Thursday, August 13, 2020

Pass it on: If Boone doesn't start playing Clint Frazier full-time... we riot

Shhh. You know the rule: Nobody talks about the jailbreak until... the jailbreak! Just go about your business. Avoid eye contact. Wait for the moment when everything snaps. Then - kabam! - suddenly, it's Minneapolis, it's Portland, it's Chicago! No justice, no peace! Suddenly, we push the button. 

That's right. I'm talking about the Crocodile Hunter's daughter. I'm talking about those baby-snatching dingoes. I'm talking Serengeti. I'm talking penguins. Enough is enough. We grab the channel-changer and switch from YES to Animal Planet.

If Boone doesn't start playing Clint Frazier full time, everyday - not a platoon, a player - we check out the polar bears.

Tonight, the Yankees rest. Normally, that would be fine. In this case, though, it's dangerous. It gives the creative chess-master Aaron Boone a full 36 hours to rationalize a lineup that doesn't include Frazier. That's one of Boone's cognitive talents and managerial legacies: A batter goes 3-4 with a HR, and - like Kurt Vonnegut imagining Ice-9 - Boone somehow concocts a Betsy DeVos plan to bench the guy. It's amazing, like treating leeches with leeches. If Frazier last night had gone 0-5, Boone might start him Friday, figuring he needs a boost. But going 3 for 4? That means he's delivered his hits for the week. 

Friday, the Death Star hosts last-place Boston. The current pitching match-ups show two of the game's most mysterious starters: TBD v TBD. Probably, that means a RH tilt of Redsock pitchers, which could prompt Boone to play Brett Gardner, Mike Tauchman and Mike Ford - all of whom are fine human beings, credit to their species, etc. - but none who just went 3-4 with a HR.

Surely, some of you are wondering why I'm popping off like this. Frazier homered yesterday and - with DJ LeMahiue - led the Yankees to a critical victory. Surely, the brain trust will keep him in the lineup. Surely, he won't get dispatched to the Scranton mines before Shark Week has ended. Surely, the Yankees will give him his long-awaited chance. Right?

Well, let's see. Just keep your head down. No talking in the commissary. By mid-Friday, we'll know. (And how about them Astros! Turns out, guessing on pitches must be harder than they thought.)

12 comments:

  1. Ice-9 put out some pretty good music back in the day.

    I've got my Captain America helmet all ready to go, but the question is -- WHERE do we riot? HAL's yacht club? The Metropolitan Club? (sweet two-fer there)

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  2. Rufus, a lot of interesting things seem to happen at the Mayflower Hotel. Maybe we can go there.

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  3. Ma Boone’s strategy:“Kill your darlings.”

    A caption from a photo included with an online article “New study shows best and worst face masks to guard against coronavirus” –

    “New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone wears a neck gaiter as a mask during a baseball summer training camp workout at Yankee Stadium, Wednesday, July 8, 2020, in New York. Duke University researchers concluded in a new study that a gaiter does more harm than good.”

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  4. 3 hits against bad pitching, time to trade him to KC.

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  5. I have to wonder if Boone makes ANY decisions. Every move has the feel that Cashman's stats nerds are telling him what to do. The bullpen usage and the lineups sometimes border on the bizarre.

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  6. It's a myth that Cashman is a creature of anonymous "stat nerds." In reality, he's leashed to the corporate marketing whims of Randy Levine and Hal Steinbrenner. The "stat nerds" would never have counseled him to take on that insane Stanton contract--those long-term megabuck deals for free agents about to pass their peak years have been out of fashion with the sabremetric community since forever--and for good reason, because the guy who might give you one or two great years at the beginning of the deal will be your worst player for the last seven or so years (cf. Albert Pujols, consistently one of the worst players in baseball for the past few years).

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  7. Yes, guessing is much harder than knowing. And I agree with you the anonymous anon.


    Fuck you to death Altuve, with Cashman's severed leg.




    Foot removed of course, because it'd be really gross and weird if the foot was still attached.

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  8. Boone & co. will rest Frazier on Friday, I'm pretty sure. Whether Boone takes orders from Cashman or the other numbnuts, it's almost a sure thing that someone who hits has to rest the next game, even with an off day in between. You don't want them getting too hot. It's not fair to the other team's pitchers.

    BTW, think Frazier might have helped us win another game or two against the Rays just recently?

    The Hammer of God

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  9. I agree: The Hammer speaks the truth.

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  10. JM,

    I thought the Mayflower closed? Or has it just turned into a private place for people like Client #9?

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