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.

 

 

Lunch Time Update

I wrote this early this morning but never sent it out, so perhaps a lunch break read...

Going into Tuesday's game our team OPS was a last in the AL .642!  This is why we have to have some perspective about how far we are underperforming.  Why are we so poor?  Hard to say, but individually everyone is off, especially offensively.  Also, the moves in the offseason have not worked out so far.  I believe that the offense will get it going.   

Tuesday Night’s Game:

• Our offense was still very bad.  One run off a nice shot by Urshela and one off of mostly a gift by Atlanta as we tried our best not to score. 
• After walking Hicks on 4 pitches (he pinch-hit against a lefty), DJ found a hole for his grounder.  Judge then fought off a pitch to hit a soft liner to RF to load the bases with nobody out in 1-1 game in the 8th.  Gardner was up with a lefty on the mound and I would have left him in the game.  Boone went with Clint Frazier and Atlanta countered with a righty.  Maybe it worked as the pitcher uncorked a wild pitch that put us ahead 2-1. Frazier did end up popping up to 2nd base for the first out.  After intentionally walking Stanton, Gleyber popped out to short center on the first pitch.  Lucky that Ford walked on 4 straight pitches to make it 3-1.  It stayed there as Sanchez missed lining up some very centered pitches and flew out to LF
• Chapman walked one guy and struck out 2 and looked excellent again.  I hate the walk but it was on a 3-2 count.  He has already thrown 19 100 MPH pitches after throwing only 23 all last year.  His splitter is a legitimate pitch so he has 3 pitches to use.
• Tallion hit his spots really well and was hitting Sanchez' glove frequently
• The bullpen went 4 shutout innings.  Wilson came on to get Freeman with 2 outs and the bases loaded; nice work.
• Sanchez started the game with nobody on and his hand dangling in the same exposed area.  He did start to move it most of the other times as I am sure someone told him, but this needs to be a habit that he makes part of his routine just like putting on his mask before a pitch.

Off our team for a moment, I wanted to bring forward a pretty cool feat by Corbin Burnes the Brewers starter.  In 4 games this season, the 26-year-old who had a 2.11 ERA in 60 innings last year, has struck out 40 batters and not walked a single batter.  This is a record.  He also has great results as he has only allowed one run on a solo HR and 8 hits in 24 innings for a 0.37 ERA

I also wanted to point to a site that picked up this blog as a top 15 NY Yankee blog.  It obviously has other blogs that may be of interest to you so I am including the link.   

https://blog.feedspot.com/ny_yankees_blogs/

Enjoy

 

Embarrassing!

I had written some notes down to share over the weekend and Sunday's game just drove the point(s) further home.  We are misfiring everywhere and the result yesterday had our ace lose to a slop throwing lefty that we kept finding ourselves out in front of.

