CASHMAN’S CASINO: WEATHERS IS THE LATEST 'HOPE' DICE ROLL

Call me a hater. I’ll survive.

Ryan Weathers is pitching out of his shoes right now. Good for him. He changed his pitch mix, dramatically cut back on the four-seamer that got hammered in the past, leaned more on his sinker and secondary stuff, and suddenly looks like a different pitcher.

Fantastic.

But Ryan Weathers is also the perfect poster child for how Brian Cashman builds the Yankees these days. Roll the dice and hope. That's it. That's the strategy.

Instead of aggressively building a roster designed to overpower the competition, Cashman seems obsessed with finding the next reclamation project, the next injured player, the next underachiever with "upside" who the Yankees believe they can fix.

And when one of those lottery tickets hits? Suddenly we're supposed to applaud the genius. Weathers came to the Yankees with a career ERA around 5.00, a losing record and an injury history that included finger, flexor and lat problems. That's not me being a hater. That's the résumé.

Now he's pitching great. His 7 1/3 innings of one-run baseball against Toronto were outstanding. He's changed his approach and deserves credit for it.

But let's not rewrite history because the roulette ball landed on black a few times. Cashman rolled the dice. Weathers is currently paying off.

There's a difference. And that's what bothers me about these Yankees. Too often it feels like Cashman would rather prove he can outsmart baseball than simply go get the best players available and build the strongest roster possible.

Maybe Weathers becomes something. Maybe the injured guy stays healthy. Maybe the struggling veteran rebounds. Maybe Matt Blake fixes another pitcher. Maybe the bargain-bin acquisition turns into a postseason hero.

Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.

At some point, "hope" stopped being the backup plan and became the Yankees' actual business model. That's not how the New York Yankees should operate. This is supposed to be an organization with enormous resources trying to win championships, not Brian Cashman standing at a craps table shaking the dice yelling, Come on, baby, daddy needs a No. 3 starter!

And yes, sometimes it works. Right now, Ryan Weathers is working.

Am I happy for the kid? Sure. Am I a fan? Nope. Would I buy a ticket specifically because Ryan Weathers is pitching? Absolutely not. Not that exciting.

Because I've seen hot stretches before, and Weathers' career tells us this level of dominance is anything but normal. Maybe the pitch-mix adjustment changed everything. Maybe he really has figured it out.

Or maybe we're watching a guy on one hell of a heater. Keep dealing, Ryan. Prove me wrong. But don't use Ryan Weathers' sudden success as proof that Cashman had some brilliant master plan. He rolled the dice.

This time, maybe he hit his number. The problem is the New York Yankees shouldn't have to keep visiting the casino to build a championship team.