Not even three weeks of regular season play have passed, but …
• Have you noticed … the lack of joy around the Yankees? Of course, the lack of wins, successes and races will hardly make the group want to explode in a Twister game. But even in the good times, there is a silenced quality.
The days when Aaron Judge raised Ronald Torreyes or “Savages in the box” is a different generation. The word that continues to resonate with me is “obsolete,” as if there is a new date that has expired in this core. Maybe a range of home runs will change that or a bank clean-up incident like early 2018 on Fenway, when it seemed to incite a sleepwalking team towards 100 wins.
In 2004, the then GM of The Red Sox, Theo Epstein, perceived this toughness with a close group but no cigars and was convinced that lack of defense and athleticism would prevent the team from winning. He reacted by swapping the face of the franchise, Nomar Garciaparra, on the July deadline to get several better defensive pieces. And Boston won a championship.
Ultimately, will Brian Cashman have to make the same decision about this team and get into lethargy in July and tackle defense and athletics, for example, by changing an Aaron or Gleyber Torres judge?
• Have you noticed … that Garrett Whitlock has thrown, in four relief appearances, the equivalent of a complete game-ending: nine innings, three hits, no runs, no walks, 11 attacks? He did it for the Red Sox. After last December they took him to the draft of Rule 5. Of the Yankees.
Whitlock, after four professional seasons, was eligible to be selected in the Rule 5 draft if the Yankees did not put him on their 40-man roster after last season. Decisions about whether to do so are a combination of art and science, as a team tries to figure out not only who can be selected, but whether that player has the skills to join the major leagues list throughout. year because otherwise it must be returned to the original club. And with the lists going from 25 to 26 this year, it’s a little easier to keep a selection of the standard 5.
The Yanks ’minor league strength was in weapons of power (they also lost Trevor Stephan to the Indians) and were unable to protect them all. But will they regret protecting, for example, Albert Abreu or Brooks Kriske over Whitlock? It’s early, but in a text exchange, Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of Whitlock that he “attacks the strike zone with more stuff from day one at Fort Myers and his change is becoming a weapon “. Cora praised Whitlock as a “fantastic person who works hard in his craft and asks questions and listens to veterans,” citing Matt Andriese, Nathan Eovaldi and Adam Ottavino.
The plan is for Whitlock to become a starter, though probably not this year.
• Did you notice … that the Yankees called Mike Ford again, this time to replace Jay Bruce? When I covered the Yankees as a beat writer in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was an illogicality to many of the moves that were made, often fueled by George Steinbrenner’s impetuousness and command divided between New York and Tampa.
With these clubs, it wasn’t that A-plus-B didn’t match C; it often seemed that he did not even equal another letter; A-plus-B could match a ham sandwich. The club might need a shortstop and have the assets to land a shortstop and they would add another DH type. Boy, did they love the DH guys. A Ken Phelps after another Mel Hall followed by a Steve Balboni.
By the way, with Ford, how many types of DH do these 2021 Yankees have? He, Giancarlo Stanton, Gary Sanchez, Rougned Odor …
Logically, it can be said that the Yanks lost a first base left with the withdrawal of Bruce, Ford gives them another first base left and will only wait time until the return of Luke Voit, another DH, for what it is worth. I have it. But it also provides them with another heavy defender.
Here’s a question: what would help this list win more games: Ford or Kyle Holder? All signs are Holder, the Yanks ’2015 first-round pick, will never be able to hit like a major league. But he can come out well in three field positions. Would it be more useful to go on the defensive late for Odor or Torres than four Ford lines? It would force the Yanks to use the place on Bruce’s 40-man list to get Holder, and ultimately the Yanks will need those places for Zack Britton and Luis Severino to return from 60-day IL. Therefore, choice is not a provision.
Holder, like Whitlock and Stephan, was also caught in the Rule 5 draft, but returned to the Yankees.
• Have you noticed … that Stanton has the most affected ball of 2021? It was a 120 mph single to Jordan Romano of Toronto on April 13th. He was not surprised there. Statcast began controlling the starting speed in 2015 and in each of the seven seasons, Stanton has the ball most affected. This includes 2019-20 when he appeared in just 41 combined games.
There is no doubt that when Stanton blocks a throw, it is often an “amazing” moment. But in many ways, this is the formation of the Yankees: you will find, for example, the judge and Gary Sanchez at the best of the starting speed and distance of the homers. Stanton has the farthest or farthest homer success of 2018-21.
But the idea is not to win valuable carnival stuffed animals for speed or distance, but baseball games. Of course, hitting the ball hard is valuable; the harder it is the more likely you are to land somewhere for once. Too often, however, it seems that the exchange rate of Stanton and Sanchez, in particular, is a “surprising” moment interspersed with too many meaningless bats. It reflects a Yankee lineup that, even at its best, would be described as dangerous, but not full of good hitters.