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| Abe PECOTA as "Fish" |
Now, I don't seek to insult past periods of sheer global insanity. The Iranian hostage situation drove us mad. The weeks after 9-11 were like nothing before. Somehow, we pulled together and - I truly believe this - one eventual salve always turned out to be the period in mid-February, when pitchers and catchers left their golf carts and paramours, and made way to warmer locations to restart the Big Wheel. Baseball has a medicative effect. It reminds us that - whether you love or hate those evil, big-spending Yankees Dodgers- we have more in common than not. Or, we used to, anyway.
I won't claim that we'll soon find reassurance from watching Carlos Rodon do a squat-thrust, or from timing Giancarlo as he runs to first. But it will be entertaining to hear Gerrit Cole explain - once again, in hyperbolic detail - why he failed to cover first base.
Soon, we shall be soothed by the annual Gammonitic rites of spring: The oohs and ahs over that rock-ribbed vet who has arrived "in the greatest shape of his career!" and the rawboned, no-name hurler who is "the talk of camp!"
Days away, people. Pitchers and catchers. And maybe - maybe? - a hiding place?
Well, fuck me. I dunno. But I do know this: As we were sleeping - while the algorithm gods wrestled over TikTok - the 2025 PECOTA predictions burst from Zeus's backside, fully formed. And get this: The Yankees won the winter!
Print the playoff tickets. Reserve your space in the Canyon of Heroes. The PECOTA -the Player Empirical Comparison and Optimization Test Algorithm - shows the 2025 Yankees winning 89.7 games - the fourth-most, behind the Cubs, Braves and the Evil Empire - and winning the AL East by a half-inning over Baltimore.
So, there is it. Pete Alonso and Alex Bregman have yet to land, and your Cousin Verne might turn out to be our backup catcher, but the Yankees won the digital off-season. Hey, forget Watergate. Disregard the Covid shutdown. Was anything ever crazier than this?
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14 comments:
In an off season where they spent the majority of their free agent cash on a starting pitcher after losing their second best hitter, is anyone else concerned they did that because they’re worried about Cole?
Interesting thought, Jaraxle. Hell, I'M worried about Cole. Not covering first might be the equivalent to the Harry Mudd episode where Spock and Kirk short circuit Mudd's androids. ("He never lies." "I'm lying.") Not that Cole is a robot. But now that I mention it...
One question for Duque: does that PECOTA come with salsa and chips, or is everything a la carte?
shows the 2025 Yankees winning 89.7 games
I do hereby submit "89.7" as my entry in the annual IIH "how many games will the Yanks win this season" prediction contest.
I can't lose, right?
Crazy times everywhere you look. Yes we need baseball, good, bad, or indifferent.
My question is this...
If we consume lies all day.
and ingest chemically laden foods
do we become artificially intelligent?
What, you're saying that turning over everybody's financial records and Social Security to six tech guys aged 19-25, working for an Afrikaner ass of a Bond villain is a BAD thing?
Or that, telling the world we should take over Gaza AND gutting the FBI and the CIA might have consequences? Hush your mouth!
Here on darkling plain, we got everything under control. Now, about that guy the Knicks got who always gets injured...whattaya mean, he got injured???
Excellent point!
No.
I'm an old guy, old as the rest of you old guys, but I have a college-age daughter. She's on the path to a PhD in astrophysics and she'll get there as long as American education survives the uneducated takeover. Crazy-ass times we're living in, times I never expected to live to see.
Anyway, 89.7? Our luck we'll hit the Vigoda and Baltimore wins 90.2.
Hoss, I was on the E Train earlier and toasted my post, so I deleted it, but I was saying something like: it doesn't matter. even though, to mix a few metaphors, you may be the sharpest fish in this barrel, they're still going to dump all of us into the same stew pot and we're going to be a big bowl of bullshit chowder. The Yankees will be neither salve nor solace this season. Nor can I endure the news outside of baseball. That puts me between a rock and a velveteen rabbit, so to speak. As the immortal Sun Ra chanted, "You can run to the rock and hide your face. the rock cries out your hiding place." What SHOULD BE some comfort from baseball has become a bad PCP trip. Did I ever tell you all about the time four of us drove from Cambridge, Mass to Philly to see the Stones at JFK stadium? This was in or close to 1981. The opening acts were George Thorogood, who was well received, then Journey, possibly one of the worst choices they could have made. They played 3 songs and nobody paid attention - in a way, worse than booing. It was so bad that they noticed and stopped playing. I don't know why, but that reminds me of the Yankees now. Just not even worthy noticing. Okay, I have to go find some metaphors to mix, the put some oil and vinegar on them.
Don't stop believing..... I remember Frank Zappa remarking in an interview that Journey marked the moment when corporations took over creativity in the music industry. I do remember that I immediately sensed there was a seismic shift in music. And nosir, I didn't like it one bit. Zappa undressing the Gores in the 'decency in music hearings ' was for me a pinnacle in Grinning Moments.
To refer back to the past: I was 10 years old when JFK was shot. In the next 9 years, RFK and MLK Jr. and Malcolm X were gunned down -- followed by (1972) Geo. Wallace.
If you lived thru those times, you don't need reminders of all of the other nutty stuff that went on. There was a lot of it.
Heaps. And, almost the same time (started in 1965): The Yankees really, really sucked.
From the NY Yankees PR site
“ Earlier today, the Yankees claimed RHP Owen White off waivers from the Cincinnati Reds.
To make room on the 40-man roster, the Yankees designated RHP Allan Winans for assignment.
Shaking the tree.
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