The Martian's UFO Crash - A Postmortem Analysis

   Looks like Jasson Dominguez's Yankee career is likely done for. What a sad end to a very promising prospect. 

   When he first came up in 2023, I thought he was the best looking Yankee hitter that I had ever seen come up. And I've been a fan since 1981. Yes, I thought he looked better than Don Mattingly, Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, Alfonso Soriano. Definitely better than Bernie Williams, who took years of struggling in the majors to get going on his incredible career as the best clutch hitter of his time. Better than Aaron Judge, who didn't look like much more than an all or nothing home run hitter for his first 84 at bats in 2016. That optimism was due to Dominguez looking like a smart, big time young veteran hitter who still had great bat speed to get around on the fastball. It appeared that he was able to make adjustments during at bats, that he could sit on the fastball, yet still adjust to the off speed pitches. He was able to actually hit breaking balls, not just watch them go out of the strike zone or foul them off.

   So, on to the grisly post-mortem. What the hell went wrong? On the surface, it seems Dominguez was born under an unlucky star. He lost a year due to the Covid epidemic. He tore his right elbow UCL ligament less than a week into his Yankee career, thus losing another year. Then, he was never really given a fair shot to make it as an everyday player in 2025, being benched and then eventually sent down to the minors. (To be fair, his outfield defense in left field turned out to be pretty horrendous, thus contributing to his benching and demotion. Although it is a legitimate question as to why he was put into left field, which position he had never played before.) Another thing that contributed to his demotion was his right handed hitting, which was about as bad as anything we've ever witnessed in a major leaguer. I think he was something like 1 for 50 from the right side at one point.

   In 2026, he started the year in the minors, then got promoted and received a halfway decent shot, 53 games, almost exactly one-third of a season to show what he could do. He put up a below mediocre line: a .650 OPS. He did hit 6 home runs, which ain't exactly rubbish. If you translate that to a full year, that's 18 home runs. He showed tremendous improvement from the right side, hitting .279 with .744 OPS against lefty pitching. But this time, it was the left side hitting that killed him. From the left side, against righty pitching, he hit only .198 with a .589 OPS. Since there are a lot more righty pitchers than lefty pitchers, that'll get a young player demoted, for sure.

   So why was he so bad from the left side this year? Seems to me that he is using a terrible approach. He is not getting "the head out". He does not appear to be looking for the fastball to try to drive it. Instead, he seems to be looking for the off speed pitch most of the time. When he gets the fastball, particularly when hitting left handed, he simply takes it for a strike, especially if it's on the inside part of the plate. He also seems to be expanding the zone, swinging at bad pitches. Not enough strike zone discipline. 

   If I was a right handed pitcher, I would just blow this guy away with fastballs up and in. He doesn't even offer at them. Can't even foul them off. Until he shows me that he can "get the head out" and drive those pitches, that's all he's getting. Conversely, that's what he needs to do to get going from the left side. He has to look for the heater and then get the head out, drive it hard. 

   As a right handed hitter, he has improved greatly, as I said. A .270 batting average on the current Yankees is almost like Joe DiMaggio. Nothing to scoff at. But he does appear to be a little too pull conscious. Sometimes, he swings right through hittable fastballs over the plate. That's probably because he's trying to pull pitches that he should be taking the other way. Thus, the next step for him as a righty hitter is to drive those pitches to the opposite field. He should pull inside pitches, but if it's away or over the plate, make it easy on himself: take them the other way.

   Next, let's look at the base running. He's very fast and is a very good base stealer. Seems to have the right instincts on the basepaths. The one criticism here is that he always slides headfirst. And he slides extremely late, thus oversliding the base. At second or third base, obviously, that's a problem if he gets himself out. This has happened a couple of times this year.

   Now let's put it all together. This kid has a lot of talent. Compare Dominguez to Caleb Durbin. I think Durbin does not have half the talent as a batter, but he's doing much better, hitting about .250. The other day, I saw Durbin take a very high fastball and just serve it into right center field against the hated Dodgers. He didn't hit it overly hard. He just barreled the ball and hit it where it was pitched. Why is Durbin so much better, despite half the talent?

   You have to think that it's the coaching here. Yankee management must be relying too much on Artificial Intelligence to generate volumes of useless stats. You have to rely on your own eyes to tell you what's wrong, not rely on data analysis by computers. The batting coaches have to tell Dominguez to get the head out and drive those fastballs that he keeps taking from righty pitchers. They have to get in the batting cage and crank that pitching machine up to 100 mph, work on driving the ball. They have to work on hitting the other way as a righty hitter against lefty pitching. They have to tell him to stop sliding headfirst, because he's going to break his wrist sooner or later, maybe that he might even end his career that way. 

   One last thing. You can blame the coaching here, but at some point, the player has to be held accountable. Dominguez is 23 years old. Still young, but not a green colt anymore. He's got to see that he's making it a lot harder on himself than necessary. He's his own worst enemy, most of the time. Subscribe to the KISS method: "Keep It Simple, Stupid". If the batting coaches suck, he's got to get himself private batting instruction, outside of work hours, maybe on off days, maybe an hour here or an hour there before or after games. Definitely, he needs to get private coaching over the winter. And for crap's sake, just stop it with the headfirst slides. Stop it with the late slides. He doesn't even need coaching for that. Just slide feet first every time.

Follow the Way of the Knicks.

Our Dauntless Leader says there is no way that the New York Yankees will ever win a World Series again in our lifetime, and chances are he is right.  

