For now, the monkey on our back can sleep.
The Death Barge now sits at four games above .500 - 2nd in the AL East, one measly game behind Boston, tied in the loss column. (We host Boston on June 4, following three with the White Sox, three with the Buffalo Blue Jays and four more with Tampa - not counting tonight's game.)
The Yankees have won four straight, eight out of 10.
They are MLB's - and NYC's - second hottest team.
Comrades, we should all be drunk. Yeah, the J-Lo/ Ben thing stings, but compared to April, the cotton is high, and we are frolicking naked in a field of nipples. Though we at IIHIIFIIc rank among his cruelest critics, Cooperstown Cashman's rotation has emerged as a May success. Practice your curtsy, Cash-critics.
Cory Kluber seems to have returned. Domingo German and Jordan Montgomery are pitching well. Jameson Taillon is improving, Deivi Garcia recently threw five shutout innings at Scranton, and I needn't mention King Cole, who last night pitched the best Yankee game in years. (I looked it up: Last season, Cole threw one 7-inning shutout against Baltimore, and J.A. Happ once went 8 to beat Boston, 8-0. But the Redsocks were rancid; last night was Tampa, and 1-0. Bravo.)
Which brings me - gulp - to Clint Frazier.
I believe this mini-winning streak gives Clint another month. But winter is coming to Winterfest. Last night, he went 0-2 with a strikeout, and was thumbed from the game for arguing a third strike. (It doesn't matter that he was right.) Bad form.
Frazier has come to bat 89 times with only 13 hits, batting .146.
If the Yankees were tumbling, his number 77 would become a bullseye.
Back in March, the Gammonites said Frazier needed 200 at bats to prove himself. He's halfway there, and the cliff is within sight. Another bad two weeks, and he could be replaced by Miguel Andujar, or Socrates Brito, or somebody from the vast void of MLB's waiver wire. May is a time when Cashman gets antsy. He won't wait forever.
In the last 30 games, Frazier is .128.
In the last 15, he is .143.
In the last seven, .158.
At this rate, he'll reach .250 around Christmas.
Best guess: If he doesn't break out soon, he'll be in Scranton when Boston visits.
One other thing, while I have you:
They now say seven Yankee coaches/caregivers have tested positive for Covid - all after taking the J&J vaccine. Seven cases? Out of what, 50? All of them vaxxed?
Something aint right.
Seven cases? All vaxxed? Nah, that sounds fishy. That sounds as if somebody isn't telling the truth. Seven cases - all vaxxed? On one team? Okay, the J&J isn't perfect, but still... what are the odds... seven? And still counting.
Nah. Something's screwy here. The Yankees aren't good at telling the truth about injuries. But this aint right.
The Covid breakthroughs are going to be next big thing. They say the rate is very low, but was it very low for the Yankees? No. Closer to my home, a 156 bed nursing home had 12 COVID cases just this week, 11 of them vaccinated. The breakthrough rate isn’t minuscule, it’s really surprising large. This whole thing isn’t as over as we think it is.
ReplyDeleteThe whole thing is making me reconsider a planned trip to California in late June. They were all vaxxed, and are all asymptomatic, but does that mean they can't develop those terrible long-term Covid effects? I don't know.
ReplyDeleteSuddenly, the freer and easier lifestyle I thought was ours seems less easy.
A few things...
ReplyDelete1) The Vax
Isn't it a % thing though? So if Pfizer is 95% effective then 5 out of 100 would have a "breakthrough". The J and J was around 75% effective if I recall. Could be wrong.
Or we could just believe the Yankees lied about who got the shots. Because... they lie about medical stuff all the time.
So JM I guess it comes down to... was it effective for you? (and your wife) because if it was then you should be good. Is there a way to test for the antibodies?
2) Frazier
Apparently it wad the first time he got tossed. So not too much of a hot head. Also he looked very calm when he said whatever he said. It must have been pretty good. Plus, that ump was horrific! Usually an ump will be off on one side of the plate. This guy was off right/left/up and down.
Frazier does need to turn it around though. He should go back to his original batting stance from a couple of years ago. This one is too convoluted.
3) Tampa pitching
It's interesting that last year they had all fire-ballers who throw 97+ and this year they all throw off speed stuff.
Doug K.
When they say a vaccine is 95% effective, it does NOT mean that it prevents COVID-19 infection in 95 out of 100 vaccinated people. I forget exactly what it means, you'll have to check it out yourself, but the medical jargon is extremely convoluted. The real effective rate, what normal people consider to be "efficacy", is much, much lower. So even if you got the vaccine, you still have to be just as careful. Wear masks, distance, avoid crowds, avoid unnecessary outings. Otherwise, you'll get infected.
