The End Of A Crazy Year

I liked the lineup Boone used.  I think it was the best lineup with what we have and how we are playing.  Rizzo leading off made more sense than Gardy.

Stanton hit a high fly ball in the 1st inning that he didn't hit that well and for some reason he watched it instead of running.  He should have been on 2nd base and even that pressure changes things a lot.  Eovaldi might have pitched around Judge as well?  I don't get not running hard in a game like this, especially when you clearly didn't get all of the hit?  Remember Tito Perez, of the Mets, when he didn't run against the Yankees in the World Series and we threw him out at home?  I thought that was pathetic.  Hard to be critical of Stanton when he is the only one who showed up in a big way, but it is a little head-scratching.

The big blow in the bottom of the inning happened with 2 outs and Cole walked Devers after getting him 1-2 and not throwing his change or his fastball where he wanted it.  Against Bogaerts, he threw a curve that he missed with, a slider for a strike and then missing after missing with the slider, they decided to throw a changeup?  I think this was a bad decision as it is the same speed as his slider, but it was worse as he threw it right down the middle of the plate and Bogaerts drilled it for a 2 run HR and the Yanks were in a big hole considering how poorly we are swinging the bats.

Cole got through the 2nd but did allow a double.

Cole only threw 3 curves, but he didn't throw any for strikes and that is his slowest pitch and an important one.  He missed many spots by a lot and some ended up being centered and the others were way out of the strike zone.  Contrast that to the Red Sox and when their pitchers missed they caught the other corner many times.  The Red Sox seemed to know what was coming and really sat on the fastball as the damage was done on it.  Schwarber hit a 1-2 fastball that was well above the strike zone for a pulled HR.  That happens when that is the pitch you are sitting on, otherwise, it is impossible to catch up to 97 that high.  We didn't have good pitch selection or execution of pitches.

Holmes did a great job.

Louisiga did his job.  The only question I had was sending him out for a 2nd inning after he hasn't done that since his shoulder injury and he wasn't that sharp.

Severino isn't at full strength yet as he usually has a fastball like Cole, but he was throwing 93-95.  I have faith in him, but he is not the same yet.

I was really surprised that they took Eovaldi out too early.  I was thrilled they took him out as he had good stuff (The best breaking ball I have seen from him) and he was hitting corners on 3-2 pitches.  He even hesitated his windup a little (minny Cortes).  We then greeted the weaker Red Sox bullpen with the play of the game.   Stanton hit a bullet out off the Green monster that I think would have been gone in most ballparks (They said 11, but I am not sure that is accurate), and Judge who was on first because he legged out a grounder to SS was waived around 3rd from Nevin and was out at the plate.  Nevin didn't give Judge any indication of what he was going to do until Judge was 3 steps from 3rd and had already slowed up a little and had to chop step and get going again.  What Nevin needed to do is waive Judge home (all the way from 2nd) so he stays at full speed and then hold him up at the last minute or you keep waiving him around, but by doing nothing so late, and remember Judge saw it didn't go out and the wall is close, Judge slowed up as he got close to 3rd.  You don't want to round the base and then get doubled off either.  Nevins indecision was the most important play of the game (Bogaerts 2 run HR was up there) and was simply a critically bad job on a tough call.  However, if he followed my advice, there is a solid chance that Judge would have been safe if he was running full speed the entire time or you just stop him.  

Nevin has been pretty good at 3rd base, but he has had some poor decisions and they might have been after he had Covid.  This was horribly bad though and had me cursing!

Stanton was the only player who really showed up.  

This team has had a ton of injuries, Britton was a key issue for us and all the pitching injuries were really absurd, but our pitching staff and the coaching knows what they are doing.  Turning Clay Holmes around is a good example and getting a lot from unexpected guys has been impressive.  

Our offensive injuries were hard to overcome.  Hicks was an important player for us (even if not a great player) because we didn't have a CF replacement.  Gardner was forced in again and was mediocre, but hard to expect more from a guy who will probably retire (sadly, he struck out all 3 AB's).  Voit had an injury-plagued year after we kind of made it hard for him.  I think the goal-line offense (Judge in CF and Stanton in RF) was needed for this team, but it never developed and Voit got injured again.  His bat was very helpful for us. DJ being hurt is a big deal and Urshela was pretty banged up in this game as well. 

We have Gallo for another year and I don't love his game.  I like that he does everything above avg, but he seems like a guy who feasts off bad pitching.  

We have to deal with Torres now at 2nd base and we have all this money in DJ who had a poor year.  Putting him at 1B is not a great solution.  We should blow up our Catcher position as neither is the answer.  I like Rizzo, but do we want to spend a lot of money on a 32 year old who didn't play well for us?  Surprisingly, his defense was avg and that was one thing we thought would be excellent.  He also had the last 2 years where his OPS 80 points less than his career so he is showing decline.

Coaching and GM?  I think they both know what they are doing, but neither has gotten the job done to extend the year toward the WS.  The grass isn't always greener (Giant fans know that Gettlemen was a horrible choice).  Have to think about this.

Either way, we need to make some overhauls.  I like using minor leaguers and studs.  I am not a fan of the middle-priced guys on the Yankees other than some bandaids.  Judge is a big decision.  He is arbitration-eligible in 22 and at the least, we do that.  He is 29 and will be 30 at the end of next year.   I don't want a long-term deal with him, but overpaying for 3 years could work.  He is our best player, but his injuries are a concern and they probably will get worse.  Maybe he gives us a discount?  No idea, but I do not want to lock him up until he is 35.  

This is a little all over the place, but I wanted to get down some of my thoughts...

Thank you all for reading this year and the feedback/emails!  It is hard for me to write often, but I will keep trying!  Stay healthy everyone!

It Comes Down To One Game

 

I am getting asked what I think of this game against the Red Sox for the right to play Tampa in a 5 game series.

First, I like the playoff system the way it is.  If after 162 games you have not been able to distinguish yourself as the leader of the division, then it is fair that you do not make the playoffs.  However, by allowing teams to get in for the wild card you make it a large penalty of having to play an elimination game first and thus also rewarding the division winners with the “bye.”  It also keeps some teams/fans interested later in the season which is good.  This is the way a playoff system should work as it also does not allow too many teams into the playoffs.

As for the game, as I stated before, this team can’t surprise me.  We could lay an egg, we could lose with terrible defense, we could lose with terrible base running or an odd managerial move.  Hey, Cole could stink as well.  We also could pitch well, hit well and blow them out.  Nothing would surprise me. 

If I had to make a prediction based on an average outcome, I would say the Yankees win 5-3, but I am not betting on this game, mostly because of our inconsistent offense.  Cole is a better pitcher than Eovaldi, but Nathan is solid.  I like the Yankees bullpen and honestly like the Yankees offense better, but they have simply not played up to their expected output.  The Yankees have the worst offense of any team in the AL and are actually worse than every team offensively (based on runs scored) except wild card STL.  The other AL playoff teams averaged 836 runs and the Yankees scored 711.  The NL playoff teams with the pitcher hitting score more than the Yankees and the 5 teams averaged 774 runs (STL scored 706 as the only team worse than the Yanks).  Isn’t that a little shocking that the offense is so poor?

A few quick comments:

1.       While Higgy isn’t very good all around, I am glad he is starting over Sanchez.  The best-case scenario is that Higgy catches the entire game.

2.       With DJ and Voit out, I would go with our defensive team and play Velazquez at SS and have Gio play 3^rd.  Being banged up after that amazing catch will make it even harder for him to play SS at the level we need him to.  Further, I think we are so much better defensively with Gio at 3^rd and Velazquez at SS.  If you need to pinch-hit you can in a key spot.  I doubt the Yankees do that, but I don’t want to give away any runs.  Odor has an OPS of .665 (.625 against righties) and is 1-14 over the last month.  Velazquez is not a good offensive player with a .594 OPS (but .651 against righties) and is 2-8 in the last month.  Offensively, they are close against righties but more importantly, the defense would be much better at 3^rd and SS and one play might tilt the scale.  Of course, Odor could hit a HR and he does have experience, but I would rather give Cole our best defense and I would bet that having much better defense at SS and 3^rd is a larger difference than the bat against a righty.

3.       Having Loaisiga back is huge for us and honestly, he is the guy I trust most in the bullpen and he is just coming back from his injury.  But, Chapman, Holmes and Green are quality arms.  King and Severino give us more help and I wouldn’t have any issue trusting Severino.  German is a solid guy as well, but if he is in that means something went wrong with Cole.  Peralta has been pretty good from the left side and is a little better against lefties and Luetge has been our best guy against lefties (.520 OPS).

4.       In these games I believe we have a 26 man roster.  I have seen people say we should have 13 and 13 pitchers/players.  I don’t think we need 13 pitchers, especially as you can’t mix and match as well as you used to.  So I am in favor of specialists as players in this one game.  I would bring up Florial to get some speed and defense if needed.  I would also look for specialists such as a great bunter or more speed or defense.  But, we surely don’t need 13 pitchers for one game

I hope I get to write more!

Get Out The Brooms!

If there weren't so many bonehead plays and bad decisions it would be easier to be totally psyched right now.  I am still very excited because we can do so much better and we still swept the Red Sox.

