Could it happen? Dare we think it? I'm not going to say it. I'm not going to hex anyone. You know what we're thinking about:
It.
Could it happen? It's just .220. Then again, that's 30 points in about two weeks. Could it happen? Not saying yes. Not saying no. Not saying anything. Lips buttoned. Not giving the juju gods a headline to hang in the locker room.
2. For Jake Bauers and Billy McKinney, it isn't happening. Yesterday, Bauers went 1-5, lowering his BA to .224. McKinney went 0-5, to .254. Damn. Busses off a cliff.
They've been the feel good, where-would-we-be-without-them? narratives on this team. I mean, where would we be without them? Chasing the wild card, I suppose. Or maybe signing another scrap heaper.
Even since Joey Gallo began dousing it with eye drops, LF has been a double-secret, evil, Yankee black hole. It sucked down the vulnerable Aaron Hicks. Then it ate earnest Tim Locastro. Then Miguel Andujar. Anthony Benintendi. Oswaldo Cabrera. Franchy Cordero. Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Willie Calhoun. Bauers... McKinney. Who's next? Dopey Dildox? Filthy McNasty?
I mean, LF has killed all those who sought to scale it. Hicks hit the walls. Locastro blew out a knee. Benintendi tweaked a gonad. Willie waxed a hammy. Lately, Bauers has taken some hard dives.
Two names haven't received a full LF audition: Estevan Florial and Giancarlo Stanton. Florial is absolutely out of the question; he's gone All-Scranton and supposedly has been photographed using the salad fork on pasta. Stanton is simply too precious to play LF. He might strain something, and we can't afford to lose those high exit velos off his molten hot bat. (Note: That's a joke.)
I have a premonition: The Yankees will not win a world championship until they have a solid, every day left-fielder. Right now, none is in sight.
3. It's definitely not happening for Luis Severino. In fact, it's so not happening that I'm starting to wonder if he was ever as great as we wanted him to be. Sevy has never followed up on 2018, when he went 19-8 and sorta ran out of steam. Since then, it's been setback after setback, season after season. Maybe this is Real Time Sevy.
I prefer to think he's Domingo German without the perfecto. Yesterday's pounding means that Sevy - like Domingo before him - will throw a masterpiece next week, right?
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"The Athletic" mentioned itfor jn a recent article that Schmidt or Domingo could head up a package for left-fielder. I dunno. Maybe Schmidt is turning the developmental curve. I would surely trade Sevy before German, maybe he has the look which suggest to some GM that he could be fixed in time for the playoffs. The Brain has to guess right sometime. Right? Something damned well clicked for Verlander. I can just see Sevy in an Astros uniform throwing aspirins past our hitters in the playoffs. Ack. Accck, aaaack.....
Can they make Jackie the closer? I mean 0.00 ERA and we wouldn't see him bat anymore.
I think that Cashman is scouting that LF in the Bugs Bunny baseball cartoon.
"What a macaroon!!"
“Chicken Parm Fire Alarm” will be keepin’ my Flintstone Feet twinkling all day.
That and the mental gif of that woman’s head in a pan maniacally cackling as the basement lab meets its fiery demise.
Hello Sunday!
Duque, I will insist that Sevvy was—stress WAS—the real deal.
He went 14-6, 2.98, in 2017, and had a very nice win against Cleveland in the ALDS, plus some good innings against Houston. (All right, he also got slugged by the Twins in his very first postseason start. But still.)
2018, through July 1st, he was a one-man fireship, storming through the AL. 13-2, 1.98, as good a pitcher as any in baseball.
Then—THEN—he got hurt. And the Yankees KNEW IT. They pulled him from a nationally televised game against the Sox, two out in the 7th, and the Yanks leading, 9-0. They brought in Dave Robertson to face the awesome Christian Vazquez, with two outs and nobody on, and Sevvy at 99 pitches.
THEY KNEW SEVVY WAS HURT...and they kept pitching him for the rest of the season, which he finished at 19-8, 3.39.
He never did come back from that and he never will—at least not in the Bronx. Which is a pity.
Left field has long been a curse for the Yanks, and the way to deal with it? Converge so many guys on the juju gods that they are overwhelmed.
