December 22, 2024

97 thoughts on “Yankees.com: Yanks set sights on proving that ‘we’re the best team in baseball’”

    2. It’s down to the Yankees hitting more homers I expect, which is very good, but my point is that there’s no reason that Yankees can’t have a better, even higher-scoring lineup

  13. BOOO! Mets second most hated team. Used to be first, I actually rooted for Boston in 86. Seems to me if you live in NY you have to pick one team and hate the other.

  17. Aaron Judge now has 2 of the top 3 all-time wRC+ by a RHB. Only a legend, the Rajah, had a higher RHB wRC+, back in 1924 at 221, Judge had a 219 this year and a 208 in 2022, matching the Rajah’s mark in 1925. I am excluding Fred Dunlap’s 215 because it was in 1884.

  18. I was thinking of the most exciting players to watch. So I asked Gemini: who had the most extra-base hits (2b+3b+in-the-park HRs) in a season?
    Here’s what followed.

    Gemini: “The MLB player with the most combined doubles, triples, and in-the-park home runs in a single season is Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Angels{?!}… In the 2023 season, he achieved this feat with an incredible 31 doubles, 6 triples, and 11 in-the-park home runs.”
    PW: So Ohtani had more of those hits than Joe Medwick in 1936 or 1937 or 1938?
    Gemini: “Yes, Ohtani had more combined doubles, triples, and in-the-park home runs than Joe Medwick in 1936, 1937, or 1938.”
    PW: “what’s the greatest number of extra-base hits that did NOT leave the park that a player has had in a season? Who’s second, third, fourth and fifth in that statistic?”
    Gemini: “Here’s the list of the top 5 players in this statistic:

    Babe Ruth (1921): 62
    Lou Gehrig (1936): 61
    Chuck Klein (1933): 61
    Todd Helton (2001): 61
    Albert Pujols (2003): 61”
    PW: “How many doubles and triples did Joe Medwick have in 1936?”
    Gemini: “Joe Medwick had 64 doubles and 10 triples in 1936”
    PW: “So how can Babe Ruth, as you say, have the record for extra-base hits that don’t leave the park with 61 when you just told me that Joe Medwick had 64 doubles and 10 triples in 1936? Doesn’t that mean that, even without in-the-park home runs, Medwick already had 74 extra-base hits that didn’t leave the park?”
    Gemini: “It seems there was an error in my previous calculation. Joe Medwick’s 1936 season with 64 doubles and 10 triples would indeed exceed Babe Ruth’s record of 62 extra-base hits that didn’t leave the park.”
    PW: “‘”Babe Ruth’s record of 62 extra-base hits that didn’t leave the park’ doesn’t exist if Medwick has at least 74 of those in 1936.”

    I didn’t bother to ask how Ohtani’s supposed 48 extra-base-hits that didn’t leave the park (if he really did have 11 inside-the-park homers) in 2023 could be greater than Medwick’s 74+ such hits (I don’t know how many inside-the-parkers he may have had that year).

    1. AI of this quality could, I think, replace the C Suites of every tech company tomorrow

    2. I was just reading about Internet slop where someone uses AI to generate stories to magazines that pay for stories or for self publishing stuff like which mushrooms are edible and which are toxic.

  20. I had figured that if Judge stayed healthy to age 35, he’d be a lock for the HOF. But looking at it at the end of this age 32 season, it’s amazing how strong Judge’s HOF case already is. His JAWS (51.8) is already almost average for a HOF RF (56.7). And it’s all on the strength of his peak (which basically encompasses his only 7 mostly healthy years to date).

    The only RF’s with a higher 7-year peak WAR than Judge are Babe Ruth, Stan Musial, Hank Aaron, Mookie Betts (!), Roberto Clemente, Mel Ott, Frank Robinson, and Shoeless Joe Jackson.

    The only RF’s with higher JAWS who are *not* in the Hall are Betts (62.2), Jackson (57.4), Dwight Evans (52.3), and Ichiro Suzuki (51.9). Betts and Ichiro are locks for the Hall, and of course Jackson was on that track before he was kicked out…

    Anyway, all this to say, Judge is awesome and we’re not worthy.

    2. Dwight Evans was a compiler, with over 67 WAR but a not super impressive peak. He played two-thirds as long as Hank Aaron, and produced at a rate roughly two-thirds that of Aaron, so his career totals aren’t nearly that impressive. Still, most lists of the best non-HOF players have him near the top (often ahead of Sosa or McGwire).

  21. I forgot to mention that a nice thing about the last day of the season was that the Royals won and the Tigers lost, meaning the Astros and/or Guardians have to deal with the red-hot Tigers, not the Yankees, and even if you think that the Royals are the better team, they’re not SO much better that you’d prefer to face the red-hot Tigers (with Tariq Skubal pitching one of the games) over them.

