THE JUDGE INSTRUCTED THE JURY & THEY AGREED!

Officially this week, the Yankees held a press conference announcing the re-signing of Aaron Judge!  The terms were:  9 years at a total of $360,000,000. They also did what most Yankees’ fans and team members wanted, they named him as their “Captain” – the 16^th
Captain in team history.  Derek Jeter was at the press conference which helped symbolize the reigning Captaincy hand-off.

The San Fransisco Giants and the San Diego Padres tried hard to persuade Judge to join their teams, but Judge and Hal Steinbrenner had strong discussions after Judge’s latest south coast offers.  Judge spoke to Hal during the wee hours of the morning and Hal convincingly offered Judge the final deal, keeping Judge in the only true pinstripes in baseball.  Supposedly, Judge was offered an additional $40 million by the Padres but it seemed like (this is my take) he instead told Hal to use it towards helping to improve the team in other areas.  If I’m correct, then that was truly an exemplification of Captaincy right there!  Also, kudos to Aaron Boone for reaching out to Judge hours before the ultimate conversation Judge had with Hal.  Apparently, Aaron went into an extreme heart-to-heart conversation about how much Judge meant to him and also to the teammates.  Judge did refer to that conversation when offering some of the reasons why he stayed with the Yankees.

Hal didn’t waste too much time demonstrating his promise to Judge as, days later, he signed MLB’s best starting pitcher (who was not about to be 40 years old) Carlos Rodón (who just turned 30 years old) to a $162,000,000/9-year contract.  His lefty arm and dominating arsenal is exactly what is needed in Yankee Stadium and, generally, most of the other ballparks too.

Since the beginning of the 2023 season is slightly over 3 months away, there’s still plenty of time for Hal and Cashman to improve our team even further than the re-signing of Judge, the new acquisition of Rodón, and a few other small deals they’ve recently done.  We all know our primary need is a new leftfielder, as no Yankee fan can take having Aaron Hicks anymore.  Perhaps Cashman can find some takers for him, Donaldson, and even IKF.  I would also like to see them add another bullpen pitcher, in addition to our recent re-signing of Tommy Kahnle.  I’m hoping whoever we potentially trade for in leftfield is no older than 30 years and is of All-Star caliber. We’ll see, but let’s not “Judge” our current roster too early!

THE FALL

Well, here we are again still licking our wounds over the failure to reach the World Series.  After defeating the Guardians 3 games to 2, we not only lost to the Astros, but we got swept.  Losing to them is overly tiresome already.  Boone, or whoever is making the decisions these days (e.g., Brian Cashman or the Yankees’ statisticians), made way too many blunders including:

- Putting in Lou Trivino (a so-so reliever) to try and get out of a bases loaded/nobody out situation that Gerrit Cole created.  (We were off the day before, so all of our premium relievers were available!)

- Constantly rearranging our lineup which even included having Anthony Rizzo in one game as a leadoff hitter and Gleyber Torres as a leadoff hitter in another game.

- Also, with the inconsistent lineup, we had some main players such as IKF not playing in several games.  I know he was struggling, but so were others who seemed to remain in the lineup (Donaldson).

Now, as usual, we are playing the waiting game to see which free agents we are retaining and which ones we’ll try to sign.  Of course, that topic begins with Aaron Judge (the American League’s soon-to-be MVP).  Most of the baseball writers have reported that the San Fransisco Giants are publicly committing towards doing whatever it takes to sign Judge who is from their hometown area.  On the flip side, Hal Steinbrenner was interviewed and made it very clear that Judge belongs in the Yankees’ pinstripes.  He even answered a question positively regarding the chance of making Judge a Captain of the team.  Additionally, he admitted that he has been in one-on-one meetings with Judge – something Hal’s father used to tactically do.  At this point in time, I feel rather confident that Judge will remain a Yankee for many years to come.  My opinion is based on Hal’s comments and also the fact that the Yankees just signed our other top free agent, Anthony Rizzo to a 3-year deal (the 3rd year has a team option).  The Rizzo signing is very significant because he and Judge are very good friends and so, supposedly, are their wives.

WHAT A SEASON!!

JUDGE

Judge broke the American League's homerun record with 62 homeruns this season - one more than Roger Maris!  I, along with most baseball purists, consider it the most of all time, disconnecting those who were found to be cheaters:  Bonds, McGuire, and Sosa.  It got very strainful during his final 2 weeks, but he never changed his at-bat approach.  He almost won the triple crown, but came up slightly short with his overly impressive .311 batting average (the leader ended up being Luis Arráez from the Minnesota Twins).  Still, he easily won in homeruns, and led the Major Leagues with 131 RBIs, .686 Slugging Percentage, .425 On-Base Percentage, and 133 Runs Scored.  He also stole 16 bases out of 19 attempts and was a defensive machine with a perfect percentage in fielding, playing both CF and RF.  Also, defensively, no one dared to run on him, unless they were ignorant idiots.  He was clearly the MVP in the sense of stats and in the sense of actuality.  The Yankees would not have made the playoffs without him - no doubt!

The Yankees failed to sign him over the winter and right before the season started this year.  We all wanted them to sign him, but their GM and ownership failed to do so.  Based on his excellent season (one of the greatest of all time), the Yankees will now have to offer a heck of a lot more money than they would have back in April!  Hopefully, they wallop him enough to keep him away from other teams, including the Mets.  I suggest making him a Captain which they can tie to some extra payout - something other teams can't legitimately separate as an offer.

THE SEASON

The Yankees looked almost unstoppable until August arrived.  Then, they looked like a team with no hitting abilities whatsoever.  I immediately think of the word, "agita" in relation to how I felt during that stressful period.  The good news is that they turned it around during the last month, or so.  Promoting Oswaldo Cabrera certainly helped more than I thought it would - he wasn't even one of their top 3 prospects.  Then, the return of Rizzo and Stanton helped bring our team back to the team we were supposed to have all along.

