I see success as assembling a roster that makes the playoffs and then succeeds in that format. There is definitely some luck involved but I'm still on board with praising/criticizing a team's front office for the way they assemble a roster, including free agent contracts. And, while I am also a fan of I-told-you-so, (and I immediately predicted that Stanton would quickly become an albatross at the time of the trade), I think after the fact assessment is completely legit. Maybe there is a distinction between "that was stupid" vs. "that was a failure."
I think there is way more luck involved currently than there ever has been before, and there was plenty before. I think that the 2020 Covid interruption is stll having ripple effects, especially on prospect pitchers who lost an entire year of development that year. As for the playoffs, the more teams they add, the less it has to do with skill, the Yankees beat the Diamondbacks 2 of 3 in the final week of the regular season, hammering Ginkel among others, who was unittable before and after (9-1 this season, the 1 was against NY). I still think there is something to building and ideally deploying the best 26/40 man roster you are able to, but the postseason has never been this much of a crapshoot before, the #6 seed has won the NL the past two years.
Thank you! I do my best to contain my unnecessarily obnoxious side here.
I agree with regard to the playoffs. So, I think it is a good idea to temper criticism of the Braves GM, for example, for that team's flame-out this year, since I don't think that was caused by poor roster construction.
We're pretty off topic and slight apologies for keeping this going still, but I wanted to say that I actually think the regular season has an increasing amount of luck also. For instance, I think one could make a pretty good argument that the Padres (82-80, +104 run differential) were a better team than the D'Backs (84-78, -15 run differential) both over the course of the full season and as the season came to a close (ARI losing their final 4, SD winning their final 5), but SD missed the postseason and ARI are now NL champs.
Wouldn't this more likely point to a problem with how actual W/L records line up with run differential, and normally target issues like the bullpen and/or situational hitting? I didn't watch enough (or really any...) to offer any insights but I'd guess that the Padres were playing for the HR while perhaps Arizona was maybe playing "small ball" or situational hitting? Having a guy like Corbin or any great baserunners would support that? Too much vino today so pardon.
Well, SD allowed over 100 runs fewer than ARI this year (which still outscoring them by a bit), but the main thing is record in one-run games, which experts have concluded is largely luck (I don't quite agree but there is a big amount of luck in there certainly). SD was 9-23 in one run games, ARI were 21-21.
I know it’s a SSS but I always think of the 1960 World Series. The Pirates scored 27 total runs and the MFY’s 53. Who won?
Well you obviously can’t throw out talent but yeah there’s obviously a lot of luck. The Yankees that beat the need-to-win Diamondbacks are still immensely talented
It seems like he has his fingers in everything now (no jokes please), I don't think we know yet if that is a good or a bad thing.
Rowson seems to have strong credentials but Eric Chavez is a quality coach with the cred of a former big league hitter. I thought Yankee players communicated better with Sean Casey than his predecessor for the same reason.,
Actually NY collectively performed worse after Casey took over, just DJ seemed to respond well to Casey (similar-type hitters).
Dillon Lawson was basically a college coach before the Yanks hired him in 2018 as minor league hitting coordinator. Which is amazing, that he would begin his new job in such an elevated position. Just seems like Rowson comes from the same process that put Lawson in pinstripes.
Not really, Rowson has lots of non-NY experience since leaving, including as I said above the hitting coach for the team with the most HRs ever in a season.
This is why we don't actually ever need Hal talking publicly. Clearly this is a giant nothingburger.
No no you don’t get it. Stanton will win the mvp next year because he’ll bunt more.
Huh? He's been almost universally considered as a moron by the bulk of actually moronic Yankee fans for what seems like two decades now. I would be screaming at the press constantly if I was him.
Let me refer you up to post #65 above, a lot of the big name trades haven't worked out but who has he traded away that has blown up elsewhere? When Thairo Estrada is the best answer to this question, he is doing something right.
They won 99 games and made the ALCS two years ago, they had everything go wrong this season and still finished over .500 (better than the higher-spending Mets or Padres did). People can be harsh, there are definitely things to legitimately criticize, but they almost invariably do it while knowing a fraction of what they should know to be harsh intelligently (this includes most of the beat writers).
I posted it on the main board a week or so ago, but his career splits in Yankee Stadium and Fenway have been horrendous, and he has been awesome everywhere else.
It isn't all about bwar gained vs lost, though. The Stanton trade is the big one to think of in this regard. Yeah, Stanton gave the team more bWAR than the Yankees lost in the trade for him, but the fact that he is on this team led to a series of non moves (Bryce Harper) that is still going to affect the franchise in the future due to the amount of money that he is owed and his lack of performance.
Sure, that's fair, but Stanton at a locked in $22M AAV seemed like a better bet than Harper costing $500M (which is the number Boras was throwing around at the time the Stanton deal was made).
Two of the three big deals he has signed in recent years look spectacular, Cole and Judge. Rodon's first season was awful, but I'm still (irrationally?) optimistic about that one.
I meant getting pushback from people who have defended him for years (like me!), more than the Twitter mouthbreathers.
Let's look at what has transpired since then:
