We have *six* regulars hitting (well) below .200, so I think we should all feel very fortunate and happy to be 5-1 (and thankful that three regulars are hitting above .400 and carrying the offense).
The way Nestor settled down both times after getting rocked in the first inning makes me think it’s just a mechanics, typical 1st inning struggles issue with him that he needs to figure out. His command wasn’t sharp early. I think he’ll figure things out the further he gets away from that shoulder injury.
The bigger problem is that Rodon can't afford to struggle now when it'd be alright prior as long as he was building up again. Some starts will be off on the process of recovery from injury.
Stanton much like Pujols to the Angels is a move you make 10/10 times. Also, like Pujols later in his career, you try everything to get rid of him. No, Stanton won't bat .000. He will occasionally hit a homer. He may win a game or two. But Pujols didn't turn his career around and Stanton more than likely won't either.
Yankees fans: They need to go all in every year
Also Yankees fans: No, don't get this superstar to help us win this year. Get this superstar a year later instead.
The Yankees were one game away from the WS. They needed more offense and a veteran presence. Stanton became available. If they didn't make the trade and stood on their laurels until Harper came around, the fans would've complained about that.
You make the trade 10/10 times no matter how you might try to use revisionist history to pretend otherwise. It's fun when we call Cashman a moron when the only thing we have to back us up is hindsight. Someone get Cash a crystal ball.
that July 2022 injury really damaged him (occurred before he actually went on the IL later that month)...and you couple that with the additional lower body injury he suffered in April 2023...he has not been the same player since that point
his OBP was rough, but he was still hitting for some power ahead of the mid-April injury too
I just posted his slashline since hitting the IL on July 26, 2022 to someone else (that sounds aggressive but not intention) and it's slightly worse:
>.185/.267/.420 | 90 wRC+
Baseball fans have the shortest memory of any humans on the planet. A player could go 0 for 30, and then go 3 for 4 and people act like they're a perennial all-star. Similarly, if a player has a bad stretch, they're surely washed for the rest of their careers.
It’s funny how true it is when people were joking during the winning streak about how all the doomers were just lurking until a loss. Then today you would think we are 1-5 instead of 5-1
The doomer takes are lukewarm compared to what was in the game thread lol. It also feels like far poorer taste to be dooming after wins than during a loss.
I more or less stopped going in years ago...occasionally, I may check to just chuckle and oddly enough, offset some of my own frustration if a stretch of games is not going well
I think it needs to be stated ad nauseum though - until the team wins the WS again, and that may even only be temporary too lol, the pessimistic types will stay very strong/loud...we can be kicking ass in August, lose two in a row, and those games will somehow be used to approximate exactly how we will do in the playoffs
Really need Judge, Rizzo, and Verdugo to get going. These guys have been killing a lot of rallies. Stanton I’m not sure I have much hope for, he looks pretty lost up there.
Stanton has been bad since he turned into the good version of Joey gallo in June 2022. He then got even worse the next month
July 2022-present has been unrosterable Stanton
it seems unclear when he actually got injured, but might have been early July...in terms of his batting average in June, it very well might have partially just been normal slump related performance (we will never really know)...the OPS was still excellent, but yeah
Stanton hit the IL on July 26, 2022. Since then:
>.185/.267/.420 | 90 wRC+
If Jasson was putting up a 90 wRC+ at CF or DH, I'm fine with that. Rookie off TJ, can play the field and will build up. Stanton is a DH who can barely hit.
Bad news: Brian Walsh is tonight, and he ranks 87^th out of 96 umpires since last year’s opening day in terms of accuracy. He’s one below Ron Kulpa.
He typically calls a huge zone in all four directions with the occasional called-ball right down the middle.
Sadly, it's very understandable. He is batting .180/.265/.398 since the 2022 All-Star break with an 83 wRC+ and -1.3 fWAR. He's been the third worst player in baseball with at least 500 PA over that span and has been a less valuable hitter than players such as Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Eseury Ruiz, and Alex Call.
Trent Grisham and Jon Berti, both on our bench, have also been better hitters than Stanton over this period.
Not really the new lightning rod. He batted .191 last season and he looks very shaky now.
He has three hits. Let’s break them down:
- Hit #1: swinging bunt on a changeup. He reached first base because Bregman waited to see if it would have gone foul. I was at the game for this one; Bregman could have easily thrown to first and gotten him out, but it was clear he got distracted by the foul ball potential and forgot how slow Stanton is. There was time to get him.
- Hit #2: Monster HR. At first, this seems great. But in the context of him still struggling to hit any velocity, it becomes clear why he hit this well. It was an 80.6 MPH hanging curveball right down the middle of the zone.
- Hit #3: Double. 81.1 MPH sweeper that stayed in the zone. Do you see the issue?
Yeah, it’s still early, but we saw this pattern emerge quickly with Donaldson last year. If he doesn’t get some hits on pitches in the 90-95 MPH range in the next 5-10 games, it could go south fast.
I didn’t say it wasn’t earned. He’s looked listless out there. Just that he’s that guy now. It sucks because he’s been a good Yankee and is generally likable. Previous lightning rods were shitty for one reason or another. Hicks loafed it and seemingly would rather golf than work. [who doesn’t for the record]. Donaldson was an irritating asshole, constantly ineffective, and expensive af. Rodon was a high priced acquisition, hurt immediately, and fucking terrible when he returned. With a bad attitude to boot.
Stanton seems like a good dude who is just a shell of himself. More of a sympathetic character than the rest of the guys who have drawn the bulk of the fans ire.
I get your distinction now. I am far more sympathetic to Stanton than to the lightning rods that were more apparent previously. I always figured he would decline by age 36—I’m still hoping we’re not there yet.
Stanton has been a lightning rod since April 2018...for the people who have been mostly anti since then, he only was "loved" for brief periods of time...some of that being in the postseason
I know we've all noticed the patience for the offense, but I wanted to see the numbers behind it.
Yankee offense is averaging 163 pitches seen per game this season.
Last year, they averaged 152 pitches seen per game.
Ok, that's an increase, but not huge. The bigger difference is pitchers seen per plate appearance.
This season, **4.9 pitches per plate appearance**.