In 1961, the Yanks didn't have a "real" left fielder, either. So they stuck either Elston Howard, Yogi Berra, or Johnny Blanchard out there—whoever wasn't catching—with Hector Lopez filling in for defensive purposes. Worked like a charm.
1998, Gene Michael positively swarmed the cursed area. Daryl Strawberry, Shane Spence, Ricky Ledee, Tim Raines, Chili Davis, Chad Curtis. I mean, they kept coming waves. The juju gods were like the Germans at Normandy, simply overwhelmed.
Kev, GREAT distinction about horror yesterday: controlled terror over splatter!
Indeed. "The Cask of the Amontillado" is enough to give one the willies forever. So is Ray Bradbury, in The October Country.
Lovecraft is more hit-and-miss, to my taste, as some of the stories are so clearly inspired by his sex panics or revolting racism. But he could also write some nice horror.
HC is spot on with HPL.
That said - sometimes whilst watching some of the Yankees games this season I sorta kinda feel like they are almost Lovecraftian in their unsettling otherworldliness.
Very true, AA!
And...I caught that expert use of "whilst" in there! Good job!
No hitter or perfect game for Monty today?
Two of my favorite stories by Poe and Lovecraft weren’t written by either one - but were instead early examples of fan-fiction. A sort of a revered, tip of the cap to both writers. Both awed me - but one continues to gum at the base of my brain like the toothless hag-zombie from the bathtub in room 217/237.
They salvaged one from the wreck yesterday when it looked like another double header double loss. That means that they'll probably piss away today's game.
People are fixated on Volpe and the bottom of the lineup because the top and middle of the lineup doesn't do their job. Volpe looks like he's recovered from the Yankee disease of swinging for the fences. We'll see how long he can keep away from the Yankee hitting coaches. They should bring up Austin Wells as a third catcher, sprinkle him in there two or three times a week and DH two or three times a week when Stanton is playing the outfield. Over the winter, they can unload one of the two defensive catchers. I would keep Higashioka and move Trevino.
I'd consider moving Trevino at the trade deadline but it's hard to move a catcher during the season. Teams are loathe to bring in a new catcher in mid-season.
They probably should trade Severino at the deadline. He's not getting back to that great run he had earlier in his career. It ain't happening here. If he went somewhere else, there is an excellent chance that he'd get back to ace status.
So there are a couple of guys who they could move at the deadline, Torres and Severino. But I'd be shocked if Cashman deals them. The guys who Cashman are likely to deal are the kids like Brito, Peraza, etc. Because he stupidly thinks that this team has a chance to make the playoffs (they don't have a prayer). And even if they did make the wild card, they'll get knocked off in an eye blink.
I agree all around, Hammer. Much of baseball is now so bad—and so many teams now make the playoffs—that they might do so. Which, of course, is all HAL wants.
But they won't go anywhere.
Someone on the Cardinals must of had a NRFI bet…
Kay of the Day in the first inning, telling us that Boone is lobbying for an all-star spot for The Gleyber:
"He said, 'I know his numbers don't represent the season he's had, but he's been very, very good.'"
No, he has not.
If anything, as many of us have noticed, Gleyber has had a much WORSE season that the poor numbers indicate. The numbers don't account for his constant fielding and running mistakes, his long periods of absentmindedness on the ballfield.
I guess maybe this was Boone trying to love bomb him. In any case, Torres got called out on strikes immediately afterwards.
Nice of them to let Cole off with that stupid steal attempt. Hey, I'll take it.
Phew! IKF with the walk. No perfect game for Monty.
I'm going to be anxious until the no-hitter is broken up.
Still got it going, with a little help from the ump.
Torres with a swinging strikeout, on a low pitch.
But you see, that's the beautiful diversity of Gleyber's game. You got the called strikeout, the swinging strikeout on the pitch outside of the strikeout.
Still to come? Well, maybe we'll see the check-swing strikeout, the strikeout on a foul bunt, the strikeout for taking too much time getting into the batter's box...the possibilities are endless.
The numbers just don't tell that whole story.
Cole up to almost 50 pitches through three, and looks exhausted. I would not expect more than 5 innings from him today.
Stanton back down below the Mendoza Line. Well, it was fun while it lasted.
