From Bryan Hoch:
For years, Jazz Chisholm Jr. has built an identity around playing at maximum effort. His closest friends even nicknamed him “Ricky Bobby,” a nod to the “Talladega Nights” character who lived by one motto: “I wanna go fast.”
But these days, Chisholm is learning there’s value in taking his foot off the gas — just a little. Chisholm said he recently decided to try performing at “70%,” and it’s working. That’s why he beamed brightly as he rounded the bases with a first-inning homer in the Yankees’ 9-6 win over the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium on Friday night.
“It’s really a mindset thing,” Chisholm said. “On the home run, I was trying to hit a line drive to center field, a base hit. I wasn’t even trying to hit a home run. It ended up shooting off my bat and getting over the fence. That’s why I was so hyped coming around first base: It hit me, ‘70% is really enough to be a great baseball player.’”
Teammates toss around phrases like “electric” and “game-changer” to describe Chisholm’s impact between the lines, and his energy was a significant selling point in convincing the Yankees to acquire him from the Marlins last July.
But there was an opportunity to reflect when Chisholm spent all of May on the injured list with a right oblique strain. His batting average was frozen below the Mendoza line, and while Chisholm said he didn’t fret about getting back over .200, he knew significant changes were needed to reach a goal of batting .300 or higher.
I often talk about how the Yankees have a bunch of headcases in their starting rotation, and tonight was definitely an example of that (I’ll get to that in a moment), but holy shit, Jazz Chisholm is RIGHT the fuck there with them with this shit! I watched Jazz explain his “Giving 70% instead of 100%” mentality that he’s been doing since he’s come off of the injured list, and it is INSANELY stupid. Hilariously, he mentions the coach who told him about this, then FORGOT THAT HE MENTIONED THE COACH, so when a reporter mentioned the coach, Jazz was shocked that they knew that this philosophy came from that coach, but then he remembered that, oh, yeah, he had JUST SAID THAT. Just madness.
Really, what his insane ramblings translated to was “I was trying to hit a home run on every pitch, and now I’m not trying to do too much, and the results work better.” Which, well, FUCKING DUH, dude! We ALL saw you obviously swinging for the fences in every at-bat! The weirder thing, though, is that he then says he’ll give 70% on defense and 70% on stealing bases, and, like, that MAKES NO SENSE, GUY! Please continue to give 100% to those two things. Just stop over-swinging in every at-bat. He has five multi-hit games all season, and three of those five games have come in just the last four games! But hey, if this is how that headcase will be a better hitter again, and not just a .170 hitter with occasional pop, go for it! It would certainly be a huge boost to this Yankees lineup.
As for the rest of the game, the headcase, Will Warren, was excellent through five, but then had a horrendous collapse in the sixth inning. He gave up a leadoff triple, a walk, and then a sacrifice fly. Okay, so at that point, the score is 8-2, one out, runner on first. THAT’S NOTHING! THAT’S NOT A FUCKING CRISIS AT ALL! Warren, though, clearly just lost his shit, and then walked the next two batters, clearly freaking the fuck out on the mound, and NOW the game was in trouble, as the Yankees had to go to the bullpen with just one out in the sixth inning and with the bases loaded. Blake Headrick pitched okay getting out of the inning, but since the bases were loaded, the one slap hit he allowed scored two runs. Luckily, he struck out two guys to leave the score 8-4. The next inning, though, he hit a batter, and then allowed a two-run home run to Devers. Devers hits EVERYONE at Yankees Stadium, so I’m not irked at Headrick, but it was still not good, and it meant that the Yankees three main relievers (Cruz, Lo, and WIlliams) all had to pitch.
Lo is now probably unavailable in Game 2 of the series (Mark Leiter should be available, at least, and so should Tim Hill, Cruz, and Williams). Then again, they’re playing against Garrett Crochet, so they’re fucked. A lefty who strikes dudes out? He’ll probably have 21 Ks. Expect a lot of meaningless Yerry De los Santos innings.
The featured image is Jazz reacting to his 70% approach working.
I like having a delightful lunatic on the team though