From Bill Ladson:
Yankees manager Aaron Boone called the first half of the 2025 season incomplete.
There were days when they looked like Murderers’ Row and other days when they had problems winning ballgames. In the last month, the Yankees have had two six-game losing streaks, which have put the Bronx Bombers out of first place in the American League East. The Blue Jays are No. 1 now.
After losing to the Cubs, 4-1, on Sunday afternoon at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees (53-43) finished the first half in second place and are 10 games over .500. Boone made it clear that the goal for ‘25 is to return to the postseason and, hopefully, win a World Series title for the first time since 2009.
“We set out the year to get back to the playoffs and chase a World [Series] title and all those hopes and dreams are right there. It still exists for us,” Boone said. “… It’s still a long way to go. We are in a position to do what we need to do and hopefully, with the physical and mental grind of a long season, there’s that positive reset for some guys to get a breather, to get a blow and come with the hyperfocus of understanding what our mission is.”
I really just think that the Yankees need to concentrate on winning their own games, and not worry about the Red Sox’s crazy winning streak. If the Red Sox win every game, then the Red Sox win every game, what can you do? All you can really do is win as many games as you can, and get yourself ready for the playoffs. The Yankees are ten games over .500 despite dealing with MULTIPLE six-game losing streaks over the last month. They’re just two games out of first place. The Blue Jays are NOT a good team. This is a fine position to be in. The Yankees are one of the best offenses in the game, and even with the loss of Clarke Schmidt, their rotation isn’t awful (now, if Max Fried is hurt, then yes, their rotation is awful).
There are three real big areas of concern:
1. The bullpen isn’t good enough. Devin Williams and Luke Weaver look legit, after they both dealt with some bumps in the road, and Tim Hill has been very good, as well (he had a bad outing today, but only because he was fucked by Volpe’s defense), but that’s it for guys you can trust. Ian Hamilton is fine, but he’s more of low level guy than a high leverage dude. So Cash NEEDS to pick up at LEAST one really good reliever, and probably TWO.
2. Third base is a huge problem. Okay, so DJ LeMahieu can’t play third base, so he’s gone. That’s fine. But Oswald Peraza, who CAN play third base, can’t hit. Cash needs to get a righthanded third baseman who can hit a little. The blockbuster move would be to try to get Jose Ramirez, but the Yankees don’t DO moves like that these days (and haven’t in a really long time).
3. The defense needs to be better, but that’s really more of a mental thing. Obviously, Volpe and Jazz CAN play well, they just need to be better.
Otherwise, like I have said, I’m actually pretty pumped about this team for the LONG haul, since they’ll have Cole back next season, and they’ll have room to add a big name free agent, and I like how Jasson Dominguez and Ben Rice are developing. But this year is pretty shaky, and doesn’t NEED to be this shaky.
Featured image is Ian Hamilton’s shoulders slacking after losing the game in the sixth, after being used a day after pitching TWO INNINGS. Boone is so dumb.
They will never win a WS with an idiot as a manager. 2025, 2026, 2027 it won’t matter. Sigh.
What do you guys think about the idea of not adding guys as replacements to the All-Star Game if they won’t be pitching in the game? I think it’s stupid. Does it really fucking matter if you add them as an All-Star and then move to the next guy on the list? It’s stupid that Sanchez and Suarez of the Phillies won’t be All-Stars only because they won’t pitch in the game.
Do some of these guys have contracts with all star bonuses? No idea how this works though
Yeah, some of them do. The Phillies have already said that they’re giving Suarez his $50,000 All-Star bonus anyways.
The Yankees drafted a Dax. The Giants took a Jaxson in April.
I’m in full-on Danny Glover mode.
The Yankee add a Pico [Kohn] and a Core [Jackson].
4th Baseball America had Kohn as their 168th prospect, and praised his overall skillset which suggests a starter’s profile:
[Kohn has] a blend of pitchability and bat-missing ability. Kohn works from a three-quarters arm slot with a funky delivery that adds deception to a fastball that sits at 92-93 mph and touches 95. His best secondary is a low-80s slider, which he throws with confidence and shows some ability to manipulate its shape…will mix in a firm low-80s changeup and a slower curveball in the upper 70s.
5th College Senior SS Jackson has raked since his first day in Salt Lake City. He hit .363/.463/.516 with 22 extra-base hits in 52 games last year, and Baseball America speculated that he probably could have entered the draft right then. He chose to return to school though, and he boosted the power with a .364/.445/.641 line, this time notching 19 doubles and 12 homers while stealing 20 bases. Jackson made the PAC-12 All-Conference Team as a junior and the All-Big 12 First Team as a senior
Yankees claimed 31yo career era 6.5 reliever Rico Garcia from mutts. Mutts fans don’t seem happy.
How about Core Jackson at SS and batting 8th in front of Peraza on Friday night in Atlanta?
https://utahutes.com/sports/baseball/roster/core-jackson/15613
All 4th year Jr’s and Sr’s since Dax was picked.
A Swiss watch and a trumpet player.
Devil Rays sold for 1.7B, Sternberg paid 200M
A Dax scouting report.
https://x.com/BobbyMilone29/status/1944564390428135607
Jazz turning in the worst performance of the HRD. Excellent.
Saving them for the season, clearly.
Jazz 3 home runs, next worst 15. His home run output is fine would like to see him up his BA 20-30 points.
The first home run derby took place in 1960, Mantle had 44 home runs in 5 shows, Mays had 35, and Aaron 34 in 7 shows but had the most wins.
id like suarez to come over. what would be really great would be to send volpe back and move peraza to short. if we are going to punt on offense last have the best defense possible. he likely can’t be this bad and anyway volpe is going to get a raise. even if he figures it all out they won’t be able to say they didn’t try.
suarez is not likely as good as he’s been but he may still be the missing piece.
Don’t think Arizona would take Volpe. They already have a real shortstop (Perdomo). They want pitching for Suarez. Would probably ask for Schlittler plus IPK.