From Bryan Hoch:
Ben Rice hasn’t given much thought to the strategy of participating in the upcoming T-Mobile Home Run Derby, saying that the best advice he’s received is to “enjoy the whole experience and all it has to offer.”
If he keeps swinging the bat like this, Rice will have a great time in Philadelphia.
Rice homered twice and drove in five runs as the Bombers outslugged the Rays, 12-4, on Thursday afternoon at Tropicana Field. Austin Wells also homered as the Yanks secured a split of a four-game series against the American League East leaders.
“The guy hits a million homers,” Ryan McMahon said of Rice, who has a team-leading 28 blasts. “He’s got a super-short, super-tight swing. He’s putting a lot of energy into that baseball. He’s not losing it by getting long, and he’s consistent. He shows up every single day. He can do everything with the bat.”
The Yankees chased All-Star Drew Rasmussen in a six-run third inning, which featured Rice’s first blast of the day, a two-run shot that just cleared the right-field wall. He added a three-run shot in the sixth off Casey Legumina.
Simply put, this team tends to do fine if they have even TWO guys hitting, or ONE guy on a fucking TEAR and the rest of the team not doing NOTHING. Sadly, since they went to Fenway, NO one was hitting. NONE of the hitters. They were all doing NOTHING.
Ben Rice has slowly started to round back into form. If even a single other good Yankee player (like, you know, his fellow fucking ALL STAR, Cody Bellinger) rounds back into form, as well, this offense can survive until Judge returns.
They need to do a couple of things, though, pronto.
1. Send Camilo Doval to the minors
2. Send Jake Bird to the minors
They might not be able to do that yet, but as soon as Yovanny Cruz is eligible to return, send down Bird. And then send down Doval when Yerry can be recalled.
This team would improve dramatically just by not having those two dudes in the bullpen (and having them replaced by guys you could theoretically be okay with seeing. Yerry is back of the bullpen guy, but so is Bird, and Yerry might not suck as much).
Paul Blackburn has been so good I might legit just want to stretch him out and make him the #4 starter!
Austin Wells had a good game, but I would still send him down for Escarra.
In any event, the Yankees scored more earned runs off of Drew Rasmussen in one inning than they had against him in his entire career against them to that point. WOW!
Featured image is the first of Rice’s two dingers.
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That’s a fucking weird ass lineup.
3B Amed Rosario R
DH Ben Rice L
CF T. Grisham L
1B P. Goldschmidt R
LF C. Bellinger L
RF J. Dominguez S
2B J. Chisholm L
SS J. Caballero R
C Austin Wells L
Grisham’s OPS+ is nearly past Bellinger’s. Get it together, Belli!!
Blackburn has more bWAR than Weathers and Warren combined. Maybe let him start?
On the one hand doesn’t look like the Yankees will face any halfway decent pitchers this series, OTOH we’re sending The W Boys.
Maybe they should change their names to Larren and Leathers.
Random question now that Verlander announced his retirement at year end…Was that 2017 trade deadline when the yanks decided they weren’t interested in his $28m contract the biggest miss of the last 16 years? Imagine if ….
Cashman has been over the hill for a decade.
That would be my top pick, yeah. That was on Hal, though. Cashman wanted him, Hal didn’t want to spend the money. And then when they lost in the ALCS, he then DID approve of the money on Stanton. Just a non-serious guy.
I have always blamed Cashman (our own Brian blames Hal). That is when I began saying Cashman was past his use by date.
Ian O’Connor back in 2019, calling out Hal for Verlander and Cashman for not trading for Cole, “Hal Steinbrenner didn’t want to take on Verlander’s money in the summer of 2017, and his general manager, Brian Cashman, didn’t want to trade Miguel Andujar and Clint Frazier for Cole, the former Yankees draft pick, in January of 2018. ”
I don’t think ANYONE would have traded both Andujar and Frazier for Cole at that time, by the way. The Astros had a good Major League-ready starting pitcher available (Joe Musgrove) and the only way the Yankees were going to beat the Musgrove and Colin Moran offer was to offer both Andujar and Frazier, and that just wouldn’t have been a good idea based on how Cole looked at the time. Just bad luck there that what the Pirates wanted was what the Astros had (a good major league ready starting pitcher).
The game is delayed?
Yes.
What’s the projection?
Nothing yet.
Rice barely has more bWAR than Judge. Yikes, that slump was LEGIT.
As of 6:59 it had begun to rain.