"The Yankees have won a couple in a row now against the Red Sox, as they try to dig themselves and fight themselves out of an early-season hole. And they need to keep winning, because if they don’t you wonder what the ballpark might look like a few months from now."
The Yankees' economics are fine. Better than they ought to be considering the product they're putting on the field.
"Or maybe they think they can start to fill those empty blue seats near the field that sometimes look like the most expensive unclaimed real estate in New York City, with Alex Rodriguez’s creaky, inauthentic run at Babe Ruth, and dazzling late-inning relief pitchers."
Nobody cares about ARod or the bullpen.
Most of the 2016 tickets are already sold ... the daily attendance numbers are inflated for sure ... and the Stadium is kinda dead.
But fans still show up out of habit or because Yankee Stadium is a tourist attraction. Baseball is fun. You root for your bad team and hope they win today.
"But at a time when the Mets are so much fun to watch, because of star young pitchers even when they’re not pitching like stars, and home run hitters, the Yankees aren’t. They haven’t been really fun to watch for a while."
I agree, the Yankees are boring.
The Mets are better and more exciting. CitiField will be packed for the upcoming Nationals series.
But, truth be told, CitiField is half empty most of the time. Or half full, if you work for the Mets PR Dept.
"By all measure, the Steinbrenner in charge of the team is a very good guy, just one who seems to have no reichcal passion for baseball and no love for New York City."
I don't think "reichcal" is a word.
I think somebody mis-typed "real."
"So it’s not just Rodriguez’s insane contract that is the problem here, all that contract does is provide cover. Chase Headley is working on a four-year, $52 million deal, just because sometimes you think everybody is with the Yankees. Brett Gardner is working on the same basic contract. And Brian McCann was going to be the new Thurman Munson."
ARod's contract doesn't provide cover for anyone paying attention. It's columnists like Lupica who have fixated on ARod while ignoring all the other players on the Yankees ... and, even now, Lupica inexplicably excludes Beltran, Teixeira, and Sabathia from his List of Busts.
Ellsbury is his fixation and, though a bust for sure, Ellsbury is probably the best overall player in the starting eight. I know it's a low bar, but I'm serious. So if you think he's the biggest Yankee bust of all time ... or even the biggest bust on the current roster ... just look at the guys sitting on the bench to his left and right.
"The Yankees, when healthy, even though with the Jurassic Park All-Stars that is a very fluid situation, start two players under the age of 30, Gregorius and Castro. But every time somebody goes down, the way Rodriguez and Sabathia did this week, people act shocked."
Who are the people who acted shocked?
If anyone acted shocked, they were surely being sarcastic.
I also don't think anybody really cares because they're not very good baseball players anymore.
"Maybe one of these days, maybe the Yankees need to think about throwing Aaron Judge into the pool the way the Mets threw Michael Conforto into the pool a year ago, and see if he can swim. Or if he is one more guy out of the farm system who doesn’t turn out to be the next Ruth or Mantle."
This isn't genius stuff. The future isn't just Judge, Gregorius, and Castro.
The future is Judge, Gregorius, Castro, Severino, Tanaka, Eovaldi, Pineda, Refsnyder, and Bird.
Myself and most fans are ready to make the transition rather than watching stubborn old players swing for the fences and hit into the shift.
Severino's horrible start is way more troubling than the combined 2016 disasters of every player over the age of 35. If Severino can make adjustments and turn it around, he may be a future ace. If he can't, then good luck with Plan B.
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