THE PLAYOFFS

We now go into the playoffs tonight for the ALDS to face one of the winners of the Wildcard, the Cleveland Guardians.  Gerrit Cole starts our first game tonight.  Let's keep our fingers crossed while still trying to clap when needed.  Gerrit has been anything but an ace, especially for us in games like this, such as our Wildcard loss last year.  Hopefully, he pitches well enough to give us this game with Nasty Nestor waiting in the wings.

 STATISTICS FOR HITTERS & PITCHERS

As you all know by now, we are living in an era of overloaded statistics (sabermetrics) in baseball!  Some of the stats are certainly interesting, but way too many of them are ridiculous.  I really hate it when we are trying to watch a game on TV and the announcer(s) begin throwing out one stat after another.  Many times, we have to have grids on our screen on top of the live image of the game.  Over 20 years ago, most of us sought out much simpler stats.  For a hitter, we initially looked immediately at their batting average, homeruns, and RBIs and, secondarily began looking at SLG (Slugging Percentage) and O.P.S. (On-Base plus Slugging Percentage).  For a pitcher, we usually looked at their Wins/Losses, E.R.A. (Earned Run Average), strikeouts, and walks.  Baseball cards still offer such stats with some extra categories, but thankfully haven’t gotten ridiculous {yet}.  Besides, a card would never be able to fit all of the stats currently bandied unless it was done on with the tiniest font!

In some of my past articles, I have mentioned a pitcher’s W.H.I.P (Walks & Hits per Inning Pitched) and in my previous article earlier this week, I introduced W.P.A. (Win Probability Added) for the first time in my writings.  Now, it’s time to emphasize why I think both identify a lot to any baseball fan:

Let’s begin with the pitcher’s W.H.I.P.  As most of you know, pitchers of this generation fall into 3 main categories:  starter, middle reliever, and closer.  A stat such as E.R.A. is not a one-size-fits-all piece of information.  Many relievers (especially closers) come into a game and have to deal with runners already on base.  If the middle relievers or closers do in fact give up some such runs, the inherited runners are not charged against their own personal E.R.A.s.  Hence, an average  middle reliever or closer has a major advantage of sustaining a low E.R.A. which can be deceiving.  A starting pitcher’s wins and losses can sometimes be very misleading.  Ask Jacob deGrom who hasn't gotten a win as often as he should have (only 77 wins with 53 losses) due to a weak bullpen during most of his pitching years as a Met; yet he still achieved a W.H.I.P stat of 1.01.  That scenario helps demonstrate that W.H.I.P. offers a more accurate evaluation of a pitcher.  Whether they’re a starter, middle reliever, or closer, they each individually control the amount of their own personal walks and hits, so no real outside factors distort their W.H.I.P stats.  It's ironic to me, by the way, that W.H.I.P. is becoming more commonly today because I actually used to analyze pitchers by looking at their Walks and Hits per innings pitched (along with their E.R.A.) well over 25 years ago!

As far as hitting stats are concerned, I’m not going to tell you that homeruns, R.B.I.s, batting averages, SLG, and O.P.S. don’t matter because they do!  My reasoning for also loving W.P.A. (Win Probability Added) is that it "collectively" offers a quick glimpse of “one” stat instead of multiple stats; plus, it has more centralized focus of what the hitter truly fails at or succeeds at when the games matter the most, again without outside distortions.  If a hitter has played in the Majors for at least 4 seasons, it's a very useful and defining barometer tool to use.  One of the negatives of it beyond that need is that it's not commonly used by baseball journalists nor is it quickly accessible when reviewing players' stats.  It's, instead, usually buried near the advanced batting stats.

Judging a player's value when the game really matters is a great evaluation of any offensive player.  For instance, last week Joey Gallo hit a two-run homerun when the Yankees led the game in the ninth inning by 7 runs.  That's a demonstration of how misleading it can be if someone was just examining homeruns.  Plenty of players also drive in runs when the game is a slaughter, but often fail when you need a 2-out hit or sacrifice fly.  Yankees’ fans know all about clutch hitters, especially in the playoffs/World Series with Reggie Jackson (Mr. October) and Derek Jeter (Mr. November). 

Neither the W.H.I.P. nor the W.P.A. are perfect stats, but they are usually great single-point indicators of a player. To best use these 2 stats, in my opinion a W.H.I. P. below 1.2 is typically a very good pitcher while one who pitches below the 1.02 calculation is phenomenal!  For the W.P.A. stat, my opinion is that any hitter who achieves a 2.00 often in a season or any hitter with a total number above 5.00 is a very good hitter.  If a player’s stat exceeds a total of 20.00, then he's excellent (and I want him on my team immediately as long as he's under 35 years old)!  Current Yankees who exceed the 20.00 are Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton.

To demonstrate my points of these two stats further, here are the Top 25 Leaders of each:

W.P.A. Leaders (as of 7/22/22)

01) Albert Pujols (69.95)

02) Miguel Cabrera (59.04)

03) Joey Votto (51.63)

04) Mike Trout (47.41)

05) Paul Goldschmidt (41.92)

06) Freddie Freeman (36.54)

07) Bryce Harper (33.89)

08) Anthony Rizzo (31.67)

09) Andrew McCutchen (31.18)

10) Giancarlo Stanton (28.14)

11) Nelson Cruz (25.13)

12) Josh Donaldson (24.83)

13) Christian Yelich (24.01)

14) Mookie Betts (23.21)

15) Nolan Arenado (22.63)

16) Matt Carpenter (21.09)

17) Robinson Canó (19.81)

18) Starling Marte (18.58)

19) Justin Turner (18.07)

20) Justin Upton (17.85)

21) José Abreu (16.64)

22) Michael Brantley (16.62)

23) Kris Bryant (16.22)

24) Carlos Santana (15.73)

25) Charlie Blackmon (15.54)

26) Aaron Judge (14.75)

27) Jose Ramirez (14.26)

28) Eric Hosmer (14.22)

29) Juan Soto (14.15)

30) J.D. Martinez (14.09)

(By the way, Babe Ruth’s W.P.A. was 111.41!!!)

