Thursday, March 9, 2023

Does anybody want to play LF for the Yankees? Step right up...

 

Ladies and gentlemen, in the category of BEST SUPPORTING LEFTFIELDER TO IMPRESS YESTERDAY, the nominees are:

John Wick
The Cocaine Bear
The Irish guy who cuts off all his fingers
The AI devil doll
Nobody else, really. 

Collectively, the five candidates for opening day LF went 0 for 8 with one walk and two Ks. If for zest and flavor, you sprinkle in the whimsical ballerina Giancarlo Stanton - who technically is a fulltime Oscar statue, unto himself - the would-be LFers went 1-for-10 with two runners left in scoring position.

Okay, so nothing matters, right? Forget the Banshees of Inisherin. It's the Banshees of Tampa that should worry us. Right now, the seven players chasing LF are hitting - collectively - .259 over 92 at bats, with 6 HRs and 14 RBIs. (Over a full season of, say, 500 ABs, that would translate into 30 HRs and 70 RBIs. I think we'd take that, no?)

Of course, the most electrifying player in LF thus far has been Jasson Dominguez, who is destined - rightfully, I suppose - for Double A Somerset. (We can get excited about The Martian, but to reach the Bronx, he needs more than a small sample size in Feb/March.)  Here is the totality of our outfield.


We should note that Oswaldo Cabrera made a spectacular diving catch in CF yesterday, and he continually looks like a golden cog in the Yankee future - even as the banshees stubbornly cling to Aaron Hicks. 

For whatever it works, I cannot shake the feeling that the Yankees will soon trade for an outfielder. Pittsburgh's Brian Reynolds gets the ink, but Brian Cashman seldom follows media consensus. The question is whether Cashman is gun-shy following the disastrous, traumatizing 2022 trade deadline, where everything, everywhere, all at once, went sour. The long term damage from those trades has yet to be fully assessed, and it might stick to Cashman like lawsuits to Alex Jones. 

The Yankees hired three ancient GMs, presumably to advise Cashman on deals. I think they're there to take the bullets if things go south. If Cashman pulls off a coup, he might yet salvage his burnt reputation from last August. If he blows another one - say, a new Frankie Montas - the pitchforks and torches will begin to march.

Thus far, nobody has stepped up to win the LF Golden Glove, much less the Oscar. We have too many infielders to count. Something soon has to give. 

14 comments:

JM said...

Apropos of nothing, I see Luke Voit is having a pretty good Spring. He gets $2 mil if he makes the big-league roster. Wonder how much he can bench these days?

It does seem like Cashman is looking elsewhere for a left fielder. Poor Hicks. He gets all the bullshit PR stuff out of the front office about how he's the man for the job, and then they'll probably pull the rug out from under him. Ugly, ugly, ugly.

The thing is, do we really have too many infielders? If Cashman wasn't such a douchebag, Oswaldo would be our left fielder. Would we still have too many infielders then? Of course, we shouldn't even have Donaldson, or at least we should just release him and basically admit the mistake. Would we have too many infielders then? And next year, when we won't have him or IKF to kick around anymore, how many infielders will we have? Too many? Too little? Just enough?

This has to be one of the worst front offices in the majors. Maybe, given the resources it has, the worst.

The Hammer of God said...

This clown show is definitely the worst in baseball, as far as baseball decisions. I think they know what they're doing as far as the financial stuff, though. They've made a ton of money since 2010, without winning anything, probably paid like ZERO taxes, and made HAL a very happy rich bum. And they have an excellent financial future as well. Would that all of us had such great financial prospects for the next decade.

Brainless Cashman probably trades Peraza and the Martian for that guy Reynolds. Who then breaks his wrist two weeks into his Yankee career and misses the rest of 2023. Then they go to Hicks until he gets hurt. Then they throw Cabrera in there, until he has a disastrous game against Boston and gets benched. Then Brainless trades four prospects for another schmuck to play LF. Is there another Joey Gallo out there?

Doug K. said...

"much less the Oscar. "

Brian should make a trade to get a Left Fielder. In order to win the Oscar they should Gamble.

I see what I did there.

Celerino Sanchez said...

Guys they have a LF. He is ARON Hicks. There are no trades coming. No Martian, no anything. As Alice Cooper sang "Welcome To My Nightmare". Also I saw that Montas was hurt was they traded for him. Who from Yankees examined him? Dr Vinnie Boombatz?

edb said...

Hicks does, so he can not hit and drop fly balls.

JM said...

Just to make your day a teeny bit more exciting...

Greg Joyce
@GJoyce9
·
13m
Carlos Rodon has a mild forearm strain, no throw for 7-10 days, per Cashman. Will start season late.

Celerino Sanchez said...

Rondon & Kahle will done for the season

JM said...

Cashman just has a way with pitchers, doesn't he? He signs Cole when he can use the sticky stuff and dominate, and then...whoops. He signs Montas when his shoulder was already injured, and...whoops. He signs Rodon, and then...whoops. He trades away Monty, and then...whoops. He gives away a bunch of very promising young arms, and...well, you know how that will go.

Of course, credit where it's due. He also traded for Stanton, Donaldson, and IKF. Signed Hicks to a flabbergasting long-term contract. Chose Boone as our manager. Criticized fans for expecting too much, like, say, winning.

Yeah, I'll be dead before this team gets turned around. Well, we'll always have the 90s. That was fun.

JM said...

Thanks, Celerino, I forgot about Kahnle.

BTR999 said...

Was waiting for the other shoe todo on Rodon after he flamed out the other day.

The Hammer of God said...

Rodon "mild forearm strain"? Well, that didn't take long, did it? Yankee coaching and weight training staff, so utterly predictable that it's amazing. Truly amazing. Now watch that "mild forearm strain" turn into "needs Tommy John surgery" and "will be out for at least 18 months". Cashman brings in guys and they all get hurt or suck so bad that we wish they were hurt and on the shelf.

When Rodon tries to come back and sucks, and then gets shut down with more injury news, then the Yankee PR department will get to work. "Free agent acquisitions are a crap shoot, a high risk. You never know what you're getting. All the doctors in the world can examine them, but you never know when the camel's back will snap. Pitchers are notoriously brittle. Sometimes you roll the dice, and it comes up snake eyes."

Doug K. said...

Wow! You know, just wow.

So three fifths of the "best rotation in baseball" is already on the shelf and Setback Sevi is one of the two remaining.

No one in the wings.

Sears and Montgomery gone. Both the pitchers and the retail stores by the way. If we had a pitcher named John Wanamaker he'd be gone too.

I'm speechless.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Woolworth's is still around.

In Australia.

HoraceClarke66 said...

You are all hilarious. No one better to be in the Bronx bunker with at the end of the world as we know it.