It's shuddering to realize how easily the '23 Yankees ingested - with barely a burp - such a great year by their ace, en route to finishing one game above .500.
Without Cole, they would have suffered a Biblical, NY Giants-esque collapse - reaching the Tankathon Top Five, as one of professional sports' elite ongoing catastrophes.
They would have fallen out of the wild card race by mid-July, throwing Jhony Brito and Randy Vasquez to the wolves, and leaning on their ace, Clarke Schmidt. God knows what would have happened to Domingo German, but the clubhouse TV would not have made it to Memorial Day. John and Suzyn would hardly have called games into September. The Martian would have been promoted - and injured - by August. Cashman would have started cussing in June. And who knows? Maybe they would have gone through three batting coaches!
Yesterday, Cole won his first Cy Young - even though it wasn't his greatest season. (That came in 2019, at our expense.) Look at the numbers and weep.
In fact, the numbers are skewed by his lack of support. Cole's win total of 15 should have been more than 20.
Ten times, the Yankees scored three or fewer runs for him.
Only twice all season did he leave a game before the fifth inning.
Eleven times, he pitched seven or more - and three times, he still failed to get the win.
Cole ate up 209 innings, by far most on the staff. Schmidt finished second, 50 innings less.
Seriously, the Death Barge just endured one of its worst years in this sad millennium. Thank God we had Cole.
But they better find him some help. If they go into 2024 with the basic same rotation as last season, look out, below!
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9 comments:
Congratulations CY-COLE !
Getting Cole the help he needs would mean trading him to another team that actually still cares about winning for a player/players to be shamed later.
FULL BORE (zzzzz) INTO 24!
I think the pen blew some games for him as well. Congrats.
So in the last two years we've had a guy set the real HR record and another one win a Cy Young and we are STILL watching some of the worst baseball we have ever seen and have zero hope for the immediate future.
It boggles the mind.
100%, Doug.
But something tells me we ain’t seen nothing yet.
Shades of Mel Stottlemyer. At least Mel got 20 wins in '65 and '69, on teams that basically sucked.
Fun facts: in '65, Mel threw 291 innings. In '69, it was 303.
If only Boone had brought in Lindy McDaniel to save more of Cole's games...
Best of all, he took the ball every 5 days and was the fulcrum the rest of the rotation swung around. Hope he can give us another such season next year.
Yes, Duque. When you have aclown's running your organization, this is what happens.
Much as I make fun of his flounciness, Cole certainly deserved this one.
JM, Stottlemyre also won 21 games in 1968...with a team that established the modern record for lowest batting average (.214). They also would've finished a game ahead of the 2023 Yankees, going 83-79.
He threw 18 complete games in 1965, 19 in 1965, and 24 in 1969, leading the AL in '65 and '69. And he threw 4, 6, and 3 shutouts in those years, respectively.
Also one of only two men ever to beat Bob Gibson in a World Series game. Not too shabby.
Doug K makes a very valid and depressing point. If it's not the players, then who could it be? Ummmmm, maybe... management?
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