The Death Barge notched its two most exciting wins of 2023, mounting comebacks against MLB's best team, taking Tampa to the cutting board. In fact, the Yankees fulfilled their primary corporate talking points:
1. Though we didn't win the series, thanks to our generous owner and the crafty front office, we were competitive.
2. We might have won if not for injuries, which - as we all know - are part of the game.
3. Soon, we'll be back at full strength and ready to roll.
Insert applause clip. And yeah, it's sorta true, that No. 3. Soon, Luis Severino and Giancarlo Stanton should return. (We won't feign hopes for Jackie Donaldson, Tommy Kahnle and Carlos Rode-On.) If you believe talking points, sometime around June 1, the Yankees will start to climb in the murderous AL East. Until then, a 2-2 series against Tampa is no calamity, just business as usual... Right?
Well, I'm not sure I believe anything anymore, certainly not from Bag-Eyes Boone, Cooperstown Cashman, or the YES Greek chorus, headed by Paul O'Neill remembering 1999.
I might believe John Sterling, or at least the tone of his voice, but The Master was mysteriously "under the weather" this weekend, and that remains one of the greatest concerns of all. It's not like John to miss the most important home series of the year thus far. A legitimate shudder should be running through every Yank fan in captivity.
As for the team? Yeah, the 2023 Yankees are competitive, I'll grant them that. But as we head to Toronto - a team we must beat, no splits - the gruesome holes in our lineup are not going away. And it's a leap of faith to believe that, sometime around the solstice, the tweaks and strains will magically stop. If you have a team built around china dolls, you must accept the injuries that come with them.
This weekend, we saw hope. Anthony Volpe has hit 3 HRs in the last five games (after hitting 3 all season) and his baserunning electrified Yankee Stadium. Oswaldo Cabrera began to hit; has he finally adjusted? Harrison Bader has become a whirlwind in CF; could he someday justify Jordan Montgomery? And Judge/Rizzo have anchored the batting order.
Critical infrastructure adjustments. We are competitive. But but BUT...
1. Every game started by Jhonny Brito and/or Clarke Schmidt is a loss, awaiting a miracle. Five innings, five runs - yikes, that doesn't cut it. We're been lucky with Domingo German; will his wheels soon fall off? Should we start worrying about Nestor Cortez? And what happens if Gerrit Cole simply runs out of gas?
2. We have no closer and might be overworking Wandy Peralta and Michael King (aka "the real Michael K.") For our bullpen, stress is normalcy. Yesterday, Albert Abreu (aka Double A) tanked the game. But frankly, Boone had nobody else. Where would we be without Hamilton, Cordero and Maranaccio? (who looks fried.)
3. We still have a vacuum in LF - Oswaldo and Jack Bauers are stretched thin and nobody in Scranton looks ready for prime time. Jasson Dominguez might be showing a spark at Double A; it's hard to tell because of the bullshit hype. He's drawing a lot of walks. So, does that mean anything? If he gets hot at Somerset, maybe he moves to Triple A? From there, a call up in August or September? It's a longshot.
By then, the talking points might be entirely different. Or maybe not at all...
Michael King ( aka "the real Michael K.") Albert Abreu (aka Double A)
ReplyDeleteBravo E.D.
Duque,
ReplyDeleteThe Master was at his triplets' college graduations this weekend. According to the YESmen, so interpret that at your own risk.
Sterling fathering the triplets was De Niro-level until De Niro out-De Niroed him recently.
ReplyDeleteKing is our closer, or should be. That one's easy.
Donaldson was mentioned yesterday during the game as being relatively close to returning, which surprised me. I'd rather see DJ or one of the kids at third, but just saying.
You know that when Stanton comes back, he's going to be a hole in the lineup for at least a week or two. Not that he was burning down the house before his injury.
