Over his last 10 games with the Traveling Wilkes Barres, "Red Thunder" is hitting .293 with 3 home runs. This year, in nearly 40 Triple A games, he committed two errors. With the Death Star, he made three - seemingly all one night, in RF, on national television. Soon after, Dean Wormer placed him on Double-Secret Probation.
Over the last month, Frazier's future in NYC looked - well, "hazy" isn't the word - let's say "non-existent." On nearly a daily basis, the Gammonites reported him being dangled in trades like a chunk of tenderloin over a crocodile pit. By mid-July, they were commonly suggesting the franchise didn't like his smiling face and wanted him gone. Then, to the shock of all, he wasn't dealt for some retreaded Jamie Garcia-type. He's still here. Apparently, someone on the team's secret wonk panel valued Frazier enough to keep him.
The new narrative - Gammonites always have one - goes that the Yankees will simply trade him next winter, when the market improves. This notion suggests that Brett Gardner will return - .220 or not - that Mike Tauchman and Cameron Maybin are for real, and Giancarlo Stanton is not the Second Coming of Jacoby Ellsbury. The Yankees will be stocked in the outfield, and Frazier - who'll be 25 next month - will never really get his chance in pinstripes.
Well, I think the juju gods are playing with Frazier and having a good old time. Wednesday's trade deadline coincided with Luke Voit's "sports hernia" - whatever that is - which will likely sideline him until mid-September. Until then, our 1B depth chart is Edwin Encarnacion and DJ LeMahieu. That leaves an opening at DH, with Stanton still in the Jacuzzi.
I think I speak for the Yankiverse in saying the following: It's time to see what we have in Clint Frazier.
Is he a generational batting talent, or just another free swinger who had a good month in May? We've seen him as a brash, arrogant and confident hitter. Can he back it up?
What better time than a four-game set with Boston, who might send out three lefties: Price, Rodriguez and Sale.
The Yankees this week made a courageous decision: They would not - in the face of Gammonitic outrage - sacrifice long-term prospects for a quick jolt of mediocre pitching.
Now it's time for a second courageous move: Let's see what Clint Frazier is made of.
I think it's time we called the 2019 Yankees what they are...the IL Team of Destiny. Outcasts, stars who can't stay healthy, ragamuffin starters, overstressed bullpen--we have all the makings of a legend, and Frazier fits right in as the concussed malcontent. Watch, they'll bring him up, he'll hit like crazy, and it's almost guaranteed he'll make at least one great catch that saves a playoff game.
ReplyDeleteThis is how destiny does things. Everything that was a certainty goes out the window, and the improbable and the unlikely happen with regularity.
Sorry for the optimism.
Boston GM Dave Dickhead says the Sux are realistically playing for a wild card spot, which is why he didn't try to do anything at the trade deadline. The Yankees, sports' richest team with the second best record in baseball but struggling, didn't do anything because the price was too high.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, Houston and Atlanta made major moves in pursuit of the Holy Grail. How is it that Atlanta can afford to bring on three proven relievers -- two of them ex-Yanks -- but the Yankees can't?
Hey, I get it about prospects and not mortgaging the future -- especially given Cashman's track record, but the Yankees do have some chips to play. They've got a shit-ton of major-league ready infielders and who knows what else lower down in the system. And if they've soured on Clint Frazier, what good is he doing down in Scranton? The Yankees' pitching is in tatters. Epic fail over the past two weeks. And they could do nothing about that?
ReplyDeleteKeuchel's cost was just money and not a lot of it. Hal should not be forgiven.
Was reading today about the disparity between the Red Sox ability to hit our pitching at home and at Yankee Stadium. It is pretty stark. So stark one might wonder if they... cheat?
ReplyDeleteHopefully this bodes well for the weekend.
Also, 40 years since Munson died. Still my favorite Yankee of all time. Makes me sad to this day.
Non related. Yankees are on the verge of losing their best minor league pitching coach. The guy who developed Sevi, Doningo etc. My hope is that the story of his pending deal can be used as as leverage to get rid of Rothschild. But that's a pipe dream.
