I forgot to note that yesterday's madcap extravaganza was the Yankees' 100th contest of the season. They had 65 wins to show for it when all the cutting was done, and 66 now, which ain't birdseed.
It's also par for the course for a Coops Cashman Yankees team—and if history is any guide, things will soon start to slow.
My quick calculation—all right, so I DON'T have much of an inner life!—determines that in the 21 years Coops has been our official GM, the Yanks have improved their W/L percentage down the back 62 just five times.
The last time? 2017. The time before that? 2009. Hmm...
Now this is not all about heaping more opprobrium on ol' Cashie, who we here at IIHIIFIIC tend to kick like a scabrous dog. After all, I suspect that teams such as, say, the 1998 Yankees didn't really feel the need to go pedal-to-the-metal down the stretch, and why should they have?
But I think it DOES indicate a whole lotta bad pitching pick-ups.
So what will the next one be?
Well, judging by how he and the Giants are doing, it looks like MadBum is all but out of the picture (thanks, Mets). I can't believe that Cleveland is going to let Trevor Bauer go in the middle of a Wild Card ramble, and there's no way HAL is going to pay for Scherzer.
Which leaves, apparently, the usual suspects:
Mike Minor
Marcus Stroman
Matthew Boyd
Robbie Ray
O, be still my heart! I wouldn't trade The Red Menace or Thairo the Pharaoh for any one of them anymore than Bismarck would have traded the healthy bones of a single Pomeranian grenadier for all of the Balkans. (He was right, too! It was Kaiser Bill who became sort of the Coops of the old German Empire.)
But I digress.
So I'm thinking, no no no no no no no never no uh-uh absolutely not no fuhgeddaboutit when it comes to Ray, currently leading the NL in walks. Minor has the best stats this year, but he has classic, small-market hinterlands guy meltdown smell all over him. Plus he has a no-trade with us.
I guess Stroman would be bearable. But of course, we will get Boyd. Uh-boy.
No, the deadline options for new pitchers don't look great, not at the expense of our best prospects. But did you notice that Patrick Corbin threw a gem last night? The time to shore up the pitching staff was last winter, but all we came up with was the Maple Sapling.
ReplyDeleteThe Yankees-Twins series this week reminded me of a Red Sox-Indians playoff series in the late '90s. The Yankees had already dispatched the Rangers or some other punching bag, and Cleveland and Boston were engaged in a classic slugfest. Every inning was another series of wallbangers. Finally, Boston brought Pedro in for five innings of relief work to close out the series, pretty much ensuring that he wouldn't be ready until game 3 of the next series against the Yankees.
This year's version of the Yankees are like that Boston team, except they don't have a single pitcher who can shut down the other side for more than four innings at a time. Gotta love the offensive pyrotechnics, though.
It was the 99 ALDS. I remember that series. Troy O’Leary hit a Grand Slam if I remember correctly in the game 5 clincher
DeleteI would be okay with Boyd; he's young and still on the upswing of his career, and he really can't be worse than CC or JA at this point. I am not okay with overpaying. Which we will have to do. Corbin was the only "must have" free agent last winter despite my longstanding moaning about Manny and Bryce. So now the Yanks will blow our future stars in trade when we could have obtained Corbin last winter for only money. Only one Yankee "fan" on the planet would rather give up talent than money: Hal.
ReplyDeleteFuck you Hal. Fuck you senseless in the shower.
If the Tigers want to trade Boyd, they must know something about Boyd. His performance for at least the last two months has not been good. Boyd is another Weaver, and I don't mean of the "Dream" sort. Speaking of Dreams, could we trade Florial instead of Frazier? Just asking. Don't hurt me.
ReplyDeleteWHICH ONE OF THOSE 4 PITCHERS WOULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE AGAINST HOUSTON (OR BOSTON), IN THE PLAYOFFS?
ReplyDeleteANSWER.....
NONE OF THEM.
DO NOTHING.
SAVE OUR PROSPECTS.
BRING UP DEIVI GARCIA, LET HIM START, BE HAPPY WITH 4 INNINGS.
HOPE FOR THE BEST.
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