I keep saying the same thing, and in fact I think it is still entirely possible that the Yanks will manage to miss the playoffs altogether this year, and then with the labor Armageddon to come, who knows what will happen?  (Nothin' good.)

But that's just "thinking." Where does that get you?

Right now—right now—I want you to rise up out of your seats and repeat along with me... 

No, nothing so futile as "I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore." That doesn't matter. Remember Howard Beals turns corporate stooge and gets shot in the end. 

No, I want you to say something much more profound. Something I never, ever thought I would say or write. I want you to say, "Follow the way of the Knicks."

I don't know much about basketball. How could I, being a lifelong Knicks fan? And I did write at the beginning of the playoffs that the Knicks were not going to do anything.

But...but...

That's because I thought the Knicks' incredible, otherworldly superstar with the Star Wars moniker to match, OG Anunoby, would be injured.

He wasn't.  

And on top of that, somehow the Knickerbockers got the playoff crapshoot match-ups that Boy Cashman can only dream about. No Boston, no Detroit, no Oklahoma City.  All those teams which were almost certainly better than the Knicks had burned themselves out taking regular-season prizes. 

The Knicks did not. Burn out, I mean.

And suddenly, there they were, thrashing mediocre playoff teams by 30 and 40 points. Smashing their way through to the final where, yes...it was OG with the tip-in.

I want you to say it to yourselves. I want you to say it over and over again, like a mantra, no matter how weird it sounds:

"That could be us.  We could be the Knicks."

Is it likely? Of course not. Was coming back from 29 points down in the second half "likely"?

What if we DO get Judge back, and he's fit and ready for the playoffs? What if we get Bellinger back, and he remembers how to play? What if Garcia gets hot? What if Spencer Jones becomes Shane Spencer...just for a month?

What if we get to play a bunch of AL Central flopsies, like we did in 2024? What if someone knocks off the Dodgers for us?

It could happen. We could do it. We have the pitching, and when you have the pitching you have just about everything. 

And now this super kid, with the super background. Grandmother a civil rights activist. Father a major-league ballplayer.  A wonderful, Jeeterian mixture of the best hybrid America can produce.

Say it to yourself. Keep saying it.

This could be us. We could be the Knicks. 

WE. COULD. BE. THE. KNICKS.

A Reason to Watch

 As the Yankees became a team that struck out 17 times ( two games in a row ), and played "clownball "on defense, they were becoming unwatchable.  As an old dude, I literally used the Yankee games to induce power naps.

Lombard looks like the goods.  A player who can do it all and is exciting to watch.  Even if he doesn't hit a homer every day, his defense is artful and such a relief from what we have stumbled through for the past several seasons.  And, as a shortstop, we see him in action all the time.  Not like some power hitting, gold glove  outfielder who may get no put outs or assists all game. 

The tragedy for yankee fans is that he is only one guy.  And with one or two exceptions, largely surrounded by a bunch of : gumullnicks " who don't even belong at this level. 

Worse, Brian Cashman has, over the years, traded away all semblance of talent from our farm system.   Six more bodies departed at the 2026 trade deadline. George Lombard was the one guy he would not trade. 

But there is no future star in A, AA or AAA for the Yankees.  Not a single player is on the kind of watch list that George has been on.   Can anyone even name a Yankee prospect now?

So what does that leave? 

We pick up players no one else feels is worth the carrying cost. ( we just did that in spades on August 3rd ).  Or we overpay some guy who had one good year, and now retires in a Yankee uniform ( why does everyone think of a player like Trent Grisham when I make this point?).  Josh Donaldson, anyone?

Having a reason to watch the Yankee games is worth something.   But we aren't winning any more championships in our lifetimes.   The cupboard is bare. 

Welcome George. 

The trouble with Lombard is recent history

Don't get me wrong: Last night was wondrous! Exalted! Perfect! For the ages!

For one night, we recalled the generational magic of the Yankees - a team of great players and forever moments. For one game, all was right across the Yankiverse. 

A star has been born. 

Of course, you know his name: George Alexander Lombard Jr., raised in a baseball family and a Florida sports academy. He recently turned 21. Last night, he not only homered but flashed excellent glovework. Surely, he will be a Yankee great. It's ordained by the juju gods. There can be no doubt, right? 

Trouble is, we're like those lost Blair Witch hikers, continually circling back to where they've been. Four years ago, on "Volpening Day," the Yankees unveiled Anthony Volpe as the next Jeter. He was 21, coming home to fulfill his dream of playing Yankee SS. In his first game, Volpe went 0-2 with a walk and stolen base, prompting John and Suzyn to declare a new era. Volpe was the future of the Yankees, the surest next big thing since - well - Clint Frazier.

Remember Clint? His moment came on June 1, 2017, at age 22. That night, against Houston, in his first taste of MLB, he went 2-4 with a HR and a double, bringing fans to their feet. A week later, he hit his second HR, and nobody could doubt his future stardom. 

He'd finish the season with 4 HR and a .231 average. We told ourselves he would surely improve next year, but we didn't know that COVID was coming. Frazier ended up with 29 career HRs, a lifetime .235 and some of the shakiest outfield ever played in Yankee Stadium. Today, he has a lively X account, where he opines on - well - card collecting?

I don't rouse these ghosts to undercut Lombard; he looks like the Real Deal. But let's acknowledge what we all know: We've been here before. 

The modern Yankees, as a marketing scheme, routinely lavish otherworldly praise on young players before they've done anything. 

