May 20, 2025

38 thoughts on “Yankees.com: Belli’s slam, Fried’s gem fuel emphatic Subway Series win”

  1. By the way, be prepared for a bad next series. As I said earlier in the season, there are only a handful of teams whose starters seriously worry me, and the Texas Rangers are one of them.

    Corbin vs. Warren
    DeGrom vs. Yarbrough
    Eovaldi vs. Rodon

    Yiiiiiiiiiikes.

    I guess we just have to hope that they hit Corbin, at least.

    1. Or pitch well enough to keep it close and get fi their bullpen.

      Volpe sucks. They need a SS who doesn’t suck. Third year. Times up.

  2. I think Volpe is fine. He just can’t be the #5 or #6 hitter.

    Boone has got to bite the bullet and allow two lefties to bat in a row in the middle of the lineup.

    Like against a righty:

    Grisham/Rice
    Judge
    Bellinger
    Goldschmidt
    Dominguez
    Wells
    Volpe
    LeMahieu
    Vivas

    against a lefty

    Goldschmidt
    Grisham
    Judge
    Bellinger
    Rice/Dominguez
    Wells
    Volpe
    LeMahieu
    Peraza

    1. Looking again, maybe There are lots of AL SS better than Volpe – like every single one in the AL West. And KC, Balt, Toronto, etc. But maybe a 320 OBP with some pop isn’t that bad. Jeter spoiled me.

    2. Yeah, especially with his Gold Glove level defense, he’s not the problem with this team. The second and third basemen sucking enough that it makes some sense to bat Volpe fifth is the real problem.

    3. Yeah. Entering the season with no plan at 3b other than hope isn’t acceptable for a team with championship dreams. That Goldy is playing awesome is what’s bailing them out. (And judge of course)

    4. Yankees need a 2b/3b to replace Vivas/Peraza/Reyes and give DJ when he gets hurt again. Even if he doesn’t get hurt DJ will need days off.

  3. If the Yankees had signed Soto what would they have done? They wouldn’t have signed Cody $27k, they might’ve signed PGold $12.5. Would they have gone for Fried $14.5K this year and next but $31.5 thereafter. That would’ve been $140K Soto, Judge, Fried and Cole this year and $155 thereafter.
    Soto WAR 1.7, Cody 1.1, PGold 1.3, Fried 2.4.

    1. I was just discussing this yesterday. If Soto was here I’d have to assume no Fried and no belli. Not sure about Goldy. So far Plan B has worked out great.

  4. “fielder’s choice plays that AREN’T errors still count as quasi-errors for the sake of determining earned vs. unearned runs”
    And you don’t mean “fielder’s choice plays that are close to being errors, in the discretion of the scorer,” you mean ALL fielder’s choice plays?

    1. No, fielders choices period, because the theory is that the pitcher shouldn’t be charged an earned run due to his team choosing NOT to make the out. Had it not been the runner coming home, Vivas wouldn’t have reached, so the rules say that Vivas doesn’t count as an earned run from that point, and since Judge made the second out before the home run, then the other two runs also didn’t count against Stanek. Had Judge hit the granny, Stanek would have been charged with three earned runs of the four allowed (everyone but Vivas’ run). Since Judge was retired, he was only charged with one earned run.

    2. Got it.
      Well, that does make some sense.
      Although once they made a bad throw to home, it’s hard to argue that they couldn’t have made a bad throw to first.

    3. Of course, that would be an error and lead to the same scoring result.

  5. I bring up this great Sarah Langs piece a lot, but this is the sort of season it is incredibly valuable. It tracks the latest any hitter has gone into the year while still hitting above .400. Aaron Judge, after 46 games, is still there. If he’s still there after 49 games, he’ll move into the second-deepest into a season hitting .400 since 2008; the latest this century is currently Luis Arraez (78 games), just two years ago.

    https://www.mlb.com/news/power-rankings-for-week-of-may-18-2025

    1. You say “still hitting”, but obviously dipping below and going back over still counts, right?

  6. Katie S
    Jorbit Vivas’ 11-pitch AB last night was the most pitches seen by a Yankee in a PA that gave the team in a lead in the 8th inning or later in the pitch count era (since 1988).

    1. Like I’ve said, the results haven’t been there yet, but that dude has such a good approach at the plate that I love they’ve committed to him playing regularly over Reyes, who just looks like a hacker out there (and occasionally has hot streaks).

    2. I would fully endorse this sentiment if the dude didn’t swing so hard with two strikes that his helmet routinely fell off

    3. I don’t mind guys swinging hard. Rice has a similar approach. When you strike out, you look silly, but I don’t think the aesthetics matter that much.

