The Yankees, still tiptoeing through feces in the George M. Steinbrenner Wastewater Treatment Facility, are awaiting answers from a winter of being frozen into place.
None will come soon. The wisdom behind standing pat - of bringing back last year's team, warts and all - won't be discerned for at least three months.
But there are subtle changes within the matrix.
Spencer Jones homered in his first game, boosting hopes throughout the Yankiverse. Since then, he has failed to put a ball into play. Four strikeouts. One walk.
He's unveiled a new toe-tap swing, developed over the winter and modeled after Ohtani. It's too soon to gauge success or failure. And it's worth remembering that last year, right around now, Jones trotted out another remodeled swing, and we were drooling with hope.
We should not count out Jones. For starters, he shows the existential self-awareness to try and change. That he's trying new stances means that he knows the problem - he goddam strikes out too much - and he's adjusting. This is his life. Unless he changes, the Ks will kill his career. Lou Pinella used to say baseball was all about adjustments - pitchers, to the batters, and vice-versa. Well, Jones is trying. It can't happen in a week. Let's give him space. And let's keep him.
Jasson Dominguez is 2 for 5 with three strikeouts and a walk. Not bad. What's troubling, though, is the sense that he still looks naked and afraid in LF.
Why is that? He's had a whole winter to shag fly balls. All he needed was somebody to hit fungoes, maybe 100 a day? and he should be approaching decency in the outfield. If he's still a defensive liability, the Yankees have the right to wonder. WTF?
It's clear now that, unless somebody gets injured, Dominguez will start the season at Scranton. That's because he cannot be trusted in the outfield.
What an indictment of the Yankee farm system. And maybe of The Martian himself.
Ben Rice might yet be the Yankee hope. He is 2-for-3, and - as far as I can tell - he has not changed his stance or sit on the couch all winter. Already, he looks much more comfortable at 1B.
Whatever he did this winter, it seems to have worked.
And so it goes.
Posts
6 comments:
The Martian should go back to working with Bugs and Daffy.
Mr. Jones
Put a wiggle in your stride
Loosen up
I believe he'll be alright
He's changing clothes
Now he's got ventilated slacks
Bouncing off the walls
Mr. Jones is back
Bulge out
And wind your waist
Tight pants
They got curly hair
Drinking cold beer
From metal cans
Moonshine
And Handi-Wipes
With this defensive liabilities, it's not just the Yankee farm system and coaches - and you'll rarely see me defend them - it does come down solidly on him. No great player - or great anybody, honestly - ever relied solely on some external force to motivate or push them on. A gentle nudge sometimes, maybe, but if he's scared of playing the field due to his lack of skills, that's on him. He's another young guy who has spent his whole life doing nothing but baseball. Surely, he has seen how others get out there earlier in the morning, stay later at night, keep at it in spite of problems. Fuck, every sports movie ever made is about persevering - natural talent, sure, but perseverance above all else. Is he just another lazy asshole who's not hungry enough to do the work? Did a big signing bonus when he was 3 years old prop up a false sense of self-confidence? Do they need to take him out back and have a stern chat? I don't know. I'm only a dumb schmuck who has watched baseball for 6 decades.
Well said, Bit.
Perhaps it is time to raise Bit to 14.
Spot on, Bitty. Which is the problem with signing anybody at 16. You have no idea what you're getting, mentally.
Sometimes, though, guys just get the fielding yips. Knoblauch, of course, and before that Steve Sax. And Reggie. I remember asking him about it when we did that book, and he claimed that the big difference was that "we had fans" in Yankee Stadium—as opposed to in Oakland, so he was hearing the ball off the bat less well.
Nice try, but I don't really buy it. I think it was part of the whole, psychological trauma that Reggie went through on coming to the Yankees—partly his own fault, but more that of Billy Martin, who badly needed help.
Post a Comment