I’ve conceded that Eli has had a very good postseason thus far and I hope I am wrong about him. The league needs a lot more good quarterbacks roaming around, but I just haven’t seen it from Eli yet on a consistent level.
With regards to Chamberlain, I haven’t seen enough control out of him to be a viable starter. I’ll say that this year, the most slid pitcher for the Yankees will be Grizzled Veteran To Be Picked Up For Free Around the Trade Deadline. Wang will have a good year, though. He’s confused me. He shows flashes of complete dominance, and sometimes he looks completely hittable, but I think last year was an aberration bcause of that hammy injury that sank his first half.
I just wonder what will happen in Yankeeland if there’s a couple of 83-79 years and the papers are howling for blood and the fans stop going to the ballpark (Unlike some places, Yankee fans have demonstrated a willingness to stay away in droves if the product on the field is not to their satisfaction - which in the long run is probably good for a franchise.) Will the Steinbrenner 2.0’s have the cajones to stick with it, or will they react to the mob? 13 straight playoff appearances may have created an unreasonable expectation; if Yankee ownership is willing to ride that out I think they’ll be fine, but if they arent, well, it will be as you describe, and potentially could devolve into the way it was circa 1990.
I think Mariano Rivera could pitch until he’s 65. The man is a machine. Last year he had a 6-to-1 K/BB ratio.
Did you know that among all the pitchers in the entire history of baseball (who pitched a significant number of innings) Mariano Rivera is, batter-for-batter, the best? His career ERA+ is 194. Nobody else is even close. (Johnathan Papelbon’s is like 265, but he hasn’t pitched very many innings yet.)
And you think Farnsworth was a worse signing than Carl Pavano?
It is weird, but I actually went more often before 1998. It was much easier to get tickets and a lot cheaper. Since 98 the mosts games I have been to in a year is 13. In 1996 I was at 22. I would often just run up on the spur of the moment and get a cheap scalped ticket close to game time. However, you are right, those filling the stadium are fair weather fans and non-fans. Often the same people that used to buy all the Knicks seats when Ewing was still there and the Knicks were the hottest ticket in town. The stadium has a very different feel in the last 10 years compared to the rest of my life.
I think Cashman only needs two more seasons to pull this all together. It is not like they are not going to spend no money on free agents and trades. I think the Steinbrenner Sons will give him two years if they are playing meaningful games in September. They won’t give him three years.
Cool stats on Mo. My friends and I joke that he needs to pitch into his 50s as he is the one player that we cannot replace.
I think Pavano was a worse signing, but it was pushed by the Tampa brain trust and was not Cashman’s choice. Farnsworth was someone he wanted to bring in.
Sheffield, Giambi & Randy Johnson are a few more that Cashman just did the details on, but did not suggest. He did make the trade for Vasquez, I was as surprised as he was that it failed.