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Apr 26, 2021

Yankees Thoughts: Nothing Changed in Cleveland

The Yankees won their first series in nearly three weeks, taking three out of four from the Indians. Yes, it was nice to see the Yankees win again, but the issues the team had when

The Yankees won their first series in nearly three weeks, taking three out of four from the Indians. Yes, it was nice to see the Yankees win again, but the issues the team had when they landed in Cleveland are still obvious as the team arrives in Baltimore.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. The Yankees won the four-game series, but it could have and should been even more than that. It should have been a four-game sweep of the Indians, who have one elite hitter (Jose Ramirez) and only one other hitter who should scare you (Franmil Reyes), though I know the Yankees have always had problems with Roberto Perez (the way they do with every team’s catcher).

After winning the first three games of the series, Aaron Boone mailed in the series finale on Sunday, sitting one-third of his current everyday lineup and putting out this lineup:

Brett Gardner, CF
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Aaron Judge, RF
Rougned Odor, 2B
Gleyber Torres, SS
Gio Urshela, 2B
Mike Ford, 1B
Gary Sanchez, C
Mike Tauchman, LF

No DJ LeMahieu, no Aaron Hicks and no Clint Frazier. If you want to give guys the day off for a day game after a night game on a Sunday getaway day, you can’t be 9-11 on the season (as the Yankees were before Sunday’s loss) after having started 6-11. That’s something great teams can do. Teams that are well above .500. The Yankees aren’t even a good team right now and they are acting like they had the kind of start and have the kind of division lead the Dodgers have. You’re 9-12. Act like it.

The A’s had a 13-game winning streak come to an end on Sunday in Baltimore and they weren’t happy about it.

“You do want to win the series, but you also want to get greedy,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “We’ve been greedy here recently. It’s about winning every game that you go out there and play.”

The A’s were 0-6 and now they’re 13-7. They had won for two straight weeks and were upset their ridiculous streak ended. The Yankees won their first series since April 5-7 and entered Sunday acting like they just had a 13-game winning streak of their own. Boone would never manage with the mentality Melvin talked about.

2. On Thursday, the Yankees trailed 3-0 after the first because of more sloppy defensive plays. It didn’t help that Boone chose to bat Gardner first, Ford fourth and sit Stanton.

Gardner led off two games this weekend. It’s 2021. Gardner is now batting .194 with a .560 OPS. Frazier hasn’t been good, but Gardner has been just as bad. Frazier is the one with the future, and he needs to play. Enough is enough with Gardner. He’s not an everyday player anymore and hasn’t been for a while now. He needs to stop being forced into the lineup nearly every day. When he does play, he can’t be hitting anywhere other than ninth. Not first, not third. Ninth.

Ford got called up upon Jay Bruce retiring. The same Bruce, who the Yankees thought Ford wasn’t better than on April 1. That didn’t stop Boone from batting Ford sixth in his first two games up and then fourth on Thursday, despite having done nothing in the majors since 2019.

As for Stanton having Thursday off, it was the 22nd day of the season and the 18th game of the season. The Yankees had already had four scheduled days off and it was the third time Stanton was being given a personal day off. He doesn’t play the field, is the Yankees’ highest-paid position player and entered the season having played 51 games since the start of 2019.

3. The Yankees came back and won on Thursday because the Indians are very, very bad. On Friday, the Yankees again went down 3-0 to the Indians in the first and had to come back to win. The Yankees have scored one run in the first inning in 21 games this season. One. O-N-E. A Judge solo home run against he Blue Jays on April 14. Of all the upsetting stats regarding the Yankees’ offense this season, that is the worst one.

The Yankees won three of four in Cleveland, but they barely look any better than they did before the series began. They scored 16 runs in the four games and had to come back in the first three games of the series before blowing a three-run lead in the fourth game.

“Our at-bats are getting better,” Boone said after his team managed only three runs and six hits in Sunday’s loss. “I feel like as far as where are right now as a club, I feel like we’re in a good spot to hopefully go out and continue to play well.”

“Right now as a club,” the Yankees are 9-12. And “to continue” to do something you have to already being doing that thing. For the Yankees “to continue to play well” they would already need to be playing well, which they’re not.

4. If you thought Torres finally broke out with his three-hit night on Thursday, he followed it up by going 3-for-13 with a walk and seven left on base; Sanchez’s first two games of the season seem like they never happened as he is now sitting in his all-too-familiar spot below the Mendoza line (.196); Judge keeps getting on base via walks, but he has one extra-base hit in the last nine days, hasn’t homered in 12 days and hasn’t hit a non-solo home run in 20 days; Stanton had a two-home run night on Friday, but has been awful overall and is still close to the last person I want up in a big spot; Frazier remains lost; Gardner is an automatic out; even with three home runs, Hicks has a .602 OPS and is batting .172/.274/.328; Odor is exactly the player the Rangers paid to go away as he will run into one every once in a while and do nothing in between the times he runs into one.

The Yankees might have a better wining percentage than they did before going to Cleveland, but the problems that got them off to a 6-11 start haven’t moved any closer to being resolved.

5. Gerrit Cole dominated on Saturday in a true pitcher’s duel against Shane Bieber. Cole has been outstanding this season and one of five bright spots on the 26-man roster, along with Kyle Higashioka, Chad Green, Darren O’Day and Aroldis Chapman. However, I have as much to do with Cole’s success as Higashioka does. Cole and Higashioka have been together against the Orioles, Blue Jays, Rays and Indians. Aside from the Blue Jays, none of those other teams can hit. If Cole is the one requesting Higashioka to catch him, then OK. It would be sad that someone of his stature needs a personal catcher, but OK. If it’s not his doing, then the first time he doesn’t pitch well, and the magic of Higashioka isn’t there, it needs to be Sanchez.

