It would be all too easy to
invoke the names of other Yankee rookies whose careers began like
skyrockets only to fizzle to earth. Kevin Maas, Shane Spencer, Shelley
Duncan, anyone? The other two big league rookies to hit as many as 10
home runs in their first 22 games -- Colorado's Trevor Story
this year and Boston's George Scott back in 1966 -- provide a little
more in the way of evidence as to where this start might lead Sanchez,
but it is hardly conclusive. Scott, of course, was a solid big league
player for 14 seasons, a .268 hitter who averaged 20 home runs a year.
Story is among the favorites for NL Rookie of the Year."
Ronald Torreyes is batting over .400 for the month.
Enjoy it while it lasts.
"If it is not fair to blame all the Yankees' early-season woes on the likes of Mark Teixeira and Carlos Beltran and of course, Alex Rodriguez,
neither is it realistic to fail to notice the difference now that two
of them are gone and the third, Teixeira, has had his playing time
reduced in his final weeks as a major league player."
Beltran? Beltran still leads the Yankees in HRs and RBIs. Nobody was blaming Beltran.
"Sanchez's at-bats have replaced A-Rod's as must-see events for Yankees fans and even for some of his teammates."
When is the last time an ARod at-bat was a must-see event? 2009?
Why is it impossible to discuss the Yankees without bringing up Alex Freaking Rodriguez?
" 'I think that these young kids have done a really good job; they’ve
contributed in a big way,' Girardi said. 'Guys are excited around here,
and we believe.'
When's the last time you heard that out of the Yankees clubhouse?"
When is the last time I heard a trite, optimistic answer from the Yankees clubhouse? Every single day.
I hope Sanchez keeps it up, the Yankees somehow make the playoffs, ride the wave all the way the the World Series ... ARod would get another ring, by the way ... and all these young players grow into MLB superstars.
My suspicion, however, is that a lot of the elevation of Sanchez (and excitement over a whoop-dee-doo 12-8 record over 20 games) and exaggeration of Yankees' playoff chances boils down to the endless, tiresome mockery of ARod.
Tyler Austin is batting .148. Aaron Hicks is batting .215 after a recent surge. Aaron Judge is batting .222. September callups are 5 days away.
You can't imagine a scenario where an aging ARod could have fulfilled a pinch-hitting role as the team tilts at September Surge windmills?
So the real idea is that ARod's clubhouse presence was damaging to team chemistry and dragging the whole team down ... and Sanchez's hot streak is somehow proving the hypothesis.
"The Seattle Mariners did not intentionally walk New York Yankees rookie sensation Gary Sanchez once Wednesday to face Mark Teixeira -- they did it twice. And even Teixeira knew the Mariners had no choice.
'Shoot, if Babe Ruth is hitting behind him, you intentionally walk him,' Teixeira said of Sanchez after the Yankees' 5-0 victory over the Mariners. 'I mean, he is as hot as any player I have played with in my entire career. You just don't see guys doing what he is doing. I don't care how old he is.' "
All of this is wrong.
"But here is why Sanchez matters the way he does these days, whatever he eventually becomes in baseball: He has made the Yankees interesting again. Sanchez has become somebody for Yankee fans to want to watch and to care about. And, boy, do they ever care about this kid. You get the idea that as you've been reading this, Sanchez might have found a way to go deep on his way to get coffee."
Ha ha ha. Coffee.
I don't get it.
"This isn't about whether the Yankees can make an improbable run at the second Wild Card in the American League, because it will take a small miracle for them to do that, or a few teams ahead of them simply deciding to go home. No. This is about the Yankees' farm system producing the first young hitter people really want to watch since Robinson Cano was a rookie. In 2005."
This revisionist history is untrue. I don't feel like listing all the names. Fans were excited when lots of bigshot minor leaguers came up. Only in retrospect has Sanchez buzzed past them.
I can list three Yankee catchers: Cervelli, Montero, and Romine.
The buzz died down because their play didn't live up to the hype. But a year ago, Romine was a bigger deal than Sanchez.
"We know the Yankees don't develop lasting, frontline talent in starting
pitching any longer. The last homegrown kid who became a star in their
rotation was Andy Pettitte."
I will just say Chien-Ming Wang again because I feel like I have to ... and if the Yankee homegrown superstar pitchers all end up in a dominant bullpen rather than the starting rotatino, that isn't so bad.
"If you don't believe that history doesn't sell quite the way it used to
at the new Yankee Stadium, turn on a Yankee home game and take a look at
those expensive blue seats down closest to the field. It sometimes
seems to be as wide an expanse of blue as you would see standing on the
beach and looking at the Atlantic Ocean."
Right.
Except for ARod's bizarre last game.
Guess what? Sanchez ain't filling those seats any time soon.
"But now here comes this kid to hit home runs in bunches. He really has
taken the stage as one of the Yanks' famous Jurassic Park All-Stars,
Alex Rodriguez, is sent home to Miami."
... and the rest of the article is about ARod.
Which is the last time Lupica will write about ARod. I promise.
As for the next big thing, Mike Conforto is back down in the minors while Travis d'OntThrow tries to pick up the Next Big Thing slack left by Josh Thole ... and those two represent just one position on one team.
I mean, who knows? All great players and HOFers started off as young phenoms.
But when you say something like this:
"Austin, who sat out Monday's game after 3-for-8 in his first two, looks like he might be a nice player for the future, too, but Judge has the potential to be a star, maybe a guy who will bash 40-to-45 homers season after season in his prime."
"Aaron Judge hit another home run on Sunday. Two innings later, Gary Sanchez did the same. In the past two weeks, the Yankees have reloaded their lineup with young sluggers from the farm system, and the early returns could be hardly any better.
But there is a danger in assuming too much, too soon.
For a cautionary tale, look to the mound.
Luis Severino no longer looks like the future ace from a year ago. His command is erratic, his breaking ball is inconsistent and his changeup is nowhere to be found. The latest Yankees home runs meant nothing because Severino was knocked around in a 12-3 blowout loss to the Rays. Severino was optioned to Triple-A immediately after the game."
I hope it works. I hope the Yankees win the World Series as soon as possible.
If early returns meant anything, there would be a Kevin Maas wing in the Hall of Fame.
But I surely don't have to go back that far. David Adams and Andy Phillips would be manning the corners on the 2016 World Champs ... and the battery every night would be full of All Stars: Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy, Ivan Nova, Luis Severino, or Vida Nuno pitching to Jesus Montero.
As for the idea that this team is funagain, well, we'll find out if Buster Olney is anywhere to be found if the Yankees only manage to win 74 games next season.
I know everyone is preoccupied with a part-time DH hitting a fly ball to right field, but if you check the standings, the World-Series-or-Bust Mets have the same record as the Trade-Everyone Yankees.
I think Torre's evasiveness was charming to the press, but Girardi's evasiveness is irritating.
As Seattle wins 5 in a row and gets back into the wild card race, I truly think the Yankees might have done the same thing if they had kept their team together. Will it pay off in the long run? I guess we'll see.
But, c'mon. You can't have it both ways. You can't say you think you have a chance to make the playoffs while you throw AAA players out there every day.
"Yet Teixeira is also a symbol of something else. Always ready to play,
play hard, and with the old-world nobility that still appeals to the
masses. And someone whom even the most ardent Yankees hater couldn’t
quite get himself to hate."
I don't consider him particularly hard-nosed or noble.
But I like the fact that you're referring to him in the past tense.
"Maybe Teixeira came too late to be a minted member of the Core Four, but he surely played with their collective spirit."
Whatever that means, I think you're imagining it.
"When people parse the Yankees, and all the bad they allegedly represent,
you never hear the name Teixeira as a symbol of all their sins. Simply,
it’s just impossible to dislike someone who was as good, humble, and
charitable as Teixeira."