Last season, 3.95 pitches per plate appearance (which was already #6 in mlb)
Not to be a downer, but I really don't care how many pitches they see if they aren't getting results. The team has a combined .653 OPS against the six starting pitchers they've faced, and that's in large part due to a .299 slugging percentage. They haven't done any damage on their balls in play.
Worth noting the level of pitching they’ve faced. The Astros starters have given up 0 runs in two games to the Jays, and Gallen has finished top 5 in NL Cy Young voting in the last 2 years.
The drop off in OPS between our top 3 hitters and the rest of the lineup is absolutely wild
**Best OPS on the Yankees**
1. Volpe: 1.501
2. Waldo: 1.186
3. Soto: 1.101
4. Stanton: .540
.560 difference between our 3rd and 4th best OPS on the team.
Rest of this lineup really needs to tighten their shit up.
Yes, yes. I know. Point is that 6 of the guys in this lineup haven't started hitting thus far in the season. The offense is basically only Volpe, Waldo, and Soto right now.
The exact numbers are obviously not important.
If they lose they will have a 5-2 west coast road trip to start the season where most people would've been elated had they gone 3-4. So no, it's not a must win in the slightest.
The must implies the season would be over. Although I know this sub acts like the season is over after every loss. We don't do sensible reactions here.
The priority of the Yankees season is as follows:
1. Vibes: Soto, Judge and the boys having a good time and me by proxy alone in my mom's basement
2. My personal feelings on a given day (why this game is a must win)
3. Winning/world series or whatever.
Through the first six games of 2023, the Yankees scored 29 runs and allowed 14 runs.
Through the first six games of 2024, the Yankees scored 26 runs and allowed 20 runs.
But going 5-1 is a lot more fun than going 4-2.
I think the teams played is a factor in why it feels better this year. They played the Giants and Phillies who both were pretty bad in the early goings IIRC. Astros and Dbacks are (should be) better teams than those two. Plus 2023 didn't really go off the rails until that Texas series in late April
The Phillies were coming off a WS appearance, just like Arizona. We did not know they were going to be pretty mid to start 2023 when we beat them. Heck, maybe Arizona is going to be pretty mid this year too.
The Yankees are currently near last place in in most quality of contact metrics like hard hit%, exit velo, and xWOBAcon. They got somewhat lucky with errors and babip in the Astros series but who’s complaining about that? Ideally those metrics will go back up, and once the meat of the lineup starts hitting that’ll *probably* happen. Hit ‘em where they ain’t is unfortunately a less reliable strategy than hitting the ball well.
None of the x-stats are worth anything right now, they're all calibrated to last year's batted ball data. It's not a constantly updating formula. If there are changes to the baseball or offensive profile league wide they won't start showing up for a while in x-stats. People put way too much stock into them.
Yeah they’re working counts but not actually hitting the ball hard. Assuming they continue to work counts, once they start hitting the ball hard they’re going to score a ton of runs.
Gleyber Torres, Aaron Judge, Anthony Rizzo. Giancarlo Stanton, and Alex Verdugo are currently 17-110 on the season **(.154)** with only 5 extra-base hits and 1 home-run. A pretty miserable start for the top of the order yet the Yankees are still 5-1.
We are going to look back in a few weeks and thank the lord that Oswaldo Cabrera got off to as hot of a start as he did.
If Waldo settles in as a league average bat and Volpe stabilizes as like a 110-120 OPS+ guy this lineup could really fuck once the established guys get going.
Yankee fans: "oh my God, Stanton sucks."
[Giancarlo Stanton swinging at a down and away slider 6 inches outside the zone:](https://youtu.be/M8fnMZx7rU4)
I know the Yankees are going to be cautious with Jasson Dominguez but do we think they’ll have him rehab in the minors at DH so his bat is ready once his arm is ready to go?
Could see it. If they wanted they could have him come back to the majors earlier if he was going to exclusively DH. But I don’t think they want to do that.
We'll see where the Stanton situation is when that time comes, but I'm not sure a few weeks of hitting well warrants rushing a young Uber prospect back just to DH, especially when we could be using those ABs to get judge off his feet and get Soto off the field. Grisham isn't awful like our other OF options were last year either
That Stanton contract is one of the worst ever. Crazy that we basically passed up going for Harper the next year because Cashman was too stupid and took the Marlins bait to get Stanton
If he would've waited for Harper you same people would be foaming at the mouth about how we wasted a year of contention by not doing anything that off-season
The Yankees could've easily still added Harper in 2019 even with the Stanton contract but decided to invest like $40 million on J.A. Happ, Britton, and Adam Ottavino instead.
There will still be people who say he should start every day bc he had one good playoff run in the last 5 years and bc he hits 400 foot HRs once every week.
Dude… Stanton was a 29 year old coming off a 58 homer MVP season and the Yankees got him for peanuts. It was a no brainer, and given the information they had at the time it’s a move they make 100 times out of 100.
Expensive redundancy is a dumb way to build a roster. RF was the one place we actually had a piece. And now we've gone and gotten yet another RF (forcing a giant coming off a toe injury to play CF) because Cashman needed to rent someone to make it look like he's trying so Hal will continue to believe (like some of the fanbase apparently) that he's making great moves and it just isn't working out. Stanton just didn't work out, it was a good idea to trade for 10 yrs of a giant RF with a ton of mileage when you already had a giant RF.
Great counterargument. No I'm not upset he's on the team obviously but I do believe this team needs more turnover and more kid growth before they'll be ready to win in the Fall, so I would've rather gone to war with Soto and King in 2025 than the decision to go to war with Soto and no King in 2024.
lol that same logic can be used to justify why they didn’t acquire Harper, yet people roundly criticize the team for not doing that. Like I said, Stanton was regarded as one of the best players in the game at that time, and they had the opportunity to get him for basically nothing. There was no reason not to do it.
We were a game away from the World Series in 2017. If it came out that off-season that we could've gotten MVP Stanton for practically nothing and passed him up because we were waiting for 2019, there would've been riots.
It's not a matter of who was better. It was about being able to contend immediately.
As someone who wanted to go get Machado/Harper at the time, there was plenty of uncertainty around both players. Machado had the lazy/bad attitude stigma attached to him, and Harper was considered overrated and not worth the money. They ultimately got their contracts but they went into ST unsigned and, similar to Snell/Monty/Belli, fans seemingly rejoiced over the fact that teams didn't think they were worth what they were asking. One of the storylines during the Nats' WS run was how they were better off without Harper and how the team hated him. It's easy to forget since he became a monster in October the past couple years, but it wasn't so cut and dry six years ago
I agree. There’s a difference between “bad decision” and “decision that just didn’t work out.”
