This Week on the Blog
Yankees: For the Yankees, it's another wildcard game. Their pitching has failed and their inability to get a better catcher and or an impact bat at the deadline, is punishing them. They badly miss Judge and Sanchez and so far, the no one has shown up on the waiver wire who could help. Today's game looks like it could be rained out, which would make tomorrow a double header. The big picture is still rosey, though. They will get Judge, Sanchez and Happ back, and Severino is too talented to be washed up at 24. They do have to swap at their PC and HC, but will probably wait till after the season. George would have fired them many times over already. And they have or are close to completing another great IFA class. Now that the deadline is passed, we should see a bunch of promotions, too. So, just get through this weekend, then regroup.
Giants: The Giants continue to constantly reshape the bottom of their roster as they get ready for their first preseason game which, I think, comes on Thursday. So far the gamp seems happy and productive with no major injuries to key players - if you don't count Sam Beal's season ending surgery. Having the second pick in waivers will really, really help. As of the first game, it will be really interesting to see if Shurmur keeps it vanilla or decides to do some fancy playcalling. It's getting closer.
Knicks: Coach Fiz should be back from Latvia now and will probably be reconvening or rejoining the Knicks at the facility in Westchester. They are currently two players over the limit, so we'll have to see how and when they solve that. But we're in a rare period of smooth sailing, so enjoy it.
Rangers: The Rangers signed Ryan Spooner to a new two year deal, thereby completing their RFA class, and all is quite on the trade front, Meahwhile, K'Andre Miller and Joey Keene are playing for different team USA squads in international play, and I think some of our Russsians and Swedes are allos playing. Not sure about our other international kids. Traverse City is still 4 or 5 weeks off. We'll see if they make any moves.
So there it is, the Yanks need to stop their free fall and the other teams need to avoid injuries. Have a great week!
posted by Kalel9 @ 9:11 AM
47 Comments:
I’m not convinced that Cashman sees the problems that we see, and if so, he’s part of the problem.
With regard to Mike’s comment, if they’re signing Machado to play third base at this point Andujar should play a lot of first because he has been much better than Bird, and I haven’t given hope up hope on Bird, but facts matter.
They have to get rid of the homerun or nothing mindset and get back to making contact. And that’s why think Didi should go.
If Gardner doesn’t retire, they need to say goodbye.
Why would they play Robinson over walker?
I don’t see Boone being let go, but I think it’s more than fair to revamp his entire staff. The sloppy play and lack of fundamentals has to have consequences, and as I’ve said about Rothschild before, if pitchers aren’t out-performing their mean under him, then the team can and should do better, even if he isn’t bad per se.
I don’t expect any changes other than players, and it probably won’t be the players I want to see go because I don’t think Cashman gets it.
For 20 years there’s been this debate amongst fans Cashman suck/Cashman‘s great. I have never thought that it was either one.
Here’s a positive Cashman note I heard this week. The Yankees are the only MLB team, or perhaps one of two teams, that haven’t had a gay pride night. From someone on the inside I heard that Cashman supports it, but Levine is supposedly blocking it.
Of course, Hal lets him do it, if it’s true.
If Yanks do sign Machado next year which I sure hope he doesn't....look for Andujar to be packaged with Sheffield/Frazier for a SP.
I would rather look away
Boston has really good pitching and it shows. They are a really good team. Have to give them credit.
Hopefully when Sanchez and Judge come back they can get on a winning streak if the SP straightens out.
Think back to the last series against Boston.
Or the TB or Orioles series.
If Machado is signed to play third, then they should move Andujar to first. His bat is too good to flip for pitching when they have other prospects to use toward that acquisition.
The last time they faced Boston despite Gray laying a massive egg, they were able to overcome and prove they were the better team.
Since then they struggled even against bad teams.
This has been a failure from the top down. They had injuries, but other players who have talent have not stepped up to fill the void.
Management was unable to fix those problems or coach up those problems.
Besides the huge blow that not being unable to fix Gray has caused, it may be that Robertson, Green, and Kahnle are burnt out from last year‘s playoffs, and that’s not to place blame on anyone, but it has hurt.
And then there’s Boone and his deer in the headlights managing.
The important take away should be to OBJECTIVELY decide which of these hitters and pitchers are worth keeping and which aren’t.
If we’re being honest? Pitching it’s Severino and Tanaka by virtue of his contract. Offensively it’s Judge, Andujar and Torres. Hicks can stay due to the value he provides and lack of a better option in center. Ellsbury stays so they can collect insurance. The rest are expendable.
I completely forgot about Sanchez, and I would still include him in that group despite this season. In fact, I almost wonder if there is something going on with him behind the scenes beyond the injury that has contributed to his lack of offense when healthy.
One possible explanation is he has become too home ru ln unconscious. It could be a lot of things but that would be the easiest to address.
Stanton should also just ease up a bit.
I agree about the others, although a commitment to Hicks long-term would require a team friendsly contract.
Last thing I want to this team to do is to be bound by long-term contracts everywhere again
I would only be committed to Hicks until Trout reaches free agency, but I think offering him $7-10M per for several years would be fair.
Agreed on Hicks. Lock him up with a 3/30 deal.
He has earned it.
I’d be fine with that, and I suspect he would take it. Offer it to him this offseason.
