00:00In 2017, on July 20th, the date that we sit at today, the Yankees were only three games above .500.
00:06They were a flawed team.
00:08But Brian Cashman made two monstrous moves.
00:13Number one, he traded for Sonny Gray.
00:15And I get that Sonny Gray may not have the greatest reputation in Yankee history, but you know what?
00:19He took the baseball every five days, he pitched to a mid-three ERA, and he started in the postseason.
00:24So they added a starting pitcher that helped fortify them in 2017.
00:27But the other move they made, and this is the move that defines the 2017 Yankees, they are not even
00:33close to the ALCS without making this move,
00:35is when they made a trade with the Chicago White Sox for three players.
00:38They brought back David Robertson, 105 ERA out of the bullpen, Tommy Canely, and Mr. Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down himself,
00:46the Todd father, Todd Frazier.
00:48The reason I bring this up is if the New York Yankees are going to overcome their limp-ass offense,
00:56and they're going to overcome the fact that Aaron Judge may not walk through that door.
01:01If they're going to overcome all of this, it's go time in the next two weeks for Brian Cashman.
01:06He's done it before.
01:08That trade deadline is why the Yankees got to the seventh game of the ALCS,
01:12and if it wasn't for a cheating scandal, may have won the whole damn thing.
01:16And so watching six hours of Yankee baseball yesterday reminded me that as much as we can call out the
01:21individuals to play better,
01:23Cody Bellinger needs to play better, Ben Rice, Paul Goldschmidt, Jazz Chisholm,
01:27Trent Grisham needs to bust it from the moment a ball set up the alley like he did on Friday
01:31night,
01:32despite all that being true.
01:33Tiki, Brian Cashman has been paid a lot of money over the years.
01:37He's made a lot of great moves.
01:39He's made a lot of bad moves.
01:41This two-week run until August 3rd will define if this Yankee team is going to be like 2017
01:48or just whistle in the wind and end up like a forgettable 2021 team.
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