6. Boone has said in the past he and the Yankees don’t believe in players being hot. Hicks homered on Friday and Saturday and wasn’t in the lineup on Sunday. Yet Odor, who also homered on Friday and Saturday was in the lineup and batting fourth. FOURTH! So Hicks being hot couldn’t get him in the lineup on Sunday, but Odor being hot was good enough to bump him up four spots in the batting order. Boone is truly the guy at the Blackjack table that hits on 16 with the dealer showing a 7 sometimes and stays in the same exact situation other times.

Boone said Hicks was experiencing back tightness and that’s why he didn’t play on Sunday. Since it’s hard to believe anything Boone says, Hicks either wasn’t in the lineup because the Yankees don’t believe in a player being hot, or Hicks is actually hurt (again). If you recall, Hicks missed the first seven weeks of the 2019 season after injuring his back on a 35-minute bus ride in spring training, so back injuries are nothing new with him. (There isn’t an injury that would be new for Hicks.) Hicks was never going to make it through the season without some sort of ailment since he has never played single season without missing some amount of time due to injury. I’m actually surprised he made it through 20 games before we heard about something.

When asked after the game if Hicks was available to play today, Boone said, “We would have had him possibly late, yes.” So Hicks was able to come into the game, but didn’t play in the game.

7. The Yankees’ roster clearly has an issue playing through the minor aches and pains that come with a six-month baseball season. Whenever someone on the roster has a minor issue, they’re out of the lineup because of Boone’s precautions. But how does Boone know about every minor ailment? It’s because the players are making it known they are dealing with something, no matter how minor it is. So Hicks (like Judge a few weeks ago) went to Boone and let him know he couldn’t go. Remember that when you get a quote about always wanting to play.

8. The Yankees scored first on Sunday, scoring three runs in the top of the fourth inning. It took four batters in the bottom of the fourth for the lead to disappear and for the Yankees to trail.

Jameson Taillon once again didn’t make it into the fifth inning, blew a three-run lead immediately after he was given it and allowed four earned runs in four innings. How did Boone think he pitched?

“I thought he regrouped and finished strong that (fourth) inning,” Boone said. “I thought the stuff was good throughout.”

Surprise, surprise! Boone thought his starting pitcher had good stuff! A starting pitcher who allowed four earned runs in four innings, blew a 3-0 lead and gave the team no length. You know who had good stuff? Cole on Saturday. That’s good stuff. Not what Taillon produced on Sunday.

In the bottom of the fourth, Taillon went single, single, single, home run to blow the lead and put the Yankees behind 4-3. He retired the next three hitters to end the inning, which is the “regroup” Boone is talking about, but the stuff was not good throughout. No one allows a four-spot in a game with good stuff.

Taillon is a problem. Sure, he looks great at times, but so did A.J. Burnett. Like Burnett, Taillon can look unhittable one second and before you can go to the fridge and get back to your couch, he has unraveled. In four starts, Taillon has made it through five innings once and has only made it into the fifth twice. Through 17 1/3 innings, he hasn’t really walked anyone (2), but he has allowed four home runs. The Yankees have lost three of the four games he has started.

9. Taillon was out of the game after the fourth. Trailing by one run with five innings of at-bats left, the Yankees were very much in the game. That was until Boone decided to bring in Nick Nelson to hold the deficit.

There is a contingent of Yankees fans who think Hicks is Bernie Williams. There’s the contingent who want Higashioka to be the starting catcher over Sanchez, like there was the contingent who wanted Austin Romine over Sanchez. But there’s no one, and I mean no one worse than the weirdos in the contingent of Yankees fans who think Nelson is good.

Here were Nelson’s five appearances this season before Sunday:

April 1: Enters in 10th inning on Opening Day, allows the runner on second with no outs to score and the Yankees lose.

April 7: Pitches 1 1/3 scoreless innings in a loss to Baltimore.

April 9: Enters with the bases loaded, immediately gives up a two-run double and ends up allowing four earned runs in 1 2/3 innings.

April 16: Is inexplicably used an opener against the Rays and allows the first three batters of the game to reach, giving up two runs in his only inning of work.

April 21: Enters with the bases loaded and two outs and walks in a run on four pitches.

The Yankees lost all five games Nelson pitched in entering Sunday, and they lost on Sunday as well after he came in and allowed three earned runs in two innings.

Yes, Nelson has a lot of strikeouts (15) in 8 1/3 innings. He has also allowed a lot of hits (11), walks (5), baserunners (17, including a hit-by-pitch) and earned runs (9). He has a 9.72 ERA and 1.921 WHIP.

Thankfully, Nelson was sent down after the game. Of the Yankees’ 12 losses this season, he has had a huge hand in five of them. Now you know why all spring training I feared his place on the roster after the injuries to Zack Britton and Justin Wilson.

10. If you had asked me what I thought the Yankees needed to go during their recent 11-game stretch against the Rays, Blue Jays and Braves, I would have said 7-4 and would have been upset with 6-5. Well, they went 3-8, so that 6-5 would have been really nice.

