Rough loss!

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

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

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

Some positives:

• Gleyber is swinging the bat well again
• Andujar (.855) and Hicks (.832) continue to hit very well and for Hicks this is the most amount of PA's he has had in a year.  390 was the most and he is at 481 now
• Walker has an OPS of .834 in the 2nd half and has played all over the place for us.
• Adding our injured guys makes us a different team.  Now with McCutchen, we have the depth we need to be a serious threat.

We have flaws and I worry about our pitching, especially our starters, but every team has some flaws and if healthy, we can beat anyone.  Houston and Boston are really good teams, but in a series, good teams can almost be a coin flip (which can come up heads 4 times in a row)

Texas Series

• Taking 3 out of 4 was good against a very hot hitting team that does not pitch well
• Happ, Lynn and CC all pitched very well.  They kept the ball out of the middle of the plate and mixed eye levels, sides of the plate and speeds.  
• On the negative side, Tanaka was awful, allowing 3 HR's in 5 IP while also walking 3 batters. 
• The vaunted bullpen is not performing well of late.  Green has been struggling - in the last month with 12 IP, he has allowed 9 ER.  Chapman has been scary and Britton has not been sharp.  Holder had the nightmare game against Boston but wasn't sharp around that 7 ER without getting an out game, but he did pitch well last night and the previous two outings.
• In general, we are walking too many guys; we walked 20 in the 4 games against Texas.
• Betances, has been great and is the guy I have the most confidence in (and he still throws 1 or 2 to the back screen every game), but take a look at how great he has been over the past 30 games or so.  28 IP, 8 hits, 1 run, 14 free passes (4 HBP and 10 walks) with 49 k's - This is crazy good!
• I am worried about Andujar and his defense.  He was getting away with some of the fundamental play earlier in the year, but his defense has been awful of late.  backing up on way too many balls and getting eaten up.  he also takes a long time to throw the ball winding up so when he takes his time to throw he gives no room for error.  On top of the 2 more errors (12 on the year) last night, Voit saved him a throwing error by making a very good scoop on a bad throw (tougher than the one Bird could have made to win the game on Andjur's game losing play.  The guy has a really good stick, but he needs to have more of a sense of urgency at 3rd base (charge the ball and get rid of it) or he simply will be a DH.  He even fails to turn 2 a lot because of how long he takes to get rid of the ball.  Boone kept Walker in the game and put him at 3rd base for defense in the 9th.  When you are being replaced by Walker at 3rd base, you have to look at what you are doing wrong.
• Speaking of Walker, while he hasn't walked in August, his OPS in July and August (about 100 plate appearances) has been about .825!

• While I was pleased to see Eovaldi have one of his games where he got lit up (just seems to happen to him more than other guys with stuff like his), Sale ran his scoreless streak to 28 innings as he returned for Boston.  
• Boston has a .708 winning %.  
• Realistically, we should be rooting for Seattle and Oakland to lose more than the Red Sox now as we are 9.5 behind Boston and 4.5 and 5 ahead of Oakland and Seattle respectively.  I believe we are better than those two teams and we will host the wild-card game.  Unfortunately, one game can go either way, but why I really like the playoff system now (long time readers remember that I wrote about doing exactly what they did).  If any team can't catch another team after 162 games, they have proven that they are not as good as that team, but giving 2 more teams a chance to get in keeps interest around the league, but also is something you would much rather NOT do.  I remember before the extra Wild Card team, there were times where I would have rathered not won the division because of the matchup; that should never happen and there should be a large reward for winning the division.

Fortunately, The White Sox Are Bad!

My write-up from this morning...

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

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

Some notes:

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

Wild Card Focus

Well, that was a disaster!

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

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

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

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

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

Take a Deep Breath

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

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

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

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

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

A lot to cover!

