“Trump has promised to deliver this civilization-ending blow tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern. So, bad news: the world might end. Good news: not until after ‘Wheel of Fortune.’”
At times, it's hard to obsess over the Yankees - a privately-owned public entity whose owner wants to win, sorta, if the price is right - while the world turns to shit. On that note, I'm delighted to announce that neither World War III nor the first official 2026 Yankee collapse happened last night, both being postponed for two weeks, when the Yankees play Boston. We're now in a reality that turns over every two weeks, which is no way to run a baseball team, or for that matter, a planet. When world peace cannot be visualized beyond two turns of the Yankee rotation, all existential matters boil down to Wheel of Fortune, and who's on third?
So, let's talk about 3B. Because this morning, every Yank fan in captivity knows what happened last night, and what will happen today.
Last night, Amed Rosario hit two HRs, saving the Yankees from a soul-crushing loss to a homeless team. Thus, he will not start tonight. And probably tomorrow. He will be Booned.
That's right. He will disappear, just like every Yankee hitter does, after a big game. It's Boone's thing. It drives us crazy, but what are the odds that we don't see Rosario, at least in a starting role, until the weekend?
Which leaves us still wondering about 3B. The Yankees have options...
Ryan McMahon. Ever since this guy came over in a July trade, he has confused all Yankee fans from Syracuse, NY. His name is the same of the Onondaga County Executive, a perpetually grinning Republican, who sits on the giant shit pile that is the Central NY governmental bureaucracy. He fills potholes, glad-hands developers and sends workers home early during blizzards. He could probably outhit his Yankees' namesake.
Thus far, the Yankee McMahon, 31, has been awful at the bat. He's 8 for 50 with 15 strikeouts, having been among the league-leaders in Ks throughout his career. Great glove. Lousy contact. He's two years past his sell-by date, (he made the All-Star game in 2024) and, statistically, his doppelganger is Mike Pagliarulo, who should give all Yank fans cause to worry.
McMahon will not be Booned.
He will be Trumped - that is, given two more weeks to show his stuff.
Rosario. It's nine years since he hit the Mets as MLB's top prospect, a 21-year-old SS and future star. He was Lindor, before Lindor. In his best year, 2019, he batted .287 with 15 HRs, and led the NL in Caught Stealings, with 10. He's bounced around to seven teams, and he signed with the Yankees this winter, knowing he'd warm the bench.
That said, in the bountiful begorra of Bill Robinson, baseball history is filled with former great prospects who figured out the secret of hitting sometime around their 30th birthday. Why not Rosario?
Obviously, after last night, he needs a full week at 3B. That won't happen.
Booned.
Oswaldo Cabrera. There is only one Oswaldo. The smiling warrior still holds 3B in our hearts. But he's been icy cold in Scranton, rehabbing his broken foot. (Like endless wars, the Yankees have endless rehabs.) Cabrera is currently hitting .188 - 6 for 32 with a homer and a SB. My guess is that, unless someone gets hurt, he must hit his way back to the majors, and as a utility player, not a starting 3B.
Paul DeLong (32) and Max Schuemann (28), both currently of Scranton, two serviceable infielders, who probably have OUT clauses in their contracts. Neither is hitting. But both can probably field 3B on a notch just below McMahon.
DeLong - a member of the All-Rookie team in 2017 for the Cardinals - is 4 for 23. Schuemann - two years with the A's, with 9 career HRs - is 4 for 26.
Then there is the domino effect of Anthony Volpe, who should return in mid-May. He'll probably take over at SS, moving Caballero to 3B? And there is the outside, far-flung, not worth mentioning chance that George Lombard Jr.- now of Double A Somerset - could bypass everyone. Right now, he's 6 for 9 with a HR. Close your eyes and dream: Volpe at 3B, Lombard at SS, and we stop hearing all that mush about Boston's youth movement.
