Thursday, October 27, 2022
“As an athlete this is what you look forward to, getting an opportunity as a free agent. Most athletes don’t even reach free agency, and then when you actually reach it, you have choices. You make the choice that you think is best for you and your family. But I’m sure it’s probably going to be a difficult one for him, I would assume. Maybe it won’t be, I don’t know.”
Unlike Mariano, who was a baseball player, period, Jeter the baseball player/politician goes to bat for Boone and blames the players.
ReplyDeleteHe is definitely in management now.
The way I’m feeling after this season, if Judge goes so do I.
ReplyDeleteJM, but is Jeter wrong?
ReplyDeleteI too blame the players first and foremost for hitting .162/.232/.269 (.502 OPS) in the ALCS and rolling over against our rivals.
Cashman is second in line for blame since he assembled this group of players.
Boone and the coaching staff fall to third in the blame rankings.
I think fans tends to overemphasize the importance of a manager/coach - maybe from watching too much football.
But it wasn't Aaron Boone out there batting .160 with a 40 K%.
Jeter understands more than most the October expectations on players. He can see this lineup rolled over as soon as they went up against Houston.
Maybe I'm misreading it, but I don't THINK Jeter is criticizing Judge or players in general here.
ReplyDeleteIf anything, I think he's trying to get fans to understand how rare this opportunity is for an athlete, and how you want to take advantage of it.
And as for me, I can't root for the Giants or any other team that took it on the lam out of New York City. And I can't root for any other team but the Yankees.
ReplyDeleteI actually tried rooting for the Mets during the nadir of Mad George's follies in the 1980s. Couldn't do it.
But if Judge goes, I can't say that I'll be spending much time on baseball next year—or, probably, ever again.
@ZacharyA, I gotta disagree with you about the blame game.
ReplyDeleteFirst and foremost to blame is HAL because he keeps Cashman as GM.
Second on the blame list is Cashman, because he put together this roster and the farm system and the scouts and coaches.
Third on the blame list are the manager and coaches. There are zero fundamentals, hitting and pitching wise.
Batting coach: these players don't know how to work the count or do any of the basic things that a championship club has to do. For instance, Torre always used to preach that with two strikes, you try never to make out on pitch on the outside corner. That means that you protect the outside corner with two strikes. Anything close, you have to try to spoil it. Until you can work a walk or get a hit by taking what the pitcher gives you. They've obviously thrown that kind of thing out the window. How many times did we see Yankee hitters called out on strike 3 on the outside corner? The only thing Yankee hitters know how to do is swing for the fences, maximizing exit velo and launch angle.
Pitching Coach: When you bring in a guy who only looks at video and then gets everyone throwing at max velocity and spin rate, this is what you get. After examining data, he tells pitchers to only throw those pitches that have a high effective rate. Fair enough, but if those are the only things that he teaches, that's not good enough. A pitching coach has got to teach his pitchers how to get good hitters out. When they get to two strikes, these guys are so predictable, that good hitters can work on them easily by protecting the outside corner. A pitching coach has to emphasize the importance of pitching inside with two strikes. When you recognize that the hitter is protecting the outside corner, that's when he's most vulnerable to the high fastball on the inside corner. Perfect example of this was Clarke Schmidt. With two strikes, keeps throwing sliders down and away, doesn't know how to get good hitters out. Eventually, they hit one of his sliders. Keep doing that for four or five batters, that's how a big inning happens.
With that kind of infrastructure in place, why would you expect the players to perform at a championship level? The owner likes it when they don't even make it to the World Series. The GM goes out of his way to hire crazy and inexperienced hitting and pitching coaches and manager. GM goes out of his way to bring in old guys who strike out a lot and can't hit. And only right hand hitters too. GM hangs on to bad players until their contracts finally expire. And then sometimes he brings them back again!
Why would we expect such a team to win a championship? I don't blame the players. This franchise, top to bottom, has got a major malfunction, has lost its way, for a long time now. It starts at the top: ownership that really wants to win wouldn't do it this way for this long.
What we saw against both the Guardians and the Astros was that the Yankees are fundamentally unsound. Terrible roster + poor coaching + poor managing = bad results.
Giants just traded their best receiver to the Chiefs for a third and sixth rounder...Kadarius Toney. He will go wild with Mahomes. He was an asshole but very talented.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI believe if the NYYs had JP Sears, Monty, and a few others that melted away for almost nothing, they might have had a better chance.
If you want to beat a team that shuts you out -- shut them out. And have a lock-up bullpen.
I know I've gassed on about this b4, but look at 1996. Yes, there was Jeter, and Bernie, and Jorge. And more.
But in game 5, the Braves threw John Smoltz. We all know how great he was, b/c he tells us (well....)
He gave up 4 hits, 3 walks, and 1 UNearned run in 8 innings. 10Ks.
Pettite and Wettland gave up zero runs. Yanks win, 1-0. The WS was tied 2 games each. That game was played in Atlanta.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL199610240.shtml
Yes, I know Bader came for Monty, and Bader played well in the playoffs. But I'm not sure good hitting beats great pitching.
Our team needs great pitching. It's too late to fix a lot of weird 2022 trades. But it's not too late to avoid more of the same in '23.
Or is it?
@JoeFoB, Absolutely, we'd had had a better chance with Sears, Monty, and the two W's.
ReplyDeleteOr we could've gone the other way and got Juan Soto. We would've given up the entire farm system but at least we'd have one of the best lefty hitters in the game. At least we wouldn't have felt completely outgunned and outclassed by Houston.
I don't know that we win the Houston series this year, but we'd have had a better chance next year. Instead, Cashman traded away a ton of talent and got back injuries and mediocrity. Montas, Effross, Benintendi all injured. All injuries waiting to happen and fully foreseeable, though we didn't know what part(s) of the body they would occur in.
Nothing that puts us over the top. Nothing that puts any fear into opposing pitchers. Nothing that is capable of shutting down an opposing lineup.
If Judge goes, so do I. After 61 years as a Yankee fan. I won't give Hal another nickel. No more MLB TV, or Yes Network either.
ReplyDeleteSo, the Giants got 2 draft picks for a guy who wasn’t playing, and may not play again this season. Unlike the Yankees, the Giants put their mistakes behind them quickly and efficiently. I’m sure the wanna be rapper packed his piss poor attitude along with his belongings when he left for KC.
ReplyDeleteThis!
DeleteSchoen= Good GM
DeleteCasshat= Lousy GM
"Unknown" is not a second handle for me, but he sounds like my brother.
ReplyDelete