The Rangers won in Philadelphia, but did everything they could to lose, like not scoring on a penalty shot or not scoring during two minutes of a 5-on-3 or not scoring during an overtime power play or by allowing the game-tying goal with 1:14 left in regulation.
The Rangers had to win on Thursday night in Philadelphia. They had to, and they did. It wasn’t pretty, and they did everything they could to lose, like not scoring on a penalty shot or not scoring during two minutes of a 5-on-3 or not scoring during an overtime power play or by allowing the game-tying goal with 1:14 left in regulation. Thankfully, they got two points, and maybe the 3-2 shootout win over the Flyers is the win that turns their season around.
1. When the Flyers scored 59 seconds into Wednesday’s game, all I could do was laugh. In the middle of a four-game losing streak and coming off the team’s worst performance of the season, allowing a goal in the opening minute was so predictable it was comical. When the Rangers were shut out in the first period, it wasn’t a surprise, considering how little offense they have generated since their 2-0 loss to the Islanders on Feb. 8.
2. Through the first period in Philadelphia, the Rangers had scored four goals in 13 periods with only one of the goals coming from a top-six forward (Pavel Buchnevich). The Rangers still only managed two goals against the Flyers, so they now have scored six goals in 15 periods. Here are the goal scorers:
Julien Gauthier Kevin Rooney Colin Blackwell Pavel Buchnevich Colin Blackwell Brendan Smith
3. When Colin Blackwell is the team’s leading goal scorer over a five-game span, it’s easy to see how the team is 1-3-1 in those five games. As I wrote earlier, Buchnevich is the only top-six forward to have a goal in the last five games or nine percent of the season. Artemi Panarin (5-11-16) and Buchnevich (4-6-10) are the only Rangers to have double-digit points this season, and Panarin leads the team in scoring despite having missed two games.
4. To put the Rangers’ offensive issues in perspective, Connor McDavid (9-23-32) has one less point than the Rangers’ top three scorers (Panarin, Buchnevich and Ryan Strome) combined. McDavid and Leon Draisaitl (10-18-28) have one less goal (19) than Panarin, Buchnevich, Strome, Chris Kreider, Kaapo Kakko and Mika Zibanejad combined (20). McDavid and Draisaitl have as many points combined (60) as Panarin, Buchnevich, Strome, Blackwell, Phil Di Giuseppe, Kreider, Filip Chytil, Kaapo Kakko, Zibanejad, Brett Howden and Alexis Lafrenière combined.
5. Despite countless chances every game to break out of his goal-scoring slump, Zibanejad is still stuck on one goal this season. One. In 15 games. That’s a four-goal pace in a 56-game season and a six-goal pace in an 82-game season. He’s not the only one though. Kakko has emerged as one the team’s best players in his second season, but he still only has two goals and one assist in 14 games. A 12-point pace in a 56-game season and an 18-point pace in an 82-game season. Lafrenière has one goal. That’s it. No assists. One goal. In 15 games. I didn’t see that coming from the most highly-touted No. 1 overall prospect since McDavid. (To his credit, he hasn’t exactly been paired with the best linemates for the majority of his first NHL season.)
6. The breakaway problem is a huge problem. I don’t know how suddenly become better at breakaways, but the Rangers need to. On both ends of breakaways. Their players can’t score on them and their goalies can’t stop them. It’s been an issue with Chris Kreider for his entire career, and had he been able to score on a few in the Stanley Cup Final against the Kings, the Rangers might have won that series. But it’s not just Kreider. It’s everyone. I have zero confidence in the Rangers scoring on a breakaway and zero confidence Igor Shesterkin or Alexandar Georgiev will stop one. When Pavel Buchnevich had a penalty shot on Thursday, I knew he wasn’t going to score. He put together a much worse attempt than I thought he would, but it didn’t matter, the result was always going to be the same. I was pleasantly surprised though when Georgiev held strong in the shootout. I didn’t see it going that way.
7. After picking former Ranger (I love saying that) Tony DeAngelo as the Rangers’ third shooter in the team’s first shootout against the Penguins earlier this season, David Quinn picked logical shooters this time. (DeAngelo essentially fell on his face in his attempt.) Kakko first and then Panarin with Zibanejad ready as the third shooter, if needed (he wasn’t). That’s more like it. (I would like to know who would have been the fourth shooter if it had gotten there. I would like to think it would have been Lafrenière, but I’m sure it wasn’t. Maybe I don’t want to know who it would have been.)
