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| Only a few losses from a Top 10 pick. |
Hello, darkness, my old friend...
Long time coming, eh? I must say you look positively Stygian. Can't see a hand in front of my face. Total blackout. I see you brought your bags. You plan to stay awhile.
You didn't come here overnight. You've been planning this arrival for a long, long time - well before the trade for Giancarlo, or the rises and falls of Gary Sanchez, Greg Bird, Brigadoon Refsnyder and Setback Sevy. My goodness, you go way back... to Robbie and Jacoby, to Colter Bean and Sir Sidney, to Yoan Moncada and Jesus Montero, way past Joba and the gnats, past Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy, who - believe it or not - is still pitching effectively to this day.
Yep, we have history, you and me...
So... wait a minute, did I hear it right? I think the Yankees won last night? |
| Only five teams to leapfrog for a Wild Card. |
A Yankee win would only upset me. Inside The Abyss, you actually want your team to lose. You've reached the point of pointlessness where victories are merely false-reads - they hurt next year's draft pick - that let the ownership to ignore reality: The 2021 Yankees are dead - (good riddance!) --- and the fraudulent hope from the last five seasons has crashed into another sell-off - that is, if the Death Barge has the guts to do what's right. I mean, we still have prospects to trade. I suppose we can pick up a salary dump or two, growing ever older and slower, and adding to the pitch black future.
Saturday, last game I watched, I think it was David Cone who opined that the team could still go on a 10-game winning streak, or take 15 out of 20, or something like that, and vault right back into the Wild Card race! Ah, Coney... May he always rule the booth. He reminds me of Rizzuto, back in the days of Barfield and Espinosa, who somehow spoke truth to dire situations, while attempting to bring hope. Some people survive The Abyss. (But I think even the YES people lost hope yesterday afternoon.)Soon, it will be time for the sell-off. We'll see if the parts - sold individually on an open market - can bring more than the team is worth. There's a poetry to that, because the 2021 Yankees have been a team of solo home runs. With a tying run on the third, Yankee batters swing for the upper deck, as Swish and the Grandy Man once did - as we're used to seeing.
That is, back before all we saw was darkness.
Wait, don'y give up hope.
ReplyDeleteSevy is playing catch as is Britton
Locastro can really cover ground
Tallion is just rounding into form
German has adjusted his release angle after watching film
The Archangel
To continue the Paul Simon theme:
ReplyDeleteWhere have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
A nation turns its lonely eyes to you,
What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson
'Joltin Joe' has left and gone away
Half a league, half a league,
ReplyDeleteHalf a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred
"He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you." -Friedrich Nietzsche.
ReplyDeleteWe have long gazed into the abyss. The Abyss has looked back into our impotent rage and raucous indignation. And seen quite a few cocktails. The Abyss says It wants to hang with us the next long weekend and get Righteously Lit.
There was once a British cavalry officer who was soooo stupid that the other cavalry officers actually noticed.
ReplyDelete@13bit That Errol Flynn flick was pretty good, although in black and white and 4:3 aspect ratio. Someone actually died making that movie charge. Fell off his horse and onto his own sword, I think.
ReplyDeleteI caught the Saturday game on the Mets broadcast. Got an interesting scouting report on Giancarlo Stanton from Keith Hernandez. He should know Stanton, as Stanton is the career leader in homers against the Mets. He said Stanton's closed stance is "extreme" now and that it was not nearly as closed when he was on the Marlins. Also said Stanton is standing so far off the plate that he can't reach the outside corner.
Keith Hernandez was also amazed at Luke Voit's swing and basically said that it had to be the strangest in the game today. (Voit lifts and hovers his front leg over the ground and then swings it forward and puts down his front foot just an instant before the pitch comes and he starts his swing.) Suffice it to say that Voit's timing has to be well nigh perfect for all that to work properly. Even the slightest thing off time will completely screw it all up. If there are any Little Leaguers out there, don't emulate Luke Voit's swing. It'll mess you up. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it myself.
The Hammer of God
On the Sunday Yankee broadcast, after Chapman and Luetge once again teamed up to blast the game to pieces, old reliables O'Neill and Cone basically said this thing is over and the meltdown is complete.
