Bill Madden still gets paid to write about baseball even though he is always wrong. The reason he is always wrong is because he is rooting against the Yankees and his judgment is therefore warped. This is not a genius observation, it's plainly obvious, and there is no way anyone should take him seriously anymore:
"You have to wonder now if Derek Jeter isn’t going to come to the same conclusion that it’s time for him, too. With Jeter’s 3,316 hits in the bank — 10th-most all-time — his legacy as one of the all-time greatest shortstops and automatic first-ballot Hall-of-Famer is secure. In all of their cases, however, it’s also time for a different reason."
I don't know for sure, but I'll bet Jeter gets healthy and plays for the Yankees next season.
On second thought, since Bill Madden says Jeter is quitting, I know for a fact that Jeter will play for the Yankees next season.
"In all their years with the Yankees, Rivera, Pettitte and Jeter have known nothing but Octobers, nothing but championship-caliber teams, and more rings than any other players in baseball could hope to own for the foreseeable future. All of that ends this year, and the future of the Yankees beyond this season is even more dubious."
The future is always dubious. It is indubitably dubious. It is the future.
"If it wasn’t for the fact they are all class acts whose careers have been fulfilled, you could perhaps liken this to the proverbial rats deserting a sinking ship. For why would they want any part of this immediate Yankee future that is going to be so unrecognizable?"
Pettitte and Rivera are retiring, as expected. They are both over 40 years old.
Not sure how that's likened to rats deserting a sinking ship.
Oh, yeah, I know why. Because Bill Madden is a sad prick.
"Once this season of overachieving retreads and sadly gassed and broken down former superstars mercifully comes to a close, the Yankees go into an uncertain winter with more holes than almost any other team in baseball."
Almost any team in baseball?
That makes no sense.
It makes sense to Bill Madden because his brain is puerile and diseased.
"Welcome back to 1964, when the Yankee dynasty ended with a resounding crash because the core veterans got old, and the minor league pipeline that had sustained them through four decades dried up."
The circumstances are entirely different in 2013.
Madden is not explaining how the Yankees got their minor league pipeline in the first place. That is to say, the MLB amateur draft started in 1965, followed soon by the ending of the reserve clause.
The current Yankees are in an entirely different circumstance in every way.
"And now you wonder if maybe Joe Girardi, seeing the same thing, won’t also follow his fellow ’96, ’98, ’99 ring-bearers out the door? Is Girardi — who will almost surely get a goodly share of Manager of the Year votes even if he isn’t able to complete a miracle run to the playoffs with this rag-tag, beaten up Yankee team — prepared to be Johnny Keane circa 1965?"
It wouldn't bother me too much if Girardi took the Cubs job. Girardi is good, not great.
But he will probably be back. If Bill Madden says Girardi will not be back? Girardi will definitely be back.
As for Manager of the Year, it's Farrell unanimously. Francona a distance second. Girardi will get a handful of votes.
"Unlike the Yankees, the Cubs under Theo Epstein have been quietly assembling a top-rated group of young players and prospects through the draft (shortstop Javier Baez, outfielder Albert Almora, righthander Kris Bryant), trades (first baseman Anthony Rizzo, third baseman Mike Olt) and international signings (Cuban outfielder Jorge Soler). Dare we say the lovable losers of Wrigley Field look to have a brighter future than the Yankees right now?"
You only say that because it's wishful thinking because you hate the Yankees. I'll believe it only when I see it.
Mike Olt might be Drew Henson. Kris Bryant might be Phil Hughes. "Potential" is a French word that means you haven't done anything yet.
"And there is also this to consider: In years past, the Yankees had an added advantage in the free-agent market besides just money: As a team that was always assured of being a World Series contender, players wanted to come to the Bronx."
This guy is living in a fantasy world.
Can you name one free agent in the past 20 years for whom the Yankees underpaid?
All I remember is the writers whining about the obscene salaries. Every single one, from Pascual Perez to Roger Clemens to Chuck Knoblauch to Randy Johnson to Alex Rodriguez to Tom Gordon to Kevin Brown to Jason Giambi to ... well ... every single damned one.
They were "buying the Championship," ruining the competitive nature of baseball, forcing Selig to institute a salary cap.
Who knew the whole time the Yankees were getting all these players at a big discount?
"Now they are back to where they were during George Steinbrenner’s manic ’80s, a purgatory the Mets have been mired in, seemingly forever, without a championship-caliber team and having to overpay for free agents in order to get them to come to New York."
The Yankees are exactly like the Mets. I can't stop laughing about that, for one thing. We're in purgatory! Help us! Help us!
But that last line? I really can't stop laughing about that last line.
Overpay for free agents? Well, I declare, the mere thought of this is profane to my delicate ears. What would that ever be like for the Yankees to overpay for a free agent?
I did the math, and I won't bore you. Every player who leaves gives the Yankees a lot of salary to play with, even if they insist on getting under $189. Youkilis and his 8 RBIs, Kuroda, Pettitte, Rivera, probably Granderson, probably 60% - 75% of ARod. Maybe they even drop Cano and decide to spend a ton of money on depth instead of superstars.
Winning the World Series is tough indeed. I am not expecting a dynasty anytime soon from the Yankees or any other team.
But Madden is essentially predicting a decade of ineptitude. Sub-.500. Worse than the Cubs. Baseball purgatory.
It might happen. It probably won't.
When you consider the source, it definitely won't.
No comments:
Post a Comment