Once upon a time, rookies arrived with an opportunity to blend in and establish their own reputations. Nowadays, with the Mother Ship starving for homegrown talent, the Yankees sell tickets on the backs of what few prospects they don't trade away. Remember Gleyber Day? The Kraken? Bye-Bye Birdie? The Martian? 

Last night, it worked. The Yankees sold 41,000 tickets. George Lombard Jr. hit his HR. If this was a world of happily-ever-after, we wouldn't worry. 

Trouble is, it's a long hard slog to Yankee greatness.

This season looks darker with each passing week. Boston is closing, now just one game behind in the loss column. At this pace, we won't last the weekend in 2nd. (And Volpe will be in Scranton, learning 2B.) 

Last night's excitement was wondrous! Perfect! For the ages! Now comes the hard part.  

"Someone pinch me!..."

 

"...Maybe this is just

A beautiful dream!

I'm in a bad state of shock!

I'd like to know

Just how the hell it happened

What we did right!

Fellas, the whole thing is cockeyed!

We got a winner at last...

We got a star that is in the ascendant!...

This is a guy who is going to go further than anyone ever expected!...

We got a winner at last..."

With apologies to Sheldon Harnick, author of the lyrics in Fiorello!

Spencer Jones says ∞ "He walks around like he has a vacuum on his hand."

 

 

 

Clearly this is dated...

 

...but then, so is Cashman.

Trade deadline passes.

Yanks still in the playoff-bound 40 percent.

38,151 at the Stadium last night.

Over 2 million fans for the year, tops in the AL.

For Hal & Pal, all is right with the world.

Horrible deadline. Horrible game. Horrible season? Is anybody else smelling 2013?

Wow. A loss for the ages.

A collapse so intense - so profound, so greasy - that it's now easy to imagine this team falling out of the wild card. 

Ten takeaways from last night. 

1. Somehow, the brain trust dealt four of its best prospects without addressing any of the looming Yankee crises. We brought in a clank-glove OF, Heliot Ramos, and a career-year 1B, Luis Garcia Jr? 

Why do I sense that the rest of MLB waits for Aug. 1, just to drill the Yanks?  

2. As the night unfolded, as it became universally apparent that our rivals - the Dodgers, Redsocks, Rays, et al - had dramatically improved, the 8th inning collapse became epically remindful of last year's debacle. 

3. If you recall, last year, we drunkenly celebrated what later turned out to be a horror show trade deadline with a 13-12 loss to the Marlins, a game that ended with a ball rolling between Jose Caballero's legs in RF, where he was supposed to be proficient. Our newly acquired bullpen lit a gasoline fire that smoldered through October. 

4. So last night, we commemorated another lost deadline with one of the worst losses of 2026 - featuring a meltdown of our razor thin bullpen, after we put three of our best young arms out with the Japanese tide. 

5. No catcher. No RP. No 3B. Unbelievable. Cashman's excuse: "It was a very thin market of opportunity." Nice revelation, eh? We spent the last three years trading away catchers, and now we face the worst offensive outputs in baseball. Yeah, Austin Wells and Ryan McMahon homered last night. Wells is hitting .167. McMahon is at .212. And nothing will change.

6. Apparently, the Yankees have promoted George Lombard Jr. up from Scranton for tonight's game. I cannot help but think they are using him to distract from the universal disappointment with the team, the franchise, and the front office. 

7. Of course, they're finding scapegoats: Jasson Dominguez, who plays RF like your grandma trying to solve a Rubik's Cube, and Anthony Volpe, who almost reached MLB mediocrity in his recent incarnation. They will join a long list of Yankee failures - Greg Bird, George Frazier, Miguel Andujar, et al - who couldn't live up to their hype. 

8. Ah, yes, the hype. Honestly, it's that relentless Yankee hype that pisses me off the most. The YES Network is quite good at pretending to be critical, rather than the propaganda mill that it is. At times, you get comical versions of Michael Kay and Jack Curry, seeming to tell it like it is. But they never challenge the front office. They never challenge the owner. They never challenge the real problems that haunt his franchise.

9. It's going to hurt when Boston passes us, probably in the next two weeks. When the Redsocks visit in late August - a four-game series - they will probably be ahead of us.

10. If there is a coded message from yesterday, it's that Aaron Judge is no certainty to return this year. If he does come back, he might be compromised. A fractured rib is not to be trifled with. He'll be a DH, along with Stanton, Garcia, Rice, Goldschmidt and maybe Bellinger.  

Bonus: Last night in the 8th, didn't Trent Grisham botch that fly to deep center that opened the flood gates? It either hit the base of the wall or Grisham. Tough play, for sure. But it certainly looked catchable. The YES men never mentioned it. Close your eyes, everybody. It's almost time to think about football.

GAME THREAD – TRADE DEAD/LINE EDITION - READ and RESPOND

Yank fans find manure under the tree and merrily sing out, "There must be a pony!"

 No catcher? No third baseman? No relief help? But our third 1B?

Can we impeach Brian Cashman via the 25th Amendment?

HATS OFF TO THE HATED RED SOX

   Yeah, that's right. Hats off to the hated Red Sox for broom sweeping the Artful Dodgers. I watched the national tv game last night. Boston Carmines, who wear a lot of yellow for some weird reason, kicked around the Dodgers, made them look like Little Leaguers.

  Thought it was worth a new thread. That was sweeeeeeeeeet last night. Never enjoyed a game more. To see those disgusting Artful Dodgers get their butts handed to them, broom swept in their own ball park. It was priceless. That was our World Series this year. Yeah, we have to live vicariously now, through the hearts and minds of one of our arch rivals. But so be it, if it means the destruction of the L.A. Dodgers.

