Monday, September 11, 2023

A dark day to be a Yankee fan; could the 2023 Yankees have bottomed out?

By now, you know about The Martian. Everyone on Earth has heard. Last night, the phone wouldn't stop dinging. Bad news gets gas.

He tore up his chicken wing. It's a Tommy John thing. He'll be out until June, maybe longer. That means a return stint at Scranton and maybe an appearance in the Bronx after the all-star break. He might be done in CF. It's way too far off to ponder, but basically, we are screwed. Thank you, juju gods. Thank you, soooo much.

You also know about the no-hitter. Eleven innings, zilch. Some of our half-innings took less time than the commercial breaks between them. Lambs. We deserved to lose. In fact, we should have seen this coming, considering the one- and two-hit shutouts we endured in recent weeks.

So much for celebrating 1998. This is one of the saddest Yankee teams in our lifetimes - made worse by a sense that its architects will pay no price for shitting the bed. Players will change, but the ownership and front office will stay. They'll probably give themselves raises, as some hazardous duty scale. I gotta believe they get yelled at on the street. I sure would.

(Why do I think they'll stay? Here's the reasoning: Brian Cashman recently jettisoned Harrison Bader, a hometown hero, having concluded that Bader had no future Yankee role. If Cashman were NOT returning, that decision would have been left for the new GM. Hal let it go, because Cash is his man, and the money just keeps flowing, so nobody cares.)  

Today, the best reason to watch this team - Jasson Dominguez - is gone. And it's reasonable to wonder if the decision to promote him - hyping game sales, of course - contributed to his injury. Did he push himself too hard? Did he play a few games in pain? (In Saturday's disastrous 8th inning, he made a weak, rainbow throw from CF, which - in retrospect - looked like a bad omen.) 

What now? Well, a few ideas: 

1. The Yankees should replace The Martian with The Scrantonian - Estevan Florial, who homered twice yesterday at Triple A. On the season, the 25-year-old Florial has 28 HRs, 25 SBs and a .284 average. He'll probably win the International League MVP. (Fun fact: Two Yanks in recent times have won this prestigious award: Shelley Duncan, 2009, and Ben Gamel, 2016.) Florial bats LH, which is the Yankee sickness.

Frankly, it's a crime that he hasn't gotten a chance this year, especially considering the Four Seasons Landscaping of Fanners - Jake Bauers, Billy McKinney, Franchy Cordero and Willie Cahoon - that took his place. 

Yes, the knock on Florial remains his strikeouts. He swings and misses. He has fanned 144 times this year - a rate of 35.2 percent. On the Yankees, Anthony Volpe has fanned 147 times, but at a slightly lower rate (30.8%) Some other K-rates:

Bauers 39.9%
Judge 35.2%
Stanton 31.5 %
Rizzo 26.0%
LeMahiue 24.7%

(Dominguez had fanned 8 out of 31 plate appearances - 25.8%.)

Frankly, I'd like to see Florial get a shot, simply to embarrass the front office, who clearly would be rooting against him. Nothing would more distress Cashman than having to watch Florial go on a hitting tear. For that reason, I doubt the Yankees will give him the light of day. Sad, eh? 

2. We must support Gerrit Cole for the Cy Young. Right now, he leads Sonny Gray - yes, THE Sonny Gray, another Cashman embarrassment - by six wins and a sprig of ERA (2.70 to 2.98.) 

It might be fun to see Gray win it, simply for the CEF -Cashman Embarrassment Factor. Cole could sit out the last three weeks and probably win. But he won't, of course. He's a gamer, our last source of pride, and let's hope the team rallies to support him. He's 13-4. With modest help, he should be 18-2, and drawing comparisons to the all-time greats. I appreciate Aaron Judge's leadership but cannot help but wonder if Cole is the true Yankee captain. 

3. We play Boston this week. Four meaningless games. Truth be told, who cares? Let them beat their chests, as if these games matter. It's time to get excited for football. I hear the Giants look mighty good! This could be their year! 

10 comments:

  1. At this point, why wouldn't they bring up Florial? It's completely illogical. Makes no sense whatsoever.

    Oh, I guess that explains it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've run out of expletives. This season can't end soon enough. A disaster of a team brought to you by Starr Insurance...

    ...and yeah, the Giants looked mighty __________ last night. But do not fill in the blank with the word good.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'd like to see Florial, just to see him. And no, there is no real point to the rest of the season. Will the Yankees play for pride? When have they yet this year?

    As for Flouncy Cole being our real captain...I dunno. You gotta give him his props, but I still wouldn't trust him in a big postseason game. Not that we'll see any of those, any time soon.

    ReplyDelete
  4. And here I thought Muscles McBackstop was going to suffer the season ending injury.

    Guess the transmissions from spirit central were sorta static E.

    And yes, I agree with the rest of the chatter - Florial deserves his shot too - to suffer a season ending tweak - playing for the . . .
    SULTANS of STARR!

    UNWAVERINGLY
    PESSIMISTIC!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Between JD and the Giants, I’m in a daze.

    Need to refocus and remember what today is, and forget about spoiled players and incompetent ownerships.

    Bless their Memory 🙏

    ReplyDelete
  6. Don't the Jints play tonight? Montag Nacht Foosball.

    ReplyDelete
  7. So The Martian torn UCL must have happened sometime after he came up here, right? Specifically, either after Friday's game or before Saturday's game. Wonder what could have caused it? Very, very strange.

    It's got to be something to do with explosive weight training. Maybe they had him throwing a weighted ball. "This will increase your throwing speed by 5 mph" or maybe Boone decided that The Martian would be the emergency pitcher in blow out games.

    19 or 20 year old kids should not do explosive weight training. Their connective tissues, ligaments especially, cannot handle it. I wouldn't advise anyone younger than 25 to do explosive weight training. And they have to work up to it slowly. It takes years to strengthen ligaments. They should only do body weight exercises, calisthenics. That's more than enough for kids who might still be growing until age 20 or 21.

    The wonders never cease here. What can you do, except laugh? This season was already done a while back, but next season does not project to be any better. Next season is already over!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hammer, I don't know what explosive weight training is, but I totally take your word for it.

    When I lifted weights in my teens, it was definitely not explosive.

    ReplyDelete
  9. JM, Explosive weight training is when you do a barbell movement as hard and as fast as you can. So you have to use less weight than a weight lifter or bodybuilder. This is for athletes who want to increase power and speed. And it certainly does that. It will improve performance tremendously by increasing explosive power. But the risks of injury are very high. Suddenly starting and suddenly stopping a weighted barbell puts a lot of stress on the connective tissues. Warming up properly is a must but it does not eliminate risk.

    The exercise forms are all the same for everyone, but the way you do them makes all the difference. Want power and speed? Do explosive training, with lighter weights, few repetitions, short sessions.

    Want huge muscles like a bodybuilder? Lift at normal or slower speed, using heavy weights, high repetitions, and divide up your routine so that you train your arms on Monday, Thursday and your legs Tuesday, Friday and your back and neck on Wednesday, Saturday.

    Want to increase stamina? Do a complete exercise program in a one hour session, with only 30 seconds rest in between sets.

    Doing physical therapy? Go slow and smooth, with very light weight. Sudden movements are high risk.

    Most important thing is go light and slow for beginners. The uninitiated should not do explosive training.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks, Hammer. I knew the moves but not the name.

    God, the Giants were embarrassed.

    ReplyDelete

Members of the blog can comment. To receive an e-mailed invitation, write to johnandsuzyn@gmail.com. And check spam if it doesn't show up. (Google account required.)

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.