NOW THAT THE DUST HAS SETTLED,
I think I see it.
What were the Yankees thinking in subtracting relief pitching when the bullpen is the weakest area on the team? I don't know if Proctor was the third best reliever on the team--I'd have put him fourth at best behind Bruney, maybe fifth behind Villone, at least now that Torre has totally blown out his arm--but when everyone can get hit, they certainly need bodies back there. Are they running up the white flag as BGW suggests and preparing for next year? Or does bringing back Ramirez, bringing in Karstens, and bringing up Ohlendorff and of course Chamberlain really give them the best chance this year. Or is this a F*&! Joe Torre (trademark pending)?I think all of these things are true at the same time. Cashman believes they can get to October with some combination of these new, underworked relievers in place of the overworked ones they currently have: don't be surprised if Bruney, Villone or Meyers go at some point. The front office might well be moving to the point of denying Joe the comfort of the status quo, taking away his mediocre veterans and leaving him only the youngsters to go to.
But the point at which these present and future imperatives nmay disverge may be Chamberlain. The future is, or should be, a rotation that includes Wang, Hughes, Kennedy and Chamberlain. That prospect would indicate keeping Joba in the minors starting, even though he may be a better bullpen solution than Ohlendorf, Ramirez or Karstens. Either way it should be interesting.
The most traumatic part of the trade deadline was also the most hopeful. The Yankees refusal to give up any of their young guns for Eric Gagne led directly to the Red Sox acquiring him. While that move may give the Chowderboys the modern equivalent of the Nasty Boys, as one pundit put it, it shows that the Yankees are thinking in terms of dynasty building again instead of quick fixes. If they had acquired Gagne, everyone would have said, there they go again giving up on the future for a broken down veteran, and every one would be right (I'll comment below on the Red Sox decision to trade Gabbard). Secondly, it shows that the Yankees are back to charting their own course rather than seeking to interfere in the Sox's plans. Daniel told Cashman straight up, if you don't part with Kennedy, Chamberlain or Cabrera for Gagne, the Sox will get him, and Cashman said well then they'll get him. The emulous reactive mode of personnel strategy was always Red Sox ideology, no the Yankees, and it never served them particularly well. With the media explosion surrounding the rivalry, the Yankees have been drawn into the maelstrom of worrying about their chief enemy instead of the ultimate goal and it has purchased them the fool's gold of division titles at the expense of the rings. It's good to see the organization step back form this syndrome. It could only lead to a greater reliance on the mercenary approach to building the team rather than the cultivation of home grown talent. (The Bronx Is Burning Yankees was the only island of success for the mercenary approach in a franchise that has won consistently from within.)
What about the Red Sox move? Well if this was fantasy baseball, the pick-up would be an unimpeachable score, and it may turn out that way in real life, at least for this season. But their bullpen certainly ain't broke, so the impulse to fix it has to count as a dangerous one. They have promised Gagne thatn he will be the main set-up man for Papelbon and the sometime closer. But Okajima is in fact better than Gagne, by a considerable margin. While Gagne has cashed almost all of his save opportunities, you have to remember that these have come against mainly bad teams, the only kind Texas beats. As the closer, he has in fact appeared against mainly bad teams, making that 2.15 ERA a little deflated. The comments by some that he is the Gagne of old is flatly contradicted by major league scouts and by the radar gun, which shows his fastball at 91 not 97, greatly decreasing the gap for his change-up. I don'tr see how you move Okajima and his 0.98 ERA back into the seventh in favor of Gagne, particularly if the latter isalso to pitch the 9th occasionally. If they don't keep their promise to Gagne, on the other hand, he is likely to destroy the chemistry of the bullpen. He's a rental anyway; he will surely leave to reclaim his closer status next year. If he feels lied to he is likely to take the kind of aggrieved mercenary attitude that can hurt a team. The sox are playing with fire, and while it may blaze their trail to the world series, it might also burn down their house. You have to wonder, given that their greatest need is offensive production and their second is long relief, did they make this deal just to keep Gagne from the Yankees--a bad reason when your 8 games up--or because they couldn't resist Gagne's reputation, despite the injury problems, a Yankee-like thing to do. In either case, they gave up alot for a rental. Jason Stark claims they didn't give up any of their 6 top prospects, but the fact is they offered one of them, Hansen, and the raqngers rightly preferred Gabbard. Like DelCarmen, one of their other "top" prospects, Hansen proved to be not very good at all, while Gabbard has been excellent, 4-0, an ERA lower than anyone on their staff not named Beckett, a much more solid pitcher this year than another one of their top prospects, Lester, was even before his cancer scare. They also gave away Beltre, and did so reluctantly, knowing 5 years from now, long after Gagne has left Boston, and likely the majors, the consequences of this deal are likely to haunt them. This is the kind of deal for which the Yankees have long been known and long been criticized. Sometimes that criticism has been unfounded, as mine might turn out to be here, but more often it has been dead on. And it will be in thic case, unless Boston manges to win it all, which Gagne or no Gagne is considerably less than an even chance.
