Lactose Intolerance
Got Melk?
I love Melky Cabrera. I have since he made his debut, and I always will. His wonderful personality outweighed his numbers in the hearts of most Yankees fans, and there was much love for him in New York. Especially from the “da womans”. I just want to make it very clear that Melky was one of my favorite Yankees when it came to character. His close friendship with Robinson Cano made him even more of a joy to watch on the field, and off. I will miss him.
Now that I’ve cleared that up, let’s discuss what happened yesterday.
Melky Cabrera, Aroldis Vizcaino and Michael Dunn were traded to the Atlanta Braves for Javier Vazquez and Boone Logan. Hmmm… I like the name Boone. I tip my hat to Cashmoney for getting this done. In my opinion, this was one Brian Cashman’s best trades of his career. No doubt about it in my mind.
I was somewhat disappointed, but not really surprised, by some of the reactions to this trade. While a lot of my fellow Yankees’ fans are happy about the trade, there are many others who are ready to see Brian Cashman fired for this. Reading all the negative reactions to this big move, in online forums and on Twitter, was hilariously infuriating to me. I didn’t know whether to laugh about it, or stab the desk with my pencil. No. 2 pencil, of course. The one thing I learned from the SATs is that No. 2 pencils are the Yankees of the pencil world.
The negativity can be divided into two categories: love for Melky, and hate for Javy.
Love for Melky:
Judging by the severity of these negative reactions, you would think Brian Cashman traded Derek Jeter to the Phillies to bring back Cody Ransom. Some fans were going crazy! Some of them were blasting Cashman for being a “heartless pr*ck who will run this team into the ground”, while others were saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Relax for a moment, people. Take a deep breath and go to your happy place. Easy there, Tiger. I love how that phrase has even more significance now.
First off, in baseball, if it “ain’t broke” it doesn’t mean you can’t fix it. Are we the current World Champions? Yes, we are. Did our team work well for us in 2009? Yes, it did. Does that mean we can’t improve? No, it doesn’t. Anyone who tries to sell me on not fixing something unless it’s broken is someone who has no business discussing baseball, or professional sports in general. When you’re the New York Yankees’ General Manager, you don’t wait until something breaks before you fix it. You keep fixing and tweaking, day after day, to prevent it from breaking. Waiting for something to break before you fix it is how you end up with teams like the Kansas City Royals and the Milwaukee Brewers.
Secondly, being “heartless” is what usually makes a General Manager great. Sorry to break it to you, my friends and hippies, but you can’t love your way to victory. You can’t hug your players to a World Championship. You need to go out there and break some balls. Not only is breaking balls as fun as it sounds, but it also leads to a franchise’s success. Being sentimental is how you end up with a washed-up has-been eating roster space and payroll money. It’s basically how you end up with Jason Varitek still on your team.
Third of all, we traded Melky Cabrera. Distraught Yankees’ fans: are we looking at the same Melky Cabrera here? I understand your love for the Melk-Man. I love him too, but that doesn’t make him an amazing player. If I had a mentally-challenged son, I’d love him, but that wouldn’t make him a rocket scientist. For the love of Mo and all else that is holy, WE GAVE UP MELKY CABRERA. We didn’t give up the next Babe Ruth. We gave up a mediocre player. Yes, I said it, Melky is mediocre. He’s average at best. Look at his numbers. He’s a C-average student in an Advanced-Placement course. While that may make him a B+ student in a standard course, the Yankees are definitely an Advanced-Placement team. Stop being blinded by nostalgia and sentiment, and open your eyes to the facts.
Finally, with Curtis Granderson and Nick Swisher in the outfield, and Brett Gardner probably ready to play off the bench, Melky Cabrera was the weakest link. Goodbye. When we have several options when it comes to players in left field (I’m hearing word of the Giants making DeRosa an offer), who in their right mind would choose Melky Cabrera? Wait, I think I answered my own question within the question by including “in their right mind”. Point, set, match. I win.
Hate for Javy:
Look, I get it, “2004” wasn’t pleasant for any of us. It was devastating. Why are you blaming the collapse on Javy? Oh, I see your logic, it’s not like the rest of the team decided to start choking or anything. It’s not like games 4, 5 and 6 had anything to do with it. It must have all been because of Vazquez pitching in game 7.
Give me a <insert swear word here> break.
Javier Vazquez was expected to be a top-of-the-rotation pitcher in 2004. He was very good in the first half of 2004, and then declined in the second half due to injury. Or, as Javy says, not injury, but he just didn’t feel right. Whatever. We expected him to be our main man after Mike Mussina in 2004.
In 2010, we’re expecting him to be our #4 starter after CC, AJ and Andy. All three pitchers have proven to be solid throughout the season, and they don’t burn out our bullpen. So, if every 4th start, we get a good 6 innings from Javy, we’ll be fine. Really, people? You don’t think that Vazquez can give us a decent start in the #4 spot? Please, do me a favor (before I slam my head against a wall) and look at his numbers. Vazquez is more than qualified to be our 4th starter. With Pettitte getting older, we may need to limit his innings more, I can see Vazquez moving up to #3.
Speaking of slamming my head against a wall, I saw something on Twitter that pushed me close to doing it: “I’d rather put Mitre and Gaudin in the rotation than Vazquez”. Dude, do yourself (and us) a favor and stop folllowing baseball right now. I’m not even going to dignify that statement with any further response.
