Giants Hold On To Beat The Patriots 17-13

It was almost like a football game.  

It would take me too many hours to go through so many AB's the way I like to as there were so many times where the pitcher didn't execute, but also where the batter fouled off good pitches until he got a mistake.  Neither team missed many mistakes and the result was an absurd game that saw both teams score 6 runs in the 1st inning and neither starter making it out of the 1st inning.

You have to give credit to Boston, 9 games back and they were down 6-0 n the 1st inning and they answered with their own 6 run inning.   The Yankees tacked on 2 in the 3rd on a Gardner 2 run HR and then added another 6 spot in the 4th and another 3 in the 5th to take a 17-6 lead!  Boston did not roll over as they put up a run in the 6th and then another 6 in the 7th inning.  At 17-13 Boston loaded the bases off of Ottavino and Britton before Britton got out of it.  In the 9th, Boston got a single but Didi made a very good stop on a bullet and then backhanded the throw to Torres who caught it barehanded and turned a DP to end the game.  Didi's defense is better than Torres' at SS

Tanaka allowed 6 runs in 2/3 of an inning and saw his ERA jump to 3.74 from 3.21.  His splitter was not good and was not controlled well so it was easy to lay off.  His slider was inconsistent in break and control as well.  It was an awful performance.

Green allowed 4 hits in 2 innings but got out of his jams not allowing a run.  Hale pitched an inning with only a hit and looked pretty good.  With 1 man on and 2 outs in the 4th inning (14-6 Yanks) Boone took Hale out for the lefty matchup and brought in Cortes Jr.  With so many innings to go, I would have left Hale out there for another few outs at least, but Cortes did the job.  Cortes also had a perfect 5th inning and then allowed a solo HR in the 6th inning.  In the 7th (17-7 Yanks), Cortes got the first two outs (the 2nd on a very nice backhand diving catch by Tauchman - who rolled on his glove side wrist making the catch).  Then the wheels came off as Cortes allowed 2 singles and a HR with 2 outs, he then allowed a single before being pulled (Boone handled that correctly).  Kahnle was awful.  He walks Betts on 4 pitches (the walks drive me crazy), he then threw a wild pitch, allowed a single and then another walk before being pulled.  Ottavino allowed a double to make it 17-13 before getting the final out of the inning.  Britton came on in the 8th with 2 guys on and 1 out and got Bradley to hit into a FC and just missed a DP.  After walking Betts to load the bases and put the tying run at the plate, Britton got Marco Hernandez to ground weakly to Urshela to end the threat.

Some notes:

• The Yankees used all of their best relievers but all should be available this game.  
• Boston did not use their 2 best arms in the 1st game
• Voit left with what looked like a leg issue, but they said, he had pain in his lower abdomen.  Luke was 4-4 before he left.
• The Yankees extended their MLB record to 30 straight games with a HR (56 during the 30 games)
• The Yankees are 5-1 against the Red Sox 
• This was the 2nd most runs scored in our rivalry (31 were scored in a 2009 20-11 Yanks win)
• Romine helped allow Kahnle have two wild pitches because he had his right leg straight when lining up for the pitch.  While it can help you give a lower target, it does limit your ability to move to your right to block balls and both times that is exactly what happened (they both could/should have been caught if Romine was balanced behind the plate).  With guys on base this is not a good strategy IMO.
• EE started expanding his strike zone for the first time.  He is pressing a little more because everyone else has been hitting well.  He needs to relax and win his AB's but do not expand his strike zone as he might have swung at more bad pitches in this game than all of his previous AB's with the Yanks.  I am not sure if this is a fact, but he swung at about 10 pitches out of the strike zone in this one game.
• There were no errors in the game; pretty shocking in a 30 run game.
• THE GAME IS AT 10 AM THIS MORNING!

The Travel Day

First, I want to make sure everyone saw this video below of The Genius Maker.  I missed the game (I think my DVR was filled) but saw this moment.  The guy was always a great athlete and nobody could repeat his motion like he could.  I will also say that never before or ever in the future will a pitcher be able to throw one speed and baffle pro hitters the way he did.  His movement and location were amazing.  Pro hitters knew what was coming and even where (almost always up and in to a lefty) and they still could not handle it.

Courtesy of MLB.com  This is worth watching some of Mo in the Old Timers Game

https://www.mlb.com/video/rivera-jams-in-o-neill

Wednesday, The Yanks came back from a 5-0 deficit and eventually got a walk off HR by Torres; Didi and DJ hit HR's that got us back in the game and we kept wearing down their pitchers.  EE hasn't hit well, but he is working the pitchers and he will hit better.  My main concern was how poorly Paxton threw.  his fastball was 93-95 after pitching well against Houston when his fastball was 96-98.  That makes a big difference.

Taking the fastball into account, David Hale has added a few MPH toi his fastball and that has made him reasonably effective and if nothing else will give us better innings than Holder.

While we await or London games let's look at some stats/thoughts:

Many fans were worried about how the starters coming back would mess with our mojo.  My take is always getting the best (the players one would expect to do the best) on the field.  Sometimes that may be a hot hitter/player, but one would always expect Stanton to out hit Maybin.  I think our 11-1 run shows it is better to have Judge and Didi back (and Didi hasn't hit well)

Yanks haven't been shut out in 162 games, during that time every team has been shut out at least 3 x.  The rceord is 308 by the 1931-33 Yankees.  The last team to go 160 games was Texas in 2001 so we are breaking a lot of records

The consecutive HR record is now 29 straight games

Does Judge look thinner to you?  Maybe it's just me?