Some Notes:

• ARod did a nice job of predicting a changeup (at first he did say off-speed) after Montgomery missed with a FB high, but outside of that, he was pretty off in the game.  First, I am so tired of everyone saying there was nothing Sanchez could do to block a ball when he failed to turn his body toward home plate on the block and this is why the ball ricocheted to his left and became a wild pitch.  ARod did say that because he is on one knee that causes less movement and he is right. Then, why go down on one knee with someone on base?  His reactions are very slow.  
• ARod also was talking about how Montgomery should come out for the 6th inning because he is a big guy and he needs to learn how to pitch through and develop in times like this???  What?  Times like this, this is basically a playoff series and his stuff was pedestrian, his breaking pitches were non-existent,  he couldn't spot his fastball and he was getting hit very hard.  We were lucky to get out of the 5th inning so taking him out for Clay Holmes was the correct move.
• Clay Holmes was actually dominant.  Throwing a 99 MPH running fastball inside to righties and having an excellent slider he was spotting perfectly.  Sounds like Louisiga doesn't it?   He struck out the side in 11 pitches and it was the meat of the order.  So of course, he would come out for the 7th inning as well in a 2-1 game in Fenway...right?  Well he did, but after announcing a batting change to Shaw a lefty who is a mediocre hitter who is a little better against righties, Boone must have forgotten how great Holmes looked and also that bringing in Joely Rodriguez was for 3 batters.  I was not happy and it got worse after a single and a bunt single where Torres for the 2nd time in the game ran to cover first instead of charging for the ball (he and Rizzo need to talk).  Then, after the wild pitch that there was "nothing Sanchez could have done" Boston had 2nd and 3rd with nobody out and they didn't need to bunt again.  A medium sac fly allowed the run to score but shockingly Verdugo didn't take 3rd on the throw.  
• Green Came in after the 3rd batter Rodriguez faced and he struck out Hernandez.  He then got Schwarber to pop out to end the inning tied up...except DJ dropped the popup, shockingly.  Green got Schwarber to hit a high short fly ball to LF to end the inning in a tie...but Gallo this time dropped it and that gave Boston a 3-2 lead into the 8th.  We did get out of the inning when Schwarber tried to go to 2nd on the Gallo drop and we threw him out.
• So after gifting the Red Sox two runs, Urshela walked and on a 3-1 count wade took off for 2nd and DJ took the pitch and Wade for some reason slowed up and then didn't slide and was just out.  Shaking my head at the idiocy here.  First, I did;t love stealing on a 3-1 count, but sometimes it is OK, but I am not sure if he was deaked or what but you don't slow up and you slide into the base.  Another bonehead move, but DJ walked and Rizzo crushed a single to the wall and was lucky they didn't throw to 2nd base after the cut or he would have been out.  It went as a double, but we were lucky.  With 2nd and 3rd and one out Judge was up and last game he failed in this spot with bases loaded.  This time they brought Ottavino in and he had Judge jammed on the fastball and waving at the slider.  Judge popped to 1B and their first baseman Dalbac was afraid of the fence and never reached the ball - he did the same thing in the previous game and it was surprisingly bad.  Another big break.  Then Judge foul-tipped strike 3 into Vazquez' glove and it barely hung on into the end of his webbing and quickly Vazquez reached for the ball and it popped out.  This should have been strike 3 as it was in the exchange like a middle infielder but it happened fast and catchers usually don't make the exchange with nobody running.  (Pretty sloppy game).  Judge took advantage and got a fastball over the middle of the plate and drilled it to LC scoring 2 runs and giving us a lead.  On the play he slid safely into 2nd and jammed his pinky on his left hand (it looked crooked).  This could have an impact moving forward.
• Stanton then came up and after taking a slider got a hanging one and drilled it another 450 feet out of the stadium for a 3 run lead.  Stanton can look awful waving at pitches not even close, but man, when he connects it is amazing.
• Green worked out of a leadoff double and Chapman only allowed a walk and we got the sweep!!!
• Two other notes:  ERod for Boston pitched a really good game.  He spotted his pitches really well and he was the reason we didn't score early on.  2) Gallo made a bonehead play trying to throw ll the way home on a medium sac fly.  he allowed the runner from 1st to get into scoring position with one out.

This is a hard team to figure out, but we have the talent to beat anyone...and the inconsistency to lose to anyone as well.  Let's enjoy the sweep but right back at it against Toronto!

Who Is Pumped Up?

Is there anyone who didn't get out of their seat or at least have that awesome feeling of euphoria after Stanton squared up the first pitch he saw in the 8th inning???  Those types of swings/moments make all the frustration worth it; and unfortunately, this Yankee team has been full of those moments as well (more on some of that in a bit).  

Top of the 8th inning down 2-1, Odor leading off.  First, I am not sure why he started the game.  I know DJ must have an issue with his groin, but why would Odor play over Wade when you can have much better defense with Wade at SS and Urshela at 3rd?  Should Odor hit better than Wade, yes, but the defense of Urshela at 3rd compared to Odor is a large difference in my opinion.  It looked like my opinion was wrong when Odor hit a long shot to the wall but it was caught (Judge did the same to them "robbing" HR's).  But, in the 8th inning, why have a guy with a .289 OBP lead off the inning, especially when he is a defensive liability?  Why not place Voit up there who is more likely to hit a HR or get on base?  Then if he did get on you put Wade in for defense (which they did anyway).  So Odor strikes out and Urshela gets out and we have 2 outs nobody on down 2-1 in a game we have simply been swinging the bats terribly.  Boston's pitcher, Pivetta, has been lit up recently and while his stuff was solid yesterday, he missed spots all day long and the Yankees missed over a dozen centered pitches and I thought just swing terribly.  Anyway, Gardner worked a walk after being down 1-2 in the count.  On a 1-1 count Gardner stole 2nd on a slider (outside) and then after swinging through a very hittable slider, Judge took two sliders away for another walk.  Here is where the 3 batter rule came into play as well as the advantage of having capable lefties mixed in between the righties.  I don't love the 3 batter rule, but it is easier to watch and it does reward lineups with more diversity.  Regardless, Boston hoped the lefty Hernandez would take care of Rizzo and then they would be setup for the 9th.  But, Hernandez threw 2 balls and then Rizzo might have helped him on a borderline pitch and then threw another ball before hitting Rizzo.  This loaded the bases for Stanton.  Good job by the guy in front to battle; this setup the lefty against Stanton matchup. 

Courtesy of MLB.com

https://www.mlb.com/news/giancarlo-stanton-hits-go-ahead-grand-slam-to-beat-red-sox

Other notes on this game:

• Cortes was not as sharp, but once again did a good job with the exception of not going deep at all.  Getting some of our guys pitchers back is a big deal.  King was hit pretty hard, but the ball went at our guys.  
• Severino has been a huge plus for us, pitching 2 scoreless/hitless innings.  He isn't throwing 98/99 consistently, but he was consistently 96 and did hit 98 once.  His other stuff was good including a 90MPH change that had very good down and side movement.  He also pitches 2 scoreless innings 4 days previously.  He could be a key person for us as I would have as much confidence in him as anyone on our roster now.  
• Green has been excellent with one HUGE issue and that is he has allowed an absurd 14 HR's in 79 innings.  Batting avg against is only .191 and his walks are very low so who WHIP is 0.87, but his OPS against is .620.  (.717 in the 2nd half).  Green is equal against both sides.
• The Alka Seltzer closer is similar to Green but with more wildness and is very tough on lefties (.496 OPS and .749 against righties).  He has been better of late, but he takes years off our lives...the anti Mariano Rivera.
• We need a healthy Louisiga back!

I don't want to go into some of my negative rants (I have watched every game - even if fast), but I want to quickly bring up two things.

1. I am done with Sanchez behind the plate.  I am tired of so many pitches turned into wild pitches, the normal passed balls that lead the league and the matador tag at home plate a few weeks ago was my final straw.  That should never happen to anyone with even the slightest knowledge of the position.  When a ball gets there that early you take one step toward 3rd base to ensure that NEVER happens.  I could fill this page on Sanchez but I want to get to :
2. The issue I brought up in the offseason as to why I was perhaps the only person not in love with signing DJ for so much money IS what has played out.  DJ would not keep his career years going and we were hoping Torres could play SS, which I didn't believe he could.  Now we have our great defensive 3rd baseman playing SS, DJ at 3rd and Torres in his more comfortable 2nd base spot, but at best he is equal to DJ there.  We are weaker at 3rd base and Urshela is not a great defensive SS even if he can make the plays.  When we say Velasquez play SS, it was like night and day the quickness he had.  His arm was not a rocket but he is the best defensive SS we have had since before Jeter (not going back further than that).  He should be on our (hopeful) postseason roster and can be a pinch runner as well.

I am still pumped up, but we still have work to do and this team can lose every game just as easily as win every game!!!  Let's sweep tonight!

Awful Performance Against An Awful Team

 The worst team in baseball came into Yankee stadium and lost a very close first game followed by beating us twice!  How did this happen?

Saturday - In general, we did not swing the bats well at all.  3 hits against a weak pitching team are not going to get it done.  If it wasn't for one of the very times Gallo has gotten a big hit for with a 2 run HR in the bottom of the 8th to tie the score, our offense would have been putrid.  For some reason Chapman was brought into the game in a tie game at home, which surprised me, but here is where the game was officially lost.