Bader now 0-2 against the guy he was traded for. And...the DP.
4 innings, no hits.
Many moons ago--otherwise known as earlier this season--I opined that Trevino and Nestor had career years last year, and hoped they both had enjoyed All-Stardom because they would never achieve it again. And with every day that goes by, that's become more obvious.
Good for them both, they had good years and Nestor, especially, had a lot of fun with his success. But time to move on. Though with Nestor not pitching, it's hard to say he's done as an effective starter. Kinda feels that way, though.
Hoss, thank you for the careful breakdown of Gleyber's potential strikeout stylings. You need to do that for his thrown out on the basepaths possibilities and his fucked up that easy fielding play virtuosity.
Whilst is just British for while. Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose. By the time I get to Phoenix, she'll be risin'. Whoever she is. When I get to Phoenix in a couple of weeks, my wife will be with me, so it won't be her.
Colace in action here.
Colace again.
In the last 20 years, the Yanks have had 2 no-hitters pitched against them—each by numerous Astros pitchers.
Sorry, doesn't count. A multiple-pitcher no-hitter ain't what we mean by the momentous feat that is a no-hitter.
The last REAL no-hitter against your New York Yankees was pitched down in Baltimore, by none other than Hoyt Wilhelm, on Sept. 20, 1958.
Of course, Wilhelm was a knuckleballer. The last normal pitcher to throw a no-hitter against the Yanks was Virgil Trucks, on 8/25/52, at the Stadium.
I may have been a little hasty on that Cole prediction.
What was most Gleyber about that AB was how he deftly fought off a number of pitches but couldn't muster the sustained attention needed not to golf at the last one.
Cole gives up two runs, and nearly his head. That's ballgame. Just have to stick around hoping they can break up the no-hitter.
Damn, thought Cabrera had one! Didn't drop, though. No-hitter through 5.
I really don't think the Yanks have what it takes to break up the one-man no-hitter. A better bet is the rain or the heat.
I have a scene in my head:
EXT. Jordan Montgomery walking off the mound after no-hitting the Yankees for X innings.
Jordan: "Hey Cashman, you like apples?"
Cashman: "Uh, yeah."
Jordan: "Well, I got your number. How do you like them apples?"
Cashman's face scrunches up more than usual.
END
Apologies to Damon and Afflak (butfuck him just the same)
Another awful call by the ump...so Small Game leaves the next pitch up and immediately gives up a line-drive hit.
You know, I could really learn to hate that guy.
Damn! LeMahieu almost got a single, but it deflected off the mound to the second baseman.
17 down, 10 to go. Monty is at 81 pitches.
I think he's going to do it!
And...Gleyber breaks it up!
Double to right.
I always liked that guy. Boone is right, he's really having a better season than the numbers indicate.
and Giancarlo comes through again
Cole indeed has a new look --->
BLOATED, EXHAUSTED and DISTRACTED.
(transmission concluded)
Hard to win a game playing 13 against 9…
2 runs seems like 2o with this team
I know, AA. I think I'm going to start calling him "Flouncy" for how he flounces around the mound and pouts whenever things don't go his way. The body language of a loser, always letting you see when he's unsettled.
And as expected, we're told that Cole, "battled out there."
Hey, 2 runs in 6 innings is a nice outing. Jack Morris throwing 10 innings in the 7th game of the World Series is "battling."
The announcers are now at the "praise heaped upon anything" stage.
IKF reaches on a third-strike passed ball. "Good read, good hustle out there."
Uh, yeah.
Flouncy is…..Perfecto.
McKinney just looked like he’s been getting tips from Stanton and JackieD.
Baseball Geniuses
It's up to Big G(ust)
Another special game!
Special Kay
Special Day
Boone got tossed again
Yay! Yay!
Another loss.
Poe and ghost stories were my meat and potatoes when I was a kid. At least for a while. Some small circulation short story mags with hideous tales. One that still haunts me was called "Eat," about a guy who stops at a desolate diner with a neon sign saying the same. The locals keep feeding him until they he can't move, then tie him to a spit and roast him alive on an open fire.
Still the stuff of nightmares
Unless of course he was tasty, JM.
Here's a fun one I remember from my yoodth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSmEh8TxswQ
I'm afraid to play it. Maybe at night when it's really, really quiet....
