From Bryan Hoch:
DJ LeMahieu may be the least demonstrative individual on the Yankees’ roster; the next time he thumps his chest publicly will likely be the first. But the authentic celebration in their dugout after his third career grand slam said more than he ever would.
In the midst of a season clouded by the veteran’s injuries and underperformance, LeMahieu enjoyed one of the brightest days of his career, driving in six runs as the Yankees completed a three-game sweep of the Phillies with a 6-5 victory at Citizens Bank Park.
“DJ was huge. Everybody in here loves him,” said outfielder Alex Verdugo. “He goes about his business the right way; true professional, great teammate. That’s somebody that we’re always going to root for. That’s somebody that’s been such a great player for so many years that you know it’s always in there for him.”
I think we all knew that DJ LeMahieu alone would drive in more runs than the entire Phillies team combined. It was a foregone conclusion.
The interesting thing for LeMahieu is that it’s not like Ben Rice has been running away with the first base job (something for Anthony Rizzo to keep in mind, as well), and while you certainly shouldn’t play LeMahieu over Rice against righties, it would be nice to know that if Rice continues to struggle, LeMahieu might be able to fill in without being TOO pathetic.
“Not too pathetic” is how I would describe Nestor Cortes. He started out really well, then faded the second time through the lineup. But hey, he left with a lead, and got a win. That was nice.
The Yankees are now back to 20 games over .500. That’s pretty swell. Now that the schedule eases up, hopefully they start putting together more wins.
The featured image is an interesting scene where LeManhieu was on second after hitting a double that was really a home run (LeMahieu noted that his head was down, so he assumed he had hit a double). He, like everyone else in the Stadium, saw the replay, and he realized that it was an obvious home run, so he started to trot towards home, but realized at third base that the umps hadn’t officially ruled it a home run yet, so he had to wait at third before being allowed to go into his mini-home run trot.
You have to imagine that Blake is drooling over the possibility of the Yankees signing montero once he clears waivers. A desperate veteran with good stuff but terrible results? That’s Matt Blake’s music!
It’s not like Houston hasn’t had plenty of success with pitchers.
I thought Blake’s Magic© didn’t work with established veterans?
He needs total buy-ins, which usually only comes from young guys and desperate veterans. A guy who a team would rather pay him $16 million for him to NOT play for them is exactly that type of dude.
Rice hasn’t been great, but he’s got some elite bat skills and he’s slowly adjusting to MLB breaking pitches. Kid should have as many as 12-13 HRs.
Rizzo’s BaseballSavant peripherals are in the <20th percentile or worse. And DJLM is only slightly better than that.
Girardi and Kay think he was knock off his approach a bit by the three-homer game. It’s possible, and he is a rookie.
He’s got an eye, he seems to think through his at-bats. I’d bet on him before I’d bet against him.
On the other side of the coin, how much do you really expect to get out of Rizzo and DJLM down the road? Developing talent is important for this team.
He came from AAA where they are using robot-umpires, so this is a big adjustment.
Wells similarly didn’t produce much early, but has been one of the best hitting catchers in baseball for the last month or so. It takes time.
“He came from AAA where they are using robot-umpires, so this is a big adjustment.”
That would actually explain a lot – especially all the called third strikes he’s been taking. If you have a good eye, you might trust yourself to read a consistent, automatic strike zone with two strikes. If you have just some guy who’s going to decide if it’s a strike or not, you need to learn to foul off the close pitches with two strikes. And sure, that’s something you need to learn.
xwoba is 383 v his woba of 318. babip is 224.
I’d be surprised if he doesn’t end up w/ 15-20 hr at the end of the season and an actual woba of like 340-350
“I’d be surprised if he doesn’t end up w/ 15-20 hr at the end of the season”
Yup. He wasn’t in AAA long enough to get really used to the auto strike zone. But everything in his peripherals points to a guy who “should” have better numbers than he does.
