08–01–25 - it's JUNK vs . . . uh . . . uhm . . . like, you know . . . . . RøDº'N !

( Let's RooT, RooT, RooT for the  Y A N K E E S !) 

A Few Thoughts on Yesterday’s Reboot

Before I get into the details, I find it interesting that, in all the media praise for Cashman's “Yankees A+ Deadline”  no one is pointing out that Cashman had a $300 million dollar roster that was constructed so poorly that he had to bring in seven guys at the deadline and was still a couple short. 

To be fair, he did get rid of a lot of dead wood and now we have a real third baseman. 

So there's that. 

1) Despite the Yankees getting good grades some of what I’m reading is critical. The “What are we going to do with four closers?” crowd. I don’t understand this type of thinking.

This isn’t football where now we have four quarterbacks. Or basketball where the whole team now consists of power forwards. 

We have four guys who can close, (Well I’m still counting Williams – not sure why.) which mean we have four guys who can pitch well enough to close. (Again sorry, I keep including Williams.)

That’s good. Because putting a good pitcher on the mound is a good thing in any inning.

2) BTW… Today Boone said Williams is still the closer! Why? He’s better as a set up guy and is gone next year anyway. 

Bednar hasn’t given up a run since like, May and is here next year. So if there's an ego to assuage it should be Bednar's.

Plus uh… who likes to see Williams in a close game anyway? Not me. I don’t like to see him in any game really. Even with his only two blown saves.  Or is is three now? 

Hoss had a nice explanation in the comments of my last post as to why Williams’ blown saves don't count as blown saves even though we all know they are. Hoss knows gaslighting when he sees it.

4) Jose Caballero is a warning shot aimed at Volpe.  Good. He’s actually a gifted shortstop and maybe the Yankees are finally learning that a bad shortstop who makes errors, even if they get out of the inning with minimal harm, wrecks the pitching staff and can mess up the bullpen for days.  

I hope they use him as a late inning replacement. Or maybe give Volpe the day off a couple of times a week  He plays better rested. 

Better yet, when Volpe does stupid things he can be benched. Will he? Maybe. So I'm telling you is, there's a chance. 

Hey it worked when I said this about Bednar so I thought I'd try it again.  

5)  The only trade that I don’t get is the Roc Riggio and Ben Shields for Jake Bird.  Bird throws hard but by all accounts is a work in progress.  

The comedy duo Riggio and Shields were two guys I thought would eventually make the big club or at a minimum be part of a bigger trade than for a flyer.

6) I’m also not happy about losing Rafael Flores but at least he was part of the Bednar deal. You gotta give to get.  

That said, the Yankees trade a lot of catchers and yet on the big club we have Wells, who frankly is starting to piss me off, and Rice who I thought was our first baseman of the future. 

Does this mean the Yankees are going to pursue Murakami in the off season to play first base? It’s his best position.  

7 and last)  Yeah, Aaron Judge in the outfield might be awhile but the injury will allow him to DH  and Stanton is starting to do that “step in the bucket” thing again and that never bodes well.  

Nine Takeaways from the Day of Chaos

1. Sorry, but I just can't shake the suspicion that Aaron Judge's return from injury will be delayed, now that the trade deadline has passed. Remember 2023, when they constantly Lucy-ed the football, every time he was supposed to return? They do this all the time. Why would we not expect it?  

2. It amazes me how few voices across the Yankiverse seem to care about the farm system, which - there's no fun way to put this - was decimated yesterday. Unless you look closely, you'd think the Yankees gave up nothing, and that these opposing GMs are stupid. People seem to think the 1980s cannot happen again. Maybe this will work; maybe the Yankees will turn it around and make a run. But when you go trading prospects, as the Yankees did yesterday, you run the risk of getting badly torched. Will yesterday go down in history as the day we traded Rafael Flores? Or Roc Riggio? Or - gulp - both?

3. It sure would be nice to have a lock-down bullpen, shortening games to the sixth inning. Three days ago, we had Allan Winans. Now, we're stocked. But a central question remains: Will Boone blow it up?   

4. Speaking of shortened games: Anthony Volpe. With Jose Caballero on the roster, either Volpe gets his shit together, or his games might start ending early. In his recent hostage videos, Boone has said of Volpe's errors - "That can't happen." Well, it's been happening, and people have begun using the "Y" word - yips - to describe Volpe's problem. His MLB-leading number of errors would be far worse, had he not been saved through May and June by a great fielding first-baseman. 

