So the Masahiro Tanaka madness has now officially begun, and you can expect the Yankees to be right in the thick of it, if not the eventual winner in the competition for the 25-year-old Japanese righthander's services. But if you're thinking that securing Tanaka for the next seven, eight, lord help us 10 years will ensure a new Jeter-Mo-Bernie-Andy-Jorge type dynasty, you need to lie down and put a cold cloth on your forehead.
First of all, with the new posting system recently ramrodded in place by small-market club owners (funny how it wasn't such a problem when the Red Sox and the Rangers were spending buckets of money, huh?), there is nothing close to a guarantee that Tanaka will be heading for a Bronx press conference anytime soon. Teams like the Cubs, Dodgers, Angels and, yes, Red Sox will be in the running, and we've seen lately that the Yankees are not necessarily going to be the most extravagant of suitors. It was nice knowing you, Mr. Cano.
But there's more to it than that.
Baseball writers and their sources who have seen Tanaka pitch in Japan liken him to Hiroshi Kuroda, not Yu Darvish. He's projected as a #2 or #3 starter in an MLB rotation. That's a valuable thing to have on your club, and the Yankees certainly could use him, but he's not the second coming of Walter Johnson, and he can't carry the Yankees to a championship on his shoulders alone.
Let's say the Yankees outbid half the baseball world and sign Tanaka. That gives them a rotation of CC Sabathia and his questionable velocity, Kuroda and his unmistakable age and stamina issues, Ivan (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) Nova, Tanaka, and someone from a group that includes Michael Pineda, Adam Warren, David Phelps and Vidal Nuno. If Pineda is healthy, great. If not... oh boy.
Then there's the little matter of having no regular third baseman once the impending Sword of Damocles suspension breaks its thread and beheads Mr. Rod. That's supposed to happen in the next couple of weeks. A second baseman who can hit and hasn't spent much of the past few seasons on the disabled list wouldn't be an awful thing, either.
We can discuss the bullpen at some later date.
I'm not saying the Yankees shouldn't pursue Tanaka. Of course they should; he's the best available pitcher who won't cost them either Brett Gardner or ANOTHER first-round draft pick. He seems like he'd certainly be reliable, at least for the first few years of his contract. And it's possible he'll be better than projected. There's no reason not to go right after the guy, who will cost only money.
But he's not the answer to all the questions. He's not going to shore up the infield defense, set back the clock on some of the veterans, or figure out how to turn seven outfielders into maybe four or at most five. He's just a pitcher who has never thrown a baseball in America but might be good.
There have been good welcome additions made to the roster so far this offseason. Brian McCann seems like the perfect fit behind the plate. Ellsbury will be a former Red Sox in center field, and will surely run a lot if he's healthy. Too many years, too much money on both contracts? Sure. But it's not--directly--our money and the years will have to work themselves out.
Would Tanaka be a great addition, given the sorry state of the pitching right now? Absolutely. Is he going to get the Yankees back to the World Series all by himself? Hell, no.
I'm just saying, take a breath. It's very possible the Yankees will add Tanaka sometime in the next month. If so, good. If not, probably not the end of the world.
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Let's Take a Breath
It's been a rough week to be a Yankee fan. That makes approximately 56 weeks in a row. So be it. Cubs fans have had it hard for roughly 5464 weeks, so we can have a little perspective.
Signing Brian McCann was definitely a plus. The Yankees didn't actually have a starting catcher last year, so adding one who can hit and hit for power in a lineup starved for it was worthwhile. Did they pay too much for too many years? Sure. Come 2017 there will be eight designated hitters on the Yankees and even Mr. Rod will be gone. Thank goodness.
Jacoby Ellsbury was another story. In an outfield crowded with older players, having Ellsbury, who isn't old but is so injury prone he might as well be, is odd. So were the years and the millions but hey, it's not my money, and he is the kind of player the Yankees could have used last year. I think he'll be a very nice pickup. For the first half of his contract.
Let's remember that the last Red Sox champion to come to the Bronx was Kevin Youkilis, but that was only to pick up his dry cleaning.
Then came Friday.
Losing Robinson Cano is a tremendous blow to this team. A slick fielding, power hitting second baseman who hits for average and never misses a game? There's only one of those in baseball, and we had him for nine years. Now someone else gets him for 10.
That said, I think the Yankees were right to not offer Cano the kind of contract he ended up signing. Ten years is too long for a player who'll be 31 next season. Will it hurt not to have the next five years of Robinson Cano? It surely will, and there will be moments we'll curse Hal Steinbrenner for his lack of foresight. Will it hurt not to have the five years after that? It's possible, but it's not likely.
Derek Jeter is a first-ballot Hall of Fame player who will be 40 this coming season. He's signed for one year. At half the money Cano will be getting when he turns 40. When Jeter's deal was announced, it was categorized in the press as "overpaying."
You can't blame Cano, either. If someone waves $240-million in your face, are you going to turn it down? Sure, he could have taken a "hometown discount" for only $175-mlllon, but the gap between what the Yankees offered and what the Mariners did was not small. It amounted to a $65-million difference. Who says no to that?
The loss of Curtis Granderson? Yeah, I'll miss the 40 home runs and the postgame interviews. The 200 strikeouts and the odd angles he'd take on fly balls? Not as much. Enjoy him, Mets. He seems like a very nice guy and he certainly can connect every now and again.
So the Mets get Granderson and the Yankees get Carlos Beltran. This would count as irony from the baseball gods, if there were baseball gods. Beltran is Nick Swisher with bad knees, but one who can really hit in the postseason. The trick is getting there in the AL East with a rotation of a weakened CC Sabathia, an inconsistent Ivan Nova, a tiring Hiroki Kuroda and we're assuming two other guys because you can't expect those three to pitch all the time. We hear David Price is available for trade, and there is a negative 30 percent chance he'll be a Yankee.
Someday we'll understand the posting system in Japan, so we'll know why it's unlikely the Yankees will end up with Mr. Tanaka. Funny how nobody felt the posting system was unfair to smaller teams when the Rangers were the favorites to get Yu Darvish.
So begins the still-overpriced-but-not-as-much era of Carlos Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Brian McCann. And the Winter Meetings haven't even started yet.
I'm afraid we can assume that Brett Gardner's days in the New York outfield are numbered, and it's not a high number. He's the best trade bait the Yankees have, unless there's a great market for Eduardo Nunez that I'm not aware of. And there are still glaring needs in the starting rotation and let's face it, at third base, which will be the Mr. Rod Memorial base this season.
Oh yeah, and we could use a second baseman, too. Anybody know if there's one available?
Your work is cut out for you, Mr. Cashman.
Signing Brian McCann was definitely a plus. The Yankees didn't actually have a starting catcher last year, so adding one who can hit and hit for power in a lineup starved for it was worthwhile. Did they pay too much for too many years? Sure. Come 2017 there will be eight designated hitters on the Yankees and even Mr. Rod will be gone. Thank goodness.
Jacoby Ellsbury was another story. In an outfield crowded with older players, having Ellsbury, who isn't old but is so injury prone he might as well be, is odd. So were the years and the millions but hey, it's not my money, and he is the kind of player the Yankees could have used last year. I think he'll be a very nice pickup. For the first half of his contract.
Let's remember that the last Red Sox champion to come to the Bronx was Kevin Youkilis, but that was only to pick up his dry cleaning.
Then came Friday.
Losing Robinson Cano is a tremendous blow to this team. A slick fielding, power hitting second baseman who hits for average and never misses a game? There's only one of those in baseball, and we had him for nine years. Now someone else gets him for 10.
That said, I think the Yankees were right to not offer Cano the kind of contract he ended up signing. Ten years is too long for a player who'll be 31 next season. Will it hurt not to have the next five years of Robinson Cano? It surely will, and there will be moments we'll curse Hal Steinbrenner for his lack of foresight. Will it hurt not to have the five years after that? It's possible, but it's not likely.
Derek Jeter is a first-ballot Hall of Fame player who will be 40 this coming season. He's signed for one year. At half the money Cano will be getting when he turns 40. When Jeter's deal was announced, it was categorized in the press as "overpaying."
You can't blame Cano, either. If someone waves $240-million in your face, are you going to turn it down? Sure, he could have taken a "hometown discount" for only $175-mlllon, but the gap between what the Yankees offered and what the Mariners did was not small. It amounted to a $65-million difference. Who says no to that?
The loss of Curtis Granderson? Yeah, I'll miss the 40 home runs and the postgame interviews. The 200 strikeouts and the odd angles he'd take on fly balls? Not as much. Enjoy him, Mets. He seems like a very nice guy and he certainly can connect every now and again.
So the Mets get Granderson and the Yankees get Carlos Beltran. This would count as irony from the baseball gods, if there were baseball gods. Beltran is Nick Swisher with bad knees, but one who can really hit in the postseason. The trick is getting there in the AL East with a rotation of a weakened CC Sabathia, an inconsistent Ivan Nova, a tiring Hiroki Kuroda and we're assuming two other guys because you can't expect those three to pitch all the time. We hear David Price is available for trade, and there is a negative 30 percent chance he'll be a Yankee.
Someday we'll understand the posting system in Japan, so we'll know why it's unlikely the Yankees will end up with Mr. Tanaka. Funny how nobody felt the posting system was unfair to smaller teams when the Rangers were the favorites to get Yu Darvish.
So begins the still-overpriced-but-not-as-much era of Carlos Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Brian McCann. And the Winter Meetings haven't even started yet.
I'm afraid we can assume that Brett Gardner's days in the New York outfield are numbered, and it's not a high number. He's the best trade bait the Yankees have, unless there's a great market for Eduardo Nunez that I'm not aware of. And there are still glaring needs in the starting rotation and let's face it, at third base, which will be the Mr. Rod Memorial base this season.
Oh yeah, and we could use a second baseman, too. Anybody know if there's one available?
Your work is cut out for you, Mr. Cashman.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Well, Shut My Mouth
So I went and shot my mouth off earlier today and what happens? The Yankees spend all kinds of crazy money on someone who 1. Does not play the infield; 2. Is not a starting pitcher, 3. Is not Robinson Cano.
There's a plan, right? Tell me there's a plan.
There's a plan, right? Tell me there's a plan.
A Long, Cold Winter
So far, this off-season has been fairly unexciting, but in an odd way encouraging. Brian Cashman, never a dope, is making his usual, methodical, reasonable, calculated moves. The question remains: Is that going to be enough?
The 2014 Yankees MUST look a great deal different than the 2013 Yankees. Holes in the outfield (currently manned by the best outfielders 2004 has to offer and Brett Gardner) must be filled with someone who can hit a few home runs and perhaps do so while not yet being eligible for an AARP membership.
On the infield, four out of four positions are being filled by question marks. Will Robinson Cano be back? It's rumored the Mariners (!) are offering $200 million, a number the Yankees are swearing they won't match. Mark Teixeira is coming off the worst injury of his career and wasn't exactly playing at his optimum level BEFORE that happened. Derek Jeter is coming off a truly devastating injury and is going to be 40. He's Derek Jeter, of course, but even Mariano Rivera proved that time doesn't wait for any athlete.
Who's on Third? I dunno. THIRD BASE!
We won't know the results of the Mr. Rod psychodrama before January at the earliest, and probably not for quite some time after that, as the inevitable federal case--literally--is brought, and most likely dismissed. So who's playing third for the Yankees next year? Your guess is probably as good as mine, and if Cashman has a plan, he ain't saying. He can't. He has $30-million worth of third baseman on the cover of New York Magazine this week, hating the team he plays for and the sport that has made him insanely wealthy. Sorry, Mr. Rod, my heart does not bleed for thee.
At least the catching position--one we would have sworn a few years ago would surely be manned by one of the many sterling prospects in the farm system by now--has been filled, with an expensive free agent eating up some of the $189-million "bargain" version of a Yankee payroll. And McCann does seem like a good pick-up, even if the five-to-six year term of his deal is going to be yet another in a series of albatrosses by 2017. He appears to be a Posada-esque good-hit-adequate-defense-tough-guy-in-your-face kind of player, and that can't hurt.
There's also talk Curtis Granderson will be going to Boston. Without the comfy right field porch, he probably won't do the same kind of damage. But that's not the least bit definite yet.
Yankee fans, being the impatient types we are, want action. But too many dominoes have to fall before we can see what Mr. Cashman has in mind. I trust him, but wonder if his hands aren't tied a little too snugly this time, by budgetary and time constraints, and circumstances beyond his control.
Either way, it'll be a long, cold winter.
The 2014 Yankees MUST look a great deal different than the 2013 Yankees. Holes in the outfield (currently manned by the best outfielders 2004 has to offer and Brett Gardner) must be filled with someone who can hit a few home runs and perhaps do so while not yet being eligible for an AARP membership.
On the infield, four out of four positions are being filled by question marks. Will Robinson Cano be back? It's rumored the Mariners (!) are offering $200 million, a number the Yankees are swearing they won't match. Mark Teixeira is coming off the worst injury of his career and wasn't exactly playing at his optimum level BEFORE that happened. Derek Jeter is coming off a truly devastating injury and is going to be 40. He's Derek Jeter, of course, but even Mariano Rivera proved that time doesn't wait for any athlete.
