Yankees Thoughts – Page 54 – Keefe To The City

Jul 31, 2020

Yankees Thoughts: Yankees Beat Orioles Again, No Thanks to Aaron Boone

Two games against the Orioles meant two wins for the Yankees as they finally finished their wild season-opening road trip.

The Yankees played the Orioles the last two nights, so without checking, we all know the Yankees won the last two nights. The winning streak against the Orioles from 2019 has carried over into 2020, and I don’t know if it will end until 2021.

Last season, I wrote the Off Day Dreaming blogs on every off day, but this season there aren’t many off days. There aren’t many games. So instead, I have decided to use the Off Day Dreaming format following each series. Yankees Thoughts will be posted after each series this season.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. Last season, the Yankees beat the Orioles on Opening Day before losing two straight to them. That was the last time the Yankees lost to the Orioles. The Yankees finished the season by winning 16 straight against the Orioles and going undefeated at Camden Yards. After these last two days, the Yanekes have now won 18 straight against the Orioles and 12 straight at Camden Yards. The Orioles are bad, very, very, very, very bad, and this trend of the Yankees beating up on them isn’t going away anytime soon. At some point, the Yankees will lose to the Orioles to break the streak, but in terms of beating up on them for 13-plus wins a season, that’s going to happen for at least the next few years. The Yankees have eight scheduled games left against the Orioles this season. Normally, visualizing a perfect 10-0 record against an opponent is outlandish, but I don’t think it is here. I think anything less than 8-2 against the Orioles this season is unacceptable, and that might be setting the bar too low.

2. Gerrit Cole wasn’t sharp again in his second Yankees start. He walked the first batter of his night and gave up a run in the first inning. Whenever someone reaches base against him, it feels weird. When a run is scored against him it feels almost fake. But in his first two starts, Cole hasn’t looked like himself, hasn’t thrown like himself and hasn’t resembled the pitcher who became the best pitcher in the world last year. Despite not being anywhere near the level he can and will be at, this is his line after starts against Washington and Baltimore: 11.2 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 12 K, 2 HR, 3.09 ERA, 0.686 WHIP. It’s rather frightening that Cole has pitched as “bad” as he will pitch all season and has put together numbers like that. His ability to grind out very good performances when he doesn’t have his best stuff is what separates him from nearly every other pitcher in the world, and it’s why these two starts from him are about as “bad” as it will get for him.

3. Why was Cole sent out for the seventh inning with a six-run lead and nine outs to get against the awful Orioles? Each pitcher has so many pitches in their arm over their career and the Yankees shouldn’t be willing to waste any of Cole’s, especially with a lead like that against a team like that. Cole was at 90 pitches, and while he didn’t look tired, this is what would have been his line had he been done after the sixth: 6 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K. Instead he finished with this line: 6.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 K, 1 HR. It wasn’t necessary for him to return for one more inning, not when the Yankees currently have 11 relievers on the roster. If Aaron Boone was somehow worried about the Orioles scoring six runs before making nine outs, he could have turned to Chad Green, Adam Ottavino, Tommy Kahnle or Zack Britton, who had all pitched once so far this season, and who had all pitched once since Game 6 of the ALCS on Oct. 19, 2019. Boone wasn’t worried about blowing the lead though even after the Orioles made it a three-run game as he went to Luis Avilan after Cole.

4. Can Boone and the Yankees play the everyday lineup every day? Is it that hard? This isn’t a six-month, 162-game grind. It’s a two-month, 60-game sprint. While I get that the change to the postseason format made it virutally impossible for the Yankees to miss the postseason, playing more games at Yankee Stadium than on the road in October isn’t nothing. You would think after settling for not having the best record in the American League many times over the lazt 11 years, in which this team hasn’t won a championship and hasn’t even been to the World Series would change the Yankees’ mind about having regular-season urgency, but it hasn’t.

5. Not even this wild, pandemic-threatened season can change the Yankees’ mind. After unexpectedly having Monday and Tuesday off because of the threat of the Phillies being sick, the Yankees had as many off days as games played this season (three) and still don’t feel the need to play their everyday expected lineup every day. Maybe things would be different if the league didn’t change the postseason format to allow 53 perent of the teams into the postseason. Maybe then the Yankees would be playing like winning the division and finishing with the best record is worth something (which it is). I don’t think they would though.