• I don't think it is possible to swing the bats more poorly than we have so far this year!  There isn't one batter on our team with more than 15 AB's who is outperforming expectations or even at their career numbers.  Higgy is the one guy but he has 13 AB's.  Most are FAR below expectations.  Judge has a .831 OPS which isn't bad, but he is a .945 career guy and I have no idea what he has been doing approach wise at the plate.  I could go into excruciating detail, but he is taking what I feel are obvious pitches coming and watching them go over the heart of the plate for strikes and then swinging at balls out of the strike zone.  This is also what most of the Yankees are doing, but Judge's have stood out...and he has been the best of our worst.  Stanton, Torres, Hicks and Frazier have been awful!  In their roughly 200 plate appearances they have a combined OPS of appx. .515.  For perspective, Tyler Wade has a career OPS of .576 in 300 AB's, even in his terrible 2020 he had an OPS of .576.  These are 4 starters!
• I wrote this before Saturday's game.   The moves that have been made are not panning out.  I was against the signing of Odor and Bruce, but they have been absolutely pathetic.  Neither can field well and Odor is 2-17 with 1 walk for an embarrassing .284 OPS.  Bruce has 4 hits in 34 AB's and a .466 OPS and doesn't seem like he can hit balls anywhere but down the middle.  It is almost impossible for those numbers to stay that low, but because they are poor fielders what the heck are we doing?  I wrote that we would get some homers from Bruce and nothing else...we have gotten nothing else.    (Of course, Odor homered Saturday but that was his only hit in 6 AB's and he doesn't work the count at all - his OPS moved up to .442 and while it won't remain there, I would rather Wade...and I dontt think Wade is a good major leaguer). We should get rid of both these guys now IMO and focus on the next topic, defense.
• Our defense is terrible and embarrassing.  I don't like so many out of position players and our middle infield is poor.  Friday, we had 3 errors (2 from Odor), we had a bases loaded one out routine DP that Torres did his part but the poor fielding Odor tugged his throw past DJ who was not ready for the poor throw and had his left footso far down the first base line he couldn't adjust fast enough and this cost us two runs and could have been more.  If DJ would have had his foot in line of 2nd base and then adjusted to the throw he could have made the play IMO.  I watched it 6 times and his left foot was far to the left side of the base well after the throw was released off line and his left foot never got past the line to 2nd base.  If he could have gotten it toward the OF side he might have been able to reach it.  I know the throw was Odor's fault and it was, but a good first baseman expects wild throws and is ready to go where the throw takes him.  Even Higgy has been sloppy.  Hicks misjudged a ball and then tried to deke the runner into thinking he would catch the popup, and did, before fumbling the pickup of the ball and just missed getting the force out at 2nd base.  He messed up twice (although he did fake the catch well).  Even Higgy played a little sloppy with a PB and a failed lazy block where he tried to glove it.  One positive is that Torres has been getting the ball and quickly throwing it and it is noticeable the difference.
• Speaking of defense, veterans of this blog no my take on leaving your throwing hand exposed.  I have written on this no less than a dozen times...well, with nobody on Sanchez had his hand in harms way and got nailed by a foul tip and had to come out of a game and missed Sunday's game.  He is lucky nothing is broken.  As I have said before, with nobody on base, this should never happen.  With people on base and a ball is in the dirt, if a runner is going or if a 2 strike pitch is in the dirt even if nobody is on, your hand can be exposed as you bring it forward, but there is no reason to leave it hanging there instead of being behind you leg.   I am not sure if people noticed, but after getting hit, Sanchez hid his hand for a few plays, but then exposed it again (out of lazy habit I guess?).  This infuriates me as it just puts one in harms way for no reason.  
• I think we are resting guys too much early on, especially when we are struggling so badly.  I would rather our stars work through the issues and get into a rythym. 

I had a lot of comments about specific situations, but I won't list them today.  I will note that Bruce retired unexpectedly.  No loss from my perspective and while Odor can't hit any worse than he has, I would still move on and bring up Wade or someone else.  I would also leave DJ at 2nd base and bring up Ford or someone else to play 1B.  Having guys out of position just isn't a good idea and what makes DJ valuable is getting his production for a 2nd baseman, when he is at 1B, he isn't as valuable offensively or defensively.  

The bad part is that we are digging ourselves a hole because we are losing to the teams in our division.  Sunday's loss with Cole was a bad one as that was a game that was a high % for us to win.

Let's not panic as this team is way underperforming on offense, but we need a 1B who can at least field or hit and then put DJ back at 2nd base.  Then let's start hitting the way we are capable of and we will be fine.

One Team Above .500

And it's Boston?   After losing their first 3 games to Baltimore, Boston has won 7 in a row.

Meanwhile, every other team is a mediocre 5-6.  

I have never liked Hicks in the 3 hole.  I understand that we are trying to get a non-righty in between Judge and Stanton, but he has rarely hit like a 3 hole hitter and doesn't make righties pay enough; in fact, his career OPS is 31 points better when he bats from the right side (in recent years he has been a little better batting lefty).  Then again, DJ is not a great leadoff hitter and is better suited to bat 2nd IMO as he doesn't walk that much and he has a solid OBP because his average is very high.  I am fine putting your better hitters high in the lineup so that they get the extra AB and with no other options having DJ leadoff makes sense.  The idea of having a fast guy leadoff just because he is fast is silly IMO as having a better hitter (higher OPS) is more important because wouldn't you want them to get the extra AB instead of a speedster with a lower OPS? 