I feel honored to have achieved the impossible.
"In spite of all the home runs, Gold Gloves, and All-Star games, Teixeira
maintained the blue-collar ethic that defines the Big Apple."
Teixeira's exaggerated howls of pain when he dove out of the way of a low pitch do did not seem blue-collar to me.
"Despite all the money and marble of Madison Avenue, the swollen
billboards and media dysfunction, New York City was built by blue collar
people who still lug their lunches to work, don’t mind getting dirty,
and don’t own a single pair of skinny jeans.
So despite his nine-figure contract, Teixeira kept his old-school
sensibilities. Some players get to Gotham, sign for biblical money, and
forget who they are and what got them here."
Sooooo ... you're saying he's white?
Teixeira seemed to forget what got him here, by the way. What got him here was playing good baseball.
"Not Teixeira, whose handle, Tex, evokes the notion of a simple man with a
simple plan. No matter the big numbers on the field and absurd numbers
in his savings account, he never floated above the team, was never too
big to dive for a baseball, or too important to get his pinstripes
muddy."
I truly don't follow.
Other than Cano, every player dives for baseball.
Teixeira never struck me as a particularly humble guy, not that it really matters.
Or is all this just an indirect dig at ARod?
"Teixeira’s teams may have seen more success, but you’ll never get
Teixeira to say he was better than Mattingly, or anyone. It’s not the
way he played, the way he lived, or the way he won."
I mean ...
"Teixeira was one of the rare players who came to New York needing little
more than a tour of the locker room. He was never bothered by the
lights, shaken by the media fishbowl, or intimidated by the fans."
So what happened?
Check out his clutch stats.
Maybe he wasn't intimidated by fans or media, just by the pitchers in Major League Baseball.
"Sabathia, A-Rod, and Teixeira are the last legends left from the last
legendary team. So while Tex may not be the same player he was back
then, he’s still the same man. So rather than notice what he means to
this year’s team, perhaps we should remember what he meant to the
Yankees, and what it meant to be a Yankee."
"For the good of everyone, the New York Yankeesmust make a decision on Alex Rodriguez, then announce it and move on.
They can cut him or keep him. They just need to decide. Right now."
So far, they have kept him, which is the status quo.
So they're already decided.
"They can release him today, eat his $27 million and let him find out if
anyone else wants a 41-year-old DH with a .609 OPS, or they can let him
ride the pine the rest of the year and let him give it another crack
next spring to see if he has anything left."
I think they have decided the latter.
"What they should stop doing is trying to figure out what they think.
Because they already have announced that A-Rod is not going to play
much, if at all, the rest of the way, then the baseball operations
people must tell Hal Steinbrenner if they think Rodriguez has anything
left. If they don't, thank him for his work and let him and the
franchise move on."
You seem to be imagining some internal decision-making angst which doesn't exist.
"If they think Rodriguez might be able to regain some magic next year,
then announce he will be on the team the rest of the season and they
will give it another go then."
"There were still so many times, even after the last Yankee dynasty ended
in 2001 -- Game 7 against the Diamondbacks, bottom of the 9th, Luis
Gonzalez dunking one over Derek Jeter's head -- when the Yankees would
automatically be declared the champions of the offseason every time they
signed another free agent or spent more money. They were the Yankees
and there was this idea that they were smarter than everybody else
because they had more money. And because, well, they were the Yankees."
The 2001 World Series?
"The funny thing is, it was losing that World Series to the D-backs --
and nearly winning it despite scoring just 14 runs -- that really made
them start spending like sheikhs. Bidding against themselves that
offseason, they spent nearly $120 million to go get Jason Giambi. But
Giambi didn't put them back on top, so they didn't blink in early 2004
when they absorbed Alex Rodriguez's contract via a trade from the Texas
Rangers. Now the left side of the infield alone, Jeter and Rodriguez,
had contracts whose total value was nearly $450 million, though the
Rangers were willing to pay $112 million to get out from under the rest
of A-Rod's contract.
It would be five years before the Yankees won a World Series with
A-Rod playing baseball for them, the only one they have won since 2000.
And all they had to do that year was spend another $450 million or so on
CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira and A.J. Burnett."
Winning the World Series isn't easy.
"So even though the Yankees were still selling a World-Series-or-bust
model to their fans every single year, and even though they never had a
losing season, they were now far more likely to miss the playoffs
entirely with another $200-million-plus payroll, or not make it past the
first round, as they were to get near the last week of October."
True.
It isn't easy to win the World Series.
"The Yankees have kept this thing going for an amazingly long time in the
Bronx, and sold a lot of tickets at the new Yankee Stadium. Even when
the 2013 and 2014 Yankees missed the postseason, they gave themselves a
chance. But there has been nothing special, or remarkable, about them
for a while. You know what their biggest attractions have been lately?
Farewell tours for Jeter and the great Mariano Rivera. Legendary Yankees
at the back ends of their contracts. You know what they might be
selling now, now that Beltran is gone and the full-time DH job opens up
wide? The 41-year old Rodriguez trying to get to 700 home runs, as if
that number matters to anybody else except him."
I find it astonishing that Lupica thinks the 2016 Yankees are going to market ARod's chase for 700 HRs when (1) no one cares about the chase for 700 HRs, and (2) most observers think ARod is about to get cut.
I'm not even saying a closer is particularly difficult to replace. The Yankees never missed a beat with Rafael Soriano, David Robertson, Andrew Miller, and Aroldis Chapman.
What I dispute is the notion that this fixes everything and Yankee players should start measuring their ring fingers.
"Closer to their next title" doesn't really say much, does it? If you climb a step ladder, you're closer to the sun.
Every team in baseball and every fan in every sport would tank the 2016 season for a Championship in 2018.
We don't know yet, but the Yankees might have tanked 2016 for 77 wins in 2018 ... and these future all stars may put too much of a strain on their starters and setup men.
The psychological relief Yankee fans feel (and, universally, all Yankee columnists) is the acknowledgement that they were right about this team. But Cashman isn't stupid. Only the PR people were hyping this team. Cashman knew the whole time this team is mediocre.
As for the horror of rooting for a mediocre team with an outside chance of making the wild card, I'd advise Yankee fans to get used to it.
The damage has already been done ... look at your team's starting lineup .... and there's no easy way out ... nor should there be.
Refsnyder is my man, but he's hitting .250 with 0 HRs. I'll gladly wait through the growing pains, but it shouldn't be a shock if the Yankees just acquired 8 players who never grow into anything at all.
I suppose the Yankees got more for Chapman than I anticipated and less for Miller. I heard one commentator compare AA star Frazier to Mike Trout. So you'll forgive my skepticism. If Frazier's as good as the best player in baseball, then, yeah, it's a good trade regardless of the Yankees' record and regardless of who the Yankees traded.
Moral Crusader in Chief Mike Lupica finally takes down Mike Piazza:
"Has it gotten complicated since he retired, because of the rumors and
whispers about steroids? Sure it has. You know it has. It is an
inescapable sign of the times in baseball, in Piazza's time, and surely
is why it took him as long to make it to Cooperstown as it did. Piazza
was being asked about baseball drugs as recently as a conference call
just the other day. In the end, those rumors and those whispers couldn't
keep him out of the Hall of Fame the way baseball pitchers certainly
could not."
I think Piazza's 427 career HRs were the most career HRs by any 62nd round draft pick. I also think he set the record by 427.
If you care about PEDs, then his career is a fraud.
If you don't care about PEDs, then put ARod and Bonds in the HOF.
The rhetorical cover you provide for yourself is pathetic.
"If you’re looking for a reason to believe in the Yankees, the past three
days have been a good start. But let’s all take a deep breath. It
doesn’t mean anything. At least not yet."
