Carlos Rodón’s miserable night was approaching the finish line as he eyed his manager ambling from the first-base dugout, a new arm hot and ready. The hurler bowed his head and muttered. He wasn’t ready to leave.
“I want it,” Rodón told Aaron Boone, who mulled the request briefly, then nodded. Jogging across the outfield grass, reliever Phil Bickford whirled with confusion and retreated to the bullpen, where he watched as Rodón completed the fifth inning in the Yankees’ 9-2 loss to the Blue Jays on Thursday night at Rogers Centre.
“I just wanted to get through five for the bullpen, and just prove something to myself,” Rodón said. “That even though I get knocked down, I can get back up and just keep going.”
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Perhaps that conclusion gives Rodón something to build upon, because there isn’t much else the left-hander will want to bring home from this one. Rodón was hammered for eight runs, including a pair of three-run George Springer homers, as the Yanks’ pitching woes continued. New York has lost a season-high four straight games and 10 of its past 13.For a third consecutive start, an opponent feasted upon Rodón’s fastball, with the Blue Jays following a similar game plan to the Red Sox and Braves. Rodón has allowed 21 runs (20 earned) over those 13 2/3 innings; he held teams to just 11 runs over a seven-start winning streak prior to that.
“Clearly, some teams game-planning are doing a good job against him,” Boone said. “While he’s wearing it right now and going through it, it’s also kind of a gutsy effort to not want out, to want to finish through five, especially with what we’re going through as a team right now.”
Blue Jays manager John Schneider lauded his team’s tactics against Rodón, saying that his hitters “stayed on the fastball really well.”
“I just thought we had a really good plan,” Schneider said. “You could kind of see him adjust after the second inning with a couple more cutters and changeups, but we were on the heater pretty well.”
Rodón acknowledged that he trusted his secondary pitches more after the second inning, similar to the Braves start. He believes he is missing locations with his fastball, which touched 98.1 mph and sat 95.6 mph on Thursday.
Hole. E. Fucking. Shit. Rodon “acknowledged that he trusted his secondary pitches more after the second inning, similar to the Braves start.” Is this guy the biggest fucking moron alive? There have been plenty of Yankee pitchers who have had poor performances, but few of them have been quite THIS fucking stupid.
That said, the offense sucked, too, so I can’t even put it all on Rodon…but I’ll put most of it on Rodon, so he gets the featured image with his big dumb face.
The team should try no longer sucking tomorrow.
“Effros 1ip 0r 2h 2k, Shrieve 1.1ip 0r 1h 1k. Jorbit 4/6 and he’s hitting around 400 for the last week and UJD is rooting for him.”
Effross’ return will be very nice. We got so little of him, but what we got was great. Shreve, hell, give him a shot, I guess, but I have my doubts.
Katie Sharp Carlos Rodon is the 1st Yankee pitcher to allow 8+ runs and 10+ hits in back to back games since Monk Dubiel in 1944
But don’t worry, it’s all good, he decided to change his approach this game after allowing the eight runs, just like how he changed his approach in the Atlanta game after giving up eight runs (by the way, he gave up three runs against Atlanta in the FOURTH inning. He was pulled from the game AFTER allowing a RBI double with two outs), so it’s fine, he just needs to give up eight runs first, and then he’ll be fine.
This is what he said “ Boone “we’ll make the adjustment, the stuff is there, it’s in there to fix this, we got to make better decisions about pitch selection in certain situations. I feel like it’s good right now.”
I think it’s so groovy now
Gil and Rodon are one huge problem but far from the only ones. The pen includes rejects like Bickford, Cousins, Caleb and Hill. And the offense past the first three guys is putrid.
I would rank their problems like this:
1. Offense past the top three (and even there, it’s not like Volpe is amazing, either)
2. Rodon
3. Middle relief
4. Trevino not being able to throw anyone out
Gil I don’t think we’re at “problem” stage just yet. One more bad start, and then sure, I’m in on him being problem #3. Heck, another terrible Cole start, and I would consider adding him to the problems list.
