Maybe they do stink

ADKbrown · **Posted:** Wed May 04, 2005 4:20 pm

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., May 3 - It has never been this bad, Joe Torre said Tuesday, and nothing has even come close. In his 10 seasons as the Yankees' manager, Torre has never experienced this: losing repeatedly, often badly, with nothing positive to fall back on.

*OK, Yankee fans. Is it time to worry? Time to make a trade?*

wordygurdy · **Posted:** Wed May 04, 2005 10:04 pm

Hoo-boy. I know I was similarly pessimistic at this time last year, when the Yanks looked equally bad, yet they still won 101 games and came within three outs of going to the World Series.

But, baby, this year seems very different. There are so many areas of the team that are a mess, it's impossible to prescribe a quick fix. Running, fielding, hitting, pitching--there's not a facet of the game in which the Yanks are not excelling and have not excelled yet this year.

That's compounded by the fact that they are locked into old, fading players at many positions. There are no other teams that will want or could afford to take on Brown, Giambi, Williams, Gordon and Quantrill. Even Mussina has turned into a five-and-fly guy, not exactly what Steinbrenner or the fans were expecting for $16 mil a year.

The more the losing continues, the more images of the '92 Mets--the Worst Team Money Could Buy--come to mind. That team's season was over by Memorial Day, despite a preceding winter of optimism, and the Vince Coleman firecracker incident and Bret Saberhagen bleach-spraying incident served as ugly manifestations of the losing.

Have we already seen one parallel to the '92 Mets this year (possibly to the Coleman fiasco) in the Sheffield incident with Chris House at Fenway Park?

Tonight as the Devil Rays were hanging another 11-spot on the Yanks, I kept thinking about the July 30 trade deadline and how there are buyers and sellers every year. Every year for the past 10 years, the Yanks have been buyers. But Yankee fans might have to adjust their reality scopes to the fact that the Yankees might turn out to be sellers this year.

You can get buried only so deeply before it becomes extremely difficult to get out of the hole, even with the wild card. To paraphrase Yogi, it's getting late early.

jjmoney62 · **Posted:** Thu May 05, 2005 6:16 pm

ADKbrown wrote:

OK, Yankee fans. Is it time to worry? Time to make a trade?

It was time to worry in December, when they made a trade they had no reason to make. And the handwriting was on the wall in March. Are we keeping our eye in the ball?

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Thu May 05, 2005 6:23 pm

How 'bout those White Sox?

ADKbrown · **Posted:** Fri May 06, 2005 10:43 am

jjmoney62 wrote:

It was time to worry in December, when they made a trade they had no reason to make. And the handwriting was on the wall in March. Are we keeping our eye in the ball?

I don't fault the Yankees for picking up Johnson, despite his age. He pitched great last season and works out regularly.

The strategy of shelling out millions for stars past their prime has worked in the past, but it catches up with you. And old habits die hard:

"And the Yankees apparently can forget about trading for Houston's Roger Clemens this summer. Clemens is probably too expensive, anyway, and the Astros' owner, Drayton McLane, recently told The Sporting News, There are no conditions under which I would do that.' " -- NYT

Matthew Grieco · **Posted:** Fri May 06, 2005 10:47 am

Weeping. Weeping.

wordygurdy · **Posted:** Sat May 07, 2005 6:01 am

Yowza. After Friday night's debacle, I don't know what to say. Before the season started, I predicted the Yanks would go 110-52, and you would have been hard pressed to find baseball prognosticators who would have strongly disagreed.

The way they're going, they might have 52 losses by the All-Star break, if not sooner.

You just never know in baseball. That's why it's such a great game.

jjmoney62 · **Posted:** Sat May 07, 2005 6:39 am

wordygurdy wrote:

I predicted the Yanks would go 110-52, and you would have been hard pressed to find baseball prognosticators who would have strongly disagreed.

(koff.)

wordygurdy · **Posted:** Sat May 07, 2005 7:33 am

Tickle in your throat, JJ?

jjmoney62 · **Posted:** Sat May 07, 2005 7:40 am

My hunch is that the Yankees, like a lifelong playboy, made one move too many and will start paying for their sins of excess (exemplified by Giambi) and hit the skids for a few years.
3/2/05

wordygurdy · **Posted:** Sat May 07, 2005 8:01 am

jjmoney62 wrote:

My hunch is that the Yankees, like a lifelong playboy, made one move too many and will start paying for their sins of excess (exemplified by Giambi) and hit the skids for a few years.
3/2/05

And is that a JJMoney-penned missive?

jjmoney62 · **Posted:** Sat May 07, 2005 9:10 am

See the link above to my historic post.

wordygurdy · **Posted:** Sat May 07, 2005 11:16 am

jjmoney62 wrote:

See the link above to my historic post.

Well, then, as Joe Torre said of Mel Stottlemyre last October, you are "a man among men" for having had such bold foresight. (Torre might have said "mensch among men," but I did a Google search and came up empty on all alternatives. Either way I found it mildly amusing when he said it.)

Wayne Countryman · **Posted:** Sat May 07, 2005 11:36 am

Last year's collapse in the playoffs could have been a signal. It might take a while to get over that--even assuming enough of the players have the toughness of Jeter.

I'd bet Torre misses some of the coaches from years past, too. Not for their effect on the players so much as for the emotional support they gave him.

Of course, Torre isn't that much older than his players this season.

Not that Torre is the problem.

Probably not many folks here remember the 1964 Yankees of my childhood. Lost the World Series, fired the manager, went into a years-long collapse.

I'm not saying the Yankees won't come out of their funk soon, but if I were Torre, I'd be rooting for Steinbrenner's horse to win the Kentucky Derby; that might stave off the inevitable meddling.

Then again, if he doesn't win the derby, Steinbrenner might buy five stud players and tell Torre to put them in the lineup.

wordygurdy · **Posted:** Sat May 07, 2005 11:52 am

Wayne Countryman wrote:

Then again, if he doesn't win the derby, Steinbrenner might buy five stud players and tell Torre to put them in the lineup.

You know what the sad thing is, Wayne, given Steinbrenner's irrationality? By "stud players," you could have meant actual horses, and a Yankee fan would have had no recourse but to nod knowingly.

You're right, I'm a tad too young to recall the '65 Yanks, but as you can imagine, they are being discussed mighty often these days on talk radio in New York. My dad remembers them not so fondly.

Who knew Steinbrenner longed for the days of Roger Repoz and Horace Clarke?

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