Anyone else watching the Yankees....

[GeoWar]

The Yankees need a change ..

Cashman (his staff) , Boone (his staff) , the Development staff , the Scouting staff

It is not just ONE BAD TRADE or one manager decision ----

THE BOSS ( George ) would never had put up with this . Produce or I will find someone who can . Not numbers - WIN BABY.

[Déjà Bru]

Somebody commented that this is the latest in the season the Yankees have been .500 or worse since Sept. 1995.

[Déjà Bru]

You know, from what I have learned over the years watching the sport, and from playing OOB, and putting aside the sabermetrics that justify some of this, I can tell you why the Yankees are so bad right now. It's a combination of mostly bad players and bad lineup management.



#1, a 35-year-old player not known for his speed or, these days, his OBP (currently .316) leading off.
#2, the team's best hitter hitting in the second spot — what is the point of this again? — when he should be in the cleanup spot.
#3, the other spot for the team's best hitter, third, occupied by a guy who should be near the bottom of the lineup.
#4, a cleanup hitter with a .199 AVG and .436 SLG but occasionally hits long homers — sad, really.
#5, another guy who should be in the bottom third of the lineup.
#6, ditto, but it's getting crowded down there.
#7, this guy is your starting left fielder?
#8, the golden boy who, frankly, should have gone back to AAA; perhaps he would be back up and be better now.
#9, I don't care if he is a catcher; a .098 batting average does not cut it.

You look at this jumbled lineup of mediocre to bad players, with one exception who cannot carry the team by himself, and you know why this team is so bad.

I rarely jump on this bandwagon, but I will now:

1) Boone should be fired because he is an uninspired slave to the statheads in the front office who tell him what to do. But that's not all.
2) Cashman put this team together (including the pitching, which could also be discussed). He's been around too long and it's time for a change.

The Yankees need to clean house from top to bottom. Definitely, that lineup up there needs to be flushed down the drain, with one exception. Only one.

[Westheim]

The best part of Greg Allen was when he failed to catch that pop yesterday that came within inches of ending his suffering.

You can't do much with that personnel. At all. The running gag in the Raccoons thread is me signing a meh hitter and then declaring "well, somebody's gotta bat eighth!". In this case, somebody's gotta bat in the top half.

There's not a lot you can do. I'd move Gleyber Torres to the top and slide the 1-2 down one notch. And I fear that's all you can really do besides getting a new roster.

Btw, welcome in the land of sub-.500. We have cookies here, too, but the pack has been opened a week ago and they're kinda stale now.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

#1, a 35-year-old player not known for his speed or, these days, his OBP (currently .316) leading off.

Looking over that post, this especially irks me for some reason. You want to keep throwing Volpe out there until he sinks or swims? Okay, then bat him leadoff.

For many decades, it was wisdom in baseball to have your first and maybe second guys in the lineup be the speedy ones who can get on base regularly. This, to set the table for the third and fourth batters to capitalize upon.

Granted, Volpe isn't getting on base very much but when he does he has shown a capability for stealing bases and setting up runs. But Boone thinks LeMahieu is better for that spot. Oh wait, Boone does NOT think that. Boone is told that by Cashman's statheads.

Maybe Boone does think that his stupid, spitting tirades on the field will inspire his players. Or his latest "This ain't over" statement which is starting to sound ridiculous given 16 GB in the division, in last place by 5 games, and 8 games from the final wildcard spot on August 20.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Btw, welcome in the land of sub-.500. We have cookies here, too, but the pack has been opened a week ago and they're kinda stale now.

Thanks, but no thanks.

They say Yankee fans are spoiled, but there are degrees. I am not one of those who cannot take failing to win a championship every year.

I am spoiled, however, by a team that has been competitive year after year. That's all I really ask for. That is what I am missing now.

How in the heck do you follow and love a team that is this bad for an extended length of time? For, there are teams like that.

What am I saying? I already know the answer, at least for me. It is this: You don't.

That is why I wrote off the Knicks and the Giants and still do despite very recent flickers of success. Too much water under the bridge has to reverse flow before I will pay attention to those sorry franchises again.

I surely hope the Yankees can turn this around and be at least respectable again but it has to be sooner, not later.

Start with the top personnel changes that I mentioned above. Then flush up to 95% of the roster. Literally; 38 out of 40 guys if necessary.

[Westheim]

Do the Steinbrenner have the funds to rebuild the Steve Cohen way, though?

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Do the Steinbrenner have the funds to rebuild the Steve Cohen way, though?

Probably not, the po' boys. Comparatively speaking, of course.

But we have seen that is not they way, haven't we? Why not old fashioned search and development?

There has been rough talk in local media that the Yankees analytical department are arrogant lunkheads stuck in their laptops. Without field experience, they have been overruling the scouting department with their sabermetric junk.

[Westheim]

Everybody knows you draft the players with the funny names, because people will identify with things that make them chuckle. Which is why the Raccoons have a Brassfield, a Puckeridge, and a Lonzo.

