Takeaways from yesterday.
1. Nick Torres, the '25 Mexican League MVP, didn't exactly break down any fences. He botched a pop fly that let Toronto's only run score. And in the 8th, ahead 3-0 in the count, he crushed a belt-high meatball, right over the plate - for a routine grounder to SS. Meh-ico.
2. Cody Bellinger has a bad back. He'll miss a few. The Death Barge is pooh-poohing it, as they always do. The old lumbago. Nothing to worry about.
Listen: There is no such thing as a "minor" bad back. Nothing ages an athlete more rapidly. Moreover, I don't recall it being mentioned last year.
3. Yesterday, Paul Blackburn became the first Yank pitcher to last into the fourth inning. But he was damn lucky to make it. He gave up two singles, putting runners on first and third with one out, then was lucky when a line drive turned into a double play.
4. Spencer Jones finally put the bat on the ball, without homering. He flied out to CF and then hit a grounder to SS that was botched on the throw to first. Jones ended up on second, and a run scored. This is why you don't want 200 strikeouts from a hitter. When you put the ball into play, strange things happen. Jones is 3-for-10 this spring with two HRs and four Ks. (The Martian yesteday didn't play.)
5. Mr. Potato Chip, Giancarlo Stanton, expects to appear in his first spring game on Tuesday. Distressing news over the weekend: Stanton says that, on bad days, his tennis elbows are so bad that he cannot open a bag of chips. If so, I wonder what the Yankees, realistically, can expect from him. He has 463 career HRs. Doesn't look good for 500.
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Can’t distinguish fact from fiction when it comes to Yankee injuries.
The other thing - and I wish this were a stat somewhere - but how meaningful have his home runs been? Some home runs are a lot more meaningful than others, and the best hitters tend to produce them. Think Reggie, the Mick, Babe and others. And then there are some that are part of an ongoing vanity project.
Any guy who still plays when he can't open a bag of chips must have enough money to employ someone to open his chips.
The stats book says all homers are created equal, but some homers are more equal than others. I remember questioning Judge's home run meaningfulness and his general clutchness last year or the year before. One thing is true: if a guy hits a lot of home runs, it's gonna help overall. Even if it does nothing but fuck with the opposing pitchers' heads. Besides, when "Elbows" hits them, they're so much fun to watch.
We had visitors from out of town this weekend, so I missed some posts. Including Hoss's post about retired numbers, and other people's comments the past couple days. I'm still catching up, but Lindy McDaniel definitely needs his number retired.
If the guy cannot open a bag of chips, (and I've no reason to believe that he's exaggerating, and even if he is exaggerating, he's only exaggerating slightly), then this guy is totally disabled, done, ka-put, stick a fork in 'im. The man should NOT be playing, or attempting to play, major league baseball. If he will not retire due to the remaining salary on his contract, then management has to put him out to pasture, a la Jacoby Ellsbury. A guy who cannot open a bag of chips cannot be clogging up the roster. It's that simple.
But they're going to play a guy who can't open a bag of chips over young, physically able players like Dominguez and Jones. How many games will Stanton be able to play this year? And if he does ever play, how effective could he possibly be? The absurdity of this hubris is truly mind boggling. It's so crazy that I'd be laughing my ass off if it wasn't so pathetic. Yankee management is absolutely delusional.
I remember Stanton hitting quite a few meaningful homers in the 2024 postseason. I also recall just last summer, when Stanton delivered a key, go-ahead pinch-hit two-run home run in the 10th inning in August. I'm sure he's had other key hits, but my head is too cluttered to recollect.
That may be true, Carl, but his ration of "homers that mean nothing when nothing is on the line" to "meaningful hits" is askew.
There's no stat for meaningful home runs, except the Championship rings on a player's hand(s). You remember the big ones forever. "[T]he best hitters tend to produce them." Yes, and that's why they're champions.
Hall of Fame has lots of guys who were accumulators, guys who hit a lot of home runs over a long period of time, but never won a championship. Yet, a lot of guys who hit big home runs in big spots to win championships are not in there. At the least, the Hall of Fame should celebrate winners as much as accumulators. But it doesn't, so it's not worth an anthill, in my book.
They didn't win in 2024 and lost in utterly disgraceful fashion on the biggest stage. Hell, I don't even want to recall 2024.
The Martian already has more clutch hits than Judge and Stanton. Hard to believe, but I think it's true.
Blackburn is aa absolute stiff. Only a stiff like Cashman wouold bring him in.
First, I have to say that accumulators count, too. It's a long, long season—in some ways, baseball is all about "accumulating." And three-run homers in the first count just as much as three-run homers in the ninth—or twelfth.
Second, yes, Giancarlo's had some big postseasons for us, particularly in 2020 and 2024. Much appreciated.
But he's had some awful ones, too. There's 2018's 4 singles in 18 at-bats against Boston, with 0 RBI and a key K in the last inning. A 1-11 the next year against Minnesota—then begging out of the ALCS vs. Houston. A .250 ALCS with 1 RBI in the 2022 sweep by Houston. Last year's 1-11 against Boston.
Reggie Jackson, he ain't...
The Yankees are on the hook for this season and next with Stanton. 2028 is the option year. Although he makes $ 29 million in '26 and '27 with a $10 million buyout in '28, the Marlins are responsible for that option plus $ 10 million this season and next, so the Yankees owe him a total of $ 38 million. When healthy, he adds strength to the team's hitting. They are probably waiting to determine whether he has deteriorated to the point of no return or if he is salvageable for at least this year. If he's kaput, they could offer him a buyout of, say, $40 million to go away and be free to do whatever he wants a year and a half or so earlier.
By my count, Giancarlo has missed 464 regular-season games in his 8 years with the Yanks; it would've been even more without the Covid year of 2020. That's almost 60 a season. Last year, he played just 77 games.
And let's remember: every time that Stanton comes back from one of his extended absences, it generally takes him one or two weeks to perform at even a minimal level again. In 2024, after missing more than a month, he came back to hit 2 homers and 7 RBI in his first 16 games...and his production was only sporadic after that, until the postseason.
Last year, after missing all of April and May, he had 0 homers and 3 RBI in his first 11 games of the season. And let's not even get into 2022 and 2023, when he played a total of 212 games and hit .211 and .191.
The man has been a hugely destructive force on the team, dragging it down year after year, and blocking the development of promising young players, in exchange for occasional thrills in the postseason.
Yeah, I'm not sure what his ratio of clutch hits to non-productive at-bats is or what the comparison is to other players. But, like most players, even the best ones, are a low percentage.
Hammer, that doesn't seem correct.
Amen, Hoss! He's been the A-Team of the Disabled List.
When naturalized U.S. citizen Errol Flynn tried to enlist during WWII, the U.S. armed forces had the good sense to reject him because he had recurrent malaria, a heart murmur, various venereal diseases, and latent tuberculosis. If it was too hot, he couldn't even kiss co-star Olivia de Havilland without fainting!
If Cashman was the inspecting officer, Flynn would've been in, for sure.
Maybe Cashman was the guy who propped up Charlton Heston's corpse on that white charger for that final glorious ride in "El Cid".
Hell, Cashman would've cast a guy with two broken legs to star in John Wayne's "The Green Berets".
Bellinger has had back problems before, I think. Which is another reason why I'd have passed on him this winter. He might be effective this year, but no way in hell will that five year deal end well.
Great cross reference, HoG
The long term contracts never do…
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