Clutch Cashman

With the Yankees’ playing night games on the left coast, I don’t have too much to add to or comment upon about the recent day to day in-game activities.  1 a.m. and I are not friends.

That doesn’t mean I can’t still comment (rant) on big-picture matters about the 2019 season.  Whether you’ve heard this before or not, stay with me:

Every 5^th day, more or less, J.A. Happ gets beaten up.  My first thought is invariably that Corbin, Morton, and Lynn were all available this past off-season.  My second thought is that I will get online or watch television later and someone will insist to me that Brian Cashman is doing a great job.

For the record, among 92 big league pitchers with a minimum of 110 innings pitched, Happ is…

• 66^th in K%-BB%
• 77^th in xFIP
• 89^th in fWAR

That Brian sure is a sly one.

On a larger scale, we all know that the Yankees will be in the post-season and we all know their starting pitching is the only aspect of baseball at which they are not above average.  Is the starting pitching “bad”? No.  Do they match up well with the lineups of Minnesota, Oakland, Houston, and Cleveland?  Hell no.

This is not a new development, nor is it a secret one.  And at or around the trade deadline, Marcus Stroman, Trevor Bauer and Zack Greinke (among others) all switched teams.  None of them, or any other starting pitcher, went to the Yankees.

And at some point today, I will get online or watch television, and someone will insist to me that Brian Cashman is doing a great job.

For some perspective, among AL team starting pitching, Yankee starting pitchers are…

• 5^th in K%-BB%
• 6^th in xFIP
• 10^th in WAR.

In other words, they’re average.  The kind of average that Houston, Minnesota, Oakland and Cleveland score many runs against.

And the issue…Was.  Not.  Addressed.

I know that’s only part of the equation.  When it comes to scoring runs, the Yankees are among the best right now and are by far the best when everybody is healthy.  The defense is good and the bullpen is scary to other teams, justifiably so.

But there is a glaring weakness that will make the Yankees big underdogs going into the post-season (if the playoffs started tomorrow you don’t really think they’d be one of the favorites do you?  After the way they’ve played against Cleveland and Oakland?) when if issues that could easily have been addressed were, they could have been scary favorites.

I know, I know, Cashman fans, I should look at the bright side:

Triple-A Scranton is LOADED.

Yay us.

Did I miss something?  Let me know.