Whenever the Yankees lose due to poor starting pitching - like last night - I lapse into the angry sweats, wondering why in hell we didn't go after Keuchel? And God help me if Keuchel becomes the next Jason Verlander and leads Atlanta to the world series.
Basically, instead of money, which Hal "Food Stamps" Steinbrenner can use for animal bedding, we will soon be held for ransom in our quest for starting pitchers. We will face tanking teams, whose fan bases still perceive the Yankees as big spending fat cats; thus, their GMs will strive to soak us for everything we've got. (We talk about prying Marcus Strohman from the Blue Jays; can you imagine the price they will demand? They're not going to give him away to a team within their own division.)
Our so-called "Death Star" - (what a joke!) - was outbid by Atlanta because we refused to go above a prorated salary offer we had made last winter. That turned out to be about $1.5 million lower than the Braves' prorated offer, of about $13 million. Neither team budged from its previous offer. Hmm. Should eyebrows be raised here? You'd almost think they were working in tandem, eh? Do I detect a sulfurous odor? Keuchel waits six months for a bidding war that won't cause teams to forfeit their top draft picks to sign him, and then - when the penalties no longer apply - the auction still never happens. The franchises still toe the line, nobody moving from the previous numbers. Weird, eh? I wonder what would happen if the toothless Players Association took this to court?
Still, it's Cooperstown Cashman's hummina-hummina-hummina, given to WFAN this week, that echoes in my head. Here's the write up in NJ.Com.
Cashman said it was important to the Yankees that they didn’t exceed the $246 million luxury tax threshold. Exceeding it would mean that owner Hal Steinbrenner would have to pay a 62 percent penalty on every dollar spent over the $206-million initial threshold and it would push back the Yankees’ top pick 10 spots for next season.
You know what? That seems fair. If the Yankees are about to spend $246 million, I'd have to agree: Time to hold the line.
Trouble is, according to Cot's Baseball Contracts, the most credible internet site for tracking MLB payrolls, the Yankees are nowhere near $246 M in spending. On opening day, the payroll stood at $203 million, and the Yankees haven't added any big names, aside from Kendrys Morales, who was plucked off waivers and is being paid by other franchises. Is Mike Tauchman a $20 million outfielder? Is Cameron Maybin costing us another $20 million? Yeesh, we could have added two Dallas Keuchels, without coming close to $246 million. As Casey said, you could look it up.
So there they go, once again, publicly poor-mouthing about the terrible costs of having to run a baseball team. Last winter, some charts passed around on the Internet sent shivers across the Yankiverse: They showed Yankee revenues reaching new heights, while the percentage going to payroll continues to shrink.
In 2001, the Yankees spent 51 percent of their revenues on team payroll. In 2018, the number had dwindled to 36 percent. The ownership just gets richer and richer. And we're on the verge of the first decade in Yankee history without even a visit to the world series.
We keep waiting for the Yankees to exert their one considerable advantage over the rest of baseball: The obscene amount of money they possess. Year after year, the Dodgers do it. Last season, the Redsocks were delighted to roll over their luxury tax limits. Three years ago, the Cubs pulled out their wallet, en route to a world championship.
But Halligator Arms Hal refuses to join a bidding war. The Yankees' starting rotation is sucking air, nobody is coming to the rescue, and their public explanations simply do not add up. Who is going to call them out? The YES team? John and Suzyn? Good luck on that. Where's that horse carcass? I need a few more whacks.
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44 comments:
after last night, it is clear. there is no G_d.
The Yankee outfield of 1998 with two bats each couldn't give that horse - or Hal - enuff whacks.
Parson Tom, do not despair. There is a god. It's all made-up nonsense, but the concept of your god still exists.
Fuckers.
Our fearsome Pitching Rotation of Openers is actually on a roll. Most times, we get a decent to good three innings or so out of the "starters" we have. Unfortunately, the bullpen doesn't have enough quality across the board or stamina to always take it from there.
My idea of a great game is maybe a start by German, two or three innings, then trot out Happ for three, then CC for three, then see if Tanaka, Ottavio, Zack(h), Green, and Chappie can finish it up.