Don't get all existential on us.
"If they can build on it with two more wins over the Orioles, I’ll start
to consider the Yankees to be true contenders. If not, then not much has
changed."
The next two games are very monumental in Yankee history.
They will determine whether or not Anthony McCarron will start to consider the Yankees to be true contenders.
If that doesn't motivate the whole team, nothing else will.
"So while there are plenty of encouraging signs from the past couple
days, how many times are we going to fall for the same trick? Fool me
once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Who gets shamed when it
happens three, four or five times?"
I think your entire way of experiencing life is different than mine.
Try living in the present more often.
"If the Yankees only manage a split of the next two games, they’ll still
be 6½ games out of first and have a deficit close to that large in the
wild card race. Anything short of a sweep should leave the Yankees as
eventual sellers. That’s what happens when you’re a .500 team after
almost 100 games."
I just don't think that's true.
The Yankees are one nice winning streak away from legitimately contending for a wild card.
"Suzyn (Ma Pinstripe) Waldman waited until the seventh inning Saturday, as the Yankees were going down to Boston, to inquire.
'Wonder how many questions will go by before someone asks Joe Girardi
if it’s time to sell?' She asked her radio partner John (Pa Pinstripe)
Sterling.
'Suzyn, you’ve got to admit if it keeps going like this (for the Yankees), it’s going to be time to sell,' Pa said.
Say what?
It’s telling these two voices, known for their optimism and sunnyside
stylings, appear to be resigned to Yankees brass ultimately pulling the
plug on the season. The ramifications of the Yankees becoming sellers
have been over-dissected and re-regurgitated."
So Al Yanzeera agents Ma and Pa Pinstripe might not be as unbiased as you think.
"Will newspapers and websites still invest what it takes to cover every
alleged game? Outside of providing scores, do Valley of the Stupid
Gasbags bother talking Yankees? Face it, those Bombers ticket giveaways
on FAN will take on new meaning. How many 'loyalists' will actually want
free tickets to exhibition tilts disguised as real games?"
Does the New York Daily News current invest resources to cover the Mets and the Yankees? That's news to me. I'm on your website right now and I don't see it.
"If Hal Steinbrenner throws in the towel, the Mets voices won’t be the
only ones enjoying the Bombers’ irrelevance. Much harder to predict is
how Ma and Pa will handle it. Accustomed to — at least — contending from
wire to wire, this will be uncharted territory for them. And while they
may have visions of white flags on the horizon, their retreat has not
started."
The Yankees are not that bad. Sorry, but it's true. The reason people will still pay attention is because they are baseball fans. The media who can't do their jobs should find another job. The animus predicted by Raissman is standard for the Daily News and Raissman.
For the 1,000th article in a row, Lupica attacks ARod:
"Alex Rodriguez doesn’t care about what’s best for the Yankees.
He just cares about getting to 700 home runs, then maybe even getting to 715 and passing Babe Ruth.
And, of course, getting paid.
Now he’s going to be a first baseman.
Right.
Then an astronaut."
1) ARod is a dead horse. Beating him relentlessly is not just bad form, it's redundant and boring.
2) Did you see the nice scoop by Foul Territory on Headley's throw in yesterday's game? The sweet RISP GIDP? When you fixate on one problem (ARod) at the exclusion of all others (the first baseman who is the worst player in baseball), you present an invalid picture of the state of the Yankees.
In other words, you're not doing your job.
3) So who cares, anyway? It's just a baseball player, right?
He's overpaid, he's a cheater, he's ... he's selfish ... he's the pro athlete who's selfish ... I was googling that over and over the past few days trying to figure it out.
Lupica is not a sports columnist, he's a gossip columnist. He uses his newspaper articles to dole out rewards and punishments. Big Papi tested positive, but we love Big Papi. The Mets who cheat or beat their wives get a rudimentary finger-wagging, but Lupica's heart is not in it. Not compared to the Evil ARod who has the audacity to take ground balls at first base in an attempt to get more playing time so he can catch Babe Ruth's HR total.
It's stupid, it's bad journalism, it presents a skewed view of the NY sports world.
Here is where the hypocrisy gets downright offensive:
"And by the way? After Goodell thought he had the right to ask for Brady’s
cell phone, at least in America, Brady should have done just one thing
differently before stomping it flat: He should have told Goodell to take
it and shove it."
I agree totally.
The NFL has no subpoena authority.
But neither does MLB.
If a cell phone is private information which is protected by the Constitution ... then surely the blood coursing through one's body is also protected by the Constitution.
Lupica doesn't care about the Fourth Amendment when it comes to baseball players.
Specifically, baseball players who took steroids.
More specifically, baseball players who took steroids and hit lots of HRs.
More specifically than that, baseball players who took steroids and hit lots of HRs and whom Lupica simply doesn't like.
God Bless America.
There is a victim. The victim is Lupica's credibility ... and what is a man without credibility?
Let's say the Yankees win their next ten games in a row.
Let's say the Yankees can trade Carlos Beltran for a future superstar.
What do you do?
You trade Beltran:
"The stakes are simple this week as the Yankees open the second half at home against the Red Sox, Orioles and Giants.
Get back in the race or get taken apart."
They'll never get in the race, they'll never be out of the race. That's the modern-day Selig horror show.
"The deficits are hardly insurmountable. After all, the Yankees themselves held a seven-game lead in the division on July 28 last season before watching the Blue Jays storm back to win the AL East by six games.
But for a team that hasn’t been able to gain any traction through the first 88 games, they’ll have to play much better to put a scare into any of the three teams ahead of them in the division."
I am not optimistic, but I think this assessment is somewhat inaccurate.
With Chapman, they've played around .550 ball for 2 months. Keep it up and it's 83 - 84 wins. Not enough for a wild card, but not too far off. So it's keep it up and go on one nice streak.
The most likely outcome?
They tread water for the rest of the season and trade a couple of veterans for useless draft picks.
But the long-term strategy should not waver based on the outcome of the next ten games. In the unlikely event you can get significant value for some of these guys, go for it. In the likely event that you can't get significant value, your only way out is to build a time machine, travel back in time, and then refuse to sign them.
The White Sox are one game ahead of the Yankees in the standings: "On July 11, Carlos Beltran is the Yankees MVP. By August 1, the 39-year-old could be wearing a different uniform."
I don't think any intelligent observer believes Beltran is the Yankees MVP so far this season. It may not be an important opinion, but it level-sets for the rest of the article.
"With the Yankees entering the All-Star break at a perfectly mediocre 44-44, the next few weeks will likely signal to general manager Brian Cashman (and ownership) whether to buy, sell or stand pat at the trade deadline. If New York does decide to sell off parts, Beltran will garner interest across the sport."
Across the whole sport ... besides one half of the sport known as the National League.
"A potential sleeper for the switch-hitting October legend? The
Chicago White Sox—if their current reclamation project falls through.
Chicago signed former MVP Justin Morneau with an eye on second-half
production. With a rehab assignment almost complete, the former Twins
star could be in the White Sox lineup when the second half opens. If he
produces, Chicago's abysmal DH production issues could be solved. If
not, cue the Beltran rumors, per George King of the New York Post:"
Jeez, the Ledger referencing the Post. I should have just gone to the Post.
"Heading into the break, the White Sox designated hitters own a .703 OPS.
That's good for 12th in the AL and well below the .771 league average.
The White Sox hit the All-Star break at 45-43, one game better than the
Yankees."
It might be hard to replace the Matt Harvey Hype, but it's not hard to replace the on-field production:
"So this is how the season ends for Matt Harvey and maybe the best of it
for him ends, with surgery for a shoulder condition that most of us
didn’t even know existed until this week. This is how it ends for the
guy who looked like the new Seaver when he came along, who became the
biggest pitching star for the Mets since Dwight Gooden."
