From Robert Falkoff:
Two games into his 2026 comeback tour, Gerrit Cole has yet to hit a speed bump.
Cole picked up against the Royals on Wednesday night where he had left off last Friday against Tampa Bay by stringing zeros across the scoreboard. The veteran right-hander, who endured a 569-day absence due to Tommy John surgery, was both pitch efficient and in strikeout mode during the Yankees’ 7-0 win at Kauffman Stadium.
And whereas Cole came out after six innings and 72 pitches against the Rays, he took the extra step Wednesday by heading to the mound for the seventh inning with 10 strikeouts and no walks on just 70 pitches. The Royals had a runner at first with two outs when manager Aaron Boone went to the mound for a pitching change with the Yankees up, 5-0.
Cole showed his stuff by striking out two in each of the opening three innings. But he needed some defensive help from right fielder Aaron Judge to keep Kansas City off the scoreboard in the third. With a runner at second and two outs, Maikel Garcia lined a single to right. But Judge came up throwing and got Michael Massey at the plate.
Great win.
There is absolutely NO chance that I expected Gerrit Cole to look this good. I was hoping for him to be a quality #3 start with postseason upside. He basically pitched like Playoff Cole, and that’s awesome.
If you could use him and Schlittler in a series in Games 1 and 2, with Max Fried being your THIRD starter. Well, that’d be pretty fucking awesome. With Weathers throwing 98 in the 8th inning? Yes, please.
Featured image is Cole showing “emotion.”
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JC Escarra is apparently going to try to become a switch-hitter in the offseason (he’s already starting to practice, but I don’t think it’s something you can do midseason). That’s FASCINATING. Good for him if he can pull it off.
I mean, it’d be fascinating if he tried to become any kind of hitter.
Is he going to be here another 5 years?
Lagrange better tonight 5.1ip 1r 3h 6k 1bb
Sherman got some attention today by having Cash say that they’re discussing the timing on when to call Lagrange up to work in the bullpen. It’s just kind of silly, as I think during SPRING TRAINING we all knew that EVENTUALLY Lagrange would be in the bullpen this season. It’s really only a matter of timing. I think they’re handling it perfectly, honestly. Try to get him to his peak form in the minors as a starter and THEN you can bring him up, once he has mastered starting, so he can go back to starting next season.
Lombard and Jones, 4 Ks each.
In other words they’ll fit right in.
Who knew Bill James was so old
Sarah Langs lowest career ERA before turning 24, since ER official (1913), min 300 ip:
1913-15 Dutch Leonard: 1.99
1913-14 Bill Doak: 2.09
1914-18 Babe Ruth: 2.09
2024-26 Paul Skenes: 2.12
1913-15 Bill L. James: 2.27
He’s good, but he’s no Babe Ruth!!
The 1910s had some high ERA+’s but even more impressive Total WAR.
Once Stanton’s contract expires. do you pursue a Juan Soto trade if the Mets are still not great?
the 2028 buyout is paid by the Marlins. Confusingly, BR says of 2027 “$10M paid by Miami Marlins, $10M paid by Miami Marlins”
is that a typo? because if they’re only on the hook for $5 million after this year, trade him end of year. There will be a team willing to spend a middling prospect on a roll the dice DH
re Soto, I really doubt Cohen would trade him to the Yankees
I would like to see him get to 500 HR but that seems increasingly unlikely
In all seriousness, I’m fine with Grichuk finding success with the White Sox. He was never going to play here, and when he DID play, he sucked. Can’t really be too concerned about him doing well elsewhere (even though, as I noted at the time, I would have rescinded his DFA once Stanton got hurt).
Only 18 games and Grichuk was a veteran. I’m more pissed that the Yankees couldn’t get ANYTHING out of Peraza if only to pump up his, or phenom’s, trade value.
Peraza 2026 OPS+ 121
Peraza Yankee OPS+ 53
Yeah, and Grichuk doesn’t even start against righties.
They gave Peraza multiple chances, he was just TERRIBLE. Some dudes just can’t do it here. They effectively traded him for Cabby, which I’m fine with.
You’re just giving opposite interpretations to the same facts.
Bop is saying that Peraza is doing better with different coaching – that his lack of success here is do to the lousy batting coaching.
Brian responds that “some guys just can’t do it here” – e.g., it’s not bad coaching, it’s the pressure of being in NY?
Brian, are you saying straight out that you don’t think there’s a problem with the Yankee’s batting coaching, and you don’t think that a less awful batter coaching staff might have something to do with Peraza’s better success as soon as he left?
I think he’s probably just fluky, like that brief period where Pereira was doing well.
But if he actually has turned things around, I doubt it’s the Angels coaching staff who did it. They’ve sucked regularly for years, so it’s not like they have some magic formula to improve hitters.
Do you guys actually think Peraza is for real?
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/oswald-peraza-672724?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb
this is not an optimistic underlying profile
Not what you’re asking, but I think it’s entirely possible that he’s on PED’s.
I’m not saying I’ve done research into Peraza, I’m entirely willing to be convinced he’s not for real.
But to me “the hitting preparation isn’t good here” seems a more compelling argument overall than “some guys just play worse here… because.”
bright lights, big city
We’re still talking a pretty small sample size and nothing in Peraza’s underlying contact (and non-contact) points to a good, or even mediocre hitter. His results are good, but he’s swinging and missing A LOT and not making good contact often. Basically the only thing he’s doing well is elevating the ball on the rare occasion he does make good contact. And even then, he’s not hitting the ball particularly hard.
“bright lights, big city”
You could make that argument, but I’m not sure I’m buying it. The “the coaching staff sucks on the offensive side of the ball” argument seems an order of magnitude more persuasive.