So ends the first full scale crisis of 2024: finding somebody who can navigate the inaugural five innings on Thursday, March 28, in Helltown Houston. Problem solved. Hopefully, Nestor can supply a tight five, holding the Astros to less than four runs. If so, his job will be done.
Thus far this spring, Nestor - a walk-on celebrity at a winter Trump rally - has thrown 10 innings and given up 9 (nine) earned runs. Hopefully, he will improve on this. He must keep the cheaters in check until the game can be turned over to the Aaron Boone Yankee Bullpen Elite Coterie of Trust: Luke Weaver (6th inning), Ian Hamilton (7th), Jonathan Loaisiga (8th)and Clay Holmes (closer.)
By then, it's possible that Nick Burdi or one of the Codys - Poteet or Morris - will have joined this manly, august clique. Tanner Tully, anyone?
The Yankees will play four games in Houston - Thursday through Sunday - then decamp for Arizona: Seven games in seven days, before their first day off, April 4, the eve of their home opener against Toronto.
I won't speculate on where the Yankees will be in the standings on April 5, but for shits and giggles, here are a few predictions.
By our home opener...
The bullpen will have thrown 27 innings, the equivalent of three full games.
The names "Clayton Beeter" and "Will Warren" will regularly pop up in YES conversations.
Anybody who pitches well in Scranton will be viewed as a major source of hope in the Yankee organization.
The shuttle bus to Scranton will be running daily, supplying fresh arms for the bullpen.
Somebody on the staff will be experiencing pain after a particularly stressful outing, though the Yankees will assure us there is no concern.
A pitching rotation is like the offensive line in football. Without a strong one, everything else will eventually crumble. Without Gerrit Cole, the Yankees have a weak one.
Certainly, the Yankees can celebrate the news that Cole apparently will avoid Tommy John surgery. (There are no guarantees here; if his arm doesn't respond to the rest, he could be on an irretrievable path.) But by NYC opening day, unless they acquire help, the bullpen will be already starting to crack under the volume of innings.
This barge will not float.
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17 comments:
Crap. I wish you hadn't reminded me of that rally. Now I have to go through the Ike Turner strain of rationalization..."Yeah, I know, but he was really good. Really."
Of course, with Nestor it won't be as difficult, because I don't think he'll ever have another year like 2022. Not even close. Ever. That was his (and Trevino's) One Fine Year, never to be repeated.
We're doomed.
Well this might be a good thing...
Hate to bring this up but, lots of you have been complaining about not bring up the kids. Why aren't the kids being brought up? He's going to be 29 before he comes to the bigs? Why can't we bring whathisname up, he's tearing it up? Recognize any of those quotes? You said some of them.
Well, here's the chance. We'll really know what we have at SWB. And this is why Cashman hasn't signed Snell. We might find someone...and it's a lot cheaper...and this kid's arm is not past the expiration date...
I’ll speculate! (and expectorate)
I’d expect us to be 1-6 or 2-5, with a very real chance that HOU, now rumored to be signing Snell, sweeps us.
Can’t shake the feeling they’re lying about Judge.
They're waiting for Spencer Jones in center, but he needs another season in the minors to work on his hitting. Or maybe he does great in the first half and they bring him up early.
That would be an outfield I'd love to watch: Soto, Jones, and Judge. Wow.
Of course, Judge and Jones will both get injured, Soto will play for his stats, and the pitching will suck--including the bullpen by June-July.
Hal will remain committed to fielding a championship-caliber team. Though he never does it.
I wish our AAA affiliate was still Columbus, OH. I would be more fun to keep hearing about riding the "Columbus Clipper" back and forth instead of the "SWB shuttle".
"Why can't we bring whathisname up, he's tearing it up?" - that was me. I said that last year about Old Whatshisname.
Got that same bad feeling about Judge. He wasn't hitting at all but, so what?, it's spring training ferchrissake! Then he gets some of that mid-body soreness. Again, so what?, spring! Couple days off and he'll be fine, week at the most, he'll be ready for opening day...probably, we'll see how it goes. I'm thinking first-week-of-May is all queued up waiting for Boonie to drop the needle.
"Little water sloshing around. We brushed by a little chunk of ice, knocked it the hell out of the way. Small hole in the side, tiny really, nothing to worry about. Guys are downstairs patching it up as we speak." - Edward Smith
@JM said: That would be an outfield I'd love to watch: Soto, Jones, and Judge. Wow.
Let's go further than that. The Martian instead of Judge and they move Judge to 1B...
BTR999 - please feel free to pass this along to their staff but when I read your above post I couldn't help but come up with this new cheer for the Somerset Patriots cheerleaders:
LET'S GO !
LAUUUUUUUNCH A-N-G-L-E !
(A-N-G-L-E !)
EXXXXXXXIT VELOCITY !
(EXXXXXXXIT VELOCITY !)
SPECULATE !
ANNNNNNNNNNND !
EXPECTORATE !
(SPECULATE !
ANNNNNNNNNNND !
EXPECTORATE !)
GOOOOOOO TEAM!
We are not psychics, geniuses or baseball professionals, but we have all been on the same page here for a long while and I don't think any of the regular denizens of this fair blog are surprised. As the old saying goes, even a blind man could have seen this coming. What's spectacular is just how bad it is BUT, when you have a disinterested, callous owner, a moron GM and a low-intellect manager, this is what you get. No amount of money can buy you good taste and no amount of money can make good decisions. That's why we hire baseball people to do that. Sadly, that clashes with the Brain's massive ego. The brain was born on third base - meaning he inherited the original dynasty of 98 to 01 - and he thinks he hit a home run. He's a shlep, a scheme and a schmuck, but I'm just a weak man who resorts to schoolyard taunts....he is also a child of God who deserves our thoughts and prayers....let me go pray...
fucking autocorrect turned "schmoe" into "scheme."
a pox on all artificial intelligence of any kind ever...
Bonnie could use some artificial intelligence, though, and that's the only kind he's ever going to have.
Very true, Bitty, and for that reason I am hoping that Brian Cashman gets an immediate calling from God, and retires at once to a monastery.
acrilly, there are those of us here so old we have nostalgia for the Syracuse Chiefs.
Mildred, love the Titanic captain reference, poor old sod...
...And yeah, this season's shenanigans really took the cake. Why would you possibly give up four pitchers to have Soto for one year (and why would Soto possibly want to stay on the aging, decrepit team that is going to go 69-93 this year?).
It makes zero sense...except in the ways that we have all discussed. And I say "ways" because that's what it is: instead of Cashman having a firm, intelligent plan, he has several, scattered wishes which he throws out to the cosmos, thinking Hey, one of them has GOT to come true!
To wit:
—Soto really will make the team so good (or at least good enough to get a wild card then sweep the playoffs) that he will want to sign back on.
—Soto's acquisition will at least convince the fans to come back in big numbers again in 2024, and then we'll see.
—Soto and Verdugo will be great stopgaps, and then by 2025 we'll have Spencer & The Martian out there, and they'll be so great that nobody will care when S & V walk.
Now, it appears that none of the above will happen—which will leave the Yanks with a shattered, broken-down old team, and Soto in Flushing. Which is when Boone gets the axe, and Cashman announces that it's finally time for...REBUILDING!
I do appreciate the restraint in not moving Spencer Jones for a lousy number three or four starter.
Perhaps CashCanDo something right every once in a while.
Even a “broken clock is correct twice a day”.
And Cashman does take a lick in’ but keeps on tick in’.
A/A, I can almost visualize that cheer!
The only thing Cashman is licking is Hal's ass...
Sir Bit - please tell me you don’t have photographic evidence of this . . . ?
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