If tonight and tomorrow, the Death Barge can take just one - (won't suggest a sweep, due to the obvious juju implications) - we'd move within pissing distance of the first wild card slot. We'd still be a couple heat domes, sinkholes and Burmese pythons behind Tampa - August in Florida, anyone? Also of note: Houston - which has tortured us, as we once did Baltimore - has rejoined the race.
Honestly, if our choice is losing to Houston in the playoffs, or missing October altogether, I'd choose the latter. It's something about watching Jose Altuve celebrate. I cannot handle it.
Revelations and prevarications...
1. With the two wins over Charm City, we are 13-13 since Aaron Judge hurt his fateful big toe. I have never seen Judge's big toe, and until recently, I never attempted to imagine it. But it must be the size of a Big Mac. It must be angry, like a death planet, with its own gravitational pull. When Judge unsheathes it for therapy, the room must fill with gasps.
For now, there is no return date for Judge. They are whispering about off-season surgery. Considering the Yankee track record for poo-pooing injuries, we could be staring at this empty lineup through July and even August.
More than likely, it means Cooperstown Cashman will go wild at the trade deadline.
Dread the Aug. 1 deadline, people. If Cashman remakes the roster, the worst is yet to come.
2. Every time Anthony Volpe appears, the entire Yankiverse holds its breath. Every hit, every walk, every pitch in the dirt that he doesn't chase - they just might suggest his recent hot streak is not a glitch - but the new normal. Do we dare believe it?
There are two Yankee realities: One with Volpe as a solid SS, and one with Volpe as a tax payer in Scranton. If the latter, we will have wasted three years, with three more ahead of us. The Yankees need Volpe hitting and leading off. It's still too early to move him up, but one of these days, fingers crossed, we will see him there... and delivering.
3. Randy Vasquez tonight. It's always bracing when, after a great victory, you realize that we'll basically be throwing the bullpen at them. Vasquez has pitched well, and you can almost see Cashman measuring him for the shipping crate, when he's dispatched to Arizona for a new Joey Gallo.
But win tonight, and we take the O's. Win tonight, and we're above .500 without Judge. Win tonight, and McNulty is on the verge of catching Stringer Bell.
Another good win over Bal'more, but I think the Yanks will flush the rest of the series down the toilet. That's the 2023 Yankee way, ain't it?
ReplyDeleteVolpe better not be getting trigger happy again and pulling off. I hope he concentrates on hitting to the opposite field. It's a lot harder to go wrong when you wait a few ticks longer and hit the other way.
Torres with a really great game. No mistakes yesterday. Well, one base running suicide gamble that took the sleeping Orioles by surprise. I'm glad he was Louie Lightfoot for once. But I hope he got it out of his system and will rein in the horsepower before he gets thrown out.
Judge: a few days after the injury, I knew he was going to need surgery. A completely torn or partly torn ligament in his big toe is not going to heal by itself in a few months. It'll take years. Pro athletes obviously can't wait three or four years for a torn ligament to heal on its own. So maybe he tries to play through the pain after the All Star Break, with the surgery postponed until winter, but it sounds really bad. I don't know that he'll be able to do it. Unfortunately, it's his push off foot. Take away the push and you have a swing with all arms. It could affect his swing, throw off his mechanics, and turn him into a .120 hitter. We have an awful lot of those around here already.
I shudder at the kind of damage The Intern is capable of come the TD.
ReplyDeleteEvery year it becomes more and more apparent that he has no idea what he's doing, especially when it comes to evaluating pitchers.
Letting him orchestrate trades under a deadline is like giving the car keys to your drunk friend, getting in the passenger's seat next to him with the hope you make it home alive.
As for Gleyber, he ran a stop sign and got away with it. One lucky break doesn't cut it.
Hammer, you are spot on. Little Tony was all about swinging wildly at those low and away pitches, like he's gotten carried away with his new found success. The Yankees had first and second at one point, and he reached out and rolled one over to third. Kay called it a swinging bunt.
ReplyDeleteMichael Kay is a donkey.
Sadness
ReplyDeleteDesperation
Aloneness
Fear
It’s the Year of the Toe
Bro’
We’ll win it all
Next year
Duque is bordering on "Freddie Sez" levels of positivity.
