But last night's loss to Boston - ruined by Will Warren's inexplicable 1st inning - effectively ended the 2025 AL East divisional race.
Forget the first-round bye and home field advantage. To reach Valhalla, the Yankees must beat one or all of their greatest modern nemeses - the Redsocks, Astros and Jays. Nobody will do it for us. We either avenge the last dismal decade or - as the Boss would say - waste a summer, praying in vain for a savior to rise from these streets.
Yes, we do have the clunker schedule, while Toronto faces Tampa, KC and Boston. But last night's loss, coupled with a Jays win, puts us four down in the loss column - five behind if you add the divisional tiebreaker. Remember those games we phoned in against Toronto? Our 5-8 record against them? They're coming back to haunt us.
If the Yankees win ALL 13 remaining games, against the Twinkies, O's and White Socks, Toronto still needs only to go 7-6. Do the math. It's over. We went 9-17 against the Jays and Redsocks. That's humiliating. We earned this failure. Now, all we can do is chase the wild card participation trophy and, if we're lucky, enjoy the home field advantage against Boston in the nasty. abbreviated opening round.
From now on, it's all about avoiding the next bullpen meltdown, scheduling our rotation, solidifying Jose Calallero as starting SS and convincing Jazz Chisholm to keep his mouth shut. We'll have to beat Boston. We'll have to stare down El Chapo. We'll have to deal with the return of Roman Anthony. Do the math. The AL East? It's over.
Posts
29 comments:
I always hated math. Proud English major here. I don't need no stinking math...
Not much point worrying about the strength of the schedule and the quality of playoff opponents. Good teams, bad teams, hot teams, cold teams - this club has a proven ability to mail it in against all of them. Their record is an accurate measure of who they are - above average, not great, deeply flawed, could make a deep run but probably won't.
Rhetorical question: Why did Boone leave Warren in for six runs?
Bonus essay question: Provide your best guess of the number of games we lost this year due to Boone's incompetence. Discuss his penchant for resting players, hiding injuries, fielding non-competitive lineups, and other examples that prove Boone is an idiot.
(200- 20,000 words)
True Kaiser - nobody can take their foot off the gas like the Yankees. The entire organization is complicit in this.
When I was still working, I had days where I was really into the job, other days where I had to force myself to do the job, and also days where I didn't give a fuck and phoned it in. But I wasn't paid millions of dollars. I think if I had been, I would have had a lot more of those last two.
Yep
Uh-Huh
Absolutely
Without a Doubt
I agree
10 - 4
Affirmative
No. Brainer.
(Last one is Boone)
Refresh my memory here, but we were playing Boston years ago and Torre was managing, I believe. We had some young pitcher who gave up something like three consecutive homers and Torre left him in. Who was it? I honestly don't remember, but I'm fairly certain I was not hallucinating. I only ask because this thread brought back that traumatic memory. And we will all never forget Joba and the Midges (sounds like a band name) in Cleveland. What is the one thing tying those incidents together, aside from the pinstripes? Why, that must be Brian Cashman. We really need to know how granular he gets with in-game pitching decisions. RELEASE THE CASHMAN TAPES!
The Yankees are like Led Zeppelin. Good teams, bad teams, you know they've had their share.
Joba and the Midges would be a brilliant band name, although nonfans would certainly mispronounce Joba. But if they had some good tunes they could help heal that horrid memory.
13 B, you were close. It was 4 HR. Chase Wright on April 22, 2007.
Manny Ramirez, J.D. Drew, Mike Lowell, and Jason Varitek.
4! Thanks, Carl. It was so fucking devastating for Wright. I remember screaming at the tube to take him out after 2. To have left him in after the 3rd was pure soul murder.
JM, you raise an interesting point! Namely that financial security can be a practical disincentive and detract from motivation. It makes perfect sense, but it runs counter to the basic assumption underlying capitalism, that we're all out to maximise our profits at all times. Some people obviously are, but it seems like the majority of people have some more nuance in their motivations.
Late in his career, Napoleon recognised one of his mistakes: "I enriched my officers. I should have known that when one is rich, one does not need to risk one's life!"
