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| "Kevin Youkilis and Travis Hafner can't wait to get the season started..." |
Trouble is... when I look at Tulo, all I see is Youk.
And here's the crusher: When the Yankees look at Tulo, my guess is that all they see is $550,000.
That's what they'll pay him. That's why they'll pay him. Facing the largest auction of free agent talent in memory, the Yankees will go with the cheapest SS in the game. Minimum wage.
My friends, the reality is becoming clear:
The 2019 Yankees intend to go cheapo.
It means no Manny, no Bryce, no Dallas - maybe not even Zach Britton, if those big-spending Nats and Phillies get involved. Hal Steinbrenner spent the last two years winking to his fan base that, by shrinking payroll, the Yankees would escape luxury taxes and lead the 2019 free agent gold rush. Now, he's self-imposing an austerity program. Why? Because they can. He's "Next Year" Hal, always in second, always chasing that Wild Card. Maybe next year, folks!
Hal sits in a deck chair atop a mountain of money, having inherited the most lucrative franchise in U.S. sports, along with a 90-year tradition of dominance. And he'd rather be popular with his fellow owners than spend on a championship team. Maybe next year, suckers!
Today, the Yankees claim - almost ludicrously - that they are still in the bidding for Manny Machado. But they haven't made him an offer. Brian "Cooperstown" Cashman says the team is now committed to Tulowitzki at SS. That would push Machado to 3B and Miguel Andujar out the door. To say this doesn't affect their proposals is crazy. It's given Hal a huge excuse - he always seems to find one, doesn't he? - to back away and let Machado go elsewhere, as they have already done with Bryce Harper.
Which brings me to Kevin Youkiilis, who became a Yankee in the winter of 2013, with similar front office self-congratulations. Youk would play 3B, settle the infield and bring power to the lineup. With Travis Hafner and Lyle Overbay - and later, Vernon Wells - the Yankees would field a lineup of former all-stars! It was raining hope in Tampa.
Youk - at age 34 - played 28 games for the Yankees. He hit .219 with 2 HRs and turned out to be one of the greatest jokes the Redsocks ever played on us.
Listen: If the Yankees have learned anything from the last 10 years, it ought to be that baseball is a young man's game. A 34-year-old SS is not going to cut it.
Write this down. Here's what will happen: Tulo will look great in spring training, way ahead of everyone else. The Yankees will tout him as the steal of the winter. On opening day, he'll get a standing o. In the month of April, he'll hit .280. Then he'll tweak something. He'll miss a month. We'll play Dopey Dildox. Tulo will return, go into a slump, then tweak something. We'll play Dopey Dildox.
Jayson Nix. Brendan Ryan. Brett Lillibridge. Reid Brignac. Alberto Gonzalez. David Adams. Eduardo Nunez. Luis Cruz. Chris Nelson... that's who played 3B for us in 2013.
But here's the deal: It doesn't matter. Because after Tulo goes down, on every level of Yankeeganda - from the Gammonites to the YES Men to the secret front office "sources" - they'll never cease to remind us that the Yankees are paying next to nothing for the cagey, soon-to-heal veteran. Didi will always be on the verge of coming back, and maybe Machado or Harper will tweak a gonad and miss a few weeks - we'll certainly be reminded of how lucky we were to not get involved. And, hey! if the Yankees can stay below the 2020 luxury tax threshold, there should be some big name free agents out there next winter! Wouldn't Mike Trout look good in a Yankee uniform? Holy crap! Did someone say Curtis Granderson might be available?
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14 comments:
I'm still trying to learn as much S I can about baseball so am wary of posting thing's about the game as I don't think I know enough to get involved in a debate with my fellow knowledgeable Yankee fans on here.
But if I may be bold for me on other Yankees blog sites all is see is complaining about the unfairness of MLB with rules being set to deliberately stop the Yankees
Well this is a chance to flex their muscles and MLB can do nothing about it
Machado and Harper are unique players in their peak with their best years in front of them all they will cost is cash no dismantling an already raided farm system
Both should be signed as a deceleration of intent
There is no excuse not to do so other than an ownership who are more interested in saving money than putting a winning team on the field.
I think you’ve got it, John. Nice summary.
While I agree with your conclusion about Yankee management's motives, John, I would challenge the idea that Harper and Manny are can't-miss investments. They are young, but they've both been used hard and put up wet. The best teams the last several years are made up of young guys who hit their prime before they hit free agency. Besides being huge values, young players are proving to be most productive. Keep Andujar, Frazier and the rest of them.
This has indeed been a depressing winter. If Cashman did all of the following, IMHO, it would give us some relief:
1) Sign Harper if he agrees to play first. He's young and he's a LH bat. If he can't play first, he doesn't fit.
2) Forget about Machado. He doesn't fit positionally and attitudinally. Machado is a highly contagious locker room cancer waiting to happen. If his I-don't-hustle-and-if-you-criticize-me-you're-biased-against-Latin-players attitude enters the room, who knows how many impressionable millennial youth might take up his cause? Forget Machado; Andujar is our man.
