Here's a half-dozen reasons why...
1. With each passing day, it becomes clearer that the Yankee front office algorithms will return. Okay, maybe they'll jettison some weight room flunky or a hamstring whisperer - blame them for everything and throw them out as chud. But the architects of this wretched 2023 team, like the Starr Insurance arm patches, are here to stay. (Can't we get a cooler uniform sponsor? How about Saw 5! Jigsaw Meets Chucky! Now, that would be a patch.)
2. In every analysis, the Yankees have few, if any, moves to make. Nobody wants our albatrosses. Rodon? Here to stay. DJ? Here to stay. Giancarlo? We might as well build him a tower on Times Square. Guy hasn't hit above .211 in two years. This season, his On Base Percentage was - gulp - .275. That's not batting average, people, that's ON BASE PERCENTAGE. He vows to retool his swing. Yeah, right. Old dogs love new tricks. He turns 33 in November. He can't play OF, can't stay healthy, can't even run to first. Five more years.3. I suppose they can maybe trade Gleyber Torres, our only position player to have a decent season, in terms of stats, despite the Mitch McConnell mental lapses. Could they get fair value for him? Maybe a LF, or a 3B? Or a pitcher? Whatever. They'll just create one hole to fill another. Whackahole. Good luck with that.
4. The Yankees won't rebuild, as other teams do, making Hal Steinbrenner's so-called "audit" sort of farcical. If Hal wonders how Baltimore built such a powerhouse, maybe he should ponder the six straight years that the Orioles finished in the cellar. Meanwhile, after realizing they weren't going anywhere, Boston strategically tanked in August. Watch them rise next spring with a remade roster. The Yankees, on the other hand, plowed onward through September, winning meaningless games, so the team can tout its streak of winning seasons.
Listen: If you find any Yank fan touting our streak of winning seasons, slap them.
5. Last night on ESPN, David Cone marveled over the loud, crazy, delirious Philadelphia crowd, saying there's nothing else like this in baseball.
Well, there used to be - in the Bronx.
But Coney is right. We can lord over the Tampa Rays' sad attendance records - they drew 20,000 yesterday, horrible - but if the Yanks had somehow made this year's wild card round, sellouts would not be guaranteed. In recent postseasons, I recall empty blue seats in October.
The Yankees have destroyed whatever links remained to the great teams of the 1990s, and will take years, not months, to build a legitimate contender.
6. Which brings me to the 80's. When I think of this offseason, the late and great Warren Zevon comes to mind: Send lawyers, guns and money; Dad, get me out of this. (Check out this compilation of his appearances on the David Letterman Show.)
Hal is caught in a bind, and nobody's coming. He's already squandering $200 million in payroll and now, when a free agent comes available, he must outbid the Mets, Redsocks, Dodgers, Giants, Phillies, Padres et al. When Gammonites link the Yankees to - say -Juan Soto or a Japanese pitcher, they're doing it out of muscle memory.
There is no reason to think Hal will ever outbid Steve Cohen. Nope. Rest in Peace, Mr. Zevon. For Hal: The shit has hit the fan.
Posts
21 comments:
An innocent bystander
Somehow I got stuck between a rock and a hard place
And I'm down on my luck
Yes, I'm down on my luck
Well, I'm down on my luck
We are all stuck with shitty management for the foreseeable future.
By the way, I cannot help but note how refreshing it is to have a Presidential attack dog be an actual attack dog.
Let loose the attack dogs on Hal and Brain and the entire analytics team of incompetents and nincompoops.
Which reminds me. Whatever happened to the two veteran advisors or consultants or whatever they were/are. Sabean and Minaya. What is it they do, exactly? What is it they did this season? Nothing? Anything?
What a sad, pathetic, ridiculous, moronic, clueless, fumbling organization. I'm kind of wondering about Judge now. He doesn't seem stupid, but he signed his life away to be on this team for his whole career. Why? What silver-tongue crapolini did Hal whisper in his ear?
It's starting to look like he sold his soul to the Devil, and will be the only fearsome player in our lineup. For at least a few years more.
All too many objectionable franchises in the playoff bracket.
Fuck you Hal.
Actually, Stanton will be 34 in Nov…can’t think of any logical reason why he would be significantly better next year.
I never wanted him here, and am against all long term contracts.
That's ok...the audit will bring this all out...smh...
There's only one thing to be done with Stanton: make him an ellsbury.
allegedly - judge supports and approves of boone managing next season. hopefully what he was referring to was boone managing the remaining the cvs stores in manhattan. either that or he felt he had to support the only other fella named aaron on the team.
Our only hope in the short term is to pool the blog members' money together and pay the Russians to pull a Yevgeny Prigozhin on the Yankees executive jet traveling to the winter meetings in December. Or as several victims have told Putin: "Relax, stay in your chair-I'll just see myself out......of the window".
Whatta you talk, Duque? This has been a splendid season! The Yanks led the AL in attendance again, and ticket prices are going up next year! Ka-ching! Or whatever its equivalent is today...the soft slither of a credit card?
'S all good, man! The fans will keep coming, keep watching no matter what, the suckers! Right?
@ Duque:
1. How 'bout Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre?
2. Seems Rodon could not connect with our resident genius pitching coach, Matt Blake. You know what they say, if you can't fire the players, fire the manager and coach! I say Blake should pay the price. After that shit show, wherein Severino & Rodon combined to sink this year like the Titanic, there's no way the pitching coach can stay.
3. Whack a mole, whack a hole. I think they should trade pretty much anything of value that they can trade and get younger, more talented. Besides Gleyber, I think Clarke Schmidt should be a goner. He has some good value, could even be an ace on some National League team that knows what it's doing. Trade our resident junky wife beater, Domingo German. He's still got great stuff, when he feels like pitching. Think about trading Gerrit Cole, for the right package.