W.H.I.P. Leaders (as of 7/22/22)

01) Shane McClanahan (0.80)

02) Tony Gonsolin (0.84)

03) Justin Verlander (0.88)

04) Corbin Burnes (0.90)

05) Sandy Alcantara (0.90)

06) Aaron Nola (0.91)

07) Miles Mikolas (0.96)

08) Alek Manoah (0.96)

09) Joe Musgrove (0.97)

10) Triston McKenzie (0.98)

11) Gerrit Cole (0.98)

12) Yu Darvish (0.99)

13) Nestor Cortes (1.00)

14) Tyler Anderson (1.02)

15) Julio Urias (1.02)

16) Jordan Montgomery (1.05)

17) Luis Garcia (1.06)

18) Max Fried (1.06)

19) Zac Gallen (1.08)

20) Frankie Montas (1.08)

21) Zack Wheeler (1.08)

22) Pablo Lopez (1.09)

23) Robbie Ray (1.09)

24) Cole Irvin (1.10)

25) Logan Webb (1.10)

 

(By the way, Mariano Rivera had exactly a 1.00 W.H.I.P.)

MIDWAY EVALUATION OF THE NY YANKEES

The Yankees have produced a remarkable year!  It’s the All-Star Break, which is always a good time to evaluate our team.  Here’s my assessment of their performance as they are currently one game beyond the half-way point of the season:

Record

The Yankees currently have the best record in baseball with 64 wins and 28 losses (a .696 winning percentage).  That percentage after 82 games is the third best since the 2001 Mariners (66-26) and 1998 Yankees (68-24).  Their standings hold them 13 games above the second-place Rays, 14.5 over the Blue Jays, 16.5 over the obnoxious Red Sox, and 18 over the Orioles.  Their 28 come-from-behind wins has caused us fans agita, but what the hell – it leads the Majors and always offers us hope!

Pitching

Their pitching staff is the third best in the Majors with a 3.08 E.R.A. (Earned Run Average).  The opposing offense has a meager .214 batting average against us.  We also go into the break with a phenomenal W.H.I.P. (Walks and Hits per Innings Pitched) of 1.08! 

This year’s key starting pitchers include Gerrit Cole.  His record is at 9 wins/2 losses, a 3.02 E.R.A., and a 0.98 W.H.I.P.  {Nasty} Nestor Cortes has 7 wins/3 losses, a 2.63 E.R.A., and a 1.00 W.H.I.P.  The rest of the starting pitchers’ W.H.I.P. is as follows:  Luis Severino (1.07), Jameson Taillon (1.13), and Jordan Montgomery (1.04).  To top all of that, they have J.P. Sears who they’ve called up to spot start and provide some bullpen help.  He seems to have a lot of potential and has proven it so far in his short stint with a 0.95 W.H.I.P.  Having these starters and having someone with talent like Sears makes our starting pitching staff strong.  If the need for Cortes (who is pitching more innings than he has in the past) to lessen his pitches comes along, Sears should be good for that role.  Of course, you can never have enough pitching; so, an acquisition of another great starter would still be welcome - offering us even more flexibility and strength.

In the bullpen, they have two superstars in Clay Holmes and Michael King.  Holmes has 16 saves after being the main closer during Aroldis Chapman’s injury absence.  Chapman had 9 saves earlier in the season and has recently returned but lost his closer role to Holmes.  All of baseball has taken notice of Holmes and his dominating 0.87 W.H.I.P., 1.31 E.R.A., and other successful numbers.  Mainly as a middle reliever, Michael King has also dominated hitters with his W.H.I.P. of 0.95 and 2.19 E.R.A.  In all, the relievers have been well above most teams and offer confidence to us fans.

Hitting

The Yankees have a lot to brag about so far this season including their offense.  It all begins with Aaron Judge.  He has been having an awesome year.  It seems like every broadcast offers a stat comparing him to Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Babe Ruth, and many of the other all-time greats!  Currently, he has smashed 33 homeruns and has an O.P.S. (On-Base Plus Slugging) of .982.  His homerun total is projected to be at least 60 if all goes the same for the rest of the season, which is why Maris is usually mentioned.  

Giancarlo Stanton has also been having a heck of a year so far with 24 homeruns, 61 R.B.I.s, and an .835 O.P.S.  His power has N.A.S.A. considering him to hit their rockets to the moon to save on their gas spend - LOL!  

Other hitters have also contributed including Gleyber Torres who is also having a decent year especially compared to last year.  Then, there’s Matt Carpenter.  He has only been a NY Yankee since the last week in May and, in only 79 at-bats, has produced 13 homeruns, which is an average of 1 homerun for every 6 at-bats!  He has also driven in 34 runs in 31 games!  His current 1.380 O.P.S. is even higher than Judge and almost anyone who has ever played the sport!  Defensively, the man has defended at many varying positions without a gripe and rather effectively.  Such wonderment from him is not expected to carry on throughout the whole season, but all fans have been enjoying the ride enormously!  

Does anyone miss Gary Sanchez?  Our catching offense has been much improved with the recent addition of Jose Treviño (and the defense from him and Higashioka has skyrocketed this season) compared to the Gary Sanchez era.  Treviño has done so well that his Win Probability Added ranks him ahead of the Mets’ Pete Alonso.  

Let's add a very good or an excellent outfielder to our team to stop our bleeding eyes every time we look at Joey Gallo strikeout as he has unfortunately shown that NY is too much for him.  Some critics believe we don't need to add another bat, but anyone who stands still should expect to be passed.  Improvements should be an ongoing thing, especially for "our" Yankees!

