2024
SEASON THUS FAR 
This
year’s Yankees have ranged from awesome to awful. We began the season with a lot of teamwork
including a non-forgiving lineup to opposing pitchers. We have since ended our games played this
past weekend (before the All-Star Game break) by playing like we have only about a third of our players who have played hard and had success thus far. They include these 8 players:
Aaron
Judge -
His offensive numbers thus far equate to his MVP year in 2022 as he’s currently
batting with a .306 Average, 1.112 OPS, 34 Homeruns, 72 Walks, and 85 RBIs.
Juan
Soto -
His at-bats are relentless including his .295 Average, .984 OPS, 23 Homeruns, 79
Walks, and 66 RBIs.
Ben
Rice –
He’s this year’s rookie phenom thus far – he just joined the Yankees on June 18. His early offensive numbers include: 6 Homeruns and an OPS of .809 in just 79
at-bats.
Marcus
Stroman – Although his numbers look “okay”, his efforts and focus are always clear
towards his continuous strive to give the best he’s got for each of his starts. He keeps the team in the game with a chance
to win often, which is very valuable.
Luis
Gil – Except for a couple of hiccups, he’s been one of the best starters in all of baseball! He currently holds impressive numbers
including a WHIP of 1.08, an ERA of 3.17, 10 Wins/5 Losses, and 118 Strikeouts
in 102.1 innings.
Jake
Cousins
– Although he’s only just begun pitching for the Yankees, he’s preliminarily become
one of my favorite relievers in quite a while and has demonstrated impressive number including a 1.05 WHIP and 18 Strikeouts in 12.1 innings.
Luke
Weaver
– Similar to Jake, Luke has demonstrated excellent preliminary numbers thus
far. Those numbers include a
WHIP of 0.80 and he’s achieved 58 strikeouts in 54.2 innings.
Michael
Tonkin
– He was designated For Assignment by the Mets twice and the Twins once. Once he put on the pinstripes and received a few
tips from our pitching coach, Matt Blake, he’s turned around his numbers
IMMENSELY! His WHIP is 1.03 and he’s achieved
48 Strikeouts in 45.2 innings.
Both
Anthony Volpe and Alex Verdugo have epitomized our "awesome to awful" season with their on-off contributions! Because of their good periods and "mostly" good defensive efforts, I’ll
give each a pass. I’ll also give a pass
to our former ace/Cy Young winner, Gerrit Cole. He's done pretty well since his return from the IL just
recently, after not pitching at all until then.
The
rest of the team has underperformed and haven't shown any consistent efforts. Our closer, Clay Holmes, has a 1.31 WHIP and is not the worst closer in baseball, but
certainly not the best either, especially with the most blown saves. Almost
every time he enters the game, we Yankees’ fans have to hold on tight! The
one player that has frustrated me the most is DJ LeMahieu.
His value to the team has dropped faster than the Coyote in the
Roadrunner cartoon has dropped from a cliff! His
offense is downright awful. It's so bad that I can’t even type his stats in this
article! His defense, especially at
third base is very lackadaisical!
Someone needs to wake him up. He’s
reached the Aaron-Hicks-grade at this point and the Yankees really need to either throw him into a trade along with someone of value or bite the bullet and let
this detrimental player go already!
With
the trade deadline slightly over 10 days from now, the Yankees really need to
make moves. We need another starter to
ensure we have enough arsenal from that standpoint, we could add another
bullpen guy (perhaps a closer if we don’t have to trade away the farm system in that deal),
and (in my strong opinion) we primarily need a very good third baseman - preferably a righthand hitter with decent power, an above .265 Batting Average, and above average defense. We do not have anybody in our farm system
ready with those qualifications. That type of third baseman would be very complementary to the lineup if he batted behind Soto and Judge. In essence, the whole lineup would then be stronger because the teams would pitch to them more directly.