When is the last time they extended a player before he reached free agency? I’m thinking Cano. If that’s right, they may not want to do it until after he hits free agency
He’s a free agent after 2019. Thing is, Trout is a free agent after 2020, so it would make more sense to extend Hicks this offseason in light of that.
Michael King has pitched 6 scoreless in his AAA debut. Groundball machine. I think is the next 2 or 3 years the Yanks will start producing All Star CF's and OF's from the farm.
Gave up a solo shot in the 7th.
It may make sense but that may not be enough.
Overall, just as the Yankees looked awesome after the last RS series and awful now, things may look different in 7 weeks, although they aren’t winning the division. That may be an impediment but one they can definitely overcome if the players are healthier and Boone and Cashman are smarter.
Is there any way to check how the starting pitching staff has performed since Sanchez’s injury? I’m beginning to suspect despite all the talk about the passed balls that he’s a more valuable catcher than people realize.
CERA
No Walker? What am I missing?
This reminds me of when Torre used to play awful guys to signal George to get him another player.
RAB
Injury Update: Aaron Judge (wrist) still has discomfort and has not yet started swinging a bat. He has started throwing though (the injury is to his throwing wrist). Judge said that, once he returns, he’s going to have a protective guard on the wrist and probably more armor at the plate overall … J.A Happ (hand, foot, and mouth disease) threw today in New York and will be evaluated tomorrow. If he checks out okay, he’ll start Thursday, the first day he’s eligible to be activated.
Some rando commenter there on Voit
our analytics guys liked him more than just about anyone else. Seems to have reduced his swing miss tendencies and kept up his very, very high exit velocities. He was worth a shot to see if we can get more than the Cards got from him.
They are a bad offensive team right now. They usually kill Price.
If the balls and strikes are being called as poorly as RAB's comment section leads me to believe, then Boone has to argue at some point. Show your players you give a damn.
He is very chill.
A-Rod keeps talking about going to Britton first, fine.
The same was true on Thursday. But he stayed with Holder forever.
Andujar to first, please.
This defense will kill this team.
Every phase of the organization, from Hal to Cashman to the horrible manager to most of the players, is to blame for the meltdown of recent weeks.
This is a good (maybe not great) team going through a rough patch and trying to navigate a combination of injuries and underperformance. They're not this bad, nor should people overreact to one bad series. That said, these types of meltdowns can be avoided in future seasons if Hal will actually invest in his team following the tax reset and Cashman makes smart moves to revamp parts of the roster.
I'd hate to say I'm more looking forward to the offseason than the rest of the season, but this offseason will go a long way toward the kind of future this club has. Hal and Cashman have to show the fans they're capable of making this a truly great team.
So his incompetence brought the team together?
More Boone: “This is a weekend we’ll look back on and hopefully be able to say this is one that brought us together and allowed us to grow even more as a club." Boone said later: "I believe in the dudes we've got in that room.
Here's the reality on Boone: He's a rookie manager who was put in place mostly to manage the personalities and get rid of the way-too-tight Girardi atmosphere. Unfortunately, he's the polar opposite of Girardi, in that he's loose to a fault. You don't have to run your guys down when talking to the media, but the kind of comments he gave last night make him come off as comically out of touch. Just say, "We aren't playing up to what we feel like we're capable of in any facet, and it's on me to get this corrected. Fans are right to be frustrated and upset, because we're better than this."
Bigger picture, they aren't getting rid of him after one season unless there is a complete and total collapse and he loses the clubhouse entirely. But the lackadaisical play and the fact that guys aren't outperforming their mean should mean a revamped coaching staff outside of Boone himself.
I don’t mind what he says, I do mind what he does. He manages as if they are 10 games up.
They make a lot of mistakes and they can continue with him for as long as they want, I think he’s really bad. Any chance they had to turn the season a around v. the RS was put at risk when he kept Holder in for a meltdown on Thursday. In my opinion that was worse than Girardi not asking for a replay.
All this would matter less if they didn’t have such a one dimensional lineup and if Cashman was ever able to build a strong rotation.
Neither of those shortcomings are on Boone.
Agreed. Cashman has done some good things but there is still room to improve the roster. Of course, it ultimately boils down to Hal actually being willing to reinvest in the team after the tax resets.
He has done some good things, but he has had every advantage in the baseball world from the time he took over in 1998, including an all time great core and a massive payroll.
Has he done a lot when you control for those factors?
Meh.
And we also know they need a transformative pitching coach on the major-league level. Every season he can’t get that done is a black mark against him.
As I’ve said, you put Sonny Gray in Houston, my guess is he would be effective.
It’s kind of shocking the degree to which they have missed Judge, which says nothing good about the remaining members the offense.
Hoch:
The #Yankees have lost 15 of 22 without @TheJudge44 in the starting lineup since the start
retry:
The #Yankees have lost 15 of 22 without @TheJudge44 in the starting lineup since the start of last year, averaging 4.0 runs per game (5.3 runs per game with him).
I don't disagree on Cashman. I also think he's adjusted and learned when evidence of the need to has slapped him in the face, such as going away from the lefty pull hitters that have been eaten up by the shift. I'm hoping he'll see the light in terms of what type of bats to acquire and how to fill out the coaching staff.
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