8. When Libor Hajek and Jack Johnson make up one-third of the team’s defensemen, it’s hard to envision the team winning. Johnson took yet another early first-period penalty (a tripping penalty 2:47 into the game), but otherwise, he wasn’t as bad as he’s been this season (though the bar was set very low). Even if the Flyers weren’t close to full strength because of protocols, it was still an encouraging effort from the defense.
9. The Rangers went 4-7-3 in the first quarter of the season, leaving themselves no margin for extended error for the remaining three quarters of the season. They will have to win two-thirds of the 42 games left, and that means something around a 28-14 record the rest of the way. The win over the Flyers takes it down to 27-14 the rest of the way.
10. I guess the one good thing is the Rangers’ season isn’t over from a playoff berth standpoint despite winning only five of their first 15 games and despite getting basically zero production from the top two lines outside of Panarin, and on occasion Buchnevich. It’s close to being over from a playoff berth standpoint, and another extended losing streak like the two four-game ones they have already had will essentially eliminate them, but it’s not over yet.
White Sox Dave of Barstool Sports joined me to talk about the state of the White Sox as spring training begins.
The Yankees had a chance to use their financial power as the team that makes more than any other team in baseball to make sure they would be the clear favorite in the American League in 2021. They chose not to and instead cut by payroll by about $50 million. Because of this, the Yankees will have to deal with the Rays and Blue Jays in the AL East, and the White Sox when it comes to the entire AL.
White Sox Dave of Barstool Sports joined me to talk about the state of the White Sox as spring training begins, the team’s trade for Lance Lynn, signings of Liam Hendriks and Adam Eaton, firing of Rick Renteria, hiring of Tony La Russa, and expectations for White Sox fans in 2021.
Aaron Boone gave his season-opening press conference at spring training on the state of the team, and the Yankees manager made it clear he thinks the 2021 team is championship-caliber.
Spring training is here. On Wednesday, the Yankees began their 2021 season with pitchers and catchers reporting to Tampa.
The start of spring training also means the annual start-of-spring-training press conference for Aaron Boone. The Yankees manager spoke at length about the state of the team, and the longer Boone is asked to speak in any setting, the more wild his answers get. So for this week’s Yankees Thoughts, rather than the normal 10 thoughts format, I’m going to go break down 10 quotes from Boone’s press conference.
1. On if the 2021 Yankees are equipped to chase a world championship. “Talk is always cheap, obviously, at this point, but I really like the winter that we’ve had with some of the additions that we made that I think are going to be impactful to go along with the makeup of this team that is already of championship caliber. And certainly, that’s what we’re here to try and do and try to accomplish.”
Talk has always been cheap for Boone, not just at this point, but at any point. It was cheap the last three Octobers when he had to give an end-of-the-season press conference before the end of the baseball season and tried to say the Yankees were just as good as all the teams still playing and the eventual champions. This will be the fourth time Boone manages a team expected to win the American League, and if they win the AL, it will be the first time he has done so.
2. On the depth of the pitching staff. “I think depth is obviously going to be important and we feel like we have 10, 11, 12 pitchers that aren’t just capable of going out there, but are capable of going out there and thriving.”
The Yankees have a lot of pitchers that are capable of “thriving” in theory. But the baseball season doesn’t work in theory. In theory, the Yankees had a 2020 rotation of Gerrit Cole, Luis Severino, James Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka and J.A. Happ with Jordan Montgomery as insurance. By the time October came, the Yankees’ rotation was Cole and Tanaka, and they pitched both Happ and Montgomery in October as last resorts.
In theory, the Yankees currently have a lot of big-name pitchers with immense talent. If the Yankees were to get all of them to stay healthy and pitch at the peak of their abilities then there will be a parade in lower Manhattan this fall. But if you think the entire Yankees’ pitching staff is going to go an entire season without an injury or without at least one of their starters underperforming then you probably also think Judge and Hicks will both play at least 150 games in 2021.