Looks like Stanton will be out until August because of his knee.  The bad decision to take 3rd in that spot ended up being a terrible decision.  The Yanks called up Tauchman over Frazier.  I don't think that would be the long term answer.  Frazier has played much worse in the field than Tauchman who has been fairly solid out there, but Frazier is a much better hitter and I think Frazier is a better fielder than he has shown, even if he is just avg overall.

Looks like we got some bad news, DJ and Sanchez are starting the ASG so they will need rest afterward.  Now we can only hope that Judge, Voit, Urshela and Torres don't get invited to break up their rest time as well.

• Betances is expected to be back in August 
• Stanton is expected back sometime in August
• German appears to be ready to pitch before the ASG, but not sure if they will hold him out until after the game?
• Loaisiga is expected to be back in late August
• Maybin's calf should keep him out until August (more concerning with Stanton out)
• Severino is expected back before August
• Montgomery may be back in September (not counting on him)

Just think about adding these guys to what we have now?

OPS 

Sanchez .939 (his defensive improvement makes him incredibly valuable

DJ .906 (If he could give us an OPS of .850 I would be thrilled because of his defense)

Torres .903 (Defense has been sloppy but overall ok)

I just want to pause to point how awesome this is for your catcher and two middle infielders

Judge .900 (still our best player)

Maybin .891 (not expected to keep this up)

Voit .877 (Not a strong defender, but has been a very solid hitter)

Frazier .843 (191 AB's is enough to show he can hit in the majors - he will be back up)

Stanton .840 (could use his expected OPS of .900 in the lineup)

Urshela .812 (His defense has been great to go along with good hitting)

Gardner .744 (very pleased with his performance this year, lost a step, but thumbs up)

E. Encarnacion .718 (Limited AB's but with Stanton out the acquisition becomes more important)

Tauchman .699 (Hitting not good, but a .700 OPS with solid defense is fine until we get healthy)

Didi .685 (need to get him going and he appears to be getting his feet under him)

Hicks .668 (same as Didi, but I have less confidence in Hicks than Didi to get hitting going)

Romine .540 (his worst year, lifetime .610 OPS would indicate he should be better)

Let's get the Red Sox double digits behind us with a 2 game sweep!

 

Yanks Set All-Time MLB HR Record!

28 straight games hitting a HR is now the new team record.  This team should hit a HR every game and I hope we blow the record away.  

Before I get into some of the play on the field, I would like to address the All-Star Game.  I would like you to vote every Red Sox, TB, Houston and Minnesota player in you can!  Yes, you read that correctly.  Here is my view.  We talk about getting guys rest all the time, so why when we could get rest, do we want them to fly around and play more in games that for the most part don't mean anything?  Many times, the guys who played the AS game needed a game rest after the festivities.  Why do we want them to do anything but rest?  And, don't get me started on HR derby in the middle of the season.  That is ridiculous to have OUR guy try and jack HR's on so many pitches!  No way do I want the Yankees to be part of HR derby.  We can either rest or play meaningless games and we can either rest or swing for the fences on hundreds of swings where players have developed blisters and where they have blamed the HR derby on poor 2nd halves.  Here is one stat that says a lot, "70 percent of participants in the derby have their home run rates decline after the All-Star break.”  To be fair, this could be due to a lot of reasons (such as regression to the mean), but the one thing that can't be argued is that the players are altering their swings for HR derby a little and they aren't resting.  Without getting into all the stats one thing can't be ignored and that is resting and healing up is better than playing and that can't be refuted.  If that was not the case, why would we ever rest anyone?  I can tell you that one of the reasons catchers are not usually the greatest hitters is that you get banged up all the time.  Foul tips off body parts and fingers, blocking balls with every part of your body and we used to get run over once in a while (thankfully not much anymore)...Do you really want Judge and Stanton who just came back (Stanton may be hurt anyway) to participate in HR derby?  Judge just came back from an oblique strain and I don’t want him swinging...DO NOT VOTE FOR ANY YANKEES, LET THEM REST!

As for the past games…Ten comments:

