Recapping, for those scoring at home...
The Yankees placed nobody - Johnny Nada, Zeke Zipp - in MLB Pipeline's top 10 prospects lists for the following positions: RHP, LHP, C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS and OF. That's everywhere, around the horn, a washout. No prospects among the Top 10, wherever you look. Hummina, hummina, hummina...
Okay, before leaping off Tallahatchie Bridge, let's accept that:
1. All prospect rankings are bogus.
2. These websites have it in for the Yankees. (See Hall of Fame ballots.)
3. The jobbed us by ranking only 10 OF. (Thinking Spencer Jones in RF?)
Also, let's recognize the Yankees' farm for its dominance in one key category: Developing pitchers Hyping kids. They maintain the biggest bullshit apparatus in baseball, and their fanbase generally eats their slop with a knife and fork. (Full disclosure: I do.)
Yank prospect sites treat every player as a possible star, even when all we know is the round when he was drafted and the signing bonus. (Which, come to think of it, is probably inflated.) We hug Yankee prospects and ignore what other teams have. Then, come April, we go knock-kneed when Tampa unveils another wave of talent.
In recent years, the Yankee farm system has been generally viewed in the bottom tier, because a) we often draft late, b) we forfeit top picks due to free agents, and c) we drain it every July and December, just to stay afloat.
It's the survival behavior of an addict.
When he became GM in 1998, Brian Cashman vowed to build the best system in baseball, then use free agents to supplement it. After a quarter century, all we see is a Lucille Ball chocolates assembly line of middling prospects, so intensely hyped that they reach New York as rock stars. Gary Sanchez. Greg Bird. Clint Frazier. Gleyber Torres. Luis Severino. Anthony Volpe... (Remember "Gleyber Day?" Or last April's excitement over "Volpening Day?")
Yeah, these Top 10 lists are crapola. But for all their bluster, the Yankees didn't place one prospect - not nobody, nowhere. We should reflect on that. The Yankiverse needs a splash of cold reality:
To contend in 2024, the Yankees absolutely need more pitching. But they cannot afford to trade for a starter. They do not have the prospects. Hal Steinbrenner either must spend more money, or he should start thinking the unthinkable: Working towards 2025.
Obviously, that ship has sailed. We're up to our elbows in contract walk years. But would you fly on one of those Boeings with a gaping hole in the side? Unless we find pitching, that's what we're about to do.
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14 comments:
Consistency has always been the trademark of the Ca$hman administration
The worst front office in baseball, Celerino. The absolute worst.
Back in John's WMCA days, he always would say that New York in general overrates their talent...team, fans, media...
JM, I didn't say it consistently good, but mediocrity is all Hal is looking for.
I took your comment as not meaning "consistently good." How could anyone think that?
LOL!
Let's see the so-called prospects come up and perform. Under The Genius, very few of The Yankees prospects becdome anything at all.
Been my contention that unless we have some young pitchers break out this year, we’re looking at a mid-80 win season. At best.
I used to call Chase Headley "Steady State," because of his remarkable ability to somehow maintain the exact same statistics, year after year, game after game, despite never seeming to deliver a clutch hit.
But really, the nickname is best applied to Hal's Yankees. I think it's clear now that the team is very deliberately designed to exist in a steady state, always contending but never dominating—which would anger his fellow owners, and mean higher salaries.
Trouble is, modern pro sports is in constant flux. You are either getting better or getting worse. We saw the building struts start to give way last year. Now, Hal's refusal to go for it all will almost certainly lead to steady and obvious decline, as our best players age or move on, and the pitching falls apart.
At first read, El Duque's excellent exposure of how crappy the Yankees farm system is seemed not so much revelatory as confirmational.
Cashman IS a lousy GM and the Yankees are organizationally committed to finish third. To not be in the top TEN in anything is deeply unfortunate. They can't get rid of him fast enough.
The reality is the current Yankees are on their own.
There is no cavalry. We're looking at a bunch of Ensign Parkers, Trooper Dobbs', and Gomer Pyles. At this point even a Dino Papparelli would look good.
But -
In all fairness in the last two years we graduated and/or traded a number of players that would have made the top ten.
OF - The Martian would have been a top ten guy but he's part of the the big club now.
SS - Gold Glove winner Anthony Volpe (Doesn't pass the eye test, but hey) would have made that list as well.
Then there's...
C - Austin Wells
IF - A couple of Oswalds
and at least one of the 457 pitchers that Cashman traded away to get Juan Soto. I'm sure that some of them might have ranked too.
The other guys who might rank are just too deep in the minors to make top ten lists although everybody loves Spencer Jones.
Doesn't change the truth of the narrative though. Short term we got nothin'.
