Wednesday, April 13, 2022

The Yankees never fully appreciated Nasty Nestor Cortez, and he might just save them

Nestor Cortez Jr. was born lucky. Seven months after his birth, his family won a Visa lottery and moved from Cuba to Hialeah, Florida. Seventeen years later, the Yankees selected him in the 36th round of the 2013 draft, and convinced him to turn pro rather than attend Florida International University. 

Cortez never looked scary coming off the bus. He stands 5'11," seldom runs a radar gun above 91 mph, and never made a Top Prospects list. Twice, the Yankees flat-out punted on him.

In 2017, they left Cortez unprotected, and Baltimore grabbed him in the Rule 5 draft. He went north with the O's, a looming Cinderella story. In his first MLB outing, he gave up a grand slam to Josh Reddick. In his third, he walked Curtis Granderson with the bases loaded, then he gave up another salami to Josh Donaldson. The O's had seen enough. He returned to the Yankees at age 24 - which is menopausal age for a prospect. 

In 2019, the Yankees dealt Cortez to Seattle for somebody named Future Considerations. He flopped with the Mariners, was released, and re-signed with us. We have him through 2026. He is 27 - still too young to be a grizzled vet. 

Last night, as you probably know, "Nasty Nestor" shut down Toronto - the AL East's scariest lineup - for nearly five innings. While it's waaaay too early to make apocalyptic statements about the 2022 Yankees, it felt like a sweet victory. The Yankiverse has been roiled by a sense that this franchise is sliding, that it's no longer the dominant team in its division - or even its city. 

If the Yankees were swept at home by Toronto, the stadium would echo with boos, and sometimes, that Cat-5 negativity takes on a life of its own. It's silly to say the Yankees needed last night's game. In fact, it's ridiculous. Still, you felt a collective sigh of relief: The floor did not cave in... thanks to Nestor.

He is known for his mustache, which seems to have crawled onto his lip while sleeping. It's not hard to imagine him pitching into his 30s, because he survives on guile - arm angles, junk balls, control - rather than brute force speed. And it's a wonder that he's still with the Yankees  

I don't want to hex the guy. But last night, he was everything we needed. Just seeing him on the mound, while the Blue Jay batters flailed at his junk - yeah, that's what we needed: A pitcher, rather than a thrower. (And maybe we need some hitters, rather than sluggers, too?) 

Sometimes, in the end, it's the penny you can't throw away that saves you. 

40 comments:

  1. Cortez is one of the reclamation projects that panned out.

    BTW, is "Sometimes, in the end, it's the penny you can't throw away that saves you." going to be on Cashman's tombstone after he meets his demise?

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  2. As Yogi said: " It gets late early out here".

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  3. ranger_ ip.... Cashman's tombstone will read " Where I'm going I can't rapell , 'cause the bottom is guarded by Satan in hell."

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  4. For those that don't believe in God, or happily ever after,
    Just never forget Nestor.

    When I am depressed about life, I may just rewind clips of the Blew Jays flailing away at Nasty.

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  5. There isn't a more lovable Yankee than Nasty on this team of dullards.

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  6. Because he didn't pitch 5 innings, the poor kid didn't even get credit for the win. Then, Holmes pitches 1 2/3 and HE gets the win.

    What an idiotic rule.

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  7. If I can look forward to Nestor starting every fifth game, it's a reason to watch. On IPTV, by the way. I get to cancel cable today. Even YES and TCM are on the IPTV service, for under $15 a month. Wayyyyy better deal.

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    1. Does this iptv have a lot of channels? Like AMC, Comedy Central, Paramount, etc.?

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  8. Love the line about his mustache, Duque!

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  9. JM....exactly as I've been preaching for about 2 years! Everyone should cancel cable and go the IPTV route.

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  10. He came shuffling to the pitching mound
    With his weird wind up and junk
    Tricking all the hitters
    Putting them in a funk

    In the box stands a modern slugger
    Monetizing three outcomes
    This guy's nothing, Higgy heard him mutter
    Look at that mustache, he's a bum

    Then a fastball went right by him
    92, maybe 93
    Holy shit, it's a quick pitch
    0-2 fast as you please

    The bender was just beautiful
    But a little bit off the plate
    Then another heater running at him
    But our slugger swung too late

    Glavine was a legend
    Could his like again be known?
    Spin rate and launch angle
    Might even have torpedoed David Cone

    But our hero is still out there
    Taking the ball every fifth day
    A rebuke to major league baseball
    And how it's lost its way

    He came shuffling to the pitching mound
    Cortes, Cortes
    What a pitcher

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  11. Publius, what a killer!

    “maybe we need some hitters, rather than sluggers” Loved that.

    Every once in a while, a player comes out of nowhere to be a major factor. The Yanks have had a few, but they never seem to be able to sustain success. Remember Chien-Ming Wang? (BTW, A documentary about Wang, Late Life: The Chien-Ming Wang Story, debuted in theaters in October 2018.

    Here’s hoping Nestor can sustain his success, May his mustache long wave!

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  12. I remember Chien-Ming Wang: rounded third base in an inter-league game, broke his ankle and was never heard from again. Sad tale.

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  13. Correction: Wang was diagnosed with a torn Lisfranc ligament of the right foot and a partial tear of the peroneus longus of the right foot.

    Whatever those are.

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  14. Giancarlo is the odd man out tonight…the Yanks have been doing this rotation with their starters…

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  15. Love it, Publius!

    And yeah, losing Wang was extremely sad. He was terrifically consistent, won 19 games two years in a row, if I'm remembering correctly. I think he had some bad playoff outings, but guys like that are key to a solid, long season staff.