  There is some ridiculous thought amonst the news media. no doubt powered by the gambling establishment, that the Yankees will be the A.L. pennant winners and will go the World Series this year. Yeah? In what universe? The Red Sox last night looked like the best team in the A.L. Hell, they sure looked like the best team in baseball. These guys battle. They're mentally tough. They foul off and spoil oil tankers full of close pitches, until they get one they can handle. And then they hit it, unlike the Yankees.

   Cashman apologists always ask where are the great players that Cashman traded away? I don't know about any great, great players. But there were some good ones that the Yankees sure could've used, if Cashman had let them play here. That Caleb Durbin kid, now playing 3B, looking every bit as annoying as the Evil Dwarf Jose Altuve, got a couple more hits. Took a high fastball, inside outed it into right center field. If he can do that, that guy's going to be a killer. Then there's Garret Whitlock, who looks better than just about anybody we have coming out of the bullpen. Then there's pudgy catcher Carlos Narvaez, who isn't having a good year, but he still proved that he's a faster and better base runner than Trent Grisham. 

   Boston's bullpen looks immensely deep. They can play the parlor game of searching for the most ineffective reliever, yet emerge unscathed and triumphant. Their no-name starters are plenty good enough to win a championship.

   There is just no comparison between the Yankees and the Red Sox. Boston is better, a lot better. If that be the judgment of heaven for this year, then so be it. God speed to the Red Sox. Because there is nothing I hate anywhere near as much as the L.A. Dodgers.

Or are they just stupid?

It cannot truthfully be said that your New York Yankees have been great innovators in the business of baseball.  

Yes, Jacob Ruppert was smart enough to build his own stadium in the up-and-coming borough of the Bronx, acquire the game's transformative superstar, and assiduously reinvest in his team.

But Ruppert did not invent the farm system.  That was Branch Rickey, with the Cardinals and Dodgers. Nor, like all New York owners, did he recognize how radio was going to provide revenue and advertising for his team. That was Larry MacPhail, when he was still running the Cincinnati Reds.

But in what often works out better in capitalism, Ruppert and his successors were generally fast imitators in their business. Seeing Rickey's success with the Cards, they built the second, extensive farm system, augmented by a vast scouting network. 

Seeing how radio worked for the Reds—and then the Dodgers, when MacPhail came to Brooklyn—they quickly built the second biggest broadcast network (and stole away the most popular broadcaster) in radio.

Mysteriously, no less than William Paley at CBS missed the potential "synergy" of having America's most successful television network broadcast the Yankees. But that may have been because those pesky liberals enforced monopoly laws then.

Following the example of Ted Turner with the Braves—eventually—George Steinbrenner created the YES Network, giving the Yanks another leg up on the competition, a-way back in the 1990s.

In other words, if the Yankees weren't always first to grasp the future, they were close enough to swing their big-market money behind new ideas and win the race anyway.

But now, it seems, Hal has lagged woefully behind on the future. Incredibly, he is helping to lead the charge to throw the sport back into labor turmoil...mainly because he has failed to understand how cable is dying and how watching sports in general is changing.

Take a look at this long passage from Bill Simmons' podcast. It took me a couple reads to fully understand it (I think), but I've highlighted some of the more relevant passages. All of which spell out how our resident nepo baby is letting the Dodgers eat his lunch, and that of every other team.

There is one reason and one reason alone why the Dodgers are signing all the top players. Read below for the details:

The Dodgers are the only team in MLB that is not impacted by cord cutting. Cord cutting is when someone drops the cable TV bundle, meaning they no longer pay a monthly fee of $80-$100+ to Comcast, DIrecTV, YouTube TV etc. That money then gets paid to the content owners. Regional sports networks can be anywhere from $3 to $10 of that monthly bill, which is why YouTube TV dropped them for being too expensive. The reason why cord cutting is so detrimental to regional sports networks is because their fees have to be extremely high in order for them to pay for escalating contracts signed years ago. This means 90%+ of channel revenue is from these fees called carriage fees, as compared to a more 50/50 split for non-regional sports channels. When cord cutting is around 10% annually, this means that these channels, even with price hikes, are seeing revenue decline every year, at the same time the fees to the teams for the rights to the games escalate. Lower revenue + higher costs = bankruptcy risk, which is exactly what happened with Diamond Sports (Bally's Sports owner). MLB teams usually have one of two regional sports network arrangements. Some simply sell their rights to the highest bidder on a long-term contract. Think of the NBA's recent deal, but on a smaller scale and with one partner. Other teams own some or all of their regional sports network, wherein the team ownership benefits from owning the network and making money. However, their incentive here is not aligned with the team, which wants to make the most money on their rights fees. To better align incentives, often the team owns a % of the network. This creates a balance between a high fee to the team for rights, but not too high where the station can't make any money. The big market teams, obviously, make the most money from these deals. They both have more fans and can charge a higher carriage fee to the video distributors. However, they are not immune to cord cutting issues. Take the New York Yankees. They own 26% of YES Network, the highest % out of several minority owners including investment firms and Amazon. These investment firms want the network to be profitable. YES Network, in 2013 - notably before cord cutting - signed a 30-year, $5.7 Billion deal to show Yankees games. While that is great for the Yankees, if that deal becomes unprofitable for the network, the 26% ownership could end up being worth nothing and in bankruptcy the team may be forced to accept lower payments. If cord cutting continues, regional sports networks bankruptcies could increase beyond the Bally's networks. The Dodgers have a unique regional sports network deal that has two advantages over every other team. First, the deal is the largest. It was signed in 2014 at the absolute peak of cable TV. The Dodgers are getting $8.35 Billion over 25 years, or $334 Million annually. That compares to the Yankees at $190 Million annually and most teams around $100 Million. We can also compare it to the Mets: They signed a 25-year, $1.3 Billion deal in 2006, which amounts to $54 Million annually. They do have the benefit of owning 65% of SNY, but that doesn't make up for the massive $ differential. The second advantage is the one most unique to LA and why they are able to outspend everyone. Their rights deal, because of the team and time it was up, was extremely competitive with many bidders. This resulted in not only the high-$ fee, but something entirely new in the business: Time Warner Cable, which won the deal, agreed to cover subscription fees from other video distributors even if those operators didn't carry the new network. They assumed they'd be able to get the other distributors on board, but most balked at the extremely high price the channel demanded to even break even on the high rights fee. Time Warner Cable was later sold to Charter Communications, the #2 cable company in the country with 30 million Internet subscribers. They generate over $50 Billion of revenue and $20 Billion of earnings annually, and long ago wrote off the annual losses they take from paying out the extremely high fees. So, through the end of the contract in 2038, cord cutting simply does not impact the Dodgers. They are guaranteed the highest annual rights fee, by far, from a network inside of a massive cable company that derives their earnings from selling internet, not owning cable TV channels. This monetary advantage is why the Dodgers are going to be able to offer the highest $ amount for any free agent they want. The good news for the rest of MLB is that this ultimately will come to an end, in 2038. The bad news? The Dodgers know this, and thus the best way to help ensure a prosperous reign for the franchise beyond 2038 is to spend now to win as much as possible and create a winning legacy, memorable players, and as many Dodgers fans as they can.

