About the Off-Season: Meanderings of My Mind
By Tim Kabel
March 23, 2022
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Next Thursday, the regular season will open with the Yankees playing their first game against the Houston Astros. We are almost at the finish line, of sorts. We made it through a a long, long off-season. This will be my final regularly scheduled Meanderings of My Mind article because we will have regular games to discuss. The only exception will be if I write after an off-day or a rain out.
Today, I will move from topic to topic like the late Richard Dawson kissing a line of contestants on The Family Feud.
The other day, Giancarlo Stanton hit three home runs in one game. They were all incredibly long home runs. I'm going to run out to the grocery store and buy six boxes of ladyfingers which I will cross just to hope this is a sign of things to come.
I took a good look this morning and somehow or another, my kitten, Nut, is just about the biggest cat I have in the house now. It's sort of like that old cartoon of Baby Huey. Perhaps it's all the cold cuts I slip him on the side. He is still relatively slender but if he keeps growing, it will be like having a mountain lion in the place.
Now that Blake Snell has signed with the Giants, rumors are swirling that the Yankees have resumed contract negotiations with Jordan Montgomery. I always liked Montgomery when he pitched here the first time and in fact, it always seemed that he was the starting pitcher on the games I would go to. The Yankees can certainly use more pitching and he has proven he can handle the spotlight in New York. On top of that, he already has a World Series ring. I say bring him in.
I just read that Michael Jackson's youngest son changed his name from “Blanket” to “Bigi”. I'm not really seeing the improvement here. That would be like changing your name from Poindexter to Gaylord. (Poindexter is the 40,428th most popular name in America, while Gaylord is the 2,368th most popular name).
Anthony Rizzo was scratched from the starting lineup yesterday due to a tight latissimus dorsi muscle. Hopefully, this will not affect him adversely once the season starts. If both DJ LeMahieu and Rizzo are out to start the season, it will truly expose the weakness of the Yankees’ bench.
Since we are now living down by the beach, I will be cooking up a big vat of clam chowder fairly soon. I like to use sea clams, chopped clams, and whole baby clams. I also put real potato flakes in there for flavor and to function as a thickening agent. The secret is not to put your clams in too early. If you do, they will be as tough as shoe leather. Some people don't like to put corn in their clam chowder. I do.
Although the Yankees can probably withstand the absence of Gerrit Cole for one to two months, it would be very smart to sign Jordan Montgomery. It would be a tremendous upgrade to the rotation, and it would not cost any prospects.
Now that I'm settled into my new home, I have been concentrating on my writing. On Thursday, I was able to write a whole chapter in my latest novel. The new MacBook is very helpful in this process.
If the Yankees get off to a decent start, the returns of Jasson Dominguez and Gerrit Cole will be even more important to their postseason aspirations this season. In other words, if they were already in first place, adding those two could help solidify that position.
It's interesting when you see the number of boys named Hunter. Considering hunting is now becoming controversial, I wonder if the name will remain popular. It's also noteworthy that no one ever names their child Gatherer.
A lot of Los Angeles Angels’ fans are worried because they lost Shohei Ohtani. They don't need to be worried. They picked up Aaron Hicks. I'm sure he will join the 30/30 club this year for the Angels. The one bright spot is Hicks won't need an interpreter.
The deck at my new apartment is so large that I think I can have a few patio tomato plants out there. When I was a kid, my father grew so many tomatoes that we had an abundance of them all summer long. There is really nothing better than a fresh tomato sandwich, on either white or rye bread with a little salt and pepper and mayonnaise. Sometimes the simplest things are the best.
I know it was only one game but the fact that Yoshinobu Yamamoto was shelled in his first outing for the Dodgers, must have made Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner breathe sighs of relief.
Considering the lack of depth on the Yankees bench, if both DJ LeMahieu and Anthony Rizzo are out on opening day, Oswaldo Cabrera could be like Bugs Bunny and field the ball at third base and throw it to himself at first base.
This afternoon, I will be listening to the radio broadcast or following the live stats of my son's collegiate baseball game. He will be the starting pitcher. I did that last weekend. There is no other feeling in the world quite like hearing a baseball broadcast in which they discuss your son as the starting pitcher. I have listened to countless baseball games over the years and none of them were as meaningful as that one.
One week from today, the season will be underway. Let's hope it's a good year for the Yankees this year. That will mean it's a good year for us, too.
I’m actually in the minority in that I hope the team doesn’t sign Monty. I’m not interested in paying any starter upwards of $50-$60 million for this season and hand-cuffing the team at the trade deadline. I’d rather wait a couple of months, see where our injured players stand at that point and then make some decisions. If Cole is healthy, he provides a huge boost to the rotation. Guys like Effross/Trevino can be good additions to the pen. Dominguez could be waiting in the wings in the minors, in case of an OF injury or to take over at CF if Judge is wearing down.
I would rather spend the money remaining in the organization’s “budget” for this year…
We got Oswald and Oswin in October 2014 as rescue strays (gray tabbies) when they were about three weeks old. He weighed four ounces, she three. I could hold one in the palm of my hand. Now I call Oswald "Rico Carty" because he is such a Beeg Boy with powerful muscles (fancy leaping on to chairs and bar stools is his specialty). Oswin, who was evidently the runt of the litter, has a small head, stubby legs, a thick body and a bodacious pipe-cleaner tail. It takes two years for cats to be fully grown, so enjoy Nut while he's still a teenager -- he's going to get even bigger!
.... and the survey says: Keep the meanderings on Saturday morning. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what happened on Monday, as opposed to, say Thursday, or your thoughts on a Wednesday game when Thursday is an off day.
For the so called weakness of the bench, isn't there one now with all these pitchers in the bullpen? You have a catcher and 3 utility guys. It's not like Giam I goes down you have a Tino to step in. To me Cabrera is Fred Stanley. But how many times do we want to put in a PR, but there is no one on the bench who is my Homer Bush here. Tim Locastro came close, but her was…
If they sign Montgomery, they add a quality pitcher. Period.
Signing Monty, to me, should have little to do with Cole because the Yankees will still need another starter. Are we to believe/hope that the other 4 starts will make all their starts?
Also, regarding Cole - are we going to believe the timeline the Yankees gave? How often have they under-estimated (by far) timelines like this?
And, I have made this point before, and it is critical - when Cole comes back, we don't know what type of pitcher is coming back. He will, at best, most likely be a reduced version of what he was. It is tough to break off that killer pitch when the wonder, de…
may your young man fare very well
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I also enjoyed Mr Montgomery's stint with the Yankees
but thought that the Yankee organization enjoyed it less than did the fans.
the organization seems to have a philosophic bias in favor of employing pitchers who excel in causing opposing batters to swing and miss...and who do so without also. cause opposing batters to not swing and walk