Sunday, June 11, 2023

Game Thread: The Flubber Game

Can the Yanks bounce back from their recent ineptitude and take the series?  Or will they flub the opportunity?


43 comments:

  1. I'm getting the infinite loop for commenting.

    It's the prophylactic match.

    John is working through the injury.

    What a trouper!

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  2. As I type they are hanging in there…

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  3. John is yelling at the TV, on the radio. I love it.

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  4. They all suck. The two runs were scored on a fluke.

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  5. Great.

    Now a manfred game.

    Kind of like a shitty overtime with a shoot out at the end.

    Cricket was never better.

    PS, Suzyn was sighing as the radio feed came back on.

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  6. An absolutely pathetic team, the only way they win this is by another stupid fluke, URGGG

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  7. Mickey Kenny will certainly hit it out.

    Of the batter's box.

    We hope.

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  8. Torres is starting to look like Knoblauch…

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  9. Does that run go to his ERA? Because it is not his fault that the guy was on second.

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  10. Just fucking trade Gleyber Cano already. Or put him at DH or LF. He sucks in the field now.

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  11. Suzyn sighs pretty regularly.

    So Volpe is up third… another chance to be a hero or a zero.

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  12. Not feeling a lot of hope here.

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  13. Dj is slow. So he won't be able to score on a single

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  14. Mad George would have fired everyone if the Yankees lost two of three at home against the carmines.

    Sheesh!

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  15. Send him down. For now. They can't afford to not bring Peraza up.

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  16. Fuck Torres. Just … fuck him. And fuck Boone. If he had any stones he’d have pulled him off the field right then & there.

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  17. They bunt, they win. Just ask John, he’ll tell you the same in every 10th. Let’s abduct Boone and implant a superheterodyne in his cranium.

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  18. Just got home.
    Doesn’t look like I missed much.

    What happened with Torres? Error?

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  19. Doug K. -- JM states on another thread that Peraza is out of options, and that this explains Cashman's reluctance to promote him. I have not read this anywhere. Does anyone have a link to a story that verifies this? Barring that as a factor--and I don't think it is in this case--I am convinced that the front office viewed Volpe as more "marketable" for tacit and sordid reasons that need no further belaboring. It's Florial who is out of options, so they're using that as an excuse to recycle every thrice-failed white outfielder reject (e.g., Bauers and McKinney) that Cashman can dig up from the discard heap before giving Florial a meaningful number of consecutive plate appearances with the big club, which they have never done in all this time--and for the same reasons that apply to their leapfrogging the clearly overmatched Volpe over the far-more-qualified Peraza.

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  20. No way Peraza is out of options.
    Florial is out of options.

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  21. I don't get all the clamor to dump Gleyber Torres. His OPS+ of 112 is third on the team, behind Judge (194) and Rizzo (only 120 for all the hype he gets). I think it would make far more sense to trade or DFA Kiner-Falefa, with a dismal OPS+ of 79, or to demote Volpe (68) and/or Cabrera (55), and to promote Peraza and just let him play shorstop for at least a month without getting jerked up and down in Cashman's patented "destroy-the-prospect" routine. Volpe has had more than a reasonable stretch--more than a third of seasons--to decisively demonstrate that he is not ready and needs at least another season at AAA or even AA ball to get his swing straightened out. But hastening to get rid of the team's third best hitter--who also has speed and power--makes no sense at all when there are so many other more sensible options available.

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  22. Some of us might recall when Florial was DFA'd, and every single front office could have had him for nothing. Nobody signed him, the consensus in MLB was that a player with his tone could never succeed, at least in MLB. The Yankees re-signed him to a minor league contract for injury protection, which alas, leaves the Yankees with no options (which is why he was DFA'd in the first place). So by leaving him in the minors he is the last viable option for when the Black Swan drops into our outfield, which seems inevitable. In discord with MLB professional talent evaluators and front offices I say, 'to hell with the silly skin tone metrics, throw the man into the breach and see what he has'. And not for a mere hundred at bats, but for 750-1000 tries, lest a stone go unturned. The outfield can't get any worse. Right?

