The sense that 2019 was a year of destiny? It will slink away in an avalanche of boos and catcalls. That "Next Man Up" slogan, which became our rallying cry? We'll never hear it again without wincing. That fantasy belief that the Yankees are baseball's gold standard in October? It will become a punch line. Next spring, the Yankees will be New York's second team, a notch below the Mets.
A sea change is occurring, and the Yankees - bloated by nepotism and front office hubris - are about to sink within their own, high-priced quicksand.
The fan base has been loyal soldiers for an entire generation, and our elders recall an era when the Yankees were the bankable commodity of every post-season - the team that played its best on the national stage.
Well, the Astros are about to burn us down in our house, as Boston did last fall, and as other teams have done with regularity, if not ease, for the entire decade. The twenty-teens are about to end with nothing to show but watered-down plaques in Monument Park, remnants of better times, long ago.
Last night, the Yankees bade adieu to CC Sabathia, who limped off the mound and into retirement, if not a wheelchair. Tonight, I believe we will see the last Yankee moments of Didi Gregorius, a beloved player who simply didn't turn out to be the hitter we needed. It could be the end of the warhorse, Brett Gardner, whose game - despite the HRs, (which, frankly, everybody in baseball hit this year) - continues to slide.
Nobody will miss Edwin Encarnacion, who didn't last long enough to build a legacy, and whose failures when it mattered will stick to his career like gum to a shoe. And if Aroldis Chapman declares free agency, as he might, he will be gone as well.
This may also be the end for Gary Sanchez, whose lengthy, pants-dropping swings seem to ensure that good pitchers will always get him out. For the Yankees, catcher has always been the most mystical position, even more so than the glamour positions of CF or SS. From Dickey to Yogi to Elston to Thurman... and even to Joe Girardi... the Yankee catcher was always a firebrand, the player who led his team in the clutch. That's simply not Gary, and it never will be. He'll hit 30 HRs, and a few will win games in July, but in the pennant race, he's not the spark plug that we need. He's just a guy who, in the course of a season, hits 30 mistakes out the park. I doubt the Yankees will get much for him in the off-season. But I think a new catcher will be on Cooperstown Cashman's Christmas wish list.
Ahh... Cooperstown Cashman. I wonder how many more years he'll get to chase a ring? The Gammonites charitably credit him for the great Joe Torre teams of 1996-2000, but the truth is, they were built by Gene Michael and Bob Watson. Only 2009 - the year the Yankees bought CC, Tex and AJ Burnett - brought a ring that Cashman can legitimately claim all to himself. This season was going to cement his legacy as a Yankee GM. Now, he falls into a different category - of front office lugs whose teams always finished second.
Tonight, everything will probably end. And the reason is starkly simple: The Astros just have a better team.
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ReplyDeleteThis whole decade thing confuses me - how they’ve never gone 10 years without a trip to the WS... they didn’t go to the series from 1982 until 1995. That’s 14 years. What am I missing here?
ReplyDeleteDon't know why this came to mind...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBiV7W-x0NM
"The Astros just have a better team. "
ReplyDeleteyup
pitching's such a gamble and the Yankees can never fill an inside straight. they don't have an ace or even a pair of jacks. every year, we get to September and October with an exhausted bullpen, praying that someone, anybody will be able to stitch together a few good innings. Boone's bullpen management is comically bad, too.
I gotta grow up and find something to do that doesn't drive me crazy. Fucking Yankees.
the decade thing refers to the 10 year stretch from years ending in 0 to 9
ReplyDeleteOh, Juju gods...why have you abandoned us?
ReplyDeleteRanger,
ReplyDeleteI'm with you. At least I won't say, "They should have won that game last night". They stunk so bad I shut the game off. Don't know if I'll even watch it tonight.
Speaking of the mid to late 80s, I fear we are seeing it again.
ReplyDeleteAt least we still have Stanton!
ReplyDeleteDoug K.
This is another classic case of the Yankees maybe having the talent to go to and maybe win the Series, but not using it.
ReplyDeleteHicks? Sabathia? Stanton? No Voit or Ford, no Romine or even Higgy, no Maybin, no German (what is going on with that, anyway?), no injured Tauchman. No sitting Didi when it's obvious he can't hit like Didi. No sitting Sanchez--out of the question.
The Yankees, as they always do when push comes to shove, play the money and the hype whenever possible. They do not play the guys who have earned a shot. They did the same thing in Girardi's last year, when Cashman was basically forced to play the kids, who were exciting and fun and won. But down the stretch, as soon as the celebrities were available, that's who played. And they sucked. And we faded from the division race.