Yanks add another 1B? WTF? Am I still RUNK?

Damn. One measly bender, a bowel-cleansing four days, and I wake up in a "Magic Fingers" rehab bed between Rip Van Winkle and Mitch McConnell. 

Seriously. A hard, cold, seemingly endless RUNK. Nonstop 500-watt smirks from Redsock fans - who expect to whoosh past us well before Aug. 28, when they visit for four. Then, halfway into my wake-up crap, I learn that the Brain Trust - chasing a C, 3B and RP- has traded for, gulp, another 1B.

Another first baseman? How many do we need?

Nope, I told myself. Can't be right. I went to Luis Garcia Jr's Baseball Reference pig book page. Guy must play 3B, right? Or SS? Eh? Nope. This year, he's played 93 games at 1B, two as DH. Last year, he played 129 at 2B. He's never played 3B. Last game at SS came in 2022. So, 2B? Is Jazz gone? And, gulp, they're suggesting Garcia might play RF, with less experience than The Martian, all of which means that - gulp, gulp, gulp - Aaron Judge is not returning? 

Last I looked, with Rice and Goldy (plus Bellinger in the cooler, if the sky falls) 1B was our best position. Now, with Garcia, we have a four-man 1B rotation, a bigger Circle of Trust than in the bullpen.

We should change this blog to, IT IS HIGH, IT IS FAR, IT IS... WTF? 

The Dodgers have Skupal. The Redsocks have a rising tide of youth. We have the explosive diarrhea of overpaid veterans. We have a plane with three wings and one propeller. The Yankees have spent $300 million to paint themselves into a corner, and gaskets will surely blow between now and 6 p.m., when this trade deadline horror show mercifully closes. 

I believe I speak for the Yankiverse in saying, God help us.

Since January, when the franchise bestowed $22 million on Trent Grisham, the front office has touted its "stand pat" stability, as if finishing second was the goal. Now, with everything collapsing, Cooperstown Cashman looks like a tanker captain heading through the Strait of Hormuz, and our future looks colder than next winter's lockout (for which we will still be blamed.)

I was tempted to do a "Fun Facts" thingy on Luis Garcia Jr., who is 26 and having a breakout season, (as Grisham did last year.) Why bother? The Yankees aren't done messing up the sheets. Today, Cashman will remake this roster, this team, this farm system, this infundibulum, and only God knows what we will look like Tuesday against St. Louis. 

Boston keeps winning. The Dodgers keep adding. Giancarlo still can't open a bag of Chitos. Dear God, I shoulda stayed RUNK.

And Peralta to the Rays, Gaussman to the Cubs

Trading Genius

 We just traded four pitching prospects for a guy who may be a worse defender than Dominguez.

And, he plays the one position where we actually have depth ( first base)..

So now we can, each day, sit one of our three best hitters ( Rice, Goldschmidt, or the new guy ).

This is how you build a contender.

And we have him nest year as well. 

Surely he can become a catcher by then. 

My hat is off to Brian Cashman who never fails to face this team into the abyss. 

A (A) GAME THREAD EXCLUSIVE – WHAT EL DUQUE DRANK DURING HIS "RUNK BLOG"

 

Here we go again.

 

"Luck is the residue of design."—Branch Rickey, former Yankee, greatest general manager of all time.

"Once we get to the playoffs, as we know it is, as Cashman would say, a bit of a crapshoot." Hal Steinbrenner.

"To the best of my knowledge, and I've seen it written and heard it several times over the years, I've never said that." Brian Cashman.

Sigh.