ReplyDelete'Bout fucking time.
"Unwavering positivity."
In truth, without Judge this is a .500 team at best. We should all accept the reality that Judge is effectively done for the year. Even if he returns in Aug-Sept he will be a diminished player. However, we could still grab that last WC spot in theses ridiculously watered down playoffs. Speaking of which, with almost every team in contention, we should expect a watered down trading deadline. For the Yankees, this cuts both ways - there will be less help available for the struggling Yanks, but it may limit the opportunities for the blundering, inept Cashman to dismantle what is left of the farm system.
ReplyDeleteHey Winny?
ReplyDeleteDid you see my PoetPosty?
I’m unrelentingly (and of course) UNWAVERINGLY positive.
Next year is gunna be grand!
Yes, yes,yes, but where is the "empirical evidence" that Volpe is a major leaguer???😈😠😇
ReplyDeleteKevin,
ReplyDeleteBetween you and me - it is hidden in the sauce they used to toss the angel hair pasta in as a side dish for the Chicken Parm.
Remember - this is our secret - NEVER to be shared with ANYONE else, EVER!
That Judge headline was scary. In fact, his quote was a lot less despairing, just saying that he didn't know how long the toe would be problematic, and that it might not ever be "normal" again—or that it might take 2, 3 years.
ReplyDeleteI dunno. I think he might as well have the surgery now, and hope to be back by next spring. The decision to hold off on surgery for DJ has proved disastrous.
And speaking of Judge, MLB & its gambler friends have apparently decided to root outright for Ohtani to break his record:
ReplyDeletehttps://ftw.usatoday.com/2023/07/shohei-ohtani-home-run-record-63-odds-aaron-judge
We'll see.
ReplyDeleteRojas was a third of the way down the line, both hands up when Torres blew by, head down, never even gave him a cursory glance. Bonehead play but sometimes in life you just have to say, "what the fuck".
Keeping with the subject of boneheads, on the broadcast yesterday the camera panned to a guy in the crowd wearing a ridiculous tall hat. Kay made a "how'd you like to be sitting behind that guy?" comment, and O'Neill said "reminds me of the time I sat behind you at that concert", which I thought was funny as hell.
Sure, we've had it bad with injuries, but we ain't alone.
ReplyDeletehttps://theathletic.com/4667417/2023/07/05/los-angeles-angels-injuries-ohtani/
In case anyone missed the Judge story in the Athletic, this was the heart:
ReplyDeleteWhen Judge does return, he anticipates playing with a special insole in his right cleat to prevent his toe from flexing. The last time Judge spoke with reporters in New York he mentioned how he still has pain when he walks. That’s improved but “it still doesn’t feel great,” according to Judge, and “I don’t think it’ll ever be normal.”
That last comment was notable and when asked what he meant by it, Judge mentioned how he still feels some pain in his pinky even though he dislocated it two years ago. The pain from some of his other injuries still creeps up from time to time.
Jimmy Codero is this year’s Domingo German trophy winner. Is he related to Will Cordoro?
ReplyDeleteThere are custom orthotics available that can be made to do exactly what Judge needs to have done.
ReplyDeleteOnce in place - it takes two to three weeks for your body to calibrate.
I know this.
Toe surgery of this kind should be the last resort - so it makes sense that this is how they are proceeding.
And assuming that Judge has gotten his own Pedorthist separate from the Yankees medical team - he should be OK.
As Celerino was saying....
ReplyDeleteNew York Yankees reliever Jimmy Cordero was suspended for the remainder of the 2023 season for violating Major League Baseball's domestic violence policy.
Yankees' Jimmy Cordero suspended for rest of 2023 season under domestic violence policy
ReplyDeleteFuck him, and good riddance.
I had no idea who he was the first time he came into a game, and still don't know who he is now that he's gone.
ReplyDeleteWhile he deserves what he got, now what...he'll be home all the time, which obviously isn't healthy for his wife/girlfriend. Hope she got a ticket out of town and has a place to live without him.
Indeed. And I don't doubt that he did...whatever he did.
