July 3rd Game Thread: Yankees vs. Reds

Montas returns with a 4.51 ERA 

I wonder who will catch him?

Actually his ERA isn't 4.51 it's 4.23 but that's pretty close.

Here's the thing, we traded a bunch of guys to the A's for Frankie Montas. Some of whom would come in handy right about now. 

To say it did not work out is an understatement. 

Not only was he hurt pretty much for the entire time but the Yankees paid him an extra 7.5 Million dollars to keep him for another year even though he was hurt, and they let him rehab on their dime. 

Then he goes and signs with the Reds. 

I know we were OK with him leaving but he's their starting pitcher tonight and he'd better really suck. 

We're getting there.

Should Yank fans dismiss the phony wild card race and simply follow the greatness of Aaron Judge?

Remember all that silly jubilation in April? The Houston sweep? The winning streak? The sense that this year was different - and the concerns about Aaron Judge?

I mean, who didn't fear the worst? The guy looked hapless, pathetic, lunging after balls in the dirt. Moreover, there'd been rumors of an injury in Tampa, a tweak or a pull. Was Judge hiding an ailment that could hinder him all season? 

As we soared into May - on the shoulders of great pitching - we marveled about the greatness of Juan Soto and the rise of Luis Gil, and we feared the worst for Judge. 

Idiots... 

Yeah, you. And me. Idiots. Admit it: We thought the confluence of players facing their contract years would spawn an offensive surge. Soto was a generational star, a transformative hitter who raised all others. Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton were having comeback seasons. Gleyber Torres and Alex Verdugo were coming around - "good swings," the YES midway barkers promised. Yeah, we ate that slop with a knife and fork. 

Idiots.  

Soon, maybe as early as this weekend, the Yankees will start feeling the breath of Boston, their fake arch-rival, in the expanded wild card race, the MLB Little League where any team over .500 can chase a postseason participation trophy. 

Tonight and tomorrow, we'll find out whether the floundering Yankees can win a home series against a genuine tomato can, the Reds of Cincinnati, who sit at five games below .500 in the International League NL Central. 

As fans, maybe, it's time to circle the wagons. Maybe it's time to celebrate Aaron Judge and cut bait on the rest of this failing, perennially sick organization. 

Check out the HR leader board. There's Judge, and there is everybody else. Once again, the Yankee Captain is competing not with other players, but with historical legends: Babe Ruth in 1927, Roger Maris in 1961, and Aaron Judge in 2022. 

If he stays healthy - and every Yank fan knows how quickly the Fates can change that outcome - Judge might be having - gulp, dare I say it - the greatest season in MLB history. 

Yeah, I said it. And let me now repeat it, because - yes, it's hyperbole - but Aaron Judge may be standing on the brink of the greatest season in MLB history. He might break his own all-time HR record, win the RBI title by 20, and even take the batting crown, as well. Nobody - not Ruth, not Ty Cobb, not Taylor Swift - has produced more big hits. If he wins the Triple Crown, he deserves foot massages from Travis Kelce. 

Soon, maybe it will be time for Soto to bat leadoff - (Anthony Volpe needs a rest) - with Judge batting second. (Last night, neither came to bat in the ninth, with the game on the line, as the struggling Volpe popped out to SS.) It would mean more at-bats for the twosome, who have been the only offense on this currently woeful team. 

Look, every team suffers through doldrums. Maybe this is just a cold spell. But anybody who watches this team closely knows that the last three weeks have exposed massive holes on this team, the depth of which will not be spackled over next month with a few phone calls by Cooperstown Cashman. 

What we have, though, is something that fans of every team covet. We have the great Aaron Judge. We might get a glimpse of the most prolific hitting season in the history of the game. If that's what we get in 2024, it's not nuthin.

Game Thread: Yankees vs. Reds

Montas returns with a 4.51 ERA 

I wonder who will catch him?

Actually his ERA isn't 4.51 it's 4.23 but that's pretty close.

Here's the thing, we traded a bunch of guys to the A's for Frankie Montas. Some of whom would come in handy right about now. 

To say it did not work out is an understatement. 

