YANKEES WON'T WIN PLAYING CASHBOONE BALL!

This just is not Yankees baseball. This has been an abysmal failure of what was hoped for and even predicted for this season. Even if you didn't agree with the favored Yankees for the AL East you at least had more expectations than this. The Yankees just got swept by the Detroit Tigers for crying out loud....

Something's got to give here, but it hasn't. It's June, and in April we all heard Brian Cashman talk about how he believed in this team and that we had magic HERE.....blah blah blah. There's no magic when you are in third place in the division and you were just EMBARASSED by the Detroit Kitty who are just as pitiful as we are. But let's stick with the "MAGIC," right?

WRONG. This is insanely stupid. This ladies and gentlemen is what I call CASHBOONE BALL. It doesn't resemble baseball at all. It's INSANITY and we see it every game because we just wait for the "MAGIC" to appear and catapult us back into first place. No one has a LOGICAL solution for it though.

I mean, have you read Ken Davidoff''s latest piece HERE? Maybe he missed his calling in comedy because his first and second solutions do not work. It's more of the same. It's Tyler Wade's SIXTH go around here and he hasn't been a difference maker before, but he will now over Brett Gardner? Yeah, track record says NO but that's a good one. Use him, sure but who really think Wade is the everyday centerfielder and a productive one? Please. Oh and give Delino DeShields a chance because the Rangers aren't using him and after he tanked with the Rangers in 2020 it's a better bet than what we already have? Okay....that's a whole lot of crazy logic.

The only two things Davidoff said that make any sort of sense are Yes, the Yankees offense is as absolute horror show. Agreed there. If the Yankees want to give Chris Gittens a shot at first base instead of Mike Ford, go for it. It's still a gamble though. He's been productive at Triple-A and might be a sparkplug BUT it's still not a long term solution. No disrespect to Gittens but he's 27 and never played about Double-A until this season....there's no reason to believe he's the answer to a season long problem.

So this is the CASHBOONE BALL I am referring to. The reality is that there isn't any long term help that the Yankees have in house that will fill all of the holes in this lineup for the remainder of the season. The Yankees will need to be open to making meaningful additions by the trade deadline. Keyword meaningful and there will need to be more than one. A centerfielder that can hit does not completely change this team and make it a winning team that contends. The problem is....the Yankees have already said they do not want to spend the money that it will take. They have $3-$4 million to play with before going over the luxury tax and that doesn't fix every problem we have.

So for the time being we have Cashman's MAGIC to rely on and Aaron Boone's lack of management because he's just Cashman's moving mouthpiece that talks everyday and doesn't actually manage. Then we just slap together a lineup and hope for different results than the game before. It's CASHBOONE BALL....and this is a problem that doesn't help us win.

And yeah....I'm beyond irritated and past the point of frustration with it.

  --Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

     BYB Managing Editor

    Twitter: @nyprincessj

WHO'S IN CENTER? NO ONE KNOWS!

So Aaron Hicks lands on the Injured List again for his seventh time as a Yankee and no one is surprised. But now the surprise is, what are the Yankees going to do now that Mike Tauchman isn't on the team to step in? Oh and there's a chance that Hicks misses the rest of the season so....now what?

Good question. We know Brett Gardner can play center field, but would the Yankees gamble on him being a productive everyday solution? He's looked better at the plate recently, but he got off to a bad start (like much of the Yankees hitters).  It puts the Yankees in a very uncomfortable position because Clint Frazier also isn't healthy with a current neck issue and Aaron Boone has no current plans to move Aaron Judge to center, either.

So how do the Yankees bolster their outfield? Because they are going to need to. This current lineup won't be enough to get the Yankees through the rest of the season because at this point, I am just going to assume Hicks won't be back. 

I can usually find a trending idea on social media and feel good about it....but so far I am finding nothing. 

There's a lot of chatter about Delino DeShields Jr. for the simple fact that he's likely available, and no other reason. He signed a minor league deal with the Rangers during the offseason after the Cleveland Indians non-tendered him in December and has yet to see any Major league action. but the Yankees could see some upside with him because he is a good baserunner and has a solid outfield glove capable of above-average defense in center field. I can't say his .246/.326/.340 over 2056 career plate appearances in the majors is very inspiring but he does have some major league experience.

There's also some fascination on social media right now with Andrew Benintendi who is adjusting after being traded from the Red Sox to the Kansas City Royals in the offseason. April was a rough transition for him but he has been one of the American League's hottest hitters in May with a .356 BA and .844 OPS for the month. It would be nice to get a guy with a hot bat right now but he's also a left fielder and my guess is Kansas City isn't looking to move him. He has one year of arbitration left and any conversation involving Benintendi is going to likely start with Yankees catching prospect Austin Wells since they have plenty of middle infield and pitching propsects. I just don't see it happening.

Then there are other names like Joey Gallo and David Peralta out there that are also recovering from injuries and just don't make sense for the Yankees either.

But the biggest name I don't like in this discussion is our own....Estevan Florial simply because he isn't ready yet. He had a nice home run over the weekend, but after he got off to a hot start in Double-A he has since faded. Some people may not realize he only hit .229 with 9 strikeouts in 25-at bats in nine games this season with Double-A Somerset and now just .172 with 9 strikeouts in 29-at bats with Triple-A. He needed more time in Double-A but he was still promoted. He simply needs more time and he needs to play regularly down in Triple-A. If he hasn't proven that he can hit minor league pitching, how can we expect him to do that in the Majors? We can't. We would be setting him up to fail. I've heard a lot of "it's time to sink or swim" talk from fans....and that idea simply doesn't work. Do we need someone at the major league level? Yes, but we need the right person....and Florial hasn't proven that YET.

