Saturday, December 9, 2017

Look who's smiling (?)

Posted by el duque at 9:45 AM


16 comments:

13bit said...

What a disaster.

December 9, 2017 at 10:12 AM
Leinstery said...

Might as well trade for Babe Benitendi and any other hall of fame players that are floating around .

December 9, 2017 at 10:45 AM
Honey Barnes said...

Trumpian

December 9, 2017 at 11:05 AM
13bit said...

Cashman shows his true colors. I'll miss Castro. He was a good one.

December 9, 2017 at 11:33 AM
HoraceClarke66 said...

I don't like it either. But the devil, as always, is in the details. Just what are we giving up?

—Headley and Starlin both had better 2017 seasons than I ever expected. But both are blocking up the Love Train from the minors. If they are going, it's a solid plus for the youth movement.

—Let's remember: whenever anybody says that your team failed for this or that reason, it's really because they didn't have enough pitching. Why did the Red Sox lose all those years? No pitching. The Cubs? No pitching. Why did Japan lose WW II? Because they alienated other Asian peoples with their racialist philosophies and lacked anything like America's industrial base?

Sure. But mostly? No pitching.

—Yes, A-Rod ended up being a huge pain, who had a lot of terrible postseason series. But A-Rod also won two MVP awards for us, finally got us a ring in 2009, and generally played very, very well. He always outperformed the guy we gave up for him, Alfonso Soriano.

—The reason we didn't win more postseason series during A-Rod's time was due to a lot of things. Gambia's meltdown, acquiring Sheffield over Guerrero, etc. But most of all...

—PITCHING!

—Believe me, if we had had better pitching throughout the A-Rod years—something A-Rod did nothing to prevent—we would now be sitting around reminiscing about dear old Alex, and all the championships he helped bring us.

Yes, the strikeouts are a big concern. Yes, Stanton's injury past is a big, BIG concern.

But if we manage to keep most or all of our best young pitchers—if we manage to move some big, expensive blocks out of the way of our best young, day-to-day players—this might end up being pretty damned good.

December 9, 2017 at 11:58 AM
13bit said...

What we lacked “all those years“ was real situational hitting. I like homers as much is anybody else, but we need guys who can bang out singles and doubles. We actually had good pitching for a lot of those years, but we could not buy a run to save our lives.

December 9, 2017 at 12:12 PM
Leinstery said...

I have to agree with Horace. Let's assume the pitching doesn't fall apart, then the team will be fine. And thanks for the Japan WWII laugh, as my butt cheeks have been clenched since last night in terror, I needed that.

This trade might work out. However, I fully expect him to miss at least a month every single season, most seasons he'll miss two.

December 9, 2017 at 12:34 PM
13bit said...

hokum, hogwash and humbug...

December 9, 2017 at 12:57 PM
Anonymous said...

13 BIT IS RIGHT ON THE BUTTON.

IN MY OPINION, OUR SITUATIONAL HITTING SCORE THE LAST 5-6 YEARS HAS BEEN A 1.5 OUT OF 10, AT BEST!

IT SEEMS TO GET WORSE AND WORSE EVERY YEAR.

HORRIBLE.

NOT NEAR ENOUGH CONTACT IS MADE WITH RUNNERS IN SCORING POSITION (ESPECIALLY WITH LESS THAN 2 OUTS).

I BELIEVE IT CORRELATES WITH ALL THIS SABERMETRIC SHIT THAT HAS TAKEN OVER.

WHY SWING FOR 1 RUN, WHEN YOU CAN SWING FOR 3 RUNS WHEN THERE ARE GUYS ON BASE?

NOT GOOD BASEBALL, NO MATTER HOW YOU SLICE IT.

December 9, 2017 at 1:06 PM
Anonymous said...

Really guys we complained about Castro and his strikeouts all year and now we're sad he's gone...#classicYankeefan

December 9, 2017 at 1:49 PM
KD said...

I will not miss Castro one bit. Bring up a sprout.

December 9, 2017 at 1:56 PM
HoraceClarke66 said...

Yes, situation hitting is important. During the A-Rod years when we were serious contenders—2004-2012—we also missed things like good role players and general depth.

But NO, NONE of that is why we didn't win out more than once. Just look at our AL rank in runs scored and runs allowed, 2004-2012:

RS RA
2004 2 6
2005 2 9
2006 1 6
2007 1 7
2008 7 6
2009 1 6
2010 1 5
2011 2 3
2012 2 4

In other words, with the exception of that annus horribilus, 2008, the Yanks had one of the very highest scoring teams in the majors, finishing first in runs scored 4 times, and second 4 times, in 9 years.

At the same, they usually hung back around the middle of the pack when in came to runs allowed.

Or take a look at the postseason series ERAs:

2004: 3.73
5.17

2005: 4.40

2006: 5.56

2007: 5.89

2009: 1.55
2.91
4.58

2010: 2.00
6.58

2011: 3.27

2012: 1.76
4.14

In other words, when they pitched well, they almost always won.

And it's not just the stats, though they are pretty damned convincing.

By the time A-Rod joined the team in 2004, the pen was stretched thin, and the starting staff was hollowed out, with old Coops Cashman having just let 3 starters with over 700 wins between them walk off the team for nothing in return. Musician had begun a serious decline.

Almost all of the attempts to replace them—Vazquez, Jared Wright, the Bronz Giant, Esteban Loiaza, Randy Johnson, Kevin Brown, Carl Pavano, etc., ad nauseum—proved to be costly failures, to say the least, in terms of money and players. There were occasional stopgaps who worked out for awhile—Jon Lieber, Shawn Chacon, Aaron Small—but only for awhile.

So why did we lose? Well...for the same reasons the Japanese did in WW II. Minus all the racialist beliefs and industrial base disparity stuff.

December 9, 2017 at 4:10 PM
13bit said...

Well, if you're going to start talking military history, I'm not going to fall for the bait.

December 9, 2017 at 7:36 PM
13bit said...

I will say this, though....

When we voted on war with Japan, there was one member of Congress who voted against it, on principle. I'm not saying I am opposed to this trade on principle. I have no principles, no scruples and very few morals. I'm just a thick-headed guy with a very stubborn streak. I also would not have opposed the post Pearl Harbor vote. I'm just saying I happen to know who Jeanette Rankin is and, god damn it, I remember Pearl Harbor. Let's hope Stanton stays healthy for the next ten years. Yeah, that's right.

December 9, 2017 at 7:43 PM
HoraceClarke66 said...

Poor Rankin. There's a picture of her in a phone in the Capitol right after the vote and she's simply besieged by the photographers, and looks terrified, as who would not be?

Curious career, she was elected to the House in 1916, just in time to oppose the WW I vote—as a number of others did—voted out in 1918, then got elected again in 1940, just in time...

Still, she remained true to her principles, and seemed to find some vindication opposing the Vietnam War in the 1960s.

But yes, you are right: THERE'S NO PRINCIPLES IN BASEBALL! YEE-HAW (to quote Major Kong)!

December 10, 2017 at 12:40 AM
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July 11, 2021 at 7:42 AM

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