    1. Weird I want to John’s Pizzeria in Greenwich Village last night and they had a Pete Rose signed jersey hanging. I asked why not Yogi or Joe D and they said they never came. John’s is famous for its pizza and prominent no slices signs hanging everywhere.

    4. Thanks! You know, I will! I’d like to like that place more. I like everything else about it.

    1. Probably gave him only a lifetime ban because they figured he’d cheat death, too.

  26. About 3 weeks ago I saw the Max doc on Rose with Rose. It wasn’t bad and it wasn’t a hagiography. So many people are posting adulation for him as a man when he was a bit of a dick.

    1. He was a great, great player. He was fantastic to watch.
      I’d be happier not to know the rest.

    2. He wasn’t exactly a shrinking violet. And the doc was made fully with his cooperation,it was as much an extended interview as a doc.

      Was he great at the same level as an Aaron, Clemente, Musial, Willams, Mantle or Mays? He was more like Derek Jeter great. He’s more famous for being infamous than famous.

    1. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks GM threw Monty under the bus for ruining their season … maybe as a longshot to get Monty to not exercise his 2025 player option.

    1. I just learned their manager is AJ Hinch so I’m less positive now than I was earlier

    1. They have an interesting offense. Lots of decent hitters, and no real major weak spots in their playoff lineup, with 83 OPS+ being their lowest (and 129 OPS+ their highest). However, Bauers is the one with a 83 OPS+, so it’s not like he had a good season.

  35. By the way, why in the WORLD do the Yankees have TWO fuckin off days in the first three games of a best of five series?! Doesn’t that just help the Royals or Orioles immensely to get their better pitchers back into the rotation?

    1. The whole setup is stupid. It’s strictly a made for television spectacular invented to cheapen the regular season. Just be one of the 40% to make the tournament is all that matters. At least limit days off to more mirror what baseball is, one day off if in a five game series and 1 or 2 in a seven game series, preferably 1.

    2. I obviously wanted them to give the Padres anyone BUT King, but, well, come on, them turning him into a starter made him an asset good enough to get Soto, so you have to give the Yankees credit for that.

      He’s also a free agent after next season.

    3. And who is to say he wouldn’t have just been the usual 5.1 inning 98 pitch pitcher had he remained as a Yankees starter.

  41. The 21st century has been pretty underwhelming so far for the boys in pinstripes, but I couldn’t help but chuckle at the SNY postgame broadcast, where the broadcasters could not be happier to announce that the Mets made the postseason for the ELEVENTH time in their 63 year history, Meanwhile the yanks are about to play postseason ball for the eleventh time since the 2009 world championship and it’s hard to imagine people being MORE annoyed with a team in the playoffs than this one. Hopefully they can confound expectations for once

  42. Wow the D-Backs really did shit all over Montgomery. He did have a terrible year (I now discover) but they fell one game short, what if other players had played a little better?

    2. @Pete https://x.com/bnightengale/status/1841154633114235284?s=46

      The finger pointing has begun:
      In the aftermath of missing the postseason, Arizona Diamondbacks owner Ken Kendrick blasts the signing of starter Jordan Montgomery to a two-year, $47.5 million contract, blaming himself for making the recommendation to the front office late in spring training.
      He told @BurnsAndGambo: “Looking back, in hindsight, a horrible decision to have invested that money in a guy that performed as poorly as he did. It was or biggest mistake this season from a talent standpoint. And I’m the perpetrator of that.”
      Kendrick obviously is hoping that Montgomery (6.23 ERA) does not exercise his $22.5 million player option in 2025.

      Their rotation was terrible outside of Gallen and with no particular upside which is why they signed Montgomery, but they essentially only invested a QO to him which is a buy low for a lefty starter coming off a good season. Had Carrol not forgotten how to hit in the first half (he was as bad as Volpe was) and had they not dumped $25m of dead contracts on an average payroll, maybe they would have won an extra couple of games despite Montgomery having a shitty year.

    3. Wow. I’m sure a lot of players will want to come to the Diamondbacks after that.
      What a snake the Kendrick is.

  48. I think that the Royals are both the easier team to beat AND they would be the team I could most live with seeing advance if the Yankees somehow lost.

    Royals, Guardians, and Tigers. I don’t hate any of them.

    1. John Sterling’s HR call for Kyle Higashioka: “Higashioka, the home run stoker.

    2. Why would it be embarrassing? Anything can happen in a short series. The results are random, what’s important is that they’ve put the PROCESS in place.
      And since you can’t question the process on the basis of (random) results, there’s apparently no possiblity that the process isn’t perfect and sacred. No way to argue that. You couldn’t argue the opposite, either, but that doesn’t seem to bother them.
      In reality, however… could it possibly be a flawed, even an untrustworthy process? (Gasps from the blackness of the auditorium.)

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