I hated our defensive lineup last night against Toronto.  It is possibly the worst defensive infield I can remember us having.  3 people out of place and a mediocre at best defender at 2nd base.  Odor was at 2nd base, Bruce was at 1B, DJ was at 3B and Urshela was at SS.  Urshela is a stellar defensive 3B, but at SS he is not going to be very good IMO.  While a good fielder should be decent, it is a very different position and you even use a different glove between SS and 3B.  In an emergency, sure, but I would be more comfortable having DJ play SS and keep Urshela at 3B so that we don't have two people out of position.  One play saw Odor mishandle a backhand that should have been an error IMO, and the ball ricocheted to Urshela who threw the ball late to first and bounced it and Bruce was not able to scoop it (not that hard) and it went into the stands advancing the runner.  Now think about how embarrassing this play was...Odor misplays a backhand, Urshela fields the ball and should not have thrown it as he had no chance and then when he does throw it, he throws low, Bruce does a poor job trying to pick it, but he should not have tried to pick it, he should have come off the bag and knocked the ball down making sure it didn't go by him; the ball ends up in the stands with the runner advancing to 2nd.  Thanks for helping your pitcher!   What are we doing?  DJ is best suited to play 2nd base where his stick is a plus and his defense is solid.  At 1B his stick isn't as much of a benefit and his defense while better than Voit and Bruce is not stellar.  At 3rd base his defense is not as good as Urshela, but is avg.  the point is that while moving around DJ gives us flexibility, it is not ideal.  Having DJ at 2nd base is ideal and going back to my original point about playing people out of position (remember Bruce is an OF) why not just play Odor at SS and keep Urhsela and DJ at their best positions?  Of course, I am not sure why we are forcing Odor into the lineup as I would rather have a very strong defensive person at SS if you are resting Torres.  Of course, I don't feel Torres will be an acceptable defender at SS, but if he hits with an OPS of around .840, it makes the overall position acceptable.  The Yankees (and all of us) need more than acceptable though.

Some points from the last games:

• German's outings have been disappointing. He has not been sharp at all and leaving too many hittable pitches.  Mostly his breaking ball and changeup have not been controlled well.
• Speaking of hittable pitches, we are not swinging the bats well at all.  We are not taking advantage of pitchers' mistakes anywhere near the level we should.  
• We only have 5 players above a .700 OPS; this includes the 25 AB's for Gardner and Higgy (thank you for winning the Toronto game for us Kyle)
• We have 9 players below .700 and 6 players below a .600 OPS!  Ugh.
• Hicks had 3 hits Tuesday which brought his OPS up to .614, but Frazier (.561), Torres (.526), Bruce (.524) and Stanton (.508) have been awful at the plate.  Odor has a .333 OPS in only 12 AB's and Tauchman only has 7 AB's with 1 hit and a .286 OPS.
• Going back to DJ, he has yanked more outside pitches to the left side in this first month of the year than probably all last year.  He is pulling outside pitches and driving inside ones to RF...
• Normally, I like the moves Our GM makes, but I did not think the fit for Odor or Bruce was the correct one for our needs, they were lefties only, but not righty killers and not plus defenders.  That being said, I did like Cashman's pickup of Kluber as I thought it was a good value risk.  So far it hasn't paid off, but I still think it will be the right move.  While Bruce and Odor can't get worse (they will each get some big hits), I still don't see their pickups to be positive ones.
• Montgomery faced a weak Baltimore team and did well and then when facing a stronger lineup was not very good.  I like what I see from Montgomery.  All his pitches have good movement and he should be locked into our rotation.
• Chad Green has allowed 2 hits and 1 walk in 7.2 innings with 0 ER.  His new breaking ball has helped his fastball be more effective.
• Oday has done a nice job as well pitching 4 shutout innings
• Loaisiga (hardest guy to spell on the team), has looked excellent and I have been talking him up for some time.  He has 6 shutout innings allowing only 2 hits and a walk, striking out 8
• Cessa has been improved as well, going 6.2 shutout innings with 2 hits and a walk and 10 k's.  I have always been concerned about his consistency, but he has decent stuff.
• Chapman has been absolutely nasty.  He has only pitched 4 shutout innings, but 2 hits, 1 walk and 11 k's is very nice.  The one walk is key for Chapman, but his velocity is up a few MPH this year breaking 100 a lot and his new splitter is a weapon!
• Kluber needs to throw something slower, everything cuts or tails, but it seems like everything is 81-91 and needs to throw one of his breaking balls slower

 

A Little Unlucky and Lazy

There is a lot to write about this game, but I am going to focus on a few things.  While I still hate the extra-inning rule, think it is artificial and most importantly a little unfair that a broken-bat single can score a winning run, it does put pressure on stopping a run, well, immediate.  But then again why not start every inning with bases loaded?  Something I wasn't sure of, it looks like the pitchers get a run allowed to their record but it is not an earned run for allowing that fake runner.  Now the stats are a little off, including a few more RBI's.

