I'm thinking the winter of 2011, when Cashman traded (the late) Jesus Montero to Seattle for Michael Pineda, a swap that boiled the Yankiverse like an atmospheric asteroid. It was a trade of great future stars. Montero - (as soon as he learned to catch) - would surely become a great slugger, and Pineda, was a Cy Young-in-waiting.
Then, they both went kaput.
Montero showed up in Mariners' camp 30 pounds overweight. He eventually earned the nickname "Ice Cream Sandwich," on his way to a four-year career of a measly 28 home runs.
Pineda promptly hurt his elbow and missed the next two years, including the 2013 season of Overbay & Pronk. He was never the same. In four seasons with the Yankees, he went 31-31 with an ERA of 4.16.
To this day, Cashman still seeks his "Great White Whale" - the ace who propels the Yankees to a world championship.
Which brings us to now - this winter - when Cashman might just top the Montero trade.
The Yankees' two best positional prospects - outfielders Jasson Dominguez and Spencer Jones - will likely compete for one opening in LF. Meanwhile, Cashman faces a decimated pitching rotation: Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon and Clarke Schmidt will all miss - at least - the month of April. And the bullpen looks anemic.
Let's not revisit The Martian and Jones. We've watched them for years. And last year, neither were all that bad. The reason Dominguez disappeared in September was the breakout season for Trent Grisham. It left him no space, though he showed enough speed to steal 30 bases. Meanwhile, Jones, the 6'6" monster, hit 35 HRs last year and stole 29 bases. He strikes out too often, but those numbers signify production.
And Cashman will probably trade one of them.
It will be the most dangerous deal since he dispatched Jesus for Big Mike.
So... how lucky do we feel?
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it is part laziness and part not knowing where to look but how do jones's numbers in the minor league compare to judge's i know it is not fair to try and compare him to judge but would interesting to know.
my memory is fading but i seem to recall at the time judge came up without much hype and the prospect blogs i read at the time [now all sadly gone ] seemed to think too many holes in his swing and strike out too much would mean an average career at best
Call me Cashmael . . .
Here comes a whale of a deal
I'm mighty lazy me-self, but perusing baseballreference.com, it says Judge had 98 strikeouts in 93 games his final year in the minors. That's slightly more than 1 K per game. Then they brought Judge up to the majors at the end of 2016 and he had 42 strikeouts in only 84 at bats (27 games).
Spencer Jones in 2025 spent time in AA then promoted to AAA. He averaged about 1.4 strikeouts per game in AA and then 1.6 strikeouts per game in AAA.
So comparing the two in the minors, there's no question Spencer Jones is even more of a strikeout artist than Aaron Judge ever was.
After the disastrous (but obviously small sample size) Yankee performance in 2016, Aaron Judge sought out batting coach Richard Schenck. I looked up Schenck's website. It seems that he's more of a "swing doctor" than a batting coach. (Almost the baseball equivalent of a witch doctor.) Schenck obviously does know what he's talking about, but I think that, like many instructors, some pupils will catch on to his teaching and some won't. Anyway, Aaron Judge clicked with Schenck, and the rest is history.
Would Spencer Jones be as open to Schenck's instruction as Judge? I don't know. Probably worth a try though. 1.5 strikeouts per game in the minors for Jones. Schenck couldn't make it any worse.
In the martial arts, there's an apocryphal story about a student who sought out a new master. They sit down for tea. The master starts to pour tea into the student's cup. The cup fills up and overflows and the student exclaims "stop, the cup is full. No more will go in." The master puts down the tea pot and says "Just like your tea cup is full and no more can go in, in order to learn from a new teacher, you must first empty your cup."
The story illustrates the importance of having an open mind to new instruction. If you go to a new instructor with all of the preconceptions that you've already picked up, you won't be able to absorb the new instruction properly. You must "empty your cup" first.
What if, Hammer, the pupil prefers coffee . . . . ?
Hi, Scottish Yankee Fan. Glad to see you're still here.
In baseball, of course, "emptying your cup" is very different from the tea story. And somehow it seems like it would be very painful.
Oswaldo Cabrera. Remember him, he's good if he recovers from that broken ankle. He's slotted as a utility, but until his injury he was holding down third base and doing it pretty damn well. And unlike McMahon, he hits. (And unlike Volpe, he hits and fields.) He also adds great energy to the team without being a complete asshole and part-time airhead like Chisholm.
The position player changes that need to be made won't be made, of course, and if that doesn't torpedo us in the early going, it will later in the season. And the pitching...ugh.
Hal and Cashman and Boone, oh my.
That’s pretty good, AA…
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday night's alright
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday night's alright
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday
Saturday, Saturday, Saturday night's alright, whoo
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