It's too soon to panic. Did you get that? STAY FUCKING CALM! NO PANIC! Ungrease the light poles. Where are the compression socks? The Yankees are at .500 - as they were across the second half of 2022 - just one measly game behind Tampa, and today we'll send out one of our aces - no, wait? screw dat, a no-name, weird name rookie - Jhony Brito, in his MLB debut. We're turning to Jhony Rockets. The Filter. Jhony B Good. Insert unfunny witticism here.
WTF happened to all those pitchers stashed in central Pennsyltucky,"The Gas Station?" WTF happened to our bullpen? WTF happened?
Yesterday, we turned to our two most critical bullpen lug nuts, and both got slapped around like Donny Osmond at the hands of Danny Bonaduce in the celebrity boxing craze of 1994. First was Michael King, the comeback god of spring, who couldn't last two innings. Then came Clay Holmes, with the good chromosomes, who couldn't finish one. Check that box score. Our two best pitchers... four earned runs. Yikes.
Aberrations, right? They'll adjust, right? Because yesterday meant nothing, unless King and Holmes are not right, right?, in which case it means 2023 can fly out the window like rockets off Jhony.
Listen: Yesterday brought hopeful signs. Two hits by Volpe. A HR by Jackie Donaldson. Three hits by Captain Judge. And if Stanton dribbled a game-ending DP, well, that's what sluggers do. Leave him in RF, and let the Big Dog run. He'll get hot, and when Giancarlo is hot, he can be even scarier than Judge.
But but BUT... mark my words: If King and Holmes are not right, no number of Albert Abreus can make up for it. It's too soon to sound the alarms... too soon to break glass - but keep the hammer at your side.
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My five-minute precognitive skills were on full display yesterday in the game thread where I saw and predicted Donaldson’s HR and Stanton not bunting to end the game.
Like Barry Allen after a dash through the speed force, I needed to eat quite an bit after using my powers to see into the Yankee future.
Today I’ll limit my seeing to one occurrence as not to ruin our Sunday supper.
Go Yankees!
Here's what I saw (and heard) of Clarke Schmidt yesterday:
I thought he has really good stuff. He throws up to 96, is usually in the mid 90's with the fastball and his off speed is good enough to be an ace or at least a #2 or #3 starter. At times, yesterday, he pitched pretty well and seemed to have the game well under control. I also heard John Smoltz say that Schmidt has got enough confidence to fuel the starship Enterprise on a five year mission. That's good, because he's gonna need such confidence.
Now, for the bad. Last year, in a game against Boston, (I believe he came in as a reliever), I saw Clarke Schmidt throw nothing but sliders against some pudgy left hand hitter. I think he finally hung one and it got blasted into the right field stands. And John Smoltz (it was another FOX game) was saying how he didn't understand that approach and that you need to throw some fastballs to set up those sliders.
In yesterday's game, I saw some of the same kinds of stupidity. I saw an inability to locate the fastball; an inability to locate the slider; an inability to finish off hitters; a lack of understanding of how to get good hitters out; and very stupid mistakes.
Despite all of that, he was actually in control of the game until the 4th inning. The pitch that he gave up the home run to Jock Pederson looked to be a fastball down and in. The worst mistake you can make to a power lefty hitter on a 3-2 pitch with the 10th or the 11th pitch of the at bat. Is it not common knowledge that lefty hitters love the ball down and in? Right in his wheelhouse. Thank you very much, said Pederson, for the inability to finish me off. In that situation, obviously, Schmidt's got to throw his sinker down and away. Or off speed down and away. Can't go inside in that situation.
Then he's got Brandon Crawford with a man on first. He goes 3-0 on Crawford, and I'm thinking the alarm bells are ringing, and sure enough, he throws what looked like a cutter mid-in, and Crawford launches it. Once again, seems like Schmidt has to throw a sinker down and away there. Or off speed down and away.
But what do I know? The vaunted Yankee pitching coach probably tells Schmidt to just throw whatever sign the catcher puts down and let your stuff do the job. Yankee pitching, a lot like their hitting, is the very definition of "mechanical". Mostly just throwing your best stuff and hoping your stuff gets them out. Throwing inside, outside, up and down, changing speeds, busting hitters inside with hard stuff on pitcher's counts, staying away on danger pitches, taking a little off, adding a little on, it seems these kinds of things are swept under the rug in favor of a mechanical approach.
John Smoltz, who in my humble opinion does an outstanding job of color commentary, said the Yankees blew their chances and "should've, could've, would've" won that game.
Let's look at the blown opportunities. In the first inning, only one run on what should've been a double play ball hit by Stanton. Pitcher struggling, on the ropes, Donald Duck and Torres come up with terrible at bats to end the first.
In a later inning, Yanks have second and third, nobody out, and fail to score. Once again, Stanton, Donald Duck and Torres do the honors.