To the game.  We were unlucky to have 13 hits to the 4 of Baltimore (walks were 2 for each) and we hit a lot of hard balls at people.  We were a little unlucky that the umps strike zone which widened later in the game impacted us a little more than Baltimore's at some key times (Overall, it was not a big deal as we got the advantage as well, but when Hicks walk turned into a K that was a big difference in the 7th inning.  We were a little lazy because twice Sanchez didn't hustle and once it stopped him from possibly getting a double (while he watched his bullet hit almost get caught) and a second time where he was on 1st base and on a single he trotted toward second before having to speed up at the end to barely get in on time.  The other time was another 5 step throw from Torres who literally cost us the game.  Once again with no sense of urgency, he threw the ball into the ground and Bruce was not able to make the play (it wasn't that hard of a play, but Bruce did make a good play on a bad throw by Green on a bunt).  I have been saying it before it became a thing, but Torres is not a reliable defensive SS and it was the main issue I had with signing Lemahieu as Torres's position is 2nd or 3rd base.  This is also why Odor doesn't help.  

All that said, the most exciting moment of the year happened when Tauchman (pinch-running for Sanchez in the bottom of the 8th after a 2 out single) came around to score on a double by Urshela to tie the score.  That got me out of my seat!  It was also exciting to tie the score in the 10th when Wade scored on a single by Higgy (in because of PR for Sanchez).  Even getting thrown out at home plate to end the game was a good way for a game to end.  

Notes:

• Tallion pitched OK.  His stuff is decent, but he missed a lot of spots and left pitches over the heart of the plate too often and two of his 3 hits he allowed here homers (in 4.2 innings).  However, not walking anyone was good.  Baltimore's offense does not walk much though.
• Urshela is still opening up and breaking stuff away will get him out until he adjusts.  Fortunately, in the 8th they left the ball inside.  hH can hit a fastball the other way with extension but the slow stuff will get him out.
• Hicks hit fastballs hard in his first 2 AB's, but didn't hit any of the slow pitches after they made the adjustment...even if he should have walked in extra innings.
• Nelson has a good fastball and a good change, he just needs to command them better but he has some promise
• They brought in a lefty to face Gardner and the first pitch was 98, then 99 and then 100 and Gardner went back to the bench.
• The above illustrates how filthy Chapman looked yesterday.  He hit 102 and threw a nasty splitter and also his slider.  While he could walk 3 guys in a row, he was nasty yesterday and struck out all 3 batters he faced.
• Bruce dropped a popup down the 1st base line that was not easy but he was there and as a real OF'r should have caught it
• Stanton has been swinging at pitches very inside and even some low and in, but when he has been swinging at strikes he has been lining them up very well (some bullets)
• Baltimore was pitching a guy who threw an 85 MPH sinker and a 77MPH change every pitch and the Yankees weren't adjusting.  The worst was Frazier.  After seeing him the inning before, Frazier had a 2-0 count on him and then a 85 MPH sinker he fouled off by being out in front of it, then swung at a changeup and was way out in front of that and tipped it off the end of his bat, then another change in the dirt before striking out being way out in front of another changeup.  MAKE ADJUSTMENTS!
• Higgy was calling for 3-2 breaking balls when he came in and both ended up being walks.  Neither was one of those times where I felt a breaking ball was that more beneficial or that the breaking ball would be controlled better than the fastball
• The Torres situation IS an issue

Back In First Place - Where We Belong!

Even if we have a 3 way tie.  This is what happens when you beat the team in first place twice in a row...Surprisingly it was Baltimore.

In a game that was 7-2, I had a lot of things that annoyed the heck out of me.

The top 3 in order:

1. So yesterday I wrote, "I think Gleyber stays back on ground balls too much; he needs to have more of a sense of urgency."  Then today, he fields a grounder on what should have been the final out of the game and I counted 5 or 6 (depending on whether you count the one he took as he fielded the ball) steps before having to fire to first where the ump called him safe and the review upheld that call.  It was one of those that I thought he was still out but it was not 100% clear as to when the cleat touched the bag because he hit the middle of the bag.  This was a time where he beat the throw but the foot came down in the wrong spot.  Anyway, Torres needs to have a sense of urgency all the time, especially as he is not a good fielder to begin with...just get the darn ball over there asap!  Baltimore hit a 2 run HR after this.  BTW, Kay actually said, "Torres didn't lollygag on that play."  This was almost as frustrating to me.
2. As a catcher, Kyle would have made #1 on most days...Higgy made an awful tag on a very nice play by Bruce who backhanded a hard-hit ball and cut down the runner with a hard-thrown strike.  Kyle for some reason took a hop step toward 3rd base and then reached for the runner instead of dropping down and getting the glove to the front of the plate and then moving toward whatever part the runner slid home with.  He ended up correctly being out, but a play where he was dead to rights ended up being one where at one point I thought he was safe, but the replay showed he was clearly touched before the hand touched the plate.  
3. In the first inning, the Yankees have bases loaded after a bullet up the middle by DJ and then a bullet Judge hit right into the pitcher.  The pitcher stayed in and walked Gardner to load the bases with nobody out.  Stanton K'd, Torres K'd (correctly called check swing that he didn't hold up on) and then Frazier had a clueless AB where he watched strike 1 and then watched strike two which was pretty close to right down the middle and then watched strike 3 that was right down the middle.  I would like to know what the heck Frazier was thinking?

