After a statement win over Seattle, more calls to stand pat

The world must be ending, the asteroid closing in. Horde canned food. Buy guns and Kevlar. If you've got a shovel, start digging. The end is near. That's the only way to explain this...  

Today, in the Murdoch-owned Post, Joel Sherman actually bucks the Illuminati Gammonite Secret World Command Orthodoxy, which requires the Yankees to soon bundle their best prospects for the likes of some rented tin can, such as J.A. Happ or Cole Hamels - or as I like to think of them, Happ and Hapless. In a breathtaking dissertation, which suggests that free will can still defeat predestination, Sherman argues that the Yankees actually do not have to do what the rest of baseball wants, and mortgage their future for twice-blown Goodyear retread:

In the 52 games since the team’s shaky 9-9 outset to the season, the rotation has a 3.38 ERA (sixth best in the majors). Over the past 21 games it is 2.77, second best. That latter result was produced without Montgomery and mostly without Tanaka, but with German sure looking more and more like a trustworthy starter.

To the rest of baseball, such words are terrifying. In the forums and sport sections across the nation, the great summer parlor game is to rate the top Yankee prospects, and then draw lines through each name as it sails off to Oakland or San Diego for the next Jaime Garcia. You can hear them plotting merrily: Domingo German, Jonathan Loiasiga and Clint Frazier for Happ? SOLD! Brandon Drury, Tyler Wade and Justus Sheffield for Lance Lynn? MAKE IT SO! 

But what if it doesn't happen? One of the greatest general managers of all time, Pat Gillick, built the Blue Jays, Orioles, Mariners and Phillies, and was named to the Hall of Fame in 2011. Gillick was nicknamed "Stand Pat," because he refused to sacrifice vast sections of the future for an August-September sugar high. He made his trades in December or January, when teams were equal, and not in the frenzy of a pennant race, when sellers hold all the bargaining power.

Of course, the Yankees are staring into the cold teeth of Houston's rotation, headed by Jason Verlander, last year's great future-dump trade acquisition. For sure, Verlander is formidable. But in September, he'll be four months from age 36 and another 100 innings into the 2018 season. Old arms break down. We'll see.

Today. Fangraphs has a piece on what they're calling the Yankees Player Development Machine. In our lives, has anyone ever so defined the Yankees? It describes a farm system with a great success rate in finding and developing pitchers. It's a story that will scare the crap out of anyone from Boston, where the Redsocks find themselves in a $230 million payroll hole and nobody young to trade.

Tonight, Loiasiga takes the mound for his second MLB start. Generally, the thing with rookies is consistency; they have none. They look good one day, get hammered the next. Loiasiga shows an unnatural maturity for his age, but he's still a rookie. And tonight, he could be holding back the dike on a flood of trades that could define the Yankee future. Just imagine... a young lineup AND a young rotation. The world must be ending. That's the only way to explain it.