From Henry Palattella:
About an hour and a half before the first pitch of the Yankees’ series finale against the Guardians on Wednesday, Aaron Judge captured the attention of the visitors’ clubhouse at Progressive Field.
It was just in a bit of an unconventional way.
The TVs in the clubhouse, which almost always show MLB Network, were showing a segment that featured a highlight reel of Judge’s four-hit performance on Tuesday, which raised his batting average to .411.
Most of the time, the TVs serve as background noise to the conversations and milling about that occurs in the clubhouse. But when Judge came on the TV, Oswaldo Peraza, Pablo Reyes and Jorbit Vivas stopped their conversation and intently watched as the crew broke down Judge’s feats.
Judge provided that trio (and the 23,981 in attendance at Progressive Field) with an encore on Wednesday, when he went 2-for-4 in New York’s 5-1 win over Cleveland. Judge is now slashing .415/.513/.734 through 94 at-bats. He is also tied for the MLB lead in RBIs (26) with the Mets’ Pete Alonso.
“More excellence,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
I gotta be frank, the bullshit losses are really getting to me, because this team really should be 17-8 right now. They had to WORK to lose that game in Tampa Bay and the game on Tuesday.
However, if I believe they should be 17-8 right now, I have to assume that they’ll improve on their current 15-10 record, plus, of course, 15-10 isn’t even a BAD record. As we have seen many times over the years, so long as you have a stretch of three good hitters clustered together, you’ll likely score enough runs to be competitive, and then if your pitching is good, you’ll be a good team.
Rice/Judge/Goldy is enough just there to score enough runs to be competitive. Belli, Jazz, the Martian, and Wells adding something to the mix would be a big help, of course. The Martian really has to start batting fifth against righties, and Grisham can bat fifth against lefties. You know I hate fucking with young players like this, but Grisham is just too hot right now to not keep playing him regularly, so he needs to get some time from Martian, some time from Belli, and even a little time from Rice and Goldy (VERY little) against especially tough lefties for Rice and especially tough righties for Goldy (Grisham’s splits are very even). The Martian will get his occasional at-bats against lefties. If he doesn’t show improvement, though, you can’t keep throwing him out there to just suck against lefties. Kerry Carpenter is one of the best hitters in baseball against righties, but Detroit still sits him against lefties.
Anyhow, great win.
Carlos Rodon just did a flat out great job of pitching. He didn’t even have his best stuff, but he followed Will Warren and was just AGGRESSIVE with his stuff to most of the batters (forgetting some of the weird shit, like walking Austin Hedges). Is it possible that seeing Will Warren man up as a 25-year-old has had an impact on the 32-manchild Rodon? Rodon now hasn’t given up an earned run in his last two starts, and don’t look now, but the shitty Yankee rotation now looks like this, ERA-wise:
Fried 1.42
Rodon 3.50
Warren 4.79
Schmidt (in TWO starts, so it’s obviously skewed) 7.45
Carrasco 6.53
Allan Winans just had an outstanding start in the minors, and if he keeps it up, maybe you eventually DFA Carrasco, but even still, as a fifth starter until Gil returns, Carrasco isn’t insane. They just can’t bring Marcus Stroman back to the rotation at all costs.
The featured image is Carlos Rodon celebrating striking out the side in the fourth. MLB.com oddly COMPLETELY shortchanged Rodon’s start in the highlight package for the game, choosing to show a lot of Zak Kent highlights for some fucking reason.
Rodon gets a lot of grief on this site but he’s been pretty good since the start of last year. yeah he has his brain fart games but more than enough good ones too. I guess it’s his first year that makes us hate him?
Grisham is a decent player. He started his Yankee career 6-for-60 but since then he’s been ok. Excellent fielder, some pop, not an all star but he doesn’t stink. Unlike certain other players who we won’t name
I think Rodon was getting very lucky early in the previous season (3.67 ERA in May while allowing a 114 OPS+ against), then fucking sucked, and then pitched really well for the last month or so.