I'm not sure what the Yankees are going to do here....but they are in a real pickle especially if they aren't willing to spend a lot of money. I don't know what the solution is here but, something's gotta give. The Yankees only have themselves to blame for this disaster.

  --Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

     BYB Managing Editor

    Twitter: @nyprincessj

MEET THE BYB FAMILY: INTERVIEW WITH ALEXIS GARCIA

We continue our MEET THE FAMILY Series today with another one of my favorite writers, Alexis Garcia.

Alexis started writing for Bleeding Yankee Blue last year, and while her schedule is busy, she always finds a way to deliver something great.  Alexis handles the MLB beat focusing more on MLB as a whole rather than just the Yankees.  That's because ultimately, she's a Dodgers fan.  But Alexis and I are friends, and she's a dynamic writer and so, I wanted her to write for us.

So, without any more hesitation, I bring you my interview with Alexis.  I hope all you readers enjoy this, and be sure to read our other interviews with the BYB crew as well:

• Meet Erica
• Meet Ike
• Meet Jeana
• Meet O'Hara
• Meet Steve
• Meet Suzie

Now, I want you to meet Alexis:

BYB: Alexis, I know you for a long time. Why are you so passionate about baseball?

Alexis Garcia: I think Tom Hanks said it best in A League of Their Own—"If baseball was easy, everyone would do it."  It's the 'hard' that makes it great. I love that it teaches you failure and perseverance. The game also teaches you to be present and that is a skill that carries on through life. As a spectator, it's also a great excuse for day drinking. 

BYB: You played ball yourself. A lot of people don't know that. Tell the BYB audience about your upbringing and where you played.

Alexis Garcia: It all started when I was six years old and my mom accidentally signed me up for Little League instead of Bobbi Sox and I ended up being the only girl on the All-Star team.  After a couple years in rec leagues, I made the jump to travel ball and softball became my life for the next 16 years.  I eventually got a scholarship to play at the University of Texas where we made it to the World Series a couple times. Not bad for starting out as the only girl!

(In Photo: Brett Butler)
BYB: What players did you admire growing up and why?

Alexis Garcia: My favorite players growing up were Brett Butler and Mark Grace. I loved their quiet leadership and their mastery of their respective positions. They weren't the flashiest guys on the field, but they consistently produced and were good ball players.

BYB: Tell the BYB audience about your love for the Dodgers. When did it start for you?

Alexis Garcia: I was born and raised in Los Angeles so it was never really a question—going to games and watching the players was just something my family did together. My first real memory of the Dodgers was Kirk Gibson hitting his famous home run in the 1988 World Series—it was the stuff of legend.  It was also great growing up and having five consecutive Rookie of the Year players! And then we traded Pedro Martinez for Delino DeShields.

BYB: Mike O'Hara, a fellow BYB writer hates the Dodgers.  Can you convince him to give them a shot?

Alexis Garcia: Mike, I would say hating the Dodgers is about 95% of being a Dodgers fan!  Some of my best memories of going to games was jeering that bum Kevin Brown while stuffing Dodger dogs in my face. We have the money, we have the talent, we have the best weather in the country, and yet we still manage to choke in the off-season. We develop some of the best talent in the league only to trade it away for players past their prime.  It is this frustration of constant under-performance that unites all of us Dodgers fans! Also, we have Vin Scully.

BYB: How do you feel about Don Mattingly as the Dodgers Manager and remember, you're answering in Yankee terroitory now...

Alexis Garcia: Look, Mattingly is Donnie Baseball and he is a talented player. But sometimes I feel like he has trouble keeping control of the clubhouse. That's because we do have a lot of egos to manage after all.

That being said, I think the new front office has brought a new attitude to the club and with the trade of Matt Kemp in the off-season, I'd like to see how things go this year. The vibe in Spring Training already seems much improved.

BYB: Tell the audience about your passion for writing and how much fun it's been for you to write for BYB.

Alexis Garcia: Writing is very therapeutic for me and it's awesome to get to shut everything else out every once and a while and write about baseball.  I also love the BYB community because they are passionate about the Yankees and really get the human aspect of the game.  Sabremetrics is great, but this sport is more about people than numbers.

BYB: Name 3 players around the American League that you absolutely love watching and why?

Alexis Garcia: One player close to home that I enjoy watching is Mike Trout. It's incredible to see the numbers he puts up and he's pretty grounded.  I also really like Ichiro Suzuki. 

Again, he's a solid player with a lot of hustle. Lastly, I would have to say the entire Oakland A's team. They are like the dirty hipsters of Major League baseball.  I love watching those weirdos!

BYB: When did you first discover BYB?

Alexis Garcia: I moved to New York a couple years ago and my friend helped me discover it.  It was a great way to get updated on the Yankees scene and I love the passion and knowledge of all the staff and fans.

BYB: You've been with us for a year now? How much are you liking this family and how am I doing as the Chief? Am I a true pain in the ass?

Alexis Garcia: It's great to be part of the BYB family and get to talk and read about baseball. It's a community with a lot of heart. And Robert is the BEST EVER! My check is in the mail, right?

How about a BYB Tank Top? Boom.

Alexis, you're the best and thanks for being apart of our family.

Who's next? Wait and see...




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