This year, 2019, is the fulcrum point upon which we either restore Yankee domination... or cede our long-time rivalry to Boston, quite possibly for the rest of our lives.
This is it, comrades. This is our shot. We have a chance to secure home field advantage through the ALCS - the best opportunity we've seen since our last world championship, 10 fucking years ago. Blow this, and we might go well into the next decade before we enjoy this catbird slot again.
This is our chance to restore order - not just in the Yankiverse - but in the universe of baseball.
Since 2000, Boston has four world championships. The Yankees, one. We have some catching up to do. It will probably take a decade, and it needs to start now.
If we fail this October - if we blow this - odds are that many of us will not live long enough to ever again see the Yankees hold dominance over Boston.
Certainly, the Yankees look like a looming power: Gleyber Torres, Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez... Then again, so does Boston: Rafael Devers, Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi... and both Houston and the Dodgers could achieve a dynasty. Their owners show the willingness to spend whatever it takes when their teams close in on a ring. In July, had any of them been in our shoes - so desperate for a starting pitcher - I cannot imagine them sitting out the relatively cheap bidding war over Dallas Keuchel, as Hal "Food Stamps" Steinbrenner did, choosing to save precious dimes for his billionaire siblings. The Yankees rank high in revenues and low in percentage going to payroll. That's the new reality.
It's wrong to say the Steinbrenners don't want to win. Of course, they do. But first and foremost, they are business people. They will have a sell-out October, and they own the New York tabloids. There is no incentive to improve this team by spending extra.
Although I watch the Yankee farm system feverishly, I no longer believe any of its YES team infield chatter. Ours remains the most overly hyped system in baseball, if not in all of sports, with heavily touted prospects constantly floundering. (Estevan Florial, anyone? Dermis Garcia, anyone? Domingo Acevedo? Leonardo Molina?) Our draft success is horrible, and we piss away millions on 16-year-old Latinos, who seldom meet expectations. Our one management forte seems to be plucking veteran minor leaguers off the scrap heap - hence, "the Retrieval Empire." That helps, but it doesn't necessarily win championships.
So here we are. This is our best year since 2009. We will soon enter a make-or-break October. The Yankees either win the World Series and restore at least a sense of balance to the Boston rivalry... or next winter, we will sit back and whine about all the money we cannot spend because of Jacoby Ellsbury and Giancarlo Stanton, while Boston reloads.
Don't get me wrong. On this day, Yankee fans have much to celebrate. Our team will surely reach the post-season, and every other AL team would happily trade positions with. But the stress cracks of October are coming into view. And yesterday, for nine innings, I just knew we were not going to win. That's a bad sign, folks.
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Of course Hal would like to win. Who doesn't like to win? If we win, he makes a lot more money. He wants to win the way Ford wants next year's F-150 to be a big seller.
Does he lie in bed at night and think about the team, though? Doe he get a woody when a new free agent comes on the market? Does he DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO WIN, NO MATTER WHAT THE COST? No. And that's why I always say "Hal does not care." He cares about winning in an abstract sense, actually no. In a very concrete sense. Winning is the profit margin for him. It's not the glory. It's not even driven by revenge in his case. It's just money. As they said about Joginson Cano, "He loves only the money."
Here's how the season goes down:
This is either the wet dream fruition of our worst fears all along - no pitching, return of the dead bat syndrome, Larry "the Manchurian Candidate" Rothschild and Boner's Great Fumble, the tank to top all tanks.
OR
This is the necessary little losing streak that wakes up the troops and gets them to perform inspired feats of ball and bat, despite their shitty leadership. That could be the case. Do I see it happening? Not really. And it always comes down to what Cashman used to describe as "the keys to the kingdom" - pitching. If we can pull off a pitching miracle, great. A few guys have career games at the right time. SIMULTANEOUSLY, our hitters play sound, fundamentals-dictated baseball, show plate discipline and think of the team before the back of their baseball card. If those two things happen at the same time, AND if we catch a few breaks from the umps, the random clumps of sod and the weather, we MIGHT have a chance to do something. If not, we're slugs - gender neutral slugs, I might add.
