Generally, it's laughable - yet we devour it with both hands. It pushes our fantasy button, the one that says Gary, Gleyber, Luke, Greg, Troy, Vernon - gulp - Youk - insert name here - that a past disappointment has seen the light, changed his honky ways and transformed himself into a tripodal, porn star Adonis, on the verge of a breakout. We want to believe. No, we need to believe, and mid-February - when the Oscars are near, and the swimsuit edition is in the mail - is the time to dream.
Last year, one of the sillier tales of Tampa was this chestnut: Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton had altered their workouts, adding stretches and yoga, to increase durability in the regular season. It lasted maybe two news cycles, replaced by excitement over the Jay Bruce signing.
Still... get this:
It turned out to be true... maybe.
Judge had gone four years without appearing in 120 games during a season. He ended up playing in 148, hitting 39 HRs and batting .287 - by far his best numbers since his cartoonish freshman arrival.
Meanwhile, Giancarlo played 139 games - his most since 2018. Moreover, he played 26 in the outfield, giving the Yankees a huge flexibility that Aaron Boone managed to overlook. Stanton hit 36 HRs and batted .273 - and actually seemed to thrive when playing the outfield. (He hit .267 as a DH -vs .343 in LF and .279 in RF, though small sample sizes.) Should somebody tell Boonie?
So... was the trope, gulp, true?
Well, I dunno. It could be coincidence - a stopped clock, twice a day. But the Yankees have spent a shitwad on player development, and the days of Billy Connor happy hours are long gone. We have young, analytical coaches using advanced training techniques...
You know... like every other team in baseball.
Still, here's a thought for a cold day: Supposedly, Luke Voit spent the winter doing stretches. He's traded kettle balls for kegels. Dare we believe?
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7 comments:
Luke can stretch all he wants, but we still need a first baseman who can play first base.
And all this conditioning stuff is just nonsense. I would gladly trade all the biometrics for even a small dose of Billy Connor happy hours.
Bring on the hangovers.
wait a second - why is everyone still talking baseball here? perhaps the time has finally come for this esteemed group of true believers to abstain from baseball discoursing until the lockout is over to send a clear message to the evil overlords of all of MLB that we are done mucking around and that we mean business! i propose that we take this weekend to decide upon a alternative central subject to explore. it could be anything such as farm animals in cinema, famous closeted nail biters, cheeseburger art . . . i'll leave it better minds than mine to decide. i say that the time is nowish!
I may need to copy the above and paste it in to the next, more frequented post :)
Actually, Giancarlo hit only 35 home runs last year—at least in the regular season. Combine those with Judge's 39, and you get a total of 74—precisely 2/3 of the 111 the two men hit in the year before they played together.
Hey, I'll take it. As Duque points out, it was easily their most productive year together. Stretching all around! Looking at you, Aaron Hicks!
Never mind the workouts. Is there any plan—any plan at all—to fill in the many gaping holes in the Yanks' current roster? No?
Lockout, lockout, lockout...!
AboveAverage:
I believe the term you are looking for is professional curling.
Hoss: You know better than to think any of the front office bootlickers has a plan other than saving their own phony baloney jobs. (Credit: Governor Le Pétomane)
"a huge flexibility that Aaron Boone managed to overlook"
-- a classic. Thanks for the smile!
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