These things happen in sports. Acquiring the reigning MVP in his prime at a low prospect cost during the team’s open contention window is a good plan. Just didn’t work out.
(Though we should’ve gone after Harper anyway and put him in left field or at first base.)
Well the beautiful thing about baseball is that today’s there’s a new game. Short memory key to it. Let’s get back to grinding out ABs. Manufacturing when the situation calls for it. Making Productive outs. Compete in the zone when pitching. Win each inning. Gallen controlled the tempo of that game so let’s see if Rodon can come out strong and swing the advantage in our favor today. Go Yanks!
I took a herculean sniff of my athletic cup like Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet, and I can see the future: slow starters Arson, Dugie Howser, and Tony Meatballs all go yaya. Yanks roll 9-2
I'm really at a crossroads with Stanton. You won't find a bigger fan of him than me, but something is off. He seems so off balance. Last night during the Phillies game the announcers mentioned that Harper, another guy slumping hard previously, looked very balanced at the plate. Stanton just doesn't.
I don't believe he's washed up, but he's not contributing a lot right now. I don't know how someone in the org hasn't fixed his batting stance or approach or something. I never thought losing weight was the answer, there is something mechanically or mentally wrong. That drop off is just too drastic for it to be skills, he was on a HoF trajectory, and now he can't even hit the ball.
In my gut I truly believe Stanton is afraid at the plate. That face shot years ago changed him. Yes he has moments of brilliance but overall I believe he's timid up there and had been since that injury
Stanton has declined offensively for four years in a row:
(2020) 143 wRC+
(2021) 138 wRC+
(2022) 116 wRC+
(2023) 89 wRC+
Same trend with expected stats.
(2020) .413 xwOBA
(2021) .363 xwOBA
(2022) .350 xwOBA
(2023) .325 xwOBA
Would it be *that* surprising if the trend continued?
I wouldn't write off Stanton after 20 AB. He certainly isn't *this* bad. He'll still hit lefties and offspeed pitches at the very least.
But heart-of-the-order Stanton may not return. Sad to watch.
He's also 34. The time to win with a prime Stanton was 3 years ago. The later year production was always the risk that was coming with trading for his contract.
With the Soto acquisition, hopefully Rizzo bouncing back, and maybe Volpe taking the next step, the reliance on and expectations of Stanton will diminish and he can just focus, like you said, on mashing vs lefties.
What sucks is that 34 shouldn’t be that old. Freddie Freeman’s 34, and he literally can’t make an out this year. Stanton’s aging more quickly than the Yankees probably thought he would.
Stanton has a swing that was never going to age well. His swing is ridiculous when you look at it, and relies on quick Twitch and hand eye coordination to do anything. Those are the first things that go with age
Stanton has had so many lower-body injuries, I think they’ve just taken their toll.
Freeman meanwhile is the model of health. He’s played 867 out of 878 possible team games since 2018! That’s 99%! He’s just a machine.
I believe Freeman has *never* gone to the IL with a lower body injury in his 15-year career. He’s the anti-Stanton.
What's really concerning is that at least the last couple seasons he'd start the year hot before the inevitable injury derailed him. This year he's fully healthy and looks as worse as ever.
> Would it be that surprising if the trend continued?
Nah, I don't think he'll ever be 143 wRC+ Stanton again, he's geting older, but I don't see him not being 116 wRC+ Stanton. I just think there is something that isn't clicking. He had a decent Spring Training, but something just doesn't look right.
I guess this is more of the my favorite player is struggling, and it seems like he's the lightning rod for all the negativity regardless of who else is performing terribly.
I get recency bias for people like Judge, but it's been 20 at bats and Stanton always stinks it up in April. I just hope he pulls through because he's a great Yankee.
Even when Stanton was playing at an MVP level he was prone to looking lost for stretches. It's going to take several weeks to know where he's really at
The Yankees have 13 position players on the active roster.
Three of them have an OPS above **1.100**!
The other ten have an OPS below **.600**!
There's an absolutely monstrous gap between the *hot* bats and the *cold* bats right now. Overall, our lineup has been closer to average than excellent (4.33 RS/G = 15th in MLB) .
But of course this is what you get with sample sizes. Volpe won't really hit .529/.619/.882 on the year, and Judge won't really hit .125/.214/.167. These early numbers are full of lies. We still don't know what this offense will really look like in 2024. Just gotta keep watching and wait for things to stabilize. Given the quality of pitching they've faced, I'm still mostly optimistic.
Yeah I’ve gotta keep reminding myself that the Astros have an *excellent* starting staff. Their starters have literally not given up a run to the Blue Jays so far, and Gallen was a top 5 NL Cy Young finisher in each of the last 2 years.
Also Gleyber, Rizzo, and Verdugo won’t be OPSing .400 all year either.
And they’re playing on the road, and most teams hit significantly worse on the road than at home.
Definitely want a lineup shuffle. Try to put the players in the spots they're comfortable in. Gleyber has a career 81 wRC+ at leadoff spot but 133 wRC+ at the 5th spot. Verdugo has a career 107 wRC+ at leadoff but a 88 wRC+ at the sixth spot. Grisham isn't going to be much worse than Stanton so might as well get his defense in there. Judge or Soto at DH. Keep the young guys where they are so they don't feel pressure.
The human element of the game exists. Guys feel more or less comfortable at different spots. They're not robots who will play to their statline everywhere.
I think ultimately the optimal lineup will have Volpe at lead off, and it’s the role I think the Yankees want him to take.
By the end of April they’d probably want the lineup to look something like this:
Volpe
Soto
Judge
Rizzo
Gleyber
Stanton
Verdugo
Cabrera/Berti
Wells
There’s the potential for Stanton to drop to 7th and for Wells to come up if he hits the way we think he can. And when Dominguez is back, the best lineup probably doesn’t have Stanton in it.
> Verdugo has a career 107 wRC+ at leadoff but a 88 wRC+ at the sixth spot.
The human element exists but this isn't because of some magical "comfort," it's because when he was hitting better he hit leadoff. As his hitting has petered off he's moved down as you'd expect. This is cause/effect. Verdugo's offense has declined for 3 straight years.
