We win five straight and welcome Toronto - a hateful, sub .500 tanking team, whose star shall never play for us, unless he does. In game one, they score three runs before we record an out. WTF? Are we really gonna do this, go back to collapsing, as we did through most of July?
Ten ponderings from last night:
1. Gleyber Donaldson returned! It's been a while since a Yankee stood at home plate, masturbating as his magnificent, mighty HR ball soared off into the night... then to leg-out a single, after it bounces off the wall. That's pure Jackie Donaldson, courtesy of the Gleyb. To ice this urinal cake, he later got thrown out at home. Did you know Torres leads the AL in number of times being thrown out at home? Such instincts.
Across the Yankiverse, after the trade deadline came and went, one question arose: Why is Gleyber still here?
So, last night, he was humiliated on YES, which showed Aaron Boone benching him, up close and practically in slow motion. It never mattered to Donaldson. Will Gleyber get the hint?
2. Masterful work by Boonie. No sooner does DJ LeMahieu enjoy a career day, by far his most hopeful night of a sickly 2024, and he sits out the following game, never touches a bat. Pure Boone.
There are no words.
3. So much for the Jazz Chisholm home debut: 0-for-4 with 2 Ks. We had to know he wouldn't hit 2 HRs per game. A shard of realism over a guy hitting .246.
4. Marcus Stroman? WTF? The YESsirs spent the last three innings reminding us that Gerrit Cole feels better and Clarke Schmidt will soon throw BP. Stroman, throwing lollypops, couldn't last the 3rd. Terrible.
5. Last winter, the Death Barge had an open lane to signing Blake Snell. The guy waited and waited, seemingly withering on the vine. On this site, we pleaded for Hal to sign the guy. We were a starter shy of winning the AL East. You could feel it. And we did nothing.
Snell had a crappy spring, prompting smirks from the brain trust. Last night, he threw a no-hitter for SF. The Giants will pay him $23.5 million this year.
We have Stroman for $18.3 million, this year and next. For an extra $5 million - really, a drop in the bucket for a $240 million roster - we could be watching Snell return to Cy Young form.
6. Alex Verdugo with a big 0-5 and 3 Ks. WTF? He had shown recent signs of life. Can nobody handle the pressure of leading off, of batting in front of the most damaging twosome in baseball, Soto and Judge?
7. In Philadelphia, the bottom of our lineup consistently did damage. Last night, the 5-through-8 batters went 1-for-10.
8. Last night, down in Triple A, The Martian - Jasson Dominguez - went 0-for-4 with three Ks. Since joining Scranton on rehab, he's 4 for 18 with 7 Ks and no HRs. The Yankees are probably happy.
Why would I suggest this? Scuttlebutt says the Death Barge is playing contract chicken. If Dominguez fails to see 100 ABs at the MLB level, the Yankees will keep an extra year of contractual control over him. Thus, don't expect him until September, unless the worst thing that can happen, happens: What if he gets hot, and Verdugo reverts to sucking...)
9. Look, no team looks unstoppable. (Aside from Cleveland, maybe.) Baltimore should be, but they're not. The other day, the O's brought up Matt Holliday's kid, the top prospect in baseball. Last night, in another loss, he went 2-for-3. He'd been a nepo baby bust this spring, then went down to Triple A and found himself. If Holliday is ready - and for real - the O's will receive a huge injection of energy.
10. Last night, Suzyn with multiple "Oh boy"s. It is the Wilhelm Scream of sports announcers. It should go on her future plaque in Monument Park, next to The Master.
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17 comments:
Stromanized!
That's all you need to say.
Boone decision at #2, how fitting. It was shit.
Bench the hot guy. He must have needed rest, with only a day and a half off.
OH BOY
I dunno about being one good starter away from a championship. Not when only 3 players are hitting better than .250, or 2 with an OPS above .800. I realize this is a very sad year in the batters box for all teams. But aside from our two superheroes, this is an easy team to get out.
The bullpen is definitely not the all-star fire squad of yesteryear. Mostly a bunch of scrubs the intern found in the dumpster, plus a couple of overworked pitchers who lost their mojo (or their arms) half way through the year.
And when every starting pitcher craps the bed like they all have Cholera and don't recover, my natural instinct on this team is to look beyond the field, to the coaching staff and the gaggle of geeks to make the real decisions.
Yeah, I don't see a championship team. I see two superstars doing yeoman's work, a couple of promising young'uns and the same, terrible, incompetent leadership screwing everything up, without consequence. Yet again.
Yeah, I know this record's scratchy, but the lyrics are too true.
So…”Big August” off to a busted start. I couldn’t believe how badly Stroman threw the ball last night. His FB averaged only 88mph last night, an indication he’s hurt. Unless he caught general body fatigue from Cole.
I’ve been riding on the dump Torres float probably longer than anyone, so I had no problem with him being pulled. It’s tough enough watching modern ball players being too cool to hustle, but when they bring a room temperature IQ to the party like Torres does, it’s downright intolerable.