Before I get into some of the play and injuries and trades, I want to discuss one of my pet peeves that happened again TWICE during the KC 2nd game Saturday.  I bring this up all the time because I don't understand how nobody else has drawn attention to this?  In fact, Cone (my favorite announcer) and the others talked about everything but what is obvious to me.  Gardner hit a swinging bunt down the 3rd baseline and the catcher gets to it turns and fires to the first baseman, Duda,  who has his left foot on the bag and his right foot on the invisible line toward 2nd base so he is basically on the baseline from 1st to 2nd base so there's no ability to stretch toward the ball on a close play.  This is part one of my gripe as close plays happen all the time and "they" lose 3-4 feet on the throw and runners are safe sometimes because of this.  But, what it also does is make it harder for the 1st baseman to catch a ball that is tailing into the runner because he has to catch it almost on the base and into the runner (which is an injury risk sticking your arm in there).  However, if you stretch toward the throw, like 1st baseman does all the time, you would catch the ball before it gets to the runner and much earlier in the throw.  It is a little harder to execute, but it is safer and more likely to get an out.  In this case, Duda drops the ball in trying to not get his arm torn off and we catch a break.  In the 8th with Walker on 2nd and nobody out Romine bunts down the first base line and the 2nd baseman covering does exactly what Duda did and does not stretch toward home and Romine beats the throw.  If he stretches Romine is probably out.  It is mind-boggling to me how often this happens and why they are taught to field this way?  BTW, I know that the way they field now allows more right to left movement to stop a ball from getting by the fielder, however, I would argue that most of the times throw get by the fielders are ones that are hard to field because it hits or gets into the runner.  When you combine that with the fact you catch the ball at least 3 feet further away, which allows runners to be safe, I have no idea why this done???

OK, moving on to something I wrote a few weeks back about something I would do that I have not seen done...Well, either TB is reading this blog (impossible) or they are smart (probably) as they used their pitchers the way I discussed using our relievers...They had their righty closer (Romo), who is very tough on righties, pitch the 8th inning and when a lefty came up (I think it was Bird) TB moved Romo to play SS/#rd and brought in a lefty to face Bird and shifted against him.  The lefty got him out and Romo came in to finish out the game.  I think this makes so much sense when you have righty/lefty discrepancies and I expect this to happen more often

Notes:

• Didi is struggling on pitches away. He can line a single to LF but outside of that, he is not hitting the ball with any authority that way and usually just hits weak fly balls.
• Losing Judge is a huge blow especially with Frazier being on DL again with concussion symptoms.  Further, we traded Mckinney away in the Happ deal so we bring up Shane Robinson?  Really, that is the best we can do (and I say this after he homered)?
• Critical that we get Severino back on track. His last 3 outings have been very bad and his ERA has shot up a full run.  I can't see anything crazy other than his changeup hasn't been used as much (he did allow a HR with it and then went away from it).  Maybe he is tipping pitches?  Regardless, he needs to get it straight for us to go far in the playoffs.  BTW, we can we please not boo Severino when he walks off the field?  Sometimes I am embarrassed by our fans.
• The Yankee offense should have had a lot more runs against the KC starter in the 2nd game (Fillmeyer).  He was leaving hittable pitches in every AB and we didn't swing well.
• The ump behind the plate helped us a lot in the 2nd game, especially in one key AB with CC on the mound where he gave us a strike on a 2-1 pitch with the bases loaded on a pitch on the other batters box.  Huge change in count that resulted in a K.  Game could have changed on that one call.
• Hicks made a fantastic throw getting Gordon to end the game in the 7-2 win the other night.  It was clocked at 99 MPH and it was right on target.  BTW, how in the world does Gordon get thrown out at home down 5 runs to end the game?  IDIOTIC.

Questions asked:

Do I like the Happ trade?  I was not a fan spending a lot on Happ as I would rather give up a ransom for a great pitcher (which is Happ is not).  But, McKinney and Drury is not a ton and we need someone who is reliable and he should be that.  Not sure if it is coincidence or luck, but he has had success against the Red Sox (went back and looked at last 9 starts over this year and the past 2 years and his ERA is roughly 2).  If I could have gotten an ace, I would have packaged Drury, Mckinney and others, but in the absence of this opportunity, it is a decent trade.  Also, and this is the same for the Britton trade, we have an issue with keeping guys on the 40 man roster and we could lose someone to another team so we do need to trade some players or risk losing them for nothing.