The worry going into the Jays series is that the Yanks were pumped for the Tampa games and will now have a drop in intensity, leaving us vulnerable to the Blue Jays' potent beaks...er, bats.
mazel tov master sterling!may you shep much nachas from them and also the yankees
ReplyDelete@ Above Average (possibly another AA?)....Never use the initials ED when commenting to a male, especially one around our collective old age! LOLOL
ReplyDelete@ Doo Wop....your name reminds me of a younger Jewish singer with another style of music. It's the Hasidic Rapper who calls himself Matisyahu.
ReplyDeleteDon't laugh too hard! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChV5BZ8SmS0
Signs of hope...dammit!
ReplyDeleteBaseball is lousy with hope.
Cordero opening for Brito in Toronto. One night only. It's going to be explosive.
ReplyDeleteI paid virtually no attention this weekend, and lo and behold, the bums beat the Tampons with come from behind wins in the middle two games. They came back down to earth with a loss in the final game. This series was reminiscent of a June series against the ASS-stros last year, when our bums came from behind to win a couple of miracles, then came back down to earth with a beatdown in Houston. We all know what'll happen, the Tampons will make the corrections in their bullpen that will avert such miracles by our bums in the future. Much like last year, our bums will end up getting walloped later in the year and also in the playoffs, if they even make it there.
ReplyDeleteI didn't see the game or even listen in on Sunday, but Clarke Schmidt getting shelled by the Tampons was like predicting rain in the Amazon jungle. Tampons know how to take advantage of mechanical pitching. You've got to be at the top of your game and using your head to hold their lineup down.
Of note, Judge in the #2 slot came up with two outs in the 9th inning. Shades of earlier in the year, when he came up in a similar situation, but in that game he got the unintentional intentional walk. (I am surprised that the Tampons even gave him the chance to do it. For once in a blue moon, the Tampons did not play a very intelligent series. They made a whole bunch of stupid mistakes.) This time, Judge hit one to the track, and it was caught short of the wall.
The game tying home run with two outs in the 9th is a true rarity. I can't even remember a Yankee doing it during the entire time that I've been a fan. I do remember the duo of Bernie Williams and David Justice hitting a game tying home run and then a game winning home run in the 9th, respectively. That must have been in the year 2000. But I don't think there were two outs in the 9th. Maybe there was one out, or maybe there was nobody out. I do remember the Sterling call: "UNBELIEVABLE!" The Master was still very much at the top of his game back then.
The point being that, it's one thing to just need a single to tie the game, but a two out homer in the 9th to tie is almost like finding a 500 carat diamond whilst searching for King Solomon's mines. Rare, very rare.
I wonder about the Yankees objective. It certainly does not seem to finish first.
ReplyDeleteHammer, you said "whilst." Are you Canadian or British?
ReplyDeleteYou've probably said it before at some point and I missed it.
Or maybe you just like "whilst."
The YES storyline about John Sterling IS untrue. John has been sick since Wednesday. Suzyn flat out said he was under the weather and would be out for the series, and probably the next two as well l. I heard his weak voice myself and posted it that day. If he went to a graduation, that was about as much of an excuse as saying Stanton had a bad ice cube. He might’ve had a bad ice cube, but that’s not all and if the Yankees lie about their 85 year old announcer, who else are they are lying about? Everyone.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteIs Volpe really 5’9”? Another lie
I never thought in a million years that I would ever ask the following question but:
ReplyDeleteWhy isn't Harrison Bader in today's lineup?
. . . and . . .
So - whilst most MLB managers have vibrant, healthy and active brains, others have a syrupy, quivering, pitch-like mass that settles to the base of their skull.
Guess which of those two our Skipper Bubbles von Boone has?
Harrison Bader’s triplets have a graduation today also.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThe word "whilst" in the comments three times today. That's some high-brow commenting.
So our #9 hitter is batting .153. Canada’s # 9Kiermaier is .311. If we had two Hicks in the line up that’d make the handicap.
ReplyDeleteUm, Hammer? 2001 World Series? Two nights in a row?
