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Wednesday, July 25, 2018

The Yanks make a deal, and the Gammonites stand and cheer

First off, who am I to evaluate last night's trade for Zach Britton? I'm not an authority. I'm no scout. Hell, my car even has bad brake pads. But when you trade three top prospects, one in your top ten, for a 30-year-old rental, two years passed his prime and coming off major surgery, is it not a fair and true statement to say there are question marks? I mean, is that not too crazy? to suggest that we table our resounding conclusions until time passes?

But this morning, here is how Ken Davidoff of the New York Post describes it.

Think of it as the richest family in the neighborhood adding a Lamborghini to the garage...

Or this from NJ Advanced Media (formerly the Newhouse Corp.):


Here's the first reaction an MLB scout had on Tuesday night to the breaking news that the Yankees traded for two-time All-Star reliever Zach Britton"Holy mackerel! If you stick Britton in the Yankees' bullpen ... wow!"
(Note that the writer doesn't identify which team the MLB scout works for.)
Yeesh. 
Used to be, YES was the unbridled Yankeeland version of Fox & Friends. Whatever they said, you understood that they were de facto employees of the Yankees, so you applied grains of salt accordingly. To some, it's called cynicism. To the rest of us, it's discernment. 
But one day after the Gammonites of NYC got to watch their brothers and sisters at the Daily News fed to the TRONC wood-chipper, they have apparently placed their future survival hopes on cheering the Yankee brain trust in whatever it does. A complicated trade is being evaluated - quite generously - based on what the Yankees received, as if they surrendered nothing. Holy fucking mackerel.
(Meanwhile, Gary Sanchez is given a face-saving 10 days off to heal a groin that wasn't supposed to be a factor anymore. Who authorized his return too early? Wasn't he not "raring to go" last week, when rehabbing in Scranton? So now, we should forgive Gary for loafing and - in fact - praise him for playing in pain? How much bullshit are we expected to devour? 
Maybe Gary was - as Robby Cano used to say - "saving" himself for the long haul. Maybe he was putting off the hustle so he run harder in more important games, such as the ones he might - hopefully, in my opinion - play someday in San Diego or Cincinnati. One friend yesterday put it this way: Gary Sanchez is Exhibit A for why you don't give a 16-year-old a million dollars. I think that sums it up.) 
But back to the deal: What did we give up for the great Britton? Because - remember - the O's were never going to help the Yankees, unless they got an offer they couldn't refuse.
1. Dillon Tate. Since being picked fourth overall in a June draft, he's now been traded twice. The first team, the Rangers, sought to change his trajectory; they screwed him up. The Yankees let him revert to old ways; he improved, but not to the degree we hoped. At 24, nobody sees him as the fourth best prospect in the game. Still, after Justus Sheffield, he was probably our second best hope for a starter...
2. Cody Carroll. He was looking more and more like our September surprise, a lights-out rookie who could pitch the seventh or eighth. At 25, he moved rapidly through the system, and in his last 10 outings with Scranton, his ERA is 0.82. He looked to be the next Chad Green-Jonathan Holder. I cannot help but think he is Baltimore's quiet steal of the trade. When you recognize that Britton would be gone this winter as a free agent, Baltimore fans should be very happy. 
3. Josh Rogers. The Yankees have never given him the respect to match his numbers. He just turned 24, a 6'3" lefty, and he could be a fourth or fifth starter. I saw him pitch in Syracuse a month ago. The Chiefs couldn't touch him. But he was erratic in Triple A. Who knows?
When I look at this trade, I think of the deal in December of 2015, when the Yankees dealt Justin Wilson to Detroit for Chad Green and Luis Cessa. At the time, it looked like a big acquisition for the Tigers. Today, it looks like highway robbery... especially if Cessa manages to hold down our fifth spot.
Well, what's done is done. Who knows what Britton will bring? But if this is the price tag for a 30-year-old, rusting, question mark rental, imagine what teams must be demanding for an actual quality starter. Let's understand that any deal would begin with the name Justus Sheffield. "Holy mackerel," the scout should have said. "Are we screwed!"

17 comments:

TheWinWarblist said...

