It doesn't matter who's ahead, or who has homered, or how long the starting pitchers lasted. The Yankees might be scoreless - or even hitless. It. Doesn't. Matter. Because Pandemonium is coming, and the last three innings will be wild.
What matters is a nifty graphic that the YES wonks call "The Bullpen Budget." It tells who pitched yesterday and the night before and - thus - who can get raked tonight.
Used to be that every game was defined by its starting pitchers. Not anymore. These days, all you need is The Bullpen Budget. If it's empty, the last three innings are gonna be Hell.
Right now, the Yankees have three sorta dependable bullpen lug nuts: Devin Williams, Luke Weaver and Tim Hill. After that, it's stems and seeds. They cannot count on Jonathan Loaisiga. They cannot count on Ian Hamilton. They cannot count on - well - anybody who carries the pleasant scent of Scranton. It's a cupboard of Scott Proctors and Tanyon Sturtzes. And if tonight's budget is bare - (last night, we used Williams and Hill) - then all Aaron Boone can do is squirm, because no lead is safe; that's Chinatown, Jake, and this call to the bullpen is brought to you by the Babadook.
Mark Leiter Jr. has a broken leg. God knows when he'll return. Fernando Cruz? Not this month. There's talk of the Yankees chasing a bigtime 3B at the trade deadline. Fuk dat. We might not love the "OJ" comedy team of Oswald and Jorbit, but if Abbott and Costello were alive today, playing third would be "It Don't Matter."
Like all of you, I shudder to think what Brian Cashman will do over at the trade deadline. His strategy will surely depend on how the Yankees fare this week in Hateful Toronto, facing Vladimir "I'll-never-be-a-Yankee-wait-I-didn't-mean-that-I'd-play-for-them-if-the-money-was-right-wait-I'll-never-play-for-them-tra-la-la" Guererro Jr. If we sweep the Jays, we'll be back in first. If we get swept, Boston could bypass us. It's a huge difference. And if we flop, you'd have to wonder why Cashman would trade anyone under age 25 for what, at best, would be a salary dump.
Forget 3B. We need bullpen arms - preferably ones who haven't thrown 40 innings already this season. (Remember Scott Effross?) The Yankees have baseball's most intriguing prospect - see below, regarding Spencer Jones - but it's a gaping sinkhole mystery as to what they should do with him. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Pandemonium is coming. You see it every night... in The Bullpen Budget.
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Or…. Go out and get a starter and put Gil in the bullpen when he comes back, for the rest of this season. How many starting innings can Gil give this season at this point anyway? Go out at get Hayes and Keller form the pirates for some low level lottery picks, put Gil and Yarborough in the bullpen and keep Jones and all the “may actually be good” pitching prospects
Just saw this on Twitter no idea if it is a load of old nonsense
Ricky Ricardo, the Spanish Radio voice of the Yankees:
"There's a proposal on the table...5 Yankees prospects, not Lombard, not Jones. 5 prospects including Schlittler to the Diamondbacks for Merrill Kelly, Eugenio Suarez, and Jalen Beeks."
The Yankees should put Gil and Yarborough in the bullpen as Jaraxie described above. Yarborough, with the ability to strike out a batter and induce soft contact, coupled with Gil's ability to strike out consecutive hitters, would be a better fit if they make a trade for a starter or two. But they have to be top or middle of the rotation pitchers, not #5 or hurt hurlers. Maybe the last 2 starts by Frosty the Strohman can convince some team to include him in a deal. Perhaps Cashman can throw 7s at the craps table and unload Stanton to a team yearning for a power bat to put them over the top. Then they could bring up Jones and use him as a CF/DH.
Here's the trade proposal that SYF mentioned:
https://www.profootballnetwork.com/mlb/yankees-diamondbacks-trade-proposal-five-prospects/
But here's the deal killer: it adds about 85 million to the payroll. And we all know that Hal would rather have bamboo shoved under his fingernails and toenails than shell out that sum. The Yankees would have to refigure the trade to shed most of that money in the deal.
I'm basically with Kevin on this one. I don't know what's got into Spencer Jones—maybe a phone call from Judge saying, 'Do NOT trust anything they tell you'—but I want them to bring him up, too, and trade Grisham, if they can...
...Also, I noticed from that stat sheet El Duque sent around that poor old T.J. "The Man Who Might Have Saved the World Series" Rumfield is tearing up the pea patch again. I would be for bringing him up, and trading Ben "I Can't Catch, Don't Ask Me" Rice for something good...
You know, that Caleb Durbin--little guy, traded for an unnecessary "closer"--is having a nice year in Milwaukee. And his defense actually is elite.
