The Yankees scored a run, using - I'm not making this up - small-ball.
You weren't hallucinating. It happened in the seventh. Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled. He ran on a pitch, taking second on what would normally be Jose Trevino's DP grounder. The Hyphen then took third on DJ LeMahieu's bouncer to first. He scored on a wild pitch.
Somewhere, Billy Martin raised his snifter and smiled.
A perfectly tooled, base-to-base, tack-on run.
The kind that haunts us every October.
But this isn't about The Hyphen. It concerns outfielder Tim Locastro, who pinch ran in the eighth for Giancarlo Stanton. The O's eyed Locastro indignantly. Under no circumstances would they let him steal second. No way.
It. Simply. Would. Not. Happen.
So Locastro stole second, not even close. This stressed the pitcher, who walked Josh Donaldson. Two men on! Something roiling, right? Well, no. Gleyber and Gallo struck out. Look, this is the real Yankee world, people, not The Babe Ruth Story. Not every anecdote has a happy ending...
But right now, the best Yankee late-inning weapon not named "Rizzo" is also the last guy on the roster and the player most likely to get bus fare to Scranton this weekend, when the rosters shrink. That would be a shame. Locastro is one of four Yankees with two SBs - (Aaron Hicks, Anthony Rizzo and The Hypen are the others) - though he has come to bat only 5 times this season. He has not been thrown out. (Hicks was, once.)
Frankly, there is no excuse for the Yankees failing to use a player their own propaganda outlet is calling "the fastest runner in baseball." Lately, YES has pushed a new stat called "feet per second," which sounds made up in a marketing pitch session - where Locastro has reached a "sprint speed" of 30.8 per second, the highest in MLB. We've come a long way from Bullet Bob Hayes racing Homer Jones, and while this stat sounds bogus, I'll accept it, if it keeps Locastro in Gotham.
I believe he should platoon with Gallo in left field, especially against wipe-out lefties. He can field any OF slot, and while Gallo and Hicks must succeed or fail on their own, the Death Barge should have no compunction about giving Locastro a shot.
Nothing boosts a fan base like an underdog over-achiever. (Anybody noticed a guy named Nestor?) And nothing bugs me more than when opposing teams bring in their super-stealer pinch runner, while we have nobody comparable.
We have Mr. Sprint Speed himself. And we CAN score the old way. How many pitchers does Boone need?
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19 comments:
Sir:
Why do you continue to advocate thinking the likes of which the NYYs under Hal/Brian/Boone have not and will not undertake?
Sincerely,
Alfred Manuel Martin Jr.
The problem with Locastro is he can’t hit. Pinch running is great because he doesn’t have to actually do the work of getting on.
I’ve got two words for you - Tyler Wade.
Tim will be on the post-season roster for that reason...only...
The more they win, the likelier comments to the contrary will fall on deaf ears. No matter how logical or meaningful they are.
Baseball is such a great game when it's played the old-fashioned way. The current, usual Yankees approach is boring as hell.
"...the Death Barge should have no compunction about giving Locastro a shot."
Will they?
They will not.
And that manufactured run? There wasn't even the hint of an rbi to be had.
An accident. An anomaly. An anachronism. (I could go on with the alliterations here, but I will spare you.)
Also
LoCastro;
A) Is a true Yankee fan,
B) Played DIII ball at Ithaca,
and
C)hustles alllll the time.
Love Him
And in today's USELESS AND MEANINGLESS STATISTICS DEPARTMENT, we celebrate:
Giancarlo Stanton became the seventh-fastest player to reach the 350-homer milestone.
Congratulations to our hero of the day for giving us one more insignificant statistic to ignore.
When presented with this extraordinary statistic, Aaron Boooooooone matched it with his own noteworthy statement: “It’s good to see him trending that way, but I’m excited for him to get to 350. That’s a pretty big number.”
Yes, Aaron, thanks for that. It is a pretty big number.
Boone's awesome wisdom is always stunning to contemplate.
And with Stanton...yep. 350 home runs, 1,582 strikeouts. This year, it's 23 K's, 3 HRs thus far.
Overall, with the Yankees, Giancarlo has 83 homers and 442 K's, or 5.325 strikeouts for every roundtripper.
With Miami, he had 267 homers and 1,140 whiffs, or 4.26 strikeouts per homer.
Hmm...
Stanton is 48th on the all-time-KO list .
He may have to push it a little to beat #1 Reggie Jackson who has 2597
It's not just the Yankees shunning stolen-base guys.
The league's SB/G rate in 2021 and 2022 was the lowest since 1971.
In 1997, there were 3,284 league stolen bases.
In 2021, there were 2,213 league stolen bases.
That's not just a Yankees thing. It's another way math has made the game uglier. Just not worth the risk of being thrown out to advance one base.
I naively hope next year, when larger bags are introduced, we'll see more action on the bases.
That said, the Yankees could have dumped Joey Gallo this winter (or simply not traded for him in the first place) and signed Starling Marte instead. He has 300 career steals and led MLB with 47 SB in 2021. Might have been fun.
What?!?! Zach!!!!!
You want baseball to be fun? What's wrong with you? Didn't you know that baseball is a business? Aaron Judge told me so. The only statistic that really matters in this day and age is the ROI. The bottom line. The core, crux, essence, gist, heart, kernel...
THE MEAT AND POTATOES, MAN!
Any reference to a purely baseball statistic is obsolete. (And I won't even go to Roget to emphasize that point.)
Oddly enough, the only people who will never suggest that "baseball is a business" are owners.
Locastro strikes fear in the defense - I could smell it - F E A R. Like what Hal smells when he wakes up every morning.
The only thing Harold smells when he wakes up in the morning is money
He was on base 4 times today. His ground balls ( and speed to first ) " rush" infielders into making errors.
We can drop the maraschino pitcher guy. Keep Tim. Hicks will soon get hurt anyway.
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