By my count, there are 65 media members and three -3!!!- players in the Yankees clubhouse right now
— wallace matthews (@ESPNNYYankees) April 1, 2013
Just wait for A-Rod to show up…
Via Forbes -
The Bronx Bombers are set to open the 2013 season on April 1 with $90 million worth of payroll on the disabled list, as they pick through spring training garage sales to fill out the roster. Of those who do take the field against the Red Sox, none will be younger than 30 aside from outfielder Brett Gardner, who turns 30 in August and who’s coming off elbow surgery.
No Alex Rodriguez, no Derek Jeter, no Mark Teixeira. No Curtis Granderson or Phil Hughes. Not all of them will necessarily be out long, but not everyone on the healthy list will necessarily stay there either (who thinks Kevin Youkillis and Andy Pettitte will put in healthy, full seasons? Or that Jeter will be just fine once he rests his ankle a bit more in early April?).
Short of a miracle, it’s time for the Yankees to look ahead.
Maybe the Yankees will surprise people by holding it together for another season. Maybe 40-ish pitchers Pettitte and Hiroki Kuroda will stay healthy and team with CC Sabathia to form a solid starting rotation. Maybe veterans like Ichiro Suzuki , Kevin Youkillis and Vernon Wells will be productive enough to help Cano lead a decent offense, keeping the club above water until the reinforcements arrive from the disabled list.
Most likely, though, the club is going nowhere. Even Granderson (32) and Teixeira (33), the relative babies of the roster, are slipping incrementally past their primes. Studies appearing in publications like Baseball Prospectus show that a typical major leaguer peaks between the ages of 26 and 29. The Yankees have essentially no key players in that category. The club continues to force feed the model of perennial contention as it watches the core rot away.
O.K., so, this is the last pre-season “beware” item that I will share on the Yankees. As I post this, Opening Day 2013 for the Yankees is about 19.5 hours away. No matter what your view on the current state of the Yankees and their prospects for this season, and, no matter what you think about the direction the front office is forging for this team, it’s time to get yourself into a position where you can enjoy this baseball season.
Personally, I am very excited about this year, overall, as a baseball fan. The Central Divisions in both leagues do not appear to be very deep. But, everywhere else, it looks like we should see some good battles in the standings. Teams will be playing with a lot on the line, for the most part.
As far as the Yankees, without question, albeit for whatever reason, this may be the worst collection of talent that they have to open the season in a very long time. And, while many think this is just an early speed bump, I don’t believe it. Yes, Granderson will be back. But, he may suck when he comes back – see the way he closed out 2012. And, there’s a chance that Teixeira and A-Rod come back this year. But, given their recent performance trends and the nature of their injuries, they will not be studs upon their return. Lastly, I fear for Derek Jeter. His age and the fact that his repaired ankle will hurt his mobility suggest his better days are behind him too.
Yet, I am willing to see where it goes with the Yankees. This will be a test on Joe Girardi. And, I don’t think he will fail. Granted, the Yankees, even with Joe as skipper, will probably fall short of a playoff spot. But, I still think they can win 87 games. Heck, I expect them to win that many contests. And, I will try not to wig out that much when they lose 75 games this year – as best that I can…
In Yankeeland, this year, it’s “Expect Nothing; Be prepared for anything!” At the least, it should make for interesting watching…and, I do look forward to do that now.
Via the Times –
Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera was convinced that Alex Rodriguez had made a colossal blunder.
Rodriguez, the Yankees’ standout third baseman, had created a public uproar and infuriated team officials by opting out of his contract, the richest in the history of baseball at the time, seemingly to pursue options with other teams.
“I told him he had to take responsibility and make it right,” Rivera said last week at spring training, recalling how he admonished his teammate in the fall of 2007 and urged him to reconcile with the Yankees. “He had to call them.”
Rivera’s stern telephone call set in motion a negotiation that led to a contract that stands as the largest ever in American sports: $275 million over 10 years. It involved the rapper Jay-Z urging his friend Rodriguez to stay in New York, Goldman Sachs executives stepping in as intermediaries to smooth the negotiations and Rodriguez flying to Tampa, Fla., to ask the Steinbrenners for forgiveness, according to interviews with nearly a dozen people with direct knowledge of Rodriguez’s negotiations.
