From Bryan Hoch:
The numbers are going to tell a story about Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s season, and there’s probably not enough time left to completely change it. But if October ends the way he’s picturing, none of that will matter.
Chisholm entered the season with big ideas, aspiring to hit 50 homers with 50 steals. That won’t happen, but Sunday’s 8-3 victory over the Blue Jays provided a showcase for what manager Aaron Boone calls “Jazz-ball.”
“It gets frustrating sometimes, but I have such great teammates in the clubhouse that I just keep my head on a swivel,” Chisholm said. “It just helps me to go on the field, forget about it and wipe it from my memory.
“I go and play defense the best that I can, go run the bases as best I can when I get on. It just reminds me of the talent I have and the things I’ve done before.”
Chisholm’s bunt single and long homer contributed to the Yankees’ sixth win in seven games, allowing the Bombers (74-56) to remain three games behind the division-leading Rays (77-53) in the American League East chase with 32 left to play.
I legit don’t get how you saw this game and said, “Do you know who the key player was? Jazz Chisholm.” He hit a home run, which was nice, but otherwise, there were so many other players who were more important than him, including Ben Rice with a big hit with a 3-2 lead (which got the featured image), or Spencer Jones going 2-3 with a walk, or to Paul Blackburn for dominating once again, or even for Ryan Yarbrough to slowly looking like he might get some high leverage work out of fucking NOWHERE (Yarbs has been EXCELLENT for well over a month, but it’s all been in really low leverage opportunities, so who the fuck knows if he is actually pitching well or not).
But, hey, I liked Jazz’s home run!
Carlos Rodon was fine. He’ll likely be back to normal soon, and in which case, he’d have likely gone six in this one.
Split six with the Jays, and swept the Orioles, who just took two out of three against the AL East-leading Rays.
For the time being, the Yankees got some great news about Ryan Weathers, as he has apparently a mild Forearm Flexor Strain. Now, Forearm Flexor Strains TECHNICALLY have nothing to do with Tommy John Surgery, except to note that sometimes, if your UCL is acting up, you end up straining your forearm to compensate for it, which causes the Forearm Flexor Strain. Roughly 1/5 pitchers with a Forearm Flexor Strain end up needing TJS, but so far, it APPEARS as though Weathers has avoided that. He’s likely out for the rest of the season, but A. it sounds like he legit COULD return in time for the playoffs and B. if not, it sounds like he probably will be okay for next season.
Meanwhile, Cody Bellinger’s return brought just basic competence to the lineup, as it means that Ramos is no longer hitting against righties and playing a terrible left field. Cabby has been TERRIBLE lately, so hopefully McMahon gets back soon. Luckily, the roster expands right about when McMahon would be set to return from the IL.
If Jones turns out to be legit, that sure would be awesome.
About the Author
If *RICE* turns out to be legitimate, that would be awesome.
I don’t think there’s any doubt that Rice is a legit player. The only question is if he’s, like, a superstar or not.
His current overall numbers are in line with last season’s numbers, but that’s obviously with him slumping for a couple of months, so he MIGHT be a lot better than that.
But even if he’s “only” an .850 OPS player, that’s still a very useful guy.
We don’t yet know if Jones and Lombard will be .750+ OPS players, though. If they are, this team has a bright future.
I don’t think that works.
He broke out, or so it seemed, as a star.
If that was a flash in the pan, then you can’t take it into account in judging who he is.
That’s one thing.
The next is that: if he’s not a star, then really we’re back to one major success in developing hitters over decades. Which is nuts.
And what if it’s zero success? What if Judge, if developed and “maintained” on another team, would have been 1,5 times better than he has been? There’s no way to know.
Rewriting – weathers might be back for the WC series but if not he’ll be ready by next season. (There’s no chance he’ll be ready by the ALDS because the Yankees will have been bounced by then.)
All kidding aside, if judge and belli are healthy and play like the normally should, this team is actually OK. Ramos and Goldy and cabby is a pretty decent bench. But Wells really has to hit like he has recently and not like his season average.
Yeah, I’ve been saying for a while now that I actually really like Ramos as a long-term bench piece. He just has to, you know, be a bench piece!
phenom August 203/299/492
Earthling 188/263/303
Are they just going through the motions?
they should really be traded
The two of them plus a wagon should fetch them a wagon.
Not quite Dylan Cease, who has NEVER missed a start! But definitely worth something.
Is Weathers under contract for next year?
Also, I’m pretty sure Stanton has played his last game in a Yankee uniform and likely his last game period
I see Weathers is not under contract but is arb-eligible. I’d keep him and trade Will Warren
Warren hasn’t missed a start in two seasons. That’s got to have some value.
Dominguez and Volpe do sure seem like they could use a change of scenery. At this point probably can’t get more in return for them than a marginal bullpen arm, but those have become useful.
I’d hold onto both Weathers and Warren. These days it seems like half of all starting pitchers are unavailable for some portion of the season, and you want at least 8 starters to get you through the regular season even if you only end up using 4 in the playoffs. Cole/Schlittler/Fried/Rodon/Schmidt/Weathers/Warren/ERC/Gil seems like a reasonable cohort of 9 starters to start Spring Training with, and maybe 5 of them are healthy at opening day. I don’t see Hal spending big on another FA SP when he’s already paying Cole, Fried, Rodon big bucks and they’ve all missed significant time to injury. Maybe Cashman goes for Morejon to stabilize the bullpen.
Re: Stanton, either release him, or place him on the perma-60-day-IL and buy out his last year.
And yes, it’s crazy that the article suggests that last night’s game was all about Jazz. I mean, just utterly bonkers.
You missed the part where Jazz was the guest author. 😎
Oh, that’s it then. He does so many things, I can’t keep track!
It’s like he’s got his head on a swivel 😉
Ben Rice has a .150 batting average with 17 hits, 5 home runs, 14 RBIs and 14 runs scored in 30 games in his last 30 games.
Topa the mornin’ to ya.
I liked that pickup. He clearly has a live arm. Some interesting pitches. He’s a Matt Blake special for sure. I assume this means ERC gets called up for the #5 slot (and Hanner sent down, I assume)? Beck wasn’t really a relief option anyways.
But I wonder who will lose the doubleheader game against the Red Sox? Bullpen game?
Topology
Championship.
Rays with 2 in the top of the first.
Both the Rays and Bosox won.
The American League Champion Red Sox are like a cat, they toy with their prey, sometimes even let the mouse get a lead, and then they pounce. Resistance is futile.
Jay Jaffe has some musings on HOF chances for Stanton (vanishing), Judge (already solid), and other guys who had bad/injured years. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/cooperstown-notebook-a-rough-year-for-giancarlo-stanton-and-other-hall-of-fame-hopefuls/
Szymborski projects that Judge has a 59% chance to reach 500 HR and 28% to make 600 HR. He also projects Stanton at 51% to make 500 HR, though I think his model is the same that he uses for pre-season projections and it of course doesn’t incorporate injury history. (Which would be an interesting, but super difficult, feature.)
https://blogs.fangraphs.com/catching-up-on-career-milestone-projections/