I will wear the commemorative tee shirt with pride, and make it to next season's affair.
The shots from that bar were glorious. It seemed like home.
But now I must say something about the Yankees;
It is time to put a stop to the CC Sabathia Farewell Tour.
Today, for the second time in two starts, he has ended the game early.
I have little confidence that we can come back where a contending team puts up 4-6 runs in the first or second inning. We could do so against Baltimore ( who could never score that many ), but we don't do it so well against quality pitching, and top level defenders.
A two out double by Gardy ( in the second inning ) provided some hope for a run. It had been preceded by five straight strikeouts by Yankees hitters. We needed a score to get back into the contest. Fjord walked and Tauchman hit a rocket. But it was just out number three, due to a fine defensive play by Cleveland's right fielder.
The game is over for me. I do not wish to watch 10 Yankee strikeouts in the first 4 innings. CC needed to make a pitch and didn't. He loaded the bases and then they cleared them. His knee is done and he is done. Craftiness and guile aren't working any longer.
CC will soon depart and we shall be so far out of it that Boone will save the "A level" relief corps for another day, and use Luis Cessa to take one for the team. If Chance Adams is still here ( due to clerical error or a bus strike to Scranton ), he may get to work on elevating his big league ERA to the 10.00+ level.
It is annoying when I can't watch the game, because its fate is early sealed. And there is nothing to view except continuing frustration.
It is still dawn here in California an I already need a new plan for the day.
The surf is up but so are the great whites.
Can't we just have CC retire now? Bring up the new kid.
It is painful to watch. Worse, it is predictable now.
Time to end the respectful torture. This is baseball and every game counts.
I love me some CC Fat-bathia but he needs to be a designated relic ;(
ReplyDeleteAnother fabulous 3 innings from CC. Every team could use a guy like him in their rotation.
ReplyDeleteBut seriously the worst part is that I know they're handing him the ball in any elimination game they play, in which he'll do exactly this.
I love CC, but he should have NEVER been given the big victory lap.
ReplyDeleteCashman is an asshole.
YES!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI love CC, but I absolutely dread each of his appearances, for all the above reasons, I also turned off the game after those 4 runs,,,,,, sad and pathetic.
Don't worry, he'll be on the IL for another 3 weeks.
ReplyDeleteWe can only hope they put him back on IL.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, we are out of every game he pitches. It has to be demoralizing to the team.
ReplyDeleteGod, there's little else to say except to confirm that Alphonso called it.
The only part of the game that put a smile on my face was when Sterling did a spirited It Is High! It Is Far! It Is....caught call to end the game for Urshela's flyout. He then said, "I really thought that ball had chance..."
If he had read Alphonso's post, he would have known otherwise...
As always, I have to preface this post with "I love CC, but..."
ReplyDeleteAnd then say - put him on the 60 day list. Leave a shipping container of Captain Crunch for CC outside the door, along with a continuously-replenished fridge of whatever liquid he eats it with - I prefer milk - and then make sure he's comfortable. Lose the key, if necessary. Let him out in November and wish him well.
Let some young kid pitch, even if he fucks up royally. He may turn into something good. Just don't waste any more starts on CC.
@Alphonso..can't agree with you more. Not even Larry can fix CC.
ReplyDeleteBut I can't help myself...
#FYL
DREAD DREAD DREAD.
ReplyDeleteI'M EXHAUSTED FROM SAYING IT.
CC CAN NOT PITCH AGAINST DECENT TEAM LET ALONE A BETTER ONE.
MINNESOTA BOMBED HIM.
BOSTON BOMBS HIM.
CLEVELAND BOMBED HIM.
ARE WE STUPID ENOUGH TO PITCH HIM AGAINST HOUSTON?
HE CAN'T PRODUCE ANYMORE.
TIME TO PUSH HIM OUT LIKE WE DID WITH AROD....
ALL DUE RESPECT.
IT'S NUTS TO KEEP PUTTING HIM OUT THERE.
Si, si? No mas.
ReplyDeleteDoug K.
Yeah, I think the consensus is in on CC. And I don't think we owe him anything.
