"What's eating Gleyber Torres?" asks the ESNY blog, clinging to - can this really be happening? - a movie title from 26 years ago. A "meager" slash line of .179/.258/.286." Only one HR! And how did Leonardo DiCaprio not win the Oscar for best supporting actor! Where. Is. The. Justice.
Yeesh. We must be dead in the water. The other night, we started Tyler Wade, and I've had several sightings of Kyle Higoshioka. What if Gary and Gleyber - you can add Gardy, to make it the three "G"s - crap (or grap) the bed in 2020? Ever since his magical arrival in 2016, we've watched Gary deteriorate. Ever since Didi walked to Phily, we're wondered if Gleyber can play SS. Now, we see them flailing in - drum roll, please - 55 combined plate appearances.
Yep. Fifty-five.
At a time when the Yankees are 8-1, with baseball's best record.
I think I speak for the entire Yankiverse in saying, let's try not to panic. Eat clams and carry on. It just might be too soon to break the glass, yank the alarm and start climbing bodies through the smoke, fighting toward the exit. Yes, we lost that one game, and we're still smarting over it, but that's China Town, Jake. Maybe Leo, Johnny and Juliette Lewis can return for a sequel, and this time, the gold statues will flow.
For me, the most hopeful part of this winning streak is the lack of production from:
Gleyber: 5 for 28, .179
Sanchez: 2 for 25, .080.
Miguel Andujar: 1 for 8, .125
Brett Gardner: 2 for 19, .105
Aaron Hicks: 4 for 22, .182
Sure, you can worry. Feel free. Maybe Gardy is done. Maybe Miggy's rookie season was an acid trip. Sweat away, people! But damn, we've won 8 of 9 with $40 million worth of millstones around our neck, and one of these days - when Goliath I and II cool, the law of random cooties should kick in, and these guys will pick up the slack.
(Not to mention the Scranton-locked Clint Frazier, whom Luis Cessa went out of his way to praise this weekend. Cessa said Frazier is stronger and more determined than ever, and that one of these days...wait... sorry, I just lapsed into ridiculous optimism, which is always a concern when the Yankees are doing well. I hereby take it back.)
Basically, I'm still burning over that horrible, awful, wretched loss, against DC on the second game of the season. WTF? James Paxton was terrible - now, there's something worth worrying about - Michael King got walloped, and the game was over by the sixth. Next day, we looked hapless for five against Patrick Corbin, and then we started clicking, and it's been rosy, ever since.
Savor it, folks. Today, we play two. Tomorrow, The Master returns. These might be the best times we'll see in 2020. Enjoy every sandwich.
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13 comments:
TheWinWarblist said...
This is great!! We're getting the band back together!!
I expect you all online for the double-header!!
Oh, fuck you Hal, oh fuck you Hal,
how unlovely is thy scabrous cribbed and stunted soul!
Seriously, fuck you Hal, you miserable pus-filled stain on this Great Franchise, may your eyes burst with murder hornets.
Seriously.
When that old engine REALLY starts to tick over, watch out you motherfuckers!!!
We're winning now with our balls in a harness. Soon, our true power will be unleashed and there will be no stopping us...except for COVID.
Oh well.
You know, I started to write a post about Sanchez and how bad he's looked since that rookie explosion, but then I checked his stats. He hit 34 homers last year. Sure, he looked terrible practically every other time he was at bat, but still.
One point I was going to make, though, applies to all of the slumping lumpies. Any player will be lucky if they get 150 ABs this year. So when you see guys who just plain suck after 15% or so of that, you do have reason to wonder. They don't have 162 games to muck around with. And it's not like miraculously they're all gonna start hitting a lot better all of a sudden and carry it through the next 85%. If we're very lucky, the laggards might come around gradually and put in a good 50-75 ABs--let's say they each hit .300 during that span--which will still add up to a pretty suck ass year.
None of it matters, of course, since whatever team is on a tear going into the Russian Roulette postseason could win it all.
By the way, Sanchez has sucked in the postseason so far. Just saying.
A few thoughts...
Sanchez
I seem to recall reading a baseball book, maybe it was Ball Four, maybe it was Bang the Drum Slowly, or I might have been watching Baseball Bugs but the gist of what I'm trying to say is this...
Every pitcher has the book on this guy and he thinks he can get out of it with his "Natural Ability".