As they said over on Bleeding Yankee Blue, we'd be a lot better off if we kept Caleb Durbin and didn't get Devan Williams (when we already had a closer). The infield would've been settled from Opening Day.
We do need to make room for Spencer and I don't really know how. Trading Grisham is an idea. Some move has to unblock the current OF clog. Though I do like the guy.
This is when I have to slap myself and remember that baseball is a business, even if it's a poorly run business like with the Yankees. Hoss, the idea of trading Rice and bringing up Rumfield makes a lot of sense. Goldy has got to start getting tired playing every day at his age. Rice would be fine at first when Goldschmidt rests, but what the hell. Let's see if Rumfield can cut it.
And do we really need a 34 year old third baseman in his walk year? I don't think so.
Maybe we could trade Williams to the Brewers for Durbin and Nestor Cortes.
Oh, wait.
Or trade Rice and Jones to the Mets for Soto (if the Mets cover 30% of Soto’s contract….
...ALSO: I would consider throwing George Lombard, Jr., our new Shortstop of Tomorrow! Into a big enough deal. The guy is hitting .208 in Double-A, without power.
"If we sweep the Jays, we'll be back in first."
Thanks for the morning chuckle Duque!
Jones' progress is encouraging, but the last thing they should do is bring him up to sit on the bench and listen to Yankees hitting instructors.
In any case, we're screwed. It's the intern making the decisions.
Oh man, you had to mention Tanyon Sturtz and send my whole body into involuntary spasms of past-life, unresolved psychic trauma. Now I need electroshock therapy…
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And this little comment stayed home.
Ha!
Try some more coffee…..
That’s my approach
Bad week to stop sniffing glue. Good week to up the coffee ration.
Hey, why not have Boone play third? Not like he hasn't done it before.
Carl’s comment hits the mark. The team wants to do this on the cheap. The final WC is just fine by them. Hey, October’s a crapshoot anyway, right?
So, it is possible that we may see Jones here this year. I just don’t see him or Lombard being traded, but as Hoss mentioned with Lombard all we hear is talk about his “instincts” and potential. He needs to show it on the field. Perhaps a demotion to ‘A’ ball is in order.
An upgrade at Third is a low enough bar that even cashman should clear ir. After all we have the worst 2 third baseman in the game. Literally anyone would be an improvement. Are they actually thinking ahead to Murikami next year? He had elbow surgery off season and has missed almost the entire season with an oblique injury. There is no timetable for his return.
So, no worries, I’m sure we’ll send some prospects not named Lombard or Jones for some cost efficient middling relievers.
Spot on 999 - and with all due respect to JM, if Boone plays third and becomes a player/manager then we'll have the three worst third basemen in the game
Hayes? NFW! Bad back, relatively expensive for a few years, with a drooping stick. Great glove though.
The natives are restless...
give 'em some edibles - they'll chill
An achievement, AA.
In my opinion, if Rice keeps hitting and improving in that area, he will be the next Yankees first baseman. Maybe next year or 2027, when Bellinger is gone.
How much is TJ worth as a trade chip? It's hard to tell, as it's a known unknown.
Good point, Rufus. They should bring Jones up and PLAY him. They should also PLAY The Martian. Trade Grisham AND Bellinger, chopping some $30 mill off their payroll. AND Williams, who I do not want to see in the playoffs. They might get some real prospects for those three.
This is all exactly why Hal & Pal are so infuriating. Even when the bold thing is to CUT salary...they won't do it.
That WOULD be bold Hoss, and I think it would shock the fan base. It might also cost us the Wild Card, which I personally would be willing to do to build a stronger team for next year…but I don’t think they will do any of those things. I’m expecting some relatively small additions, definitely bullpen moves and a lot of postulating that the returns of Gil, Cruz, Yarborough, Sclhlitler are better than any trades we could make.
Hey Hoss - how was your experience at the ghost of Shea Stadium . . . . .
Hal and Brian have plans and they stick to them. They are not nimble. I don’t remember the book, but it may have been William Manchester‘s biography of MacArthur, and he was talking about fighting the Japanese during World War II. And the point was that they were completely inflexible and stuck to their plans and you could use that against them. I feel like Cashman is similar and that, even after an idea of his has been proven wrong, he has to stick with it because doing otherwise would be some kind of admission of defeat. Where is in reality, the ability to change course and admit you are wrong and come up with some different course of action is actually a sign of intelligence. I guess this is a long winded way of saying for the 50th time that Brian is an idiot and that Hal tolerates him, and this kind of makes Hal is an idiot, even if he’s just a greedy bastard. Boone is a log floating in the bay.
Whereas, damn it ….. Siri hates me …
siri loves roses . . . so ftd her
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