Harvey didn't live up to the hype which I helped perpetuate.
"Harvey was a star, the ace of his staff and the ace of his city, and was
the most exciting starting pitcher, for either New York baseball team,
since Doc. Then he got hurt the first time. He came back, but then Jacob
deGrom, who is not the same pitcher he was last season, was the ace of
the staff. Then Syndergaard. Now Harvey is gone again. He says he will
be as good as new when he gets back. We’ll all see about that."
An oddly-structured (were we talking about Jacob deGrom?) and long-winded way to say he's the second coming of Joba Chamberlain.
"Mets fans, of course, remember the Generation K pitchers of 20 years
ago, Paul Wilson and Bill Pulsipher and Jason Isringhausen, and how they
were going to be the young arms and young guns that pitched the Mets
into the World Series the way Harvey and deGrom and Syndergaard and Matz
did last season"
Generation K?
"Only Isringhausen really lasted, ultimately having his greatest success
as a relief pitcher. The best season Wilson ever had in the big leagues
was with the Cincinnati Reds in 2004. He was 11-6."
Thank you, baseball-reference.com.
"As good as Gooden and Darling and Fernandez were in the 80s, this group
of pitchers is the best the Mets have had in nearly 50 years. It has
been big fun watching them. Now we’ll see how long the fun lasts."
I don't blame you for believing the hype. The problem is, you also generated the hype.
I don't know why (I have some idea) nobody cared about Chien-Ming Wang or paid attention when Ivan Nova won 15 in a row ... I guess he didn't strike out enough players or cultivated a suitable online presence/Batman-related nickname.
(By the way, Harvey would have to go 23-10 ... win the Cy Young Award, basically ... to match Nova's career record.)
The Yankees bore you. The Yankees are old news. You hate the Yankees.
The rest of the article just proves the point ... anti-ARod, anti-Gardner, anti-Hicks, pro-Reyes, pro-Flores. A lengthy takedown of ARod, which isn't beating a dead horse so much as beating a boring horse.
Wilmer Flores is the most popular Met of his generation. Uh huh. Even more popular than Mike Baxter? Even more popular than Josh Satin?
You're not really writing about sports, are you? You're just writing fictional biographies of the players.
But the attendance numbers so far show the Mets' success is not hurting the Yankees:
"It appears as if more and more New Yorkers are taking the 7 train as opposed to the 4, B or D train on game day.
After last year's surprising run to the NL pennant, Mets fans are
showing up at Citi Field at the second highest rate in all of baseball
and the highest in the National League."
Mets are 9th in attendance per game and the Yankees are 6th.
The Mets have increased their attendance (compared to 2015) at the second highest rate, but the fans are not showing up at the second highest rate.
"For the struggling Bronx Bombers, the attendance numbers are slightly down when compared to last year.
At this point last season the Yankees had seen 1,633,165 fans come
through the turnstiles. That number has dipped to 1,562,688 this season
(through 41 home games), a 70,477 decrease. It's an average of 1,719
fewer fans per game at the Stadium."
Slightly down is correct, and there is no reason to think that these people are going to Citi Field.
Funny that the click bait headline says Yankees see "big decline."
"A Fourth of July firecracker lit in California was heard in The Bronx
on Saturday night and signified the latest dagger to the Yankees’
season.
Not only did Melvin Upton Jr.’s towering home run to left leading off
the ninth inning carry the lowly Padres to a 2-1 win over the Yankees
in front of 42,315 at Petco Park, he hit it off of Andrew Miller’s first
pitch of the inning and 20th of the game.
It was the fifth homer allowed by Miller in what has been a
sensational season for the lefty reliever, who is a target of the Cubs,
Rangers and Nationals as the Aug. 1 trade deadline approaches. All three
teams had scouts watching Saturday evening."
What is the purpose of scouts? Anybody can watch the replays on televison. Or the Internet. In fact, it's a challenge to avoid the replay of Upton's HR. "The scouts on hand also saw Dellin Betances not pitch at his best. With
the Yankees ahead 1-0 in the sixth, Betances inherited baserunner Wil
Myers from Ivan Nova. Taking advantage of Betances not using a slide
step and having a high leg kick, Myers stole second easily. Matt Kemp
followed by dumping a check-swing double into right that scored Myers."
For one thing, you're not getting Betances.
For another, was anyone's opinion of Betances diminished? He is coming off back-to-back Mariano-esque seasons and he allowed an inherited baserunner to score on a check-swing double.
He also allowed a stolen base.
He has 72 strikeouts in 40 innings ... this player who isn't even on the market ... and you don't want him anymore because he gave up a whole run?
"Pomeranz and Nova pitched very well. Pomeranz gave up a run and five
hits in seven frames. Nova, who had pitched poorly in his previous seven
outings, went 5 ¹/₃ innings in which he gave up a run and four hits.
Of course, every run counts no matter when it is scored. However, the
one Upton delivered was a lot louder than the first Padres run and was
heard 3,000 miles away."
Yeah.
Using King's non-logic, maybe the scouts were impressed with Ivan Nova.
Rule of thumb for life: If you're on the cable company's side, you're on the wrong side:
"Then there’s the on-field product. It’s terribly inconsistent, at times unwatchable. It’s hard on even the most loyal pinstriped eyeballs to sit through three innings, let alone nine. And it’s even harder to imagine Joe Girardi’s crew finding a path to the postseason. When the main focus is on the buying and selling angle, or if even making it to the one-game wild-card playoff is worth it, you’ve got problems."
They're a .500 team in the playoff hunt.
Comcast subscribers missed a couple of exciting games the past couple of days.
"Compounding all this is a team lacking sizzle or a must-see player. The closest the Yankees have in that respect is a faded Alex Rodriguez, whose DH role has been reduced. And it’s not like the Yankees are banging the drums to market his pursuit of Babe Ruth’s 714 home runs."
I don't know what a must-see player is. I guess I agree the Yankees don't have one. I also don't care about the pursuit of 714 HRs.
The Yankees' bullpen is exciting to watch. Didi is starting to put up some productive numbers for a shortstop. I'm intrigued by the young players. So even if they're not mush-see, I still try my best to see. I'm a Yankee fan, so that's probably why.
In any case, they're a .500 team in the playoff hunt.
Comcast subscribers missed a couple of exciting games the past couple of days.
"That’s why the second half of the season will be so important for the Yankees. Short of turning things around on the field, the organization must convince its fan base a change is going to come. That there is hope for the future.
For if they can’t even convince their own fans, they won’t be able to convince a cable operator whose only interest is cutting a favorable deal."
Oh.
That's why the Yankees should try to win more baseball games.
By the way, the YES Network is on Sling TV.
If the Yankees surge in the second half, Yankee fans should simply cut the chord.
Bad team wins exciting game. Nothing more, nothing less.
I don't know why it's so important for some fans and journalists to dampen the enthusiasm of fans who simply enjoy baseball games.
It's funny how sports works. Two games ago, the rain delay disaster, one of the most disheartening losses I can remember. Followed shortly by a remarkable win.
Fans care and that's why they're called fans.
As for the 2016 season, the Yankees are a game under .500 and a few games out of the Wild Card sport. Sorry, but that's how Selig designed it. One Lebron James-inspired winning streak and they're in the playoffs.
The Yankees are also only 2 games worse than the slumping Mets. Should the Mets trade all their veterans and plan a Red Sox-esque cleansing of the palate?
Which is a strategy, by the way, that lots of teams attempt ... but it only worked for the Red Sox.
"The Yankees and Rockies have the same record, 34-36, and you don’t hear the Rockies telling anyone they are contenders."
Are the Rockies trading away all their players?
"At the core, baseball is about hope. What is the hope with these Yankees? Their aging players can stay healthy long enough to contend for the second wild-card spot?"