3. On if the 2021 roster is better constructed than previous seasons. “As I look at our pitching staff and what I believe is the potential of that staff, I feel like it’s in a lot of ways as good as it’s been certainly since I’ve been here.”
This is going to be Boone’s fourth season with the Yankees. I would put the rosters he had in this order:
2018 2019 2020 2021
I put them in that order because the Yankees have gotten a year older, progressively worse and less productive each year.
The 2018 Yankees were coming off a season in which they blew two chances to win the AL over the Astros in Houston. Aaron Judge was coming off a Rookie of the Year season and what should have been an MVP season, Gary Sanchez was the best hitting catcher on the planet, and Gleyber Torres was about to debut. On top of that, they essentially turned Chase Headley, Jacoby Ellsbury and Starlin Castro into reigning NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton and Torres.
The 2019 Yankees had signed DJ LeMahieu, traded for James Paxton and had a bullpen featuring Aroldis Chapman, Dellin Betances, Zack Britton, Adam Ottavino, Tommy Kahnle and Chad Green.
The 2020 Yankees, on paper, were stacked in February and had arguably the best rotation, lineup and bullpen in baseball. Then injuries struck like they had in 2019, and by the time the season actually started the team wasn’t what it was planned to be, and by October, they were fortunate to have even made the postseason.
The 2021 Yankees are like one massive parlay that needs to hit to win. There are so many unknowns and question marks regarding injuries and performance that it’s impossible to say how the team will do.
4. On who the fifth starter will be to open the season. “I see a lot of competition there, frankly. German, Deivi, Schmidt, Jhoulys Chacin, who we’ve brought in, all of these guys we feel like are certainly capable of stepping into that role, but we’ll see how the next five, six weeks unfold.”
Jhoulys Chacin threw five innings last year. Five not great innings in which he put nine runners on base and allowed four earned runs. The year before that he pitched to a 6.01 ERA and 5.88 FIP over 25 games and 24 stars for the Brewers and Red Sox, so at some time this season, we will be three years removed from the last time Chacin was any good. German is a scumbag who should no longer be part of the Yankees the way Chapman never should have been. That leaves Deivi Garcia and Clarke Schmidt. I don’t see how the job isn’t Garcia’s, spring training stats or not.
5. On using Kyle Higashioka with Gerrit Cole like he did in 2020. “I don’t have a plan of pairing those two to start.”
I highly doubt this and I look forward to revisiting this quote on Opening Day on April 1. If there’s a place where I can wager right now on if Kyle Higashioka will start at catcher on Opening Day on April 1 to catch Gerrit Cole, I’m putting everything on it. If Boone was so adamant of having Higashioka catch Cole last season, why would that change this season? It wouldn’t.
6. On James Paxton no longer being a Yankee. “I love Pax. He pitched so many big games for us in 2019 and I know how much he put into it.”
Boone’s memory isn’t the best. Paxton pitched in big games for the Yankees, he didn’t “pitch big games” for the Yankees. There’s an enormous difference.
Paxton made three postseason starts for the Yankees: Game 1 of the 2019 ALDS, Game 2 of the 2019 ALCS and Game 5 of the 2019 ALCS. Here is his line for each game:
ALDS Game 1: 4.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 2 HR ALCS Game 2: 2.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 3 K ALCS Game 5: 6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 9 K
He pitched well in one of the games (ALCS Game 5). The Yankees covered up his poor ALDS performance by scoring 10 runs, and he put six runners on base in Game 2 of the ALCS before being taken out in the third inning of an eventual extra-inning loss. Paxton’s time with the Yankees was “blah” and mediocre at best.
7. On the players who struggled in 2020. “When you’ve been close like many of our players have been now for several years, those are tough, tough blows. The ending is really, really cruel. Whether it’s me, whether it’s the players, when you don’t do everything maybe possible that you could have done … those things always kind of haunt you and eat at you, especially when you are one of those teams expecting to win it.”
The only player who has been close on the Yankees to winning the World Series the last several years is Geritt Cole, who sat in the bullpen and watched his Astros blow Game 7 of the 2019 World Series. The only other Yankee who has been close is Corey Kluber, who started Game 7 of the 2016 World Series, and he hasn’t even really been a Yankee yet. Other than that, the Yankees haven’t been close to winning the World Series, unless you consider losing Games 6 and 7 of the ALCS as somehow being close to winning the World Series.