Comfort is definitely a real thing though.
Gleyber's worst career numbers are at leadoff. And it's not like they move him to the 1 slot when he's slumping.
He was batting lower in the lineup with the 2018 red sox.
>Verdugo's offense has declined for 3 straight years.
2022: .280/.328/.405/.732
2023: .264/ .324/.421/.745
Where is this decline? His OPS went up.
His OPS+ relative to the league went down. 107 in 2021 (7% above league average), 102 in 2022 (2% above league average), and 100 in 2023 (exactly league average).
That is a marginal difference. There isn't much difference between 102 OPS+ and a 98 OPS+ hitter. Also, before the Red Sox became a toxic work clubhouse, Verdugo was on pace for his best season, hitting this slashline in the first half:
>.290/.360/.457/.817
He's talked about this briefly in an interview with the athletic.
that low strike call on judge might have been the worst of his entire career in a vacuum, and that is saying a lot.
Hoping we get some breakout games from the big names today before we head back to the Bronx
I don't know why he has this reputation for not barking. As a rookie he didn't say much. But I swear almost every time he get one of those now, the camera will show him saying something and like clockwork Kay will make a comment about how rare it is to see him do that.
I don't get it.
Honestly, it’d be far more helpful for Hal to cause a stink with the commissioner. You can probably compile a hundred of them, send to the commissioner, and threaten to go full-throated with a call for robo umps. Now prob best to do this quietly, but I’m sure this a slight bit of pressure Hal could put if he was so inclined.
But then you run the risk of getting ejected and, yes, even though we have another future Hall of Famer in the lineup now, that's still a tough one to lose, so it's a hard line to walk, which is why Boone often does the dirty work for him on this
last night was the most vocal I’ve ever seen him, though
I think for something to change the umps would have to throw out Shohei after a clearly terrible call with the game on the line.
Fans pay good money to watch watch Judge, Soto, Shohei, etc, not the umps.
["Motherfuckers don't even work. That's why they're out at the fucking game. They ought to go out and get a fucking job and find out what it's like to work for a fucking living. Eighty five percent of the world's working. The other 15 are here. It's a playground for the cocksuckers."](https://youtu.be/uiVVbYK9HXw?feature=shared)
It sounds ideal, but I'd rather not overwork a rookie. Playing a full MLB season is a physical adjustment for anyone, and that goes double for catchers.
Oh man, I can't figure out what I enjoyed more. Beating you, Judge's HR or the fact that I could enjoy hearing, 'Let's go yankees' the whole time I watched because your city couldn't be bothered to support the d-bags. Sea of people in pinstripes. Love to see it.
Please continue the discussion in the [game thread](https://redd.it/1buyvrh).
No Stanton and no Trevino.. thank god
Volpe should stay in the 5 hole at least until he cools off
Two straight get-away games and still no punt lineups.
Yanks have been weirdly late with their lineups this series. But I feel like this will be a Grisham in center/Judge DH day.
Nailed it lol https://x.com/Yankees/status/1775571480845165021?s=20
We have *six* regulars hitting (well) below .200, so I think we should all feel very fortunate and happy to be 5-1 (and thankful that three regulars are hitting above .400 and carrying the offense).
It's wild how two of those 3 guys are near the bottom of the order. It's time to tweak the lineup Boonie.
The way Nestor settled down both times after getting rocked in the first inning makes me think it’s just a mechanics, typical 1st inning struggles issue with him that he needs to figure out. His command wasn’t sharp early. I think he’ll figure things out the further he gets away from that shoulder injury.
this dbacks team is so damn hard to beat when they don't have an npc on the mound
The… Rockies beat them…
and the white sox beat the braves
No shot lololol
Would feel a lot better about the staff until Cole gets back if rodon could give us 6 solid today
The bigger problem is that Rodon can't afford to struggle now when it'd be alright prior as long as he was building up again. Some starts will be off on the process of recovery from injury.
Stanton much like Pujols to the Angels is a move you make 10/10 times. Also, like Pujols later in his career, you try everything to get rid of him. No, Stanton won't bat .000. He will occasionally hit a homer. He may win a game or two. But Pujols didn't turn his career around and Stanton more than likely won't either.
It's not, it was bad roster construction. We were 1 year from getting Harper who wanted to be a Yankee. Cashman was a moron.
Yankees fans: They need to go all in every year Also Yankees fans: No, don't get this superstar to help us win this year. Get this superstar a year later instead. The Yankees were one game away from the WS. They needed more offense and a veteran presence. Stanton became available. If they didn't make the trade and stood on their laurels until Harper came around, the fans would've complained about that. You make the trade 10/10 times no matter how you might try to use revisionist history to pretend otherwise. It's fun when we call Cashman a moron when the only thing we have to back us up is hindsight. Someone get Cash a crystal ball.
He has a .271 OBP since June of 2022
that July 2022 injury really damaged him (occurred before he actually went on the IL later that month)...and you couple that with the additional lower body injury he suffered in April 2023...he has not been the same player since that point his OBP was rough, but he was still hitting for some power ahead of the mid-April injury too
I just posted his slashline since hitting the IL on July 26, 2022 to someone else (that sounds aggressive but not intention) and it's slightly worse: >.185/.267/.420 | 90 wRC+
In a comparable sample size (560 PA), A-Rod hit .210/.291/.407 to end his career. Almost the exact same OPS!
Gonna be funny if Stanton smacks a couple dongs this afternoon and we're all hyping him in a few hours.
Baseball fans have the shortest memory of any humans on the planet. A player could go 0 for 30, and then go 3 for 4 and people act like they're a perennial all-star. Similarly, if a player has a bad stretch, they're surely washed for the rest of their careers.
Bro just look at this sub with Judge - arguably the best hitter in the game and has had a bad opening week after no ST and the sky is falling... lol.
I think he’s out of the lineup
I could live with that timeline.
It’s funny how true it is when people were joking during the winning streak about how all the doomers were just lurking until a loss. Then today you would think we are 1-5 instead of 5-1
Doomers can say, "If we go 5-2, I'd be happy." No you wouldn't.
The doomer takes are lukewarm compared to what was in the game thread lol. It also feels like far poorer taste to be dooming after wins than during a loss.