Yet the Yanks keep picking up pitching retreads like they were buying quick pick lottery tickets, losing ones at that. And who will make any of these retreads into a successful reclamation project...Larry Fucking Rothschild. Can't take this any longer.
#FYL #LarryManBoobs
MR. DUQUE, I HAD THE SAME FEELING IN YESTERDAY'S GAME...
THAT WE WEREN'T GOING TO PULL IT OUT.
.....AND IT IS THAT TYPE OF GAME THAT OUR "CORE" OF PLAYERS, HAVE TO FIND A WAY TO PULL OUT.
EVERY TEAM THAT HAS THAT "WORLD SERIES MAGIC" IN THEM, PULLS OUT A GAME LIKE YESTERDAY'S.
THEN, IN THE 9TH, WHEN THE OPPORTUNITY STARES US RIGHT IN THE FACE TO TAKE THE GAME OVER, WE FAIL.
THINK OF LAST YEARS RED SOX.
WOULD THEY HAVE LOST THAT GAME TO L.A. YESTERDAY GIVEN THE SAME OPPORTUNITY IN THE 9TH INNING?
FUCK NO....THEIR PLAYERS FOUND A WAY ALL SEASON, INCLUDING THE PLAYOFFS TO WIN A GAME LIKE YESTERDAY.
MY MIND FLASHES BACK TO PLAYOFF GAMES WHERE WE HAD OPPORTUNITIES TO OVERTAKE OUR OPPONENTS AND DIDN'T.
AROD AGAINST BENOIT. (STRIKE 3 IN THE MAKE OR BREAK AT BAT OF THE ENTIRE SERIES-GUYS ALL OVER THE BASES).
STANTON AGAINST KIMBREL. (STRIKE 3- DITTO ABOVE).
STANTON AGAINST I FORGOT WHO...(STRIKE 3...FIRST AND SECOND 0 OUTS WITH US TRAILING.)
BOTTOM LINE IS, WE ARE NOT THERE YET.
.....BUT OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM MAY BE THE MINDSET OF HALIGATOR.
HIS BELIEF IN HIS QUOTE, "I DON'T BELIEVE YOU HAVE TO HAVE OVER A $200 MILLION DOLLAR PAYROLL TO WIN A WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP.", IS WHAT IS HOLDING THIS TEAM BACK.
WHEN THERE ARE MULTIPLE TEAMS THAT ARE AS GOOD AS YOU, AND STILL WILLING TO FAR OUTSPEND YOU......YES, YOU DO NEED TO SPEND, WHEN NECESSARY.
WHAT A FUCKING SHAME.
THIS WAS OUR YEAR.
So long as Hal refuses to let Cashman sign expensive, young, healthy pitchers, the
Yankees are doomed to failure. Tanaka and Sabathia are injury risks waiting
to happen. Happ is over the hill. Paxton is up and down. The Yankees are
looking to their IR list for salvation. Hal wants the Yankees playoff contenders
to sell tickets but, unlike his Dad, will settle for less than World Series wins.
Forget about miracles and getting breaks from the umpires. The time has come for more drastic action. With only a month to go and the worst starting pitching I have seen in my lifetime, a more realistic plan with higher odds in our favor must be put in place.
Since none of the playoff-bound teams visit the stadium, we have to trust our advanced scouting to pull this off.
1) Scour the stadium for rats whose infected feces are mixed in with the hot dogs and other fine foods Hal hand-picks to sell to game attendees.
2) Give each advanced scout that attends games at the home stadiums of our most likely October adversaries a dozen rats in a gym bag.
3) Once they are at the stadium ask as a courtesy to talk to a few of the team's coaches in their clubhouse to get some background on the organization.