At the core, baseball is about first-pitch quality strikes.
"It used to be the Yankees went into every season expecting to win the World Series. Twenty-seven times they did.
Now they are hoping they can get it together to contend for a watered-down wild card.
There is no Yankees pride in that. It’s time to build strongly for the future and stop trying to plug one leak after another with some stopgap solution that isn’t a solution."
Thanks for the helpful history lesson.
Everyone knows the 2016 Yankees aren't the 1927 Yankees and it's not relevant to the discussion.
Whining about the good ol' days doesn't provide strategic direction.
I know the problem. The problem is this weird idea that the Yankee GM/owners/manager/coaches are living in denial. Kevin Kernan is here to reveal the truth. The Yankees should concede the 2016 season and thereby set the foundation for a successful future. Nobody ever explains specifically how this will be accomplished.
"There is no shame in selling when you shame yourself with the kind of performance the Yankees produced Tuesday night, the first night of a nine-game homestand.
Cashman has two vital pieces to sell right off the top in Carlos Beltran and Aroldis Chapman. He cannot let those free agents walk away and get nothing in return like what happened with Robinson Cano and David Robertson."
Beltran and Chapman aren't worth much. Beltran is old and Chapman is a rental. Actually, I'm being redundant and it's tedious. It's so obvious that the Yankees have nothing valuable to trade, that the only hope is that the current minor leaguers turn into good major league players.
"This Yankee team would be a lot more interesting if it were sellers. The daily buzz of what young players might be acquired is a lot more interesting than this performance."
Did you hear? Did you hear? The Yankees are making a play for Joe Orsulak Jr.! The buzz is off the charts!
Hello, Ticketmaster? Ticketmaster! I got through! Do you still have tickets for Thursday afternoon's Yankee game? Phew. I'll take 2,000 for the major league debut of future Hall of Famers Jeff Duncan and Brian Rose.
I know what the Yankees ought to do ... the Yankees ought to get Manny Machado and Bryce Harper:
"The Yankees need a LeBron. That is just a start.
To get their LeBron James, they need to get younger and more talented quickly so that when the star-studded free-agent class after the 2018 season is available, they can pounce.
Bryce Harper, who is only 23, and Manny Machado, who is 23 as well, anchor that class, but the Yankees must make themselves an attractive fit for either of those superstars to show up."
Three years into the future? Why would anyone even attempt to map things three years into the future?
"They need to begin the retooling process immediately. That means starting the Great 2016 Sell-off."
Immediately?
So Manny Machado and Bryce Harper ... assuming these two humans are alive and healthy three years from now ... are not going to sign up with the Yankees unless the Yankees take immediate action?
"A month from now teams will go strong to make deals and the Yankees need to put themselves in the right trading sense of mind — from ownership on down."
Well, a month from now is not what I thought you meant by the word "immediately," but, OK. Like everyone else, you think the Yankees should be "sellers."
"Come trade deadline time, the Yankees need to trade all veteran assets and look at it as if they are trading up for the future instead of treading water. Last month it was evident this team was going nowhere, and even though they’ve played a soft schedule since, they have not made a dent in the AL East race."
For the millionth time, this is a great idea in your fantasy baseball league.
In the actual world, a lot of things have to happen before you trade your veteran assets:
1) The veteran assets with no-trade clauses have to agree.
2) You need a buyer.
3) You need a buyer who is willing to make a reasonable deal.
"The Yankees remain 40-1 odds, according to Bovada.lv, to win the World Series."
I'd put the odds at around 100-1, but let's not talk about that. Let's assume the Yankees are sunk in 2016. I have not yet seen a convincing argument that trading away everyone in six weeks is going to help lower those odds by 2018.
"Anyone who can’t help that future team who can be traded, should be
traded. The good news is the Yankees have valuable assets that can help
build the future — and not just Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller.
The Cubs, Giants and Nationals all need help and all will be dealing and the Yankees have valuable pieces.
Carlos Beltran could make a return engagement to the Giants and could help San Francisco get that even-year championship again.
The Giants are looking for bullpen help and an outfielder, and they
still love Beltran, according to sources. Beltran could best help a team
as a designated hitter — that should open up the AL market for him as
well, but the Giants are confident he could slide to left field to help
them."
So here we go again.
The Yankees aren't getting diddly for any of these guys, OK?
"The Mets once got Zack Wheeler for Beltran — the Yankees should be so
lucky. The Yankees also have a trade piece in Chase Headley, who has
turned around his season."
Zack Wheeler is 18-16 in his career. Chase Headley is one of the the most overpaid players in baseball. You're undermining your own argument.
"After the 2018 season the Yankees can’t simply drop the biggest bag of
money on Harper or Machado and win the day. Yes, players will almost
always go for the money, there is no doubt about that, but for these
Yankees it’s going to take that LeBron-like addition and more to get
back to championship mode."
Let's go with this premise. The Yankees have to get younger and better in order to lure Lebron-like Harper and Machado.
You still haven't made one convincing argument that any of the current Yankee assets can be traded for good, young players.
Headley is garbage, Chapman is a rental, Beltran is 39 years old, and Miller is a great closer.
All four put together, what kind of young players are you expecting in return?
"If Harper comes along in pinstripes for the 2019 season, he is going
to need plenty of help, and that’s why the Yankees have to put
themselves in position now to begin to get that help.
Look at the superstar pitching talent the Nationals have in Stephen
Strasburg and Max Scherzer. It’s not just Harper — and now they need one
of the two closers the Yankees have in Miller or Chapman."
Who are the Yankees getting in return???
You can have Miller. He's on a shuttle to DC as we speak.
We'll throw in Headley, ARod, and Teixeira and we'll even pay 100% of their salaries.
I think it's sad to break up the bullpen, which is the only reason the Yankees have a surprisingly high 2.5% chance of winning the World Series, but Kevin Kernan has promised Future Machado and Future Harper, so I guess you gotta do it.
One question, though: Who are the Nationals giving up for Three Stiffs and a Closer?
Who are the Nationals trading to the Yankees that will ... how did you phrase it? ... provide "plenty of help" for Harper and Machado?
Is the goal to give free agents a soft landing spot by clogging the roster with a bunch of utility infielders and long relievers?
If the Yankees could miraculously find future superstars by trading away their current roster, then let's do it, regardless of whether Machado and Harper are coming.
I fail to understand how trading old crummy players for young crummy players would lure future superstar free agents to join your team.
"New York owns three of the best back-end relievers -- Dellin
Betances, Andrew Miller, and Aroldis Chapman. But the Yankees are 31-33,
and even with a decent next two weeks against poor teams, they could be
in selling mode with the trade deadline six weeks away.
It might make sense for the Yankees to leverage one of their three
big bullpen pieces for a haul of young prospects, essentially punting on
the 2016 season but fortifying the coming years."
Leverage! My favorite word! My favorite word that has been misused by the corporate world and is now deemed meaningless.
Replace "leverage" with "trade" ... "It might make sens for the Yankee to trade one of their three big bullpen pieces for a haul of young prospects."
OF COURSE that makes sense. I would trade ANY PLAYER on the Yankees for a "haul of young prospects" who would "fortify the coming years."
Also, it might work. I'm not saying it wouldn't work. But who are the can't-miss prospects?
"Who would they trade? It seems Chapman would be most likely. He is on a
one-year deal with the Yankees and will be a free agent at the end of
this year. The Yankees probably won't retain his services anyway, so
flipping him now could benefit them the most. Chapman is earning $11.325
million this year, a figure that likely wouldn't scare off the
high-spending Nats."
Key phrase being "free agent at the end of this year."
Therefore, even if the Nats are high-spending, how many prospects are they going to relinquish for two months of saves?
