Steinbrenner calls out Yankees
Just because George Steinbrenner is no longer with us, doesn’t mean we won’t have a namesake to punch the New York Yankees in the gut.
On Wednesday, owner and son of George, Hal Steinbrenner, went on the offensive toward his club, which is currently last in the American League East with a 16-22 record. Steinbrenner, who has been known in the past to get involved in a vocal fashion, took aim at specific players.
His first target was first baseman Mark Teixeira, who is working on a contract that is eight years and $180 million. Teixeira is off to a slow start, hitting .205 with three home runs and 11 RBI. Steinbrenner is having none of it, according to ESPN.com.
“The first five weeks were disappointing, frustrating, particularly looking at the offense,” said Steinbrenner, speaking Wednesday outside Major League Baseball’s offices. “Clearly not living up to their potential.
“When you look at a guy like Mark Teixeira, clearly, he’s not playing to his potential with the bat.”
This is a comical take from Steinbrenner. His brain trust including general manager Brian Cashman was the group that signed Teixeira to an insane eight year contract. Luckily for New York, the contract expires after this season, but at age 36, the organization had to be expecting diminishing returns.
Teixeira has been decent considering the amount of money being paid for him, but he’s far from the main problem on this team. If Steinbrenner wants to go after anybody, it should be Cashman for the ridiculous starting rotation on this squad. After Masahiro Tanaka, the Yankees are rolling out Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Pineda, Luis Severino and CC Sabathia. It’s ugly to say the least.
Steinbrenner did take some shots at Pineda and Severino, though, also, per ESPN.com’s piece.
“All these strikeouts, and yet he’s given up these runs,” Steinbrenner said. “Whatever technically is wrong with the delivery, Larry [Rothschild, pitching coach] is going to work on, but the rest is up to Pineda to figure out. He’s a professional, and that’s what we expect from him, and that’s what his teammates expect from him.”
Pineda is still a young kid with ample talent, and yet the owner of the team is telling him to figure it out. And what exactly does he mean when Steinbrenner says Rothchild is “going to work on?” If Rothchild isn’t already working on the issues at hand, isn’t that his problem and not Pineda’s? Seems like the blame is being cast in the wrong direction.
In the end, Steinbrenner is angry because the Yankees stink. He might as well get used to it, because this is an old team with a bunch of bad contracts going into the next year or two.
It’s not changing any time soon.
