by Paul Semendinger
September 20, 2023
***
Each day I visit Twitter (X) to post articles from this site and to share a Yankee or former Yankee is having a birthday that day. (For today, September 20, among other players, I chose Tom Tresh to highlight.)
On Twitter, many people post questions and ideas of one sort or another. A few caught my eye so I decided to respond to them briefly here.
Who knows, I might have just found a new feature for the (much too soon) coming off-season.
Enjoy!
TWEET NUMBER ONE:
This is an easy one for me. No, no, no, no, and no. The history of baseball is littered with pitchers who had great talent and never stayed healthy. Luis Severino had great talent, but he couldn't stay healthy. For his own sake, especially considering the way the Yankees handle injuries and the not great track record they have of players who bounced back, it would be best for him to leave. It's been a long time since Luis Severino was consistently healthy and good. I wish him well and hope that another team can help him stay on the field and performing well.
TWEET NUMBER TWO:
I would love for Buck Showalter to return as the manager of the Yankees and lead them to a World Series. I would LOVE that. I'd also love to see Joe Maddon do his thing in the dugout without all the analytics that are used incorrectly. (EJ Fagan made a great point on the SSTN Podcast the other day. The analytics aren't the problem, necessarily, it's the way the Yankees use them. Of course you want to use stats and data and information, but if you use them incorrectly, it's the same, or worse, than not using any data at all. And the Yankees use the data incorrectly all the time. Before the season I said, numerous times, that Giancarlo Stanton would be among the leaders in Exit Velocity (a stat that I believe is way overblown), but he wouldn't be a productive hitter. This morning, he is among the leaders... and he's batting .190. Big deal.) But, to the the point. While I'd love for Buck Showalter to get his championship ring with the Yankees, I think his time has come - and gone. Hey, if the Mets fire him and the Yankees hire him, I'll be happy. That's a move that would fill me with some hope., but I don't think that's the best move to make for 2024. I wish it had happened years ago. I started the "Bring Back Buck" campaign in the middle of the 2018 season. But... that too was a long time ago.
TWEET NUMBER THREE:
And here is the problem with the Yankees in a nutshell. The Yankees might put him on the IL? They might? Why wouldn't they? The player is hurting. Why do the Yankees not understand that when a player is hurting, he shouldn't play? The Yankees have eleven left games to play. If Pereira plays in all them and hits .400, it will not mean much of anything. If the kid is hurt, let him rest. It makes no sense to run him out there and risk a worse injury in a lost season. (This is not difficult, at all, to understand.)
TWEET NUMBER FOUR:
If the Yankees can't trade Giancarlo Stanton, they have to release him. Period. End. Stop. I loved when the Yankees acquired him. They should have kept going at the time, when the window was open. Bryce Harper should have been brought in. Others too. Go big or go home. The Yankees went home and wasted Stanton's best years in New York (and are on pace to waste Judge's and Cole's best seasons as well). But, today, in 2023, Stanton is a drag on the team and on the roster. He can't run. He can't play the field. An he can't hit. Aaron Boone should lose his job just on the fact that Stanton has batted in the heart of the order all season. He hasn't deserved to bat there. This was obvious and clear to see - even before the season. (The Yankees will bring in a bunch of experts to try to fix the organization, but it isn't difficult to see what the problems are.) If Giancarlo Stanton is a Yankee in 2024, the Yankees will play him, and that will make them, almost by that fact alone, a non-contender. The money for his salary is lost already. The question is whether they will let that money impact on their ability to win next year. I fear they will.
TWEET NUMBER FIVE:
Of course this is sad, but it is a self-inflicted wound caused by the Yankees very poor (for a long time now) decision making. It is possible that the only way this gets better is for the fans to remain at home and have Mr. Steinbrenner feel the impact of his and his team's decisions in the pocketbook. The Yankees put out an inferior product in 2023. They got cheap. The results spoke for themselves. I am glad the fans are staying home.