1. Yes, it is concerning that Happ was lit up and his ERA is now 5.23, the 2nd highest of his career.  However, what is more likely, that he is done at the age of 36 (not young) or the guy who has had a career ERA of 3.97 has been the victim of some bad luck and some bad pitches at key times?  His FIP (which measure the effectiveness of a pitcher in terms of the things he controls such as HR, walks, HBP and K's) is by far the highest of his career at 5.49.  He wasn't even above 4 since 2014, which does indicate he has pitched lousy, but I am not a believer that players just lose it overnight; they usually gradually lose their ability, even if sometimes it is a steeper grade for some players.  However, the idea that a guy who has had an OPS against of .680 over the past 3 years all of a sudden has an OPS against of .808 is not logical.  I would expect he pitches more toward an ERA of 4 than an ERA of 5.23 the rest of the way.  We also have a financial commitment of 17 mil for this year and next that is based on the expectation of much better pitching. 
2. I am annoyed that Stanton hurt his knee by banging it into the ground instead of sliding normally, but that DP was created by a great stop by Guerrero Jr (20 yrs old) to get Urshela at 1B and then Stanton stupidly tried to get to 3rd.  
3. I was going to compliment our 3rd base coach the other day as he has done a very solid job over at 3rd base.  Of course, he then made his worst decision in 2 years by sending Voit home on a tag play and Voit was out by 3 steps.  That was a bad decision, but he has done a good job over there and those of you veteran blog readers know that I have had some sleepless nights over the awful job Robby Thomson did at 3rd base.  He was the worst 3rd base coach I have witnessed as he would get guys thrown out at home with less than 2 outs at an alarming rate.  Then his answer was always that he is aggressive and that won't change.  That set me off as I think you should learn from your mistakes instead of stating that "I am stubborn and I will continue to make dumb decisions no matter how bad it is for the Yankees."  OK, I will move to point 4 otherwise this blog will be too long.
4. Edwin E has been pretty bad so far for us; even after his very important tag on run, his OPS is only .553.  But, I am not concerned as I think he will be fine.  I like his batting approach and that if we can grind pitches we can get to the middle relief of teams and tee off.  He also looked good at 1B defensively and I would definitely play him over Luke from what I have seen so far (Luke would DH or mix them up)
5. Gardner caught a ball while the runner was tagging form 3rd base and Gardner made a good throw home but the runner was just safe.  Gardner took 5 steps (even short ones) before he threw teh ball.  This is another one of my pet peeves; OF'rs take too long to get rid of the ball.  Just imagine if a catcher did that; no runner would ever be thrown out at 2nd base.  The same applies to the OF yet people used to talk about how great an arm Ichiro had, but he would take 3 steps and then crow hop to throw home.  He took forever to make that good, hard accurate throw and his overall time to get the ball to the base was MUCH longer than others with weaker arms.  There is a reason why the catchers have pop time tracked because it is all about getting the ball to the bag as fast as possible and with accuracy.  
6. Sticking with pop time which is the time taken from the instant a pitch hits a catchers glove to the moment it strikes the glove of teh middle infielder at 2nd base.  Sanchez has averaged the highest velocity of catchers at 87.9 MPH and there are 3 catchers who are tied for 3rd with a pop time to 2nd base at 1.93 seconds, the best is 1.88 by the Pittsburgh catcher JT Realmuto.
7. Urshela made a great backhanded stab to end the game Monday night against Toronto.  He got rid of the ball so fast and had a lot on the accurate throw, it was a pleasure to watch.  He has been slowing down with less steady play, but I think Boone is doing the right thing mixing the players in and getting rest (good concept)
8. Holder was correctly sent down.  I had written a few times about him as I am not a big fan.  His stuff is pedestrian and I wrote many times that I didn't understand him being put into leveraged spots.  That being said, I saw his interview (I usually miss those) and he was as stand up as you could possibly be and he impressed me...that being said, he is a guy that could pitch in the NL and I would expect us to get his value up and trade him.
9. Friday we play two games in London against the Red Sox
10. The Yankees have a 96.2% chance of making the playoffs - yep there are stats for everything.

IF YOU ARE A TRUE YANKEE FAN, THEN VOTE FOR OTHER PLAYERS TO GO TO THE ALL STAR GAME!

No Sunshine For The Rays

The clouds remained over the Rays as they are now 2-7 over their last 9 games.  The Yankees didn't waste any time jumping on Snell to make his shortest outing of his life.  Holder of a career 3.19 ERA, Snell only got one out in the first inning and with little help from his bullpen allowed 6 runs.  The key was 4 walks.  While he clearly was not sharp, the Yankees were able to have great AB's and take close pitches rather than swing at close (balls) like Tampa did most of the series. 

DJ singled and then Luke was down 0-2 and worked his way back for a walk.  Sanchez homered to RF on a pitch probably just off the plate outside and then EE also walked on a 3-2 count after fouling off a few pitches and a 9 pitch AB.  After Hicks grounded out, both Torres and Maybin walked on 3-2 counts.  Again, the difference was that we either saw the ball well and/or had great AB's and didn't swing at bad pitches.

We finished off the scoring with a GS by Torres who swung at a high and outside fastball (maybe a strike) and tomahawked it to RC for a HR.

CC went 6 innings for only the 2nd time this year and both times he allowed one run in 6 innings to the Rays.  Congrats to CC on his 250th career win; he is a true horse and give him credit for making the adjustment from a power pitcher to a finesse pitcher.

I am a little worried about Hicks.  He is a critical player for us as the only other CF'r is Gardner and he should only start against righties.  Hicks became a good player the last 2 years (.839) OPS, but before that his OPS was roughly .640, his OPS this year is .668.  He hasn't gotten back into a groove so I would expect more, but we may see Gardner against some righties even as Hicks starts to hit.  If Hicks can give us a .750 OPS that is acceptable, but when we can get into the .800's it is a boost with his solid defense.

In the previous game, I neglected to mention a few good defensive plays.  Didi made a great pick on a throw to 2nd on a comebacker to Britton and then on a ball up the middle Didi turned a a DP on a very tough flip from Gleyber.  Didi was facing CF as Gleyber fielded the ball on the ss side of 2nd and the flip came where Didi crossed the bag a little before the ball got there so his right foot that was on the bag came off and then he tapped his left foot on the bag before turning his back to 1st and firing a strike to turn a DP on what could have been a single up the middle.  Stanton also made a nice play going into the stands to reach for a fly ball that a fan whiffed on.  It was a good play by Stanton to stay focused.

