From Bryan Hoch:
They braved the Midwestern heat by the thousands, many clad in pinstripes, just for a glimpse of Aaron Judge taking batting practice hacks along the banks of the Ohio River. The Yankees captain’s warmup drew waves of applause — but that was nothing compared to the first inning.
Judge launched his team-leading 28th home run of the season, a towering upper-deck rocket to left field that offered early promise. It was all Elly De La Cruz and the Reds the rest of the way, as the Yankees dropped Monday’s series opener, 6-1, at Great American Ball Park.
I’ll be honest, I’m certainly not saying that there is NO such thing as being a “clutch” player versus being a player who “chokes,” but I don’t think this lineup IS filled with chokers, so the fact that they’re all choking like crazy is probably just a fluke. But it’s a really embarrassing fluke.
Allan Winans didn’t seem ready for primetime, but he also wasn’t AWFUL. The offense, though, was pathetic.
This game sucked so much that I will instead just share an image of a cool ass mug that my wife made for me for my birthday.
Very nice mug.
If not for Judge, just think how very bad the Yankees MiL system would be since 2013. But at least Nick Swisher finally came up clutch.
When?
When?
NY picked Judge with a competitive balance pick from Nick Swisher signing with Cleveland. Otherwise, they would have had Eric Jagielo as their big haul from that draft.
Stanton had a few opportunities to do damage and whiffed on fastballs up and chased sliders down instead.
Judge, Stanton, and Jazz are similar in that when they are off, they just looks SILLY.
Volpe is slightly different, in that when he is off, he just looks overmatched. The other guys just swing at stupid shit, Volpe swings THROUGH good pitches when he’s doing poorly.
when is volpe doing well? he’s had a week here and there but i can’t ever remember being excited that he was coming to bat. watching him lose the bat twice yesterday was also pathetic.
At this point it looks like Volpe is at best a low 700 hitter and I hope he can shore up his defense a little. In 2022 at AA he hit 251/820 over 110 games and in 22 games at Scranton he hit 236/717.
Pretty much. I think of Volpe as Brett Gardner 2.0: .700-.750 OPS, good defense.
Last year March thru May, random endpoints, he hit ~281/785, for the rest of the season he was shite and in Sept Oct his OPS was 432. The genius move of all time would’ve to trade him last May, not that anyone without psychic powers could’ve done that.
I’d take that Chris, Isee him more 650/700. Maybe if he could learn to think at the plate he might do better. Gardy OPSed over 800 twice and was a better base stealer.
One time was in 16 games, the other time the year he hit 28 HRs (2019).
Well, Gardner OPS’d over .800 once. The first time was in 16 games. For his career Gardy was a league average bat with good-to-elite defense, that’s definitely a success.
Gardner also debuted at 24. Volpe is 24 with two seasons and 6 WAR already.
League-wide, offense is down and a .245 BA is average-ish. We’ll see if Lombard is the real deal and I can totally see him (or Volpe) moving to 2nd in two years.
Stanton, Martian and DJ sit tonight
MLB:Everything about Reds top prospect Chase Burns, #2 overall, is fast: his stuff, his big league ascent, how quickly he can send hitters back to the dugout shaking their heads. That’s why his Major League debut against the Yankees tonight (MLB.TV, 7:10 p.m. ET) should be appointment viewing.
O/U 1.5
We know how this will go, and it isn’t going to be good for the Yankees wet noodle bats.
Triple digits, 100º right now.
Wait, the guy [Chase Burns] is a RHP, Jasson had two hits last night, and Boone sits him. Okay, this is just lunacy by Boone. He just keeps doing this over and over, a guy struggling, has a good game, so sit him.
One hit, one was 99% an error.
Boone is an idiot, and has proven that so many times it means that cashman is also an idiot for allowing this and the owner is an idiot for allowing millions to go to waste every year.
In statistical news, the Yankees are now 17-102 with RISP the last 12 games. And not all the hits knocked in runs.
Burns has a good big smile in his player pic, hope he does well tonight