I think I already mentioned that David Cone would not become the Yankee's pitching coach. He will not join the Kansas City Royals, either. When you are in a cat-bird seat, you don't leave it for the alley and a cardboard box.
I saw that comment from the Great Giancarlo about "how we should get both Strasberg and Cole." I responded to Giancarlo as follows:
" Of course you want them both. That way, the Yankees will still have a chance to win games in which you strike out four times, with runners in scoring position. No one will notice what you do, if we win 1-0."
Duque is correct. Yankee fans can forget about both Cole and Strasberg. Their money demands rattle ( " I'm not cheap" )Hal Steinbrenner. The reason is; he never earned his money and those two pitchers do. Therein lies the resentment. Hal hides behind the curtain of poverty, but it is his own sense of inadequacy that is the driving force behind his lame decisions and philosophy.
So, we will be acquiring our pitchers not from J. Press or Brooks Brothers, but rather Target and Costco. Look for some cast-off from the Mets. Or maybe Derek has another boogeyman he would like to unload on us.
I just saw where Larry Rothschild has been hired by the Padres, thus sealing their fate as a loser for the length of his contract. I live in the region and no one cares.
I see we are trying to re-up Brett Gardner. I have mixed feelings here. He has been a wonderful , full-time, home grown Yankee, and has often delivered in the clutch. He did not have such a wonderful playoff series and is " getting up there in age, " as young people say.
This effort reminds me that Aaron Hicks, our ( also getting up there ) centerfielder , is recovering from Tommy John surgery. Aaron only breaks out for a few days at a time when he is in perfect health. Mostly, he is a fine defender ( not the best in the game ) but an average offensive threat....even if he is a switch hitter.
Let me be more direct; He is good, but " he ain't no Mickey Mantle."
So the plan is to return both Brett and Aaron to their normal roles? Is that progress?
Didi has not been auto-renewed, so he may turn up on the Phillies or the Dodgers. Or, he may return, hat in hand, only $15 million richer for the coming season. Problem is; Didi does not make pitchers work. He is often a one pitch out. This is not welcomed when our starter has just had a 25 pitch inning.
I have a theory now, as you know, that we cannot win with the current team.
And it is not the pitchers so much as it is the hitters. Sure, Cole, Verlander, and Strasberg type pitchers can overcome other inherent weaknesses. But we are not getting any of that ilk. Too expensive for the cheap, mostly impotent, royal family of the Yankees.
The Yankees have too many guys who fail to put pressure on the opposing team; not their pitchers and not their defenses. We strike out or hit solo home runs. The announcers, the media, all the pundits love the " show of power." But, in the end, that does not stand up to quality pitching. We lived that reality this Fall. Can we learn from it?
The Yankees can't get to, and win, a World Series by counting on and hitting "mistake pitches." We had a learning lab a few weeks back. And we came home sucking eggs.
I see no possibility that our GM will act on this reality. We'll keep adding more of the same, and get the same result in 2020. Its is already underway.
Watch and see.
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18 comments:
Alphonso, I agree with almost everything you say here - although I still think we need good pitching as much as better hitting - except for ONE thing:
It's not young people who say "getting up there in age." It's older people who say that, people like me, who's "getting up there in age."
Young people just say "he's fucking old." or that newest, most odious phrase from this dismissive, nihilistic generation that thinks it knows everything, but can't even make their own coffee or drive themselves to work: "OK Boomer."
Fuck them all. They'll never know Yankee greatness. Hal will prevail with his reign of cheapness for many decades. Remember, as a friend of mine keeps pointing out, they are putting LESS each, as a percentage of profits, back into the team than ever. They are making more and putting less back into the team AND they are crying poverty on top of it. Fuck you, Hal. And Brian, take your hands out of your pants and study your spreadsheets. We know you can find somebody in the bargain bin with a lot of potential...
Cashman lives in the alternate universe of money ball metrics. As long as they hit homers and draw walks, he thinks the offense is championship caliber. It ain't about hitting homers or drawing walks, it's about doing whatever it takes to win a game. Which may be hitting a ground ball in a hole, hitting a line drive in a hole, hitting the other way, bunting, stealing, hit and run, etc.
To be fair, the money ball metrician did find D.J. LeMahieu and Gio, and Tauchman and some others. Perhaps the two worst things that happened were adding Encarnacion to a lineup loaded with right handed sluggers/strikeout artists and the return of Stanton to the lineup. Sending Clint Frazier down when he was hot was a stupid mistake. He could have developed into the DH and would have been a far more disciplined hitter with more contact. When they finally brought him back up again, it just wasn't there. We have to get more left handed, get more contact, get younger. Say goodbye to Gardner (he's also become another homer or nothing hitter), try to trade Stanton for a bag of balls.