If we could do this every game, I think we'd be almost unbeatable. Too bad all of their arms would fall off after about three or four games.
Oh, well. At least we didn't sign that expensive mediocrity Keuchel. And are said about to not sign the expense mediocrity that is Baumgarder. We'll just trade some promising kids to get an inexpensive mediocrity. Whoo.
I was talking with an esteemed member of this site about a group meetup at a game.
Since the diaspora is often hours away, we agreed that a weekday day game might be best, as weekends in summer can be an issue.
If we were to - figuratively speaking - "meet at the bat" and take in a game, would any of these dates be a possibility with any of you:
July
31st Diamondbacks 1:05
August
12th Orioles 1:05PM
14th Orioles 1:05PM
You can mull it over and respond here. If there is any interest, I'll find a way for you got get in touch with me and we can take ti from there.
Yes, yes, and yes, on all three. I vote for the Orioles, since one of those games will probably be the most fun.
Hey! Stop blaming this on God! God, as it has often been said, helps those who help themselves. Hal has been helping himself to all the money. He needs it for his global sports empire. Which should be ready to go just about the time we hit a climate change apocalypse.
God, it has also been said, works in mysterious ways.
VERY INTERESTING OBSERVATION ON THE CURRENT PAYROLL, MR. DUQUE....
DISGRACEFUL, THE WAY HAL SIDE SKIPS HIS OBLIGATION TO US, THE PEONS WHO ARE FUNDING THIS CHARADE.
I REALLY DO FIND IT AMAZING (AND TELLING), HOW HE IS REFUSING TO DO WHAT MADE HIS FATHER SUCCESSFUL.
FROM HIS "FRONT-SEAT" EXPERIENCE, WATCHING HIS FATHER, HE SHOULD BE A HELL OF AN OWNER FOR HIS UNDYING FANS, AND HIS SHAREHOLDERS.
HE HAS THE RIGHT TEMPERAMENT TO NOT BE IMPETUOUS LIKE HIS DAD.
HE HAS THE RESOURCES HIS FATHER HAD.
.....BUT HE IS FAILING MISERABLY ON KNOWING WHEN TO ACT IN THE RIGHT CIRCUMSTANCE.
LANDING KEUCHEL, PLUS MAKING A TRADE FOR A BUMGARNER IS WHAT WAS NEEDED TO GET WHERE WE ALL WANT TO GO.
AS GEORGE WOULD SAY, HIS SON HAL, "SPIT THE BIT".
I PRESUME COOP IS RIGHT BEHIND HAL, WHISPERING, "DON'T WORRY, I CAN STILL MAKE IT WORK."....
NO....HE CAN'T.
I will take the day off if I can.
A nice read but I'm tired of the Keuchel rants Lets move on
Oh deltajoe! You are too, too precious!
The salary used to determine penalties for the teams that spend more too much money is the Competitive Balance Threshold. This includes the cost of long term contracts, benefits as well as other items. The number I saw on line for the Yankees payroll using this is $223MM . I would hope the reason they stayed away from offering more to Keuchel is it would have hurt them here. Clearly they need a starter and it would have been nice not to have to trade good prospects.
12th Orioles is best for me...
how is the 12th looking for everybody besides Rufus?
this could be fun. if it's looking good, I'll figure out an email I can post and then you can email me and I'll send you my real address and phone number. once we ascertain how many people, I could look into the seating options.
let's wait until tonight or tomorrow to give as many people here a chance to see this as possible.
Hi 13bit,
I'd love to join you all on the 12th!
I haven't been posting much, but I check into IIHIIFIIC everyday,,,,, this will be a BLAST!
BillyMartinsHangover -- So you're another of the blog idiots who thinks that glorifying drunkenness and loutishness, like a freshman in Animal House, makes you an impossibly clever and cool guy. No . . . it makes you just another dumb jerk. Billy Martin's life was a grim tragedy, not fodder for your crude frat-boy japes. I notice that you don't have the guts or the mettle to address any of the points I made about anger as an engine of human enlightenment and progress. Why? Because you're too fucking stupid and illiterate to have any thoughts. You just vomit up puerile epithets and boilerplate abuse.