Bring on Houston for 4.  The goal is to take 3!

Do We Need Pitching Help?

Before I get into some of the questions regarding pitchers, let's discuss game 2 of this series.

Happ had his good stuff, but he did a very poor job of pitching when he had 2 strikes on the batter.  He doesn't have a great put away pitch so he has to hit good spots with 2 strikes and simply didn't do that.  He was a little unlucky on some of the hits finding holes, but he also allowed TB to square up some balls with 1-2 counts.  There was a 1-2 pitch that the batter drilled up the middle and Torres was playing right there but on the pitch he moved toward first base yet still could have made the play but stayed away from it and waved at it as it went by him.  It was not a good play by Gleyber but the ball was rocketed.  It cost us a run.

The Yankees were able to string together 5 singles to score three runs and take a 4-2 lead.  After Kahnle gave one back by walking the first guy (drives me nuts) and allowing a double, Maybin hit his 4th HR in 4 games and not only gave us a 2 run lead again but kept our HR streak alive. 

Britton was a little shaky in the 8th but got through it and Chapman was sharp in the 9th reaching 102 and also had a well-controlled slider to save the game - BIG WIN!

Maybin is swinging the bat great right now, but if another team wants him I would trade him.  He has been a regular player in the league for 10 years (200 plate appearances or more) and only 2 of those years his OPS was over .700.  In 2011 he had an OPS of .711 and in 2016 he had his best year with a .801 OPS. Right now his OPS is a shockingly excellent .892, sell high!  Also, there is talk about what happens when Judge comes back.  I would keep 5 OF'rs especially with all 3 starters just coming back from injury, we should rest them often.  Go with 12 pitchers and 13 players.

In Minnesota they had a 5 hour 45-minute game, Minnesota beat Boston in 17 innings.  Minny tied the game in 8th and then both teams scored in the 13th before Minnesota won in the 17th.

I have heard from some of you saying that we need some arms...

While having a better pitching staff would be good (just as better defense or better hitting would help), is it worth an investment of dollars and/or prospects?

The answer to how much we invest or hurt our future depends on a few factors (you can come up with more) such as how powerful is the competition, do we have any glaring holes where a body would be a huge upgrade, and the risk-reward we have to incur for the player combined with what we have to give up for that player.

Some players you may take a chance that they are good and others are more of a sure thing.  Some are incredibly expensive for both dollars and prospects.  All of this needs to be evaluated.

My issue with just getting some more arms is who do we knock out of the rotation if we get someone?  This comes back to how much of an upgrade is it?  If we had Tauchman as our starting OF'r or we had Cessa as our 5th starter, I would say it is a no brainer to upgrade.

We are doing well right now and we do have arms we will add to the equation so I am not so sure I want to give away a lot unless we get a sure fire stud.

Remember, we have Severino (our #1) coming back along with Betances (our #2 or 3 arm in the pen) and Loaisiga and Montgomery are both supposed to be back as well.

So who do you remove from the rotation?  Who loses a roster spot?  We will have these 8 starters at some point:

Severino
Paxton
Tanaka
Happ
German
CC
Loaisiga
Montgomery

Even if you cross out Loaisiga because he is young and hasn't thrown much, you still have Montgomery and his 3.84 ERA over his roughly 200 IP and at only 26.  But maybe you remove him as nobody knows if he will be at full strength this year (even though he will be back).  That still leaves 6 starters.  Let's say you believe CC is not someone you would pitch in the postseason and you remove him as well (not sure what we would do with him except be a lefty specialist (LOOGY)).  CC hasn't been good over his last 4 games but was excellent before that.

That still gives you 5 starters that I am not sure we want to remove from the rotation.  Maybe German tires out, but this slight IL stint is probably great for him and us to keep him fresh.

Obviously, if you get a Scherzer, you can plug him in and not worry about others, but do you really have more faith in Wheeler (no), Stroman (inconsistent), Bumgarner (great postseason career, but has a 3.87 ERA this year and has allowed 14 HR's in 93 IP.  To be fair, he has a 3.08 lifetime ERA which is great, but roughly a 3.50 ERA over the last 3 years where he missed some time each of the last 2 years).   Mathew Boyd and Aaron Sanchez don't interest me and that leaves Bauer.  He has never pitched 200 innings, but that may be a good thing long term.  He was never below a 4 ERA until his great last year (2.21) and has been very good this year at 3.41.  But what do we give up?

So maybe Bumgarner or Bauer.  I get the feeling that Cashman is looking at players off the radar.  I did a little stats checking and the one guy I came up with was Luis Castillo from Cincinnati (who is still inexpensive and under control for 4 years).  Someone like Luis, where you give up a lot of prospects for a great young arm would make sense to me.  My criteria was someone on a team who wasn't going anywhere and had a great arm and numbers that reflected that arm.  I also wanted to get someone who wasn't making 20+ mil a year (and why Scherzer isn't on the list.  I am sure there are a few other guys, but Castillo seemed the best to me with an OPS against of .565 and a 2.26 ERA this year.  I looked up that he throws 97/98 in his last game against Houston.

BUT, we still have to decide who would be knocked from the rotation.  Because of this, I would not be surprised if we held off and made sure that our future is solid and we are always competing for a WS (that is the goal as you will win some).  Winning has so many factors in it that you want to make sure you can compete with a good chance of going all the way and avoiding giving up the farm allows this to happen.  Don't we all feel that when healthy we can take this team against anyone?  I do.