Besides that, they have to hope that The Martian comes back fully effective next August or September. And that Austin Wells develops. They probably should go after a couple of lefty hitting free agents and bring in that Japanese pitcher Yamamoto.
4. "Listen: If you find any Yank fan touting our streak of winning seasons, slap them." I say crush 'em like cockroaches!!! Be an EXTERMINATOR!!!
@ JM, Judge WAS stupid last winter. He had two choices: (1) stay with the Yankees and get paid big time, like 450 mill, maybe even 500 mill (in exchange for never winning a championship) or (2) go somewhere else and WIN AT LEAST ONE CHAMPIONSHIP (and maybe get paid just as much).
Well, he did neither. He only got 360 mill over 9 years. Which is a very good haul, no doubt, but he probably gave away at least 90 million bucks. Yes, 90 million bucks! Think of what you can do with 90 million bucks! He had Yankee management by the balls and he let 'em go!
I fear that Aaron Judge will live up to his name and never make it to the promised land. What's that the ancient Greeks used to say, you cannot escape your destiny.
@ Carl, Yeah, the Russians used to send four guys to a hotel room to find you and beat you up 'til you were already dead. Then they'd throw you out the window. And then say you committed suicide. A very good, inexpensive technique for getting rid of people they didn't like. The Russian way, keep it simple and inexpensive. The American way, do audits & spend tons of money, build incredibly expensive machines, keep the entire economy employed with government workers ... in order to kill one cockroach. Which way is better? There are pluses and minuses to both.
Oooooooooohhhhhhh!!!! I almost forgot. Did we do a Yankee funeral this year? Can't let that holy tradition die. Everyone, let us sing:
Soy un per-da-dor
I'm a loser, bay-bee
So why don't you kill mee?
Soy un per-da-dor
I'm a loser, bay-bee
So why don't you kill mee?
And one more:
Oh, look what you've done
You made a fool of everyone
Oh, it seemed like such fun
Until you lose what you had won
Yankee funeral is now over. Brothers and sisters, go out into the world and spread the word: Brian Cashman is a two legged jackass, and HAL is his master.
Hammer, you're spot on in your analysis of Judge's options and what he gave up. If he does indeed stay with the Yankees, he will never play in a World Series, and further honors—such as a Hall of Fame selection—will probably be jeopardized by the paltry crew The Brain will assemble around him.
Buuuuuttt...There's something to be said to committing to a place, and NOT milking every last dollar out of the opportunity (especially when the dollar figures are up in the realm of Monopoly money).
Maybe Judge just likes New York, or likes the change, after growing up on the West Coast. Maybe he figures any situation can go south, so why not stick with what he's known and liked. Maybe his wife likes it here. Who knows?
In any case, I'm glad he stayed—even though it's probably not the best thing for the Yankees, either. There has to be SOMEBODY to watch and root for in the dim years ahead (I don't know if we'll even see The Martian again; he might as well be back on the red planet.).
And, may I just add: Good to see TB and the BJs out of the playoffs already.
Go, Twins!
Hoss, I don't know what the hell was going on Judge's head, but I too am mighty glad that he stayed here. He certainly did Yankee fans a huge favor by inking that deal.
And thank God the Tampons and Blow Jobs have been eliminated. Now, if only the ASS-stros will be exorcised from the playoffs, we will be able to rest!
PBS had a "Frontline 2" special on the ASS-stros cheating scandal just a few days ago. The garbage can, the centerfield camera, the installation of a monitor just below the dugout steps so that cheaters could quickly access stolen signs, the use of computer equipment to decipher the catcher's signs, the whole filthy shebang.
They also said that there is no evidence of Evil Dwarf Altuve using a buzzer underneath his jersey during that series where the ASS-stros walked off Gunslinger Aroldis Chapman and the Yankees. (But I think that is only because they haven't looked hard enough.)
MLB Commish Rob Fucking Manfred now admits that he regrets his decision to give all of the cheating players amnesty.
Former Commish Fay Vincent says that he would've suspended all of the cheating players FOR LIFE. He said the Commissioner has a conflict of interest: he works for the owners, but he is also in charge of disciplining cheating owners. No can do.
Good points, Hammer.
But really, the problem started with the toleration of all the juicing. By the time the Astros started doing much more traditional cheating, the juicing had been going on for almost 30 years. By then, cheating was bred in the bone. It will be back.
There are steroids that make a person much stronger without the obvious bloat. And they can be masked. I would bet dollars to dimes that they are still endemic in sports. I didn't personally see the story, but a friend told me that Tyrick Hill ran a sub four second forty back in the spring. If true, and assuming that no error was made by the person who timed him; well that kind of wraps up the case, no?
Kev, I don't even know who Tyrick Hill is, but if you say so. I'm sure that almost all pro athletes in every sport are still juicing. Even in the Olympics, they say you can tell who is NOT juicing - those who came in dead last.
It's still a cat & mouse game of juicers staying ahead of the detection methods. There is no solution to it, except maybe trying to make all sports more dependent on skill alone, and not so much on power or speed. But what can be done for sports that are entirely speed or power based, like sprinting, the 100 meter dash?
For my sport, boxing, the Olympic rules, with headgear and the scoring system have done a pretty decent job of making the sport more dependent on skill.
For baseball, I think we need to do some things like moving the fences back in all ball parks; lowering the mound; reducing the number of pitchers on the roster; limiting the flexibility of call ups from the minors, especially with pitchers. We've got to get away from home run derby; three true outcomes; 100 mph power pitching; and the endless procession of 1 inning relievers.
Post a Comment