Season-Ending Outcome:

It’s easy math to project that the Yankees will win at least 100 games!  That’s a comfortable thought.  Our problem for quite a while is actually getting to the World Series, something we have to do before we can win another one!  The good news this season in regard to that is unless we completely fall apart, we should get the homefield advantage over all teams.  A slight concern would be the Astros, as they are not too far behind us at this moment in time.  To help our cause, as mentioned above, we have is to improve our team.  The infamous trade deadline is weeks away (August 2).  Come on Cashman, you need to be more aggressive this year than you’ve been in recent years.  Let's not just improve slightly, let's topple it ridiculously!  We all want it, and 2009 is fading too far away in our rearview mirror.

GARY SANCHEZ TRADED - MORE ABOUT SUBTRACTION THAN ADDITION

Many Yankees' fans were elated to have learned about last night's trade of Gary Sanchez.  That trade with the Minnesota Twins consisted of Gary and Gio Urshela (our third baseman who was supposed to become our shortstop) packaged to the Twins for Josh Donaldson (3B), Isiah Kiner-Falefa (SS), and Ben Rortvedt (C).

What the fans were not happy about was the fact that it was Donaldson who called out Gerrit Cole last June for using an illegal substance on the baseball.  Various pitchers interviewed about the substance (known as Spider Tack) did not deny it.  Cole uncomfortably danced around the whole issue during a very awkward interview.  A lot of pitchers suddenly began losing their spin rate (including Cole) after the action of inspection of the pitchers was enacted by MLB.  In my opinion, if the batters can use pine tar (George Brett!) and gloves to grip the bat better, then the pitchers should also be able to use something to grip the ball better - as long as the baseball scientists can prove it does not act the same as spit or Vaseline - many baseball players actually support it including some hitters!  They state that it's better that the pitcher has control of where the ball is going as opposed to potentially getting hit with a 99-mph fastball.

Donaldson has always been a fiery ball player.  If he was on our team and accused an opposing pitcher of cheating, most NYY fans would join him with his take, and they would chant some "unfriendly" words towards the pitcher whenever given the chance.  While most are reacting immediately to the attainment of Donaldson affecting Cole, they should also remember Cole's dislike for Sanchez being his catcher!  When the two of them were battery mates, Sanchez would often act like he was daydreaming and not catch Cole's pitches - even some without movement!  Although it was never officially disclaimed by Cole, it was evident by his reactions and by the reaction of Boone that Higgy (Kyle Higashioka) was the preferred catcher.  Each of the recent games that Cole pitched, he was typically matched with Higgy as his battery mate.  Sanchez was demonstrating those catching lapses way too often over the past few years.  His hitting was also becoming a hindrance to the lineup.  I hope he improves in a more relaxed environment in Minnesota, but as a departing NY Yankee, I will simply offer, "Good riddance."

LACKING CELEBRATION

Back in 1980, a group known as, “Kool & the Gang” released a song entitled, “Celebration”.  The year before that, Queen released “We Are the Champions”.  Frustratingly, neither song has fit the Yankees in quite some time!

Shortly after humiliatingly losing the Wildcard game 6-2 back on October 5 this past season to the appalling Red Sox, both Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner strongly indicated that the Yankees would spend again (as the luxury tax was reset).  Over the past 10 days, many teams including the Mets (who signed several good players including one of the best pitchers in baseball, Max Scherzer) have done what “they” were supposed to do.  On the other hand, the Yankees have only re-signed one so-so relief pitcher (Joely Rodriguez) and added one utility infielder (José Peraza) through free agency who is set to report to their AAA team!  During the last 10 days, the Yankees have also lost Clint Frazier, Roughned Odor, and Tyler Wade who were each exposed to the Rule 5 Draft.  Additionally, both Hal and Brian mentioned that a shortstop was their number one target.  Really?  We just saw the Texas Rangers sign the second-best shortstop (Corey Seager) in the game yesterday.  Another very good offensive hitting shortstop, Javier Baez (formerly of the Mets), just signed with the Tigers (his numbers were good, but his attitude is questionable).  The Rangers also recently signed Marcus Seiman, another very good shortstop.  The best shortstop, Carlos Correa is still a Free Agent, but who knows how good he really is without cheating?  I believe he is still an excellent player who didn’t need the cheating (sort of like Barry Bonds was before steroids).  Correa has also shown plenty of immaturity including attacking Derek Jeter by stating that Jeter did not deserve any of his six gold gloves.  Not many Yankees’ fans are eager to add him and his arrogance to our team!

That makes Trevor Story as the only decent free-agent shortstop available.  He has been playing in Coors Field for the Rockies, which typically adds a lot of offense to players’ numbers.  Story is no different hitting just .241 on the road.  On the other hand, numbers per  

https://www.lonestarball.com/2021/11/29/22804648/trevor-story-home-road-splits-adjustments-colorado-rockies-coors-fieldm 

demonstrate that many players have actually produced decent offensive stats once they get readjusted by the second or third game away from Coors Field.  At 29 years old, Story would be a very good fit for the Yankees, especially as they have three shortstop prospects (Anthony Volpe, Oswald Peraza, & Trey Sweeney) who are 1-2 years away from potentially playing in the big leagues.

Some more free agents will be made available by 8:00 pm tomorrow when non-tendered players become obtainable.  (The deadline was moved a few days earlier due to the possible (and more than likely) upcoming MLB lockout, as the players’ union and the owners are seemingly too far apart on a new deal for the new Collective Bargaining Agreement.)  Luke Voit, Gary Sanchez, and Miguel Andujar could each be affected if the Yankees fail to offer them a tendered contract.  I doubt Voit or Sanchez will be simply let go by the Yankees without a return.  They both offer at least some value to others, should a trade be proposed.  On the other hand, Matthew Boyd of the Detroit Tigers is a starting pitcher who is expected to become available – mostly due to his ongoing flexor tendon recovery.  He’s certainly a worthy Free Agent selection, should the Yankees be able to sign him.

