THE FALL

Well, here we are again still licking our wounds over the failure to reach the World Series.  After defeating the Guardians 3 games to 2, we not only lost to the Astros, but we got swept.  Losing to them is overly tiresome already.  Boone, or whoever is making the decisions these days (e.g., Brian Cashman or the Yankees’ statisticians), made way too many blunders including:

- Putting in Lou Trivino (a so-so reliever) to try and get out of a bases loaded/nobody out situation that Gerrit Cole created.  (We were off the day before, so all of our premium relievers were available!)

- Constantly rearranging our lineup which even included having Anthony Rizzo in one game as a leadoff hitter and Gleyber Torres as a leadoff hitter in another game.

- Also, with the inconsistent lineup, we had some main players such as IKF not playing in several games.  I know he was struggling, but so were others who seemed to remain in the lineup (Donaldson).

Now, as usual, we are playing the waiting game to see which free agents we are retaining and which ones we’ll try to sign.  Of course, that topic begins with Aaron Judge (the American League’s soon-to-be MVP).  Most of the baseball writers have reported that the San Fransisco Giants are publicly committing towards doing whatever it takes to sign Judge who is from their hometown area.  On the flip side, Hal Steinbrenner was interviewed and made it very clear that Judge belongs in the Yankees’ pinstripes.  He even answered a question positively regarding the chance of making Judge a Captain of the team.  Additionally, he admitted that he has been in one-on-one meetings with Judge – something Hal’s father used to tactically do.  At this point in time, I feel rather confident that Judge will remain a Yankee for many years to come.  My opinion is based on Hal’s comments and also the fact that the Yankees just signed our other top free agent, Anthony Rizzo to a 3-year deal (the 3rd year has a team option).  The Rizzo signing is very significant because he and Judge are very good friends and so, supposedly, are their wives.