When I read the articles saying this is the Yankees team that won 103 games, I always, always get furious. This is NOT the team that won all those games. These are the guys who spent some, most or all of the season in the whirlpool, who were spotty at best when they did play, and who fail repeatedly when faced with serious competition.
To see a dispirited Torres and such a lame lineup--with only a few exceptions--is more than disappointing. It's disgusting. It's exactly why the Yankees have sucked for a decade, and why they sucked for almost a decade before that. And they never, ever learn.
Whenever they manage to get a couple of sparks going, they don't fan them into a fire. They throw water on them. They go with the veterans and the big contracts and the hyped players, no matter how bad they're playing.
That's just a very badly managed team from the top down.
Can someone please explain to me why Aaron Hicks was batting 3rd rather than Gleyber? The game where our batting order started with DJ, Judge, Gleyber...we scored 9 runs and Gleyber had 5 RBIs. Then he got "demoted". Brett Gardner batting 3rd? Hicks who has been out forever? HUH???
ReplyDeleteIt is just sickening knowing that I'm watching the last games of the year and I really lose interest after I see the starting lineup.
Brett
Excellent analysis, JM. And this goes on year after year...
ReplyDeleteJM,
ReplyDeleteYou know how I once mentioned that a lot of times you express what I was about to write and do it so well that there is no point in my doing so?
Well you've done it again. Yes X100. That is exactly how I feel about it.
Doug K.
Stanton will be fresh for the world series.
ReplyDeleteWatching it with Ellsbury.
RIGHT ON BRETT...
ReplyDeleteI FELT THE SAME WAY YESTERDAY WHEN I HEARD THE STARTING LINEUP.
HICKS UP 3RD?
GARDNER UP 3RD?
WTF?
THOSE ARE THE GUYS WE NEED TO GET UP LESS IN THE ORDER NOT MORE.
WHAT A DISASTER AFTER WE WON GAME 1, IN HOUSTON, NO LESS.
Why is anyone surprised at this result. The team offensively has been one-dimensional for the last 5 years. HR or strikeout. No situational hitting, no working the counts, just swing away and hope it's a HR. The pitching stinks, they keep trotting out guys like Paxton, Happs, Vazquez, Evoladi, Pineda, Gray, Cessa, Losiagia, the list goes on. There is only constant and that's Brian Cashman. I don't want to hear how Hal won't let him spend money, fact is I wouldn't let him spend money. Here is the guy that spent $140 mil on Ellsbury, 90 on McCann, 45 on Beltran, 160 on Texiera. He also the man that brought us Carl Pavano, Kei Igawa, Chris Carter, resigned Sabathia this year with money that could have gone to Keuchel (someone who get actually pitch. Finally when the team was able to get to a point when they could spend on a #1 starter. HOF Cashman brings us Jacoby Stanton. Enough said.
ReplyDeleteOne other thing as long as I'm acknowledging...
ReplyDeleteDuque totally nailed it, as always but this...
"catcher has always been the most mystical position, even more so than the glamour positions of CF or SS. From Dickey to Yogi to Elston to Thurman... and even to Joe Girardi... the Yankee catcher was always a firebrand, the player who led his team in the clutch. That's simply not Gary, and it never will be."
is wise, profound, and beyond true. He has identified a root cause.
It's not just Sanchez's failures at the plate but his inability to set the tone. He is too much about himself. I guess that's what happens when you make a 16 year old a millionaire (especially in a relatively poor country).
He needs to go.
Doug K.
According to my friend Tom, whom some of you met at the Huckleberry Jamboree, Gardy's lifetime playoff batting average - over 58 games - is .201
ReplyDeleteWho the fuck is in charge of baseball operations?
Fuck you, Brian.
scratch that, it's .199 in 59 games
ReplyDeleteWhat? .199? That's pretty good!
ReplyDelete"The Sanchize" is hitting .177 in 25 postseason games.
ugh
ReplyDeleteAFTER A HORRIBLE NIGHT'S SLEEP....
ReplyDeleteAS I'M SOUL SEARCHING...
I REALIZE HOW INSANE IT IS FOR ME TO FEEL THIS BAD ABOUT SOMETHING I ALREADY KNEW WOULD HAPPEN DEEP DOWN INSIDE.
I EVEN POSTED IT TIME AND TIME AGAIN.
