jacksonianmarch

I was out tonight and man that first inning was awesome. Gotta keep them at bay. Cole moved to game 7. Take today and we might get to game 7

And btw, this is the final year of the Stros dominance. They’re getting expensive. Cole is going elsewhere (hopefully NY). And my bet is the Stros deal Springer this offseason (he’s a FA after 2020) and install Tucker in the lineup to save some coin. Greinke isn’t what he was and he’ll be older. Verlander has to fade eventually. Whitley, McCullers and Urquidy will round out an old top heavy rotation filled in with question marks at the back end. This is the final year of their window. They’ll be good next year, but not dominant

Stanton is the only real long term signing. Hicks and Severino are the longest contracts beyond Stanton. And honestly, I do wonder if Stanton absolutely murders the baseball next year if he takes a little haircut and goes elsewhere using his opt out. It unlikely, but possible if Stanton goes all 59 homer again

So, couple things. EE’s $5 mil buyout is being paid by the Rays. While he’s worth $15 mil, he’s not worth that for us. He’s gonna get bought out and it’ll cost us nothing. After 2020, we have 5 highly paid guys coming off the roster with only two I’d like to retain. Lemahieu is underpaid and I’d like him back. Tanaka is overpaid and I’d like him back. Happ and Ellsbury have literally no worth to the 2020 team. Paxton may be internally replaced. And with Happ missing time, his option won’t vest. My bet is Tanaka and Lemahieu cost about the same with the overpaid part of Tanaka going to Lemahieu. Paxton goes off and gets overpaid elsewhere. Happ and Ellsbury retire. That frees up $51 mil with about half of it going to arbitration raises. It would allow us to make another big addition for 2021.

I am hoping for a Yankee win for sure.

I referenced our situation on the Yankees side. If we retain Chapman, we will have about $40 mil to play with before hitting the final threshold. The good thing about our cap situation is that significant money falls off after 2020, so we can probably spend more even with our arb guys getting expensive

They looked so defeated yesterday, I doubt they make tonight much of a game. Yankee stadium was rocking, we took an early lead. That Springer HR was a gut punch that just ended our night. They say momentum stops with the next game’s starting pitcher, but when all your starters are great and you take the momentum in a series, it snowballs.

Cashman needs to take heat for not getting a top tier starter. Paxton’s injury issues make him a 3. Tanaka may be a 1 in the POs, but with his reg season production being more a #3, the chances remain that he falls back to that like he did last night. Sevy is our only guy with ace like ability, but he was hurt all year and in the years he wasn’t hurt, he’s been a late season swoon guy. We need a guy who can go wire to wire leading a rotation, which will take pressure off the rest of the promising rotation. Nothing damages potential like expectations.

Once Boone brought Ottavino into game 2, we’ve been outscored 14-4. It’s as if that Springer homer flipped a switch. Yanks showing no life at home. Houston looking unbeatable. Amazing how one bad managerial move can turn a juggernaut into a meek mouse.

I hope so. Make me look like a fool Yanks. Please. Reverse lock? Not sure. But that was the most uninspired baseball I’ve seen in the Bronx in years. They were defeated as soon as Springer went yard

It’s easy to see. Since Verlander toed the slab down 0-1, the starting pitchers have done the following HOU 18IP 3R NYY 11.2IP 7R It’s not rocket science. You cannot hand your pen a deficit early in games and expect to win against World Series champion level opponents. You’ve got to win the early innings as much as you win the later ones.

Now they’re imploding. f*** this. Goodnight

Ottavino. They booed him at introductions today

We had Betances, Green, Ottavino, Britton, Kahnle, and Chapman. Betances ripped his achilles, Ottavino has lost it. Now we have 4 guys when we had 6

Ottavino was burned out this year. Betances ripped his achilles. Green spit the bit today.

I've been sitting on this thread since the end of the regular season. Today is a gut punch and this team looks dead right now

The human white flag is out in the pen. Ottavino was used to much this year that he's toast. Colorado did it to him last year too.