On a 1-2 count, Sanchez correctly called for a splitter, but was incredibly not prepared for a splitter that might have been in the dirt and then when it was he acted like he was afraid of the ball by turning his head and instead of smothering it he stayed very high on it and the ball got by him for a wild pitch.  I am sorry, that lack of effort and readiness was embarrassing.  If the ball would have gotten by him but he gave a great effort I would have said it was a bad break, but as I have said numerous times, why be on one knee with nobody on base...and especially with a splitter coming?  I should have taken a screen shot of the play, but I am sick of hearing the announcers say he had no shot at a pitch in the dirt...that is the catchers job to block it and as long as they can get their body around it they should be able to knock it down enough to throw a batter out at first.  Sometimes you can throw them out if you hustle and it gets by you as we say Higgy do the other day.  This play set the entire inning up negatively and the rest was on Chapman, but don't dismiss this misplay by Sanchez.

Sunday - Up 4-1 as Sanchez turned on an inside FB at 93 MPH after inexplicably throwing him 9 straight fastballs???  Seriously, this had to be because he is the 9th place hitter, but it was very odd that Sanchez didn't get anything else or catch up to some of these hittable pitchers sooner.  That being said, it was a huge hit that this offense really needed!

In the 6th inning, Torres stayed back on a ball and then took a few shuffle steps and then flipped the ball to 1B and the runner beat the throw.  That is just not being mentally prepared.  Remember early in the year, he kept taking his time and then when he got a sense of urgency, his defense went from bad to acceptable? First, why is that not an error?  A routine ground ball that you stayed back on and then took an extra step before you flipped a throw to first instead of firing it?  That is an error in my book and it is not a question. I don't know what the % of making that play is but I would say that it is probably in the very high 90's, that is an error!  Abreu then serves up a 2 run HR on an awful pitch selection by Sanchez and him.  Throw the freaking fastball there.  Terrible pitch call!

BTW, earlier in the game, Sanchez got a throwing error that should be changed to Torres as the throw was there and Torres tried to make a quick tag and the ball ticked off his glove.  Torres is actually very quick and good with his tags and he just was s a little early, but that should not have been an error on Sanchez.

Still leading after Sanchez hits another HR, this time a 2 run shot, when their bad pitching was trying to go to the outside of the strike zone and instead threw a FB inside and Gary met the pitch again.  One has to take advantage of bad pitching and Gary gave us a chance to win with his offense and 6 RBI's (The same number of RBI's he had since 7/21) .

Then the Yankees stuck with Heaney way too long.  Up 7-4, Heaney hit Mancini and then allowed a soft hit and a line drive single to load the bases with nobody out.  The balls were not crushed, but why have your weakest (or one of them) pitcher out there with bases loaded and nobody out in the 7th inning of a 7-4 game?  I feel like I have been asking a lot of questions...

Heaney then allowed a well hit ball that Stanton took a bad angle on, but it wasn't an easy play.  This double score 2 runs and one would think that would be the night for Heaney...but no they kept him much to my disgust.  But sometimes the wrong move works and he got the week hitting Severino to pop up on the 1st pitch.  Mateo then had a great AB fouling off pitch after pitch before singling on his 12th pitch.  That finally ended Heaney's night but Peralta allowed a single before getting the final 2 outs and  now we were down by one.

We still had 1/3 of the game to come back against the worst team in baseball, but we did not score.  Judge was 0-9 and Stanton 0-8 with a walk in these last 2 games.

Time to turn the page and get after a solid Toronto team!

Battling With A Bad Team

 To be fair, means is a solid pitcher, but we just did not swing the bats well.  We took so many FB's down the middle of the plate it was surprising.  It looked like we were waiting for a breaking ball that never came.  We also complained on some pitches that were strikes.  This ump was one of the better ones even if he had a strike zone that was a little tight.  Surprisingly, neither team scored much, but the umps main misses were on pitches that were on the black which is fine by me.  The ump rarely called a ball a strike.

I thought Boone had a smart game plan.  This was the game where Baltimore was throwing their best pitcher and it was the first game of the series.  It might have surprised some to see Louisiga come into the game in the 6th, but it made sense that he would man through the 7th and then Green and close with Chapman...assuming the Yankees could beat up on Baltimore's other pitching in the next two games.  Keep in mind this is a team that has been awful.  The logic was there, but the execution wasn't.  Also, Boone and the team made a terrible decision to not walk Mountcastle in the 10th inning.  Peralta got a huge out to get the leadoff guy and then Mountcastle came to the plate as their hottest hitter (1.208 OPS over the last 30 AB's and actually a 1.020 OPS over the last month.   When you have a guy on 2nd and one out this makes sense.  I don't know why you would pitch to their hottest hitter but he did and predictably he lined a single.  

Another good game by Cortes (2.67 ERA) and he would have gotten the win if Sanchez (and Louisiga) didn't make a horrible pitch call for a changeup inside with 2 strikes on the batter.  This HR was simply bad pitch selection (ok, not a great pitch either).  A changeup to a righty inside should only be used to get a strike on the batter earlier in the count IMO.  He threw it at 92 MPH and the only thing you can hope for is he pulls it foul which is why it was a bad pitch with 2 strikes.  You want to try a change outside...maybe, but throw your 100 mph FB or your breaking ball with 2 strikes on a righty.  Cone even called it a slider because I didn't think the change should have been even an option (he immediately corrected himself on review).  BTW, I am not opposed to using a change righty on righty, but when and where is important.

I like Chapman standing up more.  I thought he didn't look comfortable hunched over and said that to my wife a month ago (I probably was really talking to myself as she nodded politely).  I hope it keeps him more consistent in his motion and I am glad to see him get the splitter back.  Not sure why they went away from that?  

I said we needed Stanton to get hot and he has been.  He hits some absolute rockets.  The walk-off single was 121.1 MPH and the hardest walk-off hit ever tracked (since 2015).  I believe this is for all of baseball (not just the Yankees), but Stanton has hit 6 balls over 121 MPH since 2015 and only 2 other players have ever broken 121+ and those are Judge and Sanchez (who won't do it again if he stops using his leg kick).  His OPS is now at .868 and while he is an easy target because of his salary and the fact he didn't play much the past 2 years, he is an excellent hitter.  I think he may hit better when playing the field?  The stats show this .837 as a DH and a 1.081 OPS as a fielder).  He also has not faired well as a PH in his career.  in his 40 Pinch hit appearances, he has an OPS of .344 (not even one XBH).

Boone just passed Buck Showalter for most wins as a Yankee manager (314) which is good for 9th all time on the Yankee list.

Sweep or bust!

No Catchy Title

I have a ton of things to say about the last 13 games since I posted, but if I got into the weeds about an 0-2 pitch that is grooved and then hit for a big HR against us 8 games ago, you guys would rightfully fall asleep (even if grooving 0-2 pitches is what actually keeps me up at night).  

Many people have been pointing to the new acquisitions as the reason why we have been playing so much better of late, but the numbers do not point this out.  Rizzo has a .784 OPS since coming over which is worse than his previous years.  (around a .900 OPS not counting 2020 as this was an aberration year).  Gallo has been pretty bad at the plate with a .634 OPS since coming over and he has a lifetime .822 OPS.  Now, their own offense is not the only thing to look at but, defensively Rizzo has actually been fairly weak so far with us, consistently missing scoops and even botching some plays.  I don't expect that to continue though.  Gallo has played a solid D, he had one ball that he misplayed, but it would have been a really good play.  Overall, while their play has been pretty mediocre, their presence in the lineup and forcing the opposing managers to have some lefties in there have helped other players.  Let us not forget them working the count and making it harder for opposing pitchers.  

Most of our turnaround has been other players playing closer to the back of their baseball card.  

Luke's comments about playing time -  I get him being proud and confident, and I think he was being honest and not trying to cause an issue.  But, I would rather him just say "I am confident in my abilities and know that I can help this team win, just as Rizzo does.  I will do whatever the team wants me to do. "

Luke has had an OPS of over .900 since being a Yankee and needs to play fairly consistently.  I have to say that the lineup I put out there a while ago (The Goal Line Lineup) is pretty awesome.  Stanton in RF, Judge in CF, Gallo in LF with Rizzo at 1B and Luke DHing, should score a lot of runs and with Urshela at 3rd (need him healthy) we could use Velazquez at SS as his D is great!  Add in Sanchez and DJ (who is still having a bad year with a .717 OPS)

Speaking of Sanchez, his OPS on the year is a respectable .753.  I don't understand how the announcers keep saying how much better he is since he stopped his leg kick?  Yes, he has put the bat on the ball more, but the output is not good.  It has sapped him of most of his power.  the other night he hit his first HR in a month.  His OPS over the last 28 days is .542; that is awful.  If I were Gary, I would use the leg kick until I got two strikes and then I would look to make more contact.  Keep in mind that his OPS in the first half of the year was .785.  I honestly don't remember when he stopped using the leg kick, but while he may look better, function before form is important.  Also, while strikeouts tick everyone off, they are way better than DP's and they do make the pitchers work at least for 3 pitches.

 A couple of comments on the games:

Judge made a great throw to 2nd base on the throw beat the runner and for some reason instead of snapping the tag down in front of the bag, he reached for the runner's chest and the ump called him safe.  It was very close and I actually think he might have been out, but it was so close that on review they did not overturn it.  This became huge because a few pitches later the runner stole 3rd and Sanchez threw a pea and nailed the runner by 10 inches, but the ump screwed up and called him safe (terrible call) and we didn't have a challenge to overturn it.