The Yankees’ fans have been waiting long enough for some major improvements.  It’s time to give up on Gary Sanchez and, yes, Brett Gardner.  Neither has led us to a championship.  Gardner has been a very good player for us in the past but over the last few years, he’s just been “okay” and has basically been our fourth outfielder in way of offense, even though he has technically acted as our third outfielder in way of substituting for others (mainly Aaron Hicks) defensively.  I don’t think any Yankees’ fan wants to see Hicks being counted on as our 2022 centerfielder.  He’s almost as bad as Ellsbury in terms of injuries!

Hey, Brian and Hal, WAKE UP!!!  We need a lot of Celebration from the two of you!!!

SALVAGEABLE SEASON?

As of today, the Yankees are 53-48.  With 61 games to go, that projects to become a season-ending record of 85-77 which is 8 wins less than I had projected back in the beginning of this season.  Like it or not, there are always logical reasons for failures to attain achievements.  In the Yankees’ case it’s been mainly their lack of timely hitting.  Embarrassingly, they are amongst the worst in the Majors! 
 
Yes, they’ve had a lot of COVID-19 issues in the early part of the season and most recently, but even with them experiencing more conditions than most teams, it’s not a qualifying excuse for them during this season.  All of their hitters have failed.  While Aaron Judge is having an “okay” season, he too has failed too many times with runners in scoring position.  Not only do they fail to drive runs home during such cases, but they also often ground into rally-ending double plays.
 
With all of that said, the Yankees’ front office has finally offered their fans hope for this season.  In the past 2 days, they’ve acquired 2 great lefty-hitting All Stars, Joey Gallo (from the Texas Rangers) and Anthony Rizzo (from the Chicago Cubs) without spending any great deal of money and without giving up any foreseeable great talent.  For years, all of the true Yankees’ fans have known that our lineup has been lacking lefty hitters.  As I’ve mentioned in the past, from the time of Babe Ruth, our original stadium’s dimensions were designed purposely to offer an advantage of lefty hitters and lefty pitchers.  Our new stadium was built with the same continuing concept.  Gene Michael built our last dominating championship team with the stadium dimensions as part of his analyses of players.  We finally produced a fitting lineup for our stadium – something neglected for too many years recently.  It will also offset the opposing pitchers’ ability to pinpoint their pitches easily.
 
Joey Gallo
I’ve already heard the rumblings that Gallo strikes out too much and is just like a lot of our players because of that aspect.  Well, yes, he does strike out a lot, but in his case those strikeouts ARE the bulk of his outs.  In other words, he will simply have less groundouts or fly balls.  With less groundouts, he will also ground into less double plays!  Furthermore, he has more walks (currently 74) than anyone in the league!  Earl Weaver (a former Hall of Fame manager of the Baltimore Orioles) used to preach that he’d rather have a hitter strike out (causing one out) than hitting into a double play (causing two outs).  He’s an excellent right fielder who won a Gold Glove in 2020 who also offers versatility with his ability to also play left or center field and even some first base. 
 
In summary:  Gallo is only 27 years old; his contract is very affordable with another season left on it; he’s an All Star; he’s won a Gold Glove; he’s a power hitter; hits lefty which will help our top righty hitters gain better pitches; and his swing will fit Yankee Stadium’s dimensions for added homeruns.  Joey Gallo will add a lot of value to this current lineup.
 
Anthony Rizzo
Someone must have forced Brian Cashman to drink a lot of caffeine this week!  He pulled off his second presumable steal-of-a-deal within a few days with the acquisition of Anthony Rizzo.  The Yankees have not only lacked lefty hitters, but they’ve also lacked a first baseman who has won Gold Gloves.  To find the last Gold Glove first baseman in pinstripes you’d have to go back to 2012 when Mark Teixeira won the award (he also won Gold Gloves as a Yankee in 2009 & 2010).  At first base, to win a Gold Glove you have a great start with being a lefty, something we’ve lacked in our lineup and at first.
 
Rizzo not only offers to be a premium defensive first baseman, but he also offers to be a very good hitter!  Currently, he his hitting .248 with 14 homeruns and 40 RBIs.  He’s already been on a World Series Championship Team (the Cubs in 2016) where he hit .410 with 3 homeruns.  Of course, all Yankees’ fans appreciate players who can produce during the most challenging games – those of the post-season.  Rizzo’s power has been diminishing somewhat, but (just like Gallo) Yankee Stadium’s right field will help him gain a few more back.
 
Rizzo is about to turn 32 years old, which is not as young as Gallo, but he’s not as old as Gardner either.  He offers a decent batting average during a year in which pitchers have been proven to be “enhancing” their spin rates; has won 4 Gold Gloves (2016, 2018, 2019, and 2020); offers fun character to the clubhouse (this dude supposedly ran around naked to the Rocky theme to rile his team); hits lefty which will (just like Gallo) help our top righty hitters gain better pitches to hit and add a few more homeruns to his individual total; and is still one of the best overall hitters in the game.  Rizzo being a Yankee has certainly added value to our 2021 team.

[Note:  The Yankees also attained lefty starter Andrew Heaney (from the Angels) and lefty reliever Joely Rodriguez (from the Rangers in a package with Gallo).]

 BACK TO NORMAL?

Well, this season begins with more hope than last - but, still with COVID-19 reservations.  Such reservations didn’t hesitate to show up on the first day of baseball with the Washington Nationals having 4 players who tested positive for COVID-19 and 5 others who were within contact.  It ultimately postponed the Nationals’ opening series against the Mets.  We can only hope that this season has many less obstacles than last, especially with high volumes of vaccines continuing to be administered each day.  At least this season will begin with up to 20% of each stadium’s capacity of fans rooting in the stands.

With that topic out of the way, I want to concentrate the rest of this article discussing…THE NY YANKEES!

