All right, what we just saw today was a perfect illustration—in one play!—of why:
—Gary Sanchez is a terrible hitter.
—This new idiot is, indeed, even worse that anyone already in the YES booth.
—No one in baseball is brought up right anymore.
—Ma Boone should not be managing in the major leagues.
—How the front office guys in MLB always love to screw the Yankees.
The play: Urshela triples with 1 out, and the Yanks already up, 3-0, against old friend, J.A. Happ. Sancho is up next. Can he manage to put the ball in the air or just hit a slow ground to score Urshela?
No, he cannot. He strikes out—against a pitcher with a 5.61 ERA.
Two outs—but the next pitch is a wild one, which bounces right back to the catcher (are they making the backstops out of old trampoline now?). In any case, Happ covers the plate. He does this literally, by dropping down right on the plate, wholly covering it with his backside.
Gio, in a sad reflection of how badly baseball is taught today, does NOT slide in feet first. Maybe Happ, sitting on the plate would think twice about getting even a rubber spike in the mouth.
Happ tags Gio with his hand that does NOT have the ball. Gio keeps sort of sliding into Happ, hands first. His paws disappear under Happ and a cloud of dirt. Happ—STILL SITTING ON THE PLATE—half-rolls over and tags him with the ball.
The call on the field: SAFE.
The Twins appeal, of course. Now, what does ANY halfway decent Yankees manager do in this situation?
Race out to the umps and tell them there's no need for an appeal: Happ was, obviously, blocking the plate. You can't block the plate anymore, right?
Nope. Boone doesn't budge. (Have the guys taken to gorilla-gluing his pants to the bench every night as a loving bit of hijinks? Just wondering.)
The appeal drags on. The MLB office in New York—suspiciously nearby the abandoned warehouse the juju gods use—rules against the Yankees, of course.
And of course any real major-league manager would've been out there furiously asking if they were using new x-ray technology, as that is the only possible way they could tell where Gio's hands were.
But nope, not a peep from Ma. And not a peep from the new idiot in the booth, save to assure us that Gio was out.
Sigh.
A confederacy of dunces. That's what we're up against, gentlemen.
Apparently, Tallion tried out the sticky stuff when he was rehabing but didn't like it. So he's not using it. Not that we needed to reassured that he wasn't; it's clear from his pitching he isn't.
I'm convinced that Michael King will win not less than two hundred games in the Majors. Gittens not less than three hundred home runs with an OPS+ of >150. Florial >.300/.360/.525 400HR and, The Martian .330/.400/.600 600HR 400SB. I am on the low side with some of these numbers, wouldn't want to put any pressure on these guys.... Gotta admit that the Future looks bright.
Okay, first, just to inject a little sanity into the conversation (I know, why should I do that now?), the Yankees left 8 men on base—NOT 22. That 22 number comes from YES' inane habit of adding together every man left on base by every hitter in its box scores.
So in other words, when, in the first inning, Judge singles, Torres singles, and Stanton homers...YES counts that as Torres leaving a man on base.
I know, this has fooled me at times, too, on a quick glance. They ought to stop it...
Chapman--another example of the Cashman Dance of Franchise Death: coveting and signing "name" players as they push to thirty and beyond, on the down side of their careers, pissing away money and years of lost opportunities in the process. The guy knows only two things: big-ass catastrophic contracts and dumpster diving. He has no clue about building a franchise or a minor-league system. He really has no clue about sabremetrics as practice by serious devotees of the craft--they would never have signed Ellsbury, Stanton, LeMahieu, etc., for reasons that should be obvious to anyone with an IQ over 100, and I'm sure Cashman's is not. He's the kind of guy who thinks it's brilliant to hire a manager with no coaching experience in baseball at any level. And so on--into the abyss.
Hey, so your closer who's pitched very well all year doesn't have it, and fails to get a man out. Bummer. But not every closer is The Great One.
But...but...
Hate to keep harping on it, but it makes Boone's blunder in the first inning all the bigger.
You get up 4-0 in the first—with the inning not even over!—on a team you've already pummeled twice, and inevitably, a little something inside them starts hearing the siren song of that hot Annie over cold beer. Without even consciously thinking about it, the Twins are looking for stamps so they can mail this one in.
3-0 is a whole other story. 3-0 is salvageable. When it becomes 3-1 after the bottom of the first, it's even more plausible.
And why did that happen? Because the Yankees' manager decided not to press it. Because he was not looking to win the game there...
Thing is, there are times when you cannot cannot cannot let up. You can't take the pedal off the metal.
