Friday, December 30, 2022

Dawn of the excuses: "[T]hey may pass on remaining left-field free agents...They want to stay below the $293M “Steve Cohen tax” threshold.."

It has begun: 

The annual grieving of the purse, Hal Steinbrenner's inevitable ejaculations of lamentations, shouting in the town square that...

1. Money just doesn't grow on trees, people.

2. Nobody should have to spend $200 million on a ballclub.

3. The Yankees must all learn to do more with less.

4. The happiest players are the ones who come cheaply.

5. Estevan Florial looks ready to go.

And so, says Jon Heyman in today's Murdoch Mash...

Okay, deep breath. Look, we all knew this was coming. We understood that Hal's gushing promises to "keep improving" this team, his wild December shopping spree, would soon end, and belt-tightening would begin. And the first signs would come from beat writers extolling the wisdom of frugality. 

I suppose we should be thankful for Aaron Judge's return and Carlos Rodon's arrival. They weren't cheap. In the shadow of Steve Cohen's Supermarket Sweep, Hal's willingness to spend should not be overlooked. 

But what remains is a gaping hole in the Yankee 2023 roster - no LF, no big lefty bat, and bullpen depth a few arms short. The last two years have taken a toll on whatever confidence we once had in Brian Cashman's trading acumen. 

Last winter, his deal with Minnesota - Sanchez/Urshella for Donaldson/IKF/the unspellable catcher - became a season-long debacle. His Aug. 1 trading deadline moves didn't do much better. 

The year of 2022 shall be remembered for Judge's historical greatness and a withering second-half collapse, fueled in part by ugly trades.

The beat writers have begun feeding the narrative that the Yankees have spent enough, that frugality should be the new course. The spending spree is over. From now on, to get anything, we've got to give blood.

13 comments:

  1. This has been the same article from beat writers for every year since about 2010.
    In January they will write about someone vastly improved by a new workout regimen.
    Then February. the newest reclamation project.
    March, some STS stud will blast HR or throw 100mph and save the Yankees at a critical position.
    July, about how well many of our older players are doing in their rehabs.

    And don't get me started on October and November post mortems.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hal sucks and Cashman is an idiot.

    Oh, yeah...Boone is an idiot, too.

    And that wraps up my analysis of the 2023 New York Yankees.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hal definitively sucks and I am not making any excuses for him, I think about what other general managers could do with that kind of money. We have so much deadwood that you could build a house and fill it with shit.

    ReplyDelete
  4. JM, that's the analysis for the last 4 years

    ReplyDelete
  5. "The last two years have taken a toll on whatever confidence we once had in Brian Cashman's trading acumen. Last winter, his deal with Minnesota - Sanchez/Urshela for Donaldson/IKF/the unspellable catcher - became a season-long debacle. His Aug. 1 trading deadline moves didn't do much better."

    That's the crux of the biscuit right there.

    ---

    Hal's big error was not only not getting rid of Cashman but extending him and letting him spend close to 300 million dollars for 2023.

    I still believe - mostly because I'm an idiot- that there is a deal for a left fielder out there.

    --

    The pen actually looks fairly good. We do need a closer though. Holmes?

    --

    If DJ is healthy. (Hahahahahahahah) the line-up of...

    Bader CF
    Judge RF
    Rizzo 1B
    DJ 3B
    Stanton DH
    Peraza SS
    Gleyber 2B
    Trevino C
    Left Fielder LF (Imagine if we can get a good one! Also, Imagine there's no countries. I wonder if you can. Nothing to live or die for... a brotherhood of man. Imagine all the people, living life in peace...)

    The above lineup is not a bad one at all. Give DJ 3B let Cabera take the roving DJ role and let Donaldson play 3rd once a week.



    ReplyDelete
  6. Duque:
    I like Jon Heyman and he is just reporting what he believes and I believe him. I tried replying and for some reason could not. I always hear how the Yankees have a large payroll. The Baseball world is not the world we live in. If Cabrera turns out to be a star, then the Yankees have fixed the problem. If not we will to watch Barren Hicks and a parade of stiffs, until The Genius goes out and gets somebody in July. This has become the Yankee way. Spend to a point, but don't go all the way.

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  7. Sorry, still don't get the idea of batting Bader first. Besides his lifetime BA of .245, the guy has a .317 OBP. Over a 162-game season, he will draw all of 41 walks.

    Not my leadoff hitter!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hoss,

    OK.

    How about...

    DJ 3B
    Judge RF
    Rizzo 1B
    Stanton DH
    Peraza SS
    Bader CF
    Gleyber 2B
    Trevino C
    Left Fielder LF

    ReplyDelete

  9. @edb...

    Unfortunately I think you're spot the fuck on. The big deadline acquisition will surely be someone like Corey Dickerson, maybe Robbie Grossman, and the Genius will give up "only" Beeter and Brito and a couple other prospects. Media will grovel at his feet.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Better, Doug. But I would still put Judge third.

    And spot on, Jimmy!

    ReplyDelete

  11. That will be the name of the new Yankees rock band:

    Barren Hicks and His Parade of Stiffs!

    And here we are once again, facing the same level of mediocrity that we've had with the approach of every new season for the last 13 years.


    But this year, the Yankees will unveil their new analytical strategy:

    No left fielder.

    It's a strategy whose time has come, and might just pay off if we don't have to put Hicks and his useless bat in the lineup.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks, Mildred. JM, calls Cashman an idiot. He is worse than an idiot. More like a moron who fails and believes he is right. He is also a GEEK. The MLB commissioner is a Geek, Mike Fishman is Geek, a lot of the Baseball writers are geeks. The other night, a caller on Keith McPherson's show on WFAN called Cashman great and then started to find faults with him. McPherson does the same thing. Think of this: Kei Igawa, Barren Hicks and Josh Donaldson, three reasons why Cashman is a putz. Very little player development in the Yankees farm system. Lack of knowledge as to run the bases, poor fundamentals, swinging up and a putz puppet manager. Cashman is more than an idiot.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Cashman is an idiotic, moronic, self-justifying, geeky putz.

    That should do it.

    ReplyDelete

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