Wednesday, March 16, 2022

With due respect to Mr. Lewis Carrol, the Yankees' issues just keep growing curiouser and curiouser

When the lockout ended, we expected an avalanche of moves - a Cashmanic makeover. Now, we're stumbling toward Day IV - still closer to the beginning than the end. Last night brought the well prophesized return of Anthony Rizzo, and it merely sends us down another rabbit hole of questions, questions... ever curiouser questions...

1. Where will Luke Voit go, and what will we get? Obviously, like his BMW commercial, he's history. On the IT IS HIGH Cosmic First Base Depth Chart, Luke is tied for third - behind Rizzo and DJ LeMahieu - with Josh Donaldson and Miguel Cabrera. (As for DH, he's somewhere in the five-man rotation.) Surely, some NL patsy mark team will step forward - the  underground railroad to Pittsburgh?- and cough up a Triple A donut bag. Or we sweeten the pot with prospects for some Sidney Ponson retread. Whatever. Either way, Luke's Yankee era is over. But we'll always have those TV ads: "I'm Luke Voit, and this is what drives me... out of NY." 

2. What happens with the NYC vax mandate? Let's spare ourselves a debate on mandates. Wanna make your case? Do a dance on TicTok. But the mandate's potential impact on the 2022 Yankees could be catastrophic - starting with Aaron Judge. By the mealy-mouthed way Judge answered questions yesterday, it's likely that he's never gotten the jab. (He'll have to address this today.) Fine. Guy's an adult. Gonna do what he gonna do. But if Judge truly wants to play his entire career in New York, sitting out 80 home games is not the primrose path. If this is his personal line in the sand - Judge, or any other Yankee - needs to be traded to a town without a mandate. Kansas City would be perfect. 

3. Re: Vax mandates... Is the notion that Randy Levine is "on it" supposed to conjure hope?  

4. What about Donaldson? When I see him penciled in at 3B, I get Youk flashbacks. The Great Kevin Youkilis Exodus of 2013 (a year that featured the comedy team of Overbay and Pronk.) Youk was 34, two years younger than Donaldson. The first question of spring was whether an old Redsock nemesis could fit in happily with the Yanks. Youk handled it deftly, professionally, smilingly, no problem. He won over the braying hounds of Tampa. Then, about a month into the season, he felt a tweak. He played a total of 28 games. Twenty-eight. Last year, Donaldson played 92 at 3B. He's got barking joints and muscles. If we've learned anything, it is that injury-prone players, when traded to the Bronx, do not turn into Iron Man. Just sayin.'

5. What's our lineup right now? Well, we resemble a sandlot team, kids shouting positions before taking the field. Here's a possible batting order.

cf Aaron Hicks
rf Aaron Judge
dh Giancarlo Stanton
1b Anthony Rizzo
3b DJ LeMahieu
lf Joey Gallo
2b Gleyber Torres
ss Isiah Kiner-Falefa
c Ben Rortvedt 

Leftovers:
Josh Donaldson
Luke Voit
Miguel Andujar
Kyle Higashioka 
Brett Gardner?

I honestly don't know what to make of this, except that I doubt Cashman is done.  

6. Now that the Yanks are out on Freddie Freeman, where does he go? After Putin launching nukes, this is the scariest thought across the Yankiverse. Boston and Toronto are rumored to still be in the bidding. If either pulls the trigger, we will face a vastly superior lineup this summer. Both teams already had more firepower last year, and now you're adding Freddie Freeman? (Who, by the way, was made to hit in Fenway.) 

Keep in mind that the Blue Jays - after playing two Covid seasons away from Toronto - might now enjoy the greatest homefield advantage in history. (Canada won't allow unvaxed players into the country. So opposing players could not cross the border.) 

Day Four? What's in store? 

23 comments:

  1. If they continue to business like this, the rest of the teams in the league will finally catch up to them.

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  2. We should trade the whole team to Seattle so they could be the
    Ancient Mariners.

    I don't want to say that this team is old and slow but they just moved night games to 5PM.

    I think the first sponsor patch on the uniform is going to be Geritol.

    ---

    The weird thing, and it goes to a point made by many of us and most recently by Zach, is that the money IS being spent. Just poorly. This is on Hal. We're over the tax limit but we're not really a championship quality team.

    At least it doesn't feel that way.

    Speaking of feelings. Feeling rundown or just caught in one?... Geritol!



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  3. URRGGGG! Same as it ever was, same as it ever was,,,,,,,

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  4. Doug K, It's on Hal for keeping Cashman.