ReplyDeleteC'mon, man, get it together!!!!
Hammer plies his bizarre obsession once again: "The point being that, it's one thing to just need a single to tie the game, but a two out homer in the 9th to tie is almost like finding a 500 carat diamond whilst searching for King Solomon's mines. Rare, very rare."
ReplyDeleteJust as rare as hitting a two- or three-run homerun in the first inning. In fact, exactly as rare, based on at-bats per homerun rate. So what's the point? That you would have preferred IKF or Gleyber to be at bat in that situation instead of Judge?
No Le Machine either…
ReplyDelete1. Jake Bauers (L) LF
2. Aaron Judge (R) RF
3. Anthony Rizzo (L) 1B
4. Gleyber Torres (R) 2B
5. Willie Calhoun (L) DH
6. Anthony Volpe (R) SS
7. O. Cabrera (S) 3B
8. K. Higashioka (R) C
9. Aaron Hicks (S) CF
Manage their load please, Boonie
ReplyDeleteManage their load, forget victory
Manage their load please, Boonie
And (aaand) you put their load (put their load) right on Judgey
IS VOLPE FAVORITISM A SYMPTOM OF YANKEE RACISM?
ReplyDeleteWhat's all the mooning over Volpe every time he has a decent game? Recency bias, anyone? I"m all for giving a meaningful trial to young players WHEN THEY ARE READY. Volpe is not ready to hit major league pitching--there was nothing in his minor league resume to warrant skipping the step of AAA other than his having had a good spring--but no first-rate organization makes major player judgments mainly on spring-training performance, for obvious reasons--reasons that are obvious to everyone but Cashman and Company. Franchy Cordero had a red-hot spring for the Orioles, who promptly released him because they have a competent front office--the Yankees have a moronic front office, which is why they promptly picked him up. That's why the Orioles are four games ahead of the Yankees now on one third of the payroll. We are nearing the one third mark of the season, and Volpe is showing himself to be not ready for prime time.
I think that Peraza would be a more valuable player if he were healthy and given the chance. Volpe is a good--not great--fielder and a distinctly sub-par hitter so far. But at least he's not black or Latin, so go Anthony! Gotta sell those YES app subs and season tickets to the LI, Westchester, and NJ suburbanites who make up the bulk of the Yankee fan base.
The Yankees were once a blatantly racist organization; the the problem is more subtle but still unmistakable. Here's a chronological lowlight reel: in being one of the last to allow an African Amercian onto their MLB roster; then in tolerating the open racism and anti-semitism of Steinbrenner's pet pit bull, Billy Martin; in Steinbrenner's demented obsession with humiliating Dave Winfield one of the finest black players of his generation; in looking the other way as Joe Torre subjected black players to more open reprimands than white players; and, most recently, in the organization's discouraging of Aaron Judge from speaking out on racial injustice.
All of the foregoing is documented in the links I post below:
On Jackie Robinson Day, the Yankees must answer for Jim Crow Baseball
1. The Yankees held to the color line longer than all but three teams. An organization that wants to be credited with the franchise's positive history must acknowledge the negative as well.
https://www.pinstripealley.com/2013/4/15/4228172/jackie-robinson-day-new-york-yankees-vic-power-elston-howard
2. THE SHAMEFUL HISTORY OF THE YANKEES' AND THE RED SOX'S DISMISSAL OF BLACK TALENT
https://samuelburleigh.medium.com/the-shameful-history-of-the-red-sox-and-yankees-dismissal-of-black-talent-60bf4d56d982
3. Reggie Jackson: Billy Martin Used Racist and Anti-Semitic Epithets When He Managed the Yankees
https://www.espn.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/7158864/former-new-york-yankees-great-reggie-jackson-says-billy-martin-used-anti-semitic-epithets
4. Gary Sheffield Claims that the Yankees Treated Black Players Differently
https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/story?id=3376301&page=1
5. Did the Yankees discourage Aaron Judge from speaking out about racial issues? Yes, according to one report.
https://yanksgoyard.com/2020/07/10/yankees-aaron-boone-aaron-judge-avoid-racial-issues/
@ JM, No, I just like "whilst". Just a true blue American Yankee fan, a New Yorker.
