LET'S GO WITH FOUR & SEE WHAT THE SPRING BRINGS!

With the Yankees being bit by the injury bug only a few weeks before spring training, I have to wonder do the Yankees need to decide who slides into the fifth spot now? In case you are unaware, the Yankees stated late last week that their fifth starter, Frankie Montas will not be ready for the start of the 2023 season—leaving that slot wide open. I don't like the obvious choices of Clarke Schmidt and Domingo German to fill that void—sorry skipper aka Robert Casey. Not a fan of Schmidt and honestly he has been given dozens of chances last season alone and he has underperformed. And German, I have no desire to even see him in pinstripes any further. So my question is this: Can the Yankees go with four and see what the spring brings before naming their fifth starter?

Competition does a lot for a team. It brings out the best in people as they work to be their best selves. Personally, on Tuesday mornings right at sunrise, you can find me at a local track, running 200 repeats to increase my speed and endurance for an upcoming 10-miler this spring. Putting in the work, hard work, is humbling and reminds you what you are going for, what you want in your goals and aspirations. Spring Training does the same thing—giving players an opportunity to perform at their best, showing the coaches and scouts what they can do and pushing themselves to their threshold of power. All this to say, why not let the spring play out, bringing the best of today's youth to the mound, throwing for their spot in the rotation.

"Almost all of the time since the Yankees did last win the Series, they haven’t had enough pitching. They never had the starters to drag them across the finish line the way Justin Verlander and Framber Valdez did against the Phillies when the ’22 Series was two games apiece, and the way Lance McCullers Jr. and Charlie Morton did against the Yankees in that ’17 ALCS," reported Mike Lupica in his recent post on MLB.com. The Yankees have four great starters: Gerrit Cole, Nestor Cortes, Carlos Rodon and Luis Severino. When healthy, they can be lethal to the batters they face. Are they akin to the Yankee starters of 20 years ago? Andy Pettitte: 21-8, Mike Mussina: 17-8, Roger Clemens: 17-9 and David Wells: 15-7 were those starters and the answer to the question, why not?

Source: NY Post

"The best starting rotations are the ones when you have a deep talented staff, and every day, yesterday’s starter hands the ball off and the competitive spirit to his teammate and says, ‘Now top that.’ If you can get a collection of talented pitchers that have that type of capability and makeup, that’s when some magical things have a chance to happen," said Brian Cashman when he introduced the Yankees newest starter Carlos Rodon.

This brings me back to the point of competition. Healthy competition can put you and your team in the best position to reach your goals. So, let the pitchers compete for a spot. This spot could be permanent or temporary as Montas continues his rehab to full strength. We really have not seen a healthy Montas pitch and perhaps the almost 30-year-old needs to see a youngster in his slot to empower him to get better and take his spot back. The Yankees have one of the best farm systems in the majors. So, let's see them compete. And go with four and see what the spring brings.  

--Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Senior Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof

SAVE BASEBALL

MLB's Opening Day is in doubt reports every new outlet this Sunday morning. The 162-game schedule begins shrinking if a decision isn't made regarding the requests from both sides, ending this lockout by end of day Monday. As baseball players and owners flow in and out of the doors of the meetings' site at the St. Louis Cardinals minor league complex, Roger Dean Stadium, in Jupiter, FL, more than one fan drives by with the simple ask, "Save Baseball." 

Source: The Boston Globe

"Among Saturday’s developments, the players reportedly made a comprehensive offer covering several key issues, including the competitive balance tax, salary arbitration and more. The players made a significant move towards the owners on arbitration, reducing their ask for the number of two-year players who would be eligible for arbitration from 75% to 33%. Currently 22% of two-year players are eligible for salary arbitration and the owners have indicated they won’t budge from that number," reported the Eagle Tribune.

Source: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

Big name players have been part of the negotiations with arbitrators and the owners. Max Scherzer, Lance McCullers and Gerrit Cole are among the players present for the meetings each day. Meetings start in the morning and last about 3-4 hours. 87 days have passed since the lockout began last fall. 

I have been through a few strikes in my lifetime, actually all of them. The 1994-1995 strike lasted from the August 1994 through the following March 1995. I had tickets to see the Phillies play in Veterans Park that year. That trip was postponed. The contention there was on the salary cap. There was that year I was supposed to go to Spring Training in 1990, but that didn't happen. We didn't miss any games that year, but the impact likely sets up the modern-day lockout: salary arbitration, free agency, minimum salary. The 80s and 70s also saw a few lockouts, with the worst being in 1981 which came in the middle of the season.  You can read about these strikes here. 

Source: Sporting News

History is absolutely repeating itself, in this expensive, greedy sport. I stayed with the sport because I love it but this time, it is leaving a horrible taste in my mouth. Everyone deserves to earn a good living. You work hard to make it to the major leagues, you don't skimp on practice, you give up your family and certain lifestyle for another lifestyle and success on the field. You deserve to be treated fairly. Baseball owners, and agents also deserve to make a good living, but their greed is sucking the life out of the game.

