I still think we shouldn't have taken John Carlo. We didn't need him, either. Although if he keeps hitting lefties at a .400 clip, he's a great platoon player.
Hicks is living up to my expectations. His career is an accurate expression of his ability, not that short spurt last year. Gardner in center, Frazier in left. Except when we face a lefty, and then J.C. Scranton.
Hicks should be sent to Triple A, or at least traded to the White Sox or Reds or some other cellar-dweller.
I feel bad for Brandon Drury. Talk about a comedown. The guy gets to the Yankees and is the starting third baseman, and within weeks he's getting migraines, doing rehab, and is now assigned to the minors. He's like Wally Pipp, but without the previous career.
I had to look twice before I realized that Cano is only in the fifth year of his ten-year contract. OMG. Poor Seattle. It's like he's already 41.
Suckers.
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19 comments:
I share your concern for Brandon Drury. It is really tough to hit a baseball for average ( or power ) with blurred vision.
He must be, at the core, the greatest hitter ever. How did he star in high school, and at the next levels, when he couldn't see clearly? What does a baseball look like if you have " blurred vision?" Is this why he was available for a trade? Did Brian not do his due diligence on Brandon?
When Cashman met him, and Brandon, with extended hand, went right past him to shake the hand of the waiter, did that not raise a question?
So now the rhetoric is : he gets to stay " baseball sharp" while coming to NYC 3X per week for treatment. That's the beauty of Scranton. Although, I can tell you this: even in a limo, a thrice weekly round trip to Scranton can't be fun.
Maybe he uses a private plane followed by a limo. Maybe the plane and the limo both have movie star wannabe's in them.
Maybe there is weed, coke and Netflix.
Still, I would rather hope he can see (100%) before he comes back to stand in from of 97 mph fastballs.
I wouldn't worry too much about Drury. The drumbeat is already on at more statistically oriented sites to promote him and send Andujar back down. I don't know if they'll prevail, but I suspect El Matador is one more slump away from heading back to Scranton.
I do feel bad about Hicks, and that hot streak he hit last year is so tantalizing. But yes, I think it is time to give Red Thunder his shot and, unless he collapses completely, trade Aaron on. Our main demand should be young arms, young arms, young arms.
Seriously--does any rational person think that another team wants a piece of garbage like Hicks? He's going to have to be released.
There is no drumbeat anywhere that I can find to promote the mediocrity Drury and send the potential star Andujar to the minors. Only a fatally diseased organization would make such a move. In Drury's PEAK season--2016--his WAR was 1.3. Notwithstanding all the unverified claims that he's great on defense, his career defensive war is in MINUS terrtory: -1.1. Drury, over a large sample size of three MLB seasons, is a proven mediocrity. I think the stat-oriented sites that HC66 claims to be consulting are located somewhere up his derriere.
I have not heard or read one knowledgeable baseball analyst who thinks it's a good idea to supplant Andujar with Drury.
The remaining question is this: when Cashman ardently recruited Drury, what the hell was he looking at? Maybe Cashman is the one with blurred vision.
There certainly is something wrong in there in Cashman's head, that's for sure.
The possibility of Hicks having to be released is a good point, but situations do occur. E.g., some other team might have injury(ies) in their outfield and might be willing to buy his contract if the price was right.
Hicks has a one-year contract for $2.825M so one of his few advantages is he's not tethered to some onerous multi-year obligation. I'm not saying that some other injury-depleted team would pay his full contract even just for 2018 or that they woudl give up much in the way of prospects, but getting, say, $750K in cash for Hicks or one or two Single A kids is better than just releasing him. For the other team, they would get an MLB-ready player to plug a hole for one season. That could be a cheap solution to a problem.
In the meanwhile, I'll ask a variation on the questions we were asking before this season started and most of last. The question was: "Can [player X] learn to play first?".
My new question is: Assuming we moved Hicks, who among Stanton, Judge, Frazier, Gardner, or anyone else on the 40-man roster could possibly play CF?
Is an outfield consisting of Frazier LF, Judge CF, Stanton RF something that's possible? Gardner could provide relief/rest days at CF and LF and Judge could move over as necessary to give Stanton a break. I'm wondering if Judge's athleticism might be worth testing.
Is something like this worth thinking about (versus buying a guy we don't much need)?
The goal of course is to find a way for us to avoid 1) overpaying for Bryce and 2) deploying the money instead to a reliable starting pitcher(s).
For the record: I would still love to see Bumgarner in pinstripes.
For some reason it seems to be heresy, but I think Gardy is fine in CF. He's still got some speed, he can catch the ball, and his arm is better than Ellsbury, who was supposed to be our CF.
I'd take a bag of beans for Hicks. This is just painful and highly annoying to watch.
Is there any evidence that Stanton has a good enough arm to be a right fielder? I think a better configuration would be Stanton in left, Frazier in center (he has the speed to cover the territory and compensate to some extent for Stanton's lack of range), and Judge in right because of his cannon arm.