These were not nearly as bad and in no particular order:

• Higgy had a very touch block on a bounced ball by Cole and he tried to glove it rather than move his body and block it.  On a positive side, he made a perfect textbook block on a tough play later where he got his body all the way around a very bad curve and used the chest protector to send the ball down and toward home plate perfectly...no runner advanced
• Judge didn't run hard on a ball that was down the line and then eased up and didn't get to the ball.  I was fine with him easing up at the end in a less meaningful game, but I would like to see him run full speed and then ease up and not go slower than go fast and then slow up.  He also did something that many guys do and that is on a 3-2 count kind of cruise at first and then turn it on after a hit.  I would like to see a SB effort on 3-2 counts.  In this case, Judge might have been able to score as it was a close hold on a double by Gardner.
• This last one was me questioning why Boone didn't have our weakest hitter bunt with 1st and 2nd nobody out, in the 4th inning, up 1-0 and Cole on the mound?  As it turned out Higgy ended up working a 3-2 walk after being down 1-2.  So what I wanted to do would most likely not have turned out as well, but I call them as I see them.

Other positive points:

• In the second, bases loaded and nobody-out situation where Higgy should have bunted, DJ ended up hitting into a DP but the run scored.  Then Judge came through with a line single to make it 3-0.
• Bruce had a porch shot for our first run which was exactly what everyone was talking about of why he was a good fit for the short porch (pull hitter)
• Cole (and Higgy) were in command and Cole threw 101 mph a few times while mixing in all his pitches.  He does such a good job of throwing from the same arm angle and release point that even when he makes mistakes, he gets away with him because of that and his stuff.  No walks and 13 K's is awesome!
• Gardy had a good game going 1-3 with 2 walks and using his still good speed to score from 1st base on a 117 MPH double by Stanton.  He also saw 26 pitches in his 5 AB's and the last one he saw only 2 pitches as the score was 2-0 and he was up with 2 outs.  He saw 24 on his previous 4 AB's.
• Judge added to his two singles with a garbage time dinger, but he swung the bat well today.

Odor Trade - This may be a nothing trade.  The 23rd best prospect and another not in the top 30 for Odor.  Texas is paying the salary so it is really about these 3 players.  As I have said, the Yankees could use a righty killer and not just a lefty bat.  I would be fine with a guy who is awful against lefties but is dangerous against righties.  Career-wise, Odor is better against righties (.748 against .682).  I would like it to be more lopsided, but he is a better against righties for his career.  However, the issue is that the 27-year-old Odor had a .737 OPS against righties in his 90 AB's last year against righties and a .678 against righties in 2019 where he had 357 AB's.  He actually had a .815 against lefties in 2019 in 165 AB's, but that appears to be an aberration.  He has pop and has hit 30 hr's 3x including in 2019, but a .721 OPS (2019) with the 30 HR's and 30 doubles tells you that he doesn't walk and doesn't hit for avg.  Finally, he isn't known for his glove and doesn't play SS, so I don't think he helps us unless we have an injury.  If he were a stellar fielder I would have a different outlook.

Baltimore Is The Cure

The Yankees have beaten the orioles 11 straight at home.

Montgomery showed some good stuff yesterday.  Nothing jumps off the page, but his fastball was 92-94 with some movement, his Cutter was about 89 MPH and he used it against righties, his change was about 83 MPH with a good sinking tail, and his curve was pretty sharp at around 80 MPH.  That is a nice repertoire.   He hung a change a few times and made some bad pitches, but that is a good arsenal to be effective and it is about spotting the pitches for him.   

