no thread for yanks rays?

Yeah, I knew I was exagerrating when I said .250. The point I was making is that if anybody ever thinks he will come even close again to .338 they are kidding themselves. He is also not close to the second best offensive player on the team. Abreu, Matsui and Jeter are better for sure. Cano and Damon may be too.

 

No, that's not my point.

Do you think I'm not upset? Come on. I'm pissed. There's too much talent on tihs team to be failing the way that it is. Which is the same thing I used to say in the 80s.

The fact is, the Yankees are being outplayed right now by teams with comparable, if not better, talent. We're also down two of our best hitters, and we've been battling injuries all year.

Imagine how potent the bullpen would be right now if we also had Bruney as well as who else we have. We'd actually be able to yank a floundering starter like Pettitte a bit earlier last night, and possibly preserve the chance to win.

People are simplifying the problems to things like Hughes and Kennedy having a rocky start. It's not nearly that simple. Of course those starts don't help, but how many runs has this team scored? The answer? 168, good for 19th in the league. That's over 39 games played, for an average of 4.31 runs scored per game. At that pace, they'll score a total of 697 runs this year. What ever happened to the team that could possibly score 1000? Want to know the team ERA? It's 4.39. Yeah, that's 21st in the league, but it's not even a tenth of a run more than the number of runs we score.

So you tell me why I should rip on the young guns for not winning more games.

I know guys love to hindsight the non-Santana trade. How many more games you think we'd have won so far with him? Keep in mind, while trading away the guys you all love to hate: Hughes and Kennedy, we'd also have had to give up Melky, and at least one minor leaguer. Right now, Melky is second in home runs for the team with 6, and 4th in RBI with 18.

Oh, yeah, someone is tied for 4th on the RBI list. His last name rhymes with Peter.

Abreu is a better hitter, but not a better power hitter, and is not a switch hitter.

Matsui is a fair argument, but he's a natural for the #5 slot, so he's not much different. Plus, he's a defensive liability, whereas Jorge is a pretty good defense catcher (regardless of the naysayers who don't believe as much).

Jeter is a better hitter than almost anyone on the team. He lacks significant power in this particular lineup though.

Cano is a better hitter than Posada in every facet, if he's hitting.

Damon is an enigma. Whether he's better or worse is debatable at best.

In the limited action Posada saw this year, he hit .308, with 1 HR, and 11 RBI. Know where he sits on the team's RBI list? 8th. 18 games played out of the 39, and he ranks 8th in RBI.

So again guys, I ask, why should I be pointing a finger at the kids?

 

I understand venting frustrations.

I do wonder, however, if people actually believe the stuff they're saying when they're venting. If you don't, cool. I think we've all said plenty of stuff that we don't really mean (e.g. saying, "Wang sucks" after his crappy Boston outing or something).

If you do, though... wow.

 

Oh whatever I say, I mean.

Now at the same time, I reserve the right to change my mind later if presented with enough evidence to support a contrary opinion.

But when I say something, I mean it.

 

I guess I'm referring more to the people who say, "I wish we could trade Jeter," or, "As of May 12th, the Yanks are d-o-n-e, done," and things of that nature.

It's far too long of a season to freak out about April and May. Sure, those games count, too... and it's nicer to have a comfortable lead than to not... but I have to laugh at the "throw in the towel" reactions (assuming people actually mean that).

Let's see what a healthy team can do first, before writing off the season and/or firing the GM for having the nerve to allow key players to suffer injuries.

 

Yeah, I hear you. That's the one thing I'm serious about, throwing in the towel just because it looks like a long road. I say it semi-seriously sometimes, but deep down, I don't mean it.

They're still going to win a lot of games this year. Health is the biggest issue. The bats look like they're starting to come around. They just need to all click together. When Alex and Jorge rejoin the mix, they'll string together big innings.

All they need is another .09 runs a game...

 

In my case at least it's not hindsight. I wanted them to trade Hughes and whomever fpr Santana from the git go. I am sure they wouldn't have had to include Cabrerra by the time the deal happened. That was just winter meeting talk when everybody was trying to drive the price up. Hughes and maybe one AA pitcher would have probably gotten it done but I have said that before.

 

Mark Melancon promoted to AA Trenton

JB Cox promoted to AAA Scranton

 

And you were ridiculous before. The reason the price was high when the Yanks were interested is because there were other interested teams. The Sox had a vested interest to stop the Yanks from making that deal (cheaply). The reason the Mets got the deal they did is that there were no other interested parties at the time. If the Yanks were still interested, guess what? You have another interested party (not to mention the Sox). To say that Hughes and a AA pitcher "would have probably gotten it done" is straight-up lunacy. There is no basis for that argument other than pure fantasy.

I mean, if Hughes plus one AA guy is the offer on the table from the Yanks, are you telling me in all seriousness that the Twins don't just go back to the Sox and say "Hey, that Lester, Masterson, and Lowrie deal sounds good."

And, just to be clear, how the trade/non-trade has worked out so far is only clear with the benefit of hindsight. It doesn't matter if you wanted to make the trade beforehand or not. Anytime someone points to Hughes being injured and Santana doing whatever for the Mets... well... that's information only available with hindsight. It's kinda, like, you know, pretty much the definition of the word.

 

Guys love to "hindsight?" When did that become a verb?

 

Around the same time that "photoshop" became one.

 

Let's take it a step further. Let's say at some point the Twins say "Hey Brian, look, we want Hughes badly. Give us him, and a minor leaguer, and Santana is yours."

Cashman's reaction would be the following:

"Please take a look at our corporate web site. I'll give you my user name and password. Feel free to browse our directory of minor league players, and take your pick."

The deal never was, nor would ever have been, Hughes and one other player, at any level.

 

I thought that was pretty obvious based on the fact that I was referring to Melky in terms of the team list.
-------------

Anyway, this team is allergic to scoring runs.

 

It's not that "he's so good" that he's not tradeable.

1. He has a no trade clause. So that's the end, right there. But let's go on...
2. You don't make trades to get fifty cents on the dollar. And - given his salary - that's what you'd be getting for Jeter.
3. You don't trade the captain of the team. (You can't just say "aside from that"... it's somewhat important, if not exactly tangible.)

...but my point wasn't necessarily that you DON'T trade him (although it's very likely that you can't) ... it's more that it's a strange reaction to what we've seen this year. I have a hard time thinking that people actually want to trade Jeter.

 

Holy shit. Only Giambi could stretch a double into the corner into a long single.