Friday, March 24, 2023

With Opening Day fast-approaching, 10 ponderings about the Yankees

Somewhere in the bars of Cigar City, a 55-year-old, semi-balding GM is furiously working his iPhone, with nobody returning calls.

The Yankee pipe dream - trading an extra infielder for a lefty-slugger LF - may need to wait until August. To paraphrase old Rumsfeld, you go to war the season with the army lineup you have. The war is a week away. Meanwhile...

1. Anthony Volpe picked a crapola time to turn frigid. He's 0-8 in his last two games, his BA dipping to .279, Roy Smalley territory. Three weeks ago, Volpe was Tampa's IT Girl, and his quest for opening day Jeterhood seemed inevitable. Now, we wonder: How long will this mini-slump go, and how will he respond? 

2. Sadly, Oswald Peraza has failed to take advantage of Volpe's hiccup. After another hitless day, Peraza's spring average stands at .171, Alvaro Espinosa territory. Small samples come with grains of salt. But these numbers are sobering, and these days, who wants to be sober?

3. If we were to name a spring MVP, it would be The Man Without a Place, Oswaldo Cabrera. He homered yesterday, his third, the lone Yank run. He has done everything asked of him - LF, CF, SS, 3B, 2B, 1B - yet the brain trust seems determined to play Aaron Hicks (.250). That's Chinatown, Oswaldo.  

4. According to Forbes, the Yanks remain - by barges and barges - the most valuable franchise in baseball. They're supposedly worth $7.1 billion, more than $2 billion more than the first runner-up Dodgers. Hold onto that Yankee Shaman headdress. Next time Hal whines about the luxury tax, we riot. 

5. Check out the 2023 Tabloids Covers Race (left), and you'll see why Hal actually should worry. Through March, the Yankees have received their fewest barrels of free tabloid ink since we began counting. Hal's dad always ruled the back pages. He saw the gold in those screamer headlines. As a result, the Yankees have owned NYC for decades. Could they be entering a mega-drought? Climates - even financial ones - don't change overnight. Once flipped, the switches don't soon turn back. 

6. Carlos Rodon threw a session yesterday, and the Yankees are ecstatic delighted overjoyed blah-blah-blah pick-your-B.S. with what they saw. Rodon is critical to 2023, and yesterday was a baby step, as he returns from a tender forearm. What he didn't throw were breaking balls, supposedly the source of his earlier pain. We'll see in five days, when he tries again. Fingers crossed. Without Rodon, the quest becomes the wild card.  

7. Along with the battle for SS, the search for a Cinderella left-fielder has also dried up. The two early non-roster wonders - Willie Calhoun (.282) and Rafael Ortega (.161) - have turned back into mice pulling a pumpkin. Estevan Florial remains a pinch-runner/defensive replacement, and little more. For all the talk, they all might disappear, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa could stay. 

8. Josh Donaldson attributed his two HRs the other day to a revamped swing. Keeping in mind that batters often say such crapola, it's still nice to hear. The only thing that can save Donaldson's career is his willingness to change. Sluggers from Justin Turner to JD Martinez used so-called "swing doctors" to taper their moves and keep going. Did Donaldson get the memo? We'll see. 

9. Fordham's Justin Shackil will replace Sweeney Murphy as host of the post-game radio show. He'll also call 30 games with Suzyn, in place of John Sterling. It won't be easy, replacing a God. Shack comes by way of the Trenton Thunder, Tennessee Smokies and Mobile BayBears. You don't follow Yahweh without paying your dues. 

10. Let me state what everybody is thinking: Aaron Judge should have played in the World Baseball Classic. That last at-bat - it shoulda been Otani v Judge. And everybody knows it. 

19 comments:

The Archangel said...

I attribute Donaldson's two HRs to batting against AA pitchers.

Doug K. said...


Peraza is pressing. The job should have been his based on last year with Volpe coming up mid-year.

That said, things have changed.

The guy who managed to avoid the spotlight is Gleyber. BTW I could not find his stats from the WBC. Odd. Did he not play? Can anyone help me with this.

It's going to come down to balls. Does Cashman have the balls to trade Gleyber and just go with Volpe at second and Peraza at short which would be their best defensive lineup while presumably not giving up offense. (Perhaps adding to it as IKF won't start.)

They will probably send Volpe down to manipulate his service time. But they shouldn't. If they do he will be up by May because he will be pissed off and focused and is going to DESTROY AAA pitching.

JM said...

Oswaldo is the man. He's the real deal.

And why do I want to see Willie Calhoun make the team? I don't know. Maybe I have a soft spot of Clanks.

Cashman is pathetic. I don't think he's going to swing any trades at all. Other GMs must think he's the village idiot. ("How many Cashmans does it take to change a lightbulb?" "Seven. One to hold the bulb, three to statistically research ladders, one to buy a ladder, and two to find a guy who can repair the broken ladder they bought.")

This is a team worth $7 billion simoleons. Cut Hicks, cut Donaldson, eat the money. Won't even make us burp.

ZacharyA said...

Gleyber didn't play much in the WBC.

He went 1-10 with 3 BB/3 K.

Doug K. said...

ZacharyA

Thank you. So, thoroughly unimpressive then.

Doug K. said...

JM -

"...and two to find a guy who can repair the broken ladder they bought."

Good one.

ranger_lp said...

From Twitter:

Aaron Boone calling Oswald Peraza "all-right" and saying he's had bat at-bats this spring is just INSANE to me...



So what is it, Boonie needs optometrist or shrink?

DickAllen said...

NOW IS THE TIME!!!

Hal, your franchise is now worth over seven billion sheckles, an 18% increase over the last year.

Anyone who’s read “MBA for Dummies” knows that now would be a great time to sell. Let’s face it, this franchise might increase in value next year, but this tops it, and the list of suitors will stretch around the block - it would be the bidding war to end all wars. And who knows, maybe Derek Jeter is out there waiting for you to put out the for sale sign.

Do it Hal. Take the money and run. And please, take that bald incompetent fool with you. We need to become the New York Yankees again and you are not it.

NOW IS THE TIME TO SELL THE TEAM TO SOMEONE WHO KNOWS AND CARES ABOUT BASEBALL AND THE YANKEES!!

BTR999 said...

Dick, I’d love to see that happen, but we all know it won’t.

Any other owner would definitely fire Cashman & Boone. No doubt about it.

Meanwhile, the Volpenator awakes with a 2 run homer

Doug K. said...

bornto -

Does Sterling have his Volpe HR call?

BTR999 said...

Not sure Doug, I’m WFH today, so I’ve got the game on YES.

Volpe call, anyone?

Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside said...

Andale Andale, Volpe Volpe!

Poor Sweeney Murti, we can’t even remember he’s not Irish.

Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside said...

Volpe HR on atbat starts at 38:00. He got a “Volpe Blast”. John and Suzyn insist Volpe be in Bronx opening day.

AboveAverage said...

I sense that the time has come to ponder potential buyers of the NY Yankees franchise……

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Wasn't Gleyber Cano a backup to that midget turdlet that got hurt?

AboveAverage said...

Turdlet is now my favorite wurd for the rest of the day.

AboveAverage said...

Uh Oh - the day is almost over RoofUS

HoraceClarke66 said...

LOVE it, JM!

And I agree, DickAllen.

But two things:

—Often, Cashman doing nothing is best. Just think if he had NOT embarked on the Trade Deadline Debacle last year.

—I'd love to see HAL sell the team...as long as it's not to anyone named Dolan.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Duque, I would've loved seeing Ohtani v. Judge.

But then, more likely we would have ended up with Judge being carted off the field in a chair, a la Diaz.