4) Release the rats into the ventilation system and securely block any potential exits. Bring several dozen Nathan's hot dogs from the stadium along with a few gallon of the piss warm beer they sell to insure that the rats survive for at least a month.
5) Wait for the Bubonic Plague to rapidly spread throughout their clubhouse.
6) Rout opponents on the way to winning World Series # 28.
https://www.pressherald.com/2019/08/22/fears-of-bubonic-plague-curtail-upcoming-phish-festival/
Preach it, Duque, preach it!
And Carl, I like your style: chemical warfare, the old-fashioned way!
13bit, I am now changing my garage-band name from Cosmic Ice—what the Nazis believed was the major element of the cosmos, none of this "Jewish physics" stuff (I am not making this up)—to Gender Neutral Slugs.
Also, I am right with you on the trading Judge thing, as I believe I have said a time or two going back to 2018. (You know me, I never like to press a point too strongly, or repeat myself.)
I vowed to stop saying it, though, because:
—It's never going to happen. Judge is too cheap an asset for Food Stamps HAL to give up for years, at least.
—While a really shrewd enterprising GM would've dealt Judge after last season and got an incredible return in young players and prospects...we don't have a shrewd, enterprising GM. We have Brian Cashman, the man who got OF Moist Towlettes in exchange for a still-prized Sonny Gray—the unsung key to why this season will not end well.
A Judge trade by this putz would likely end as badly.
—There is too much chance that a first-rate coaching/training staff somewhere else would fix Judge's physique and his technique.
Worst of all, after we had traded him for more Moist Towlettes, one could all too easily imagine him being passed on to the Carmine Hose, and hitting balls through the Green Monster, year after year.
No, we are stuck with Judge, for better or worse...and really, it's hard to think of a better person. Chances are his career will be one of steadily diminishing returns: longer and longer stretches on the EL, less and less production, until there is finally a tearful farewell 4-5 years from now.
But hey, maybe I'm wrong. Stranger things have happened!
And hey, I would settle for expensive, older, experienced pitchers.
I think we have nailed it here. HAL has nothing per se against winning a World Series, but it's certainly nothing he's going to push for as long as the team remains in at least Wild Card contention.
I'm sure his accountants—probably the same guys who do the Sabermetrics—have worked out an algorithm somewhere, showing that the extra money needed to win the World Series would not be an acceptable risk, considering how much sure money can be made just being a playoff spot contender.
Remember: now that one-third of the teams make the postseason, all that really means is remaining in what used to be called the first division.
I'm old enough to recall how delighted the 1968 Yankees were when the team had a winning record and finished in the first division. That meant 5th, in a 10-team league—which the franchise was roundly mocked for celebrating.
Today, they would be lauded for being so smart economically.
All I can say is, it's a very long season, and you can't predict baseball.
By the way, Memorial Sloan Kettering is like a college campus, with chemo.
JM,
The Mrs. wondered why I was laughing at a cancer joke.
Mr. Bit,
"...if we catch a few breaks from the umps," made me laugh as much.
Carl,
I nominate you to be GM, or at least traveling manager, for the Yankees. But not team chef.
ALL CAPS is correct. This was our year. All we needed was one good arm and our shameful profit obsessed owner, The Haligator, refused. This season will go down as one of the worst lost opportunities in NYY history. But you won’t hear that from the YES men, except maybe from Coney. (His last act would be one born of frustration). You won’t hear that from the the Gammonite press either. Only duque deals in the truth.
We should have kept Sonny and released Mr. Manboobs. One wonders.... did the Yanks learn anything from the Sonny Grey adventure? Sure doesn’t appear so.
Loved it, I think they really showed up on the road vs a very good Doyer team and very well could have swrpt them. That being said the front office really robbed us of something special by failing to put together a quality starting staff. Man this team could have been just lethal. It was nice to see Judge wake up a little and doing what they did to LA gives me a little more confidence going forward. Now if they would just pony up the money for Cole in the off season
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