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| Volpe ranks 15th in fielding, but several errors have come recently. |
And speaking of the Titanic... well, we all want Anthony Volpe to be the next Jeet, right? And now and then, he shows a flash. But lately, Volpe's botched a few grounders, advancing the whispers that his ultimate destination is second-base, where nobody sees the next Robby.
Which brings me to last night's dreaded Yankee keystone, whose players - Volpe, Oswaldo Cabrera and Gleyber Torres - went a combined 0-for-10 with two errors, in a pained loss to the hate-filled Jays.
Change is coming to the Yankee infield, but here's the caveat:
It might not be for the better.
Let's start at the Paul Lynde center square: the enigmatic Gleyber. Among MLB second-basemen, he currently ranks 14th in hitting (.246), 5th in HRs (with 6) and 17th in fielding (with 3 errors.)
Gleyber's problem? The expectations from his sophomore year, when he hit 38 HRs and batted .278. We expected squab and truffles, but he turned into burger and fries. In fact, he showed up a bit doughy in the pandemic season, flopped at SS, returned to 2B, where he has settled into a floundering meh. Don't get me wrong. He's not bad. He's just not - well - good. He's just Gleyber. Too valuable to ditch. Too run-of-the-mill to capture much in a trade. (And Cashman, still reeking of failure from last July, surely has nightmares of dealing Gleyber and watching him return to stardom, because, in the end, NYC was the problem.)
Then there is DJ LeMahieu - a gold glove at 2B - now holding down 3B. Soon, Jackie Donaldson will crash the roster. (His rehab could start next week.) That will push Isiah Kiner-Falefa further into the utility slot, and maybe bounce Oswaldo Cabrera to Scranton, as the Yankees lash themselves to Aaron Hicks like Ahab to the whale.
Yeah, change is coming, but there is no guarantee that the Yankees will improve. When all is settled, when the bandages come off, our lone IF certainty will be Anthony Rizzo at 1B - and let's take a moment to light the candle for his continued health and well being.
There are other players in this casserole, most notably Oswald Peraza, currently rehabbing at Scranton. Honestly, I donno WTF to do when Peraza is ready. Probably nothing. Just sit on him, as they have done with Estevan Florial - currently hitting .295 with 6 HRs at Scranton. Two weeks from now, give or take a few Volpe errors, and Peraza could be our SS, and everything would have changed. Crazy, eh?
So, finally... last night we saw what happens with Aaron Judge doesn't hit a HR.
We don't score. That's all. I put the loss entirely on Judge: If he homered, we would have won. He didn't, so we lost. What a bum. He owes us two tonight.
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8 comments:
Gleyber is worse than meh. What good is a "decent" batting average if you keep getting thrown out on the base paths?
His internal clock is slow making it harder for him to turn DPs and also making plays at first closer than they have to be.
I would be fine with a trade and giving Volpe 2B (and don't forget, Jeter, who he is not, had a tough first year with errors)and giving SS to Peraza. Growing pains are part of life.
I doubt Donaldson wants to subject himself to the boos that he knows are coming. He will re-tweak shortly. He's going to get the rest of his cash and then retire.
3B should belong to IKF for now with DJ filling in at 2B, 3B, and 1B which was the orginal idea.
Our next 3B needs to be triple crown winner Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami. It may take another year until he is posted but this is the guy they should pull out all the stops to get.
We all want to develop home grown stars that we can enjoy for a decade or more. But so few actually achieve those lofty heights. It’s even harder for a Yankee fan, because of the perpetual hype machine. We need to be patient with very young players. If not, we are no better than Yankee management and deserve to eat the stale slop they serve us without complaint. You ask for it, you got it.
Volpe is probably up here a year too soon, but that’s OK. He really can’t be judged too harshly on his performance this year. The same for Peraza who is hitting well in his rehab and seems ready to be recalled when needed. I’m a lot less high on Cabrera who isn’t really an everyday player, but that’s OK too! His speed and versatility are needed off the bench. As for Torres, I take a realistic view - he’ll be a FA after next season. Has his performance justified a long term extension? In my opinion, no. But he is an asset and does have value on the trade market. Why let him walk for just draft pics when we can get something in return?
Also, never be swayed by Spring Training, or Spring Training competitions. One of the few things I agreed with Axisa on was when he wrote “Spring Training is full of lies” Yes. Yes it is.
