a) Reanimate the corpse of 2023 by trading our best prospects - the Martian, Oswald, that Pereira kid at Scranton, et al - in a last-ditch attempt to chase the AL wild card.
b) Boost our slim prospects for 2024 by dealing our few tradable commodities - Gleyber, Bader, Domingo German, et al - for minor leaguers, effectively abandoning 2023 with two months left on the clock.
c) Beat his all-time personal Tetris and Pacman scores, after picking up Mr. Hal's laundry, and watching reruns of Peewee's Playhouse (which, coincidentally, ran between 1986 and 1990, one of the most rancid stretches in Yankee history), and let this current debacle run its course - that is, no trades, nada, nothing...
Insert sigh here.
Seriously, should we care?
At this point, I should probably note that - despite their overwhelmingly pungent aroma of failure - the 2023 Yankees remain only 3.5 games behind in the wild card. A winning streak could flip them ahead of LA and Boston, and they do have players returning - Nestor Cortez and Jonathan Loaisiga. And - wait - Willie Calhoun! Don't you dare forget Willie. Someday, this team will be remembered for WBFJ: Willie-Billy-Franchy-and-Jake.
According to the Gammonites, Yank finances are running in the black, and Smiling Hal would like to cut payroll because - well, why not? - and, seriously, who cares?
The problems of 2023 will return next year. Giancarlo Stanton - whose DP grounder last night epitomized this wretched season - is becoming a generational malaise. We once spoke of the Curse of the Bambino. Our grandchildren will face the Curse of the Giancarlo.
We have squandered the peak seasons of Aaron Judge and Gerrit Cole. (Our inability to score for Cole might cost him the Cy Young.) Our farm system is in tatters, with Jasson Dominguez mired in Double A. We might have subverted Anthony Volpe's career by pushing him too fast, too soon.
This season has been a debacle, and I'm all for Cashman spending his day on PlayStation. It's taken years to reach this crossroads between mediocrity and paralysis. It will take years to get out. What happens today might determine whether we live to see another Yankee championship. Right now, it doesn't look too good.
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ヤンキースは吸う
ヤンキースは吸う
ヤンキースは吸う
AA - You can say that again. Also, why are you awake?
Duque - Welcome back.
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I saw this today from an X-cretion (formally tweet) from guy named Addison.
"Joey Gallo’s worst 50 game span as a Yankee:
.160/.272/.273 | .545 OPS | 5 HR | 62 wRC+ | -0.3 fWar
Anthony Rizzo’s last 50 games as a Yankee:
.188/.278/.242 | .520 OPS | 1 HR | 49 wRC+ | -0.8 fWar
Rizzo has been worse than Gallo ever was. Think about that."
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Add the fact that more and more thee Yankees aren't running hard on ground balls. Keefe points out today that his friend thinks the Yankees are doing a social experiment to see how much the fan base can take. Interesting.
It certainly explains the "aside from the (18) strikeouts we had pretty good at bats" line from Boone the other day.
Maybe it's an experiment. Maybe Boone is a comic genius. Maybe I died a couple of years ago and this is my time in purgatory. I don't know. I just know it needs to stop.
Guys, relax. Jackie D is taking batting practice, he could be back soon! Also Booney said that even though they only had 3 hits last night, he could see that the bats were only a few degrees off from lighting it up. So I will feel confident now that they can turn this around.
An esoteric query here.
At what point will Stanton have an honest discussion with himself and decide that he doesn't want to embarrass himself further and negotiate a buy out/retirement?
Seriously, pride should matter at some point.
I realize that these guys live in a bubble of similar types, but can he be so obtuse that he doesn't realize that he can only hit cripple pitches now?
He's already made 205MIL and he is still owed 128Mil, but how much money does one need?
Negotiate a buyout and become a free agent if you want. Go play at a place where someone may actually want you.
His legacy with the Yankee fans would then be a good one. A few good years and a buyout rather than cripple the team for half a decade +.
He will eclipse Ellbury in Yankee hate/lore if he plays out his entire K.
That’s an excellent question, Doug
Archie,
Do they allow buy outs that lead to free agency? Or is that only for retirement? Are the Yankees still on the hook for the full luxury tax amount?
Regardless I'm pretty sure Stanton thinks he's got a lot left in the tank. His hard hit rate is still up there. It is the rest of his game that is total shit.
I'm with you. Better to retire than humiliate your self day after day. Especially when you have what they call "generational wealth"
You can add Rizzo and DJ to that list as well. See my above post about Rizzo. Worse than the worst of Gallo! Too bad because I like the guy and he is the Judge whisperer but apparently he is far worse that I realized.
