moonslav59

Yes, he did, but expecting him and others to do well was a pipe dream from day one of the season. More shocking was no moves were made to get a SP'er during the season, when the whole world could see the massive hole in the roster.

While I totally agree, and giving all those years to a guy that was age 32 year one was shocking, but nobody expected him to have just one season above .790 after the trade. What a complete dud signing!

Good one!

Delusions that Tanaka and Sevy would be playoff horses. Happ was due for an age-related steep decline year after beating the odds for so many years. Paxton pitched his predictable 150 innings and then went poof.

The rebuild was clearly incomplete.

The Astros will not win 3 straight. They will likely lose Cole this winter and maybe Springer, soon. They still have some farm talent to keep them up there for a while, but it's damn hard to repeat without getting better each year (or stay the same).

Yes, and I actually respect the guy, but he has this notion that the only way to rebuild is by using the failed Yankee model. (Maybe, it's intentional.)

Houston is the true juggernaut. The Yankee rotation was all smoke and mirrors. The rotation's weakness is what caused the overuse of Ottavino and the pen. Cashman is more to blame than Boone.

I'm glad we won't have to hear from ego-bloated Yankee fans all 2020 on how we should rebuild to greatness. (Actually, we still will, but at least it may not sound as obnoxious.)

Most Yankee fans are, but admitting it is the first step to recovery. Congrats!

He did, for sure, and there were other that played similar and varying roles- all important.

Agreed. It also wouldn't be fair to the ghost of Ted Williams to now make it illegal. It would be like the NCAA making dunking the ball illegal just because a big black guy was going to dominate the game, oh wait...

It's a priority not a commitment. My guess is we don't bring JBJ back and try to stay under the line while seeing if we can win. By the deadline, we decide to sell-off or maybe go over the line and make one final run at it, depending on how well or poorly we are doing. My own personal view is to just decide to reset and trade JBJ, JD and Betts with the idea that we make a strong push to bring Betts back as a FA after 2020.

I was best at basketball but enjoyed football, baseball and softball more. I played volleyball and racquetball a lot- not much soccer. When young, I played hockey on an ice pond 3 houses down from my home. I dabbled in tennis but like team sports more. Never golfed. I got into bridge in my mid forties and became the fastest ever to become a Bronze Life Master in the State of Maine. (I only play online, now.) Nice to see we have many things in common.

Were fans booing LeMahieu, Ottavino or Boone?

So, you were only 4 deep?

What happened to all that pen depth?

All I can say is "WOW!"

I totally agree. While many players have said similar things like, "We'll take one game at a time," Millar's attitude was genuine bravado. He was relaxed and confident, and it rubbed off on others. There were others on that team that contributed to the chemistry needed to pull off that type of comeback vs a damn good team. It was just the right mix. Even Manny's playful child-like attitude along with calm intensity helped.

Well Sale and Price made all their starts, until they didn't. Here are Sale's games started totals since 2012: 29 30 26 31 32 32 27 25 (2019) Price since 2010: 31 34 31 27 34 32 35 16 30 22 (2019) Starts from 2010 to 2016 (7 seasons): 224 Price 210 Porcello (Sale 207 in his previous 7 seasons before 2019) 2010-2018 (9 seasons): 276 Porcello 265 Price That's about one more start per year. Porcello is now reaching the age where Price began to miss starts.