6. Now in his third year as Yankees manager, Boone hasn’t improved with his bullpen managment at all. He actually might have gotten worse. In the second game of the series, leading by a run, Boone turned to Jonathan Loaisiga for the sixth inning following the rain delay. Fine. Loaisiga walked the first two batters he faced, but got out of it with a strikeout and double play. Then he went back to Loaisiga for the seventh. OK. Loaisiga put up another zero. Then he went back to Loaisiga for the eighth. Nope. Loaisiga gave up a two-run home run and the Yankees had blown a 5-0 lead. Ottavino had been used before the rain delay, so he wasn’t available. But that meant there were still nine relievers available aside from Ottavino and Loaisiga. Three of those relievers were Green, Kahnle and Britton, who had all pitched in one game this season, and again, one game since Game 6 of teh ALCS. Boone reported after the game that Kahnle wasn’t available, so that gets him off the hook for not using Kahnle, but not for not using Green. Thankfully, Aaron Judge hit a three-run home run in the top of the ninth and the Yankees retook the lead and went on to win when Britton finally came in and ended the game, but Boone’s bullpen management shouldn’t be forgotten because it’s this exact type of management that cost the Yankees the 2018 ALDS and could cost them again in the postseason. Boone stayed on 16 with the dealer showing a 10, and when the dealer turned over a 5 and pulled an 8 to bust, Boone won and so he thought he made the right decsion. I’m happy the Yankees won. I’m not happy that today Boone believes he made the right call because Judge saved him.

7. The Yankees have a starting pitching problem. Through five games, Cole pitched twice, James Paxton pitched and was pulled in the second inning, the Yankees had a bullpen game and Happ lasted four innings and was awful. Jordan Montomgery will finally pitch on Friday, and he was very good in spring training and Summer Camp, but again it’s spring training and Summer Camp, and Masahiro Tanaka will pitch on Saturday, and I trust him completely. But the Yankees kind of need Montgomery to be good because I don’t know when or if Paxton will bounce back after his back procedure and Happ might have a good start here and there along the way, but he’s finished. Back in February, the Yankees had the best offense and bullpen in baseball and a rotation of Cole, Severino, Paxton, Tanaka and Happ/Montgomery. Tanaka was going to be the fourth strarter! Now they have a rotation of Cole, Tanaka, hope Montgomery is good, hope Paxton can figure out how to throw hard again and hope Happ can give you a handful of quality starts. I have a bad feeling it will be another October of debating who to start in Game 3 because after Cole and Tanaka the Yankees might not have a third starter yet again.

8. DJ LeMahieu is so good it’s absurd. There hasn’t been a time when LeMahieu has been bad as a Yankee. Even with only a 1-for-5 peformance on Thursday, LeMahieu is batting .412 with a 1.059 OPS, and he does it so quietly. RBI single here, base knock there, solo home run here, clutch hit there. With the game so much about strikeouts and home runs these days, it’s refreshing to have a hitter on your team who rarely strikes out, is so hard to get out in general and can put just about any ball in play, and oh yeah, can play nearly everywehre on the infield. D(erek) J(eter) LeMahieu has been a perfect Yankee.

9. As President of the Gary Sanchez Fan Club (and possibly the only remaining member of the club with his start to the season), I’m going to refrain from commenting on Sanchez’s offense through five games. I’m going to refer to the five-game sample size for now, but with each passing day without a hit and another game with multipe strikeouts, it’s becoming harder and harder to defend Sanchez. To put it as nicely as possible, his at-bats have been ugly. He’s had a few line drives that have been hit right at fielders, but for the most part it’s been swinging and missing, and it feels like he’s 0-2 before he steps in the box. I don’t know what Sanchez’s plan at the plate is, and right now, it doesn’t look like he has one other than to hope he gets a mistake fastball, even if what he thinks looks like a mistake fastball ends up being a slider low and away. Fortunately for Sanchez, the Yankees are winning because Sanchez is a popular target for criticism even when the team is winning, so if the Yankees were 2-3 or 1-4, he would be hearing it to the point that those who thought Austin Romine should start over him because of his defense would think Kyle Higashioka should start over him for his offense.

10. Sanchez isn’t the only hitless one on the team as Brett Gardner is also hitless, but got Thursday night off, though I’m guessing we will see Gardner back in the lineup on Friday. I’m not worried about either Sanchez or Gardner. They will come around. If I had to pick between the two for who I’m more worried about, I would pick Gardner based on his age and his decline over the last few years (minus the inflated home run numbers because of the super baseball). It would be nice if the two broke out on Friday or at least got a hit, so Michael Kay could stop talking about them being 0-for-2020.