Can Chapman guarantee the Nats a Championship?
Kinda how David Price guaranteed a Championship for the Blue Jays last year?
"By several counts, the Nats have a top-10 farm system, a pool of
prospects they could part with to try to win their first World Series in
franchise history. Will the Yankees take the plunge? It might be time."
Top ten out of thirty.
By several counts.
It seems like Yankee fans and observers crave a clean break because it's psychologically important for them to cut bait on a losing season. Until July 31, it isn't going to happen, anyway.
Trade Chapman, get a few low-level prospects, re-sign Chapman after the season? I guess that would be ideal.
"But to this point in the 2016 season, the Mets have averaged a 2.95
household rating while the Yankees on YES have recorded a 2.42. The Mets
have averaged 281,327 total viewers while the Yankees have attracted an
average of 234,246 total eyeballs."
Conclusion once again: Nobody watches baseball during the regular season. I should say, nobody in New York watches regular season baseball. Look at these horrible TV ratings (from last year).
What was the Yankees' peak during the Torre Dynasty? Like, 4.0?
"There is no way of quantifying whether the Mets ratings have been helped
by what we call 'floaters.' There are a significant number of fans who
don’t have a strong allegiance to either team but wind up following the
one who is winning. No doubt these front-runners have jumped off the
Yankees bandwagon and now are riding with the Mets, helping to juice
their TV ratings."
Then why is the Mets' rating merely 2.95?
And why is there no way of quantifying this phenomenon? You'd look at the ratings from two different time periods and them compare those quantities.
"Yet it is worth wondering if the Comcast situation has contributed to
any Yankees ratings shortfall. Comcast took YES off its local systems
last November after the two parties could not reach a new carriage
agreement. If Yankees fans who are part of Comcast’s 900,000 subscribers
in New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania still had YES would they
impact the ratings on the plus side?"
Ummm ... I don't know ... would 900,000 additional potential viewers impact the ratings on the plus side?
Maybe not enough to catch the Mets, if that's important to you. But how could it not impact the ratings on the plus side? At least in terms of volume?
The Yankees are dumb. The Yankees lost Comcast at the same time they made it more difficult to purchase tickets online at the same time their team is mediocre at the same time the Mets surged to the World Series.
But there isn't much evidence of "floaters," at least not in attendance or ratings.
Naturally, the Yankees are down and the Mets are up. Just not by a lot. At least not in the regular season.
"The New York Yankees are wallowing in a state of mediocrity.
While
the Yankees are still a sports brand synonymous with platinum-plated
success, the franchise has a good chance of registering its first losing
season in 21 years. Things could miraculously turn around, but that
does not seem likely.
The team in the South Bronx is old, injury prone and deadly dull."
Two games under .500 is mediocre.
A "turn around" -- whatever that means -- would not be miraculous. An 84-win second wild card is hardly out of the question.
As for dull? I have a personal story.
A buddy of mine attended Monday's game with his son. The tyke called Beltran's HR and was jumping up and down like a lunatic. It's probably an enjoyable lifetime memory.
I'm not being naive. The Yankees are dull and mediocre compared to the dynasties of recent past and distant past. Their chances of winning the World Series this year are about 1%. This is also when we find out that the so-called diehards aren't.
"DeLucia, 55, says fans need to fight back, and the only way is economical warfare.
His
strategy is neatly summed up in the title of a passionate,
self-published manifesto, 'Boycott The Yankees — A call to Action by a
Lifelong Yankees fan.'
The Yankees, DeLucia writes, 'must stop
scamming their fans who work damned hard to put food on the table, to
put their kids through college, and to put a few pennies away for
retirement — ordinary people who must be concerned with the bottom line
every single day of their lives.' "
He is entitled to his opinion, but I am a grown man ... I shall spend my time and money how I please.
Besides, if you're having trouble feeding and educating your children? Don't go to Yankee games. Even if they're in first place.
"The site also sells merchandise like 'Respect the Fans' T-shirts (23.99) and 'Boycott the Yankees' coffee mugs ($12.99)."
Ummm ... so boycott the Yankees so you can save pennies for retirement ... but then toss away 2,399 Retirement Pennies on a crummy tee shirt?
I'm actually a little weirded out that a newspaper gives this guy free publicity.
" 'So, it’s about organizing,' DeLucia told me. 'Let’s do something about
this because the Yankees — they can’t do anything without us. They need
our money. They need our cable TV subscriptions. They need us to buy
their stuff. All they have to do is take care of us, and we’ll be at the
stadium again.' "
Very powerful message. All of us working class stiffs refuse to be disrespected or put our economic well-being in jeopardy ... unless the team is good.
I mean, look, if you don't want to invest in a bad team -- time, money, emotion -- that's a personal decision.
For me, it's quite often still an enjoyable use of my entertainment dollar.
"DeLucia lists a number of ways the Yankees can 'right the wrongs.' These
include reduction of ticket prices, monthly fan appreciation days and
sending people on all-expenses paid trips to away games."
The only wrong is losing and the only way to right the wrong is to win. Can you imagine Yankee fans seriously getting psyched about a fan appreciation day? Or an all-expenses paid trip to an away game?
"DeLucia said it was no accident that his book comes just as the
Yankees are experiencing a downturn. Attendance last year was the lowest
since 2000, and there are noticeably empty seats this year.
Maybe the boycott is already on, confirming, if nothing else, that DeLucia is hardly a lone voice crying in the wilderness."
Attendance is down with or without this guy.
So it's not really about organizing, is it? You're just some angry dude who doesn't like to go to Yankee games anymore.
"In some sense the Yankees are always measuring themselves against the
Red Sox, which so far makes 2016 nothing short of their worst nightmare.
It’s not just because the Sox have bashed their way to the top of the
AL East, leading the league in runs scored, but the way they’re doing
it, led by a trio of young position players age 23, 23 and 26, bodes
well for a bright future in Boston, as well as the present.
Yes, in Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley Jr., the Red
Sox might just have the makings of a young nucleus around which they’ll
win multiple championships, in the manner of Derek Jeter’s Core Four.
And though their pitching doesn’t hold as much promise, the Sox
received a boost on Tuesday night from highly touted 23-year-old Eduardo
Rodriguez, who returned from a season-long knee injury with a flourish
against the Orioles."
Sorry, but in the era of two wild cards, the Yankees can maybe sneak in with 85 wins. Which they don't seem likely to attain, but the point is, they sure don't have to catch the Red Sox.
So then, I'll take the Yankees with Tanaka and the bullpen.
Then, it's hope for the best in October, just like if they won 110 games instead of 85.
"In short, this has been a season to forget on many levels for the
Yankees, in particular because it’s hard to see them closing the gap
between themselves and the Red Sox anytime soon.
All of which should make their decision to be sellers in the coming
weeks easy. And while they don’t have a lot of tradeable assets, free
agent-to-be Aroldis Chapman is a no-brainer, and Carlos Beltran is a
proven clutch post-season hitter."
For what?
A fifth-round draft pick?
Or a couple of future superstars?
Because I would trade the whole team for two future superstars. Who's trading these players to the Yankees?
"In any case, the struggles of Judge and Severino have raised more
questions about the future toward which the Yankees are pointing.
So it’s time for the Yankees to start looking to deal. It’s the only
way they will close the glaring gap in young talent between themselves
in the Red Sox."
OK: Yankees stink, 2016 season is shot, the young saviors are disappointing.
You still haven't explained who the Yankees are getting in return and why any team would trade useful players to the Yankees.
Beltran is old, Chapman is a rental.
The other teams have the Yankees over a barrel and they know it.
"David Ortiz is spoiling it for the rest of the 40-year-olds in baseball.