ReplyDelete@ Hoss, Indeed, as the Master said, I should be whipped, flogged, and flagellated!
ReplyDeleteI try not to think about the 2001 World Series. Brings back a lot of bad memories! As a baseball fan, nothing is worse than the pain of losing a world series.
@ EDB, My point being that it's better to score early and take the lead rather than try to come from behind in your last at bat. In a home game, obviously, you don't even want your team hitting in the 9th. You want the game over after the road team makes the third out in the top of the 9th.
ReplyDeleteOh, don’t reply to him. His post will be deleted shortly ( I hope) and replying just memorializes a previous existence.
ReplyDeleteWhilst. Cuz it’s trendy today.
Why am I not surprised that someone with a blog name redolent of the antebellum South should advocate the suppression of my thoroughly documented account of the Yankees' history of racism? Steve Goldman's thoughtful essay on this topic hat I linked comes from an ardent Yankee fan. If you root for this team, you should want to see this infection cleaned out once and for all. For now, it malingers, if more subtly than in the past.
DeleteThings like whilst…
ReplyDeleteWilts, what Hicks does in a Yankees uniform.
Willets, point… area of New York, populated with automotive repair shops, where Hicks is most employable.
Williston Oilers, a long ago minor-league team that would’ve cut Hicks.
Winner, a word never associated with .135
Whilst we’re at it - There really should be a Bader Bite Guard promo. Everyone 15 and older get a pinstripe mouth guard.
ReplyDeleteVolpe favoritism over who exactly? Peraza? Cabrera?
ReplyDeleteThe kind of bean-counting friend of the blog EBD is doing above usually excludes ballplayers from the Caribbean, or points farther south, altogether. A separate category, as is not so subtly demonstrated by his list of bad Yankees behavior through the years (don't let the middle name fool you, Reggie was from Philly).
Or is there a young man born in the United States Volpe is blocking? If so, I've missed it.
Nice first half inning so far.
ReplyDeleteFor once, Yanks made the right decision with Volpe. I was floored when they made the decision to start Volpe at SS. I was sure they'd use IKF. The scouts, Willie Randolph, everyone was saying Volpe was ready for the majors. The only question was SS or 2B? But they do need to get rid of Donaldson and Hicks. So they're still doing a half ass job of putting the best roster together.
ReplyDeleteHopefully Hicks will jam something on the turf in maple leaf land and be Ellsbury-ed.
ReplyDeleteI know it won't happen, but it could.
@ B.J.P Burnside, don't use the male pronoun when referring to the Bigot. Last year I got a True Confession that "he was a she". Don't give her the glory of being another victim of male misogyny.
ReplyDeleteBarney just got politely Hammered.
ReplyDeleteSuzyn was rooting for Hicks to get a walk lol.
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ReplyDeletePublius -- Yes, Volpe favoritism over Peraza in this case. Peraza has far better minor league hitting record than Volpe, and at a higher level--AAA--that Volpe skipped over. Peraz is equal or better as a fielder. Volpe's minor league batting numbers are tepid at best--surely not the kind of record that would normall prompt a leapfrog over AAA to the majors ahead of someone who is clearly more accomplished. Based on merit, Peraza should have been next in line for the shortstop job. My point here is not that the Yankees boycott Latin or black players altogether--that would be empirically unfounded. My point is that if they think they have a white non-Latin that they can promote, they will be faster to do it in that case--Volpe's case, in this instance, even though his minor league numbers did not warrant such a promotion and even though his subpar offensive performance with he big club--in a significant sample size by now--would normally warrant a demotion for further seasoning at the AAA level.