The Yankees are currently in the middle of an 11-game stretch against the Indians, who they just went 3-1 against, the Orioles (four games) and the Tigers (three games). Anything less than 8-3 here would be an enormous disappointment, considering they always play well in Baltimore, they are miraculously missing John Means in a four-game series (as he pitched on Sunday), the Orioles aren’t good and the Tigers are the worst team in baseball (7-15) with the worst run differential (-37) and have lost nine of their last 10.

If the Yankees aren’t at least .500 at 14-14 at the end of play on Sunday, it’s going to be bad.

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Blogs

Apr 22, 2021

Yankees Thoughts: Aaron Boone Believes in Team, No One Else Does

The Yankees won a game and then lost a game. They don’t need a win, they need a winning streak, and a long one at that if they plan on saving their season before it can’t be saved.

The Yankees won a game and then lost a game. They don’t need a win, they need a winning streak, and a long one at that if they plan on saving their season before it can’t be saved.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Things are bad. Really, really bad. The Yankees are 6-11, have the worst record in the American League and have scored 18 runs over their last seven games, losing six of them. The team has 17 home runs in 17 games. Gleyber Torres (1), Clint Frazier (1) and Brett Gardner (1) have as many RBIs combined (3) as Jay Bruce, who retired on Sunday and was barely playing after the first week of the season. Giancarlo Stanton is hitting .158. Aaron Hicks is hitting .154. Frazier is hitting .175. Gardner who has supposedly played so much better than Frazier is hitting .214. Kyle Higashioka has had 16 plate appearances and has as many home runs (2) as Hicks, Torres, Frazier, Gardner, DJ LeMahieu, Mike Tauchman and Mike Ford combined.

The Yankees have recently turned to the Mikes (Ford and Tauchman) to save their season despite Ford not being good enough to make the team over Bruce three weeks ago and Tauchman not being good enough to play much at all to this point. The Yankees tried to revive Rougned Odor’s career, but are seeing exactly why the Rangers are happily paying him $27 million to not play for them (.120/.185/.240).

Anyone who thinks Luke Voit coming back (whenever that actually happens) is going to save the season is kidding themselves. This team isn’t one player away from going on a run. They are an entire lineup away from going on a run.

2. On Tuesday, in the first of two games against the Braves, Hicks wasn’t in the lineup. Aaron Boone said Hicks would have the two-game series off to work on “mechanical adjustments.” The same Hicks who Boone laughed at the media for asking about moving out of the 3-hole after the first weekend of the season. The same Hicks who Boone said would be fine “over the long haul.” After 15 games, he was being benched.

Hicks entered the game in the eighth inning as a pinch hitter. It only took him seven innings to make those “mechanical adjustments.” He was back in the lineup on Wednesday night as well, but batting seventh. What happened to him being the No. 3 hitter? What happened to needing a left-handed bat to bat third to separate the right-handed hitters?

The Yankees called up Ford to play first base, so that three-time Gold Glove-winning second baseman LeMahieu could play his natural position. Last September, the Yankees sent Ford down, deeming him not good enough to be a Yankee in the regular season, but in October, he was on the postseason roster and used as a pinch hitter over Frazier and Gary Sanchez in the ALDS with the season on the line. Not good enough to be a Yankee in September, but good enough to pinch hit in October.

On Tuesday, Ford was batting sixth. Not good enough to be a Yankee over Bruce on April 1, but good enough to bat ahead of Sanchez and Frazier on April 21.

3. Just two days ago I wrote Aaron Boone Has Excuse for Every Loss and listed the excuses Boone had made for each of the team’s 10 losses to that point. Well, the loss total is now 11.

I have watched a lot of Boone press conferences in his time as Yankees manager. I watched him come up with a bullshit excuse for leaving Luis Severino in Game 3 of the 2018 ALDS (after he didn’t know the start time) to load the bases with no outs with the Red Sox hitting every ball hard. I sat through him trying to find something that made sense for why he went to Lance Lynn to get out of that bases-loaded jam. I struggled through him saying he let CC Sabathia go through the entire Red Sox’ lineup a second time in Game 4 of that series just so he could face No. 9 hitter Jackie Bradley. I watched in disbelief as he tried to walk the media through his 2020 ALDS Game 2 strategy. I never thought a press conference could top those, but Wednesday’s night might have. At worst, it’s a first-ballot Aaron Boone Postgame Press Conference Hall of Fame inductee.

4. Corey Kluber wasn’t good again, failing to get through five innings for the fourth time in as many starts as a Yankee. What did Boone think of his No. 2 starter?

“I thought the stuff was good.”

How could the stuff have been good? Kluber pitched only 4 2/3 innings and allowed two earned runs and walked four. You know who had good stuff? Braves’ starter Ian Anderson. The New York native has now embarrassed the Yankees in his two career starts against them: last night and his major league debut last season.

Things unraveled for Kluber in the fifth inning. What happened to Kluber that inning?

“I think, obviously, it being cold and windy, I think at times and a little bit tough getting a feel,” Boone said. “It might have had a little bit to do with the weather.”

Boone has officially run out of excuses. He’s now using the weather to defend his team. I guess there were ideal weather conditions in the bottom half of each inning when Anderson was on the mound shutting down the Yankees (6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 4 K, 0 HR).

