The Yanks were in a lot of shutout games that year. They were blanked 15 times, and shutout their opponents 14 times, en route to batting a record-low, .214 in the "Year of the Pitcher."
Hell, they played 9, 1-0 shutout games alone—and won 6 of them.
The game had become so low-scoring that even the usual suspects who run major-league baseball realized that something had to be done, and went about lowering the mound and, eventually, bringing in the designated hitter. Hey, the mills of baseball grind slow, but eventually they grind something.
Even now, we're seeing some rule changes—not always good. But of course, baseball today is in the grip of an ideology, and that's always especially hard to break. Everybody throw as hard as they can, swing for the fences, and off to the weight room with you!
No matter how much this dogma drags the game down, the ideologues of the stat sheet don't want to hear it. They especially don't want to hear it up in the Bronx.
But how to score?
Well, in the seventh inning, Tom Tresh—once a star in the making, now dragging his all-but-crippled body out to shortstop everyday, on the way to a .195 season—surprised everyone by leading off the seventh with a bunt, then surprised everyone even more by stealing second.
The recently mentioned Bill Robinson—hitting .190 going into the game—then slapped a single into left-center. Ballgame.
This wasn't rocket science and, at that point in their careers, these were not very good ballplayers. But somehow, they found a way to win.
Which is more than can be said for your New York Yankees last night, impotent behind what was a stellar pitching effort.
Instead, The Gleyber got thrown out trying to steal in the fourth—a league-leading fifth time; he's all of 5-10 in stolen-base attempts this year—and made out with the go-ahead run on second in the sixth.
(Ed. note: Tresh in 1968, plagued by a bad back, managed to go 10-15 in stolen bases. Hmm. Could that have something to do with attention span?)
With the bases loaded and only one out in the 10th last night, did Ma Boone have a play to put on? No. Instead, the Vaunted Volpe grounded into a force at home, and Franchy struck out. Ballgame.
Topped off by a manager who has absolutely no discernible virtue, save for his willingness to do everything our egomaniac of a general manager wants.
Baseball, played right, offers all sorts of ways to win. The idea of playing it one way, all the way, is, like all human ideologies, woefully inadequate.
You have to find ways to scrape across a run, even when a good pitcher is shutting you down and you've got some key people on the DL.
The Yankees don't have that. Worse yet, they don't feel they need to have it.
Torres will never learn his limitations. Not a true "winning" ballplayer, doesn't have the elusive "baseball clock" between the ears. Never will. Did anyone notice the list of "best starting pitchers" on MLB.com today? I hate these weekly lists that various sites put together, but I can't help but reading them. I need help. Anyway, Sonny Gray #3, Nathan Eovaldi #4, Luis Castillo #6, Marcus Stroman #8. Cole "received votes". I mention these guys on the list because we've "owned" two of them, could have easily signed Stroman, and Castillo has been "attainable" forever. And the thing is, these guys aren't bringing down HUGE salaries. And yes, some of those guys get hurt. But we could have had the Three for way less money than Gerrit "King" Cole, with money left for a really good outfielder. Sonny Gray, not the most popular guy on Yankee blogs must have really pissed the Eggheads off, we seem to be the only org. that can't teach him anything. I readily admit to going into 20/20 hindsight territory, but man that list pisses me off. Better to stockpile talented pitchers than to throw it all at one pitcher, unless that pitcher is the "final piece". And this team hasn't needed the "final piece" since I was almost, almost young.
ReplyDeleteThe Bahnsen Burner is only 78 years old. Maybe we should give him a tryout.
ReplyDeleteBet he comes cheap.
I never much liked Sonny Gray, Kev, and if they had picked up the other available choice—Verlander—the last few years would've been very different.
ReplyDeleteBut you're right: there's something very wrong when guys do better almost EVERY place outside of the Bronx. And the worst part is that Cashman never redeems himself by moving these guys on for something better.