Who's on Third? I dunno. THIRD BASE!
We won't know the results of the Mr. Rod psychodrama before January at the earliest, and probably not for quite some time after that, as the inevitable federal case--literally--is brought, and most likely dismissed. So who's playing third for the Yankees next year? Your guess is probably as good as mine, and if Cashman has a plan, he ain't saying. He can't. He has $30-million worth of third baseman on the cover of New York Magazine this week, hating the team he plays for and the sport that has made him insanely wealthy. Sorry, Mr. Rod, my heart does not bleed for thee.
At least the catching position--one we would have sworn a few years ago would surely be manned by one of the many sterling prospects in the farm system by now--has been filled, with an expensive free agent eating up some of the $189-million "bargain" version of a Yankee payroll. And McCann does seem like a good pick-up, even if the five-to-six year term of his deal is going to be yet another in a series of albatrosses by 2017. He appears to be a Posada-esque good-hit-adequate-defense-tough-guy-in-your-face kind of player, and that can't hurt.
There's also talk Curtis Granderson will be going to Boston. Without the comfy right field porch, he probably won't do the same kind of damage. But that's not the least bit definite yet.
Yankee fans, being the impatient types we are, want action. But too many dominoes have to fall before we can see what Mr. Cashman has in mind. I trust him, but wonder if his hands aren't tied a little too snugly this time, by budgetary and time constraints, and circumstances beyond his control.
Either way, it'll be a long, cold winter.
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
That's Our Show, Folks
So that's it.
With the Cleveland win (aided by a Nick Swisher home run!), the Yankees are officially not headed anywhere but home after Sunday. Not that you couldn't see this coming for quite a while.
We should not hang our heads, Pinstripe pals. The boys overachieved, truth be known. This ragtag bunch of replacements performed over their heads for enough of the season that it took until the last week to get rid of them. If they could have beaten the Red Sox even half the time... but that ship sailed quite a while back.
The real questions lie in the offseason. Will Cano be back? Will Mr. Rod ever appear on a major league field again? Will Hal Steinbrenner remember that he owns the Yankees, not the Kansas City Royals, and spend a little of the cash the fellas down in the corporate boxes have given him? Remember, Hal: you might have to pay some luxury tax if you go over $189-million, but the YES ratings are going to plummet and attendance will follow suit if there isn't something interesting to watch on that field in 2014.
There will be no Pettitte. Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain, thank goodness, will be playing elsewhere. Curtis Granderson is a free agent, as is Boone Logan, who might want to pitch somewhere he's NOT being brought in five times a week. The outfield will be old enough to qualify as an exhibit at the Museum of Natural History. We're not really sure what will be reasonable to expect from Derek Jeter or Mark Teixeira.
There ain't no Mo.
Let's assume for a moment that Cano does not return; let's say Don Mattingly takes him aside after the Dodgers win the World Series and tells him how great things are in L.A. (and the boatload of cash doesn't hurt, either). Let's say Jeter can just DH. Let's assume Teixeira is about 80% of his pre-Team-USA form, which was already on the decline before this lost year.
Next April's Yankees lineup would look like:
1. Gardner 8
2. Jeter DH
3. Teixeira 3
4. Soriano 7
5. Nunez 6
6. Reynolds 5
7. Suzuki/Wells 9
8. Nix 4
9. Murphy/Cervelli/Stewart 2
Not pretty, is it? Now let's see the starting rotation:
Sabathia
Nova
Kuroda? (I'm going to go out on a limb and say no, he goes back to Japan)
Pineda? (Who the hell knows? Will he ever pitch healthy again?)
Phelps
Warren
Again, not expecting big things. Bullpen?
Robertson, closer
Kelley
Let's say Logan
Huff? (Now that he doesn't have to clean up after Hughes anymore?)
Some guy they pick up off the scrap heap
Others
Bench: I dunno. We already have Nix starting at second and Wells starting part-time in the outfield.
This winter will either be Brian Cashman's greatest triumph of his most ignominious defeat. A lot will depend on how wide Hal will open his wallet.
This wasn't a bad year, folks. We made it to September 25. The bad years are coming, and they're not going to look nearly this good.
With the Cleveland win (aided by a Nick Swisher home run!), the Yankees are officially not headed anywhere but home after Sunday. Not that you couldn't see this coming for quite a while.
We should not hang our heads, Pinstripe pals. The boys overachieved, truth be known. This ragtag bunch of replacements performed over their heads for enough of the season that it took until the last week to get rid of them. If they could have beaten the Red Sox even half the time... but that ship sailed quite a while back.
The real questions lie in the offseason. Will Cano be back? Will Mr. Rod ever appear on a major league field again? Will Hal Steinbrenner remember that he owns the Yankees, not the Kansas City Royals, and spend a little of the cash the fellas down in the corporate boxes have given him? Remember, Hal: you might have to pay some luxury tax if you go over $189-million, but the YES ratings are going to plummet and attendance will follow suit if there isn't something interesting to watch on that field in 2014.
There will be no Pettitte. Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain, thank goodness, will be playing elsewhere. Curtis Granderson is a free agent, as is Boone Logan, who might want to pitch somewhere he's NOT being brought in five times a week. The outfield will be old enough to qualify as an exhibit at the Museum of Natural History. We're not really sure what will be reasonable to expect from Derek Jeter or Mark Teixeira.
There ain't no Mo.
Let's assume for a moment that Cano does not return; let's say Don Mattingly takes him aside after the Dodgers win the World Series and tells him how great things are in L.A. (and the boatload of cash doesn't hurt, either). Let's say Jeter can just DH. Let's assume Teixeira is about 80% of his pre-Team-USA form, which was already on the decline before this lost year.
Next April's Yankees lineup would look like:
1. Gardner 8
2. Jeter DH
3. Teixeira 3
4. Soriano 7
5. Nunez 6
6. Reynolds 5
7. Suzuki/Wells 9
8. Nix 4
9. Murphy/Cervelli/Stewart 2
Not pretty, is it? Now let's see the starting rotation:
Sabathia
Nova
Kuroda? (I'm going to go out on a limb and say no, he goes back to Japan)
Pineda? (Who the hell knows? Will he ever pitch healthy again?)
Phelps
Warren
Again, not expecting big things. Bullpen?
Robertson, closer
Kelley
Let's say Logan
Huff? (Now that he doesn't have to clean up after Hughes anymore?)
Some guy they pick up off the scrap heap
Others
Bench: I dunno. We already have Nix starting at second and Wells starting part-time in the outfield.
This winter will either be Brian Cashman's greatest triumph of his most ignominious defeat. A lot will depend on how wide Hal will open his wallet.
This wasn't a bad year, folks. We made it to September 25. The bad years are coming, and they're not going to look nearly this good.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Nice While It Lasted
The latest dash of winning play from the Yankees was a fun little ride (accent on the LITTLE), but it's over now. They couldn't beat the Toronto Blue Jays two games out of three, and are losing ground rather than gaining it with 29 games left on the schedule.
It was interesting to have hope for a while, but that's pretty much kicked in the face now, so let's assess.
Robinson Cano became the 116th Yankee to be hit on the hand by a Blue Jays pitcher this year, but only if you count Curtis Granderson twice. Eduardo Nunez, current winner of the Ron Bloomberg Silver MRI Award, hurt his knee while not really doing anything on a play up the middle, and it looks like he's going to be out for a while. And there isn't a whole while left in the season.
I don't know who the backup shortstop or second baseman is for the Yankees right now, but I'm getting out my glove and waiting for a phone call.
This is a microcosm of the 2013 season: A short burst of decent play offset by so many injuries the YES Network must be selling its Injury Report at bulk rates. "And now the Injury Report, brought to you by W.B. Mason, your local Mercedes-Benz dealers, Bigalow Tea, our good friends at the Fox News Channel (!), Bob's Liquor Store on 128th Street, the cast of Under the Dome and that guy who's always asking you for spare change at the train station."
We asked much, too much, of a group of hangers-on and replacements at the beginning of the year. By the time everybody except Teixeira came back, it was just too late to expect more. Alfonso Soriano has been pretending it's 2001 for a month now and doing a convincing job, but Mr. Rod looks like a guy awaiting a 211-game suspension, Curtis Granderson is reminding us about the strikeouts and not so much the home runs, and the captain, although he hasn't been back long, makes us hold our breath every time he hits a ball on the ground and has to run.
This hasn't been a good year, and it isn't going to end well. That's okay; it happens every once in a while. But getting our hopes up in late August bordered on the cruel, only to have people fall down and not get up again, and see Hiroki Kuroda suddenly forget what was working for him until August 1.
Until recently, the offense has been offensive. Now, he pitching is starting to look like a bunch of old men and a couple of guys who never really became what they were supposed to be. When David Huff is seriously in the conversation to start a game, it's time to draw the curtain and thank the folks for coming.
The real tragedy is that Mariano Rivera won't get another chance to pitch in the postseason. But if anyone can be said to have done enough for the Yankees, that's the guy. Sorry it's not going to end in storybook fashion, Mo. Maybe we only expected it to because you were always the guy at the end of the game.
It was interesting to have hope for a while, but that's pretty much kicked in the face now, so let's assess.
Robinson Cano became the 116th Yankee to be hit on the hand by a Blue Jays pitcher this year, but only if you count Curtis Granderson twice. Eduardo Nunez, current winner of the Ron Bloomberg Silver MRI Award, hurt his knee while not really doing anything on a play up the middle, and it looks like he's going to be out for a while. And there isn't a whole while left in the season.
I don't know who the backup shortstop or second baseman is for the Yankees right now, but I'm getting out my glove and waiting for a phone call.
This is a microcosm of the 2013 season: A short burst of decent play offset by so many injuries the YES Network must be selling its Injury Report at bulk rates. "And now the Injury Report, brought to you by W.B. Mason, your local Mercedes-Benz dealers, Bigalow Tea, our good friends at the Fox News Channel (!), Bob's Liquor Store on 128th Street, the cast of Under the Dome and that guy who's always asking you for spare change at the train station."
We asked much, too much, of a group of hangers-on and replacements at the beginning of the year. By the time everybody except Teixeira came back, it was just too late to expect more. Alfonso Soriano has been pretending it's 2001 for a month now and doing a convincing job, but Mr. Rod looks like a guy awaiting a 211-game suspension, Curtis Granderson is reminding us about the strikeouts and not so much the home runs, and the captain, although he hasn't been back long, makes us hold our breath every time he hits a ball on the ground and has to run.
This hasn't been a good year, and it isn't going to end well. That's okay; it happens every once in a while. But getting our hopes up in late August bordered on the cruel, only to have people fall down and not get up again, and see Hiroki Kuroda suddenly forget what was working for him until August 1.
Until recently, the offense has been offensive. Now, he pitching is starting to look like a bunch of old men and a couple of guys who never really became what they were supposed to be. When David Huff is seriously in the conversation to start a game, it's time to draw the curtain and thank the folks for coming.
The real tragedy is that Mariano Rivera won't get another chance to pitch in the postseason. But if anyone can be said to have done enough for the Yankees, that's the guy. Sorry it's not going to end in storybook fashion, Mo. Maybe we only expected it to because you were always the guy at the end of the game.
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Because, Let's Face it...
This season is over.
No, the Yankees aren't coming back from this. There is no amazing six-week run in this club. They're going to be just this bad, or maybe a little better, from here on out. Mr. Rod's ignominious return did not spark the offense, CC's one decent night did not turn his season around completely, and Andy Pettitte is old.
Even Mo blew a save. That happens every now and again, but a sweep by the White Sox? The doormat of the AL Central? Unacceptable.
So let's look ahead, although that might not be any more edifying. What will the 2014 Yankees look like? (Let's assume the injury thing subsides long enough for Opening Day to come off successfully.)
Projected Opening Day lineup:
Gardner 8
Jeter 6
Teixeira 3
Cano 4 (we're hoping)
Soriano 7
Ichiro 9
Nunez 5
Wells DH
Romine/Cervelli 2
Starting pitchers:
Sabathia
Kuroda (maybe)
Nova
Pineda
Phelps/Warren
Bullpen:
Robertson (closer)
Logan
Claiborne
Banuelos
Kelley
Two people we don't know yet (Nuno?)
Backups:
Almonte (outfield)
Nix (maybe, infield)
That is not terribly promising.
Missing from the 2013 roster:
Granderson
Chamberlain
Hughes
Pettitte
Rivera
Adams
Stewart (?)
Youkilis
Hafner
Mr. Rod (the inevitable suspension)
Free agent targets for the new, thrifty Yankees (from what is, admittedly, a less-than-stellar class):
Brian McCann?
Jarrod Saltalamacchia? (Just because he wouldn't have the weight of his name on his back)
Michael Young? (He's cleared waivers--the Yankees didn't claim him. Message?)