"Save Baseball" two simple words. Unfortunately, even if the two sides come to a resolution in time to salvage most of the 2022 season, baseball itself will not be saved. If history has told us anything it is that this sport will continue to become bloated with egos, money, and entitlement. It is simply too expensive to go to games, keep up with wardrobe and accept the price tag for streaming services to access your favorite teams. The only way to truly "Save Baseball" is to lower the demand for it. For us as fans to not come back. I know that is a hard ask—it is a hard ask for me too. But it is the only way to really Save Baseball.

--Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Senior Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof

THIS IS A DEAD CASE THAT DID NOT INVOLVE THE YANKEES

Source: NBC Sports

Dead case. Did not involve. The Yankees. The end.

If I was sending this over the AP Wire to shut down any further discussion, that is how it would go.  When I got a text from my lifelong Yankee fan son yesterday that said, "Unless you want your day ruined, I would recommend staying off Twitter," I was not sure what to expect.  Clearly, I didn't listen, and what a saw was a bunch of hogwash.  The 2017 scandal is about the Astros and the Astros only.  What the Yankees did was equivalent of "driving 60 in a 55 mph zone," to quote The New York Post.

Source: The Athletic

For your information, two items highlighted in the letter Rob Manfred wrote to the Yankees back in 2017 as mentioned in the New York Post on Saturday:

"1. The Yankees improperly used a dugout phone in a season before 2017.

2. In 2015 and 2016, some Yankees players stationed themselves in their replay room in an attempt to steal opponents’ signs, then relayed that information to runners on second base so they could try to tell the hitter what was coming."

These two minor infractions are bath water considering the Red Sox "AppleWatchGate" which warranted a $200,000 fine and the Houston Astro chain of cheating strategies that should really keep them from playing in a post season for years to come.

Source: NY Post Anthony J. Causi

 “After the 2017 season, we learned that a number of Clubs believed utilizing video monitors in the clubhouse and video room to decipher signs so they could later be relayed to a runner on second base was not a violation of MLB rules as long as the information was not communicated electronically to the dugout. As a result, we clarified the rules going forward to expressly prohibit such conduct," stated The Post.

Source: AP

The utter nonsense posted on Twitter by both clown Astros players and other haters of the Yankees is just despicable.  The reason the Yankees wanted to keep the letter from Manfred sealed was to prevent this onslaught of ridiculous chaos in a game that already is under fire. The Astros and Red Sox cheating scandals led by the chief clown Alex Cora and the actions of players and owners prompted by the recent pandemic will tarnish the game forever.

The infamous letter "implicating" or rather scolding the Yankees for minor infractions that were not even subject to policy investigation gets released this coming Friday, June 19th, and expect dummies like Carlos Correa, Lance McCullers Jr. and Josh Reddick to have something more to say, but give it none of your time. This is Correa with his Twitter garbage:

Wait... what? ....?

— Carlos Correa (@TeamCJCorrea) June 13, 2020

But Casey makes a good point. Pardon the profanity:

I think @TeamCJCorrea ‘s weak tweet doesn’t prove much at all. #Asstros won a World Championship cheating. @yankees and @redsox didn’t in 2017. Just Shut the Fuck Up and take your lumps, Tool. THATS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM AND THE Asstros

— Robert Casey (@BleednYankeeBlu) June 13, 2020

As the Yankees clearly state and I concur, this is a dead case that did not involve the Yankees and the 2017 and 2018 cheaters will be remembered for their dismantling of the greatest American past time.  They are the cheaters.

The Yankees and the Dodgers for that matter fell victim to their illegal ploys to win a championships.  It is nothing more than that...pay no mind to this silly nonsense, for again, it is a dead case that did not involve the Yankees.

--Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof

ASTROS CATCHER EVAN GATTIS JUST MADE THE ASTROS CHEATING SCANDAL WORSE

I appreciate solid opinions. But I don't understand getting caught doing something wrong, having an overwhelming pressure surrounding you for doing that something wrong, and then adding fuel to the fire and then backtracking like "I didn't realize" I did something wrong, or "You got the wrong idea about me, I'm a good dude, I just thought it was funny", or like in the case of that other loser Lance McCullers Jr... "I'm doing a good deed! That deflects the pressure from me be being a cheater, don't it?" Read more on that here... MESSAGE TO LANCE MCCULLERS JR.--- YOU JUST PLAYED YOURSELF, LOSER!

Message to these Astros players everywhere... you cheated... YOU ALL CHEATED. Take your lumps, stop trying to talk your way out of it. We all know, including you that the punishment doesn't fit the crime and the smartest thing you can do during this Coronavirus pandemic is shut the F up because the world forgot about you for a bit, but not any more thanks to Evan Gattis, you piece of garbage.

We can all thank the Houston restaurant the Flying Saucer for this, because subliminally I think it tricked Gattis and it backfired bit time! They wanted publicity. Gattis fell into the trap and now he needs to pay the price of being stupid.

Yahoo Sports writes:

"For the most part, players and fans agree Fiers did the right thing by speaking out and helping initiate a full-scale investigation by Major League Baseball....

