Tuesday, October 8, 2019

Reflections on the morning after Minnesota

Stayed up past bedtime, champagne clinging to my p-jays, thinking thoughtful thoughts...

1. What if Luis Severino pitched the fifth. After struggling through the first three innings, he looked lights out in the fourth. Remember Sevy at his peak? He was one of those Gibson-like starters who grows stronger by the inning. Could have have gone a few more and spared us the full-on bullpen? Not blaming Boone: In many respects, it was wise to give Sevy a positive night: four innings, no runs. But it strikes me that we'll be seeing Sevy's worst - the shaky early innings - and maybe not his best.

2. Regardless of the score, Aroldis Chapman has a way of terrifying us. Last night, he surrendered a lead-off single, then walked the next batter, creating a Forbin Project scenario with Nelson Cruz as the tying run. El Chapo saved the day, as he always does - except for when he doesn't, and the asteroid hits. It's frightening sometimes, how close we come to doomsday. If Aroldis opts out of his Yankee contract this winter, I'm not sure Cooperstown Cashman will paint the skies green to keep him. He's a great pitcher, a hall of famer, but when his fastball inevitably diminishes to 96, some team will be left holding a soggy bag filled with dead kittens. 

3. Kudos to Aaron Boone for batting Gardy third. At first, I thought it misprint. To right all the righties, as token lefty, Didi was supposed to hit third, but the last month killed that notion. Gardy has proven himself as team leader and champion grinder of pitches. When we face Houston, hope may have to come in the form of rising pitch counts. Gardy can be a 10-pitch out. We'll need a bunch to outlast Verlander and company. 

4. Neither Kahnle nor Ottavino look sharp. Nor does Boone show confidence in either. Sometime soon, we need a six- or seven-inning start.  

5. Luke Voit made the playoff roster but never saw a pitch. Barring an injury, he never will. I can't help but think Mike Ford offers more options. If we face a wipe-out bullpen righty, at least Ford gives us a platoon. 

6. Why not say it: Right now, Cameron Maybin is superior to Giancarlo Stanton in every phase of the game. Stanton patrols left field like a man pulling a plow. That said, I get Boone's decision to play Stanton. If the big guy gets hot, he could carry this team. Still, if he goes deep into the next series with pop-ups and sombreros, Boone must remember the Joe Torre Rule: In October, you don't make friends.

7. If you want a parlor game, how about this: Who on the 2019 Yankees will make the Hall of Fame. I've got CC Sabathia, Aroldis Chapman, Aaron Judge, Gleyber Torres and maybe Giancarlo Stanton. 

8. If, after all the adversity they have endured, the Yankees fail to win the World Series, let's do a Trump: We'll claim the system is rigged, we'll refuse to accept the outcome, and we'll hold a parade down the Canyon of Heroes. Rudy Giuliani can hand us the trophy, and we'll claim the crowd is the biggest in history. YES Network, are you with us?

29 comments:

Ceeja said...

As soon as Maybin hit that homerun, I knew you would take a jab. Boone should have put Maybin as soon as they went into bullpen mode. I never want to see Stanton's defense in a tight game.

But I was ready to bench Didi. I'd love to see Stanton prove us all wrong. He is getting a little better holding off stupid swings at balls outside the zone.

JM said...

I was so drunk, I missed the game. Celebrations will do that to you.

13bit said...

CC wants to play. Life is a cabaret, old chum. Tune for the glue factory, old Charlie.

Anonymous said...

Please leave your politics out of your comments, it's a baseball blog. I'm sure you don't want to lose 50% of your fellow Yankee fans over a hyper sensitive political world we live in, baseball is an escape from that nasty world!!

Margaret (Peggy or Peg too) said...

I must steal #8. That was perfectly said!!

Retired Stratman said...

Did anyone notice that the ALDS champions hat the Yanks were all wearing during the champagne bath celebration said “2019 World Series” on it? We haven’t even faced Houston yet and they’re already toasting themselves as if they’re in the World Series. The Juju gods will not be amused.

https://www.mlbshop.com/new-york-yankees/mens-new-york-yankees-new-era-gray-2019-division-series-winner-locker-room-9forty-adjustable-hat/t-81003276+p-14740045248+z-7-3067963228?_ref=p-DLP:m-GRID:i-r0c0:po-0

Anonymous said...

