Wednesday, August 11, 2021

A stinker loss to a tomato can, and the Yankees are back in the middle of nowhere

Last night's wretched effort - four errors, a shaky bullpen and the usual conga line of stranded runners - leaves the Yankees in a battle for a Silver medal within the AL East.

The division race is over; let's put that sick dog to sleep. Tampa has the AL's best record, they've won five straight, and they now lead wilting Boston by six in the loss column. Wander Franco is hitting .250, improving game by game. One of these days, the light will come on, and the league's best team will get better. The Yankees cannot counter with Andrew Valazques. 

Oakland has also won five straight, solidifying their birth as the wild card home team. (The Yanks visit the A's for four games late this month.)  

We now sit one game (loss column) behind Boston and tied with Toronto (loss column) for the final wild card slot. These days, that's our supreme goal - to become the fifth best team in our 15-city beer league. 

We play the Redsocks six more times, seven v. Toronto. The race should boil down to the end of September - series against Boston, Toronto and Tampa (though the Rays might only show passive interest, beyond their existential hatred for the Yankees.

At this point - especially after a stinker loss - it's hard to look down the road. Boston will soon return Chris Sale and welcome Kyle Schwarber, though the leviathan suffered a recent setback with his hamstring, which must be the size of a two-person hammock. Sale will surely lift the morale in a fractured clubhouse, unless he suffers complications, which would kick the team in the nuts. If Schwarber gets hot, he would be a massive LH infusion. (If he's cold, he'll Giancarlo them.)  

The Jays are missing IF Cavan Biggio, (sore neck), C Danny Jansen (hammy) and RH Joakim Soria, a bullpen lug nut. All year, we've feared their ascending youth. Also, returning to Toronto will boost the team. 

Compared to the exhaustive list of Yankee injuries, both franchises seem to have skated. But Covid is still out there, cases climbing across the Northeast. You have to wonder what shoes will drop? This is the second year of the outbreak, and in various parts of the country, it might be peaking around October. 

On a less existential note, Clint Frazier yesterday began a rehab assignment in Low Single A Tampa. He played DH and went 2-4 with a double and two strikeouts. I suspect he could join the Yankees late next week, probably not in time for the three-game Boston series. Right now, I honestly don't care. Not sure there is a place for a .186 hitter with little power. (Five HRs this season.) For him to get any callback to the majors, it would seem to me that he better first tear Scranton a new one.  

Frazier remains a Nancy Drew mystery. We wanted him to hit, to play LF, to anchor the batting order and to give the lineup jolt of youth and swagger. Instead, he's been a flat-out disaster, culminating in a weird affliction of dizziness and eyesight issues. (Will he return wearing glasses?) Right now, there is no place for him. (Until further notice, Joey Gallo is our LF.) Of course, by next week, who knows? By then, more Yankees will probably either test positive or tweak a nugget - why would we think otherwise? Maybe the saga of Red Thunder will bring one more chapter, one more chance at redemption? Or maybe we're just dead in the water and don't yet know it? 

21 comments:

  1. el due, Don't worry, soon Trey Amburgey will be back.
    And don't forget that Hicks IS DOING REAL WELL.

    And Ellsbury has resumed baseball activities.

    oh ye of little faith
    Buck Up.

    The Intuitive Archangel

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  2. The injuries and Covid positives have taken the wind out of our sails. We took three out of four from the Mariners--good--but didn't get the sweep over the Orioles and now the Royals--bad.

    Losing Cole and Monty hurt. Losing German hurt. Losing Gio hurt. Losing Rizzo hurt. Using Davis instead of Allen hurts. Losing Torres hurt. He was hitting again, so naturally he gets ILed.

    The bullpen is overworked, the scrubs are overmatched, and Davis is pathetic. Using him when we could have Allen in center may be the defining move of the season, though. That's unconscionable. A move that very obviously shows how much winning really means to this organization versus their bureaucratic bullshit.