And last... Kernshaw passed Koufax (My favorite non Yankee baseball all time) in strikeouts yesterday and in substantially fewer innings. The Dodgers always seem to have great pitching. Who is responsible for that? Maybe we should try to get that person.
Doug K.
https://twitter.com/nypostsports/status/1156834471552999425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1156834471552999425&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sportressofblogitude.com%2F2019%2F08%2F01%2Fbrian-cashman-depicted-zombie-ny-tabloid-deadline%2F
ReplyDeleteLBJ... Hal the tightwad should never be forgiven and his yacht should hit an iceberg and sink.
ReplyDeleteDeckhand Frazier should step on his overly manicured fingers while they're grasping the rail before he can get on to a life boat.
The fact that Frazier was once the #2 prospect in baseball according to Keith Law 3 seasons ago and that they insisted he be a main part of the Andrew Miller package shows how far he has fallen in the eyes of the Yankees Bloated Front Office. To see him now on the depth chart behind Tauchman is mind-blowing.
ReplyDeleteHere is NJ Advanced Media/Randy Miller's take on where Frazier stands:
https://www.nj.com/yankees/2019/08/whats-next-for-yankees-clint-frazier-who-was-offered-to-diamondbacks-in-fizzled-trade-deadline-proposal.html
40 years since Munson died? Wow. I feel very old and sad right now.
ReplyDeleteI was on the way to Saratoga and heard the news on WTRY, the great 98. They actually broke into a song to announce it.
Spent many, many hours listening to TRY, PTR and WSNY in Schenectady.
ReplyDeleteWhere's Boom Boom Branigan when you need him?
PTR is a religious station now I think.
ReplyDeletePTR had better music, but TRY did more sports and weather and gave away more free stuff that I never seemed to win with a rotary phone and 10 digit calling.
Boom Boom was the Ernie Tetrault of radio. He was the station.
I hung out with Ernie one day, the ad agency I worked for was hired to help out with RGB's shocking switch from NBC to CBS. Not a bad life for Ernie. Wasn't exactly a hard-hitting journalist, but a very nice guy.
ReplyDeleteHoward Tupper'd hosting of TV Tournament Time, hosted from the bowling alley in my neighborhood, was also a legend.
ReplyDeleteI'm so old I remember when Liz Bishop was a thin, fresh-faced newcomer.
ReplyDeleteWatch out, duque. Dufus T. Caliban will accuse you of having a homosexual crush on Frazier if you're not careful.
ReplyDeleteErnie was cool in a 50's dad kinda way. Never changed his hairstyle in the swingin' 70's. Did the news straight, but would seriously butcher pronouncing names he was unfamiliar with.
ReplyDeleteI remember when Liz Bishop was scandalous as a female sports reporter.
TV Tournament Time, Freddie Friehofer, and Dialing for Dollars! And wrestling on Saturday mornings before roller derby.
Stat Douche, you showing on the 12th? Or will you be hiding behind mommy's skirt?
ReplyDeleteI read the news today, oh boy,
DeleteRare firefly with double-green flash could be headed for endangered list
Careful now, Rufus
It must be an omen that just today I paraphrased Groucho on this blog
Urban,
ReplyDeleteSeeing how I'm a character that has been dead for 40 years, I'd say my odds are pretty good.
They just showed Murcer's HR and walk-off hit against the Orioles after Munson's funeral. Some guy named Keith Jackson was announcing, even though he doesn't do baseball. How about that?
ReplyDeleteI remember that game, too, guys. Got stinking drunk through it and stinking sick afterwards, which seemed appropriate.
ReplyDeleteRead Reggie's accounts sometime of what terrible shape Munson's plane was in. He might easily have done a Buddy Holly, and taken down Jackson and another star or two as well.
Great catcher, though. And someone who had to deal with a complete sociopath of a father...