STANTON WILL MOST CERTAINLY GET INTO THE HALL OF FAME.

....FOR THE $18.95 ADMISSION FEE HE HAS TO PAY AT THE DOOR.

ranger_lp said...

9. Tyler Lyons did not hurt us.

10. Kudos to Cashman for not signing Machado. Could you imagine the shit storm if Manny didn't run out a ground ball or long fly ball he thought was an HR?

Anonymous said...

Ah... the smell of pen penultimate victory. (Is there a word for the one before the one before? Seriously I'm asking.)Just two more steps (one against the best team in baseball) to go.

Some thoughts...

1) Read in the Post that CC want's back on the roster. Uh.... NO! Nooooooooo. No! I don't care if his pitching shoulder is good. HE CAN'T FIELD. CC we love ya for the most part. Go home.

2) Resigning El Chapo Uh.... Noooooooo. No! Take money. Buy Starter. Or Spread around to the three more like Kahnle and Ottavino. Who I believe will be fine.

3) DJ looks lost at the plate. WTF! I'm sure he'll snap out of it but it's a VERY weird look for him.

4) Urshala is no longer the most happy fella. Reverted to the mean? Should DJ move to third and give Luke (or Mike Ford) a shot. Also, since Luke didn't get an AB both he and Ford are equally (unused). So add Ford.

5) Stanton is still getting on base so I'm still good with the Stanton for 6 and then Maybin thing. Because Stanton could get hot. As far as him making the hall... Uh.... NO! Nooooooooo. No!

You have to be good for pretty much your ENTIRE career. People don't advocate replacing HoF players with talented journeymen while they are in their prime years.

Doug K.

Anonymous said...

Ranger,

Regarding Machado: Yep.

Check this out.

HR BA RBI OPS SAL
Machado 32 .256 85 .796 5 Billion dollars
Urshala 21 .314 74 .889 Couch Money

Plus Urshala seems like a no drama good guy. Machado... not so much.

That said, still should have taken the savings and invested in Corbin.

Doug K.

13bit said...

I agree that politics don't belong in the comments section, but I think Duque - the master of this blog - can post whatever he wants and, if somebody doesn't like it, tough shit and have a snowflake kind of day. I'll listen to anybody who posts with a name, but to complain anonymously is to invite contempt.

Anonymous said...

13,

If we had an up-vote button I would up vote you. Well said.

Doug K.

ranger_lp said...

@13bit...+1

HoraceClarke66 said...

TOTALLY agree, 13bit!

Anon, you may be new here, and if so, welcome.

But we worked out the whole no-politics-on-the-blog over the last couple years, and while it IS a general principle we adhere to, we don't lecture Duque, the Peerless Leader, about it. OR ANYTHING. Or, for that matter, Alphonso, the Dauntless Leader.

Got it? Great. Welcome to the madhouse.

HoraceClarke66 said...

I want to do a major thing on who we fuck, marry, kill after the playoffs.

But for the time being: yeah, take the Ford, lose the Voit. Obviously, he's too hurt for Ma to trust him.

As for the other lessons from the ALDS:

—How are the mighty fallen. Yes, I too, find myself filled with joy when Stanton draws a walk. Or when Sanchez got hit by that pitch.

—The Yanks looked great, NOT always swinging for the fences, waiting out pitchers, playing some great D (after Game One), stealing bases at key moments, etc. BUT...our margin of error is paper-thin.

If Sevvy had buckled last night, we were down to a bullpen start for Game 4—with a bullpen that is already being taxed to the max. It's great that Ma got them rested for the playoffs, but we are going to need every ounce of them.

Also, Minnesota was obligingly inert and unsurprising. Houston, for instance, doesn't run much, but they will run like crazy on ICS. (So will TB.).

We need people such as Didi and Gio to keep emerging from their shells. If not...

HoraceClarke66 said...

As for the HOF...

CC, yes.

Aroldis—will probably deserve it, but may not get in because of character issues.

Judge, Giancarlo—both may not have enough games by the end of their injury-plagued careers.

The Gleyber is an intriguing possibility. And maybe Tanaka will make it on one of those combined, Japan-US things.

