Boomers Says Yanks Might Be Flat

0:00I was thinking myself as a guy who made a living throwing the football and throwing every single day, how difficult it is for these guys to come back from Tommy John's surgery and the things that they have to go through and the lonely days that basically has gotten Garacolt where he is right now. And yeah, you're excited, you see him throwing 96 and you're saying, why isn't he on the team? Why isn't he on the roster right now? I mean, you know, your body takes time to heal and it's not just physically heal, he's got a mentally healed. He's got a, he's got to feel really confident that he can go out there and give an 85 pitch performance with all of his arsenal of pitches and he's got to be able to let it go mentally and I don't, I don't necessarily know he's there yet. I don't feel like he's there yet. I feel like he's getting close and it's probably going to be mid-May and, you know, again, that is going to be a shot in the arm when you get your ace back and then all of a sudden they become the healthy pitching staff that I think Brian Cashman thought they would

1:00be when he added Max Fried and, and away you go. So they should have one of the top pitching staffs. Let's say starting in June, yeah, if they're all healthy, if they're all here and Garacolt doesn't have any setbacks between now and when he does come back. And I would say, you know, that again, you want to be really, really careful with this, especially at his age, that that's the other aspect of it. And I, I give him a lot of credit, give all these guys a lot of credit that come back from it because I, I just think about the rehab, the surgery, the initial like, you know, month out of surgery and then moving and stretching the arm and going through all of that and it was a lonely days, man, and spending all that time with a therapist and then, you know, the first time you pick up a ball and you go to throw it and what it feels like and you're talking to other players who have been through it and you just want to make sure, especially at his age, that maybe you can preserve the next three to four years of his contract. It's not just about this year, it's about the longevity that he has left.

2:01So I mean, that, that was a good sign yesterday, but I would just say temper everybody's enthusiasm in regards to that. And if it were me, I would, I would see how the team's doing. See how he's doing down in Tampa because he's going to go back to Tampa now and just to see, I would say June, I give, I, the way I think and the way they, I believe that they handle athletes nowadays completely different from when I played, it was like, get back out there as soon as you possibly can, I would think, I would think June, and maybe I'm, and if I'm wrong, that's, that's a good, I guess it's a good sign for Garry Colton may not be a good sign for the Yankees, but I would think, I would think June would be his first start. Yeah, you're not worried about the physical aspect of it. You talked more about the mental aspect of it. I'm not worried about his mental aspect of it because he's always been someone who has been rock solid and had that mentality. And that's something that he's always going to have regardless of what his body is doing. But I am worried about the physical part of it because it's how grueling it is. And he's in his mid 30s now and you're talking about, you know, the, the violence in which

3:02these guys throw and how much they do and getting through a season and shaking off the rust and all of those things. So if anybody could do it, it'll be him. I mean, he's got the best doctors. He had the best surgeon. He knows exactly what he's doing. He knows his body. He's a sign young award winner. So if there's anybody that's going to bounce back and be great from this injury again, we've seen it before, you know, with younger guys more often than older guys, but I feel pretty good about him, bounce it back and being great. And then you don't really need, you know, as Aaron Boone was, was talking about a fifth starter until, you know, mid April sometime. So the four guys that you're going to be seeing are going to be tried it out there, you know, every fifth day, free, Schlittler, Warren and Weathers. That's what you're going to see for, you know, those four guys and in the top of that rotation, it's got all the potential in the world, right. And then, and then hopefully those four guys make it through and everything's fine. And then all of a sudden, you have, you know, the reinforcements come in behind them. And then that's when maybe the Yankee season takes off.

4:05But yeah, it is, it looked, we talked to Nick Swiss yesterday. It is the, the narrative is they're running it back. They, they don't have, they didn't change much. You have the same shortstop. You're going to have essentially, you know, that was the biggest surprise to me. Really? The offseason, that was a big, look at how much money they're spending. No, I know, but I just, for them to go out and get a brand new shortstop, they would have had a mate, make a major move. And it would have had it been, you know, something that would have been earth shattering in terms of the contract and possibly putting them over the luxury tax. So I was, I'm not surprised. I'm actually, you know, and I've told you, I've, so since I'm not a Yankee fan, I will say I've always liked Anthony Volpi. And I know that there are people out there that can't, you know, can't deal with it. But I thought he got better once they, they set the defense better. When they made the trade for Rhymek Man, it's, it's settled third base. And, you know, it, it put Jazz Chisholm back to second. So that was fine. I mean, I get all of a sudden he played better defensively under those circumstances.