Not only was he hurt pretty much for the entire time but the Yankees paid him an extra 7.5 Million dollars to keep him for another year even though he was hurt, and they let him rehab on their dime. 

Then he goes and signs with the Reds. 

I know we were OK with him leaving but he's their starting pitcher tonight and he'd better really suck. 

He's not pitching until Thursday. Sorry about that. :)

At the 2024 baseball season's traditional halfway point, a personal favor I'd like to ask on behalf of IT IS HIGH...

 We don't ask much of readers. 

There's no IT IS HIGH firewall, no membership fees, no ads for male enhancements, no credit card numbers stolen. 

We at "HIGH" - (as it's referred to around the water coolers of Sterling Tower) -take pride in imposing no restrictions on the steaming, fragrant flow of empirical Yankee news, our stock-in-trade.  

We believe that you - the bootless and unhorsed general public - come here to receive cheerful, upbeat messages regarding the greatest group of heroes on the planet, our New York Yankees. (Yes, feel free to applaud!) 

Nevertheless, today, I have a request.

This comes at the symbolic halfway mark of the 2024 season, which has our team of greats battling to contend in the AL East. It involves the hat which MLB has carefully designed and mass-produced to honor great Yankees, such as Aaron Judge, in the upcoming all-star game.

This is the hat.

My request is simple: 

If you ever see me wearing this thing, regardless of how drunken or confused I might appear to be... please, please, PLEASE put a bullet directly into my skull. 

If you do not have a gun, use a tire iron or golf club - whatever - but if I am ever caught walking the streets wearing this hellish head thing, I implore you to do the right thing to put me out of my misery. End this charade! 

I mean... look closely at this... thing. 

Dear God. 

That's all I can say. 

Dear God.

I have lived through many societal abominations: New Coke, Yahoo Serious, pizza-flavored potato chips, the War on Drugs, boy groups, the Fire Fest, Rupert Murdoch's marriage to Jerry Hall, etc. The list goes on.  But if something happens to me, if I am brain damaged or mentally ill... if I am seen walking around beneath this monstrosity, your job is clear. Shoot me.   

Dear God. 

Bobby Bonilla Day?

 

Happy Bobby Bonilla Day! Sort of...

Stop me if I've written this before. (Which I may have.)

But I have to point out that...it's not just Bobby Bonilla Day.

It's also Darryl Strawberry Day. It's also Bret Saberhagen Day. It's also Bernard Gilkey and Frank Cashen Day.

Let me explain.

You'll remember Bobby Bo. About the most disappointing and churlish free agent the New York Mets have ever signed, which is saying something. The man who once threatened a sportswriter, "I'll show you the Bronx!"

Incredibly, in true Cashmanic fashion, the Mets even brought Bobby Bo back after that wonderful soliloquy. This went even worse than his first stay, believe it or not, as Bonilla batted .160 in 60 games, and ended up playing cards in the clubhouse with Rickey Henderson while the Mets lost an agonizing, extra-inning playoff game to Atlanta

But I digress.

First off, let me just say that it's true: Bobby Bonilla is owed $1,193,248.20 every July 1 through 2035, for a total that far exceeds his original Mets contract. 

The payments started in 2011, and with an 8 percent interest rate, what they did was convert a $6 million-payment into (an eventual) $30 million. By 2018, 16 of the 25 players on the Mets' roster made less than Bobby Bo did every year. In 2019, the Mets' two best hitters—Jeff McNeil and record-breaking rookie, Pete Alonso—made less combined than Bonilla.

Bobby Bo attributed this stroke of good fortune entirely to his agent, a little-known insurance agent named Dennis Gilbert. Bonilla, in that inimitable way he had, called Gilbert, "a special man," and advised:

"Don't skimp on the agent."

Sure, it was the agent. The Mets' owners, Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, nodded along darkly about how, yeah, they probably got took, grumbling something about "annuities."

What, a pair of successful NYC developers didn't understand annuities? They didn't have anyone in finance who did?

Wilpon and Katz, millionaire, Big Apple builders, got beat...by Dennis Gilbert?

It didn't make any sense.  And of course, when things don't make sense, usually, somebody is lying.

So it was here. 

