As much as this sounds like the title of a failed TV pilot about
a wedding disc jockey and his parrot…
(Not unlike NBC’s “BJ and the Bear” which according to IMDB was about, “ A trucker and his pet chimpanzee travel the highways of America, getting into various adventures and misadventures along the way.” It lasted two seasons.
They should do a reboot. “BJ and the Cocaine Bear”. I would totally watch that.)
But I digress…
… DJ and Oswaldo are two baseball players with similar and
incredibly valuable skillsets who are both in danger of not starting opening
day due to incredibly bad roster construction and misplaced priorities.
They are both Swiss Army Knives but, because Oswaldo can
play short, the outfield, and is younger
and faster, he is actually the better one. He’s the thicker Swiss Army Knife. The one with the roach clip and the
magnifying glass.
The way it stands now
the Yankees will be hard pressed to give them the at bats they deserve.
There is an easy solution. The odd man out is actually Gleyber Torres.
Gleyber needs to be traded to get our much needed Left Fielder. We don’t even need to get equal
value for him. A decent Left Fielder would be an upgrade and removing Gleyber
from the team breaks the log jam and snaps everything into
place.
DJ becomes the regular 2nd baseman. Less wear and
tear than moving around. He occasionally backs up first and Oswaldo plays
second.
Peraza is a lock for SS. There is no way that IKF is the
starter at short. He has a better chance of being the starting catcher because
that’s how bad things will have to get before he touches the Opening Day starting lineup.
Donaldson starts at 3B with Oswaldo spelling him. (Which is
why they are giving him so much time at third in spring training) They could
also start DJ there on occasion with Oswaldo at second.
Oswaldo also picks up outfield at bats as well. Plus Hicks is now the 4th outfielder
and we have whoever is traded for as the starter.
Good team.
Gleyber screws all of this up. Fortunately, he’s our best
trade chip. He needs to go.
To make it even more necessary… By the summer, Volpe will be banging on the
door so hard they are going to have to bring him up adding another infielder to
the mix.
Peraza goes to 2B. Volpe sticks at short. Donaldson, who by
then will be hitting around .180 sits, and life goes on.
Even better team.
The first domino is Gleyber.
Get it done.
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18 comments:
Your theory is correct, but every MLB GM knows the same thing. So ALL you will get IS pennies on the dollar for Torres. It should have happened last year at the trading deadline, but the genius got played by the Marlins and a rookie GM.
The most overlooked factor in prognosticating what the Yankees will do is also the simplest: Money. Cashman/Steinhummer would happily sink the season rather than jump over the next luxury tax hurdle. Right now we have about 3M to spend. Not much these days! If we look to significantly upgrade at the T/D we need to shed salary first. The most tradable assets are Torres, possibly IKF who together are making 16+M. Kahnle is also making nearly 6M; even before his injury I didn’t see the value in his signing. As for Torres, he is a F/A after next year. Does anybody here see the likelihood of the team signing him to a long term contract? No? Then the best move for the team is to deal him ASAP, as his value to other teams is linked to the amount of team control under his current contract.
When it comes to the New York Yankees always, always, always follow the money.
We have a few months to see how things play out... Hicks HAS to be traded before he is vested with his 10/5 rights, so hopefully he plays well enough to bring back "something".
I never had a swiss army knife with a roach clip. Even if I did, someone probably would have stolen it. I feel I missed out on an integral part of my youth.
Rufus -
You probably did. It was the little tweezers that slid into the frame. Next to the tooth pick that did the same. It made a great roach clip.
@Doug K. What exactly is a roach clip?
It's very nice to day dream about trading Torres, but we all know how the d-bag and HAL operate. Torres won't be traded. Not even at the trade deadline. He will end up leaving as a free agent, unless he has a very good year and Cashman & HAL are stupid enough to re-sign him to a long term mega deal.
Hicks appears to be the guy destined to start in LF. Unless he gets hurt in spring training. We can only hope that he gets hurt again very soon. Hicks might get hot at some point before he gets hurt, but it always ends up balancing out with the 10 consecutive weeks that he stunk out the joint. He is a .220 hitter. A guy who should be on the bench as a fourth outfielder. If this guy is your starter in LF, that means either you have no depth or your GM is a moron/your owner doesn't really want to win. You don't need to look at the stats. Watch his at-bats. This guy is a clueless hitter. He has a modicum of talent, sure. Like everyone else, if the stars align and he gets hot, he can have a hot streak. Big fucking deal. Florial would have a hot streak too, if they played him two straight months. Almost anyone with a pulse eventually has a hot streak or two.
Speaking of Florial, as has been mentioned he is out of options now, meaning he must pass through waivers. (Basically the same as a DFA). However, if no team claims him he could be re-signed by the team as a non-roster player. He would have to be restored to the roster if the team decides to elevate him to the the bigs, so who knows? Maybe his Yankee tenure isn’t over yet.
Hammer -
In the good old days when people rolled their own joints and shared them with out fear of (your favorite disease here) the joint would get smaller and smaller until it could barely be held with your fingers. What remained was called a roach.
As those last few tokes were the most powerful because of the resins,they were much prized. People devised clips to hold the roach so they could get the last hits without burning or staining their fingers. Tweezers, actual clips, running it through with an unraveled paper clip, commercially made roach clips, etc.
The Swiss Army Knife had tweezers in it.
My tweezers were zircon encrusted.
My roach clip was a guitar with the neck split. Squeeze the body and the neck separated. I still have it around somewhere, but it's been decades since I used it.
Doug, I could not agree more about what the Yankees SHOULD do...but The Hammer is right about what they WILL do.
The window for trading Gleyber shut last year, and The Genius didn't even notice. Hicks would not even have been considered for a 4th outfield spot in the past, on those Yankees teams that were truly going all-out to win.
Until Cashman is gone, NOTHING will change. And even then, whoever HAL hires is likely to be another Cashman. And even when HAL is gone, whoever succeeds him from the Steinbrenner family is likely to be another HAL.
Rufus,
Did you also own a pygmy pony?
No,
I also do not have a Sears poncho.
I do have dental floss.
I saved all the roaches in a film vial and rolled a joint or two from them when the fresh stuff ran out. Haven't thought about that in ages, thanks, gentlemen.
You guys planning to move to Montana soon?
I’m moving to Montana soon, gonna be a dental floss tycoon. Think I’m gonna grow me some peas…
RS
:) It's bees.
...but I'd leave the sweet stuff (honey) for somebody else.
But then on the other hand I would... Keep the wax (beeswax). Melt it down... etc.
Damn - I always heard that as “peas”.
I’ve been quoting that wrong for half a century now.
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