Despite Hank Steinbrenner’s early grumblings about the need for Joba to be bumped to the rotation, and the general feeling of anxiety mounting, neither Steinbrenner nor the fans have any reason to worry about the state of the franchise.
While many are starting to become critical of Brian Cashman for not pulling the trigger on the Johan Santana trade, they fail to recognize just what he has done for this team.
He has put them in a position to win.
Perhaps the team won’t be a “lights out” type winning team just yet, but they will surely mount wins this season and will most definitely be in contention for many seasons to come.
In sticking with youth, Brian Cashman has done the best possible thing for this team in a game that is rapidly changing.
With the crackdowns on steroid use and other performance enhancing drugs, we are starting to see a general trend of youth as the key to success. Just look at the two teams that made it to the World Series last year—the Colorado Rockies and the Boston Red Sox.
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What do these two teams have in common? They both relied on their farm systems to bring up young players toward the end of the season to stay fresh.
As Peter Gammons noted in his blog this week, “those organizations that can bring up young players—guys they know because they've been tested time after time in the minor leagues—are going to have a huge advantage on the older teams."
The Sox brought in Clay Buchholz and Jacoby Ellsbury as the older players began to tire, renewing the vigor of the team. Even the Yankees did it by bringing in Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy at the end of last year.
And the team that endured the biggest collapse of all time? The New York Mets—one of the oldest teams in the league.
Old teams can’t make it through a full 162-game season. Younger ones can, even though they may struggle at times.
The Yankees have already benefited enormously from Alberto Gonzalez, who they brought up as a backup shortstop when Jeter went down. Now he is seeing time at third and second as well to keep the team fresh.
Shelly Duncan is back up in the big leagues, and can give fresh legs to right field or first base, as well as a MUCH better glove at first.
Toward the end of this year or the beginning of next, the Yankees have center fielder Brett Gardner to look forward to as well. He did a tremendous job in spring training, and left some fans and reporters wondering why he wasn’t with the team at the start of the season.
Cashman is trying to change the philosophy of the franchise, instead of just hiring mercenaries.
This is a much more sound approach. Think about it.
In 1996 the Yankees won with homegrown talent. They tried for a few years to plug in gaps with veterans, but as we have seen many of the hired guns have failed to help produce that World Series ring the team so badly yearns for.
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4 months ago
Is Brian Rovberts an old guy who used steroids? No, he's not old. Forget that mentality, leading to the Yankees relying on PEDs. They didn't. And lest we forget, Cashman was all about hiring mercenaries until this year. Randy Johnson ring a bell? How about Kevin Brown, Pavano, Wright, Sanchez, Vasquez, and wow, what a great move with Chase Wright. The Yanks brought up Hughes last year too. Until he got injured in July. And Boston did bring up youth last year, but it was no Fountain of Youth. And with guys like Paxton Crawford, and Luis Perez out there saying what theyre saying, they weren't too clean either. Is Schilling youthful? Beckett (see Perez re 2001 Marlins by the way)?? THe Japanese contingent certainly aren't 22.
4 months ago
Thanks for the comment Patrick. I didn't mean to insinuate that the Yankees relied on PEDs by any means. I was talking about the league in general.
Granted Cashman did make mistakes in the past, but remember, he also wasn't in total control of the baseball operations then (not that he is now either necessarily). But it has more to do with a shift in the team's stratey.
4 months ago
Just because a team has young players that doesn't mean it will be successful. Cashman had a chance to get an Ace that was under 30 and he blew it. He is a terrible evaluator of pitching talent and he overestimated the abilities of Hughes and Kennedy. I haven't thought about this beforehand, but I'm almost certain that Santana will have more wins to come by himself than both Hughes and Kennedy combined. How can you expect to be a world series contender when you have so much uncertainty in your starting pitching?
4 months ago
I think this article misses the point about Cashman. Gene Michael and Bob Watson built the dynasty that won 4 World Series in 5 years with home grown talent. The team had already been built when Cashman took over for Bob Watson in 98. The only significant player added by Cashman was Chuck Knoblauch. The Yanks also had one of the best farm systems. It was Cashman who got rid of Mike Lowell, Nick Johnson, Soriano, Dioner Navarro, D'Angelo Jiminez, Christian Guzmen, Ted Lilly, Damaso Marte, Jake Westbrook, Eric Milton, Yhency Brazoban and many others. It also telling that Cashman has decided to emulate the Boston Red Sox since the Red Sox basically copied how Gene Michael built the Yanks. Maybe Cashman should have been paying attention to what Gene Michael and Bob Watson were doing. Also, Gene Michael supported the trade for Santana and remember Gene Michael once traded a young stud in Roberto Kelly for a platoon player in Paul O'Neil and Michael later traded a young left handed pitcher in Sterling Hitchcock along with Russ Davis for Tino Martinez and Jeff Neslon. Finally, Boston is crying about giving up Hanley Ramirez for Josh Beckett. This is the problem with Cashman he never knows when to make the trade and when not to make the trade. Like he should have traded for Curti Schilling a proven World Series pitcher rather than Javier Vasques an unproven pitcher for the mediocre Expos.
Ray
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