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Wednesday, April 18, 2018

Appraisals for the yard sale.

Please note right away: I am not necessarily for trading any of the following players.

I still think we have a solid core of a team for the years ahead in Judge, Sanchez, and Gregorius, and that the future is, if not really bright, at least no worse than partly cloudy. And who knows? Even Giancarlo may start to hit one day. The stupidest thing would be to make panicky, silly moves.

BUT—what one-tenth of the season has told us, irrevocably, is that we have no pitching.

These, not Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance, are the saddest of possible words.

Not only do we not have any pitching, we have even less pitching than we did in those disappointing-but-transitional seasons of 1975 and 1995.

There's no veteran ace still strong and ready to lead the staff, as Catfish did in 1976, or Cone in 1996. No phenom waiting in the wings, as there was with Ron Guidry in 1977, or The Great One.

We not only don't have pitching, we don't even have pitching on the broad horizon. Which means that acquiring enough to be a bona fide contender is going to be hard. As a great man once sang, it will be like trying to get gold from a silver mine, like trying to drink whiskey from a bottle of wine (which, believe me, I have attempted on certain late nights during losing streaks).

Building a staff from this tower of rot is going to take some major-league finagling. So we might as well start by looking at the value of what we have. And with the notable exception of Sir Didi, I don't think anyone should be off the table.

Again, I have no possible idea of what combinations these guys can or should go in—if they should go at all. You might have to trade some pitchers to get better pitchers. You might have to trade stars.

That's all for a general manager—I mean a real general manager—to figure out. But here is what he will be dealing with:

Thank you for your service...
...and please pick up your ginormous parting checks at the door.

CC
Gardy

Sellable scrap

Tyler
Tyler Too
Walker
Romine
Montgomery
Rommel
The Toe
Hicks
Houdini
Chance Adams
Higashioka
Warren
Shreve
Heller/Holder (really the same person)

Broken stuff we are probably stuck with

Tanaka
Bird
Drury
Red Thunder
McKinney
Ellsbury
Cessa
Kahnle
Toonces
El Chapo

Deal 'em while they're still hot (IF you deal 'em at all)

Judge
Sanchez
Andujar (all right, tepid)
The Gleyber
Mean Chad Green
Severino
Sonny Gray (cooling rapidly every second)

The great stone head that will sit in the basement forever

Scranton










 

12 comments:

Alphonso said...

Hey Hoss,

I can appreciate the whiskey in the wine bottle. Days like this ( no baseball, following an embarrassing loss to the world's worst team ) call for binging ( alcohol ) and purging.

1. I trust nothing to Cashman. Why should we think he could make a successful deal for a pitcher now?
2. You keep Judge but also put him in the " trade 'em while they are hot" category?

I think Judge, and Hicks are keepers. I think Montgomery is a keeper. Luis, of course. Chad Greene has to be a keeper.
Might as well " go young " and keep Andjuhar and Torres. And Red Thunder, if he ever recovers. DIDI is core. Bird could be also. And he is our last and final chance of having a stable and competent first baseman. I say that with nary a straight face, but I believe it is our only hope. A team needs luck and it is time for his ( ours ) to change.

I don't think either one of us mentioned Stanton. He is untraceable and he can't pitch. So, little help there.

Romine is very important. Most other " back-up" players are interchangeable. But he is a competent catcher, and I don't hear much about the guy in Scranton ( who hit really well this spring ). If he is a hot prospect ( who could be a competent
number 2 ), there are teams who would give quality for Romine. If he isn't, then we need Romine.

I like this German dude. He reminds me of Luis. A bit younger and smaller. But I like him. No one ever liked the baby faced guy we got from Oakland. If he were good, he would still be in Oakland. I fear for Drury's health. So he may be gone and non-tradable.

But even if we deal all the others, we aren't going to get anyone major league ready. Chance Adams looks like a loser. So that leaves Sheffield.

Great analysis. You have convinced me that the Yankees are going down. How many wins had you predicted? I was 89.

Anonymous said...

Fire the f**k*r who put this team together!!

HoraceClarke66 said...

My prediction, I say with embarrassment bu alsot the honest owning up of the simple, yeoman farmers who built this great of ours: 112.

I will stand by that, officially, not wanting to get some cheap win off my immediate disillusionment. But to be realistic: I'm now thinking 71.

I am all for keeping Judge, and most of the other you mention.

I just say this theoretically. Back in my misbegotten youth, the greatest player I ever saw on the Yankees in his prime was Bobby Bonds. I loved that guy. Not only did he have enormous talent, but when he was asked to move to center because of injuries in 1975, even though he had a bad leg, he did so without a word of complaint and turned in a 30-30 season.

After the year was over, Gabe Paul traded him. For what I thought was a mess o' porridge: Mickey Rivers? Ed Figueroa? WTF?

I wept bitter tears. Turned out, of course, that it was a brilliant move.

So if Judge could be moved in a trade that would make the team...I would do it. Or anybody else.

Sadly, as you suggest, our current GM is not the guy to pull off that sort of wizardry.

I agree with you about most of the others, with the sole exception of Montgomery. The guy just doesn't have major-league stuff. I was hoping that this year that his velocity would improve or he could get by on smarts. But he can't. We should deal him before the rest of the league catches on.

Oh, and I DID mention Stanton! Or "Scranton."

"The great stone head that will sit in the basement forever"? Anyone get the reference? Anyone?

Also, the Rommel reference?

C'mon, I know you're out there! I can hear you breathing!

13bit said...

83 solid

Anonymous said...

METS WON...

RED SOX WON....

GET ME THE GUN.

I'M GONNA DO THE DEER HUNTER ON MYSELF.

Anonymous said...

What most of the posters in this blog need is a lifetime supply of Depend adult diapers. At least I'm ASSUMING that the typers in question are adults.

HoraceClarke66 said...

We're not adults—we're fans!

ALL-CAPS, don't kill yourself. Worst case scenario if it's a Mets-Red Sox Series: one group will be horribly disappointed.

Anonymous said...

There are fans, and then there are grown men who act like hysterical Victorian matrons.

Der Kaiser said...

Actually, it's a big ugly Olmec Indian head. It was carved by Mesoamerican Indians over three thousand years ago. This gruesome customer is Extopalopacatl, the god of war!

HoraceClarke66 said...

Thank you, Kaiser! I was not sure enough about by Mesoamerican cultures to name one over the others.

And hysterical Victorian matrons is my favorite pornographic fantasy! To quote Homer Simpson: Uhuhuhuh!

Anonymous said...

UH-O HOSS.....

I DETECT A NEW anonymous ASSHOLE.

WE'LL BRAKE HIM.

THIS SITE IS OUR WORLD, NOT HIS.

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