Within two years, he helped to deliver the team’s 27th World Series title.
But now, five years into the contract, that financial commitment hangs ominously over opening day, threatening to impose itself on virtually every decision the Yankees make and severely hampering management’s ability to cope with the shortcomings of an aging roster.
Well, still, in the end, if Hank Stein has any real stones, he would have told A-Rod to crawl back on his belly and then give him no more than five years. So, maybe Rivera had a hand in getting the parties together…but, it was the Yankees who signed off on the deal with the devil when they were only competing against themselves.
Jon Heyman goes Henny Youngman on the Yankees:
Take the Yankees. Please.
No one had a worse spring training than baseball’s most storied team, maybe ever.
“I think it’s going to be a long year in New York,” one National league scout said. “I look at that Yankees lineup, and I say, ‘Who are these guys?’”
With two starting-position players leaving via free agency, three more getting hurt in winter or spring and legendary shortstop Derek Jeter still recovering from a broken ankle, at least to start the year the Yankees will field a lineup that appears in segments very manageable and almost unrecognizable. Small ball will be their style, at least to start. Rather hopefully, Yankees people are saying publicly that they believe their proven pitching will tide them over until some of the boppers get back. But behind the scenes, even many of their own people are skeptical.
“We’re not going to sell many tickets if we get off bad,” one longtime Yankees executive said, sounding worried.
Long track records and very big bucks aren’t going to guarantee anything to anyone anymore. The Yankees, baseball’s surest thing for 17 years — they’ve averaged an astounding 97 wins the last 17 seasons, and made the playoffs every year but one — have their highest ever $220 million-plus payroll. Yet, they are far from a certainty.
Just about every team has someone young to be excited about.
Of course, if anyone could use new blood, it’s the Yankees. The oldest team in baseball was the most injured team this spring. The Yankees picked up a new player every few days it seemed, and while they have no great new kids from the farm to unveil, they did acquire Ben Francisco, Brennan Boesch, Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay in what one scout joked was akin to their version of a spur-of-the-moment “youth movement.”
The Yankees still can spend cash — this year, anyway. The old money team has figured a way to make it work well into a second decade of unabated success. But many wonder whether their time is finally up. Yes, it may finally be the end of an era, and the beginning of a new one.
Ouch.
Everyone getting extensions today except for Robby?
Evan Longoria, Felix Hernandez, Chris Sale, Adam Wainwright, Allen Craig, David Wright, Martin Prado and Gio Gonzalez got extended somewhat recently too.
Cashman on scouring the waiver wire for players: “It’s the American way, buddy. It’s right on the plaque on the Statue of Liberty.”
— Anthony Rieber (@therealarieber) March 29, 2013
Cashman on whether Yanks are seeing what’s “attractive” out there: “They don’t have to be attractive right now.”
— Anthony Rieber (@therealarieber) March 29, 2013
Is Cashman confident he’s made club whole after injuries? “I wouldn’t say confident, because that would be arrogant.” So Yanks not arrogant.
— Anthony Rieber (@therealarieber) March 29, 2013
Cashman: “My job is to find players who are better than what we have. Always.”
— Anthony Rieber (@therealarieber) March 29, 2013
Could it be this?
Brett Gardner CF
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Robinson Cano 2B
Kevin Youkilis 3B
Travis Hafner DH
Vernon Wells LF
Lyle Overbay 1B
Eduardo Nunez SS
Chris Stewart C
Crazy, eh?
Is every Yankee newspaper columnist contractually obligated to suck up to Brian Cashman and praise his “genius”? Sure seems that way.
— Subway Squawkers (@subwaysquawkers) March 29, 2013
Yup. It sure seems that way…
Expect it to get worse now that Johan Santana is toast. Cashman will beat his chest over that one for days citing how he knew not to trade for him, despite what Hank Stein wanted (at that time).
Of course, Cashman will ignore the fact that Santana was stellar from 2008 through 2010 – and may have helped the Yankees make the playoffs in 2008 (when they missed the dance).
Further, if the Yankees had Santana in 2008, then they – meaning Cashman – don’t have to give A.J. Burnett a bleep-load of cash to come here in 2009 – and then still pay A.J. all that money to go have him pitch for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
And, Cashman won’t mention that the players who the Twins wanted for Johan – Phil Hughes or Joba Chamberlain and Melky Cabrera – haven’t done anything in New York that comes close to what Santana gave the Mets for the first three years of his contract.