8. On if he feels the 2020 Yankees were really that close to getting to the World Series. “Yeah, I do feel like it’s that close, and I felt that way in ’18 and I felt that way in ’19, and last year, we’re late in the game against the team that goes on to the World Series again. So we have to find a way to get over that last hump and beat that team that’s going on to the World Series. But I also think it’s important we realize how close we are and how razor thin the margin is when you get into the postseason. It’s the bounce of the ball, it’s one play, it’s one pitch, and we feel like we’re certainly very close to that.”
Boone mentioned the bounce of the ball or one play or one pitch, but he didn’t say “or one game when you come up with the most idiotic pitching plan in franchise history to force J.A. Happ into a playoff game.”
I will give Boone 2019 for it being OK for him to feel like it was close, but that’s it. The margin for the Yankees to get to the World Series wasn’t razor thin in 2018 or 2020.
In 2018, the Yankees lost in four games to the Red Sox in the ALDS. They lost both Games 3 and 4 at home and were outscored 20-4. It’s hard to agree with him that the Yankees were close to getting past the Red Sox when they finished eight games behind them in the regular season and then were run out of their own stadium against them in the postseason. Had the Yankees beaten the Red Sox, they still would have had to then beat the Astros, a team that eliminated the Yankees in both 2017 and 2019. It’s not like if the Yankees beat the Red Sox, they’re in the World Series because the Red Sox beat the Astros, the way Boone likes to think it works.
The same goes for 2020. The Yankees went to a Game 5 in the ALDS against the Rays, losing on yet another home run against Chapman. But that game could have gone 37 innings and the Yankees weren’t going to score another run. They had used up all of their elite relievers (all three of them) and the Rays could have kept trotting out unhittable options for days. Had the Yankees beaten the Rays, they again would have had to beat the Astros to advance to the World Series, something they have never been able to do. If you lose in the division series to the team that eventually represents the AL in the World Series, it doesn’t meant that you would have represented the AL in the World Series if you had won your division series. I’m not sure why Boone thinks that’s the case.
9. On if he sees Clint Frazier as the starting left fielder at this point. “I do. Clint has obviously come a long way in every aspect of his game and certainly earned his place last year when obviously nothing was given to him. He had to earn everything really the last couple of years… Last year really proved he was ready to grab an everyday role on this team.”
The last time the Yankees played, Clint Frazier wasn’t the team’s starting left fielder. Despite posting a .905 OPS, single-handedly carrying the offense when Judge and Stanton once again missed extended time and when Sanchez and Torres couldn’t hit, and improving his defense to the point he was named a Gold Glove finalist, Frazier rode the bench for both games against Cleveland and the last three games of the ALDS against Tampa Bay. Of the Yankees seven playoff games, Frazier started two of them as Boone started and played Brett Gardner over him. So Frazier “proved he was ready to grab an everyday role with the team” so well last year that he wasn’t an everyday palyer in the postseason.
The last time the Yankees played Frazier wasn’t the team’s starting left fielder, so how did he suddenly earn the job now? Were there real, meaningful games over the last four months no one is aware of? And what happens when Gardner inevitably re-signs with the Yankees? Does Gardner continue to start in left field forever no matter how badly his skills erode and decline? How can someone go from not being the starting left fielder and not playing in October to earning the job by mid-February?
Boone’s right in that last yer Frazier proved he was ready to grab an everyday role on this team. And then in the biggest games of the season, Boone didn’t play him. With the season on the line in Game 5 against the Rays, Boone chose to use Mike Ford to pinch hit for Kyle Higashioka over Frazier. The same Mike Ford who was sent to the alternate site ate the beginning of September for lack of performance. Ford wasn’t good enough to be a Yankee in September, but he was good enough to get pinch hit twice in the ALDS in October.
10. On the 2021 Yankees being a championship team. “I understand how hard it is, certainly, to get to the top of that mountain. We haven’t gotten there yet, but I also know how when I look at ultimately the last several world champions, how close we are though. So I think it’s important to understand where we need to continue to get better to put ourselves in the best possible position to kick the door in and ultimately get there. Understanding that there’s things that happen in the playoffs that sometimes it is about the ball bouncing the right away, it is about being hot or getting that big hit or whatever it may be at a different time. But I also think it’s important that we take a step back too and take the emotion out of it and realize the roster and the group of players and the core group of players that we have here are certainly I believe on the short team list of teams really capable of winning a championship.”
