Friday, October 30, 2020

Keep 'em or bleep 'em: Today's missing links across the tortured Yankiverse

Four days until the chads start hanging, winter begins, and the first shots are fired upon Fort Sumner, aka the Hot Stove League. Here's the news across a stressed-out Yankiverse: 

Yanks re-up with Zack.  They have exercised  the option on Zack Britton's contract. Good. He's their best closer, also the team's union rep. (I get nervous when teams drop union lug nuts, and a strike looms in 2022.) Now, if only there was a way to ditch El Chapo... 

Yanks ditch Hap and Gardy.  (Wait, is this a Joe R. Lansdale book?) Good riddance to J.A. Happ, who disappointed from the day he arrived in his casket. (Fun Fact: Brandon Drury and Billy McKinney, whom we traded for him, didn't pan out either.) Yankee Stadium isn't big enough for a gopher baller. Plus, the guy is 38. Too old. 

Then there is Gardy, who will be 38 this year. Insert sigh here. I go back and forth, wishy-washy, up-n-down, on Gardy.  It's hard to see him in another jersey, or banging his bat on the roof of another dugout. But - yeesh - even with a strong last week, he still batted .223. Look, he's not Amy Covid-Barrett; the Yankees aren't a lifetime appointment. Now and then, it sure would be nice to see a rookie. Would Estevan Florial do the same... for a lot less money?

A call for the Yanks to sign Indians closer - now free agent - Brad Hand. What's the diff? They won't. It's only October, and Food Stamps Hal is already hitting the talk shows, poor-mouthing and rattling the cup. It's free agent time, and for the next week, the Internet will be jammed with broken heroes on a last-chance power drive. They'll all be wheedling for calls from Cooperstown Cashman. But payrolls will shrink. Remember how two years ago, the Death Star broke its skein of seasons with payrolls over the luxury tax limit? How it meant that we would be able to spend more freely? That ended quickly, eh? We're back to yelling that money doesn't grow on trees, even though - for billionaires - it sorta does. 

A question: Are the Dodgers are the greatest team ever? No. They're not. Who the fuck writes this crap, anyway? Why would anybody even think this? Excuse me: I've got some doom-scrolling to do. 

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Don't delay! Sign Brad Hand and D.J.! Don't mess around!

ranger_lp said...

Hand, 30, led the American League with 16 saves this year and posted a 22-to-4 K/BB ratio with a 2.05 ERA over the life of 22 innings. He had a few hiccups in the ninth inning early on, but Hand’s overall results fall right in line with his All-Star track record. Since being unearthed by the Padres on a waiver claim back in 2016, Hand owns a 2.70 ERA with 12.2 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and 0.87 HR/9.

Waiver priority at this juncture is based on reverse order of the league-wide standings. That’d give the Pirates, Rangers, Tigers, Red Sox, D-backs, Orioles, Nationals, Mets, Rockies and Angels first crack at Hand, in that order. Most of those clubs are rebuilding or cutting costs themselves, but it’s feasible that a team like the Red Sox, Nats, Mets or Angels could place a claim with an eye toward contending in 2021.

Frankly, revenue losses notwithstanding, it’s arguable that any club should welcome the chance to bring Hand into the fold. There’s not a team that wouldn’t be bettered by adding a pitcher of this caliber to its relief corps, and the one-year, $10MM price point would be considered a bargain under normal market circumstances.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/10/indians-brad-hand-closer-waivers.html

Anonymous said...

Gardy can be re-signed for less. Declining the option and paying the buyout just sets the stage for a negotiation unless... they are finally willing to cut the cord. Bleep 'Em. No disrespect to Gardy just trying to stay within the parameters of the post.

Doug K.



HoraceClarke66 said...

Yeah, they should grab Hand if they can. Bolstering the pen is the one thing the Yanks could do now, and for relatively little money. It's really something you need to do every year.

But I doubt if they will.

HoraceClarke66 said...

And no, the 2020 Dodgers are not the greatest team of all time, for several reasons, but mostly because you can't just play 60 games and be the greatest anything. The test of the long season is that it is...long.

Look at the 2018 Dodgers, another terrific team, that was 74-31 headed into August. They went only 30-27 through the rest of the season, made it to the Series, but then lost by five games (Admittedly, to the Boston Cheaters).

Things like that happen when you play the full 162.

Alphonso said...

Do whatever you want. Or don't.

It ain't gonna matter.

Wild card is our pinnacle.

We cannot shake the burden, the weight, the yoke of Giancarlo.

Not for seven years.

Thank you , Hal.. You are a brilliant man. The heart and sole of mediocrity.

Which is, typically, how long the plague lasts.

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