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  23. Florial may be on his way, true believers.

    This is gunna be an interesting week.

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  24. And again, what are they afraid of? They are afraid that Florial will succeed.

    If he comes up, and fails, he will undoubtedly clear waivers again, and they can sign him if they need him.

    The Yankees are actually keeping a guy down in Triple-A because they are afraid he will do well. There has never been a clearer example of how Cashman runs this team solely on the basis of how it will make him look.

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  25. Ah, what to do with Gleyber Torres, he is of tone, and also has the third best OPS+ numbers on the team. But how do we quantify his falling asleep at the wheel? There are those awkward moments on the base paths, with the glove, lack of situational awareness when he is at the plate. He can look so promising at times, at times, at times (excuse me) since 2018 that I keep thinking that he wakes up and learns The Game. I was especially encouraged when Gary "Sleepy" Sanchez was cut loose, thinking that he was possibly adversely Gleyber's game. If it did, then it might be too late. Or Sanchez's presence might have just been an unhappy coincidence. Remember, correlation doesn't equal causation. The reasons to trade Gleyber is that the team is over-loaded with infielders. The reason to keep him is that we might very well only get a long-man bullpen piece, and a couple of low minor league lottery ticket pitchers. The other GMs will let us know what he's worth (they know the Real Score of this team) since this team is not unlike an embassy in need of three SEAL teams, complete with an air wing for support. So The Brain has backed himself into a bit of a naaasty corner, yes?

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  26. Horace, I have to disagree. Cashman has had a number of years to accumulate a consensus on Florial. So have other GMs and scouts. So, if you go year by year, what motive has The Brain had for "holding" Florial back? Remember, this has been a year-year-year thing. Skin tone? Maybe he came onto Cashman's woman at the Christmas party one year. So, where's the motive? After all, maybe he would have made Cashman look great had he done well. And remember, if you strike out at a 30% clip in the minors because you can't hit the curve...well, hasn't that been the death knell for generations of players?

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  27. Late night chit chat - how exciting.


    Once again - stay tuned for an interesting week

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  28. WAR rankings of Yankee position players for 2023 (remember that this is a cumulative stat, so the numbers will rise in proportion to performance as the season progresses):

    1. Judge: 2.5
    2. Rizzo: 1.2
    3. Torres 0.9

    In 2022, Torres was in a virtual tie (with LeMahieu, a tenth of a point difference) for third WAR ranking on the team:

    1. Judge: 11.5
    2. Trevino: 3.7
    3. LeMahieu: 2.9
    4. Torres 2.8

    So great idea--trade your third best player of this year and last, a 26-year-old who has speed and power. Genius idea, when you have baseball ciphers and repeat failures and mediocrities like IKF, Bauers, McKinney, Calhoun, etc., cluttering the roster. Sheer genius.

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  29. On Florial's progress:

    As of June 9:
    "His strikeout rate, currently at 31 percent, remains a concern. However, he has made some improvements in this area as well. Since May 27, he boasts a .333/.361/.636 line with a 138 wRC+ and a 19.4 percent strikeout rate. Additionally, in the seven games during that span, he recorded five doubles, a triple, and a home run."

    "Yankees Should Call Up Red-Hot Former No. 1 Prospect":

    https://empiresportsmedia.com/new-york-yankees/yankees-should-call-up-red-hot-former-no-1-prospect/

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  30. I don't recall the WHITE Joey Gallo's lifetime strikeout rate of 37.2 percent ever being mentioned on this blog, much less hammered as a reason not to acquire him. Double standards, anyone?

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    Replies
    1. Joey Gallo? This is obviously a bit. Friend of the blog EBD is playing a character, ala Andy Kauffman or Tim Heidecker. Not nearly so well, of course.

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  31. I was going to ask you the exact same question, EBD ;)

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  32. Publius, I just finished a twenty minute treatises on her silly ideas on baseball and the tiresome, paranoid, racist rant when a "glitch" somehow wiped it out. When I got back I was delighted to happen upon your brilliant acorn. Thank you, surrealism comes in many forms. Oh, and good laughs come unexpectedly.

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