With the neck injury to Austin Wells, one that will be difficult if not impossible to truly come back from, the Yankees
need a catcher.
But who and from where? There are very few quality catchers left, not only in the Yankee farm system, but throughout baseball and there is a very good reason...
It’s a crappy job. The worst in baseball.
Crouching the whole game, wearing extra padding on 90+ degree
days, taking foul balls off your head and bounced balls in the nuts, having to
react in a millionth of a second to a 100 MPH fast ball thrown by a guy like
Carman Doval who has NO idea where it’s going and, if it gets by you and the runner
scores from third... people blame you.
Who needs that kind of aggravation?
Let’s face it, kids don’t want to be catchers anymore. Not
even the bottom heavy, tough, slow ones.
Speaking of... Last year’s MVP candidate Cal Raleigh “The Big Dumper” is shitting the bed this year, hitting a paltry .161 this year and is currently on the IL.
Just an aside, after 2333 MLB at Bats Raleigh's lifetime BA is 222. That’s Lloyd Hanes territory.
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I spent the morning drinking Old Overholt and looking for solutions to the Yankees catching situation and to baseball's as well but all I could come up with, and it's long term is... people need to impregnate more Molinas.
The real issue isn't finding catchers per se, it's finding catchers that can hit.
It's kind of inexplicable. Why aren't catchers better hitters?
They see more pitches than anyone else by a lot. Well over one hundred a game. They see the spins. They gage the speeds, Track the movement of the ball...
Is the issue that their gloves are so big that they only need to approximate where the ball is going to end up? Whereas with a bat being off, even by as little as a quarter of an inch is the difference between a hit and pop up.
Even if this is true you'd think they would walk more because they should be able to tell what pitch is going to be a ball right out of the pitchers hand.
I can't figure it out.
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Wemby knew that the league couldn't call a flagrant foul.
Why? Because he already has one on the books for an earlier dirty play.
His next one carries an automatic one game suspension. There is no way that the corrupt and shameless NBA commissioner would suspend him during the finals. Consequently he was freed to be as dirty as he wanted.
International marketing face of the league.
Think Othani and gambling.
Hard to be a fan of anything these days.
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Jose Ramirez... clone or unacknowledged child? No other explanation.
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Posts
9 comments:
Words to live by, Doug.
Doug, you speak the truth. The NBA and MLB are both corrupt, amoral, money-grubbing organizations. A pox on both their houses.
Old Overholt, or as an old friend prefers to call it, Old Overcoat, was my go-to for years. Mainly because it was a one-liter bottle and also because it was ridiculously cheap. In Germany, though, it's a lot pricier, being an import. I've gone to Jim Beam Pre-Prohibition Rye, which isn't bad but pretty cheap even here.
Raleigh had a freak season last year, much freakier than even Grisham. And what a humiliating nickname. I'm sure he'd rather be known as Fat Ass.
Do you drink the Jim Beam Rye, JM ?
JM - I was looking for a catcher in the rye.
Nice One !
Great piece, Doug K.—and very funny.
I think catchers are becoming like pitchers. There's no per se reason they can't hit, but because it's so hard to find someone who can be good playing the position in the field, the hitting isn't the priority.
Yanks should've signed/traded for Realmuto years ago—something I said at the time. But they wouldn't give up Gary Sanchez. Oy. And even Realmuto's not hitting anything this year.
General FYI: The Catcher in the Rye was one Easter Egg. There's another.
Doug, Old Overholt is considered a bottom shelf whiskey. Why not go to Costco Liquor ( You don't need a membership) and buy a top shelf rye for the same price or less?
Costco is the second largest liquor store in America after Total Wine.
You won't find a better price/value store anywhere.
For example, Costco sells 1.75 liter bottles of Crown Royal or Serzac branded ryes under the Kirkland label for just $ 19-$25!
Same thing if you like a slightly sweeter boubon.
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