This is the quote of all Aaron Boone quotes maybe ever. Well, this and the time he lied to everyone and said Aaron Judge was taken out of a game in 2020 as a precaution and then Judge went on to miss half the season. There is so much here and it’s all so unbelievable.
Boone knows how hard it is to lose in the postseason because that’s all he’s ever done. He has never been to the top of the mountain as a player or manager and in the four seasons he has been part of the Yankees (one as a player and three as a manager), his teams have lost in the ALCS, ALDS, ALCS again and ALDS again. How can you know what it takes to get to the top of the mountain and win the last game of the Major League Baseball season when you have never done it?
The Yankees weren’t all that close the last few years, as I wrote earlier. The Dodgers had a much balanced lineup and a rotation featuring Walker Buehler and Clayton Kershaw. The Nationals had Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin. The Red Sox embarrassed the Yankees in both the regular season and postseason. The Yankees weren’t better than any of the previous three champions since Boone has been manager.
Boone mentions all of the things a team needs to go right to win the postseason, but he failed to mention not sabotaging your own team’s chances by trying to pull a starting pitching magic trick against the Rays in a pivotal Game 2. He also brings up the idea of “getting hot” which he and the Yankees have previously said they don’t believe in. It’s why they give players a day off a day after hitting multiple home runs in a game. But maybe he and the Yankees are changing their minds when it comes to a player being “hot” since it’s why he played Gardner over Frazier in the playoffs, and it’s now why he thinks a team can win in the postseason.
The core group of Yankees players have never won anything, and they all have gotten older, worse and injured since they came within one win of the World Series the season before Boone arrived. Judge hasn’t played a full season since 2017. Sanchez is closer to being an ex-Yankee than he is being the player he was even two years ago. Severino has made five starts since the end of 2018. Torres was so bad in 2020 that many wanted him to no longer be the starting shortstop. That’s the “core” I think of when I think of these Yankees.
I want to like Boone. I really do. But it’s going to take him changing a lot as a manager in 2021 for that to happen. It’s going to take him doing everything he can possibly do in October to possibly win, something he admitted to having not done last season. Brian Cashman has said he wants Boone to be the Yankees’ manager for 10 years the way Joe Torre and Joe Girardi were. For that to happen, he’s going to have to start doing a much better job than he has in his first three seasons.
The Rangers are in the middle of their second four-game losing streaks in just 14 games. David Quinn hasn’t done anything this season to prove he’s the right head coach to continue to lead the team.
I have never thought anyone other than David Quinn would be the Rangers’ head coach to begin the 2021-22 season. Even if the Rangers were a last-place team this season, there would be too many excuses available as to why the team was keeping Quinn. There was no training camp. There were no exhibition games. The season started in January. There were only 56 games. The Rangers have the youngest roster in the league. This was always supposed to be the last rebuilding year. There would be an abundance of options for the Rangers to use to protect Quinn. But not if the Rangers play like this.
Being a last-place team with the youngest roster in the league is one thing. Losing the way the Rangers have through the first month of this season is a whole different thing. After losing four consecutive games over the first and second week of the season, the Rangers are currently in their second four-game losing streak of the season. Yes, two separate four-game losing streaks in a season that is 34 days and 14 games old.
The Rangers have lost 10 of their 14 games this season. They have been shut out and blown out, they have pissed away one- and two-goal leads, many of which were in the third period. They have lost in overtime a couple times and in a shootout once. They have lost every way imaginable in less than five weeks, but none of their previous nine losses were as bad as their loss on Tuesday to the Devils at the Garden.
The Devils hadn’t played a game since Jan. 31. They had practiced once since then. They should have been trying to get their legs and knocking off the rust of playing in an actual game, or playing period. Instead, they gave it to the Rangers from the opening puck drop and never let up. Anyone unaware of the Devils’ recent situation would have thought it was the Rangers who hadn’t played at all in February. The difference in plays from the two teams was that apparent.