Before this deal happened, or was even discussed, I told my Bosox-loving brother that I thought their chances may well rest on whether they were willing to depart from plan and reputation and make Gabbard part of their top three, ahead of the (ever)fat(ter) man and Lester. Now they have forfeited that opportunity altogether. We'll see.
What were the Yankees thinking in subtracting relief pitching when the bullpen is the weakest area on the team? I don't know if Proctor was the third best reliever on the team--I'd have put him fourth at best behind Bruney, maybe fifth behind Villone, at least now that Torre has totally blown out his arm--but when everyone can get hit, they certainly need bodies back there. Are they running up the white flag as BGW suggests and preparing for next year? Or does bringing back Ramirez, bringing in Karstens, and bringing up Ohlendorff and of course Chamberlain really give them the best chance this year. Or is this a F*&! Joe Torre (trademark pending)?I think all of these things are true at the same time. Cashman believes they can get to October with some combination of these new, underworked relievers in place of the overworked ones they currently have: don't be surprised if Bruney, Villone or Meyers go at some point. The front office might well be moving to the point of denying Joe the comfort of the status quo, taking away his mediocre veterans and leaving him only the youngsters to go to.
But the point at which these present and future imperatives nmay disverge may be Chamberlain. The future is, or should be, a rotation that includes Wang, Hughes, Kennedy and Chamberlain. That prospect would indicate keeping Joba in the minors starting, even though he may be a better bullpen solution than Ohlendorf, Ramirez or Karstens. Either way it should be interesting.
The most traumatic part of the trade deadline was also the most hopeful. The Yankees refusal to give up any of their young guns for Eric Gagne led directly to the Red Sox acquiring him. While that move may give the Chowderboys the modern equivalent of the Nasty Boys, as one pundit put it, it shows that the Yankees are thinking in terms of dynasty building again instead of quick fixes. If they had acquired Gagne, everyone would have said, there they go again giving up on the future for a broken down veteran, and every one would be right (I'll comment below on the Red Sox decision to trade Gabbard). Secondly, it shows that the Yankees are back to charting their own course rather than seeking to interfere in the Sox's plans. Daniel told Cashman straight up, if you don't part with Kennedy, Chamberlain or Cabrera for Gagne, the Sox will get him, and Cashman said well then they'll get him. The emulous reactive mode of personnel strategy was always Red Sox ideology, no the Yankees, and it never served them particularly well. With the media explosion surrounding the rivalry, the Yankees have been drawn into the maelstrom of worrying about their chief enemy instead of the ultimate goal and it has purchased them the fool's gold of division titles at the expense of the rings. It's good to see the organization step back form this syndrome. It could only lead to a greater reliance on the mercenary approach to building the team rather than the cultivation of home grown talent. (The Bronx Is Burning Yankees was the only island of success for the mercenary approach in a franchise that has won consistently from within.)
