Sanchez out again with another groin injury
The injury bug has been unreal this year. While many things can be a fluke, I don’t understand
why we don’t immediately take players out of the game when they get banged
up? Players will fight through and play
while injured. The other day Torres went
into the hole planted and his knee slightly buckled. He immediately grabbed at his leg, but it
didn’t seem that bad and they left him in the game and then after finishing the
inning they eventually took him out. The
same thing happened to Encarnacion (EE) when they spoke to him after getting to
1b and they left him in and eventually took him out. This has happened a few times and these games
are less meaningful and you have great depth so taking them out doesn’t mean as
much. Fortunately, Torres was fine, but
EE had a mild oblique strain. Why not
just shut them down at that moment and then ice and do whatever it is that is
necessary?
BTW, I said less meaningful games as getting home filed against
Houston does have meaning based on us having a .706 winning % at home (.592
road) and Houston having a .737 at home (.560 road). Being healthy and hopefully hot going into the
playoffs is more important IMO, but getting home field is better than not
having it.
It was good to see Montgomery and Betances throw the other
day. Betances is still 4-5 MPH less than
normal, but he is in spring training and should build velocity just by pitching
more. He needs to make sure he keeps his
mechanics consistent and he should be able to help us.
It looks like Severino will be back starting today and
Stanton will be back within a week as well.
Unfortunately, it looks like Hicks will not be back and that is a big blow
as defense in CF is our lead protected position. Sanchez is the other position where the drop
off is a lot but on the offensive side where Sanchez is a real differentiator
so getting him back would be huge.
While we discuss the plethora of injuries we have been
dealing with and even while understanding some things are just flukes, when we
see players get injured so often and then reinjured or not taken out, I wonder
what we are doing for preparation and post-game and finally how does our head
athletic trainer still have a job? Maybe
Steve Donahue is great and his assistants are poor, but something is clearly
wrong; get to the core issue and fix it!
It is ridiculous as guys are going down like my old man softball league.
The other day Happ
had pitched 4 innings of shutout ball and I thought he was awful…and
lucky. He was missing spots all over the
place and only Detroit swinging poorly stopped him from getting crushed. He did allow 2 runs and was not able to get the
3rd out in the 5th inning and his line ended up a
respectable 2 runs in 4.2 innings, but he was very fortunate. His numbers have been good of late, but he is
questionable to make the postseason right now.
In the Detroit game, I was watching their pitcher Boyd and
he took a really long time in the set position and then unloaded a fastball and
caught Judge sleeping a little as it was a very long pause. I wondered if it was intentional and the next
pitch didn’t have a long pause and it was a breaking ball. Next had a long pause and, yep, you guessed
it, it was a fastball. I was able to
predict every pitch correctly after that when he was in the stretch. I am hopeful that others picked up on that?
The Yankees have lost some games of late to let minor
leaguers get some action and I don’t want to give away games for that. Let them get their work in less leveraged
situations. The other day Chase Adams
came into the game and I just said “this game is lost now” and he didn’t get
out of the inning and we lost. I am not
sure what happened to him as the hype was supposed to be real with him, but I don’t
see anything other than a decent curveball.
He will need to get pinpoint with his control.
DJ had a bad game at 1b the other day committing errors on
two easy plays. He is sliding a bit at
the plate as well with his last 70 AB’s garnering only a .744 OPS. Not meant to knock a guy who has had a great
year, but early on he was hitting amazing with RISP and with bases loaded and
while his numbers are still great (.988 and 1.374 OPS), they are coming back to
earth (bases loaded is only 14 AB’s). I did notice that in his 48 AB’s in late and
close situations (perhaps the closest thing to being clutch – even though I am
not a believer that being clutch is a skill or at least a statistically
significant one), DJ has an OPS of only .594 and a .229 BA. Overall, an .891 OPS and good defense playing
all over the infield has been incredibly valuable.
Paxton has been excellent of late and that is very
encouraging. In his last 5 starts, he
has allowed 2 runs or less and has an ERA of 1.48!
I will go into many other players as we get close or before the
playoffs.
I did want to make a quick comment that Cone had made regarding
resting pitchers. Cone gives me a reason to
think frequently and I enjoy that. He
has said some things that some other pitchers differ with as he says that
throwing breaking balls was easier (less taxing) on him than throwing fastballs. I always thought that was interesting. The other day, he said that when trying to
rest starting pitchers, it is more important to get rest in between starts rather
than limiting their pitch count during a performance. I would love to follow-up on this as I assume
there is a limit other than effectiveness; such as are the mechanics starting
to break down because they are tired? I
also do think that this was not meant for relievers who I believe like to get
into a rhythm and pitch 2-3 times every week.
When was the last time Chapman pitched?
Today is September 17th and he has pitched only twice this
month. All of our relievers should be
getting whatever work they want to be ready for the playoffs (This isn’t so
cookie-cutter as some guys may want more work)
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