Lastly, who knows if Santana blows out his shoulder with the Yankees? Yes, there was concern there – as there is with any pitcher with a lot of innings. But, maybe the super smart Yankees and coaches – and General Manager! – use Johan in a way to protect his shoulder and get more than three years out of him?
Also, let’s see how CC Sabathia is doing from 2014 through 2017 before we say how stupid it is to give a pitcher a ton of dough and a long term deal and then only getting something out of him for the first half of the contract.
In any event, Cashman won’t mention any of this when he’s talking about what a genius he is for not making the Santana deal…and that’s why he’s wily…and has no idea that an anvil is about to fall on his head.
Via the Daily News -
Zack Wheeler, one of the top pitching prospects in baseball, was reprimanded last weekend along with teammate Aderlin Rodriguez for an on-field incident that led to ethnic tensions in the Mets’ minor league clubhouse, according to organizational sources.
In a minor league intrasquad game last Saturday, Rodriguez, a 21-year-old infielder from the Dominican Republic, homered against Wheeler, 22, and “pimped it” around the bases, as one witness described it. Rodriguez apologized to Wheeler, but the phenom still hit Rodriguez’s teammate with a pitch later in the game. That drew a long glare from Rodriguez, who shouted at Wheeler during a slow walk to first base. At one point, the home plate umpire stepped between the two prospects.
Later, ethnic tensions arose in the clubhouse, according to two people present at the time. “Some of the American guys and some of the Latin guys were circling and yelling at each other,” one source said. The same source added that Wheeler and Rodriguez “are both great kids, competitors, and this stuff just happens sometimes.”
Mets brass reprimanded both players, and the team considers the issue closed. Vice president of player development and scouting Paul DePodesta acknowledged the incident, and said, “We’ve talked to everybody involved, and I think at this point it’s done with.”
Asked if there was any concern about ethnic tensions arising from the incident, DePodesta said: “From our perspective, we treated it as any parent might treat a dispute between two of their kids. You don’t take sides. There is no such thing as sides. You just try to tell them what the right thing to do is, the responsible thing to do, and you go from there. There aren’t any sides taken (by the organization).”
Although the Mets were displeased by Wheeler and Rodriguez’s behavior last Saturday, both players have otherwise impressed the team. Wheeler, acquired in July of 2011 from San Francisco for Carlos Beltran, is one of the top pitching prospects in the game. He saw just two innings of Grapefruit League action this year because of a rib-cage injury, but returned Saturday to game action, and wowed scouts yet again, throwing a 97-mph fastball, high-80s slider, and sharp curveball.
Rodriguez is a power hitter who one evaluator predicted “could hit 25 home runs in the major leagues.” He split last season between Single-A Savannah and St. Lucie, combining for a .274 batting average, 24 home runs and a .324 on-base percentage.
Reminds me of the stories regarding the tension between caucasian players and “Dominicans” (a catch-all term for Latino players that is reportedly used in baseball), as described in Matt McCarty’s Odd Man Out.
CC is the key. If he’s not 10 to 13 games over .500 this year, and good for 200+ IP, the Yankees are toast.
Only 4 times in the last 17 seasons has Jeter played in less than 150 games (in a year). And, one of those was a year where he played in 149 games – and another was when he played in 148 games.
Something tells me we’re going to be hard pressed to see Jeter play in 130 games (or more) for the Yankees this year.
Brandon Laird is a Non-Roster Invitee for the Houston Astros this spring. And, he was issued uniform # 4.
While we’re at it, Trevor Crowe is also an Astro Non-Roster Invitee and he was issued # 8.
I think most of the Yankees NRI players this spring are wearing numbers in the 80′s and 90′s.
Clay Davenport's Projections for 2013 Generated on 3-26-2013 East Won Lost Runs Runs A TBY 87 75 666 619 TOR 86 76 768 722 NYY 84 78 732 699 BOS 82 80 776 760 BAL 78 84 703 733 Cent Won Lost Runs Runs A DET 93 69 799 680 CLE 79 83 690 706 KCR 79 83 699 719 CWS 77 85 702 741 MIN 73 89 672 748 West Won Lost Runs Runs A LAA 91 71 716 629 OAK 85 77 692 652 TEX 85 77 762 727 SEA 75 87 604 655 HOU 73 89 690 768
So, what do you think?