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  16. The lineup is posted and why does Boooooooone insist on putting fat old guys in the leadoff spot? First Donaldson, now Rizzo?

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  17. Glad to see that Cole could not be bothered to walk or, hey, plunk Vlad, Jr. Amazing how mediocre our "ace" looks this year.

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  18. After that second Vlad HR, Ca$hman is on the phone seeing if the Twins would consider trading Sanchez back to us for Nasty Nestor.

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  19. That was such damned stupid pitching. I remember reading about Allie Reynolds saying, 'If a guy didn't want to try to hit my pitch,' I would just walk him.

    Stick one in Vlad's ribs, then get on with it. What an ass.

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  20. I guess Jose Berrios' 108.00 ERA will be coming down after tonight. Well, you what they say: 'You can't actually hit Berrios. You just have to hope he wears himself down.'

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  21. Can I just say, yet again, how much I hate this team and how much I hate what this game has become?

    The Yanks' crack broadcast team was going on tonight about how great it was that Dave Roberts pulled Clayton Kershaw after 80 pitches even though he was pitching a perfect game through 7.

    Oh, yes, how marvelous that a guy who has already made $274 mill from baseball alone and won everything he could win is not going out there to try for one of the great prizes!

    I'm sure that all sport will really thrive as an endeavor where nobody really goes all out or risks anything.

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  22. O'Neill, meaning this as praise, just called Dave Winfield "the Stanton of his generation," and lamented, "If they'd had the exit velocity back then..."

    Wow.

    They have actually convinced themselves that this meaningless nonsense is real.

    Dave Winfield helped lead his teams to 2 World Series, and had the winning hit in one of them, despite having to deal with a psychotic owner. Let me know when Giancarlo Stanton does anything like that.

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  23. Can I just say how profoundly depressing it feels to watch Torres come up in an important situation?

    Man, what happened to that guy?

    Torres, Bird, Miggy, Frazier, Sanchez—the whole backbone of The Dynasty That Never Was just flamed out. And the only one who lived up to anything like his potential, Judge, they're running out of town on a rail.

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  24. Back-to-back, belly-to-belly!

    Imagine if we could hit a few of these with guys on base...

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  25. If you never saw Winfield play, he was a much better all around player than Stanton. His arm was deadly - ask any seagull. Stanton has one skill: power. Wild, crazy hard to believe power. If you’re going to have one skill, that’s the one to have. The problem is, we have too many guys like Stanton up and down the lineup. As Duque said earlier, sometimes you need hitters, not just sluggers.

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  26. SITUATIONAL HITTING!!!

    Did...did...you see that??? I mean, he took an outside pitch to the opposite field! To score the tying run!

    Oh, be still my heart! What ancient rite of the game will we seen revived next? Guys leaving their gloves on the field? Pitchers throwing the ol' emory ball? The hidden ball trick?

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  27. Damnit how the fuck can't our "ace" last longer than 5....I'ma become an Atheist, Cuz what's been done to the game further proves there ain't no God(sarcasm)...

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  28. Vladimir Guerrero Jr is going to be torturing the Yankees for the next ten years

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    1. ... and we'll sign him to an 8-year deal when he's 35, and then he'll start a steep decline.

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  29. You kinda knew this was going to happen once the guys in the booth broke out the stats on how awesome the Yankees' bullpen has been this year.

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  30. Guerrero is what we thought Judge was but alas...

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  31. Pathetic.

    PAUL O'NEILL IS A FUCKING NUMPTY. GO THE FUCK BACK TO CINCINNATI YOU LURCH LOOKING DUMB CLOD SMOKING FUCKFACE!!

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  32. Great idea, though, to keep pitching and pitching to the guy with the hot hand and the game on the line. Is Boone literally brain dead?

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  33. That was a rhetorical question Horace?

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  34. Yes, I guess so!

    What amazes me is what a passive team this always is. Nothing to press the action, no effort to try to steal a victory. How the hell you pitch to Vladdy again after the first moonshot is beyond me. Instead, you let him account for half of Toronto's runs.

    The exit-velo obsession is all too typical of the mentality here. Yes, if you hit the ball very hard, straight up, it will still come straight down. It's called gravity. On the moon, this team would be a killer-diller.

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  35. How about those Yankees.

    I can't wait to see the attendance by July.

    Serious question, Does anyone know how much money each team gets from their hookup with the various gambling outfits?

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  36. Archie, the teams aren’t talking and aren’t obligated to release this information. (The players would probably go batshit.) The American Gaming Organization estimates Major League Baseball stands to gain $1.1 billion in projected revenue from legal sports betting. While that is less than half of what the NFL raked in last year, consider how baseball’s slow pace, which many fans decry, would be an absolute boon to in-game betting. I’m personally pretty much anti-gambling in any form, but have long felt it would one day overtake professional sports.

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  37. @ Winnie: Paul can't go back to Cincy because that's where he is during these Yankees opening homestand telecasts. He is in his basement with a Yankees background while wearing a suit and holding a mike. Because he's too Trumpy to get vaccinated. He isn't scheduled to work again until sometime next month.

    @ Unknown: Most of the IPTV services have every channel available including all premium networks, sports, local network stations all across the US and many foreign country offerings. I particularly like the live BBC channels (not BBC America) from all over the UK. $15-20 per month is the average charge. Depending on the specific company, you get 2-6 simultaneous connections. You can employ most platforms including TV, computer, tablet and cell phones. My service allows 5 simultaneous connections. $ 89.00 for a 6-month subscription. No rental fees or extra equipment needed.

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