ReplyDeleteBut why IS it held secret? Really, if Cordero ran over a two-year-old while drunk driving, we would know all about it. But not this.
HC - why do you think that its is held secret?
ReplyDeleteDo you think that it might because the domestic violence might have ventured into a form of sexual abuse and the benevolent brain trust at MLB don't want the baseball loving youngsters exposed to such evil in the press?
Are they protecting the victim's right to privacy?
What's your opinion?
A true back of the bullpen guy we signed after his recovery from (what else) TJ surgery, apparently because he throws hard.
ReplyDeleteA big bully, 6’4 250 lbs, who enjoys violence against smaller individuals.
Sickening
ReplyDeleteSome facts:
1. Bawlmore has lost 11 of its last 18. We just might have caught them at the right time.
2. JCordero has an era of 3.86 in 32IP in 2023.
3. Dodgers left Brooklyn when I was 4 years old. I grew up caring about the Yankees. But I'll be damned if I can find a way to care about Cordero or what he did. I don't understand how he did something that got his ass suspended for half a season AND YET HE DID NOT END UP IN A JAIL SOMEWHERE.
Explanations for that might be weird. It's like trying to figure out who Hunter Biden was referencing when he said 50% of the payoffs he was getting went "to the big guy."
Which big guy? Shaq? Hulk Hogan? Mr. Nancy Pelosi?
A/A, if Judge isn’t seeking his own medical treatment he should. I tried to find out if that is permissible under the current Agreement, but could find anything related to it. No one should have any faith in the team’s current medical staff or believe one word our lying management and it’s sycophantic media shills have to say about injuries.
ReplyDeleteKay over the top in his daily defense Yankee management. I can visualize the spittle jumping from mouth. In a rare moment of clarity, he seemed to wonder why Peraza was good enough to start in the ALCS at SS, but not good enough to be playing ahead of Donaldson. Realizing he painted himself into a corner, he weak mouthed that Donaldson was “owed a lot of money” and abruptly cut to commercial. Upon return he pivoted to his favorite argument, that Yankee fans who are angry are a small overly vocal minority. As always, left unsaid is one WS appearance in 20 years.
ReplyDeleteAlso, perhaps someone more perspicacious than myself can explain the relevance of terrifying right wing boogeyman Hunter Biden to anything being discussed in this thread.
ReplyDeleteBTR999 - from Clark K to Jack T to . . . . this. Would you provide some additional insight into the new avaTar ?
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI apologize to BTR and others who were disturbed at my slant on Hunter. I thought it was a short-hand for a front-page mystery.
But your point stands, Joe. How can these guys do something bad enough (and known by at least some people) to be suspended for half a season or a year, but no charges are ever brought? That smells.
ReplyDeleteHas commenting been shut down?
ReplyDelete...asking for a friend.
One day after Independence Day, JFOB makes a statement of curiosity regarding (as I take it) equal treatment under the law. No right-versus-left malice seemed obvious within it; certainly no more than Duque's posts often can be read to contain if one is so moved. Which means: none.
ReplyDeleteWhen you take a "side," you're wrong. It's your right to exercise that option. No question. But you'll lose a lot of respect offered by people who thought this a place to have fun and pretty much say whatever.
No one here has lost any of my respect; it's a funny and smart blog and I love what I read here.
Just stuff to think about on the fifth of July.
Joe; I apologize for my snarky reply
ReplyDeleteA/A, I think my new avatar represents me reacting to the latest Yankee news, whatever it may be…
ReplyDeleteMJ, I think most of us have violated the "no politics" guidelines, myself included.
ReplyDeleteAnd hey, I'm sure you're right, and that you and Joe FOB only want the law applied equally, and that you're both equally upset over Hunter's lobbying and Jared Kushner's sudden, $2 billion trust fund. Politics, it ain't beanbag.
What I don't like is the allusion to "Mr. Nancy Pelosi." I think the right wing's open and continuing delight in the husband of the former Speaker of the House getting nearly killed by a lunatic who broke into his house goes beyond the bounds of "politics as usual."
I'll stop there. But I still don't understand how nearly killing an innocent man is a laughing matter.