Wednesday, July 1, 2015

If The Giants Can Do It Why Can’t the Yankees?


Before we get too in-depth with this post I just want to start it off by saying that as unpopular of a decision that it was I actually agree with the Yankees decision to move Adam Warren back to the bullpen and to keep the likes of CC Sabathia and Nathan Eovaldi in the starting rotation for this team. There is zero doubt in my mind that Warren pitched better than either of these men and deserved to be in the rotation more than these two men but that’s not what was best for the team. Truth be told what’s best for the team is a trade, DFA or phantom injury to Sabathia but that’s also the unlikeliest of the scenarios as well but what can you do? Warren helps the bullpen more than Sabathia or Eovaldi could and Warren is also approaching his career high innings limit with a shade over half the season remaining which begs for disaster in September when he’s exhausted. This is not the last we’ve seen of Warren in the starting rotation I believe, and truth be told he is an injury away from being right back in it and with the Band-Aid that holds this rotation together being as flimsy as it is I’d expect him back at some point, but at least for now he’s in the bullpen and I think it helps the 2015 Yankees out more than anything and that’s all that really matters in the end.

The discussion and debate about whether Warren should be in the rotation and whether Sabathia should be in the bullpen is a discussion for another day, I will instead focus on why the Yankees made the move and why teams like the San Francisco Giants win World Series in the modern game and why teams like the New York Yankees do not. The Giants run their organization like it’s a multi-million dollar company while the Yankees run their organization like they are a mom and pop organization trying to compete with the new Super Wal-Mart in town. Hank can go on and on about how he isn’t cheap because of his payroll but what he wants us to forget is the contracts of Alex Rodriguez, CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and other high-priced Yankees players were handed out by George Steinbrenner, not Hal. Sure the Yankees owner did shell out over $500 million in an offseason but in a large sample size, there’s that whole sample size thing again, Hal has been more of the Coupon Clipper than the Yankees Clipper.

This mindset was brought to the front of the line when the Yankees moved Warren to the bullpen and kept Sabathia in the starting rotation. Again, for this team it was the right move but how many times have we seen the same decisions happen when it wasn’t the right move? The Yankees have used excuses like how much a player is owed to keep him in the rotation, to keep him on the field and to keep him on the roster but why? The Giants, the team that seemingly wins a World Series every other season and the Giants who are the reigning World Series Champions, aren’t afraid to make the moves that need to be done in order to propel the team to the ultimate prize. Do the names Tim Lincecum and Barry Zito ring a bell? Both players were making in excess of $20 million per season and both were struggling in the rotation much like Sabathia. The difference here is that the Giants trusted their analytics and trusted their scouts and weren’t shy about moving those players into the bullpen to make room for the players that helped the team win.

When the Yankees pull moves like this it does not instill confidence in me as a fan, it makes me believe that the bottom line is what’s most important and screw the on the field product as long as the team itself is making money. Sure it’s a business but it takes money to make money and with bonehead moves and policies like this I cannot see me and many other fans spending much more of our money to support a team that only cares about the money. This all sounds rich coming from a guy who owns a blog called The GREEDY Pinstripes but that greed comes from the team getting the players it needs to win by any means necessary and less about the financial greed. The financial greed comes with winning and comes with recognizable faces, maybe someone should let the Yankees owner know that.


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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)