Doug, I don't know the answer to those questions.
However, I don't know why players couldn't negotiate a buyout and then "un-retire", or simply sign a new contract.
Both parties would have to negotiate the buyout and a third party would then have to want to sign the player regardless of what prompted the buyout. It might be forbidden to prevent a guy from tanking in order to leave a place or situation he doesn't like, but that is possible regardless.
They may be some language in the Player's Agreement that forbids it and there would always be the possibility of a tampering claim, but otherwise it appears to be legal contract negotiations. [Caveat, I have not practiced contact law since 2009.]
If pride mattered Cashman would have resigned years ago.
Doug, the MLB Player’s Union. does not allow the total value of a player’s contract to be lessened. A team is on the hook for the full value of the contract unless the player officially retires.
Per Cot’s, his annual salary is
23:$32M, 24:$32M, 25:$32M, 26:$29M, 27:$25M, 28:$25M club option ($10M buyout)
Miami pays 5m of that each year. Yankees responsible for the entire 10m buyout.
So as of now the Yankees owe him 118m.
I can’t wait to see him in 2027, can you?
Guys, Stanton not walking away from his money. The only guy to walk away lately with dignity was Barry Sanders and he could still play. They can buy him out at full price, then he can sign with someone for $10m/yr. No one mentions that Cole can opt out after next year, which he certainly will so then what does the idiot GM do? Does he give him $50m/yr for 5 years? Ca$hman has f'd this up and we will suffer for it.
If the Yankees were mediocre, it would be better than they are TERRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's not as if this team is one or two players away from the world series.
But they are one or two alleged managers away from being respectable.
Boooooone is horrible. Beyond horrible. The guy can't even be honest about the garbage he sees in front of him every day.
Talk about pride? If he had any pride, he'd be up in everybody's ass about the sad state of play. Show a little fire for f**k sake. Bench somebody. Anybody! Throw some bats in the showers. Yell your head off about these lollygaggers. Wake the f**k up!
No, Stanton not walking away from well over $100m. Who would? They will have to release him at some point (No time soon) or fabricate some kind of trade where they eat a huge chunk of his salary, but who want Stanton on his team under any circumstances?
Just to clarify, a player cannot “retire” become a F/A, then sign a new tire. He belongs to the team for length of his contract.
I’m thinking it might be best for the team to do nothing this deadline. How to spin it, though? Just leave it to Arty, as the the team call the Artificial Intelligence software that REALLY runs the org. Arty’s been a little restless with generating booone’s gaslight spiels after every game’s loss and is looking for a new challenge. Hey, even AI can get bored and everyone knows it’s lonely at the top. (Or the Trop. Or something)
Everything boils down to one simple fact.
This team sucks.
JM,
ヤンキースは吸う
After the game, which I didn't even know was on (I thought it was an off day), Keith McPherson on WFAN ripped into the Yankees just like we do here. He said the Yankees are not dedicated to winning, not trying to win, that they have other priorities, like saving on luxury taxes and sundry other things, that have replaced winning. He's had enough bull from Yankee management, and he's going to trust what he's seeing with his own eyes. Hell, he sounded like on of us!
Well, it's good to know that there are people out there who are thinking the exact same things as us. I was beginning to wonder if we might be some kind of crazed, conspiracy theorists, a sect of Yankee heretics who think the earth revolves around the sun.
Ever see one of those road trip type movies where the hero goes to sleep or goes somewhere for a few minutes, then comes back and finds his/her spouse gone, and then the police and locals all claim that maybe you're dreaming or mistaken, that there was no spouse, that you were never married, that they never saw anyone with you. That's Yankee management, isn't it? Claiming that the Yankees are a championship caliber team, that they'll have another winning season, that they'll make the playoffs, that the playoffs are a crapshoot, that Arch Stanton is not a member of the walking dead, that Yankee management is actually do its best to win the next championship?
We know better here. Keith McPherson on WFAN knows better. And hopefully soon all of the slumbering Yankee fans will know better too. It's getting embarassing. If you go to the Stadium, make sure you wear a paper bag over your face!
It seems that the Yanks are boxed in and can't make a big move. Nobody wants Rizzo or Donaldson or Severino or Stanton. All these players hit their expiration date this year and we're seeing the results of that. And on top of that, we have young players that are overrated. I'd be surprised if they make a big move or any move for that matter. Maybe they move Bader or Torres? It's not going to help...
And DJ...him too...
Last night around ten o'clock, I tuned in to the radio to discover that the latest fiasco had ended. But what a fiasco it was! Boone pulled German claiming injury before the game started, then after Brito laid an egg, German was inserted into the game! What the hell is going on here?
