Thursday, December 14, 2023

Surely, Yankee coaches will overhaul Juan Soto's swing, and other tortured thoughts, as we await Yamamoto's decision

As the Moto Watch continues, some tidbits...

1. Can't you imagine the Death Barge brain trust eyeballing Juan Soto's God-given swing and concluding, "Total makeover needed!" He'll have to revamp his entire approach, with a higher launch angle and more strikeouts, the Yankee secret sauce. It might take months to break him down and then, bit by bit, rebuild Soto into a .190 hitter with banjo power, but if any organization can do it...

2. Speaking of bullshit, I cannot recall a Yankee roster more full of "ifs." Seriously. Read the room. Everywhere you look, it's... If Rodon...! If Volpe...! If Giancarlo...! If Rizzo... ! Et al. We are a big, steaming bag of "ifs." 

And we should expect at least half of them to be Nopes. That's frightening.

3. Of all the newcomers, I think Alex Verdugo tops the list of anticipated improvements. Why? He'll shave that ridiculous red beard, which made him look like one of the lower-tier seven dwarfs. Clean-shaven, he'll look 10 years younger.  I wonder what he looks like with a chin? 

4. Right now, having flushed their system of pitching depth, the Yankees are projecting Clayton Beeter as their 5th starter. Yikes! Beeter may someday be decent, in a Clarke Schmidt sort of way, but his ERA last season in Scranton was - gulp - 4.94. Four point nine four. People, I realize we are in a holding pattern, and we'll have to add somebody, but the current staff, as projected, is a full-bore disaster.  

If Yamamoto signs elsewhere, the Yankees absolutely must overpay Blake Snell, who, frankly, looks like the Second Coming of Carlos Rodon. 

Even if they sign Yamamoto, Yankee pitching looks thin as a Necco Wafer. Last year, after the usual round of injuries, we called up Jhony Brito and Randy Vasquez, both MLB-worthy arms. This year, we're talking about Matt Krook and the cast of Glee - the pitching equivalents of Willie Calhoun and Franchy Cordero. This is dire.

5. I'm still trying to process the Dodgers voodoo economics on the Ohtani deal. For years, we heard how the Yankees would face massive luxury tax penalties if they went hog wild in spending. Last year, MLB warned Steve Cohen about overbidding. Since the era of Bud Selig, the phantom salary cap has kept down Yankee spending. 

Now, with their shell game, the Dodgers will pay Ohtani $2 million per year - the cost of a backup catcher - and defer their luxury tax obligations for 10 years. Thus, they can spend on Yamamoto and - frankly - anybody else.

I don't claim to understand the math. But from the naked eye, it sure looks as though MLB has opened the floodgates, and the Dodgers just jogged through. The Yankees better join the surge. It's a new world for deferring payments, right? Unless MLB has rules for NY teams and rules for everybody else?

20 comments:

  1. Snell pitched something like 50 more innings last year than either of the two before, his arm is going to fall off by June. Better off fixing the Montgomery mistake and maybe a one year prove it deal to Montas.

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  2. Steaming bag of ifs was a gift.

    Necco wafers - the teeth killers!

    Soto appears ready to protect his swing from any meddling of lingering hit strikes hard-ons left in the organization.

    I hope the NYamamoto show doesn’t linger too long in Slow Mototion.

    It’s being reported that Ohtani was in attendance for the meeting with the Dodgers yesterday dressed up in a Dodger blue Sailor Moon dress. No idea how they thought that would help however rumors are making the rounds that Cashman and Boone were dressed up as the Grady twins from The Shining for their NYamamoto show - so maybe the Admiral has a thing for this kinda stuff

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  3. The AAV is figured based on the duration of the contract. So - if this is a 20 year contract the salary cap hit would be $35M per year. The current bargains agreement between the Players and Owners expires after the 2026 season. How that will affect the economics of the owners is anybody’s guess. A lockout is almost certain to happen. Witness the inability of a mid-market team like Padres being forced to step back from its salary obligations because of its debt ratio, including an operating loan from MLB itself. Given the waning interest in baseball among the younger generation, who knows what the landscape will look like in 20 years? One loathsome possibility being bandied about is selling the naming rights to the playoffs and World Series the way college football did with bowl games. Get ready for the 2024 Toyota World Series.

