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.

FINALLY (LEFTIES, THE GENE MICHAEL WAY)

Gene Michael Way

When Yankee Stadium was originally built in 1923, the layout was purposely structured towards the advantage of lefty pitchers and lefty hitters - mainly with a short-distanced right field wall.  Thus, it was common for the Yankees' decisionmakers to offer some extra focus on developing and acquiring a decent amount of lefty hitters and pitchers.  Of course, there are more righties in this world, so true lefty talent is limited to find and acquire.

Gene Michael played for the Yankees and was a switch-hitter.  That lefty-hitting option helped him learn the advantages of the stadium's dimensions.  He also served within the Yankees' organization as a coach, scout, manager, and executive.  During his tenure and through his multiple roles, he ultimately helped  the Yankees win championships in 1977, 1978, 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000.  For the 1977 championship he was the Yankees' Chief Scout, and Reggie Jackson credited Gene for guidance that led to his 3 consecutive homeruns in one game during the 1977 World Series.  For the 1978 championship team, he was their bench coach for both managers Billy Martin and Bob Lemon helping to offer some form of stability and guidance for the players.  For the 4 championships in the 1990s, he was the VP of their scouting department, ensuring to help attain and keep some key lefty hitters including:  Paul O'Neill, Wade Boggs, Tino Martinez, David Justice, Darryl Strawberry, and switch-hitters Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams, and Tim Raines.  He also had the same involvement with the likes of key lefty pitchers including: Andy Pettitte, David Wells, and Jimmy Key.  In our last championship (2009) he continued his influence with the likes of lefty hitters:  Hideki Matsui, Robinson Cano, Johnny Damon, and switch-hitters Mark Teixeira and (once again) Jorge Posada.

Brian Cashman worked in the Yankees front office since 1986.  There, he experienced (and typically reported to Gene Michael).  He, Buck Showalter, Lou Piniella and so many others have commonly credited Gene with teaching them so much about his proven strategies.  For unknown and very frustrating reasons, Cashman stopped focusing on acquiring  a slight overage of quality lefty pitchers and, especially, of quality lefty hitters.  Cashman basically erased his learned knowledge from Gene Michael in planning the need for a decent amount of quality lefties for the team's roster.

FINALLY, for our 2024 season, Brian Cashman refreshed his memory of what he was taught to do in order to construct the best team who played 50% of their games in Yankee Stadium.  Of course, Yankee Stadium is a different stadium than it was prior to 2009 but its dimensions are similarly laid out (on purpose).  So, the same World Championship strategies would still suffice!  I am sure that, over the past winter, Cashman was scrutinized by Hal Steinbrenner after so much public fallout from the fans and felt his job was soon to be on the line.  I believe it, indeed, was!

Now, with the new signings of lefty hitting outfielders Juan Soto, Alex Verdugo, and Trent Grisham joining our current lefty infielders Anthony Rizzo and Austin Wells, our lineup not only provides the advantages of Yankee Stadium's dimensions, but also provides a lot more challenges in general to the opposing pitchers and managers. Additionally, both Soto and Verdugo offer a lot of spunk and energy for the Yankees' teammates and their worldwide fans, traits that have been missing for a while. Furthermore, Soto batting directly before Judge will, alone, drive our opposing pitchers out of their minds and will certainly produce a lot of runs!  As for our relievers, Cashman added Victor González and a few unknown lefty hopefuls who I'm sure Matt Blake (perhaps the best pitching coach in baseball today) will enhance as he usually does for our pitching acquisitions.  

Our starting pitching should be a solid mix with the likes of our incumbent group of lefties Nestor Cortes and Carlos Rodón, along with our righties Clarke Schmidt, and the "Cy Young Award" winner, Gerrit Cole (once he returns from the Injured List).  To make it even stronger, Cashman signed free-agent righty Marcus Stroman (a bulldog pitcher) - another character who will undoubtedly add spunk.  That makes our early pitching starters group with at least 40% lefties.  We also have some AAA lefties in queue when needed.  Wow, who would have thought to include a decent amount of lefty hitters and lefty pitchers on our 25- and 40-man rosters collectively?  Oh, I know...Gene Michael!!!

[Let's hope we win at least 92 games this season.] 

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A DOWN YEAR

Well, the Yankees sure found a way to suck some of the life out us fans so far this year!   Currently, our record is 59 wins/56 losses.  Because our division is the only division with every team above .500, we are (by .008) in last place 5.5 games out of the lowest-tiered Wildcard and 11.5 games behind the division's leading Orioles.  Being close to a .500 team is disgraceful to all spoiled (including me) Yankees' fans!  Not only have we been slightly above that mark this year, but we have carried that so-so record since the beginning of last August!  Again...disgraceful!!