Why don't you PROVE to us how really BRILLIANT you are? You think anger is always a bad thing, like every other flame-addict moron on the Internet? You don't think anger can be a galvanizing force for good? Why not? Can you even rise to the level of actual thought about anything? No . . . just random snide verbal vomit. You're a scummy squriming worm who has never really had a thought about anything in your blighted, mediocre life, a replicant of the cliches of male-paradigm consumer culture gone mad. If you could answer in subtance, you would. But you can't. So you posture and vomit. YUCK.
BillyMartinsHangover--Psycho Anus's latest sock puppet.
Dufus T. Firefly--did it ever occur to you that every one of your posts betrays a mind so fatally mediocre and dull, that you are a herd animal of such base instincts that you ought not to be allowed outside without a collar and leash?
You are the guy who, of course, comically asserts that this or that of your BIG-MUSCLED HERO MEN is a clutch superman even when the career numbers prove that he isn't; the guy who nestles up to the warped cross-dressing illterate ("collassall") who types FUCKERSFUCKERSFUCKERS like a four-year-old with Down's Syndrome; who runs with the jackal pack of Trump reactionaries who think that it's TERRIBLY CLEVER to heap contempt on the desperate working poor of this country; etc., etc., etc.
And as for anger: Internet morons and mediocrities the world over have learned from Dr. Phil have learned that anger is BAD, even as they even their own rage in endless imebilic flame posts of crude reactionary social stereotypes and frat-house epithets. But did you realize that Malcolm X was angry? Joan of Arc? Robespierre? Spartacus? Nat Turner? Sojourner Truth? James Baldwin? Martin Luther King? Martin Luther? Tom Paine? Susan B. Anthony? Betty Friedan? Dorothy Day? The Berrigan Brothers?
Anger is the engine of human enlightenment and progress. You are a dull-witted, groupthink sloth and complacent, grunting Animal House pig. See the difference?
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2019/02/20/691298594/the-power-of-martin-luther-king-jr-s-anger
duque--why don't you put a lid on this ridiculous obsession until the end of the season until you see what Keuchel's 2109 numbers are? Do you want to end up as badly humiliated as you have been by the dismal performance of your last two cherished Trophy Boys, Machado and Harper?
Yankee fans should be grateful that the management is showing some discipline about lusting after every washed-up, over-hyped free agent that flashes by on the mediascape. Duque's posts on this topic could have been written by George's Ghost--a haunting of the profligate, insane days gone by when the franchise was reduced to ruin by precisely the destructive habits that duque is so eager to reintroduce now. I ask again--where's the learning curve?
Agreed ^^^
Hope you go to Winnie's ER when you have that stroke that is surely coming.
Will Stat Boy!®™ be able to make it on the 12th?
Hopefully that's in his delivery zone.
I will personally pay for his ticket if he has the stones to show up in person.
Puckered®™, will you be able to get the day off?
13 Bit...if there is a consensus I will try and see if my friend can help. One of her best friend's is married to the Yankee VP of ticket sales. Perhaps I can get a block of tickets from her. Hey, I'll even mention the blog and ask for a meeting with Cashman. I'd bet he reads this site at times. No guarantees (they aren't the happiest couple. Has to do with him screwing a much younger woman) but I will ask and at least see if I can get a block of tickets.
Anonymous....I'll take those previous George S. years. They were hardly ruinous. Mostly winning seasons, quite a few championships and he built the team up to be a financial powerhouse as well. Which comes in handy.
No one suggested giving Keuchel a long-term deal. A four month deal to an ostensibly fading but still decent pitcher who can provide quality starts and eat innings is hardly an insane or profligate move. There are no sure things in baseball or life but the odds are he is better than what they currently have.
Nooooooo! Nooooooo, Rufus T! I was gonna trademark Buck's Puckered Hemorrhoids!! You ruined it!! You ruined everything!!
Much like Sabathia's start!!
FUCKERS!!
If "Anger is the engine of human enlightenment and progress," then I'm the fucking Renaissance and fucking Enlightenment all rolled into one.
