Friday, June 7, 2024

Thank you, Minnesota. But what about Juan? Ten nervous takeaways

1. Let's be honest, real, scientific - without resorting to baseless hysteria. Why spread unnecessary fear and anxiety? Baseball should be fun, a joyous game of pitch and hit, and rooting for the Yankees should be a stress-free romp, not a nightly slither through the flaming jaws of Hell. So, in a loftier sensibility, let's happily accept one simple reality:

If Soto is hurt, it's over. 

The season. The dream. The hope. Forget about it. Forget 2024. Forget the decade. Forget baseball. Maybe someday, around 2050 - when we're  sitting, like Eleanor Rigby's face, in a jar by some door - the Yankees will rise. If we're lucky enough to have grandchildren who remember us in videos- they'll be in their 50s - someone will say, "Hey, wasn't that Old (insert your name's) team?" 

Last night, Soto left with a tight forearm. In my life, I cannot recall leaving anything because of a tight forearm. I don't know what such a thing feels like. But I do know that the Yankees always soft-soap injuries, like John Wayne shrugging off flesh wounds, and lost days quickly become lost months.  

If Soto is hurt, well, there goes the lineup. Here come the dominoes. Soon, Stanton will tweak something. Then Judge. Then Gil, then Rodon - then the avalanche, like those doomsday glaciers at the poles, always the size of Delaware, which will slide into the sea and swamp New York all the way to Binghamton. 

It's over, that's all. If Soto is hurt...

Via ABOVE AVERAGE
2. Tonight, it's Cody Poteet v. Yoshi Yamamoto, a phrase that would have been incomprehensible last year. Poteet is the most unlikely Yankee scrapheap find in 2024. Yamamoto is the one that got away - but not from us. We came in a distant third in last winter's auction. It's the Mets who were dissed. They shot their wad, financially, and the guy simply didn't want to pitch for them. 

Thus far, he's been a decent starter, an expensive version of Marcus Stroman. Not a superstar. Not even a Luis Gil. But but but... it doesn't matter. 

If Soto is hurt, we will lose. We'll see a big 0-for-4 in the two hole, and if the Dodgers score one run, it's over - the way it's been in BS years - that is, Before Soto. 

3-10. Really, do they matter? Should we care that Judge looked lost last night in LF? He gave up on a pop fly that bounced in for a double, showing no sense of LF, having almost never played there. 

But if Soto is hurt, he'll be moving to RF, anyway. 

The Anthonys - Volpe and Rizzo - will both suffer. Volpe won't have the protection of two great sluggers behind him. Rizzo won't have the  baserunners. 

Why go on? What's the point? If Soto is hurt... well, we know what's going to happen. And it won't be pretty.

35 comments:

TheWinWarblist said...

There are dark foreboding clouds this morning. I shall be at the game tonight. And for once someone else is going to drive.

BTR999 said...

Duque’s post torn from my heart.

We’ve seen this many times. It’s been a fun ride, but the ride is over,

No matter what they tell us today, it won’t reflect the truth.

Doug K. said...

There once was a team from New York
whose superstar's forearm got torqued.
Now the two hole is bare
as we all say a prayer
he comes back, or we'll stick in the fork.

JM said...

Nicely limericked, Doug.

The kid is still a kid. He plays every day. He played every game last year. I've had the same issue with some muscles--they don't hurt when you use them, they only hurt when you rest them. I have no idea how that works, but I've usually just run, exercised, lifted or walked a few miles with no lasting damage. I don't think.

I have faith in the young man. He's fine. I think.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

The death barges politboro will release several days of non-informative propaganda releases, letting the Yankees play short handed against the Brooklyn Robin's, before putting him on the 15 day DL, followed 2 weeks later by moving him to the 60 day.

Ca$hole will use the opportunity to low ball offers. The Yankees will lose the Bud Selig memorial playin game yet again. But, hey! They're "championship caliber ".

ranger_lp said...

Someone online pointed out this is very similar to what The Martian had....

Mildred Lopez said...


Bright side: with Soto out of the lineup Rizzo won't leave as many guys on base. So there's that.

JM said...

Keefe had written: "I expect the Yankees to announce Dennis Santana has been designated for assignment prior to Thursday’s game."

Did I miss it?

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Unfortunately, no.

BTR999 said...

Marinaccio has pitched well @ SWB and might be a good add for the Dodgers series.

JM said...

