Walked four batters.
Given up five earned runs.
Surrendered six hits.
Watched his ERA balloon to 5.14.
Muttered an uncountable number of unpleasantries.
Bednar accomplished these feats against two tomato-can lineups - the Mets and O's - who are a combined 11 games below .500.
In another time, in another universe, the Yankees would gently excise Bednar from the closer role and give him a week in the Adirondacks with a sex worker and the phone number of a competent therapist. He seems to be falling apart. Over his last seven games, his ERA is 8.59. Before our eyes, Bednar has turned into Aroldis Chapman without the sweat glands.
If it were late July, Cooperstown Cashman would be working the phones like a whirling Dervish, trying to trade Spencer Jones, Anthony Volpe or the Martian for somebody, anybody, who can pitch a 9th inning. But this is not a raging, late-summer pennant race. This is May 19, a week away from Memorial Day and - already - Aaron Boone's famous Circle of Trust has shrunken to a dot.
Who pitches the last three innings? And who records the final three outs? That question now lingers over every Yankee lead, and every blown scoring opportunity. Last August, Cashman traded a massive chunk of the Yankees' prospect base for Bednar, Jake Bird and Camilo Doval - with only Bednar proving his mettle. In previous trade deadlines, they collected Scott Effross, Mark Leiter Jr., and the cast of Knot's Landing. The strategy of waiting for July 31 - and then hold a farm system garage sale - is no way to run a baseball club, and it won't work in 2026.
The Yankees cannot wait until August. The bullpen is shot, and the wolf is at the door.
WE WILL NEVER LOSE AGAIN
ReplyDeleteOUR SHLONGS WILL NEVER WAVER
ReplyDeleteBring up Lagrange...
ReplyDeleteBring up the entire bordello.
DeleteAnd the Nigerian prince has a legitimate offer to wire you millions.
ReplyDeleteThat was meant for Bitty.
DeleteWE ARE UNSTOPPABLE. THE WORLD IS AT PEACE, I HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO BUY ELON MUSK, I'M THIN AND TRIM, MY CAR DOESN'T NEED AN OIL CHANGE, AND I CAN PLAY GUITAR LIKE JIMI AND DUANE COMBINED.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE YOU ALL
WE
ReplyDeleteWish you a MERRY Christmas
Wish YOU a merry Christmas
WISH you a merry Christmas
Wish you a merry CHRISTMAS
and
A happy new year
(POINTING TO THE FOUL POLE IN MY HEAD) "I GUARANTEE THAT WE WILL BEAT THESE MORONS TONIGHT."
ReplyDeleteall of today's posts in honor of ALLCAPS, gone and mainly forgotten
WHO?
DeleteHe's on first.
DeleteBednar pitches better when he gets a fair amount of rest. When he was pitching for the Pirates, he never had the workload Boone has given him. I mean, how many save situations were there with Pittsburgh?
ReplyDeleteSo, once again, Cashman made a "spectacular" deal, but the anal analytic guys didn't really figure that in. Bird was an attempted rescue mission, almost always ill-advised. And Doval...well, he never faced a hell of a lot of pressure, did he? He seemed to do well when there wasn't much in the way of expectations or pressure or large crowds.
These kind of things are consistently overlooked by the Cashman Contingent, and it's almost always come back to bite them on the ass. Yet, they keep doing it.
Though if getting a decent bullpen arm means trading Volpe, hey, I won't complain.
Most relivers go into a funk. Bendar, certainly has.
ReplyDeleteWe need a closer. Period. I really don’t know how Cashman keeps his job. Any other org would have fired him 10x over by now.
ReplyDeleteApropos of nothing, I have to say how upset I am by the pop up betting prompts during the YES telecasts. What a sleazy shitshow MLB has become.
ReplyDeleteFor the sanctity of the game I love, I hope they burn it all down next year.
AyuP
DeleteI fear that, unfortunately, that genie is out of the bottle.
DeleteThe only way to put it back in is another black sox event. Also unfortunate.
Btw, I see that Gio has retired. His best years were with us, always great to see him play.
ReplyDeleteThe Mets scored 10 runs in the 12th yesterday. They're only five games under .500 now.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, Don Mattingly is pulling the Phillies into a semblance of contention. Seven games out now. 8-2 the last 10.
The only viable answer is to lure Mariano out of retirement. Everything else fails.
ReplyDeleteThe Great One would probably still be better than most of our pen.
ReplyDeleteMets only got to extra innings because the awful-fielding Nats made 4 errors, and one of their players fell down between third and home.
ReplyDeleteWashington's a very talented young team, most of whose players don't really seem to give a fuck.
For those who weren't here, ALL CAPS was a wonderful curmudgeon, who only wrote in capital letters. He was a man after my own heart...until he aired his support for a literal, right-wing terrorist.
ReplyDeleteNo terrorists, right or left.
That sums it up, Hoss. He invited me to Long Island once to go to some ice cream stand that he purportedly owned. The political thing soured me, as well.
DeleteWas it in a van by the river?
DeleteYanks might as well try a closer from the farm. Sometimes those guys have great success for a time, when nobody's seen them.
ReplyDeleteThey certainly couldn't do worse.
DeleteThe Yankees traded Anthony VolpE6? Great trade! What did they get!?
ReplyDeleteAs Nixon said way back when - and you'll never catch me quoting Tricky Dick usually - PEACE WITH HONOR
ReplyDeleteWAIT A MINUTE...I don't see anything about a trade? Forget about "Peace with Honor." It's back to "No Trade, No Peace."
DeleteWinnie is just teasing us, methinks.
Delete