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.