Do I like the Britton trade?

Yes.  Britton is still getting back from his injuries, but I think we can also keep him after this year or we get compensation for him.  Chapman has been excellent this year, but he seems to have a knee injury and this is great insurance for the season and into the postseason where having weaker starters can be covered up better.  the one concern is if Britton can pitch in innings other than the 9th.  This change in habit can be different for closers.  His arm is top notch though and once he gets his command back (his walks have been too high) he will be dominant.

I am concerned with the injuries and how much we are struggling against a really weak KC team, at home, who just traded away Moustakas.  Our team is very good, but we have to stay in the hunt with our best player down.  There is a lot of the year to go and one never knows if yet another trade is possible?

 

A few items to discuss

Sanchez:  It is impossible for me to know what the truth is.  As someone who is dumb enough to play through injuries, at the age of 51 in softball, where I am literally hopping to first on a bad leg and an arm that required major surgery after the season, I get that you may not be at 100% and why risk it in a situation that you think won't matter.  However, the entire point of hustling is that you don't know for certain who bobbles a ball or if the 1st baseman drops the throw only to pick it up in time because you didn't hustle.  Remember Timo Perez in the World Series against the Yankees (2000)?  He thought the hit was a HR so he didn't run all out and then ended up getting thrown out at home.  It is simply not acceptable at the Major League level to allow that to happen...in the WS no less.  You can't run all out for about 5 seconds until you find out if it truly is a HR?  Anyway, Sanchez might have been cruising to protect himself and then when he saw he needed to turn it on, he did...BUT, he has not earned my respect based on his previous laziness for me to give him the benefit of the doubt.  perhaps the Yankees threw him a life preserver?  Maybe they said, you do this again and you will find yourself playing for another team, but we will put you on the DL so that others don't think you are a lazy sack of manure...We won't know the truth other than he has the ability to be an excellent hitting catcher who has a great arm and is a bad receiver who doesn't block balls well because he is lazy.  BTW, contrast that with the catcher in the Tampa game last night where he made a few great blocks that probably saved the game.

Britton:  The best single pitch ever in the Major Leagues was Mariano Rivera's cutter.  He threw it every time (he did run it sometimes later in his career) to every batter.  They knew it was coming and they still couldn't hit it.  Think about it, how many pitchers throw the same speed and get away with it on every pitch?  The answer is none.  Rivera was also consistently at the top of the league for a crazy amount of time.  Usually, relievers have 1- 3 years of greatness and that is it.  I bring this up not to explain again why I named my blog after Rivera, but because Britton has the closest thing to one amazing pitch.  He basically throws a 95 MPH, 12-6 curve ball, but it is an amazing sinker.  He used to throw closer to 97 but seems to have lost a few MPH.  He was banged up but has righted the ship of late and he is a quality arm if healthy.  Quality doesn't do him justice as he was amazing in 2016 (and really good in 14 and 15).  In 2016 his OPS against was an absurd .430 (I didn't look it up but this has to be one of the lowest OPS against ever for a full season player) and he saved 47 out of 47 with an ERA of 0.54.

So the question I have received is do I like the move?  My take is that an ace starter is needed more, but when the price is crazy, you don't make a move just to make a move, you look long-term and give yourself a chance to compete every year (which we have now).  I would rather wait and get an ace and pay for that ace than pay for an arm that is slightly better than we have.  I don't know the guys we gave up, but an important point people forget is that we only have a 40 man roster and anyone not on that roster can be grabbed and given a major league contract and we lose them.  Therefore, you want the best 40 you can have and this upgrades us (and we have a 40 man roster issue with a lot on the bubble).  Based on this, I like the move; it gives us depth in case Chapman goes down and in the playoffs we can make our starter go 4-5 innings and close it out from there.  I just hope Britton has returned to form (8 IP with 3 hits, 4 walks and 6 k's with 0 runs).  I don't like the walk/K ratio there, but if healthy he will help.  He is not better against lefties, he is pretty equal (as is Chapman - who including his last debacle has still been outstanding this year for us).

