Tauchman lf (Our SB threat.)
Judge rf (No-brainer.)
Voit 1b (No-brainer II.)
Urshela 3b (Still hitting.)
Frazier/Ford dh (Can one get hot?)
Hicks/Gardy cf (Both on downward trajectory; fingers crossed?)
Sanchez c (Is he really better than Kratch?)
Wade ss (No other choice.)
Estrada 2b (Ditto.)
The key here is Tauchman at the top. WTF not? Why do we insist that Hicks will suddenly start hitting, as he did for half a season in 2017? And though he's on fire right now, Voit is simply too slow a base-runner to lead off. Let him protect Judge in the order. This season is rapidly aging: If a player has not started hitting by now, should we reasonably think he will?
And then there is Miguel Andujar. Insert sigh here. Frankly, until somebody pops another gonad - probably tomorrow - we have no seat on this bus for the Migster. He can't play 3B. He can't play LF. He isn't hitting enough to DH. With the trade deadline approaching, his value continues to plummet. At this point, he might bring us little more than bullpen lug nut. And if we deal him, he could easily become the Voit/Urshela/Tauchman story for another team, a star player for the next decade. Still, short of an injury to Urshela, he has almost no path to real playing time. What a loss.
Thus, we should fear the worst: Andujar and a prospect for some overpriced inner tube, a Sidney Ponson who will contribute 15 to 25 lackluster innings and then disappear by Thanksgiving. Does the name Sonny Gray strike a familiar note?
We are entering the most terrifying week of this miniature season: The trade deadline - our annual Pearl Harbor. Here is when Cooperstown Cashman traditionally trades our future for someone else's past. Even if it seems like a good deal at the time, it generally levels off. In this case, no matter who we obtain, we could fall in the playoffs' first round, because there is no truth in a three-game set. There is only summary judgment, swift and final.
One possible advantage: Right now, we should get back LeMahieu, Gleyber, Stanton and Paxton, or at least some of them. (You cannot trust what the Yankees say; they simply lie, and I seriously doubt Paxton will return.) Meanwhile, we need either Frazier, Ford, Hicks, Gardner or Sanchez to heat up. One or two might. That would make a huge difference.
But be afraid. Cashman is working the phones. Be very afraid.
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8 comments:
I still think Miggy at third isn't such a disaster. He was there in 2018 and somehow we survived. He wasn't awful.
True, Gio is a real defensive upgrade. But I wonder if Gio couldn't move to another position more easily than Mig. Not that there's one open for him to slide into, although I have no idea if he could handle short. He certainly would have to be as good as Torres there.
I still say DJ should be back at first and Torres should go back to second, where he's better. But all of this is pointless. Nothing is going to change. We're screwed.
I used to think there was an axiom in baseball that a starting player should never lose his job due to an injury.
With that in mind, I would like to suggest that as much as everyone fell in love with the sudden emergence of Gio, losing Andujar’s bat in the lineup on a regular basis is another one of the ongoing tragedies that have befallen the Yankees. Andujar is our third baseman or he will be someone else’s.
The Yankees braintrust, such as it is, has made a habit of creating negative value by leaving players hanging in the wind, as though they were in a staye of perpetual walk-on tryouts. Adding to this difficulty is the unfathomable habit of paying exorbitant sums of money to supposed superstars. It’s becoming a habit: frivolously spend large sums of money in the fifth-Avenue stores, then rummage around in Goodwill for what you really need. It’s a losing proposition in spite of the Yankees being the most highly valued franchise in baseball.
The organization has lost its rudder, and I believe the Yankees are content to be competitive pretenders rather than striving to be champions. There are too many well-run teams like Oakland and Tampa (and especially the fucking Dodgers) who get more bang for their buck as organizations.
But nothing will change. As long as the cash register keeps ringing, and as long as vanilla characters like Hal, and Brian, and Aaron are the heart and soul of the Yankees, they will be never be anything but a pleasant diversion that comes tantalizingly close to being champions, year in and year out.
We had better get used to it.
A few things...
1) Yes Tauchman leading off until DJ gets back. Hicks should bat 8th or 9th. He's not consistent enough to hit in the top of the line up.
Line up should be:
Tauchman
Judge
Voit
Frazier
Urshala
Estrada
Hicks
Sanchez
Wade
Bad team BTW. Having DJ back will change everything. Getting Gleyber back is another lineup saver. Patience. It doesn't matter who wins the division.
2) Watched the end of a couple of Rays games over the weekend. They win the one run games.
They do it with pitching and defense and this thing called timely hitting.
I'm not sure what that is because I've never seen it before but it has something to do with getting guys in from second or third with less than two outs with out hitting a home run. Must be something new.
3) As mentioned earlier the Yankees should try to get back Romine. Not expensive. One year contract. Major upgrade. Should cost too much in prospects. Tigers going nowhere.
4) AnDUjar - Stand pat. It sucks for him but you will notice that Frazier has managed to survive (and is starting to prosper)
Last... All the teams are dealing with injuries, insane schedules, hitting funks...
Make the playoffs, which we will, get healthy, get hot. We could win it all. We could get swept at home by the Toronto Blue Jays in the first round. The only thing I'm sure of is Boston Sucks.
Doug K.
Romine - Should NOT cost too much. Sorry. Read it four times and still didn't see the omission.
Doug K.
Could not have put it better myself, Richie Allen. Andujar is well on the way to being destroyed through inaction and lack of confidence, as so many other Yankees prospects have been before.
Nonetheless, I don't see what we could possibly get back for him that would be worth the risk.
This kid hit like DiMaggio in his rookie year. Trust that. Build that back.
And Doug K., I agree, EXCEPT: put Aaron Judge in the 3 or 4 spot. Let him bat constantly with men on base, and a chance to drive them in.
Amen, RichieAllen. Although as Doug K. thinks, we may have a puncher's chance of winning this thing this year. If all the planets align during the playoffs. But yeah, spending frivolously on Fifth Avenue, and then rummaging at Goodwill's, a very good description of what the Yankee front office does.
Regardless of what happens this year, the entire front office should be fired. I know, I know, it ain't going to happen.
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