Friday, August 31, 2018

Rough loss!

I have been watching almost every game, but have not been able to post.  Outside of last night's very tough loss and the questionable decision to have Betances close instead of Britton (which I made the comment to my wife that this was an odd move because the players are in the wrong spot and the  matchups didn't even dictate Britton to Betances?), the team is playing about as well as we could expect with a lot of big players out. 

Our pitchers walk way too many guys and that is frustrating.  In last night's loss, I said we will win as long as Betances doesn't walk anyone and after he did my wife, of course, asked me will we lose?  I responded that his stuff is great and his stats have been amazing, but I wouldn't;t be surprised at all if he walks another guy and allows a HR.  That isn't exactly what happened, but when a guy who has been so great (3 runs in his last 38 innings) still has you very concerned it says a lot about his "head."  I just don't have faith in him as a closer.  he is 30 years old and while I love his stuff, I don't trust him as a closer.  Betances should have pitched the 8th and Britton (who is looking better) in the 9th.  BTW, Chapman's control issues also concern me and this gets back to my main issue; we walk way too many guys.

  1. Luke Voit has an OPS of 1.043 with us (45 Plate Appearances (PA).  When looking at the big picture, I think the thought was that Tyler Austin and Luke were similar players.  Interestingly, Austin has done well in his AB's as well in his 59 PA's with an OPS of .974.  I like the way Voit approaches AB's.  He has a hole up and in on a fastball, but pitchers struggle hitting that consistently (and why Rivera was so amazing against lefties getting it there - imagine Mariano being able to pitch with the higher strike being called now?)
  2. Part of the above trades got us a back end starter who should be pretty reliable (Lynn) and a 3 type starter in Happ.  I think these are solid moves.  
  3. We just traded for McCutchen, giving up minor leaguers.  I don't know if this is saying that Judge may not come back or if he does he may not be 100%, but it is a huge and needed upgrade from Shane Robinson (who simply is not a major leaguer) and it gives us great flexibility to rest guys and create the matchups that work best.  Unfortunately, McCutchen is another righty (a little better against lefties) but a career OPS of .858 and an expected OPS of about .800 is a huge upgrade for us.  He has been a CF'r most of his career but has moved to RF this year and will probably play there.  This will allow us to rest Stanton who has been a horse for us playing through a tender hamstring EVERY day.  McCutchen is a free agent next year.  
  4. Speaking of G, congrats on your 300th HR!  He isn't close to last year's production, but I never thought he would repeat his career year (OPS of 1.007).  However, he has been very good for us with an OPS of .876.  I hope we get him some rest now as we do have a chance to catch the Red Sox, but I think we will be a WC and we need to get our guys better.  With Judge, we can beat anyone in a series.  
  5. We are playing with a team missing its closer and its best player (Judge) along with our starting catcher and SS.  Think about that for a moment.  
  6. Many have said the heck with Sanchez; we are fine with Romine.  While I don't think Romine is bad, he does not have Sanchez upside and as he has played as the starter we are seeing some of the flaws in Romine's game.  Partially because you get beat up as a catcher and the little things injuries (foul tips, catching a ball off the thumb etc...) start to impact your performance.  It is not a coincidence that Romine has an OPS of .649 for June, July and August while sporting an OPS of roughly 1.035 for April and May.  BUT, that isn't the main point, the big issue is that Kyle Higashioka has been playing a decent amount and his OPS has been .583 and his defense is not that good.  Replace Kyle with Sanchez and split time with Romine and Romine is sharper as well as Sanchez. 
  7. Right now Voit should be starting but Bird should get some AB's here and there until Voit cools down.  Get G some rest and DH the other, although we may see Sanchez DH some as well.
  8. I have been a huge fan of Gardner over the years and his defense is still elite in LF, but at 35, his age is showing up.  He has an OPS of .582 in the 2nd half this year.  That is not good enough and McCutchen may be playing LF when Judge comes back.  Gardner may be a defensive replacement only and he is a free agent so this may be it for him as a Yankee.  He is probably not worth signing unless for a one year deal at not too much money.  We have a team option for 12.5 mil with a 2 mil buyout.  I expect us to payout that 2 mil.  I am a big Gardner fan but his hot streaks are just far too short now.  He has never played for another team and I wouldn't expect him to either sign for an incentive deal for 19 or retire.  BTW, he did have a really good year last year (OPS of .778), so perhaps playing less frequent would allow him to be more productive, but this may be it.
  9. I hope Judge can play well again this year, but we have to be careful as the wrists can get reinjured again so we need to be patient.  He is running but not swinging yet.
Some positives:
  • Gleyber is swinging the bat well again
  • Andujar (.855) and Hicks (.832) continue to hit very well and for Hicks this is the most amount of PA's he has had in a year.  390 was the most and he is at 481 now
  • Walker has an OPS of .834 in the 2nd half and has played all over the place for us.
  • Adding our injured guys makes us a different team.  Now with McCutchen, we have the depth we need to be a serious threat.
We have flaws and I worry about our pitching, especially our starters, but every team has some flaws and if healthy, we can beat anyone.  Houston and Boston are really good teams, but in a series, good teams can almost be a coin flip (which can come up heads 4 times in a row)




