Let's hope Nasty Nestor is saving his best stuff for Opening Day (and would Ohtani bet on it?)

Ever since his 2019 arrival, Nasty Nestor Cortes - introduced last winter at a Trump rally as "the Hialeah Kid"- has been New York's most physically entertaining pitcher. (Unless you hate the Yankees, in which case it was Aroldys "Niagara Falls" Chapman.; every El Chapo outing was a Shakespearian tragedy.) 

In his personal mound ballet, Cortes glided between Fernando Valenzuela and Chris Farley, He brought forth multiple windups. He'd dive headfirst into 1B to beat a runner. He emerged from the scrap heap at age 26, pitched a scoreless frame in the 2022 All-Star game, fanning Austin Riley and Garrett Cooper. He came out of nowhere, a looming Yankee legend.

Then came the setbacks, the tweaks and strains that limited him to 63 innings last season and a rather dismal 4.97 ERA. Nevertheless, the front office in December named him as their No. 3 starter, signaling plans to ignore the pricier free agents. Everything was groovy, and then Gerrit Cole's elbow spoke up.  

In yesterday's box score, Nestor gave us little to cheer. Four innings, three earned runs, the game effectively over in the fifth. But on the field, it wasn't so bad. He threw three quick scoreless innings, then, in the 4th, walked the leadoff man - Austin Riley again. An infield single followed, then an RBI single. Nestor was fraying. In the fifth, he had zilch: A leadoff HR, followed by a triple and a single. Boonie pulled the cord. 

You could argue that Nestor had a decent day - done in by fatigue, normal for late March. (That was the cheery consensus of YES.) That said, the Yankees this year will need six innings from starters. Anything less, and the bullpen will be crispy critters by June, when Cole hopefully returns. That means a 5th starter - Luis Gil, Will Warren or Clayton Beeter - must emerge from nowhere, as Nestor did. Will we get lucky again? 

Of course, we can gloat over the fate of Yoshi Yamamoto, who spurned our advances last winter for mellow LA. In Tuesday's MLB opener, he was crushed by San Diego (and 3B Tyler Wade!) His horror show outing - one inning, five runs, boos - was soon overshadowed by the potential scandal of Shohei Ohtani's tagalong, an apparent gambling junkie. (How else do you lose $4.5 million?) 

With pure IT IS HIGH fuckery, let's toast the Dodgers' quandary! Couldn't happen to a nicer billionaire. Still, I wonder how any sports league today can righteously mount a crackdown on gambling? Have you, um, looked around? Every televised sports event includes a nonstop buffet of odds and parlays. Once upon a time, gambling was baseball's boogie man. Now, it's Santa Claus. 

Sports betting is the golden calf behind Ohtani's $700 million contract. As long as his butt boy wasn't betting on baseball games, is there anything wrong - compared to this ethical shit show, which we now take for granted? 

Dunno what's coming, but some big shoes could still drop. The U.S. Justice Department surely would love an issue that unifies Americans and cannot be politicized. Enter sports gambling. Something tells me it's gonna get hotter. Just sayin'.