3) Sign Keuchel, mostly because he's the best free agent pitcher available and is better than many in our rotation. Jeez, all this guy costs is cash. I would think the only real question would be if he'll agree to stop grooming himself like one of the Smith Brothers, of cough drop fame.
4) Trade for another pitcher, e.g., Madison Bumgarner.
Hold tight with that for 2019 and then look forward to next year when guys like Chris Sale hit the FA market.
If the firm of Hal, Cashman, Levine, Trost LLC would do that, I'd feel better. I'd also be less resentful when it comes to spending $15.00 for a beer at the stadium.
God, this sucks.
You scared the crap out of me. I saw "Kevin Youkilis and Travis Hafner can't wait to get the season started..." and I almost went into panic mode. They are both still Ichiro "young" enough and cheap enough to actually play for the Yanks even though they've both been out of baseball for 5 years. That would have been an unbelievable nightmare.
But yeah, I've pretty much come to face the facts that the Yanks are going cheapo and I don't think they'll go over the cap again. I think that their bean counters has proven that what they are doing now is more profitable than what that should be doing. Profits count more than championships.
The hyperbole about Tulo in the mainstream Yankee and MLB media is stomach turning. I replied to the Yankee PR announcement sent to me as a prospective and former Yankee ticket plan holder that I would not be ponying up for tickets if the Yankees go cheapo on Machado. The idea that Tulo will solve the shortstop vacancy even in the short term is equivalent to the idea that Ellsbury would solve a centerfield vacancy. This PR notion that "16" teams wanted to sign Tulo is absurd. Think about it --Boston has Bogaerts, Houston Correia, Cleveland Lindor, and we expect Tulo "Lourdes" o witz, whose last good season was in 2015 in Colorado, to play over 120 games at an above replacement level? With chronic bone spurs that have miraculously disappeared? Which well run team actually wanted Tulo for anything more than the minimum or a spring training invite? At an age that no other championship level team dares to field a shortstop? What is this penny pinching really about? Do the Yankees want to increase their profits by keeping their payroll below the luxury tax so that it can generate more millions to buy back YES? Is that what is going on? This offseason has been one where every week a free agent goes off the board for a salary that the Yankees could afford at a position where the Yankees could use enhancement. We don't want to beat Boston in anything other than diving into dumpsters.
And another thing:
Would the infield of Andujar, Tulo, Torres, and Voit be the worst defensive infield in current MLB, or in the history of the Yankees?
Or is that observation only slightly hyperbolic?
Ah crap! I think I just figured it out.
Old Yankee Daddy Roger just pointed something out that is going to prove fatal. I had previously underestimated the importance of the YES buyback.
This isn't about HAL being cheap. This is about HAL driving down the price.
Think about it... Let's say you were a co-owner of a house valued at one million dollars and you wanted to buy your other co-owner out for $500,000. Do you invest money, putting in an indoor pool (Machado, Harper) making the house worth 1.5 mil? No you don't.
You don't INCREASE the value of something BEFORE you buy it. Remember we are not talking about the value of the team. It's the value of the network that shows the team. Not getting these guys equals lower ratings. Lower ratings equals lower value. Lower value equals lower price.
We are truly screwed!
Doug K.
Truly pathetic off-season and front office/iwnership. I recently discovered this blog and was hoping someone could explain the 'Gammonites' term. I'm assuming it has something to do with Peter Gammons but not sure.
The Gammonites are a species of humanity that is said to be descendants of Peter Gammons. It is believed that they have six toes and small but leathery tails.
For a host of good reasons, building your team through your farm system will - if you do it well - produce a more cohesive, holistically-designed, socially grounded and strategically developed team, tailor made for your home stadium (without murdering your chances on the road).
Keeping a nice mix of youth, athletes in their prime and seasoned elder statesman keeps the team fresh, but mature, coherent and easier to manage. Add championship class leadership and you have the recipe for a dynasty team, talent permitting.
Yankees don't need Machado. Sorry. Andujar is not 60 times worse than Machado, which is what their pay differential implies. And he profiles poorly as a teammate, really poorly. While Harper brings a lefty bat the Yankees could use, he's just another K/W/HR hitter the Yankees don't need and he's yet another outfielder that the Yankees don't need.
Where I would break company with Cheapskate Hal is on diving deeper into the FA market for pitching and a low K, high BA/OBP lefty hitter to play somewhere on the infield.
Tulo? I love him if it makes Machado go away.
Oasisdave, I've never been totally sure about the origins of the term myself. For that matter, in the one encounter i had with Gammons he seemed like a really terrific human being.
I think that what this refers to is Gammons as the conveyor of the conventional wisdom, the idol of those Knights of the Press Box who always love the veteran player no matter how over the hill he is, and who stand by management no matter how much it is ripping us all off.
Do I have this right, Duque?
I must be stuck in a Time Warp...
I'm waiting for the rest of the "replacements" to come in...
Chris Stewart can back up Fats Cream Sandwhich
Screw Harper/Manny let's pick up Good ol Andi Philips and Andru Jones from retirement... they should fit the Lonn Trost Austerity plan.
Heard Ol Javy Vasquez is still out there somewhere tossing up 55mph meatballs in some beer league I'm sure he'll slip into the rotation quite nicely after Ace Sonny Gray
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