From Bryan Hoch:
Carlos Rodón was the starting pitcher on the mound — this same mound, in fact — when the Yankees’ summer slide began on June 15, a spiraling six-week stretch that has tested the club’s mettle with many more defeats than anyone who watched the club’s first 70-something games would have forecast.
Rodón just might have been a big part of the weekend that corrected the Bombers’ path, too. The left-hander fired 6 1/3 strong innings as the Yankees secured a much-needed series victory, taking two of three games at Fenway Park with an 8-2 win over the Red Sox on Sunday evening.
Building upon an impressive effort in which he struck out a season-high 10 Rays last Monday, Rodón leaned heavily upon his fastball and changeup in holding Boston to five hits and one walk, striking out seven. Rodón’s only blemishes came as Rob Refsnyder and Connor Wong cleared the wall with back-to-back homers in the fourth inning.
It’s hilarious how Hoch will always try to say any good win is a “turning point,” but hell, maybe this one WILL be a turning point! We can certainly hope, right?
Rodon clearly still has the stuff where he SHOULD be able to deal with the loss of some of his peak skills that he lost from the back injury, and it is nice to see him actually using his head the last few starts, instead of just trying to pump fastballs and being all shocked Pikachu face when they get crushed. He was SO FUCKING STUPID that it is really impressive to see him actually showing some intelligence lately. Good for him. Truly.
Jazz Chisholm made his debut for the Yankees tonight, but don’t worry, the Yankees plan on him playing third base. They just couldn’t very well make him play a position he had never played before without any training, so they’ll give him a crash course on playing third before sending him out there soon. That’s why he played center tonight, and I bet he’ll play center on Monday, as well.
Boone surprisingly sees Chisholm as a MIDDLE of the order bat, which doesn’t make sense to me, but whatever. It helps that Verdugo has been playing better recently in the leadoff spot, of course.
Stanton back on Monday! The lineup is starting to look a bit less shitty.
The featured image is Rodon, walking off the field looking miserable despite a good start.
If Stanton’s back how could Jazz play center unless Boone sits Veritgo? I don’t like the idea of Stanton returning without at least 2 or 3 rehab games
True, good point, Chisholm might be at third as soon as Monday night then. It’s possibly, also, that they just give Chisholm a day off to work on third, as well, and debut him at third on Tuesday, and just don’t have him play at all on Monday.
The Stanton thing is weird to me, as well, but I guess I get the logic if the guy is just NEVER going to see the field, then does he really need to get into a minor league game to just get four plate appearances? I assume they have him facing real pitching already, right?
Yeah, let’s put a random dude at the hot corner, what could possibly go wrong.
Okay, okay, we’ll give him a day off to work on it.
‘Cashman the Saboteur’. Soon to be a major motion picture, co-staring Hal Steinbrenner as The Dupe.
I mean, the guy came up as a shortstop, is third base really that difficult to play if you can play shortstop and second? Isn’t third EASIER than those other positions?
Third base is far different.
Gleyber – “I’m a second baseman. I play second.”
Jazz – “I mean, I went out there and played CF for the first time last year and I felt like it was pretty difficult at first, but I just feel like I could go and play anywhere and help my team win. For me, it’s just going somewhere. Especially a winning team, and they’re asking me to go somewhere to help them win? I’m definitely gonna go out there and do it.”
Different situations since Chisholm is here for two more years after this while Gleyber is on the way out, but it’s still a pretty big difference.
If Rodon pitches like this 2 out of every 3 starts I’m pretty confident we will make the playoffs…and lose to the Astros in Round 1.
Verdugo sure likes hitting against the Red Sox. 7 hits in 3 games. He had 7 hits in the 15 games before this series!
beating the sox is nice but this team is still deeply flawed.
i’ll never (again) be optimistic about nestor, rodon, or holmes.
Agreed on Nestor, but with the other two guys, it’s more about context. I think you can be excited about Holmes as a setup guy. Cashman just needs to acquire an actual closer. Similarly, if Rodon is your number four starter in the playoffs behind Cole, Gil, and Schmidt, you might have something real.
Nestor, though, yeah, he’s just trash.
JD Davis – another brilliant cashman move. 1 for 19. Probably
cost us at least one game (ok, on Boone for batting him 4th but on Cashman for bringing him here).
How many of these “under the radar” moves does our brilliant GM make that don’t work? It’s part of his MO; do it, if it works you look
Like a genius, and if it doesn’t work cut bait and hope no one remembers. Clearly it’s working since he still has a job.
it’s probably an unpopular opinion but i think grisham and davis are probably better than their performance this season. the problem is that dj and waldo may not be. davis had 19 at bats, how many have they had?
no one likes to knock guys after they contribute and vertigo, waldo, and trento all did something finally this weekend.
it’s just been such a black hole of ground balls and shitty pitching it’s hard to normalize anything good in context
What Chisholm said is obviously light years better than what Gleyber said.
Still, any mention of Chisholm makes me want to say:
LEAGUE AVERAGE PLAYER, BABY! Suck on that, Baltimore and Boston!
Presumably “league average” means he can go out there in whatever position and help his team win. Or, you know… lose. In ~equal portions.
League average HITTER. Meaning that of all the hitters, including DHs, first basemen, right fielders, etc, he’s league average.