I have faith in Cashman, but if the feeling is that Severino will come back strong, I would not add someone other than an upgrade on a 2 for 1 trade. Obviously, if we could get good value for Andujar, I would move him along with Frazier for someone, but I could also see us moving Urshela and selling high on him and playing Torres or DJ at 3rd base.   

Should be interesting but I don't feel any need to make a move unless we know that Severino won't be healthy/good.

Game 1 To The Good Guys!

I have written a few times this year about leaving a starter in that is pitching well and has low pitch counts.  I specifically have commented on Tanaka a few times about how he finishes games well and they should leave him in when he is looking good and has less than 100 pitches because he used to almost always complete games in Japan.  In fact, I have been critical of Boone following some predetermined script for each bullpen inning

Proof that Boone must be reading the blog!

Or maybe just some common sense (more likely)

After 6 innings, I could feel Boone wanting to go to the pen, this was his comfort zone.  After a weak groundout, Tanaka walked their best hitter (Meadows) on a 3-2 count and I would have been annoyed if Boone took him out, but he left him in.  Boone;s common sense, paid off as Tanaka struck out the next batter and Sanchez threw quick fast, but high to 2nd on a stolen base attempt but an excellent tag by Torres got us out of the inning.  After 7, he had Ottavino up and in the 8th he had Britton up (as he should in a 3-0 game) and in the 9th he had Chapman ready, who would have come in if the leadoff batter got on because a lefty (Meadows) was up 2nd in the inning.

Tanaka didn't give Boone a chance to make an early pull as he finished off the game (after the DP) getting all 9 guys in the 7th-9th!

Great game by Tanaka; but, to be fair he made some mistakes, they swung at a lot of bad pitches, but he also hit a lot of great spots.  Overall, he allowed 2 hits and walked one and was our first starter to go into the 9th and thus was also our first complete game of the season!  he ended up throwing 111 pitches.

I felt good about the game even after the yanks went down 1,2,3 in each of the first two innings.  6 up and 6 down yet their starter threw 31 pitches to get through those 2 innings.  Edwin Ecarnacion (EE) saw 8 pitches in his first AB.  In the 3rd inning with 2 outs DJ hit a 2 run HR for a 2 run lead.  Maybin was on 1B and Maybin was 3-3 with a dinger and this accounted for all our runs.

DJ also made a great sliding play and flip to 2nd base.

Minor quip about tagging runners out.  If you watched the game, you saw Tanaka have a good move to 1st base when Meadows was on.  In fact, he was extremely close to picking Meadows off (hard to tell on replay).  If Voit were a lefty, he would have been out as it is hard to tag reaching across your body compared to a swipe.  That being said, so many players don;t let the throw travel deep to tag runners out.  I have mentioned this many times on steals of 2nd base.  You want to catch the ball pretty much right on the runner.  The ball is traveling much faster than you can catch it and move it, therefore, if it is on line you let the ball travel to an almost simultaneous catch and tag for the best chance for an out.  Voit and righties have a tough time but if he let the ball travel farther and caught the ball on his back hand and deeper toward the runner would have easily been out.  This does carry a little bit more risk and it is harder to do but not much harder

The only negative came from Sanchez.  After 2 outs and the 2 run HR by DJ, Voit got on and was doubled to 3rd base by Hicks (who has not found his groove yet).  Sanchez was in one of his swing no matter what modes and swing at a slider that was on the corner and then chased a slider that was outside for a ball and and then a slider that was so bad it bounced and was outside to the point the catcher blocked it but the ball got slightly away from him up the first base line.  Sanchez just walked to teh dugout for the out.  My main issue outside of the poor plate discipline was NOT RUNNING TO FIRST!  I know he is pissed (he should be) and I know the chances of a throwing error are what, 2%?  I don't know those stats but I figure 1 out of 50 times the throw is off the mark or hits the runner?  Whatever it is, the chances are better than zero, so take 5 seconds and run to first as there are 2 runners who would score if they make a mistake. 

Boston (Porcello) shut out Minnesota for their 6th win in a row

Colorado played a series that broke the record for most runs in a game.  Is it fair to allow records when you are playing on a field closer to the moon?  The ball travels farther and thus will yield more runs; not sure they should play there?  There is a reason why the longest FG ever (64 yards by Prater) was kicked in Mile High Stadium and two others for 63 yards were kicked there as well.  My point is that it should not be surprising that the most runs in a series happened in Coors Field; the teams over 4 games had an OPS of 1.074!  They scored 92 runs in 4 games and hit 17 HR's.  That is embarrassing and honestly not even fun to watch; unless it was just the Yankees doing it against another team that hit normally :-)

A lot of rain the forecast!

Quick Lunch Time Update

I never sent this out early morning, but instead you get it at lunch.

So we grabbed another older (36), righty DH type who will strike out 130 times and is batting .241 now!  To make room for Edwin Encarnacion (EE) we optioned Frazier down to the minors who had an OPS of .855, which is slightly above Encarnacion's lifetime OPS of .851???