...and more success in the last ten years than the Yanks.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Everybody knows you draft the players with the funny names

Four of the top Yankees prospects are Everson Pereira, Oswald Peraza, Oswaldo Cabrera, and Austin Wells.

Wells, I have no trouble remembering.

The first three, however, are interchangeable to me. I cannot consistently tell them apart.

Yes, it's partly ethnocentrism.

[Amazin69]

Excuse me, but why has Florial spent half the season in AAA, putting up a .290/.383/.573 slash-line, but getting exactly 1 game (and 0 PA) in the Bronx?

He's 25, he doesn't need seasoning. You are not making the playoffs, so it's time to get next season's team in place. He plays CF. WTF is he doing in Scranton????

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

Excuse me, but why has Florial spent half the season in AAA, putting up a .290/.383/.573 slash-line, but getting exactly 1 game (and 0 PA) in the Bronx?

He's 25, he doesn't need seasoning. You are not making the playoffs, so it's time to get next season's team in place. He plays CF. WTF is he doing in Scranton????

Maybe his sideburns are too long.

[Amazin69]

Also, why is Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who is in his 6th season in the bigs and has yet to post a .700 OPS, playing positions associated with hitters, such as LF and 3B? IK-F has two natural positions, shortstop and bench, and that's it. The "Kiner" you want in LF is Ralph and he's dead. Sorry.

Let Gleyber play his natural 3B slot and it will help his hitting. Jamie Westbrook (is he related to Jake?) is no prospect at age 28, but he's hitting .301/.412/.520 at SWB and he's an actual 2B. Gotta be better than Torres or a retirement-age DJ at getitng to balls.

Range Factor at 2B, this year:

Westbrook, 4.17
Gleyber, 4.02
DJ LaAncienne, 3.13

[Déjà Bru]

You have to understand: You need a manager who 1) thinks of these things, and 2) has the courage to do what is right rather than consulting the spreadsheets sent to him by the front office.

Earlier in this thread, I made a joke about the song "Free fallin'" and boy, I wasn't kidding as it is turning out.

[Amazin69]

If the spreadsheets say that IK-F is the answer to your 3B/LF slugging needs, somebody needs to reboot that machine.

Possibly with an axe.

(Not trying to pile on, but gosh.)

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

If the spreadsheets say that IK-F is the answer to your 3B/LF slugging needs, somebody needs to reboot that machine.

Possibly with an axe.

(Not trying to pile on, but gosh.)

Yeah, as in Boone and Cashman should be axed, as I mentioned above.

[GeoWar]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Thanks, but no thanks.

They say Yankee fans are spoiled, but there are degrees. I am not one of those who cannot take failing to win a championship every year.

I am spoiled, however, by a team that has been competitive year after year. That's all I really ask for. That is what I am missing now.
.

The Yankees won -- I think year one under Giradi --- but not in the years since
Spoiled ????/

Have you read any of the minor league player profiles --- most top players say something like getting stronger -- losing speed - defense needs improvement

It is an organizational problem --- people are too comfortable

[Amazin69]

Boone's boys, Sunday:

LaMahieu 3
Judge dh
Torres 4
Bauers 9
Kiner-Falefa 5
Bader 8
McKinney 7
Volpe 6
Higashioka 2

The outfield alternates went a combined 0-for8, but did score a run. They are now batting .208 and .227, respectively.

However, the catcher did go deep, and five runs is often enough. It just wasn't, thanks to the pitching, which appears to be a story of its own.
*************************

Fun fact: barring a miraculous turnaround, this will be the 14th consecutive season that the World Series is not held in the Bronx. This will tie 1982-1995 as the longest WS-drought for any team called "New York" since the arrival of Da Babe.

(The Mets missed the Series from 2001-2014. [Swing the f***ing bat, Carlos!!!]. The Giants' longest absence was 12 seasons, from 1939-1950. The Dodgers did go 20 seasons [1921-1940] without a Fall Classic appearance, but that's why I specified "New York".)

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Amazin69

Fun fact: barring a miraculous turnaround, this will be the 14th consecutive season that the World Series is not held in the Bronx. This will tie 1982-1995 as the longest WS-drought for any team called "New York" since the arrival of Da Babe.

Now, granted it became much easier to make the "playoffs" after 1995, but the period you mentioned was bleak, indeed. It was perhaps even worse than the 1965-1975 desert the team went through.

Could we be entering another prolonged era of futility? "Impossible," you may say. "These are the New York Yankees!"

Except for one thing. Genius, tyrant, and moneybags George Steinbrenner was in charge of the team during both previous terrible eras (aside from a couple of pro forma suspensions — yeah, sure, he had nothing to do with running the team in those occasions ).

[GeoWar]

With Yankees you must compete.

But I (as a Yankee fan) do not take great joy or pride in making playoffs . It is about the World Series and Titles .

This Yamkee organization would not be around --- produce or get different leadership.