So for a second baseman, that’s good. Add in his baserunning ability, plus his excellent second base defense and that’s a positive player next season without even considering whether he’ll improve on offense.
And for this season, he’s replacing guys who are way below league average on offense at third.
with the logjam of position players and the fact they’ve scored runs lately, wouldn’t they strongly suggest getting stanton a few at bats in scranton based on my research this week?
That’s a no brainer to me. The Martian is rehabbing. There’s no substitute for game ABs.
Maybe the thinking is since his power is almost entirely pull, he should hit more home runs in NY. The other thing is he seemed genuinely excited to come here. He mentioned Jeter and Arod and Judge and Soto and Cole among others. It was real enthusiasm not by the numbers excitement. In 2022 he OPSed 138 and he’s only 26. They could pitch around him in Miami, not here. Unlike Cash’s usual moves there’s upside here. As the Athletic pointed out Ramirez doesn’t really have a position and so far in AAA he has a 60% ground ball rate. Anyway at this point he’s a sunk cost and his biggest negative is Cash’s recent very poor track record.
MLBR: Giants left-hander Blake Snell might be available before the trade deadline, with the Yankees, Padres and Cubs having already been connected to him in rumors. The Orioles can be added to that pile, as Jon Heyman of The New York Post reports on X that the O’s are “aiming high” at the deadline thanks to their new owner and strong farm system.
He could be boom or bust for whoever signs him. I’m rooting for the Padres or Cubs.
With regard to DJLM…when the yanks signed him to 6/90 and the talk as I recall was that it might be 4/80. So instead of thinking a release will cost them $30m they should be thinking that it’s only $10m! In any case, they need to release him. He has no place on this team.
( Not the first really bad long term signing of Cashmans career.)
They just can’t do that.
They know when they sign a player that the last few years are an extra payment, that they don’t count.
But they are constitutionally incapable of remembering that when those last few years actually roll around. Then they are prisoners of the salary, and they’re willing to shoot themselves in the foot day after day rather than doing what they meant to do in the first place.
Strike out Judge in the 9th inning of a close game and
Mets Designate Jake Diekman For Assignment
if the yanks sign him, then other teams can’t use him to strike out judge!
espn going with “chisholm open to 3b while gleyber balks at move”
ouch
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/07/white-sox-trade-erick-fedde-cardinals-tommy-edman-dodgers.html
A Verdugo (L) LF
J Soto (L) RF
A Judge (R) CF
A Wells (L) C
G Stanton (R) DH
J Chisholm Jr. (L) 3B <<
G Torres (R) 2B
B Rice (L) 1B
A Volpe (R) SS
That’s fascinating that he’s playing third already. Good for him.
Wow, Yankees apparently close on Flaherty, plan to trade Nestor if they get Flaherty.
I get the idea of Flaherty, but why trade Nestor? What kind of trade value could he possibly have?
One good year, four very mediocre years and this year has been excellent. A free agent after this year.
I would think Cortes could be a good long man or spot starter or even somebody whose quirky style you could insert any time to ruin the opponent’s timing.
Agreed, but it’s probably fair to note a few things about Nestor:
1. He’s making a lot of money to be a long man
2. Presuming Cole, Rodon, Schmidt and Gil are all locks for the rotation next year, and Stroman is under contract, as well, then there really isn’t an obvious spot for Nestor NEXT season, and that’s assuming the Yankees don’t acquire anyone ELSE before next season (and that Flaherty is a pure rental).
3. When Schmidt returns, if they acquire a starter, it’s possible that STROMAN is the long man on the team, so you really don’t need TWO long men/spot starters (more likely than Stroman becoming a long man is the team doing a six-man rotation towards the end of the season to give Gil and Schmidt some extra rest).
Yanks floating Nestor’s name in trade talks (report). Sure, but who wants him, and what would they give up for him that would matter?
https://www.mlb.com/news/yankees-rumors-latest-trades-and-signings
Per above.
Detroit Tigers’ Jack Flaherty scratched from start vs. Guardians ahead of trade deadline
Portrait of Ahmad Garnett
https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2024/07/29/detroit-tigers-vs-cleveland-guardians-time-tv-channel-lineup/74587201007/
Flaherty with 18 starts, 106.2 IP, 1.3 HRs per 9 innings. He fits right in with not averaging 6 innings per start. Career, even worse, 774 IP across 143 starts (plus 6 non-starts).
Also, not for nothing, but if you get Flaherty, it also allows Schmidt to become a dominant reliever for the rest of the season before returning to the rotation next season. I don’t know if that’s the ideal usage of Schmidt, but it likely has to factor into their thinking a LITTLE bit (that getting Flaherty allows them to employ Schmidt as a dominant multi-inning reliever).
Wait until he comes off the IL before we annoint him a dominant reliever or even an upgrade to Cortes in the rotation. Clarke had a 92 era+ last year.
127 ERA+ as a reliever in 2022, and 163 ERA+ as a starter this season. I think you could easily argue he might not be automatically a great STARTER when he comes back, but as a reliever, I don’t see any reason to think he wouldn’t excel there.
I have no idea which Flaherty season is the real Flaherty. Did anything change in his approach this season to warrant the big jump in FIP/decrease in BB/9 or is the SSS theater?