ReplyDeleteAlthough youd need more evidence to substantiate your claims.... The way they went about their last managerial search DOES lend credence to what you are saying
DeleteDoes Justin Shakel even like the Yankees? He sounds like he could just as easily be announcing lottery numbers. Bring back #85!
ReplyDeleteRicky's in the building, broadcasting, informing and entertaining Yankees fans. I'm jealous of them.
DeleteAmazing how people can be so self righteous that they can't understand their own bigotry. It's always the Other Guy who is unclean But that's the way the smug crumbles.
ReplyDeleteI'm not one to defend Cashman, and I am pleased that they've moved Volpe to the bottom third of the order recently. Volpe did not dominate the minors offensively, nor did Peraza. Peraza was better, but his MILB numbers don't scream "no doubter".
ReplyDeleteThe Yankees must be using criteria besides MILB numbers for their preference for Volpe over Peraza at this point. That's obvious. But I'm not sure the most reasonable conclusion is that the Yankees are an inherently and fundamentally racist organization. That's an extraordinary accusation, which requires extraordinary evidence to support. The further away that evidence gets from the current situation diminishes its effectiveness.
Volpe was the 3rd ranked prospect in MLB…nothing racial here…
ReplyDeleteI should say "persuasiveness" rather than "effectiveness". Like Volpe and Peraza, either could work in this situation, but one's probably slightly better.
ReplyDeleteHicks looking even more pathetic.
ReplyDeleteBrito looking good.
Big head is still insufferable.
That Judge guy isn't so bad either.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh…
ReplyDeleteSuzyn has declared this “the scary part” of the game.
ReplyDeleteWhen John is done I will switch to Ricky. His home run call for Didi Gregorious was a “ di di di di” arpeggio. He is Juan Sterling.
ReplyDeleteBoone is managing badly, even after he is thrown out.
ReplyDeleteNobody ready when the youngster is going through the order the third time.
All preventable if Jogginson Torres doesn't make that unforced error.
ReplyDeleteThis is not good…
ReplyDeleteBeen busy around here, I see. Brito did well tonight.
ReplyDeleteC'MON HAMLITON!! YOU'RE A GOOG KID AND PEOPLE LIKE YOU!! KEEP YOUR CHIN UP!!
ReplyDeleteUMWAVERING POSITIVITY!!!
Rufus I’d blame Boone too but he thrown out with Judges second HR. The is the Boone Trust doin this to us.
ReplyDeleteAnd all of this because of a bad call by the umpire…
ReplyDeleteAt least King isn't tired.
ReplyDeleteCan they put DJ in at second as a defensive replacement?
Just one of the reasons Volpe is playing.
ReplyDeleteBeau, I agree.
ReplyDeleteYankees Win!!!
ReplyDeleteApparently you do! I read that funny. Just had detached retina surgery so I have spare time and can’t read well.
ReplyDeleteThuuhuhuhuhu-AAAAHHHUHUHUUHUUH BEST BIGGEST AARON AND LITTLE TONY AND BIG TONY AND THE YANKEEEEESSSSS WIN!!!
ReplyDeleteUNWAVERING POSITIVITY.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE unwavering positivity!
ReplyDeletePublius--I provided extensive documentation of my assertion--five links from first-rate sources, all documenting racism in the Yankee organization from the fifties to the present. In encourage you to read through them. Peraza did not "dominate" offensively at AAA, but he was markedly better than Volpe in the minors. The leapfrogging of Volpe, as I pointed out, was based on one good spring-training stint, which is not a reliable predictor of regular-season performance.
ReplyDeleteNot quite to the present. Which was my point. But never mind. You seem in harmony with the zeitgeist of furious and scurrilous accusation. Good luck.
DeleteMaybe it is as simple as they hyped Volpe because he was a 1st Rd. pick and those have not been too successful for the Yanks.
