Saturday, July 29, 2023

Runk blog continues... Baltimore owns us


Big thought: When a six-pack of decent beer costs  more than the minimum wage, this country is courting violent revolution.

And we just saw how teams will deal with Aaron Judge, if walking him poses no consequences. Put him on and go for a DP grounder.

Four games behind in the wild card, and the Weekend of Hysteria is here.

The Mets have moved on to winning next year. Will Cooperstown Cashman attempt to save this season - and destroy future ones?  How much worse can this get?

25 comments:

TheWinWarblist said...

I am quite content that I did not stay up for the game. The Baltimore Orioles now own the New York Yankees.

The horror. The horror.

BTR999 said...

Winnie, it was nothing you haven’t seen 1000 times. We couldn’t score unless the O’s handed us a run, but they ain’t KC, OAK, or the mets. Once Cole was done, it as an only a matter of time ‘til our BP flinched. In the bottom of the ninth, Kahnle threw nothing but changeups on every pitch. WTF was up with that? Maybe analytics AI was calling the pitches and it got stuck on repeat

Doug K. said...

I watched the game this AM and the difference was Baltimore's defense. The O's made several great plays in the field. Volpe was robbed a couple of times of extra-base hits.

I don't really recall a game that the Yankees won because of their D. Mostly it's stupid stuff on easy pop ups and not getting to gettable balls.

They need to SELL! And they need to fire Boone and Cashman. I know that we say this all the time but it's only because it's true.

Doug K. said...

I saw this in a fanpost on yanks go yard

Yankees Ranking in OPS by position:

C - 28th
1B - 21st
2B - 10th
SS - 23rd
3B - 25th
LF - 19th
CF - 18th
RF - 19th
DH - 7th

----

That is the definition of mediocre.

Doug K. said...

Sorry I meant pinstripe alley not yanks go yard.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Mediocre, Doug? Or just plain bad?

AboveAverage said...

Wretchedly Rotten

Carl J. Weitz said...

I haven't watched the Yankees in 7, 8 games. Why bother watching reruns? In any event, I have better things to do. Like, clip my nose hair.

The Archangel said...

El Duque,
don't foment an insurrection .

I looked up some stuff for you.
Minimum wage in NYS in 1973 was $1.85
The average cost of a Sixpack was $2.11 per USA Today.
That was the year that I could walk-in a store legally and buy beer.

You can get a lot more beer today on minimum wage that when I worked laying pavement to buy a 6-pack.

Now, the price of gas, that's another matter.

The Archangel said...

Of course, you probably bought fancy beer like Old Milwaukee when I was being Genny :)

AboveAverage said...

That’s a shag carpet’s worth of nose hair, Carl.

JM said...

Cole pitched a very good game, but we still lost by a nose hair.

BTR999 said...

We criticize Cole, but that comes with the territory. He was terrific last night and on the whole has been rock solid this season.

Of course Judge is a super addition, but if teams continue to pitch around him, how long before he starts chasing pitches out of desperation? Rizzo needs to be moved down in the order, if we’re going to hang on to Torres, at least bat him after Judge for a little bit of protection. Don’t get me started about Stanton.

A real risk of being under .500 by this time next week. No point in buying unless it will help us in ‘24 and ‘25. (Imagine Stanton and DJLM IN 2025? šŸ˜µ‍šŸ’«šŸ˜µ‍šŸ’«šŸ˜µ‍šŸ’«šŸ˜µ‍šŸ’«)

Celerino Sanchez said...

They’ve wasted 3-4 years of Cole, all because the idiot GM can’t put a “team” together

HoraceClarke66 said...

I prefer to do the same, Carl Weitz, and to quote Fernando Lamas, my nose hair looks mahvelous!

AA, wasn't 1973 the year of the endless gas lines? We were too poor to have a car, but I remember something about that!

The Hammer of God said...

If memory serves, the Orioles blew one earlier this year by pitching to Judge with two outs in the 9th inning, with the Yanks going on to win in extras. Looks like they've wisened up. No more pitching to Judge.

Actually, they did throw one hittable pitch to him in the 1st, and he hit it hard but it was caught.

They did hit in bad luck last night. Of course, the guys hitting behind Judge couldn't get it done once again.

If they're going to be that putrid overall, there's no reason why Judge shouldn't hit in the leadoff slot. He'll get an extra 50 at bats over the course of the year. 50 more than hitting #2. In fact, to speed up the game, I suggest that they simply give Judge four at bats. Maybe five, depending on a coin toss. No one else should bother hitting. Judge simply swings for the fences in every at bat. That's the Yankee offense.