Trade targets:
Your guess is as good as mine.
Nope, not terribly promising.
This might be the era when younger fans get a taste of what it's like NOT to be in the playoffs every year. When quick fixes don't fix quite so much. When, sooner or later, there is no Derek Jeter, forever.
It's key that Cano be signed to a new contract. It's really important that Kuroda not be allowed to high-tail is back to Japan after a year of such awful run support. And yes, we're going to need a viable backup shortstop and first baseman, because there are no guarantees with injuries and some people just aren't getting any younger.
This year has been frustrating. Lately, it's gotten pretty much unwatchable. But sports loyalties don't change for real fans, even in awful times. If you're a Yankee fan, you're stuck. I was stuck at the age of 6, which was roughly half a century ago. I'm not going anywhere, even with this 2014 roster above. Will you?
Changes, no doubt, are coming. Maybe that's good. Maybe not. But don't expect an immediate return to glory, ala the 2013 Red Sox. The sudden obsession with spending, the weak free agent class, the not-fabulous farm system from which to trade, and the lack of a blockbuster trade possibility like the wholesale re-do Boston pulled off last year all conspire against the Yankees.
It's going to be a rough couple of years, at least. But when it's over, the joy will be that much more satisfying.
Are you in?
No, the Yankees aren't coming back from this. There is no amazing six-week run in this club. They're going to be just this bad, or maybe a little better, from here on out. Mr. Rod's ignominious return did not spark the offense, CC's one decent night did not turn his season around completely, and Andy Pettitte is old.
Even Mo blew a save. That happens every now and again, but a sweep by the White Sox? The doormat of the AL Central? Unacceptable.
So let's look ahead, although that might not be any more edifying. What will the 2014 Yankees look like? (Let's assume the injury thing subsides long enough for Opening Day to come off successfully.)
Projected Opening Day lineup:
Gardner 8
Jeter 6
Teixeira 3
Cano 4 (we're hoping)
Soriano 7
Ichiro 9
Nunez 5
Wells DH
Romine/Cervelli 2
Starting pitchers:
Sabathia
Kuroda (maybe)
Nova
Pineda
Phelps/Warren
Bullpen:
Robertson (closer)
Logan
Claiborne
Banuelos
Kelley
Two people we don't know yet (Nuno?)
Backups:
Almonte (outfield)
Nix (maybe, infield)
That is not terribly promising.
Missing from the 2013 roster:
Granderson
Chamberlain
Hughes
Pettitte
Rivera
Adams
Stewart (?)
Youkilis
Hafner
Mr. Rod (the inevitable suspension)
Free agent targets for the new, thrifty Yankees (from what is, admittedly, a less-than-stellar class):
Brian McCann?
Jarrod Saltalamacchia? (Just because he wouldn't have the weight of his name on his back)
Michael Young? (He's cleared waivers--the Yankees didn't claim him. Message?)
Trade targets:
Your guess is as good as mine.
Nope, not terribly promising.
This might be the era when younger fans get a taste of what it's like NOT to be in the playoffs every year. When quick fixes don't fix quite so much. When, sooner or later, there is no Derek Jeter, forever.
It's key that Cano be signed to a new contract. It's really important that Kuroda not be allowed to high-tail is back to Japan after a year of such awful run support. And yes, we're going to need a viable backup shortstop and first baseman, because there are no guarantees with injuries and some people just aren't getting any younger.
This year has been frustrating. Lately, it's gotten pretty much unwatchable. But sports loyalties don't change for real fans, even in awful times. If you're a Yankee fan, you're stuck. I was stuck at the age of 6, which was roughly half a century ago. I'm not going anywhere, even with this 2014 roster above. Will you?
Changes, no doubt, are coming. Maybe that's good. Maybe not. But don't expect an immediate return to glory, ala the 2013 Red Sox. The sudden obsession with spending, the weak free agent class, the not-fabulous farm system from which to trade, and the lack of a blockbuster trade possibility like the wholesale re-do Boston pulled off last year all conspire against the Yankees.
It's going to be a rough couple of years, at least. But when it's over, the joy will be that much more satisfying.
Are you in?
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Of Mr. Rod, Buck Showalter, and The Lineup
The saga of Mr. Rod continues on every sports page, sports site, sports radio and NBC News (Brian Williams is tweeting about it!) in the country. The other nine or ten players who will be suspended by MLB for dipping into the Biogenesis pool are afterthoughts. Ryan Braun? A sideshow. We know what (that is, who) this is about.
The debate goes something like: Why is Mr. Rod the one being "persecuted" by Baseball? (Persecuted? Really?) Why is the commissioner of baseball so jazzed about sending Mr. Rod to his Fortress of Solitude for as long as possible?
No less a communications expert than Buck Showalter today suggested that having Mr. Rod banished for at least a year and two months would create an unfair advantage for the Yankees because there would be less payroll by a goodly piece and that would mean the luxury tax penalty would be severely reduced. The theory there is that the Yankees would use that on expensive free agents like Matt Weiters, who happens to play for Ol' Buck. Suggesting his catcher would go after the big bucks and that it's the Yankees' fault should play really well in the clubhouse, no?
Not to mention that he's suggesting the Yankees should be forced to pay a penalty in luxury for a player who's not getting paid because he isn't playing. So it's an unfair advantage to not pay for a player who isn't there. Should the Yankees be paying for Albert Pujols's contract? He won't be playing for them, either.
It'll sound like 20/20 hindsight, but I didn't want Mr. Rod on the Yankees. Not in 2004, when Aaron Boone's knee brought the circus to town. Not in 2009, when he seemingly single-handedly delivered a World Series championship. Not ever.
In 2007, when Mr. Rod opted out of his contract--in the middle of someone else's World Series,--I was in a car driving home from Philadelphia to hear the news that some Steinbrenner or another had prevailed upon the other to offer up the sum of More Money Than God (and God has been saving for millions of years) to bring us 10 years of Mr. Rod. I pulled over and screamed at the radio for five full minutes. When I got home, I told my family my voice was scratchy from teaching that day.
So now when I say that I hope MLB suspends him for the rest of his natural life, I sound like I've soured on a great player recently. Not at all. They say, "but he's better than anything the Yankees have at third base now," and that is abundantly true. I still say, keep him away.
The past week has been a Mr. Rod nightmare, with doctors calling radio stations, Mr. Rod himself calling radio stations, lawyers calling radio stations, Brian Cashman losing what's left of his hair (and probably his mind along with it), Bud Selig threatening to shoot him into space or something, and the Yankees losing games in which their pitchers gave up two runs or less.
But consider this: Assuming something truly hideous does not happen between today and tomorrow, the next Yankees lineup posted on a dugout wall in San Diego should read something like:
Gardner 8
Jeter 6
Cano 4
Soriano 9
Granderson 7
Overbay 3
Nix 5
Romine 2
Sabathia 1
When the team gets back to a civilized American League park and Sabathia is replaced with Suzuki, it gets better.
Now, that's starting to resemble the Yankees. Does it make up the 8.5-deficit from first place? No. Can it make up the 3.5 games to the wild card? Maybe, maybe not.
But it'll be a hell of a lot more entertaining to watch than what the first four months of the 2013 season brought.
Would it be better with Mr. Rod replacing Nix? Probably (who knows what Mr. Rod has left in him?). Is it likely we'll see that happen this year? No.
I can't say I'm sorry. Because I'm not.
The debate goes something like: Why is Mr. Rod the one being "persecuted" by Baseball? (Persecuted? Really?) Why is the commissioner of baseball so jazzed about sending Mr. Rod to his Fortress of Solitude for as long as possible?
No less a communications expert than Buck Showalter today suggested that having Mr. Rod banished for at least a year and two months would create an unfair advantage for the Yankees because there would be less payroll by a goodly piece and that would mean the luxury tax penalty would be severely reduced. The theory there is that the Yankees would use that on expensive free agents like Matt Weiters, who happens to play for Ol' Buck. Suggesting his catcher would go after the big bucks and that it's the Yankees' fault should play really well in the clubhouse, no?
Not to mention that he's suggesting the Yankees should be forced to pay a penalty in luxury for a player who's not getting paid because he isn't playing. So it's an unfair advantage to not pay for a player who isn't there. Should the Yankees be paying for Albert Pujols's contract? He won't be playing for them, either.
It'll sound like 20/20 hindsight, but I didn't want Mr. Rod on the Yankees. Not in 2004, when Aaron Boone's knee brought the circus to town. Not in 2009, when he seemingly single-handedly delivered a World Series championship. Not ever.
In 2007, when Mr. Rod opted out of his contract--in the middle of someone else's World Series,--I was in a car driving home from Philadelphia to hear the news that some Steinbrenner or another had prevailed upon the other to offer up the sum of More Money Than God (and God has been saving for millions of years) to bring us 10 years of Mr. Rod. I pulled over and screamed at the radio for five full minutes. When I got home, I told my family my voice was scratchy from teaching that day.
So now when I say that I hope MLB suspends him for the rest of his natural life, I sound like I've soured on a great player recently. Not at all. They say, "but he's better than anything the Yankees have at third base now," and that is abundantly true. I still say, keep him away.
The past week has been a Mr. Rod nightmare, with doctors calling radio stations, Mr. Rod himself calling radio stations, lawyers calling radio stations, Brian Cashman losing what's left of his hair (and probably his mind along with it), Bud Selig threatening to shoot him into space or something, and the Yankees losing games in which their pitchers gave up two runs or less.
But consider this: Assuming something truly hideous does not happen between today and tomorrow, the next Yankees lineup posted on a dugout wall in San Diego should read something like:
Gardner 8
Jeter 6
Cano 4
Soriano 9
Granderson 7
Overbay 3
Nix 5
Romine 2
Sabathia 1
When the team gets back to a civilized American League park and Sabathia is replaced with Suzuki, it gets better.
Now, that's starting to resemble the Yankees. Does it make up the 8.5-deficit from first place? No. Can it make up the 3.5 games to the wild card? Maybe, maybe not.
But it'll be a hell of a lot more entertaining to watch than what the first four months of the 2013 season brought.
Would it be better with Mr. Rod replacing Nix? Probably (who knows what Mr. Rod has left in him?). Is it likely we'll see that happen this year? No.
I can't say I'm sorry. Because I'm not.
Monday, July 22, 2013
Just Wait Until...
Yes, the 11-inning loss to the Red Sox was a bone-crushing, debilitating, awful defeat. Yeah, seven games out in this division with August right in front of us is pretty demoralizing. And yes, the pitching is starting to catch up with the hitting in the not-so-good department.
It's time, friends. There's no quick fix here. The cavalry is not coming over the hill anytime soon, and "over the hill" seems way too appropriate a word for what might be coming. As of today, the Yankees could field a lineup of disabled players that most teams would envy:
Jeter 6
Nix 4
Teixeira 3
Granderson 8
Rodriguez 5
Almonte 7
Youkilis DH
Cervelli 2
Phelps/Pineda 1
Throw yourself in a right fielder, and that's some team. But it's not coming to the Bronx anytime soon. In fact, Teixeira won't be back this year, Mr. Rod could be back anytime between tomorrow and forever, and Granderson and Youkilis will surely be gone by Opening Day 2014, if not sooner.
So it's time. Time to take a cold, hard look (with the Coors Cold Hard Look Freeze-Cam!) at this year's Yankees and say, you did a nice job keeping hope alive, boys, but it ain't gonna stick. Pick up your consolation prizes at the door.
It's time to start thinking about next year.
Without any cries of, "But wait, a trade of Joba for Miguel Cabrera is in the works," or "Jeter will be back and carry the team all by himself!", the truth is this Yankee team has overachieved to be THIS tood, and this good isn't that good. The game last night epitomized exactly where the problems are:
1. The Yankees don't hit for power at ALL. Imagine saying those words in any other season.
2. The starting pitching is beginning to crumble. Aside from Hiroki Kuroda, you don't know what you're getting on any given night.
3. When the Yankees have opportunities and don't cash in, you're in for a long night.
4. Joba Chamberlain has sunk so low on the depth chart that another team would have to be a few steps beyond desperate to trade for him.
5. The Travis Hafner and Vernon Wells experiments have failed. The team getting the placebo (Raul Ibanez, Nick Swisher, Russell Martin) was cured.
With that in mind, next year isn't looking a whole lot better.
Presumably, we'll be starting with a healthy Derek Jeter. That's always a plus, but it'll be a healthy Derek Jeter pushing 40, and while it's always a bad idea to count him out, you can't change the laws of physics, even if Mr. Scott did it once a week from 1966-1969.
Beyond that, we'll probably also have a healthy Mark Teixeira, which is also very good, but not what it used to be. A healthy Alex Rodriguez might not exist anymore, and even if it does, one serving a 100-game (or more!) suspension can be Superman and isn't going to help.
What will (probably) be lost this winter: Curtis Granderson, Jayson Nix, Andy Pettitte, Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Travis Hafner, Kevin Youkilis, Hiroki Kuroda (that'll hurt)
and Mariano Rivera.