In the 9th, Stanton takes it into his own hands and wipes out the game with a double play ground ball. So (perhaps) thankfully, we never get to see Donald Duck and Torres fuck up their at bats.
The 9th inning was particularly egregious because their closer was on the ropes and having a stopwatch meltdown. I don't know how many times the ump came out and tapped his wrist for a pitch clock violation, but it was a lot. All Stanton had to do was outlast that bozo, who was melting down faster than an ice cream cone on a 105 degree late June day. I'm sure Stanton would've drawn a walk, if he'd taken two strikes. Anyway, that's another at bat where you sure wish the batter would've had the good sense to strike out.
Last point, did hitting Judge in the two spot help the Yankees yesterday, or thus far in the two games? Doesn't look like it to me.
Judge in the first inning in Game 1, comes up bases empty and homers. Followed by a Rizzo single. Yanks only score 1 run in that first inning. But they do win the game 5-0, so no harm no foul I suppose. Although it very well could've would've should've been 2-0 after one inning, if they'd flip flopped Judge and Rizzo in the lineup order.
In yesterday's game, Judge comes up in the first inning, bases empty, and singles. Then is pushed to second by a Rizzo walk. Ends up scoring on the botched Stanton double play ball.
In the third inning, Judge leads off with a strikeout. In the fifth inning, DJ doubles, Judge singles. Rizzo follows up with a double, but only one run scores that inning.
In the seventh inning, with bases empty, Judge flies out.
In the ninth inning, Volpe singles, DJ walks. So Judge comes up as the tying run. Obviously, though, that's a tall order, to hit a three run jack there to tie the game. He does the next best thing, which is an RBI hit.
You can argue that hitting Judge #2 got him to the plate in the 9th inning with a chance to tie the game. Or you could argue that hitting Judge #3 might have resulted in a better outcome.
Essentially, what hitting Judge #2 in yesterday's game did was to put the RBI chances in the hands of lesser hitters. And the lesser hitters did what they usually do, which is to fuck everything up.
Look, I know this lineup is extremely challenged. They essentially only have one guy who scares pitchers. Doesn't it make more sense to put Rizzo in the #2 slot? I guess Boone wants to break up the righty hitters with a lefty thrown in at #3, which is not his fault that the Yankees have to field a lineup with 7 righty hitters against a righty starting pitcher.
Excellent recap and analysis, Hammer.
I am wondering now about these two words:
Jhony Brito.
Just as Yankees hitters are commanded to hit/miss strikes hard, bubbling/bumbling Boone commands Jhony Brito to pound the zone hard.
I’m beginning to think that this Yankees team needs more softness in their world to succeed.
Perhaps and off-day team building excursion to a Bronx floral shop to learn the finer points of flower arranging, or perhaps taking an underwater yoga class would bring more focus into the team’s collective performance.
It would be great if Jhony Brito is lights out today.
Sad Prediction -
I watched the FOX feed with WFAN Audio. Sterling worries me. He misidentified a batter. Was corrected, fixed it, and then did it again on the next pitch.
Then he thought that a line drive double was a home run. It was short by at least thirty feet. It wasn't as though he misread a high fly ball that came up short. It would be easy to understand that. It was a line drive.
But the one that bothered me the most was he kept saying the name of the umpire. The reason it's a red flag is, when my Mom, who is 95, has, let's call it a "lesser day" where she's not remembering things at her regular level she will repeat something that she knows is right with a certain tone as if to say, "HA! I know THIS! So there is no way that I'm slipping."
That's what I heard in Sterling yesterday. If this keeps up he may have to stop. :(
I don't know anything about Jhony Brito. Name sounds a bit familiar but I'm probably thinking of someone else. I hope he pitches well. I'll be listening to this one on the old radio.
I just saw that El Duque put up my post as an article. Wow! I think that's my first time. I'm no longer a virgin Knight of the Keyboard. Thanks, Duque!
It needs to be read.
For me, Schmidt is one of those once through the lineup type pitchers, meaning his proper role is middle, multi inning relief. Starting him is the result of Cashman’s poor roster construction. Injuries you say? Yes, caused by having starters with histories of severe arm troubles. Yesterday in SWB, The team had to resort to 33 y/o Ryan Weber as starter. He was pounded then pulled. Again, poor roster construction, throughout the organization. I will never let this go.
Not really surprised by the BP’s failure. From what I’ve seen over the past 2 seasons, Marinaccio has the best arm in the pen. Greg Weissert, your Uber to the Bronx is waiting if you can just through more strikes. If Lazarus Diaz was his personal ump, he’d be the second coming of Mo.
No Hicks again today, instead IKF. What does this tell us? Is boone trying to save him from the torments of the YS crowd?
Jhony Briiiiito…let’s see what ya got kid.
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