That is one way to look at it, however, THIS IS A VERY GOOD SIGNING!  EE (This will save me typing time) is an excellent hitter who walks a lot and hits a lot of HR's.  As we add Stanton and then Judge, think about the lineup we can throw out?  EE has an OPS of .888 this year and while he was .810 last year, he was .881, .886 and .929 for the previous 3 years.  Estimating an OPS of .850 at the start of the year for him would make total sense.  He is leading the league in HR's right now and is not showing signs of age decline (or not anything statistically significant).  He hits both sides pretty equally (tiny bit better against lefties) and that is important because you can bet right handed pitchers will be facing this lineup a lot.  We got him for virtually nothing and we barely added any payroll.  In fact, Tampa is paying more of his salary than we are from what I read.  We are on the hook for 3.4 mil this year and then we can buy him out for 5 mil or pay him 20 mil next year (or trade him).  This also was a possible preemptive move as our competition could use some power bats.  As my first paragraph suggested, this is not what we needed, but the pickup was a good and prudent one and gives us a lot of chips to work with.

Now take a look at what a great lineup this is.  This is NOT the batting order I would choose and I would have Torres playing almost every day while resting DJ and Urshela more.

DJ LeMahieu (Torres)
Voit
Judge
Stanton (LF)
Didi
Sanchez
Encarnacion
Hicks
Urshela (Torres)

Honestly, I don't love DJ leading off, but the key is to have Didi and Hicks split up the righties the best we can.  I will tinker with a lineup, but I may have Judge leadoff and have something like this.

Judge
Voit
Stanton
Didi
Sanchez
Encarnacion
Hicks
Urshela (Torres)
DJ (Torres)

That lineup is a seriously tough lineup to face.

As for pitching, I have a different take than some.  If our guys our healthy, I wouldn't do anything, unless it was trading two good guys for an ace type of a deal. While I am not saying adding a stud would be a bad idea, I am hopeful that we will be adding Severino and Betances  which is huge (if they are healthy).  We also will be getting German back as well as Loaisiga and even Montgomery in August.

Those are a lot of arms.  Bumgarner and his postseason success is interesting, but his highest ERA before this year was 3.37 (which is pretty amazing, even in the NL) and this year he is at 3.85.  Do we want to trade away the future for someone who may help?  What we do with all of those arms if we do grab a guy, I mean we just sent down Frazier because we added EE, do we want to do the same with a good arm?

My take is that my goal is to have a team that competes for the WS every year.  The Yanks have done a good job over the past 5 years building the team with the future balanced against the present.  The team is setup for a long run of excellence, whether you win a title or 2 is hard to predict, but you want a team that can compete and this team, when healthy, can compete for the title.  I don't want to give away the future abilities to compete for a title for a slight upgrade.

A few other Notes:

• The Yankee probably want to break HR records by adding EE, maybe get our 25 games with a HR record as well
• Boston has won 5 in a row
• In the 2nd inning, Chicago's Castillo hit one hard off the wall with a man on 1st and 1 out and he thought it was gone as he didn't run hard until the ball hit off the fence.  Gardner made a nice play barehanding it and throwing it in and held Castillo at 1st base.  If Castillo ran hard he would have made it to 2nd  as the Yankees were not even covering 2nd base in their cutoff.  The next batter hit into a DP to end the inning!
• Romine had more RBI's (4) last night than all of May and June leading up to last night (roughly 50 AB's)
• Paxton's fastball was not in the upper 90's and that makes a big difference for him.  He threw strikes which made him effective, but he wasn't great.
• Big series against Tampa starts tonight!

Quick Lunch Time Response to Questions

In my last post, I asked some questions and I received some responses and while there were some differences, I think most of us were on the same page.  I wrote most of this last night...

My questions were:

• Do you like pitchers all having a defined inning and that is theirs to hold down every game?

My Brother posted in the comments section on this site and felt similarly to most of us.  It is OK to have a defined closer, but you should adjust based on the situation in the game and not just give everyone a defined inning unless the situation dictates that you can do that.  My example was if Britton has the 8th inning under normal situations, but in the 7th inning 4 lefties who struggle against lefties are coming up, I would pitch him in the 7th.

• Would you like to see the defensive substitution like the one Boone made that will move so many people around (assume the question is for when Didi is fully back in swing as the answer right now should have been no)

With Didi just coming back this was not a good move as too many moving parts introduces too much risk into the situation that overrides the positive benefit of the better defense at 1st and a little bit at SS.  Putting Gardner in for Frazier for defense is far more logical because it doesn't reduce as much risk.  I would also argue that playing SS or 2nd base is "more" different than playing RF and LF and moving to the 1st base and 3rd base has even more of a change.   Once everyone has started to get adjusted it will make it easier, but staying at the same position is clearly more desirable.  My example is that if DJ plays 2nd base every day, he will play a better 2nd base than if he plays all over and plays 2nd base twice a week.

• Taking defensive situations into account, is the lineup of Urshela, Didi, Torres and DJ our best infield?

I think the answer is yes (DJ at 1B in that example).  We have to see how DJ can play first base more though.

• So if we win, does it matter?

My brother said it best..."It's always nice to win, but if you don't address bad decisions and poor plays, you won't win in the future as often."  Isn't that the point of this blog and any constructive criticism?  In anything you do, there are always ways to improve in what you are doing.

• Switching gears, Was it time to root for Boston to beat Tampa? 