Sure - its fun
Sorry guys, the outcome of this game was my fault. I had a steak. Who the hell has chicken parm on Fourth of July weekend?
I did once go on a chicken parm diet. It’s basically Atkins. Worked great but was too much work. Preferred being fat. Cole has come to a similar conclusion.
Monty beat Cole.
Things I'm glad I missed:
The draft
My college graduation
Son of Sam Summer
Any number of jobs I applied for and lost out on
Life before penicillin
Today's game
Rufus - some of us are allergic
These Your 2023 New York Yankees are not good at baseball.
There is no way they finish with a winning record.
Unwavering posi ... hrrmm ... what was I saying?
UNWAVERING!
AA,
Like Rick and Ilsa, we'll still have today's game.
My draft number was ridiculously low, like three. But it was the first year they didn't take anyone. Whew.
JM,
My brother seriously contemplated exile to Canada. I had to register under Carter. I thought it was hilarious when they asked for *all* of my addresses in the last ten years. Being a young drifter, I needed to attach an additional sheet, because of so many places I resided. I was actually living in a converted funeral home at the time.
Roof Us
I am very curious to hear a lot more about this converted funeral home.
Please share
I was lucky. Didn't even have to register. Now, I think a draft is a good idea. But I didn't back then!
The team is ridiculous. And the lack of enthusiasm is manifest. "Why do we have to play on a hot day in St. Louis?"
And while Bader is a slightly better hitter than he was in St. Louis, he's still not much of one, and he still gets hurt all the time.
Yet another deal in which Cashman got hosed.
And Stanton at .195. He really is done. At 33. Incredible.
All in all, worst acquisition ever by your New York Yankees.
Rufus, you didn't live in that funeral home featured in "Phantasm" by chance. If so please detail your experiences! ;)
Funny, but going through high school it never even dawned on me how close in time that I came to going to exotic places and killing the locals. Time moves so differently when you are young!! Yeah, but for the Grace of God. I had a couple of cousins who beat the system by buying a van and staying at a location just long enough to make a few bucks and then moving on. As far I as I know, totally legal, they never got served. They saw the country out West, including Alaska. But it was no picnic, and had to be nerve racking. But it beat the hell out of Vietnam!
It is funny how things were so different back in the draft years.
There was no college deferments and I was a freshman when they had the lottery.
I was prime fodder and knew that I would pass the physical.
I would not have dodged, cuz, we just didn't. One cousin served in Vietnam, a second served but not in country. Two of my future brothers-in-law served in the Ohio national Guard. One was at Kent State but I never got the details and it was never never talked about.
Our RA got a paper and all the frosh gathered in the Lounge and we gave our birthdates and he would look them up. [Do they still have the Post-Standard ?]
My number was 8. I had the lowest number so I got a case of beer. I think that I was numb the whole day.
That was the first year that they did not draft so I dodged a bullet and did not become the lyric to a Springsteen or Billy Joel song.
Makes me shudder now. Being young and stupid was a nice cushion.
As some of you here know, my son was a volunteer in the War on Terror and died as a Sgt. in th Army.
Yeah, the Yankees suck, but they are only a diversion, so live life.
God bless us all.
oh Yeah, fuck Hal, Fuck Cashman, Fuck Boone.
Hard to think of a worse one.
There are worse things than being young and stupid, but probably not more dangerous ones.
The funeral home was on North Street, Burlington, VT. Next to the cemetery, with the old mortuary behind us and welfare moms next door, whose biker "boyfriends" would drop by occasionally. The nice part, beside the dirt cheap rent, was no neighbors complained about loud music.
The guys that lived in the mortuary were also commodities dealers of the agricultural variety. One started the UVM sailing club, got a ton of alumni to donate to it and it purchased a sailboat to sail on Lake Champlain. The club had two members, so it was their personal boat.
The other guy that lived in the mortuary could play guitar like Jorma. I swear you couldn't tell the difference, but maybe it was just the killer weed they also sold.
RUFUS, did Daddy G drop by and impart pearls of wisdom? As for me, I never went back to my old school....
And man, you ARE telling the Undisputed Truth. So many stupid ways of snuffing it.....
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