From Drew Davison:
Aaron Judge dismissed any notion that the Yankees’ confidence has dipped as the team’s disappointing stretch continued in Texas this week.
The Yankees dropped a third straight series to a team on the outside of the playoff picture, falling 10-6 to the Rangers on Wednesday night in the series finale at Globe Life Field. It marked the sixth defeat in the last eight games for the Yankees, as they’ve now lost consecutive series to the Nationals, Cardinals, and Rangers.
“A couple of back-and-forth games, a couple of games not going our way, stuff like that is going to happen,” Judge said. “We’re not happy about it. We’re fighting for a division, fighting for a lot right now. But we’ve got to keep trusting in each other and things are going to go our way.”
Asked if there had been a dip in confidence, Judge said: “Not at all. Not at all. We’ve still got a long month ahead of us, a big series coming up here in Chicago. That’s all you can really do is look forward. You can’t sit and look back at past games, ’cause those will just keep building, so it’s just about moving forward.”
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a weirder Yankee team. They play the hard teams hard, and the play the soft teams soft. It’s inexplicable.
The starters might suck, the starters might be great.
The hitters might suck, the hitters might be great.
There is no consistency at all, and in the middle of it all, their best player is mired in a disturbingly shitty slump at just the best part of the season. Good times, good times.
The slumping Judge gets the featured image for setting the tone with failing to catch an easy popup to the outfield (95% catch probability).
I think I’m in an abusive relationship.
At this point I hope that Soto leaves for a big contract somewhere else and fucking trashes the clownshow that is the Yankees organization. It feels like only something like that will trigger any sort of introspection, never mind actual change.
Jettison Verdugo. PLEASE.
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-yankees-refusal-to-open-the-door-for-jasson-dominguez-could-prove-costly/
I just don’t fucking get it. Like, I think there is a LEGIT argument that The Martian might not be fully ready yet, okay, fine, but how the fuck is he going to be any WORSE than Verdugo?! He can continue to work on shit in the Majors. It’s just absurdly stupid.
Verdugo is 100% gone after this season, so why do they seem so intent on sucking up to him?!!?
And the biggest thing is that with Verdugo gone, who is going to be the third OFer next other than Dominguez (provided they sign Soto, which again, I’m unconvinced that they do)?
Ideally, I would think it would be Judge/Dominguez/Soto. But it could also be Judge/Grisham/Soto or Dominguez/Grisham/Judge. But Verdugo isn’t in ANY of those scenarios. So who gives a shit, make him a pinch hitter and OFer.
We’re going to make the playoffs and lose in the first round because of some combination or Rizzo, DJLM, Stroman, Holmes, and Verdugo being some of the worst regular players in MLB this season.
Judge is probably hurt
The starters might suck, the starters might REALLY suck.
The hitters might suck, the hitters might SUPREMELY suck.
Split the baby. Bring up the Martian and let him split time with Stanton and Verdugo. Stanton sits against hard throwing RHPs and Verdugo plays 2/3 times a week. MAYBE. Or throw him in the bathwater.
Our confidence has not slipped in the least.
We are fully capable of losing 2/3 of our games over long stretches while at full confidence.
Yankees OF defense is pretty bad if you use OAA (and believe it).
Makes sense, Judge is playing out of position and Soto has never been a great fielder.
Has Verdugo consciously become a singles hitter so he can avoid another 0/20 and keep his job. He has 2 xtra base hits since the middle of August. Hes not running hard. If Luis Arraez was a 250 hitter he’d be Verdugo.
Kay is killing Verdugo.
I’d rest judge; I think he looks spent.
Just release Verdugo he’s a negative player.
Find an injury to put DJLM out of his 2024 misery, invite him to spring training and if he still can’t hit release him.
As for pitching – hope and pray that Gil and Schmidt are good. And maybe one goes to the bullpen to be used as a goose Gossage like closer – 3 innings. Knowing the idiot manager he’ll probably use Nestor for one inning at a time.
And with all that maybe maybe we will win one post season series. Unless the big 3 plus Jasson go wild.
The Cubs game are all 2:20 PM starts; getting the losses out of the way early is always a good thing.
Well, he won’t be doing many post season games.
https://www.mlb.com/news/john-sterling-to-broadcast-yankees-postseason-on-radio
The Astros swept 3 games by the Reds, including a 1-0 loss today. Misery loves company. So, welcome, Astros!
Martian 2/2 with a walk, both singles unlike Verdugo our doubles machine. Poteet not great, 2.2 ip, 2r, 5h
No lane, and besides, Soto spoke out in favor of Verdugo.
Bill James was the first to write up the principle of lanes. Lanes were the key to Moneyball.
