The 2023 Running Baseball Thread

It's generally a good thing Hal isn't his Dad. George treated people terribly and had unreasonable expectations. You simply can't win every year. His legacy as the guy whose quick trigger resulted in success was largely built on his first few firings yielding a mini-dynasty. I just defended the '80s teams, but it was a perpetually disappointing decade in which he managed to alienate Yogi, the nicest man in the world. He was Trump before Trump (except with actual money and enough smarts to stay in his lane and not expose his dirty laundry...plus the smarts to not fuck around too much with a good thing in 1996 & thereafter). It's actually sort of refreshing that Hal stays out of the baseball affairs, eschews the spotlight and is content making a metric fuckton of money for the family and the brand.

But this era of diminishing returns demands some sort of action by Steinbrenner far beyond just firing useless puppet Aaron Boone. Cashman has somehow consolidated all the power in the Bronx. There is literally no one else to blame. He decided he was gonna be Billy Beane but without the contrarian smarts. All he's done is build a bad team, one he didn't even bother adding to at the deadline (sorry, Kenyan Middleton doesn't count). He's smug and unaccountable, probably b/c he feels untouchable. But people are MAD in New York. Eventually, at some point, firing a guy who is bad at his job is the thing to do not in order to win a news cycle but because it's flat-out necessary.

 

Of course, I jinxed the whole premise yesterday. The Orioles were underdogs in all three games of the series because of the pitching matchups. It blows my mind that a team with as much talent as the Padres is as bad as they are. Good time for a day off and a reset. O's wrap up the trip with three in Oakland, Rays with three in Anaheim.

 

For most of the 80s, the Yankees had a very good hitting team and a solid bullpen with Righetti closing. The problem was they never really had top-notch starting pitching. Guidry was effective, but aging. Steinbrenner kept trading away young guys for older veterans who had very little left in the tank. By the late 80s, the Yankees were dogshit.

 

What drives me nuts about them is that Cashman’s done nothing at the trade deadline for the last two or three years. The excuse is always predictable: “We have some guys who’ve been hurt coming back soon and that’s as good as making a trade.”

This year’s deadline was a flat-out insult. They did literally nothing other than acquire two quadruple-A relievers. Either trade some veterans to get some prospects or trade some prospects to get some reinforcements for the stretch run. Instead, Cashman sat on his ass.

 

As always, someone put it better and more concisely than me. Insult is the perfect description. Forget the fans, it also insulted Hal. This team is fucking terrible. Even if Hal is nowhere near a chip off the old block (again, for the better), he's got to demand more than barely running in place with a bad team. They've been bad since the Astros no-hit them last June. This is who they are and Cashman smugly stood pat and gaslighted everyone (I don't likse using that term in a non-political venue, but he really did).

 

Yes, this was ridiculously cool.

 

Unless you're a White Sox fan, whereupon you said, "Oh, look what just happened for the 30th time this year ..."

Glad I thoroughly enjoyed 2005. That's the championship quota for the South Side for the 21st Century.

 

You’ve always got the guy who called into Waddle and Silvy and ranted for eight minutes. They cannot take that from you.

Also, I owe Tony LaRussa an apology. It wasn’t him.

 

Weird scheduling quirk. Both the Dodgers and Angels have home series this weekend and both are hosting the teams from Florida. And there is a big storm predicted for Southern California, so each could be facing a rainout, which are extremally rare for both teams.

 

Cringe.