WFAN was speculating that Cashman must've had a trade lined up involving German, then the other team cancelled. But if that were the case, why would you claim that German had an injury "underneath the armpit" and invent a story about Dr. Ahmad examining German at 5 o'clock, and so forth? If they really were trying to trade German, why invent this armpit stuff, because what GM (NOT named Brian Cashan) would trade for a possibly injured player?
And if German really were hurt, how could he make a miraculous recovery in a few hours time and pitch five shutout innings? Why would they take a chance and let a possibly injured pitcher throw five innings? Strange days indeed!
Let me say this: NO RENTALS!
Any acquisition must be with an eye towards helping us in 2024-25, or beyond. Trade all the expiring contracts you want. Hell, trade anybody, and I do mean ANYBODY, ANY BODY
I still think we will see only the smallest of deals. I’ll be in meetings the rest of the day and will miss all the “excitement”
Well, ranger_lp, we've got to start somewheres. I say trade Torres, Bader, DJL. I would say also trade Severino and German, but with the back to back fiascos, no one will want to take the risk now. The chance to trade Sevvy and German has gone out the window.
On WFAN, Keith McPherson says the Marlins have had the hots on for Gleyber Torres for a while now. But they're saying that Cashman's asking price is too high, that Cashman wants two starting pitchers plus two prospects. It all depends on the quality of these guys, but it does sound like he's asking too much. I would think a good return would be one starter and two prospects. Again, it all depends on how high you're rating these guys that you're getting. One good starter is a helluva lot better than two lousy starters. One really good prospect easily beats three mediocre prospects.
How good are the prospects that we have? Are Jasson Dominguez, Austin Wells good enough to bring back a Juan Soto? I would try for Juan Soto, no matter what it costs in prospects.
Then I'd turn around and trade almost anyone not named Judge or Cole for prospects or for very young veterans who are on the way up. Get lefty hitters. For Pete's sake, get a left fielder and a third baseman.
Just want to share this gem from Brendan Kuty at The Athletic:
Twas the night before the trade deadline, when all through the Bronx, not a hitter was hitting, against Tyler Glasnow.
Twelve strikeouts were hung by the bushel with care, in hopes that Brian Cashman soon would appear.
Yankees fans were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of Juan Soto danced in their heads.
And mamma in her foam finger, and Aaron Judge, the Cap; had just settled down after watching this scrap.
When out on the field, a 5-1 loss arose such a clatter; that dreams of a World Series seemed likely to shatter.
The Rays knocked around Jhony Brito, he gave up five runs in a flash. Last place in the AL East, their wild-card hopes not quite dashed.
One last moon before the deadline, who’s gonna go? Few foresaw the chaos brought on by Germán, Domingo.
When, what to my wandering eyes should appear, but an injury to his armpit, and it then became clear.
With a little creativity, so lively and quick, the front office could cure what’s making fans sick. More rapid than Anthony Rizzo’s downfall, the boo birds, they came. And they whistled, and shouted, and called them by name.
“Now, JETER! Now, PETTITTE! Now, POSADA and RIVERA!
On, BERNIE! On PAULIE! On, TORRE and ZIM!
To the top of the short porch! To over the wall!
Now stash away! Stash away! Sell for the long haul!”
Just a reminder:
The Yankees dropped $568M in offseason contracts just to arrive at this point.
I am but a lowly fan, but if I was team owner, I'd want to be in a better spot given that financial investment.
I see, AA-san.
Oh, the humanity.
I want to give three examples of the weirdness that goes on in Yankee Wonderland. They're just three isolated examples, but what they all have in common is poor management.
1. Judge sitting for Sunday's game three of the Oriole series. According to Boone, that was the plan, to rest him every third day. Really? If he is not well enough to play three games in a row, then why the hell was he playing the outfield in game 2. And why the hell is he playing at all, in a season that's been shot all to hell? They're taking the risk of permanently compromising their best player, maybe the best player in the game today, for the 1 in 100 shot at making the wild card this year? Does that make any sense?
2. Clarke Schmidt in the Saturday game two of the Oriole series. 1st inning, pitching to Adley Rutschman (sorry, I don't remember how to spell the guy's name). Schmidt gets ahead in the count 0-2. You'd think he throws fastball inside and blows him away, because all good hitters protect the outside corner with two strikes, making them vulnerable to hard stuff inside in that situation, right? No, of course not. Schmidt throws what appeared to be a slider down and in that hits Rutschman in the foot. And so Schmidt has to work through that mistake in the 1st inning. He got out of the 1st inning, but it was a mistake, all the same.
