But another reason to be relieved is - well - our lack of relief.
Throughout the 2020 post-season, the Death Star never found one lights-out pitcher - a "MUTE" button, if you will - to silence the opposition.
On our staff, only two marginal mopper-uppers - Michael King and Nick Nelson - threw 0.00 ERAs. (Each pitched two innings.) Our ace, Gerrit Cole, made three starts, 18.1 innings, overall - and surrendered six earned runs. Cole gave us what he had. But in Game 7, on short rest, he couldn't pitch into the seventh. (Not his fault. If we could have - say - scored four runs, Cole might have gone the distance. But we didn't... and he didn't... and here we are...)
Neither our super-sweater closer, Aroldis Chapman, nor our chief set-up man Zack Britton pitched to their pay-grades. Both gave up earned runs - in el Chapo's case, a humdinger. Britton pitched 5.1 innings and gave up two earned runs - as did Mean Chad Green.
Nobody stepped forward to throw a blanket on smoldering rallies. Nobody came to raise blood pressures in the Rays dugout. And that, my friends, is the story of 2020: The vaunted Yankee bullpen, hailed in March as the game's best, never materialized.
Tampa unveiled power arms with 100-mph heat, like the Chapman of old. But the "guns" of the Yankee pen - Ben Heller, Jonathan Loaisiga, Jonathan Holder, Adam Ottavino, Michael Yajure, Albert Abreu, Brooks Kriske - never produced a breakthrough. We spent the year bemoaning the loss of Tommy Kahnle, as if he were a top closer. (Don't get me wrong: Losing Kahnle hurt, but on the bullpen, he was probably the fourth weapon, and every team in baseball lost somebody.)
So, what about 2021? Well, add another year to Chapman, Britton, Ottavino and Green, and it's hard to imagine them improving. That means we head into another winter where Cooperstown Cashman will be in his usual element: trading off prospects - (Estevan Florial, Oswald Peraza) and former future Yankee stars - (Gary Sanchez, Miguel Andujar) -for a bullpen lug nut, whose best days might be behind him.
Yeah, who wanted to be in that stupid world series, anyway? It's not a real season. They won't be real rings. A parade would only spread the virus. We're better off, sitting at home. Those grapes, they look sour.
I would again like to point out that, generally speaking, we suck.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, did you notice how the Dodgers crushed Tampa last night? Home runs, yes, but baserunning, stealing, singles, taking pitches, wearing out the starter...it reminded me of the late 90s Yankees. You know, guys who make plays defensively and hit in the clutch (which stats prove is not a thing). I can't remember how many times I used to hear commentators talk about how the Yankees took so many pitches back then and fouled off only the close ones. They didn't swing at the low and outside garbage that strikes out Sanchez, Stanton, and Judge.
Sanchez is not a future Yankees star. He's Kevin Maas with worse defense. Andujar is another story. He's a keeper, even if we don't know where to keep him.
Can you imagine spending 2 billion dollars in 20 years and you get 1 WS win. I saw on another website that Cashman's under the radar moves have fueled this team for the last 2-3 years. Well that's because the "on the radar" moves have sucked. In 2017 you were a pitcher away from hitting the big time, but no, HOF Cashman had to spend Hal's bonus $$$ on Stanton, the best HR hitter when you are either up/down by 10 runs. So now we are cash(man) strapped again. Where are we going to get the money to sign DJ, etc. Well to take a line from "It's A Wonderful life" that money is in Stanton's house and Chapman's House and Hick's house and all we have left is $2.00. But the media will continue to say that Cashman is one the best GM's ever, it's too the point that Joe Biden is asked harder questions than Cashman.
ReplyDeleteMore like $3-5 billion, Celerino.
ReplyDeleteYeah, what a mess. You guys are right. Not only has the core of the Dream Team of 2017 rotted away, we're also down to 1 starter and maybe 1-2 relievers.
For that matter, it's a been a lesson to watch cookie play. Cashie might have signaled to him to be a free agent, or he might have demanded Yelich when he could have had him. Instead, he signed on with Hicks for many years to come.
By next season, this Yankees team should be on the big, downward slide.
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