Gods, I hate quoting Puckered.
Puckered you fucker.
CC should have some decency and retire
Did someone say that all we have is 4-inning starters......don't we wish!!!
Trademarks are yours Winnie. You posted both earlier.
Just don't forget your friends when the royalty checks come in.
Joe FOB,
4 innings but 8 runs.
I'm going to wait a bit more and maybe post in another thread tomorrow, just to catch as many people as possible, but it's looking like the 12th. I'm going to post an email address tomorrow so that people can email me and I'll make a list, etc. and get some more info on tickets. I had originally thought about the Pinstriped Pass, where you don't get a seat, but you walk around and eat the whole time, but it's probably better if we get seats, I suppose.
Thanks, Carl Weitz—and it sounds like we're getting involved in quite a soap opera!
Anonymous said...
BillyMartinsHangover -- So you're another of the blog idiots who thinks that glorifying drunkenness and loutishness, ...
Dear Anonymous:
Where exactly on this thread did "BillyMartinsHangover" make a comment? Exactly which windmill is it at which you are jousting?
Hey illiterate ("Callassall") Warplist--righteous anger is an engine of enlightenment and progress. Not psychopathic narcisstic rage. Once again, you're sadly confused. And you of course fail to address the copious empirical evidence I adduce. You're AN ILLITERATE MORON. A CALLASSALL MORON. Go bury affix your mouth to your beloved Cadillac's tailpipe, turn on the ignition, and deduct one more mean-spirited, warped piece of shit from the planet.
Hey Warplist--some nourishment for your callassally stunted brain:
“Usually when people are sad, they don’t do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.” —Malcolm X
But a dumbass suburban Babbitt like you wouldn't understand. You chortle at misanthropic stereotypes about the wretched of the earth--Malcolm was their tribune.
You are vermin.
Carl J. Weitz: Did the Yankees win a pennant between 1982 and 1993? Were they a shitty team by the early nineties, a dysfunctional joke, before Steinbrenner was banned and Stick and Buck had an opportunity to build the team the right way? Don't deify that immensely stupid monster and his trashing of this franchise. The pennants they won under his ownership were due to great baseball minds: Gabe Paul in the late seventies, Stick and Buck in the early nineties. They worked their magic in spite of Steinbrenner, not because of him. When he took the reins and started plucking every glossy free agent every year, the team became a joke.
"Winnie" is a cross-dressing man posing as a woman out here--for all you deluded suckers. I doubt that he's a doctor either.
By the way, Warplist--just by way of reassurance: I didn't literally mean that you should wrap your mouth around your Cadillac's exhaust pipe. It was merely an image meant to emphasize what I perceive to be your lack of worth as a human being and your callous ecocidal contribution to the impending extinction of the human race from carbon emissions from you and other heedless suburban jerks.
If your sense of your inherent worthlessness as a human being ever overwhelms you, you should not give in to despair. You should seek professional counseling and try to redirect your life toward the paths of compassion and care for the planet earth insted of obsessing about shiny planet destroyers on four wheels and wasting your hours in petty vindictive jags of abuse against phantoms on the Internet. Remember what Stuart Smalley said: Only you can help you. Don't given in to despair. Get help. Embrace life, not ecocidal spewers of deadly carbon emissions.
I’m Stat Boy!®™
I just got off of my shift at The Pizza Pit. Mommy had a sandwich waiting for me in my basement apartment and I ate it. Then I picked my zits and changed out of my cool orange and red uniform. After I attempted to sooth my onanism, I decided the world should know of the depth of my baseball knowledge. I’m Stat Boy, and the world should pay for me being such a loser!
I’m Stat Boy!®™
I just got off of my shift at The Pizza Pit. Mommy had a sandwich waiting for me in my basement apartment and I ate it. Then I picked my zits and changed out of my cool orange and red uniform. After I attempted to sooth my onanism, I decided the world should know of the depth of my baseball knowledge. I’m Stat Boy, and the world should pay for me being such a loser!
