From Bill Ladson:
The Yankees’ Murderer’s Row has gone missing.
After Thursday’s 8-4 loss to the Reds at Yankee Stadium, New York has a .221/.315/.383 slash line in its past 19 games dating back to June 13. That batting average ranks 26th in the Major Leagues during that span.
Even worse, in the Yankees’ 14 losses in that span, that slash line has dropped to .186/.282/.328. Their 14 losses since June 13 are the most in the Major Leagues since that date, one more than the Rockies, who played later, and the Cubs, who beat the Phillies.
Yankees captain Aaron Judge put all the offensive problems on himself. He said he needs to be better at driving in runs early in the game.
“Offensively, we have to score first,” he said. “It’s been a lot of weight on our pitchers’ shoulders right now to be perfect. Offensively, we’ve got to put some pressure on [the opposing pitchers], get some guys on base. Maybe run a little bit. Drive some guys in when they are on base. Try to get the score in our favor early on. That way, we would have leverage throughout the game.
“Look at me. I’m hitting in the first inning. I have to do something to either get on base, drive a guy in. … I take a lot of responsibility for that. I have to step it up there first.”
Yes, Aaron Judge, the MLB Player of the Month for June is definitely the guy who has to “step it up.” That said, Judge WAS particularly bad this game (and he choked big time in the previous game, as well).
Simply put, the team is terrible right now. You have an offense that can’t score any runs, you have an injury-ravaged bullpen filled with back of the bench relievers who mostly all suck (Jake Cousins is Jake Cousins, you can’t expect Jake Cousins to not suck. What REALLY sucks is expecting Jake Cousins to NOT suck), and you have a rotation that has one ace and then four dudes who constantly give up home runs, and allow early runs, putting the Yankees’ already shitty offense into big holes that they have to try to climb out of.
They’ve been absolutely godawful since basically the trip to Fenway last month. And now the Red Sox sit just five and a half games behind the Yankees, and will soon be just two and half games behind the Yankees. It’s all quite depressing.
An offense that can’t score despite having two of the three best hitters in baseball, a terrible rotation, and a bullpen where the only good relievers are useless since the team is always trailing, and thus the bad relievers are used, and they then make the deficits even BIGGER.
That said, the past is not necessarily prologue, their non-Soto and Judge hitters can stop being pathetic pieces of shit…in theory, at least. Their non-Cole starters can stop being pathetic pieces of shit. They CAN get better…but WILL they?
Doubt it.
Stroman, who clearly didn’t have his stuff today, and yet was still allowed to try to pitch out of trouble in the fifth, allowing a three-run home run to put the game away for good, gets the featured image, as he sadly watches a two-out three-run home run head into the stands.
Swept by the fucking Reds. What pathetic losers.
Brian, I take issue with this part:
“and you have a rotation that has one ace and then four dudes who constantly give up home runs, and allow early runs, putting the Yankees’ already shitty offense into big holes that they have to try to climb out of.”
We’ve seen on at least several occasions that this is patently untrue. They don’t actually HAVE to really try at all.
No team is as good as it looks during a win streak or as bad as it looks during a losing streak…except the 2022 and now 2024 Yankees who are in fact bad.
Gleyber, Volpe and DJLM are all terrible. Vertugo? Ugh. Relief pitchers? Ugh. Most of the starters? Blah. There’s nothing here to keep me interested. I can’t totally pull myself away but easy enough to find something better to do with my time.
Ok there’s something worth seeing – Aaron Judge. Also maybe one day he’ll explode and go postal on his teammates who stink; that would be fun to watch!
jinx
Judge saying he has to step it up is an elegant way of saying ” you guys all suck so I’ll have to do this by myself.”
I may buy this.
Aaron Judge’s personal hitting coach:
https://x.com/teacherman1986/status/1808936192521457880?s=61&t=fhOaqwtc8q2TMSXUDRjPeg
I know the Yankees are set offensively in the infield but from Pinstripe Alley:
“2B Jorbit Vivas 2-4, 2 2B, RBI, GIDP, HBP — OPS over .940 since June 9th; arbitrary? yes, but we’ll take it”
His last 21 days he sports an OBP of 447
An interesting idea is to DH Gleyber, and call up Vivas and give him second base for an extended period. Gleyber is gone after this season anyways, why not see if Vivas can be his long term replacement?
I was thinking he could alternately spell Gleyber andDJ against RHPs. He’s got 350 MILB games at 2B and125 at 3b.
Sure, that’s fine, too. Jones can be dropped at any moment, so there’s a glaringly open roster spot right there, ya know?
Waldo also has options I think.
Drop Jones? That would be like dropping… IKF! Or any of the other superstars only Boone is sharp enough to see.
I assume Waldo gets sent down when Berti returns. They can’t send Waldo down now because he’s their only backup shortstop.
Time to give Wells a few days off. **** Austin Wells has been RED HOT over his last 16 games:
.378 OBP | .553 SLG% | 164 wRC+ | 15.6% BB%.
https://x.com/FiresideYankees/status/1809213938422133052
Wells moved ahead of Volpe. I’ll allow for Verdugo against the Red Sox for now, but they should really consider moving Wells to the cleanup spot.
1B Ben Rice L
RF Juan Soto L
DH Aaron Judge R
LF Alex Verdugo L
2B G. Torres R
C Austin Wells L
SS A. Volpe R
CF T. Grisham L
3B DJ LeMahieu R
I do like this lineup well enough.
Let’s see what happens when they face a LHP?
Volpe can’t be worse than he’s been. Nor can DJLM. Nor can (until last night) Verdugo. So much depends upon whether those guys return from the dead – especially the first two. Or maybe a red wheelbarrow.
Which is pretty much what they were just run over by.
But what if they’re only slightly less bad than they are now? Same for Gil and Rodon. Stroman 5 era last month, 6.2 last 2 weeks; Nestor 3.64, 4.76.
True, but that wouldn’t have been such a big deal had the offense not completely tanked, and had Gil not gone from God to garbage. Yes, anything’s possilble – but has Volpe ever been anywhere in between the extremes of amazing or abysmal? And even if that happened – if all three were only somewhat better, and not gaping rifts in the fabric of space-time, that could have been tranformative over the past week or so.
Any word on Schmidt, btw?
Clarke Schmidt, on the IL since May 27 with a right rotator cuff strain, has been throwing for about a week, the manager said.
“That’s I think definitely, so far, going according to plan, or how we had hoped,” Boone said, adding that the right-hander is “still a ways off from having to check boxes to getting on the mound and get built up again. But feel like that’s moving in a good direction.”
https://sny.tv/articles/yankees-notes-juan-soto-good-spot-hand-giancarlo-stanton-clarke-schmidt-on-track
Thanks. Relatively good news!
Clarke Schmidt turns out to have been a Big F*ing Deal.