Fans, reporters, media, and anyone else following the Yankees all have opinions of who to blame for this disappointing team.  I've mainly heard chants from the stadium, "Fire Cashman".  Boone is and has almost always been another vote of most of the fans to be fired, too.  Of course, I have my own opinions and here they are...

First of all, I need to mention that I can typically find one key thing wrong when I opine, but certainly not this time.  Most analysts have stated that the Yankees didn't just have injuries this season, but the most key ones collectively in all of baseball.  I agree.  With that said, it's certainly not the only reason.  Besides the High Volume of Injuries that every fan already knows about, here are 4 more reasons I feel we grossly underachieved:

Brian Cashman - Over his ~25 years as GM of the Yankees, Cashman has truly done a lot.  Every GM has their own hits and misses (ha, ha).  Cashman has proven himself more times than he's failed.  The problem is that he's gotten progressively worse, especially over the past few years.

Beginning with his positives, he's found many diamond in the ruff players here and there through trades such as Luke Voit, Gleyber Torres, Nick Swisher, Didi Gregorius, and Harrison Bader.  He's also signed some key free agents who certainly contributed to our successful years with the likes of CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, Johnny Damon, El Duque, Matt Carpenter, Hideki Matsui, and Mike Mussina.

Cashman's notable negative acquisitions over his tenure include some absolute busts such as Frankie Montas, Jacoby Ellsbury (played 4 of the 7 years signed),  Chan Ho Park, Nick Johnson (brought back when he was 31 years old and totally washed up), Carl Pavano (perhaps Cashman's 2nd worst signing), and Kei Igawa (Cashman's worst signing of all via a $26 million bid and another $20 million for a 5-year contract in which he pitched only 16 games with a 6.66 ERA).

Now, getting back to my point that Cashman has progressively worsened:  For the past couple of years, Cashman has nobly done charitable things for certain causes, but at the worst freaking times!  There are a few key days in which a GM should offer full attention to enhancing the team he/she is responsible.  One is during the period of the Winter Meetings and the other is during the final days and hours before the annual trade deadline.  Instead, we have to see Cashman climb buildings and sleep outside in a sleeping bag - both for charities.  Again, I am absolutely not against drives for charities, but I am for an employee (Cashman) to fulfill his/her job especially during the most pressing periods.  Accounting personnel in any field are usually asked to avoid taking any time off during month-end periods.  Cashman gets paid rather well from the Yankees' organization and certainly well enough to make direct financial contributions in order to avoid such conflicting periods.  This latest point is the main reason why I presently agree with those who want to fire Cashman.  He's clearly lost interest in his job which, in turn, becomes offensive to the fans who pay money towards the team and spend their personal time watching them.  We fans are dedicated and have every right to expect our team's GM to do what's best for our team and, ultimately for us, too.

Aaron Boone - I have never been a full supporter of Boone from the time he was hired in 2018.  In fact, most Yankees' fans have not supported him, either.  I believe he makes plenty of blunders and head-scratching decisions.  I've also heard that some decisions such as making up the lineups are strongly dictated to him - similar to what most teams do these days.  There's no doubt that Boone shows passion towards wanting to win. He's also a pro at avoiding bashing any of his coaches or players.  He is certainly a showman when it comes to his arguments with umpires, including the one the other day in which he drew a line along home plate to show the umpire how wide his strike zone is and then topped it off my emulating the umpire's arm gestures upon calling strikes.  In fairness, Boone has a very good winning percentage (.591) as a manager for the Yankees.  Don't just think that the payroll we have supports that record!  Read my Cashman review above and the other factors summarized below, and you'll see that Boone has actually been a major juggler trying to attain that winning record!  I feel that we could probably find someone better than Boone; but not overly better if the Yankees continue to handcuff the manager from making his own decisions with the lineups and they don't improve the other factors in this article.