And here we are, with Brian Cashman, Yankees general-manager-for-life, once again outmaneuvered and out-thought approaching the playoffs that he did or did not say were a crapshoot, "to the best of my knowledge."

A few observations:

—The Dodgers were able to pull off the Skubal trade because they prepared. Over the last few years, they have not only discovered a way to maneuver around the luxury tax, but also built a first-rate farm system that gave them the flexibility to trade three leading prospects for one of the best starters in baseball.

—Included amongst the players they sent to Detroit was a Double-A, "upside" outfielder with the wonderful name of Zyhir Hope. But...they apparently have three other, highly regarded minor-league outfielders ahead of him, so..."Hope became expendable."

—We don't have four, highly rated minor-league outfielders. We don't have a single, highly rated minor-league outfielder that I know of. We don't even have hope, which long ago left the building.

—Brian Cashman's inability to anticipate or plan for the very most obvious things in baseball is astonishing. 

—When the Boston Red Sox beat him out to sign Dice-K, Cashie inked another Japanese pitcher, claiming he was just as good. 

Dice-K helped pitch the Sox to the 2007 World Series title. Kei Igawa gave us one of the weirdest, saddest stories in baseball history.

—A few years later, the Red Sox beat out Cashman to sign Yoàn "Slowly I turn to you..." Moncada. He turned out to be a disappointment—crapshoot time!—but the Sox insisted on trying anyway for four years to make him their starting shortstop...

—I kid, I kid! After just 8 games in the majors, they traded Moncada to the Pale Hose for Chris Sale, who went on to pitch the Carmine Hose to another championship in 2013, and has had a near-Hall-of-Fame career in Boston and Atlanta.

—Yes, the Red Sox used a highly rated minor leaguer to acquire an outstanding pitcher who would take the team over the top. What a strategy! Who could conceive of such a thing???

—Prior to the 2018 season, hitting-and-pitching sensation Shohei Ohtani shocked Cashman by passing up the Yankees' offer and signing with a team in a big, cosmopolitan city 3,000 miles closer to his home. Cashman's response was...nothing.

—Once upon a time, the New York Yankees could have been counted on to be the team that went full throttle after Tarik Skubal. Now, as always, they operate within the tightly circumscribed limits of contention imposed by Hal Steinbrenner, and such a coup is not possible.

—The results show. Over the past 25 years—25 YEARS!—Hal & Pal's New York Yankees have won exactly 1 World Series. 

The Los Angeles Dodgers have won 3, and bid fair to become the first National League team ever to win three straight World Series. The Boston Red Sox have won 4 rings—and eliminated the Yankees three different times. The Houston Astros have won 2 championships—and eliminated our boys four times. 

Even the San Francisco Giants, run as a small-market team, have won 3 titles in these same 25 years.

The shame of it all is that the Yankees, in this "run-it-back" year actually seem to have assembled a pitching staff that might be capable of competing even with the Skubal Dodgers in a short series. But they won't, because Brian Cashman once again will find the price at the trade deadline too high for any player who would actually help the Yanks (what a surprise!).

And Hal will spend the off-season fighting to...contain the Dodgers and make sure that he is less able than ever to bring the Yankees' enormous monetary advantage to bear in any future seasons.

Damn, what bad luck!

Runk Blog ends. The Dodgers and Redsocks ate my lunch

 

Four days of intense drinking and watching the Yankees bungle away the season. 

Tarik Skubal is a Dodger. 

Anthony Volpe is a Yankee.

The Redsocks are now two behind in the loss column.

They will soon overtake us. 

There is no certainty that Aaron Judge will return. 

Without him, we're dead.

Today, Brian Cashman will try to trade our way back to the top. 

Be afraid.

SKUBAL GOES TO DODGERS FOR A HANDFUL OF PROSPECTS

Fucking unbelievable.

Ate One, Twenty Twenty Six - side affects may include Light Headedness, Nausea and Explosive Diarrhea

 

 

 

Runk blog continues: Did will Warren and Spencer Jones just punch their trade tickets?

 

Man, this is too much thinking for a four-day binge. But Will Warren and Spencer Jones, in leading the Yankees to vaunted victory over the Cubbies yesterday, just added to their trade value by having a big game. So... follow me here...

Warren, pitching shutout ball into the 7th, now looks like a cost-controlled starting pitcher for some team, any team, that is willing to cough up a decent catcher. 

Unless, he's pitching so well that Cooperstown Cashman will decide to keep him, because we can't have another trade deadline where he gives up a Jordan Montgomery, which is what happened in 2022, when the brain trust whiffed on practically everything. 

And Jones homered yesterday, his second in a couple days, and we might be on the verge of seeing what he does when he's hot, which might be the best time to trade him... 

Unless... our lack of hitting means we need a hot bat more than ever, so why in God's creaton would we trade him, and let's get back to finding a new home and a decent return for Anthony Volpe who - beware - will probably hit three HRs today. So there. My head hurts. I need a drink. One more day of this. 

AN AA IIHIIFIIC EDITORIAL GAME THREAD MESSAGE –

 

A good faith effort.

 

That's about all you can reasonably expect from a sports team, and that's not what we are getting from our New York Yankees these days.

It's not what we're getting from the team the Yankees put on the field. It's not what we're getting from their befuddled manager, or their general manager. It's not what we're getting from their absentee owner. 

But it's also not what we're getting from the people who run the sport—and by that I include not only the awful, nepo owners and their odious commissioner, but also the militantly unionized, militantly right-wing, increasingly unaccountable ballplayers.