He has no plan at the plate, reacts late, never changes his swing with two strikes and clearly thinks that going to the opposite field is a defeat.
He wants to hit Home Runs. He is jealous of the other home run hitters. He wants to be like them. The difference is that the other guys hit doubles. He can't.
Gleyber -
Not worried.
Gardy
Frazier!
Hicks
The problem with Hicks is that I really want him to be Bernie Williams and sometimes he almost is. Kinda. But really he's not.
Doug K.
I vividly remember seeing Sanchez in the AFL a few years back - he threw a runner out at second from his knees, an astonishing throw. It was the second would-be base stealer he gunned down that day. In that same game he hit two doubles, both ropes of the wall, one in left, the other in right.
Fast forward to Girardi's last year as manager and there was Joe, leaning over Gary's head as he sat, head down, dejected, in the dugout after a particularly ugly passed ball. He looked like he was about to cry. An enraged Joe chewed his ass out in public for all the world to see. I can't recall whether it was a national tv game, but i remember seeing the the look of a beaten child on Gary's face. I thought at the time that signaled the end of Girardi's tenure in New York. Maybe you do that sort of thing in the privacy of the clubhouse, but in public?
I don't know what all this means, but Sanchez, for some reason, is not the same kid I saw out in Arizona. He looked like the second coming at the time.
I know, RichieAllen, Doug. He literally reminded me of Johnny Bench that first year-and-a-half.
Naturally, I didn't think he would be Bench—who is?—but I thought we might see a reasonable facsimile. Instead, Sancho became a prime example of how baseball in general and the Yankees in particular limit and even destroy players by trying to fit them into their narrow little molds.
What was Sanchez taught?
To swing for the fences, every time. That letting a few passed balls by a staff that seems to curve every other pitch into the dirt was a war crime, for which he should be publicly scourged.
He's at a point now where all of his best skills—framing pitches, throwing out baserunners, hitting for a decent average as well as power—are rapidly fading.
Hell, after the Yankees let him go out there, play injured, and make the fans think he was jaking it, he couldn't throw out guys anymore—even though it was his NON-throwing arm that got injured.
Then, having destroyed him, they don't even have the courage to do the merciful thing and trade him for a Realmuto, as they apparently had the chance to do...
Contrast that with how the Yankees broke in Yogi Berra, according to some the best catcher ever to play the game.
He was also considered a big, dumb, awkward kid when he broke in. What did the Yankees of the late '40s do?
First, they left his unorthodox hitting style—swinging at all sorts of pitches outside the strike zone—alone, because it worked.
Then, they got one of the very best in the game, Bill Dickey, in to work on his catching—just as Dickey and Berra later worked with Elston Howard.
And in the privacy of the clubhouse, DiMaggio, the team leader, yelled at him to toughen up and get out there and play with the small hurts.
No such help exists on a team with a GM who believes—as so much of MLB does—that everything can be broken down into mere numbers.
I agree with all of the above.
Especially that murder hornet idea.
Btw, remember how Girardi treated Jorge at the end? Shameful, destructive jealousy. I've really disliked the nutcase ever since.
I sympathize with Jorge's treatment in his later years, you gotta wish for his bat, it was so potent. But Girardi seemed to me always to bear a benign mentality toward his players. Saw it with AJ Burnett, so talented but often fell into some defeatist rut, saw it when Girardi risked his rep sticking with AJ when he was on a roll, hoping he could establish true command. I think he had some good intention in mind, rather than vindictive motive. I vote Girardi -- and Trump!
Good discussion on Sanchez here. @ Doug K. yeah, Sanchez has got the wrong mindset for sure. I think he does have great ability, but even great talent can't make up for totally stupid money ball approach at the plate. I agree with you that Sanchez does appear to be trying to keep up with the other homer happy hitters on this team. (His struggles with the bat started when they got Giancarlo Stanton.) Sanchez needs to stop swinging for the fences and just hit the ball hard, going with outside pitches. He needs to cut down on that stupid leg kick and keep his head level. Change the approach on 2 strike pitches to protect the plate and take what the pitcher gives him. He gets himself out most of the time. Team management and coaches couldn't care less about his strikeouts; they only look at the 30+ homers. If we traded this guy to a team that coached him properly, I think he would be at least a .300 hitter with 25 homers and 100 RBI.
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