What's that you ask? Do I remember the Micheal Siani Era? How could anyone forget...
It started with the shooting in Minnesota, lasted through the character assassinations and the town hall attack, and peaked with Sydney Sweeney festooning the famous Hollywood sign with her blown-out bras. Springsteen wrote his song, Bovino went home, and Yank fans assumed that Siani would last at least until opening day, or the invasion of Greenland, whichever came first. But the Siani flame burned too brightly. It couldn't last. Few epochs raged so wildly as Siani's five days as a Yankee.
Just for reminders: Siani was the good-glove/no-bat CF claimed by the Yankees last week after being ditched by the Dodgers. His arrival ended the Caleb Ort Era, which is remembered for - well - Caleb Ort. That coincided with the rising mayhem in Minneapolis, along with the Oscar nominations. Siani was going to backup CF in case something happened to Trent Grisham, and maybe he would add to the reasons why Spencer Jones would be traded. No matter. He's gone, and the Angel Chivilli Era has begun.
That's right. Angel Chivilli, from the Rockies. He's a 23-year-old string-bean RH reliever, who posted a 7.06 ERA last year over 43 appearances - which is sorta incredible - a guy that bad pitching that many innings. Apparently, Brian Cashman blames Coors Field, which is sorta like Sydney Sweeney blaming the Hollywood sign. Cashman sees untapped potential, although my guess is that he's got his hand on the Waiver Wire buzzer like a B-lister contestant on Celebrity Jeopardy.
Chivilli comes to the Yankees in a trade for T.J. Rumfeld, an excruciatingly slow-rising 1B prospect who has inhabited Yankee minor league rosters since Trump's first term, and who was likely to never escape Scranton. I always liked Rumfeld, and I suspect he'll be a decent MLB first-baseman, but not for the Yankees.
So, write your epitaphs for the Siani Era. Here's mine:
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12 comments:
Good Morning, Spew Believers
Wasn’t T.J. Rumsfeld the subject of Errol Morris‘ documentary,
The Unknown Known ?
With all this Agog of War I may have lost track.
TJ for a piece of crap pitcher. Cashman's art of the deal. Or was that fart of the deal?
More like an unknown that is an unknown...
Good morning, Duque and all you bums. First of, that's a great post and a fantastic epitaph. Second, the opening paragraph reminds me of a friend who once said, "I spent a week in Rocky Mount one night." And so it goes. Isn't it great to live through historic times? Who gives a flying fuck about baseball, I ask you, especially when Hal and Pal have made our lives as fans so bleak, empty, and meaningless? I'm going to go take a leak, where my velocity is anything but elite, but at least I'm not going to be sent down to the Yankee farm, where dreams go to die.
fucking typos
Duque, good title. Lol. Same old shit from this tired franchise run by idiots.
FOR HEAVENS SAKES BITTY!
IF YOU’RE GOING TO BE FUCKING
TYPOS PLEASE REMEMBER TO
USE PROTECTION!
Hilarious, Duque. And you know, Cashman might be justified in doing things like this if, say, the Yanks had some amazing guru of a pitching coach. But they don't. Because on Hal & Pal's Yankees, it's not just the big stuff that gets botched. All of the little things are constantly neglected, too.
. Earlier today, the Yankees made the following roster moves:
•Claimed RHP Dom Hamel off waivers from the Texas Rangers.
•Designated LHP Jayvien Sandridge and INF/OF Marco Luciano for assignment.
It’s called flailing.
And failing.
They must like Civilli's stuff. Matt Blake is not a great pitching coach, but he has been able to get multiple dumpster dive reliever pickups to contribute at a pretty high level. They must think they have a good chance of duplicating that success with Civilli. Their m.o. usually seems to work best when the guy is a flamethrower with good stuff and a good breaking ball that he's not been able to harness properly. The emphasis on high velocity, pitch shapes, spin rates, and pitch percentages works pretty well with one inning relievers. (Better than with starters, IMO. Because the one inning reliever doesn't really need to think about how to get hitters out. He just goes out and throws for one inning.) So we'll see. Might be a good pickup if they can fix him.
The shame of it all is that Rumfield never even got a look at the major league level. Wouldn't it have made sense to try and develop him, rather than sign a one year old guy like Goldschmidt? Another exhibit that explains why they can never develop position players.
They are able to develop some relievers, especially when they claim them off the scrap heap. Why they're unable to do this kind of thing with their own position players is the question. I know why: they simply don't want to do it. They're making a choice to bring in old guys or dumpster dive rejects from other teams than give their own prospects a chance to develop. It's got to be because they're so risk averse that they like knowing how much a crappy player will cost them short term. They don't want to bring up a young player and have his salary explode on them in a few years. So they'd rather waste money and play Goldschmidt in a year that they weren't going to win a World Series than play Rumfield and have the possibility that Rumfield plays so well that they can't unload him and have to pay arbitration raises.
It's also because they like to waste some money. It's hard to believe, in a sense, because we're always bashing HAL for being cheap. But I think I've got them figured now. They must believe that a guy like Goldschimdt will attract more fannies than a kid like Rumfield. That, plus the financial side of it, where they like achieving a certain balance between the revenue and the costs. If they see the costs going down too much, they'll actually go out and waste some money. Usually on some old guy. 15-20 mill for a one year deal.
That's why when Stanton's contract expires, they will absolutely blow that money on some new millstone. It's a talent. So they're not actually trying to maximize profit in any given year. If they wanted to max out profits, they wouldn't sign guys like Goldschmidt. They'd play guys like Rumfield or Dominguez. Much of it is done from the seat of their pants. One millstone goes out, another millstone comes in. Doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to much of it. But they think both long term and short term financial stability and risk management. They think like a large bank or life insurance company. Just trying to keep risks minimal and keep kicking the can down the street.
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