Baltimore is usually a cure for Yankee woes and with Baltimore hot off of a 3 game sweep of Boston (that sounds good), nothing was for sure, but Montgomery Cessa and Chapman shut them out with 4 hits, 2 walks and 13 k's.  Montgomery didn't walk anyone but allowed all 4 of the hits. 

My notes:

Sanchez had a long way to go for a pop-up and overran it and ended up missing the pop-up.  When he tried to stop he was at the top of the Yankee dugout and his metal cleats lit up a spark as he tried to break.  Cone said, his cleats were like a sparking match and that was the first time he had ever seen that.

I think Gleyber stays back on ground balls too much; he needs to have more of a sense of urgency.  I think with the Yankees locking up DJ, the only place for Gleyber will be 3rd base.  Maybe the plan is dealing with poor defense for a few years and then moving on from Gio, who is 29 now.  Gio is arbitration-eligible for the next 2 years and then a UFA.  

The Yankees must have swung at 8 pitches in 4 games that almost hit them inside

I have listened to the announcers a little more than normal for me (I usually don't because I am fast-forwarding) and they were talking about Hicks being too patient.  Yes, there is such a thing as being too patient, but in this case, they were trying to find what was wrong with Hicks and using that as a reason which was not accurate.  The truth is that this is only 4 games and he has not swung the bat well and he actually has swung at a lot of bad pitches.  Poor announcing, mostly from Kay and Oneil over the weekend.

After 4 walks, Stanton absolutely crushed a 471 foot Grand Slam!  The pitch was grooved, but for perspective on how far of a blast it was, Judge's HR was 330 feet.  That being said, 1 for 12 is not going to cut it for Stanton even if he would still be on a pace for 200 RBI's.

The Yankees were up 7-0 and Judge was up with the bases loaded.  A new pitcher came in and he threw 4 straight fastballs for a 3-1 count.  The strike was fouled back by Judge.  He should be sitting for nothing but heat here, but instead, he took a fastball right down the middle.  This was surprising but with the count 3-2, he should stay looking for the fastball and he got it but he fouled it off.  He should take the same approach but for some reason Judge took a called 3rd strike on a fastball right down the middle? This was very surprising, what could he have been thinking?

In speaking about Chapman's new splitter, Kay asked if Chapman would have the guts to throw his 4th best pitch in a key spot?  Cone, being nice, said that is an excellent question and then had a good answer.  He basically stated that it is about confidence but the good thing about the pitch is that when the fastball is off, the slider is his next pitch and that works better against lefties.  The splitter is now something he can throw to a righty.  This doesn't preclude him from throwing a slider to a righty or the splitter to the lefty, but Cone's point was correct.  I think it is a good pitch and that is what is exciting.  It has good drop and just a little left to right movement, but it is at around 89-90 MPH, his slider is at about 85 MPH and his fastball is around 98 on avg.  That is a nice repertoire.  he actually threw 100 3 or 4 times last night.  The big issue with him is the walks.  It appears that he controls his slider better than his fastball and that will be interesting to monitor.

Fun point - during the game, they showed video of when Mattingly played 3rd base and he made some very good and aggressive plays there.  He was a magician in the field (and at the plate).  I wish he were part of the Yankee leadership team; that is one thing that would have been good

I still don't think the Yankees are swinging really well.  They are missing hittable pitches and taking a lot of good pitches.  7 walks and a grand slam help it look better, but we will improve.

Weak First Series

I want to go back to the first game and point out two things I hadn't stated about Judge.

• In the 10th inning, Judge had a bullet hit right at him and he had to make a split-second decision but unfortunately, he turned the wrong way.  It was a very tough play, but if he went straight back over his left shoulder he might have had a play on it. 
• Judge had a chance to knock in the game-winning run after that big 7th inning AB but also didn't come through.  This is how it "might" have looked.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1377969349634314245 (drop it into your browser)

Here is the surprising part, according to the Yankee announcers, this Gif is something we have never seen.  Judge has never had a walk-off hit in a non-exhibition game in the majors.!  That was surprising.

Game 2

Kluber - I was happy with the way he pitched.  He painted the corners usually and you can see why he is effective.  One particular AB impressed me as he nailed the inside black on the plate with fastballs that had a good tail (left to right movement) and then threw a backdoor slider with a sharp late break that painted the outside corner for a watched 3rd strike.  This was excellent to see.  

Frazier had a long way to go on a very high pop up and Torres was playing on the 2nd base side so the ball was all Fraziers and he never made it there.  He might have had trouble with the sun, but I think he felt that the SS would get to the ball (he normally would) and didn't go all out of the ball but even at the end if he extended his arm he could have caught it.  It was a pretty poor play if the sun didn't bother him, but I think he should have made the play because he saw it at the end because he didn't shy away.

