You may miss George Steinbrenner, hell I do too, but if it
is only because we would “fix” this mess the team is in right now, well you
shouldn’t. George Steinbrenner was a great man God rest his soul and he was a
great owner for the most part as well. Sure he meddled where he didn’t need to
meddle and sure he stuck his nose and check book where it didn’t always belong
but he treated this team like his hobby and not like his only source of income.
This was not a job for him, this was what he did in his down time and it showed
in his passion for the team and the way he handled it. Passion can lead to knee
jerk reactions though, bad trades and even worse signings and that’s what
George would be doing right now, not necessarily fixing things.
I mean zero disrespect in this post but let’s use his track
record and the history of the franchise under his tenure to dissect what we
think would happen if he were still running this team today. First and foremost
you can kiss the Yankees young guns goodbye. You say you’re attached to Luis
Severino, Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Robert Refsnyder, James Kaprielian,
Domingo Acevedo, Ian Clarkin and others? Sorry, they are all gone. Mateo is in
San Diego right now and Craig Kimbrel is in the Bronx. The team wouldn’t have
an average age under 30-years old like they do now, it’s be more like 35-years
old after the bulk of these players would likely be traded for aging veterans
and hired mercenaries. Again, we’re using history as an indicator of the future
as I have no crystal ball and I barely watch ESPN let alone use my psychic
ESPN…..
There wouldn’t be all bad though. You think George would shy
away from eating the contracts of CC Sabathia, Alex Rodriguez or Chase Headley
if they continued to struggle and didn’t lead the team to their ultimate goal,
their 28th World Series championship? You don’t think George would
flip Jacoby Ellsbury for another bad contract like Shin-Soo Choo of the Texas
Rangers just to be rid of the devastating contract to the organization? Many of
you would love to wake up and see the news that both Joe Girardi was fired and
Brian Cashman is cleaning his desk out as we speak, FYI I wouldn’t, and many of
you would then jump for joy when the next flavor of the week is hired in their
places.
“If George were alive…” Enough. George is not alive and if
he were I am not certain things would ultimately be any better. Sure the team
would have more big names and wouldn’t treat the organization like we’re
clipping coupons and qualifying for food stamps just to keep the doors open but
at the same time I’m not sure how much the team would be any better. Let’s
remember, again using history as an indicator of the future, that it took
George being banned from baseball completely to undo everything that was done
and to build the Core Four and a perennial World Series winner. It was when
this core grew older, key parts moved on and when George had too much say in
the free agent market that the team began losing in the first round of the
playoffs year in and year out.
Reaching the Wild Card Round or ALDS is not good enough for
me and it wouldn’t be good enough for George either. Unfortunately it’s good
enough for Hal and it would unfortunately be all we would see if George were
still here running the show. It’s a different game now, you can’t just throw
money at a problem and make it go away. Injuries will happen and so will
declines and that’s where you need depth and a strong farm system. One last
piece of history for you and I’ll stop because I know I ruffled a few feathers
with this post. It was in 2005 that a high priced veteran-laden roster fell
apart that George Steinbrenner assembled and threw money at and it was a
Yankees farm system that George tried to trade away on numerous occasions
(let’s remember it is well documented that Cashman did not want Alex Rodriguez
and that Robinson Cano was offered in the A Rod deal) that saved that team and
led them to another trip to the playoffs.
History and science are the only two things that
theoretically can never lie.
Daniel, I think you done done it just right....
ReplyDeleteTo many don't remember or read history anymore.
This was going to be a controversial post but I think New York winning the last two games, and that figures since I wrote this before the Rays series began, probably helped with the backlash I was expecting. :)
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