jacksonianmarch

Hey, I'll take two aces. I'd love 3 or more. Heck, watch us get Cole, see Paxton have that second year acquisition surge in a Yankee uni and Sevy take the leap and have a 3 headed monster with our 4 being Tanaka. A man can dream can't he? Either way, I forgot about a guy who absolutely obliterated the baseball while he was in pinstripes in Mike Ford. Mike Ford is another exit velo monster, but he didn't start that way. Ford is not your typical rookie. He is 27 yrs old. He was an undrafted 1b out of Princeton that I identify with. Not from a great pro baseball school, a 1b with above average but not standard positional height (6 foot even), who was a hitter but not a masher through college. The Yanks sign him, see he has great control of the strike zone and see his body type and assume power will come. He puts up high .300s OBP's while hitting 6-13 HRs through his first couple seasons then improves in an injury shortened 2016. He comes out in 2017 with an OBP over .400 and hits 20 bombs. He looked good enough for the Mariners to select him in the Rule V, but decide to keep Vogelbach instead of Ford. He comes back to NY and struggles in AAA in 2017 and contemplates retiring. He signs on as a MiLB FA again and finds his 2017 form yet adds major league power. His first taste of big league baseball saw him OPS .909 with 12 bombs in 50 games. The reason why I am giving his story here is that he is going to spend a lot of time with the Yanks on the active roster in 2020. With Gardner and Didi likely heading off into the wilderness, we will need left handed mashers. As of right now, the only player capable of hitting left handed in our starting lineup is a switch hitter in Hicks. Tauchman may be our starting LFer as well, so he adds some left handedness that is badly needed for a team playing in Yankee Stadium. And while it does help us vs the Red Sox, we have become entirely vulnerable to right handed strikeout pitchers.

I wanted Machado, but Cashman was far wiser in being happy with what we had and then getting Lemahieu as insurance.

Understood SG. Thankfully I was in a wedding last night and was absolutely obliterated when the game ended. Filled the pain. What the Yanks did this year was unprecedented. We had 30 different players on the IL. A full roster is 25. We had 25 guys plus 5 backups on the injured list. That’s insane. To recap We lost the runner up for ROY, Andujar, for the season on day 3. Stanton plays in 19 games due to being entirely snakebit. Severino spends the first 5 months on the shelf. Montgomery is on the shelf due to TJS and is delayed 2 months due to shoulder tendonitis Sanchez has two stints on the IL for leg issues Judge missed two months with an oblique Voit misses a month and pretty much isn’t the same due to a Sports hernia EE gets dealt for, breaks a wrist then pulls an oblique Bird and Ellsbury miss the whole year, no big loss Paxton missed three weeks with a knee and goes into the postseason with sciatica Hicks tears his UCL Tauchman misses 6 weeks with a calf issue Frazier misses 3 weeks with an ankle Estrada misses a month with a leg issue Gregorius missed the first two months coming off TJS Betances misses 5 months with a shoulder issue and tears his Achilles on his return Heller missed the year with TJS Loaisiga missed 2 months with a shoulder issue CC was on the DL for awhile with knee and shoulder issues Hale looks good early then misses the year with a back issue German spent 2 weeks on the IL with a hip then is suspended for beating his GF Happ spent time on the IL with biceps tendinitis There were more, but those are off the top of my head. And they still were fighting for a WS berth. They didn’t quit when they had every excuse to. All players should return healthy for 2020. Give us an ace, keep the pen strong and make a run in 2020 when the other super teams should be a bit weaker

I have zero animosity towards Sox fans cheering the Yanks demise. I did the same when the Sox were eliminated

Puig was run out of LA, a place where fans could give two shits about baseball, but they show up. No major scrutiny. He got himself run out of Cincy for being an idiot. Cleveland has zero interest in resigning him. Puig is gonna find a limited market, one that’ll likely require a pillow deal

I have you right at the first threshold if JD and JBJ come back. If JD opts out, you’ll be under. But damn you need him

Thanks SG. Ask anyone on here. I show up when we are winning. I show up when we lose. I always post when we are eliminated. I don’t hide

You probably don’t win the division without Sale that year, so I do agree there. But you also need to have guys taking up the mantle of postseason ace, which Sale clearly wasn’t. Sale took a nosedive and everyone picked him up. Porcello, Price and Eovaldi all just pitched to the best of their abilities for a month. The Yanks need an ace. Not an ace from April to July like Severino. Not just an ace only in the POs like Tanaka. We need one of the rare birds that takes the ball on opening day, a guy you line up vs your rivals, a guy you line up for the first game of every series and a guy you try and maximize usage in crunch time of playoff series. That is all we are missing.