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  4. Back to the matter at hand, the deadline for signing Yamamoto is Jan. 4th. Expect it to happen before the end of the year, if not sooner. As far as I can tell, no clear indication as to how it will play out.

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  5. Thanks to Sadaharu Oh, YaMoBeThere will want another $100m in deferred payments

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  6. Good point about our roster of "if's". Our roster is still worse than the Orioles right now and I think even with Moto. That is a sentence that hasn't been true since Ken Singleton and Jim Palmer played...

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  7. It looks like the Dodgers will be the ones saying, "Hello, Moto!"

    At least I have another few weeks to watch Tommy Cutlets become a gen-u-ine New Jersey hero. The kid looks good. And his agent cracks me up with his retro pro wrestling outfit vibe.

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  8. Old George would've been foaming at the Dodgers' legedermain, threatening lawsuits and raising hell—and then gone out and given YY whatever he wanted, and signed a couple other guys as well.

    These guys? They won't do a damned thing, save for some more ticky-tack around the edges. There was no point in acquiring Soto if they weren't going to follow-up. WIN NOW! They still don't seem to get it.

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  9. YY might be impossible for various reasons. But all the more reason why the Yankees should be wheeling and dealing in other areas, already. They're not, which doesn't bode well.

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  10. If we’re not in “win now” mode, what was the point of the Soto trade? Just a a short term ploy to goose attention and attendance in ‘24?

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  11. As Jerry Blavat might comment on Clayton's fastball (too obscure reference for the youngins here?) "Beeter, the Geator with the Heater"!

    There were no explanations as to how MLB figured the AAV at 46 million. Also, it has been reported that Ohtani has an opt-out at the end of any year that the Dodgers fire Andrew Friedman or his assistant GM. Odd, eh?

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  12. But Gentlemen - It has also been widely reported that NYamamoto favors the number 18 and we happen to have that number available!

    That means that Its gotta be a done deal.

    Right?

    Cue up that Alice Copper.



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  13. Carl,

    Jerry would also call him "the Boss with the Hot Sauce."

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  14. Eighteen and I don't know what I want
    Eighteen I just don't know what I want
    Eighteen and I LIKE IT!

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  15. @ Hoss, Suspect you're right, they're going to say they tried but got robbed by crazy spenders. So this is it. Should've known. We've seen this movie before, eh?

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  16. @BTR999, They're half-assing it, like they always do.

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  17. We're in Mercury Retrograde. Which means that you should not sign a contract until the retrograde ends on January 1st. If you do have to sign a contract during this period, it's wont go as planned ...

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  18. Heard a rumor that Steve Cohen told Yamamoto that he'll beat any offer by at least 100 million. So if Yamamoto wants the money, he'll be a Mutt. If Yamamoto likes the west coast, he'll be a Dodger. My gut feeling is that he'll sign with the Dodgers. An extra 100 Mill won't be enough to make him wanna be a Mutt. That'd be a slap in the face to Mutt fans, no? Haha!

    At this rate, Steve Cohen is going to cause galloping inflation all by his lonesome. Ohtani getting 68 million twenty years from now? Might be worth a bag of peanuts by then.

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  19. Don't know if Blavat is well-known outside of Philly, guys. I know about the Geeter with the Heater, the Boss with the Hot Sauce because my wife's from the City of Brotherly Love. But otherwise...

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  20. Yeah, this is looking like yet another rendition of, "Aw, gee wilikers, we tried awfully hard, but those other teams had more money! That'll be $45 for that beer and frank, sir."

    "So keep your auditions for somebody
    Who hasn't got so much to lose
    Cause you can tell by the lines I'm reciting
    You know I seen that movie, too..."

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