I always felt that Billy was, ultimately a bad and self-destructive manager because he NEVER knew when to let up. He burned out teams, burned out himself. Again and again and again.
But when it's June and your team has already turned in two of the worst stretches of baseball played by a Yankees team in living memory—maybe, two of the worst by any Yankees team EVER—and when they are committing awful mental errors nearly every night—you need to get on them.
You need to get on umps who are choosing to ignore the rule book. You need to get on everyone possible to wake up this team of distracted dawdlers and make them pay attention again.
You can't block home plate. That's the new rule. Period. You cover the whole of home plate with your tookus and refuse to move, that's blocking the plate.
Billy Martin would've screamed bloody murder until he was ejected. He would've then fined Gio $500 for not sliding in feet first and "accidentally" kicking Happ in the teeth. To win you first of all have to want to win.
Horace, I got my figure of 22 from MLB.com. This is the "new way"? Plum stupid. I agree with you, this team plays to much like the manager's personality. If he is (directed?) to manage without inspiration, emotion, but instead like the solution to an equation, why should the players act likewise? I've read too many books that detailed full seasons. Pro players want to know where they stand in the eyes of the organization. I.E. , talented players want to bat in the first half of the lineup. And they should. The equations may say that a star should hit eight against a particular starter, but those guys get offended, and frequently sulk. (Personally I think that they should do as they're told considering the salaries, but big salaries bring entitlement). The trick is to sell a happy medium to the players which is what Boone's real job is. He doesn't seem as though he actually buys into it (being an ex-player), ergo, he is a lousy salesman who needs to go. Cashman, still a young man for a GM has grown increasingly inflexible; to slow to recognize when an good idea just isn't so good when dealing with players who seem to be either offended by many of the System's premises, or mentally overwhelmed with some of the concepts that are trying to be instilled. Hell, maybe the coaches are overwhelmed?
Not to be a contrarian but I like the way they do LOB. I look at it this way
Second and third no one out.
Sanchez strikes out. He left two. Frazier strikes out. He left two too. Gardy pops up. He left two too too.
That's six. I understand that the maximum runs that could have been scored is only two. So they left two guys on BUT the six number is more accurate in terms of ineptness.
Here's why just saying two doesn't cut it for me.
If the first two batters in the inning made out and then two guys get on and the next batter makes out there were two LOB.
In my initial example using the old style of accounting there were also two LOB. But the level of failure is NOT equal.
Saying six goes to just how inept the batters were in that inning.
In the two out example it's a failure but - hey that's baseball.
In the "six" example that's a much bigger failure and the higher number more accurately reflects that.
Just my opinion.Either way they left too many men on base last night and blew the game because of it.
I dunno, Doug. I mean, 5 runs scored, 8 LOB is not a horrible offensive night. 5 runs, 22 LOB in the traditional sense, IS. (I think the LOB record is something like 19.)
Bedrock is, I think, that no hitter should ever get an LOB for reaching base safely. If, say, there's a guy on third and you're walked intentionally, why should that be a negative stat for you? Similarly, as happened last night, there's a guy on first, you hit a single, and the next guy homers, you should not get a negative stat.
Kevin, I think you hit the nail on the head with your assessment of this. From everything I've read, a good, truly confident leader—in politics, business, or what-have-you—will hire on smart people who are likely to challenge his assumptions in some ways.
Cashman seems to have just hired on more people who agree with him. Despite steadily diminishing returns.
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This will be painful no matter the outcome because these Yankees suck.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe these games count. They should be like exhibition games.
ReplyDeleteAll right, what we just saw today was a perfect illustration—in one play!—of why:
ReplyDelete—Gary Sanchez is a terrible hitter.
—This new idiot is, indeed, even worse that anyone already in the YES booth.
—No one in baseball is brought up right anymore.
—Ma Boone should not be managing in the major leagues.
—How the front office guys in MLB always love to screw the Yankees.
The play: Urshela triples with 1 out, and the Yanks already up, 3-0, against old friend, J.A. Happ. Sancho is up next. Can he manage to put the ball in the air or just hit a slow ground to score Urshela?
No, he cannot. He strikes out—against a pitcher with a 5.61 ERA.
Two outs—but the next pitch is a wild one, which bounces right back to the catcher (are they making the backstops out of old trampoline now?). In any case, Happ covers the plate. He does this literally, by dropping down right on the plate, wholly covering it with his backside.
Gio, in a sad reflection of how badly baseball is taught today, does NOT slide in feet first. Maybe Happ, sitting on the plate would think twice about getting even a rubber spike in the mouth.
