From Bryan Hoch:
It was about four hours before the first pitch on Sunday evening, and Jazz Chisholm Jr. arrived at Yankee Stadium with a heavy heart, still processing the passing of a close friend.
From the front seat of his vehicle, Chisholm tapped out an Instagram post, using the word “unbelievable.” When Chisholm rounded the bases for his milestone 100th home run early in the Yankees’ 7-2 victory over the Red Sox, it was impossible not to think about forces greater than baseball.
“It felt kind of surreal. I lost my best friend yesterday,” Chisholm said. “Today felt like a different type of day, especially with the 100th home run coming today. I’ve been going through a lot in the last 30 hours.”
Put it this way, the Red Sox have two starters, Dustin May and Walker Buehler, who are worse than whoever you think the worst Yankee starter is right now. The Red Sox have the best pitcher out of everyone in Garret Crochet, but it’s not like Brayan Bello and Lucas Giolito are some studs.
Long story short, the Yankees embarrassed themselves against the Red Sox this weekend, but it wasn’t like the Red Sox looked amazing, either. Both teams look extremely shaky. The Yankees are 70-60 and the Red Sox are 71-60, it’s not like we’re talking about two dramatically different teams here. They’re both probably 86-87 win teams, maybe 89 if they get hot.
But hey, all you need to do is to make the playoffs, and then who the fuck knows?
And winning games like this one will help the Yankees a long way towards making the playoffs. The Yankees are still the #2 team in the Wild Card, a half game ahead of the Mariners, and are only a half game back of the Red Sox for the top Wild Card spot (and they only lost a game to the Blue Jays this weekend while going 1-3 against the Red Sox). They’re 3.5 games up on the next team outside of the playoffs, the Kansas City Royals (who annoyingly DID take two out of three against the Detroit Tigers this weekend), and 5 games ahead of the NEXT team, the Texas Rangers, and 5.5 games ahead of the NEXT team, the Cleveland Guardians.
In other words, shit could be worse.
As for the featured image, I seriously considered Carlos Rodon, as the Yankees needed someone to give them some life in this game, and Rodon did so, but then he couldn’t even get out of the sixth inning, loading the bases on THREE fucking walks, and throwing THIRTY-SEVEN PITCHES to get two outs. Boone then promptly made the worst possible pitching decision, choosing to have Luke Weaver face Nathaniel Lowe, who OWNS Weaver, instead of having Tim Hill face Nate Eaton (Hill is quite good with the bases loaded, as well).
However, while I think Rodon did okay enough to theoretically deserve the featured image, I think the Yankee offense was SO pathetic that Jazz Chisholm’s 2-run home to give the Yankees their first lead of the series since it was 3-2 on Thursday was big enough to merit the featured image.
Aaron Judge, meanwhile, will now swing at any pitch relatively near the strike zone, and it is very, very worrisome. Meanwhile, his MVP competition, Cal Raleigh, now almost has 50 home runs before the end of September. Cuh-ray-zee.
I don’t care if Raleigh wins the MVP. Judge has been blah for months.
The playoffs are a crapshoot for all teams except the Yankees who always lose to the better team and sometimes lose to an inferior team. When was the last time the yanks won a playoff series against a team that had a better record…I’m too lazy to look it up. Was it 2001 vs Seattle?
50 HRs before the end of August.
Judge needs to figure his shit out. Without him the Yankees offense is pedestrian at best against decent teams.
Judge hasn’t been great recently, but Stanton has been. Stanton has been every bit as good as hot Judge was at the start of the season. If Judge gets hot again, and Stanton cools off, things aren’t going to change.
True enough. But Judge is the straw that stirs the drink. Judge has 29 IBB this season and Stanton has … 2.
The big man needs to be hot for this team to have any chance at the playoffs. Since his day off against KC, he’s hitting .232. If we go back to July 12th, his last 3 hit game, he’s hitting .211.
Ok I looked it up.
Since 2001 the Yankees:
Lost 7 playoff series to teams worse than they were (2002 angles; 2003 marlins; 2004 Red Sox; 2010 rangers; 2011 tigers; 2012 tigers; 2015 Astros)
Lost 2 to teams with the same record (2005 Angels and 2021 Red Sox) and won only 2 series against a team with better records (2017 and 2020 Indians and 2020 doesn’t really count, right?)
So there you have it. A two decade plus history of maybe and only maybe beating teams worse, and always losing to teams better. So even if they make the playoffs this year they are going nowhere.
“To be fair”
Brian, that only addresses a fraction of what I wrote, but sure, I agree – but I stipulated that let’s presume we’re wrong about fully half the games we are almost or entirely certain Boone has lost for the team. It’s still a staggering number, nowhere even close to as little as a measly 5 or 6 games. That was my point.
The way Judge started off, I really thought this would be the year we’d see what he would do in a full season without a month-plus-long injury. You dreamed of 70 home runs and a 350 BA.
So disappointing – it would have been better had he been injured.
As for Volpe, it sure seems like Caballero provides them a stand-in until they get a better look at what Lombard could be.
It’s interesting to look back at the 2023 ROY finalists from both leagues, outside of the two winners (Carrol and Henderson), most have regressed to at or below replacement level outside of a couple of players (Senga, De La Cruz, or Yanier Diaz). Volpe is not alone among that group. James Outman was the surprise Dodger of the future and now he’s a Twin after not coming close to his rookie year production.
Baseball is hard. I don’t blame Volpe too much, I’m sure he doesn’t want to suck, but I think – like others – that the continual long leash with him has gotten people tired of watching him struggle when there were options at the time that the Yankees did not pursue.
Lombard is still struggling at AA. I don’t think he figures in any plans for a couple years at least.
Although looking at his splits, he’s turned it up in the last month and the last week. He started off horribly, but, maybe the kid is adjusting. They do say High A-AA is the toughest step to take.
It gives them someone they could turn to while they evaluate Lombard. Caballero is under control for four more seasons. I can see him starting at SS next season if they decide to cut bait on Volpe and move him (I’m pretty sure they won’t since he’s still cheap AND at his lowest value right now). But Caballero provides a lot of lineup flexibility.
Just remember Cabby is not a great hitter; his lifetime OPS is also sub 700. I guess compared to Volpe he’s a better base runner and gets on base more but when he plays every day his weaknesses will also be exploited
Cabby has a much higher OBP and when your talking base stealers thats Paramount.
Some of the blame for that 6th inning can be put on Rodon, but I also think a lot of credit goes to the Sox hitters. It’s not like those were 5 pitch walks. Rodon was throwing strikes which were fouled off. When he missed the zone they didn’t chase. It’s as if they saw what he was doing the first few times through the order and made adjustments the next time through. Sure, maybe there are some adjustments Rodon should have made at that point, but from his usual spot on the bench watching the Yankees hit, he probably didn’t know hitters were allowed to do that.
Good point. And brilliant conclusion
Judge DH, Stanton sits, why not do the reverse, Martian plays.