Thursday, September 5, 2024

The Yankees' problem? Season after season, they believe their own B.S.

Sherman, set the Wayback to March 4, 2021, in The Athletic...

The Yankees built the Gas Station under the guidance of newly hired director of pitching Sam Briend, who previously worked at Driveline Baseball. The idea was to create a flagship pitching-focused space — essentially a batting cage-like area for throwers — with the expectation that the environment would help pitchers train productively. The goal is to replicate the setup for affiliates throughout the organization — to have a Gas Station for pitchers to pull into whether they’re stopping in Double A or the major leagues.

“If you wanna change behaviors, you change environments,” Briend said...

Yep. The Gas Station. Remember that chestnut? 

What fun it was! The key to baseball is pitching, pitching, pitching, and the Yankees had discovered a secret sauce, a leg-up against the world. 

The Gas Station was their private vein of gold, a limitless supply of young arms that would rise from the farms to build a lockdown staff. 

In 2021, the wave was here: Jordan Montgomery, Nestor Cortez, Domingo German, Jonathan Loaisiga, Albert Abreu, Deivi Garcia, JP Sears, Clarke Schmidt, Greg Weissert, Brooks "The Great" Kriske... the list went on and on. 

The Yankees had hacked the system. They'd find young pitchers who threw 92 mph, and they'd soon have them pushing 98 mph. They had so many pitchers that they needed to siphon off a few, trade them for whatever, assured there would be more. Montgomery looked like a rare jewel, but they dealt him for an injured CF with a suspect bat. No problem. They had plenty like him at The Gas Station.

And here we are, three years later, with a bullpen is such dire shambles that it threatens to derail 2024 and the years ahead. 

The Yankees are in a demoralizing freefall, with no lead safe and nobody to pitch after the starter leaves, usually in the sixth. A 4-2 lead can quickly become a 7-4 loss. They have no middle innings man. They have no set up man. They have no specialist. They have no strike-out man. They have no closer. What they have are fraying elbows and tired shoulders, and a season flying out the window. What system-wide depth they once had has disappeared in a torrent of trades and surgeries.

Last winter, they dealt four pitchers - including Michael King (11-8, 3.17 ERA) and their best prospect, Drew Thorpe (later traded for Dylan Cease) - for one year of Juan Soto. And while Soto is a great talent, there is no certainty he'll stay. They traded three more pitchers for Alex Verdugo. They lost three more in the Rule 5 draft. Yet they passed on Blake Snell, the NL Cy Young winner, who signed late in spring in a haze of ownership collusion, and who only now is throwing well, as evidenced by his a no-hitter last month 

It's now 15 years since the Yankees played in a world series. Increasingly, it looks like this October will be no different. And it's because of the one glaring institutional weakness: Hubris. They think they're fundamentally superior and smarter than other teams. They devour their own bullshit.  

The Yankees intend to scale the Gas Station throughout their organization, and the tools the organization utilizes will inevitably change as technology advances. Aside from its pricey equipment, the Gas Station’s biggest value is in the creation of infrastructure for the Yankees to try to churn out an indefinite wave of hard-throwers with even harder-to-hit secondary pitches.

The Gas Station.  Wasn't it fun to imagine?   

29 comments:

Celerino Sanchez said...

Gas Station or Public Toilet facility?

JM said...

"“I don’t think there’s concern at all,” Marcus Stroman said, after allowing five runs on nine hits in 3 2/3 innings pitched. “I think we’re all very process-oriented in this clubhouse, so we all know what we’re capable of. A few bad losses doesn’t move the room in a bad way at all.”"

Results don't matter. How they all drink the Kool Aid on that shit is incredible. Process doesn't win rings, boys. Results do.

Celerino Sanchez said...

And stop getting on Verdugo, running is hard!

Carl J. Weitz said...

Like Flying A and Getty, this gas station will soon be extinct.

acrilly said...

Leave it to the Yankees to name it the gas station, when the old joke is bad relievers run into the game carrying a gas can to blow up the game. Seems these young guys took it literally.

Doug K. said...

acrilly - They are also gassed at his point in the season from over use.

Doug K. said...

Then there is this! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZkYv2rmvBY

ranger_lp said...

Ah, the days of the "Getty Gonner"...

ranger_lp said...

From X:

Aaron Judge since he went on paw patrol
.159/.284/.245 (.529 OPS) 42.1 K%

JM said...

Nine games without a home run. His longest drought ever.

Ceeja said...

You hit the nail on the head. Management is a closed loop. No matter what happens they spin it so they are always right. Arguing with them is like arguing with an old time communist party hack.

The root of the problem is Cashman. Boone is just a symptom and a useful idiot.

BTR999 said...

“trust the process”, along with its cousin, analytics, always serves as the cover for poor results. You’ve got to hide from failure somehow!

DickAllen said...

The only thing the gas station has produced is a severe case of flatulence

AboveAverage said...

“I don’t think there’s a concern at all.”

I was concerned watching Bochy gimp his way repeatedly out to the mound. Shouldn’t they have some kind of branded scooter at the ready to wheel the kneeless/hipless wonder out there during pitching changes? I seriously thought the man was going to fall over and face plant into the infield grass, his body still ZIM’ing in place like a well wound wind up toy that’s fallen off the table into the shag carpet below.

It was all an excruciating watch.

Or as Midge so perfectly said in Hitchcock’s Vurdugo;

“STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!!!”

BTR999 said...

Our best young pitchers, Hampton and Beeter, both missed the entire year because of injuries. Did they not fill up? Don’t tell me they used that cheap value gas!

13bit said...

Satan, get thee hence...

AboveAverage said...

....first time back to Chicago Cubs land since the trade for Rizzo - AREN"T we all excited to share in the teary eyed, heart swelling coverage to YES will surely provide? Get those tissues at the ready 'cause those ducts are gunna flow!

AboveAverage said...

to YES was suppose to be that YES - please excuse my error and interruption

Doug K. said...

DickA - It's a Gas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZkYv2rmvBY

BTR999 said...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWrToJfXsAAhP5n?format=jpg&name=medium

Ken of Brooklyn said...

I can't believe I'm jealous of Mets fans,,,,,, that's how far the Yankees have fallen!

Publius said...

As "the gas station" demonstrates, Brian Cashman is a man with a 115 IQ in an industry full of people with 135 IQs.

JM said...

Nice one, BTR.

Carl J. Weitz said...

ranger....usually announced by Frank Messer.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Ken, I called this months ago. It is 1973, all over again.

Carl J. Weitz said...

As I previously mentioned, the root of all the Yankees problems is due to George Steinbrenner having genetically defective sperm. Hal is like the real life version of Rachel Phelps from the movie " Major League". But unlike her sub rosa plan to destroy the team in order to move it from Cleveland to Miami, his sabotage is subconcious.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Brilliantly put, Duque. And you hit the nail on the head. Coming up with some messianic, universal, previously unsuspected "solution" is the key to the con man. "Only I have hit upon the precise measurements of alcohol and horse liniment that will cure all human ills. Just a single bottle—"

And what is our Mr. Cashman, but a conman supreme?

JM said...

Mercifully, no game tonight. We are spared immediate indignity.

edb said...

Excellent El Duque. Those fools who run the Yankees pee and their own heads and tell themselves it is raining. Genius Cashman listened to Geek Fishman and Hal listens to Genius Cashman.