As it turned out, the Mets were also deferring part of Darryl Strawberry's 1990 team option—and they still are. At 5.1 percent interest, they turned that $1.8 million into $1.64 million a year, from 2004 through 2033. 

Saberhagen (another lovely character on the 1990s Mets)? He's getting $250,000 a year through 2029. Gilkey was going to get $9 million a year—but Arizona took that money off the Mets' hands when they traded for him. Even Frank Cashen, their late general manager, was partly paid in deferred money.

Hell, there used to be a Bobby Bonilla Day II, with the Bronx's most charming tour guide getting $250,000 a year from 2004-2023, for a later deferment. (It was originally $500,000 a year, but the Metsies convinced Baltimore to split BBD II, as part of a deal.)

So what gives? Did the Mets really not understand how annuities work?

Turns out, the Mets were almost always ready and willing to defer contract money because they were getting more than that, guaranteed...from Uncle Bernie. 

Much as the Mets liked to later pretend that they were victims of Bernie Madoff...they weren't. And paying annuities at 5.1 or even 8 percent made sense—when they were guaranteed an annual return of 18 percent in Bernie money.

The Mets' big fear about the $300 million or so they made investing with Madoff, was that they'd have to pay it back. But they didn't—no more than $29 million in the end, and probably less. 

So happy BobbyBonillaDarrylStrawberryBretSaberhagenBernardGilkeyFredWilponSaulKatzBernieMadoff Day! I'm sure many more such days await us!

On an off-day, the Yankiverse can wonder what the hell is going on with Gleyber Torres?

Yankee hitting stats, last 7 games 

'Tis a strange mid-year for Gleyber David Torres.

I'd call it a roller coaster, but they have ups and downs. This has been more a carny Super Slide, where you ride a burlap bag through the bodily excretions of your zip code - a straight descent to the fried dough expulsions of the county fair midway.

This year, Gleyber has systematically checked the bingo cards for a desperate player in free-fall:

1. He has booted critical grounders.

2. He has made stupid baserunning moves.

3. He is hitting .226.

4. He was benched for two games after jogging out a grounder.

5. He even got screamed at by Marcus Stroman, from pitchers mound, on national TV. 

He accomplished all this with a dazed, Celine Dion expression - (too soon?) - as if this isn't really happening, it's just Netflix, and this isn't the most important year in his family's financial life. This is Gleyber's walk season, his looming free agency, and his greatest chance to cash-in next winter. He should be inspiring contact extension talks. Instead, the Death Barge seems delighted to show him the door. Lately, an emerging question is whether they'd trade him at the Aug. 1 deadline, punting on him, altogether. 

Gleyber suffers from Future Great Yankee Syndrome, an malady that strikes down healthy young studs on  their way to Monument Park, after they breathe the plague-ridden air inside the YES Network studios. Remember Alfonso Soriano? Robbie Cano? Melky Cabrera? Gary Sanchez? Clint Frazier? Or did you block them from memory? 

In 2019, his second season, already a perennial all-star, Gleyber belted 38 HRs and batted .278, despite being saddled with John Sterling's all-time worst Homer Holler: "And  like a good Gleyber, Torres is there!" Yikes. After his sophomore year, and a failed attempt to make him the next Jeter, at SS, Gleyber's production mysteriously began to drop. That continued... until around this time last year. 

Last June, one year ago, Gleyber batted .198 with almost no power. Then, in July, something  happened: he improved to .275. In August, he hit .327. In September, .290. He finished 2023 with 25 HRs, seemingly ready for his big haul in 2024.

Well, it sure hasn't happened... dare we say... yet?

Last week, Gleyber went 6 for 17 with a HR -which came shortly after his tongue-lashing by Stroman. (Frankly, he didn't deserve it. This happened after a high hopper that could not be converted into a double-play. But in the earlier game when Gleyber failed to run hard, he should have been ripped, openly.)  

Listen: I dunno what the hell has been going on with Gleyber. But we're about to see what he has left in the tank. Is he simply one of those players whose biological clock wakes up around July 1? He has the next month to prove his worth. Come September, if he's still hitting .226, Yankee Stadium will be a cruel place to make his fortune.