Not all of that is awful. Hughes needs to pitch in a larger home ballpark. Chamberlain just needs to go. Hafner was barely ever here. Youkilis really wasn't ever here.
Pettitte should retire. He's done enough, and all he can do now is add a sour taste to leave in the mouths of Yankee fans. He should probably retire now and not wait until the end of the year. If Hughes isn't traded--and few teams will want a rental on him--David Phelps is coming back and Michael Pineda, if there really IS a Michael Pineda, is said to be waiting in the wings. There are young arms in the bullpen who were slated to be starters; maybe they could get a chance.
What will (probably) be coming back for 2014: Wells, Ichiro, Chris Stewart, Eduardo Nunez, Brett Gardner (he of great speed and no will to steal), Almonte, Phelps, Ivan Nova, most of the bullpen (sans Rivera) and Joe Girardi (probably--his contract is expiring, too, and his phone will ring).
Doesn't exactly inspire confidence, and given the Yankees' uncharacteristic insistence on (relative) thrift for next year, we shouldn't be expecting that high-priced free agent on the horizon, no matter who it might be.
No, things are not looking good, folks. Is Raul Mondesi available?
It's time, friends. There's no quick fix here. The cavalry is not coming over the hill anytime soon, and "over the hill" seems way too appropriate a word for what might be coming. As of today, the Yankees could field a lineup of disabled players that most teams would envy:
Jeter 6
Nix 4
Teixeira 3
Granderson 8
Rodriguez 5
Almonte 7
Youkilis DH
Cervelli 2
Phelps/Pineda 1
Throw yourself in a right fielder, and that's some team. But it's not coming to the Bronx anytime soon. In fact, Teixeira won't be back this year, Mr. Rod could be back anytime between tomorrow and forever, and Granderson and Youkilis will surely be gone by Opening Day 2014, if not sooner.
So it's time. Time to take a cold, hard look (with the Coors Cold Hard Look Freeze-Cam!) at this year's Yankees and say, you did a nice job keeping hope alive, boys, but it ain't gonna stick. Pick up your consolation prizes at the door.
It's time to start thinking about next year.
Without any cries of, "But wait, a trade of Joba for Miguel Cabrera is in the works," or "Jeter will be back and carry the team all by himself!", the truth is this Yankee team has overachieved to be THIS tood, and this good isn't that good. The game last night epitomized exactly where the problems are:
1. The Yankees don't hit for power at ALL. Imagine saying those words in any other season.
2. The starting pitching is beginning to crumble. Aside from Hiroki Kuroda, you don't know what you're getting on any given night.
3. When the Yankees have opportunities and don't cash in, you're in for a long night.
4. Joba Chamberlain has sunk so low on the depth chart that another team would have to be a few steps beyond desperate to trade for him.
5. The Travis Hafner and Vernon Wells experiments have failed. The team getting the placebo (Raul Ibanez, Nick Swisher, Russell Martin) was cured.
With that in mind, next year isn't looking a whole lot better.
Presumably, we'll be starting with a healthy Derek Jeter. That's always a plus, but it'll be a healthy Derek Jeter pushing 40, and while it's always a bad idea to count him out, you can't change the laws of physics, even if Mr. Scott did it once a week from 1966-1969.
Beyond that, we'll probably also have a healthy Mark Teixeira, which is also very good, but not what it used to be. A healthy Alex Rodriguez might not exist anymore, and even if it does, one serving a 100-game (or more!) suspension can be Superman and isn't going to help.
What will (probably) be lost this winter: Curtis Granderson, Jayson Nix, Andy Pettitte, Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Travis Hafner, Kevin Youkilis, Hiroki Kuroda (that'll hurt)
and Mariano Rivera.
Not all of that is awful. Hughes needs to pitch in a larger home ballpark. Chamberlain just needs to go. Hafner was barely ever here. Youkilis really wasn't ever here.
Pettitte should retire. He's done enough, and all he can do now is add a sour taste to leave in the mouths of Yankee fans. He should probably retire now and not wait until the end of the year. If Hughes isn't traded--and few teams will want a rental on him--David Phelps is coming back and Michael Pineda, if there really IS a Michael Pineda, is said to be waiting in the wings. There are young arms in the bullpen who were slated to be starters; maybe they could get a chance.
What will (probably) be coming back for 2014: Wells, Ichiro, Chris Stewart, Eduardo Nunez, Brett Gardner (he of great speed and no will to steal), Almonte, Phelps, Ivan Nova, most of the bullpen (sans Rivera) and Joe Girardi (probably--his contract is expiring, too, and his phone will ring).
Doesn't exactly inspire confidence, and given the Yankees' uncharacteristic insistence on (relative) thrift for next year, we shouldn't be expecting that high-priced free agent on the horizon, no matter who it might be.
No, things are not looking good, folks. Is Raul Mondesi available?
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Dear Yankees:
That's it? That's how you want us to think about this team until Friday, when you go play the Red Sox in Boston?
There are times I almost wish you HADN'T overachieved the first couple of months this season. We had no expectations going into April. We expected you to do badly--everybody was hurt, even the people filling in for the hurt people were hurt, and then as time went on more people got hurt. It got to the point that it seemed dangerous just to watch the game on TV.
And then Lyle Overbay started getting clutch hits. Vernon Wells came out of the gate looking like the guy we hated to see when he was playing in Toronto. Travis Hafner hit a home run against his old team on Opening Day.
But don't forget the pitching! Andy Pettitte began April by forgetting it wasn't 1998. He made opposing hitters look foolish. Yeah, we were a little concerned about Sabathia's loss of velocity, but hey, the Yankees were in first place--that's right, pundits, the team you picked for last was at the top of the division.
So this past stretch of games, really all through June and much of July, has been a cruel joke. Seriously: if you were going to play like this, raising our expectations was just plain mean.
Let's see how things went during HOPE Week, shall we?
The moment fans had waited breathlessly (certainly not patiently) for all these months arrived, a day early. Yes, Derek Jeter was coming back, and even if he couldn't single handedly lift the team out of its hideous offensive doldrums, he could certainly provide a glimpse of what real Yankee teams are supposed to look like.
That lasted three at-bats, a total of maybe two-and-a-half hours. Then Jeter couldn't leg out his last grounder, was pinch hit for in the eighth inning, and--most ominously of all---didn't rise out of the dugout when the game was won to congratulate his teammates. Something, surely, was wrong.
And it was. Like Granderson and Teixeira before him, Jeter had returned merely to injure himself again. It's considered a "mild" strain, but you can hear in the choice of words that nobody expects the captain to play in Boston. Who knows how long after that, and even when he does come back, can he stay healthy?
Then there are the continuing adventures of Mr. Rod, who went to see the MLB officials about his little misunderstanding in Florida, reportedly left stunned and shaken by the meeting, and then immediately didn't go to the minor league game in which he was scheduled to rehab whichever hip it is that's bothering him these days. The game was rained out anyway, but the brass was (understandably) pissed off.
Talk is Mr. Rod is being offered a plea bargain by the officials at Major League Baseball, which amounts to: Don't play until 2015. At all. And maybe we'll talk reinstatement then. Baseball journalists who are trustworthy report he's considering it.
To end the "first half" of the season on a high note, the Yankees played without question their sloppiest, wobbliest, most inept game of this and maybe a few other years today. Errors, both official ones and those we spectators could see, came by the cartload. Sabathia couldn't figure out what those men with the sticks in front of that white dish were doing there, so he assumed he was supposed to throw the object in his hand to a spot where they could hit it as hard as possible. By the time he was trying to catch a popup that landed just past his outstretched glove, the game had taken on the quality of farce.
Bad farce.
This is, finally, the team we had expected before the season began. And in all likelihood, it is at least fundamentally the team we will see for the rest of the year. Brian Cashman will make phone calls, but a real game-changing deal seems extremely unlikely. The best we might expect is that Jeter will get himself healthy in the next couple of weeks and come back to provide some normalcy, but not much. We can watch him be Jeter, watch Mo go out in the classiest style in history (because he can do so no other way) on those rare occasions when he'll be able to close a game, and perhaps if we're really really good, Francisco Cervelli will come back and hit .240.
It just would have been so much easier to take if there hadn't been that hopeful stretch at the beginning of the season.
There are times I almost wish you HADN'T overachieved the first couple of months this season. We had no expectations going into April. We expected you to do badly--everybody was hurt, even the people filling in for the hurt people were hurt, and then as time went on more people got hurt. It got to the point that it seemed dangerous just to watch the game on TV.
And then Lyle Overbay started getting clutch hits. Vernon Wells came out of the gate looking like the guy we hated to see when he was playing in Toronto. Travis Hafner hit a home run against his old team on Opening Day.
But don't forget the pitching! Andy Pettitte began April by forgetting it wasn't 1998. He made opposing hitters look foolish. Yeah, we were a little concerned about Sabathia's loss of velocity, but hey, the Yankees were in first place--that's right, pundits, the team you picked for last was at the top of the division.
So this past stretch of games, really all through June and much of July, has been a cruel joke. Seriously: if you were going to play like this, raising our expectations was just plain mean.
Let's see how things went during HOPE Week, shall we?
The moment fans had waited breathlessly (certainly not patiently) for all these months arrived, a day early. Yes, Derek Jeter was coming back, and even if he couldn't single handedly lift the team out of its hideous offensive doldrums, he could certainly provide a glimpse of what real Yankee teams are supposed to look like.
That lasted three at-bats, a total of maybe two-and-a-half hours. Then Jeter couldn't leg out his last grounder, was pinch hit for in the eighth inning, and--most ominously of all---didn't rise out of the dugout when the game was won to congratulate his teammates. Something, surely, was wrong.
And it was. Like Granderson and Teixeira before him, Jeter had returned merely to injure himself again. It's considered a "mild" strain, but you can hear in the choice of words that nobody expects the captain to play in Boston. Who knows how long after that, and even when he does come back, can he stay healthy?
Then there are the continuing adventures of Mr. Rod, who went to see the MLB officials about his little misunderstanding in Florida, reportedly left stunned and shaken by the meeting, and then immediately didn't go to the minor league game in which he was scheduled to rehab whichever hip it is that's bothering him these days. The game was rained out anyway, but the brass was (understandably) pissed off.
Talk is Mr. Rod is being offered a plea bargain by the officials at Major League Baseball, which amounts to: Don't play until 2015. At all. And maybe we'll talk reinstatement then. Baseball journalists who are trustworthy report he's considering it.
To end the "first half" of the season on a high note, the Yankees played without question their sloppiest, wobbliest, most inept game of this and maybe a few other years today. Errors, both official ones and those we spectators could see, came by the cartload. Sabathia couldn't figure out what those men with the sticks in front of that white dish were doing there, so he assumed he was supposed to throw the object in his hand to a spot where they could hit it as hard as possible. By the time he was trying to catch a popup that landed just past his outstretched glove, the game had taken on the quality of farce.
Bad farce.
This is, finally, the team we had expected before the season began. And in all likelihood, it is at least fundamentally the team we will see for the rest of the year. Brian Cashman will make phone calls, but a real game-changing deal seems extremely unlikely. The best we might expect is that Jeter will get himself healthy in the next couple of weeks and come back to provide some normalcy, but not much. We can watch him be Jeter, watch Mo go out in the classiest style in history (because he can do so no other way) on those rare occasions when he'll be able to close a game, and perhaps if we're really really good, Francisco Cervelli will come back and hit .240.
It just would have been so much easier to take if there hadn't been that hopeful stretch at the beginning of the season.
Friday, June 28, 2013
Sellers? (And I don't mean Peter)
It's significant that many of us had the same thought after Phil Hughes gave up on two runs in eight innings (and still lost) yesterday:
"I wonder if this increases his trade value."
With the trade deadline 33 days away, and the fading Yankees closer to last place than first--albeit not by much, and only two games in the loss column from the Red Sox--we have to wonder if this might be the year we've been dreading, the one that those of us over the age of 40 have suspected was on its way since Derek Jeter was a pup.
This might be the year the deadline hits and the Yankees are sellers.
Now, that's not as awful a thing as you might think. In fact, any series of events that gets Joba Chamberlain off this team sooner can't be seen as a complete negative. But the idea that there's cause to consider giving up on a Yankee season should rightly inspire some consternation. This is, after all, a team that has (it could be argued) missed the postseason a grand total of once since 1993. (That's 20 years ago, math phobics.) There was a strike in 1994, then the team hit the playoffs in 1995 and has failed to reach them only in 2008 since then.
That's quite a record of achievement, and it has always been clear it wouldn't last forever, although for a while it seemed so easy, we forgot about the laws of probability.
This season, a combination of age (Andy Pettitte and CC Sabathia haven't been Andy Pettitte and CC Sabathia much), subpar performances (I'm looking at you, Robinson Cano) and a ridiculous number of injuries (Jeter, Mr. Rod, Granderson--twice, Teixeira--twice and now for the year, Cervelli, Nunez (twice? three times?) Nova, Youkilis (remember him?). The list goes on. Brian Cashman broke his leg, and then his decorum, finally letting out his pent-up frustration toward Mr. Rod.