Doug K., look at almost any LA Dodger pitcher and their lifetime ERA is way, way lower at home. The difference for Kershaw is more than 3/4 of a run. Far from me to EVER say anything against the great Sandy K...but on the road, believe it or not, he had a lifetime ERA of 3.04.
ReplyDeleteThe story always was that they dimmed the lights at Dodger Stadium. Don't know if that's so, but there's a lot of circumstantial evidence...
Parson Tom, I agree that it's ridiculous the Yanks are in this mess.
ReplyDeleteBut I just don't see where that ton of major-league ready, minor-league talent is. Two years ago, sure, but it has not been replenished.
Nearly all the Yanks' minor-league arms came apart at the seams, and the day-to-day guys flamed out.
All they have is:
—The Red Menace (underrated now, to be sure)
—Thairo the Pharaoh (I love him, but hitting .250 something in Triple A)
—Deivi (small and unproven, just got to Triple A)
—Ford and McBroom (the interchangeable first basemen—buy a matching set!)
—Tyler Too (been there, done that)
—Estevan Florial (hey, I'm willing to believe. But many injuries later, he is now hitting .227 with 4 homers, in A+ ball, and in his 5th year of pro ball)
Any or all of these guys MIGHT pan out. But why should another GM take that gamble, when there are so many more sure things out there?
Hey, Dufus--no one said that Keith Jackson never did baseball. But he did it only for a few years for ABC (1977-1982), after which he was phased out in favor of Al Michaels, who had a much longer tenure as the ABC network baseball telecaster. Jackson was never a team baseball announcer, and his career--and chief renown--was 90-percent as a college football telecaster. Moreover, he was NEVER as baseball RADIOCASTER, which was the point of the original thread on Sterling vs. other BASEBALL RADIOCASTERS. You are so fucking stupid that you brought his name up in a thread comparing BASEBALL RADIOCASTERS, a job he NEVER HELD. That's how fucking stupid you are.I made all that clear in my original post on this topic, but, as usual, you are TOO FUCKING STUPID to grasp basic distinctions that even a brain-damaged chimp would understand. That's why you're the blog Caliban.
ReplyDeleteWhat I was referring to, Horace, was:
ReplyDeleteThairo, Gio, Torres, Didi, DJ, Voit, Bird, Ford, Andujar
That's eight guys for four positions and three are 1Bs. No, not all of them are great yet, but most of them have more production history in the major leagues than whatever Atlanta gave up for Shane Green. And beyond that short list, there's 150 more guys in the minor leagues. Part of Cashman's job is to inflate the value of prospects and young players. Here again, he has failed. The only reason for holding on to so many of these middle infielders, as far as I can see, is that mismanagement is planning to let Didi walk this winter so that Torres-Thairo can play SS and costs are controlled.
Hal and Cashman are telling us the Yankees, who are in dire need of pitching, were priced out of the trade market. And yet, even the Madoff Mets managed to strengthen their rotation. LBJ is right: No forgiveness for Scrooge McSteinbrenner.
Parson Tom et al. are very confused. "Don't give up the farm system for a mediocre arm again!" they cry on Monday and Wednesday. On Tuesday and Thursday it's "How the hell didn't they manage to acquire another mediocre arm for whatever extortionate price in prospects other teams were demanding?"
ReplyDeleteMake up your minds, Yankee fanatics.
I told you all many times:
ReplyDeleteHal does not like baseball and never wanted this job. The brother who loves baseball is apparently an incompetent of some kind...booze, drugs, gambling, ugly women...who knows?
But we are not going to spend any more than that limit Hal set...Winning or losing.
Ownership has tuned out.
Fonzie,
ReplyDeleteFor the incompetent brother, I'd be ok with the booze, drugs and gambling. But *ugly* women? For a billionaire? Must be the booze and drugs effect.
Stat Douche, the trained monkey is triggered so easily.
ReplyDeleteIsn't your mommy's basement a safe enough space for you? Do you need a bouncy house with pastel decor, crayons and coloring books?
Maybe if you're triggered too much here you can try sons of sam horn or metsmerized. More your speed apparently.
