Monday, August 8, 2022

Did we just lose the pennant over $932,833.34?

 

Poor Scott Floss. His whispy prom beard newly shaven, he looked like an adorable schoolboy when the first batter he faced in Yankee Stadium nearly took him deep. 

He retreated all the way to the third base line, grimacing queasily as the ball he served up dropped just short of the stands.  

Not, let us say, the traditional Yankee closer look. Sparky Lyle or Goose Gossage would have stood on the mound and scowled and glowered that fly down. The Great One, Mariano, would have given it the long-faced look of a mosaic saint, forcing it down with the wisdom of the ages.

Not Floss—seen below preparing for his Social Studies exam. I half expected him to chomp on his fingers as he watched it descend.

Hey, you go to war with the army you got, as the man in charge of making the army better once said. Floss was what we had, acquired dirt cheap from the tanking rebuilding Chicago Cubs.

It's just a shame the Cubbies didn't have available somebody who had pitched in New York before. Preferably under the pressure of a pennant race. 

Maybe, even, someone who had pitched in the Bronx twice before during pennant races, including the last time the Yankees won it all. Who had even been a closer here for a whole season, and had recently become a highly effective closer again, and was so good at wriggling out of jams that his nickname was Houdini.

Nah, no one like THAT was available from the Cubs...were they?

And surely not somebody who the Cubbies would give up for no more than a one-time, 33rd-round draft choice—a 22-year-old pitcher who, in his sixth year of pro ball, was no further along than 3-5 in the Single-A Sally League.


Some goofball who looked, say, like this, just below. That couldn't possibly be the case. Right?







And if it did, there MUST have been a good baseball reason for it all going down like that.  Correct-o?  

Our veteran general manager, nobody's fool, would NEVER have passed up a chance to acquire the likes of Dave Robertson for, well, some fool like the one here, unless there WAS a good baseball reason. At least a very, very good baseball reason.

I mean, it couldn't have been all about the MONEY or anything. Could it? 

After all, Houdini Robertson is only making $3.5 mill this year. You pro-rate that after two-thirds of a season, and we're talking about a mere $1.2 mill. Less, even.

Of course, young Floss is making only $701,500 a year. You pro-rate that, calculate the difference, ipso facto, abracadabra, and you end up $932,833.34, rounding off the final cent.

I mean, they couldn't POSSIBLY have brought in Dross over Houdini because of that sort of money. 

Could they?









41 comments:

JM said...

I hate Cashman. Boone is an idiot. And Hal's late brother was the Steinbrenner we needed, not this CPA.

Doug K. said...

JM - Wasn't Hank the force behind re-upping A-Rod? Maybe there's a third brother.

Hal - Michael
Hank - Sonny
? = Fredo

Never mind.

The Hammer of God said...

If we had just stood pat, instead of making moves, we'd still have Montgomery and Sears.

Figure out a way to get rid of some guys who aren't good enough, bring up Clarke Schmidt and Marinaccio. If Trivino, Loaisiga, can be sent down without losing them, do it. But somebody's got to go down to the minors. Even Locastro, is it really necessary to have a glorified pinch runner on the bench? They shouldn't keep yo-yo-ing Marianaccio.

Sears, Marinaccio and Schmidt would've been a big upgrade over Trivino, Loaisiga, and Abreu. Well, at least we didn't trade Marinaccio and Schmidt.

Doug K. said...

Hammer -

"Well, at least we didn't trade Marinaccio and Schmidt."

No we just sent them down to the minors for the next 10 days. Because stupid is as stupid does.

AboveAverage said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
AboveAverage said...

Meredith Marakovits, during tonight's pre-game show interview with NY Yankee manager Aaron Boone:

"Aaron, this team was a juggernaut heading up to the trade deadline. Now, many believe that the moves that were made deeply damaged the chemistry of the clubhouse and now there are signs that all the momentum built up over the first 104 games is gone.
The fans think Brian Cashman should be to blame for this disaster. What are your thoughts?"

Boone's response:

"Well Meredith, you know, in my, uhm, experience Brian has been, you know, the uh, you know, the ultimate fixer. And, uh, uhm, and as the old saying goes, you know, if it isn't uhm, broken then don't, ah, you know, fix it. So ah, Brian had to, break, uhm, you know break things up a bit so that he, you know, could, uh, have something to, uhm, you know, fix."