5:05There's nothing worse. I would think as an athlete, I don't care what sport you're playing. If you're on the ice, you're on the court, you're on the field. The guy's next to you, you got to trust. You got to believe in and you got to believe that they're going to make the plays that they, they're required to make as opposed to thinking that the guy next to you is got a problem or has an issue and then you have to cover for that guy. And that's just a mental thing that just happens. Naturally, within the body of a game and a body of the team. So now, you know, they, they, they, they make the trade for Rhymek Man. And all of a sudden they say to Anthony Volpi, look, man, we got a top and third baseman here. Don't worry about it. And he could just relax. And he doesn't have to feel like he's got to make every single play. And when you have a second baseman who's more comfortable over there, everything seems to fall into place. And he played better defensively the second half of the season. I'm going to sit here and argue whether or not he's a great hitter or, you know, he's trying to hit too many home runs. I mean, we all see what we see when he's up at the plate, but there are moments where, you know, he's one of the reasons why they win games. Yeah, you can't say that the Yankees don't give these guys opportunities.

6:06We have seen it so much through the years. They give them more rope than just about any organization in Major League baseball. And you would think it would be the opposite because it's the New York Yankees. But when you're on your rookie contract, if you're one of these young guys that they projected into the future as being a starter, they're going to give you multiple years to figure it out. I should. And I just remember, well, we'll see, we'll see if this year, Anthony, it never got back on track with Gary Sanchez, you know, it never, that that was a year too late with him. And we'll see what happens with Volpe. I mean, I remember even Seamack, who we always joke around. You'll be in the shell and be in the guy who's got the Yankees back with everything saying that he would be, I don't know if he's changed his tune since then, but he would be upset if Anthony Volpe came back as a starting shortstop next year. So, and you know, you'll see Caballero out there a lot. He might even be starting tonight because of Volpe and injuries and everything else. But I, I don't know. I just, I hope for him and his family and everything that it works out. It's the dream that it needs to be.

7:06But we've seen it. We've seen the other thing. We've seen the Gary Sanchez stuff, but any fun either. I think one of the reasons why David Sterns did what he did with the Metz roster is because he knew he won as far as he could with the group that he had. And it was not a harmonious locker room. I believe that Brian Cashman looks at his locker room and sees a harmonious locker room like a lot of guys that really like each other and really support each other and they don't, they don't have any of the internal issues that maybe the Metz have had over the last couple of years. You probably write about that, but what I would love to know and we're not going to know if Hal Steinbredder didn't have that drop dead number of the salary and don't go to that next threshold on the competitive balance tax. What would have Brian Cash had done in this long season? Well, that's what I want to know. That, that could have been that, but you never know what internally is going on. But I do know this that David Sterns has enough is enough. We're blowing this thing up and we're changing and we're bringing in different players that are just as professional as the players we had here before. They just have different names, different backgrounds, different histories, different resumes.

8:07And we're going to try to reconstruct this team and we're going to try to do it around Francisco and Doran. We're going to try to do around one solo and we're going to make though. We want to make those guys happy and we want to bring the best out of those guys. We don't want to go into games. You know, not like in each other. And I think that there was something to be said about that. There's no question about it. And that's why David Sterns, I believe, did what he did on the other side of town. In the Yankees, I do believe that that is a harmonious clubhouse. I really do. I think there's a lot of people on that team that really like and love playing with Anthony Volpe. They probably would like him as a guy. They probably think that he's a really good player that sometimes unfairly. He's compared to Derek Jeter, which is really unfair, but unfortunately, you know, they have money that they spent in other areas, especially their starting pitching staff. So a guy like Kim or a guy like Ben Rice, they're going to stay here. You know, just because they have to stay here. That's all there is to it. And then, you know, Brian Cashman will do what he does every single year. Come the trade deadline, he will add some peace that will try to make this team

9:09even better than it is. I think it's a good team. I think it's an over. It's a plus 90 win team without without question, I believe.