Via Ken Rosenthal –
The Yankees correctly view their acquisition of outfielder Vernon Wells as one with little financial downside. But the move still raises the question of why the team wasn’t more aggressive on other players during the offseason, notably free-agent catcher Russell Martin.
Insurance from the World Baseball Classic on first baseman Mark Teixeira — money that wasn’t available to the Yankees in November — will help defray most or perhaps even all of the cost of Wells in 2013.
Martin, though, told the Yankees he was willing to accept a one-year contract in the $9 million to $10 million range, according to two major-league sources. When the Yankees balked, he agreed to a two-year, $17 million deal with the Pirates.
A one-year deal for Martin would not have affected the Yankees’ desire to get under the $189 luxury-tax threshold in ’14. Instead, the Yankees will enter the season with two less proven catchers, Francisco Cervelli and Chris Stewart.
Perhaps, one source suggested, the Yankees did not expect the market for Martin to develop as quickly as it did. At the time Martin signed, the Yankees had just committed $37 million over a 10-day period to one-year deals for pitchers Hiroki Kuroda, Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera, in that order.
Club officials were proceeding at a deliberate pace, checking off one need at a time. Martin might have been ahead of the Yankees’ timetable. His deal became official on Nov. 30, the same day as Rivera.
Then again, we have to remember, over the last four seasons, and 1,936 PA over that span, Martin has an OPS+ of 90. So, let’s not make it as if the Yankees let Buster Posey walk away here. (Further, Martin’s WAR for 2012 was 1.5 in 133 games.)
He is excited about the team even though they are facing some adversity due to injuries. He said there are no plans or thoughts or discussion about selling the Yankees. He said the deal with FOX on YES is going to bring good things to YES – and that Goldman wanted to get out. So, it made sense. They still have control on the broadcast.
Hal said that they are committed as a family to own the Yankees for a the long-term.
He said the A-Rod investigation is not theirs, it’s MLB, and he’s wait and see like everyone else.
Regarding Cano, he said the weeks ahead will determine how the talks go with Boras.
About getting under the luxury tax bar, Hal said that there are several reasons to get under it for 2014 – most importantly that you don’t need a $200 million payroll to win a championship. The goal is to be under $189 million – but, it doesn’t trump the goal to be a championship caliber goal. Yet, he noted that every other team can win a ring and be under $200 million.
Back to this season, he said the free agent market was not great this year. So, they focused on pitching and getting Pettitte, Kuroda and Rivera back.
Hal said that they expect Vernon Wells to have a bounce back year and be a good player for the Yankees.
On tickets, Steinbrenner said that ticket sales are coming around. And, they are trying to keep their season ticket holders happy. He said they have given the secondary ticket market a lot of thought and that’s why they created the Ticket Exchange – to help fans sell their tickets safely and for less, if they want.
Talking about the Yankees farm system, he said that the pitching pipeline has been good. And, the next couple of years for position players will be tricky…but they will have to deal with it.
Via (no pun intended) the Morning Call –
Coca-Cola Park in Allentown is introducing a”Urinal Gaming System” that will allow men to operate a hands-free game controller while standing before urinals during Lehigh Valley IronPigs games.
The p-controlled video game systems will be featured in all men’s restrooms at Coca-Cola Park.
“These games are sure to make a huge splash,” IronPigs General Manager Kurt Landes said in a press release. “Our fans are always looking for the next big thing and these ‘X-Stream games’ are another example of our commitment to providing an unparalleled entertainment experience in all aspects of Coca-Cola Park, including our restrooms.”
When a user approaches the urinal, the video console flips into gaming mode, using technology that detects both his presence and stream. Algorithms then allow the user to engage with the screen by aiming in different directions to test their agility and knowledge.
The games are 100 percent intuitive and custom-built to provide a unique user interface along with an easy and seamless experience.
It’s the only game in town where a UTI could impact your WAR.
Via ESPN -
The Vernon Wells contract will actually help the Yankees’ goal of being below $189 million in payroll for 2014, a source confirmed to ESPNNewYork.com on Monday.
