Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Is Julio Franco still available? Here we go again.

Once again, we fell for it. How gullible can we be? Stupid, stupid, stupid!

We should have known. All winter, they talked up their farm system - among the best in baseball! - assuring us that its fruits would get a fair shot in spring training. And why not? Over the last two years, they had seemingly broken with the moribund, tiresome, dreary policies of the past - (you could almost say they drained the swamp) - and gave second chances to Judge, Sanchez, Bird, Montgomery, Severino... overachievers, rather than the endless conga line of Vernon Wells, Chase Headley and Chris Carter. They talked up Miguel Andujar as the 3B of the future, and we actually believed them! They said Tyler Wade was ready, and we ate their B.S. with a knife and fork. Stupid, stupid, stupid...

Listen: We can sit around all day and debate whether Neil Walker, 32, is an upgrade over Tyler Wade, 23... but why bother? Walker can go 0-for-March in Tampa; it won't matter. Wade can run wild on the bases; it won't matter. The debate isn't whether Cooperstown Cashman has improved the team 
1.4 mili-iotas, because it's impossible to prove. We won't get the chance to see what Wade can do, because the Yankees have limped back to doing what they always do - sign an old guy and turn their backs on the future. Sorry, Austin, but Adam Lind is with us now! Sorry, guys, you're all going back to Scranton.

It's a wonder Aaron Judge and Greg Bird are not playing in Pittsburgh. 

Well, what's done is done, right? Wade will go to Scranton, disillusioned and deflated, and when he goes 1 for 20, playing dead-end SS, while Gleyber Torres takes grounders at 2B, the front office will say, "See? We were right all along!" Andujar? Who cares what he does? We'll sign Manny Machado next winter, and Andujar will bring us some pitching version of Freddie Garcia.

Damn, how did we let ourselves get suckered again? They mixed the Kool-Aid, and we drank it. Stupid, stupid, stupid. The old Yankees are back, and Cashman will tinker with every aspect of this roster, until his fingerprints cover every last inch of Aaron Boone's butt hole. 

But write this down... one of these days, we will pay a price. One of these young players - traded or waived to make space for a miniature upgrade - will become The One That Got Away. Cashman talked up the youth movement. But when we kicked, he pulled the ball away. One of these days, Lucy will have some 'splainin' to do. 

7 comments:

Carl J. Weitz said...

Very good analysis Duque. When you boil everything down to its lowest common denominator, it becomes quite obvious. It is Cashman's Modus Operandi.And it does appear that Andujar will be traded once they overpay for Machado. At least Gleyber will be next year's starting second baseman, right?

13bit said...

How long is Cashman's new contract for?

Joe Formerlyof Brooklyn said...


Lesson Re-Learned:

A Spot can't change its leopards.

Anonymous said...

YOU WERE RIGHT MR. DUQUE....

THE DEAL FOR THE AGING VETERAN WAS LOOMING ABOVE US LIKE A DARK CLOUD....

KOOP KICKED US IN THE KRAPPER.

JM said...

Cashman is there until he decides to leave, which will be never. Hal loves him. (In a manly way.)

By the way, nice to have an acid-tongued low scorer in reading comprehension back in the comments. It warms my heart to know nasty drunks still read the blog.

I really, really, really don't want Machado. I don't know if it can be avoided, unless our crying billionaire decides he won't cough up the ridiculous megamillions contract. If Andujar snares enough playing time at third and shows his stuff, we might avoid the stupidity. Might. Glyber looked terrible this Spring, so he definitely needs to recover from his (serious) surgery in Scranton. And if he does, and comes up to the big club, whither Tyler Wade? Walker will go back to the free agent market next winter...if he isn't traded before that. Drury, Dreary, whatever his name is, too.

The thing is (Ben Grimm), right now we have a little teeny bit of a glut in infield prospects. They aren't all going to be playing at the Stadium on a regular basis. I say, let injuries and fate take their course, just like in the outfield.

When the dust settles, I hope that we end up with Andujar, Didi, Glyber, and Bird as our set infield, if they all stay healthy and produce like we think they can. If the other kids are that good, I hope they get to play somewhere where they can show it.

A year or two from now, we'll be happy. Or gnashing our teeth yet again. It was ever thus. My guess is, it will probably be both, depending on the day.

13bit said...

A year from now, we could all be dead. In baseball, as in the rest of this thing called "life," a year is a long time. To be even more trite and cliched, "man plans, god laughs." I'd love to see us with Andujar, Didi, Glyber and Bird in a year, but I think the odds are low of that happening. Cashman may be the real "Joey Binders," which would explain a lot. Let's hope he's going by some horrible, stats-driven methodology and not following his "gut," since his gut is so wretchedly off so much of the time. Anyway, all we have is today - another fake "winter weather alert" day here in downtown Gotham. Okay Lucy, line it up again and let's try to kick that ball.

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