Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Keith Law on Jasson Dominguez: "He started 2022 with 57 games of pro experience, total, and that’s all he had had since signing in July of 2019. He ended up hitting well enough in High A that he would have finished in the top 10 in the Sally League in OBP and slugging if he’d qualified. Why do I get the sense people think he’s a disappointment?"

Hmm. Let's ponder that question. 


Why would Yank fans wonder about "The Martian?"

Well...

Jackson Melian. 
Jose Tabata. Jesus Montero. Dermis Garcia. Ruben Rivera. Ricardo Aramboles. Wilkerman Garcia. Nelson Gomez. Juan Deleon. Hans Montero. Et al. And those are merely the international signings. The first-round draft picks would need another post. 

Yesterday, Keith Law - (now of The Athletic; jeez, the guy changes uniforms like Cory Kluber) - ranked Dominguez #32 on his annual Top 100 Prospects list. This came with a gushing 300-word synopsis of The Martian's last three years, since the Yankees signed him at age 16. It questioned why some of us might feel as if we're being paid in Mallo Cup coupons at a Bitcoin convention. 

Somebody, please - shoot me. I can't do this anymore. Seriously. If I must endure another year of prospect boosterism about Dominguez, my head will burst like in a Cronenberg movie. This must be the year his testicles drop. He must arrive in 2023. If he spends the year at Double A, "adjusting," and shows up next year at, say, #58, all will be lost. I know he's only 19. I'm sorry for doubting him. But how much more Martian water can we carry, when there might not even be water on Mars.

We covered him here. 

He's been christened a teenage Mike Trout, compared to Bryce Harper at 16 and - in the most dangerous lines of all - evoked memories of another switch-hitting CF, the one who ruled my childhood. Dominguez received the highest signing bonus in Yankee history. As a result, the Death Star will surely get its money's worth in hype.

And here. 

It's a make-or-break season. He either hits, or he'll start to slowly disappear like superheroes on Thanos' hit list.

And here

Twice, he's ranked No. 1 on the Yank prospect list. (He's now 2nd, 3rd or 4th, depending on the site.) Twice, he appeared in Futures Games, once before he'd even played a year in the minors... Damn, he's done everything but date Pete Davidson.

So, why, why, WHY must we always swing at the biggest pinata? Are we doomed to our own gullibility? We question the Yankee Death Star, aware that it manipulates us, knowing the front office is Lucy with the football, awaiting our kick. We know it's a scam, a slight-of-hand designed to make us salivate like Pavlov's cocker spaniel. Yet we bite the hook. They sign another kid from somewhere far away - like Mars - and we oogle him every day, as if he's a sparrow in a webcam nest.

For the record, I'm glad that Keith Law believes in The Martian. Maybe he's right. Maybe everything will turn out in the end. But every Yank fan in captivity has good reason to question the truckload of bullshit that comes with every mention of Jasson Dominguez. It's not his fault that the Yankees eat their young. And we're not wrong to question them. 

19 comments:

Eddhall69 said...

Here is Keith Law on Montero:

3. Jesus Montero, DH/C | Top 100 rank -- 9: He can't catch, but once the Mariners realize that and put him at DH, watch out, as Montero has the kind of all-fields power that should play even in the humbling environment of Safeco, as well as enough plate discipline to post a strong OBP and get himself into good hitters' counts.

I trust Keith Law's opinion

Carl J. Weitz said...
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Carl J. Weitz said...

Mars is geothermally active, so there is definitely water on Mars, albeit just under the ice cap surface. Fear not, Yankees fans! I believe in my "Spidey Sense" of intuition. It's almost never wrong. Umm, except for my investment in the FTX token of FTT. It's kind of cold now so I have to buy another shirt.

JM said...

I'm with Eddhall69. Who cares what Law thinks? Though his opinion does make for a good post.

And I predict Dominguez goes nowhere until he dates Pete Davidson. I mean, somebody's gotta.

Carl J. Weitz said...

And my sixth senses says The Martian will be the next Yankees star.

