw/heard this. Miggy is going to have surgery -- out for rest of '19.
Bursts my balloon. He is my favorite on the current roster.
That sucks. It's great that Urshella has stepped up, but Mig is missed.
Sweep. Well done.
Was it Hammering Cameron, or Cammering Cameron? The internet is divided. I heard Cameron Cameron and assumed it was pre-war show tune reference.
TIED! For first place.
Old-fashioned sweep, with Chapman getting a save in both games—like Sparky Lyle days.
It is a bummer about Miggy, Joe. El Matador is one of my favorites, too.
The only thing to be said for it is, better to let him get the surgery than to go on playing like he has.
The thing that really sucks about this, too, is that stupid, immobile base thing. By the by, did anybody else see the Orioles catcher whip the ball down to third when Gio was there, after his triple in the first game? I could just see him getting injured, too, on that pick-off play.
Next Baltimore catcher who tries it, we should put the ball in his ear when he's up again.
Oops, sorry. Still half-a-game out.
Also, Boston blew a 5-0 lead, but managed to beat Colorado in 10. Bummer.
HICKS IS BACK!...HICKS IS BACK!
0 FOR 4.
LETS JUST HOPE STANTON KEEPS STRAINING MUSCLES AND STAYS FAR AWAY.
I don't know if Sondheim is a baseball fan but if he is I'd bet he'd like the red sox
Ah, Sondheim is a crazy perfectionist—anybody see the hilarious satire of him in "Documentary Now"? He would love the Yankees and us fans, with our impossible expectations.
And the report on SNY last night was that Stanton is about to start extended spring training games (yeah, DiMaggio, hands bloody from extended batting practice, would've loved those). But hey—now that our DH is gone for the year, maybe even that is not so bad. I bet he'll give us more than Kendrys Morales.
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