Odor is simply an awful fielder PERIOD!  He also is not good offensively (.692 OPS this year).  While we went through a stretch of hitting where that might have been acceptable, it simply isn't.  Velazquez should be on this roster because he should be a defensive replacement or a pinch-runner.  Wade has been very useful of late.  Being able to play all over the place (and is better defensively than Odor) and while Wade has had only 67 plate appearances in the 2nd half, he actually has an OPS of .850!  So I would keep Velazquez and drop/release Odor.  

I am ready to go to the box and use technology to make the calls behind home plate, as long as they can adjust to every player. The plate umps are simply not good enough and it annoys me.  

Kluber had decent action on his pitches, but he had very little command of where they were going.  he would nail a slider just off the plate and then he would hang the next one.  Before he walked the batter to load the bases, I said that if he walks this guy I would take him out.  I was considering taking him out anyway just because he hadn't pitched in a while.  But after walking the batter, he had to come out.  Grand Slam later and we lose.  Bad job by Boone there.

Just the overall theme in recent games of making such poor 0-2 pitches and hanging so many breaking balls and changeups.  I also had a lot of issues with the pitch selection and they really ended up hurting us.  One example, and it doesn't matter that it cost us, but it is something Sanchez needs to learn and that is when you have a batter on 0-2 or even 1-2 and you have thrown some fastballs and you throw a great breaking ball that well off the plate (almost in the dirt) and the batter still got a piece of it.  Why would you throw that again?  Where would you try to put it?  Of course, we did throw it and got more of the plate and it was hit for a 3 run HR.  Every situation is different and nuanced, but that is fairly routine. 

Rizzo did make an excellent play at 1b when he was even with the bag and it was bases loaded.  A bullet was hit to him and it stayed down and he was able to get the glove down with very little reaction time.

Cole had excellent stuff even to the point where when he made a mistake they couldn't hit him well (other than one hanging slider).  Both his curve and slider were sharp, his change was running and his FB was consistently 99.  15 k's and no walks is awesome.  I think he finished 31 swing and misses I know it was at least 30) which was a career high for him!

Anything less than a sweep of Baltimore will be a failure (even if a failure may still get us into the playoffs).  I would MUCH rather win the division than have to play a one game elimination game.

Enjoy the Labor Day weekend!

Grinding Out Wins!

 For much of this year we grinded out losses as well, but instead of everyone playing poorly, many are "evening" out their year and playing more like we would expect.  Nothing is easy though and everything is a grind.  Sweeping the Red Sox is always rewarding, especially after dominating us earlier in the year.

The game:

I was texting with one of our readers and I spoke about Heaney.  My one comment was "his stuff is OK. He must make quality 2 strike pitches or he doesn't do well."  Later in the evening, I watched the game and in the first inning 0-2 pitch he allows a HR to Bogaerts.  The pitch was probably a ball and Bogaerts went with it well, but it was up (making it much easier).  Bogaerts is an excellent hitter (even better for a SS), but he seems to always be ready for a fastball.  That concerned me, but Heaney's results were an excellent game. It is interesting because I do not think he controlled his pitches very well, but he mixed them up well and threw 4 pitches (FB, CB, Slider and change) keeping them off balance.  Honestly, I don't think Boston has been swinging the bats very well.  Devers had very poor AB's and he is usually a problem for us.

We were up 2-1 in the bottom of the 2nd and runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out and DJ up.  DJ had a 3-1 count on him (remember an open base) after he didn't swing at a slider in the dirt.  He then waived on a slider way outside rather than taking the walk.  He then fouled off two fastballs that were grooved before swinging at 2 sliders that were both balls.  He should have walked but hit a hard one chopper on the 10th pitch (fastball) into the ground in the hole between 3rd and short and Devers made a diving play, got up and threw out DJ.  Sanchez was on 3rd and Valazquez was on 2nd; how did they not move up and get one run in there.  Sanchez isn't fast, but that is a play I think you go on contact as long as it isn't a bullet or back to the pitcher.  Worst case scenario is they make a good play and throw you out and you have 1st and 3rd instead of 2nd and 3rd.  Yes, that isn't as good but they made a good play.  There is zero chance Devers could have thrown out Sanchez if he went after reading the chopper, but again there isn't much downside.  Also, the defense could try and go home and not get him or make a bad throw and then you have a huge inning.  We were fortunate that the next batter was Rizzo and Dalbec didn't glove a ball he should have and 2 runs scored on the generously scored single.

Speaking of Rizzo, and this may be known but I don't listen too much to the announcers, but I was not aware he choked up with two strikes?  I will watch him more, but in the AB against a lefty he choked up a little with 1 strike and then choked up a lot with 2 strikes.  Later in his AB against Ottavino, he didn't choke up at all and had his hand on the knob.  

I like DJ so much more at 2nd base.  He will start to get more comfortable and we are seeing some of the plays he is making there.  Tuesday night, he made an excellent sliding play to his left and threw a strike to Wade that would have been a DP if Wade didn't fumble his exchange and last night he used his height and length to go up and snag a line drive that perhaps only he could have caught as a tall 2nd baseman.  I am not sure DJ is a gold glover there now, but he is solid.

While we are on defense and announcers...Rizzo's defense is a huge upgrade from Voits or anyone else we have there, but let's not praise him for what I think are fairly routine plays for a competent glove at 1B.  The last play of the game, which was an excellent play (maybe game saving) by Valazquez sliding in the hole and dealing with Odor diving in front of him, was not such a tough hop for Rizzo.  The ball skipped from the grass (not the dirt) so it wasn't much of an in between hop, it was a long hop.  Rizzo fielded it so close to his body he almost turned it into a hit.  I think he was ensuring he made the play and doing what he did allowed him to make sure he had it, but even no stretch would have made it a clear out instead of a very close play.  Further, Kay was gushing about how great the play was from Rizzo and it was 99% Valazquez.  

OK, Let me pile on Kay for gushing about what a great read Judge had Tuesday night on the ball that dropped in and Judge scored from 2nd.  Judge made the correct read, but then wasn't sure and slowed up looking back.  If the ball wasn't hit by the CF'r as he tried to grab the ball after he made a good effort on the pop-up, Judge would have been on 3rd only, but if it were caught Judge would have been doubled up.  A good read, or an aggressive chance, would have been that he took off from the beginning and scored on the ball even if the ball was missed and picked up normally.  I thought Judge took off and then sort of panicked.

Oneill also is always bringing up when the shift doesn't work and it drives me crazy.  I also think he misses a lot.  Cone is great on correcting him but not disagreeing with him.  Example:  Oneill was talking about Chapman and how he didn't trust his FB because he was only throwing 97/98 and allowed the HR off the FB and that is a problem for him.  Cone just said something like, "and he may be throwing the slider because it may be the only pitch he feels he can throw for a strike."  This simple exchange is why Cone gets it and O'neill misses a lot because that is exactly why he is throwing so many sliders.

Britton pitched a very clean 8th inning, but he is still struggling with control.  The good thing is that he threw strikes and let his stuff work.  His fastball has absurd sink on it and they either swung over it or grounded out.  He has a good breaking ball, but he is not controlling that either yet.  Also, he was throwing a fastball that tailed into lefties (not as much sink) earlier and I thought that was a great addition for him.  However, I think maybe it is throwing off his release point and did not throw any of them yesterday.  Perhaps he is saying let me control my sinker and breaking ball first?

Minnesota is not a good team, but they are 7-3 in their last 10.

A Boston DH Sweep Brings Back The Genius Maker!

 I am sorry I have not written for the longest stretch since I started this.  There were a variety of reasons, but the main was the passing of my wife’s father suddenly and in our presence.  This has led to a lot of extra time being diverted and along with my normal heavy workload, I just chose to take some time away.  Further, this has been one of the most frustrating teams to watch that I can ever remember.  To the Yankees credit, they keep hanging in there, even in the face of their annual absurd amount of people not available to the team.

 After watching both games of the double header late last night, I wanted to just give a couple comments (and finally write a blog); I won’t go into great detail.

 Some comments:

Boone has had an up and down year.  He does a lot of things well, but seemed to miss a lot in some key spots.  Overall, he has had a very difficult situation to deal with and has done a pretty good job.  At the end of the day with almost every player under-performing (seems like it starting to even out), the blame should go to the players.  What we don’t know is if they were struggling because of the coaching staff or environment?  I blame the players mo

Some blame can go to Cashman as well.  He made some questionable moves in the offseason and most have not worked out well.  The Jay Bruce signing was not one I liked from the beginning and retiring after being awful showed it was a bad move.  It was not a high price to pay, but everyone knew we needed some lefties who could hit righties well.  I was not a fan of getting Odor, but he has hit much better of late because he has been going the other way more in the last week than he had in the entire year.  That can help, but his defense is simply poor everywhere.   His .731 OPS is nothing too exciting, but when you compare to what we were getting from many that is acceptable.  My comment when we got him was that he will hit some big HR’s and not much else still has been pretty accurate.  He is a great cheerleader though.

Higgy has really disappointed me.  A .617 OPS is pretty weak and his defense has really slipped.  His throwing has been bad and he has been letting a lot of balls get by him.  Sanchez is frustrating as anything behind the plate, but he is our best option and his offense can be a huge plus (.771 OPS right now). 

Stanton – He seems like he can’t pick up a slider.  He has swung (more like waived and missed by a foot) at more sliders low and away than anyone I have seen (and Sanchez can rival him at times).  Something is wrong with him as he is just not seeing the ball right.  He is an extremely streaky hitter, but I have never seen him look so bad (hopefully this is what he needs to start ripping the ball)  His .820 OPS isn’t horrible, but we need more from him and he needs to get hot like he did in the playoffs last year.