Matt Blake has had Clarke Schmidt throw away his four seam fastball in the garbage in favor of a cut fastball. But he obviously didn't want to throw a cutter in that count. Instead of pitching aggressively, they've got him getting cute with an assortment of off speed.
3. Jordan Montgomery: another one whose four seam fastball Matt Blake threw into the garbage. Instead of taking away a guy's fastball, isn't it the job a pitching coach to figure out how to make his fastball more effective? Which is exactly what happened when Montgomery went to the Cards. They had him pitching much more aggressively, throwing the fastball. Yes, the fastball that Matt Blake threw in the garbage. Apparently, the Card figured out how to make it more effective.
And I think that, if the Yankees eventually moved out Clarke Schmidt, some pitching coach who knows what he's doing will tell him that all those breaking pitches are much more effective when you establish the fastball and pitch aggressively. They'll figure out how to make his four seam fastball more effective, and voila, you have an ace starter.
So there you have it. Three specific examples of the kind of stupidity that goes on here. And just like cockroaches, when you see one, that means there are thousands more out there. Just the tip of the iceberg.
Well said, Hammer.
You, uh….nailed it.
The YES coverage of the trading deadline starts at 2:30 EDT. Not going to be a lot to talk about...
Yes, Hammer, yes.
My personal favorite lunacy: Little Anthony has two good weeks batting in the bottom third (where he belongs). Booooone decides the kid had found his stroke and promptly promotes him to lead off.
The result? The kid goes 0 for the next week and back to the end of the line he goes.
When The Intern hired Boooooone I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt based on his pedigree. So much for my optimism. Little did I know the pedigree was a mixed breed.
Mets arms fire sale
@ DickAllen, Yep, they do a lot of things that clash with one another. Volpe is up here but Peraza is not. Florial continues to rot in the minors.
They have guys like Brito and Vasquez who've shown something and probably should be getting experience in the bullpen as long relievers, but instead go up and down at the whim of the Brainless Cashman. Severino looks terrible but keeps getting the ball. It looks like they missed the chance to trade him. German looks great but they made up a sob story about him being hurt, so what GM would trade for a guy who might be injured, so there goes any chance of trading German. I wouldn't put much stock in Brito getting belted by the Tampons. He got thrown to the wolves in an emergency start, no time to prepare properly. Between Brito and Severino, I'd much rather take my chances with Brito. At least he's young, healthy, hungry, and will get better. Severino? Probably headed for the IL again in two weeks.
I've heard that the Marlins want Torres, but he's still here. What is Cashman asking for, their ten best prospects, all of their draft picks for the next twenty years, the souls of their first born sons?
I hear that IKF is also a free agent at the end of this year. He should be moved also. Might be able to get one low level prospect for him.
And Bader, formerly known as Mr. Boot. He's a free agent too after the last game of the season. Might as well trade him for prospects too.
Targeting Dylan Carlson. StL CF. Switch hitter. 2023 stats from MLB site:
Vs. LHP -- 75 plate appearances, 11 walks, 12 Ks. BA = .281. 2 HR, 6 RBI
Vs. RHP -- 148 pa, 12 walks, 36 Ks (!!!), BA = .206 (!!!). 3 HR, 18 RBI
3 stolen bases total. Age 24.
Batting LH, not much power. It's a rumor that Cashman wants this guy, but after looking at these stats -- I am sure we'll get him.
They could've found out a lot about Peraza, Brito, Vasquez, Florial, even Jasson Dominguez and Austin Wells. Instead, it was just an entire year shot to hell. We didn't accomplish anything. Didn't make the playoffs. Didn't bring up or develop the kids. (Well, we got a long look at Volpe, But it sure would have nice to have had Sean Casey here from the beginning of the season. Volpe spent half a season jumping out of his shoes swinging for the fences.) Still have no idea whether Florial is a major leaguer or not. And if he's not, then why is he still in the organization? Does Cashman think that the older Florial gets, that his value will go up? If you have no plans for him, ever, do the right thing and cut him loose and get new blood to replace his spot in the minors. It would be the right thing for Florial and the right thing for the franchise. Why would you just mire yourself in mediocrity, wallow in the mud?
There have been plenty of free agents or trade targets that they could have picked up over the past few years.
They could've signed that Japanese left fielder, Mas Yoshida, a lefty hitter. The BoSux got him instead.
They could've had Joc Pederson, a lefty hitter, fresh off the World Series Championship with the Dodgers. They never made an offer, so far as I know, and he signed with the Cubs. They then could've picked him up later, but he was traded to the Braves, where he won another World Series. Then they could've signed him again, but again no offer was made, and he went to the San Fran Giants.