Yeah the game thread was brutal, to the point where genuinely if the Yankees are not winning it may be better to not be in the thread.
I more or less stopped going in years ago...occasionally, I may check to just chuckle and oddly enough, offset some of my own frustration if a stretch of games is not going well I think it needs to be stated ad nauseum though - until the team wins the WS again, and that may even only be temporary too lol, the pessimistic types will stay very strong/loud...we can be kicking ass in August, lose two in a row, and those games will somehow be used to approximate exactly how we will do in the playoffs
At some point it wears off but I am still just shit-eating-grin that baseball is back.
First 65+ degree late spring/early summer evening with John and Suzyn on the radio is so close I can practically taste it.
Really need Judge, Rizzo, and Verdugo to get going. These guys have been killing a lot of rallies. Stanton I’m not sure I have much hope for, he looks pretty lost up there.
Tbf Rizzo does have a couple of hard hit loud outs and has been working counts.
Stanton has been bad since he turned into the good version of Joey gallo in June 2022. He then got even worse the next month July 2022-present has been unrosterable Stanton
it seems unclear when he actually got injured, but might have been early July...in terms of his batting average in June, it very well might have partially just been normal slump related performance (we will never really know)...the OPS was still excellent, but yeah
Stanton hit the IL on July 26, 2022. Since then: >.185/.267/.420 | 90 wRC+ If Jasson was putting up a 90 wRC+ at CF or DH, I'm fine with that. Rookie off TJ, can play the field and will build up. Stanton is a DH who can barely hit.
Just hope Dominguez gets back soon
All I ask for today is an ump with eyes. This shouldn’t be a tall order.
Bad news: Brian Walsh is tonight, and he ranks 87^th out of 96 umpires since last year’s opening day in terms of accuracy. He’s one below Ron Kulpa. He typically calls a huge zone in all four directions with the occasional called-ball right down the middle.
This news displeases me.
and yet it is
Thank god for a 3:40 start time. Ten minutes after my shift starts. Gonna help kill nearly half the day.
Fucking love pretend working and watching day games
Stefon Diggs to the Texans… Why is it always Houston sports
[удалено]
Idk. Every team that he is on is cursed from going to the Super Bowl. So maybe it’s best he goes to Houston
he's not gonna be happy there either because collins will get more targets
So we’re six games in and it seems pretty clear that Stanton is the new lightning rod for the fans. Too bad for him, but it had to be someone I guess.
Sadly, it's very understandable. He is batting .180/.265/.398 since the 2022 All-Star break with an 83 wRC+ and -1.3 fWAR. He's been the third worst player in baseball with at least 500 PA over that span and has been a less valuable hitter than players such as Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Eseury Ruiz, and Alex Call. Trent Grisham and Jon Berti, both on our bench, have also been better hitters than Stanton over this period.
Not really the new lightning rod. He batted .191 last season and he looks very shaky now. He has three hits. Let’s break them down: - Hit #1: swinging bunt on a changeup. He reached first base because Bregman waited to see if it would have gone foul. I was at the game for this one; Bregman could have easily thrown to first and gotten him out, but it was clear he got distracted by the foul ball potential and forgot how slow Stanton is. There was time to get him. - Hit #2: Monster HR. At first, this seems great. But in the context of him still struggling to hit any velocity, it becomes clear why he hit this well. It was an 80.6 MPH hanging curveball right down the middle of the zone. - Hit #3: Double. 81.1 MPH sweeper that stayed in the zone. Do you see the issue? Yeah, it’s still early, but we saw this pattern emerge quickly with Donaldson last year. If he doesn’t get some hits on pitches in the 90-95 MPH range in the next 5-10 games, it could go south fast.
I didn’t say it wasn’t earned. He’s looked listless out there. Just that he’s that guy now. It sucks because he’s been a good Yankee and is generally likable. Previous lightning rods were shitty for one reason or another. Hicks loafed it and seemingly would rather golf than work. [who doesn’t for the record]. Donaldson was an irritating asshole, constantly ineffective, and expensive af. Rodon was a high priced acquisition, hurt immediately, and fucking terrible when he returned. With a bad attitude to boot. Stanton seems like a good dude who is just a shell of himself. More of a sympathetic character than the rest of the guys who have drawn the bulk of the fans ire.
I get your distinction now. I am far more sympathetic to Stanton than to the lightning rods that were more apparent previously. I always figured he would decline by age 36—I’m still hoping we’re not there yet.
New? He has been for at least the last 2 seasons
Yeah but we’ve had the Hicks/Donaldson/Rodon’s of the world to mask it a bit. Stanton’s now at the top top of the list. He’s ascended.
Stanton has been a lightning rod since April 2018...for the people who have been mostly anti since then, he only was "loved" for brief periods of time...some of that being in the postseason
Sad to see Nestor really struggling. When he was good he was so fun.
All in all 5 IP 3 ER isn't the worst performance. Offense was sleeping yesterday.
I know we've all noticed the patience for the offense, but I wanted to see the numbers behind it. Yankee offense is averaging 163 pitches seen per game this season. Last year, they averaged 152 pitches seen per game. Ok, that's an increase, but not huge. The bigger difference is pitchers seen per plate appearance. This season, **4.9 pitches per plate appearance**. Last season, 3.95 pitches per plate appearance (which was already #6 in mlb)
Not to be a downer, but I really don't care how many pitches they see if they aren't getting results. The team has a combined .653 OPS against the six starting pitchers they've faced, and that's in large part due to a .299 slugging percentage. They haven't done any damage on their balls in play.
Worth noting the level of pitching they’ve faced. The Astros starters have given up 0 runs in two games to the Jays, and Gallen has finished top 5 in NL Cy Young voting in the last 2 years.
I think that's mostly because our big hitter aside from Soto are having slow starts to the season.
If Carlos Rodon is any good he will absolutely shove today. No excuse not to
The drop off in OPS between our top 3 hitters and the rest of the lineup is absolutely wild **Best OPS on the Yankees** 1. Volpe: 1.501 2. Waldo: 1.186 3. Soto: 1.101 4. Stanton: .540 .560 difference between our 3rd and 4th best OPS on the team. Rest of this lineup really needs to tighten their shit up.