We've often talked about how the Yankees should flex their financial muscles to get the best players - but we've also talked about how seemingly every megacontract ends up being a disaster. We tend to focus on the effects of age and injury, how even good free agents often end up earning eight digits while spending years sitting on the EL. But there's also the question of motivation: why bother putting in extra practice and hustling when you're guaranteed hundreds of millions no matter what you do? We assume star athletes have a natural competitive drive, but that alone might not be enough when you're past your physical prime.
Obviously overpaying players is the cost of doing business in MLB, and no team could compete if they refused to go along with salary inflation. But I wonder if a team could develop a competitive advantage by adding other motivations besides financial. All I can think of atm is fostering a positive work environment, trying to build a team spirit, insulating the players from media scrutiny, and making them feel that it's a special privilege to play for the organisation. It all sounds pretty hackneyed, but it might be that little gestures could make a big difference. In the soulless blasé corporate world we live in, a little genuine humanity might really be appreciated by the players.
I THINK games like the Wright one were part of the growing animosity between Torre and The Office Boy. Torre seemed to get increasingly pissed off by the fact that the Yanks were always short on pitching after 2003, and who could blame him.
Kaiser, I think Napoleon's officers replied, "Oh, it's OUR fault? And who told you to invade Russia and take on England with that fleet, Shorts?"
Incidentally, his top commander, Marshal Ney, did stick with him, throwing the Bourbons' big commission back in their face and joining Naps on his return from Elba. After he lost Waterloo, Napoleon got shipped to another exile. They took Ney out into the Luxembourg Gardens and shot him.
Guess Boney missed that one.
But you raise some great points, Kaiser. Yeah, motivation must be REALLY hard with guys making this much, guaranteed...though the Yanks ALSO seem to have huge problems turning kids into good ballplayers.
I don't know what the answer is. I guess you have to look for some sort of Phil Jackson, who seemed to have all sorts of non-traditional ways to motivate the Bulls and Lakers, year after year...
...I think one thing you DON'T do is continually sit down stars even while they are hot, and even in a pennant race, and tell them, 'Oh, this games doesn't matter so much.' But then, the main objective isn't really to win, is it?
Hoss, you're not saying that the MLB is becoming more like the World Wrestling Federation, are you?
A monkey could have managed those Bulls and Laker teams. Ditto, the 1998-2001 Yankees. Jackson's Zen disappeared in NY when the players he had sucked.
Torre, with the Yankees, was said to be a great manageroal guru because he knew what buttons to push with each player. I'm not so sure that's true. Remember, before his tenure with the Yankees, he managed both the Braves and Mets when each team was mediocre. He earned the nickname of " Clueless Joe." I doubt that Joe suddenly figured it all out in a span of just a few years.
Maybe Vince McMahon will replace Boone as manager…
Does Hal have children? Let one of them manage.
That was always my take on Torre. I never thought he really made a difference. Great team, great results. So-so team, so-so results.
I think you're describing what a good manager can do. We lack that.
This topic reminds me that years ago, I was talking to a friend/coworker and we both agreed that if we made a million bucks in one year, we'd retire. To which he added, "And that's why we'll never get paid a million dollars."
Shit, I passed quantum mechanics (ok, sure - a D counts as passing).
But I do know a philosophy professor who once said "there's no predicting baseball Suzyn"
Well, except Boone will fuck it up somehow.
Difference = leaders in the clubhouse.
No...just the Yankees, Bitty!
Good points about Torre, Carl Weitz. He was never much of a field manager. BUT I will always give him credit for figuring out how to maneuver around Mad George, and keep the Yanks from devolving into another media circus. He really did bring back a certain sanity, which was badly lacking...
...As for Action Jackson, I don't know enough about basketball to really say. But with the Knicks, of course, he was the GM. Which was so Dolans: bring in a guy who has had great success...in a role he didn't have before.
Torre also had Zimmer as his baseball whisperer in the dugout. Zimmer was much better as a consigliere than as a manager.
I was told there would be no math. Which is sad because I can run the numbers in my head.
Post a Comment