NEW YORK, NY – This week’s exceptional Subway Series between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets not only electrified this city, but it also put both teams on the biggest of stages, worts and all. And for both teams, there are Warts Aplenty Pre MLB Trade Deadline. Let’s have a look.
THIRD BASE
Face it Yankees Nation and Mets Nation (Angry Ward loves those names), your collective cries for pitching and more bats are drowning out a real, obvious problem: Your Hot Corner guys suck. Both teams had Todd Frazier stinking up the position, yet New Jersey Todd would arguably be as productive as Josh Donaldson and Pablo Eduardo Escobar. What’s mind-numbing about the latter is that Buck Showalter insists on batting him 6th, while constantly shuffling his only #3 hitter, Jeff McNeil, around the bottom half of the order. That’s just squirrely behavior, Bucky. The hope here is that the Amazins make a big splash (Ohtani can play third) that makes this hole less glaring, while the Stanks stay with the righthanded Joey Gallo at 3B. Yes, Ben Whitney, I’m that petty. [Ahem]
MANAGERS
How many of you that watched the Subway Series barked at the TV, chewed your fingernails or dumbfoundedly scratched your head over a move or non-move by either Aaron Boone or Buck Showalter. Count me in all three categories. These two “seasoned baseball people” suck. Boone not sending runners late in the game with a man on first on 1-2 and 2-2 counts had me actually angry for Stankee fans. That’s saying a lot. Suck Showalter summoning David Peterson, Ollie Perez reincarnated, to face Frank Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres was nothing short of [alleged]point-shaving. Petersen has been decent as starter these year (although his stats make him seem better than he is) who often struggles out of the gate. Look at his pitch counts in first innings. So Suck Showalter, brings him in to follow Scherzer?! All you needed to see was Mad Max in the dugout to know that was NOT the move to make. It should have been established that if P-Man didn’t get Rizzo, that he’d feign injury to allow Lugo to face Torres. Of course, that didn’t happen and Torres washed away Scherzer’s gem. This segues nicely to our last whine…
PITCHING
After seeing Adonis Ardolis Chapman relegated to 6th inning status – which made yours truly very happy, FYI – my apathy for Stinkees fans came flooding back – briefly. They have some sinker-baller named Clay as their closer? Holy Braden Looper, Batman! Clay ain’t Mo. And when that lefty version of Mel Rojas (Google him vs Paul O’Neill) came in, all in the house knew that even Escobar might have a sniff of a chance. My baseball sense tells me the Bronx Bumblers’ pen will be exposed in this 2nd half, especially when the starters can’t go 5 innings.
Meanwhile, back in Flushing…
Age, wear & tear and fragility are the same old, same old for Orange and Blue fans. The pen should be okay but starting rotation needs help, gosh by golly, and fast. Relying on deGrom and the historically dinged-up Carrasco and Walker is like playing Russian Roulette with a blindfold, naked on horseback. Think about that… Granted, both have been great, but a shoe will drop.
And with that, here’s the answer for both teams.
SHOW-ME SHOHEI
Need a big bat? Need a big arm? Shohei Ohtani at your service. For the price of just 4 top picks (all in MLB’s top 100) you can have the answer to all your prayers, Yankees Nation and/or Mets Nation… The future is now, after all. The Met’s haven’t won since Ronald Reagan was in office and the Yanks haven’t added to their asterisk-laden list of World Series championships since 2009.
And there you have it. Fodder for your Friday. Leave your thoughts below and come back tomorrow for Different Matt.