What about the Red Sox move? Well if this was fantasy baseball, the pick-up would be an unimpeachable score, and it may turn out that way in real life, at least for this season. But their bullpen certainly ain't broke, so the impulse to fix it has to count as a dangerous one. They have promised Gagne thatn he will be the main set-up man for Papelbon and the sometime closer. But Okajima is in fact better than Gagne, by a considerable margin. While Gagne has cashed almost all of his save opportunities, you have to remember that these have come against mainly bad teams, the only kind Texas beats. As the closer, he has in fact appeared against mainly bad teams, making that 2.15 ERA a little deflated. The comments by some that he is the Gagne of old is flatly contradicted by major league scouts and by the radar gun, which shows his fastball at 91 not 97, greatly decreasing the gap for his change-up. I don'tr see how you move Okajima and his 0.98 ERA back into the seventh in favor of Gagne, particularly if the latter isalso to pitch the 9th occasionally. If they don't keep their promise to Gagne, on the other hand, he is likely to destroy the chemistry of the bullpen. He's a rental anyway; he will surely leave to reclaim his closer status next year. If he feels lied to he is likely to take the kind of aggrieved mercenary attitude that can hurt a team. The sox are playing with fire, and while it may blaze their trail to the world series, it might also burn down their house. You have to wonder, given that their greatest need is offensive production and their second is long relief, did they make this deal just to keep Gagne from the Yankees--a bad reason when your 8 games up--or because they couldn't resist Gagne's reputation, despite the injury problems, a Yankee-like thing to do. In either case, they gave up alot for a rental. Jason Stark claims they didn't give up any of their 6 top prospects, but the fact is they offered one of them, Hansen, and the raqngers rightly preferred Gabbard. Like DelCarmen, one of their other "top" prospects, Hansen proved to be not very good at all, while Gabbard has been excellent, 4-0, an ERA lower than anyone on their staff not named Beckett, a much more solid pitcher this year than another one of their top prospects, Lester, was even before his cancer scare. They also gave away Beltre, and did so reluctantly, knowing 5 years from now, long after Gagne has left Boston, and likely the majors, the consequences of this deal are likely to haunt them. This is the kind of deal for which the Yankees have long been known and long been criticized. Sometimes that criticism has been unfounded, as mine might turn out to be here, but more often it has been dead on. And it will be in thic case, unless Boston manges to win it all, which Gagne or no Gagne is considerably less than an even chance.
Before this deal happened, or was even discussed, I told my Bosox-loving brother that I thought their chances may well rest on whether they were willing to depart from plan and reputation and make Gabbard part of their top three, ahead of the (ever)fat(ter) man and Lester. Now they have forfeited that opportunity altogether. We'll see.
posted by joe valente | 11:20 AM
2 Comments:
Well, today was a bizaare game; regardless even though the Yanks won another series, they also lost a game in the WC and the division. It's a reminder how deep the hole they dug really is that every loss hurts like this.
RE: the trade. I still think Proctor is ahead of Brunney and Villone on the depth chart; but the point isn't worth arguing because they are all mediocre and the precise differences in degree of mediocrity between them all don't amount to much. My question, again, is how this benefits the team. I still don't see it, Betemit's 3 run hr. nonwithstanding. it just seems really random.
I know no one was going to take the big F without asking for the Yanks to pick up most of his salary. but: he not only sucks, he is a malcontent, bad teamate who has openly disrespected Torre, Posada, and Clemens; is a whiner and, despite his size and his past reputation for brawling, a total milquetoast.
Proctor, at least, loved being a Yankee, was a good teamate, and had a bulldog personality on and off the mound. given how desperate this team is for a modicum of chemistry, it just seems like a really bad choice.
again, i know it wasn't as simple as a choice between unloading F or P, cause no one really wanted F, at least not so much they would take on his contract. But the reality is, there's no way F will finish out his contract in the Bronx, which runs through next season. why not get it over with now? the yanks will be paying him to pitch elsewhere at some point; why draw it out? he's a drag on the team in terms of his pitching and in his presence.
Maybe Cashman expects to pull some waiver deal off, but that seems unlikely givent he realities of his contract. so we'll see.
but maybe Torre sending him out today afterhe ptiched last night was Slow Joe's own Fuck you to the big F: you want to pitch more, let's see you how you actually do when you get regular work. and the results speak for themselves.
well, I'm going to London for a week, and will studiously avoid any news from the baseball world. Here's hoping for a first place, farnsworth-less team by the time I get back....
Actually, the big F's contract makes a waiver deal easier. Noone will pick him up of the wire because then they'll have to pay him. Once he clears the Yankees can off him while eating most of his contract. The nearer the end of the season, the more a reliever, any reliever, is in demand. I think that's what Cashboy was thinking at the deadline. I still believe the plan is to drain the bullpen swamp and force Torre to pitchn the kids. Big game today, Hughes can be the trailblazer for Joba et al, or he can simply harden Torre in his position.
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