The best-case scenario has Nunez and Cervelli returning first, which adds a boost of--what?--to the lineup. Jeter is progressing, we're told. He'll be back after the All-Star break, which means it could be July or it could be 2026. Granderson had a pin taken out of his hand (no wonder it hurt!).
Mr. Rod? I won't begin to speculate. Because I have even less patience than Brian Cashman.
There's no quick fix, and one is needed. Maybe it's not time to pack up the tents and unfurl the "wait-'til-next-year" banner, but it's getting closer. Lyle Overbay seems like a nice guy, and Vernon Wells is thrilled to be a Yankee, but they're not hitting 40 home runs this year. Pettitte is a gritty Yankee legend and incredibly competitive at 41, but age catches up with everyone except Mariano Rivera.
So maybe it's time to send some of our less crucial pieces elsewhere and bolster a farm system that so far has produced David Adams and Austin Romine, both hitting roughly as well as I would, and that's not a compliment. The jury's still out on Zoillo Almonte, but the last couple of games indicate he's not Superman, either. And even if he is, he can't play five positions on the field.
Travis Hafner? He can't play ONE position on the field, and he's not hitting.
Who could go? From a greedy Yankee fan standpoint, Hughes and Chamberlain, once the golden boys of the farm system, are the best candidates. They've been, to be polite, inconsistent, and might benefit from a home ballpark whose fences are a little farther away from home plate. Romine? Not sure there's much value there. Nova, maybe, although going forward, a rotation that includes Sabathia, Nova, Phelps, and the almost-there Michael Pineda might not be a terrible thing.
Who could come back on any of those deals? Prospects. At best, good prospects. Hughes and Chamberlain (and Granderson, for those keeping score at home) are in their walk years, so they don't possess huge value; they'll be rentals for any team that takes them. You don't get Chase Headley for that. You don't get Hedley Lamarr for that.
There's still hope for 2013; don't get me wrong. Wells and Overbay (and Hafner) could suddenly remember how they were hitting in April. Jeter and Mr. Rod (and Granderson) could come back and not lose a step in their transition. Pettitte could grit his teeth so hard his eyeballs open wide and he sees the plate better. It's all possible.
But ALL those things need to happen for this team to do much more than contend for a wild card spot with six other clubs. Brian Cashman is too smart to think all those pieces will calmly and easily fall into place. You know he has a plan.
Right now, he's probably trying to think up ways to trade Mr. Rod, but that's an emotional response, and he'll get over it. There's no way it could happen.
Changes are coming. In five weeks, we'll know what they are.
"I wonder if this increases his trade value."
With the trade deadline 33 days away, and the fading Yankees closer to last place than first--albeit not by much, and only two games in the loss column from the Red Sox--we have to wonder if this might be the year we've been dreading, the one that those of us over the age of 40 have suspected was on its way since Derek Jeter was a pup.
This might be the year the deadline hits and the Yankees are sellers.
Now, that's not as awful a thing as you might think. In fact, any series of events that gets Joba Chamberlain off this team sooner can't be seen as a complete negative. But the idea that there's cause to consider giving up on a Yankee season should rightly inspire some consternation. This is, after all, a team that has (it could be argued) missed the postseason a grand total of once since 1993. (That's 20 years ago, math phobics.) There was a strike in 1994, then the team hit the playoffs in 1995 and has failed to reach them only in 2008 since then.
That's quite a record of achievement, and it has always been clear it wouldn't last forever, although for a while it seemed so easy, we forgot about the laws of probability.
This season, a combination of age (Andy Pettitte and CC Sabathia haven't been Andy Pettitte and CC Sabathia much), subpar performances (I'm looking at you, Robinson Cano) and a ridiculous number of injuries (Jeter, Mr. Rod, Granderson--twice, Teixeira--twice and now for the year, Cervelli, Nunez (twice? three times?) Nova, Youkilis (remember him?). The list goes on. Brian Cashman broke his leg, and then his decorum, finally letting out his pent-up frustration toward Mr. Rod.
The best-case scenario has Nunez and Cervelli returning first, which adds a boost of--what?--to the lineup. Jeter is progressing, we're told. He'll be back after the All-Star break, which means it could be July or it could be 2026. Granderson had a pin taken out of his hand (no wonder it hurt!).
Mr. Rod? I won't begin to speculate. Because I have even less patience than Brian Cashman.
There's no quick fix, and one is needed. Maybe it's not time to pack up the tents and unfurl the "wait-'til-next-year" banner, but it's getting closer. Lyle Overbay seems like a nice guy, and Vernon Wells is thrilled to be a Yankee, but they're not hitting 40 home runs this year. Pettitte is a gritty Yankee legend and incredibly competitive at 41, but age catches up with everyone except Mariano Rivera.
So maybe it's time to send some of our less crucial pieces elsewhere and bolster a farm system that so far has produced David Adams and Austin Romine, both hitting roughly as well as I would, and that's not a compliment. The jury's still out on Zoillo Almonte, but the last couple of games indicate he's not Superman, either. And even if he is, he can't play five positions on the field.
Travis Hafner? He can't play ONE position on the field, and he's not hitting.
Who could go? From a greedy Yankee fan standpoint, Hughes and Chamberlain, once the golden boys of the farm system, are the best candidates. They've been, to be polite, inconsistent, and might benefit from a home ballpark whose fences are a little farther away from home plate. Romine? Not sure there's much value there. Nova, maybe, although going forward, a rotation that includes Sabathia, Nova, Phelps, and the almost-there Michael Pineda might not be a terrible thing.
Who could come back on any of those deals? Prospects. At best, good prospects. Hughes and Chamberlain (and Granderson, for those keeping score at home) are in their walk years, so they don't possess huge value; they'll be rentals for any team that takes them. You don't get Chase Headley for that. You don't get Hedley Lamarr for that.
There's still hope for 2013; don't get me wrong. Wells and Overbay (and Hafner) could suddenly remember how they were hitting in April. Jeter and Mr. Rod (and Granderson) could come back and not lose a step in their transition. Pettitte could grit his teeth so hard his eyeballs open wide and he sees the plate better. It's all possible.
But ALL those things need to happen for this team to do much more than contend for a wild card spot with six other clubs. Brian Cashman is too smart to think all those pieces will calmly and easily fall into place. You know he has a plan.
Right now, he's probably trying to think up ways to trade Mr. Rod, but that's an emotional response, and he'll get over it. There's no way it could happen.
Changes are coming. In five weeks, we'll know what they are.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Not-So-Walking Wounded
So let's recap, shall we?
When the season began, the Yankees were missing their starting shortstop, their starting third baseman, their starting first baseman, their starting centerfielder and one of their starting pitchers (Andy Pettitte started late). But we were told not to worry--the replacements were a scrappy bunch who would show us that their best days were not behind them.
That was indeed true for a while. Players like Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay seemed rejuvenated by the atmosphere in the Bronx, and the Yankees had a share--at least--of first place until Memorial Day.
Then they met... the Mets?
Four games against one of the sorriest teams in the National League, two of them in the home ballpark, all of them without any traveling. Sleeping each night in their own beds. And the Yankees are a terrific interleague team--the best record against Other Leaguers in the sport. Things looked good.
But. Overbay, Wells, Ichiro Suzuki and Travis Hafner started coming back to earth. (To be fair, Suzuki wasn't all the far off it, and has been streaky).
And some crazy shit started to happen. Curtis Granderson, who had been hit on the arm in his FIRST SPRING TRAINING AT-BAT came back, fully healed and ready to start contributing some of those 40-something home runs he hits every year. And a week into his season, he was hit AGAIN, in the hand, and back to the disabled list he went.
But not to worry--Mark Teixeira and (replacement) Kevin Youkilis ("you're gonna LOVE Youk" we were told repeatedly) were coming back from the DL to save the day. And for a few days, Tex at least tried to live up to the hype. He didn't get many hits, but the ones he got tended to land in the stands. That was good.
Except that Youk was out every couple of days with another back issue. And Tex, well, people (let's say the hitting coach, although he seems to be in trouble for saying so) saw problems in his swing that indicated that healing wrist wasn't healing all so much, and waddaya know, last weekend, he took himself out of the game and headed back to the DL today.
And Youk? Herniated disc in the back. A minimum--MINIMUM--of 10-12 weeks on the DL. That means the best case scenario brings him back in early September. Don't hold your breath on that, either. You'll likely never see him in a Yankee uniform again.
Maybe we won't love Youk all that much after all. Not his fault, of course, but holy mackerel! In addition to the losses in the first paragraph, of which only one has been alleviated (Pettitte came back), the "starting" catcher Francisco Cervelli, the official backup shortstop and for all I know Ichiro Suzuki's magic bat wrangler have all been absentees.
Captain Clutch has no timetable yet, but is reportedly moving from side to side on a limited basis (which some would say he's been doing for years, but I am not one of them). Mr. Rod is progressing nicely physically, we're told, and could be back "after the All-Star break," which is anytime between July 19 and Infinity. Except that Major League Baseball could very likely suspend him for 100 games for playing in the medicine chest again.
Tex? Probably not that long before he's back, unless he needs surgery, in which case it's 2014. Granderson? If I'm the Yankees, I'm having him come to bat in a full set of armor from now on, and he's only having the pin in his hand removed this week. Not exactly quick back.
Cervelli could be back soon, but frankly, Chris Stewart has been doing pretty much what you'd expect out of Cervelli in his absence, and that's not a ton, but it's okay.
The biggest boost we can hope for right now is from the absent Yankee, Michael Pineda, who from all accounts is soon to come and pitch his first game for the team. And let's face it--starting pitching might be the only area in which the Yankees DON'T desperately need help.
Personally, I blame the Mets.
When the season began, the Yankees were missing their starting shortstop, their starting third baseman, their starting first baseman, their starting centerfielder and one of their starting pitchers (Andy Pettitte started late). But we were told not to worry--the replacements were a scrappy bunch who would show us that their best days were not behind them.
That was indeed true for a while. Players like Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay seemed rejuvenated by the atmosphere in the Bronx, and the Yankees had a share--at least--of first place until Memorial Day.
Then they met... the Mets?
Four games against one of the sorriest teams in the National League, two of them in the home ballpark, all of them without any traveling. Sleeping each night in their own beds. And the Yankees are a terrific interleague team--the best record against Other Leaguers in the sport. Things looked good.
But. Overbay, Wells, Ichiro Suzuki and Travis Hafner started coming back to earth. (To be fair, Suzuki wasn't all the far off it, and has been streaky).
And some crazy shit started to happen. Curtis Granderson, who had been hit on the arm in his FIRST SPRING TRAINING AT-BAT came back, fully healed and ready to start contributing some of those 40-something home runs he hits every year. And a week into his season, he was hit AGAIN, in the hand, and back to the disabled list he went.
But not to worry--Mark Teixeira and (replacement) Kevin Youkilis ("you're gonna LOVE Youk" we were told repeatedly) were coming back from the DL to save the day. And for a few days, Tex at least tried to live up to the hype. He didn't get many hits, but the ones he got tended to land in the stands. That was good.
Except that Youk was out every couple of days with another back issue. And Tex, well, people (let's say the hitting coach, although he seems to be in trouble for saying so) saw problems in his swing that indicated that healing wrist wasn't healing all so much, and waddaya know, last weekend, he took himself out of the game and headed back to the DL today.
And Youk? Herniated disc in the back. A minimum--MINIMUM--of 10-12 weeks on the DL. That means the best case scenario brings him back in early September. Don't hold your breath on that, either. You'll likely never see him in a Yankee uniform again.
Maybe we won't love Youk all that much after all. Not his fault, of course, but holy mackerel! In addition to the losses in the first paragraph, of which only one has been alleviated (Pettitte came back), the "starting" catcher Francisco Cervelli, the official backup shortstop and for all I know Ichiro Suzuki's magic bat wrangler have all been absentees.
Captain Clutch has no timetable yet, but is reportedly moving from side to side on a limited basis (which some would say he's been doing for years, but I am not one of them). Mr. Rod is progressing nicely physically, we're told, and could be back "after the All-Star break," which is anytime between July 19 and Infinity. Except that Major League Baseball could very likely suspend him for 100 games for playing in the medicine chest again.
Tex? Probably not that long before he's back, unless he needs surgery, in which case it's 2014. Granderson? If I'm the Yankees, I'm having him come to bat in a full set of armor from now on, and he's only having the pin in his hand removed this week. Not exactly quick back.
Cervelli could be back soon, but frankly, Chris Stewart has been doing pretty much what you'd expect out of Cervelli in his absence, and that's not a ton, but it's okay.
The biggest boost we can hope for right now is from the absent Yankee, Michael Pineda, who from all accounts is soon to come and pitch his first game for the team. And let's face it--starting pitching might be the only area in which the Yankees DON'T desperately need help.