Some notes:

• The Yankees are 46-20 with Torres on the roster and 18-16 without him this year
• Loved to see the bunt by Bird with the big shift on.  I don't know why that isn't practiced more to help neutralize it.  Great job by Bird, now if he could stop swinging at bad pitches he will start to be very productive.
• Speaking of swinging at bad pitches...Stanton amazes me at how he swings at pitches that are not even close.  Michael Kay went off a few weeks ago on why pitchers throw such bad waste pitches that end up being truly a waste and while I understand what he means, he only has to look at Stanton to understand why (and sometimes Sanchez too).  Sometimes these guys just swing no matter what.
• Betances has really been good over the past 2 months.  In his last 22 IP he has allowed only 1 run 6 hits, 13 walks 38 K's.  Still too many walks but if you flipped walks and hits, I would still be happy.  
• Remember at the start of the year there was talk about pitchers going more than one inning...that has changed a lot as Betances is the example of a guy who can go more as an ex starter but only goes one inning.
• Great start from Tanaka with a 3 hot shutout!  His splitter was excellent and he had great control within and outside the strike zone.  Even when he made a mistake it had enough bite where they had trouble centering it.
• Good start by Cessa, he just hung a changeup over the middle of the plate and that put a bad taste on the outing.  Overall, though it was positive showing 3 decent pitches (FB, slider and change).  2 runs in 5.1 innings is something I will take all day long with an offense who SHOULD make that work and a bullpen who should only allow 1 or maybe 2 runs the rest of the way.  

Are you kidding me?

Sanchez has to be benched Tuesday.  He does not deserve to play and if Boone plays him he is allowing a lack of effort to be rewarded.

I am not sure what is being written on this game where Severino had a very hard time with his slider (constantly hanging it and not getting on top of it), but here is what happened in the bottom of the 1st inning.  With 2 outs and a runner on 2nd base, Sanchez got mixed up and missed a pitch that rebounded off his right foot but went pretty far down the 3rd base line.  Sanchez lightly jogged after the ball and the runner kept running around 3rd and took off for home and Sanchez then tried for the final few steps and turned and threw home only to hit the runner (would have been close).  It was such a lazy play that I cursed out loud, you lazy %&@!  Fast forward through a pretty back and forth game (not played particularly well) and the Yankees are down by a run with 1st and 2nd with nobody out and Didi up against a lefty.  He pathetically tried to bunt a ball on his first pitch but then did bunt on the 2nd pitch to make it 2nd and 3rd with 1 out and then they intentionally walked Stanton.  The announcers didn't like this play, but I did.  Hicks is a little better against lefties and while I knew Stanton would be walked, the lefty was a guy with bad control and he was struggling with his control already so having bases loaded was in our favor.  The count went full on Hicks but he unfortunately grounded to 3rd who threw home for a force out.  But we still had bases loaded with Sanchez up and a week or wild pitch we can tie and a single put us ahead.  Sanchez hits a decent grounder up the middle (SS side) where the shift was on and the 2nd baseman on the left side of the bag fielded it and for some reason threw to the SS coming across who got and stepped and 2nd but was too late as Hicks beat him to the bag and kept his leg up and hit/kicked the guy but he astutely kept moving and threw to first to get the lazy jogging Sanchez.  You lazy %&@!  Replays showed he ran until fielded at first and then slowed down to a jog and then tried to run again.  If he ran hard the entire way I think he is safe.

This is an excerpt of what I wrote about Sanchez in my preseason post:

Being an ex-catcher, Sanchez was infuriating to me defensively...In my view, the frustrating part was that it was laziness, not ability.  I am referring mostly to the pathetic attempts at blocking balls in the dirt where he just didn’t move his feet or body...The laziness is (what is alarming) because he can move his feet and get out on a ball in the dirt and turn it back toward home plate (the way you are supposed to) when he wants to, but he is very slow at reacting and flat out lazy at times...It is clear that Sanchez did not have this mindset and I consider it mental and physical laziness

I wish I was wrong, but he is lazy!