ReplyDeleteYeah, this racist organization named Judge Captain and gave him a lot of leeway when he was first called up.
I think they just squeeze very hard for No.1 picks to make the majors.
Pretty clear that Peraza will be taking Torres' place soon, whether he is traded this year or next. Torres will not be here for the 2025 season.
PS., this racist organization has almost an exclusive black/brown everyday lineup in Tampa-A ball .
p.p.s.s., Billy Martin references are from the 70's. Elston Howard from the 50's. Most of your examples are 40+ years old.
p.p.p.s.s.s, Maybe Sheffield was an asshole. Those come in all colors.
Archangel -- Judge, like Jeter, is light-skinned and biracial, so the Yankee management has a higher tolerance for them. Bernie Williams was darker-skinned and was treated poorly by the organization despite his superb talent. Steinbrenner wanted to trade him early on and nearly let him walk in his free agent year. That wasn't a patch on Steinbrenner's deranged public humiliation of Dave Winfield. Two other examples I cite are from the Steinbrenner years, and one is from two years ago. You obviously didn't bother to even click on the links, much less read them. As for Peraza, he had cleary earned first shot at the shortstop job, but Volpe was deemed more marketable, for reasons I have already explained.
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ReplyDeletePublius--you can fling around all the inflated, distortive invective as your disposal if that's what makes your day and passes for civil discourse in your circles. I responsibly and extensively documented this racist current in Yankee history from impeccable, first-rate sources, none of which you seem to have read, because you comment on none of them in detail. The attempt to muzzle Judge speaking out against racism happened a year and a half ago. Taken in the perspective of a century, that's pretty much the present. But if you want to pick nits, I think that leapfrogging the less-qualified white Volpe over the more-qualified Latino Peraza for the starting shortstop job will suffice for the literal present.
ReplyDeleteA control freak who chastises a stranger on a blog for not reading their research on racism is fucking bizarre. But parse racism according to skin tones? Hopefully you are on a "watch list" . Rarely have I come across such anger in a person. Seriously, I hope that you are getting help.
ReplyDeleteKevin,
ReplyDeleteIgnore Stat-boy. She has mommy AND daddy issues.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMore scholarly evidence that skin-tone variations among blacks are a reliable indicator of socio-economic status and attainment--because of prejudicial attitudes among whites.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.jstor.org/stable/2781783
"Lighter-skinned Black and Hispanic People Look Smarter to White People" (and, evidently, to the Steinbrenner family)
ReplyDeletehttps://www.vox.com/2015/2/28/8116799/white-colorism-racism-study
Rufus, I think that she believes that a "study" actually correlates to reality. Life should be so easy, she might learn the Truth when she gets a little older.
ReplyDeleteKevin,
ReplyDeleteShe's decided you're the target this month. Don't feel alone, it's just part of the schedule. Started by saying Peraza should have been picked over Volpe. Check out Milb.com stats on both. She just used it as a starting point to change the subject.
Oh, and read an ANALytics book, will you? Or not, if you have a life.
Rufus, I don't like engaging in battles with emotionally fragile, wannabe smart people. But she has a true gift when it comes to being obnoxious. I imagine that she is in her second year at Brown with four hundred credit hours.
ReplyDeleteRufus and Kevin--what a lovely couple. Not that there's anything wrong with that. . . .
ReplyDeleteBarney, that was pretty clever.
ReplyDeleteBeing friendless, Stat-boy™ is jealous. Neither condition is likely to change in our lifetimes.
ReplyDeleteHere are Judge's exact words about Florial (I slightly misquoted him above from memory): "He's a special talent. . . . He'll definitely help us out." I would certainly give more weight to the assessment from Judge--who played alongside Florial for several years--than I would the second-rate hacks who make up the Yankee scouting department.
ReplyDeletehttps://nypost.com/2022/08/16/yankees-expected-to-call-up-estevan-florial-amidst-aaron-hicks-struggles/