Hot Stove Ramblings: The New Murderers' Row

The heart of the original Murderer's Row: Lou Gehrig, Bob Muesel, Tony Lazzari and George Herman "Babe" Ruth

From MLB.com:
The Hot Stove. Definition: "The Hot Stove" refers to the Major League Baseball offseason, particularly the time around the Winter Meetings when free-agent signings and trades are most prevalent.

Origin: In the early days of baseball, Hot Stove Season referred to an actual baseball season: Hot Stove Leagues, in which MLB players would stay in shape by playing baseball in their hometowns while staying warm with actual hot stoves.

The term soon expanded to become a kind of predecessor to the water cooler -- on a cold day, fans would gather around the hot stove to discuss their favorite team.

When fans discuss the best Major League teams of all time, the conversation usually begins and ends with the 1927 New York Yankees. Someone will bring up the 1961, Mantle-Marris-Ford iteration of the Bronx Bombers, others the 1976 Reds, aka the Big Red Machine of Johnny Bench and Pete Rose. Someone else might mention the '72-'74 A's, featuring Reggie Jackson and Vida Blue. The best team I ever saw with my own two eyes in a ballpark was the 1989 Oakland A's. It was at the very least the most fearsome lineup, one to nine, I'd ever seen. Of course, now we know that PED's were at least partially responsible for their dominance, which takes more than a little of the luster off their accomplishments. Another was the '78 Red Sox, who my Yankees bested in that famous one game playoff. Heart breaking loss or not, they were an incredible outfit featuring Jim Rice, Fred Lynn and Dwight Evens. One could argue that the 1998 Yankees were the most balanced, complete team ever, even if they didn't have the fire power of other great champions, and the 2001 Mariners who, in spite of winning a record 116 regular season games, lost in the ALCS. 

The conversation always comes back to the '27 Yankees, who went 111-44, because they were the team of Babe Ruth (60 HR, 164 RBI, .356 BA) and Lou Gehrig (47 HR, 175 RBI, .373 BA). While Ruth and, to a slightly lesser extent, Gehrig have remained household names, others on the team, including Hall of Famers Herb Pennock and Waite Hoyt (pitchers), second baseman Tony Lazzeri, outfielder Earle Combs and, manager Miller Huggins have pretty much faded from memory. Outfielder Bob Meusel, who didn't make the Hall but had a solid career, contributed 106 RBI that season. The Yankees's lineup so dominated the league in '27 that they became known as Murderers' Row. Legend has it that the Pittsburg Pirates, who New York faced in that year's World Series, showed up to the ball park for game one only to see their opponents putting on a hitting clinic during batting practice. As ball after ball sailed high and far over the fence the Bucks became dejected to the point of giving up mentally before the games were even played. They would get swept four games to none.

Is the story true? To paraphrase the reporter from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, this is Major League Baseball sir (or madam): when the legend becomes fact, you print the legend. And indeed the legend of the '27 Yankees is greater than the facts. Most of the pyrotechnics from that famed line up were produced by the bats of Ruth and Gehrig. Of the rest of the team only Lazzari reached double digits in homers (18) and he was also the only other player besides Ruth, Gehrig and Meusel to top 100 RBI (102) - the next closest had 64. The pitching was very good, featuring a 22 game winner, two pitchers with 19 victories and one with 18. 

All the same, it was a different game in 1927, which makes comparing teams of different eras inherently problematic, if not down right impossible. Though the fabled "live ball" era was in full swing, with the game shifting from being a base hit, base running, pitching, defensive game, to one dominated by homers and RBI, the Majors as a whole still hadn't caught up with the trend. Only two teams, for instance, managed to hit more homers than Ruth's individual record of 60. 

But this isn't about facts, its about legends, and there is no greater legend in the sport than the awesome one-two punch of Ruth and Gehrig in the middle of the Yankee line up. There have been other great pairings over the years: the aforementioned Mantle and Marris, Willie Mays and Willie McCovey, Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz. But Ruth and Gehrig remain the gold standard.

