Still, in baseball, you cannot hide from your numbers, which haunt you on every Jumbotron. On that note, let's play the 2022 "Good Year/Bad Year" parlor game, comparing October numbers to April expectations.
Here goes...
TRULY UNEXPECTED, MAGNIFICENT YEARS: Aaron Judge, Jose Trevino, Nestor Cortez, Ron Marinaccio.
VERY GOOD YEARS: Anthony Russo, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Jameson Tailion, Lou Trivino, Oswaldo Cabrera, Matt Carpenter, Clay Holmes, Luis Severino, Lucas Luetge.
DECENT OKAY YEARS: Gleyber Torres, Giancarlo Stanton, Wandy Peralta, Clarke Schmidt, Gerrit Cole, Domingo German, Kyle Higashioka, Marwin Gonzalez, Jonathan Loaisiga, Tim Locastro, Aaron Boone.
MEH YEARS: Josh Donaldson, DJ LeMahieu, Aaron Hicks, Frankie Montas, Andrew Benintendi, Harrison Bader.
TRULY UNEXPECTED, AWFUL YEARS: Aroldis Chapman, Joey Gallo.
WORST OF ALL YEARS: Brian Cashman.
I hereby nominate Cash for "Career-Worst Trade Deadline Architect," and that's not taking into account the chance that several of the young pitchers we dealt become authentic stars. From the git-go, every Aug 1. Cashmanic deal seemed to go sour.
Of course, Harrison Bader might yet lead this team into October, and Scott Effross could become our closer. But we cannot help but ponder how better off we'd be without dealing Jordan Montgomery, JP Sears, Hayden Wesneski and Ken Waldichuk - a wave of young arms who could be fortifying our bullpen.
The sad reality: We'll see nothing this postseason from our two big acquisitions - Frankie Montas and Andrew Benintendi - for whom we gave up real talent.
According to the Gammonite Grapevine, Cash will return next year, as usual, same preferred parking spot, no questions asked. But I dunno. If the Yankees stumble this month, it will be hard to dismiss the disasters of Aug. 1, all of which bear Cashman's name.
One other thing happened this year: The Mets owner, Stephen Cohen, continued his transformation into The New Boss - the Second Coming of Old George. The Yankees may still have reigned in NYC - thank you, Mr. Judge - but the Mets have become a very real competitor. Over the next four weeks, everything will be settled, once and for all. I just cannot imagine Cash surviving a crash.
Posts
7 comments:
Very generous to Hicksie.
Well since you invited...
Over all I agree but there are a few that I would categorize a little different.
Montas - No way he's a Meh. Flat out sucked for us, then got hurt. Totally worthless, and, as you pointed out, we gave up real talent for him including my pick for Yankee closer of the future Ken Waldichuk.
I would have moved Cabrera to the Truly Unexpected category and I didn't see Peraza who gets a "very good year". The Yankees like him so much at short they are moving Volpe to 3B.
Last - Gerrit Cole belongs in the TRULY UNEXPECTED, AWFUL YEARS category because of your use of the words "truly unexpected." Who here likes him or trusts him? He went from our "Ace" to a guy whose playoff start we are collectively dreading. Yes, he had a decent year for a decent pitcher. But he's not supposed to be a number three. He's our ace!
Hicks came on kind of strong near the end. Saved his ass.
Cole is not an ace. Cole n’est pas une "ace." And he should be hit with a pipe.
Generous as ever, Duque. But there's too much grade inflation here. I wouldn't say that Rizzo, Luetge, or Falafel had "Very Good" years, though I realize that Rizzo was hurt. But if we're going to take injuries into account, then DJ, Benintendi, and Tots should probably move up.
I would drop Torres and Stanton down into "Meh" years, in terms of what past performances showed they were capable of. Stanton in particular, in that he appeared to do so much to aggravate his latest, most mysterious injury.
And I'd drop down Boone, who—as noted at length here—failed to both manage well strategically OR to motivate the club for long stretches of time.
And sadly, I CAN imagine Cashman surviving the crash to come, at least for a few more years, as he desperately tosses Boone and other scapegoats over the side.
Yep, I agree with you guys. El Duque is a little too generous with some of these grades. Definitely too generous with Boone.
BaBoone gets an "F" in my book. He was very fortunate that the club didn't sink. There was an excruciating period of at least a month where the club could've changed its name to the Titanics and BaBoone appeared to be close to hysterical. Then there was this stupid business of hitting Judge leadoff. And I don't think it helped any in his home run chase. It probably killed his chances at the triple crown. (You come up more often, you have to keep getting hits for the batting title. And his RBIs tanked because of it. Pete Alonso, with half the homers, ended up passing him.)
IMO, a very mild, generous take on ‘22 team, by a nice gentleman whose opinions I’ve come to respect. My takes: Carpenter belongs in the top group, Trevino (whose offense disappeared in the 2nd half, seemingly without anyone noticing) and Marinaccio do not. Montas, Hicks, Donaldson, Stanton, Bader (who was terrible at the plate) Boone, need to be downgraded further .
A big omission is the man of mystery, HC Dillon Lawson, who seemed to be hiding in the shadows all season after his embarrassing, caveman like grunting of “Hit strikes hard” in the Spring. It certainly seems the players totally tuned him out. Spot on choice - Cashman! He totally bungled the trade deadline, and his recent record shows nothing but failure by any measurable standard.
I think most of us are prepared in our minds for a painful playoff exit this year. Only the greenest of fans can expect the team to “turn it on” just because it’s the playoffs. Besides, there’s always Ba-Ba Booney trying to actually manage. He is the Michael Scott MLB managers.
Agreed, 999 and Hammer!
As I've been saying for weeks: even with the Yanks' often pathetic lineup, you hit Judge, say, third, and he will come up more often with men on base, which will force more, distracted pitchers, throwing from the stretch, to throw more balls in the strike zone.
With that advantage, Judge might well have been able to win the Triple Crown, and I find it hard to believe that he would have hit, what, fewer than 2 home runs in his last 14 games.
Post a Comment