Foodstamps Hal will never let the Yankees get over the top.

All right, I'm sober now. Nothing like two grisly losses on the West Coast to serve as an intervention.

Thanks to the time difference, though, I got to see yet another indication of what the Yankees COULD be—and never will, as long as Foodstamps Hal Steinbrenner and his favorite monkey butler keep running this team.

Even as the Yanks were losing to a dreadful Anaheim Angels club, complete with a starter who had an ERA over 5 and a bullpen full of junk, the Queens Team was dropping a doubleheader to a Dodgers team that was essentially playing with one hand tied behind its collective backs (Which, I know, is painful to imagine, but bear with me.)

The Dodgers, it was reported, currently have 9—count 'em, NINE!—pitchers on the DL, including future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw. Shohei Ohtani DH'd all of one game out in Flushing, and went 0-5.                               

Still didn't matter. Mostly because Freddie Freeman spent the whole evening tattooing line drives all around the ballpark. Fast Freddie ended up with five hits on the doubleheader, including a homer, two doubles, and three ribbies. 

That wasn't a surprise. Freeman has been a paragon of consistency his entire career, the leading active player when it comes to career runs, hits, doubles, and RBI; a lifetime .301 hitter. He is 34 but shows no sign of slowing down, barely missing a game.

The guy we chose to sign over Freeman for first base is, of course, Anthony Rizzo, who is the same age—and who looks like he's done. This is no knock on Rizzo, a thoroughly likable individual. It's not his fault that he suffered a debilitating concussion in a freak accident (or that the Yankees unconscionably decided to keep playing him for months afterwards). He was a very good player for years, a good power hitter and an excellent fielder, a leader on a world champion team (not ours, of course).

Yet while Rizzo was a very good player, Freeman is on another plane, a no-brainer Hall-of-Famer, maybe even an all-time great. What's more, while they are the same age, both left-handed hitters  custom-made for the New New Yankee Stadium, it was clear even before Cashie re-signed him that Rizzo was a player in decline—while Freeman was not.

After Ant'ny hit .222 in the shortened Covid season of 2020—while Freeman batted .341 and won the NL MVP—Rizzo was hitting .248 in 2021, when the Yanks brought him in as an emergency acquisition down the stretch. He hit .249 with 8 homers in 49 games with the Bombers. Not a bad performance by today's standards, but hardly jaw-dropping.

Still Cashie picked up his option for 2022—never seriously looking at Freeman, who had just compiled another .300 season and led the NL in runs scored. Freeman signed with the Dodgers.

Rizzo managed to hit 32 homers in 2022—but missed 32 games and batted only .224. Nonetheless, Cashman signed him on again. Then came last year. Then came last night, when, as our Peerless Leader noted, he again looked ice cold, taking us out of what could have been a big first inning. 

Fabulous Freddie, meanwhile, turned into a doubles machine in LA, leading the NL with 47 (and a .407 slugging percentage), while batting .325 in 2022; hitting .331 last year with another 59 doubles—the seventh highest total anyone, ever has run up for two-baggers in baseball history. How many of those doubles might have flown over that short porch in our right field? We'll never know.

So why did our fabulous baseball braintrust go with Rizzo over Freeman? 

Money, of course.

Anthony was a "bargain," costing the Yanks $16 million in 2022, and $17 million in 2023 and 2024, with a $17-million team option in 2025. The Yanks can buy him out for just $6 mill before 2025—meaning that, at most, for four years of decline and injury, Rizzo will have cost them "only" $67 million, and quite possibly "just" $56 mill. 

Freeman? His Dodgers contract is for $27 mill, for 6 years, or a total of $162 million. 

For Hal, this looks like a savings of $95-$106 million. He just doesn't get it—unlike the owners of the Dodgers, who have taken big, bold risks over the past few years, and basically reinvented the financing of the sport. No matter how their risks work out—and mind you, I wish the Dodgers nothing but ill!—they will dominate for many years to come.

For Hal, a big risk is ordering the sushi. He will never do what it takes to make the Yanks anything more than a perpetual, wild-card contender. This is what is truly "unsustainable."