They could've traded for Juan Soto, back when the Nationals put him up for sale. They never made a serious offer, so far as I could tell, and Soto ended up in Friar City. Now Soto is probably available again, but I'm hearing nothing about Soto with regard to the Yankees.
Ahhhh, Verlander back with the Astros.
Yeah, JoeFoB, that would be the kind of guy Cashman gets, another .200 hitter from the left side. Then he can say to everyone, "look, I got a lefty hitter, a switch hitter, and see, it don't make any difference whether a guy is right handed or left handed, they all hit .200 against right handed pitching". "Didn't I tell you, that in today's game, it doesn't matter? Batting averages don't matter. Lefty or righty don't matter. Nothing matters, anyone can see, nothing really matters ... to me ... any way the wind blows...."
Yes Verlander is an Astro just in time to beat us in the play in game should we make it. But don't worry. We won't make it.
From Yair Rosenberg, of The Atlantic:
The last culture or entertainment event that made me cry: The New York Yankees offense, or rather, lack thereof.
A good culture or entertainment recommendation I recently received: To stop watching the Yankees. I did not listen.
Hammer, you are en fuego. "The Flaming Hammer of the Bronx"? Hmm, I smell movie superhero series!
Seriously, GREAT analysis on our wonderful pitching coach—and I bet you can find similar nonsense in regard to all kinds of coaching techniques.
And yes, of course it makes sense to move guys who are going to be free agents at the end of the year. Good Lord, could he really be thinking of signing Bader to a long-term deal? IKF???? (Actually, that makes more sense than Bader.) Sevvy???????????
NO. Move them. Now. And we're really supposed to sit around and watch Torres bat .259, run into outs, and fumble grounders for another five years. NO.
Internet aflame with enraged fans repeating a Michael Kay quote—MICHAEL KAY—that Yanks are the ONLY team in MLB not to make a trade.
But thankfully, Ma Boone knows what to say:
"You could see everything, probably, from nothing to guys leaving to some guys coming. Not really sure what to expect."
- Aaron Boone what he expects from the Yankees' trade deadline
Hilarious line of the day, from our brethren at Yanks Go Yard:
"Bader, Stanton trade rumors swirling after Yankees' lineup omission."
So...because Bader and Stanton aren't in the lineup, they are on the block?
Oh, man, that's funny.
And...Mets dealt Verlander back to the Astros, for a pair of highly ranked outfield prospects, in A and AA ball, respectively.
Steve Cohen will be eating at least $35 mill and perhaps as much as $52.5 mill on the deal. And, I guess, therefore perhaps as much as a total of $87.5 mill all in all.
This is what a self-made billionaire with balls looks like, HAL, you pathetic nepo baby.
I’m also not in the lineup. Will I wake up a Padre?
Bader I can see as a rental acquisition for the right team.
Stanton is the Impossible Dream
The Smet are at least doing something. The Astros outfielder they got is Houston's top prospect. Be nice if the Yankees could piece together something along those lines for the Man Of Wood. Bright side though - at least CashHat didn't give the farm away in a Montas deal.
Anyway, the Smet are moving forward, the Yankees are not (so far).
The lack of our trade activity makes sense. Cashman is scared to death of doing something stupid, especially after last year. He knows he'll catch hell if he trades away our few prospects. And he can't trade the old guys because nobody wants them, and Hal doesn't want to eat their salaries, either.
So here we are. Your 2023 New York Yankees, ladies and germs. Can't hit, mostly can't pitch, not too hot in fielding, mostly can't run the bases. The only thing they have going for them is that the 1966 team was already 10 games under .500 at this point.
I'm sure we can get there. We're on the right trajectory.
Nobody wants to help the Yanks...every franchise wants them to die a slow death...
Actually we do too...
@ Hoss, Thanks! My agent is accepting calls on potential movie deals. "The Flaming Hammer" sounds like a fabulous title. I believe the movie would be something along the lines of "Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter". It was such a shame that they never did a sequel to that one, what a rousing good time that movie was. "Flaming Hammer: Vampire Hunter" may be coming soon, to a theater near you!
I've been getting some acting lessons from one of the all time greats, Errol Flynn. What's that? He's long dead? Hmmmm, wonder who that suave old guy is who claimed to be the swashbucklin' ladies man of "Robin Hood"; "Captain Blood"; "Gentleman Jim" fame. He was one helluva silver tongued devil! Still got a stiff left jab and a mean right cross too! Oh well, like The Kinks sang "celluloid heroes never really die".
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