I'm not sure it really matters much, if the guy you are starting is likely to be yanked early. I guess one could argue a true pen game is when the starter will be yanked early, even if he is doing well. Here is our W-L records with our non top 5 starters (I guess we did worse than I thought): GS Pitcher team records (pitcher ERA as a starter) 8 Velazquez 5-3 6.75 (22 IP) 7 Johnson 3-4 5.09 (23 IP) 6 Cashner 1-5 8.01 (30.1) 5 Chacin 2-3 7.90 (13.2) 3 Weber 2-1 7.94 (11.1) 3 Lakins 0-3 0.00 (5.2) 2 J Smith 0-2 9.82 (7.1) 1 J Taylor 0-1 0.00 (1.0) 1 D Hern 0-1 9.00 (3 IP) 1 Poyner 0-1 0.00 (2 IP) The bottom 5 were the obvious "BP games" and we went 0-8 in those starts, despiye some good efforst by some of the "starters". Interesting to note that the two guys we brought in from outside the organization went 3-8 with an ERA just under 8.00. The team went 8-7 in Velazquez and Johnson starts combined. (10-8 adding Weber) Note: we were 7-5 in Eovaldi's 12 starts. We were 18-14 in Porcello's starts. 25-19 Eovaldi+ Porcello .568 10-8 Johnson, Velazquez & Weber) .556 Basically, a 1% better chance of winning with our #4 & #5 slot starters over our #6-8's.

Here's a look at the biggest RP'er signings in recent years: '15-'16 $7.75M x 4 Darren O'Day 177 IP/1.05 WHIP/2.80 ERA $8.3M x 3 J Soria 190 IP/ 1.26/ 3.40 $7.3M x 3 R Madson 170 IP/ 1.02/ 2.55 $6.0M x 3 T Sipp 135 IP/ 1.32/ 3.99 $6.1M x 2 Clippard 134 IP/ 1.19/ 3.22 $6.0M x 2 Bastardo 125 IP/ 1.26/ 3.82 $5.75M x 2 C Young 212 IP/ 1.33/ 4.37 (1/2 SP'er) '16-'17 $17.2M x 5 Chapman 159 IP/1.10/2.61 (2 seasons left) $16.0M x 5 Jansen 203 IP/0.93/ 2.66 ( 2 left) $15.5M x 4 Melancon 136 IP/1.42/ 3.70 (1 left) $7.63M x 4 B Cecil 100 IP/1.47/ 4.86 (1 left) '17-'18 $17M x 3 Wade Davis 108 IP/1.38/ 5.92 (1 yr left) $9.0M x 3 Bryan Shaw 127 IP/1.55/ 5.61 (1 left) $9.0M x 3 Jake McGee 93 IP/ 1.44/ 5.54 (1 left) $10.5M x 2 B Morrow 74 IP/ 0.98/ 1.82 $9.0M x 2 T Hunter 69 IP/ 1.18/3.50 $8.5M x 2 J Nicasio 89 IP/ 1.52/ 5.34 $8.4M x 2 A Reed 56 IP/1.43/ 4.50 $8.0M x 2 P Neshek 42 IP/ 1.25/ 3.61 $14M x 1 G Holland 46 IP/ 1.62/ 4.66 '18-'19 $14.3M x 3 Kimbrel 21 IP/1.60/ 6.53 (2 yrs left) $13.0M x 3 Britton 61 IP/ 1.14/ 1.91 (2) $10M x 3 Familia 60 IP/ 1.73/ 5.70 (2) $9.0M x 3 Ottavino 66 IP/ 1.31/ 1.90 (2) $12.5M x 2 A Miller 55 IP/ 1.32/ 4.45 (1) $11.5M x 2 D Robertson 7 IP/ 2.10/ 5.40 (1) $9.0M x 2 Herrera 51 IP/ 1.62/ 6.14 (1) $7.5M x 2 J Soria 68 IP/1.03/ 4.24 (1) $8.5M x 1 C Allen 23 IP/ 1.91/ 6.26

I wasn't really thinking of his starts as pen games, but I guess we knew he'd likely be yanked after 1-3 innings. Either way, we won a lot of games that our 5th starter or pen started.

I remember feeling so dejected after the third loss. That 2003 team was something special, and I felt they'd show it in 2004. They shocked me and the world! I'm not sure, if I've ever been happier than after that final out in the World Series.

I was kind of surprised how well we did in BP games, especially since everybody was saying our pen sucked.