My thoughts on the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry and whether Rob Refsnyder has soul (Seoul)

Do you ever find that people you couldn't stand when you first met you end up really liking? That's how I feel about the folks at Monstah Mash. They are a Red Sox fan site who discovered me a few months ago, back when I wrote an article fact-checking David Ortiz that got some traffic in the blogosphere -- and in the Boston Globe.

Anyhow, Nick Piccione, one of the writers on their site, saw the piece and the followup, wrote something slamming me, and sent it to me on Twitter. I read it, thought it went way too far in personal attacks against me, so I ended up blocking him and the Monstah Mash Twitter account. Then, after Squawker Jon encouraged me to, I read Nick's article again. And I realized that despite his cheap shots at me, he was actually both pretty funny, and a good writer as well. (Believe me, I don't give those compliments out lightly -- especially to a member of Red Sox Nation!)

Also, dare I say it? There was a little bit of a Subway Squawkers tone to the Monstah Mash site! So how could I be against them?

Anyhow, I ended up unblocking them on Twitter, and started talking. Long story short, this weekend, we did a little good-natured trash talk on Twitter this weekend about the Yankees-Red Sox series. It was fun. We each got in some good digs, but still kept the tone (mostly) light. (Edited to add that they are bitter and cranky today over their team losing the series!)

But it reminded me what such a conversation would have looked like 12-13 years ago. It would have been a lot more intense and angry! Heck, I ended up missing parts of the games this weekend, which would never have happened circa 2004. (Squawker Jon is still bitter that I showed up late to his birthday party that year because I was watching the end of the A-Rod/Varitek fight game!)

Also, the writers at Monstah Mash are in their early 20s, which means they were kids when The Curse was broken. So they don't have the history of Red Sox angst and heartbreak that, say, my pal Sully at Sully Baseball does. They more remember the three rings in a decade for their team (and oy, you don't know how much angst I feel writing those words!) So they are, gulp, used to having their team win World Series championships!

It's a whole new world, folks! I'm just glad the Yankees won two out of three, giving me bragging rights -- for now, at least!

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In other news, Rob Refsnyder got called up this weekend, even though Brian Cashman has made it clear he doesn't want to keep him up here. But Refsnyder got his first MLB hit -- and also his first homer -- yesterday. (John Sterling's call was Rob Refsnyder's got Seoul, a play on his heritage.)

I think Refsnyder should be given a chance at second. It's not like Stephen Drew is the second coming of Robinson Cano. He is hitting .182, for goodness sake!

When money trumps talent: Why the Yankees won't bring up Jose Pirela

Spring training is supposed to be a time where baseball farmhands have the opportunity to play their way into the big leagues. But when it comes to the Yankees these days, "Know your place, rook" is the rule. And the place these rookies will be is the minor leagues, instead of with the Yankees. How frustrating, as I noted in this recent column.

Yankee prospect Jose Pirela, after impressing in a September callup, is having a phenomenal spring training.  How phenomenal? Wally Matthews of ESPN New York breaks it down:

Among New York Yankees who have had at least 20 spring training at-bats, one player sits atop the pack in batting average (.391), on-base percentage (.462), slugging average (.652) and OPS (1.114): Jose Pirela. He is hitting more than 200 points higher than Brett Gardner, Stephen Drew and Mark Teixeira. He has more extra-base hits than anyone on the team. 

You know what else the 25-year-old native Venezuelan player has? Almost no chance to make the team. That is because the Yankees are paying $2 million this year to Brendan Ryan, and a jaw-dropping $5M (plus incentives!) this year to Stephen Drew. So even though Pirela can hit and play multiple positions: second base, third base, and the outfield, he is left out in the cold. Joe Girardi has said as much (emphasis added):

"I don’t want to have to say there’s no chance of him making our roster, but I think [GM] Brian [Cashman] said it, our roster was fairly set,'' Joe Girardi said. "You don’t ever lock yourself in and say this is exactly what it’s going to be, but we came to spring training pretty sure, excluding the second catcher, who the 13 [position players] were going to be. They were kind of signed to do that.''