Carl J. Weitz said...

@ AA...yeah, that's what happens when you neglect nostrils for a decade.


@ Arch...We used to drink 6-packs of Old Bohemian (Old Bo, to many), and Haffenreffer (Germany's best) at $ .89 and $.99 respectively. On occasion, we would buy our regional supermarket's finest on sale at $ .69. It soothed the hits of brown, blonde, or red hash and, when available, hash oil.

AboveAverage said...

HCninerniner

Did I reference 1973?

I'm at a loss, Hoss . . .

The Hammer of God said...

On WFAN yesterday, Ricky Riccardo reported that the Royals indicated that Salvie Perez is NOT available and that they won't trade him no matter what. There goes one potential Cashman deal.

Also on WFAN, I love Keith McPherson. He skewered the Yankee management. Said the Yankees were last in just about everything. And that they pretend to be the smartest guys in the room, but it doesn't really work when you're sitting in last place.

There was another guy on the air after Keith McPherson, somebody named Pete Hoffman, or something like that. Hoffman is a Cashman apologist, said that Cashman is the "top" GM in major league baseball and will soon have to prove it once again. It was interesting that someone could be so delusional, an eye opening experience.

Carl J. Weitz said...

Pete Hoffman is most likely a MAGA member as well. Now that's eye-opening!

The Hammer of God said...

WFAN host Pete Hoffman said he wants to get Nolen Arenado of the Cards to play 3B. According to him, that is THE magic move that would solve many of the Yankee problems. He said pay any price in prospects or young players: Volpe, Jasson Dominguez, anything and everything.

Let's examine that proposal. Arenado, 32 yrs old right now, has about 10-11 years in the majors. Still has over an .800 OPS but another right hand hitter. He's under contract for a few more years. Getting a bit long in the tooth.

Twelve years in the majors is a red line, the danger point. With all the wear and tear, he probably has another year or two left before he falls off the cliff as an effective player. I don't think this would be a good idea. They have to get younger than that. I don't want another Donaldson type situation one or two years from now. I don't want another old right handed slugger clogging up and tilting the lineup to starboard.

AboveAverage said...

Bartolo Colon has officially announced his retirement.

Shame because I was hoping that Cash would have brought him in to finish the year with us

The Hammer of God said...

Rather than Nolen Arenado, if I'm going to give up the farm, I think I'd rather go for Juan Soto, who is still only 24. It's taking more of a chance in the short term, because he's had a couple of years of sub par performance, but he seems to be getting it back now. I prefer him over Arenado because of the age (8 years difference is nothing to sneeze at) and because he's a lefty hitter. He'd solve the left field problem too.

The crazy thing is why didn't we get Soto when he was available in the Washington Nats garage sale? Well, better late than never. I don't think it's too late. Trade the farm for Soto. Why not? He brings instant hitting talent that can be combined with Judge. Whichever way you want to put them, Judge 2/Soto 3 or Soto 2/Judge 3. We will pay the price to keep Soto, who'll be a free agent soon, but I'd rather spend on Soto than Gleyber Torres.

The Hammer of God said...

Pete Hoffman had the nerve to say that the Mets GM, Billy Eppler, is a fool who threw his cards in too early by trading David Robertson "the best reliever on the market". And that Eppler doesn't measure up to Cashman, who always waits to get the best deal.

What a barnload of hogwash! I think Billy Eppler did well to trade Robertson for two low level minor leaguers. If he got the guys that he wanted, then he did well. Waiting around 'til the last minute might get a better deal, or it might not. The guys you wanted might have been shipped out for somebody else. Robertson, playing in the twilight of his career, is hardly a great prize. If I'm a GM, I'm not giving up an arm and a leg for David Robertson.

At least Billy Eppler has the sense to throw in his cards. As Kenny Rogers said, you got to know when to fold 'em. That's another skill of a GM who knows what he's doing, knowing when to fold the cards. Unlike Brainless Cashman, who is going to go for broke and hold out to the last, thinking that he can somehow conjure up a rabbit out of the hat by upping the ante, and win the game with a crap hand. It ain't happening and it's just setting the franchise back another four or five years.

ranger_lp said...

Nobody is going to the help the Yanks out. Not getting Soto. We have to help ourselves. Paraphrasing a quote by the infamous wrestling manager Precious Paul Ellering..."The Yankees are the only team that could gain by losing"...