I hate having to agree with my brother again so I will agree with most of it...He said that you root against Boston until they are mathematically eliminated.  My only modification would be to say that if they are statistically very likely to be eliminated.  For example, TB plays the Red Sox on September 20th - 24th for 4 games.  Let's assume that the Yankees are 2 games ahead of Tampa and 6 games ahead of the Red Sox.  There would be roughly 10 games left in the year including the 4 games against Tampa for the Red Sox.  They are not mathematically eliminated, but I would be rooting for the Red Sox to win the 1st two games of the series and then I would see what we have done to decide who I root for next.  

BTW, This is why I really like the baseball playoff system the way it is.  I think it is great that the teams that don't win the division have to play in a one game elimination game while winning the division matters a ton!  This is usually a hot topic among people, but I think it is perfect now.  Some have said a 2 out of 3 would be better, but I wouldn't want the division winners to have to sit around too long.  If you didn't win the division after 162 games, you have already proven to not be ahead of one team so getting in as the WC has to have a much harder road AND you have to reward the division winner.  Those of you long time blog readers (might have been before we had the online version) will remember that I touted this exact method well before baseball adopted it.  While it is doubtful they read my blog, it is exactly what I think should have happened.

If We Win Does It Matter?

Yes, is the answer

It is hard to complain when we are doing so well with the record breaking injuries we have had, but it is fair to question certain behaviors.

Before I get to a bunch of questions that you can also answer via leaving a comment or sending me an email (if you like), I want to discuss last nights game.

We are up 5-0 early with a great 2 out rally and all looked good.  Green gave us two innings of no runs and then we turned it over to Cortes Jr. who was as sharp as we have seen him going 3 innings and now allowing a hit or a walk throwing  only 49 pitches.  He was a starter and has thrown 4 innings twice for us with 76 and 72 pitches in those outings.  Taking him out made zero sense.  I am fine with keeping him him on a short leash, but we are up 5-0 and he is cruising so you could give him two base runners before pulling him out.  I also understand that the bullpen needs work, I think it is good for them to get 2 or 3 games every week to stay sharp, but we don't have to be so programmed where each of them pitches a specific inning no matter what.  I would rather matchup correctly and if that means Britton pitches the 6th or 7th or comes into the middle of the inning, I am ok as well (just an example).

Greg Mohr and I watched the game together so he heard my comments as they happened and I was not happy when Kahnle didn't pitch well and allowed 4 runs.  Honestly, his numbers were awful, but he wasn't as bad as it looked  (not to excuse the performance).  The issue was selection and some control.  The Indians scouted that they should swing at the first pitch off of Kahnle and the 3 first batters each jumped on a first pitch fastball and got a HR, a hard hit fly out and a single.  They were clearly looking for his fastball.  He then worked in some changeups but missed them for strikes and then allowed another hit on a fastball before allowing another HR on a another fastball.

In the 7th it was Ottavino's turn and he allowed a 3-0, green light swinging HR to tie the game at 5.

Britton put up a 0 in the 8th and we went to the 9th tied.  With bases loaded and 1 out and a 3-2 count, Frazier well struck a sac fly to get one run in, but we could have opened it up better.

Here was my 2nd gripe...and Greg heard me chirping about it to the point I was sure I was annoying him as it probably wouldn't make a difference.  You are giving Didi a day off, so why bring him in, sort of cold,  for defensive purposes and then shift 2 other players to newer positions?  Gleyber will bounce some between SS and 2nd base and DJ will bounce all over, but DJ is an excellent 2nd baseman.  This will be an interesting decision as we move forward, but with Didi just coming back, I did not like putting him in there cold.

Chapman would have a tough one run save and allowed a leadoff single.  After throwing past DJ for an error moving the tying run to 2nd base, the replay showed that the throw was wide, but should have been handled by a good experienced first baseman.  DJ will probably be our defensive switch, but it is not as easy jumping around so much and Chapman threw that hard.  Regardless, switching hurt us.  After a walk Chapman was fortunate that Francona called for a sac bunt by Baeurs as he had a poor bunt attempt at the first strike.  I assumed it would be taken off, but they kept it on and he popped up the 2nd attempt for a gift out.  After getting a fly out we might escape with a win.  Chapman got a ground ball to SS that the just inserted Didi booted and it went down the LF line to easily allow the tying run to score and the other runners to move up.   It was a fairly routine play for Didi to get the force out but it wasn't an easy play.  Again, why bring in te cold player you were giving a rest to that has just been back for a few games?  With the game about to be lost, Chapman got a strikeout on a 3-2 pitch (slider)

Onto extra innings...Maybin lined a double and was able to get knocked in by a Hicks double and we once again had a 1 run lead.  The issue now is because we used everyone we only had Hale or Stephen Tarpley, who was just called up again after having about a 10 ERA.  Tarpley struck out the first batter on a 3-2 count and then had 2 balls on each of the other batters, but struck out each of them as well for a great save!

It was a relief to win, but if Boone leaves Cortes Jr in we probably win the game easier.  If Boone did not make the defensive changes at the end of the game, we probably win at that spot as well... and we also would not have to rely on hoping a just called up guy can close out a one run ball game

Questions

• Do you like pitchers all having a defined inning and that is theirs to hold down every game?
• Would you like to see the defensive substitution like the one Boone made that will move so many people around (assume the question is for when Didi is fully back in swing as the answer right now should have been no)
• Taking defensive situations into account, is the lineup of (Urshela, Didi, Torres and DJ our best infield?
• So if we win, does it matter?
• Switching gears, Was it time to root for Boston to beat Tampa?   