The present day Yankees have the makings of a modern-day Murderers' Row. They have an impressive core of young players, featuring the power duo of Aaron Judge (rookie record 52 homers) and Gary Sanchez (33 home runs in 122 games). Yankee fans were blown away by them last season, when the team exceeded expectations by making a legit World Series run, falling a game short of the Fall Classic, at least two seasons ahead of schedule. They got there because the organization followed a patient strategy of developing the farm system, making smart trades for top prospects and holding off on big ticket free agents while waiting for some awful contracts to come off the books. In many ways it was the approach that built their late 1990's dynasty. 

The newest member of Murderers' Row 2018: Giancarlo Stanton (second from left) surrounded by Yankees GM Brian Cashman (far left), new field manager Aaron Boone and managing general parter Hal Steinbrenner. 

While he's not a free agent, the Yankees announced today that their trade for Marlin's slugger Giancarlo Stanton is official. Not a free agent, but a player that brings with him the kind of bloated contract New York has been trying to avoid as they've rebuilt over the last couple of seasons. It's the kind of contract that they inherited when they traded for Alex Rodriguez in 2004, and have just gotten out from under a year after A-Rod retired. Stanton has 10 years and $295,000,000 left on his deal, of which the Yankees are on the hook for $265,000,000. 

What's wrong with the contract isn't so much the money. MLB is swimming in cash, and the Yankees have multiple revenue streams that gush money. I don't blame a player for getting what he can of that action. It's the years that the Yankees will be shackled with. Players are in better shape, much more attentive to diet and exercises than previous generations, true. As a result turning 30 years old isn't seen as the career death sentence it once was.  But all the cardio and macrobiotics can't hold father time off forever. The stat heads say 32 in when the decline in production starts and my eyes tell me after 35 every player is on borrowed time. Stanton is under contract until he's 37, and he's had injury issues that could limit his playing time. He can opt out after 2020, but I don't see that happening, unless he stays healthy and productive, thinking he can get in on the market increase expected by the impending Bryce Harper-Many Machado free agency after next season. So the Yankees are back to carrying another owner's dumb contract, limiting their payroll flexibility and having to find a way to plug another piece into already over crowded outfield, that is already burdened with a player with an albatross of a contract in the person of Jacoby Ellsbury. 

I know the temptation. To see Stanton, Judge and Sanchez (in whatever order) back to back and belly to belly in the heart of Yankee lineup is too much to resist. Imagine the moonshots those three are potentially going to hit. Add to them Didi Gregorius, Greg Bird, Aaron Hicks; all of whom can hit the long ball themselves, and you do have a modern day Murderers' Row. Who do you pitch around? One of the buzz phrases the new analytics people like to throw out there is "stress pitches." The idea is that pitch count is one thing, but not all 100 pitch games are equal. Some situations put more stress on a pitcher's arm than others. Constantly pitching with men on base, or having to deal to the heart of the lineup, or having to pitch to the heart of the lineup with men on base in close games or from behind, forces the pitcher to dig deeper than facing the 7-8-9 batters when you're up by 5 runs. You need that ninth slotted pitcher or light hitting second baseman to offer some relief. If all goes well there will be little if no relief, and a boat load of stress, facing AL pitchers facing the Bronx Bombers this 2018 season. And Yankee fans are dreaming of it as the snow falls already. 

I wish Giancarlo Stanton all the blessings and good things, especially good health. As a Yankee fan I'm going to love to see Murderer's Row 2018 do it's thing. But if down the line at some point GM Brian Cashman can't make a trade for a pitcher the team needs, or can't sign the third baseman they need because of all the money tied up in the outfield, or we have to let one of our home grown Bombers go because we're tied into this contract and can't afford him, the instant gratification of having Stanton now won't be worth it. Especially if, God forbid, Stanton gets old before his time because of injury. Then we'll be looking back, as we did in the last years of A-Rod's contract, waiting for it to mercifully expire.