Back to the Future

Watching Neil Walker flounder around in right field again today, it made me think again about how much Cashman handicaps Yankees teams by usually insisting that they carry 13 pitchers (no matter how mediocre some of them are).

This gives you all of two possible subs in most situations, considering that you want to be careful not to use the back-up catcher too soon.

Frankly, I've always thought that 11 pitchers, max, should be sufficient for a major-league team.  Your five starters should be able to average about 200 innings, which means that the six relievers give you another 80 or so apiece.

Considering the fact that you are always going to be pulling up or acquiring other pitchers during the season, that shouldn't be an intolerable burden.  And as we've seen, having so many pitchers on a team at one time just inspires managers to use more and more of them until they find the rotten-apple-in-the-barrel for that game.

But like everything else that Coops does or believes in, this is holy writ and can never be changed. So what to do?

What the Yanks need is to have a team built, as much as possible, like the Casey Stengel squads of 1949-60, with plenty of guys who can play two, three, or even four positions, and pitchers who can relieve and spot start.

This team is now so bereft of bodies, period, that it is not only going to have to sign Harper AND Machado for next year, which it should definitely do.  It's also going to have to get versatile.

Since we don't know if Red Thunder is ever coming back, we ought to have Andujar learn some outfield, where his arm will be an asset.  Get Manny to play third, but of course he can also play short, as can The Gleyber.

I'd love to see Sanchez shipped to Cincinnati (a city once known, appropriately, as "Porkopolis"), but I doubt if that's going to happen.  If not, jettison Slo-Pitch and alternate Sanchez there with Stanton and occasionally, Andujar, too.  Mr. Ice Cream Sandwiches can catch a couple times a week.

Make Toe or Wade the back-up infielder, and have him spell Machado, Didi, and Torres once a week, to give them some rest.

With the pitching, they should investigate having Adams, Sheffield, Losaiga, and maybe German alternate spot starts and long relief stints, instead of putting everybody through these trials by torture of Kahnle, Holder, Cessa, etc.

Impossible to say exactly what the pitching staff should be—but I think we should let CC and Robertson walk, and give pink slips to Cole and Holder.

For the 12 position players/DH:

Sanchez
Romine
Torres
Torreyes
Didi
Machado
Andujar
Stanton
Judge
Harper
Hicks
Frazier/Wade

But Neil Walker should never be in right field again.