It is amazing that we had 5 starting pitchers out, including Severino (along with 4 or 5 players depending on if you count Hicks).  The team stepped up well, but at the same time, our closing situation became terrible.  Hard to count on anyone.  Louisiga is the guy I have the most confidence in, but he needs to get his slider more consistent.  That being said his 98-102 MPH running fastball is a great pitch. 

Some shout outs:

·    Gardner and Wade have played really well of late and this has helped our winning ways.

·    How about the 23 year old Gil?  He has started 3 games and while not going deep into games has pitched 15.2 innings and has yet to allow a run!

·     I really liked the pickups we got in Gallo and Rizzo.  I know the Voit thing is an issue, but as we have seen, injuries happen a lot and Covid brings another element into needing depth.  We needed good lefties and they are.  I like that they work counts as well.  This team can wear you out when we have the right lineup.  I also like the upgrade on defense they bring. 

·     While on defense, Velazquez has a very weak stick, but anyone watching can see how quickly he gets to balls with his quickness and great jumps.  It is like night and day compared to the defense we have had there. 

·     Cortes – he has given us 49.1 innings of 2.55 ERA ball.  He is a crafty lefty for sure and his delayed/held windup throws guys off (so does him dropping down). 

·     Judge misses a lot of time, but he is consistently solid everywhere!  His .900 OPS has been the only consistency on offense all year.

As I write this, we are in the WC right now.  A lot can happen, but we have people coming back and imagine this lineup:

DJ – 2B

Judge - CF

Rizzo – 1B

Stanton - RF

Gallo - LF

Luke - DH

Gio – 3B

Sanchez - C

Torres - SS

 

Get a lead and bring in the defense.

 

I hope everyone is well!

Triple Play Masters

A little lunch update:

I haven't written in a long time, but have watched the games.  In my last writing, I discussed how hard it was to watch this team.  Between such a frustrating lack of offense, such horrible base running, finding ways to lose, we just didn't have much excitement.   I wrote, "It should get better" and it has.  We still have our moments where we have 2 outs and nobody on and then we allow 2 hits and a 3 run HR after an 0-2 count (this was when Peralta came in and against a lefty threw a hanging slider to a weak-hitting lefty and he hit a 3 run HR.  Peralta has good stuff, but his control/command is just not good enough)

A few negatives before I list some positives:

• DJ has not played well!  a .685 OPS isn't getting it done.  His defense at 2nd is fairly solid, but he takes too long to turn a DP in my view as he is a little long in his catch and release.  Overall, he is the biggest disappointment because of all the money he is getting.
• Torres at a .663 OPS and overall poor defense hasn't been getting it done enough as well.
• Gardner, Andujar and Frazier have about 450 plate appearances and they have a rough combined .640 OPS
• Higgy has been terrible at the plate over the last 30 days (.440 OPS)
• Pitching - Taillon is really the largest disappointment with a 5.59 ERA.  Peralta on only 15 innings and a 5.28 hasn't been sharp nor has Justin Wilson with his 6.08 ERA

Positives:

• We are seeing a trend of more positive results from the hitters above.  Over the past 30 days, Sanchez has been hot (1.063 OPS), Gardner (.805) and Andujar (.761).  
• Torres' defense has been adequate since the horrible beginning.  I still have concerns as adequate isn't good, but if he has an OPS of .800+, I can live with the more recent defense.
• Getting Voit back will be a huge plus if he can give us his expected OPS.  Moving DJ back to 2nd improves our defense and our offense at 2nd base.  
• I wrote many times about how much I liked Loaisiga last year, but he has taken a larger step than I envisioned with a consistent 98 MPH running 2 seamer!  1.63 ERA can be maintained with his excellent stuff.
• Three triple plays in a year are pretty rare.  Ending a game on a triple play with a one run lead was a lot of fun to watch; we need more of that satisfaction!

 

The Yankees Are Hard To Watch - But It Should Get Better!

This team is incredibly underperforming.  The overall pitching has been very good, but in key times it has let us down.  The hitting has been abysmal scoring 3.72 runs a game which is the worst performance since 1972.  We have the 6th fewest runs in baseball.  The stats/projections say we should be scoring 5.53 runs a game, but our subs have been as awful as our starters.  We walk enough and we hit the ball hard and we actually don't even have a high chase rate.  The worst thing offensively is that we have simply been very bad (worst in baseball) in scoring the guys we get on base.  Our 11.2% base runner scoring rate is the lowest in all of baseball.  These numbers are pretty close as 1st place is Boston at 16.1% (league avg is 14.1).  This is because our base running is terrible; we have had 28 guys thrown out on the bases (most in baseball) and no team has taken a lower rate of extra bases than the Yankees 30%.  Finally, our % of grounding into DP's is the worst in baseball (13.3%) with the league avg at 9.8%.  TB has the lowest at 6.5%.  

Outside of Urshela and Judge our defense has been bad.  

Our coaching and managing have not been very good either.  While all the baserunning issues have something to do with boneheaded running plays (Frazier and Sanchez leading the charge), clearly the coaching could be better.  Boone himself has made some very poor decisions in using pitchers and making out lineups in my view. Some very recent examples: 

• Saturday against the RedSox, the Yankees are up 2-0 and Tallion has been effective for 5 shutout innings but wasn't very sharp.  A good manager realizes that Boston hasn't swung as well and is watching the worst pitcher in your rotation (about a 5 ERA) go into the 6th for the first time this season.  While I probably would have taken him out, I can understand leaving him in if you feel he has a lot left in the tank.  He got the 1st out so that was good, but then allowed a single.  I am uneasy now as the pitches have been hittable, but Boone leaves him in there.  The next batter was Bogaerts, he had a meatball to hit but didn't get all of it.  The ball went back to the wall but Andujar didn't and he misplayed into a double.  Now it is 2nd and 3rd with their top hitter Devers up (they were without their other in JD Martinez and still swept us).  With an open base we could walk him, or we could bring in a lefty to face Devers in a key spot.  Devers has an OPS of .975 against righties and .754 against lefties.  There is no chance we should pitch to Devers in this spot unless you brought in a lefty.  Boone lets him to pitch to him and gives up the game tying single.  THEN, Boone takes him out.  It makes no sense.  if Tallion couldn't;t go on after this, what was the point in leaving that matchup?  Too many dumb decisions like this.  I hate leaving a guy in and then taking him out after he allows the 2 run HR.     
• Sunday, we are up 3-1 going into the 6th inning.  German has pitched very well, but after a 2 out walk, Devers was up and Boone might have learned his lesson so he brought in Luetge.    He strikes out Devers and left Boegarts at 2nd base (He advanced on a Wild pitch).  Hey, this can work if we use common sense.  Luetge isn't reliable as he hasn't pitched much in the past 4 years, but he has been respectable. Next mining, with the righties up, it is time to get Luetge out of there, but Boone leaves him in there and after allowing a walk on 4 straight pitches, I was pretty annoyed that it would take Boone that to pull him rather than have a sense of urgency to lock this game down.  But, I was still wrong as Boone left Luetge out there and he allowed a 2 run ZHR to tie the game.  
• The same lack of sense of urgency to win is the issue I have had with Boone resting his players against our key rivals TB, Boston and even Toronto.  Not having Judge in RF cost us as Frazier allowed DJ to misplay a ball by not taking control (DJ should have caught it, but it is far easier for a RF).  Further, we saw how poor Fraziers throws can be with his 5 step rainbow throws.  All year we have rested guys at odd times.  When you are playing Minnesota, you can rest guys, but not your division foes.  Three of those losses are 6 game swings later in the year and we can see we will need them.

And don't get me started on the Odor call that was a joke in extra innings.  Calls usually even out and overall they probably have, but recently we have lost games by the umps and the pitches haven't been close.

The positive is that we are 31-29 and we can be much better.  Can't expect much more from the pitching, but our base running, defense and most importantly or offense will get better.

Still Many Issues!

I have a ton to write about but in the interest of getting this out, I will focus on a few points.

After a bad start, the umpiring started to be much better, but the recent games have slipped again where the umpiring, specifically, behind home plate, has been very poor.  It hasn't always gone against us, but it has been so inconsistent, which is just not good for baseball.  Remember when Urshela had a 3 pitch walk?  How does that even happen?  How is it possible so many people were not on top of this?  I watch the game fast-forwarding between every pitch and when he started to walk to first, I figured I must have missed a pitch, but where was everyone else?  

Last night, against TB in an important game, the umpire behind home plate, cost us the game.  Those are strong (perhaps absurd) words considering we lost 9-2, but the ump made a huge difference which also led to events spiraling somewhat.  There were at least a dozen pitches that went against us and these were big AB's.  Not only did their pitcher consistently get clear balls well outside the strike zone called strikes (Frazier was struck out, ironically and stupidly on his part on a real strike that was a great pitch, but all of the previous 5 pitches were well outside the strike zone), but Cole was getting pitches that were called balls in the same spots but even closer to the zone than the ones called strikes for TB.  The other odd thing was these were outside to righties and they had a lefty and Cole is obviously a righty so you would think the other way would happen if anything.  On the Frazier AB, it was with 2nd and 3rd and one out.

