Sunday, July 1, 2018

Sonny Gray is both the reason we need to trade for a starter... and the reason we shouldn't

When in history class, the subject comes to the great 2017 trade for Sonny Gray, the pro-Cashman theorists always utilize the "low bar of success" school of discourse: None of the three traded Yankee prospects - James Kaprielian, Jorge Mateo and Dustin Fowler - have done a whit. (Actually, Fowler is starting to hit - .244 - after a slow start.) Thus, it wasn't a horrible trade. (Note: This modified argument is also used to claim the Yankees "won" the Jesus Montero/Micheal Pineda deal.) Unfortunately, this overlooks one problem.

The Yankees have had to dick around with Sonny Gray.

In fact, we'll surely dick around with Sonny for another four months, maybe longer. He'll throw a halfway decent game, six innings and two runs, rousing the YES team to proclaim that he's figured it out! Then he'll get pasted... and for my money, that's the definition of dicking around. 

You can say the Yankees got more out of Pineda than Seattle did with Jesus, but it belies the fact that the Mariners noticed Montero's waistline and pitched him overboard, while the Yankees dicked around with the astonishingly erratic Pineda for four cruel years. 

So today, hours after Sonny couldn't last three innings against Boston, the Gammonites are calling for Cashman to trade Clint Frazier, Justus Sheffield, Miguel Andujar, et al, for another "power arm," (See Michael Fullmer) as Sonny and Big Mike were once described. At the same time, Gray stands as Exhibit A on why we shouldn't go that route: You get a guy who's thrown a zillion pitches for another team, and at age 28 he's ready for the glue factory. 

Here's a suggestion we all know won't come to pass: If the Yankees need pitching, how about trading Sonny Gray? Or shall we just keep dicking around?

11 comments:

TheWinWarblist said...

I hate Him. I hate Him so very much. Like a white hot pulsar whirling in my chest. Truly He is the Antichrist. Or something. He certainly cannot pitch at the major league level. He sucks.

BLP.

CASHMAN, YOU SUCK! CASHMAN, YOU SUCK! CASHMAN, YOU SUCK!

Benedícat vos omnípotens Ruthus, et Scooter, et Mantleus, et Spíritus Jeterus.

So endeth the JuJu.

Ken of Brooklyn said...

It was BRUTAL listening to that first inning, hanging onto every single pitch, trying to will a strike or ground ball through the radio, then the slow inevitable filling of the bases, then thinking, here comes a grand slam,,,,,,,,,,,
It's AJ Burnett all over again for me.

TheWinWarblist said...

AJ Burnett was perfectly average right handed starting pitcher. Sunny is pestilence incarnate.

HoraceClarke66 said...

He really is Jeff Weaver level.

I'm sickened by the calls for trading the future, and for something like Fulmer. Really, the price for a Fulmer should be something like Sonny Gray and a bucket of money.

JM said...

I've been agreeing with Duque for a while: trade Sonny. He might work out great for a small market team whose playing field is 400 feet down the line on each side and 600 to dead center.

Sonny, by the way, and as we all know, is short. I think this is why he gets especially killed at Yankee Stadium. Every time he turns around, somebody is talking about the "short porch" in right. But all Sonny's subconscious can hear is "short! short! short!" The constant reminder of being vertically challenged--he also has to deal with the towering CC, Judge, and Stanton on a daily basis--destroys his confidence, and games like last night ensue.

So a small market team of midgets might be ideal.

TheWinWarblist said...

Oh Sweet Dear Merciful Scooter, we beseech thee! May the His nutsack "accidentally" [wink wink, you know what to do] become clamped within a slamming car door or hood. Doesn't really matter which. Closing elevator does woukd be fine too. In the name of Bill White, cannolis, Cora and all that is right and true, we beseech thee.

Anonymous said...


Change of scenery trade before he becomes a distraction or worse, a pariah. Doesn't matter what the return is.

Doug K.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Love it, John M. and Doug K.!

Yes, by all means, anywhere—back to Oakland, mayhap.

Anonymous said...

Bingo, duque.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely - - trade him anywhere, to any team... just get him out of pinstripes. LB(No J)

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