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Tuesday, July 31, 2018

We are entering the final phase of the Cashman Total 24-Hour Makeover, still awaiting a verdict

On the first day, Cash looked out at the Yankee firmament and said, "Let there be Zach Brittain..." yatta yatta JA Happ, yatta Lance Lynn... and on the seventh day - tomorrow, that is - He shalt rest...

The trade deadline ends today at 4 p.m. E.D.T., as Ellen Degeneres turns over the daytime TV reins to Judge Judy. Around then, Cooperstown Cashman shalt descend from his dark tower, unfurl his pinstriped loin cloth and rain golden pee upon the assembled, giddily cheering Gammonites. Only then will we truly begin to know what the hell has happened over the last 48 hours, as the Yankees shed their skins and transform into - well - something new.

Of course, if Cashman still seeks spare widgets - such as a Grandyman or Joey Bats - his work will continue; the waiver wire always provideths. But in the meantime, here is where we stand.

1. For all of Cashman's posturing, he just gave Seattle at least two scoreless innings in the Wild Card game. Those will be the innings Adam Warren pitches against us. If there's one certainty in this world, aside from Pabst and bowel movements, it is that every traded ex-Yankee always comes back to haunt us at least once. And Seattle - with Ben Gamel, James Pazos and Wayne LeBlanc (not to mention a certain renowned jogger/cabana boy for Beyonce) - has become the official Yankee hereafter, which makes playing the Mariners in a one-game sudden death an even darker nightmare than last week. Not saying we're worse off with Lance Lynn and the bullpen cast of Glee, but I don't look forward to Warren entering the Wild Card game, especially if it's close. We won't score off him. Write that down. Two zeros. 

2. Boston last night traded two Pawtucket-level relievers for Ian Kinsler. Yeah, Ian Kinsler. Worse, they beat the Phillies in extra innings and now lead by six. (Their magic number - Christ, they have one - is 62.) We have reached the official two-thirds point of the season, and we must now either sweep them in a series or watch them tank on their own. The two traded pitchers - do you care about the names? - were ranked 19th and 23rd on Boston's prospects top 30. (The Yankees traded two top 30s - Dillon Tate and Cody Carroll.) Kinsler is hitting only .239, but he's a gamer. The only good news here is that if Boston doesn't win in 2018, their farm system should be sucking air. 

3. Cashman, who dealt Warren for international spending money, apparently plans to go hog wild this summer on Latino 16-year-olds. There's a method to his madness: The Yanks will almost surely sign a few big free agents next winter, and thus lose their first round draft pick, so they'll load up now. It's a reasonable strategy, with one dark caveat: When you make a 16-year-old a millionaire, who knows what you'll get? 

I keep looking at our huge international spending class of 2014, when we signed Dermis Garcia and Nelson Gomez, said to be the two top talents available, along with a pile of others. (Baseball America said we got three of the top five, and five of the top 10.) It was an unprecedented surge of money, and while the results are not yet carved into stone - Garcia and Gomez are 20 and playing in low Single A - it looks like a massive wave of nothingness. Our successes are the kids who signed for less and developed in the system (Estevan Florial, who came for $200,000), and it's not uncommon to read that we just released one of the big bonuses we once touted. (Outfielder Jonathan Amundary, whom we ditched in June, had cost us $1.5 M.) When a kid is already a millionaire, why should he listen to cheap-ass coaches? Hell, I'd be measuring yachts. 

I'm not saying it's wrong to horde young talent. It's our only hope. (We found Aaron Judge in the year that we had three first round draft picks.) But it's the developmental phase - not the signing phase - that matters. And when Cashman gives the press its golden shower today, no one will truly know what he's done. The real judgments will only be starting.

7 comments:

13bit said...

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TheWinWarblist said...

Damn Cash, damn his rheumy eyes.

I'm Bill White said...

Mustang is a huge Eric Carmen fan so I’m sure the notion of a Rheumy Eyes reboot is not lost on him.

HoraceClarke66 said...

You're very right about this, Duque.

Give $1 or more to a Dominican 16-year-old—given the comparative buying power, probably the equivalent of giving about $50 million to some 16-year-old dude here in the States—is in and of itself a recipe for disaster.

But even if each lad we select is the next Frank Merriwell, carefully banking all of his bonus for his aged mother (well, not TOO aged, since he's 16), there's simply no way to tell what you have at that age. It's hard enough with 18-year-olds, or even 21-year-old college stars.

Joe of AZ said...

I like the trades esp if they employ some Ray style bulpen game with Lynn and gray...allow em to only go through the line up once...heck while we're at have sevy go thru the lineup the first time mlthan move him to whatever position lame brain Walker is in for the 2md time thru and then bring him back in to finish pitching.

But seriously cash as dumb as he is managede (so far...) To not give up prospects to who are slated to contribute now (shef, Frazier,abreu,Adams,thairo .etc) and marginally upgrade

Not the greatest..but not too bad

Carl J. Weitz said...

Oh well, maybe we can get Chris Archer over the winter for Sonny Gray with our favorite trading partner the Pirates. Seems like every pitcher we trade there does immensely better. Maybe we have to add another Rule 5 decent prospect along with Gray. Gray will make the same money as Archer next year but the Pirates would have to buy Archer out for almost 2 million whereas Gray is only arbitration eligible And Gray is a year younger. They are similar pitchers so perhaps the added prospect along with a couple million dollar savings would motivate a cheap Pirates front office. I'd rather have Archer who has the make up to play in NY and has done well against the AL East. Of course, this trade will never happen anywhere except in my head.

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