I will never understand why he's down there and Santana is up here.

Pocono Steve said...

It's not just Schrodinger's forearm: it's Schrodinger's season.

Carl J. Weitz said...

Hopefully, if Soto goes down for a while, the Yankees will make a commensurate move and recall The Martian.

Jaraxle said...

Hey we can go with an optimistic feel good story. Soto takes some time off but the Martian steps in and goes on a tear in his absence, leading the team to a World Series. Yes, I’m on painkillers while I wrote that

JM said...

Painkillers are good.

BTR999 said...

Carl, Dominguez was pulled from the game in SWB early last night, undoubtedly to prepare for the possibility of an IL stint by Soto, which I personally believe is coming.

BTR999 said...

Hope you’re sitting down…chatter on twitter says torn tendon for Soto, season over.
Looking for credible source

AboveAverage said...

how would they have obtained this information - BTR(use to be ClarkKent) ?

are they citing any sources, such as the boba cart sales lady outside of imaging bay 13?

mmmmmm-boba

BTR999 said...

This was from the rep for the NY Herald (whatever that is) citing an unnamed source,
Need to have a trusted source.

Pocono Steve said...

NY Herald is pret-tay, pret-tay defunct. You sure this isn't a gag?

Kevin said...

That report sounds like crap. If his tendon is TORN he should have massive swelling. I'm leading towards JM's hypothesis. Sometimes something hurts, even for a long time then it fades. I had over forty years of weight training and cycling, I never went on any "DL". Till my rotator cuff went...

BTR999 said...

His arm was still attached

https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/1799148881432760320/pl/fFvb28Efbcou_keh.m3u8?tag=14

BTR999 said...

Finally, from Jon Heyman
“Initial doctor report suggests Soto will be OK. Radiologist will review though to be sure.”

Still waiting for lineup which Heyman said is being “held”

Pocono Steve said...

You beat me to it BTR999!

BTR999 said...

Lineup posted on Yankees.com, no Soto

Pocono Steve said...

I only wish that Dominguez were in NYC, but I don't think there's any word he made the trip. Only that he was pulled from his game last night.

AboveAverage said...

Soto will likely get a few days to a week of rest and therapeutic attention before getting back into the lineup.

Still don’t know what the truth is with this team, though.

We need that investigative reporter that was able to dig up the type of bubble gum Boone chews on this case.

That will be the only way to know.

Fer Sure

Rufus T. Firefly said...

BTR,

My commodore 64 says file not found. Trying to insert the 5-1/4 floppy.

AboveAverage said...

Los Angeles appear to have a pretty good lineup.

Hopefully the grounds crew will put out large concrete base boards in front of the bullpens during our at bats so that a Dodger or two can stub their toes and see how it feels.

Right?

RIGHT!

Rufus T. Firefly said...

AA,

Think spike strips and anvils teetering on top of the fence.

AboveAverage said...

Fireflies:

I was raised to believe it was an eye for an eye ~ toe for a toe ~ especially whilst playing in da show.

Don’t ya know.

JM said...

Doctors are usually loathe to state an opinion before the scan is reviewed by the radiologist. Reading these things is a pretty specialized skill, maybe a bit of an art.

So basically they don't know nothin' yet. That he's not in the lineup shows that he's not okay or certainly they aren't sure so far.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Does Bonehead know that he's supposed to sit John Grisham tonight? I mean, he doubled his RBI total last night. He must need rest!

Who is this imposter pretending he's Boonie, and what have you done with the real one?

AboveAverage said...

BoonEEs' not here anymore, Mrs Torrance . . . .

HoraceClarke66 said...

Right on, AA!

And for the record: the NY Herald, begun in 1835 and for years the most popular paper in NYC, was merged with the NY Tribune in March, 1924.

Free bonus information: the paper's second owner, James Gordon Bennett, Jr., gave us one of the city's most famous ballparks. In 1877, he was forced to leave the city after he showed up at his fiancée's house for a party so drunk that he urinated into a fireplace (some claimed it was a grand piano, though by that point, Gordon Bennett probably had trouble telling the difference).

Any-hoo, Bennett had organized the very first polo match in the US of A, and had to abandon his private polo field, then located just off the northeast corner of Central Park. For years, Bennett looked in vein for a tenant for his Polo Grounds, finding one only in 1883, when a brand new ballteam known as the Gothams took up residence.

The rest, as you know, is history!