Not surprisingly, Fiers’ critics also include at least one player he shared the clubhouse with during his Astros’ career. Former catcher Evan Gattis took to Twitter to shill a “snitches gets stitches’ glass being sold at a Houston-area restaurant.

The phrase "snitches get stitches" implies that anyone who is considered a snitch should be physically beaten up. The inclusion of Fiers’ likeness speaks for itself. Apparently it’s a popular item in Houston.

The Flying Saucer reported the glass quickly sold out, with Gattis receiving the last one available.However, given the circumstances and the implications, it’s a purchase Gattis may have been wiser to keep to himself."

Then this Gattis moron tried to justify it...

The way the “public” feels about us cheating is how I felt when I at least assumed that other people were cheating against us. No excuses. But I understand everyone’s anger. Doesn’t exactly put humpty dumpty back together again.

— Evan Gattis (@BulldogBeing) March 28, 2020

For the record I have zero bad feelings towards Fiers. We have actually texted and I hoped he didn’t get too much hate/ (actual scary hate mail, threats etc.) he was our teammate. I just thought the glass was funny

— Evan Gattis (@BulldogBeing) March 28, 2020

Hey Gattis? STFU? Keep it to yourself. YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM!

Here's the thing that these losers do not get.

The idea of cheating in the Major League's IS a thing, but the strategic, orchestrated, technological way the Astros did it was incredibly wrong.  These Astros and their fans are not registering the fact that it was the WAY they did it.  I'm not saying other teams don't cheat. I'm saying it was found out by MLB investigators that the ASTROS DID CHEAT and stole a championship in the process. And then... they kept cheating because they weren't caught in 2017.

They are tainted... like... FOREVER!

In the end, losers like Gattis… like McCullers... like Bregman and all those other idiots... they need to just shut up and be lucky you haven't been banned from the game for life.

They will never learn... and that's great for blogs like Bleeding Yankee Blue.

MESSAGE TO LANCE MCCULLERS JR.--- YOU JUST PLAYED YOURSELF, LOSER!

Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, Dumb.  The Houston Astros are idiots, are they not?

You know, the other day I said on Twitter that the Astros are the happiest team on earth right now, because with all this talk of Coronavirus... the season gets postponed, and Altuve can pray at his pillow every night that the baseball world would forget about how they took integrity from the game by cheating their way to a championship in 2017.

Astros are the happiest people right now. No one’s talking about them. That’s ok, when this gets back to normal, the world will go back to mocking them. They cannot escape!!

— Robert Casey (@BleednYankeeBlu) March 15, 2020

Not to mention they probably cheated in 2018 and 2019 as well.  When I saw Alex Bregman tweet this today, I couldn't help but remind him that we will NOT forget about how despicable these losers are, despite charity work.

That crap doesn't fly with me... because one you break my trust, be it a family member, a close friend or even a baseball player and I am their fan, you will have a hell of a time ever winning that back. And because these Astro morons were not sincere with their apology... the gloves are off. Not just for me, but for millions of baseball fans.

Anything you can do to not be on the losing side of your cheating career I guess, right Alex? I’ve seen this movie before. Trust me, baseball fans won’t forget that you and your teammates took integrity from the game. #asstros #AstrosCheatingScandal

— Robert Casey (@BleednYankeeBlu) March 15, 2020

Now...of course I'm blocked, so he never got the message, but it's true... these guys are a-holes and the Astros will always be in the forefront of baseball fan's minds, and mine especially, because what they did was so horrible, the fact that they weren't punished severely will always make their lives in baseball worse for them. To the point where they will wish they were punished.

And now this... Lance McCullers Jr., who decides to take the attack route against a baseball fan, because well... he doesn't get why he would be attacked in the first place.

Junior's thinking is "Hey, I'm doing charity work! How dare you question my character!"  By the way, nice work bill_newc.

Oh and Lance... you were on the Houston Astros, you were fully aware of the cheating scandal you team orchestrated, and yes... you fall into the category of LOSER despite the good deed you're doing. GFY... of course we would go after you!

Guys like Correa, Bregman, Altuve… now McCullers... guys that get defensive when we go after them verbally are the reason why the game of baseball is tainted.  If they really were innocent... if they REALLY didn't do anything, they wouldn't give us fans the time of day, ESPECIALLY ON INSTAGRAM OR TWITTER.  The fact that they are defensive, angry, uneasy is because they were caught and did it.

And that's what they need to live with.  It doesn't matter if McCullers saves a kid from a burning building from this day forward... he will always be labelled a cheater. ALL OF THEM SHOULD BE.  Why? Well... blame Rob Manfred and Tony Clark for that.  They thought if they didn't punish the Astros and just fined the team it would all go away. But it hasn't. In fact... it's gotten worse.

Too bad for the Astros.  Too bad Lance... suck it bro.  Reputation is hatched with the people you hang with.  You were in that #Asstros clubhouse... you're tainted just like the rest of them. And acting out against angry fans? You just played yourself.

Be a man and take your lumps dipshit.