5. At 62 pitches and three outs away from getting 15 outs for the first time as a Yankee, Kluber allowed a line-drive single to Pablo Sandoval. He struck out Dansby Swanson and then walked No. 8 hitter Austin Riley. He followed that by walking No. 9 hitter Guillermo Heredia. No teams walks 8- and 9-hitters like the Yankees. Boone stayed with Kluber with the bases loaded and he allowed a sacrifice fly to Ehire Adrianza to give the Braves a 1-0 lead. Boone left Kluber in to face Freddie Freeman of all people, and Kluber, either too scared to make a pitch or unable to know where the ball was going (likely the latter) walked Freeman on four pitches. Bases loaded.

Boone had seen enough. He went to the mound to get the ball from Kluber. Knowing his team’s offensive struggles since Opening Day and knowing how big of a spot in the game this was, Boone called on … Nick Nelson. What? That’s right, Nick Nelson.

After the game, Meredith Marakovits asked Boone why he went to Nelson there and did he consider using Darren O’Day, who is a proven elite reliever and automatic against right-handed batters.

“No, not O’Day,” Boone replied to Marakovits with a sarcastic, cocky tone. “Not at that point in the game.”

Not at that point in the game? The game was on the line. It was a high-leverage situation regardless of the inning, yet Boone continues to manage to the inning and not the situation.

6. Nelson isn’t good. He wasn’t good last year, and he hasn’t been good this year. On Opening Day, the Yankees used him for the 10th inning with the runner on second and no outs. The Yankees lost in the 10th inning. In the first game in Tampa, leading 4-2, Boone went to Nelson to relieve Kluber with the bases loaded. His first pitch was a ball, and the next pitch was a two-run double to tie the game. When the Yankees inexplicably didn’t have a starting pitcher for the 13th game of the season against the Rays, they decided to go with an opener. That opener was Nelson. Three batters into the game, the Rays had a 2-0 lead and hadn’t made an out. So why wouldn’t Boone go to Nelson with the game on the line on Wednesday night? All he has done in his career is prove himself time and time again.

Nelson walked Ozuna on four pitches to walk in a run. These weren’t borderline calls that just missed and it wasn’t like Nelson was getting squeezed. The four pitches were either short of home plate or in the other batter’s box. If you told me Nelson was a left-hander throwing with his right arm, I would have believed it, that’s how bad he was coming into the game.

Nelson might as well be Jonathan Holder or Ben Heller or Brooks Kriske or Luis Cessa or Johnny Barbato or Nick Goody or Anthony Swarzak or Esmil Rogers or Branden Pinder or Chris Martin or David Carpenter or Nick Rumbelow or any other incapable right-hander the Yankees have let destroy games over the years. Nelson, Cessa and Kriske are all in this list and they all pitched on Wednesday night. The Braves scored a run off each of them.

7. Ultimately (Boone buzz word!), the pitching didn’t matter. The Yankees could have allowed one run or 100 runs, they were going to lose on Wednesday. The only run they scored came in the ninth inning because the Braves didn’t hold Hicks at first base and he moved to second on defensive indifference and scored on a Frazier bloop single over first. Congratulations to Frazier on his first RBI in Game 17 of the season!

The offense hasn’t shown it’s coming out of its slump. Even in the win on Tuesday, the Yankees only won because the Braves gift wrapped an eighth inning rally for them. They had the bases loaded with no outs and needed a wild pitch and walk to score two runs as Torres and Frazier both popped up. The scary thing is this is no longer a slump. A slump is a series or a week. It’s April 22 and 11 percent of the season has been played. This isn’t a small sample size.

Stanton has been awful, but unsurprisingly awful since he’s a complete guess hitter and hasn’t been guessing right. Hicks has been horrible, but unsurprisingly horrible because he isn’t good. Frazier has looked lost, but unsurprisingly lost because he plays sporadically and this isn’t the sport to play sporadically. The one player who I’m surprised and who truly worries me is Torres.

8. Torres hasn’t been good since the 2019 ALCS. Last year, he reportedly came to Spring Training 2.0 out of shape and unprepared, but what’s the excuse for this year? He was supposed to evolve into the Yankees’ best player, a franchise shortstop who could bat third for years to come. His defense isn’t major league caliber and he might as well not go to the plate with a bat and hope the pitcher throws four balls before three strikes (it works for Hicks sometimes).

On Wednesday, Torres check swung on a pitch and it ended up going in play. He jogged to first the way you would jog if you were seconds away from being home and it started to rain. Torres most likely wasn’t going to beat the throw anyway, but the effort wasn’t there, and running hard to first is the easiest thing any major leaguer can do.

“I think any time that kind of situation where a guy’s gotta get out off the mound, you gotta get after it,” Boone said. “I think initially the check-swing, he just probably in his mind (thought) foul ball right away and then it’s, ‘Oh no, I gotta get going.’”

Boone did say, “Sure, yeah,” when asked if he would talk to Torres about the lack of hustle. Hustle is easy to do and demonstrate. When you’re going as bad as Torres, it’s a must. I’m very worried about Torres and his future.

8. It’s not just Torres though, it’s everyone. LeMahieu is hitting every ball on the ground to short and third. Judge can only get hits and hit home runs when the bases are empty. Stanton is never on base. Hicks is never doing anything. Sanchez’s comeback story has stalled out since the first two games of the season. Frazier is a mess. Urshela might be the Yankees’ best hitter of late and he has a .311 on-base percentage. Odor is a lost cause the Yankees will continue to try to save. Gardner has been arguably worse than Frazier, who he continues to play over. The mustache isn’t bringing Ford any success and Tauchman is still the 30-year-old with six good weeks to his name in his major league career.

“I believe in our guys,” Boone said, yet again. “I know who they are. I know we’re gonna mash.”

