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