For your information, Javier Vazquez came in 4th in this year’s Cy Young Award voting. You’re right, that definitely means he’s a horrible pitcher. Funny how he placed 4th, while CC Sabathia also placed 4th. It’s also funny how his ERA was lower than any of our starting pitchers, including CC. You’re right, that clearly shows how horrible he will be in our rotation. Not to mention his 238 strikeouts this year. Oh my, that’s terrible. He also pitched more innings than AJ and Andy. How rancid. Even with the Braves, Vazquez still managed to get 15 wins this year. That’s more wins than our #2 and #3 starters got for us this year, backed up by our lineup. He definitely sucks.
Again, give me a <insert swear word here> break.
Why all the hate, people? Take a good look at yourselves and answer that question. Sure, we didn’t sign Cliff Lee or Roy Halladay, but Vazquez is a great acquisition for us. Who in our league has a better rotation than Sabathia, Burnett, Pettitte, Vazquez and (fingers crossed) Hughes? The Red Sox? Just shut up already. We have [arguably] the best rotation in baseball now, would you stop complaining? If Vazquez even semi-mimics his 2009 performance in 2010, he will be solid for us.
I really do believe that a chunk of our fanbase consists of spoiled brats who will complain about anything and everything. Here we have our GM finalizing what could possibly be the best trade of his career, and a lot of our fans are bitching and whining.
Need I remind you people that you are supposed to be fans of the team and not of just one player? Wake up before I b*tchslap you back to consciousness.
Pretty In Pinstripes 
Tell us how you REALLY feel Beebz hahahah
Once the initial shock wore off, yes, this move made perfect sense. And I will miss Melky — just not as much as the womens. Sidenote: you’ve given me a new appreciation for my #2 pencils — though if they ARE the Yankees of the pencil world, we should petition for their name to be changed to #1. 🙂
WOW, what a great post. I share your thought on Melky and really the entire blog. Great, Great, job….
While I’ve been a fan of the team since… well since i have memory (end of the 70’s), and i can seriously tell you, you more or less captured the sentiment of a lot of fans who are on the verge of comprehending how baseball works but can’t fully understand it.
You see, Vázquez numbers were done in the National League, where a lot of pitchers have had a lot of success since it’s a lot more weak, well, if you know about stats you should know it… you do know it, right? because i’m gonna take it as you do.
Javier Vázquez has had a hard time managing pressure, he utterly fails when his team needs him the most, and examples of that exist, like Clemens, he had a pretty good career but in the Playoffs he was bad.
I really hope he can be good this time around, but i have a lot of doubts. As for Melky, he wasn’t really good in the OF, makes a lot of bad decisions and you can see how he jumps too late for the ball, which he compensates with his velocity but still has a bad glove… well the Yankees received i think it was 4 inside the park home runs batted to the OF where Melky was, one in each of his first 4 seasons, he is THAT bad picking up balls in the ground. Also it seems like he has an injury in his arm this season since he made bad throws, with the bat he can be better, and in the National League pitchers throw low, Melky is a low ball hitter.
By the way… Cashman was not a genius, nor can be considered one, for making this trade, the Braves were looking to dump Vázquez and Lowe because of their high salaries, and the Yanks are the only team with a GM as dumb as Cashman as to engage in it. I think Mulder has better chance of being good for the Yanks both in the season and if they make the Playoffs.
I strongly believe that Gene Michaels is better, ‘stick’ made better acquisitions each year, players who helped the Yanks win WS, since ‘Cash’ has been our GM he has acquired great National League pitchers like:
– Randy Johnson (left the AL and became great in the NL, came to the AL and was dreadful, went to the NL and again was pretty good)
– Kevin Brown
– Carl Pavano
National League pitchers are not always what they seem. But then again is different when people think they know baseball but in reality have never even picked up a glove nor batter a fastball, Cashman… Cashman is one of those.
Cheers… from México 🙂
P.S.
You have a nice blog and interesting points of view, altough sometimes you lack the force of people who really get into it using stats to make a point, it’s still nice to read you.
Thank you all for your comments.
m1khelb: please read my Inaugural Post. I stated, right from the start, that this blog will be purely from a fan’s perspective. I link to stats (through the several hyperlinks in my posts) but I don’t analyze them in depth in my posts. There are many blogs out there in which writers dissects statistics, this is not one of them. This is an opinions blog. Like I said, it’s all in my Inaugural Post. I’m sticking to my angle. Thank you for reading.
Dude right on with Javy and the milkman. My heart grieves Melky’s departure, his smile and hard work and walkoff hits, but my head totally applauds Cashman for this awesome, amazing trade! Excellent blog, just found it via twitter and you totally speaky language! Keep up the fine work, I will check back often!
Crap, that should be “speak MY language.” Pardon!
I agree with everything you said. Who would we rather have at #4; Joba, Hughes, Gaudin, Mitre’? Or the #4 pitcher in the Cy Young voting? Melky had become a spare part who hasn’t progressed as hoped, despite many big hits the past season. Granderson made him expendable. And next year Crawford will be available and Vasquez’ contract will be up.
Good moves by Cash Man.
Hi, I enjoy reading your blog.
I am one of those people who enjoys baseball but doesn’t really understand it, (the business part of it, I understand the game) so when it comes to talking about trades I generally keep my mouth shut. Which is why I enjoy reading blogs like yours.