His last two starts have been a lot more similar to actually good Rodon than his early success last season (his Opening Day start this year reminded me more of the early success he had last year). His biggest problem is that he is a headcase, and he gets paid way too much money for “Concentrating on doing well” being something he still needs to learn how to do from game to game.
Judge’s BABIP, 500.
Yeah, there’s no way that all of those singles are going to continue to find holes. But hopefully the trade off will be for more power. He obviously DID come VERY close with the triple off of the wall last game.
And even closer with a HR that the ump blew
If Judge were somehow to hit .3994 for the season, that missed HR will loom large.
I don’t think there’s a reliever currently playing who is more unhittable than Andrés Muñoz.
Glad he shut the BoSox down.
NEWS: John Sterling will host a sports talk show from 4-5 p.m. on Saturday on 770-WABC-AM, he just told me.
https://x.com/AndrewMarchand/status/1914760898104664273
Will there be a link for a live feed here?
The 2025 Rockies are trying to outdo the 2024 White Sox.
So are the 2025 White Sox
ChiSox have 50% more wins than the Rockies. Rockies drop 2, now 4-20 on the young season.
AA: DJ 0/2 with a K. Spence 1/3 with a HR. Shitler 7ip 0r 2h 9k. I forgot this game was televised.
Did DJ get walked? Why only two at-bats?
No walks.
If DJ walked, he’d break an ankle.
God damn VJ stop making me laugh I already had one heart attack
Arias, repeating low A, 154/.295/.262 in 78 PA. Another top prospect about to blow up on the Yankees?
I gave up on Arias as anything more than trade bait last season.
But I admittedly give up on guys quickly. 🙂
Brian’s Ins or Outs of the Yankees current Top 15 prospects (accoring to MLB.com)
1 George Lombard Jr. – Way in
2 Spencer Jones – In so long as he is playing well in AAA at the end of the season
3 Ben Hess – In
4 Will Warren – Definitely in
5 Bryce Cunningham – Cautiously in
6 Roderick Arias – Out
7 Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz – In
8 Chase Hampton – Still in
9 Brock Selvidge – Out
10 Henry Lalane – In
11 Cam Schlittler – In in terms of him being a MLB pitcher, just doubt he’s anything special
12 Edgleen Perez – In
13 Everson Pereira – Out
14 Mani Cedeno – Way too soon to not be in. Dude’s 16
15 Cade Smith – In as an okay reliever (still a nice result for the 15th ranked guy)
Does Lalane ever pitch? Last year the thought was he had the highest ceiling of any NYY pitching prospects.
Agreed, it’s frustrating. But like with Hampton, I’m just always going to bet on stuff with these guys, and they both have STUFF.
I had faith with with Schmidt because of stuff, and he eventually proved worth it, and Warren SEEMS to be doing the same, as well.
V Guerrero Jr. (R) 1B
A Santander (S) DH
G Springer (R) CF
T Grisham (L) CF
A Judge (R) RF
B Rice (L) DH
P Goldschmidt (R) 1B
C Bellinger (L) LF
J Chisholm Jr. (L) 2B
A Volpe (R) SS
A Wells (L) C
O Cabrera (S) 3B
I don’t mind playing Grisham, but why lead off? It seems clear that Rice is their best on base guy other than Judge.
WFAN host today going off on Volpe. Must read this site. Saying he needs to sit on the bench sometimes as he’s not entitled to be the starter every game. He isn’t getting better and may be getting worse.
Good to know it’s not just us
But he’s such a great glove, but is he. Just no, not in that line up, you cannot keep playing him. Batting run value, 42, range value, 84, arm strength, 41. OAA, 1.
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/anthony-volpe-683011?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb
Does he have a quick release? If you get rid of the ball quick that makes up for a lot.
Kay mentioned Toronto BAs but not Yankee 5-8, 175, 163, 196 (phenom), 192
Four straight starters with over 5 eras that we haven’t exactly beaten up.
This pitcher’s duel feels more like a duel between two shitty hitting teams.
Sometimes I feel like Vincent Price and Will Smith.
Have they started the game?
You don’t see a lot of attempted steals on 3-0 counts