SU has always been a big Nunez fan from his Yankee days. Since being dealt to the Twins, he is one of the few players that I follow in the box scores each day. This is a guy who coming out of spring training did not have a position. He was a utility infielder who could also play the outfield as needed. Even now, he alternates between shortstop and 3rd base with the occasional 2nd base appearance. For the season, he is hitting .316 with 11 homeruns and 35 rbis, 19 stolen bases and 94 hits. The Yankees saw hims as Jeter’s heir apparent for a while but he often got hurt and was never given the chance to really play every day to prove himself (unlike Aaron Hicks who has proven himself to be a .201 hitter. Does he really need to play so much to keep A-Rod on the bench?).
There is article in today’s New York Times that talks about how many players are on this year’s All-Star teams that were drafted or acquired by Theo Epstein between the Cubs and the Red Sox.
When you compare that track record to Cashman on the Yankees, big, big difference. No doubt the Yankees could use a guy like Nunez now. But that’s ok: we have Chase Headley and Ellsbury to root for. Zzzzzzzz.
SU was surprised to see the Mets force feed Jose Reyes into the line-up last night after a stretch of games where the offense was really clicking. Question: why mess around with a good thing? You put a hot bat on the bench at least for one night. Let’s see how this plays out.
Amazing that the entire Cubs’ infield are All-Star starters and the Red Sox also have a bunch of players on the AL team. The pressure on the Cubs will arrive in October. SU says they are going to make an aggressive bid for Miller or Chapman on the Yankees. Right now, the key for the Yankees is to get Texeira hot enough to be desirable by some team for the stretch run. Beltran needs to stay healthy also so he can be dealt. SU is a long-time fan but it’s so clear that this roster needs to be blown up over the next couple of years. The fans will be patient. Just bring up Aaron Judge and anyone else under 30 years of age.
Sports Update Intergalactic 
Also a Nunez fan. Girardi never gave him a chance following some bad plays in the infield even though it was clear that he could hit. But the rest of the lineup was able to produce in those days. Now he’d be hitting cleanup for the Yankees.
The comparison of the Yankees to the Red Sox and Cubs is worthwhile but incomplete. Preceding the recent success, both of those teams spent time at the bottom of their divisions. The Red Sox have managed to do this cyclically. The Cubs, we don’t know yet. But in either case, fans endured truly awful years. It’s not clear that the Yankees have this option.
As Francesca frequently points out, ‘the building is build for a hit show.’ If the Yankees are out of contention, the building will be empty. It’s just too expensive and too boring. I was at a Friday night game a couple weeks ago and looked at the premium seats behind the Yankees dugout. There are 4 sections with 5 rows of seats so 20 rows in total. At first pitch, 5 of those 20 rows were empty. Not mostly empty. The other 15 rows were mostly empty. The remaining 5 were completely empty. It got a little better towards the middle of the game but not much. The Yankees are struggling to field a competitive team without waving the white flag because that’s going to require that they offer serious discounts to tickets. This will mean they start competing with the secondary market and season ticket holders who may have been led to believe that their tickets were an investment. Whatever happens, the smoke and mirrors that allow them to justify their ticket prices throughout the stadium will completely fall apart if they field a bad team for a few years. So what they are is an average team and the way baseball works, an average team will be a few games out of a playoff spot for most of the season. This is the model they’re currently working with.
Fair points, Seth. But I think Yankee fans could get excited about a roster that includes Greg Bird, Didi, Judge and there is another infielder in the minors who plays shortstop who is supposed to be a star in the making. We have had the Jeter retirement tour and the Mariano tour in the last few years but otherwise, the quality of baseball is dull. The truth is that this year, when McCann, Headley, A-Rod or Texeira get a hit, it’s actually a shock/surprise to me. Just never even expect it. Awful. It’s not a competitive or compelling team at these prices. For the cost of the ticket, give me a bunch of young guys including Refsnyder – he can hit.
Hey, SU, are you OK? Haven’t heard from you in almost three weeks!
Steve
On Wednesday, July 6, 2016, Sports Update Intergalactic wrote:
> HowardLevineSU posted: “SU has always been a big Nunez fan from his Yankee > days. Since being dealt to the Twins, he is one of the few players that I > follow in the box scores each day. This is a guy who coming out of spring > training did not have a position. He was a utility in” >