In the meantime, we'll be Booned and Trumped. Yikes. What a twosome.
Posts
15 comments:
Rosario saved the Yankees' bacon yesterday, but how many more times will that happen this year? Other than Rice and Stanton (and Rosario), pretty much everyone struggling with the bat right now. Just as I thought. This team will struggle to score runs.
How many more times
Treat me the way you wanna do?
When I give you all I got to give
Base hits home runs and awwwwwlllllllllllllllllllll
"It would seem impossible to build the flawed rosters the Yankees do every year with $300 million-plus, but they continue to do it."
Well put by Keefe. This team is run by morons.
Girardi made the point that McMahon playing time should depend on that day's Yankees' starter. Lefties...Fried, Weathers, and eventually...McMahon starts. Need his glove for all the groundballs to the right side. So, a defensive platoon. Makes some sense. So Boone won't do it.
Boone rarely does something that makes sense. He got lucky yesterday with Rosario.
Fill in the blank to complete the following sentence:
Boone is an __________. !
...interesting case study. He could have spent the rest of his life yakking on TV and eating free meals in Manhattan based on his dramatic pennant winning home run in 2003. Instead, he will likely be known in Yankees history as the man who managed the club through its most frustrating and infuriating world championship-less era. Could have been eternally beloved. Will likelier be eternally not quite reviled, but unloved.
Hell, I'm still not over his fucking up the 2003 World Series! But that's just me.
And to weigh in on the whole JM-Hammer debate over why we go on with this...yeah, for years I couldn't figure out why the hell the man who complains constantly about money didn't simply fire Cashman and hire a (much cheaper) front office team from one of the many, well-run franchises around who would then build a much better team for much less money, from the ground up...
...The excuse on this, readily embraced by the talking heads, was that we Yankees fans were to blame, with our always wanting the team to win and everything.
But of course that's not true, and anyone who actually stepped out of the broadcast booth and the studio and met Yankees fans would know that—much like fans everywhere—we would be delighted to see Hal build a great team from the ground up.
What finally dawned on me, like a cartoon lightbulb going on in my head, is that Hammer's analysis is right: Hal doesn't want to build a dynasty. Not now. Not ever.
Hal plays the long game. No doubt, in previous years he was steaming over how much of his obscene inheritance was eaten up by the Core of Four and Bernie—and later, guys like CC and Teixera—because they merely some championships and stuff.
The LAST thing he wants is some hot-shot young guy bringing up busload after busload of great young players who will be around for years and who the fans will absolutely rebel if you let them walk...
Just like Pagliacci did
I try to keep my sadness hid
Smiling in the public eye
But in my lonely room I cry
The tears of a clown
When there's no one around
Oh yeah, baby
Now if there's a smile on my face
Don't let my glad expression
Give you the wrong impression
Don't let this smile I wear
Make you think that I don't care
Really, I'm sad
Hurtin' so bad
...Hammer mentions how Hal doesn't want to see another $40-million-dollar man, like Aaron Judge. I'll go you one better and say that I suspect Hal was furious when he got outbid by San Francisco and Judge chose to return to New York anyway.
Hence, all the careful dances around stars such as Soto and Yamamoto, making sure that the Yanks are seen offering just enough to come in second. Which is the plan for the team in general.
Amen, Hoss. Amen. People say we've a bad attitude about the Yankees, that we're too negative. Fukkum. Yank fans are the most accepting, generous and kind-hearted in all of sports... when we win. We only hold death grudges against the players who boisterously bring it on, by themselves. Witness the reception that fringe ex-Yankees receive on Old-Timers Day. They are remembered - and thanked - by the fans, more so than in the history and cultures of any other team. I am always proud to be a Yank fans, part of the most knowledgeable sports culture on the planet.
And, as someone said here a month ago, THIS is why they don't want to develop young talent - they might end up on the hook for them and have to sign a large contract to keep them. THE HORROR!!!
Post a Comment