Rather than take advantage of a Devils team that was essentially restarting their season, the Rangers failed to score in the first period, eventually losing 5-2. Over their last four games, they have scored four goals. The goal scorers: Julien Gauthier, Kevin Rooney and Colin Blackwell and Pavel Buchnevich. One goal from the top two lines.
Yes, the players deserve a lot of the blame for the current 4-7-3 record. Mika Zibanejad has one goal. Chris Kreider has five points. Kaapo Kakko has two goals. Alexis Lafrenière has as many goals (1) as Gauthier who has played in five fewer games and has only played fourth-line minutes in his nine games.
The production hasn’t been there from the names that are supposed to be producing. But a good part of the blame for that falls on Quinn, who frantically changes his lines from shift to shift, seems to not want to properly utilize the 2019 No. 2 overall pick and the 2020 No. 1 overall pick, and seemingly gives out ice time based on seniority rather than talent, skill or ability.
After the loss, a mopey Quinn navigated his way through his postgame press conference with a lost, dejected and at times cocky demeanor. None of his answers gave any insight into how he plans to turn the season around for the second time in a month, and if anything, he made Rangers fans less confident than they already feel that he’s the right man to make the team a contender in the near future.
On if the loss was an opportunity wasted. “Any time you play in the NHL you have an opportunity to get two points, regardless of who you are playing and we let another opportunity slip from our hands to get two points. Give them a lot of credit, they played well.”
What insight from Quinn. Thank you for sharing with everyone the objective of the NHL and the goal for every team in every game. At least we now all know he knows how the standings work.
On if effort was an issue in the loss. “Yeah.”
That’s it. That was his answer. One word. “Effort” is always attached to the coaching staff, and mainly the head coach. So Quinn is implicating the job he has done by admitting to the team lacking the effort needed to beat a team playing a game for the first time in 17 days. You would think if you were admitting to the public that you failed at your job, you would want to give a reason or at least make up some excuse or place the blame elsewhere, but not Quinn. A one-word response was all he needed.
On if the loss was harder because of everything New Jersey has gone through. “I’m not paying attention to the opponent when we are evaluating our team. I’m just disappointed in some of the things that went on from our end tonight, a drop-off in a lot of areas. Just not good enough.”
If Quinn thinks anyone believes he didn’t know of the Devils’ lack of play in February then he’s more than lost than I originally thought. It would also mean he isn’t aware of the ongoing pandemic or isn’t in tune with the league’s protocols or why he has to wear a mask everywhere he goes (accept when he talks to his players on the bench because he clearly thinks the mask is a fashion accessory and not to keep him and his players safe when’s talking to them).
On how the effort issue be addressed. “It will be addressed at practice and before practice and after practice and before we play Philly.“
I think Quinn is trying to say he’s going to bag skate the Rangers on Wednesday? That makes a lot of sense because that’s what this team needs: unnecessary, time-wasting sprints. They don’t need to create stable, successful line combinations or work on creating usable power-play units. No, they need to sprint to pay for the loss to the Devils.
It would be a lot easier to back Quinn and believe in him if he gave a reason to. If he were playing Lafrenière the way a No. 1 overall pick should playing or Kakko the way a No. 2 overall pick should be playing, or keeping his line combinations together for more than a few shifts each game, and putting the most talented offensive players on the first power play, and the team was still losing games, then so be it. That could be considered a young, inexperienced team figuring it out. But what’s been going on can’t be considered that. Not when Quinn is clearly trying to win by doing what he thinks will work and it isn’t working. All that shows is that he doesn’t know how to actually win. He’s seems to know how to bench players and hand out healthy scratches as punishment to prove a point. When it comes to actually winning games consistently with a roster that should be winning games consistently, he has yet to prove he knows how to do that.
If this keeps up, the job I thought would be Quinn’s in 2021-22 no matter what won’t be. If this keeps up, his job for the rest of 2021 might not be his either.
The Rangers have lost 10 of 14 games and have the third-worst winning percentage, ahead of only Detroit and Ottawa.
The Rangers have lost 10 of 14 games and have the third-worst winning percentage in the NHL, ahead of only Detroit and Ottawa. The Rangers have put together two four-game losing streaks in only 14 games, and their season is now 25 percent over.
