Jasson Dominiquez - the sleek, Olympian, 18-year-old centerfielder who was supposed to lead us from this Stygian darkness - may be eating too many French fries. This weekend, FanGraphs - one of the more credible sites for prospect analysis, support them here - dropped him from 1st (last year) to 4th among Yankee prospects, with this explanatory nugget:
... [H]e’s put on somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-plus pounds in the last 24 months, not all of which is muscle...
Yikes. They could say the same for me. Wasn't an addiction to the ice cream sandwich the long ago kryptonite of Jesus (H.) Montero, the Dominiquez of another era? When you sign a 16-year-old, it's like bringing home a puppy from the pound: You don't quite know how big it'll grow.
Lately, Dominiquez has generated a lot of ether, on the heels of:
1. A relatively disappointing debut season in low-single A.
2. A pile of kind words about him by the groundbreaking minor league manager, Rachel B.
3. The signing of a replacement future team hype-generator, Broderick Arias, a 17-year-old SS with similar post-puberty press clippings.
I don't mean to belittle Dominiquez. He is what he is. It's worth noting that the Yankees constantly praise his character and work ethic and - even if right now he is snarfing down Happy Meals like Lucille Ball devouring chocolates on a demented assembly line - we must believe that he'll push harder on the Peloton later. We should worry less about his weight than his swing-and-miss ratio.
Insert sigh here.
This is what happens when MLB shuts down, leaving fan sites to scavenge for tidbits of detritus.
Oh, well, after 19 weeks, the NFL is finally down to eight teams, none of which are owned by Jerry Jones. And you know what? Watching those final seconds tick down last night, I almost felt sorry for the bum. It was the sports equivalent of waterboarding. Bravo, juju gods!
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9 comments:
Why do Yankee prospects always arrive on the MLB stage, with huge entitlement and attitude issues, but they haven't learned how to play their position and think offense is satisfied by the perfect launch angle or just throwing more heat will get them out of a tight pitching situation?
Assuming, of course, they don't break on the way to the breakfast table. After all, their potential will be measured by a geek who never played baseball. And the coaches will fit the prospect into that math equation, even if they break him in the process.
Why? Because kids need leadership. Because prospects need to learn the WHOLE game. Because statisticians should have authority over nobody, except other statisticians. Yankees desperately need actual baseball professionals in charge, not geeks.
When you build training programs built around a few abstracted skills like launch angles, spin rates, etc. while ignoring the whole of the game and the actual player's body, you DO NOT make a great baseball player. You are more likely to break him physically.
And if you also treat a kid like he's inherently better than everyone else, pamper him and over hype him to the world without proof, he will invariably become an overprivileged and undeservedly entitled brat, just like everyone in the Yankee Front Office. (funny that!)
I really can't take this team seriously until the front office has been fired out of a cannon into the East River. Maybe not until Hal sells the team.
As the Scooter would say, oh, doctor! You hit the dweeb squarely on the head.
We're doomed. I don't know how much time I have left, but with my bad habits I don't think I'll be seeing another great Yankees team in my lifetime.
This is why I didn't give my kids $5,000,000 when they were 16.
But, don't go over the salary cap, I need tax cap, to sign proven MLB players near or just past their 20s.
Archie,
I didn't give my kids $5,000,000 on their 16th birthday either. See if you can guess the reason. I'll eliminate one. Yes, I have kids.
Dr. T,
Yes everything you wrote. Especially,
"When you build training programs built around a few abstracted skills like launch angles, spin rates, etc. while ignoring the whole of the game and the actual player's body, you DO NOT make a great baseball player."
Comment Deleted,
Glad you self edited. You should be ashamed of your self for even thinking it!
Well said, Dr. T! And very true, Doug K—it's about time someone took down that damned Comment Deleted!
Sorry about the sad state of your finances DougK.
I made my money the old fashioned way, I eerrnned it.
That and taking 13% on every loan I made. Hey if it was okay for Delaware credit card companies, then it was ok for me,.
Nothing like a few private mortgages back in the 80's and 90's.No fees, no applications, all cash deals. People flocked to them.
The key is never flaunt it and go on real nice vacations to place where bank accounts are private. And hold the paper so you own the house if they shit the bed.
Gordon Gecko my ass.
I guess I am one of the few here who did give each of my kids $5,000,000 on their sixteenth birthdays.
I saw it as character building. I mean, now they have to learn how to open a checking account and manage money.
They will learn it " doesn't grow on trees." It comes from other sources.
The problem is, like me, none of them can hit a curve ball. Much less, one that arrives at 92 mph.
So they will just have to trundle along in life, eating ice cream sandwiches.
I always called Jason, "Jessica." And for a reason.
He is not going to be a superstar Yankee ballplayer.
And, most likely, he'll never be a woman.
But he will be glad to have that $5,000,000.
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