ReplyDeleteSince 2012, his last year as a first-rate pitcher, he's won a grand total of 60, for over $185 million. In that time, he's had one, truly good year, the 14-5, 3.69 he ran up in 2017—albeit as a six-inning pitcher at most.
In return, he has favored us by never getting in shape, and missing the 2015 postseason by deciding to deal with his alcoholism then.
What's more, the Farewell Tour has really cost us this season. Without it, the rotation would likely have been SO embarrassingly threadbare that even Coops would've felt obliged to go out an sign a Corbin or a Keuchel.
I love CC the character as much as anyone, and I agree he was invaluable in 2009. But anything the Yankees owed him for that has been repaid many times over.
In regard to Duque's insightful post on Giovanni Gallegos and the REAL cost of the Voit trade...YES!
ReplyDeleteAnd the real Coops fail that will be missed this year: trading Sonny Gray, who several teams wanted, for nothing. Gray is actually having an excellent year: 8-6, 2.98 with a bad Reds team, 154 strikeouts in 132 2/3 innings, only 98 hits and 50 walks, and 13 homers.
All we got in return was Josh "Bupkus" Towers, currently hitting .260 in Charleston with 6 homers and 114 Ks, in this, his 4th year of pro ball.
I'm not against trading Sonny. Yes, it might've helped him if we had had a professional pitching coach instead of BoJo, but still, he could not pitch at home, which tells you something.
But the return should've been much, much more. That was the sort of deal GMs get fired for on other teams.
Doug K., on the "automatic umpire" thing—I don't think hacking is the problem. All you have to do is require that that animatronic strike zone they have on the broadcasts be stuck up on the batters.
ReplyDeleteThen we'll be able to see if it's been hacked or not.
I think a much better argument against it is that it will take some of the human element out of the game.
On the other hand, I think these guys now just throw too hard and too deceptively for many umps to pick it up I think one thing that might be tried is having them do once-a-week refreshers on simulated games all winter (for pay, of course), so they can keep up their feel for it. Plus more training.
But as those ideas will cost money, of course no one running a baseball team will be in favor of them.
Mr. Bit,
ReplyDeleteI believe you have found the magic bullet. 60 EL. Saves face. Tried to pitch through the pain, but... etc. Gets to be on the bench and get thrown out of games. 250 wins done. Thanks for everything, here's a gold watch. Bye-bye.
Stretch out Johnny Lasagna and have a better 4 inning pitcher.
That should be an acronym -- I like CC, but...
ILCCB almost looks like a roman numeral year.
Fire Nutsack RIGHT THE FUCK NOW and retire CC RTFN and name him pitching coach RTFN!
ReplyDeleteThe man has very little left as a pitcher. But he seems to have a hell of a lot of heart (no joke there); he seems like the one guy who consistently gets pissed off when it seems appropriate. He gives a shit. It shows. If anyone anywhere can remember Larry giving a shit (not the same as taking one) then I'd be impressed with their search capabilities and/or memory. CC GIVES A SHIT!
He's pitched in the bigs for 20 years, had great success and great failure. He's seen tens of thousands of innings of baseball. He knows what to do; he knows how to change from a power pitcher into (at least in 2017) a corners guy. I'll admit most of the last decade has been iffy, but in '17 he was the man. He left a divot in Cleveland I will never forget.
He fears nothing not worth fearing. He went out there with Aaron Judge and Stanton and basically pushed those fucking Ketchup fucks back into their dugout. He said Angel Hernandez had no business being anywhere near a playoff series.
He takes this shit seriously. He's played the old card for years but when it comes down to it he's always (as far as I know) shouldered the blame when he's sucked.
I see none of these qualities (or detriments, if you look at them that way) when I consider whatever the hell I'm supposed to assume are the merits of Larry. I have watched and listened to this team's games since 1975, and I somehow never managed to hear Nutty's voice until a month ago. That seems impossible, but it's true. No knock on him as a person. Maybe he's shy. But he's in NY that long and somehow he avoided my aural detection?
Christ; Rick Down was a squawking egret in comparison. An squawking egret kneeling on the bottom of the dugout steps and making the weirdest faces imaginable, I will grant you, but a squawking egret in comparison nonetheless.