I’m Stat Boy!®™
I just got off of my shift at The Pizza Pit. Mommy had a sandwich waiting for me in my basement apartment and I ate it. Then I picked my zits and changed out of my cool orange and red uniform. After I attempted to sooth my onanism, I decided the world should know of the depth of my baseball knowledge. I’m Stat Boy, and the world should pay for me being such a loser!
I’m Stat Boy!®™
I just got off of my shift at The Pizza Pit. Mommy had a sandwich waiting for me in my basement apartment and I ate it. Then I picked my zits and changed out of my cool orange and red uniform. After I attempted to sooth my onanism, I decided the world should know of the depth of my baseball knowledge. I’m Stat Boy, and the world should pay for me being such a loser!
I’m Stat Boy!®™
I just got off of my shift at The Pizza Pit. Mommy had a sandwich waiting for me in my basement apartment and I ate it. Then I picked my zits and changed out of my cool orange and red uniform. After I attempted to sooth my onanism, I decided the world should know of the depth of my baseball knowledge. I’m Stat Boy, and the world should pay for me being such a loser!
I’m Stat Boy!®™
I just got off of my shift at The Pizza Pit. Mommy had a sandwich waiting for me in my basement apartment and I ate it. Then I picked my zits and changed out of my cool orange and red uniform. After I attempted to sooth my onanism, I decided the world should know of the depth of my baseball knowledge. I’m Stat Boy, and the world should pay for me being such a loser!
I’m Stat Boy!®™
I just got off of my shift at The Pizza Pit. Mommy had a sandwich waiting for me in my basement apartment and I ate it. Then I picked my zits and changed out of my cool orange and red uniform. After I attempted to sooth my onanism, I decided the world should know of the depth of my baseball knowledge. I’m Stat Boy, and the world should pay for me being such a loser!
I’m Stat Boy!®™
I just got off of my shift at The Pizza Pit. Mommy had a sandwich waiting for me in my basement apartment and I ate it. Then I picked my zits and changed out of my cool orange and red uniform. After I attempted to sooth my onanism, I decided the world should know of the depth of my baseball knowledge. I’m Stat Boy, and the world should pay for me being such a loser!
I’m Stat Boy!®™
I just got off of my shift at The Pizza Pit. Mommy had a sandwich waiting for me in my basement apartment and I ate it. Then I picked my zits and changed out of my cool orange and red uniform. After I attempted to sooth my onanism, I decided the world should know of the depth of my baseball knowledge. I’m Stat Boy, and the world should pay for me being such a loser!
I’m Stat Boy!®™
I just got off of my shift at The Pizza Pit. Mommy had a sandwich waiting for me in my basement apartment and I ate it. Then I picked my zits and changed out of my cool orange and red uniform. After I attempted to sooth my onanism, I decided the world should know of the depth of my baseball knowledge. I’m Stat Boy, and the world should pay for me being such a loser!
I’m Stat Boy!®™
I’m Stat Boy!®™, you going to be able to make it on August 12th?
If you have to work, maybe you can deliver a pizza for us.
But remember -- NO anchovies!
Hi 13bit and All,
SoooOOoo looking forward to 12th, count me in friends!
Anonymous....I'm not deifying George Steinbrenner. I think he was a flaming red asshole. I'm just saying that to your point, that under his egis, since the time that he owned the team, that they were ruinous times is not even close to being accurate.
And in the early-70's to early'80's when he lavished large free agent contracts, some that were neither warranted nor worked out well, the Yankees still did damn well.
And yes, George was a dysfunctional, pathologically meddling lunatic. But for the most part at least he had the ability to choose great baseball minds including the ones you mentioned. That is part of being a successful baseball owner. The bottom line is that despite his personality and faults, under his ownership, the Yankees were a very successful franchise both in pennants, championships and financial might.
Carl--The Yankees were successful in the late seventies and mid-nineties ONLY when he let Paul, in the first case, do his thing, and was FORCED--by being banned--to let Stick and Buck do their thing. When his erratic, raging ego held full sway up to the early nineties, the franchise was a dysfunctional wreck, swirling to the bottom of the division. And Steinbrenner did not pick Showalter--Nederlander did, while Steinbrenner was banned from operating the team. He wasn't even Michael's first choice.
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