The Daily News first reported the finances.
All the particulars of the money for the deal with the Angels have not yet been finalized, but the Yankees will end up paying somewhere between $12 million and $14 million of the $42 million owed to Wells in the final two years of his contract.
The Yankees will likely end up doling out $10 million or $11 million for 2013 and $2 million or $3 million for 2014.
It is a complicated formula, but, in the end, Wells’ money will either have no impact on the $189 million goal for 2014 or the Yankees will receive a credit. Since Wells’ contract has been traded once before, the Yankees may receive as much as a $2 million savings toward their ’14 luxury tax figure.
O.K., so, Wells will cost the Yankees about eleven mill this year. And, if Mark Teixeira is out for 12 weeks, that means that Vernon Wells is basically playing this season for free, right? (The logic here is that the Yankees will get about $11 million from the WBC to cover Tex’s salary if he is out for 12 weeks.)
Yet, it still doesn’t mean that Wells will help the Yankees on the field this year. It just means that the Yankees got lucky that Tex blew out his wrist while wearing the USA jersey and not when he was down in Tampa.
Thank @toppscards for using a close up of me right after my elbow blew out! Card will be around forever as areminder! twitter.com/DHuddy41/statu…
— Daniel Hudson (@DHuddy41) March 24, 2013
Ouch.
Anyone else wondering if the Yankees are considering the notion of asking Derek Jeter to play third base this season?
We know that Phil Hughes will be a free agent after this season. But, the question is: Should the Yankees make him a qualifying offer when he opts out? If they do, then, most likely, they will get a draft pick in compensation for him going to another team. But, with that, you run the risk of him taking the offer – and maybe that doesn’t work with the Yankees plan to get payroll down? It’s going to be interesting to see how they handle this – especially if Hughes has an “average” season in 2013.
Sources: Yankees in talks with Angels for outfielder Vernon Wells. Lots of money would go back to New York. Deal could be done today.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) March 24, 2013
I guess Ben Francisco was not the answer? And, all the calls to Raul Mondesi to see if he could come out of retirement were probably not returned…
Great stuff on the Yankees G.M. today via Andy McCullough:
As this woeful camp winds down, with Opening Day eight days away, [Brian] Cashman remains the club’s diminutive symbol of defiance in an era when George Steinbrenner’s scions lack the bluster associated with their surname. He refuses to acknowledge the possibility the Yankees could fall from their perch as one of baseball’s elite despite an aged and battered roster. Cashman considers himself a product of his environment, and even among these kinder, gentler Yankees he can’t shake the history that forged him.
He started as an intern in 1986. He weathered the tempests of George Steinbrenner after his 1998 promotion to general manager. He emerged from the constant power struggles battle-scarred but wiser, buttressed by a diverse group of assistants in baseball operations, who have helped chart the organization’s revamped course toward fiscal responsibility.
During the winter, the Dodgers usurped the Yankees as the game’s premier spenders. Cashman appears more than willing to cede that title. The Yankees will never feel like underdogs, he said. But they can adopt their rhetoric.
“Look at Vietnam,” he said. “The biggest payroll didn’t win there, either.”
This is his 16th year in charge, which makes him the longest-tenured Yankees general manager since World War II. His résumé includes four World Series titles, 12 American League East titles — and endless disquietude.
“Working here, you don’t ever feel secure,” he said. “The demands are high. The demands are high.”
Once Cashman’s ride arrives each morning, he slips into the backseat and keeps his cumbersome cast elevated. At the ballpark, he rides a golf cart along the dark hallway toward the trainers’ room. There waits his black, four-wheeled scooter, the same one utilized by shortstop Derek Jeter while convalescing from a broken ankle last winter. He rides the scooter throughout the complex, and crutches back toward the parking lot each night.
As Cashman developed his post-injury routine this past month, a sense of gloom pervaded the atmosphere. A losing record appears possible for the first time since 1992. The roster is baseball’s oldest. Jeter could miss Opening Day. Outfielder Curtis Granderson will miss the season’s first month. First baseman Mark Teixeira might miss the entire season. And the viability of their highest-paid player, Alex Rodriguez, is a mystery as he recovers from hip surgery.