Gray—still a highly valued pitcher at the time—was traded for almost nothing at all. Eovaldi was simply released. There are dozens of other examples. Cashie simply does not bother to suss out hidden talents in other farm systems and demand it in trades.
We should trade Torres for an OF, can Calhoun. Some organization would take him for their 4th OF . He still has 1.5 years of control and his contract is what it is because of arbitration. Some other organization may have a similar situation with one their OF, whether their 3rd or 4th one, and be willing to deal. We could always throw in some money.
ReplyDeleteMove Volpe to 2B, where is arm fits better and bring Peraza up for SS.
IKF can play 3rd B whenever Donaldson hurts/cuts himself again.
Amen, Hoss! This is a mechanical team, one dimensional, with zero flexibility.
ReplyDeleteWhen IKF made the first out with the runner on third (and that was a very big out), then Boone probably should've bunted Volpe. After Volpe made out, Boone should have gone to Rizzo as the pinch hitter. If Rizzo was not able to play, what's he doing on the roster? Should have been put on the IL, and somebody brought up for the bench. If Rizzo was not able to play on Wednesday night, then all of a sudden would he be able to play on Friday night in L.A.? I don't get that.
And in the bottom half of the 10th, Marinaccio was the wrong choice. But Boone had used up King the other night in a blowout game. King should have been saved for a tight game.
Lot's of mistakes by Boone and Cashman, as usual. Both in game managing and roster managing is some kind of exercise in pushing blinking buttons on an electronic console. I wish they'd push the blinking button labeled "START SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE".
@ Kevin, The coaching here sucks. They don't stress the fundamentals, and it shows against the good teams.
ReplyDeleteSonny Gray comes here and sucks. Then leaves and is back to being good. I don't think he would have been good here ever, so I can't complain that they didn't hang on to him.
With Eovaldi, though, they could've held on to him. He gave up a ton of hits in the N.L., came here and basically continued to give up a ton of hits. Then he started getting better and then the injury happened. After his surgery, I would've tried to resign him, but they didn't and he became a good pitcher in Boston. And now he's doing it in Texas. Cashman is so stupid that he'll bring Eovaldi back six years from now, when the guy has nothing left.
Thanks, Hammer. And yes, at least faking a suicide squeeze would've scrambled the infield. But the idea of anything like that is anathema in major-league ball today.
ReplyDeleteThe Yanks never adjust, no matter what. I get that they were built to slug. That was a bad strategy to start with. With Rizzo, Donaldson, and Stanton out, it no longer exists.
@ Arch, Yep, that's what they should do. Or maybe get pitching for Torres. Moving Torres would solve a lot of problems. As would dumping Donaldson.
ReplyDeleteI remember Tresh towards the end of his career. As a kid I couldn’t understand why he fell off a cliff. Of course in those days, injuries were simpler. A torn elbow ligament was a sore arm, a blown out ACL was a bad knee. Rub some dirt on it.
ReplyDeleteTrading Torres would be a bold move, but the correct one. More pitching always good, even a bona fide LFer would suffice.
As far as K. Calhoun, there’s only so much room for other team’s rejects, even on the Yankees. Doubtful he could come close to reproducing his AAA performance at the ML level at this stage of his career. Maybe a trade could be worked out, but he won’t fetch much, so bye-bye Kole.
To All Above, yep(3).
ReplyDeleteNow Sonny Gray, it's possible that he would have sucked here forever. It is also true that the organization has built up a mythos that there is some kind of "miasma" in Gotham which causes certain players to go anaphylactic,necessitating an emergency airlift out of town. Hell, some players do fall to pieces. But it also makes for a readymade excuse when things don't go well. And The Brain to avoid looking like a bastard drops some vague phrase to the press, which translates as, "this boy has a weak nerve". Only worded more subtly. And as many of you point out, The Brain doesn't know how to horse trade.
we had gray and eovaldi at one time.didnt work out too well
ReplyDelete