5. Speaking of Caballero, he's the most intriguing pick-up of all. He's tied with O'Neill Cruz for the MLB lead in stolen bases, with 34. I assume he'll be a late-game pinch runner, unleashing pandemonium. Still, the guy gets thrown out 19 percent of the time, not good. By comparison, Jasson Dominguez has 16 SBs and been caught twice (11 percent.) BTW, Jazz is 14-4 (22 percent), and Volpe is 12-7 (too dreadful to calculate). 

6. Speaking of The Martian, it will be hugely depressing if, as a result of these trades, he turns into a platoon player. Look, the guy is just 22. Twenty-two. You don't cap his development by benching him against lefties. Some of us here can remember Ron Blomberg, who was destroyed by a minor league platoon, one of the stupidest moves ever made by the Yankees. You say it can't happen again? Well, once they bench Dominguez against lefties, he'll begin to regress. (Also, in his early years, a struggling Bernie Williams was nearly pitched overboard. Not saying Dominguez is the next Bernie, but the guy needs to play.)

7. Thank you, Lord, for Bryce Harper. Last week, in no uncertain terms, Harper told Commissioner Vader- who wants an MLB payroll cap - to fuck the fuckin' fuck off. Listen: A cap would absolutely kill the Yankees. It would kill us for a decade. Yeah, players are overpaid. But this is a battle between millionaires and trillionaires. And if America doesn't think it should cap spending on Presidential campaigns, why should we think it's good for baseball? As Mustang told me yesterday, "Harper will be into the Hall as a Philly. But he will go into heaven as a Yankee."

8. The Scranton Railriders were postponed yesterday due to massive hits upon the farm system inclement weather. Supposedly, Spencer Jones was in the lineup - he'd been rested three days due to "back spasms," which everybody assumed was just the Yankees protecting him for a trade. Along with George Lombard Jr., he's basically the only thing Cashman didn't peddle.

9. Strange how the outcome of one game can affect your psyche, but I think the Yankees winning yesterday had a deep effect on how MLB rated Cashman's trade tsunami. Had the Yankees blown this series against Tampa, the shouting today would be much louder and angrier. In the public domain, Cashman is skating. 

Many, many closers, and Boone says Williams is still the real one

The insane, delusional, incompetent idiot known as Aaron Boone has stepped up in light of the Yankees' acquisition of Bednar and Doval. Neither one is perfect, but aside from a crap July even Jake Bird is more reliable than Devan Williams. And we still have Luke Weaver, who--when he's not being overused or injured--is still a better closer than Williams.

So, we now have four "closers." Will one eventually become the actual closer? Williams ain't it. Even if Bonehead Boone keeps using him in that role, he's should be muscled out of it by--my guess--Bednar. When things become obvious, it will probably happen. But that's a problem with the Yankees: they wait too long to do anything when things are obvious.

Last winter, the hole at third base was obvious. The fact that we had a shitty bench was obvious. For two season, Volpe has been obvious. This year, it's obvious that the Martian should play practically every day. 

And in the meantime, the losses pile up along with the injuries...for which we have no real replacements, either. So we just wait for guys to recover.

By the way, I can see sending Hamilton down. The poor guy is just a shadow of his once-effective self. But wasn't de los Santos supposed to be good? Well, I guess sacrifices had to be made. Besides, at least we still have them when our crack coaching and strength training experts destroy someone else. 

So what do they do with Yarbrough now? Gil goes into the rotation. Warren? He's doing pretty well, even if he's not quite where he will be next year, maybe. Schlittler? Does he get bounced?

Naturally, we know Stroman should be the one who's knocked out of the rotation. The guy had a 7-0 lead last night and coughed up four runs in the fourth. Unbelievable. He's good for one time through the order, and that's it. Might be okay for the bullpen if he wasn't so underpowering.

At least we got this guy. Caballero might not be the Second Coming, but he's better than Volpe, even if Boone won't replace the bobblehead. He should rest him, though. Boone likes resting guys, and Volpe's offense is showing some signs of life, so Boone should be ready to sit him down. No such thing as a hot hitter, after all, and Volpe is only lukewarm.

We got a few interesting pieces this deadline. Yes, Jake Bird was not worth Riggio. But that was the only glaring mistake by The Brain.

Other mistakes may reveal themselves later on.