Boone knows who his guys are. That’s good. It would be awkward if he didn’t know his own players or their names now in his fourth season as manager.

“So it’s frustrating that it doesn’t happen tonight or every game you go out there,” Boone said. But is it hard to stay positive? Not at all.”

I don’t know how anyone could be positive about this team. They have six wins in 17 games. Their six wins: two Gerrit Cole starts, a Jordan Montgomery start, a Bruce bases-loaded bloop single, a Odor bloop single and a gifted rally from the Braves. That’s it. That’s how the Yankees have won their six games.

“I know we’re walking out there with heavy artillery each and every night,” Boone said. “We just gotta unlock it right now and we will.”

Boone keeps saying the team is going to be successful and is going to get it going and is going to hit and is going to mash. Except he doesn’t know when they might be. It might not happen.

10. This Yankees team lost 15 of 20 games last year. They were 10 games above of .500 and then they were .500. In a 60-game season, they were seven games worse than the Rays. They are already 1-5 against the Rays this season and 3-9 against the Rays and Blue Jays.

Now the Yankees will see the Indians for four games. The same Indians that gave away Francisco Lindor and Carlos Carrasco in the offseason and have cut so much payroll, it has Hal Steinbrenner jealous of the way they operate.

The Indians aren’t good, and they aren’t going to be good. They are the perfect opponent for the Yankees right now. The problem is the Yankees are the perfect opponent for everyone else.

Subscribe to the Keefe To The City Podcast. New episode after every game during the season.

My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!

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Blogs • Yankees

Apr 20, 2021

Aaron Boone Has Excuse for Every Loss

Let’s go through the Yankees’ 10 losses this season and the long list of excuses from a manager who thinks everything will be all right.

The Yankees have the worst record in the American League and the second-worst record in the majors. The preseason favorite in the AL, they are already five games back in the division. At 5-10 and currently riding a five-game losing streak, they are a disaster.

No one on the team has hit, and outside of Gerrit Cole and a few relievers, no one has pitched well either. Ultimately (Aaron Boone’s favorite word), it’s on the players to produce, but the manager deserves a lot of blame for the team’s start to the season.

Boone should have never been handed the keys to a win-now roster coming off a season in which they were one win away from the World Series. With no coaching or managerial experience at any level, Boone’s name was only an option because his 2003 ALCS home run, a home run which has done much more harm to the organization than it has good. Boone has yet to progress or evolve in his position, and following his decisions in the 2020 postseason, it was the perfect time for the Yankees to move on from him before their current championship window closed anymore with someone in way over his head managing the team.

The Yankees chose to bring back Boone and they chose to bring back essentially the same exact roster from 2020 (and 2019). A team that has failed to take the next step since their 2017 ALCS loss was viewed as “being close” by their manager after their postseasons losses in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Nothing changed from the Yankees in terms of roster and personnel in the offseason, and to no surprise, nothing has changed from a results standpoint.

Going back to Sept. 15, 2019, the Yankees are now 52-51 over their last 103 games, including the postseason. The team that went 5-15 over one-third of the shortened 2020 season has gone 5-10 over nearly the first 10 percent of the 2021 season. The same issues that ruined last season in October are ruining this season in April.

The Yankees have lost 10 of their first 15 games, but if you didn’t watch the losses or didn’t know the final score of the losses, you would never know the Yankees are the worst team in the AL by only watching Boone analyze his team in each of his postgame press conferences. Boone has always been a happy-go-lucky idiot. After the team’s 2020 ALDS loss to the Rays, he said he was proud of his team for their straight early postseason exit and second ALDS exit in three years with him at the helm. Being proud of the 2020 Yankees perfectly sums up Boone’s friend-first, manager-second, relaxed Southern California personality that has made these Yankees feel comfortable with losing and accepting of underachieving.

Boone has taken his fake positivity and ridiculous excuses to another level this season to defend his team. As the losses have mounted, he has taken more time to answer questions from the media with longer pauses as he digs deep into his treasure trove of bullshit to pull out runaround answers.

Let’s go through the Yankees’ 10 losses this season and the long list of excuses from a manager who thinks everything will be all right.

On Opening Day, the Yankees started the season with a 3-2 loss to the Blue Jays after going 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and leaving 10 on base. Being that it was the first game of the season, Boone wasn’t all that upset, never thinking on April 1 his team would be where it is on April 19.

“Credit them with executing some pitches in some situations,” Boone said of the Blue Jays’ pitching. “They made the pitches today. We just couldn’t break through with the big hit.”

Back on Opening Day, the Yankees just couldn’t break through with the big hit. Nineteen days and 14 games later and they’re still not breaking through.

Three days after the season-opening loss, the Yankees lost 3-1 to the Blue Jays. The Yankees offense had five hits and two walks.

“Obviously, today didn’t muster a lot,” Boone said of his offense. “Didn’t have a lot of great scoring opportunities. A little bit of a cold weekend … These guys will get it rolling, so I’m not too worried about it.”

During spring training, Boone let the media know Aaron Hicks would be his No. 3 hitter. No other team has to let the media know who will bat third for them, but that’s because other No. 3 hitters in the league are Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Nolan Arenado, Juan Soto, Christian Yelich, Manny Machado, Freddie Freeman and Jose Abreu. Boone and the Yankees wanted the media and public to know about their idiotic decision before they found out the way you let your parents know you were at a party and there was drinking before they found out on their own.