Personally, I blame the Mets.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Star Power
Since the middle of the 2012 season, two enormous trades shook the baseball world. In one, the Los Angeles Dodgers (helmed by revered Yankee Donnie Baseball) took from the Boston Red Sox, who were in last place at the time, such luminaries as Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and Josh Beckett among others.
In the other, the Toronto Blue Jays received from the Miami Marlins (who were in last place at the time and remain there) a decent number of "Big Names" like Jose Reyes, Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle and John Buck (currently doing quite well--for the New York Mets). During the offseason, they also added Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey and All-Star Game MVP--and admitted PED user Melky Cabrera (remember him?).
The mega deals were supposed to catapult both teams on the receiving end to the very top of their divisions. All that talent all at once? There were calls for Commissioner Bud to cancel the trades in "the best interest of baseball."
Funny thing.
If you check the standings today--and admittedly, it's still only May--the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers share one common trait: They're each in last place in their respective divisions.
Taking a heap of talent from a team that isn't doing well is expecting players who aren't succeeding as a team to succeed as a team because they're in a different stadium. Why would the core of the last-place Red Sox suddenly revert to form and become a cohesive unit because they're in L.A.? Because Tommy Lasorda tells them about "bleeding Dodger blue"? This is the fried-chicken-and-beer crew, folks. A change of scenery wasn't going to help them. Changes of personality, maybe. They have the talent, for certain.
On the other end of the spectrum this past winter were the New York Yankees (you were wondering when I would get to them, weren't you?). Picked by any number of pundits to end up in last place in the AL East--something they might still manage to do--the Yankees added no huge "names" to their roster. They picked up players considered past their expiration dates, like Lyle Overbay and Travis Hafner. Their big free agent signings were Ichiro Suzuki and Kevin Youkilis. There were snickers when they traded for the second biggest albatross contract in baseball (behind Mr. Rod's), Vernon Wells.
This, and they lost Nick Swisher, Rafael Soriano, Raul Ibanez, Eric Chavez and Russell Martin to other teams as free agents.
Then the injuries began. Mr. Rod, we knew, would be out because he doesn't know how to use his hips properly (no comment). Derek Jeter was going to come back from his ankle surgery, surely in time for Opening Day. Except he didn't, and still hasn't, having rebroken the same ankle in another spot. This Pineda guy we're still waiting to see was going to be a midseason return. Maybe he will be.
But we weren't counting on injuries to Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira, Ivan Nova, Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Francisco Cervelli. And Eduardo Nunez. Three times, so far.
Even the general manager, whom some fans wanted to ride out of town on a rail, was in a wheelchair, which would have made the rail unnecessary.
Fans moaned. Yes, I was among them (read on). This was going to be an awful season, perhaps the beginning of an awful era. Mariano Rivera is going to retire after this season, and he's going out with THIS crew? Can Jeter and Andy Pettitte be far behind?
Even funnier thing.
If you check your standings again and look up farther than the Toronto Blue Jays, you'll find the Yankees.
In first place.
Again, nobody hands you a trophy for being in first place on May 11. And this doesn't mean that the team won't plummet to earth, remember they're all scrapheap acquisitions, and fold their tents somewhere along the line. But it doesn't look that way right now.
Today, when the Yankees take the field, there isn't an All-Star at every position. There are All-Stars at two positions on the days Suzuki plays. Other days, there is Robinson Cano.
They keep winning. Wells is proving to be more like his Toronto self than his Anaheim self. Overbay doesn't hit often, but he makes his hits count. Jayson Nix (!), filling in for Youkilis (!!) is hitting and fielding well. Suzuki has recently remembered that he's a hit machine. Brett Gardner is on the run once more. Kudos to Brian Cashman, who has once again found the RIGHT pieces off the scrap heap. I am ashamed that I ever doubted you.
But if you think that Star Power is irrelevant, consider this: With a team in first place, in a dogfight with both the upstart (are they still upstarts?) Baltimore Orioles and the dreaded Red Sox, there's something really interesting going on at Yankee Stadium the Theme Park.
It's half-empty most nights.
Fans can complain about the truly outrageous prices of tickets, parking, and concessions in the Bronx, and they'd be right. They can say that it's still way early in the year, the pennant race hasn't really picked up at all yet, and this team doesn't hit tons of home runs, which is apparently the only thing people come to see anymore. And all that would be true as well.
But we know the real reason the seats aren't all filled, and it's not because New Yorkers don't have enough money or because it's May. There have been full houses in May before. You can even say that there's more competition for the sports fan dollar in the city than usual: The Knicks. The Rangers. The Islanders. Until recently, The Nets. Even the Mets, on days this Harvey kid pitches. And no other time. You can say all that. But you'd be wrong, and you'd know it. Seats in Yankee Stadium are empty for one reason, and one reason only. And it's a reason that must surely stir fear in the heart of every Yankee executive, because it's something that sooner or later will be a permanent condition at the Theme Park.
Derek Jeter isn't playing tonight.
In the other, the Toronto Blue Jays received from the Miami Marlins (who were in last place at the time and remain there) a decent number of "Big Names" like Jose Reyes, Josh Johnson, Mark Buehrle and John Buck (currently doing quite well--for the New York Mets). During the offseason, they also added Cy Young Award winner R.A. Dickey and All-Star Game MVP--and admitted PED user Melky Cabrera (remember him?).
The mega deals were supposed to catapult both teams on the receiving end to the very top of their divisions. All that talent all at once? There were calls for Commissioner Bud to cancel the trades in "the best interest of baseball."
Funny thing.
If you check the standings today--and admittedly, it's still only May--the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers share one common trait: They're each in last place in their respective divisions.
Taking a heap of talent from a team that isn't doing well is expecting players who aren't succeeding as a team to succeed as a team because they're in a different stadium. Why would the core of the last-place Red Sox suddenly revert to form and become a cohesive unit because they're in L.A.? Because Tommy Lasorda tells them about "bleeding Dodger blue"? This is the fried-chicken-and-beer crew, folks. A change of scenery wasn't going to help them. Changes of personality, maybe. They have the talent, for certain.
On the other end of the spectrum this past winter were the New York Yankees (you were wondering when I would get to them, weren't you?). Picked by any number of pundits to end up in last place in the AL East--something they might still manage to do--the Yankees added no huge "names" to their roster. They picked up players considered past their expiration dates, like Lyle Overbay and Travis Hafner. Their big free agent signings were Ichiro Suzuki and Kevin Youkilis. There were snickers when they traded for the second biggest albatross contract in baseball (behind Mr. Rod's), Vernon Wells.
This, and they lost Nick Swisher, Rafael Soriano, Raul Ibanez, Eric Chavez and Russell Martin to other teams as free agents.
Then the injuries began. Mr. Rod, we knew, would be out because he doesn't know how to use his hips properly (no comment). Derek Jeter was going to come back from his ankle surgery, surely in time for Opening Day. Except he didn't, and still hasn't, having rebroken the same ankle in another spot. This Pineda guy we're still waiting to see was going to be a midseason return. Maybe he will be.
But we weren't counting on injuries to Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira, Ivan Nova, Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Francisco Cervelli. And Eduardo Nunez. Three times, so far.
Even the general manager, whom some fans wanted to ride out of town on a rail, was in a wheelchair, which would have made the rail unnecessary.
Fans moaned. Yes, I was among them (read on). This was going to be an awful season, perhaps the beginning of an awful era. Mariano Rivera is going to retire after this season, and he's going out with THIS crew? Can Jeter and Andy Pettitte be far behind?
Even funnier thing.
If you check your standings again and look up farther than the Toronto Blue Jays, you'll find the Yankees.
In first place.
Again, nobody hands you a trophy for being in first place on May 11. And this doesn't mean that the team won't plummet to earth, remember they're all scrapheap acquisitions, and fold their tents somewhere along the line. But it doesn't look that way right now.
Today, when the Yankees take the field, there isn't an All-Star at every position. There are All-Stars at two positions on the days Suzuki plays. Other days, there is Robinson Cano.
They keep winning. Wells is proving to be more like his Toronto self than his Anaheim self. Overbay doesn't hit often, but he makes his hits count. Jayson Nix (!), filling in for Youkilis (!!) is hitting and fielding well. Suzuki has recently remembered that he's a hit machine. Brett Gardner is on the run once more. Kudos to Brian Cashman, who has once again found the RIGHT pieces off the scrap heap. I am ashamed that I ever doubted you.
But if you think that Star Power is irrelevant, consider this: With a team in first place, in a dogfight with both the upstart (are they still upstarts?) Baltimore Orioles and the dreaded Red Sox, there's something really interesting going on at Yankee Stadium the Theme Park.
It's half-empty most nights.
Fans can complain about the truly outrageous prices of tickets, parking, and concessions in the Bronx, and they'd be right. They can say that it's still way early in the year, the pennant race hasn't really picked up at all yet, and this team doesn't hit tons of home runs, which is apparently the only thing people come to see anymore. And all that would be true as well.
But we know the real reason the seats aren't all filled, and it's not because New Yorkers don't have enough money or because it's May. There have been full houses in May before. You can even say that there's more competition for the sports fan dollar in the city than usual: The Knicks. The Rangers. The Islanders. Until recently, The Nets. Even the Mets, on days this Harvey kid pitches. And no other time. You can say all that. But you'd be wrong, and you'd know it. Seats in Yankee Stadium are empty for one reason, and one reason only. And it's a reason that must surely stir fear in the heart of every Yankee executive, because it's something that sooner or later will be a permanent condition at the Theme Park.
Derek Jeter isn't playing tonight.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Things Were Going Well...
Is there anybody on this team who's NOT hurt?
Let's recap: despite losing Derek Jeter, Mr. Rod, Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson to injuries for what appear to be indefinite periods of time, the Yankees in their first 22 games are 13-9, only 2.5 games behind the Boston Red Sox (!) in the AL East. That's the good news.
The bad news is... who's left? Tonight saw both Francisco Cervelli, who is now in the running for the Ron Blomberg Award for getting hurt every single time he seems to be about to break out as a regular AND Ivan Nova lost for unspecified periods of time. Word is Kevin Youkilis might join at least one of them on the DL tomorrow because Joe Girardi had the lack of foresight to play him in one game on artificial turf.
Welcome to the 2013 Yankees, my friends. Every night putting out a lineup of backups, bench players and hopefuls and charging a king's ransom for us to see them.
So--players who are hurt:
Jeter
Mr. Rod
Teixeira
Granderson
Youkilis
Cervelli
Nova
Players who aren't hurt:
Austin Romine
Jayson Nix
Eduardo Nunez (although he's already been hit by pitches and kept out of the lineup--twice)
Lyle Overbay
Ichiro Suzuki
Brett Gardner
David Phelps
Never thought I'd even dream of saying this, but thank goodness Brian Cashman had the foresight to get himself Vernon Wells and Travis Hafner.
Vernon Wells and Travis Hafner!!!
When every injury and every day brings you closer to more games with Ben Francisco, that's a problem. When it's possible that Chien Ming Wang might come back to start some games, that's unnerving. When an injury to Francisco Cervelli is seen as a major blow to your team, that's downright terrifying.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox have decided to only lose about one game a week just to be hospitable. This from a team that couldn't find its way to the ballpark last year.
The Yankees had better bubble wrap Robinson Cano every single night immediately after the game, not dream of letting him out until batting practice, and hire someone to taste his food for him.
Let's recap: despite losing Derek Jeter, Mr. Rod, Mark Teixeira and Curtis Granderson to injuries for what appear to be indefinite periods of time, the Yankees in their first 22 games are 13-9, only 2.5 games behind the Boston Red Sox (!) in the AL East. That's the good news.
The bad news is... who's left? Tonight saw both Francisco Cervelli, who is now in the running for the Ron Blomberg Award for getting hurt every single time he seems to be about to break out as a regular AND Ivan Nova lost for unspecified periods of time. Word is Kevin Youkilis might join at least one of them on the DL tomorrow because Joe Girardi had the lack of foresight to play him in one game on artificial turf.
Welcome to the 2013 Yankees, my friends. Every night putting out a lineup of backups, bench players and hopefuls and charging a king's ransom for us to see them.
So--players who are hurt:
Jeter
Mr. Rod
Teixeira
Granderson
Youkilis
Cervelli
Nova
Players who aren't hurt:
Austin Romine
Jayson Nix
Eduardo Nunez (although he's already been hit by pitches and kept out of the lineup--twice)
Lyle Overbay
Ichiro Suzuki
Brett Gardner
David Phelps
Never thought I'd even dream of saying this, but thank goodness Brian Cashman had the foresight to get himself Vernon Wells and Travis Hafner.
Vernon Wells and Travis Hafner!!!
When every injury and every day brings you closer to more games with Ben Francisco, that's a problem. When it's possible that Chien Ming Wang might come back to start some games, that's unnerving. When an injury to Francisco Cervelli is seen as a major blow to your team, that's downright terrifying.
Meanwhile, the Red Sox have decided to only lose about one game a week just to be hospitable. This from a team that couldn't find its way to the ballpark last year.
