Sunday, June 21, 2020

To Be or Not To Be, MLB is the Question...

Photo Credit: Mark Cunningham, Getty Images

Players Association Expected to Vote Today…

I had hoped that we could be talking about the Yankees and actual baseball by now but, sadly, we’re not. As the pain back and forth continues, we’re caught in the middle. The players will vote today regarding the MLB Owners’ latest proposal (instead of “a few days” according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale). The billionaire boys club is proposing a 60-game schedule with full pro rata pay which includes expanded playoffs and a universal DH in both leagues.

I don’t know. I am starting to lose interest in salvaging this season. I thought a schedule of 82 games was the last hope for meaningful baseball.  60 games does not really prove anything except which teams get hot at the right time which will not necessarily the best teams in the game. I know the expanded playoffs are a financial boon for the owners but it further dilutes our ability to see the best teams play. 

I am disappointed. If the Yankees still manage to win the World Series this year (assuming they actually play), I’ll be happy and I won’t place a caveat on the season. By the same token, if the Chicago White Sox blaze through with a rapid ascension of their young talent, it wouldn’t surprise and I wouldn’t place a caveat on them either. Nevertheless, this will be a strange, perplexing year no matter how it ends. From a sports fan’s perspective, it might be the worst year of our lifetimes. 

Seeing the Instagram pics Gerrit Cole posted, throwing from the Yankee Stadium mound in shorts was not exactly the image I wanted to see this summer in the Bronx. I would have preferred pinstripes and real competition.  It’s a sad reminder of what we are missing.

Photo Credit: Gerrit Cole via Instagram, @gerritcole45

I am bummed we are missing out on a year of the careers of our favorite players. The life of a baseball player is short even if you can make it to the Major Leagues.  In some cases, a player may only get a year or two (or less). The time lost could mean guys who might have made it never will.  Players on the downslope are still on a downward trajectory despite no games. Time and age will not wait for anybody except for maybe Tom Brady. Players in their prime move closer to the edge of downward spiral. Who knows what magical moments might have happened so far in the 2020 season if it had started on schedule. Or missing the beautiful sights and sounds of great baseball fans everywhere hurtling deserved insults and boos at the Houston Astros.  

I feel MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has been largely ineffective since he took over the role from Bud Selig. I have felt the players have reasonably tried to make the season happen while the owners are most concerned about how to protect their investments (the dollars, not the players). These tense negotiations are setting up a very contentious, difficult battle after the 2021 season when the current collective bargaining agreement expires.  

Frankly, if the next few days only bring more rejections, I will be officially on board with shit-canning the season. 


I am truly at the ‘why bother?’ stage. The MLB owners obviously do not care about us so why should we care about them? I’d love to see some decisions made “for the good of the game”. 

If Baseball somehow finds a way to play this year, it does seem weird the Yankees will have to use Yankee Stadium to hold “Spring” Training. Since the seasons changed yesterday, I guess this makes the first Summer Training for MLB. With spring training homes closed in Florida due to the coronavirus, Governor Andrew Cuomo has said the Yankees (and the Mets) have permission to use their New York stadiums for training purposes. Too bad they didn’t leave the old Yankee Stadium up. Then they would have had two legitimate baseball fields to work with. As it stands, they have the single main field of the current Yankee Stadium, four bullpen mounds and an indoor batting facility. I guess they should model Adam Ottavino’s idea from several off-seasons ago when he rented vacant commercial space and converted it to a pitching facility. 

It seems strange, with the possible restart of baseball, Aaron Hicks is a stronger bet to start the season than Aaron Judge. I have absolutely no idea what is going on with Judge. Meanwhile, Hicks has proclaimed he is ready. I guess the doubt about Judge will keep Clint Frazier’s name relevant in training camp. Clint has been the guy I’d love to see the Yankees trade to create opportunity for him, but as long as he is a Yankee, I guess I will continue to hold out hope he has that magical, transformational Yankee moment. If I was a betting man, that’s not exactly a bet I’d make but I’d love to be proven wrong and if he is going to find Major League success, better with the Yankees than not.  

Until the Yankees sign their draft picks, I am not going to get excited about Austin Wells, Trevor Hauver or Beck May. I liked the picks but they are just guys who happen to play baseball and are not true Yankee prospects until they sign on the dotted line. With other teams locking up their draftees, the eery silence among the Yankees’ picks worries me that they might not sign at all.  I think Wells is a great story. Drafted in high school by the Yankees in 2018 (35th round, the same year they took catcher Anthony Siegler with their first pick), he chose to go to college over signing with the Yankees. Betting on himself paid dividends as he parlayed his worth into the Yankees’ first pick in the 2020 draft. The negative is that he picked the wrong year to do it. The other negative is his agent (Scott Boras). The odds of getting Wells signed this time around appear to be nearly as challenging as two years ago. We’ll see. I hope the one-time Red Sox fan realizes how much the Yankees want him and have the resources and coaching talent to help him become the best he can be, whether it is behind the plate or at another position.  

I was a little saddened to see former Yankees pitching prospect Manny Banuelos, 29, sign to play in the Chinese Professional Baseball League this week. Not that I thought he had any chance of making it back to the Major Leagues at this point, but the failure to fulfill the promise he once showed when he was part of the Killer B’s in the Yankees’ farm system with Dellin Betances and Andrew Brackman. Every time Banuelos landed with a new MLB team, I had hoped he would find success but it has not happened for him. I know non-Yankee fans like to say Banuelos is just another overhyped former Yankees prospect but I did and still do believe that he had the talent  at the time necessary to succeed. Whether it was injuries, focus, control, consistency or whatever stopped him from reaching his ceiling, it doesn’t erase the fact he was once a talented, young prospect with value. Even though it didn’t work out, I think it is unfair to dismiss him as over-hyped. Jesus Montero, yeah, he was over-hyped…

I hope everyone is staying healthy and safe. To all fathers, I hope this has been a wonderful Father's Day for you and your families.  

As always, Go Yankees!