Here we go again.

 

"Luck is the residue of design."—Branch Rickey, former Yankee, greatest general manager of all time.

"Once we get to the playoffs, as we know it is, as Cashman would say, a bit of a crapshoot." Hal Steinbrenner.

"To the best of my knowledge, and I've seen it written and heard it several times over the years, I've never said that." Brian Cashman.

Sigh.

And here we are, with Brian Cashman, Yankees general-manager-for-life, once again outmaneuvered and out-thought approaching the playoffs that he did or did not say were a crapshoot, "to the best of my knowledge."

A few observations:

—The Dodgers were able to pull off the Skubal trade because they prepared. Over the last few years, they have not only discovered a way to maneuver around the luxury tax, but also built a first-rate farm system that gave them the flexibility to trade three leading prospects for one of the best starters in baseball.

—Included amongst the players they sent to Detroit was a Double-A, "upside" outfielder with the wonderful name of Zyhir Hope. But...they apparently have three other, highly regarded minor-league outfielders ahead of him, so..."Hope became expendable."

—We don't have four, highly rated minor-league outfielders. We don't have a single, highly rated minor-league outfielder that I know of. We don't even have hope, which long ago left the building.

—Brian Cashman's inability to anticipate or plan for the very most obvious things in baseball is astonishing. 

—When the Boston Red Sox beat him out to sign Dice-K, Cashie inked another Japanese pitcher, claiming he was just as good. 

Dice-K helped pitch the Sox to the 2007 World Series title. Kei Igawa gave us one of the weirdest, saddest stories in baseball history.

—A few years later, the Red Sox beat out Cashman to sign Yoàn "Slowly I turn to you..." Moncada. He turned out to be a disappointment—crapshoot time!—but the Sox insisted on trying anyway for four years to make him their starting shortstop...

—I kid, I kid! After just 8 games in the majors, they traded Moncada to the Pale Hose for Chris Sale, who went on to pitch the Carmine Hose to another championship in 2013, and has had a near-Hall-of-Fame career in Boston and Atlanta.

—Yes, the Red Sox used a highly rated minor leaguer to acquire an outstanding pitcher who would take the team over the top. What a strategy! Who could conceive of such a thing???

—Prior to the 2018 season, hitting-and-pitching sensation Shohei Ohtani shocked Cashman by passing up the Yankees' offer and signing with a team in a big, cosmopolitan city 3,000 miles closer to his home. Cashman's response was...nothing.

—Once upon a time, the New York Yankees could have been counted on to be the team that went full throttle after Tarik Skubal. Now, as always, they operate within the tightly circumscribed limits of contention imposed by Hal Steinbrenner, and such a coup is not possible.

—The results show. Over the past 25 years—25 YEARS!—Hal & Pal's New York Yankees have won exactly 1 World Series. 

The Los Angeles Dodgers have won 3, and bid fair to become the first National League team ever to win three straight World Series. The Boston Red Sox have won 4 rings—and eliminated the Yankees three different times. The Houston Astros have won 2 championships—and eliminated our boys four times. 

Even the San Francisco Giants, run as a small-market team, have won 3 titles in these same 25 years.

The shame of it all is that the Yankees, in this "run-it-back" year actually seem to have assembled a pitching staff that might be capable of competing even with the Skubal Dodgers in a short series. But they won't, because Brian Cashman once again will find the price at the trade deadline too high for any player who would actually help the Yanks (what a surprise!).

And Hal will spend the off-season fighting to...contain the Dodgers and make sure that he is less able than ever to bring the Yankees' enormous monetary advantage to bear in any future seasons.

Damn, what bad luck!