The Yankees had better bubble wrap Robinson Cano every single night immediately after the game, not dream of letting him out until batting practice, and hire someone to taste his food for him.
Friday, April 5, 2013
It's Gonna Be a Long Year
This is what it's come to: After four games of the 2013 season, the Yankees' offense took a major hit when Eduardo Nunez was hit with a pitch and might not be available for a few days.
Eduardo Nunez.
These aren't the Yankees. I've been watching the Yankees for close to 50 years now, and I can tell you; these aren't the Yankees. I don't recognize the team that's out there on the field. They're somebody, for sure, but they're not the Yankees.
Now, this is not second-guessing the performance of the Yankees' front office. It's not like I saw some amazing opportunities Brian Cashman could have, you should pardon the expression, cashed in on and didn't. There wasn't some incredible player out there that should have been plying his trade in the Bronx this year. I do not think Josh Hamilton would have been a good fit. I'm not sorry Zach Greinke got away.
Injuries are, as the players always say, part of the game. You can't avoid them; you can't foresee them. If the Yankees had been given a note from Nostradamus at the end of last season that said: "Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Phil Hughes and Curtis Granderson aren't going to be on your opening day roster," maybe they would have put more thought into letting Nick Swisher go.
They DID know that the only backups they had to Russell Martin were Francisco Cervelli and Chris Stewart. And look who's the starting catcher for the Yankees this year.
Surprise! That was a trick question--there IS no starting catcher for the Yankees this year!
This is a Yankee team whose biggest offensive threat through four games (admittedly, such a small sample that it doesn't really qualify as a sample at all) is Kevin Youkilis. I'll let that sink in.
On the days when the Yankee pitching is questionable (for the moment, whenever Andy Pettitte isn't starting), the team has told us that they will not be as reliant on the home run as in the past, mostly because they can't hit many. They will have to "manufacture" runs.
Well, I'm not a genius of any sort, but I do know that in order to "manufacture" something, you need raw materials and a factory. What the Yankees seem to have so far is a bunch of rusting spare parts and a fuel shortage.
Oh, and by the way--of the seven runs the Yankees have scored in the past two games, four have come via the home run. The night before, in a loss, four runs came via the home run. Uh-oh.
This is a lineup that includes castoffs from competing teams. There's a first baseman who got cut by the Red Sox. There's a left fielder whose contract has been considered one of the worst in major league history (although Mr. Rod's is coming up fast on the outside) and admits he was intimidated by the expectations from that contract (Trouble under pressure? THAT bodes well for play in Yankee Stadium!). The designated hitter hasn't really hit in a few years, and doesn't own a glove.
Yes, all of the walking wounded (except probably Mr. Rod) are scheduled to come back relatively soon. Except we don't know when. Jeter, the iron man who never isn't on the field, isn't on the field. And the Yankees have been really cagey about when he might return. That's never good.
Plus, even if the whole ward at Mercy General comes back at the same time, we have no idea how they'll perform with their new arms, legs, and wrists (and, in Hughes's case, back). So far, with the team on his shoulders, Robinson Cano hasn't even shrugged so much as he's fallen down and taken a nap.
And this is with a $220-million payroll. Imagine how things will be under the "austerity" program that's scheduled for next season, when they can't afford Youkilis or Granderson anymore, assuming Cano gets an extension. When Derek Jeter is 40. When Andy Pettitte is likely in Texas watching his kids play (and go to college). When Mr. Rod and his latest in a series of new hips tries to play presumably without any pharmaceutical enhancement in his late 30s.
When there ain't no Mo.
It's not a pretty picture, friends. I'm hoping there's a plan we haven't heard about. Because when Bubba Crosby was going to be the opening day center fielder, we knew there was a plan.
This time, it turned out, there wasn't.
Eduardo Nunez.
These aren't the Yankees. I've been watching the Yankees for close to 50 years now, and I can tell you; these aren't the Yankees. I don't recognize the team that's out there on the field. They're somebody, for sure, but they're not the Yankees.
Now, this is not second-guessing the performance of the Yankees' front office. It's not like I saw some amazing opportunities Brian Cashman could have, you should pardon the expression, cashed in on and didn't. There wasn't some incredible player out there that should have been plying his trade in the Bronx this year. I do not think Josh Hamilton would have been a good fit. I'm not sorry Zach Greinke got away.
Injuries are, as the players always say, part of the game. You can't avoid them; you can't foresee them. If the Yankees had been given a note from Nostradamus at the end of last season that said: "Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Phil Hughes and Curtis Granderson aren't going to be on your opening day roster," maybe they would have put more thought into letting Nick Swisher go.
They DID know that the only backups they had to Russell Martin were Francisco Cervelli and Chris Stewart. And look who's the starting catcher for the Yankees this year.
Surprise! That was a trick question--there IS no starting catcher for the Yankees this year!
This is a Yankee team whose biggest offensive threat through four games (admittedly, such a small sample that it doesn't really qualify as a sample at all) is Kevin Youkilis. I'll let that sink in.
On the days when the Yankee pitching is questionable (for the moment, whenever Andy Pettitte isn't starting), the team has told us that they will not be as reliant on the home run as in the past, mostly because they can't hit many. They will have to "manufacture" runs.
Well, I'm not a genius of any sort, but I do know that in order to "manufacture" something, you need raw materials and a factory. What the Yankees seem to have so far is a bunch of rusting spare parts and a fuel shortage.
Oh, and by the way--of the seven runs the Yankees have scored in the past two games, four have come via the home run. The night before, in a loss, four runs came via the home run. Uh-oh.
This is a lineup that includes castoffs from competing teams. There's a first baseman who got cut by the Red Sox. There's a left fielder whose contract has been considered one of the worst in major league history (although Mr. Rod's is coming up fast on the outside) and admits he was intimidated by the expectations from that contract (Trouble under pressure? THAT bodes well for play in Yankee Stadium!). The designated hitter hasn't really hit in a few years, and doesn't own a glove.
Yes, all of the walking wounded (except probably Mr. Rod) are scheduled to come back relatively soon. Except we don't know when. Jeter, the iron man who never isn't on the field, isn't on the field. And the Yankees have been really cagey about when he might return. That's never good.
Plus, even if the whole ward at Mercy General comes back at the same time, we have no idea how they'll perform with their new arms, legs, and wrists (and, in Hughes's case, back). So far, with the team on his shoulders, Robinson Cano hasn't even shrugged so much as he's fallen down and taken a nap.
And this is with a $220-million payroll. Imagine how things will be under the "austerity" program that's scheduled for next season, when they can't afford Youkilis or Granderson anymore, assuming Cano gets an extension. When Derek Jeter is 40. When Andy Pettitte is likely in Texas watching his kids play (and go to college). When Mr. Rod and his latest in a series of new hips tries to play presumably without any pharmaceutical enhancement in his late 30s.
When there ain't no Mo.
It's not a pretty picture, friends. I'm hoping there's a plan we haven't heard about. Because when Bubba Crosby was going to be the opening day center fielder, we knew there was a plan.
This time, it turned out, there wasn't.
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Best
There is no point in reiterating what everyone else has been saying about Mariano Rivera. In fact, I have written about Mariano Rivera, mostly when he hurt himself last May, wondering if even he could rally from that and come back at the age of 43. He has, but as he noted himself, there's not much gas left in the tank. This season will truly be it for Mo.
You can talk all you want about his astonishing statistics and his ability to be as consistent as consistent can be for 17 years in a job in which the best are consistent for maybe two or three years. You can note--and this is the only stat I'll cite among the mountains being thrown around, that in the postseason, when the pressure is highest and the spotlight most brilliant, his ERA is 0.70. That means he gives up less than one run every nine innings in the most difficult situations in baseball.
You can even note that Rivera is the all-time leader in saves, although that statistic is among the sillier ones in a game loaded with silly statistics.
What I've always found the most impressive about a very, very impressive baseball player is his manner. Rivera didn't invent the closer position, but he perfected it. A lot--most--modern closers, given one quarter the ability he has, would be bellowing at the top of their lungs after every game, making the opponent look foolish, and making themselves look foolish when they fail, which everyone--even Rivera--will do on occasion.
That kind of behavior is not Mo. Not once. Not ever. He respects the other players and he respects the game too much to make a show of himself. He is confident, certainly. Anyone who could do half of what he's done would be insane not to have confidence. But bluster? Gloating? One-upsmanship? Never.
Given only one word to encapsulate this man from the perspective of a fan--I can't claim to know him even as well as the reporters who cover the team, or the guy who sells peanuts in the upper deck--there are a lot of possibilities. I've seen words like "class" and "dignity" and "grace" bandied about, and they would be accurate. I've seen "greatest" and "peerless" and "best ever," and those are true, but they don't really describe the experience of watching Rivera do what he's done better than anyone else in history.
Joy. That's the word I'd use. Nobody plays the game with as much joy as Mariano Rivera. Not even Nick Swisher, a guy who always seems to be having the best time of anyone on the field. Rivera's joy is in the amazing gift he says he's been given, the ability to do what he does and to do it for the Yankees. He has joy, and being Rivera, he gives it.
Since 1996, he has given a lot of joy to fans like me, up in the fifth tier or watching on television, for all the things he's done and perhaps more for the things he has chosen not to do. No pointing at the sky after a save is complete (yes, a deeply religious man, but that's his business and not yours). No screaming and showing off. No dopey TV commercials working with local car salesmen. No proclamations that he is the greatest pitcher on the planet--and he's one of the few who could make a legitimate case.
No. Rivera has done what he's done quietly. The accolades, the proclamations, the declarations that he is indeed the best ever, those have come from others, not from Rivera himself. He says he's been lucky to have teammates who gave him opportunities. They say they would not have the World Series rings they own without him, and they are undoubtedly right.
Consider this: After the press conference at which Rivera and most of his family sat and discussed his retirement after this season (which is not shaping up to be a fabulous one, so get your tickets to see Mo while you can) broke up, the assembled members of the press, who are paid to cover a team and to be objective about what they see and the people they cover, did something I have never seen them do at such a gathering before.
They applauded.
You can talk all you want about his astonishing statistics and his ability to be as consistent as consistent can be for 17 years in a job in which the best are consistent for maybe two or three years. You can note--and this is the only stat I'll cite among the mountains being thrown around, that in the postseason, when the pressure is highest and the spotlight most brilliant, his ERA is 0.70. That means he gives up less than one run every nine innings in the most difficult situations in baseball.
You can even note that Rivera is the all-time leader in saves, although that statistic is among the sillier ones in a game loaded with silly statistics.
What I've always found the most impressive about a very, very impressive baseball player is his manner. Rivera didn't invent the closer position, but he perfected it. A lot--most--modern closers, given one quarter the ability he has, would be bellowing at the top of their lungs after every game, making the opponent look foolish, and making themselves look foolish when they fail, which everyone--even Rivera--will do on occasion.
That kind of behavior is not Mo. Not once. Not ever. He respects the other players and he respects the game too much to make a show of himself. He is confident, certainly. Anyone who could do half of what he's done would be insane not to have confidence. But bluster? Gloating? One-upsmanship? Never.
Given only one word to encapsulate this man from the perspective of a fan--I can't claim to know him even as well as the reporters who cover the team, or the guy who sells peanuts in the upper deck--there are a lot of possibilities. I've seen words like "class" and "dignity" and "grace" bandied about, and they would be accurate. I've seen "greatest" and "peerless" and "best ever," and those are true, but they don't really describe the experience of watching Rivera do what he's done better than anyone else in history.
Joy. That's the word I'd use. Nobody plays the game with as much joy as Mariano Rivera. Not even Nick Swisher, a guy who always seems to be having the best time of anyone on the field. Rivera's joy is in the amazing gift he says he's been given, the ability to do what he does and to do it for the Yankees. He has joy, and being Rivera, he gives it.
Since 1996, he has given a lot of joy to fans like me, up in the fifth tier or watching on television, for all the things he's done and perhaps more for the things he has chosen not to do. No pointing at the sky after a save is complete (yes, a deeply religious man, but that's his business and not yours). No screaming and showing off. No dopey TV commercials working with local car salesmen. No proclamations that he is the greatest pitcher on the planet--and he's one of the few who could make a legitimate case.
No. Rivera has done what he's done quietly. The accolades, the proclamations, the declarations that he is indeed the best ever, those have come from others, not from Rivera himself. He says he's been lucky to have teammates who gave him opportunities. They say they would not have the World Series rings they own without him, and they are undoubtedly right.
Consider this: After the press conference at which Rivera and most of his family sat and discussed his retirement after this season (which is not shaping up to be a fabulous one, so get your tickets to see Mo while you can) broke up, the assembled members of the press, who are paid to cover a team and to be objective about what they see and the people they cover, did something I have never seen them do at such a gathering before.
They applauded.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Okay, This Is Bad
When Alex Rodriguez had to have hip surgery and we were told he'd be out at least half the season, let's face it--some of us Yankee fans were less than distraught. At the plate in the 2012 playoffs, Rodriguez, once one of the most feared bats in baseball, looked like we would if we were out there trying to hit Major League pitching. And to be honest, most of us never liked the guy anyway.