Going back to the play in the 1st inning, the announcers talked about Andujar going to get the ball but with the runner going to and then rounding 3rd his thought was to stay at home to keep the runner honest (I think) and I also believe that was the right move because you wouldn't expect your professional and young catcher to not expend energy.  The other question was who messed up the pitch selection?  My take is that while it could have been Severino, we have seen Sanchez mixed up so often that I believe it is him forgetting or not paying attention to what sign he gave...so I blame Sanchez.

The 2nd Mets game, I wanted to compliment Boone.  First, he let Chapman pitch the 9th even though it was a 4 run lead and not a save situation.  I hate when coaches change their managing style because it is a save or not a save.  If you want him to get work, whether it is 1 or 4 runs doesn't matter.  I also give him a lot of credit for taking Chapman out after allowing 6 guys on base without getting an out and while that seems obvious, many managers would leave their closer in hoping he would figure it out.  4 walks, a HBP and a dribbler single got him in trouble.  Boone went to Shreve who allowed 1 run on a DP but pitched out of the jam and saved the 7-6 game.

NOT HAPPY!

Where Are We At The All Star Break?

First, I am happy and not because we played well in the first half.  I am happy because our guys didn't participate in the HR derby.  I only wish none of our players played in the game so we could fully rest, but one thing at a time.

As for our record and how we played, I am very happy as well.

A look at our offensive players and whether we should get more (or less)  out of them in the 2nd half... 

C - Sanchez/Romine - Sanchez - He will come back tonight with an OPS of .723.  While he swings at awful pitches because he is in "swing no matter what" mode, he will do much better in the 2nd half.   Plate discipline (particularly against righties) is huge from Gary and will decide where he can take his game, but I have confidence his 2nd half will be a lot more productive than his first half.  His defense will probably always cause me discomfort, bt but if he hits like he is capable, he can be a huge asset for us.  Romine has an OPS of .825 through the first half and I would be thrilled if he could keep that up.  He likes to take the ball to RF and has done that better than he ever has.  Keep in mind this is a guy who had an OPS of .600 over the past 2 years, so jumping to .825 is crazy.  He has looked better at the plate even when making outs but he is coming back to earth.  We have to expect less production from Romine, but he will be better than the .600 OPS of the past few years.  I would not be surprised with him maintaining a .700 plus OPS if he plays less...which has to be our hope.  

1B - Bird -   He missed about half our games and his recent HR burst has brought him to respectability but not what we would like.  Right now he is a legitimate 30 HR guy if he played every game and he is only 25 so there is upside.  His OPS this year is .774, but he has to get it over .800 as a 1B.  He has the ability to be a mid .800 OPS guy so I feel that his 2nd half will be better than his first half (better than .774).  Also, just being able to play at 1B will make us better as the other people who played did not perform well.  Should see more production.

2B - Torres - Outside of his injury, it is hard to assume better production or defense than he has given us.  His OPS of .905 is outstanding and while he has made 10 errors (high) his range is excellent so his defense has been average overall, but I expect the error rate to drop moving forward.  Based on pitchers adjusting, I think we should see a little decrease in performance.

SS - Didi - Through a great start and then an awful slump his first half has been overall solid.  He has an .800 OPS and has shown some maturity at the plate walking more times in the first half then he has walked in any full year with the Yankees.  His fielding has remained very solid.  While continuing at an .800 OPS (which would be his career high) would be good, I think we should see a slight increase in performance.  

3B - Andujar - His defense has been adequate at 3rd base.  His offense has been solid at an .805 OPS.  While pitchers will adjust to him just like Torres, he has shown the ability to hit bad balls (great breaking ball hitter) and we should see about the same production.  Remember that his OPS of .805 is easier to maintain than a .905 OPS Torres has.