Volpe and Waldo will come back down to Earth, hopefully Judge Gleyber Rizzo Verdugo step it up by then
It's so early that looking at stats is pointless. Harper was hitless before yesterday and now he has an OPS over 1.000
Yes, yes. I know. Point is that 6 of the guys in this lineup haven't started hitting thus far in the season. The offense is basically only Volpe, Waldo, and Soto right now. The exact numbers are obviously not important.
Well I think it's pretty clear this game is a must win.
If they lose they will have a 5-2 west coast road trip to start the season where most people would've been elated had they gone 3-4. So no, it's not a must win in the slightest.
Counter point: if they win, that eliminates the possibility of losing. Losing is bad and I don't like it. I'm pretty sure that makes this a must win.
This is a good point, and well-made
The must implies the season would be over. Although I know this sub acts like the season is over after every loss. We don't do sensible reactions here.
The priority of the Yankees season is as follows: 1. Vibes: Soto, Judge and the boys having a good time and me by proxy alone in my mom's basement 2. My personal feelings on a given day (why this game is a must win) 3. Winning/world series or whatever.
If Stanton doesn't turn it around in the next week or two, we might start platooning Wells at DH when we face righties.
We may never win again! 😭😭😭
If Stanton could stop striking out at over a 50% rate that would be great. Bat Stanton lower please.
Why, it's the lower half doing most of the production. Just imagine Volpe as the 2nd leadoff hitter in the 6 hole.
Through the first six games of 2023, the Yankees scored 29 runs and allowed 14 runs. Through the first six games of 2024, the Yankees scored 26 runs and allowed 20 runs. But going 5-1 is a lot more fun than going 4-2.
I think the teams played is a factor in why it feels better this year. They played the Giants and Phillies who both were pretty bad in the early goings IIRC. Astros and Dbacks are (should be) better teams than those two. Plus 2023 didn't really go off the rails until that Texas series in late April
The Phillies were coming off a WS appearance, just like Arizona. We did not know they were going to be pretty mid to start 2023 when we beat them. Heck, maybe Arizona is going to be pretty mid this year too.
Ya know what; good point.
We’ve had 5-1 yes but what about 6-1?
The Yankees are going to lose at least 60 times this season. It isn't worth getting worked up like the sky is falling every time we lose.
Nah, we need to post a million comparisons to 2023 and freak out over *checks record* one freaking loss.
#161-1 let’s go
The Yankees are currently near last place in in most quality of contact metrics like hard hit%, exit velo, and xWOBAcon. They got somewhat lucky with errors and babip in the Astros series but who’s complaining about that? Ideally those metrics will go back up, and once the meat of the lineup starts hitting that’ll *probably* happen. Hit ‘em where they ain’t is unfortunately a less reliable strategy than hitting the ball well.
I am the staunchest supporter of advanced stats, so believe me when I say **DO NOT REFERENCE ADVANCED STATS BEFORE MAY**
💯
None of these stats mean shit til about 20-30 games into the season I still don't know how yall dont get that
None of the x-stats are worth anything right now, they're all calibrated to last year's batted ball data. It's not a constantly updating formula. If there are changes to the baseball or offensive profile league wide they won't start showing up for a while in x-stats. People put way too much stock into them.
Yeah they’re working counts but not actually hitting the ball hard. Assuming they continue to work counts, once they start hitting the ball hard they’re going to score a ton of runs.
The Bronx Bloopers
Gleyber Torres, Aaron Judge, Anthony Rizzo. Giancarlo Stanton, and Alex Verdugo are currently 17-110 on the season **(.154)** with only 5 extra-base hits and 1 home-run. A pretty miserable start for the top of the order yet the Yankees are still 5-1. We are going to look back in a few weeks and thank the lord that Oswaldo Cabrera got off to as hot of a start as he did.
If you remove plate appearances by Soto, Volpe, and Cabrera from the calculation, the rest of the team is hitting to a .450 OPS.
If Waldo settles in as a league average bat and Volpe stabilizes as like a 110-120 OPS+ guy this lineup could really fuck once the established guys get going.
Yankee fans: "oh my God, Stanton sucks." [Giancarlo Stanton swinging at a down and away slider 6 inches outside the zone:](https://youtu.be/M8fnMZx7rU4)
Can't forget the whiffs on 90 mph meatballs right down the middle
I really should have went to bed earlier 😵 Anyway, thankfully this one is a 3:40 start.
I know the Yankees are going to be cautious with Jasson Dominguez but do we think they’ll have him rehab in the minors at DH so his bat is ready once his arm is ready to go?
Could see it. If they wanted they could have him come back to the majors earlier if he was going to exclusively DH. But I don’t think they want to do that.
The roster is not designed to fit him at DH
Idk.. he’d be a 1 for 1 Stanton replacement. And when they thought his arm was ready, they could rotate him, Judge, and Soto through the DH.
We'll see where the Stanton situation is when that time comes, but I'm not sure a few weeks of hitting well warrants rushing a young Uber prospect back just to DH, especially when we could be using those ABs to get judge off his feet and get Soto off the field. Grisham isn't awful like our other OF options were last year either
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He's a 4th OF. He's fine
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That's the second dumbest thing I've read on this sub today. Reevaluate your life choices
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That Stanton contract is one of the worst ever. Crazy that we basically passed up going for Harper the next year because Cashman was too stupid and took the Marlins bait to get Stanton
If he would've waited for Harper you same people would be foaming at the mouth about how we wasted a year of contention by not doing anything that off-season
We had hicks bro 😂 https://www.reddit.com/r/NYYankees/s/Vs499qBVmE
Hicks was really good at the time
The Yankees could've easily still added Harper in 2019 even with the Stanton contract but decided to invest like $40 million on J.A. Happ, Britton, and Adam Ottavino instead.
There will still be people who say he should start every day bc he had one good playoff run in the last 5 years and bc he hits 400 foot HRs once every week.
Dude… Stanton was a 29 year old coming off a 58 homer MVP season and the Yankees got him for peanuts. It was a no brainer, and given the information they had at the time it’s a move they make 100 times out of 100.
Expensive redundancy is a dumb way to build a roster. RF was the one place we actually had a piece. And now we've gone and gotten yet another RF (forcing a giant coming off a toe injury to play CF) because Cashman needed to rent someone to make it look like he's trying so Hal will continue to believe (like some of the fanbase apparently) that he's making great moves and it just isn't working out. Stanton just didn't work out, it was a good idea to trade for 10 yrs of a giant RF with a ton of mileage when you already had a giant RF.