  7. The Yankees are now, “just for fun,” having Ben Rice work out at third base.

    Wow, can you even IMAGINE?

    He wouldn’t be the first catcher to successfully move to third (Bench, Torre, Zeile, probably others)!

  8. It’ll probably never happen, but imagine…

    Goldschmidt 1B
    Judge RF
    Bellinger LF
    Stanton DH
    Rice 3B
    Grisham CF
    Volpe SS
    Wells C
    LeMahieu 2B

    against lefties

    and

    Rice 3B
    Judge RF
    Bellinger CF
    Goldschmidt 1B
    Dominguez LF
    Stanton DH
    Wells C
    Volpe SS
    LeMahieu 2B

    against righties

    2. maybe? he hasn’t hit much at all this month.

      kevin maas
      shane spencer
      3.0?

    3. He only has to outhit Jorbit Vivas, though, without embarrassing himself on defense.

      He might not be able to do the latter, though.

  9. Codify Baseball
    ‪@codifybaseball.bsky.social‬
    % of Juan Soto’s competitive swings
    with a bat speed of at least 74 MPH:
    2024 —-> 68.1%
    2025 —-> 46.6%

    2. He’ll be fine, but boy, the idea of saying, “I’d rather make $55 million and not bat in front of Aaron Judge and get all of the negative attention versus make $49 million and bat in front of Aaron Judge and never have to worry about the negative attention being on me” was just always beyond me.

    3. But I imagine it was also about having the best shot at winning too. I would bet that the Mets are likely to win more championships than the Yankees over the next 10 years. (My tablet autocorrected that sentence until it refused to type it. I had to cut-and-paste it together like a ransom note.)

      Unless he hit like a modern day Aaron Judge, I think that contract was going to be a negative attention magnet no matter which NY team paid it.

      I get Soto’s decision. It doesn’t mean I’m not rooting for Cody Bellinger to out-WAR Juan Soto for the rest of said contract.

    4. Also the thought of someone not caring about being remembered alongside Ruth, DiMaggio, Mantle, Reggie, and Judge in baseball history.

    6. “Also the thought of someone not caring about being remembered alongside Ruth, DiMaggio, Mantle, Reggie, and Judge in baseball history.”

      Would he have been remembered alongside DiMaggio et al. though? It’s hard to do when your a transplant. I guess Reggie and Winfield and Gossage managed to do that to some degree. A-Rod sure the hell didn’t though. Which, yeah, he’s a weirdo, but it’s tough to do. I agree entirely though if you started with the Yankees. I think the legacy is way cooler than an extra $50 million bucks if you’ve already got a mountain of money.

      “How are you possibly going to determine how either team will perform ten years from now, though?”

      I think that’s a good point Brian and I don’t think you can know just evaluating the current major and minor league talent. However, it seems like Cohen can and will spend more than Hal and it doesn’t seem he’ll spend it so much more stupidly than the Yankees that it evens out.

      I don’t know, I am more bullish on the Mets than I am on the Yankees. And that’s before you give me more money and less mean security guards.

      Then again, it is the Mets. So there’s that.

    7. I agree that Cohen is the factor. He spends like George S but seems not to be hated by the players. The org is well run. I mean maybe he wins it all this year and sells but the guy clearly loves being an owner in a way that Hal does not seem to.

    8. If Soto keeps hitting like this (he won’t), it will be a stellar narrative for Yankee fans.
      As to the choice – Soto doesn’t think the way we do. Look at him. He has fun in the moment, but he’s like the honey badger. Honey badger don’t care. He just does shit and he hits well. And he’s good enough, and rich enough, that he CAN just not care.
      As everybody’s worried about what he did and why, he’s fine. Yes, for us, his stats would likely have been more impressive hitting in front of Judge, but – he just doesn’t think the way we do.
      Honey badger don’t care.

    9. I mean I take this with a huge grain of salt but supposedly Cohen and his wife wooed Soto and his wife in a way that I cannot imagine Hal and Cashman doing
      They have dead eyes, like a doll’s eyes

    10. “…supposedly Cohen and his wife wooed Soto and his wife in a way that I cannot imagine.” Full stop.
      What would it even look like for Hal to “woo” anyone. [Robotic deadpan] “I am Hal. I have much money. I am free of disease. Here is a humorous anecdote. Starting nowOne time I ate so much custard…” And it just goes on like that until Hal’s manservant arrives with his freshly pressed pajamas topped with a sprig of lavender. Then it’s a thorough teeth brushing, three sets of deep knee bends and straight to bed.

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