"I DON'T SEE HOW WE CAN POSSIBLY BEAT HOUSTON."
"THEY HAVE CLUTCH HITTERS, WE DON'T."
"THEY HAVE VERLANDER, WE DON'T."
"WE NEVER HIT OSUNA."
"WE JUST LOST OUR BEST STARTING PITCHER (GERMAN)."
"EVERYTHING IS GOING AGAINST US."
IT HAS PLAYED OUT TO BE THE EXACT HORROR SHOW I WAS AFRAID IT WOULD BE.
I GUESS IT JUST HURTS LOOKING AT THE END OF THE 8 MONTH, (REALLY YEAR ROUND JOURNEY), WITH THE PLAYERS WE ROOT FOR, OUR FELLOW YANKEE FANS, AND THE MEMBERS OF THIS GREAT SITE.
THE QUESTION IS, DID OUR OWNERSHIP AND GM LEARN ANY LESSONS FROM THIS DEBACLE?
I SURE DID.
#1.) WE NEED TO BUY THE NEXT "SCHERZER", AND THAT LOOKS TO BE GERRIT COLE.
#2.) WE CAN'T STOP THERE....ADD MADISON BUMGARNER.
#3.) IT'S OVER WITH GARDY. (NO RE-SIGN).
#4.) IT BETTER BE OVER WITH CC.
#5.) DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO SOMEHOW CUT TIES WITH GIANCARLO STANTON. (OR PLACE HIM IN THE "ELLSBURY TRIANGLE").
#6.) WE NEED A GOOD LEFT HANDED CONTACT HITTER IN OUR LINEUP. WHOEVER THAT IS, I DON'T KNOW RIGHT NOW, BUT WE NEED TO COUNTERACT ALL THESE STRIKEOUTS IN OUR LINEUP.
OUR LINEUP NEEDS MORE LEFTY/RIGHTY BALANCE!
#7.) MAKE AARON HICKS A BENCH PLAYER. (HE JUST ISN'T THAT GOOD, AND IS ALWAYS HURT).
#8.) STOP PUTTING LEMAHIUE AT 1ST REGULARLY.
#9.) OUR ENTIRE ORGANIZATION HAS TO GRASP THE FACT THAT COME PLAYOFF TIME, WE CAN NOT HAVE ALL OUR HITTERS SWINGING FOR THE FENCES, CONSTANTLY. INSTITUTE A "KANGAROO" FINE FOR ANYONE THAT HITS A HOME RUN IN THE PLAYOFFS. IT MAY BE SILLY ENOUGH TO HELP THESE PLAYERS REALIZE THEY HAVE TO MAKE CONTACT IN THESE GAMES.
#10.) FIGHT TO GET DOMINGO GERMAN BACK IN OUR ROTATION. (NO POLICE REPORT?, POLICE NOT CALLED? SORRY, NO CASE)! I WANT OUR BEST 2019 STARTER BACK. NO ONE CAN CONVINCE ME HE WOULDN'T HAVE HELPED US IN THIS SERIES!
I WANT OUR 2020 STARTING ROTATION TO BE...
GERRIT COLE
MADISON BUMGARNER
MASAHIRO TANAKA
JAMES PAXTON
DOMINGO GERMAN
JORDAN MONTGOMERY
DEIVI GARCIA
GET TO WORK.
"
So endeth this sad and all too predictable JuJu.
ReplyDeleteALL-CAPS, I hear ya. I thought the same thing: they can't beat Houston, which is just a better team.
ReplyDeleteAnd I can't really say that, if they'd played their hearts out and lost in some excruciatingly close way, I'd be happy. Nope, not me. Instead, I would be raging over every little thing that might have changed the outcome.
BUT...that would have been better than what we saw out there last night—and that we have seen, all too often, in big Yankees games FOR FIFTEEN YEARS NOW!
That is, a total, shameful meltdown. The 2004 fiasco, our outfielders colliding in 2005, the Detroit debacle in 2006, the 16-1 loss or whatever it was to Boston last year.
And now this year, which will be the first time a Yankees team has ever lost 3 straight postseason games at home in the same year.
Way, way too often, our team simply falls apart, and acts like they are a bad high school team, losing to the regional power. There was no reason for the awful fielding out there last night, no reason for all the wild swings and the at-bats taken without anything resembling a plan.
It was truly disgraceful—so bad that even the announcers seemed embarrassed.
And while I would love to see them do pretty much everything that you're proposing there, with the exception of CC retiring, I don't expect to see it happen.
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