See you and mommy on the 12th.
Hey Dufus T. Caliban--tell us again that favorite story of yours, about how Keith Jackson was among the great baseball radiocasters of all time, a job he never held! I bet you got a million of 'em, Dufus!
ReplyDeleteYou're certainly right about the cheapness, Parson Tom. And in how there seems to be another standard for what teams want from the Yankees.
ReplyDelete(As has been previously mentioned here, too, Coops likely does not do himself any favors by bragging to sportswriters about how he dupes other GMs.)
I'm just pointing out that, of late, the farm system has also been moving rapidly backward. Is that because of the departure of Denbo?
It will be interesting to see what they do with Didi. If he walks, it will outrageous mismanagement; if they were not going to pay his price they should've at least traded him.
But then, we're talking the Hall-of-Fame Gm who let 700 wins walk off the team before 2004, without getting even a moist towelette in return.
Hey Dufus T. Caliban -- as long as you're bringing up the subject of Mommies--I picked yours up last night at a Blarney Rock and fucked her in the ass in the back of the kitchen. She admitted that that is her favorite pastime and only regrets that she did not do it that way the night you were conceived.
ReplyDeleteTehehee!!
ReplyDeleteStat Douche,
ReplyDeleteShowing up on the 12th?
Just askin'
Hey Stat Douche,
ReplyDeleteWhere were you when you heard Munson died?
In your father's shorts in 4th grade?
I'd bet his nuts were larger than yours.
Sorry, too soon.
Dufus--Sorry--your last comment didn't come through on my computer. Were you nominating Keith Jackson for the Baseball Radiocasters Hall of Fame even though he never did baseball radiocasts? How generous--and typically stupid--of you!
ReplyDeleteMy Munson Story, Though nobody asked: I was 13, hanging at my grandparents' house in WAY Upstate NY. Mom and Dad worked the system familywise to the extent that my sis and I spent most of August 2, 1979, with Mom's parents. It was a beautiful day. I wouldn't have noted that at the time because I'd have been busy counting down days until school started again and QED life rebegan its suckitude. But from this distance, I remember it as beautiful. I swam in the above-ground pool of a neighbor a little before the time when you stopped doing stuff like that when you're a kid happened. And I went a couple driveways down the cul-de-sac and headed inside for the inevitable long night.
ReplyDeleteAt about 9 I grabbed one of Gran's carefully-planned-and-gathered gas-station glasses (brown and nubby, if that makes sense) and stood in the front window and raised the tap and filled the glass with some of the worst water ever considered remotely potable or drinkable or anythingable.
Everything was cool; it was a nice day and the sun was setting over Ellison Park and it's nearby environs. Teale said the sun rises through such occasions, and as I remember it, it did. Life, to the extent a really weird baseball-obsessed kid can assume it's possible, was perfect.
The tap was turned on, and the water was heading into that glass of water, when my grandmother and my sister walked through the doorway toward my left (open floor plans stay with you) and told me the news. My gran and sis before or since have seemed pleased to impart news of such import. This time, they looked sad.
I can't remember if I ever drank the water.
I do remember feeling like shit.
The next day I somehow managed to convince my grandpa to let me go with him when he went (instead of my gran which seems impossible now except that it had to happen) to feed their friends' cat Suzy. Suzy's house featured cable (my grandparents' did not) and...I don't know remember how or if anything I said made any difference but I do know I was a few streets away with 11 Alive (?) on and TL Munson on the scoreboard and the spot behind the plate empty for a few minutes.
Suzy got fed and watered. I got to see the opening of the Yankee game. Not much more you can ask.
Two days later, ABC (I think) and Keith Jackson (I think) broadcast the Murcer game. I was young and silly and had no clue about how amazing Bobby's 5 rbis were at the time. I had a slight sense of context; I knew it mattered. I was home by then, away from Gran and Grandpa, and not thinking about anything except what a kid thinks of. Nothing more; nothing deeper.
But that's my story about the captain. If any of you guys or gals have anything to say, I'd love to read yours.
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