SHORTSTOP SHORTAGE & YEAH, I'M PISSED!

I know what you are thinking...."Oh great here SHE goes again" and Yes, I am about to have a moment. I don't know what else to do at this point. If I could just sneak in to Yankee headquarters somehow and just shake the members in the front office until they are dizzy I would! If I could sit them all down and have a George Steinbrenner "get it together" moment I would. Someone needs to!

So as Yankeeland knows now....Eduardo Nunez is now a thing of the past. We designated him for assignment and had 10 days to decide what we were going to do with him. In the end, we now have a new pitcher named Miguel Sulbaran, you can read up on his stats in EDUARDO NUNEZ WAS JUST TRADED. Great, nothing wrong with a little pitching right? I have never been against that......until now. I never thought I would ever disagree with this move but I disagree.....A LOT.

Look, Sulbaran has a lot of potential. I am not disappointed to have him in our system. The Minnesota Twins and Los Angeles Dodgers both have reputations for developing great talent from within. We have obviously been lacking in this area for a long time so maybe this gives us the spark we have been missing. The problem is right now we have pitchers in the system. It is up to your opinion if you think they are top notch or not and that is always subjective but there is one thing that is severely lacking right now....major league ready shortstops Zelous Wheeler is in Scranton and the only real option right now for them, the Trenton Thunder infielders are just plain not ready and Cito Culver is still trying to figure things out further down in A ball. WHERE ARE THE SHORTSTOPS?!

I am not disappointed that we let Nunez go. I won't miss his errors and I just can't even imagine him as our shortstop going forward after Derek Jeter plays his last game. I wouldn't want to. As much as I agree he needed to be dealt somewhere else there is also something to be said for being strategic and setting your organization up for success. God forbid something happens to Jeter and if Brendan Ryan spends a lot of time of the disabled list there just isn't a whole lot of depth down in the minors to cover us.

In an ideal world we would have kept Nunez in AAA. I understand he wanted his release. I can't really blame him for that because no ballplayer is going to tell you that they want to be a minor league player. The problem here is there is no depth. The Yankees haven't been able to develop it and since we don't have enough of it we can't even trade for certain areas. So now....what are the Yankees going to do?! Buy it? They may have to open up the purse strings (which we have been hearing for what feels like an eternity now) that they don't want to do. Luxury taxes, less profit for the Yankees...blah, blah, blah. Excuse me while I hurl. Right now the Yankees are stuck with their backs against the wall. We have known for awhile now that Jeter would not play forever. We knew Nunez had some flaws. We should have been proactive on this. Now we are reacting and there still isn't a real solution.

I miss Gene Michael more than words can say. I mention that to some people and some nod their head and agree. Some people look at me and tell me I am pretty damn crazy. Let me ask you this though....how did you like the Yankees dynasty we had during the 90's? Do you want that again? I know I do. Gene was smart, had amazing attention to detail and knew how to help develop people. Sorry Damon Oppenheimer....but this just isn't working. Where is the accountability here? If you can't fix it then step aside.

Look, I am not upset about letting Nunez go. He wasn't a fit for us. I hope he is a good fit for the Minnesota Twins and I really wish him well. My frustration comes from the lack of development within our own system. This isn't something that can be fixed over night but in my head I imagine the front office sitting around and twittling their thumbs.

Harsh? Maybe a little but I expect better than this. If I could I would pull the Donald Trump card and pull out the old "YOU'RE FIRED" line. I pay a lot of money every year to watch these games and the Yankees get all of that money in their pocket. Like every investor I expect a return. It's time for a change and fast and my sweet demeanor is seriously running thin. I now step off of my soapbox...for now.




--Jeana Bellezza, BYB Senior Writer and Editor
Twitter: @NyPrincessJ



 
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