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  5. I got to it a day or two late, but the post about our new Mr. Olympia behind the plate was terrific. I laughed, I cried, I prayed for six months of rain everywhere we're scheduled.

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  6. Josh Donaldson and Anthony Rizzo. Man if this was 2016, I’d be throwing a party. Those guys used to be monsters.

    Here's how I see the Opening Day lineup (presuming everyone gets there healthy/mandate is revoked):

    2B DJ LeMahieu
    RF Aaron Judge
    1B Anthony Rizzo
    DH Giancarlo Stanton
    LF Joey Gallo
    3B Josh Donaldson
    CF Aaron Hicks
    SS Isiah Kiner-Falefa
    C Kyle Higashioka

    That's.... not a terrible lineup. We're not gonna get anything out of the bottom 3 spots, but at least the top 6 spots should be productive. And we've got a nice R-L-R-L-R middle of the order. No idea what to do with Gleyber Torres.

    I still don't think a team that finished 19th in runs scored last year can punt on offense in two lineup spots (C,SS). Cashman ought to call the Cubs and see what they want for one year of C Willson Contreras. And if Trevor Story's market craters — I haven't heard a single rumor for weeks — the Yankees should see if he'd take a short-term deal, pushing Kiner-Falefa to the utility role.

    As it is now, I think Tampa Bay and Toronto have the better rosters. But maybe Cashman has something else up his sleeve.

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  7. And now Toronto gets Matt Chapman, but why would you want a 28yo Third Baseman who can actually play the position.

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  8. Slip sliding away
    Slip sliding away,
    The nearer your destination, the more you slip side away.

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  9. I know Matt Chapman is a great defender, but he also hit .210 with a 35 K% last season. I just don't know if we need another one of those guys in the lineup. We finally got rid of Gary for goodness sake.

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    Replies
    1. Chapman did that coming off a hip injury, if he’s healthy….yikes

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  10. For fucks sake, that could’ve traded for Chapman to play 3rd, he’s only the best defensively out there, and put Donaldson at 1st instead of Rizzo the plague rat.

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  11. The best point I see being made is how poorly we’ve allocated our payroll. It would seem that the Yankee’s long term plan includes re-signing Judge, moving him to first base, then surrounding him with as much young talent as they can cull from their minor league system. This is a dubious plan given that most prospects fall far short of expectations. Naturally, it would allow Steinbungler to stay well south of the CBT. Meanwhile, the messaging should be clear to the fans: we are not a serious WS contender this year and probably next year, a message that was already broadcast by the retention of Boone, whose job is not to win as much as it to tow the company line and act as mouthpiece for the corporate BS du jour. What will damn us this year is the weak starting rotation, which just got worse with the injury to German. How in the name of Ross Moschitto can a team have a 250m plus payroll with so many holes in the roster?

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  12. The mumbling that Judge put together yesterday when asked about the vaccine made me think he might have forgotten his last name is not Boone.

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  13. This team is fucked if Judge doesn’t play, whether hurt or otherwise. It gets worse in 2024 when even in a best case scenario your looking at
    1. Volpe 2b
    2.Judge Rf
    3. Peraza ss
    4.Stanton dh
    5.Cabrera 3rd
    6. Florial cf
    7. Hicks lf
    8. Benny steroids c
    9. Who’s on first?

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  14. @Dantes...because Rizzo bats left-handed. If we went with your scenario, we're mostly a right-handed hitting team again...

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    Replies
    1. Read my post again, that’s 2024 projection, after Rizzo is gone

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  15. Dantes might as well put Austin Wells at 1B in that lineup

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    Replies
    1. Possibly, but he hasn’t played a single game at 1st since he was drafted.

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  16. And...still worse in the year when things never get better...the Manfred runner may be back. Seems the players also like MLB's brilliant idea to throw out 150 years of tradition and put a runner on base to start extra innings.

    I'll add another verse to Archie's appropriate song riff:

    Slip slidin' away
    Slip slidin' away
    You might think they're playin' baseball
    But what used to be known as baseball
    Is just slip slidin' away

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  17. Thanks, JM, and pretty damned funny Doug.

    And hey, just when you thought there was no silver lining to this spring...looks like Domingo German is out with shoulder trouble. That started in January.

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  18. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  19. El Duque, that is what Hal does. He is full of shit. He is still calling the Yankees A Championship Caliber Team. Maybe in Bizarro World. I figure that The Yankees presently the fifth best team in the A.L. They will make a Wild Card and be dismissed quickly. The Yankees are not out father's Yankees anymore. They will go after cheaper alternatives, rather the best players. I.E Rizzo vs. Olson or Freeman. Soon it will be 20 years without a World Series appearance.

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