Big Papi is putting together an insane, MVP-level year for the Red Sox
during his farewell season. With a .337 average, 1.146 OPS, 14 home runs
and 47 RBI, Ortiz looks like a slugger 10-15 years his junior.
This isn't normal."
The rest of the article is old news: ARod stinks.
ARod won't play every day ... I agree this is probably a good move, just to keep him energetic enough to hit an occasional HR.
When you look at the other hitters in this lineup, it's not as if he's taking at-bats away from Mattingly.
As ARod slogs towards Ruth using this disastrous all-or-nothing approach that he has employed for the past 10 years or so ... the man hasn't batted .300 since 2008, steroids or not ... one may turn their attention back to the Mitchell Report and wonder exactly how Ortiz looks like an abnormal slugger 10-15 years his junior.
How a sports writer could come so close to connecting the dots without actually connecting the dots.
"Rodriguez
returned Thursday after spending three weeks on the disabled list with a
strained hamstring, but he is just 1 for 16 with nine strikeouts since
returning. (The one hit was a booming 441-foot home run.) He is hitting
.170 and was given Monday off.
Teixeira,
who had spent the past five days out of the lineup with a stiff neck,
was back in the lineup on Monday, but his season has been even more
troubling. He has not hit a home run in 36 games and 125 at-bats, the
longest droughts of his 14-year career."
It's not trading Chapman and it's not Swisher at first base.
What do you think the Yankees would get for Chapman? Who's about to become a free agent? Who is going to trade a bunch of future stars in exchange for same saves down the stretch?
Consensus is to give Beltran the DH spot and stick with Hicks in RF.
The thing is, Aaron Hicks also stinks. So does Chase Headley. Worst of them all is the pitiful Mark Teixeira ... so bad that I don't think Yankee fans even want to boo him ... they want to laugh at him ... mock him with "MVP" chants.
So it's perplexing to see the criticism constantly leveled at Jacoby Ellsbury and Alex Rodriguez. This skewed criticism simply doesn't reflect reality.
Nobody is really going to fight the notion of taking 200 at-bats away from ARod. But who are you going to give them to? Hicks has a good arm, but it's going to get tiring to watch him stand at home plate and pointlessly attempt to hit major league pitching.
If the goal is to keep ARod fresh, that's probably Girardi's plan, anyway.
But until you find an OFer better than Hicks or Ackley, you may as well continue to put ARod up there and tell him to swing really hard in case the pitcher throws one into his bat.
"I love the idea that the Yankees are in great shape — at least according to the coverage — because some rich, old long-term contracts are coming off the books.
So, like, Yankee fans think the next round of contracts is going to be great?
Why?"
It's not the "next round of contracts" that Yankee fans are looking forward to with optimism. It's the promise of the players in the minor leagues. Which could turn out to be a lot of unrealized hype, of course, but since you asked, I can try to briefly explain.
It's a course correction... and a coherent plan ... maybe the only feasible plan ... and it's a plan of patience and clear-headedness that the Yankees are finally sticking to.
1) Fill the roster ASAP with talented young players who are inexpensive.
2) Clear salary in two years when the Contracts of Diminishing Returns are up.
3) Use the extra cash to fill in the roster with free agents. Cashman has seemingly learned his lesson about long-term contracts in the PED-diminished era.
"That is where Harvey now finds himself. He has a 5.77 E.R.A. and has not pitched more than six innings in a start all season. Collins would not even commit to starting him next week, when his turn comes up again at Nationals Park. He said Harvey’s confidence was sapped.
'I’m not happy about it,' Harvey said of his performance. 'I know nobody else is.'"
Not Bob Feller, not Dizzy Dean, not Lefty Grove, not Carl Hubbell, but 'Satchel Paige.'
Joe's unflinching response in 1939 to the inquiry of 'the best pitcher he ever faced' stunned a group of stadium reporters.
While Joe DiMaggio was no social crusader, he knew great pitching.
Like many other major leaguers, he faced Paige during interracial barnstorming exhibitions that were not uncommon in the off-season.
About Paige, sports writer Joe Posnanski writes:
'(He was) unhittable for the better part of 15 years. One pitch. It's a lot like Mariano Rivera, except he wasn't doing it for one inning at a time. He was pitching complete games.'
Let that sink in for a minute."
I can see where this is heading.
I have no reason to slag on Satchel Freaking Paige. The problem with this analysis is that it ignores the fact that Paidge didn't have to face the best white players. His brilliance is undeniable; his domination of the Major Leagues is probable, bust also largely boosted by the imagination.
"If the prospect of facing Mariano for nine innings seems frightening, try adding Hilton Smith's nasty curveball the next day. In 1941, the Kansas City Royals did not exist, but Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League did — and Hall of Famers Paige and Smith formed the greatest 1-2 punch in ALL of baseball — and arguably, baseball history.
Joe DiMaggio never had to face the Kansas City Monarchs in 1941. Or any Negro League team."
This is an under-reported phenomenon, I agree.
The best thing about modern-day American Major League Baseball is that it attracts the best talent from all over the world. I totally love watching players from all over the country and all over the world, assembled on the same team, competing with and against one another. It's just cool.
"As usual, the impact of DiMaggio's actual whites-only playing field was not discussed. This comes five years after a slew of celebrations for The Streak's 70th anniversary. In 2011, The Sporting News staff voted '56' as sport's greatest record. Kostya Kennedy's '56: The Last Magic Number in Sports' became a New York Times best seller, and its publisher, Sports Illustrated, gave Joe it's cover. It was called 'Baseball's Holy Grail,' and at ESPN, it was called 'the most romantic record' for its 'aura,' 'magic,' and penetration into 'the cornfields of American culture.'"
Very few players have gotten to 40 games in a row, much less 56.
Of course DiMaggio played with some advantages -- inferior fielding equipment, tired pitchers who threw 300 innings, easier travel schedules, cultural aversion to intentional walks and fielding shifts and stacked bullpens.
He also played with some disadvantages -- inferior batting technology, inferior training techniques, soft baseballs, bad scouting.
If you compare DiMaggio's accomplishment to all the players who've tried to hit baseballs in the professional ranks, you can't help but be amazed.
"Finding critical dissent on baseball's 'Jim Crow Era' is hard to come by amongst an almost exclusively white mainstream baseball media. When sports announcer Bob Costas held a baseball panel to discuss the 'legitimacy' of Barry Bonds' passing of Hank Aaron's career home run record in 2007, he invited a comedian — and not a sports journalist — to address the relevance of race."
I definitely agree that there's a certain Old White Man element in baseball lore, up to the present day. The references to "Field of Dreams" juxtaposed with the anger at Bautista's bat flip ... like Shoeless Joe is a hero and Joey Bats is a criminal.
I can also see how all the Baseball Poets and their weird Pastoral Nostalgia does not reflect reality -- especially to a black man who was denied equal access.
But here's the thing: Joe D. could flat-out rake. "The 'white ball' benefits of Joe's streak is not the same as Babe Ruth — whose home run totals would still remain historic had they landed closer to Willie Mays territory (660 HRs). The career totals of Ruth, Ty Cobb, or Walter Johnson were inflated from great to greater.
But Joe DiMaggio’s streak wasn't merely inflated by the times, it was created by them.
Without the influence of Performance-Enhancing Whiteness, it would simply not have happened."
That is hard to imagine. DiMaggio could never get a well-timed hit off of a black pitcher?
"During his streak, DiMaggio faced a Hall of Famer pitcher in his prime only two times in 56 games (Bob Feller twice). He would likely see Paige and Smith in four to eight games during his streak. If Negro League aces Leon Day (Newark Eagles) and Raymond Brown (Homestead Grays) also pitched in white baseball's American League, DiMaggio would likely face 8-to-16 games against prime Hall of Fame-level pitching."
So Leon Day never gave up a hit?