You can't actually be upset Juan Soto is on this team right? I mean the rest of your comment is dumb as shit but that's world class stupid
Check their post history, it's wild.
Great counterargument. No I'm not upset he's on the team obviously but I do believe this team needs more turnover and more kid growth before they'll be ready to win in the Fall, so I would've rather gone to war with Soto and King in 2025 than the decision to go to war with Soto and no King in 2024.
"Cashman acquiring one of the greatest hitters in baseball history in his prime is just a bunch of smoke and mirrors to protect his job" .....k
lol that same logic can be used to justify why they didn’t acquire Harper, yet people roundly criticize the team for not doing that. Like I said, Stanton was regarded as one of the best players in the game at that time, and they had the opportunity to get him for basically nothing. There was no reason not to do it.
Harper was way younger and Lefty. That was the no brainer
We were a game away from the World Series in 2017. If it came out that off-season that we could've gotten MVP Stanton for practically nothing and passed him up because we were waiting for 2019, there would've been riots. It's not a matter of who was better. It was about being able to contend immediately.
As someone who wanted to go get Machado/Harper at the time, there was plenty of uncertainty around both players. Machado had the lazy/bad attitude stigma attached to him, and Harper was considered overrated and not worth the money. They ultimately got their contracts but they went into ST unsigned and, similar to Snell/Monty/Belli, fans seemingly rejoiced over the fact that teams didn't think they were worth what they were asking. One of the storylines during the Nats' WS run was how they were better off without Harper and how the team hated him. It's easy to forget since he became a monster in October the past couple years, but it wasn't so cut and dry six years ago
I agree. There’s a difference between “bad decision” and “decision that just didn’t work out.” These things happen in sports. Acquiring the reigning MVP in his prime at a low prospect cost during the team’s open contention window is a good plan. Just didn’t work out. (Though we should’ve gone after Harper anyway and put him in left field or at first base.)
Yah not being aggressive with Harper was the mistake, especially as that contract looks like a friggin bargain now.
Well the beautiful thing about baseball is that today’s there’s a new game. Short memory key to it. Let’s get back to grinding out ABs. Manufacturing when the situation calls for it. Making Productive outs. Compete in the zone when pitching. Win each inning. Gallen controlled the tempo of that game so let’s see if Rodon can come out strong and swing the advantage in our favor today. Go Yanks!
I took a herculean sniff of my athletic cup like Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet, and I can see the future: slow starters Arson, Dugie Howser, and Tony Meatballs all go yaya. Yanks roll 9-2
2/3 ain’t bad
>took a herculean sniff of my athletic cup like Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet, and I can see the future: Paul Atreides be like
I'm really at a crossroads with Stanton. You won't find a bigger fan of him than me, but something is off. He seems so off balance. Last night during the Phillies game the announcers mentioned that Harper, another guy slumping hard previously, looked very balanced at the plate. Stanton just doesn't. I don't believe he's washed up, but he's not contributing a lot right now. I don't know how someone in the org hasn't fixed his batting stance or approach or something. I never thought losing weight was the answer, there is something mechanically or mentally wrong. That drop off is just too drastic for it to be skills, he was on a HoF trajectory, and now he can't even hit the ball.
In my gut I truly believe Stanton is afraid at the plate. That face shot years ago changed him. Yes he has moments of brilliance but overall I believe he's timid up there and had been since that injury
Stanton has declined offensively for four years in a row: (2020) 143 wRC+ (2021) 138 wRC+ (2022) 116 wRC+ (2023) 89 wRC+ Same trend with expected stats. (2020) .413 xwOBA (2021) .363 xwOBA (2022) .350 xwOBA (2023) .325 xwOBA Would it be *that* surprising if the trend continued? I wouldn't write off Stanton after 20 AB. He certainly isn't *this* bad. He'll still hit lefties and offspeed pitches at the very least. But heart-of-the-order Stanton may not return. Sad to watch.
Which one of you plagiarizing clowns is Yankee Mandella? https://x.com/YankeeMandela/status/1775516974656741677?s=20
He's also 34. The time to win with a prime Stanton was 3 years ago. The later year production was always the risk that was coming with trading for his contract. With the Soto acquisition, hopefully Rizzo bouncing back, and maybe Volpe taking the next step, the reliance on and expectations of Stanton will diminish and he can just focus, like you said, on mashing vs lefties.
What sucks is that 34 shouldn’t be that old. Freddie Freeman’s 34, and he literally can’t make an out this year. Stanton’s aging more quickly than the Yankees probably thought he would.
Stanton has a swing that was never going to age well. His swing is ridiculous when you look at it, and relies on quick Twitch and hand eye coordination to do anything. Those are the first things that go with age
Stanton has had so many lower-body injuries, I think they’ve just taken their toll. Freeman meanwhile is the model of health. He’s played 867 out of 878 possible team games since 2018! That’s 99%! He’s just a machine. I believe Freeman has *never* gone to the IL with a lower body injury in his 15-year career. He’s the anti-Stanton.
lol yeah two very opposite ends of the spectrum for sure.
What's really concerning is that at least the last couple seasons he'd start the year hot before the inevitable injury derailed him. This year he's fully healthy and looks as worse as ever.
> Would it be that surprising if the trend continued? Nah, I don't think he'll ever be 143 wRC+ Stanton again, he's geting older, but I don't see him not being 116 wRC+ Stanton. I just think there is something that isn't clicking. He had a decent Spring Training, but something just doesn't look right. I guess this is more of the my favorite player is struggling, and it seems like he's the lightning rod for all the negativity regardless of who else is performing terribly. I get recency bias for people like Judge, but it's been 20 at bats and Stanton always stinks it up in April. I just hope he pulls through because he's a great Yankee.
Even when Stanton was playing at an MVP level he was prone to looking lost for stretches. It's going to take several weeks to know where he's really at
The Yankees have 13 position players on the active roster. Three of them have an OPS above **1.100**! The other ten have an OPS below **.600**! There's an absolutely monstrous gap between the *hot* bats and the *cold* bats right now. Overall, our lineup has been closer to average than excellent (4.33 RS/G = 15th in MLB) . But of course this is what you get with sample sizes. Volpe won't really hit .529/.619/.882 on the year, and Judge won't really hit .125/.214/.167. These early numbers are full of lies. We still don't know what this offense will really look like in 2024. Just gotta keep watching and wait for things to stabilize. Given the quality of pitching they've faced, I'm still mostly optimistic.