Monday, August 13, 2018

Texas Series


  • Taking 3 out of 4 was good against a very hot hitting team that does not pitch well
  • Happ, Lynn and CC all pitched very well.  They kept the ball out of the middle of the plate and mixed eye levels, sides of the plate and speeds.  
  • On the negative side, Tanaka was awful, allowing 3 HR's in 5 IP while also walking 3 batters. 
  • The vaunted bullpen is not performing well of late.  Green has been struggling - in the last month with 12 IP, he has allowed 9 ER.  Chapman has been scary and Britton has not been sharp.  Holder had the nightmare game against Boston but wasn't sharp around that 7 ER without getting an out game, but he did pitch well last night and the previous two outings.
  • In general, we are walking too many guys; we walked 20 in the 4 games against Texas.
  • Betances, has been great and is the guy I have the most confidence in (and he still throws 1 or 2 to the back screen every game), but take a look at how great he has been over the past 30 games or so.  28 IP, 8 hits, 1 run, 14 free passes (4 HBP and 10 walks) with 49 k's - This is crazy good!
  • I am worried about Andujar and his defense.  He was getting away with some of the fundamental play earlier in the year, but his defense has been awful of late.  backing up on way too many balls and getting eaten up.  he also takes a long time to throw the ball winding up so when he takes his time to throw he gives no room for error.  On top of the 2 more errors (12 on the year) last night, Voit saved him a throwing error by making a very good scoop on a bad throw (tougher than the one Bird could have made to win the game on Andjur's game losing play.  The guy has a really good stick, but he needs to have more of a sense of urgency at 3rd base (charge the ball and get rid of it) or he simply will be a DH.  He even fails to turn 2 a lot because of how long he takes to get rid of the ball.  Boone kept Walker in the game and put him at 3rd base for defense in the 9th.  When you are being replaced by Walker at 3rd base, you have to look at what you are doing wrong.
  • Speaking of Walker, while he hasn't walked in August, his OPS in July and August (about 100 plate appearances) has been about .825!
  • While I was pleased to see Eovaldi have one of his games where he got lit up (just seems to happen to him more than other guys with stuff like his), Sale ran his scoreless streak to 28 innings as he returned for Boston.  
  • Boston has a .708 winning %.  
  • Realistically, we should be rooting for Seattle and Oakland to lose more than the Red Sox now as we are 9.5 behind Boston and 4.5 and 5 ahead of Oakland and Seattle respectively.  I believe we are better than those two teams and we will host the wild-card game.  Unfortunately, one game can go either way, but why I really like the playoff system now (long time readers remember that I wrote about doing exactly what they did).  If any team can't catch another team after 162 games, they have proven that they are not as good as that team, but giving 2 more teams a chance to get in keeps interest around the league, but also is something you would much rather NOT do.  I remember before the extra Wild Card team, there were times where I would have rathered not won the division because of the matchup; that should never happen and there should be a large reward for winning the division.

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Fortunately, The White Sox Are Bad!

My write-up from this morning...

Monday saw our new acquisition Lynn have an excellent result against a weak Chicago team.  I don't want to diminish what Lynn did as his repertoire looked very good.  He was throwing his four seamer at 95 consistently (hit 97 once) and when he took 2 MPH off he tailed it away from lefties effectively.  His slider has movement but it isn't late movement so that was mediocre, but his curve had good bite and was very useful.  He is a good pitcher who throws high in the strike zone which I like to see.  While he was a bit wild at times, he also pinpointed his fastball into the glove as well (I call that effectively wild), but he only allowed one walk (and 2 hits) in pitching 7.1 scoreless innings!  This was only one start against the WS, but I thought this was a good trade based on his past.

CC's numbers looked good as well Tuesday night, but he was aided by the weaker hitting team as he left many pitches in the middle of the plate that they didn't take advantage of.  CC struck out 12 in 5.2 innings, but I didn't think he threw well.  His command was still very inconsistent while he walked 3, but fortunately, the White Sox are a bad team.

Some notes:


  • Our offense was not very good again, but Stanton gave us a 2 run lead in the top of the 10th.  Chapman was not available so Britton had his chance to close out and get his first save with the Yankees.  After hitting the first batter he got his patented 2 ground balls and with one out away he lawn darted a pitch for a wild pitch and then overcompensated by throwing the next pitch at 96 MPH down the middle and Abreu deposited it for his 20th HR of the year to tie the game.  Very frustrating as we need Britton to be an ace reliever and can't have this performance if we want to go anywhere in the playoffs.  He still needs to get his command much better at this point...but the stuff is still outstanding.
  • In the bottom of the 9th, Didi almost cost us as a DP ball where Torres athletically flipped the ball to Didi with his glove, but Didi was flat-footed at 2nd base and used all arm to throw to first and the runner was safe.  There is a reason why middle infielders time their turn (cross) of 2nd base and that is to safely move out of the way of the runner, but also to get a lot on the throw as you turn it quickly (momentum).  Not sure what Didi was thinking but he didn't get enough on the throw to turn the DP and gave Chicago another opportunity...fortunately, they are a bad team.
  • The Yankees hit a few well-struck balls that went to the warning track as well as 2 almost homers that were taken away from them by great leaping catches by their CF'r Engel.  Engel can't hit at all (.570 OPS), but he is an excellent defender.
  • Sonny Gray pitched well for 3 shutout innings to get the win and while he didn't get credit for a save, he did save his win.  It was good to see and hopefully he can make teh tranistion and help us out of the pen.
  • Going back to the Red Sox disaster, I wanted to make two comments that I neglected to mention.  1) It would have been nice if Bird could have bailed out Andujar and made the scoop and win the game and 2) Eovaldi looked really good.  I always liked his stuff, but he would make too many mistakes to be an ace.  The part that was impressive to me was that he has learned to pitch better.  he could always throw 98 consistently, but his secondary pitches were not great.  He was throwing a cutter that was outstanding!  It was moving like a sweeping slider at 94 MPH and that is new to his repertoire and very impressive (and concerning).  That is a difference maker pitch for him; I would have liked to get him back based on what I saw.  Hopefully, it was just a lucky day for him, but the Red Sox made a great move IMO.  Have to give them credit...
  • Ellsbury needs hip surgery and will be done until ST next year.  It is a shame as we could have used him during this stretch that Judge is out with Frazier injured.  Shane Robinson does not deserve to be on the roster (decent defender, but lifetime .592 OPS)... 
  • Mismatch tonight - must be a win for us.







Monday, August 6, 2018

Wild Card Focus

Well, that was a disaster!

This game had a few key moments that led to our loss.  While Chapman walking the bases loaded with a 4-1 lead is simply unacceptable and Andujar making a bad error/throw to first when an average throw ends the game with a win, this game was lost with the offense not tacking on meaningful runs and hitting very poorly. 

Up 3-1, we had 2nd and 3rd with nobody out with Didi up and a 3-2 count and he swung at a changeup way high and away!  We have to be better than that.

Torres got a sac fly (but 0-11 in the Boston series) and that is all we got.

BTW, Romine made a poor play in the 10th inning allowing a wild pitch that was a pretty routine block and this setup the winning run. His right leg was straight and he didn't get his body to his right fast enough.

We are only 5 games ahead of Seattle for the final wild card spot; unfortunately, this has become our focus.




Friday, August 3, 2018

Take a Deep Breath

We got walloped!  But, it is ONE game.  At the end of the year, if we would have lost 4-3 it is the same thing.  I am not saying we don't have some worries, Boston is and has been an excellent team is one of the main ones.  The other is that we have some injuries and some guys slumping some.  Judge is our best player and he is out.  Sanchez, even with all of his shortcomings, should be a weapon and him being out and as Romine plays more, we see he is not a star and his backup is not really a major league level player.  Robertson and Greene have not been good out of the pen and our only ace starter has struggled of late.  That being said, Tanaka has looked better, we got a great arm in Britton and Torres is back.   We are a very good team that is going through a rough patch when your best player is on the shelf...it happens.

We have 9 games left with Boston and if we want to win the division we have to take 6 of them.  So the idea is to take 2 of these 3 and do the same in the next 3 games series'.  If not, we will still be the wild card barring some very strange events/injuries.

Two key moments for me in this last game were the idiotic play by Holder where he made little league mistake not running at the runner (to the forward base of the runner), even if you took just one step that way, you have him dead to rights as you see what happens.  Holder panicked and that was one of the game changers. The other may or may not have been, but the Yankees had 2 men on and 2 outs with Stanton up.  The Yankees had a 4-2 lead and their pitcher was struggling like CC did.  Stanton got 2 balls and the pitcher was really struggling when Stanton swung (waived) at 2 straight curves in the dirt.  Another one of those extremely frustrating AB's to watch by Stanton.  Then after another no doubt ball on a 3-2 pitch, he correctly took a fastball that was clearly inside (and maybe high) that the ump rung him up on.  This was a bad call that could have been the end of their pitcher and we would have had bases loaded...it was a huge bad call, that, of course, was setup after Stanton not walking when he had 5 straight balls thrown to him (technically 6 if you count the last one)

Quick trade updates...Warren for International Money and a little bit of a salary dump so that the Yankees could trade Tyler Austin and 19 year old Luis Rijo (has some promise) for Lance Lynn.  Lynn's numbers for his career are actually very good.  I can't say I know his game at all, but he was really good and then was injured for the 2016 year (Tommy John surgery).  Last year he had a solid 3.43 ERA, but got off to a terrible start this year and has been better of late, but still not as good as a 3.43 ERA.  Overall, this seems like a good move as Austin is borderline and Rijo is far away.  I have always liked Warren, but because he can't go too far and still pitch effectively, he is a bullpen guy and less valuable than he could be.  His numbers have been very solid though and I would have thought we could have received more than 1 mil + of international money?  When you think of how excellent his numbers were last year (2,35 ERA and a WHIP below 1 and an OPS against of only .491), I think we didn't get much for him.  I know it was a dump so that we could get Lynn, but value wise, we could have received a lot more for him earlier in the year or at the beginning of the year.

Take a deep breath; we are short-handed against an excellent team!