So I just read that the Yankees were checking in on Matt Chapman.
Here's a thought...
If they sign him then he is obviously the 3B freeing up DJ to be the starting 2B with Peraza as the IF utility guy. The real upside?
It would allow the Yankees to trade Gleyber for pitching.
I'm good with it.
El Duque...check this out:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C2iPuDoxops/?igsh=NzgyYTk0Y2YyNg==
I know everyone here knows all about this problem, and everything I rant is just preaching to the choir. Feel free therefore to tune out the following rant. Sometimes it just feels good to put it into words.
We talk nowadays with condescension of the Baby Bombers, an entire wave of young talent over multiple years, that has evaporated down to just Aaron Judge, now 31 going on 40. But the fact is, these were not just some middling prospects who were overhyped by the Yankees and their tame sporting press. These prospects came up and immediately performed impressively at the major league level, performed sometimes historically well. Their play showed that they fully deserved the hype.
Everyone here knows all about this and watched it all unfold. But I wanted to look up the statistics and check again whether my memories of this not-so-distant past were faulty. I was gratified to find that they were (mostly) not faulty.
Gary Sanchez, in his rookie (one-third-of-a-)season, hit .299 with 20 home runs. The next year he won the Silver Slugger at C, with an .876 OPS and 33 home runs. The next year he got injured and then slumped into pull-happy poor defence mediocrity. But he put up a pretty strong season for the Padres last year at age 30.
Greg Bird also had a very good rookie (third-of-a) season, hitting .261 with 11 home runs. He couldn't stay healthy. It happens. It happens to young Yankees an awful lot.
Clint Frazier had a bunch of tough breaks, but showed plenty of promise and played very well during the brief stretches when the Yankees actually gave him regular playing time instead of playing head games with him by sending him to Scranton whenever he played well, and then publicly implying that he was a bad apple who needed to learn his lesson before he could be allowed to play. Because the Yankees have never had any players with a bad attitude, and the work ethic of the modern team is unimpeachable.
Gleyber Torres played most of a full season his rookie year, and he played it brilliantly. Baseball awards are twaddle, but he was a deserving All-Star and Rookie of the Year. The next year he hit 38 home runs. 2021 was serviceable, and the last two years have been pretty good. Yes, his defence isn't great, maybe he's inconsistent and makes bad mistakes on the field, but he's certainly an overall above-average infielder, better than anyone Cashman might conjure up to replace him, and he just turned 27. One of the few Yankees who might conceivably have better seasons ahead of him than behind him. Especially if he can have them for another team.
Luis Severino's rookie third of a season was fantastic - 62 innings, 2.89 ERA. The next year he was injured and ineffective. Then he came back with a dominant 2017, one of the very best pitchers in baseball at the age of 23. 2018 was great, too. Then he was injured the next three years, and earned his nickname. But 2022 was better, and then last year lousy. He might never again approach the heights of his early performance, but the Mets could still get some good value out of him.
Even Domingo German, between injuries, substance abuse, and disciplinary suspensions, has put together several years as a decent starter - over 500 innings pitched, with a middling ERA of 4.41. That's not nothing, and even without the perfect game he has always shown flashes of ability when he could stay on the field.
And of course there were any number of young relievers who came up and pitched well until their arms fell off.
I had remembered Yangervis Solarte as a young player who was good for the Yankees - I was surprised to find he only played half a season, above average but not great - but hey, not too bad for his rookie year from a guy no one was expecting. I think I had good memories of him because he was so much better than Chase Headley, and put up two fine seasons for the Padres for peanuts. He's had a couple disappointing seasons since then and is now 36 - maybe an interesting pickup for the Yankees? A package of Gleyber, Dominguez, and half the bullpen ought to get it done. He'd probably even agree to a big long-term contract extension with a no-trade clause.
Brigadoon Refsnyder was another victim of the Yankees' head games. They had decided he was not an option, so no matter how well he played at Scranton, no matter how well he played when he was called up for a game or two, no matter how many clutch hits he delivered to win key ballgames - he was always going to be sent back down as soon as they had a declining veteran on hand. He hasn't dazzled since moving on, but has been a decent fringe player for Boston.
Thairo Estrada is another one, who was never given much of a chance by the Yankees. They traded him for cash, probably not much of it, and the Giants have given him a chance. He's been a pretty consistent, league-average bat. I wonder if the Yankees could use a decent batter who can play various positions pretty well, doesn't cost a fortune, and at 27 might still have some good years ahead of him? Again, the Giants would probably part with him for the right package of all the Yankees' remaining young players.
Oh, and Jordan Montgomery - no, too soon, too stupid.
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