I will not grasp at the departing prospects. I will not prostrate myself in rage and hysteria. I will hug them tight, albeit briefly, and then let them go. One can do nothing else. A once All-Star is rescued to Big City Lights, and three young men shuffle off to perdition's swelter in the hot Maryland summer. You march into battle with the troops you can muster, not those you want, or deserve.

May Britton's sinker roll like a bowling ball once more. May our three young men find a modicum of fame and fortune, at least. (Good luck in Baltimore with that shit.) May Chasen Shreve get a lengthy respite from our sight. And may Buck Showalter rupture thrombosed hemorrhoids, the miserable fuck.

CASHMAN SUCKS!!! CASHMAN SUCKS!!! CASHMAN SUCKS!!!

So endeth the JuJu.

JM said...

I still don't get it. Out of everything going on with this team, we needed to trade for another reliever? Don't we already have 30 or 40 of those on the roster? And we gave up a good prospect or two for this guy?

This is just mind-boggling. I mean, even Shreve came in and saved the game that Chapman was throwing away against the Mets. Bases loaded, nobody out, Shreve stopped them in their tracks. But we need Britton?

No matter what the players do or don't do on the field, there's no getting around the weirdness of the front office. Walker. Britton. This is nuts.

Joe Formerlyof Brooklyn said...


The best arguments I can make FOR the trade are:

1 - Cashman figured to lose 1, 2, or 3 of the guys he traded in the Rule 5 draft. I have no idea how to figure out if this is true, so maybe it is.

2 - now he's gonna trade Betances for some white pizza with lotsa garlic, plus three bottles of Nero D'Avola. I could live with this, maybe (but gotta be a lot of garlic!!)

3 - Britton's good against Lefties. Actually, checking the numbers, he hasn't been (unless you go back to '16).

4 -- he's good against the Red Sox. They hit .222 against him in '16 (slug .376).

5 -- the recent vulnerability of Chad and DRob are driving Boone to distraction, and Cash want to get him back on focus.

6 -- There is an old saying -- "don't just stand there, DO someting." This was a thing Cashman could actually do. The teams with starting pitchers available may be asking for Miggy + Gleyber, and are Laughing when he offers Walker and Drury, plus Ellsbury and $100 million. You won't be hailed as a Genius if you don't do anything, and your team continues on its current trajectory.

7 -- Management thinks the season is essentially over and acquired Britton for a Try-Out (to see if he's worth signing for 2019 and beyond). We've already found out that some acquisitions (Gray) don't work out very well in NYC. So maybe this is exploratory, even if it feels (to some of us) like a massive root canal performed by way of a colonoscopy without anesthesia.

My vote is #7

TheWinWarblist said...

JoeFoB, now I'm hungry. And a bit, ah-hem, excited. You had me at garlic and Nero D'Avola.

JM said...

This could also be part of a bigger trade plan. There might be a deal in the works that involves someone from the pen who had to be replaced, albeit a little in advance.

Or, maybe Chapman is really done. Hey, you never know. We certainly aren't going to hear about it from the management. They lie like Persian rug made by little tiny knotting fingers.

Parson Tom said...

Could it be that Chapman is hurting? In which case, Britton was brought in to give him time to recover.

Or, the Yankees think Tampa's on to something with this permanent bullpen approach to pitching? The best ideas I ever had were stolen so maybe Cash is borrowing from the Tampa braintrust.

Nonetheless, can't help looking at those guys we just have away, thinking they might have been useful for a few years. Baltimore management is not as constipated as ours and will give one or two of them a try next year. Dollar to donuts says they get more out of these young arms than we do it off Britton or Sonny Gray-Day.

The Ghost of Yankees Past said...

The Rule 5 point raised by Joe FoB is what makes this trade SOMEWHAT understandable. Plus the belief that the Yankees scouted Britton and determined his stuff was still high quality. The trade leads me to believe Cashman does not see a decent starter on the horizon.

Regarding Schancez, he is at a critical juncture . For the first time it is widely acknowledged the emperor has no clothes. The random comments regarding is effort level are now in full chorus. The fans, team and news has him exposed and the loss the other night is all on him. He will either learn from this adversity or continue on the path he has been on. Adversity is a great teacher if you are capable of learning from it and making the necessary corrections. We will see if he can.