I’m not TOO concerned about the bullpen because Effross is returning soon. I also think Hill is just the type of guy who Blake does well with. I don’t even hate Bickford. It’s Ferguson that I just absolutely hate, and the fact that while I don’t hate Bickford or Hill or Kahnle, I also don’t trust them in big spots. That’s where Effross will help so much. And hey, maybe Shreve will turn out to actually be legit (I sincerely doubt it).
Rodon, I think is D-U-N (but even with that in mind, he’s probably not quite THIS bad), but the others can hopefully mitigate his awfulness.
The offense, though, is just insanely putrid right now. They are still third in the American League in runs per game, but I imagine that ranking will drop. I’d like to see them at least TRY J.D. Davis at third.
Volpe SS
Soto RF
Judge DH
Davis 3B
Rice 1B
Gleyber 2B
Verdugo LF
Wells C
Grisham CF
Just let it cook a little bit. And if Judge refuses to DH too much…
Volpe SS
Soto RF
Judge CF
Davis DH
Rice 1B
Gleyber 2B
Verdugo LF
Wells C
LeMahieu 3B
2022 redux. But with a smaller margin when the suckiness started.
If DJ can be even what he was in 2021, not one of his great years, maybe he should leadoff and let Volpe emphasize his power a little more. I don’t know. After Volpe’s great start he’s been lousy. I do know the Yankees are in serious trouble with no help on the way.
RAB:Volpe-“38 games since his last home run. Only 7 walks in those 38 games. Hopefully he starts hitting for some power or walking (preferably both) because it’s really hard to be an above-average hitter doing neither.” Last 25 games his OPS is a terrible 583, in 2023 it was 666.
Meet the new Volpe, different from the old Volpe, maybe worse. Does he need to move out of the leadoff?
If DJ is going to play, agreed, he should be leading off, and Volpe should be batting fourth or fifth.
Volpe and BABIP
https://x.com/mike_petriello/status/1806688371541971126?s=61&t=fhOaqwtc8q2TMSXUDRjPeg
The good news about Volpe is that he’s doing a much better job on pitches in the heart of the plate this year, the bad news is that he’s still below average on those pitches.
He’s also better at pitches out of the zone, but he’s traded some of his swing and miss for lower quality of contact overall. He’s still figuring out his approach, I just wish the Yankees could move him back into the 6+ spot to put things together a bit more. Really, with his elite baserunning and defense, all he needs to do is get on base.
Grasping at straws Vivas last 4 games 533/611/800
.400 obp in 26 AAA games
id ask Cole if he could bury the hatchet with Bauer, if yes, f it.
shreve and efross up asap
dfa jones
rotate judge and soto in dh and let grisham play a bit
send waldo down if he can’t hit at 2b while giving gleyber another two days off. sink or bang.
davis / vivas / dj / rice first – third
shuffle lineup and drop volpe
fire boone
catch lightning
Tom’s Sports Blog “Vivas is rolling. He is on a 5-game hitting streak (9-for-20, 2 HR, 6 R) and is 13-for-33 (.394, 8 BB) in his last 9 games. If he keeps this up, he can be in the second half MLB conversation.”
He’s probably got more upside than Jones as well as similar downside. I’d rather see an unlikely but maybe than a no way.
Boone said Effross is still a while away.
Yeah, Effross basically has to go through Spring Training, so we won’t see him until after the All-Star break, but that’s not that far away.
This lineup destroys LHPs
A Volpe (R) SS
J Soto (L) RF
A Judge (R) CF
J Davis (R) 1B
G Torres (R) 2B
A Verdugo (L) LF
D LeMahieu (R) 3B
J Trevino (R) C
J Jones (R) DH
With the bizarre limitations they’re dealing with, I can almost understand this lineup now. Judge won’t DH regularly, so you can’t play Grisham regularly. Soto refuses to DH. With those limitations in place, while I would still DH Davis and play Rice at first, this shitty roster almost does make playing Jones at DH seem like a conceivable idea. They SHOULDN’T, so it is still a very bad idea, but I can almost get it now. They’re stuck by Judge and Soto being prima donnas, and since those dudes are SO IMPORTANT, you gotta just suck it up.
Brian, if all that’s true, if 2 of the three outfielders you’re discussing can’t be DHed, why couldn’t the third – Grisham – be the one to DH?