When Phil Hughes, the pitcher everyone was expecting to have a monster year for monetary reasons (he can be a free agent after this season) got back spasms that turned out to be a bulging disc during routine fielding drills, we thought for a second about CC, Andy, Kuroda, Nova and Phelps, with Pineda hopefully to come in the second half, and we thought, "Enjoy your new team next year, Phil."
When Curtis Granderson got hit with a pitch in his first spring training at-bat and broke his arm, we started to get concerned. He'll be out until mid-May? The guy who might strike out half the time, but hits home runs the other half? Uh-oh. With Nick Swisher and Russell Martin gone to be replaced by one of the game's most adept singles hitters and... somebody, the lack of power on the Yankees (who thought we'd ever see that phrase?) was starting to become a serious concern. Even Brian Cashman noted that, despite his belief in the home run, this team this year would be taking a pretty serious step backward in the long ball department. Double uh-oh.
When Cashman himself broke his right leg skydiving (!), we thought, "Well, that's sort of the way this whole thing has been going since October, isn't it? At least now he'll understand how his players feel when they get hurt." As long as Cashman could use his dialing finger, his value to the team had not diminished.
But now, with Mark Teixiera, perhaps the last power threat the Yankees have not named Cano, went down with a strained wrist (what?) and lost until mid-May at best, things have gotten serious. Can this team win 90 games? 85? 80?
Cashman really has himself in a pickle now as he hobbles around on his crutches and tries to fix an aging, injured, incomplete team. He never found that corner outfielder to replace Swisher, counting on Granderson to provide enough power for all three positions. He never found a catcher at all, and the starting tandem of Francisco Cervelli and Chris Stewart still isn't exactly striking fear into the heart of the opponent. Remember a couple of years ago, when all the Yankees had were awesome catching prospects who were going to take over the world any minute now? Where'd THAT go?
And now, there's a first baseman to be found. True, the season doesn't end in May, not even close, but what kind of Mark Teixiera are we getting back? What kind of Granderson? There were rumblings over the winter about how Tex was declining--from Tex!--and chatter on sports radio that Granderson should be traded while he still has value.
Derek Jeter, coming back from serious ankle surgery, is probably the brightest story in camp this spring. Mo Rivera is the classiest guy in the world and I'd bet on him to come in and be exactly as he was before he left, but he's 43 years old. Andy Pettitte looks like the pitching coach. Would it really be such a bad idea to see if Jorge Posada is enjoying retirement all that much?
This is not shaping up to be a stellar season. Either someone's going to step up to the plate--literally--and impress, or we're looking at mid-80's vintage Yankees, and anyone who was around for that knows, it's not an era we'd wish to relive.
Yeah, this is bad, okay.
When Phil Hughes, the pitcher everyone was expecting to have a monster year for monetary reasons (he can be a free agent after this season) got back spasms that turned out to be a bulging disc during routine fielding drills, we thought for a second about CC, Andy, Kuroda, Nova and Phelps, with Pineda hopefully to come in the second half, and we thought, "Enjoy your new team next year, Phil."
When Curtis Granderson got hit with a pitch in his first spring training at-bat and broke his arm, we started to get concerned. He'll be out until mid-May? The guy who might strike out half the time, but hits home runs the other half? Uh-oh. With Nick Swisher and Russell Martin gone to be replaced by one of the game's most adept singles hitters and... somebody, the lack of power on the Yankees (who thought we'd ever see that phrase?) was starting to become a serious concern. Even Brian Cashman noted that, despite his belief in the home run, this team this year would be taking a pretty serious step backward in the long ball department. Double uh-oh.
When Cashman himself broke his right leg skydiving (!), we thought, "Well, that's sort of the way this whole thing has been going since October, isn't it? At least now he'll understand how his players feel when they get hurt." As long as Cashman could use his dialing finger, his value to the team had not diminished.
But now, with Mark Teixiera, perhaps the last power threat the Yankees have not named Cano, went down with a strained wrist (what?) and lost until mid-May at best, things have gotten serious. Can this team win 90 games? 85? 80?
Cashman really has himself in a pickle now as he hobbles around on his crutches and tries to fix an aging, injured, incomplete team. He never found that corner outfielder to replace Swisher, counting on Granderson to provide enough power for all three positions. He never found a catcher at all, and the starting tandem of Francisco Cervelli and Chris Stewart still isn't exactly striking fear into the heart of the opponent. Remember a couple of years ago, when all the Yankees had were awesome catching prospects who were going to take over the world any minute now? Where'd THAT go?
And now, there's a first baseman to be found. True, the season doesn't end in May, not even close, but what kind of Mark Teixiera are we getting back? What kind of Granderson? There were rumblings over the winter about how Tex was declining--from Tex!--and chatter on sports radio that Granderson should be traded while he still has value.
Derek Jeter, coming back from serious ankle surgery, is probably the brightest story in camp this spring. Mo Rivera is the classiest guy in the world and I'd bet on him to come in and be exactly as he was before he left, but he's 43 years old. Andy Pettitte looks like the pitching coach. Would it really be such a bad idea to see if Jorge Posada is enjoying retirement all that much?
This is not shaping up to be a stellar season. Either someone's going to step up to the plate--literally--and impress, or we're looking at mid-80's vintage Yankees, and anyone who was around for that knows, it's not an era we'd wish to relive.
Yeah, this is bad, okay.
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Anticipation... Or Dread?
Pitchers and catchers report in less than a week.
Normally, that would be music to my ears. Maybe we've gotten over the hump with winter (my least favorite season), maybe the sounds of bats hitting balls will bring back the feeling of summer and youth and excitement and pure, unadulterated joy.
But probably not.
When the big question you're facing seven days before spring training begins is whether the Yankees will suffer more from the loss of Alex Rodriguez or Francisco Cervelli, this is not going to be a stellar season.
It was reported tonight that Cervelli's name showed up on the purloined records of the Miami-based "clinic" where Mr. Rod "allegedly" got the half a drugstore he was pumping into his veins, skin and for all I know, hair for years. And frankly, I'm more concerned about the 26-year-old catcher than the 400-year-old third baseman with the hip replacements.
This winter, Brian Cashman appeared before Yankee fans as a man trying to general manage a team with one hand tied behind his back. Maybe both hands. He has an aging roster, a third baseman under siege while trying to come back from serious surgery, an ace pitcher who just had the first surgery of his career on his pitching elbow, a 43-year-old closer (who is, it must be said, the greatest who ever did the job, but still) also returning from a serious injury and an iconic shortstop who will turn 39 this season. And oh yeah, he had a big surgery this offseason, too.
But wait, it gets worse.
Cashman had to deal with all those holes in the roster by signing players to one-year deals. That's because baseball's new rules make it financially prohibitive for the team to have an excessive payroll--the thing it does best--in 2014. So any players the Yankees added this winter would have to come off the books at the end of this season.
That meant the biggest deals Cashman made were with people the team already had last year--Andy Pettitte, Hiroki Kuroda, Mariano Rivera--while handing out only one two-year contract, to Ichiro Suzuki, who is going to be 102 in 2014, and starting in right field. Swell.
And he added Kevin Youkillis, a player who has had trouble staying off the disabled list for the past few years, to fill in for Mr. Rod, and who's backing up Youkillis? We'll have to get back to you on that.
Leaving are the team's best on-base-percentage guy (who admittedly became a large unmoving statue once the postseason rolled around), all the reliable backups including the guy who hit all those home runs in late innings and essentially got the Yankees to the division title by himself in September, the only reliable option as a closer if the 43-year-old wizard is shown to be mortal, and, what am I forgetting?
That's right. The only starting catcher the Yankees had. He's gone, too. Because he wanted the same kind of deal Suzuki got, and Cashman wouldn't go there.
So Cervelli possibly being suspended for whatever hijinks went on at the Miami dispensary--and the idea that if that was Cervelli on performance-enhancing drugs, you can imagine what he'll be like just walking around--is actually a somewhat scarier proposition than losing Mr. Rod for, let's say ever (we can be optimistic). Chris Stewart as your everyday catcher with only Austin Romine as a possible backup is downright scary.
Meanwhile, the Toronto Blue Jays were adding every name player on the Florida Marlins roster, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, and for all I know, resurrecting Lou Gehrig to play first base. The Red Sox, while not exactly setting the world on fire, got better than the awful they were last year. The Orioles aren't going away, because they're afraid Buck Showalter will kill them if they do. The Rays always, always seem to get better somehow, while constantly spending less money each year.
I am not liking our chances, friends.
But it's possible to have a sense of perspective about this, too. See, I lived through the mid-to-late 60s Yankees, when Horace Clarke was the name player, and the 1980s version of the Yankees, who seemed to relish the challenge of finding new ways to be mediocre every year. Remember Danny Tartabull?
It's been a very long time, but I hung in there for all those years because you still get to watch a baseball game every night, and there are few things better. Because you don't ever know how a team is going to coalesce in the course of 162 games. Because the 1996 Yankees didn't have any big stars on the team, and they did okay.
Pitchers and catchers arrive in Tampa within a week, ladies and gentlemen. I'll be watching, and no doubt complaining, but it will be a hell of a lot better than the offseason.
And that's not a small thing.
Normally, that would be music to my ears. Maybe we've gotten over the hump with winter (my least favorite season), maybe the sounds of bats hitting balls will bring back the feeling of summer and youth and excitement and pure, unadulterated joy.
But probably not.
When the big question you're facing seven days before spring training begins is whether the Yankees will suffer more from the loss of Alex Rodriguez or Francisco Cervelli, this is not going to be a stellar season.
It was reported tonight that Cervelli's name showed up on the purloined records of the Miami-based "clinic" where Mr. Rod "allegedly" got the half a drugstore he was pumping into his veins, skin and for all I know, hair for years. And frankly, I'm more concerned about the 26-year-old catcher than the 400-year-old third baseman with the hip replacements.
This winter, Brian Cashman appeared before Yankee fans as a man trying to general manage a team with one hand tied behind his back. Maybe both hands. He has an aging roster, a third baseman under siege while trying to come back from serious surgery, an ace pitcher who just had the first surgery of his career on his pitching elbow, a 43-year-old closer (who is, it must be said, the greatest who ever did the job, but still) also returning from a serious injury and an iconic shortstop who will turn 39 this season. And oh yeah, he had a big surgery this offseason, too.
But wait, it gets worse.
Cashman had to deal with all those holes in the roster by signing players to one-year deals. That's because baseball's new rules make it financially prohibitive for the team to have an excessive payroll--the thing it does best--in 2014. So any players the Yankees added this winter would have to come off the books at the end of this season.
That meant the biggest deals Cashman made were with people the team already had last year--Andy Pettitte, Hiroki Kuroda, Mariano Rivera--while handing out only one two-year contract, to Ichiro Suzuki, who is going to be 102 in 2014, and starting in right field. Swell.
And he added Kevin Youkillis, a player who has had trouble staying off the disabled list for the past few years, to fill in for Mr. Rod, and who's backing up Youkillis? We'll have to get back to you on that.
Leaving are the team's best on-base-percentage guy (who admittedly became a large unmoving statue once the postseason rolled around), all the reliable backups including the guy who hit all those home runs in late innings and essentially got the Yankees to the division title by himself in September, the only reliable option as a closer if the 43-year-old wizard is shown to be mortal, and, what am I forgetting?
That's right. The only starting catcher the Yankees had. He's gone, too. Because he wanted the same kind of deal Suzuki got, and Cashman wouldn't go there.
So Cervelli possibly being suspended for whatever hijinks went on at the Miami dispensary--and the idea that if that was Cervelli on performance-enhancing drugs, you can imagine what he'll be like just walking around--is actually a somewhat scarier proposition than losing Mr. Rod for, let's say ever (we can be optimistic). Chris Stewart as your everyday catcher with only Austin Romine as a possible backup is downright scary.
Meanwhile, the Toronto Blue Jays were adding every name player on the Florida Marlins roster, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, and for all I know, resurrecting Lou Gehrig to play first base. The Red Sox, while not exactly setting the world on fire, got better than the awful they were last year. The Orioles aren't going away, because they're afraid Buck Showalter will kill them if they do. The Rays always, always seem to get better somehow, while constantly spending less money each year.
I am not liking our chances, friends.
But it's possible to have a sense of perspective about this, too. See, I lived through the mid-to-late 60s Yankees, when Horace Clarke was the name player, and the 1980s version of the Yankees, who seemed to relish the challenge of finding new ways to be mediocre every year. Remember Danny Tartabull?
It's been a very long time, but I hung in there for all those years because you still get to watch a baseball game every night, and there are few things better. Because you don't ever know how a team is going to coalesce in the course of 162 games. Because the 1996 Yankees didn't have any big stars on the team, and they did okay.
Pitchers and catchers arrive in Tampa within a week, ladies and gentlemen. I'll be watching, and no doubt complaining, but it will be a hell of a lot better than the offseason.
And that's not a small thing.
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