Before a 2 run HR, Brandon Lowe walked on 2 pitches that were strikes! In the 5th inning where TB scored 3 runs and put the game in deep trouble with how pitiful our offense has been.  The leadoff batter walked after being down 0-2: Cole threw a strike called a ball, then barely missed and it was called a ball and then missed in the exact spot that we were called strikes against us at least 6 times and it was called a ball.  Then Kiermaier clearly ran out of the running lane to 1st base to avoid a tag and the home plate umpire didn't rule him out for this and I assume it is not reviewable.  It was really a pathetic job by Chad Whitson, the HP umpire.

The night got more frustrating because in this gifted 3 run inning, with 1st and 2nd, a pitch was hit off the end of the bat to Frazier in RF and with 1st and 2nd and 2 outs, their catcher on 2nd was waived home and Frazier made an awful play to not only allow the slow runner to score when he should have been easily out but threw a rainbow allowing both runners to move up to make it 2nd and 3rd and they both scored.  On the Frazier play, the ball was hit to RF and he started in and then waited for the ball to land (rather than charge it) and then flat-footed caught the ball and took his 5 steps (which drives me crazy) and then threw a rainbow well offline.  First, it is never good to take 5 steps to throw, but if you have to, you better make a good strong throw and make it accurate.  He actually fielded the ball (even waiting on it) with the catcher still 2 steps away from 3rd base and Frazier was not deep.  By the time he released the ball, the catcher took at least 4 strides and probably still might have been out if the throw was online.  Frazier has made some good diving plays (an excellent one a few nights earlier that he had to come in on) and he has made some diving plays that were unnecessary, but he does not throw well and this was as bad as it gets.  

This brings me to another point, they are now throwing up graphics about the speed of the OF's throws and they are using that as the answer to whether the OF'r should be run on or not.  It is good to know what their arm strength is, but it says nothing about accuracy nor how quick the release is.  So if an OF took 5 steps after catching the ball and threw 85 MPH and an OF threw 82 MPH but took 2 steps (assuming the same accuracy), which throw would arrive first?  The answer is the 82 MPH throw.  There is a good reason why catchers do not take multiple steps to throw to 2nd base, it is because they would never throw someone out if they did.   

I have more that I will discuss in the next post, but I don't understand why Boone is resting players so often when our offense has simply been putrid compared to expectations?  How is Judge not in RF against the team in 1st place in our division?  Where is Stanton against a lefty?  I know he has been bad since returning from his injury, but I would rather him up than any of the FOUR guys in our lineup that batting .185 or below .200!  

No hitters, Triple Plays, 1st Sweep Of a 3/4 game series and Judge Gets An Actual Walk Off

Obviously, the no hitter was exciting to watch, but I really enjoyed the Montgomery game against Rodon on Friday night.  We have faced some good pitchers this year (think Max Scherzer), but I thought Rodon pitched better against us than anyone so far this.  Not only was his stuff excellent, but he also hit spots really well.  His fastball started at 96 and got up to 99, but his breaking ball was at least as good as Klubers from the opposite side.  The movement was insane and while the Yankees haven't been hitting much, he made us look really bad. Montgomery matched him and according to STATS, it marked the first time in the modern era that both starting pitchers had 10 or more strikeouts (11 Montgomery and 13 for Rodon) while allowing no walks and no runs.

We entered the 7th with the score tied and Torres hit a solo HR to RF that gave us a 1-0 lead.

In the top of the 8th, we allowed our first run in 4 games when Loaisiga walked Eaton on a 3-2 pitch and then he went to 2nd on a "wild pitch" that was another that most of our competitor's catchers would block.  The runner ended up scoring on a single on a 1-2 pitch where the batter reached out and stuck out the bat (almost threw the bat) and dropped a hit into RF.  Tough way to break the streak, but the Yankees came back in the bottom of the 8th getting singles by Andujar and Gardner (both guys starting to make a little noise at the plate).  DJ was up in a key spot with 1st and 3rd (Tyler Wade pinch ran for Andujar) and unfortunately, DJ failed to come through again as Wade was gunned down at home.  The Yankees didn't score and then Chapman came in for the 9th as he was warmed up when we had 1st and 3rd with nobody out.  Chapman, like Loaisiga, walked the leadoff guy (see a bath theme?).  A bunt caused Chapman to hurry his pickup of the ball and fumbled it one too many times and the White Sox were in business with 1st and 2nd nobody out.  Then Chapman got them to hit the ball to Urshela who made such a smooth play to start a triple play that made me scream out "YEAH" at midnight!  

The Triple Play: Urshela starts to move toward 3rd before he fields the short hop so that as soon as he fields it he already is moving toward 3rd, he takes 4 quick steps and fires a strike to Odor, who turned it avg, but makes a strong throw to Voit, who had a good stretch and a pumped-up exclamation like I had.  Chapman also threw his fist in excitement!

Courtesy of MLB:

https://www.mlb.com/news/yankees-turn-triple-play-against-white-sox

The Yanks scored a run in the bottom of the 9th to win, but it was a great game regardless.

After Saturday's Yankees blowout win, the Yankees relievers allowed some runs on Sunday after Taillon pitched 5 scoreless innings.  Peralta walked a batter and allowed a HR in 1/3 of an inning and then Green allowed a HR.  Loaisiga pitched a solid 8th and hit 100 twice (he has looked very good).  Finally, with a one-run lead, even Chapman allowed his 1st run and blown save giving up a HR on a fastball down the middle.  He has not been throwing his splitter and I am not sure why?  

In the 9th, Frazier led off with his 3rd single and stole 2nd as Gardner K'd.  DJ was intentionally walked to have the lefty pitch to Wade and Tyler was able to beat out a dribbler that got past the pitcher.  That brought up Judge who was still looking for his first walk-off hit.  He didn't get it, but in this case, a walk was clearly as good as a hit as he did get his first walk-off walk as he took all 5 pitches.  Great 3 game sweep off of a very solid team.

Other Notes:

• Yanks starters have fired 35 consecutive scoreless innings -- tied for second-longest in franchise history, behind a 40-inning stretch in May 1932.
• It is good to see us get some production from guys like Gardner, Wade and Frazier.  While Wade may not hit better, he has helped out using his speed on the bases and OF and also added depth at 2nd base and SS.  Frazier could not play worse, so it was good to see him get some hits.
• Tampa has won 10 in a row.  Who would have thought the AL East would be the toughest division in the AL?  I thought Tampa lost too much pitching to be much over .500 and I thought Boston would be better than people thought, but they have hit better than I expected.  I felt Toronto would be our toughest competition, but they are in 4th (with a winning record).
• I was asked about why I thought the run-scoring was down so much.  My two main answers are that the defensive switches are really paying dividends.  Seeing the exact location of balls hit by players is allowing defensive shifts to take many hits away.  Odor caught a line drive the other day when he was playing short RF (rather than deep 2nd base) and that would have always been a hit.  The 2nd reason is spin rates.  As pitchers have started to understand this and track it, their balls are not necessarily going much faster (that trend has been going up based on mechanical improvements mostly), but they are getting greater movement which makes it harder to square up the pitches.

We all should be feeling much better about the team now!

Kluber Pitches First Yankee (road) No-Hitter Since 1923!

And we barely win as Tyler Wade supplies all of our offense with a triple knocking in a run and then scoring on a sac fly.  He also used his speed to catch a ball in RF that most decent RF's would catch, but a slow one probably wouldn't.  Wade has played so poorly this season that it is only a matter of time where some of these guys who have been awful, come through.  Hopefully this will get him to elevate his performance to mediocre (not asking for too much).  Actually, he is close now with a .715 OPS.

As for Kluber, he had an amazing slider going, it was like a whiffle ball.  He also mixed in a lot of changeups and enough fastballs/cutters located well to keep Texas off balance.   He grooved one pitch in the 9th, but it was fouled back; you need a little luck.  I liked the signing and it has really worked out so far, especially after a little bit of a slow start.

I want to bring up some of the things I saw over many of the previous games 

First, I had asked the question about what striking out 5 times in a game is called after Judge "accomplished" this.

The Golden Sombrero is striking out 4 times and a Platinum Sombrero is striking out 5 times (also called the Olympic Rings).  Judge struck out the next 2 times up for 7 straight k's.  I think the record is 9 straight (I may be wrong on this).  

Torres had a great running play more than a week ago.  As he rounded 2nd he realized the defensive shift left 3rd base open and he took off for 3rd, bringing the catcher to help try and cover 3rd base and then realized that home plate was uncovered and he out ran the catcher home and scored.  Very heads up play!

Going back to the Altuve (cheater) HR that Green allowed.  He should never have thrown a fastball to Altuve (cheater) because he was sitting FB based on the AB and the cuts he had on them.  You know it was the wrong pitch as he hit a ball well above the strike zone for a HR.  The curve was an obvious choice, so much so that the announcers even talked about it.

Judge has been playing pretty solid defense.  He made a very good play on a ball off the wall where he released the throw extremely quickly.  As you know this is a pet peeve of mine (when OF'rs take so many steps before throwing).  Wade ended up dropping the throw and the runner was originally called out.  

Frazier makes so many bonehead plays; he is just not a smart baseball player.  He gets tossed out on a pitch he complained about that was a strike, he makes outs on the base paths that are head scratching and he guesses at the plate with 2 strikes and watches a ton of called 3rd strikes on pitches down the middle.  I am pointing this out because he clearly has physical skills, but the mental part is an issue.  I also point this out because it shows how far off his game he is right now, even if we don't know what his game actually is.  It would not surprise me that his bat becomes a solid mid .800 bat and he made an outstanding catch the other day in RF, but he also dives way more than he needs to and will probably get injured and continue stupid plays to make him reliable.

