they probably will. every other team in the league can beat the Red Sox. CC should of had Swishers back, but Swisher is a fuckin idiot.
While I don't think Cashman is the fool Don does, I'm not exactly big on him anymore either. I think he makes poor decisions with no true backup plans other than "We're the Yankees, we'll buy our way out of trouble." I'm not worried about him trading away the farm, but I'm nervous he'll overtrade, not for a pen arm, but for something. The one pen arm I'm nervous he'll overtrade on is K-Rod. If he's going to overtrade for the pen, at least try for Soria. I read last night that Cashman was emphatic that Hughes is being prepped as a starter. It was made clear there is no intention on repeating the Joba debacle, and I'm glad to hear that. Right now, I'd rather coast with the better relievers in Scranton. Whelan if he's not truly hurt, Norton when he gets healthy too, Wordekemper, I saw mention that Phelps is being considered too, but he's currently a starter I think. Noesi is a projected starter (and he's on schedule to start Sunday for SWB) so I'd rather not bring him back up for another long-relief stint. I'd just like to stop calling up scrap heap players like Carlyle and Sanit. I understand the idea of having innings-eaters, but why not have guys who can give you quality showings when you have them available? I'd like to give it our best shot for the next month with the guys we have in-house. If we're still legitimately in the race start exploring trades. Otherwise, sell off pieces near the deadline and look forward to next year.
Yeah, but unless you had a plan for what he should do differently and know that that plan would have worked, this kind of second-guessing just sounds like complaints that you were going to make regardless. Cashman didn't want to sign Soriano. They have the ability to buy their way out of trouble... they should use it. And they do. The Yanks have also made quite an effort to restock the farm system (and have succeeded there, too). Don't like the Russell Martin signing? Okay, what should he have done? Let Posada catch? Cervelli start? Give Montero the starting job? Why? Martin just cost money, and not much at that. A former All-Star at a premium position on the cheap? Why the hell wouldn't the Yankees make that move? What other poor decisions did he make that affected the team?
Going to all the games this weekend, I imagine Buchholz will have the advantage over Reyes, and we'll go from there. That was a fun series against the Yanks though.
I could sit here all day with this one. It's not like I haven't written them out in the past. Let's go back to not bringing back Damon or Matsui. Instead we brought in Nick Johnson. How did that work out? You can argue that Matsui's production tanked, but what about Damon? And who can say Matsui would have tanked in the Yankees lineup? And we all knew Johnson wouldn't stay healthy. How about not going after Crawford since he wanted to get Lee? Well, neither are in pinstripes. They're actually split between two of baseball's best teams instead. Instead we have Brett Gardner. On that same note, he signed AJ Burnett at the sacrifice of Mark Teixeira. He just got lucky on that one. I don't hate the Martin signing, but I was wholly in favor of letting Posada catch once a week and let Montero have the regular duties. Instead, they invited the kid to camp with no intention of letting him come north, and he's now not playing as well. Is that because he's suddenly unable to hit homers, or because mentally he's knocked down? Cashman may not have wanted to bring in Soriano, but he did get Feliciano and Marte, neither of which are healthy. He's also been a big spearhead in the whole "rules" games that are played with our young pitchers. At the same time, I don't think everything Cashman does is wrong either. While I've never been a fan of getting Marte, the guy was a key factor in our title two years ago. I've already admitted I was way off on the Granderson trade. Cashman parlayed Wilson Betemit into Nick Swisher, and while Swisher is struggling, he's ten times the player Betemit was for us. (Though in fairness Betemit was his mess in the first place.) Like I said, I think he makes bad decisions that he can later cover for with the motto of "We're the Yankees, throw money at it." If he were the GM of any other team in baseball I doubt he'd have lasted as long as he has.
Thank God. It's sad how long it took them to realize how short-sighted it is to put these young starters in the bullpen, but at least Betances and Banuelos might be handled correctly.
I agree. Besides, even if it didn't cause health problems or create what we can only assume were mental issues in Joba's case, putting these guys in the pen even while fully intending for them to start creates a media storm that the average fans feed off of and it turns into a mess that is sure to get into their heads. Hughes is a starter. So is Nova, and eventually Noesi as well. Betances and Banuelos too. Let them all pitch as starters unless you determine, like Rivera, that you no longer have any intentions of them being a starter. This "fairly standard" stuff hasn't exactly worked so well for our young guns, has it? I'm with Nolan Ryan. As a matter of fact, didn't one of the kids up for the draft specifically say he didn't want to be drafted by a team that planned on limiting him? I'm not saying we should treat guys like Strasburgh was, but come on. These kids have been pitching their whole lives. If they don't feel right, by all means, shut them down. Otherwise, let them pitch.
When they're reaching an innings limit towards the end of the season, okay. But not back and forth year after year with such indecision (Joba) or when they're trying to build innings (Hughes).
Since the start of May the Sox are something like 24-11. Other teams aren't finding them all that easy to beat either.
Yeah I'm sure the thread title is why the NYY played so poorly that series. They are the Red Sux. They got our number now. That's fine. It's a marathon, not a sprint. I'm not ready to press panic yet. Lots of shit can happen between now and September.
Judging from what you wrote, it sounds like what I thought it was... complaining you were going to do anyway, with no real regard for whether it was the right move at the time. I mean, you might disagree with the moves (or the result of some of the moves), but it's hard to argue against them at the time they were made. Example: Nick Johnson. We all know how you felt about that signing. But it was a low-risk, high-reward signing that didn't work out. And despite that, the Yankees DH position last year had an OPS of .777. Damon's OPS was .756. Matsui's was .820. And I can't believe - after accusing Cashman of taking the "we can just throw money at the problem" approach - that you'd then bitch about not signing Crawford for $20+ million per year when they got at least 75% of that production from Gardner last year at the position. Come on. This is what I mean by looking for reasons to second guess the moves. If Montero is "mentally knocked down" ( ) because he was sent back to AAA as a 21-year-old, then he's not the prospect we all hope he is. Martin is another example of a low-risk, high-reward signing. Give the kids a little more time in AAA, and maybe you get lucky with a former all star catcher (who is only 29 years old). If not, he's serviceable at the very least. Two pitchers doesn't really etch this in stone. The attrition rate for pitchers is absurdly high, almost regardless of strategy. Almost. If you just let the kids pitch, really, all you're going to see is that the kids who were likely to get hurt, get hurt in the minors before you've ever heard of them. And so all you'll see is the success stories. That these kids have been pitching their whole lives is part of the problem, not the solution. Right, that end of year stuff is what I was talking about. That's how it started with Joba. But you seemed to be saying that Betances and Banuelos were going to be exempt from that.
