The Yankees were pummeled - molested, abused, crapped upon - by Toronto last night, 1,000,000 to nothing. Ha ha. Joke's on the Jays, right? 'Cause we don't care. Ha ha.
So, two weeks into The Abyss, here's the Death Barge leaderboard for hits (remember hits? They're solo HRs, plus bloopers that fall in.)
Searching for meaning...
If we thought Joey Gallo might retool his approach to put more balls in play...? Nahhh. He's still bringing more fans than Sally Rand. (Dated ref alert.) Joey leads the team in Ks, and ranks 12th in MLB overall this spring (Cody Bellinger has an ungodly 17 SOs in 27 ABs. Yikes.) I donno about Gallo. If he gets off to a slow start, the fans - the other fans, that is - will be relentless.
Speaking of potential lost causes... after a quick start, you can feel Miguel Andujar sinking into the woodwork. Of all imperiled former top Yankee assets, Miggy remains the most painful. Early on, he popped a HR, played errorless 3B. Now, his average is falling, and whenever we see him in LF, you have to wonder where another RH bat fits.
On that note, with the Cubs, Clint Frazier is 6 for 19 with a HR. Let's wish Red Thunder the best, and if he finally breaks out - the big season - let's not forget that the Yankees received absolutely nothing in return for him. Will we do the same with Miggy?
Kyle Higashioka leads the team with 4 HRs. Could he outhit the Kraken this year? And if so, would it be yet another damnation of how the Yankees asses talent? On Gary, we just waited and waited and waited...
That said, 4 HRs and just 6 RBIs. Meanwhile, Aaron Judge & Giancarlo Stanton - both 2 HRs and 3 RBIs. We cannot homer our way to a championship.
For now, though, let's at least give Cooperstown Cashman credit for Isiah Kiner-Falefa - 8 for 19 this spring. The more you study the 2022 Yankees, the more critical this guy becomes. If he fails, or gets hurt, dear God, are we screwed?
Also, neither DJ LeMahieu nor Andrew Rizzo (both 4 for 18) are hitting enough to make the screen shot. Not worrying. But those are the numbers.
A few things I read yesterday. 1) Gallo is hoping to get back to normal this year. So we can look forward to the jump from .199 to his lifetime BA .206. 2) Donaldson went off in the clubhouse because of yesterday's loss. Booney must have shit himself. He has to deal with a player with a passion to win now? Give me back Sanchez!
ReplyDeleteSo, Joey Gallo with three times as many K's as ribbies. Should be interesting to see if he can do that in a full season.
ReplyDeleteSo far, this team looks every bit as bad as we feared it would be. And yet, I still hear from guys who don't really follow them, or the sport, that closely, saying the Yanks have "an all superstar lineup."
Just what HAL is counting on, I suppose. We'll see how long they remain in the dark.
If this is an all superstar lineup, what do the Dodgers have? And why don't we?
ReplyDeleteThat's a rhetorical question. We know why. Looking at you, Hal and Brain.
I try not to over react to any stats from S/T, but since I’m still mainly WFH I’ve had the chance to watch some of these games, and I don’t see any real difference between last year’s squad and this year’s.. setting aside my usual pervasive cynicism and sarcasm, this is what may be called a “good team”, insofar as they will win more games than they lose. But watching cement heads like Gallo, Rizzo, Hicks try to pull everything is tough to digest. It’s seems a good part of this team is made up of players whose best seasons are years behind them. The starting pitching is likely to implode. All our top prospects are years away.. The cavalry is not coming over the hill, and management knows this and couldn’t care less.
ReplyDeleteI know it's spring, but it seems bad that the A lineup scored 1 run in 7 innings yesterday vs. Nick Allgeyer, Trent Thornton, Yimi Garcia, and Tayler Saucedo.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteHorace, they have been the dark for two decades now and profitably. Why should they feel the need to change anything?
Yet Baseball Prospectus has them winning 98 games. How can you argue with analytics? I can't see it. For the life of me I don't understand why they just cut Red.
ReplyDeleteOne of Cashman's weirdest traits is how disturbingly little he gets for guys he decides to throw overboard.
ReplyDeleteJon Lieber, Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain, Sonny Gray, Clint Frazier—for all their foibles, these were all people still in some demand, and Cashman just cut them or dealt them for bird seed.
He really seems to believe that if he's through with them, so is everybody else. It's bizarre.