You’re a troll

That’s a plus minus, though. Sale wasn’t an ace when you won the WS. He was the first half of the season, but Eovaldi took the reins at the beginning of the POs. Price also wasn’t an ace last year. They peaked at the right time. We need an ace. A guy who plays well all the time, but especially when the chips are down

2020 and 2021 are our peak years from a financial and player growth perspective. We aren’t locked into a window since the only heavy money long term contract right now is Stanton’s and his contract isn’t all that bad from a lux tax perspective. We may lock ourselves into a window and cliff situation if we deal from our farm or start locking people up. The way to avoid a cliff is to avoid paying huge money for guys who don’t produce. Dead money and a bad farm is the recipe for a cliff. This is going to be a telling offseason. We stood toe to toe with quite possibly the best baseball team to come around in a long time and we bloodied their lip a little. And that comment isn’t to knock the Sox from last year. But last year, in the POs, Sale was a shell of himself and your closer fell off a cliff. These Astros were healthy and all were firing for this series and they still had significant trouble with us while we were incredibly snakebit from injury and stupidity.

We have plenty of potential. I don’t disagree there. But nothing blunts potential like expectations. If Sevy is to grow into an ace role, if German can be a decent human and keep his HR’s down, if Montgomery can be healthy and find a touch better command, if Tanaka can do what he does in the postseason all the time, if Paxton can stay healthy then this rotation takes the next step. But in order to do all of that or even some of it, we need a face of the rotation. That’s what getting CC in 09 was. Our rotation was led by CC. Didn’t matter that we had Pettitte and Burnett behind him, CC was THE guy. He was our stopped, our ace, our everything. With the current core of starters, we don’t have that. There is no stopped. It’s very “Next Man Up” style, but it doesn’t help in the playoffs against a juggernaut. I’m taking nothing away from the Astros. They were world champion level and added a future HOFer still pitching great. So they stacked their deck and kudos for going after it. But they’re gonna start to fall this offseason and with their fall will be our chance to rise. We need someone to lead that rotation in order to take that next step

Cashman isn’t getting fired. Let’s just throw that out there. Also, if the Yanks aren’t willing to go to the final threshold then I’ll question their willingness to win. They spent a lot this past offseason and with the guys coming off the payroll, they have the cash to upgrade the rotation. Like I said before, we have a ton of potential in our rotation. Sevy has two straight top 10 CY finishes prior to this year. This year he’s misdiagnosed (common theme this year) with a rotator cuff issue when it was actually a lat issue and he essentially misses the whole year. His issue is that when he’s healthy, he fades late. We need an ace who can continue on to the playoffs. Sevy could become that, but he also could continue to be a great regular season pitcher who fades forever like a Chris Sale Montgomery had a near 3 WAR season as a rookie. He’s not a top guy, but could certainly be a Keuchel LF now type with a good K rate. He’s not the guy to lead a rotation, though Paxton has the stuff to be an ace, but not the durability. He showed me something in what turned out to be his final performance, but he’s continually injury prone and if he’s feeling something come playoff time, he won’t be what we need. Tanaka is the only one who excels in the POs. But he’s a liability for a few months a year in the regular season leading to being okay, not leading a rotation German has great stuff. His production was pretty good, but he got great run support. He’s got ace stuff, but he’s also a f***ing moron socially and I’m not sure if he’s ticketed out of town for a fresh start. If he’s in a Yankee uniform, he’s gonna be in the rotation. Can he take a step forward, who knows. We have a pretty good 5 man rotation. Happ as the 6 is better than nothing. But this rotation, while good and with our offense, is pretty solid, it’s overshadowed in the playoffs. If Cole comes available (meaning he doesn’t outright say he’s going to LA) and we don’t over bid, I’ll be shocked. We need an ace to lead the way. As a matter of fact, I bet if we get Cole or Strasburg, the entire rotation will benefit. We have to go for them

I’m in a wedding tonight, can’t watch, but I see the bad guys are winning. Shut em down Yanks! Shake it like a Polaroid picture!