Eddhall69 said...

Will that make him "Our Favorite Martian"

Doug K. said...

Eddhall

Re: Montero "He can't catch, but once the Mariners realize that and put him at DH, watch out,"

He was half right.


HoraceClarke66 said...

Absolutely hilarious, Duque.

And, sigh, still more fan bashing from Keith Law.

Right, right, it's all on us. We're the ones who were going to chase The Judge away after last year's playoff blowout, we're the ones who are the reason why free agents x, y, and z are afraid to come to big, bad New York, blahblahblahblah...

No matter how many times this get debunked—Judge re-signs forever, it turns out that free agents Beltran, Machado, and Harper all showed up in the Bronx offering discounts—sportswriters refuse to believe it.

Not sure what it is. Free massages from Brian Cashman up in the press box? An inability to understand that while they're getting paid to attend the games, it's quite the opposite with us? A refusal to acknowledge that there are actually alternative entertainments available in New York?

I dunno. Hey, I don't think we should give up on The Martian yet, and I'm rooting for him. But the Keith Laws of the world, for all their "expertise," never seem to know the history of the game. Which is that superstars turn great early, or they tend not to be so great at all.

AboveAverage said...

" . . . might feel as if we're being paid in Mallo Cup coupons at a Bitcoin convention."

Superb, El Duque.

Superb.

JM said...

Chad Green signed with the Blue Jays for two years, $8.4 million, with options for the two years after that.

Yeah, he's gonna kill us.

Platoni said...

They did it! The Yankees DID it! They did not appear once in the coveted Tabloids Covers Race TM during the blessed month of January. The way I figure, they're playing it quiet, laying in the underbrush, letting others face the headwinds. And then, BAM!, they'll announce Donaldson's extension or something. Win-win-win.

So, pop the champagne, burst the confetti, rejoice. It can only get better from here.

Right?

Mildred Lopez said...


I was born and grew up in the town where Mallo Cups are made. The factory is right down in the center of the city - small city but city nonetheless - on the other side of the tracks. When we were kids we would ride our bikes down there, it wasn't far because my neighborhood was downtown, and the guys on the dock would give us boxes of those chocolate beauties and we'd sit up on the bridge over the tracks and watch the trains go under us. Funny some of us still have teeth.

Doug K. said...

ML -

Very cool memory.

Carl J. Weitz said...

@ JM....I liked Chad Green his first few years. But the last 2 seasons he steadily went downhill. He probably won't pitch until 2024 when I envision we will see "The Martian" smash a 3-run homer in the bottom of the 9th to win the game by a run. He will be not-so-mean Chad Green with less velocity but still with a penchant to throw the ball right over the plate at the most inopportune times. I say "good riddance" to Mr. Green!

BTR999 said...

Again, I feel JD must be allowed to develop at his own pace. His body is still changing, and he will not be the next #7. I hate the hype train, so I don’t ride it. For me the issue is more will he receive proper coaching. This org reeks of failure in that regard, with the stench wafting down from on high. My prediction is that JD will end up being dealt at some upcoming deadline for an overpaid vet pitcher with a sore arm in a desperation deal to save that future team’s collapsing playoff chances.

Can’t you just visualize it?

AboveAverage said...
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HoraceClarke66 said...

That IS a cool memory, Mildred. So Altoona, eh?

Amazing the freedom kids had to just play and go where they would in those days.

HoraceClarke66 said...

I agree, 999, in that the Yanks' seeming inability to ever develop anyone is a major problem. And you're right about where the problem starts.

The Archangel said...

Mallo cups back in the day was a HUGE thing.
I think that they were 5 cents when I first got them.
Collected the cards, got 5$ in cards and mailed them in to Altoona Pa. and wanted for the blessed day of arrival.
Ten FREE ones.

My roommate from college was from Oswego/Fulton and the Nestles factory drove him crazy as a kid.
One summer working there in 1974 killed his love of chocolate for several years. Although our apartment had several hundred assorted candy bars that fall semester because a case "fell off the loading dock."