Last winter, we foresaw breakout seasons from:
Clint Frazier
Luke Voit
Gleyber Torres
Miguel Andujar
Gio Urshela
Aaron Hicks
Mike Tauchman
Clarke Schmidt
Deivi Garcia
There was also Gary Sanchez, who surely would improve from the Covid nightmare's 2020 batting average of .140. I recall Gary being hailed as the likely 2021 Comeback Player of the Year.
Also, Luis Severino would return in July, giving the Yankees a second ace, after the great Gerrit Cole, who would start Game One in the future playoffs.
Even though we had flopped in 2020, everyone recognized that the year had been ruined by the pandemic and didn't really count. This season would be different.
And, well, here we are...
Today, every Yankee blog in captivity is still screaming at the mountain - Fire Cashman! Fire Boone! etc. We're in the Kubler Ross stage of Anger. I can honestly say that - with the exception of Ricky Ricardo and David Cone - I would happily cancel the entire Yankee organization, starting at the top. But who cares what we think? Owners don't fire themselves. And this one doesn't fire his beloved toadies. Whatever Boone has on Cashman, and Cashman on Prince Hal... it won't dissolve because of our rage. Our howls may echo across the mountain. But the mountain does not hear us.
In fact, the 2021 Yankees were rotten to the core. You must go back to the 1980s to recall a team so ill-fated, so poorly engineered, and so frustrating. For me, everything peaked - or bottomed out, I suppose - in August, when they gave back a 13-game winning streak by losing 8 of 10. Frankly, I'd been sick of this team since the last game before the All-Star break, when they blew a sweep in Houston by a ninth inning walk-off HR from - of all people - Jose Altuve. Fandom is not supposed to be so painful. This team gave me P.T.S.D.
We have all winter to rant about the 2021 Yankees. But today, I pose one question:
Who gives you hope for 2022? Name the players likely to breakout next year and become stars. My list.
1. Jonathan Loaisiga.
End of list.
I'd put a caveat on Loaisiga: He must stay healthy. After him, I look at the roster and see only players who have reached their career peaks.
We can talk to Hell and back about what Cashman should do this winter. It won't change anything. The Yankee talent curve was supposed to crest in 2021. Now, the elevator is going down. It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
I’ll go out on a limb and say Peraza and
ReplyDeleteCabrera will both have an impact next season. I have faith in the younglings
Velasques.
ReplyDeleteNo way JM, Velasques had 20 run-outs last season and his batting average was one of the lowest and most pathetic in the league, Gleyber Torres would be a much better bet as a high hitter with that record of 22 infield catch-outs in his first 8 appearances this year.
DeleteNow that they have E & J Gallo, They should add Robert Mondavi, Carlo Rossi and Peter Vella into the mix next year.
ReplyDeleteThey may have pushed Loiasiga too hard this year. This is a guy who gets hurt a lot. I would not be surprised if he has an injury filled, lousy year in 2022.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the career stats for Judge and Sanchez, in hindsight, I'd say Brainless brought both of these guys up too late. What were they, both about 24 when they first came up? After a couple of years, both of them started with the injuries. We blamed the Yankee weight training coaches, but it could very well be that they were both already "old". As in, they'd both reached their physical peaks when they were 20-23 years old in the minor leagues. When they came up to the majors, that was the end range of their physical peaks.
I don't know if PED use has anything to do with it, but these days, players are peaking early. You have to bring them up and develop them quickly before the clock strikes midnight and they turn back into pumpkins.
Judge had a very good year overall. I have zero confidence that he'll repeat this performance next year. He is well past his physical peak of 2017.
This elevator has been going down since 2018. We just didn't know it then.
The Hammer of God
Ken Waldichuk - AA Relief pitcher Insane K per 9 ratio and no reason to keep him in the minors.
ReplyDeleteDuque, I'm going to quibble. They lost 9 of 11 after the 13 game win streak.
ReplyDeleteDoug K., Ken Whatever will stay in the minors. He's much cheaper on a minor league salary.
ReplyDeleteAlso,
ReplyDeleteOswaldo "Abra" Cabrera AAA Infielder.
Not because I believe he will actually be great. I just wanted to be the first person to give him the nickname Abra-Cabrera.
Well yesterday, we made an addition by subtraction...
ReplyDeleteOn Thursday, the Yankees outrighted RHP Brody Koerner off the Major League roster and onto the roster of Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Additionally, LHP Andrew Heaney elected free agency on Thursday in lieu of accepting an outright assignment.
Heaney is gone...we would have been the home Wild Card team if it wasn't for him...not that it would matter...
Fuck you Heaney. Fuck you Ca$hman. Fuck you Hal.
I wonder what the Great DiMaggio would have done... Ernest H.
ReplyDelete@ranger_lp Oh hell, the best pitcher in baseball, Andrew Heaney is gone! What the hell is Brainless going to do now? Doubtless, he'll give Heaney a 4 year, $44 million contract to come back and be our A#1 Ace. Won't that be a great rotation: Heaney, Cole, Severino. Got big game written all over it.
ReplyDeleteThe Hammer of God
Odor will be the breakout star.
ReplyDeleteHe will have an entire off-season to learn the "Yankee Way" of conditioning and approach and come back next spring toned and ready with a new insight to his hitting that will add 50 points to his average.
Yeah, I'm just joshing.
The breakout star will actually be Manfred as the season will be cancelled because of the failure to get a new CBA.
Then will will be spared the 2022 example of the Yankee Feces Show, staring Hal, Cashman and their sidekick Boonie
The Archangel
By the way--I hope never to see any more hypocritical, sanctimonious aspersions about the "Cheatros" on this site. See the following from Wikipedia:
ReplyDeleteOn January 29, 2020, Masslive reported that the results of the MLB investigation against the Red Sox would be released before the start of training camp and as early as the following week.[33] However, a person with knowledge of the probe, speaking on anonymity, told the Associated Press that the Red Sox investigation will take longer than expected and will not be concluded at the start of training camp as previously hoped.[34][35][36] On February 4, 2020, MLB Network journalist Peter Gammons reported that former Red Sox player Chris Young told him that he was the mastermind of the Red Sox' Apple Watch scheme, telling him "I started the whole Apple Watch thing. I got it from when I was with the Yankees."[37][38] Young later denied this, and Gammons retracted his comments via Twitter.[37][38] SNY revealed that Young had been interviewed by MLB officials as part of the 2017 investigation against the Red Sox and that multiple sources told the sports news agency that Young was in fact a leader of the team's 2017 Apple Watch scheme.[37]
The same year, a phone conversation between Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild and replay room officials revealed that the Yankees engaged in sign stealing with an Apple Watch as well, which resulted in the Yankees being fined.[37][39]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sign_stealing
I can see Rothschild wearing a wire in the basement of a little Italy trattoria.
ReplyDeleteYew noe, deez gize need to be e-LIM-i-NATED!
Hilarious.
Don't forget to tip your servers!
Another piece of nonsense spewed by the idiot who pretended to be me is that hogwash about Gleyber Torres, hes been laughably over-rated this year, and, in my opinion, doesn't even deserve to be part of the set-up.
ReplyDeleteOnly actual profiles should be allowed to post here
ReplyDeleteI'd miss the puckered hemorrhoid.
ReplyDelete...if I had to throw the eggs with a blindfold on. Otherwise, naw.