Happ tags Gio with his hand that does NOT have the ball. Gio keeps sort of sliding into Happ, hands first. His paws disappear under Happ and a cloud of dirt. Happ—STILL SITTING ON THE PLATE—half-rolls over and tags him with the ball.
The call on the field: SAFE.
The Twins appeal, of course. Now, what does ANY halfway decent Yankees manager do in this situation?
Race out to the umps and tell them there's no need for an appeal: Happ was, obviously, blocking the plate. You can't block the plate anymore, right?
Nope. Boone doesn't budge. (Have the guys taken to gorilla-gluing his pants to the bench every night as a loving bit of hijinks? Just wondering.)
The appeal drags on. The MLB office in New York—suspiciously nearby the abandoned warehouse the juju gods use—rules against the Yankees, of course.
And of course any real major-league manager would've been out there furiously asking if they were using new x-ray technology, as that is the only possible way they could tell where Gio's hands were.
But nope, not a peep from Ma. And not a peep from the new idiot in the booth, save to assure us that Gio was out.
Sigh.
A confederacy of dunces. That's what we're up against, gentlemen.
Did Minnesota not get the memo about Spider Tack?
ReplyDeleteThe hits keep on coming...Happless pitching another gem...
ReplyDeleteGio has the two hardest part of the cycle.
ReplyDeleteApparently, Tallion tried out the sticky stuff when he was rehabing but didn't like it. So he's not using it. Not that we needed to reassured that he wasn't; it's clear from his pitching he isn't.
ReplyDeleteLucas Lugnut. Jesus.
ReplyDeleteJM, he was a great pick up! Brain is a freaking genius!
ReplyDeleteI'm convinced that Michael King will win not less than two hundred games in the Majors. Gittens not less than three hundred home runs with an OPS+ of >150. Florial >.300/.360/.525 400HR and, The Martian .330/.400/.600 600HR 400SB. I am on the low side with some of these numbers, wouldn't want to put any pressure on these guys.... Gotta admit that the Future looks bright.
ReplyDeleteThese guys have a real killer instinct... 22 LOB. W...T...F.
ReplyDeleteAnndddd.... Chappie coughs it up. Great.
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell just happened?
ReplyDeleteWTF?
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. What better way to lose than by leaving 22 on base. I just had the feeling. If Boone isn't fired......
ReplyDeleteIf we're hovering around .500 at the trade deadline I wonder if there's any chance they move Chapo
ReplyDeleteAs my father yelled, when I was small, and he was grooming in the bathroom, and I heard a crash: "Christ all shit!"
ReplyDeleteI was a Catholic on my mother's side, and I thought that was the worst thing I'd ever heard. Little did I know!
Alphonso warned you that it was all an illusion. Now watch what happens against some real competition.
ReplyDeleteOkay, first, just to inject a little sanity into the conversation (I know, why should I do that now?), the Yankees left 8 men on base—NOT 22. That 22 number comes from YES' inane habit of adding together every man left on base by every hitter in its box scores.
ReplyDeleteSo in other words, when, in the first inning, Judge singles, Torres singles, and Stanton homers...YES counts that as Torres leaving a man on base.
I know, this has fooled me at times, too, on a quick glance. They ought to stop it...
Chapman--another example of the Cashman Dance of Franchise Death: coveting and signing "name" players as they push to thirty and beyond, on the down side of their careers, pissing away money and years of lost opportunities in the process. The guy knows only two things: big-ass catastrophic contracts and dumpster diving. He has no clue about building a franchise or a minor-league system. He really has no clue about sabremetrics as practice by serious devotees of the craft--they would never have signed Ellsbury, Stanton, LeMahieu, etc., for reasons that should be obvious to anyone with an IQ over 100, and I'm sure Cashman's is not. He's the kind of guy who thinks it's brilliant to hire a manager with no coaching experience in baseball at any level. And so on--into the abyss.
ReplyDelete...Second, these things happen. Sort of.
ReplyDeleteHey, so your closer who's pitched very well all year doesn't have it, and fails to get a man out. Bummer. But not every closer is The Great One.
But...but...
Hate to keep harping on it, but it makes Boone's blunder in the first inning all the bigger.
You get up 4-0 in the first—with the inning not even over!—on a team you've already pummeled twice, and inevitably, a little something inside them starts hearing the siren song of that hot Annie over cold beer. Without even consciously thinking about it, the Twins are looking for stamps so they can mail this one in.
3-0 is a whole other story. 3-0 is salvageable. When it becomes 3-1 after the bottom of the first, it's even more plausible.