3/3 with a walk and a home run, 413 feet. We can’t replace little Alex he’s been here all year and it would break his heart.
https://x.com/mlbpipeline/status/1831852071366381787?s=61&t=fhOaqwtc8q2TMSXUDRjPeg
https://nypost.com/2024/09/05/sports/inside-yankees-alex-verdugo-jasson-dominguez-call-that-divided-brass/
They should have DFAd him when he fell down failing to make a 95% chance catch in the last game before the AS break.
If Dominguez hadn’t blown his elbow out the Verdugo trade would not have happened and Jasson would have been on this team the entire year. How the fuck is a wildly underperforming Verdugo now blocking a high-end prospect who was ready last year?
Jasson Dominguez flies out in his 5th plate appearance. Overrated. 3-for-4, HR, 2 RBI, 3 RS, BB
https://x.com/mryclept/status/1831859173564526728
“I don’t know what more he has to prove.”
Jasson’s HR.
https://x.com/swbrailriders/status/1831858149277520335
Yankee flashbacks after Pip’s headache, Gehrig sent back down to Podunk for more seasoning.
We believe in Tony Woemack and Robinson Cano is not ready yet.
And had Tony Fernandez not broken his bone very late in spring training there’s have been no 1996 Derek Jeter.
This team is famous for not promoting youngsters and giving them
A chance…except for Volpe who probably has naked pictures of cashman
Help is on the way! Well, not really. Bowden (which, lol) has his top-50 prospects list out. The Yankees have zero. Boston has four. Baltimore has two. Tampa has three.
That’s encouraging.
From 5/2 thru 9/4 Vertigo is hitting .227/.276/.337 with a 72 wRC+ Is that a big enough sample?
In what is a small sample the Martian is hitting 375/.474/.750 with a pair of homers and six RBI in four September games. Once Jasson had his 1 MLB game it’s hard to find any other stats like last 15 games. In 10 of his last 16 games he has had at least 2 hits. But you can’t blame Cashman after all Colter Beand didn’t work out and we freed him.
They could surely give Judge a day, Stanton and Verdugo 1 or 2 each, so The Martian can get in the picture before the playoff. I know you don’t want to blow off a tremendous talent like Verdugo.
2:20 game today and all weekend
G Torres (D) 2B
J Soto (Z) RF
A Judge (D) CF
A Wells (Z) C
G Stanton (D) DH
J Chisholm Jr. (Z) 3B
A Rizzo (Z) 1B
A Volpe (D) SS
A Verdugo (Z) LF
thanks. work just got a lot better! or worse.
From the man who gave us Josh Donaldson and six more years for a past his prime DJ.
Hoch:Brian Cashman said today that the organization believes Alex Verdugo gives them the best chance to win games, which is why Jasson Dominguez hasn’t been called up. Cashman said that they will not call up Dominguez unless he can play every day.
Is he in full blown dementia?
No, he’s just an inveterate liar. Any moron knows Verdugo sucks, he’s just justifying his unjustifiable decision by making up pleasant-sounding statements about “belief” to pacify reporters / fans. Of course, since everyone has access to the underlying data no one should actually believe the drivel he spouts.
This really reminds of the IKF situation, where Cashman got him presumably to fill-in until Volpe or Peraza was ready. He did that, Volpe was ready, and then…IKF just continued to play, just in fucking left field or center field.
Similarly, Verdugo as a stopgap until Dominguez was ready made perfect sense. Except they have just decided to simply keep the stopgap. It’s mind-bogglingly stupid. I just can’t fathom how they can be THIS foolhardy about this.
This is worse. Neither Volpe nor Peraza were tearing it up in Scranton.
Cashman says 31-39 in the last 70 games is just the “ebbs and flows,” SEVENTY GAMES! He also said “Verdugo is swinging the bat much better of late.” Meredith asked him if there’s something he needs to see (of the Martian) there ( Scranton), Cash without pausing “NO!”
I remember hearing someone say that Cashman needs to prove he’s a genius so he sticks with players he acquired far too long, as if eventually they’ll prove he was right to get / keep them. That is as good an explanation as any for his pattern of reality-challenging decisions.
I know it will never happen, but I long for a new front office. (And manager, of course, but that goes without saying.)
Did Gil have a rehab start or is this his rehab start?
He did.
31-39, 442 winning % last 70 games.
No fair the Cubs are starting a sub 4 era LHP.
Two on, one out, no problem. Bases loaded, two out, no problem. Yankees in the first with RISP must be record settingly bad lately.
Gil first inning velo
https://x.com/riveraveblues/status/1832127815174463964?s=61&t=fhOaqwtc8q2TMSXUDRjPeg
Rizzo 3/14 but 2/3 were excuse me doubles. I’m not sure he’ll even be an improvement on DJ.
Vertigo with a first pitch lazy fly ball out. Is he even trying?