Here's a short list of our team's personal unachievements:
Nobody hit .300. Among qualifying hitters, team leader Aaron Judge batted .287, ranking 25th in MLB. (Trea Turner led with .328.) Of all Yankees, including cups of coffee, Estevan Florial hiccupped 6-for-20, batting exactly .300. So, there's that.
Nobody drove in 100 runs. Judge had 98 RBIs - ranking 25th in MLB. Giancarlo Stanton had 97. (MLB leader was Salvador Perez with 121. Can we even imagine such output?)
Nobody stole 20 bases. Our ballyhooed speed demon, Tyler Wade, stole 17 - tied for 23rd overall. (Sterling Marte had 47.) As a team, the Yankees finished 19th out of 30.
Nobody hit 40 HRs. Judge had 39, ranking 6th in MLB. (Vladimir Guerrero and Salvador Perez both hit 48.)
Nobody walked 100 times. Judge drew 75 BBs, ranking 19th. (Juan Soto walked 146 times, nearly twice that of our leader.)
Nobody scored 100 runs. Judge had 89, tied for 40th. Joey Gallo, adding totals from Texas and NY, tallied 90. Which shows how bad Gallo was in NY. (Vlad Guerrero scored 123 times.)
Nobody came remotely close to 200 hits. DJ LeMahieu had 158 - ranked 23rd in MLB. (The days of Ichiro are gone: nobody in MLB had 200 hits. Trea Turner had 195.)
Nobody threw 200 innings. Gerrit Cole threw 181, finishing 14th overall. (The Phillies Zack Wheeler did 213, one of four pitchers - all in the NL - with more than 200 IP.)
Nobody won 20 games. Cole had 16, tied for 3rd overall. (In MLB, only the Dodgers' Julio Urias won 20.) Our runner-up in wins was - gulp -Chad Green, with 10.
The closest we came to a meaningful leadership: Gerrit Cole finished with 243 strikeouts, just behind Robbie Ray, 248, and Zack Wheeler, 247.
As a team, the Yankees finished 23rd in batting, with an average of .237.
They hit 222 HRs, 6th overall.
They struck out 1,482 times, 6th overall.
They drew the most walks in baseball - 621.
By my count, considering the infamous three true outcomes, the 2021 Yankees were the second most-boring team in baseball, just behind the Rays.
Their walks/whiffs/homers totaled 2,325 - just behind Tampa, with 2,349. (The SF Giants had 2,304.)
It wasn't just us. They really were a tiresome team to watch. If you consider that Tampa and San Francisco both won divisions - something to show for it - there is a solid statistical case to be made that the Yankees were the most tedious, deadening, wearisome and unrewarding sports team on the planet.
Just think of what those numbers will look like next year when they have Earnest & Julio Gallo for a full season
ReplyDeleteGallo must go. He's pretty much useless.
ReplyDeleteSo Hal meets with the brass, maybe Brian Brain too and decide that the problem is not the analytics (those are infallible), but since the players didn't hit to the infallible info, let's fire the hitting coaches.
ReplyDeleteNo one suggested firing the analytics group...
Hire Alphonso. He'll fix our mess, and quick.
ReplyDeleteWell well. Just when I thought I couldn’t possibly be more depressed, you give us this sobering assessment. Maybe I should start drinking heavily in preparation for the 2022 season.
ReplyDeleteOne more aspect to consider for next year, when the Magnificent One broadcasts less games, will those games be better or even more boring?
ReplyDeleteThe Master!
DeleteFewer games for Sterling--good. At least radio listeners will be able to find out the score of the game and be able to tell whether someone hit a single or a homerun.
ReplyDeleteranger__lp: What makes you think the Yankees' analytics department is competent or is even heeded? The most successful organizations like the Rays, Red Sox, Astros, and Dodgers don't have analytics ghettos: the whole front office is the analytics department. Try reading a book on the subject--or, as Dylan said, don't criticize what you can't understand.
ReplyDelete@Barney...the Yankee FO "believes" that the data is infallible...I don't share that opinion...
ReplyDeleteAnd none of those programmers in the analytics group got sacked...they were looking for one programmer who had dataset experience and 2 interns during the season...
ReplyDeleteHere's an article about the analytics department...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.audacy.com/wfan/sports/yankees/brian-cashman-aaron-boone-on-role-of-analytics-with-yankees?utm_campaign=www.audacy.com%252Fwfan&utm_content=1634668926&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_term=WFAN-AM&fbclid=IwAR15UFdZa-NMrVGWXyCuIb4nfHEv7JwYN9aadZoqeLnT03z_ugp0p-lK0Qc
ranger_lp wrote: ".the Yankee FO "believes" that the data is infallible...I don't share that opinion." There is no evidence for this statement. If that were true, there wouldn't be a separate analytics ghetto--the whole front office operation would be based on analytics, as it is in the most consistently successful teams like the Rays, Dodgers, Astros, Red Socks, etc.
ReplyDelete