We’ve harped on many themes throughout the annals of RAB, but perhaps none more consistently than patience. It’s easy to get caught up in the heat of the moment and let your emotions guide you to a thought. What’s easy, though, isn’t always right. Just because we prefer instant gratification doesn’t mean it’s the best result.
Patience, in this instance, has won the day. It started last off-season with the Santana non-deal. The Yankees exercised patience in two ways there. First, they decided to hold onto Phil Hughes, knowing he would not be nearly as good as Santana in 2008, and probably wouldn’t surpass him, even in the best case scenario, until Santana’s entered his decline. Yet they recognized Hughes as young, cheap, controllable talent. Holding onto him not only gave them a good young pitcher, but meant they could allocate resources elsewhere.
They also exercised patience in waiting for a comparable option for a better price. WIth CC Sabathia headed for free agency, and with little to no shot of the Indians locking him, the Yanks knew that they could get him while sacrificing just a first round pick. There were no guarantees there, of course, but the Yankees apparently deemed it a worthy gamble. If you’re going to disagree with their strategy, I think that’s the issue.
Finally, the Yankees were patient with CC during this slow opening to the off-season. People started to panic when he didn’t immediately respond to the Yanks’ offer. As time dragged on, the speculation started to ramp up. CC wants to play on the West Coast. He’ll take a discount to play for the Giants. Many New York media personalities screamed that the team should forget him, that he’s playing them for fools. Yet the Yankees exercised patience.
Now they still have Hughes, Kennedy, and the other guys they’d have given up for Santana. They have a comparable pitcher in Sabathia. The contract might seem a bit longer, and there is that debatable opt-out clause, but I think you’ll see similar outputs from the southpaws in 2009. At least, the Yankees are banking on it.
I hope this means that Yankees fans will now exercise some patience when thinking about and pontificating on baseball issues. Thinks don’t happen with a snap of the fingers. They take time to develop. This applies to trades, free agency signings, and prospect development. In other words, don’t write Ian Kennedy off because he pitched poorly in 2008 (as an example). He just might need a bit more time to fully bake.
In the end, this is just a really long way of saying: “WHY THE FUCK IS THIS BURRITO TAKING SO LONG TO COOK IN THIS MICROWAVE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!” Once it’s done, it might be the greatest microwaved burrito you’ve ever eaten.
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