It is almost impossible for Frazier (.582), Ford (.523), Gardner (.511), and Andujar (.312) to not raise their OPS'!  What happened to Andujar?  This guy was a raking machine a few years ago.  Anyway, these numbers are crazy low for the players and then you have very poor performers Odor (.659), Voit (.656), and Hicks at (.627).  That is not to mention guys who probably won't see the Yankees roster anymore; Ryan LaMarre 0-7 (I have no idea why this guy was even brought up?), Jay Bruce (.466), and Mike Tauchman (.552).  It is really anemic to have so many guys perform so terribly.  DJ has been poor as well with a .727 OPS.  Gio is holding his own with a what looks to be excellent .763 OPS, Higgy has a .822, all because of his 5 HR's, but I will take that all day and then Stanton at .882 and Judge at .972.  We really can't get worse offensively.  We need to get a lefty who has great righty splits.  When I get time, I will review candidates.

Some other things I noticed or want to comment on:

I understand this is a 162 game schedule, but when a team is really struggling at the plate, it is hard to bench the guys who are actually producing.  Some of the lineups we have put out are anemic based on the production this year.  The previous paragraph showed that in one game we had 5 total players with a sub .600 OPS with 1 sub .400 and one who never had a hit.  Another way of looking at it is to say only one guy above .800.  

Gio at SS was not as bad as I thought it would be.  His range may not be good and his turn isn't quick, but he has made every play that was hit near him and that is better than what Torres was giving us.  Of course, now that Torres is back he should play there, but it does give us another option, especially if Andujar would actually hit like he used to.  Torres has been better since he started to get rid of the ball with a sense of urgency, but I still think he is much better suited for 2nd base and with DJ not hitting well (I know he will do better, but how much better is the question), the decision to sign him long term does put us in a bind with Torres if he is not up for SS.  More on this subject as the season unfolds, but I did state the problems with signing DJ even though "everyone" said Cashman must pay DJ.  We are seeing the downside; hopefully we can see more of the upside as this is very early in the process.

The umpires behind home plate were better in the Texas games, but a 3 or 4 game stretch prior they were absolutely awful.  They didn't hurt or help us, but it was a coin flip on what they were going to call.  If they can fine tune the up and down for the players size, I do think we will see balls and strikes called by the machine even if the ump is still there and he gets pinged for the balls and strikes.

We have had so many issues with Sanchez defensively that we assume Higgy is the much better defensive catcher and while he is a better all around defensive catcher than Sanchez, he isn't very good at blocking balls and his receiving skills are avg at best.  Our pitches get a lot of wild pitches that should be blocks.  Think about how many bad pitches get routinely blocked by the opposing catchers and we have too many get away from us that should not.  Higgy has actually been poor of late.  If he can keep hitting HR's at the pace he has I could live with it, but I wanted to bring this up as a reality check (he also has a batting avg of .193 but a good reason why OPS is what I use because .193 sounds horrible by itself, but his walk and HR % is good and his OPS is a solid .822).  

People always talk about how much we strike out and that is the problem.  I have pushed back to say that striking out at least makes the pitcher work by throwing a minimum of 3 pitches.  But, I would rather a strike out than hitting into a DP.  This is something the Yankees have done 46 times this year.  So the next time someone says you have to put the ball in play...not necessarily.

Urshela's game winning 3 run HR many games ago was an excellent AB and huge hit for us.

Odor's weak defense still bothers me and he had a pick off throw from Sanchez (who threw a bullet) where he caught the ball in front rather than letting it travel and then reached for the body instead of snapping to the front of the bag and on instant replay the runner was ruled safe.  

Finally, I will leave you with this.  Many times I hear complaints about how the offense just strikes out too much and you can't win this way.  While there are some truths to not being able to move runners along at times and not getting the runner in from 3rd, remember that the pitcher has to work harder for a strikeout compared to a first pitch ball in play swing.  Also, when the ball is put in play, you can hit into a DP which is FAR worse than striking out.  The Yankees have hit into 46 DP's this year in 43 games.  Every one of them, I would rather a strikeout (yeah I know a scenario where we got a run out of it maybe worth it but by run scoring % charts it shouldn't be better).

Going For The Sweep Today

Very quick post today

Again we were tied at 3 and we pulled it out late

Stanton has been hot and is by far our best hitter this year.  After him dominating the playoffs at a level maybe never seen before, is it time to realize that we have a great hitter on our time?  I have never seen someone hit the ball so hard in my life and while that does not make him the best hitter, what we saw in the playoffs last year was awesome.  He wasn't a bad fielder either and ran pretty well, but this year he looks slower to me.

Wade has not proven to be able to hit at the major league level and I was always more critical of him than others (early on), but he has made a few good plays in the field and last night in the 9th charged a ball and made a nice throw that I don't think DJ could have made (there was a lot of ground to charge) and Odor definitely would not have made it.  His ability to pinch run and the fact many of our players are still not hitting, he may be able to help us if he can just give us a .700 OPS (boy, the bar is low now, but Frazier, Gardner and Hicks have been awful).

Judge had a terrible day going 0-5 with 5 K's.  Anyone know if that has a name?

Montgomery had no command all game as he was centering his pitches; we were fortunate he only allowed 3 runs in 6 innings.  The bullpen was excellent again and Chapman continues to be fun to watch while he dominates hitters.

Welcome Cheaters!

I was very interested in this game as I wanted to see how German pitched and see if his velocity got back to a more consistent 95 with some run and also that his change at 87-89 would have more of a difference.  I also was very interested to see how the fans reacted to Altuve and the cheating Astros who won and beat us because of cheating.  The worst part was the players didn't get into trouble.

I was immediately "feeling" baseball for the first time in a long time.  Altuve stepped to the plate and the crowd of 10k or (a guess) was roaring!  It was electric!  Boy, did they let Altuve have it and plenty of signs showed the displeasure of a possible title and an MVP for Judge that was taken away by crossing the line in cheating.  A big asterisk was on a bunch of signs...lol.   Judge deserved it more than Altuve even with his cheating.  Less informed people thought Altuve's .346  batting avg. outperformed Judges .284 BA even though Judge had 52 HR's and an OPS of 1.049 compared to Altuve's .957 OPS.  92 points of OPS is a lot.  For perspective, as crossing 1.000 may throw you off, it is the same point difference as a guy with a .750 OPS and one of .842.  To be fair, Altuve did steal 32 bases while being caught only 6 times (probably because he knew top run when a breaking ball was coming (nobody thinks about that) which would add about 30 points to his OPS, but 60 is still a lot.  Judge had 114 RBI's to 82 and 128 runs scored to Altuve's 112.  Playing 2nd base and getting that production is better, but Judge had a stellar defensive year so I would call that a wash.  The Jury says Judge wins!

On to the fun game:

• Unfortunately, German left a 93 MPH fastball over the heart of the plate and Bergman deposited it
• The Yankee came back on a hanging breaking ball to Stanton who got it over the fence on a high fly to give us a 2-1 lead.  His OPS is now .887 after this 4 hit game and his hot streak,
• The Yankees continued to get guys on base as Greinke was really struggling to throw strikes as Judge walked Gio singled and Torres walked (not even close on ball 4) to load the bases with nobody out and 2 runs in.  Fraizer steps to the plate and Greinke misses twice in the dirt. I literally said out loud to my wife (she rarely listens) they should give him a take sign to stop him from swinging.  Greinke throws ball 3 pretty far outside, but the seemingly low IQ Frazier swings at it.  2-1 count and Grienke throws another ball outside and high but Frazier swings and yanks it into a DP to kill the rally.  I don't think he is a smart player.  I want him to do well, but he really ticks me off.  Frazier and his OPS of .557 is followed by the equally pathetic Hicks (.579).  Hicks grounded out.  We had the chance to blow that game open.
• German left another 93 MPH ball on the inner part of the middle and Brantley crushed it for a long HR to make it 3-2.  After a single, Gurriel got a double off the top of the wall that Frazier actually overran and should have caught it.  He got to a farther spot and kind of reached back a little and the ball landed behind him off the top of the wall.  I was surprised none of the announcers caught the mistake.
• 3-3 in the 5th the Yankees correctly called a pitch out (have to give them credit as this is called from the bench and they have not called one all year (I don't think).  Great job by someone!  Higgy was a little slow getting to the spot but did get rid of it quickly and threw a strike.  However, despite Kay saying that odor made a great tag, Odor actually took the throw too far in front of the bag and then did catch and swing the tag fast.  But, you want to let the ball travel as far as you can in the best case is to have your glove moving with the ball as you catch it.  He might have been a little late but he made up for it with a quick tag and it was enough to show in replay that the runner was out.  
• There was a great 6-5-3 double play where the shift was on.  With Torres playing a 2nd base position shaded up the middle and Urshela playing SS a ball was hit up the middle and Torres came across quickly, fielded it sliding and flipped it to Urshela who caught it and did a pirouette and then threw to first to complete the sweet DP.
• And now one of the more weird plays you will see as there was a lot wrong with it.  Bases loaded and 2 outs with DJ up.  He took two strikes before swinging at a low ball and dribbled it to 3B where the fielder barehanded and threw low to 1b.  DJ would have been safe and one run should have scored, but the first baseman didn't smother the ball to make sure it didn't get by him.  The ball did get by him allowing the 2nd run to score and then threw home in plenty of time to get the 3rd runner, but the catcher didn't handle the low throw and went to tag Odor coming home and they collided after Odor stepped on home plate.  Both players were hurt on the play, but it was a terrible play by the catcher and also a cheap one.  The reason why they collided was the bat was in the way of Odor sliding, so he went in standing up.  There is no excuse for the bat to be there on such a long play.  The umpire should have cleared it and when I played the ump would ask me to sometimes, but someone should have cleared it as it is dangerous and could cause the bat to also hurt the catcher.  So many bad plays on one dribbler, but the outcome was a great one for us and led us to victory.  
• The umpire was really bad, he didn't hurt us, in fact, he might have helped us, but I never knew what he was going to call.  There were bad calls both ways and when you think about the bat, the ump had a bad game.