I don't think that the Yankees need to break the bank for either Harper or Machado--they are already well provisioned with top-quality outfielders, and Andujar appears to be a potential star. Machado has been a somewhat erratic player throughout his career and has gotten everything together--including plate discipline--only in his walk year, which is always a worrisome sign when contemplating a massive outlay on a long-term contract of the kind that routinely blow up in teams' faces on the far end of the term.
One other point to remember about Machado--when the Orioles called him up from AA ball, Machado was batting .260 at that level. Andujar is easily surpassing that level of play at a comparable stage of development. If the Yankees are smart, they will overcome their bad habit of lapping up every shiny object on the free-agent market and focus on their real areas of need: in this case, developing and/or trading for pitching.
Couldn't Frazier manage it? At least for a while? Or Gardner?
Another point to ponder on Machado: He has made it clear that he wants to play shortstop. If he insists on that, the Yankees would have to displace Gregorious, trading him or creating an even stickier logjam at third--and is there any evidence that Didi would be a competent third baseman? Probably--but who knows?
I'm guessing that Drury ends up as the new Tyler Wade. I mean that in a positive way. That when he finally comes back up he will move around the infield in the role that Wade (who will never come back) was envisioned. The Ben Zobrist of the Yankees.
As we all know Drury is another one of those Didi/Hicks buy low with potential pickups and Cashman will be loath to move on. Sometimes they work (Didi) sometimes they don't (Hicks)
It is time to cut bait with Hicks.
Frazier, Gardner, Judge w/Stanton as DH when Sanchez is behind the plate.
Stanton, Gardner, Judge w/Sanchez as DH. Or Frazier if any of them need a day off. If Gardner needs a day off than Hicks.
Drury spells, AnDUjar, Torres, and Didi.
I feel bad for Torreyes who is really fun. But the guy I feel really bad for is Tyler Austin. When Bird comes back he's a goner.
Doug K.
Why should Austin be a goner? Walker is a total stiff--another of Cashman's failed reclamation projects. No one else was interested in the guy until Cashman rode in like a billionaire psychotic showering money on this nonentity. Austin has a much more potent bat and is no worse defensively. It would be nice to think that Cashman could get over himself to realize that he achieved the hat trick in fucked up moves--the acquisitions of mediocre Drury when he had a budding star in Andujar, and the needless pickups of washouts Walker and Hicks--both of whom have WARs so low you would need a submarine to find them. Walker would be the odd man out in a competently run organizaton--in fact, he wouldn't be there to begin with.
I agree with you anon. But the statement "it would be nice to think" belies the unfortunate reality of Cashman's thinking. Oh, only if it were so.
Doug K.
Doug K., I like your idea for Drury, unless we can somehow get some promising pitching for him, which I very much doubt.
Torreyes and Austin might be able to stay, too, especially since Tyler One could be a backup outfielder.
By the time this all gets straightened out next year, it could be/should be:
INF:
Bird, Austin, Torres, Torreyes, Didi, El Matador, Drury.
OF:
Judge, Scranton, Frazier, Gardner or Hicks or McKinney.
C:
Sanchez, Romine.
Thing is, we will have to carry "only" seven relievers. But the staff might look like this:
Severino
Corbin
Tanaka
Gray
Montgomery
Hale/Cole//Sheffield/Whoever
German
Kahnle
Robertson
Betances
Green
Chapman
Not too shabby.
But it's the shaking out that could be brutal. If Didi continues in this spiral, there will pressure to deal him and sign Manny, which I would hate. If Frazier flops, there will be pressure to sign the Third Tenor, which I don't love either.
Can we get Bumgarner for a reasonable price? Should we? What about Kershaw, who seems to have lost some velocity? Should we bother to mess around with Harvey?
Inquiring minds want to know!
HC66 - Wow, that is a lot to ponder so I guess I'll start at the top.
Didi is gold. Not traded. Great clubhouse presence. Plus, despite recent slump, who doesn't like Didi? Don't sweat it.
Frazier - When Cashman, in one of his rare transactions when I go, "Wow, this guy (Cashman)is good" traded for Frazier. Remember, it was in that same sequence where he got Gleybar, for Chapman(FOR FREE!!!)
Cashman was in a zone. He was basically reaming the Cubs and the Indians because their GM's sought immortality and damn the torpedoes. So from the Cubs - Gleybar. and from The Indians - Frazier and Sheffield. I have to believe both trades are equal. Gleybar is proving his worth. Frazier and Sheffield are seriously tantalizing.
So either Frazier is great or traded, because the perception by other GMs is great. Either way the result will be positive.
Big ticket items - Unless we trade Stanton to the Dodgers because Hal, or as he's known around these parts, "Cheap Hal" ain't gonna pay 30 mil a year plus for Machado or Harper. If Hal can do it for less he will as long as the seats are filled and the ratings are good.
As to the pitchers... always a crap shoot. What I like is that the Yankees are building a solid core of position players and they can add pitchers, just like the 1996-2000 dynasty did.
Doug K.
Thanks, Doug K.! That is very reassuring!
Great reply Doug K!
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