MLB has stacked decks for years. They let players stack themselves with PEDs and it wasn’t until the national outcry that they listened. They allowed certain MLB teams to be farm systems for juggernauts in the middle of the 1900s. The MLB is about one thing, money. Not the game, but money. Otherwise, why the hell would they have playoff games on at a time when most kids are in bed? If they cared about the growth of the game, they’d have day playoff games. If they cared about viewership, they’d have less restrictive spending and less profit sharing from the bigger fam based teams. But they don’t. It bodes poorly for the future of the game

The best World Series’ of all time are either the clash of two titans or the underdog story up against the titan. When two underdogs go up against each other, the story fades and people lose interest. Super teams are what makes baseball great and watching them win or fail is a storyline that fits with our country’s entertainment expectations. Think about it. Imagine if TB made it to the WS and faced the Brewers. There are no fans in TB. Milwaukee is a place where most Americans have never traveled to and are essentially stereotyped to beer, cheese and brat-land. Not a soul would watch outside of Milwaukee (there are no Rays fans, so TB doesn’t count). Baseball is running into a declining fan base problem. As much as parity helped their growth of fan bases in the other 24 markets, having the Dodgers, Yankees, Angels, Mets, Red Sox, Cubs, or White Sox brings in an established, massive fan base and immediately increases viewership. That’s important in a game exceedingly being forgotten by the younger generations. Baseball ops got sick of seeing the Yanks win and geared rules entirely towards them and now it’s affecting the viewership. They need to lessen them again and let the big markets bring the fans back

Parity gets you TB vs PHI in the WS like 11 years ago when literally NOBODY watched. It’s better for baseball when Boston, Chicago, NY, or LA are in the WS

I’ve heard rumors of the same. Listen, money talks. I wonder if Moreno is willing to back up the truck for him. I have no qualms if he goes to LA and spurns all others to be home. But if he goes to LA because they’re the highest bidder, I’ll lose my f***ing mind

I think he hit 100mph on his 100th pitch the other day. So, yeah, no. Stupid remark

There’s a reason he was released. It wasn’t because of some sort of moral superiority. It was due to Wright needing TJS which was confirmed today.

That’s pretty realistic IMO. It’s more an indictment on the other two. Listen guys, arms only have so many pitches in them. You saw it two nights ago with CC. 3700 innings (including playoffs) and that was all his arm could take. Most guys, the threshold is far lower. Price’s arm is starting to bark. Wrist and elbow to this point. Shoulder is inevitable. All former big league or even high volume collegiate and HS pitchers end up with arthritic throwing shoulders for a reason. It’s unnatural and there’s a limit. Price is getting towards his. Sale might be heading towards his as well. You rarely see players regain lost velocity. You do see pitchers reinventing themselves. That’s your hope for Price and Sale. If they can reinvent themselves to live with lower velocity, then they can extend the inevitable

If I was AJ Hinch, I’d feign like we are going for it in game 6. Start Urquidy, go pen game thereafter with Peacock. I’d only extend Harris or Osuna if winning. Otherwise, I’d get the yanks pen tired for game 7. Make the yanks use all their best pen guys again. Make Kahnle and Britton enter the game. Keep it close and if game 7 comes, so be it. You know you’re facing Sevy, who’s not great with big pressure spots and who’s essentially a spring training arm right now. Wear him down and feast on a tired pen while Cole mows them down.

Well, back to Houston. Man, what a game. Paxton really showed some stones tonight

Assuming Chap holds this down, my guess is the Yanks go Green-Happ tomorrow. Maybe Cessa or Loaisiga if the game is going well. If we're down, it'll be Kahnle, Britton and Chap

So the guy who finished the year on the shelf with an elbow issue requiring PRP is the most likely to be healthy? Is that an indictment of the three or fanboy optimism about the one?