MLB 2022: The Long and Winding Thread

Shortstop is going to go Volpe, and I think a lot of Yankee fans will be okay with that. Now the Judge thing......

 

If the Mets signed Judge it would take the Yankees a generation to get back. Like a Stump Merrill generation.

 

BYH-

I heard Manfred interviews in the pre-covid world where he'd attack the interviewer. He is said to have zero people skills.

 

Yeah, people who wax romantically about Big Stein do not remember how the stadium busted out in a standing ovation when he got "banned for life" in 1990. But he was great at PR--he shoveled the bullshit about making the city happy when the Yankees won and letting it down when the Yankees lost--and had the survival skills/good fortune to oversee a dynasty that rebuilt his rep. I'm sure Hal is a much nicer man and much easier person to work for, but he is just a complete zero at PR. If George were still with us, it would still cost hundreds of dollars just to walk into the Stadium. But he'd soften the blows with his bombast. Hal is a non-entity in that regard and it's resulted in people becoming much more cynical, win-or-bust about the Yankee experience now.

 

This offseason highlighted the surprising place where the Yankees went off the rails. When the Stanton trade was made, it was nearly universally praised as a steal, and symptomatic of the problem of big/small market dynamic and nearly guaranteeing the Yankees a dynasty. I wonder if I'm remembering correctly, if we could find the thread here.
Turned out that the Stanton contract (which is no longer outrageous), kept them out of the Harper / Machado sweepstakes, as how could they justify that much resources & star power in righty power hitters. Those two contracts, IIRC, got far more mixed reviews, and they too are no longer outrageous, but far more productive. The only thing that kept Machado out of the WS was that he had to go through Harper.

 

That deal never happens if literally any other human on earth is running the Marlins. The chance to rip off Jeter and give him a big fuck you was too much to resist for Cashman.

 

There were two sides to that issue. The primary issue with those deals is small markets selling off their stars without getting proper value in talent coming back because they need the high-revenue team to take on a big contract. That the Yankees didn't manage the room in their self-determined cap well enough to get other players doesn't change that in terms of talent, it was a lopsided deal. They got Starlin Castro and a couple of crappy prospects.

I call it a self-determined cap because the Yankees can afford to spend more and still make money. They choose to try to stay under the luxury tax threshold, but they have the revenue to blow past it any time they want to do so.

 

Mostly apropos of nothing, I just looked up Stanton's Baseball-Reference page. He averages 43 homers per 162 games played. Discounting his rookie season (recalled in June 2010) and the pandemic season, he's played 130+ games in a season just five times in 11 seasons. His 162-game averages plus his 2010 and 2020 seasons would have him at 499 homers right now. Even assuming he wouldn't ever play 162 games in a season (who does anymore?), he'd be making a serious run at Barry Bonds with some better health.

 

He's a poor man's Reggie Jackson -- obviously not as good fielder/runner and doesn't have the postseason success but as a hitter they are almost the same guy.

 

Tigers, David Chadd “agree to part ways”

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/...tant-general-manager-david-chadd/69587908007/

 

"Chadd was responsible for drafting Alex Avila, Nick Castellanos, Chad Green, Corey Knebel, James McCann, Andrew Miller, Rick Porcello and Drew Smyly while overseeing the Tigers' amateur scouting department."

Literally the definition of "damning with faint praise" right there.

 

Also failed at killing the Queen.