And therein lies the problem. The Yankees have so little faith in their farm system that they won't even use homegrown utility infielders! Signing Ryan for two years (with an option for a third year!) never made any sense to me. (And please, spare me the nonsense Cashman always spews when he overpays -- that the team had to make that offer to get him instead of another team. We are talking about a utility infielder on the wrong side of 30, not Mike Trout!)

Bringing back Stephen Drew has never made sense to anybody but the Yankees themselves. We were talking about this on social media yesterday. One theory, which makes about as much sense as anything else, is that Cashman wants to show he didn't get snookered by the Red Sox in the first place in obtaining him. So he brought Drew back, like he did with bringing back Nick Johnson and Javier Vazquez, to show that he somehow made the right decision in getting them in the first place. Cashman keeps on talking about Drew's historically horrible season being an "aberration," instead of realizing what everybody else has -- that Drew wasn't very good in the first place, and he is terrible now!

So because the Yankees are paying a combined $7M for these two players, they will stick with Drew and Ryan, even though they are awful, and even though there is Pirela waiting in the wings.

I know I sound like a negative Nellie here. but exactly who do the Yankees think will be their hitting stars next year? Given that they have the light-hitting Didi Gregorius at shortstop, and so many question marks at other positions, they can't really afford to have two more of the 13 position player spots being manned by people who are completely unable to hit.

The New York Post's Ken Davidoff wrote a completely incoherent column today on the Yankees' lineup, although I am not sure if it is incoherent because of Davidoff's writing or Cashman's plan.

“I still believe in the power of the home run,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Thursday, before his team took on the Phillies at Steinbrenner Field. And yes, Cashman acknowledged, there often is a correlation between home runs and strikeouts, and that is a trade he is willing to make.

To that end, to fill the holes at shortstop, second base, and third base, Cashman claims that “you play the best guys you can get.”Except he's not. Pirela, as well as Rob Refsnyder, are not getting the chance to compete in the big leagues. Good grief.

$500M for a .500 record: The 2014 New York Yankees are not a good team

I haven't written much in this blog as of late, between having a lot going on in both my work life and in my personal life, and also recently having the summer cold that won't go away! But I feel compelled to say something about the state of the Yankees, after last night's debacle. Now, after roughly half the season is over, the $500 million Yankees have a .500 record. And they have lost four in a row, and eight of their last ten games. Good grief.

Granted, the AL East is filled with underachieving teams this year, so the Yankees are only 3.5 games out of first place. But shockingly, having an old team, with no Robinson Cano in the batting lineup, does not translate into success for the Yanks. Incidentally, Cano's Seattle Mariners are now 46-38, a record that would put them on top of the AL East. Oh, and Robbie is hitting .323, tied for third in the league. His .819 OPS is better than any Yankee player this year, and he has 48 RBI, more than any Yankee does. Still think the "Bombers" don't need him, Yankee fans?

And why is that there is talk that Sandy Alderson and Terry Collins will lose their jobs with the Mets, even though they not been given any real financial resources to work with, but nobody in Yankeeland ever loses their jobs -- or even faces columns in the media saying why it's time to pack their bags? No, Hal Steinbrenner is so afraid that somebody might compare him to his father that everybody gets to keep their jobs forever. And the so-called "tough" NYC media members are too dependent on access to Brian Cashman to ever suggest that maybe it's time for new blood in the GM office. (This is another reason I haven't written much lately -- how many times can I write that Cashman, Randy Levine et al need to go, and that Hal needs to either be a real leader or sell the team, before I become a Swanny one-note?)

Anyhow, the future looks bleak for the Yankees. I would like to see the team call up rookie second baseman Rob Refsnyder, but we'll probably be stuck with Brian Roberts in the role for the rest of the year. After all, Refsnyder is just 23 -- about a decade and a half too young to contend for this team!