Friday, July 6, 2018

Let's Game It Out...

...as they said in the Pentagon before invading Iraq.

IS finishing second in the AL East this year really going to be the out-and-out disaster we're told it will be?

Let's take the worst-cas scenario (for Yankees fans). Our heartthrobs come in second, behind a Boston team that has the best record in baseball.

Bummer!  Damn, guess we should have traded the farm for Cole Hamels after all!

So, we go off to the Bud Selig Revenue-Shot One-Game Play-In, and are forced to pitch Sevvy against...probably Seattle, one of the very few teams not deliberately tanking in the AL this year. We win (hooray!).

That means that we get to face Chris Sale and Boston, in Fenway. Ugh. He beats us, as Tanaka surrenders 17 solo home runs.

But then...

Game Two will most likely be David Price against CC (ALTHOUGH...since it's an away game, maybe you throw Sonny Gray?? I know:  crazy talk.)

In any case, as we've shown, we can beat Price. Then it's back to Yankee Stadium. If the off-days line up right, we're pitching Sevvy again, versus, say Rick Porcello. By no means a gimme, but very winnable.

Now THE SOX have a dilemma. They're down 2-1 in games. Do they pitch Sale on short rest, in Yankee Stadium, against whoever we have? Just to tie it?  And then who do they throw?

Maybe that's not how it will go. It would probably be smarter to throw Porcello in Fenway. He'd be tough but he's not unbeatable, and if we do win we're back to Yankee Stadium for a Sevvy-Price match-up to go up 2-1.

There are maybe a half-dozen other ways this could all play out. But my point is that not finishing first by no means finishes us. And I'm not even talking about things like Sale coming down with the sort of cold that apparently got to Corey Kluber last year.

To go out and make some terrible, franchise-damaging deal just to give us a slightly better chance in the first round of the playoffs is ludicrous. It's hitting ourselves in the head with a hammer to win something we could well win anyway.






30 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hoss,

Or you could game it this way... We've used our best three pitchers vs. Boston on the last weekend to try to win the division and came up short. (Granted it's possible that they used their best three pitchers as well but that doesn't matter as much to them because they win the division in this scenario.)

Now we've got our #4 starter trying to win the Wild Card vs. Houston - who has a rested Verlander or really any of them. Or Seattle with a rested Paxton. Who would you rather it be taking the mound? Gray? Lasagna? German? Or would you rather it was Happ?

Doug K.

Local Bargain Jerk said...


I don't want to be the turd in the punch bowl, but isn't there a fundamental juju rule regarding the counting one's chickens before they're hatched?

Anonymous said...

LBJ

Yes. You are correct, I apologize. I'm not given to hubris generally although to be fair, in my scenario, we are kind of screwed.

Hopefully, since it's barely July, those that enforce the Juju rules are off in LA laughing at the Lakers. I read today that they are a possible destination for Carmelo so that should take care of that.


Doug K.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

I'm in the school where you try to win as many games as possible. Doesn't matter why.

That's why I'm a fan and not a manager.

Of course I think it's stupid trading prospects for this year's Sasha Grey.

Leinstery said...

"... And she is gone!!! Oh he caught it?"

And then Suzyn jumped in to tell us that it wouldn't have gone out. John's eyes are really something.

TheWinWarblist said...

No one is going to catch that one.

TheWinWarblist said...

52 fucking pitches into the bottom of the 2nd and we're down 5 to zip.

TheWinWarblist said...

106.1 mph good for 404 feet. Sunny? You suck.

TheWinWarblist said...

The current worse case scenario for 2018 is that Sunny is still a Yankee in the morning.

skip said...

What I can find: He has 2 option years left, and less than 5 yrs of service.
Why don't they (why haven't they already) send him to Scranton?


Austria's Only Baseball Fan said...

After a hard day, I dozed off about 90 minutes ago and woke up to see we are 0-5. No surprise to me. What must be done to cleanse the pitching mound from this pile of steaming excrement? For good - no short-term solution.

Leinstery said...

He can't even make it into the 3rd inning. What an absolute piece of shit. I wish he'd make like his breaking balls and hang himself.