And Doug, Murikami is DEFINITELY someone who should be in a Yankee uniform. The quality of Japanese and Korean players is on the rise. Look at how well Yoshida (who we passed on due to salary cap concerns) is doing in Boston. Murikami would be a perfect fit here, but as we all know that’s probably why we won’t sign him
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The lack of offense once again reared its ugly head. Home run or nothing team. No home run derby, that's almost always a loss with these guys.
What I'd heard about Volpe a year or so ago was that he lacked a shortstop's arm. Seeing him play, he has an okay arm, but not a great arm. What I would have done is to dump Donaldson, trade Torres, bench IKF, then you have 2B, SS, and 3B open and you can arrange Volpe, Peraza, DJ LeMahieu any which way you please. For instance, Volpe at 2B, Peraza at SS, DJ at 3B. But that's just me.
They're never going to trade Torres. He is going to leave when he hits free agency after next year. Because that's the way this front office operates.
Murakami is only 23 years old, as well. He'll be posted after the 2025 season, I believe, heading into his age-26 season. If he keeps playing like he has, the Yankees should make sure he comes to the Bronx. Of course, we'll probably give Matt Chapman $250M for his walk-year production and he'll be a pumpkin by 2025 and Boone will be assuring us he's about to turn the corner any day now, etc, etc.
Gleyber Torres .248/.339/.427 (.766 OPS)
Average MLB 2B .250/.317/.382 (.698 OPS)
While Gleyber's BA is merely "average," he clears the OBP and SLG bar easily for his position.
He's made THREE "outs on the bases" this season, according to Baseball Reference. Very annoying, but the good outweighs the bad to me. (Though this doesn't count his FOUR caught stealing!)
Anthony Volpe .212/.297/.378 (.675 OPS)
Average MLB SS .248/.312/.394 (.705 OPS)
Volpe is clearly below average for his position all the way around. But he's young and skipped Triple-A, so what did we expect?
Errors are a very outdated way to review defense, in my opinion. As we see almost daily, official scorers will just rule errors as hits anyway. So what's the point in counting them? Errors also fail to incorporate a player's range as we see with immobile infielders. A guy can't move to his left and so every ball gets by him. But since he was too inept to even put a glove on it, they're all ruled hits and he has 0 errors. He must be good at defense, eh?
I'm not sure how reliable the new defensive metrics are, but I find them interesting. I especially like Outs Above Average for infielders, since it measures:
1. How far the fielder has to go to reach the ball.
2. How much time he has to get there.
3. How far he then is from the base the runner is heading to.
4. On force plays, how fast the batter is, on average.
Statcast measures Gleyber Torres at -1 OAA, so a bit below average.
Statcast measures Anthony Volpe at 0 OAA, so right at average.
I don't think any change is necessary for now. Torres is a solid player, although infuriatingly boneheaded at times. He didn't develop into the star we dreamed he would, but he's OK. Not sure there are any available upgrades right now anyway.
Volpe has been both good and bad. His baserunning is electric, and I think his defense is fine for now. His approach at the plate leaves a lot to be desired, but again, he's young and skipped Triple-A. The fanbase screamed for him to make the roster after Spring Training, and he did. Now we have to live with the bumps.
I think the kids will turn out fine, and it's too soon to judge them, anyway. But Gleyber has to stop taking acid before games. He's no Dock Ellis. He can't handle the drug and baseball at the same time.
Also, the live Phish bootlegs are driving the rest of the clubhouse crazy.
@Hammer...the Yanks never sell high...moving Torres is the right move...
That pretty much means they won't do it, Ranger. Wrong Move Cashman would never allow it.
Zachary A avers that an average fielder and well- below average hitter at the most important infield position "is just fine for now." Yes--just fine if you have no intention of competing for a postseason slot. When Peraza is fully rehabbed, he should become the regular shortstop, and Volpe should be sent to Scranton for further seasoning. Florial once and for all should get a statistically meaningful trial in left field (his OBP is over .400, making him an ideal lead off candidate.) Hicks is a disaster and should be DFA'ed if Cashman can ever show enough character to admit that he made a big mistake. IKF is at best a backup utility player and is dispensable. Calhoun is terrible and also dispensable. Bauers is a small-sample AAA illusion who will be demoted or gone by midseason.
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