Thursday, January 30, 2020

At catcher, it's Gary, Higgy and the Elders

This week, the Death Star annexed another scrap heap catcher, 33-year-old Josh Thole who, FUN FACT: In eight MLB seasons he has somehow managed to hit only 9 home runs. Nine. No juiced ball/video cheating allegations for him! Thole has spent the last three years ricocheting around the minors, hitting .243 last season in various backwaters. He'll probably spend most of 2020 in exotic Scranton (or mysterious Wilkes Barre.) 

Thole now gives us a nuclear triad of recently-signed veteran backup backstops - Chris Iannetta and Erik Kratz are the other two - to form the safety net below Kyle Higashioka, when Gary Sanchez goes down for his annual month in the hot tub. 

There is no "if" about Sanchez getting hurt. There is only a "when" and a "how bad will it be?" The man is a veritable walking tweaked-gonad.

No starter drives Yank fans crazier than Sanchez, who last year appeared in 106 games and hit 34 HRs. Often, on ESPN broadcasts, Alex Rodriguez would extol Sanchez as the Yankees' best hitter, the most feared bat in the lineup. But what we would see was a guy who strikes out at a rate of one-in-four at-bats, and who - though his defense did improve last year - remains a wild card of streakiness and lost potential. Maybe it's unfair to Gary. After his explosive arrival in 2016, Sanchez faced impossible expectations, beyond the capabilities of any rookie. He was never going to bat .299, as he did in that second half of 2016. Still, ever since, we have watched bad habits transform him from a future consensus all-star into a potential defensive albatross. And this winter, we cut the cord with Austin Romine.

Now, when Sanchez rests his hammy for six weeks, it will be Higgy and the blood donors. Whomever it turns out to be, he will bat ninth, be replaced for pinch runners (if not pinch hitters), and be expected only to provide defense. (The Higster does have power; last year he hit 20 HR in Scranton.) It's revealing  - and potentially ominous - that Brian Cashman, in the final days of winter, is hording cheap backups, obviously hoping to find something... anything. 

After Gerrit Cole signed, it quickly became apparent that he was the Yankee off-season spending project, and that Romine and Sir Didi were goners. No Yankee fan worth his Altuve pin-cushion will underestimate the loss of either - though Romine remains one of the great successes of the Yankee farm system in this millennium. I'm glad he'll get a chance to play every day in Detroit, and it wouldn't surprise me if Romine is playing next July in the all-star game, where Sanchez was supposed to be a fixture. We might have let the wrong catcher go.

Certainly, the Yankees have enough firepower to carry a .200-hitting, defense-only catcher in their lineup. Hell, if Giancarlo and Judge stay healthy, they alone should carry the team. Ah, but there's that word - "if." Last year, every "if" went against us. That means in 2020, get ready for Thole, Iannetta and Kratz. (Oh, my.) 

Thole, Iannetta and Kratz (oh my.) Thole, Iannetta and Kratz (oh my.) 

We may need 50 games from them. Oh, my.

15 comments:

  1. Needing 50 games from that trio is not the mark of great planning. It's clear dumping Romine was to save a few million. It was a money decision not a baseball one. No one in their right mind would put themselves in the position where one of the Three Bears would get any playing time. It shows Hal and Cash aren't serious about winning.



    Fuck them.

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  2. If I was going to start a band, which would undoubtedly be looking to overcome a severe shortage of talent, I'd definitely call it Higgy and the Blood Donors

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  3. Injury-prone power-hitting gargantuans are not to be relied on. Neither is Sanchez.

    I've said it before, but we got Cole and then weakened the team in ways that negate his addition. Only Hal and Cashman could pull that off and still get positive media attention, because while others may cheat, only Hal and Cashman have sold their souls to the devil.

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  4. I will again postulate that Romine might have preferred to be a starter. So while more money might have kept him, all things being equal,he might have wanted to go.

    Also, is Higgy bad? I didn't get that from him. He's a back up. He hit .278 last year with a .929 ops. In Scranton. Why assume he'll suck.

    Romine was really good last year but hit .244 .218 .242 the three years prior to that.

    So who is to say? Not me.

    Doug K.


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  5. HIGGY, THOLE, IANETTA, AND KRATZ.

    BREAK IT DOWN AT , WHAT, $600,000 APIECE?

    THAT`S $2.4 MILLION.

    ROMINE LEFT FOR $4 MILLION.

    SO IDIOTIC TO LEAVE A GLARING WEAKNESS OUT THERE FOR SO LITTLE MONEY.

    BABY HUEY JUST CAN'T BE TRUSTED TO PUT EVEN A HALF SEASON TOGETHER.

    CRAZY.

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  6. Anonymous....less than half of that.
    Higgy is getting $ 583,500 or 20K more than the MLB minimum salary of $563,500.

    The other 3 will all make Minor League baseball salaries except the short time any of them stay with the Yankees. So figure $ 90,000 in minors salary and not much more with a pro-rated, short-term advancement and I'd say at least one gets cut by Opening Day.

    So, here is the entire ball of wax for backup catching:

    Higashioka........................... $ 583.500
    2 MiLB catchers combined prorated................$ 220.000
    Total Yankee Backup catcher comp.................$ 803.500


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  7. I have todisagree with your point about Stanton. Specifically, I am in the camp that says:

    If he stays healthy we are worse off than if he gets injured.

    What can a healthy stanton do?

    - play the worst defense of any major league outfielder
    - strike our 250 times
    - hit 35 solo homers that don't matter.
    - preen around in the dugout.
    - be in advertisements for lozitrel.

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  8. I agree with Doug K. on this one. While it would have been preferable to keep Romine, it sure looked like Higgy is a decent backup. The pitchers seemed to like throwing to him. So I think it'll be all right.

    The other route would have been to try to trade for a left hand hitting catcher. But we know something that intelligent is beyond Cashman's abilities. Even now, it would be smart to try to trade for a minor league catching prospect, since Sanchez is so frequently injured.

    The Hammer of God

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  9. We'll be lucky if it's just 50 games. And I agree with ALL-CAPS: it's a ridiculous weakening for so little money.

    Yes, the team will be better with Cole. And yes, it will PROBABLY be better if Giancarlo can play, although Alphonso's point is well-taken. But why not meet Romine's price?

    Silly, silly, silly.

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  10. Why not, Hoss? Because they don't care about winning. And they may not understand, almost certainly don't understand, that playing winning baseball has multiple layers of subtlety that's not measured by advanced statistics. I remember '98. That team did everything right. Every game was a clinic on how to win. Catchers are very important to winning. No one knows how to measure what they do, except the obvious like passed balls.


    Fuck them. Fuck. Them.

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  11. Well said El Duque. A sickening thought. One of the stiffs or blood donors and Tyler wade batting eighth and ninth, when Manager Kumbaya plans his rest for players. EDB

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  12. Well said El Duque. A sickening thought, Nohitgoshioka or one of the other stiffs in the lineup, back to back with Tyler Wade, on a Sunday. This is when Manager Kumbaya, likes to rest his players at the same time and weaken the lineup.

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  13. I did think they don't care about winning at all, Warbler—but then why sign Cole?

    I think the real reason is the second one you cite: they don't understand. Or to quote Baker's Axiom: "Never underestimate the role of stupidity in human affairs."

    Cashman was actually in the room with the sacred trinity—Michael, Showalter, and Watson—and he learned nothing, none of the subtleties about winning that you astutely note.

    What WAS he thinking? Probably, "Geez, these guys are really pissing off George. They should be kissing his ass much, much more."

    And hence, a star is born.

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