The great Yankee bubble of 2025 has popped. It didn't last long: three (3) games to be precise, against a measles outbreak from Milwaukee, before our bullpen blew like a tire on the Thruway.
If you're scoring the category of GAMES WE SHOULDA FUCKINANY WON, the total now stands at one (1). In the Don Zimmer Thesaurus of terse explanations, we fuckinay shoulda won.
So, buck up and get used to it? Maybe. But the jolt will linger. For three games, we nosed the red button and received a food pellet. Last night, we nosed it and got 500 volts. The YES announcers reran Scott Brosius' world series HR, and Paul O'Neill relived his stadium tribute, but grainy videos cannot restore the last era when the Yankees ruled - an experience we probably won't see again in our lifetimes.
It happened against Arizona, which - it must never forgotten - celebrated its 2001 world series victory by mockingly playing "New York, New York" over the P.A. system, only days after the World Trade Center fell. I never need motivation to beat Arizona. I just remember them singing sarcastically with Frank.
But but BUT... this is not about 2001. It's about last night, when the Death Barge blew a completely winnable game - an outing we assumed would be ours, until it wasn't.
Grand slams will do that. Something about a Yankee Grand Slam Loss - it leaves a lifetime mark. Before last night, we were still mulling Freddie Freeman's blast in the 10th inning of game one, the homer that - in retrospect - sealed LA's championship march. But the list of Yankee soul-crushing HRs - from Mazeroski to Altuve, from Damon to Devers - rolls from our memories like bloody sequences from David Cronenberg films. Once seen, never forgotten.
You could call last night a bullpen loss, and - technically - you wouldn't be wrong. But that would mean ignoring our first four batters - Goldy, Bellinger, Judge and Jazz - who went 0-15 with nine strikeouts. So much for outlawing the torpedo bat. (If you're luxuriating in Boston's current woes, here's a Calgon Bath Oil Bead: Rafael Devers is 15 for 19 in strikeouts, he hates DH, and the Redsocks are 1-4. Ha ha.)
Generally, an out-of-body loss in April gets pitched out with the AARP junk mail. It's too soon to suffer a mortal wound. It's one game - one that WE FUCKINAY SHOULDA WON. Get used to it. There will be about 60 more.
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Trolley Dodgers 7-0. Hate to be a broken 8-track, but they'll lose some games--just not like this.
adding insult to the Soto injury, Michael King is approaching ace status, further relegating that trade to the torture chamber of memory.
Free Agent at the end of this season. Will Steinscammer open his wallet?
How did we go 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position when we only left 3 runners in scoring position? Or have I lost the ability to read a box score unless it's in German?
Brrrr.
Lance Lynn has retired. See ya!
Good. Now maybe he and Mata Hairi can finally get married.
RIP Val Kilmer -
He apparently hung out a couple of times at Yankee Stadium.
Last nights game was a microcosm of The Intern’s formula for success: tons of K’s, continuous RISP failure, over-the-hill players, and bullpen meltdowns.
We're in mid-season form already, baby!
For a pretty successful guy, he had a tough life the past 10 years or so.
almost, JM. there needs to be a few more injuries before we reach FULL midseason FORM
How is Mark Leiter Jr. still on this roster?
The "kids" did alright at least....ain't no kid that can replace Marks sorry ass 😒
That was a really bad loss. Another one they had in their back pocket until their pocket got picked on the way to the bank. The big problem I had with this loss is that there will be at least a dozen more of these types of blow jobs, maybe even a couple dozen this year. Yet, you watch, the Yankee bats will not win these types of games where they're trailing by two or three going into the last few innings. And even if they do, it'll be maybe one fucking game all year. Whereas they blow a couple dozen games like this to the other team's offense.
Jackass Boone is back with a vengeance! How many fucking times is Mark Leiter going to pitch this year? Is Leiter the only pitcher in the bullpen? Every time you look up, Mark Leiter is coming out of the bullpen. I thought they carried umpteen pitchers in the pen. Almost anyone else would've been a better option last night. I knew right away that he was the wrong choice yesterday. As soon as he was coming out of the pen, I knew that was a lost game. First guessing, not hindsight. Thank you, Jackass Boone, for another stoopid loss!
And what the fuck is it with Jackass Boone taking The Martian out of the game after three at-bats? It's like he can't hardly wait to take Dominguez out to replace him with Grisham.
You know, this might sound like crazy conspiracy mongering, but it sure looks to me like Yankee management doesn't want to develop Jasson Dominguez. As soon as Stanton is ready to come back, I think they very well might send Dominguez back to the minors again, with the excuse that "there is no room on the roster for Dominguez, due to all these great Hall of Fame players, and we want him to play every day and continue to develop".
There is a method to their madness, and it's purely financial in nature. Yankee management simply prefers to keep young players down in the minors to keep their free agency clocks from running and to control arbitration costs.
Think about it: if The Martian has a great year, they'd be on the hook for his arbitration salary raise, a big one. By keeping his at-bats as low as possible, and by sending him down to the minors whenever practicable, they'll control costs. Because guys like Grisham, Stanton, LeMahieu, these are all sunk costs. They're on the hook for them anyway. But the can control arbitration salary increases by NOT developing young players. It makes perfect sense, if you care only about finances, and not about winning.
That's why I thought it might even be possible that Yankee management intentionally sabotages their own prospects. That elbow torn ligament that required Tommy John surgery for The Martian? That kind of injury is easy to cause by having the player throw a weighted ball, under pretense of developing their throwing arm. Couple of weeks of that, and VOILA! Torn UCL, needs surgery, out for a year, and the accountants in Yankee Land are cheering! Because that prevents his development, keeps his free agency clock from running, and stalls any potential salary arbitration raises.
Once a blue moon, they do decide to try to develop one young player. And their chosen one is Volpe. But even with him, I think maybe they like it when he when swings only for the fences and hits .209. Keeps his arbitration raises low.
They much prefer to spend their money on outside free agents. That way, they know exactly how much money is flowing out over the length of the contract. They don't have to deal with uncertainty. Which allows them to do their financial planning with much greater accuracy than if young players developed and had big arbitration salary increases.
It's all about money, financial planning, risk management. Nothing about winning in their agenda.
Taking out Dominguez too early ended up hurting them last night. Grisham got a meaningful at-bat. And of course, took strike 3. How many times is Grisham going to get called out on strikes this year? That guy is much too passive with two strikes. Gotta swing to try to spoil anything close with two strikes. If you swing and miss, then that's that, but you can't be getting called out on strikes in the 9th inning. Textbook definition of an unprofessional at-bat.
Hell, Grisham's already had more at-bats than The Martian. Or it's pretty damned close. Completely unacceptable. Jackass Boone takes out Dominguez with a two run lead, in a game where home runs have been flying out. Way to go, Jackass!
Also, what a mostly collection of dreck in that ‘Pen. Remember Cash-hole’s Super Pen that he was gonna build.
Hey Ranger, Leiter is a legacy hire by the nepo-babies in the front office. Of course he's on the roster, silly! Like all nepo-babies, he'll continue to fail upwards.
You little people can quibble about his qualifications or productivity, but those to the manor born, know that real talent is found exclusively in country clubs, elite private schools and through introduced by their dad.
Amen, Doctor T!!!
Game thread up.
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