TheWinWarblist said...

The ghosts of Whitey Ford, Red Ruffing, Waite Hoyt and Mike Mussina (stay with me here) need alight from on high to lift Sonny up from these ignominious depths. Lift him up, I say. Lift him up on high! And crush his nuts and pitching hand in Skydome's FUCKING ROOF!!!!

Austria's Only Baseball Fan said...

And can we rid ourselves of Sessue Hayakawa as well?

TheWinWarblist said...

JUST RELEASE HIM!! HE'S KILLING US!!! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU IDIOTS!!! WE'D HAVE LIKE 70 WINS OFF ANYONE ELSE WAS IN HIS SPOT!!! CASHMAN, YOU SUCK!!! CASHMAN, YOU SUCK!!! CASHMAN, YOU SUCK!!! CASHMAN, YOU SUCK!!! CASHMAN, YOU SUCK!!! CASHMAN, YOU SUCK!!! CASHMAN, YOU SUCK!!! CASHMAN, YOU SUCK!!! CASHMAN, YOU SUCK!!!

TheWinWarblist said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
TheWinWarblist said...

Sonny Gray has become like that ill-fitting, overly heavy, unwieldy, jagged and unbalanced butt plug we all hate. No one needs this kind of leakage

Joe Formerlyof Brooklyn said...


I don't like the idea of sending Sonny to Scranton.

It's too good for him.

Unsustainable BABIP said...

Any tour operators her? Can we book him on a spelunking tour of Thailand any time soon? Neil Walker can be his guide.

Regarding sending him down: I think he’s just hit his 5-year anniversary and thus, can refuse a demotion.

Carl J. Weitz said...

Sonny just doesn't have have the emotional make up to pitch in NYC. I'm sure some team will take him thinking they can straighten him out.

But I also wonder about Rothschild as the pitching coach. So many pitchers have bombed here only to resurrect their careers after they left or had good records before they came. From AJ Burnett to Ivan Nova to Nathan Eovaldi. Even Phil Hughes if you look at his numbers before and after Rothschild got his hands on him. True, Hughes has been horrible the last 2 years but thats due to severe injuries.There are many others.

Austria's Only Baseball Fan said...

To make matters worse, the dreaded redstockinghs lead KC 8-1 in the 5th. So, absent a sudden burst of life from our bats, we'll drop another notch in the AL East.

TheWinWarblist said...

AOBF, who is "Sessue Hayakawa?"

13bit said...

Sonny,
Life in New York City must be filled with pain.
Sonny, I understand how you must be going insane.
The bright days are gone,
And the dark days are here,
My Sonny in the headlights, like a deer.
Sonny one so blue,
Screw you too.

Austria's Only Baseball Fan said...

13bit: great lyrics!

TWW: you must be very young and/or not a film fan

skip said...

this is the site I got my info from:
https://www.rosterresource.com/mlb-new-york-yankees/
I discovered it a few days ago while researching the option rules.
It looks like a really good site. Appears to have up to date stuff on all of
the teams players, including minor leaguers.

This site says he has 4.061 yrs of service pre-2018

Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside said...

FUCK YOU SONNY GRAY!

and I’m never, ever, ever, buying a Lexus from Lexus of Englewood.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Carl Weitz, you make a great point: there is a major instructional problem with this organization. Nobody, pitcher or batter, gets better. Nobody.

But seriously, guys, what this obscures: Judge, 0-5, three strikeouts. Stanton, three strikeouts.

If we had a GM who actually thought creatively, he'd be thinking what he could trade Judge/Bird/Didi/Andujar/ for. (Sadly, we are stuck with Stanton.)

Carl J. Weitz said...

Amen, Horace!

Alphonso said...

The truth is; all this optimistic chatter is meaningless.

We won't be using up all the gas of our best starters in the final series against Boston, because we'll be down by 6 games or more.

Winning a single game against anyone is a crap shoot, and has nothing to do with your record or statistics.

We've seen our best, healthiest line-up shut out by a no name rookie on a lousy team.

The only important reality is; Cashman must not repeat the same mistake he made when he traded for Gray.

Other than that, we can live with what happens.

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