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell is with Boone and Luetge? Why must Lucas Luetge pitch in every high leverage situation? When did Luetge become the go-to guy in the bullpen? For the life of me, I can't figure out the stupidity of Boone. Luetge, who the broadcasters kept mentioning has not even pitched in the majors for six years, is just a fringe player. He's certainly not old reliable. I'd rather rely on Albert Abreu or even Luis Cessa. Luetge should be the bottom man in the bullpen and probably shouldn't even be on this team. I think he threw a few great curves earlier in the year and got one or two big outs. All of a sudden, Lucas Luetge is the stopper.
The Hammer of God
The only current stopper which we (I) can rely on is the one which secures the top of my flask.
ReplyDeleteThe Nearly Sodden Archangel
The only thing wrong with Hernandez's assessment is that Stanton has taken a number of outside pitches to right field this year for hits. So there.
ReplyDeleteBefore the Pollyannas are so easily dismissed, I'd like to point out that this team has, twice this season for a different number of games, suddenly gelled and gone on a winning rampage. Maybe it was the competition, although I do recall taking two out of three from Tampa during one of those streaks.
Do we have trouble? Right here in River City? Yeah, of course. But as I've said before, this is the streakiest team I can recall (which doesn't mean much since my memory is shot from years of drinking). They look like shit, then suddenly look like world-beaters, then just as suddenly look like shit.
So in the depths of shitdom, Coney sounds kind of optimistic, to put it mildly. But in context of this season, it's not as crazy as it sounds. But Kluber and Britton would help, if they can show up without getting reinjured.
Speaking of which, here's something nobody saw coming: Judge and Stanton and Sanchez are all playing regularly without hitting the IL. Miracles are possible.
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ReplyDeleteEl Duque...don't lose hope. Perhaps Hal will get lost at sea this week on his yacht due to Hurricane Elsa hitting along the Tampa coast. Then control of the team would go to his older sister, Jennifer, who has been married 4 times, most notably to Steven Swindal (his name should be spelled Swindle), who she divorced after he smashed his car when drunk and then re-married a member of the grounds crew who was then quickly promoted to an executive VP position. Until he was involved in major scam of biking international players out of a major portion of their signing bonuses. What could happen that is worse than how "Food Stamps" is running the team? If we are really lucky, she might sell the team to an owner that is self-made, has pride in his businesses and cares about winning with a sports franchise.
ReplyDelete@JM Yes, I do recall Stanton doing some surprising opposite field hitting off of outside pitches this year. But imagine if he stood a bit closer to the plate, and opened up his stance a touch, how much better he'd be.
ReplyDeleteThe Hammer of God
Hammer...you're opening yourself up to a Yankees analytical department hit man squad. Delete your comment before it's too late!
ReplyDelete"Taking outside pitches to right for hits"--dear to the hearts of pre-live-ball anitquarians and Yankee opponents, who would much rather see him do that than hit homeruns.
ReplyDeleteStanton, even when he hits to right field, should hit a lot of home runs, especially at Yankee Stadium. He has a level swing, but with very unusual power. Anything he gets up in the air has a chance with the short porch in right. This ain't a singles hitter.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, in the right situation, there's no reason why he shouldn't shorten up even more and just slap a hit to right. If all you need is a hit to walk off a win, for instance, why try to launch a 500 foot home run. What's easier, poking a single to right (especially when there's no one standing at 2B) or launching a moonshot?
The Hammer of God
If I were an opposing pitcher, I love to see Stanton turned all the way around and standing way off the plate and taking huge swings at anything. That's when he's easiest to pitch to. That's when he's going 1 for 35, swinging at breaking balls in the left hand batter's box.
ReplyDeleteThe Hammer of God
If I remember correctly, Stanton, when he was on the Marlins, hit opposite field home runs as well as CF and LF. When he was at his best, he was using the whole field, not just trying to pull everything.
ReplyDeleteHe has made an effort to go the other way more this year, and I applaud him for that. It doesn't mean that he's maximizing his talents though. Because I still see that he's standing way off the plate and almost with his back turned to right handed pitching. I was saying imagine how much better he could be if he used a more neutral stance and stood slightly closer to the plate.