Hicks went 1-for-12 with seven strikeouts in the first weekend of the season. Boone was asked about removing Hicks from the 3-hole.

“It’s one weekend,” Boone said in defense of Hicks. “I think up and down our lineup, Aaron included, it’s guys with a pretty good track record … Over the long haul, Aaron Hicks is going to be all right.”

That was two weeks and 12 games ago. Since then, Hicks has batted third in all but three games, batting fifth, first and sixth against the Blue Jays and Rays. He has hit .206/.270/.324 since the first weekend of the season and is hitting .174/.255/.261 overall. You could add Hicks’ batting average into the formula for OPS and he would still only be at .690, yet he continues to bat third for the preseason AL-favorite Yankees.

After a pair of wins over the lowly Orioles, the Yankees lost again, this time 4-3 to the Orioles in 11 innings for their third loss of the season to fall back to .500. The Yankees had 13 hits and two walks in the game, but only scored three runs. Aside from failing to hit with runners on again, the real story was Aaron Judge who wasn’t in the lineup. Was it just an unnecessary day off? Was Judge already hurt?

“I think it’s just been the general wear and tear of the first several days,” Boone said of Judge.

Wear and tear? On April 7? The season was seven days and five games old and Judge was already experiencing wear and tear.

The Yankees went to Tampa for the Rays’ home opener and after having Wednesday’s game off and a scheduled day off on Thursday, Judge still wasn’t in the lineup on Friday. He was indeed hurt. So much for the Eric Cressey offseason workout regimen of yoga and unconventional training methods. Judge lasted five games before missing two games due to injury.

The Yankees lost to the Rays 10-5. Corey Kluber was lit up by a Rays offense that had only managed to score nine runs in their previous three games against a mediocre-at-best Red Sox pitching staff. The Rays had nine innings in less than four innings against the Yankees.

Kluber lasted only 2 1/3 innings, allowing five runs (three earned) on five hits and two walks. The two-time Cy Young winner was supposed to be the Yankees’ No. 2 starter until the return of Luis Severino and he had gotten 19 outs through two starts as a Yankee. Boone didn’t see any issue with his starter putting seven runners on base in 2 1/3 innings.

“I thought stuff-wise he was good,” Boone said of Kluber’s performance. 

The next day the Yankees lost to the Rays again, this time 4-0. Boone went to the “muster” well in this postgame press conference, using one of his most popular buzz words.

“Just couldn’t muster enough,” Boone said of his team’s no-run, five-hit performance. “Obviously, as a group, gotta start getting it rolling … As a group we’ve struggled a little bit to catch our stride where we’re obviously going to get to.”

“Muster,” “obviously,” “ultimately,” “ramp,” “banging,” “traffic,” “lanes.” These are all Boone buzz words, and he used “obviously” twice in this answer, essentially saying his offense is going to get to where it should be as if just wearing pinstripes would magically make them productive.

The Yankees did everything they could to get swept by the Rays in Tampa, but managed to win a 10-inning game to stop their three-game losing streak. Two days later, they would start a new losing streak, a streak that is still alive.

On April 13, the Blue Jays blasted Jameson Taillon for five runs on eight hits and a walk in only 3 2/3 innings. The offense put up only three runs of support for their starter and the team fell one game below .500.

“Hitting is hard,” Boone responded to a question about his offense’s lack of production. “It’s a game of failure. We haven’t collectively strung really good at-bats together like we are capable of yet.”

As for Taillon’s forgettable outing?

“Stuff-wise, I thought he was fine,” Boone said about his starting pitcher allowing nine baserunners in 3 1/3 innings.

The next day, Boone decided to give DJ LeMahieu and Giancarlo Stanton both the day off, despite having an actual day off the following day. Stanton had already been given the third game of the season off, so he was being given a second game in the team’s first 12 games off. (Reminder: he only bats and doesn’t play the field.) The Yankees lost 5-4 on a Bo Bichette walk-off home run.

Kluber was bad again, going only four innings and allowing three earned runs and eight baserunners. Boone didn’t see a problem.

“Kluber, I still think is close,” Boone said. “I thought the stuff was fine.”

Kluber has given the Yankees 10 1/3 innings over three starts with a 6.10 ERA and 7.16 FIP. What exactly is he close to doing? Retiring midseason like Jay Bruce?

Losers of two straight, the Yankees were back home on April 16 for a three-game series with the Rays. The Yankees chose to go with an opener in the series opener, opting to use the hittable Nick Nelson. Three batters into the game, the Yankees were down two runs and hadn’t recorded an out in an eventual 8-2 loss.

“We’re going to be successful,” Boone said, once again sure things would magically fix themselves. “We just gotta start playing better. Period.”

In the middle of their second three-game losing streak of the young season, Boone decided to hold a team meeting. Unfortunately, he didn’t look at the Rays’ rotation for the weekend, choosing to address the team the night before they would face Tyler Glasnow.

Glasnow would allow one run over five innings and the Rays would beat the Yankees 6-3. The Yankees had five hits.

“Hitting’s a tough game,” Boone said. “Especially now more so than ever.”

Bryan Hoch of Yankees.com and MLB.com then had an odd exchange with Boone.

Hoch: “Tampa Bay has really had the upper hand in this rivalry, not just this year, but the last few years.”

Boone: “Last year.”

Hoch: “5-17 that’s dating back to September 2019.” 

Boone: “Oh.”

Boone wasn’t aware of the Rays’ domination of the Yankees. He also wasn’t aware that Montgomery didn’t pitch very well, allowing two home runs.

