Happened yesterday: Clint Frazier and Ian Kennedy - two icons of unfulfilled Yankee expectations, 10 years apart - signed with Texas.
Their backstories run so deeply that - frankly - where to start? Each arrived in a wave of youth surely destined to restore the Yankees to dominance. Each suffered the consequences of our unlimited expectations.
Ian Kennedy and Clint Frazier...
Wow.
I need a drink.
Kennedy came as a 1st-round pick in 2006, a lefty from USC with polish beyond his years, maybe the next Andy. He formed part of a holy trinity with Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes - a wave of young arms that included Tyler Clippard, Sean Henn, Colter Bean and, gulp, Kei Igawa. He suffered a frightening setback - an aneurism cost him a season and threatened his life. Once, after being shelled, he didn't express enough remorse for the NY sportswriters, and he was ridiculed and banished to Triple A, later dealt to Arizona in a massive swap that brought us the Grandyman and sent Max Scherzer to Detroit.
In the desert, Kennedy became an ace. In 2011, he went 21-4 with a 2.88 ERA, finishing 4th in the Cy Young. He became a workhorse in San Diego and in 2019, moved to closer in KC, notching 30 saves. He's had a great career, the best of our original triad. Imagine the last 15 years, if the Yankees had kept him... Wow. Another drink, please...
We recently remembered Frazier - he of the "legendary bat speed," Cashman said - the jewel of the 2016 trade that sent Andrew Miller to Cleveland. Soon, Yank fans heard of a brash 21-year-old who rubbed some old farts the wrong way. Somebody concocted a bullshit story about him demanding Mantle's #7, and some writers went with it. Videos showed him ruling weight rooms and breaking a bat over his knee. Also, he ran into walls. Concussions cost him two years.
Frazier was going to join an emerging lineup with Greg Bird, Gary Sanchez, Gleyber Torres, Aaron Judge, Tyler Austin and Billy McKinney (who, interestingly, will be competing for LF with the Yankees this spring.) The Yankees were rising. He wore #77, perfect balance with #99 in RF.
Both will seek a shot in Texas. Kennedy will be 38. Frazier, who now goes by Jackson, is 28.
Good luck to both. Wow. Another drink, please.
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8 comments:
They are the poster boys for horrific player development and even worse roster management (trades) by idiot Cashman.
At the beginning, I was so impressed with Clint Frazier's swagger and hustle. He ran the bases like a demon and very much reminded me of Pete Rose. Then it was all downhill.
It used to be the Twins.
Now, there's where you'd use "Sympathy for the Devil" as entrance music. Ian Kennedy.
Jackson Frazier! Not Clint.
OK I get it.
The name change doesn't have the same gravitas as Lew Alcindor to Kareem Abdul Jabbar.
Or the same showbiz heft as Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta to Lady Gaga.
Or even the, "Oh yeah dude, you need to change your name!" of Issur Danielovitch to Kirk Douglas.
But the man wants to be called Jackson and let's face it as the great Johnny Cash wrote...
"We've been talking bout Jackson ever since the fire went out"
So we'll call him Jackson, and that's a fact.
Yeah, callin him Jackson, he ain't never comin' back.
"Somebody concocted..."? That somebody was First Lady Of The New York Yankees, Suzyn Waldman. I think she apologized to Clint.
Clint Frazer was treated abominably and his spirit was crushed by Yankee management along with Randy Miller who continues to pick on him today. What a waste of talent.
Kennedy threw right.
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