So, in the ongoing matter of Hal Steinbrenner cash-flow, here are the latest cocktail napkin numbers:
Spending in 2020:Signed Gerrit Cole for $36 million.
Re-signed Brett Gardner for $10 million.
Signed Erik Kratz, Zach Granite, Thomas Milone for donkey doodle.
Thus far, an additional $46 million, (give or take donkey doodle.)
Walked away from spending last year:
CC Sabathia: $8 million (retirement)
Greg Bird: $1.3 million (released - still a free agent)
Didi Gregorius: $14 million (Phillies)
Austin Romine: $4.1 million (Tigers)
Dellin Betances: $10.5 million (Mets)
Edwin Encarnacion: $12 million (White Sox)
Grand total - ka-ching! - $49.9 million in money not spent, if the Death Star had simply tried to keep last year's team intact.
According to the Gammonites, the Yankees are industriously looking to
Look, I'm all in with Gerrit Cole. Who doesn't love the guy, or feel ecstatic about adding a legitimate ace to this rotation? Cole has given us, at least through the winter, a touch of the old-time Yankee confidence. But at some point, Hal needs to open his fanny pack and stop obsessing over luxury tax bills... and start thinking about bullpen help and a LH bat.
And good luck to Mister October in the coming year. I'm sure he'll hit a homer against us, just to rub salt in our tortured memories of him flailing against the Astros.
Where the hell is German?
ReplyDeleteOur actual failing in the postseason was lack of timely contact hitting. We have only gotten worse so far.
But I am glad we have Cole. He won't be as dominant, of course, with a lesser team behind him, but nice that he's here. For some reason.
So if we jettisoned that much salary, why the fuck didn't they sign Hyun-jin Ryu too!? Lead the NL in ERA, ERA+ and walks/9 last year and was a fucking steal at $80 Mil over 4 years. Instead he goes to a rival in the AL East! What the fuck is that about!? Who lets that happen??
ReplyDeleteWHO!?
Oh. Yeah. Never mind.
FUCK YOU BRIAN-HAL!!!!
JM, I went over to Fangraphs to see if they had anything on DG. The most recent post is from September and mostly deals with the domestic violence policy.
ReplyDeletehttps://blogs.fangraphs.com/domingo-german-wont-pitch-in-the-postseason-but-baseballs-dv-loophole-needs-to-be-closed/
Any news anywhere else? It's well past time for an announcement from MLB and the Yankees.
JM IS RIGHT.
ReplyDeleteWHERE THE HELL IS DOMINGO?
DID HE KILL THE WOMAN?
WHY ISN'T HE IN JAIL?
LETS SEE THE POLICE REPORT.
OH, THAT'S RIGHT, THERE ISN'T ONE.
THIS IS BECOMING SOME REAL OUTRAGEOUS SHIT.
ALMOST AS OUTRAGEOUS AS WHAT SUPPOSEDLY HAPPENED.
WE BETTER NOT LOSE HIM FOR MORE THAN 4 OR 5 STARTS, TOPS.
FUCKING OUTRAGEOUS.
I've never been able to figure out the deal with German, except that the Yankees were really fast on the trigger to banish him from the last two months of 2019.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is that his punishment neatly coincided with an internal coaching decision to limit his innings, as he had already thrown far more than expected. Yes, this is cynical - thinking the Yankees were more concerned with his arm than the charges - but I think management figured that shelving him would a) save his arm and b) lessen the extent of MLB's punishment... especially if he completes a program on domestic abuse, and formal charges are never invoked.
If that happens, he could be back in May-June, right around the time Cole goes down.
Domestic violence is epidemic in the US, and violent domestic abusers are still only incarcerated at a rate of @ 2%. Two percent. For any number of reasons. So don't pretend that a lack of a police report or trial means the abuse didn't happen. That's just head in the sand misogynist bullshit. Chapman, for instance, shot up his garage and didn't go to jail! He fucking shot up a building menacing his domestic partner.
ReplyDeleteDidn't go to jail. The current domestic violence policy was jointly agreed upon by the players union and MLB. There's no perfect policy, but this one is reasonable.
But I think that what ALL-CAPS is objecting to, Warbler—and what annoys me—is the whole, extra-judicial nature of this.
ReplyDeleteBy all means, if German abused a woman, arrest him. Put him on trial. Put him in jail, if he's found guilty, and/or make sure he gets some anger management or other counseling.
Throw the book at him—if he did it.
But what is this?
A mysterious suspension from what he does for a living, with no explanation other than "there's an investigation going on" and (a no doubt enforced) silence on his part?
I'm sorry, but what happened to the Constitution? No habeas corpus, no right to confront his accuser, no right to speak out, no trial at all, most likely; no word on when or how this extra-judicial decision—to be made solely by his employers—will be handed down.
And in the meantime, an enormous financial penalty and the complete destruction of his public reputation.
I'm not naive. Chances are German did this—whatever it is—he is guilty, and he deserves to be punished. But where are his rights? And in this case, we are talking the rights of a young, foreign-born individual who does not speak the language, against the public relations needs of a large and powerful economic cartel.
If he cut meat for a living, or worked construction, or picked fruit, or hauled dead animals off the highway, or did any of the other brutal but necessary jobs that so many immigrants to our country do now, some pimple-faced Legal Services lawyer just out of law school would've sprung him already.