Nothing gets provably better under Larry. Carsten is cooked as an active player. Seems like a winning idea to me. And I base it all on the one thing I think I know.
Carsten Charles Sabathia gives a shit.
Mike,
ReplyDeleteThat makes sense.
Therefor, it will never happen.
Rufus,
ReplyDeleteI know. It's a foolish dream, one that probably wouldn't change much even if it came to pass.
Sometimes you just have to yell shit anyway. As you well know.
Fucking brilliant solution, Mike!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bit, but I wish they'd thought of it before I did, not because it would've mattered but because maybe Nutty would have been gone before he and Ma (Boner) left Tanaka out there for a dozen runs a few weeks ago. Or Holder for those two five-run, no-out outings the last couple years. How in the love of fuck do these things happen in a supposedly professional organization? Beyond that, how do these things happen in businesses that give a shit about their employees? (I know the answer.)
ReplyDeleteCC might suck ass as a coach, but right now sucking ass almost seems like a guaranteed upgrade. He really seems to care; he can't pitch to save his life; they're in a pennant race with a man who has absolutely no clue how to run a pitching staff as their pitching coach; CC seems worth whatever downside he might offer, to put it kindly.
Hoss, Totally agree on CC. I think he gets too much of a pass as well. He's been pretty bad for a long while.
ReplyDeleteMike, The above aside, you're right! CC has GREAT heart. I don't know how good he would be as a pitching coach but I'd bet it would be a lot better than who they have now so count me as a yes.
Hoss, Last thing on the robo-umps. As I said, it's food for thought but given the ease of hacking virtually any system and the money involved it does open itself up to manipulation.
The fix you propose has flaws. But it's not worth getting into because I'm not proficient enough to explain why. The lords of baseball will do what they do whenever they decide to do it anyway.
I just wanted to put it out there so that when the 2027 World Series turns out to be fixed I can say "I told you so" to any of us that are still left.
And, in the case of my demise, one of you can write, "Remember that guy who thought he was funny and said that the robot umps would be hacked?" and someone else can write back, "No."
Doug K.
Thank you Doug K.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the idea of robo-umps. Ixnay.
I like what everyone calls the human element. I like it because it fits with everything else I know about humans put in charge of things: it guarantees fuckups.
I'm fine with that. I like humanity for its ability to err. Its forgiveness skills are somewhat strong, too.
I think of the robo-ump and it leads me to the question of the strike-zone rectangle shown on almost all video screens.
Question: what is that rectangle supposed to represent, and where?
Seems like a reasonable assumption that a strike zone would be three-dimensional, given that the area over the plate is. Also seems like that silly box should have a vertical line bisecting the it, consistent with the place the point of home plate rests beneath. After all, that point is a few thousandths of a second (pitch-wise) past the usual box shown but yet remains the strike zone.
I could learn more geometry and all kinds of other shit to make whatever point I wanted to make here, but it would serve no purpose because it is a human game played by humans and umpired by humans and we, though we may not admit it to anyone, like it that way.
Seriously, as much as they suck, where would we be without Cowboy Joe or Angel or Laz? Or any of the rest of them?
Answer: in something much more akin to a video game. In some amalgam of what seems like life with something that seems like intelligence, both of them based on assumptions unproven yet (because the game has gone on so long) for the most part accepted as the end all of things. So far.
A video game. Pretty much indistinguishable, anyway.
Fuck that. Give me the bad umps and the good ones, and the players, and let's stick with what got us here. Until they perfect that sideways Monopoly-game-hotel-strike-zone and can figure out how to make sure the calls are perfect. Then, and only then, will I cease giving a shit about this game. They will say I am old and say it's ironic, and they will be half-right.
Again: Thank you Doug K.
"Seriously, as much as they suck, where would we be without Cowboy Joe or Angel or Laz?"
ReplyDeleteNot to mention Enrico Pallazzo!
Yes, Rufus! We need that break-dancing, queen-saving guy around. May he never be trampled by a marching band playing "Louie, Louie"!
ReplyDeleteJoe West can go, though. He is a disgrace to the rest of us old fat guys. My blood pressure goes up every time I even hear he is working a Yankee game.
ReplyDelete
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