Dad, I love the optimism you display regularly with our Yanks. I wouldn't say that I'm specifically pessimistic, but I'm far away from anything that constitutes a "Yankee baseball scene", especially since I don't ride the train anymore and I took the newspaper app off my phone (it sure did suck...).
But a few weeks ago I had my laptop and I went through and watched all the available videos concerning the up-and-coming Yankee prospects...the future, as it were.
I don't remember their names, but there were a few mentioned. I was trying to be optimistic, feeling that eventually we'd talk, and I was trying to guess your view. Really I was trying to talk myself into Teixeria not being totally broken down and A-Rod being useful.
Headley at 3rd I'm not really against, but it seems like Yankee-Business-As-Usual---hire a former all-star on the back end of his career. He was an all-star, right?
Anyway, I like the Caribbean kid they have to follow up Jeter, Didi Gregorious, even though it sounds like he can't hit. Maybe I just like his name.
Dave Robertson's gone...is Dellin ready to close? Tanaka is a superstar, for sure, as long as his elbow holds up. For sure the rotation depends on him and CC and that kid from Miami, Nate Eovaldi. The Eovaldi move, for me, didn't have the Pavano-stink that that particular move had, but how much of that is the perpetual optimism we Yankee fans have?
What's the over-under on wins for the season? 87? I just went to look it up: 86 wins. They also mention McCann and Ellsbury, two guys I forgot. For some reason Beltran makes me sad like Teixeria, but McCann should bounce back well, and he wasn't even that bad. And Ellsbury was everything we wanted, right?
Maybe Nova will return before the Break and Pineda will leave the pine-tar alone while working up his rebuilt elbow...
See? Talked myself into some optimism...
I feel optimism for the Yanks every spring. I think it's an outgrowth of my old annual spring fever - you know, growing up in the Snow Belt and all. I just couldn't wait for the weather to warm up and the Ice Age to recede.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure I'm a very atypical Yankee fan - an outlier. I don't believe a baseball fan can really ask more than his team be competitive. It's a hard business, major league baseball, pursued by talented, cunning professionals on every side - on the field and off. So the success the Yankees had in the 90s and 2000s is remarkable, an outlier itself. So, having lived through so many droughts, I appreciate the grand successes so much more.
2015 will depend on good outcomes to a long series of issues. In order of importance, these are:
1. Tanaka's elbow
2. Sabathia's knee
3. Pineda's shoulder
3. Beltran's whatever it was
4. Teixeira's wrist
5. McCann's adjustment
4. Alex's age
Not each and every one of these issues will have a positive outcome. So I feel duty-bound to ponder which ones won't work out. I'm nominating Sabathia and Beltran for disappointment. However, if all the other issues work out, the Yanks will be a big presence in October. Particularly, if Tanaka and Pineda make 30 starts apiece, they Yanks are in the playoffs, no doubt in my mind. In that division? Oh, yeah.
So, see? Tempered optimism. But this offseason is unlike previous ones, too. Cashman traded Prado and got a 24 year-old starter with great upside and an excellent right-handed prospect with a big arm. He parlayed Shane Greene into Didi Gregorius, a guy they and a bunch of other teams had been trying to get for a long time. Arizona didn't give him up easily, and I don't understand the "good-field, no hit" label on him at all. He'll surprise with his offense and reaffirm the value of defense at shortstop. He's a sweet pickup.
But further, these moves were part of an overall "get younger and more flexible" approach. Cashman has been trying to do it for a few years now, and finally has enough influence in the front office to make it stick. They let Robertson go so they could get the draft pick, and they didn't sign any big name free agents, so they could keep their own pick. (Believe me, closers are overrated. Teams pay for saves, but any decent reliever can close. And this takes nothing away from the great Rivera - he was other-worldly. Relievers are volatile commodities year-to-year, but not Mo.) They went on a spending spree on the international free agent market last year, signing 4 of the consensus top-7 players, including the top two. (Yes, these 16 year-olds are a long way from the majors, but they already have excellent tools.) If they don't make the playoffs this year, I'll be amused by the hue and cry that goes up in the Daily News and the Post, but I won't mind, if they stay the course.
So, my optimism is more long-term. The Yanks have know-how and economic clout. They have a very smart guy in Cashman, who, if he's left alone to do his job, will deliver a lot of winners in the years to come. I'm also a Girardi fan. The Yanks had no business winning as much as they did last year - come on, they lost 4/5 of their rotation to injury, for gosh sakes.
I get this way before baseball season, every year. Best not to take what I say too literally. Except this post - you can take this post literally.
How do you like my progression of integers? Not really paying attention there ... lol
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