From Bryan Hoch:
Aaron Boone stood at his usual perch near the top step of the Yankees dugout in the late innings on Wednesday, chomping on Dubble Bubble. He occasionally squinted at the lineup card as though searching for a hidden code, then folded it into his back pocket.
Especially in the late innings, answers have been elusive.
Carlos Rodón turned in six innings of two-run ball, but for the second consecutive evening, the Yankees’ relievers stumbled mightily. Camilo Doval, Tim Hill and Luke Weaver each surrendered late homers in an 11-1 loss.
“We’ve played good teams,” said catcher Austin Wells, who homered in the defeat. “You can’t get away with as many mistakes against teams like that. I definitely think they’ve made some good swings on some good pitches, and also we’ve put ourselves in holes.”
I’m not saying that the bullpen hasn’t been terrible the last two games, as of COURSE it has, but I think that all glosses over the fact that it’s the offense that’s particularly bad. The blow-up in the first game of the series was in a 2-2 game where the Yankees never scored again. Of course it was terrible to give up 9 runs in relief, but even ONE run was too much. Similarly, the bullpen giving up 9 runs in this game was terrible (and it really, really, REALLY should mark the end of Mark Leiter’s tenure here), but they were down 2-0 at the time, and ended up scoring one run. The game was over anyways because of how pathetic the offense was (grounding into MULTIPLE double plays all night long).
Luckily for the Yankees, the Tigers are basically going to punt this final game of the series, so hopefully their loser hitters actually show up for this one.
Featured image is the awful two-run, game-losing single Rodon gave up when he almost got out of trouble in the fifth. It was just emblematic of the annoying shitty Yankee pitching approach. He got ahead in the count, then fell behind, and had to throw a pitch close to the plate with the bases loaded, and Gleyber was waiting for it.
We like to complain when road teams schedule night games on get-away days; then the yanks do it to themselves.
Well, this is a bit of a distinctive situation, ya know? A 9/11 ceremony during the day at Yankee Stadium would be kind of unusual.
If not for that, I bet this WOULD have been a day game.
So, the Yankees, in their infinite wisdom, decided to play Volpe with a bad shoulder for much of the season.
https://x.com/Joelsherman1/status/1966162563676487888
Since calling him up, the Yankees have done everything in their power to fuck over Volpe.
Honestly, it makes a ton more sense than him just becoming the worst hitter in the world out of nowhere, no?
Out of nowhere? He’s got same OPS this year as the last 2.
There was a hilarious article about how Peraza might have turned things around in Anaheim. He has a 63 OPS+ in Anaheim. Obviously much higher than his 26 OPS+ here, but, well, come the fuck on.
He has actually more negative WAR there than here, since they play him more.
If theyre going Slater why not Rosario who’s hitting over 300 vs LHPs.
Kirschner Anthony Volpe’s average arm strength by year:
2023: 81.8 mph
2024: 81.2 mph
2025: 82 mph
Volpe’s bat speed by year:
2023: 70.9 mph
2024: 69.3 mph
2025: 72.6 mph
Throwing harder and swinging harder this year. Seems like the shoulder is not impacting his strength
It could be if it is a three year old injury that has never healed. And who knows if it would be evident in that the swing speed and arm speed, but if he’s favoring certain mechanics over others to be more or less pain free then it can certainly affect his on-field production.
Look, I’m not claiming that this is the difference between Anthony Volpe to date and him being Bobby Witt Jr, but holy shit, their medical staff is fucking awful.
ETA: and doubling down that he’s just going through a rough spot and is really an elite player and effectively ignoring his play is pretty embarassing by the organization.
LOFL
Dr. Nick and the Hollywood Upstairs Medical College strikes again.
UnbeLIEvable.
I can’t forget the medical staff’s take on Rizzo.
What is WRONG with these people, and how does nobody there see it?
As I said years ago, after the Teixeira fiasco, a crackhead medical staff.
Weren’t there others? Andujar?
There’s been a good number of them.
Stat of the day
In his last 2 years on the marlins, Stanton had 10.5 WAR
For the 8 years he’s been on the Yankees…10.5 WAR