Against a lefty, Jones probably sadly is the better option than Grisham.
Will Soto not DH at all? I thought he and Judge simply preferred not to. A rotation through DH makes sense if the Yankees aren’t going to use Davis there.
Rice at first, and Davis at DH is the better option than both, but it’s not like Rice is tearing the cover off of the ball, so I can understand a bit why you wouldn’t want him to play against lefties.
The key, really, is that Cashman needs to get another good hitter who could DH for now, and play first when Stanton returns.
“Will Soto not DH at all? I thought he and Judge simply preferred not to. A rotation through DH makes sense if the Yankees aren’t going to use Davis there.”
Judge prefers not to. Soto is a bit more adamant than that. Would he DH if he had to? Of course, but I think he really, really doesn’t want to.
Rice has at least some potential. If he’s up, use it for MLB exposure and play him. If you’re not going to play him, send him down where he will play.
There’s no upside to JJones. Really Grisham either. You play those guys because you have no other worthwhile, useful, interesting or potentially promising options.
Whoever has the highest OBP from Volpe, DJ, Gleyber or Vertigo should leadoff. Right now it’s Volpe with a mediocre 323 but an absolutely horrendous 252 for the last 28 days. When the only two good hitter by far are the 23 guys a leadoff man who can get on is essential.
Since 6/18 Vivas is hitting 413 with an OBP of 511 skewed by a 4 walk game. The downside is he’s a LHB.
This team won with a record streak off 5+ starter innings with >3 runs scored against them.
If they go from being historically effective to 8 runs before the 3rd out of the game is recorded, nothing else matters, that’s all she wrote.
If three pitchers who were statistically fantastic until recently (Gil, Rodon, and even Cole’s last MiL start was astoundingly good) are suddenly going to all be not just not great, but run fairies on fairy dust, then… but really, how is that even possible? Those pitchers were fantastic for a statistically significant period of time. If one of them came down to earth a bit – okay. If two of them came back to earth a bit, that’s annoying, but conceivable. For three of them to suddenly be pitching worse than an unprepared position player? That seems ridiculously unlikely.
One after another after another.
Rodon was pitching over his numbers, Gil was pitching over his head, and Cole was pitching his second game back against big league hitters. Cole is the least worrisome of the three, as he really IS basically in Spring Training mode right now. Rodon is the most concerning because his underlying numbers weren’t good. He wasn’t striking anyone out, he wasn’t getting swings and misses. His stuff was just good enough to get by. Now it’s not, and he’s too stupid to adjust. Gil had never pitched like THIS before. I’d like to see another start to see if he can just adjust, as well. He was suddenly not doing the stuff he had been doing all year. I honestly think that the Dodgers spooked him, and he then was in a bad state heading into the Baltimore and Mets matchups.
Again, I was ready for a bit of coming down to earth. For a few disappointing games thrown in here and there.
They’re not just pitching “not quite as well as they had been.”
OF COURSE Rodon and Gil weren’t expected to be this good. Any player having what we consider a really good or breakout (or bounce-back) season is doing that by definition. It’s not like “they were getting away with everything, and now one or two of those pitches were hit in those games.” ALL OF THEIR PITCHES WERE HIT IN THOSE GAMES. It’s ridiculous. And sudden. For all of them.
Stroman giving up 3 or 4 – in 5 or 6 – that’s a bit worse than he had been. A WHIP of 2 (!) and a ton of runs in the first inning every time out – that goes way beyond anything you’ve just said in terms of explanation, don’t you think?
I think Gil was getting a little lucky up until now, but all of that caught up in his last 2 starts. He still needs to figure out how to get batters to chase, but IMO he still has the stuff to limit the quality of contact. BUT, if you rely on bad contact, all it takes is being a little off to get hit around. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s tired (and the Yankees can’t rest him due to injuries) or tipping. Or both.
Tipping was what I said during the game. I still believe it.
That’s the only thing that really explains what happened.
But they can’t ALL THREE be tipping… can they?
“He still has” Two games ago he was the best pitcher in the league, odds-on favorite to start the ASG. Just a couple of games later – hideous though they were – It seems ridiculous to doubt that he has the stuff to get people out.