The Yankees won't blow the AL East. Right? They won't. At worst, they'll beat Pittsburgh this weekend and secure a 1st-round bye. Or Baltimore will lose to the Twins. This isn't 1964 Phillies, and Boonie isn't Gene Mauch. Right? It's too soon to run toward the cliff. This isn't The Iceberg, just a floater. We'll get the bye, which means a week of carpet sex and Genny Cream. Stay calm. STAY. CALM. YOU HEAR? STAY FUCKING CALM!
Okay... checks room, shuffles notes... where were we? Ah, yes, The Martian...
W.T.F?
Is this really happening?
Three times, in three games, Jasson Dominquez has botched flies that would be caught by Kevin Corcoran, (aka Moochie of the Little League, and that's going way back.) Last night, he cracked apart in the 1st - bases loaded, a catchable fly that he overran and didn't even touch, thus avoiding an error. Not since the Orc days of Clint Frazier - (now that's a cringeworthy comparison, eh?) - has a Yankee rookie looked so confused in the field, so overwhelmed that his stony glove threatens to obscure whatever exists in his bat.
Today, one question reverberates across the Yankiverse: How bad is he? Is this a sign that he's not ready for the postseason? Is it an existential threat to his career? Because we already have a DH, and unless we pay Giancarlo's freight with another club for the next four years, we have no place for a OF who botches routine flies.
At the core of this lies another question: Was he this bad in Scranton? If so, why weren't we warned? And why hasn't he been taking 100 fly balls every fucking day, until he learns the parameters of Yankee Stadium? The Martian claims he wants to be a Yankee "now," right now, not just the long term. If so, how could he be so ill-prepared?
Listen: We'll get through this. Win tonight, and - for better or worse - we'll get a free week in October to rest our knees and elbows. (Thinking of you, Nestor!)
It's what waits after the bye that worries us. How can a guy who has generated so much hype, so much interest, so much crapola... suddenly look so surprisingly inept? Oh well, stay calm, and pass me another Genny.
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29 comments:
I saw the Martian a total of one (1) game in the minors. My takeaway was he didn't take direct routes to the ball. He may be one of those outfielders that can only play center and suck at fielding the corners.
This means ca$hole will be jonesing to trade the Martian when Jones is ready
The big question for me, which Duque did note, is why Jasson isn't taking hundreds of fly balls during practice. The same goes for Soto.
O'Neill, not usually my favorite, said the other day that you don't get better in the outfield unless you put in the work. Fly after fly, day after day, over and over and over again. I can't believe either of our corner OFs are doing that, or that our "manager" is telling them they have to do it. Or, for that matter, our Captain.
It's really amazing, disappointing, and fantastically lame.
What you said, plus throw in minor league in(de-?)structors.
How didn't we know? Well, I was looking for SWB team statistics. I could find batting stats, I could find pitching stats...but I couldn't find fielding stats, not on first search. That's how no one knows about this...
Several years ago I posted about seeing him play with the Hudson Valley Renagades.
I noticed that even though he was playing center and should of commanded any ball hit to the outfield that he could get to, both the left fielder and the right fielder not only didn't yield on balls hit that the center fielder would take but actually encroached on balls that normally would go to the center fielder proper.
I asked some season ticket holders near me what was up with that and they told me that the other outfielders were protecting him because he's not a good center fielder.
Now it turns out he is not a good outfielder.
We may have found our future first baseman: The Martian.
Everyone would notice the extra work, the fly after fly after fly going in up here at the major league level and wonder. . .what’s going on. That’s why (initially) no Martian and no extra work. Hide and deny then lie, lie, lie. That’s why, VERDUGO. ( who by the way is probably silently giggling in the dugout whilst all this is going on )
When he wasn't brought up on September first, I saw an anonymous quote from a scout (or somebody) that the reason he might not have been called up was his defense. He couldn't play the outfield at a major league level, the guy said. Guess he had something there.
So, if he truly sucks - and this is hypothetical, mind you - why did Brian and his Metrics Boys identify that and trade him before he went on display? Just a hypothetical, of course. Because if this keeps up, he's worthless to us in all ways.
13 - Good point.
Carl - too short
JM - Shit.
Solution - Make him the DH!!!! No Stanton. Or at a minimum DH against righties because Stanton can't hit 'em.
Poooo
The Martian will have to learn to judge flyballs in the alien atmosphere of planet Earth.
That's Plan A. Plan B is to dump him before he loses all trade value
Why can’t we have nice things?
Because The Yankees as an organization are completely dysfunctional. They do not stress fundamentals, contact or baserunning. If Dominguez wants to work, he will improve as an outfielder.
It's really not mysterious. Work, work, work. Get better. But where's the work? No media mentions or stories of hours taking flies in left. Or in Soto's case, in right. Zilch.
Reminder, though: the Martian is only 21. Soto is 25. You have to think guys with their abilities could get a lot better, if they tried.
“Obviously, there are things I need to work on,” Domínguez said. “But I feel like with more work, I can get there. … I’ve been working almost every day in left field, getting my fungoes, shagging, everything. I don’t think I’m that far.”
"Wednesday marked Domínguez’s ninth Major League game of the season in left field, a position where the Yankees began playing the 21-year-old this summer at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. This season, Domínguez saw 11 Minor League games in left field, compared with 28 in center field and one in right field."
11 games. 11. And what, nine games in the bigs? Terrible, terrible, terrible preparation by the organization. As we can usually expect.
At least he is working on it. But Jesus, 11 games in left with Scranton? Really?
“Obviously, there are things I need to work on,” Domínguez said. “But I feel like with more work, I can get there. … I’ve been working almost every day in left field, getting my fungoes, shagging, everything. I don’t think I’m that far.”
“I haven’t played a ton of games in left field, but I feel I can do it,” Domínguez said.
Hey, how about that Mayor Adams? Never liked the asshole.
Ed Koch he ain't
What is it with NYC mayors? They all seem to, you know, suck!
DOJ Reveals 'Tough On Crime' NYC Mayor Indictment And It Is LOLOLOLOL WOW WTF
https://www.wonkette.com/p/doj-reveals-tough-on-crime-nyc-mayor
NYC (and state) has a ong history - 300 or more years - of corruption and graft, with a few exceptions. As a friend of mine once said, "Even Ray Charles could see that Adams is dirty..."
Chicago has a slight history, also. Just a little. Just, you know, ummm, some.
ummm, three *other* cities I worked in for long periods --
Honolulu
El-Lay
NOLA
Plus the ones already noted.
Large bureaucracies tend to corruption.
Lord Acton nailed it.
Yes sirree.
Why hasn't The Brain passed the word down?
I've been reading in various baseball publication that The Martian took poor routes and had a tendency to 'spray the ball around when he threw'... And I only saw those articles when I wondered why said Martian wasn't being brought up. Obviously I have too much time on my hands. The New York papers apparently, told by somebody, that the news wasn't fit to print. Damn near every newspaper in America is under someone's thumb. We no longer have "The Daily Planet".
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