HoraceClarke66 said...

And oh yeah: Suck it, Nelson. Ah-ha!

Joe of AZ said...

My favorite part of last night's game was the FS1 Announcers getting more and more depressed as the game went on and it was apparent the twins would not win! You could hear the life go out

Suck it smoltz!

Anonymous said...

Great post ruined by needless political commentary at the end.

Carl J. Weitz said...

There are too many anonymous commenters to keep them separate. Too bad a number can't be assigned to every new anonymous on the blog.

I have a feeling that this one who chided Duque for the political reference will, if the Yankees lose the seventh game of the ALCS, claim next spring that the official box score isn't real and that the Deep State conspired to rig the games and the Yankees actually won the World Series. And then call for Trump (if he is still around) to call Rob Manfred and ask him "for a favor" to help Bob Barr investigate this conspiracy or he might ask to get MLB's anti-trust exemption overturned.

Yankee Daddy Roger said...

I am reading the comments backwards and this is probably addressed in less recent postings but.... I think maybe the Yankees were helped more than a tad by Baldelli's managing. Specifically, HOW WITH YOUR SEASON ON THE LINE, AFTER YOU BROKE THROUGH AND SCORED A RUN, DO YOU PITCH ROMO AND ALLOW HIM TO SABOTAGE ANY CHANCE YOU MAY HAVE TO COME BACK IN A TWO RUN GAME? Also, since we have been invited to politic, I feel like the Rays in this situation are the Kurds, and that the Astros are the Turks, and the poor Eastern Division Rays are in a dire situation with the HEAVILY ARMED Turkish invaders, who while invading from the East nevertheless are travelling west, and under the old rationale of the enemy of my enemy is my friend, they should sit down to negotiate a peace wherein the Rays lay down Morton and Glasnow, and the Astros Verlander and Cole, and agree commencing immediately only to use Miley and Chirinos in future engagements. Just saying,

ranger_lp said...

@Yankee Daddy Roger...I saw what you did.

Joe of AZ said...

I'm calling on the deep state to sabotage Verlander tonight....no investigation needed

#neverastro-er

Rufus T. Firefly said...

I'm with 13bit on Duque's papal infallability.

I am also with Carl on anonymi (is that the plural for anonymous?) being confusing to differentiate. I'll add they have a fairly common attribute of being annoyingly preachy. Asshats can be like that. Complain while reading the FREE blog about the content. Go start your own newbie twerps.

Doug K,

Antepenultimate is the word you are looking for.
Next in the latin series are preantepenultimate and propreantepenultimate. I wish I could thank my latin teacher, but I hated her (she was a preachy whiny bitch -- much like anonymi above), so she didn't learn it into me, and I relied on google.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Also, what Hoss and Joe of AZ said.

...and I can't believe I'm rooting for the DEVIL raze, but I'll justify it by saying I just want Verklumpt to lose.

HoraceClarke66 said...

BRILLIANT analysis, Yankee Daddy! And also Doug K., of course.

I thought the Twins often seemed amateurish out there. For instance, I thought that Garver, their catcher, was often costing them calls by jerking his glove back in the strike zone way too obviously.

When umps see you doing that too much, they tend not even to trust the real strikes (See: Tino's grand slam, 1998 World Series).

No stealing, the wrong relievers in too often...we can't count on the Rays or Astros being that stupid!

Carl J. Weitz said...

Bill Barr* Not former GA congressman Bob Barr.

Anonymous said...

First off, those preachy ass-munch creeps who were whining, re: the political allusions which pop up on this blog, you can BYUT MAH CRAINK-SHAFT, MFers. I have a very, very stiff up-raised middle finger which you can visualize (I'm sending it to you through the ether); why don't you go live in China or Russia if you don't believe in free speech?

Kudos to Duque for one of his better entries, of late (and that's saying something).

Furthermore, I think the implied assumption of one of those preachy anonymi that 50 percent of the Yankee's fans are left, and the other fifty right (in politics) is very far off. It certainly hasn't seemed that way in any of the blogs I have read - - of which this one is one of the very best - - if there ARE that many conservatives who read this, they are cowards, because All-Caps notwithstanding, very, very few of them identify themselves herein. LB (No J)

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