"O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done..."

 

Don't know how many of you are enjoying the ESPN limited series, The Captain, but I've found it a terrific—if occasionally heartbreaking—romp down memory lane thus far, going back all the way to when Derek Jeter first broke in.

The heart of the story, of course, is the Derek-A-Rod clash. And hey, A-Rod seems as clueless as ever about how he comes off, which is no surprise.

But as it went along it occurred to me that acquiring Alex was far from what went wrong with the Yankees in those years.  

Yes, A-Rod was always annoying and often un-clutch. But he was productive, winning two MVPs—and even making Jeter a Gold-Glove shortstop, ironically enough. 

The Yankees in those years scored runs in droves. In the 9 seasons from 2004—when A-Rod came aboard—to 2012, they led the AL in runs scored 4 times, and finished second, 4 times. Fuhgedabbout your clubhouse chemistry, distractions, yadayadayada. 

The truth was, we didn't have enough pitching.

This season—like nearly all Cashman seasons—is no different. July was the Yanks' worst month of the season so far, at 13-13. But they scored the most runs of any month, with 167.

Sure, at times our lineup seems to have more holes than a block of Swiss cheese that's been blasted by a pellet gun. But overall, our boys are still leading both leagues in runs scored. The problem was that they also gave up the most runs of any month so far, at 110.

Yep. Once again our favorite elf has arrived at this key juncture without enough pitching, starting or relief, to take us home. 

And once again, he will dumpster dive here, give away a leading prospect there, and then tell us that we're all set, and the playoffs are a crapshoot anyway.

Lest you think I exaggerate, let's take a look at the record of The Brain's "pitching fixes" over the years:

2001: "Who needs Jeff Nelson? We got Jay Witasick!"

2002: "Who needs Ted Lilly? We got Jeff Weaver!"

2003: Jose Contreras, the Bronze Giant!

2004: "Who needs Pettitte, Clemens, or Wells? We got Lieber, Vazquez, and Kevin Brown!"

2005: The Big Unit! The Glass Buttocks!

2006: Jaret Wright!

2007: Joba Chamberlain, star of the future! ("Who needs Dice-K? We got Kei Igawa!")

2008: Ian Kennedy, star of the future! (Just not our future.)

2009: 

2010: Javier Vazquez! Again! (Cliff Lee? "But they wanted Jesus Montero!")

2011: Bartolo—like two pitchers in one! 

2012: Michael Pineda! ("Hey, all they wanted was Jesus Montero!")

2013: Phil Hughes, star of the past!

2014: "Of course giving C.C. a long-term contract was a good idea!"

2015: "Who needs Max Scherzer? Pineda's back!"

2016: "Just release Eovaldi already! It's not like he could ever come back to hurt us."

2017: "Who needs Justin Verlander? We got Sonny Gray!"

2018: "Thank goodness that Lynn Lance Lynn guy is gone for nothing!"

2019: "Who needs Dallas Keuchel? Or Charlie Morton? It's not like they ever beat us!"

2020: "Paxton AND Happ? How can we lose?"

2021: "Hey, Sevvy'll be back by October!"

2022: "Who needs Max Scherzer? Or Justin Verlander? We got Jameson Taillon!"