Urhsela made one of his very nifty plays with 1st and 2nd and nobody out.  The ball was hit in the hole and Gio fielded the ball behind him and quickly turned his body to make a good throw to 2nd and we turned 2.

We saw a bad play at 1st base by Guerrero.  The announcers talked about him stretching too soon which he did in game 1, but this time he didn't stretch too soon.  Kay stated this emphatically, but he was wrong.  The issue was that he didn't move his base foot to the corner of the base where the throw was going.  He stretched the correct way, but there are two parts, move your base foot and then stretch toward the ball.  This game Lemahieu got a hit on yet another ball he rolled over to the left side (he has had about 5 of those already).  I think it was an error.

Sanchez with 2 HR's in 2 games!

Fraizer had a good swing on a breaking ball and ripped a double down the line and also walked.  

With bases loaded and 1 out in the 4th Stanton got jammed and popped up

Curious move by Boone to leave in Kluber after 4 innings and 70 pitches.  I think they were looking for 75 pitches from him, but after a long 4th inning for the Yankees up at the plate, I was very surprised he started the 5th.  This is a guy you want to be careful with.  Then, after making a bad pitch (HR) and 4 pitches he took him out???  I just don't get the logic?  I think Boone needs to understand that an inning break that is long counts as some pitches.  Even if he got the guy out on 4 pitches, it was the wrong move and if he would have left him in to throw more than 4 if he got him out it was still the wrong move, unless they really would have gone to 80 or so?  Either way, it was inconsistent and ill-advised...and not because it didn't work.\

Bruce, made every nice play on a squibber where he slid and stayed low on a backhanded short hop and then got up quickly and took it himself

Loaisiga did a great job with 2 perfect innings

Sanchez had an opportunity to block two balls and made neither of them.  I disagree that "there was nothing he could do" on them.  First, if he wasn't on one knee he could have gotten out and around the bounced pitch.  We see other catchers get to them a lot.  If he blocked either one of them a run doesn't;t score.

Here is something I have said for 5 straight years; Wade is not a major league player.  He came in to play 2nd base when they moved DJ to 1b and bobbled a routine grounder but fortunately, we just got the guy.  I am a broken record but why are we keeping him on the major league roster?

Bruce got a huge lucky bloop bases-loaded hit.  For the record, I said, I would pinch-hit for him, but then realized we didn't have any righty to pinch-hit that made sense.  He got jammed but got the job done.

Gio got 2 hits but he is still opening up and has not covered the outside of the plate yet.

Green did a nice job

Game 3

I am probably wrong because it has been awhile, but German's arm angle seemed a little lower than I remember.  His fastball was slower than normal by at least 2 MPH, which made his change too fast but he later adjusted and took a few MPH off the change.  He was very inconsistent with his control and his command.  He left too many pitches in the heart of the plate and his pitches sometimes had very good movement and other times they were flat (command).  His change usually tails a lot with some drop and it was not consistent.

I have been down on Gleyber's defense (rightfully so), but the error on his throw was Bruce's fault and they should change it.  The throw was not good, but Bruce did not stretch toward the ball and that is why he missed the fading throw.

Sanchez had another Catchers interference!!!  This infuriates me.  Who the heck is coaching him?  I wrote this after game 1, "On a Toronto strikeout, the batters backswing hit Sanchez on the glove hand and knocked the ball out.  That was not a big deal, but when they showed the replay, Sanchez was really close to the regular swing, and remember he has been called for more catcher interference than anyone."   This is just not acceptable and honestly is absurd.  It was a 1-2 count and it loaded up the bases.

Boone did a good job staying with the hot hand as King was pitching great.  Of course, he should have stuck with him for at least 3 innings, but many managers have been pulling guys after 4 innings, but King was in complete control and Boone allowed him to go 6 shutout innings (68 pitches).  

We are simply not swinging the bats well and they made more plays than we did (Bichette made a good play on Bruce's ball and Semien caught a bullet by Judge that almost took his glove off.

I love the stats they now have.  For pitchers, they show the 3-5 pitches they throw, what % of the time they throw each pitch and the avg. speed of each pitch (the stat they can add as they have it the OPS against on each pitch as well...they usually show batting avg, but I assume they will see why OPS makes more sense).  For batters, after Sanchez' HR they showed the exit velocity, distance and launch angle, but what I really liked (I do like exit velo) was that they showed the HR would have been gone in 22 of 30 parks.  Good stuff!