“I thought he threw the ball well,” Boone said. “Obviously, two mistakes that cost him with the long ball.”

On Sunday with Gerrit Cole pitching, the Yankees would certainly end the four-game losing streak. Wrong. The Yankees blew their first lead in four days and lost 3-2 to get swept by the Rays and increase the losing streak to five straight.

“Bad series,” Boone said. “Just gotta get better. Period.”

For the second time in as many days, Boone used “period” to finish a statement, yet the team isn’t getting better. Maybe he should have said, “Just gotta get better. Ellipses.” When asked about changing the lineup to change things up, Boone simply didn’t answer the question. Why would he change the lineup? It’s the same lineup he was “proud” limped to a 33-27 record and first-round exit in 2020. Essentially, the same lineup that hit .214/.289/.383 in the 2019 ALCS and .214/.295/.321 in the 2018 ALDS.

If Boone were doing everything he could to win and the team were still losing then it would be solely on the players. But he isn’t. Giving unnecessary days off for everyday players in the first two weeks of the season, batting Hicks third and Rougned Odor and Brett Gardner ahead of Gary Sanchez or Gio Urshela, and sitting Clint Frazier in half the games isn’t doing everything you can to win.

There are simple, easy things Boone could to that would make him lesser part of the problem. Telling the truth about his team’s embarrassing performance would be a good start.

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Blogs • Yankees • Yankees Thoughts

Apr 19, 2021

Yankees Thoughts: Worst Team in American League

When is it not “early” anymore? Because maybe that’s when the Yankees will start to win games. The season is nearly 10 percent over and the Yankees are five games under .500.

When is it not “early” anymore? Because maybe that’s when the Yankees will start to win games. The season is nearly 10 percent over and the Yankees are five games under .500.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1.The Yankees opened the series with an opener, using the Rays’ revolutionary strategy against the Rays. Trying to be cute and outsmart the Rays like they unsuccessfully did in Game 2 of the 2020 ALDS, the Yankees’ opener strategy backfired. It backfired because they used Nick Nelson as the opener, and Nelson isn’t any good.

This spot made all the sense in the world for Deivi Garcia to start (like Game 2 of the 2020 ALDS), but he was unavailable after having thrown earlier in the week at the alternate site. The Yankees knew this game was on the schedule. They knew they would need a starting pitcher for it, and yet, they had Garcia throw at the alternate site and waste pitches in a meaningless setting rather than at Yankee Stadium against the Rays. Three batters into the game, the Rays had a two-run lead off Nelson and still hadn’t made an out.

2. When Friday’s lineup came out, I figured the front office finally took away Boone’s lineup card privileges. (Once Saturday’s lineup came out, I knew they hadn’t.) For the first time all season, Boone made a somewhat logical lineup:

DJ LeMahieu, 1B
Aaron Judge, RF
Gleyber Torres, SS
Giancarlo Stanton, DH
Gio Urshela, 3B
Aaron Hicks, CF
Gary Sanchez, C
Clint Frazier, LF
Rougned Odor, 2B

3. Aaron Hicks was removed from the 3-hole for the first time in which LeMahieu was also in the lineup. This made me happy, but it also made me question why it was being made. Twelve days earlier, Boone was asked about moving Hicks out of the 3-hole after he went 1-for-12 with seven strikeouts in the first three games of the season.

“It’s one weekend,” Boone said at the time. “Over the long haul, Aaron Hicks is going to be all right.”

Had the long haul ended after just 44 plate appearances in 2021? Or did Boone finally realize Hicks belongs batting third as much as Boone belongs being Yankees manager?

Hicks carried a dismal .179/.273/.282 batting line into the series and went 0-for-3 in the series opener. Apparently, his one-game timeout as the Yankees 3-hitter and his 0-for-3 performance was enough to get him out of the doghouse. Boone couldn’t stay mad at his favorite player for long. Hicks was back in the 3-hole on Saturday and went 1-for-4. Hicks finished the weekend 1-for-11. His OPS currently sits at .476. Maybe there’s a reason other teams use players like Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Juan Soto, Nolan Arenado, Freddie Freeman, Manny Machado and Jose Abreu as their No. 3 hitter.

4. Hicks wasn’t just bad at the plate. On Sunday, he misplayed back-to-back balls in center field, which erased the Yankees’ first lead in four days. Rather than make it clear defensive miscues aren’t acceptable during this miserable stretch of sloppy games, Boone left Hicks in the game. Boone could have won over the fans and showed enough was enough by pulling Hicks and replacing him with Gardner, but that might cause Hicks to not like Boone or not invite him to the card game at the back of the plane on road trips. I would have completely changed my opinion of Boone if he had removed Hicks from the game. Instead of being the manager first and friend second, Boone made it clear no amount of mental lapses on the field are enough to make an example of someone.

5. Boone’s relaxed Southern California personality that has made these Yankees feel comfortable with losing and accepting of underachieving is part of the reason this team is 52-51 since Sept. 15, 2019. Why would Boone change anything about his team? It’s the same roster he said he was “proud of” after they were eliminated by the Rays in 2020 ALDS, their third straight early postseason exit and second ALDS exit with him as manager. Boone has taken his false positivity and ridiculous excuses in his postgame press conferences to another level this season, and this weekend wasn’t any different.