Faith has nothing to do with it. We have no rhythm in this lineup. None. Now we get Harris and Osuna

With the Astros taking the big lead in game 4 and now staring Verlander, Cole and someone else in the face with 2 of the 3 in Houston, it is fair to say this series isn't looking good. Not willing to say it is entirely over, but enough for me to post this thread. First order of business. Gut the entire strength and conditioning team. Then gut the medical team. Hell, Stevie Donahue gets the heave-ho too. The amount of injuries and delays in returning were incomprehensible. This was more than just s*** luck. This was a conspiracy of bumbling buffoons. All of them go. The current Yankees roster construction needs to be put into question. We kill the ball all season, then get to the POs and we cannot hit. This has happened 3 years in a row. We seemed to address this with the addition of Lemahieu and seeing some serious strides with Gleyber and Judge. But when you're relying on 3 guys in a lineup of 9 and the other 6 are literally killing your team, a change is needed. We added Stanton two years ago and while he is an upgrade, his health issues this year raise the most important question of, why the ever-living f*** are we playing with only 24 guys for the hope he is ready for the world series? Lots of questions. No real good answers. But the biggest question as roster construction goes is, why do we continue to fall short with the starting pitching. Yes, we went out and got Paxton. He was good, but he wasn't an ace beforehand, he isn't an ace now. His injury issues cropped up again and he is clearly hurt right now (dealt with sciatica to end the regular season campaign). Sevy battled back from injury, but he's a 4 inning pitcher this season. I expect more next year. German beat his girlfriend, otherwise he'd be our 4th starter in the POs. We have a lot of potential in the rotation, but potential only gets you so far. We need a lock down ace. Lots of people on here killed Cashman for not getting Corbin. Corbin was very good for the Nats this year, but his 7+ ERA in the playoffs this year doesn't make him look like a savior either. People killed him for not getting Greinke, but Greinke isn't a post season ace either and he had a no trade with NYY, so we couldn't get him. Where we really fell off the map was not getting Scherzer when he was available. For not getting in on a real, top tier ace. Well, that time has come. Cole and Strasburg will hit the open market. Both are aces. Both are dominant with the chips on the line. We need to get one of them. No question, no jumping out of the way of this. One of them must be on our roster come 2020. How feasible is that financially? Well, if Chapman opts out and we keep the entire team intact (unlikely), we will have $192 mil on the books (this includes the arb predictions from mlbtraderumors). We would need to find a way to re-up Chapman. No other big time closers are on the list. While I doubt Chap gets $18 mil AAV on the open market, I do think he can get more years. Maybe we tack on 2 yrs and $28 mil onto his current deal and make it a 4 yr $64 mil deal and call it a day. Drop his AAV to $16 mil and leave us right at the first lux tax limit. This would leave us with $40 mil to play with. I move all my chips to the center and use as much of the $40 mil as I need to get Cole. 8 year $260 mil deal? Sign me up. We cannot be outbid. Cole is a strange cat, though. This is the same guy who professed his love for the Yankees enough for them to draft him in the 1st round only for him to say he was going to school. He is a SoCal guy and the Angels need an ace. Do they make the commitment? Who knows. But we need to be the top dollar offer. If he takes another deal for other reasons, then we cannot do anything about that. Then you turn your attention to Strasburg. His long term deal would be shorter because of the injury history, but he has the better playoff history. Fine, one of them must be leading our rotation for 2020. No questions asked. Then we need to address some of our depth. We let EE walk (TB is actually paying his opt out). Didi, good luck in FA. Brett, great knowing you. We will see JMont return. We will see Andujar return. German will eventually be reinstated. Depth on the team will abound. If we bring back Chappy and sign an ace and bring back everyone else under contract, this would be the club C- Sanchez, Higashioka 1B- Voit, Ford 2B- Lemahieu, Estrada SS- Torres, Wade 3B- Andujar, Urshela LF- Tauchman, Frazier CF- Hicks RF- Judge DH- Stanton SP1- Cole or Strasburg SP2- Severino SP3- Tanaka SP4- Paxton SP5- German, Montgomery, Loaisiga CL- Chapman SU- Britton SU- Ottavino SU- Kahnle SU- Green RP- Cessa, et al Depth will not be a problem for another season, but it might be time to cash in on some of it. Do we package some of these guys together and get another ace. Do we package some of these guys together and get another hitter like Lemahieu. Do we make a drastic deal and send out Sanchez and re-sign Romine. Lots of moving parts here. Lots of options. But going into the season, the three biggest things in order are 1. Sign an ace 2. Fire entire strength, conditioning, medical staff 3. Re-sign Chapman That's the start. Hopefully, the offseason can be fended off for a bit, but it isn't looking good at this point. The Astros are just a better team at this juncture

Gonna start rooting for the Nats

And that's the series.

Not looking good for the pinstripers

He’s got no f***ing life in the dugout. No life in the lineup. He reminds me of Torre near the end

EE sucks

This might be the game here