Or in Mudville for that matter. Swap Casey for Judge “at the bat”, and Ernest Thayer’s baseball tale of woe sounds a lot like what’s going in the Boogie Down. Not even big number 99 can save this Yankee team from itself, they’re an awful 6-16 since he returned to the lineup, coming off of back-to-back dreadful sweeps by the Braves and the Rival Red Sox. At four games under .500 and nine games out of a playoff spot, I felt it was time to get busy writing about this disaster.
A Lack of Standards
For the longest time, one of the most celebrated aspects of the Yankees and their organization was the standard they set every season. Winning wasn’t everything, it was the only thing, just ask The Boss.
Now I’m not a fan that claims that George Steinbrenner was perfect, but the tone he set in the clip above is what every organization at every level, should strive to be about. His reverence for the Yankees historic past and vision for the success they could achieve drove the entire operation. The Yankees were of course a brand for him to elevate, after all he was a businessman, but winning was the driving force of that brand.
Following The Boss’s death in 2010, things have certainly changed at 161st and River. The Yankees managing general partner has been George’s son Hal, and while he has overseen successes (most notably the teams 2009 championship) it feels like he, along with the front office cult of personality have let this standard slip. I don’t claim this is due to financial expenditures, or a lack thereof, for most of the time period in question the Yankees have had one of the highest payrolls in baseball.
In my opinion, this is more to do with the way they have built their team and the caliber of play that results from this poor construction. Fundamentals have gone by the wayside, mistakes are tolerated, and no one is held accountable for their play by the manager. That is of course what the players asked for when they helped Brian Cashman to oust Joe Girardi in 2017. This group wanted to be coddled and they get this treatment from their babysitter, Aaron Boone. His overly calm demeanor combined with front offices poor work have proved to be a lethal combo.
When we look at the roster two things have been obvious for some time. The first is they are too right-handed and over reliant on home runs to generate offense. The second is there are multiple players on this roster, this year in particular, that flat out don’t deserve to be wearing the pinstripes (or really any other uniform). Oswaldo Cabrera, Jake Bauers, Greg Allen, and Ben Rortvedt just don’t cut it for anything more than a role players workload. Sure, some of the names I mentioned here have at one time or another, been useful contributors. But the team’s unwillingness to give this playing time to their top prospects is detrimental to the club in both the short and long term. You cannot convince me, or any other fan for that matter, that the Yankees top prospects can’t outperform them. After all they can’t really expect us to watch more of this…can they?
More Excuse Making
If it’s not the Yankee manager making excuses for their miserable play, its usually the folks in the media. I’ll leave Michael Kay alone this time, I already got on him last Friday for his radio comments, lets focus on the YES Network studio crew instead. Following Sunday’s loss to the Red Sox Meredith Marakovits, John Flaherty, and Jack Curry decided to search for positives…and I mean SEARCH!
It seems they came up mostly empty handed as they commended the Yankees for “fighting back” and “not giving up on the game.” Somehow this is where the aforementioned standard has fallen to, whether or not the Yankees competed for all nine innings. There are no moral victories, especially in the position they’re in now. This was the kind of weekend that used to get people fired, but it seems being embarrassed by the Red Sox isn’t damning enough for this franchise anymore. Anyone defending this kind of play should be embarrassed.
A Long Time Coming
I had to include Adam Schein’s tweet here because you really can’t put it any better than he did. This nightmare Yankee season has been years in the making! Countless mistakes on the personnel side and a number of issues on and off the field have compounded on themselves to bury this team and its hopes.
Their pitiful performance is now setting franchise records, as their current eight game losing streak is their longest since 1995. This team evokes memories of Stump Merril, Jesse Barfield and Kevin Maas (at least he was entertaining). Major change is needed immediately! This offseason needs to be the beginning of fixing things in the Bronx. Cashman and his cronies must go, Aaron Boone must go, and the roster needs to be turned over as much as possible. Shut Aaron Judge down so his injured foot can heal. Let the kids play the rest of the way this year and figure out what you have going forward. It would seem some of his has already begun as they called infielder Oswald Peraza and outfielder Everson Pereira up to the big club, and promoted outfielder Jasson Domínguez to Triple A. Anything short of this runs the risk of Gerrit Cole and Aaron Judge ending up like Don Mattingly.
There will be a lot of Yankee coverage ahead here at the breakdown. We’ll document their continued downfall and predict the offseason ahead. I also have a special series we’ll be releasing in parts about GM Brian Cashman and his complex legacy as this season comes to a close. Get ready for wall-to-wall football coverage as well as college football returns this weekend and I release my NFL previews. As always be sure to follow me on Twitter @YNWA9623 and you can subscribe to the site by hitting the “follow button” on the bottom of your page and entering your email address.
The Broadway Breakdown 
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