"Utley — who is white — was shut down by a Cuban, an American, and a Puerto Rican. But in 1941, Major League Baseball did not split such hairs — all three would have been banned. Period. (Only a very small number of white and light-skinned Latinos were permitted in 1941.)
Did any media notice?
If 2006 were 1941, Chase Utley's streak would live to see another day."
Uhhh ... this makes no sense and I am stopping now.
The exploration of Jim Crow baseball is important, under-reported, and interesting.
The attempt to say what "woulda happened" in a specific example, on a specific day, is total nonsense. Maybe the Streak was just a Black Swan event.
Cohen was very underwhelmed by a 2-out, 2-strike RBI single by Prodigal Murphy. The "net negative" who's batting .400.
Cohen's lack of enthusiasm is not simply because he's unwilling to be proven wrong. It's because he never gives the Mets' opponent any credit. To a degree that's detrimental to his ability to broadcast the happenings in a baseball game.
Also ... despite the hype ... lots of empty seats in Citi Field for the big series with the Nationals.
That's why Bartolo Colon won't lose his cult hero status. Because, for a player who is so fat and so old, he has shown remarkable endurance and production.
What would it take to put 2 and 2 together?
What would it take to see the obvious reason for his remarkable endurance and production?
"After that neither teams' offense could push any runs across. Thankfully for the Yankees, Tidrow was doing a good job in long relief. In this case, it was very long relief. On August 25, 1976, Dick Tidrow pitched 10.2 innings out of the bullpen. He allowed just four hits and didn't allow a run. After allowing a lead-off single to Steve Byre to start the 18th, he was finally replaced.
Grant Jackson was brought in to relieve Tidrow. He got out of the 18th and then threw a 1-2-3 inning in the 19th. Oscar Gamble led off the bottom of the 19th with a single. After a bunt moved him into scoring position, he eventually scored when Mickey Rivers singled.
Dick Tidrow's relief outing is not the longest in Yankees' history. It is the longest scoreless relief outing in Yankees' history, however. And given the way that bullpens are used today, I don't think it's a record that is in any danger of being broken."
Mark Teixeira is a victim of all different kinds of cognitive dissonance:
"'My whole career has been about back-spinning the ball, hitting the
ball in the air and home runs,' Teixeira said. 'I’m just not doing that
right now.'
... 'It’s pretty simple, I’ve got to put the ball in the air more,' Teixeira said. 'Now, it’s a matter of doing it.'"
... I don't think the Yankee managers understand the frustration of the fans:
"Here's something to mull over between now and July 15, the next time the Yankees face the Red Sox: Should Joe Girardi pull a Joe Maddon when it comes to Big Papi?
David Ortiz has crushed the Yanks this year, smashing five homers in six games and batting .333 with a 1.343 OPS.
Maddon, of course, is the Cubs' manager who essentially took the bat out of the hands of perhaps baseball's most dangerous hitter over the weekend — Washington's Bryce Harper.
Harper walked 13 times in a four-game series against the Cubs and the Cubs won every game. Harper did not even have an official at-bat in his last 12 plate appearances, walking 10 times, getting hit by a pitch and hitting a sac fly, which the Elias Sports Bureau says is a record.
Big Papi was just 3-for-13 in the just-completed series at the Stadium won by the Yanks. But all three hits were homers, including two solo shots off Luis Severino Sunday night."
I don't know if it's actually possible to just "pitch better" ... or if you can really "pitch around" a batter ... or if the Yankee pitchers need to pick their spots (these were mostly solo HRs) ... or if McCann doesn't know how to call a game ... or why the Yankees are unwilling to plunk him in the butt once or twice over the past 15 years.
So I don't know if I have a solution to the problem.
Steroid-addled 40-year-olds are difficult to get out in major league baseball games.
The gripe amongst a lot of Yankee fans is that there is a certain conciliatory attitude towards an opponent ... an opponent who consistently crushes the Yankees ... an opponent with a history of cheating and boorish behavior.
"Technically, the Yankees didn't trade Robinson Cano for Jacoby Ellsbury after the 2013 season. But due to the circumstances of how Cano — a future Hall of Fame second baseman — was allowed to walk away in free agency and was effectively replaced by Ellsbury, their careers will forever be linked in the Bronx."
Funny, this linkage never really dawned on me.
"That's turning into more and more of an uncomfortable comparison for the Yankees.
While Cano's contract (10 years, $240 million) could become an albatross in a few years, a case can be made that Ellsbury's deal (seven years, $153 million) is already trending in that direction. This season represents just the third year of the respective deals, but the early returns — including team success in 2016 — are overwhelming in the favor of Cano."
I don't think it's overwhelming.
Yankees have won one more game over the time period and Cano's cumulative WAR is 11.9 instead of 5.7.
"Cano: 344 games, .301/.357/.467, .824 OPS, 135 OPS+, 11.9 WAR
Ellsbury: 287 games, .264/.323/.386, .709 OPS, 99 OPS+, 5.7 WAR
It's not even a contest. Even with Cano's down year due to an abdominal injury in 2015, he's been the far more productive player since the start of 2014."
So there you go.
I look at the same data and say it's less than three wins per year. Not overwhelming, even if WAR isn't the best indicator, and neither is team wins (Yankees have one more than Seattle during the same time period).
I simply don't understand the fixation on Ellsbury.
Tanaka has a cumulative WAR of 8.0 over that time period. I say the Yankees signed Tanaka instead of Cano ... and only lost 1.5 games per year.
Have Ellsbury earned their money relative to Cano? No. But I don't think it's overwhelming, especially when the total contract is taken into account.
But obviously, more importantly for the Yankees was avoiding that $100 million post-35 albatrosses that are hanging around so many of the players on their current roster. So maybe it's too early to tell who gets the last laugh.
As for the 2016 Yankees, once again, it's obvious to me that Ellsbury isn't their biggest payroll thief.
"[Wright] did not give up his second hit until the seventh inning, when Starlin
Castro led off with a double. McCann followed with a deep flyout to
right field, moving Castro to third base, and it appeared that the
Yankees were finally catching up to Wright’s fluttering pitches.
Trailing
by 1-0 in the count to Mark Teixeira, Wright threw a knuckleball that
bobbled out of catcher Ryan Hanigan’s mitt. Seeing the ball on the
ground, Castro broke prematurely for home. Hanigan quickly recovered and
threw Castro out as he retreated to third.
"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.
They fired an untalented employee who was also a jerk:
"ESPN is a private company; it had every right to fire Schilling because it didn’t like a few of his social-media posts. (And never mind what it let Keith Olbermann get away with all those years.)
The network can censor its own content as it chooses, too — however petty and childish that choice reveals it to be."
Right.
Which is why they're not Stalinist at all.
"But it’s a darned strange way to show 'progressive' values."
ESPN.
Formerly "Entertainment and Sports Programming Network."
Not a word about a devotion to progressive values, or even politeness and civility, for that matter.
Schilling was fired because his bosses told him to cut it out and he refused to cut it out. The transgender bathroom issue was not the first time. Though, yeah, if tolerance of transgender people qualifies as "progressive" values, then maybe ESPN just fired Schilling for this one-off.
Sure, Schilling has made enough money and he doesn't care. But Schilling's argument seems to be that his employer's insistence that he behave in a certain way is stifling and inappropriate ... even un-American.
What Schilling doesn't realize is that's what a job is. Everybody's job, all day, every day. Everybody who works for somebody else, anyway.
Headley should be benched or waived ... if for no other reason than to throw a bone to the fans who still pay attention to this team.
Gregorius is a bigger problem. A year ago at this time, we all chalked up his deficiencies to the strain of replacing Jeter. A surge in the second half set up a promising 2016.
Then this horrible regression, suggesting a player who is not really devoted to his craft.