Along with the rest of the baseball world, I couldn’t help but be overwhelmed with Johan Santana yesterday. I’ll be honest, I am not as high on Santana as some people. Before yesterday, I looked at Johan Santana as a great pitcher, and a southpaw to boot, that was not worth the price of our precious prospects. Then I started to hear rumblings that Santana told his agent he wanted to play under the constant pressure of New York or Boston.
Turns out, this guy may not be in a decline, but simply a matter of motivation. I started to get scared. I started to second guess the local nine and if they really made the right move by making no move at all. Of course, when fear strikes the deepest parts of my soul it only brings the Yankees to mind.
How did the empire feel? Were they gloating they kept Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy? Or were they secretly fearing the 2008 season as the season that may have been? I had to find out. What follows is a direct e-mail conversation between myself and FRANK SAY IT SO, a friend, about the upcoming season and of course, Mr. Santana. It started off with him sending me the link that Pettitte will stand behind McNamee, and me responding about how it will affect his pitching in ’08, since after Wang, he was the only “sure thing” left. It was an easy way to get his true feelings about ’08 without really bringing my deepest fears into the open …
From: FRANK SAY IT SO
To: Ryne Crabb
absolutely it will….but I was never a pettitte fan in the first place, and I could completely do without him. My expectations for the Yankees this year are a bit everywhere…for the first time in a long time, I have no idea what type of product they are going to put out onto the field…I don’t know what kind of chemistry they are going to have. I mean Girardi played with some of these guys,so how is it going to be with him managing?
What kind of Mariano are the Yanks going to get?
How do all these young guns respond to New York, where the pressure is so intense?
How long are they going to have “Joba rules?” and with their starting line-up the Yanks currently have five lefties batting in a row- how is that going to pan out?
What the hell is going on at first base?
What kind of Arod are the Yanks getting? Last years arod where he was playing for a new contract, or arod two years ago? And with all the contract drama, how do the rest of the players respond to him?
Bullpen?
Lets face it, the best defense is a commanding pitcher, and I love wang, but he’s got one hell of a sinker, and nothing else…and by the end of last season his sinker wasn’t even sinking. I am nervous. I have so many questions, and a lot of speculative answers, but nothing concrete. Part of me is excited in that I am reminded of the Yanks in 96 with all the newbies coming up through the system, and part of me doesn’t now how everyone is going to adapt…and all of this is compounded by the fact that this is the last year the Yanks are playing at Yankee stadium. As a fan, I feel like they are on the cusp of change- and what I haven’t decided is if that change is a good or bad thing. Those Championship Yankees of the previous decade are driftting more and more away from immediate memory and fading into the recesses of the mind as history.
From: Ryne Crabb
To: FRANK SAY IT SO
I