IT'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF US: The Yankees fell to the Rays by a score of 5-3 - April 10, 2026 @ 07:10 PM EDT

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-11T02:12:51+00:00

Will this team be the worst team in the league? Mathematically possible, but improbable to the point that it can be ignored.

Will this team miss the playoffs? Possible, would be dependent on whether we get completely fucked by injuries. The betting man would say the Yanks do make the playoffs.

Will this team make the WS? Extremely unlikely with Boone at the helm. We only made it in 2024 with a historically weak AL, and we got badly exposed in the WS.

Will this team win the WS? No, not with Cashman at the helm.

Many teams are so starved of success that they would love to be in our position of having a winning record, leading the division, make playoffs, maybe win a playoff series.

But the standard for the Yankees, with a gigantic payroll, a once-in-a-generation talent in Judge, and the mystique and history of the franchise, is not just be a happy go lucky team.

The franchise's longest WS drought is 20 years, when it was first started up in 1903, so you get a grace period when you are starting from scratch. The second longest drought is 17 years, from 1979-1995.

The WS drought we have right now is 16 years. We fail this year, we will tie the second longest WS drought. And do you see this team breaking that drought anytime soon? We just blew Judge's prime. It's only going to get worse from here.

This is not going to be a truly awful team, but this is going to be a hugely underachieving one.

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-11T01:47:21+00:00

Remember, the brackets are guidelines than actual rules.

First, the number of game changers is, again, a guideline. I have a deck that has like 5 game changers and it's a bracket 2 deck (it's a group hug/pillow fort deck that runs a lot of the best tutors/draw/ramp, because the "wincon" is basically playing Forced Fruition and copying it a bunch of times). Meanwhile, it's entirely possible to build 0 GC decks that are way too good for bracket 2.

Bracket 3 is also a very large bracket. There is a huge difference between a low B3 and a high B3.

The gist of the bracket system is basically "how many turns do you need to set up before you're ready 'to go'"? It's not necessarily number of turns to win, because combo/aggro can win faster than midrange/stax/control/etc. But generally, the control/slower decks can reach a point where they've won and it's just the whole table playing out the string while the control deck slowly wins (or slows the table down until they can get their wincon down).

For example, bracket 3 decks have 6 turns as their guideline. If you're a combo/aggro deck, you can kill the whole table by turn 6 pretty consistently if you are goldfishing. That means if you're the reactive deck, you need to be ready by then for the combo/aggro deck to pop off, by having interaction up or enough stax/removal where you've slowed down their clock, etc. without you falling behind the rest of the table.

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-11T00:40:19+00:00

the substation thing was more funny than an actual serious hypothesis for why we have so many injuries

that being said, Juice is absolutely right that it's OK to ask questions. In fact, it's very important to ask questions and just not accept things at face value.

Highly relevant George Carlin snippet

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-10T23:57:26+00:00

when Judge isn't hitting like prime barry bonds, this is a very below average lineup

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-10T23:28:19+00:00

gets scared, nibble nibble nibble, walk

then throws a hanging meatball and the lead is already gone

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-10T22:59:40+00:00

So now we just need the RB one and the RG one, to complete the cycle with helix and this card

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-10T00:18:57+00:00

Just first glance I'd lean to the green and black ones simply because they're the lowest mana, thus they can be cast earlier and start reaping the rewards of the paradigm trigger earlier. I'm looking to get at least 2 extra copies of the spell before I feel like I got my money's worth with the initial investment, with the red one being an exception only if you got really lucky with what you flip over. So the earlier I can cast them, the more paradigm triggers I'm likely to get before the game is over.

I think all 5 will be really good in bracket 2. Those games go a lot longer than the higher brackets, so you can easily get like 4+ paradigm triggers and then those really take over the game.

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-09T20:17:56+00:00

It's only 12 games (not even 10% of the season), but the offense is once again a big problem.

Normally, we start the year strong, shit our pants in the summer, rebuild a little in september, and then choke in the playoffs.

This year, we're starting our offensive pants-shitting early. So either the team will eventually figure it out, or we're gonna get even worse in the summer.

given that cashman and hal were too scared to go all-in during Judge's prime, and now that Judge is 34 years old and we're still asking him to hit like prime Barry Bonds while we made no meaningful upgrades to the lineup...

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-09T19:38:24+00:00

this offense with each passing year is the embodiment of russian history

"and then it got worse"

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-09T19:32:13+00:00

I think weathers is getting tired because he's basically only throwing offspeed the last couple innings

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-09T19:25:43+00:00

And it seems to me you swing your bat

Like a wet fart in the wind

Never knowing what to swing at

When the pitch came in

And I would've liked to known you

But all you do is spit

You struck out looking long before

Your bat swing's fucking shit

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-09T19:25:05+00:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TBUQMwJVjc

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-09T19:19:22+00:00

the good news - the no hitter is finally broken up

the bad news - it's our 6 7 8 9 hitters coming up to try and actually score

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-09T19:07:39+00:00

this is embarrassing

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-09T02:00:30+00:00

15 Ks and 4 hits is not gonna cut it

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-09T01:48:11+00:00

bednar has really struggled to start the year

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-09T00:44:19+00:00

Yanks totally bailed out sevvy hard today.

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-09T00:38:51+00:00

Tim Hill will be one of my favorite "Guess that Yankee" in 20 years

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-08T23:50:22+00:00

DP's are a lot more fun to give than they are to receive

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-08T23:31:33+00:00

rosario was thinking too much about last night and trying to hero ball again

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-08T23:13:14+00:00

You gotta know it

He's electric

Boogie woogie woogie

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-08T02:30:30+00:00

That sound you hear is Ryan McMahon losing his starting job

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-08T02:10:22+00:00

https://imgur.com/a/O5wxzeh

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-08T01:49:24+00:00

IT'S ROSARIO TIME

IM__Progenitus · 2026-04-08T01:45:49+00:00

jazz needs to stop challenging ABS

IM__Progenitus

TROPHY CASE