Wednesday, October 30, 2019

One more night of baseball, as the Yankiverse readies for winter

Congrats, Nats! (Poetry prompt?) After the DC wipe-out, everyone in the world - even those Hong Kong protesters - viewed Washington as just another roadside carcass from the Mini Cooper named Jose Altuve, another National League team fundamentally hobbled by pitchers coming to bat. (It's a more strategic game, but it lets lesser pitchers succeed.) Last night, who didn't bet the house on Houston?

Tonight... game seven... always a wondrous event. 

I just wish we were there.

Damn, had a few balls bounced differently - think Game Two, if Gardy's smash off Altuve hadn't rolled right to Correa, so DJ was out at home - tonight might happen in the Bronx. To torture myself, I checked tonight's NYC weather forecast: cloudy, seventies, beautiful. Damn. 

A game seven in the Bronx. One for the ages. Chad Green would start. Surgery or not, Masahiro would be ready. Ottavino would have adjusted. Given a reprieve, maybe Giancarlo Stanton would have saved his soul. Maybe tonight would launch the legend of Tyler Wade. Who knows? Trump would be there. We could retrofit the "Moon Big Papi" movement! The whole stadium would go along. Moon Big Trumpy! Check out these (im)peaches! Damn... if that ball had bounced into center, instead of directly to Correa...

NO, NO, NO! THAT'S IT. NO MORE. YOU WILL NEVER AGAIN SEE ME DRIFT INTO "WHAT IF?" ABOUT THE 2019 YANKEES. THERE IS NO, "WHAT IF?" THERE IS ONLY, "WHAT NOW?" 

And today, in my regular perusal of Death Star drivel, it's clear that the Yankiverse is champing for winter, for "What now?" Everywhere, the speculation machine is in full swing.  

NJ.com lists three Yankee position prospects who could arrive in 2020. (Ho hum. It's Trey Amburgey, Chris Gittens and Kyle Holder. No Gleyber on the horizon. Don't compare them to what Toronto and Tampa have coming.

Murdoch's Post breaks the news that manager Jay Bell is done in Scranton. (Apparently, he's blocked by Boone and wants an MLB job. Can't blame him.)

The Scranton Times follows up on Bell. (How could someone not want to return to Scranton? Is doesn't make sense. Warning: Firewall.) 

Pinstripe Alley lists five pitching prospects who might be ready in 2020. (No surprises, you've seen them all. Basically, it's Deivi Garcia and some bullpen lug nuts.)

Pinstriped Prospects lists five minor leaguers to protect in the December Rule 5 draft. (Always fun from the wonderfully-named Robert M. Pimpsner.) 

Reflections on Baseball asks, Where will the Yankees "new school" pitching philosophy take them? (I'm a sucker for stories that ask questions, without answers. Who will the Yankees trade? What should Cashman do? And WTF is the Yankee "new school" approach?) 

No answers anywhere. But the Yankiverse is ready. After tonight, winter is here. Damn... if only that ball hadn't - NOOOOOOOOOOOOO...

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chris Gittens...Gris Kittens! My new fav Yankee!

13bit said...

We're looking at a college level hitting coach, someone who's super young. Ok in theory, but to my mind, it's someone whom Brian can intimidate, control and who won't talk back to him or Boner, who already surrendered his testicles at the door when he took the managing position.

Brian was a team of YES-men. What a weak little asshole.

How did we get saddled with this fuckface?

13bit said...

Oh yeah, now I remember how we ended up with Brian - Hal doesn't care.

TheWinWarblist said...

But what about The Secret To Become Any Man's Secret Obsession!??

Huh!? What about that!?

TheWinWarblist said...

I'm definitely clicking on that link. As soon as Hoss loans me his phone.

JM said...

When they hired Booner, I assumed they kept Rothschild to help him out. You know, the "old hand" and continuity and all that. Then they kept him again, and I thought, "What in grandma's saggy bosom are they doing?" And now that Boonie has a little more seasoning, and the pitching staff is in disarray to a large degree, it was time to cut the cord to the Girardi era.

I got into a discussion on Twitter about robocalling balls and strikes. Supposedly, the "average" umpire gets 8% of pitches wrong, but I think it's higher than that this postseason. Does 1 out of 10 pitches called incorrectly bother anyone else? It bugs the ice cream dots out of me.

Anonymous said...

JM,

It's actually a greater percentage than that. The ones over the plate are slam dunk strikes. Likewise the ones that are substantially over. So they miss what? 30 percent of the boarder line calls??

And 70% of the low pitches to Judge.

Doug K

HoraceClarke66 said...

Actually, we got Coops because he was such a lickspittle and buckpasser that not even George would fire him. And because he's such a worm that he wouldn't quit.

No doubt, in the back of his mind, he tells himself how tough he was not to give up, so that his day could arrive to browbeat and intimidate others into making patently bad decisions.

HoraceClarke66 said...

I know what you mean about this postseason, Duque. Somehow, it hurts more than the previous 10 just like it since 2004—maybe because this team just kept coming back and coming back from adversity. It seemed destined for...something.

But destiny ranks a poor second to great pitching.

JM said...

Unless we were destined for some crap pitching.

Local Bargain Jerk said...


"What in grandma's saggy bosom are they doing?"
...It bugs the ice cream dots out of me.

Is this National Fun Turn-of-the-Phase Day and I didn't get the memo?

Good stuff, JM.

ranger_lp said...

I didn't know there was such a position in the baseball FO as crosschecker. Does that person get a hockey stick to use?

Anonymous said...

Watching this World Series, I've been impressed with the Nats. Houston did us a favor when they knocked us out. We would have lost the WS to the Nats, probably in five games but no more than six. No way we'd hit their pitching.

The Hammer of God

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