I will give my answers in my next blog

Onto some of the most meaningless games of the year; the NL games (Not sure why so many people love these Met games; bragging rights mean nothing and in fact playing them so many times has cheapened it)  I would rather see less games against NL teams.

Red Sox Friday Night Game

There is always a little extra buzz for the Red Sox games.  We caught a break with the rain out Thursday because we don't have to tax our pitchers in their condition and also so that when we do play the Red Sox again, we hope to have more of our players back.

We faced Sale who looked excellent.  His slider was insane.  I can't remember the last time I saw a team swing at so many pitches that were at least a foot inside...and do nothing with them.  We must have had 10 swings at breaking balls that started from a side arm sling throw from Sale and would appear to start outside and end up almost hitting our guys; yet we would swing and miss or try and hold up and couldn't.  Then he would dial up his fastball, that was mostly about 94 up to 97 in key spots.  His change was spotted well most of the night as well hitting the outside and low corner, for a right handed batter, at 87 MPH.

We battled him though!  We fell behind 1-0 when Happ threw a 3-1 fastball on the outside corner for a strike against Devers.  Devers had a weird swing on that pitch and afterward said something to the ump (I assume asking him if it was a strike) and then practiced an awkward swing like he needed to adjust something.  I say this because as I was thinking of what pitch to throw, I was not comfortable throwing another fastball because I felt that he was looking for that.  Unfortunately, Sanchez and Happ agreed to throw the fastball and Sanchez wanted it outside and Happ threw it high but centered which is where it squarely struck Devers bat for a solo HR about 400 feet away.  Wrong pitch thrown to a spot that wasn't bad for a 3 ball pitch, it was not the spot Sanchez wanted.  But, it was the wrong pitch as Devers was waiting for it.

Contrast that to an AB Torres had against Sale in the 2nd inning with Sanchez on 1st after a bloop hit.  Sale threw 2 sliders that Torres did not swing at (the first way outside and the 2nd way inside).  Torres was looking fastball and Sale threw a change up right down the middle of the plate, but Torres took the pitch as he was looking for a fastball (right pitch in the wrong location was effective).  Torres ended up flying out on a slider.

In the 3rd, Urshela started us off with a single and after Maybin was overpowered, Gardner flipped a single into CF.  DJ got a slider out of the plate and drove it to the base of the wall to make it 2nd and 3rd with one out.  Voit came up and struck out on a check swing that was questionable and very close.  I bring this up because later in the game, in a similar check swing by Gonzalez, they ruled he did not swing and I thought if anything Gonzalez went a tiny bit farther than Luke did.  Big call as now we had 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs and Hicks up.  This was a key AB as Hicks fouled off a slider and then fouled off a fastball; quickly down 0-2.  He then took 2 sliders and a fastball for a ball.  On 3-2 and an open base he could get any pitch.  He got a fastball and was able to foul it off before getting a slider for the 7th pitch that was over the plate and Hicks came through with a clutch 2 out hit knocking in 2 runs.  

Up 3-1 in the top of the 5th, we had one of my favorite defensive plays of the year.  Boston had 1st and 2nd with 2 outs and Benintendi up.  On a 1-1 pitch Happ threw a slider and Sanchez popped up lightning quick and had a great release and a laser throw to 2nd base and picked off Nunez to end the threat!  The throw was a rocket, but it was a little on the 1st base side of 2nd and Torres had an excellent tag bringing the ball back to the base snapping it quickly which finished off the great play.  An average tag would not have gotten the out.  That play (along with the Hicks hit) were the two plays got me out of my seat!  It was great to see the Yankees get pumped up too!   Here is MLB.com's highlight of it.  https://www.mlb.com/video/sanchez-picks-off-nunez-at-second

We added a run in the bottom of the inning as DJ hit a fastball mistake by Sale for a solo HR.

That is all we needed as our 4 best relievers with a combined ERA of around 1.60, each pitched a scoreless inning and we took the first game

A few notes:

1. Morales is painfully slow and has been hitting the ball into the ground far too many times.  I believe he will be the first to leave the team when we get one of our next players back.  The fact he has an OPS of .497 for us doesn't help.  He is getting older, but I would not have expected him to be this bad.  Last year he had a .769 OPS for Toronto and it was not unrealtistic to see a .700 OPS, but he isn't getting it done and we don't need another DH.  
2. There was some good leather flashed from both teams.  Urshela looked smooth on a few plays and DJ made an outstanding play at 2nd base.
3. The umpire behind the plate was excellent.  Urshela got called out on a pitch he thought was a ball but it was right on the line and he was one of the most consistent umpires all year.  I don't know many of the umps names (I know some I don't like), but this was Jeremie Rehak and I thought he did a great job
4. Bradley hit a single into the gap in RF and Hicks reputation of his arm held Bradley at 1B.  These are the subtle things that can make a huge difference
5. Bradley also hit a hard ball to Torres and Torres did not make the play.  It was hard hit but Torres was behind 2nd base (on a shift) and the ball was a bit of an in between hop, but he should have made the play.  They gave him Bradley a hit, but I thought it was a weak play and should have been an error.
6. Good job by Happ!  He got the job done with a 5 inning performance giving up just the HR (3 hits and 2 walks)
7. Martinez had a poor game for them going 0-4 and swinging at more balls than normal.
8. Voit was 0-4 with 3 's for us
9. Back at it tonight with German and Porcello going at it!