ReplyDeleteThe Hammer of God
I’m all fr shipping all J&J vaccine to our enemies of the day. Iran, Iraq, Boston - don’t care.
ReplyDeleteJust like size, efficacy counts. Look at Seychelles - the country is 67% vaxxed with Chinapharm and AstraVenica. They’re having a 55% breakout. If they’re just putting water in the needles, why bother?
Look you Glorious Curmudgeons, no vaccine can protect you if you're licking each others bidets and coughing in each others ears. What it does do, and J&J is as good as Pfizer and Moderna, is reduce your risk of severe illness and DEATH. So if you're vaccinated you can still get COVID-19, BUT you don't end up needing oxygen or the ICU or a BOX that 6 of your friends and family use to lug you around.
ReplyDeleteSo: Get Vaccinated. Wear a mask. Stay socially distant. Go to the Stadium on August 18th. No unnecessary canoodling. Although I need all the canoodling I can get at my age.
It's kind of a huge "but." Like mine after 15 months of stress eating and drinking.
Oh so very much drinking.
(Margaritas tonight with three hot women. Sappho rules.)
Thanks for clearing that up. Sorry for misinforming/misunderstanding.
ReplyDeleteI got the Pfizer, still wear a mask, use Purell and had covid a year ago March.
Doug K.
I received Pfizer as well. All you men can get J%J no problem. Young women might want to go with Pfizer or Moderna. You should all be vaccinated before August.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear from an actual doctor, Warbler!
ReplyDeleteAlso, we don't know WHEN they got the vax, as opposed to the Covid. Did they catch it the day before the first vax, then only test positive a week later? Did they just all go out and get drunk, then tell the Yankees they got vaxxed.
Who knows? But I do think that with Phil Nevin out of action there will be a much, much smaller chance of any Yankee getting injured while being thrown out by ten feet at home.
Good point Hoss. Full immunity doesn't occur until two weeks after the last injection. I've seen a number of patients who were vaccinated and then stopped taking precautions on the way home. They predictably were infected within the week of the shot, before they had significant immunity.
ReplyDeletePeople be stupid.
There are a lot of question about the virus that I don't have the answers to. I wonder if anybody really does. And the same goes for the afflicted coaches, although there, you know management knows, but they ain't telling.
ReplyDeleteI've sicced my wife on a fact-finding online expedition and see what she finds.
Just when I had talked myself off the ledge...another possible ledge. Albeit on a lower floor.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone considered that the way the NYYs are playing -- albeit still winning -- would make almost anyone who had to see it close-up (every day) fatigued, puzzled, and sick?
That's what I'm going with until Fauci comes up with one, six, or nine other explanations.
What if there is a Yankee variant?
ReplyDeleteI agree about the Covid.
ReplyDeleteThe great Yankee Lie is in force. Someone has got to leak the truth.
J&J, if no one else, should launch a federal inquiry.
The odds of seven " fully vaccinated " staffers all testing Covid-positive is less than Clint Frazier becoming the American League MVP this year.
Unless they were sharing needles from that lab in China.
Fess up.
We are tired of the Big Lie. You are cowards and fake Yankee fans. This is against the core principles of Baseball.
Perhaps the Yankees got the "Stripper" variant. It's the romantic in me.
ReplyDelete"The odds of seven " fully vaccinated " staffers all testing Covid-positive is less than Clint Frazier becoming the American League MVP this year."
ReplyDeleteHe could get really hot!
Wait.
Nevermind.
Then, he would be benched. You know because he needs the rest. From all those home run trots.
Never mind.
ReplyDeleteAndy Griffith is on cable. He's so sharp. And Aunt Bee it a little difficult to deal with.
Kevin,
ReplyDeleteYou're so romantic!
But Aunt Bee doesn't approve.
G_d, the yankees suck.
ReplyDeleteAnd not in a good way.
Man, looking at this team's lineup today. In a word, "THIN". Lacking a miracle out of the farm system, and/or a monumental trade, this team is going nowhere.
ReplyDeletei told you all I couldn't come up with enough baby goats to sacrifice in appeasement of the JUJU gods. Who stepped forward? Who restrains themselves from saying, "But you were KIDDING, right? Make all the jokes you want-- you mocked the JUJU gods with your reverse psychology. You made your bed. Now lie in it. In your goat-less abbatoir.
ReplyDeleteJust saying.
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