Perspectives: Musings...

by Paul Semendinger

November 18, 2023

***

The Yankees traded Jake Bauers to the Milwaukee Brewers. They players they received back are:

Jace Avina, 20 years old, has played two years at A-ball or lower, is right-handed and owns a batting average on .249 thus far...

and

Brian Sanchez, 19 years old, has played one season of rookie-level ball, is left-handed, and batted .297 last year.

I think the Yankees did fine. Bauers was not going to be a player on a Yankees team striving for a pennant. They moved him for two lottery tickets. That sounds like a good deal to me.

***

It's getting more an more difficult to read any New York newspapers on-line. The NY Daily News and NY Times are basically entirely behind paywalls. This is also true of the Bergen Record. Yesterday the NY Post started making it more and more difficult to read their free stuff.

I'll never understand taking a product away from consumers. In the long run, I think all those sites will lose readers.

***

Last evening, the Yankees non-tendered Albert Abreu, Lou Trivino, and Anthony Misiewicz.

Remember when so many couldn't stop saying how great Albert Abreu was going to be? I understand that most prospects flame out, but boy it seems the Yankees prospects flame out more than other teams.

I understand why so many fans get excited about the up-and-coming players, but the Yankees have been so wrong on so many players for so long that I cannot any longer.

So many predict that Anthony Volpe will be better in 2024. It is said with such certainty. I think the jury is still out on him. He didn't have a good rookie season with the bat. The Yankees mishandled him all year - batting him all over the lineup - and rushing him to the lead-off spot and it didn't work.

So many predict that Jasson Dominguez will be back by the All-Star Break and that he's going to be great. No one knows that. He had Tommy John surgery. Yes, some players come back quickly. "Look at Bryce Harper," we're told. Please, let's not compare Dominguez to Harper yet. And Harper is now a first baseman, not an outfielder. He also didn't need to get minor league reps before coming back. I sense Dominguez will need time in the minor leagues. We might not see him in New York in 2024. There is no certainty he'll be back. He had one good week in the big leagues before getting hurt, but so many keep saying what a star he will be - as soon as next year.

I understand the wish to be optimistic, and I hope everyone who says these things is correct, but, rather than speaking from facts, it's nothing more than wishful thinking stated with absolute certainty and all those statements are absent of the facts. It's all nothing more than hope.

The fact is the Yankees have done a terrible job with their prospects. Until I see differently, I'm not buying into any of the hype or the hope. If the 2024 Yankees need Anthony Volpe and Jasson Dominguez to be stars and important contributors, the Yankees are in trouble. A team can't build for a championship season based on nothing more than hope and wishful thinking.

***

We have some book reviews coming in the next few weeks for some baseball books:

I read The Federal Case by J. B. Manheim and it was terrific.

My dad read "The Kid" Blasts A Winner by Bill Nowlin and also loved it.

I started reading The Wax Pack by Brad Balukjian, and, three chapters in, I am enjoying it.

Joe Posnanski is one of my favorite writers. I just picked up The Soul of Baseball. I greatly look forward to reading this book. I recently read Posnanski's newest book Why We Love Baseball and, sadly, I did not enjoy it as much as I hoped I would.

There is a new book about Ted Williams and John Glenn, The Wingmen. I'll also be reading that soon!

***

I have watched a lot of the Jets this year. (I have no idea why. It's ugly bad frustrating football.) The Jets are a team designed to break a fan's heart. I rooted, hard, for the Jets in the early 1980s. Nothing has changed. Well, one thing has... they get even more frustrating.

***

Throughout the season and in the games, I keep hearing commentators and reporters and so-called experts saying of Zack Wilson, "He has a lot of talent," "He has proven he can play," "He is really good," "If only the players around him were better," and more. Praise and hope. Speculation. Hype.

You can substitute any number of Yankees prospects and hear words of praise like that. We hear it year after year. It's endless. "This time, these kids, thy are the ones."

They say stuff like that about Zack Wilson every game. Last Sunday we were told that he even looked like Patrick Mahomes on one pass. "He's figuring it out." "He's coming around."

Spoiler Alert- He's not. And he's not good.

This is the same hope and hype I hear about the Yankees prospects.

***

I wonder which New York team will be the first to win a championship... the Yankees, the Mets, the Jets, or the Giants. In many ways they all seem miles and miles away.

If it's going to be the Yankees, they should start acting and making big moves. They have a lot they need to do.