 

Yesterday, we lost our opener in Yankee Stadium.  Our lack of timely hitting reminded me too much of our failures over the last few years.  On paper, our lineup is scary - mostly loaded with power threats.  This team needs to improve upon their RBI success during periods that demand it. 

 

HITTING:

Most Yankees’ fans are quick to critique the failures from Yankees with the initials, "G.S" - George received similar critique when he was the owner. In this case it's players, Giancarlo Stanton and Gary Sanchez.  Well, it’s time for the Aarons, not named Hank, to come through!  Aaron Judge and Aaron Hicks are very talented, but it’s time for their heroics to happen at the right times.  Don’t get me wrong, I am a fan of both, especially Judge.  I love his defense (although not so much yesterday) including his quarterback-like arm.  His power scares opposing pitchers, which is why they pitch all around the strike zone.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t stop them from that strategy anymore than Hicks does.  They are often looking for the home-plate umpire to call a ball here and there and accept walks way too gracefully.  They should instead study some videos of players like Yogi Berra.  It didn’t matter where the ball was, when he needed to bring a runner home, he took on the ball, not the pitcher.  If these two Aarons did that once in a while, the pitchers would no longer have a successful strategy against them!  Our lineup looks and should be great, they just have to hit in the clutch more often!

 

STARTING PITCHING:

As for our starting pitching this season, I feel confident we have a very good group.  The staff isn’t exactly filled with 5 aces, but it is filled with very capable starters.  Of course, just like any pitching staff, health matters.  Gerrit Cole, Corey Kluber, Domingo German, Jameson Taillon, and Jordan Montgomery are a force to be reckoned compared to any other 5 starters in all of baseball, even with the lack of innings pitched from the middle of our pact over the past two years.  On top of that, they have Luis Severino due back by mid-season.

 

BULLPEN:

The bullpen is good, but not great.  Aroldis Chapman, whose 100+ MPH fastball used to be unique, is not as effective as it was a few years ago because more-and-more pitchers have also reached above 100 MPH on their fastballs.  That has given the hitters more practice at catching up to that speed - and they have proved it.  Still, we have a group in the bullpen that is better than most of our competitors.

 

DEFENSE:

Lastly, our defense has to be measured.  For the outfield, as mentioned, Judge in right is typically excellent, Hicks in center is decent, and Frazier in left is better than it used to be by him.  Our infield begins with our first-baseman, Voit (when he get back in a few weeks from the IL).  He is good defensively - of course no where nearly as good as Don Mattingly!  LeMahieu is very good at second, Gleyber Torres is somewhat weak as a shortstop, and Gio Urshela is a great third baseman, nearly as good as Graig Nettles!

 

PREDICTION:

Our division is not too strong this season.  That alone will help the Yankees win many games.  If the season successfully reaches 162 games, I predict the Yankees could win at least 93 games as long as they withstand decent health.

2020 - A SEASON FOR IMPLEMENTING ASTERISKS

Games or No Games

This is the year in which our country led other countries in something no one would ever want to lead - deaths.  Over 120,000 Americans died from the world’s most tragic viral pandemic, COVID-19 (RIP to those souls).

As a result, this baseball season has yet to begin.  This past March, cautionary measures were put into place throughout the United States aimed to lessen the transmission of COVID-19, including staying at least 6’ away from one another.  With that restriction, alone, fans would not be able to sit or walk near each other, the players would also have to stay away from each other, and the umpires would have to position themselves at least 6’ from the players and the bases.  Many other obstacles became apparently concerning such as touching the baseball.  For instance, if the virus is transmittable via touch, how could the players throw the ball after it was touched by another player?  The same concern is with fielding the ball.  Regular gloves are not made for professionals to grip and complete their expected accurate throws.  (Perhaps that need could be an idea for inventors and entrepreneurs to consider.)

Recently, some of the restricted measures by well-governed states had indeed lessened occurrences of COVID-19 related deaths, including New York State, which originally had, by far, the most incidents.  Since March, New York’s stringent restrictions apparently worked.  In contrast, some states lightened up on their restrictions and have since incurred increased cases and deaths.  Over the last few months, other sports began considering opening their seasons as their owners and players worked together.  But, most recently, about half of the United States began having increased cases of COVID-19, so the other sports began reconsidering their plans to restart (at least for now).

MLB’s team owners and players’ union also thought about starting the season, but they did what “they” always do, argue with each other over revenue and salaries.  Their biggest obstacle became themselves, not COVID-19.  Due to the lack of any peaceful resolution between the two parties, the commissioner of MLB (Rob Manfred) implemented his right to force 60 games to take place this season, beginning July 23.  Of course, that condition could (just like the other aforementioned sports) be changed if COVID-19 gets too far out of hand.

My opinion, which I felt for at least two months, was NOT to have a season this year.  I do not want teams playing 60 regular season games and then having to play 10 or more games of that total for playoff games.  To me, the ratio is asinine!  Additionally, the World Series winner would be discredited by almost everyone except the awarded “Champion Team’s” fan base.

No matter what happens, THE 2020 SEASON SHOULD NOW HAVE AN ASTERISK.

Conventional Sign-Stealing in Baseball

Before I even begin talking about the fines & penalties received by the Houston Astros and the Boston Red Sox over the past few months, I need to explain what happened back in 2017 with the Yankees and the Red Sox.  Each were accused of sign-stealing by one another.  The Red Sox used an Apple watch to transmit their opposing teams’ signs to the Red Sox players while the Yankees used the YES Network replays to help decipher patterns.  That practice by the Yankees was not considered an issue with MLB as other teams do that, too.  Also, some of the Yankees’ players and coaches used their bullpen phone as a form of communication from the bullpen to the dugout in a similar attempt to help decipher pitch patterns.  The investigation of the Yankees determined that the “substance of the communications was NOT A VIOLATION”.  In the end, both teams were reprimanded by the Commissioner and issued a fine.  Then, ALL teams were warned not to utilize any form of electronics or any other unconventional sign-stealing and, if they did, strong penalties would be implemented including the loss of draft picks.   [Recently, a group of Draft King users have requested for the secured investigational findings against the Yankees to be reopened as betting fans are trying to make an alleged case that they lost money because the Yankees may have had an advantage to win.]