    Voit is better than Gittens, but that's about it. Nestor is running out of gas. Do we still have the best record in baseball since early July? Maybe. But all of the personnel losses hit us when we needed them least. Throw in the fact that Boone is not a major league manager and complications ensue.

    How fast guys come back and how quickly they play at their best, if ever, will decide everything.

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  3. I'm thirsty for beer. Looks like Sevy will be here next week. His minimum 2 starts look like a lock! Of course, he's a Yankee, so....

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  4. Lucas Luetge is our starter today...doesn't bode well...

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  5. Carl, even a chicken has enough sense to wait until the eggs hatch before cackling.

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  6. What the fuck has happened to this team?!?!?!?!?

    As the commercial said: "This isn't your daddy's New York Yankees."

    Hell, it's not even my younger self's New York Yankees.

    Can it be that the people in charge are...what? What the fuck are they doing?

    I'm drowning in my own tears.

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  7. I think Red Thunder has a lingering organic brain injury syndrome. And maybe clinical depression on top of it. Mood disorders are common after brain injuries, and his bell got seriously rung by that concussion. That would explain the change in his abilities and his outward demeanor. You cannot really accurately diagnose from the comments section of a blog, but it's what I'm working with.

    I am heartsick over Red Thunder.

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  8. Joey Gallo is hitting .127/.233/.278 (.512 OPS) in 90 PA since the All Star break.

    Is it too much to ask that he out-hit Brett Gardner?

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  9. I'd drown Stanton in the Ellsbury Memorial Hot Tub if I could.

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  10. Dick A...Common sense is not one of my strong points!

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  11. Worry not, Carl. If the brittle Mr. Severino actually manages to start two meaningless September games, you'll be amply rewarded for your misguided optimism.

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  12. Dick...I've got a great idea. How about we do this: Bet still stands between us but since I'm not a big beer drinker and I can get as much free Sam Adams/Dogfish products as I want, I have a proposal.

    This would get the bloggers involved. Additionally to our bet, I will include a case of any Sam Adams/Dogfish product (where available). That includes Truly Seltzer and their new cocktail line. Those cocktails are actually pretty tasty.

    There are 49 games left. Everyone can post their guess as to how many wins the Yankees will secure. The closest to the actual win total gets the case of beer (from either you or I) and the additional case of product. All entries by Friday evening.

    All I ask is that someone keep score. Perhaps el Duque as he has kept score in the past.
    Sound good?

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  13. 20 (which at least will reach Hoss's goal of another winning season).

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  14. Slight clarification: 47 games after tomorrow's FOD game against the White Sox. So most wins out of 47. Not that will change anyone's total very much. But it might be a close horse race where 1 or 2 extra wins could clinch it for someone.

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  15. It's a great idea Carl. But I think you and I should stand aside. If one of us wins, we're back to square one. I say whoever loses OUR bet has to buy the case for the correct or closest total.

    What do you think about that?

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  16. But Joey Gallo at .127 is, like Stanton, a fixture. Why? Because he is a veteran with a track record. And we emptied the bank ( young unnamed players ) to get him. Stanton is the worlds worst trade ever made. So he says.

    Johnathon (?) Davis is a mystery to me. If he hits .127 we'll be lucky. What Boone does with players is the reason we are mediocre.

    He played Odor instead of Wade yesterday, so we could have more poor defense and ODOR
    could K with two out and the bases loaded.

    We fans knew, when he comes to the plate, that he is going to do that.

    Unwatchable.

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  17. duque--your assessment of Frazier is so skewed that it sounds like you wrote it while you were drunk. A .186 hitter with little power? Then his 2020 season--when he posted a .905 OPS, better than anyone on this year's roster--was just a mirage? So that's how you characterize it? You are fine wit, but your baseball analysis is worthless, just a series of emotional zigs and zags on a par with a preadolescent girl confiding to her diary.

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  18. Anon, would you just pick a freaking handle for the comments so we all know who we're barking at?

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  19. Winnie,

    The name you are trying to remember is "puckerered".

    ReplyDelete

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