So here are 19 or 20 observations on all that:

—Dropped pop-ups, egregious baserunning mistakes, and gobsmackingly terrible decision-making: we have seen all of these help the Yankees fritter away game after game once again this past week, and really all season long.

You've seen them all; no need to nauseate ourselves further. But more than anything, I think, they display an overwhelming inattention.

—I understand that teams slump. I understand that the season gets very long, particularly out in Chicago on a hot summer's day. 

"You have no idea what a grind it becomes," I remember Reggie Jackson saying to me—or words to that effect—in explaining how wearying the long season really is. 

And I remember thinking (though not saying!), 'There are people in this country who work 12 hour days, six days a week, all year round, in meatpacking plants and sweatshops.'

—I'm not somebody who likes to accuse ballplayers of not playing hard. 

For the most part, in sports such as football and basketball, which are now played by giants at a terrifying pace, I think it's impossible not to play hard without getting torn apart.  

In hockey, maybe the players aren't so big. But it's still fast, and they give them sharp sticks they can whack each other with.

In baseball...the game depends much more upon being alert, all the time. Anticipating. Making instant, on-field decisions. That's not what we're seeing.

—Traditionally, this was something a manager might take care of. Chewing out players, benching them. Fining them. Shipping them down to the minors.

I realize that all of those methods are gone now. Guys have no fear that they are going to end up in those self-same meatpacking plants or sweatshops, and that's a good thing.

—Still, what methods there are—looking at you, Phil Jackson—seem beyond the capability of Aaron Boone. His lack of basic baseball instincts as a field manager is depressing—though of course it is hard to know exactly what orders he is getting from The Man In the High Castle.

—But his field smarts—or lack there of—aside, Boone seems to be operating from an archaic idea of what it is to be a Yankees manager. 

He seems to think that he is the new Joe Torre, here to protect his players from both their insane owner and a rabid sporting press, and keep them focused on the game.

Well, Hal is no George, and the sporting press barely exists anymore, sad to say. And Boone's players sure as hell aren't focused on the game.

—Of course, Boone is not responsible for the roster he has been given, or the prevailing culture of the team. That's on our general-manager-for-life, Brian Cashman. 

—We are about to be hit with yet another influx of trade deadline, pennant-drive acquisitions, as if Cashman were a modern-day George Weiss. He's not—and what we will get is the usual slop of burned out relief pitchers, back-up outfielders, and infielders who either can't hit or can't move. 

Mark my words: the suppurating wound that is the catching position on this team will not even be addressed.

—Yes, the 2026 Yankees are beset by injuries. As they are every year now, and as many teams are. Cashman promised to thoroughly investigate this...after, I think, the 2018 season. 

Nothing was done, and why would it be? Why should Cashie deprive himself of his usual excuse for the team underperforming?

—It doesn't help that the ballplayers themselves do nothing to ensure that they can stay on the field. 

The other day, Cody Bellinger topped a season of awful hitting and inexplicably bad positioning in the field by pulling a hamstring just by sprinting out of the box. He is laid up for 4-6 weeks, at a time when his team needs him the most.

—Injuries of this severity, in this circumstance, never used to happen. Four-to-six weeks, from taking two steps from home?  

They occur all the time now, and the reason they do is that, quite obviously, the players have bought into the algorithms and analytics, as instructed, and decided to routinely overwork their bodies in the weight room. 

But hard as they might work on the weight, this too is not a good faith, baseball effort.

—Bellinger, you'll recall, took part in an extended holdout this year before he realized that the Yankees were only bidding against themselves, and grudgingly signed a contract that pays him $42.5 million a year.

Look, I don't like to make everything about money, either. And I admit that, were I to get $42.5 million a book, I might lose a bit of motivation, too. 

—But at a certain point, as Casey Stengel used to say, the attendance is robbed. You get that sort of money, for any performance, you need to take a certain amount of responsibility upon yourself to...well, show up and perform.

—It's true that fish rot from the head down, and in Hal Steinbrenner, you have one rotten fish. 

What makes watching this team so unbearable is how bad the game is in general. This is something that has been imposed upon it by the owners, in the name of efficiency, and accepted by the players, both without a thought as to what the viewing millions might think about it.

—Boring, insipid play at mind-boggling prices for tickets and TV? These problems with baseball today don't seem to occur to Hal and his fellow owners.  

—They are too busy shoving their players into clown suits, mostly to milk still more money from the gearheads. Even great, traditional uniforms such as the Yankees' are now besmirched with advertisements, and it won't be long before they resemble the regular unis of racing car drivers and soccer players.

And the players go along with all this, without a murmur. 

—Incessant, blaring advertisements—and permanent, player-maiming ads on the outfield walls—obscene prices for all concessions, countless thousands of seats lopped off stadiums for the space required to build luxury boxes and bars, game-time lotteries in the ballpark, monopolistic TV channels that nonetheless peddle games off to other streaming services for still more money...

But you've heard me say this before.

None of this is a good-faith effort in regard to the entertainment they are providing. 

And neither the suits nor the players seem to actually know or care what the average fan experience is, or what we might think of the game they are steadily diminishing.

—Players and owners alike have decided to play the game they want, with as much effort and attention as they deign to expend, and geared solely to the elite customers they most value.

And now, on top of this, Hal is about to throw in with his fellow owners in yet another labor battle, and thereby make it all the more impossible to actually use his huge money advantage to compete.

—The ugliness of the game on the field, where today no one can hit .300, or pitch a complete game, or hit to the opposite field, or think for a moment, reflects the ugliness of its soul—and the shame of so many of us who let them get away with it.