Enjoyable win, now lets keep it going!

Detroit Gets Us to .500

Playing the worst team in baseball can make you feel better than you really are.  This is true but it was still nice to see us get the offense clicking.  It started a little in Cleveland and Baltimore and it continued until Sunday, but thankfully the pitching bailed us out.  Seeing many pitches in the middle of the plate should get your offense going, but we still have some worries.

Thoughts:

• I did not like splitting with Baltimore.  We lost two close games to them and those are series' where you need to take 3 of 4.  
• I still hate the extra innings rule where you start with a runner on 2nd base.  I don't agree that a game can be lost (or won) by allowing a run to score without a hit, walk, balk, wild pitch or error!  Sac and sac fly should not take a game away from one team or win a game for another.  Isn't the idea to award a team for earning a victory and not just award one team a victory to end the game?  I don't see any harm in ending the game as a tie after 9 10 or 11 innings.  Do you think they would ever allow a playoff game to end that way?   I would doubt it because it doesn't make you earn your run or victory.   Some people say they love the excitement of it.  Then, why not start every inning the same way?  Shoot, why not start every inning with the bases loaded?  Why, because it is a bad idea and doesn't make you earn your runs.  Part of the beauty of baseball is that runs need to be earned (or given up by the poor fielding/pitching of the other team).  Finally, why in America are we so afraid of a tie, especially if the issue is that you don't want extra innings to go on for so many more innings?  If after 9 innings one team has not been better than the other, then a tie is fair.  If you want to limit it to 1, 2 or 3 extra innings, I am fine with that too, but don't artificially try and break the tie.   The only positive thing I will say is that it is fair, although being at home does give you a slight advantage to know what to play for.
• We really padded our stats on Detroit.  
• I like Stanton batting 2nd.  Outside of our slump, our lineup is really good, but it is not a great lineup for setting a lineup.  What I mean is that we don't have good righty lefty matchups that make it hard for another manager.  A righty who is tough on righties can slow us down.  We have been forced to bat Hicks higher than he should be because we don't have a lefty stud to place in between Judge and Stanton.   Putting Odor there is absurd to me.  We are really hoping he steps up, mostly because he is a lefty, but so far he has an OPS of .642 and that is only because he has 4 HR's.  This really needs to be a priority for us as it will transform our lineup.  The other part is playing 81 games with the RF porch is what we need and Cashman has failed at that.  Back to Stanton, just get your better hitters up more often.  This is why I never liked leading off a fast guy who wasn't a good hitter.  The idea is to get high on base guys in front of your power hitters (or better hitters).
• I have spoken about our hitting a lot because they have been putrid, but many of you have written saying that this team won't win anything with this team.  I don't agree and still think we will win the division.  Do we have some flaws, yes, but we are a good hitting team and we have hit terribly.  Detroit may make us feel better, but better pitching we still have not hit well and that is a concern, however, we should hit it and we will get better.
• I have not spoken much about pitching because of our issues hitting, but our pitching has been really good.  In fact, we have the lowest ERA in the AL (3.02) and why that doesn't tell the entire story of our weaker defense, when I look at other teams doing well in ERA our 12 unearned runs are in line with the other teams.  The stat is not readily available without doing it yourself but runs allowed per game (earned or not) or per 9 innings would be a good stat.  Of course, now with the silly extra-inning rule, more runs are scored than before...see how bad this is  :-)
• Chapman continues to be fantastic - in 10 innings he has allowed 2 hits, 3 walks and struck out 24 batters while not allowing a run and a perfect 6-6 in save situations
• Our bullpen has been great so far with only Nick Nelson getting lit up and our lefties Justin Wilson and Lucas Luetge being mediocre/weak.  
• Speaking of pen, I am not sure I liked the Tauchman trade for Wandy Peralta.  He has been better against lefties, but he hasn't been very good in his career and he is 29.  It is possible that he got better last year, but I have to see more of him before I decide, but with Gardner looking so old so quickly and Frazier just not getting it done, I felt we may need Tauchman.  Now Tauchman wasn't doing anything for us either in his very limited play, but He has always hit well in the minors and when he played a lot in 2019 he was really good (.865 OPS).  In the 2020 year in less than 100 AB's he was weak at a .648 OPS but he gave us solid defense.  It should be noted that Tauchman is 30 also.  I just think we need him more, but hopefully, Peralta has found himself.
• I like our starters, Cole, Kluber, German, Montgomery, Tallion and Garcia are fine by me.  

Bring on Houston!

The Verdict Is In: Judge Had Head Up Rear!

I want to kick this off with last night's game against Baltimore.  

I start with picking on our 29-year-old golden child as well.  I won't discuss Judge's actual production as much as the "head up the rear" way he played last night.   The Yankees approach at the plate is terrible.  They either don't have a plan or they execute it terribly.   Down 4-1 in the 8th inning, a new pitcher comes in and walks Frazier on 4 pitches.  That would tick me off if I am Baltimore, as a guy with a .495 OPS deserves to be lobbed strikes up 4-1 in the 8th rather than walking him.  That being said, the pitcher has to face 3 batters and he is struggling.  He then walks DJ on a 3-2 count.  Stanton is now up representing the tying run.  I am fine with an approach that he is looking for a certain pitch in a certain zone to swing here on the first pitch, but he swings at a breaking ball and was out in front of it and just missed it for a high fly to LF.  I would like to see more selectivity, but maybe he was looking for a breaking ball and just missed it?  

OK, so now Judge comes up (BTW, the pitcher is a lefty) and the pitcher misses on 3 pitches and is still all over the place.  He is mostly a fastball pitcher so with a 3-0 count I am fine with giving Judge the green light and he should be looking for a fastball.  He gets a fastball that is a foot inside and swings and misses on ball 4!  Where is even the slightest bit of plate discipline?   You know a guy is wild so you zone a certain pitch!  Hitting 101!  He does walk on the next pitch as the pitcher is all over the place, but still...  

Now Odor is up???  Yeah, why in the world would we have him bat 4th is beyond me (.593 OPS), but there he is and the first pitch is a fastball way outside for a ball.  He then reaches and slightly fouls off a slider well outside the zone.  Poor discipline.  He then gets a mistake slider that hangs inside and he fouls it off.  Huge opportunity there as he clearly has no control.  He then throws a slider so far outside that Odor couldn't even reach at and flails at it for strike 3.  Shaking my head even as I write this.  

Fortunately, Urshela comes through off their closer (brought in) hitting a ball down the line for a 2 run single.  However, for some bonehead reason Judge, with the play in front of him tries to go to 3rd with 2 outs and after a terrible slide is called out.  I am disgusted at this time.  This is a little league mental error at a very important time and we would have had 2 guys on base.  I also think a good side might have allowed him to be safe, but he slid as poorly as Paul Oneill always did and he was out.  BTW, Oneill was the worst "slider" I have ever seen.  Back to Judge's horrible decision...the ump ruled that Judge was out before DJ touched home so we only got one run.  This was the wrong decision and the umps did not allow Boone to review this.  This was just salt on wounds and it was a pathetic situation that was 100% caused by Judge's terrible decision.

Some quick points:

• The Yankees offense is 29th in OPS - that seems impossible and is clearly a statistical anomaly.  Not one of our starters is doing even close to what was expected and our highest starting OPS guy (Judge) is over 100 OPS points below his avg.  Urshela at a .756 OPS is not so bad 
• DJ has been pretty bad at the plate and keeps grounding weakly to the left side (.671 OPS)
• Gardner missed a ball in the OF the other day that he would have routinely made.   He still is above avg defensively in LF, but he is not the elite LF'r he was.  Offensively, he has the lowest OPS of his career so far (43 PA).  His age dictates a decline but like our entire team, he is far underperforming.  If he wasn't a lefty I doubt the Yankees would have resigned him.  That being said, Gardner has always been underrated and has been a very solid player who has only played with the Yankees (which is cool).
• I mentioned the approach of Judge and even Stanton above, but I have never been so surprised at the approach of the Yankees.  Letting fastballs right down the middle go by without a swing and then swinging on fastballs out of the zone.  This is different than the normal swinging at breaking balls out of the zone.  But, just not having a plan or an approach has been shocking.  I don't know what happened to Thames' coaching this year, but something is so far off it can't and won't continue.  

I know this is very negative, but we have been far underperforming and I was frustrated last night.  While we did show some signs of life in Cleveland, one of our long time readers sent me a note stating that if the Yankees go 2-2 or worse we will end April with a winning % that has not won a World Series in 40 years; that is 0 titles in 305 situations.  So we better either be the first team to do this or go 3-1...and then we have nothing to worry about :-)

The good news is that it really can't get worse.