Of course, as most baseball fans know, “conventional” sign-stealing has taken place by ALL MLB teams for over 125 years.  An example would be an opposing team’s third base coach deciphering their catcher’s signs to their pitcher and, in turn, immediately sending the batter a signal identifying what pitch was about to be thrown.  Predetermined signals from the third base coach are then illustrated to the hitter such as the coach touching his cap twice or turning his body in a certain direction.  Conventional sign-stealing is also attempted without any electronic devices.

VERY UNCONVENTIONAL CHEATING

Remember what I said above?  “ALL teams were warned not to utilize any form of electronics or any other unconventional sign-stealing and, if they did, strong penalties would be implemented including the loss of draft picks.”  Well, both the Red Sox (the first team that initiated the cause of the threat) and the Astros completely ignored that warning and executed very unconventional cheating.  After the warning was issued, they both used electronics and other means to not only decipher patterns of pitches, but to also signal the information to their batters in a LIVE manner. 

The Astros, for instance, orchestrated the use of their centerfield camera to read the opposing catcher’s signals and then communicated directly to the area outside of the dugout where garbage pails were placed to act as drum instruments.  The amount of times the drums were pounded represented a sound to the hitter to know what pitch was coming his way.  The punishment, after a very long investigation, was for their manager (AJ Hinch) and General Manager (Jeff Luhnow) to be suspended for a year without pay.  The team, instead, decided to subsequently fire them.  Their Assistant General Manager (Brandon Taubman) received a lifetime ban.  The Astros were also fined a mere $5 million and stripped of their 2020 & 2021 first and second round draft picks.  They won the World Series that year so many feel they should have been stripped of their title or, at least, THE 2017 SEASON SHOULD NOW HAVE AN ASTERISK.  During the beginning of Spring Training this year (before the COVID-19 stoppage), opposing teams were drilling them with pitches.

As for the Red Sox, they also orchestrated the usage of electronics (in 2018) to transmit live data to their batters even after only 1 year of their previous fine and warning by the commissioner!  The details of their wrongdoing were not made public.  They too won a World Series and, like the Astros received a lot of hate from ticked off players and coaches from opposing teams and retired players.  Many of them also felt they should have had their title stripped.  Instead, they were probably going to receive a suspension of their Manager (Alex Cora), but they quickly mutually agreed to part ways to avoid further scrutiny and bad publicity.  Their Replay Operator (J.T. Watkins) was suspended for a year and they lost their second-round draft pick for 2020.  During that year, Carlos Beltran was also involved so the Mets fired him shortly after they hired him to be their Manager, to avoid any more bad publicity for them.  As usual, MLB treated the Red Sox gently – what a surprise!

Just like the Astros won the World Series in 2017 and was found in violation, the Red Sox won the World Series in 2018 after being found in violation.  So, likewise, THE 2017 SEASON SHOULD NOW HAVE AN ASTERISK.

In summary of this lengthy article, in the last 6 months between two severe investigation outcomes and the scheduled shortened season there are now 3 World Series Championships that deserve asterisks - the 2017, 2018, and 2020 seasons.  You may look at that and see one glimmer of hope, the 2019 season.  Well, I hate to disappoint you, but that one is currently in question.  That's because the Astros (yes, them again) have been accused by many that they cheated during the 2019 season and especially during the playoffs.  In fact, it was during the winning playoff game against the Yankees which incurred the main cause of doubt by many baseball fans (not just Yankees' fans) because the video replay of the winning homerun by José Altuve against Aroldis Chapman became very controversial.  As he rounded the bases, he shouted and illustrated to his teammates not to touch his shirt.  Once he crossed home plate, scoring the winning run, he avoided his teammates somewhat (like he was a breakable piece of glass) and ignored the broadcaster while scurrying to the dugout to change his shirt before immediately returning to the field for the interview.  The video also showed some type of bump under his shirt.  Many feel he was wired with cheating devices divulging what pitch was coming!

Wow, a lot of asterisks alongside World Series' notations are needed!!

HEALTH

Now that Spring Training has begun, each of the 30 teams has a refreshed hope.  The Win/Loss counter is set to 0/0 again.  With MLB considering adding more “qualifying” teams to the playoffs soon, the best teams should currently expedite their World Series’ goal before sub-.500 teams qualify as playoff teams.  Adding failing, undeserving teams will water down the matchups and factor more luck into the odds of winning.  Obviously, I completely dislike the new proposal as I feel failed seasonal teams don’t deserve to be rewarded (a story for a future blog).

The Yankees are already favored as either the top team or one of the top teams.  Last year, the Yankees had 30 different players on the Injured List (IL) and they’re already off to another awful injury trend with James Paxton (who just had back surgery about a week ago) and Luis Severino (who announced today that he will undergo the infamous Tommy John Surgery).  Paxton is expected to be pitching sometime around June and, now, Severino will not be able to pitch until sometime next season.

Just like last season, the Yankees do have some reserve players (in this specific case, pitchers) including Clarke Schmidt and Michael King (both righties who seem to be the closest rookies to being ready for the big leagues).  King is said to be slightly ahead of Schmidt in terms of reaching the majors first.  His two-seam fastball induces many of his outs via groundballs, which would surely be an advantage if the (superball) baseball is wound as tightly as it was last season.  Additionally, Jordan Montgomery returned at the end of last season from his Tommy John surgery and should be ready as a starter this season.  By the way, ironically, it was Tommy John who (before his forever-known surgery) was well known to have an awesome groundball-inducing pitch, too!  I love his 12-to-6 sinking pitches (envision a pitch going from the 12 of an analog clock to the 6).  Other pitchers have been in queue for more than a year, but none of them have been overwhelming enough, at least at his point, to enthusiastically qualify, if fans (including me) were the decision-makers.  Hopefully, the new crop of rookies and Montgomery will shine!

