"He stoppeth one in three."

 

Just to clarify—and to make amends for anything too sarcastic I might have written—I want to say this about who's the albatross now:

—I sure as hell didn't see it coming. The first thing I thought, when the Yankees traded for Giancarlo Stanton, was something along the lines of, "Hey, now we're going to win the next five World Series." I thought the same thing when they acquired A-Rod. You'd think I would learn something. Apparently not.

—I think the only one here who did think it was a mistake was our rarely seen, Dauntless Leader, Alphonso, who called it at once. I thought he was nuts. Again, learning from life...what a concept!

—Giancarlo has had some amazing streaks, and generally gets up for the postseason. When he is not too damaged to play then, too.

—Does that make him a more valuable player than the sadly un-clutch Judge? No, it does not.  Without Judge, your New York Yankees would have made the playoffs maybe once since 2017. And I still think that Judge has a clutch postseason in his bones. Hey, A-Rod did!  

In valuing the two of them, for once, even the Estimable Keefe is wrong.

—Giancarlo sure has proven to be a stand-up guy...or is he, really?  I dunno. Let's face it: his amazing, model-pumping regimen has almost certainly been fueled by steroids. 

Is it really "stand-up" to accept an enormous contract when your performance is based on PEDs? Especially when your body starts to break down, due to said PEDs? In the end, you're not just ripping off the Steinbrenners—who, in a just world, would be beaten through the streets with sticks—but us fans, too.  

We paid our money, thinking this guy could play. As it turned out, for entire seasons, he could not. Which did not lead him to change his workout habits one whit, apparently.  

—I don't have much deep-seated animosity toward Big G. As with all things Yankee, the fault lies in Cashman, not in our stars. But still.