I believe I speak for the Yankiverse in stating that this is not the template for a championship season.
Okay... I get it: A win is a win; that's China Town, Jake; hummina-hummina... At 7-2, the Yankees are tied - with the mighty Pirates and Indians Guardians - for baseball's best record. We cannot rightfully complain.
But who wants to be rightful? When you lead by seven, entering the 7th, your closer should be in street clothes. Instead, with the bullpen collapsing like a Baltimore bridge (still too soon?), the Death Barge needed Clay Holmes for the final outs.
That's not sustainable. It didn't feel like a win.
This season's opening weeks resemble a prize fight where the contestants punch themselves drunk, via Muhammed Ali's Rope-a-Dope. (Last night, hateful Toronto used four pitchers over eight innings, salved by the Yanks not batting in the 9th.)
Close your eyes, and try to imagine the Yankee bullpen on, say, June 15. Will any of these current faces still be there?
This problem runs deeper than the Yankees. Across MLB, advanced coaching techniques have figured out how to transform skinny, low-90s pitchers into Goose Gossages. In recent years, the Yankees touted their minor league "Gas Station," which dramatically increases mph and spin rates. But shoulders are still shoulders, and elbows still tear like Buffalo wings.
Like most of America, I've watched the Women's NCAA basketball Final Four this week, amazed at how much more exciting these games are than the NBA. That's because in the pros, you have 8-foot human dump trucks clogging the lanes. There are no passes under the basket, no drives to the hoop, and never a call of "Traveling."
In 10 years, as waves of 7-footers arrive, that will be the women's game. For now, though, it's far more interesting.
I believe baseball is facing a similar, existential problem. Too many power arms, too many replacements, too many pitchers, too many tweaks, too much turnover.
This season is far too young to be going through so many arms. Loaisiga won't be the last. Nobody is getting out of here alive.
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Once upon a time, the Yankees had the original sweat machine, Aroldis Chapman a one-man high wire act without a net.
Now, they have a whole bullpen full of arms turning routine ballgames into nail-biters.
We can look forward to an entire season of "it ain't over til it's over."
And we will be the ones sweating.
This one was on Boone. He sends Weaver out for a third inning but neglects to get someone ready in the pen for a probable melt down. Weaver stinks up the third, has no control etc. and still no one warming. It's not until he gives up runs that the phone call is made and then he gets to screw up with two more butters while the guy in the pen has to rush his warm ups to get in the game quickly.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. We like to say that Boone is an incompetent but he really is. This was Bullpen Management 101.
batters not butters.
Also, Winnie - I wrote something for you in the last thread, it's kind of buried so you might not have seen it.
Doug - I took note. A bona fide bunker buster for the stones. Great tip.
I am curious to see how Gil does in his second start of the season.
He needs to be efficient so he can go deep into the game to avoid another BOONE-PEN disaster like yesterday.
Spot on commentary Duque!
Agreed, the college game is far superior to the dull 3-point shooting contest and lazy play of the NBA
It’s obvious that analytics is giving ba-ba-boonie his marching orders when it comes to pitch counts and bullpen usage. Example, when Schmidt hit 85 pitches he was gone. How arbitrary! This is why the team has stashed a half dozen replacement pitchers at SWB, with more to come. The power of mediocrity!
Boone never ceases to amaze and never disappoints. A marvel of goofball analytics (the "better splits" bullshit from Friday's game) and just plain goofball.
Why doesn't somebody get him into an off-hours basketball game and let nature take its course? Then Ausmus or Rojas can take over while Boone-brain is in the hospital. Has to be better than this.
My deleted comment was about Strasburg retiring. Then I thought, "Yeah, who cares..."
JM - We might be seeing the return to posting up in the paint in the NBA. Certainly Edey and the U Conn center and the guy who plays center for Alabama are all low post players.
Give me Reed vs. Unseld, or Alcindor any day. (He was Alcindor when he played against Reed.)
Better than watching someone chuck up a three on a fast break.
Yesterday's game might just be a microcosm of the whole season: impressive offense, deflating pitching. They scored 53% of the runs. which should be good for winning about 53% of their games. As much as I'd love to bash Boone, I can't help but think that for every pitcher Hal wouldn't sign (knowing that Rodon and Cortes might be trouble), that forces one reliever into the starting rotation, and one Railrider into the bullpen.
Ba-Boone did his best to blow that game last night, but alas, for the front office, he failed to get it done. You see, he's got to blow it by only one run, in excruciating fashion. So he was going for a 10-9 loss but came up a little short.
He will make up for it today. You can count on it. And then he'll get secret congrats from management for a job well done.
Three hits by the blind man last night. That guarantees his lineup presence for the rest of the season, come hell or high water.
I wonder who's betting on the games? It would be fun to find out.
Hammer - what do you think that the secret congrats from management will be exactly?
I wonder what would happen to a pitcher like Ramiro Mendoza now-a-days? I guessing they’d tweek his multiple arm slots into one, limit his role to just one thing and then TJ surgery 2 years in...
Good piece at Defector on all the injured pitchers: The Elbows are Exploding.
@ AA, Well, I don't know exactly, that's why it's a secret. But my best guess is that it'll be along the lines of a used girlie mag from HAL's private collection, with the best pages all stuck together with dried semen from volcanic ejaculations.
It'll be a collector's item someday. Might even make it into the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame, as a vivid example of the youthful exuberance of HAL, who will hold the unbreakable record for the most money spent without even making it to the World Series.
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