“We’re going to be successful,” Boone said after Friday’s loss as if things will magically fix themselves, while admitting he held a team meeting to address the team about their second three-game losing streak in 13 games. Unfortunately for Boone, he didn’t check the pitching probables for Saturday before holding the team meeting. Tyler Glasnow would be starting for the Rays. The same Glasnow who had shut down the Yankees in Game 5 of the 2020 ALDS and who had allowed one earned run through his first three starts in 2021.

6. Hicks was back in the 3-hole on Saturday as Torres failed his one-game audition for the spot. Frazier was benched again for Gardner and Odor was back to batting ahead of Sanchez and Urshela. Three-time Gold Glove second baseman LeMahieu was once again at first base instead of second base because the Yankees unnecessarily sent down Mike Ford and had to wait 10 days to bring him back up.

Glasnow inevitably shut the Yankees down, allowing one earned run over five innings and the Yankees lost their fourth straight. The Yankees only managed  three runs and five hits in the game.

“Hitting’s a tough game,” Boone said in defense of his team’s offense, completely disregarding the Rays had no problem scoring 32 runs in the first five games against the Yankees this season. (They have now score 36 in six games.)

Jordan Montgomery only allowed two hits over six innings, but both of them went over the fence. Four earned runs in six innings for Montgomery. That’s a 6.00 ERA. That’s not good. Well, unless Boone is the one grading you.

“I thought he threw the ball well,” Boone said about Montgomery who seems to always allow a crooked number. “Obviously, two mistakes that cost him with the long ball.” Just two mistakes, no big deal. Just two home runs that cost the team the game. Other than that, he was good.

7. Gary Sanchez took a foul ball off his throwing hand on Saturday because for some reason Sanchez continues to not protect his throwing hand behind his back. Boone and the training staff evaluated Sanchez and allowed him to stay in the game. He finished the inning and then hit in the bottom half of the inning. Then while catching warmup pitches the next inning, Boone replaced him with Kyle Higashioka. Letting Sanchez stay in the game and then bat only to then take him out was so irresponsible, but exactly the way the Yankees have handled injuries the last few years, while setting all kinds of injured-list-placement records.

“I’ll play Higgy tomorrow into the off day,” Boone said after the game. Oh yeah, like Boone wasn’t going to start Higashioka with Gerrit Cole before Sanchez got hit on the hand. All the foul ball off Sanchez’s hand did was make it easier for Boone to explain why Sanchez wasn’t catching Cole again.

The 6-3 loss on Saturday wasn’t the only loss Boone would be handed that day. Bryan Hoch of Yankees.com and MLB.com (and Keefe To The City Podcast alum) handed Boone another “L” in the postgame press conference during this exchange:

Hoch: “Tampa Bay has really had the upper hand in this rivalry, not just this year, but the last few years.”

Boone: “Last year.”

Hoch: “5-17 that’s dating back to September 2019.” 

Boone: “Oh.”

It’s now 5-18 after Sunday’s game. Five wins in 23 games against the Rays.

8. Jay Bruce announced he would be retiring after Sunday’s game. Clearly, Bruce realized he wasn’t going to play much, if ever again, as a Yankee and once Luke Voit returns, he would be gone. Rather than be forced into retirement, Bruce dumped the Yankees before they could dump him. He retires having made $103 million in his career. I think he’ll be OK without the Yankees and baseball. Boone couldn’t let him bat instead of Odor in the bottom of the ninth with two outs and no one on and the Yankees down by two? Is there really any difference between Odor and Bruce? Both are left-handed. Both are no longer major leaguers. The only difference is one is retiring because he can no longer do what he once did on the field, and the other is being paid $27 million by the Rangers to not play for them because he can no longer do what he once did on the field. There was no reason Bruce couldn’t have received one last at-bat.

9. With Bruce announcing his retirement to open up a roster spot and with Cole starting, I thought Sunday would be the day the Yankees turn the season around. It didn’t happen. Cole was good, but got no help from Hicks in center field or the offense and took his first loss of the season. After Hicks’ first blunder, Cole gave a look of displeasure. After Frazier airmailed the cutoff man later in the same inning to allow a runner to move into scoring position, Cole gave a look like he might join Bruce in retirement after the game.

It was the sixth time Cole has faced the Rays as a Yankee. His line: 34 IP, 32 H, 16 R, 15 ER, 10 BB, 54 K, 8 HR, 3.97 ERA, 1.235 WHIP. Good, but not great. The Yankees got him to be great, especially against their direct competition in the division.

If the Yankees couldn’t end their losing streak with Cole on the mound, when will they? They have already wasted two of his four starts this season (Opening Day and Sunday) and now he won’t pitch until Friday. The Yankees will play three games between now and the next time Cole pitches.

“Bad series,” Boone said. “Just gotta get better. Period.”

Maybe the Yankees need another team meeting since Friday night’s worked so well. The Yankees are 0-2 with five runs and eight hits since Boone “addressed” them.

10. If you thought things were bad after Wednesday’s loss to the Blue Jays, welcome to a new low. The Yankees are 5-10, have lost five straight, are 1-5 against the Rays, 3-9 against the Rays and Blue Jays, have the worst record in the American League and the second-worst record in the majors. The scary part is this might not even be the low point of the season.

The Yankees’ next two games on Tuesday and Wednesday are against the Braves and they will face Charlie Morton, who dominates them, and Ian Anderson, who embarrassed them in his major league debut last season. If you think things are bad right now, buckle up for the next two days. Most likely, it’s going to get worse before it gets better. If it gets better.

Subscribe to the Keefe To The City Podcast. New episode after every game during the season.

My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is now available as an ebook!

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