It's a game of percentages. Do things that maximize your chances.
The Hammer of God
In Sunday's first game, I thought that Cole had very good stuff. He had a great fastball, from 96-100mph. Usually around 98. He simply made some stupid pitch selections and also failed "to battle" through a tough 4th inning.
ReplyDeleteIn the first inning, two outs and nobody on, he throws a curveball inside to Dominic Smith, a lefty batter. (Now, I'm thinking, why is this guy getting cute and throwing off speed on the first pitch? I would have thrown a fastball down and away, then fastball up and in, trying to get strike call on both.) But instead, Cole follows up the first curve with a second curve, this one also he was trying to go down and in but he left it over the plate and thigh high. Smith hits it out and the Yanks are immediately down 1-0. It set a tone for the game. That was simply stupid pitch selection. Why curveball on 0-0 and then another on 1-0? And to the same location, too?
In the 4th, Cole simply fell apart like a cheap suit. I expect an ace to be able to battle through a lot better than that. There were some very good at-bats by the Mets and maybe some stupid ball-strike calls by the home plate ump. Cole likes to talk pitching all the time, they say. What the hell is he always talking about when he comes undone in situations like that? I thought that he did miss a bit with his fastball. This guy needs to live upstairs in the high part of the strike zone, not thigh high to waist high.
Then in the 7th, Chapman also blew it with stupid pitch selection. All game and all series, Yankee pitchers were blowing away Pete Alonso with high fastballs inside. So Chapman gets ahead with fastballs, and then throws a slider down over the plate. Probably the only pitch Alonso could have hit off him. Inexplicable.
The Hammer of God
Hammer of God -- I'm sure this stance is designed to lessen the torque on his upper body that keeps landing him on the DL with core issues the most likely result from PED-fueled overdevelopment of his upper body. He has so much power that he might still hit homeruns to all fields, but he's likely to hit them less frequently. He's compensating to prevent injury, not maximizing his strengths.
ReplyDeleteHammer -- quick follow-up: The Pea Brain thought he was getting consistently 6- to 8-win player for his $30 million per annnum--instead, he's getting at most a 2- or 3-win player who spends less then ten minutes on the field each game for all that money. But rewarding decline and failure among aging players rather than developing young ones has become the standard MO of the Pea Brain regime.
ReplyDeleteless than
ReplyDeleteThe despair I felt after the Yankees won the second game yesterday was EPIC, I just knew they'd try to spin that first game, but the complete collapse of this team is now obvious to everybody, even The Master and Suzyn mentioned that huge consequences would probably be felt after that humiliating loss. I cannot fathom the Yankees being above 500 at the Allstar break,,,, this should finally go down as the End of Hope Week!
ReplyDeleteAnother good reason to boycott Yankee Stadium, in case you were wavering:
ReplyDeletehttps://theweek.com/coronavirus/1002280/what-the-delta-variant-could-mean-for-the-pfizer-vaccine
Maybe Isiyku can cure this team.
ReplyDeleteButtocks.
ReplyDeleteAnother glimpse into Warblist's fantasy life.
ReplyDelete@Anon "I'm sure this stance is designed to lessen the torque on his upper body that keeps landing him on the DL with core issues the most likely result from PED-fueled overdevelopment of his upper body. He has so much power that he might still hit homeruns to all fields, but he's likely to hit them less frequently. He's compensating to prevent injury, not maximizing his strengths."
ReplyDeleteYou're saying that Stanton probably has to use this stance just to stay on the field and that he simply can't use a more efficient stance. Quite possible, and the more I think about it, I think you're right. And if it's true, then yet another reason why this team is doomed to fail for a very long time.
The Hammer of God
@Anon "rewarding decline and failure among aging players rather than developing young ones has become the standard MO of the Pea Brain regime."
ReplyDeleteThis, in one sentence, is why Cashman is not a good GM and has done a terrible job overall. We have not developed anywhere near enough young players to keep the ball rolling. In particular, not enough starting pitching and nowhere near enough left hand hitting.
The Hammer of God
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