 

Point blank

He should've been fired at least seven years ago, but calling a run "a point" is worth a man's job.

[image or embed]

— Richard M. Nixon (@dicknixon.bsky.social) July 31, 2026 at 8:27 AM

Contrast with Boone Culture

Runk Blog continues: Can't nobody hit? Are we simply waiting for the trades?

 

Two in a row, extra innings, a walk-off walk, are you kidding me? WTF is wrong with this team. I'm dealing with Redsock fans - filthy minded, smirking, with their funny green Redsock hats and their Tom Brady shirts and their fake Boston accents and their explosive diarrhea of the mouth, yeah, who can get a word in edgewise, not me, that's for sure, and is Mitch McConnell taking calls? Because that's who the Yankee offense reminds me of. They should call themselves the Mitch Ditch, because they play like they're in one. 

I watched the last inning yesterday. Don't know why. Just had to see it for myself. There was Fernando Cruz, kissing his jewelry, raising his eyes to heaven and going 3-0 on batter after batter - the previous guy swung at ball four and would have ended the game earlier and more humanly, and so he walks in the winning run, another blown opportunity, and this is getting tedious. I need a drink. 

I honestly now believe the Yankees are going to blow this Wild Card chase and finish out of the postseason. Something is really screwy, really bad, about this team. It's got 2013 written all over it. 

July 30th, 2027 Game Thread ∞ It starts tonight, Former True Believers™ . . .

 

The Chicago Seven...continues.

 

So Cashman's left us bound and gagged

And he's chained us to a chair

Won't you please turn off Chicago

So I can save my mind?

For a team that's known for winning

How can such a thing be fair?

Won't you please turn off Chicago

Before it leaves us blind?

We can change this team

Rearrange this team

It's dying

To get better

(Can't get any worse...)

Aaron Boone sit yourself down

There's nothing for you here

Won't you please just leave Chicago?

No, we're not being snide

Don't ask Hal to help us

Cause he'll turn the other ear

Won't you please just leave Chicago or join the other side?

(We can change)

Yes, we can change the game

(Or at least the channel)

Rearrange the game

(It's dying)

And if you believe in baseball

(It's dying)

Play the game like you've got half a brain

(It's dying)

Analytics who needs them?

Throw 'em out the door!

Somehow the Yankees must be freed

I hope the day comes soon

Won't you please turn off Chicago?

I can't find the channel anyway

From the back of the bullpen

To the lumps sitting on the bench

Won't you please just leave Chicago?

And rejoin the human race.

We can't find the game

(Believe me, you don't want to)

We can't stand the game

(When we do find it)

If you believe in greatness

(It's dying)

If you believe in more than money

(Not Hal or Pal)

Analytics, who needs 'em?

Throw 'em out the door.

With apologies to Graham Nash.

Runk blog underway. Did I dream that Michael Kay puts Brylcream in his tea?

Siri, write this down. Two nights ago, had a fever dream about Michael Kay and Joe Girardi, explaining how to stir tea. Kay takes off his glasses and sticks an arm into the cup and swirls the tea. Girardi thinks that's crazy, but Bryant Gumbel - I swear I'm not making this up - texts Kay and says he's been stirring drinks with his glasses for 20 years, so if it's good for Bryant Gumball, I mean, it's good for everybody, right, Siri. Siri? Siri?

(Do you want to keep going?)

Yeah, no, actually no. Siri, keep this going. There's nothing worse than a bullpen loss. We had the game, and we lost it. Terrible. I got nothing more to say.

(Send it to the blog?)

Send. 

Happy Happy JOY JOY JOY (SCHLiTT is on the Mound !)

 

Annual dRUNK blog begins today. For next four days, expect no cogency.

 

Every year, I gather with old college buddies for four days of nonstop drinking bullshit sharp social dialogue. Imagine the Burning Man festival merged with a Juggalo convention, which subsists on Labatt's Blue and Utz Honey Barbecue chips. It's not exactly the Chautauqua Institute, unless it hosted a weeklong salute to the Three Stooges, on mescaline and bad laxatives. 

Did I mention that we're all in our 70s?

The event includes a few straggling Redsock fans, to whom I shall gently pose the following questions.

1. WTF happened to the great and almighty Marcelo Mayer? I thought he was supposed to be the next Jeter? Your Jeter. Like Jeter Downs was? Hey, remember Jeter Downs?  

2. Is superman Roman Anthony still a thing? Didn't he bad cleanup for Team USA in the World Baseball Cup? Is it true that he's hitting .229? Wow. That's territory occupied by The Martian.  

3. So, lemme get this straight: Aroldis is gonna close all season. He's never gonna blow? Ever? He's just gonna keep throwing 104 mph strikes, with flash flood warning sweat glands, and everything's gonna be okay? Lemme get this on tape. Aroldis is gonna save the season? Uh-huh. 

4. Where is Jeter Downs, anyway? Drinking with Alex Verdugo? I wonder if they're talking about Mookie Betts?

5. Hey, you DO realize that neither the Yankees nor Boston are gonna win it all, right? We'll play 162 games, then three weeks of postseason, and the Dodgers will walk away with it, as they were always gonna, right?

6. Yeah, I hear you... Giancarlo, Giancarlo, Giancarlo... I yell "Jeter Downs," and you yell "Giancarlo." Do we sound like idiots?

7. Oh yeah? JETER DOWNS, pally. JETER DOWNS.

Okay, folks, I'm off the clock and chasing danger.