I’ve notice (elsewhere) that Boone is now being accused of racism for singling out Torres. I rarely support boone, but I always felt he treats his players equally. With kid gloves, but equally. On the other hand, some people were posting opinions generalizing Latin players as lazy. Now THAT’s racism.
The team will defintley hold Dominguez back to get another year of control. Money is the god they worship. In this case, it dovetails neatly since JD is not ready to face MLB hitting,
Rodon’s been better lately, maybe we can bounce back today .
Perfect metaphor (or is it simile?):
"every starting pitcher craps the bed like they all have Cholera and don't recover"
Well, that didn't take long for the true Bronx Bum colors to emerge, did it? Yep, rotten yellow and moldy green, be their colors.
They are off to a great start at gettin' swept by the woeful Blue Jays, as is their wont. All Rodon has to do is go out there today and lay one of his classic eggs in the 1st inning and we'll be well on our way.
On rain delay theatre yesterday, Ricky Ricardo mentioned that Yankee fans are livid that Gleyber Torres refused to play 3B. Are they? I think Gleyber did the Yankees, their fans an excellent service. He saved Yankee management from their own stupid hubris on this one.
Were they stupid enough to ask Gleyber to play 3B? He can't even play 2B. And 3B is a tougher position. At least Gleyber is intelligent enough to discern that he'd be a FUCKING DISASTER at 3B. (I know, he's a disaster at 2B already, but he'd be much, much worse at 3B.) The way the Yankees play their third baseman back, I shudder to think of the long throws that Gleyber would have to make. He doesn't even have the arm to play a normal 3B, let alone play it from the outfield grass like the Yankees do.
Anyways, why the fuck indeed is Gleyber Torres still here? Are we ever going to get rid of him? The fact that Cashman didn't trade him at the deadline is a very disturbing portend of a new long term mega-contract for Mr. Twinkletoes. It'll be done before Thanksgiving. The Gleyber Family will thank the New York Yankees for establishing their new thousand year trust fund.
We could have signed either Hader or Snell merely by RELEASING Gleyber Torres last winter. Can't trade him? He has NO FUCKING VALUE TO ANYONE? How 'bout releasing him? He had no contract. He is signed year to year under arbitration, right? By merely excising Torres, they save what, like 11 million bucks. Voila, there is the money to sign Snell. They didn't have to sign Stroman, a guy who I thought wouldn't move the needle. They could have easily signed Snell. But no, they chose Gleyber Torres over Snell or Hader. And there you go, a master class in how to achieve mediocrity and avoid winning a championship, courtesy of HAL & CO.
Boxer goes Tyson on her opponent - "She's a man!!!!!"
Gymnast wears G.O.A.T. pendant - "Sign of Satan!!!!!"
Boone sits loafer - "Racist!!!!"
Loafer loafs - "Lazy Latino!!!!"
Black woman exists - "She's not black!!!!"
What a fucking world this has become.
If the Clintons owed the NYYs, Suzyn would wake up dead one day this winter. But, I digress. I just dont’ know anymore about baseball. It is played, managed and owned totally different than the 70’s ball I watched as a kid. It is NOT an "uphill both ways in the snow” scenario and I don’t go out yelling at kids to get off my lawn. But, I hate what’s happened to pitching and hitting now stresses 3 outcomes and exit velo. Every team seems like a 1/3 of it’s roster are nobody jourymen and this long ass season of “strikeout, popout, homerun” is stupid. All that said, a day (or night) at the park is still better than watching this dreck on TV. Luckily, the only ballpark within a 2 hour drive is the Rockies and just NO, so I don’t have to worry that decision much. In summary, It’s not just the Yankees guilty of all this, but our version is particularly annoying.
They don't play well at home. Becoming a theme.
They don’t play well against the A.L. East.
Really? STILL on the Vince Foster crap, acrilly? And you know, they did in Judge Crater, too.
But I agree about the way the game is played now. I think the big brains in charge of the sport think they have figured out how to maximize it statistically. They're nuts. Instead, all they run up is constant injuries. And they make many players look like bums by forcing these new ways of playing on them.
Agreed, Mildred. Everyone, everywhere seems hysterical these days. Maybe it's just the dog days of summer, but I wish our psychic temperature would lower. The name calling, everywhere, doesn't help.
And Hammer and 999...yeah, after his awful 2020-2021 seasons, Gleyber should've been gone the minute he had a single hot streak in 2022 or 2023. Instead, this.
He doesn't go because Brian Cashman never admits a mistake. That's why we've had two endure two bouts of Javier Vazquez and Nick Johnson. And with Gleyber it's a double Cashie obsession. Torres was supposed to be Brian's personal answer to Derek Jeter, a guy he could claim to have "discovered" and plug into shortstop, and talk about how much better he was than Jeets.
But hey, whattaya know? He didn't really discover Gleyber, of course—Theo Epstein did—and Torres could never play short worth a damn, and now he can't play second. So bright boy's answer is to move him to third. Oy.
El Duque, one of your best posts. Makes sense.
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