The Team's Doctors - While I already cited the injuries as a factor, I must zero in on the doctors for a very specific wrongdoing that has enormously contributed to this year's failures.  I can't even begin to express how pissed off I am with the Yankees' Doctors this year more than any other year!  One or more of them should have their licenses removed!  What the h--l were they thinking when they okayed Rizzo to return after his head and neck were jammed via a collision with Fernando Tatis Jr. during a running play at first base?  I get that MLB has a medical examination protocol and supposedly everything tested showed Rizzo as being fine at the time; but, knowing that concussions can sometimes take months to detect, where was the follow-up?  Rizzo played baseball from that time (May 28) as if he was 2023's Josh Donaldson at the plate (now, that's insulting)!  Did any of our doctors have a clue?  Yeah, they had one GIANT clue, Rizzo's hitting did a 180 (almost his average this season by the way).  Our doctors are unquestionably Jerks and they could have conceivably cost Rizzo his life.  The man is standing within inches of fastballs that are traveling in his vicinity at a rate of 92-103 miles per hour.  Rizzo, who typically gets hit often enough when he's healthy, could have easily misjudged a reaction to getting out of the way as accurately as possible due to his recently remarked dizziness and sporadic unawareness!  Again...JERKS!!

The Sabermetricians/Analysts - Enough already!!  All teams are using sabermetrics.  Some are overusing them.  The Yankees seem to be one of those teams that are overusing them.  Yet, in my opinion, the Yankees' biggest failure in using sabermetrics this year has been related to them being more wrong that they're right.  Any fan can tell you that!  Yet, we keep doing it over and over again...yup, the definition of insanity.  We need to lure one of the sabermetricians from the Tampa Bay Rays! 

Now that you've (hopefully) read my long-winded article, you know our biggest fix would be to fire Cashman.  Not just because of what I wrote in his summary, but also because of the other portions.  He is ultimately the guy who is supposed to monitor the performances of the manager, doctors, and sabermetricians.  Cashman has been with our organization since the mid-80s.  Even George thought highly of him and was involved in making him our GM ~12 years later.  Hal Steinbrenner also supports Cashman.  In fact, this past year, he committed a 4-year contract with Cashman, which support him for another 3 seasons!  Hal is typically a stickler for honoring contracts, although he finally okayed the release of Aaron Hicks.

This past season, the Yankees brought back Brian Sabean, who they should have never let go!  He won 3 World Series as a GM of the Giants, a team that didn't always offer an overly open check to players. He has been very respected for identifying talent (he had a lot to do with drafting Madison Bumgarner, Matt Cain, and Tim Lincecum) and also has the ability to find his own diamonds in the ruff from other teams.  In the Giants' organization, he was later promoted to Executive VP of Baseball Operations.  Currently, his Yankees' role is merely, Executive Advisor to...drum roll...Brian Cashman.  Let's do it!  If Hal is so against ridding himself of Cashman, then let's park him with a role that buries him in the background enough to let Sabean call most of the shots.

First 3 Songs of one of the greatest albums of all time:

1) I Feel the Earth Move

    {Judge's Smashing Catch.}

2) So Far Away

    {Where the NYY are today.}

3) It's Too Late

   {Let's not get to this point!}

BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!

As of today, the NYY have almost reached the half-way mark of the season with a record of 39-33.  Looking at that, 6 games over .500 doesn't seem bad, but it is!  We have lost 7 of our last 10 games and our division is led by a Rays' team with a 51-24 record!  

Furthermore, another team is ahead of us in the standings and it's not even the Blue Jays (who are only 1 game behind us), it's the Orioles at 44-27!  Believe me, that's not a typo!!  In fact, all of the teams in our division are above .500.  The American League's Central Division has only one team above .500 (Twins) and the Western Division has 3 teams above .500 led by the Texas Rangers.

As mentioned, prior to playing their first game of the season, the Yankees began with way too many key players on the IL (Injured List).  That included Rodón, who is still on the IL with further issues but is said to be due back soon - we can only hope. 

One player who was not on the IL at the season's start was our captain, Aaron Judge.  It didn't take long!  He hasn't played since June 3.  That was the day he made a spectacular catch, robbing J.D. Martinez of an RBI double.  Judge's aggressiveness, momentum, and brute strength enabled him to smash through their stadium's fence, breaking it wide open.  Unfortunately, he didn't just break the fence but he also broke his big toe on the bottom of the frame which was made of cement.

With Judge continuing to receive plasma injections in different ligaments of his toe, the Yankees have outright sucked!  Thus far, they have only won 4 games and have lost 8 during that continuing span.  A subtraction of one player (albeit last year's MVP) should not equate to such a pitiful record and awful performance.  We have senior offensive players such as Stanton, Rizzo, LeMahieu, and Donaldson who have failed to step up.  Both Stanton and Rizzo have done so in the past, but neither one is driving the ball in the gaps or homering to any major degree.

Let's hope the Yankees find their way to help build on their record in the "W" column before "It's Too Late"!

Another season of hope for the Yankees' fans (and, of course, for many teams’ fans).  There’s always a stipulation surrounding health for any team that hopes for success, and rightfully so. 