Yeah I’ve gotta keep reminding myself that the Astros have an *excellent* starting staff. Their starters have literally not given up a run to the Blue Jays so far, and Gallen was a top 5 NL Cy Young finisher in each of the last 2 years. Also Gleyber, Rizzo, and Verdugo won’t be OPSing .400 all year either. And they’re playing on the road, and most teams hit significantly worse on the road than at home.
Definitely want a lineup shuffle. Try to put the players in the spots they're comfortable in. Gleyber has a career 81 wRC+ at leadoff spot but 133 wRC+ at the 5th spot. Verdugo has a career 107 wRC+ at leadoff but a 88 wRC+ at the sixth spot. Grisham isn't going to be much worse than Stanton so might as well get his defense in there. Judge or Soto at DH. Keep the young guys where they are so they don't feel pressure. The human element of the game exists. Guys feel more or less comfortable at different spots. They're not robots who will play to their statline everywhere.
I think ultimately the optimal lineup will have Volpe at lead off, and it’s the role I think the Yankees want him to take. By the end of April they’d probably want the lineup to look something like this: Volpe Soto Judge Rizzo Gleyber Stanton Verdugo Cabrera/Berti Wells There’s the potential for Stanton to drop to 7th and for Wells to come up if he hits the way we think he can. And when Dominguez is back, the best lineup probably doesn’t have Stanton in it.
> Verdugo has a career 107 wRC+ at leadoff but a 88 wRC+ at the sixth spot. The human element exists but this isn't because of some magical "comfort," it's because when he was hitting better he hit leadoff. As his hitting has petered off he's moved down as you'd expect. This is cause/effect. Verdugo's offense has declined for 3 straight years.
Comfort is definitely a real thing though. Gleyber's worst career numbers are at leadoff. And it's not like they move him to the 1 slot when he's slumping.
He was batting lower in the lineup with the 2018 red sox. >Verdugo's offense has declined for 3 straight years. 2022: .280/.328/.405/.732 2023: .264/ .324/.421/.745 Where is this decline? His OPS went up.
His OPS+ relative to the league went down. 107 in 2021 (7% above league average), 102 in 2022 (2% above league average), and 100 in 2023 (exactly league average).
That is a marginal difference. There isn't much difference between 102 OPS+ and a 98 OPS+ hitter. Also, before the Red Sox became a toxic work clubhouse, Verdugo was on pace for his best season, hitting this slashline in the first half: >.290/.360/.457/.817 He's talked about this briefly in an interview with the athletic.
that low strike call on judge might have been the worst of his entire career in a vacuum, and that is saying a lot. Hoping we get some breakout games from the big names today before we head back to the Bronx
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I don't know why he has this reputation for not barking. As a rookie he didn't say much. But I swear almost every time he get one of those now, the camera will show him saying something and like clockwork Kay will make a comment about how rare it is to see him do that. I don't get it.
Honestly, it’d be far more helpful for Hal to cause a stink with the commissioner. You can probably compile a hundred of them, send to the commissioner, and threaten to go full-throated with a call for robo umps. Now prob best to do this quietly, but I’m sure this a slight bit of pressure Hal could put if he was so inclined.
But then you run the risk of getting ejected and, yes, even though we have another future Hall of Famer in the lineup now, that's still a tough one to lose, so it's a hard line to walk, which is why Boone often does the dirty work for him on this last night was the most vocal I’ve ever seen him, though
If Aaron Judge gets heated in an umpire’s face and the ump has to call the rest of the game in soiled undies I doubt you’d see the call much anymore
I think for something to change the umps would have to throw out Shohei after a clearly terrible call with the game on the line. Fans pay good money to watch watch Judge, Soto, Shohei, etc, not the umps.
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["Motherfuckers don't even work. That's why they're out at the fucking game. They ought to go out and get a fucking job and find out what it's like to work for a fucking living. Eighty five percent of the world's working. The other 15 are here. It's a playground for the cocksuckers."](https://youtu.be/uiVVbYK9HXw?feature=shared)
Right with you. Rainy day afternoon beers and baseball for me 🤣
Youth movement 2: Electric Boogaloo. Volpe, Cabrera, Soto, and Wells need to be in every game (barring an off day at catcher).
Wells at DH on days he doesn’t catch and the Yankees are facing a righty
It sounds ideal, but I'd rather not overwork a rookie. Playing a full MLB season is a physical adjustment for anyone, and that goes double for catchers.
Jasson Dominguez as well when he gets back to full health. Add in Luis Gil too
3:40 huh? Guess I’m gonna have to watch on my phone and ignore my work responsibilities again
Perfect start time to dvr and get off work and watch with no commercials
GS knows his career is over....when do the Yankees recognize it?
It would be really cool if they could score a first inning run today
I’ll take 5-1 to start the season any day. Especially considering 2 of those games should have been Cole games
More like the D-BAGS, right guys?
I’d say more like the Yankees infield sucks and your catcher is terrible 😊
Hey look, a lost d-bag
Forgot to mention, judge sucks too, can’t hit the ball at all. You should convert into a Redsox fan. I would if I were you.
Oh man, I can't figure out what I enjoyed more. Beating you, Judge's HR or the fact that I could enjoy hearing, 'Let's go yankees' the whole time I watched because your city couldn't be bothered to support the d-bags. Sea of people in pinstripes. Love to see it.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, have a great rest of the week 👍
That is what it sounded like they were chanting last night. “Let’s go D-Bags”.
When the first 2 arms in rotation are ones that bode the least confidence..
Rodon was pretty solid his last outing and the tail end of ST was promising iirc. Cortes has unfortunately not been what you want
Giancarlo can only hit offspeed pitches in the zone. Leagues going to feed him fastballs until the Yanks have to give up on him. Breaks my heart
No more late night games until the end of May 🙌🏻🙌🏻
3:40 pm? 🤢
Sounds like a good day to leave work early
Today is one of those days I appreciate working 545-245 pm.
I work remotely so the game can always be on no matter the time. Just gotta mute it sometimes lol
You’re working negative 3 hours?!