The Hammer of God
Can you imagine, in your wildest dreams, that there is a team willing to trade even a bag of balls for Stanton?
Acquiring Stanton from Miami is like Derek Jeter installing John Dillinger as the Yankees new CFO.
Where is everybody? Did people pack up go, simply because the "season" is "over"?
THE SEASON IS NEVER OVER, MY FRIENDS!
2020 IS ALMOST HERE!
Lieber Alphonso,
I guess that Englisch ist nicht deine Muttersprache... I mean I guess that English is not your mother language. So verzeihen Sie mir bitte:
His name is
Stephen STRASBURG
and NOT
Stephen STRASBERG
Learn it so we can worship from afar, from the Dugout of Sadness in the Bronx, home to the 2019 AL East Championship team, all returning for 2020.
We will not get to enjoy a strasburger with french fries, but must content ourselves with fat, offal, discards and occasional old beef jerky. Hal will not buy us nice things. Hal had a difficult childhood. We don't know the depths of his suffering.
GOD HOW I WISH ALPHONSO DIDN'T MAKE SO MUCH SENSE.
Sadly, I agree with Alphonso, too.
The power game, alone, is all the stupider when MLB has become such a depraved corporate entity that, for whatever bizarre reasons of its own, it switches the baseballs for the postseason. That alone would've had Old George howling like a lunatic.
From HAL? Crickets.
The looming danger with a new Gardner contract, which no one will talk about, is that he was probably juicing this past season.
At 35, the man suddenly has more endurance, more power, and puts together far-and-away his best OPS, ever? Oh, and he sits in the dugout mindlessly pounding on the ceiling with a bat?
Right, nothing to see here, folks!
Two things about this thing:
Even the PEDs could not make up for the essential mediocrity of Gardy's game, against top-flight pitching.
Guys who go to the PEDs to extend their career often seem to drop them once they sign that last, big contract they were aiming for. Don't be surprised if next year Gardy reverts to form—or less. Once again a .236 hitter, unable to play a whole season, with the power suddenly dwindling again.
As for HAL, he actually seems to have invented something here: how to maximize profits WITHOUT tanking.
Seeking to avoid the financial hit that tanking teams inevitably take for at least a few years—and the risk that if you don't pull out of the tank that could last for a long time—HAL and Coops have developed a way to never tank but never win, always walking that fine line of just good enough to keep the money flowing.
The trouble will come if the core of this team, The Dynasty What Never Was, continues to fall prey to injury and underperformance at the rate which it has. Can Coops continue to find enough gold in the trash to keep winning? I doubt it.
Meanwhile, what HAL has done is really rather brilliant. In an evil sort of way, sure. But brilliant nonetheless.
Hoss, it’s the fundamental difference between being a businessman and being a fan.
But it's a difficult balancing act. When he falls off, there will be hell to pay, when it comes to the bottom line along with everything else.
I agree, Hoss. It's all going to catch up with him, and I bet sooner rather than later.
Get that Swindell lady in the driver's seat and maybe we'll get somewhere.
I have not packed up. It's been Hella busy at work, what with all the injuries and deaths I've caused by so called "negligence.". Plus, one of the family aged old ones ended up in ICU this week. They're home now, but the compensatory drinking was taking up a lot of free time.
Dear Austria,
Thank you for the correction. I rarely pay attention to details of non Yankees. Also, I am of Norwegian heritage where everything is ....berg, not burg.
I think.
My family name, for example ,is Hveberg.
"Can you imagine, in your wildest dreams, that there is a team willing to trade even a bag of balls for Stanton?"
@Alphonso, yeah, it'd be pretty tough to do, but try to do so we must. L.A. Dodgers just might be crazy enough and rich enough. I'd think we might have to eat much of his contract, maybe as much as 90% of it. You and I would make such a trade, because we'd be so much better without Stanton on this team, but of course Lord Hal hates to pay people to work for someone else, so ultimately this is probably nothing but fantasy.
The Hammer of God
@HoraceClarke66, I agree with you about Gardner probably not hitting his way out of a paper bag next year. Ballplayers usually have good walk years and then they get a new contract and then ... nothing doing for the rest of that contract. No way would I want to take a chance with this likely being his last contract of his career. But the Yankee braintrust seems to love Gardner, so I would be surprised if they don't resign him.
The Hammer of God
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