Not the best start against perhaps our main competition, but the bats are much better than this.

Game 1

 I hope everyone is safe and feeling well!

I didn't write too much in the offseason about some of the moves that were made, but I did give my opinions on the big ones.

The signing of Bruce gives me mixed emotions in that I want a big lefty bat, but more importantly one that crushes righties.  Last year Bruce did hit righties better than lefties in the very short year, but in the two previous years, he was pretty much even.  the odd thing is that the two previous years to that he was better against righties.  This makes it hard to predict, but he should be a little bit better against righties, have a low batting average guy with low OBP and good power.  He doesn't fit what I would want, but he should provide some big HR's and a lot of nothing outside of that.  Voit getting hurt is a blow to the team, but perhaps Bruce can give us some decent play in his absence?

On to Game 1

Tough to win games when you don't get a single hit with RISP, but we almost did it.   

A bunch of things I noticed, but it is one game and we shouldn't think we won't win a game this year based on the outcome.  This is an excellent team and I am extremely confident we will win the division.

• I stated my opinion before, but I just don't think Torres is good enough defensively;y at SS.  This is the issue with signing DJ.  In the first inning, Torres went into the hole and came up empty on a ball that should have been fielded.  I am not sure if he could have thrown him out but I sure would have liked to see it be close at least.  Later he wasn't aggressive enough on a ball up the middle that took a bad hop but then he was not urgent enough and threw poorly to first and late.  The 2nd one should have been made.  I am hoping I am wrong, but I said it last year before it became popular and while it is only one game, it is a little like Sanchez behind the plate, we may see some improvement, but Torres is not going to be a good defensive SS IMO.
• Cole was missing with his breaking balls most of the day and his terrible slider, basically on a tee, allowed the game to be tied.  Because it was game 1, cold and because he had thrown 87 pitches, I would not have had him warm up and come out for the 6th inning.  It wasn't a terrible decision, but I am not risking too much in game 1.  Unfortunately, the decision allowed him to throw that hanging slider.  It could have worked, but I don't see enough upside based on what I just wrote
• It was good to see Sanchez get off to a good start with a HR, but Oneill needs to ease up on the importance of the hit and more importantly, call the pitch correct.  He kept referencing how important it was for Sanchez to stay back and to see him hit a changeup was great to see.  Unfortunately, it was a 91 MPH fastball but that didn't stop Paul from repeating it and then later on not admit his mistake, but to say "it wasn't the slowest changeup."  Later on, Michael Kay assuming Paul was right said Sanchez hit a changeup.  Sloppy
• Urshela was opening up his front hip a lot on his swings
• Hicks was waving weakly from all 3 right side appearances
• In the 6th, Torres got 3 really good pitches to hit and fouled them off, but he did work a walk
• On a Toronto strikeout, the batters backswing hit Sanchez on the glove hand and knocked the ball out.  That was not a big deal, but when they showed the replay, Sanchez was really close to the regular swing, and remember he has been called for more catcher interference than anyone.  That being said, he made an excellent throw from a one knee position to throw out an attempted steal. He was able to get up just enough and quick enough to get some leverage.  I am not a fan of one knee with guys on base and he still keeps his throwing hand open to foul tips (stupid), but give him credit as he blocked the balls he needed to and threw an excellent ball to 2nd.
• I like the Oday signing, he is a great change of pace for the team and will be a solid contributor
• The biggest AB of the game was Judge's.  In the 7th inning, we had bases loaded, 1 out, a 2-0 count and Judge ended up grounding into an inning-ending DP.  In the 9th, after a Sanchez walk, Boone did a good job pinch-running Tauchman (who stole 2nd), but the inning ended with Lemahieu (0-4) and Judge getting out with RISP.
• I hate the extra-inning rule starting with a runner on 2nd base.  Cone said it best, he can't believe that rule stayed in but the DH got pushed aside.  I know the players union wanted expanded playoffs to allow the DH, but not expanding the playoffs, adding the DH and getting rid of the juvenile runner on 2nd rule would be the way to go IMO.  If every inning is started with nobody on base, why change the rules?  If you want to end the game then end in a tie, otherwise play one or two more innings NORMALLY or just play until the game ends.  The rule as it is now is a cheap way to win or lose.

Next game is Saturday afternoon!

Feel free to leave comments and I will try and address them.