December 21, 2024

39 thoughts on “Yankees.com: Composed Rodón takes ‘robot’ cue from Cole as Yanks grab Game 1”

  1. Presumably Rodon simply didn’t HAVE to figure anything out until he got hurt.
    Once he was, it turned out to be a tough adjustment to make for… someone like him. E.g., not mechanical, but psychological.
    He was great tonight.

  3. To review our pre game complaints – why is wells batting 4th? We nailed that one; Boone is an idiot
    – why Rizzo? He got a hit but missed a very playable ball in the 8th inning. Meh.
    – why Vertugo? He was fine. He has one RBI this post season but it was a game winner.

    Judge at bats were fine. Sac fly, walk, terrible ump call on K, smoked like drive….

    If I’m Not mistaken Stanton has as many playoff HRs as judge in way less ABs and is out slugging him by 250 points.

    1. I am of two minds on this. One is that Judge is absolutely not going to get pitches to hit and the only possible way he does is for a mistake to catch too much of the plate and that might only be a couple of hittable pitches total. Two is that he hit the ball hard the last two games but doesn’t have much to show for it other than a double (but a 1.000 OPS), but if he goes super saiyan for the remainder of the ALCS and World Series, I’ll take an underwhelming ALDS.

    2. He’s already pitched extremely carefully, but during those 100 games he hit every mistake, smacked a lot of excellent pitches on the edge of the zone.

      Unless the actually intentionally walk him, he’ll still get his hits and home runs if he really gets hot.

      Will he? If he’s in the post-season enough, I think it’s inevitable. But is it inevitable in this post-season? No. Certainly possibly, but it’s not long enough to be confident. Short enough that it might end before he clicks.

  5. So is this Cleveland offense even less impressive than KC? Ramirez is not on the level Witt was this season, great as he is. they jave a legit second good hitter in Kwan but then the next best are Naylor and Fry who are maybe a bit above average. the rest of the lineup is poo.Like the Yankees they started the season much stronger than they finished it, and really didn’t hit after the ASB. I feel pretty good with our pitching matchups and kinda like their only real chance is if we continue the RISPfail/tales of WOE.

  6. I see that interference play now.
    But there should be enough discretion allowed so that if you know that he ran into HIll simply to “draw” the call, if you’re certain he wasn’t going to second and could just as well have NOT run into Hill, then you can void the “interference.” What Hill did reflected his – proper – understanding of the actual baseball logic of the situation. What Rocchio did was correctly use the rule as it’s written, even though he WASN’T going to follow the path that led through Hill to second.
    You never want formalities trumping the sense of the game – you have to give Rocchio credit, but that rule should be amended.

    1. I guess, but you si ply aren’t allowed to block the basepath, and given the penalty it was obviously a careless mistake to do so. He wasn’t about to make a play, he was just in the way. he could have been there for a play if he’d been out of the way in the first place (though Rocchio might have just stayed put then of course).

    2. I think Rocchio was was unnecessarily rough for his fake collisions. No need for an elbow to the neck/head and a shove. I hope Cole drills him in the back if he has the chance to do so.

    3. SM, I agree that Hill followed the game logic, not the rule logic. He screwed up.
      But given that the screw-up became a rule-violation only because Rocchio intentionally turned the base and plowed into him, pulling an impressive acting job, I find it hard to accept that this rule is doing what you’d want it to do. Roccio was right to do it – because the current rule makes that the right thing to do. It pushes him to do that.
      So yes, they played it right, we played it wrong. But the game should be decided not by acting, or by “baseball-lawyering.” They played the letter of the law, but the whole event violates the spirit of the game.

  7. I take back all of the negative things I’ve said about Stanton and Rodon if it means the Yankees win the Serious. I’ll even allow Cashman to crow about how smart he was to acquire them.

  9. As I was watching the 8th inning while flipping back and forth to the Jets, I had the fear that it was going to be the worst sports day of the year – Mets win, yanks lose, Jets win. Thankfully it mostly worked out.
    But Boone is still an idiot.

  10. In a fun example of how stupid the Gold Glove is, Juan Soto is a finalist for the Gold Glove in right field, despite plainly being a weak defender out there.

    Dugie and Volpe are both finalists at left field and shortstop, respectively. Wells really got screwed not being a finalist at catcher. He was EXCELLENT on defense this season.

    1. What do they go on? He doesn’t pass the eye or the stat test. Jeter at least made all the plays he got to.

    2. Wow, that’s quite unexpected. Anyone who actually watches them play could tell you that Verdugo and Volpe don’t hit well enough to win a Gold Glove.

    4. “What do they go on? He doesn’t pass the eye or the stat test. Jeter at least made all the plays he got to.”

      I think it must just be that he’s famous. I guess he made that one sliding catch where he banged up his knee? But yeah, it’s baffling. He clearly is awful out there.

    5. Rafael Palmeiro famously won a Gold Glove at first in 1999. He wasn’t a great first basemen in the first place but only played 28 games there that year.

      Coaches and managers select the winners, but I am not sure who selects the finalists. It might be Rawlings.

    6. There’s an explicit stat component to GG judging now, but it’s not solely stat based

    2. Oh, I’m way ahead of you on that one. Was on ’em last night, on ’em for the series, and I’ll be on ’em tonight.

    1. I mean, the logic DOES track, as WP notes above, that when Rodon signed the deal, he was getting by with just amazing talent, and his lack of intelligence or fortitude didn’t matter, and it was only after he suffered the major injury and had to learn how to actually pitch that he started taking some of the mental aspects of the game seriously, but…like…HUH, dude? You took until the fucking PLAYOFFS began to start seeking out advice on how to not be such a headcase?! Make that make sense!!

  14. Funny how ending the games with more runs than the other team seems to takes some of the sting out of their pathetic inability to drive runners in.

    1. How long did they keep Volpe in the leadoff role when he was just getting dominated?

      I appreciate the level of confidence they have in these guys, but it’s OK to put them in better situations to succeed. Baseball is very hard at the MLB level. At best, the confidence the Yankees have in their young guys limits any damage extended sucking does, at worst they are potentially harming the development of these young players. All while putting winning games at risk.

    2. Also, there’s not nearly as much of a need to run RLRL now that pitchers need to see at least 3 batters (or end an inning), RR or LL in a few spots is fine.

    3. It’s truly astonishing that Boone’s devotion to R/L is keeping him from moving up his hottest hitter to cleanup, where he would also presumably serve as great protection for Judge.

    4. And for six weeks Wells has clearly been the worst hitter on the team. He should be batting 9th or 8th.

  16. I think this Rodon bashing is a bit much. He pitched really well yesterday – 6 innings 1 run. It’s not the first time he’s done this. It’s the 10th time this year he’s gone 6 or more and given up 1 run or less. He managed to win 16 games this year. He didn’t just discover how to pitch this week after talking to Andy p. Who as aside has some bad playoff games too (1997 and 1998 vs Indians and 2001 WS)

    1. But it’s Rodon himself who is telling us these things! HE’S the one who says he needed Cole and Pettitte’s help to keep himself from losing control.

    2. Those two bad games in the 2001 WS. The second one, after the Yankees had three great wins in the Bronx, and he was sitting in AZ waiting to pitch and was awful. That is when George soured on Andy.

    3. The one where he was clearly, clearly tipping his pitches.
      No words for how much that sucked.

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