Now, what?

Nah, I can't do this. It just seems so wrong, so cheap, so brown-noserly, to be revving up the Yankee hot stove league... in mid-October. Nope, it feels demeaning, humiliating, as if we are trained circus mice, performing tricks for the billionaire heirs, who have already boarded the private jet for Fiji. Nope, it's just so insect-like: Hey, everybody! What should the Yankees do? Gee-willickers, Michael, let's go down the 40-man, and see what to look forward to in 2020! Get excited, folks! The winter meetings are just around the corner!
Weeeeeeeee! 

Nope. No can do. It's still too raw. It still hurts too much. For me, all of 2019 pivoted on Cashman's original winter sin: The decision to ignore Patrick Corbin - a North Syracuse guy who grew up wanting to pitch for the Yankees - in favor of J.A. Happ. They refused to offer Corbin a six-year deal, even though at the end of it, he'd still be younger than Happ. So, Happ flounders all year and never even warranted a post-season start. In the end, we had no ace, and the Astros had three. Had we won Saturday night, surely, today we'd be grieving over the loss to Geritt Cole. The reality of Yankee management in 2019 was starkly simple: We were brilliant in signing position players, but we never built a rotation. Unfortunately, baseball is 90 percent pitching, pitching, pitching. We didn't want to pay for it - not with Corbin, not with Dallas Keuchel, not with anyone. In the end, that fundamental goof - the cheapness of it all - it took us down. 

Nope, I can't start yahooing about 2020. It hurts too much. Of course, we have building blocks: LeMahieu, Gleyber, Judge, Urshela, Severino, and maybe Miguel Andujar. After that, I dunno anymore. We have no options with Giancarlo Stanton; he is a forever Yankee, just Bobby Bonilla will die a Met. Right or wrong, Aroldis Chapman will always be remembered for blowing big games, and Dellin Betances - due to the stupidity of his injury - is this generation's Q-Tips Henry Cotto. Gary Sanchez? Edwin Encarnacion? Even Sur Didi... no, it's too soon. The names just hurt too much. 

I believe the problem with the Yankees is their built-in echo chamber of sychophants. They own the primary media that covers them, and thus, they control access to everybody else. We get most of our news from YES, and it's a constant drumbeat of corporate talking points. Last year, we heard them gush over the Happ signing. Soon, they'll have something else for us. Right now, I don't want to think about it. Just hope for a volcano in Fiji.