***

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

Blogs • Yankees Thoughts

Jul 27, 2020

Yankees Thoughts: An Up-and-Down Weekend in D.C.

The Yankees went to Washington D.C. and took two out of three from the defending champion Nationals. Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

The Yankees went to Washington D.C. and took two out of three from the defending champion Nationals. The return of baseball has been enjoyable, though there have been times (like the first five innings of Sunday) when I didn’t miss the increased blood pressure and frustation over lineup choices, poor at-bats and comical bullpen management. Thankfully, Gleyber Torres saved the Yankees from losing the rubber game and from starting the season off in disappointing fashion.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees.

1. It’s rare when I agree with an Aaron Boone lineup or whoever in the front office actually creates the lineup, so I wasn’t surprised at myself for getting upset about the first lineup of the season. This season, every game counts as 2.7 games and it needs to be played that way. So why was Brett Gardner batting fifth on Opening Day? Why? Because he bats left-handed and Max Scherzer throws with his right arm, as if that matters even the slightest bit when you’re talking about a future Hall of Fame pitcher? Did the Yankees not learn their lesson in the postseason when batting Gardner third took away at-bats from Gleyber Torres in key situations? I have no problem with Gardner playing, but the highest he should ever be batting is seventh. Not fifth. Not ahead of Gary Sanchez (even if Sanchez looked like he drank a six pack in the clubhouse before the game at the plate this weekend). Stop trying to make Gardner into something he’s not and don’t be fooled by last year’s “super ball” stats and the artificial 28 home runs. Gardner batted ninth on Saturday (where he belongs) and Aaron Hicks was batting fifth (as a lefty against a right-handed starter), so it’s obvious the Yankees will bat a lefty fifth no matter what. Any left-handed bat, no matter their ability will bat fifth.

2. Continuing the gripe about unnecessary rest, there’s no reason DJ LeMahieu couldn’t have been in the Opening Day lineup. Sitting on the bench and watching baseball isn’t going to get him the at-bats and live game action he needs after missing a large portion of Summer Camp. Even if LeMahieu weren’t at his best, it would have been no different than having Aaron Hicks lead off against Max Scherzer. Aaron Boone claimed LeMahieu needed more baseball activities before being in the starting lineup, and I guess on Friday’s off day, he magically went from not ready to play to leading off on Saturday.

3. The Yankees played Game 6 of the ALCS on Oct. 19. Their next real game was on July 24. That’s more than nine months between games and then there was another day off before the second game of the season. After playing only two games with more than nine months off, Gardner, Hicks and Gary Sanchez were all out of the lineup on Sunday. If you want to say Sanchez was out because of the day game after the night game, OK. I mean it’s not OK, but I can accept it. Hicks and Gardner were replaced by Miguel Andujar and Mike Tauchman. Andujar needs the at-bats, but Tauchman? A left-handed hitter against Patrick Corbin? If this was a scheduled day off for the three then this is the most egregious scheduled day off of all time given the amount of games played over the last nine months and the amount of games in the 2020 season. If the three were given the day off because of their poor performance in the first two games, then the Yankees can never cite “sample size” again as a reason or excuse for making any decision. Sure enough, all three of the everyday Yankees eventually found their way into the game anyway, nullifying the rest they were being given.

4. The Yankees chose to send Clint Frazier down rather than Tauchman before Sunday’s game, even though they were facing the left-handed Patrick Corbin and were prepared to let Tauchman face him. Tauchman went 0-for-2 with two strikeouts. The Yankees have essentially admitted Frazier is a major league player who they don’t have a roster spot for. But they do have a roster spot for him, they’re just choosing not to give it to him. Frazier’s inability to be healthy at the right time over the last few years and his defensive miscues cost him a chance at a starting role and I don’t see how he ever gets playing time in 2020. He’s blocked by Hicks, Gardner, Aaron Judge, and Giancarlo Stanton (if he’s allowed to play the outfield). And then the Yankees obsession with Tauchman and their wanting to play Andujar in the outfield has him blocked as well. Frazier is either the sixth or seventh outfielder on the depth chart depending on how Stanton is viewed and while the Yankees’ injury history suggests their depth will be tested, it’s going to take 2019-like injuries for Frazier to play.