As for the NYY’s offense, we will always have to worry about the 3 big (physically) guys:  Gary Sanchez, Giancarlo Stanton, and Aaron Judge.  Their large, physical structure is seemingly more vulnerable to injuries (just like a lot of the large-physique players in the game, now and in the past).  Adding to their IL chances is the fact that Sanchez is a catcher and that Judge dives viciously into the ground during his defense and during his base-stealing efforts.

Even though we’ve already begun showing health issues, the key for this talented team is to be a lot healthier this season than last and to not overwhelm our reliance on too many of our reserves.  If that improvement is significant enough this season, then we will certainly be playoff bound, once again.  Decent health will definitely help the Yankees have a very good chance of achieving their 28^th World Series Championship in 2020 with this phenomenal team.

A DREAM COME TRUE:  “YANKEE FAN TODAY TOMORROW FOREVER”

Finally, the Yankees signed an ace!!  Every offseason and every trading deadline most Yankees’ fans (including me) have expressed a strong desire for the Yankees to sign a premium starting pitcher.  Well, the Steinbrenners and Brian Cashman have finally inked such a deal for one of the best 3 starting pitchers in today’s game…Gerrit Cole.  The deal is generically valued at $324 million for 9 years.  Last year, Gerrit had a 0.895 WHIP (anything below 1.0 is superb) and struck out 326 batters!  He just turned 29, so he’s just begun his prime years as a starting pitcher. As for the playoffs, his performance is amongst the best of all time, including a WHIP of 0.868.

With Paxton supposedly resolving his pitching flaws (briefly demonstrated in the latter half of last season once he was forced to use his overwhelming curveball), with Tanaka also proving to be a top-notch playoff pitcher, and with the “potential” of Severino’s health bringing him back to where he was prior to the injuries, the Yankees have a heck of a starting pitching rotation.  In fact, many of the so-called experts have already judged them to have the best starting pitching in the game!  When’s the last time you ever heard that declaration from them?

Also, remember that every major additional transaction to a team also creates a subtraction from the team he left.  In this case, it’s the cheating Astros who suffer the consequences.  The Yankees coveted Gerrit Cole since 2008 during the MLB Draft and tried to trade for him in 2017.  Now, thankfully, he’s a Yankee! 

PEEK-A-BOOOOOOOOOO!

Well, another year whereby the Yankees lost to the Astros – this time 4 games to 2.  Most of the games were close, but the Yankees did discover one key thing that would inevitably disable the Astros when they ultimately faced the Nationals for the World Series Championship.  That key thing was the Yankees’ accusation (which later became fact) that the Astros were cheating via the usage of a TV camera and then a manual signal to their hitters identifying the pitches.  Coincidentally (cough, cough), right after the Yankees accusation, the Astros would only then win one more game in their own ballpark, which ended up being a nail-biter.  The Nationals would later win every World Series game in Houston (and vice-versa).

The Astros, by the way, are currently being investigated by the MLB Commissioner’s Office based on several of their former players (initially identified by one of their former pitchers, Mike Fiers) who have confirmed that the Astros used a TV camera and other accompanying tools to identify pitches to their batters.  MLB has since interviewed almost 60 witnesses and reviewed over 70,000 emails!  The Commissioner (Rob Manfred) has already admitted to a “discipline” being weighed.  They are investigating this past season and the two prior seasons (yes, that obviously includes 2017 when the Astros, again, had defeated the Yankees in the playoffs.

While I am clearly and rightfully griping about the Astros’ cheating efforts, the Yankees certainly contributed to their own demise during the playoffs this past October.  Mainly, they continually failed to hit in the clutch during the series.  For that to have persistently happened, there’s no excuse!  Yes, the Astros cheated, but if the Yankees had produced RBIs with the multitude of runners who were left stranded, they may have overtaken the cheating.

CAN THE NYY “ASTRO”NOMICALLY DEFEAT THIS SEASON’S WINNINGEST TEAM?

Earlier this week the Yankees swept the Minnesota Twins and won the American League Division Series Championship.  Now, beginning tomorrow, they will face their most adverse competitor this season, the Houston Astros.  I have believed for several months that the Astros are the best team in all of baseball.  I’ve also believed that the Yankees have been the second best.

At this point in time, I actually think (for this series) that the Yankees are slightly better than the Astros only because the Astros used a lot of their ammunition to ward off the Tampa Bay Rays during their full 5-game series.  While the Yankees might have too much rest (it will be 4 full days), the Astros had panicked in Game 4 against the Rays and used their ace, Justin Verlander, on only 3 days of rest in which the Rays scored 3 runs in his first inning.  It was clear that he was exerting himself to throw fastballs. 

Too often, managers tend to make erroneous decisions during the playoffs.  If a team has a decent bullpen, why not use them?  Why change it up and slight the bullpen pitchers who got you to the playoffs?

Besides the fact that the Astros ended up losing Verlander’s short-rested game, the other negativity for them is that they can’t use him in tomorrow’s first American League Championship Series.  Instead, they are forced to use their third best starter (Zack Greinke).

Additionally, because the Astros had to start their second-best pitcher (Gerrit Cole) last night, he is also not available right away for their series against the Yankees.  He will now not be able to pitch until the third game of the series. 

So, yes, the Yankees have had way too much rest this week and, yes, the Astros will have a collectively potential homefield advantage; but I believe those conditions are not as disadvantageous as the Astros’ misaligned opposing starting pitching.  It was only 2 years ago when the Astros defeated the Yankees in the playoffs (4 games to 3).  I am hoping that the Yankees can win this time – which may again take 7 games because of the tight matchup.