Nine up on the Tampa/Montreal
Here we go: Facing the Twins for AL's best record - maybe home field advantage in October - and then our nemesis, the reigning champs, with their spanking new closer, Nathan Eovaldi, in their personal Fenway snake pit, where the Sweet Caroline-singing security thugs want to fight us.
No matter what happens, the next week cannot knock us out of first. We are, as The Master would say in his best sales voice, "safe and secure..."
But don't get comfy. These games could define Brian "Cooperstown" Cashman's season, and if everything goes south on the Death Star, it could even crash land his career. The Yankees have one World Championship in this millennium, and Boston has four. If Cashman blows another trade for pitching - Paxton now looking like his latest clunker - the Grays and Paxtons may just become his epitaph.
If the pitching breaks down over the next seven games, Cashman could pay an enormous bounty to Toronto, freeing Marcus Stroman from his Canadian tormentors. But in any deal, the Blue Jays hold all the cards. If talks collapse, they simply keep Stroman for another season - at arbitration - and he'll become a free agent in 2020. He talks about joining the Yankees, but who cares? So did Patrick Corbin last winter. It's questionable whether Food Stamps Hal Steinbrenner will ever again dip into his family treasure chest.
As Paxton was getting mauled this weekend, Dallas Keuchel pitched 5.2 innings and gave up 4 against Milwaukee. Not Koufax. But not Coulter Bean, either. With an owner willing to spend - like those in LA and Boston - ahhh, no... let's not go there. It hurts too much. But for a little extra money, our pitching problems would look a lot less severe. Hal didn't want to spend.
In case you missed it, Brett Gardner has a bum knee. An MRI yesterday supposedly showed something minor. He's 35. The Yankees are pooh-poohing it. He'll rest a game and avoid the Ellsbury List. Would this not be a perfect time to see if Clint Frazier has improved his defense? (He homered yesterday for Scranton.) Frazier is the most likely Yankee to go in any Cashman trade. Will we ever see him again in pinstripes? If not now, when?
Listen: it's only seven games. All we need is four wins. Five would be better. A seven-game winning streak would be wonderful, but we'd run the risk of peaking too soon. Just tread water, win four, and stay in first.
If the Yankees can finish first, Boston must beat Houston to play us in the ALCS. As far as I can see, that's our prime scenario. We'll still have to go through Minnesota, but the home field advantage would be huge.
The worst-case? We lose the next seven, revive the divisional race, give the Redsocks a reason to rally, and unleash Cashman to do something horrible. Seven games, folks. Here we go.
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I just checked the Injury Report page on the NYY MLB page --
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/fantasy/injuries/#team147
3 interesting notes:
1. Ellsberger info has not been updated since APRIL.
2. Tulo is now on the 60-day IL, as of early June.
3. Giancarlo has "not resumed baseball activities" as of the 7/21 update.
Interesting: Ells is making more than $21 million in 2019. Giancarlo's take is $26 million. And while the NYYs are paying Tulo a pittance, he's being paid $20 million (on an old contract) in 2019.
Folks, that's $67+ million of baseball players, sitting around.
Paxton lives by his own special creed: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines."
Any consistency is, in his mind, foolish. So, here we are. Although, to be fair, you can say that about the rotation in general.
Maybe our 2019 rotation should have a special nickname. Like, you know, The Roulette Rotation. Or maybe the Crap Shoot Crew. Yeah, kind of like that second one.
Duque, glad to see you've finally sobered up. One day at a time, my friend, one day at a time. With, of course, the day of August 12 a break from all that.
Joe FOB, great points!!
This is what kills me about the modern Yanks, as I tried to make clear in my little "Thought Experiment" this summer. They constantly cut corners, and say they can't afford to do things—then the things they do instead end up costing them way more.
There are obvious red flags on Corbin and Keuchel. But Keuchel would have cost next-to-nothing, and eaten up key innings.
If we had won one ring with Corbin, it would have been worth it—both fiscally and psychically—if he had then gone on the DL for the rest of his life.
Instead, we have the Maple Sapling, whose knee (or was it his arm? I can't keep these things straight) is obviously barking again, accounting for his complete unreliability. It's just as likely that he'll pull another Ellsbury for the rest of his contract.
And then, the very cheap, very young Frazier will be dealt for another dubious arm.
It's not that Coops doesn't take gambles. It's that he constantly takes the WRONG gambles.
"And that gives you 19, sir..." "HIT ME! I FEEL A TWO IN MY BONES!"
"So that is 11, sir..." "STICK, STICK! I THINK YOU'RE GONNA BUST!"
He's like a drunk who has been at the blackjack tables way too long, sucking up the well whiskey the casinos peddle.
echoing @HC66...hard to go through any time period in a stupor, but on the other hand it is IIHIIFIIC...so I've forgotten my point now as I type this...maybe you know what I mean...lol
ranger, this is official stupor weather. I understand that the city is opening up Anti-Stupor centers in all five boroughs. Those who are too stupefied at home will be able to view movies that do not contain superheroes and eat actual American dishes that do not contain cheese.
In preparation for these pivotal games they sent Tarpley down and brought Holder up. Why? Seriously WHY?
Doug K
Or more legibly, https://tinyurl.com/y3xdcvvv
Doug K., I blame it on...stupor.
I like the cut of McNeil's jib.
McNeil is a lot of fun. Unfortunately, he can't pitch.
Ya never know.
Depressing news 1: Tarpley sent down so Holder can come up.
Depressing news 2: Sanchez batting cleanup, because he hasn't hit in weeks and has shown no power for at least as long.
Genius.
Sanchez is back in midseason 2018 form.
5 run CC is back.
Of course, Boone sends him back out, because. So Girardi of him. A home run promptly follows.
And another.
This is fucking moronic.
And the extra point is good!
Way to 'expand the zone' ICS.
Vanover doing his best Enrico Palazzo impression.
A little depressing that Cessa's ERA is lower than CC's.
Tonight is what we used to call ding-dong action.
7 outs on 3 ground balls. Oy.
And yes, sadly, Sancho is looking exactly like the Sancho of 2018, at the plate and behind it.
On normal teams, Sanchez's 2-28 with 0 homers and 1 RBI since the All-Star Snooze would, y'know, make somebody pay attention.
On the Yankees, they're probably just trying to think up the batting equivalent of "tipping his pitches."
Holder is warming up.
Good. Night.
Man it takes a ton of offense to make up for playing so shittily.
donkey balls
When the Red Sox won last year, they said everything just broke their way. Does it feel like everything is breaking our way?
It did until tonight!
They’re playing all of Johns calls again in the post game. Playing them without interruption. It’s just brutal, like stab after stab.
I know there are not a lot of options (understatement of the day) but can anything be done to put See-Saw Sabathia out to pasture a bit earlier than scheduled? Wasn't he quoted about all the non-baseball, non-physically-harmful things he wants to do (i.e. travel, but hopefully not to Austria)? Could he be coerced, say, with round-the-world airline tickets for himself and his entire family, starting NOW?
I shall be pessimistic and say IF (as opposed to WHEN) we are playing October Ball, can anything be done to keep him off the mound? Who else is in Scranton these days?
And while I am ranting, what the fuck is happening to Sanchez? I was so happy with his first-half season performance I had nearly forgotten that he was deemed "ICS" last season, but I feel a freeze coming on.
Well, Tampa and Toronto lost, but that means Boston is one up... I am fearing this coming weekend.
I do have to say something positive: I never heard of the guy before this season but DJ (Don Juan?) LeMahieu is officially my favorite Yankee (after the immortal Gardy), and Tauchman is unrelentingly amazing!
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