5. Before Luis Severino went down with Tommy John surgery, the Yankees had the best team in baseball on paper. Even without Severino, the Yankees were still probably going to have the best team in baseball on paper, just not as good as they would have been with him. But for as talented and deep this Yankees roster is, starting pitching is once again the team’s glaring weakness. It’s enough of a weakness that the team went into the season with a bullpen game lined up for the third game of the season. James Paxton better figure out how to regain the arm extension he says he’s missing because the Yankees can’t go into the postseason with Gerrit Cole and Masahiro Tanaka and then hope that J.A. Happ will be his 2018 self or that Jordan Montgomery will worthy enough after coming back from surgery. Paxton’s second inning on Saturday was painful to watch as he couldn’t put any hitters away with diminished velocity, allowing all five hitters in the frame to reach base. If not for Michael King’s performance to clean up the bases-loaded, no-out mess, Paxton’s ERA might have never recovered in a shortened season in which he will make at most 12 starts. The Yankees need Paxton to figure it out for their championship chances and he needs to figure it out for his own bank account as an impending free agent.

6. Sunday’s game felt like a game the Yankees were destined to lose. Every Yankees line drive was finding a glove and every Nationals dribbler was turning into a base hit. When Asdrubal Cabrera beat out the closest bang-bang play of all time at first base in the ninth, I had a feeling the Yankees were going to blow what was going to be an unexpected comeback win. The game showed the Yankees aren’t going to be managed with urgency in a 60-game season. They’re going to play the same way they would if this were a six-month season. The lineup proved it and using David Hale after Jonathan Loaisiga proved it.

7. Before Adam Ottavino entered Sunday’s game, the Yankees had used Hale twice, Jonathan Holder, Ben Heller and Luis Avilan before using Ottavino, Chad Green, Tommy Kahle or Zack Britton this season. Can we stop with Triple H (Hale, Holder and Heller)? (Heller was sent down, so we can stop with him for now.) Clarke Schmidt or Deivi Garcia aren’t better roster choices than Hale or Holder? If the Yankees were keeping them at Scranton in the event of needing a starter, wouldn’t one of them have started on Sunday? I don’t care about roster limits since there are more than enough people eligible to lose their spot (I just named three). The Yankees should have the best overall roster to win now. As Michael Kay mentioned on Sunday, the Yankees are the second oldest team in the league after the Nationals. The difference is the Nationals won in their championship window and the Yankees haven’t, and the Yankees aren’t going to get any younger or less expensive in the coming years.

8. The days between Cole starts feel as long as this spring and early summer felt, and this feeling is coming after a Cole start in which he didn’t even look good. And his version of not looking good is one run and one hit over five innings. (For other pitcher’s versions of not looking good, see Paxton’s start in D.C.). Cole’s next start will be against the Phillies and then he will get his first taste of Yankees-Red Sox. It will be a small taste since he will be in New York and without fans, but it’s a taste nonetheless. As I wrote on Friday, it feels good to once again have a pitcher who, when given any sort of lead, has essentially won the game before the game has ended. The Yankees haven’t had that in more than two years when Luis Severino was the best pitcher in the league for the first half of 2018, and before Severino, the Yankees hadn’t had that since the first four seasons of Sabathia’s Yankees career. But for as good as Severino was that season and has been at times and for as great as Sabathia was from 2009-2012, it feels different with Cole. While, the other two felt like sure-thing wins every fifth day, Cole feels like an automatic win every fifth day, with the game being played out as a formality.

9. I hate the eight-team format. More than half of the teams in the league will make the playoffs now and there’s no advtantage for the higher seeds to host entire first-round, best-of-3 series at home in an empty stadium. I also hate it because I have a feeling it will be here to stay. Once the league and owners cash in on having an expanded postseason field, they’re not going to go backwards and settle for less money. The owners proved they don’t actually care about the sport or the integrity of the game over the last few months. If it were up to them, they would let every team in the postseason and just play one enormous and ridiculous tournament. If you think the “this is only for 2020” line holds any weight, then you must have forgotten which sport and league we’re dealing with: a sport and league that announced these changes seconds before the first pitch of the season.

10. Life is starting to feel somewhat normal again with baseball back. On Opening Night it felt weird watching baseball after having not watched a real, meaningful game in more than nine months, and the off day after the rain-shortened opener didn’t help. But with games on back-to-back days this weekend, the first day game after a night game and no off days for a while, baseball is becoming part of everyday life again. It feels right.

***

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