Look at Donald Trump. Elon Musk. Xi Jinping. To them, three years is an eternity.
Zuckerberg. Taylor Swift. Her football player. His brother. Don't make me link to them. You know who they are. For intellectual pigmies like us, it takes three years to tie our shoes. But for the giants, three years represents an infinite existential totality.
Trump went from felon to the White House. Jeff Bezos got married. Andrew Cuomo - well - dunno.
And then there is Anthony Volpe.
But in this case, three years is enough time to render a judgement.
Three years... wow. A Gold Glove. A huge world series home run. A terror on the bases. An iron man at SS. The heir to Jeter. The declining BA. The succession of errors. The world series botched throw. The failing defense.
At age 24 - his best seasons still ahead of him - the question of what he really is.
Well...
It's time to shop him.
Note: I am not saying, TRADE VOLPE. Just kick the tire. As with every July deal, Satan - or Putin - is in the fine print. You can bundle prospects for Joey Gallo - the huge bummer in LF - and still not get entirely burned. Or you can send a few for Juan Soto - the generational star - and give away Michael King. In late July, there are no certainties, aside from the One Rule of August One: The Yankees will remake their team. And the best and worst deals look perilously alike.
Today, we look like also-rans in the AL East. Last night's loss puts us closer to Boston (who also lost) than to the Jays.
We have an assortment of young players who could go. Ben Rice. Spencer Jones. Cam Schlittler. Jasson Dominguez - plus those whose names have been carefully hidden from the Prospect Ranking jackals. A package of prospects could bring us a 3B or closer - items we desperately need. It's time to consider the big splash - Volpe. Here's why.
1. I hate to say it, but he's not getting better. Three nights ago, when he homered twice, we dreamed the dream. Last night, there he was, botching an essential ground ball, a play that had to be made. We just keep replaying excuses.
2. He'll bring a meaningful player. At 24, he's run the NYC gauntlet. Some GM out there would love to be known as "the guy who coaxed Anthony Volpe from the Yankees." That's a lifetime resume point. Somewhere out there is a young player who has run his course in another city. Think Jazz.
3. Soon, NYC might not be an option. Fans are getting feisty. They can be cruel - read the comments. When Volpe strikes out, or botches a grounder, he will hear boos. There are feedback loops: The boos bring pressure. The pressure brings errors. The errors bring more boos. Eventually, the guy goes to Detroit and starts for the AL in the all-star game.
Look, if the deal doesn't wow us, don't make it. I'm not suggesting we sell the team for parts, like Paramount and CBS. Truth is, we'll root for him. Local boy. Bleeds blue. Plays hurt. Always hustles.
But this team is stumbling. Trading Volpe would be a hand-grenade in the scrum. Maybe that's what this organization needs.
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As some colossal, grifting, traitorous asshole - I forget his name - recently said about Jeffrey Epstein, "STOP TALKING ABOUT VOLPE." There's nothing there. Let's just move on. Nobody wants to hear about Volpe until he's enrolled at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics and living in Colorado year round. He's history. He's swimming with the fishes in McCovey Cove. He's history. Zilcho-matic, Nada-Town, Nothingville. He don't exist to me. He could have been somebody. Volpe Shmolpee. Listen kid, I don't want to hear his name again, get it? Now, get in that Terraplane and drive...
By the way, the Doors-themed game thread was one of my favorites in a long time. I want to sing Kevin's version of "The End" to myself all day and night.
"Well, I got into Toronto 'bout an hour ago
Looked around the infield, see which way the wind blow
Oh no, it's Volpe
Yeah, that's Volpe
Oy, it's Volpe..."
Yeah, it's time to move on. And just to speak to JM's enlightening post about the Yankees' "luck"...
I think the quote that Bitty was looking for was my all-time favorite, from Branch Rickey: "Luck is the residue of design."...
...The whole trope about the Yankees being profoundly "unlucky" is so much bushwa. It's based on a classically misused statistic: run differential.
Run differential is all about the fifth guy out of the bullpen trying to throw his speedball by ya, make you look like a fool, in the immortal words of The Boss. When the "fool" is Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton, that usually won't work...
...The Yankees lose more close games than they should because:
—For years, now, they have inexplicably featured "closers" who can't close games.
—They have awful fundamentals when it comes to fielding, particularly on infield grounders.
—They have awful fundamentals when it comes to running the bases.
—They have a manager who has never bothered to learn to adapt to the "Manfred Man" in extra innings.
—They have a manager who makes terrible, in-game decisions before he ever gets to extra innings.
—They have a general manager who never bothers to fill out a full roster with the sorts of vital role players who will win you close ballgames.
This is not rocket science. Hell, this is not even sea-monkeys science. But somehow, it eludes both the Yankees brainsbust, and the individuals who cover them everyday.
If the Yankees and their beat writers were TV weather prognosticators...they would make their predictions by ripping open pigeons.
"Will it rain tomorrow, Natalie? Well, let's see what the entrails say!"
Oh, how I miss that fact-based world!
I guess if we did trade Volpe, we'd have a hole at short along with the hole at third. It could be addition by subtraction. What we need is to unclog the clog of outfielders. We could wait until Grish and Cody walk after this year--the classic Cashman strategy of not getting anything for players whose contracts are up--or we could move somebody. Give Jones a shot. Let the Martian play every day. (I'm not 100% sure I want to see that, to be honest. He's not the amazing pheenom he was before getting injured.)
We need pitching, so shopping Cam S seems like a bad idea to me. Gil will be coming back sooner rather than later. Yarbrough should be back. And we didn't need a closer after last year and don't need one now. Luke has had some troubles coming back from his injury, but Williams is less reliable, mostly. And if we still had Durbin, he could play third and the whole infield mess would've been solved for better or worse.
Cashman will doubtless trade somebody or somebodies we should have kept to get somebody or somebodies we don't really need and won't be able to keep past the end of the year.
This mess is his doing. And Boone remains an idiot, so even a full roster of really good players would be no guarantee that we win anything at all. He fucks up more possible wins than anyone I can remember. So there's that.
I loved the Doors theme from yesterday. And Hoss, I like your short foray into same today. Combined with the entrails, you're having a good day.
Kevin's version of The End >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The team he wrote about.
Yes, trading Volpe would be the ultimate admission of failure. But it’s not in the Yankees DNA, where the SOP is to paper things over then spout bullshit and propaganda. But that’s the way the whole country operates these days.
Trade Volpe, who plays SS? Peraza? Andrew Velazquez? The cupboard’s bare.
Trade Volpe? Put me down as a yes. But more than that, this team needs a culture change. If they are going to keep Volpe then they need Buck Showalter to teach him the fucking game.
Volpe's the only entertainment on this team. It's negative entertainment but it's entertainment.
If they want to make a splash, a really big splash, maybe shop the paperhanger around a bit, see what's what.
TRADE VOLPE? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?
He’s a “fucking elite shortstop.”
Or so I’m told.
The Disappointment.
the Disappointment. Meaning Volpe specifically, although it could be applied more broadly to the rest of the franchise.
As I mentioned a few days ago, Friday's Volpe bobblehead giveaway should be replaced with a bobblehands figurine, and his name on the cheap piece of ceramic should be changed to VOLPE-6!
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