Not with MLB, to which the Constitution apparently does not apply.
Hoss, it's extra-judicial. No constitution, no habeus. People get fired all the time for shit less egregious that this. His "accuser" may be in danger from him or not, his "accuser" may not want to press charges. That's the nature of every sexual harassment policy. Also every code of conduct of any sort. Every expectation from other people. Also every dress code of every school, workplace, union, club and little league team the whole world over. We live in society with other people. That's what society is. Living with other people. People made a decision regarding this policy. Those people were his employers, MLB, his union representatives and experts in domestic abuse. No policy is perfect. But he's a member of the union and bound by this policy. A policy that is there to help both the abused and the abuser get the help they both need. Isn't it better that he and his victim get the help they need? The policy is not there to illuminate that process or protect the next Yankee dynasty or the gentle fee-fees of this our commentariat.
ReplyDeleteI know I speak as if I own a business that has a similar policy in place. And have helped craft other such policies for other institutions. But what the fuck do I know, right? Hopefully DG's using this time to reflect of where his anger comes from and dealing with that trauma and working on his fastball location.
Holy liquidy mucusy crap. It'll be okay.
This may be the one fucking thing for which Hal is blameless.
This train is bound for glory, if you ride it you must be holy, this train...
ReplyDeleteLatest on German...
ReplyDeletehttps://empiresportsmedia.com/new-york-yankees/new-york-yankees-news-rumors-luxury-tax-could-hit-yankees-hard-domingo-german-more/
From Bob Klapisch:
#Yankees will have to wait a little longer for clarity on Domingo German situation. Told “nothing imminent” regarding discipline. “The idea is to get (German) better first” says industry source, which raises possibility hurler is/has been in rehab or therapy.
ReplyDeleteSidebar: I was barely 20 years old when I got a job as the police reporter on a newspaper in upstate NY (I had graduated a state college there). The job, which I had for about 6 months, consisted of going daily to 9 police units (state, county, local) in the Binghamton area and looking at written reports.
Now, first, the cops are not dumb. Their written reports that had something particular meaty were "pulled" before I got there. So if there was an investigation into a knifing or shooting, I had to get the info in other ways.
Second, MOST of the reports I was allowed to see were about police responding to a neighbor's phone call that Mr. X was beating the crap out of Ms. Y -- or vice-versa. Probably 70% or more of the documents I got to read were about this.
SO: In 1974-5, this shit was COMMON. I was a long-haired "hippie" just out of college, and I did not like or trust the police. Probably they felt the same, or worse, at least at the beginning.
But after a few weeks of this, I came to really feel for the men (they were all men then) who had to respond to these calls.
For one thing, the violence going on between Hubby/Wife or Boyfriend/Girlfriend was very capable of spilling over to involve the cop(s) who responded. Most cops didn't feature walking in to someone's apartment or house with a gun drawn in response to one of these complaints. Maybe some should have.
Also, from listening to the police, this kind of thing was wearing on the men. It happened daily. When responding, they didn't know what they would find. BUT: They were legally obligated to respond.
In some cases, they were responding for a 3rd or 5th time to the same couple. I heard plenty of stories. They were always told by these guys with sadness.
I wrote this to back up Winnie's comments. For some reason, human beings have a hard time sustaining love (or even like) for a companion. Unless the woman strikes first, is really strong, or uses a weapon, it's likely in such disputes that the result is the guy beating on her -- or worse. Or he shoots up a garage.
I'm not ready to "convict" German. I know nothing of the events involving him and whoever. But I am thinking it's possible we won't see him all that much in the first half of 2020.
So be it.
I hear what you're saying, Warbler and Joe FOB. But I still find it disturbing how certain criminal behavior—including felonious behavior—is dealt with solely by private institutions.
ReplyDeleteIt's much the same way that we have appointed university boards—which can consist of, say, a prof, an administrator, and the head of the custodial union—to decide what happens to people in rape and sexual assault cases.
I understand that there is a special need for privacy in these sorts of cases, but I still don't trust the complete lack of transparency. And I DON'T think privacy always works for the victim—I think it could be much the opposite.
How do we know, for instance, that they're not threatening/bribing German's alleged victim into silence? Or how do we know they won't do that if some bigger, more important star is involved in some such incident?
Forget Domingo. I suspect his effectiveness as a major-league pitcher is done, and I wouldn't be terribly upset if the Yanks dropped him the minute his fate was determined. Hell, I feel queasy enough having that other smiling maniac closing for our team.
But there's good reason why we bring crime and punishment out into the sunlight, ugly and terrible as it may be. We didn't start doing that because the rich and powerful proved oh so reliable in meting out justice on their own.
I completely agree with Horace on this one. Something is rotten in Denmark and not kosher everywhere.
ReplyDeleteThis celebration and German's alleged transgression was out in public for everyone to see. Yet there is no public comment by anyone. No statement by the MLBPA is particularly disturbing. No police report??? Could it be that in a few short minutes Domino changed from a happy person with his arms around the girlfriend ( as seen in a PR picture) to a violent monster in front of everyone....and yet not one public description? I can definitely see the Yankees pulling a scam to limit his innings as he was fading down the stretch. Athletes on video perpetrating harm to their women for the entire world to see have never gotten the Bum's Rush as has happened to German.
It's not just one thing. It's everything surrounding this supposed happening that makes zero sense to me.
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