And why did that happen? Because the Yankees' manager decided not to press it. Because he was not looking to win the game there...
Thing is, there are times when you cannot cannot cannot let up. You can't take the pedal off the metal.
ReplyDeleteI always felt that Billy was, ultimately a bad and self-destructive manager because he NEVER knew when to let up. He burned out teams, burned out himself. Again and again and again.
But when it's June and your team has already turned in two of the worst stretches of baseball played by a Yankees team in living memory—maybe, two of the worst by any Yankees team EVER—and when they are committing awful mental errors nearly every night—you need to get on them.
You need to get on umps who are choosing to ignore the rule book. You need to get on everyone possible to wake up this team of distracted dawdlers and make them pay attention again.
You can't block home plate. That's the new rule. Period. You cover the whole of home plate with your tookus and refuse to move, that's blocking the plate.
Billy Martin would've screamed bloody murder until he was ejected. He would've then fined Gio $500 for not sliding in feet first and "accidentally" kicking Happ in the teeth. To win you first of all have to want to win.
Horace, I got my figure of 22 from MLB.com. This is the "new way"? Plum stupid. I agree with you, this team plays to much like the manager's personality. If he is (directed?) to manage without inspiration, emotion, but instead like the solution to an equation, why should the players act likewise? I've read too many books that detailed full seasons. Pro players want to know where they stand in the eyes of the organization. I.E. , talented players want to bat in the first half of the lineup. And they should. The equations may say that a star should hit eight against a particular starter, but those guys get offended, and frequently sulk. (Personally I think that they should do as they're told considering the salaries, but big salaries bring entitlement). The trick is to sell a happy medium to the players which is what Boone's real job is. He doesn't seem as though he actually buys into it (being an ex-player), ergo, he is a lousy salesman who needs to go. Cashman, still a young man for a GM has grown increasingly inflexible; to slow to recognize when an good idea just isn't so good when dealing with players who seem to be either offended by many of the System's premises, or mentally overwhelmed with some of the concepts that are trying to be instilled. Hell, maybe the coaches are overwhelmed?
ReplyDeleteKevin and Hoss
ReplyDeleteNot to be a contrarian but I like the way they do LOB. I look at it this way
Second and third no one out.
Sanchez strikes out. He left two.
Frazier strikes out. He left two too.
Gardy pops up. He left two too too.
That's six. I understand that the maximum runs that could have been scored is only two. So they left two guys on BUT the six number is more accurate in terms of ineptness.
Here's why just saying two doesn't cut it for me.
If the first two batters in the inning made out and then two guys get on and the next batter makes out there were two LOB.
In my initial example using the old style of accounting there were also two LOB. But the level of failure is NOT equal.
Saying six goes to just how inept the batters were in that inning.
In the two out example it's a failure but - hey that's baseball.
In the "six" example that's a much bigger failure and the higher number more accurately reflects that.
Just my opinion.Either way they left too many men on base last night and blew the game because of it.
Doug K.
I dunno, Doug. I mean, 5 runs scored, 8 LOB is not a horrible offensive night. 5 runs, 22 LOB in the traditional sense, IS. (I think the LOB record is something like 19.)
ReplyDeleteBedrock is, I think, that no hitter should ever get an LOB for reaching base safely. If, say, there's a guy on third and you're walked intentionally, why should that be a negative stat for you? Similarly, as happened last night, there's a guy on first, you hit a single, and the next guy homers, you should not get a negative stat.
Kevin, I think you hit the nail on the head with your assessment of this. From everything I've read, a good, truly confident leader—in politics, business, or what-have-you—will hire on smart people who are likely to challenge his assumptions in some ways.
ReplyDeleteCashman seems to have just hired on more people who agree with him. Despite steadily diminishing returns.
ReplyDeleteLOTTO, lottery,jackpot.
Hello all my viewers, I am very happy for sharing this great testimonies,The best thing that has ever happened in my life is how I win the lottery euro million mega jackpot. I am a Woman who believe that one day I will win the lottery. finally my dreams came through when I email believelovespelltemple@gmail.com and tell him I need the lottery numbers. I have spend so much money on ticket just to make sure I win. But I never know that winning was so easy until the day I meant the spell caster online which so many people has talked about that he is very great in casting lottery spell, . so I decide to give it a try.I contacted this great Dr Believe and he did a spell and he gave me the winning lottery numbers. But believe me when the draws were out I was among winners. I win 30,000 million Dollar. Dr Believe truly you are the best, all thanks to you forever