LF - Gardner - After a bad start  (.601 OPS) for his first 125 Plate Appearances (PA), Gardner has been solid over his next 244 PA's with an OPS of about .810 to pull his overall OPS to .748 which is about what one would expect.  he also continues to play superb defense.  His SB's aren't what they once were but he still has swiped 9 while being caught only once which adds to his OPS 7 total bases or about 18 points of OPS (makes it .766 to adjust for SB's).  Expect about the same level of production

CF - Hicks - Aaron was one of the big question marks on what we would get from him.  As I mentioned in my preseason post, he had only had that one great stretch for us and he finished the year poorly and was awful in the postseason.  His track record was one of unfulfilled promise for all the tools he has.  This year, he has given us good production.  His OPS of .839 is good for a CF'r. and is much better than his career numbers.  The question is whether at 28 has he turned the corner into a solid/decent producer?  He has continued being better against lefty pitchers, which is a shame because we could use more help against righties, but he still has an OPS of .784 against righties this year (.972 against lefties).  His career OPS is about 100 points higher from the right side.  I hope he has turned the corner and while he has more HR's than he has ever had in a single year already, he is only 83 AB's from the most ASB's he has had in a year.  Based on his walk % the last two years and the fact he normally doesn;t swing at too many bad balls, his plate discipline is better and this is why he has seen better production.  I think he will have about the same level of production.

RF - Judge - It is hard to take our best hitter and say I will expect more, but I do expect an increase in production from Judge.  His OPS is an excellent .937, but I think he has left a lot of good pitches on the table.  He is ultra productive even from a standpoint of making pitchers work hard with his crazy amount of full counts he sees.  The problem is that I think he lets too many hittable pitchers go just to get to a 3-2 count.  I think he can have a 1.000 OPS the 2nd half of the year but am confident he will be better in the 2nd half.  He has been pretty equal this year against righties and lefties but has struggled on the road (.681) compared to home (1.213) which continued the trend from last year where he was .230 OPS points better at home.  I do think he needs to turn on some inside pitches more as he tends to swing a little like Jeter (with a lot more power) in that he keeps his hands inside the ball and naturally has a RC field swing.  But, he has to be careful not to change his swing too much because of the shorter RF porch and give up on the inside pitches.  He is fun to watch!

DH - Stanton - I have never seen someone have so many awful AB's letting strikes go right down the middle and then swing at pitches that aren't even close.  Through many of these head scratching AB's where it seems like he is just a stupid hitter with a terrible plan, he has managed an OPS of a very solid .864.  He has tremendous power and does square up a lot of balls when he swings at good pitches.  For him to be more successful, it is a mental game IMO.  He needs to have a better plan and get more discipline.  It is a tribute to his ability to be able to still be this productive with this approach in his game.  His career OPS is .910 and there is no reason that he can't better that in the 2nd half so I expect an increase in production from Stanton.

Walker - Neil is suffering through his worst year by far.  A career .768 OPS guy who has been more of an .800 OPS guy over the past bunch of years has an OPS of a putrid .563!  It is hard to expect anything other than a lot more production just based on the back of his card.

July 6th

One AB doesn't make a game by itself, but after Sonny Gray put us in a huge hole after allowing a 2 out 3 run HR to Smoak in the 2nd inning (to put us down 5-0), we had a shot in the 5th inning.  Romine singled and Walker hit a hard line drive to CF (unfortunately at Pillar), Gardner singled and Judge hit a chopper that they ruled a tough error on the 3rd baseman.  With bases loaded and 1 out Toronto brought in Joe Biagini to face Stanton.  Biagini has had a bad year and starts off Stanton with 3 straight balls that were not too close.  I was watching the game at a friends house and I ask him the question, "do you give him the green light?"  He says, "absolutely!"  Normally, with such a power guy, I would agree, but I don't really trust Stanton because I have never seen someone swing at more really bad pitches in my life.  So while he has tremendous power, his plate discipline/plan is atrocious.  To be fair, I get giving him the green light, but you always have a 3-1 count to swing as well.  Anyway, he gets the green light and swings and misses at ball 4 (fastball).  He then swings and misses at ball 5 (fastball).  He finally doesn't swing at the first strike of the AB and it was a fastball! 

This AB was critical and after having the count in our favor at 3-0 with the bases juiced, we didn't score (Didi flew out to LF). 

Nice job by Hale to pitch 5 2/3 innings and allow only 1 run, but the bats couldn't get it done.

Gray's ERA is now an awful 5.85 and makes the quest for a new pitcher greater, however, I would not get an average to decent arm and give away anything good.  I would go after an ace and give up value for him.

...and Boston won