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Kevin Baker's book is here!
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Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Eight games out, though it seems a lifetime

A-Rod returns Thursday, and CC on Friday. Ten years ago, such words would make a difference. Now? We just reshuffle the deck. The Bronx Boredoms are listing.

It's ridiculous to be watching scoreboards in mid-May. Nevertheless, the standings are starting to pinch. We are last in the AL East, four below .500, eight losses behind Baltimore, with a never-ending shuttle of middling prospects from Scranton, and a lineup stressed to score three times per game. Wasn't it yesterday that the Yankees were the premier franchise in baseball? Now, we're a distant second in NYC, delighted with ourselves for beating mighty Kansas City and - worst of all - an organization that curtsies to Big Papi just to keep alive the moribund Yankee-Redsock rivalry. What happened to us?

Well, okay... we became antiques. No news here. Everybody knew this team couldn't last forever. But why, why, why couldn't our farm system grow an infield? Other teams do. What happened to all our high draft picks, which the blog/YES propaganda mill touted? There was Dante Bichette Jr., Jeremy Bleich, Cito Culver, Andrew Brackman, Ty Hensley, et al - WTF happened? Some were hurt. Some are gone. Some are stuck forever in Trenton. WTF happened? We have scouts. We have coaches. We have "baseball men." WTF?

And then Hal ruled that he should not have to spend his hard-inherited money. That was Bud Selig's last joke on NY - the luxury tax, which Food Stamps didn't want to pay. Thus, we're stuck in Steinbrenner limbo, unable to get below the tax threshold, unable to legitimately contend, waiting for 2019, or maybe the year after that. We passed on Max Scherzer. We passed on David Price. We passed on Greinke, Cuetto, and a generation of Cuban players, including Yoan Moncada, who looks to be a Yankee scourge for years to come. What we do have is a raft of 18-year-olds from a burst of international signings two summers ago, before most of them started shaving. They're three years away, and considering our track record with the Bichettes and Culvers, who knows if they won't just disappear into the Charleston-Trentonian void? Are we really supposed to be following the Dominican Summer League?

Last night, we were shut down by the pitcher the Diamondbacks received in the Didi Gregorious trade, the one we spent the last 18 months congratulating ourselves over. Don't get me wrong: I'm glad we have Didi. But it's just one more reminder that you can't magically trade your way to the top. Those other GMs - the ones that are not us - they are not stupid. They don't give up something for nothing, especially when dealing with the Yankees. So here we are - last in the East, with a sea of empty blue seats in Yankee Stadium and a long hard summer ahead.

Doom? Gloom? Sorry. Maybe it's just the morning after a spanking. But these mornings-after are starting to become the norm. And the return of A-Rod isn't enough.

5 comments:

Local Bargain Jerk said...


A-Rod returns Thursday, and CC on Friday. Ten years ago, such words would make a difference.

I just flashed on a quote that came from a Yankee around the time A-Rod was cheating on his wife with Madonna.

Apparently, A-Rod was bragging in the locker room that he had bagged Madonna and, I can't remember the player who said it, but it was something like "15 years ago, that would have been impressive."

No one can escape Father Time.

Anonymous said...

8 GAMES OUT.....LAST PLACE......AND SOMEHOW I STILL HEAR SOME PEOPLE IN THE MEDIA SAYING BRIAN CASHMAN IS DOING A "GREAT" JOB.....ISN'T THAT AMAZING?.... THE JUSTIN WILSON TRADE, THE CHASE HEADLEY, (AND STEPHEN DREW) SIGNINGS, AND COUNTLESS OTHER AWFUL MOVES COVERING MANY MANY YEARS...... NO ONE HAS THE LIST ON HAND AS I DO SO THEY DON'T REALIZE HOW BAD HE HAS BEEN...... READY?.... MIKE LOWELL, JAVIER VASQUEZ (TWICE), CARL PAVANO, JEFF WEAVER, -......OH WELL, I'M TOO TIRED TO LIST EVEN HALF OF THEM AGAIN, BUT YOU ALL GET THE IDEA.

joe de pastry said...

Some who write on this blog don't appreciate Stanley Cup playoff hockey, but believe me Diamondbacks 12 Bronx Bummers 2 was a lot less exciting than Penguins 3 Lightning 2 in overtime. I saw all of the goals, but I didn't see any fights because there weren't any.

Anonymous said...

Suggest you order from B&N that upcoming best seller, "How To Destroy Pitchers", by Joe Girardi, with an introduction by Joe Torre.
These two are as incompetent baseball managers as one can find, Add them to a boy trying to do a man's job, little Brian Cashman, and you know what's wrong in the Bronx. The only thing I blame the Steinbrenner boys for is allowing these two morons to continue screwing up.

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