New York Yankees

I was taken to the top of the thread when I clicked. Took me a few moments to figure out how we are 5 games back of the 2nd wild card spot.
 
Reviving this old dinosaur given the big, interesting question after last night’s fiasco in Tampa.

What the fuck do they do about Gary Sanchez?

For his first couple of seasons, he was a monster - the Kraken! This season, the only thing he is destroying is the Yankees chance of winning the East and perhaps his own confidence. He is batting .188 with an OPS of .699, and if that’s not bad enough, his defense has always been a liability.

The Yankees were sticking with him to maintain his confidence, but then... last night.

In the first inning, Sanchez allowed a passed ball with a guy on 2nd - bad enough, but then he was lazy running the ball down and let the runner score. In the ninth inning it got even worse. Sanchez came up with the Yankees down 1, 2 outs, bases loaded. He hit a ground ball to 2nd, Aaron Hicks beat the throw to 2nd, but Sanchez didn’t run hard to 1st and got thrown out. Game over. He runs hard there, he probably beats the throw and the game is tied.

So, what do you do? Based on his play, he doesn’t deserve to start; he probably doesn’t even deserve to be on the team since the guy at AAA is very good. But if you send him down, it looks like a punishment, and what does that do to his confidence? On the other hand, his confidence seems shot anyway, and he is going to get booed every time up from here on out.

Decisions, decisions.
I've been reading about him this morning. Brutal game. I don't follow baseball closely enough any more to be on top of this, but the Yankees are 6 out, and with baseball's insane playoff system that means a single-game playoff despite having the second fewest losses in both leagues. They can't fall further behind the Sox. Sometimes you have to hurt some feelings. But is Sanchez even eligible to be demoted? Might be all they can do, and enough, to bench him.
 
I've been reading about him this morning. Brutal game. I don't follow baseball closely enough any more to be on top of this, but the Yankees are 6 out, and with baseball's insane playoff system that means a single-game playoff despite having the second fewest losses in both leagues. They can't fall further behind the Sox. Sometimes you have to hurt some feelings. But is Sanchez even eligible to be demoted? Might be all they can do, and enough, to bench him.
Or trade him for some starting pitching.
 
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One interesting question is whether the Yankees should even trade some quality prospects for a starter anymore. If they are 6 behind the Sox, they are probably not catching up. So, if they make an aggressive roster move for a starter, they could lose that one-game playoff, and the starter can't even help. Not sure it is worth rolling the dice.
 
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One interesting question is whether the Yankees should even trade some quality prospects for a starter anymore. If they are 6 behind the Sox, they are probably not catching up. So, if they make an aggressive roster move for a starter, they could lose that one-game playoff, and the starter can't even help. Not sure it is worth rolling the dice.
It's going to be difficult, but I wouldn't rule out catching them. With our potent lineup, upgrading Gray's losses to wins, and 10 (?) games still remaining against the Sox, we can at least make it interesting. I think that the last series of the season is against the Sox which could in effect be a playoff series to avoid the one-game. The biggest question is whether there are any true number 2 pitchers available. It looks to be a pretty mediocre bunch with no guaranteed game-changers (Lance Lynn, Happ, etc.) In any event, I think that they have a team which could take over first, and if not, should win the one-game, and then need another quality starter to make a run at the WS.
 
So, here is how the Yankees decided to handle things.

I expect Karius to pick up a pretty good knock in France that sets him out for 4-6 weeks.

Not exactly the same, but similar.

In any sport, having confidence shattered makes it extremely difficult to recover. Sanchez is better off, though. A regular season game when you play 162 isn’t nearly so impactful. But still, those slumps can last a month, easy.

This was serious trolling though.
 
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