The injury pile-up revealed a dearth of depth on the major-league roster, which critics assert is a result of managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner’s insistence on reducing the 2014 payroll below the $189 million luxury tax threshold. Cashman countered that their 2013 payroll remains robust, more than $200 million for the sixth consecutive year. He cited the team’s “significant” but rejected offer this spring to impending free agent Robinson Cano.
So for Cashman, nothing changes, even as big-league sharks circle the Yankees and outside observers predict their downfall. The concept of a bridge year, a euphemism for rebuilding, is “just not part of our DNA,” he said. “There’ll be no such thing. Not intentionally, anyway.”
A perception of weakness materialized this winter. The Yankees exhibited caution. They ignored high-profile free agents Zack Greinke and Josh Hamilton, while less-pricey options Eric Chavez, Scott Hairston and Nate Schierholtz signed elsewhere.
Like Hal Steinnbrenner, Cashman chafes at the idea his team has become cheap. He framed their behavior as a product of prudence, not poverty, and of making “good, efficient, sound, baseball decisions.” Both Cashman and Steinbrenner have referenced the high prices paid on one-year deals for players like Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Hiroki Kuroda and Kevin Youkilis.
“I would not have participated in the Greinke or Hamilton signings,” Cashman said. “Whether that ($189 million) restriction was in place, or not.”
In turn, Cashman laughed off the notion that the Yankees needed to reclaim their spending crown from the Dodgers.
“My job,” he said, “is to put a team out there that wins for the least amount of money possible.”
Yet, of course, there is the specter of The Boss.
“But I said ‘win’ first.”
Cashman mentioned the idea of “tread(ing) water until the guys come back.” He has learned from his failures, from trades for aging pitchers (Kevin Brown, Randy Johnson) to misguided free-agent acquisitions (Carl Pavano, A.J. Burnett) to expensive Japanese imports (Kei Igawa). He credited his assistants for their guidance in recent years as he’s become “more choosy.”
“I’m not gun-shy,” he said. “But we are definitely more educated.”
Sixteen years of Cashman. That’s a fact. The question is: When will it end? If you ask me, he’s now almost five years past his due date on being fired. But, at least there is a building swell within the Yankees fan base who want him gone. And, hopefully, someday, the Stein Brothers will get on board with it as well.
More on him via Bryan Hoch -
Vidal Nuno “has opened everyone’s eyes” and is making a run at breaking camp with the Yankees, according to general manager Brian Cashman.
A 25-year-old left-hander who was originally property of the Indians and signed with the Yankees after pitching in independent ball, Nuno has compiled an 0.68 ERA in 13 1/3 Grapefruit League innings and may wind up being rewarded with a spot in New York’s bullpen.
“I just go day by day, wake up in the morning, brush my teeth, look in the mirror and say, ‘You’ve got to work hard,’” Nuno said. “I don’t play the GM, I don’t think like that. It’s just having another day on the baseball field and putting on the uniform.”
Nuno’s statistics do not include what he has also done against the Yankees this spring; with the Dominican Republic short on pitching for a March 6 exhibition at George M. Steinbrenner Field, Nuno was borrowed by manager Tony Pena’s club and spun four hitless innings in a spot start.
For his participation, Nuno — who grew up near San Diego and is of Mexican descent — was rewarded with a souvenir Dominican Republic T-shirt and cap. It was a neat footnote in what has been a breakout spring for the hurler, who pitched last year at Class A Tampa and Double-A Trenton.
“I don’t think or overthrow, and I hit my spots,” Nuno said. “That’s one key I preach to myself, just hit location and make the ball dance, and you’ll get people out.”
A 48th-round pick of the Indians in the 2009 First-Year Player Draft who received a non-roster invitation to camp this spring, Nuno could make the club because left-hander Clay Rapada will start the year on the disabled list while he builds back up from a bout with left shoulder bursitis. Nuno said that he has expanded his repertoire to include two fastballs, a curveball, slider, changeup and cutter.
“I don’t throw hard, so I need to make the ball dance a little bit,” Nuno said.
After being cut loose by Cleveland after two seasons in its farm system, Nuno made six starts for the Washington Wild Things in 2011 before having his contract purchased by the Yankees.
I saw Nuno pitch in person last summer. I like him and wish him well. And, I have to say, if he makes it, sticks, and has success, you have to give the Yankees credit for seeing something that many others didn’t…