Based on his EV and launch angle, he should have another 5-6 HRs but they didn’t make it out of the park he happened to be in. His shortest HR was 379ft and he has hit six balls further than that which were either long fly outs (4) or a double (2). If only half of those were HRs, he’d be tied for 4th on the team in HRs.
I think Rizzo is going to be released. Ala Arod in 2016.
One wants to savor that win – and that series.
The team’s just a tad too boy who cried wolfish to let you relax and enjoy it yet.
Via the Athletic:
“I’m comfortable with Clay Holmes,” Cashman said. “I am comfortable with what we have.”
Hmm … ‘comfortable’ is not a word I would use to describe Holmes’ appearances.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5671039/2024/07/31/yankees-trade-deadline-juan-soto-cashman/
If that’s really their thinking, they’d better sign Soto.
What was available to go all in for? The Tigers aren’t trading Skubal. There’s nothing particularly special about Flaherty, who the O’s got at the 2023 deadline and was awful.
“What was available to go all in for?”
And that’s a better answer than Cashman’s.
MLBTR The Yankees released lefty reliever Chasen Shreve from his minor league contract, tweets Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. In another small roster move, New York announced they reinstated right-hander Nick Burdi from the 60-day injured list and optioned him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The Yanks transferred Cody Poteet to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man roster spot for Burdi.
Yankees, O’s, both now 65-45. That the O’s failed to make hay while the Yankees were in a stupor, let’s hope it comes back to bite the birds.
Or vice versa
Well it can’t be vice versa because the Yankees had an absolute awful stretch, not winning 3 in a row for a month and a half.
It is pretty hilarious that we’re talking about the first place New York Yankees.
5 game winning streak now – woo hoo. If they now go 50-2 the rest of the way they can beat the 1998 Yankees.
It is. For as talented as the Os are they’ve really failed to take advantage of the situation. Henderson has tailed off and the rest of the team – other than Santander – really didn’t pick up the slack despite being loaded with pretty good hitters.
Still a WC team at this point since BAL has the tiebreaker advantage.
i think the yankees are preternaturally in good position to rush schmidt and dominguez (back) to the mlb roster. it’d be good to see what they, the team, and the org are made of. Grit style.
Doesn’t it seem like they’re not going to even move Dominguez up yet?
I don’t think they will unless Verdugo starts sucking again or Stanton is hurt again. And even if Verdugo starts sucking again it’s not a sure thing.
Trout losing another season. Tough for him and Angels fans. He’s averaged 66 games a season for the last 4. Angels only owe him another $220 million.
Saw something today: since 2021 Anthony Volpe has appeared in more MLB games than trout
Smyth Yankees .477 remaining strength of schedule is 3rd-easiest in MLB behind the Padres (.475) & Tigers (.475) (Orioles .496, 10th-easiest)
Yankees vs Winning Teams
45-33 (2nd-Best in MLB, CLE 29-20)
(78 gm, 4th-Most)
vs Losing Teams
20-12 (7th-Best in MLB)
(32 gm, T-3rd-Fewest)
It’s what I’ve been saying, right? June and July was just an oddly tough schedule. That weird stretch of AL East team, AL East team, AL East Team, Mets, Al East Team, AL East Team, Phillies was particularly crazy.
I hope Shreve doesn’t get picked up by the Sox, O’s or Astros.
If you trust Cash and his advisors you should hope he does get picked up by those teams.
RAB: AL rookie FanGraphs WAR leaderboard (fWAR includes framing):
1. Colton Cowser: 2.9
2. Austin Wells: 2.3
3. Luis Gil: 2.3
4. Wilyer Abreu: 1.9
5. Mason Miller: 1.8
Difference between Cowser and Wells is playing time, for the most part. Cowser has 350 PA, Wells has 244 PA.
Is crazy that Miller is that close as a reliever
Yanks have done a sublime job w the draft this year. signed every notable player it seems
Plenty of future trade chips for the next guy in a boot.