Too Much Pitching?

 

Yeah, remember that year, ladies and germs?

The Yankees' starters for 2003. Moving clockwise, from upper right: 

—Jose Contreras, "the Bronze Giant."

—Andy Pettitte.

—Mike Mussina.

—Roger Clemens.

—Jeff Weaver.

Not even pictured here was a sixth starter, David Wells, who had a previously scheduled chicken-wing eating contest, or something.

And in the end, this team...didn't have enough pitching.

A certain Mr. S.F.B. Cashman, GM for Life, forgot to restock the bullpen. After The Greatest Closer What Ever Was came the likes of Chris Hammond, a recycled Jeff Nelson, and even, briefly, Armando Benitez.

At a key moment in the World Series, Joe Torre decided to throw Weaver into a game in the 11th inning—and the rest is history. All right, that was probably due more to the petite mal seizures Torre began having in the postseason, starting in 2001. But still.

As it turned out, The Bronze Giant was really The Papier-Maché Colossus, save for when he was able to lead the ChiSox to a World Series win in 2005. Jeff Weaver, supposedly a can't-miss youngster, turned out to be another One-Fall Wonder...and that fall belonged to the St. Louis Cardinals, in 2006. 

Wells begged out of a Series game after one inning—then walked off the team in a huff when the Yanks politely requested that he seriously consider salads.

No, you never can have enough pitching—a lesson Brian Cashman resolutely refuses to learn, no matter how many times it is beaten into him.

HAL won't let you sign some young stud to a risky, long-term contract? Fine, go get a "loaner." 

As Kevin pointed out, Cashman has now punted three times on making an offer for a short-term deal to Charlie Morton—two of those times even after Morton was instrumental in beating us in the 2017 ALCS. The Yanks missed out on a pitcher who went 89-41, with 7 postseason wins—and two rings—in those years.

But here we are again.  

Personally, like many here, I would favor signing Monty and Snell, BOTH, and in that order. Yes, Snell, in particular, has downsides. But are the Yankees leaping for that rapidly closing window, or what?

I know that JM like Trevor Bauer, and I agree that—much like Domingo German—he did not receive due process. But—much like Domingo German—there are "other issues." 

Personally, I think that if the Yanks sign Bauer, they should dress him, Rodon, and Stroman up like the Three Stooges, bring back the old "Hey Moe" video the Mets used to play during the seventh-inning stretch, and have them poke, slap, and punch each other to their heart's content. That way we'd at least get some entertainment value out of these scalawags.

But I digress. 

Point is, Cashie has—yet again!—failed to sufficiently shore up the rotation, or "super-charge" the bullpen. Doing the same thing in the same way and expecting different results...ah yes, the supposed definition of insanity. Or was that Linsanity? I forget. Our teams all have their own ways of driving us mad.