The Yankees made some key moves to improve themselves over the winter which included re-signing Aaron Judge and Anthony Rizzo, while also signing the 2^nd best free agent starting pitcher, Carlos Rodón, and free agent, Tommy Kahnle, in his return to the bullpen.  Unfortunately, both acquired pitchers will begin the season on the IL (Injured List).  Rodón has a mild elbow strain of the brachioradialis (we hope nothing more than that) and Kahnle has right bicep tendinitis.

Additionally, our centerfield, Harrison Bader (left oblique strain) and reliever, Lou Trivino (right elbow ligament sprain) were also added to the IL.  To make matters worse, on the injury front, two other starting pitchers will also begin the season on the IL:  Luis Severino (low-grade right lat strain) and Frankie Montas.  That means that we will begin the season this Thursday with 3 out of 5 of our starting pitchers on the IL!  While all of these aforementioned players, except Montas (who most Yankees’ fans despise), are expected to be out no later than May, this adds up to quite a blow prior to playing Game 1!!  There are a few others on the IL, but they’re not currently as key as the aforesaid.

All teams end up with players hurt enough to qualify for the IL, but our personal biggest loss is clearly our starting pitching, especially our number two starter, Rodón.  Most negatives have positives.  For us, we have gotten to see the likes of Jhonny Brito and more-than-expected innings from Clarke Schmidt and Domingo German.  While each offer decent backup, I would love for us to acquire another starting pitcher with more Major League pedigree, including a WHIP below 1.20.

Hopefully, many of the IL players will be back before May.  If so, we have a very good team to compete this season.  Our most exciting player will be Anthony Volpe, our new shortstop!  Yesterday, the Yankees confirmed him to being our new starting shortstop.  The scouts love him and so do many of the players including Judge, Stanton, and Rizzo.  Former Yankee, Al Leiter, couldn’t say enough about him – knowing him through his own son’s playing days with Volpe in the Minor Leagues.

In the end, we should have a great season with plenty of HOPE!

INSTRUCTIONS TO TEAMS:  KEEP YOUR SUPERSTARS' PATH ON MEMORY LANE

This offseason, I kept rooting for the Yankees to retain Aaron Judge and sign him until his presumable retirement year, which his 9-year deal could conceivably do.  Of course, as everyone knows, he had just won the American League's MVP Award with all first-place votes!  He also broke the American League record with Homers at 62 - which some (including me) feel is the new record for ALL of baseball (for those who disqualify the obvious steroid-aided hitters).  In either case, another reason why I wanted Judge to be re-signed by the Yankees was because I love having our superstars, All-Stars or future Hall of Famers stay on the Yankees for their whole career.  If they're still producing to any respectable level, it's the right thing to do for both parties and the fans.

Many of us who rooted for the Yankees were spoiled from the late 90s team with the likes of Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams, and Hall of Famer Derek Jeter and, of course, our unanimously-voted Hall of Famer, Mariano Rivera.  Each of them were drafted by the Yankees and worked their way from our farm system to our team and, ultimately, through their retired days in baseball, wearing only the Yankees' pinstripes throughout each of those years.  Even someone who will never make the Hall of Fame but was a very good player, Brett Gardner, remained a Yankee throughout his career.  Most of us appreciated his grit and his contribution to our last championship team in 2009.

To demonstrate how rare it is to have one player remain on one team throughout their career, let's look at the Hall of Fame.  Based on recent conditions, only 54 players who were inducted into the Hall of Fame out of 234 played for only one team.  They include such greats as Chipper Jones; Edgar Martinez; Cal Ripken, Jr.; Ted Williams; Brooks Robinson; Sandy Koufax; Walter Johnson; Tony Gwynn; Jackie Robinson; Mike Schmidt; Al Kaline; Johnny Bench; Roberto Clemente; Craig Biggio; Bob Gibson; Stan Musial; Carl Yastrzemski; and some other Yankees including Lou Gehrig; Earle Combs; Bill Dickey; Phil Rizzuto; Mickey Mantle; Joe DiMaggio; and Whitey Ford.

Besides Judge, there are a few players from other teams who have played for only one team (so far) and are former All-Stars.  Some of them include Clayton Kershaw (Dodgers), Adam Wainwright (Cardinals), Joey Votto (Reds), Stephen Strasburg (Nationals), and Mike Trout (Angels).

I gave you a list of Yankees and even some players from other teams who remained in one uniform.  If you didn't notice, NONE of them were from the Mets!

