Bleeding Yankee Blue: THE REAL PROBLEM THAT NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT

Thursday, April 25, 2019

THE REAL PROBLEM THAT NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT

It's time to start asking the tough questions here. We've tackled a lot of tough subjects this week everything from I'M NOT INTERESTED IN THE SECOND STRING YANKEES to NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE PEN. Both emotionally charged subjects and important.

But honestly, I want to know why aren't more people asking questions about all of these injuries? It's time to start asking the tough questions here and possibly make some unpopular decisions.

As of the writing of this post, we have twelve guys(!) on the Injured List with a possibility of growing to 13. Anyone else ticked off by how freaking INSANE this is? Word has it that Giancarlo Stanton had a setback and is expected to be out until around May 10th. Again estimated, but he definitely won't be back until after this long west coast swing. His biceps strain is healed but now he has a barking shoulder and got a cortisone shot.

Now my biggest fear of all could be coming true....Clint Frazier's "precautionary" day off on Tuesday may be more than just a conservative day of rest. He went for an MRI and may have a sprained ankle, read more HERE. He could be the 15th guy the Yankees place on the Injured List this season. 15 folks and it isn't even 30 days into the season! This is stupid!

I get it, injuries happen. All athletes get them but look around major league baseball.....no one has the same problem we do. No one has a Triple-A roster like we do. Anyone else remember the last time this happened? I sure do!

Let's turn back time, shall we? Prior to 2007 the Yankees hired Marty Miller as the team strength and conditioning coach. Injuries piled up within a month of the season beginning and it proved to be Miller’s undoing and he was let go early in the season. Do you remember all of those hamstring sprains? I do! Hideki Matsui, Mike Mussina and Phil Hughes had some bad ones, and that's just a few that I can remember. Johnny Damon had a bad calf strain and Andy Pettitte worked through back stiffness after a weight lifting mishap that never should've happened.

Photo: Marty Miller, right

Cashman never publicly blamed Miller or Dana Cavalea his assistant back then but he said players declining to participate in a team’s strength and conditioning program could have been a contributing factor to all of those injuries. Think about that one....players DECLINING to participate in the team's conditioning program leaves a bad perception. It's probably what led to Miller's dismissal. It's at least a safe assumption.

Photo: Dana Cavalea

Back in 2013 we also had issues with injuries and Cavalea was the strength and conditioning coach. We said in YANKEES STRENGTH & CONDITIONING NOW IN QUESTION that while the Yankees started to look at which coaches should be cut that the Yankees strength and conditioning coach at the time, Cavalea should not be excluded. There was too much going wrong for the Yankees to just let it slide. That was a much older team, so some people argued that some "concessions" could be made but somehow with all of Cavalea's experience and tenure with the Yankees there was still a disconnect. The Yankees had to go a different direction and parted ways with Cavalea after he was in the organization for nine years.

So here we are, new leadership since then. But something just isn't right here and even though it is taking some time to finally wake up and realize it....people other than just US here at BYB are starting to notice. According to NJ.com HERE, Brian Cashman is starting to get a lot of questions about the medical staff. Even Yankee ownership has gone to Cashman seeking answers. If the boss were around....you know heads would be rolling. If the brass is finally asking you KNOW something is brewing, but is it too late?

Cashman has always been the master of deception. He has a great poker face and he tends to give answers to questions that don't truly answer the question, and leave you wondering. One quote that always stuck with me was his reasoning behind the dismissal of Miller. Just one sentence, HERE.

"It got to the point where the perception is there's a problem here."

That was valid back in 2007....so what about 12 years later? You can't ignore 12 or 13 guys on the Injured List. Three of our guys have torn UCL's (Didi Gregorius, Ben Heller and Jordan Montgomery). Four of our opening day starters have various strains (Aaron Judge, Stanton, Aaron Hicks and Troy Tulowitzki). You can argue that again perception here is there's a problem. It was true back in 2007, and again in 2013....history could repeat itself in 2019.

Cashman called this "bad luck" in his interview on WFAN. You can't call this bad luck. Poor offseason conditioning and lack of proper training lead to muscular issues and strains. The pitching injuries are likely caused by the repetitive unnatural motion but also poor mechanics. There are enough injuries here to make it reasonable to question the Yankees training and medical staff. The Yankees have some of the best resources you can ask for, I'm sure other teams are not nearly as fortunate. It's time to fix the problem!

We have to start to question the strength and conditioning as well as the medical staff here. They are the common denominator and history shows there have been problems before. The only way to get to the bottom of these issues is to look at every possibility. If this isn't the problem then so be it but it's time to be proactive here, and not reactive.

Something just doesn't add up here. I'm sorry Cashman, this isn't bad luck. You may have another perception problem on your hands. So what are we going to do about it?