Parson Tom said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Parson Tom said...

I see now that my musings about Chapman tweaking his trigger finger or a new bullpen dominant approach, a la Tampa, were covered last night in much more entertaining detail by the midnight rambler, Horace Clark. Well done!

HoraceClarke66 said...

Thanks for the shout-out, Parson Tom—and John M, I love "tiny little knotty fingers."

Duque's analysis was, as usual, completely on the mark (and yes, "TRONC" was the name I was trying to think of. Who in the name of Beelzebub names their corporation, "TRONC"? I had a friend who worked there, briefly. She could not wait to get out.)

Vampifella said...

Lovely, we get Britton and the Sox just now get Eovaldi. It's like why even bother to keep up with the Joneses.

Anonymous said...

Let's split this is half...

THE NEW YANKEE: Britton.

Good! Why not? Quality reliever. Some Chapman insurance. Maybe being on a winner fires him up even more. Gotta be better than Shrieve. The current team has been improved. Still some $ left if they can find a starter.

Despite watching the Sox pull ahead with their insanely good win pct. I remain untroubled as long as we make the playoffs and win the play in. The playoffs are their own crap shoot.

It could be "Hitless Wonders Bop All Time Winners" (Some points for identifying the reference and MAJOR props for telling me where I got the verbiage.)Seattle won 116 and didn't even make the series. (Heh. Heh.) The Yankees in 1998 won 114 and never stopped.

So I'm good with the acquisition.

THE COST:

I liked Dillon Tate. Actually that's not entirely true. I liked what sources I read wrote about Dillon Tate. Never saw him pitch. For all I know he is sitting next to me drinking coffee. Couldn't pick him out of a police line up. Still, he sure did sound good.

Cody Carrol - His numbers look great! So I don't know. I do know this... I'm so glad we had this time together. Just to have a laugh and sing a song. Seems we just got started and before you know it... comes the time we have to say, so long!

Josh Rogers - It feels to me that the Yankees have a bunch of these guys. Rule 5 eligible. Nothing special, nothing bad. Maybe he's the great one! Probably he's perfectly fine like the other guy they never bring up. Truth is 4's and 5's are all pretty much the same pitchers. They may look different and throw differently but there is a real ceiling. Maybe he's a 3. Maybe he's not. Now that he's an Oriole I'm hoping he's not.

Sorry Josh's parents - but he's an Oriole now. Yesterday I wanted him to be Nolan Koufax. (Who sounds like he could be in the band with Kinky Friedman)

BOTTOM LINE:

Like all trades of help now vs. potential it will be a while. But the WS is still very much within reach and I don't see anyone we traded whose talent level that can't be replaced by other means. Maybe we end up paying more but it's not like we gave up Sheffield.

Doug K.


ranger_lp said...

Red Sox acquire Nathan Eovaldi from Rays for Jalen Beeks...so we're not getting him.

Maybe we get two more relievers and be like Tampa Bay...maybe they are on to something.

Local Bargain Jerk said...


Jalen Beeks is the equivalent of Justus Sheffield.

The Red Sox did something and we didn't.

I wonder what it all means.



Carl J. Weitz said...

No, Sheffield is better with a lot more upside. Jalen Beeks more closely resembles Clarence Beeks who got sodomized by a gorilla in Trading Places.

Here is the scouting report on Jalen:

http://www.soxprospects.com/players/beeks-jalen.htm

Jalen is a marginal back-end rotation guy or a middle reliever. The Sox didn't give up much but I don't think they received very much either. I think Eovaldi has started reverting back to the guy who led the majors in hits given up a few years ago. His control has improved,though. Hopefully, the Yankees beat up on him.

HoraceClarke66 said...

White Sox over Cubs, four games to two, 1906, Doug K. I don't know where the verbiage is from. Bill James?

ranger? If this is the future of baseball, random pitchers thrown out every two innings to face batters just trying to play home-run derby...count me gone. Plenty of good books to read, plenty of old Yankees highlights to watch again.

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