While the pending re-signing of Judge was happening recently, our crosstown rivals, the NY Mets, had 2 players who were with them during their whole careers pending free agency:  Jacob deGrom and Brandon Nimmo.  Although I'm certainly not a Mets' fan, I was glad they re-signed one of their own, Brandon Nimmo.  Prior to that, I thought it was a disgrace for them to have not competed heavily for deGrom!  After all, he was clearly their best superstar over the past few years.  He also showed something I rarely see from the Mets, class!  Yes, he was a quiet type of guy, but he never showed up his competitors.  I've watched many Mets' games in my life and deGrom was certainly no Matt Harvey or Noah Syndergaard - thank God!!  Even during the period whereby Harvey & Syndergaard were demonstrating good numbers, "they" were the ones who got all of the hoopla from the Mets' organization, gaining nicknames and related promotions to their designated merchandise while deGrom stood in the shadows.  Yet, it was clear not too long thereafter that it was deGrom who was, by far, the best of the three!  

Recently, many from WFAN and the media began crucifying deGrom's injuries as a major factor and cited that it was becoming way too concerning.  They also claimed that deGrom did not want to stay with the Mets and that he was not in love with NY.  The latter may have been true, but why in hell should he have tried hard to stay with them?  After all, they kept ignoring him from the beginning, gave him inconsistent medical support, treated him as their third best starting pitcher for years, didn't sign him at the time he looked for a contract (prior to free agency), etc.  They, instead, saw nothing wrong with signing an almost-40-year-old pitcher (Verlander) from another team for 2 years in place of signing their own best starter, deGrom, to a 5-year deal, which would have ended with deGrom at a younger age than Verlander will be at the end of his contract.  Admittedly, Verlander just won a Cy Young, but deGrom was no slouch!  Plus, deGrom, as one of their own, deserved more than an outsider.  This man won his own Cy Young a few years ago without any run support from his team!  Thankfully, I heard 2 folks (Chris "Big Mac" McMonigle and Tommy Lugauer) from WFAN who voiced similar opinions to what I've been saying.  'm glad somebody in the media spoke up for deGrom.  Time will soon tell how healthy he will be for the Texas Rangers.

To further my point regarding the Mets' failures, in 1971, the NY Mets traded away Nolan Ryan.  Ironically, the pitcher with the most no-hitters (7) never threw one for his original team, the Mets.  In fact, until their supposed first no-hitter in 2012 by Johan Santana, they had none which meant that they played over 50 years without having their own - a MLB record for a team at that time.

{Of course, on a separate note, I must also mention that even that long-awaited no-hitter was questionable.  There was a controversial hit ball against Santana by none other than Carlos Beltran (a Cardinal at that time).  The ball happened to hit the chalk line which was not called a "hit", but should have, per baseball's rules.  Since it happened prior to the enacted allowance of replay usage, and since the umpires failed to examine the chalk line, the ball remained to being called a foul ball.}

Going back to my point of the Met's failures to retain players from beginning to end: in 1977, the NY Mets traded their "Franchise" player, Tom Seaver!  How on earth do you call him your Franchise, but you don't keep him within the Franchise?  Only the Mets do these extremely non-sensible things.  Tom Seaver (a part-time Met) and Mike Piazza (a part-time Met) remain as the only Mets to be inducted into the Hall of Fame with a Mets' designation.

Technically, a Mets' fan could point to David Wright.  It would be the only argument that could be had.  Their former Captain unfortunately had his career ended by a major back injury.  Don Mattingly had a similar back injury which ended his career, too.  We can only assume that they could have ended their careers in one uniform.  Worse than that was the instance of Thurman Munson, who tragically died in a plane crash a few years before his potential career-ending contract would have reached its ending term.

Besides that one "potential" case, I dare any Mets' fan to name any superstar player on their team that officially played their whole career in a Mets' uniform until retirement.  As I think even further (not something anyone ever wants me to do), I can name a few more of their drafted players who each showed greatness or at least very high skills, but they also left the Mets (or the Mets left them).  In fact, several of them ended up on the Yankees including Lee Mazzilli, Darryl Strawberry, and Doc Gooden.  Moreover, even one of their other very good pitchers from their 1969 championship team did not retire a Met - Jerry Koosman.  After all of these years, why haven't the Mets' fans made a fuss about this disservice of their end-of-service disgrace?

So, yes, I believe retaining some of the original drafted players is something each team should try to offer more effort towards.  Good job, Mets, for at least doing that for Nimmo; bad job for all of the other above average players you failed to keep.  Great job, Yankees, for retaining Judge and, by the way, for making him a Captain.  He clearly earned the opportunity to stay with us and to lead us!

Thanks.

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).]