Rufus T. Firefly said...

He succeeded in the breaking part, as usual.

DickAllen said...

I predicted back in the spring that the Yankees would win 88 games.

The intern is making me look like a genius right now

DickAllen said...

I’m sorry. That was harsh. I should’ve given Boooooone more credit for his part. He deserves some credit too.

Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside said...

Two things changed for the second half: Yankees can’t win and John Sterling is no longer on the team charter flight. Did he know, or is he the cause?

HoraceClarke66 said...

DickAllen, I predicted 77 wins—and I ain't budging from that yet!

HoraceClarke66 said...

Mets already won, to move ahead of our record, I think.

HoraceClarke66 said...

YES "Keys to the game" today include, "Stay away from the bullpen."

Uh, right. Since the team has 0 complete games this year, very doable.

HoraceClarke66 said...

And...Carpenter putting himself out of the game now, fouling a ball off his foot.

Damn.

But don't worry! Brian Cashman announced that he has reacquired Joey Gallo, so there will be absolutely no danger of either Estevan Florial or Miguel Andujar being brought up to the majors.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Donaldson showing signs of life.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Taillon got lucky there. Unbelievable that we traded Monty and kept this guy.

HoraceClarke66 said...

What base running. But...rather be lucky than good.

Does Seattle actually play home games in its home park? Because their outfielders look like they've never been there before. Not complaining!

DickAllen said...


Carpenter is done for the year

Fractured ankle

HoraceClarke66 said...

Shit. That really is a bad break.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Now we will get to hear all about how wise it was that Cooperstown got us Plantar Guy.

Joe of AZ said...

With an ankle fracture he should be able to make it back for playoffs right....

Fuck

DickAllen said...


Actually, it may not be the ankle but bones in his toes or the front of his foot.

I’m sure Boooooone will give us an honest appraisal of his injury and the short timetable for his speedy recovery.

Doug K. said...

That sucks about Carpenter. At least he got his moment in St. Louis.

DickAllen said...


And now for your entertainment pleasure, warming up in the Yankees bullpen is our very own WaterWorks.

Get out your Tums

HoraceClarke66 said...

I know. We need about 6 more runs. At least.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Oh, of course. Taillon getting through 7 innings—impossible.

HoraceClarke66 said...

All right, well he managed it.

Now we all start to sweat.

DickAllen said...


Taillon had one difficult inning, but otherwise he was terrific.

Now let’s see how the SweatShop can make this interesting

DickAllen said...

The other good news is Benny: 2-4, 3RBIs

DickAllen said...


And a respectable 3-7 RISP tonight. Rare treat indeed

HoraceClarke66 said...

Never a dull moment!

HoraceClarke66 said...

All right! He finally put away that .145 hitter! Well, better than Cole did last week!

Oasisdave said...

Chappo one step closer

AboveAverage said...

saddened by Carpenter news

HoraceClarke66 said...

Judge!

AboveAverage said...

There goes the Judge-There goes the Judge

DickAllen said...


Benny needs to be moved up into Carpenter’s 3hole tomorrow

HoraceClarke66 said...

Holmes has Chappie Disease.

HoraceClarke66 said...

THUUUHHHHHH Yankees WIIIINNNN!

And in only a little more than 3 1/2 hours. After 4 1/2 hours yesterday. This has got to go faster. But a win is a win.

AboveAverage said...

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Kevin said...

Regarding Hank Stein, I'll never forget his classic line about free agent Cliff Lee, 'It behooves that YOUNG MAN to sign with the New York Yankees'. Now was the YOUNG MAN line coming from a fellow looking to get his ass beat (especially a fellow from Arkansas, a place where men are just looking for assholes like Hank)? At the time, I figured that yes, Hank was just that arrogant. Now I'm more of the opinion that Hank shrewdly chose those words to save a lot of money.... And now for the want of a Dave Robertson a wannabe kingdom will be lost.

If ownership was all in we would have had Castillo AND Montas. I'm really getting sick of the BULLSHIT.