There used to be an old baseball tradition of insisting that the team in first place on Memorial Day would win the pennant. The tradition died, as they will...because it was really stupid. Plenty of teams that weren't in first at the end of May won pennants, World Series, etc.
What I think we can see by this Memorial Day, however, is that your New York Yankees are indeed the great pile of pigeon droppings that many of us feared they would be.
The just completed Baltimore debacle demonstrated that this Yankees team is like trying to pull a three-foot sheet over a six-foot man: something will always be exposed.
Last night it was the woeful hitting. The night before, it was the depleted staff and the burnt out "burn pen," as I think El Duque christened it.
Folks, somethin's gotta give, and it usually does.
Last night saw both Volpe and Cabrera drop below the Mendoza Line. Next it will be the Joey Gallo Line. I think we should keep playing them—or, at most, have Volpe and Peraza swap places—because the alternative is yet another season of IKF and Jackie. But it's clear that they're not ready yet—and, at 22 and 24, respectively, they may never be.
Worse still than the actual performances on the field was the attitude, as the Yanks went down like a bunch of whipped dogs at the hands of a soft-throwing meatball named Kyle Gibson. His win put Gibson a game over .500 in his 11-year career (95-94, 4.49). A career in which, moreover, he has usually been royally pummeled by the real NY Yankees, not that group of imposters who showed up last night.
(Gibson lifetime v. NYY: 2-6, 5/93.)
People, I know it's a long season, and the boys can't be up for every game. I realize the umps were lousy—what a surprise—and even the video replay let us down. But last night's game was a big indicator of why our grandchildren will probably go to watch a curling match before they turn on a baseball game.
I'm not saying there was necessarily a lack of effort out there—except that I am. "The attendance was robbed," as Casey Stengel used to say, and in this case it was 41,520 fans, forced to pay top dollar for tickets, "beer," and rat-feces dogs. And a team that seemed to be mostly daydreaming about whether they'd get a Memorial Day weekend invite to a really cool Hamptons party, or contemplating the grave problem of why so many airplanes keep nearly colliding on the runway.
Let's just say that your Yankees looked less than enthusiastic last night. It's not the first time in this young season—and it speaks again as to why Ma Boone is not a good manager.
Sure, we can forgive him for being trapped inside the strategic genius of Cashmanalytics ("Hit strikes hard!"). But no matter how many times he gets himself thrown out of a game, it's quite apparent that his team respectfully declines to play hard for the man—and he has no means of firing them up. ("C'mon, skip, you're gonna give yourself a stroke!")
Expect this season to dribble and dawdle on much as it already has in the Bronx. But worse yet—out in Flushing, some rough beast, its hour come round at last, is already slouching toward Aaron Judge's one-year-old, home-run record.
(By which I mean the real record, set by men not taking substances that make their heads expand.)
Is this the year of the Polar Bear? Pete Alonso, the thoroughly likable kid who has already broken Judge's rookie home-run record, has been running up the score on assorted National League palookas, and at his current rate, he might well pass the magic no. 62.
What's more, the Mets might very well be the team that Brian Cashman thinks these Yankees are. Able to stick around, sneak into the new, ginormo-playoffs, and then make a real run if The Old Ones, Verlander and Scherzer, are still fit.
Big ifs, I know, but a real possibility—particularly if the Mets' kids, Alvarez, Baty, and Vientos—are able to do what ours are clearly not up to.
What, thought you'd already suffered through enough this century with four Red Sox rings and the horrors of 2001 and 2004? Imagine a miracle Mets championship, with the Polar Bear carting the home-run record over to Queens.
So much karma to pay back for that amazing 20th century...
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42 comments:
Good post and very scary photo! At least he still had his arm sleeve on. Alonzo strikes me as classless, As opposed to Mr. Judge.
Thanks, Doug. And hey, Alonso's all right. It's good to see a ballplayer having fun once in a while, as opposed to those somnambulists who played for us last night.
It's just that he seems like a typically, limited Mets ballplayer. And today, that's more than we have, at so many positions.
Objection to Pete Alonso as "thoroughly likeable". He's a meathead, and not in an "aw shucks" Gronk kind of way. A bit sullen and awfully impressed with himself.
Alonso is Jose Canseco to Judge's DiMaggio. Though if he keeps hitting at this clip, the HR title will be his, easy.
FLY AWAY, HICKSIE...YOU'RE FREE AS A BIRD NOW...FLY AWAY...
Last year, when all the jackasses were swarming about Ohtani, I said I'd rather take Alonso over Ohtani. I still do.
I'm planning on taking in a couple of Mets games on the tube this weekend. On Sunday, I'll report back with anything interesting I see.
Thanks as usual to HC66 and duque for graciously acknowledging that I was the first person on the blog to note--last night--that Volpe had dropped below the Mendoza Line. This same sort of thing has happened on more occasions than I can count. It's reassuring that the blog does not practice any sort of ostracism or boycott of particpants who don't grovel to the implicit Leninist ethos of the blog anti-analytics party line.
Gotta disagree, JM, in that Canseco was a cheater and a major advocate of cheating. No indication that Alonso is. He certainly doesn't have a juicer's body—hence the "Polar Bear" nickname.
Hey, he seems lively, cheerful, and totally invested in making the Mets a winner—a tall task!
It's more like he's a Hank Greenberg to Judge's DiMaggio, I would say.
One other thing on Alonso: even though he's hitting nearly 50 points lower than Judge—.288-.239—Pete is driving in slightly more runs per homer (2.36 to 2.35).
Hmm, how could that be? Could it possibly have something to do with the fact that Alonso always hits fourth and Judge second?
Inquiring minds want to know!
Hoss
You are a wonderful thinker, a Yankees fan, and great to read.
However, you have to get to a point in your life where you STOP insulting Pigeons.
On a happier note…Aaron Hicks was officially released today…
HC66 -- No, it has to do with the fact that two of the people batting in front of Alonso have .370-plus OBP, whereas the best the Yankees can do in front of Judge is Torres at .349--good but not great on the OBP scale.
Hoss, I meant that comparison in terms of class. Alonso isn't a juicer or musclebound knucklehead.
@ Hoss, Yep, Alonso gets a lot more runners on base because of his cleanup hitter position.
Last year, he actually tied Judge for RBI with 131, despite hitting "only" 40 homers (compared to Judge's 62 homers). He also had 685 plate appearances, compared to Judge's 696 plate appearances. Alonso played in three more games. The plate appearances were actually very comparable.
Judge hits a lot of solo homers, because there is no one on base. In the 1st inning, that's the usual thing for Judge. I mean, if the Yankee leadoff man has an on base % of .350, that means that 65% of the time, Judge will be up with nobody on base in the 1st inning. And if he plays 150 games this year, that means 98 games where Judge comes up in the 1st inning with nobody on. So 98 times where it is guaranteed that, at best, he can only hit a solo homer. And that's part of the reason why he hits so many solo homers.
If two guys hit in front of Judge with .350 OBP for both, then Judge would come up with at least one man on base 58% of the time in the 1st inning. A lot better than the typical 35% chance of a man on base while hitting in the two slot.
Fucking Apple+ game. Guess I'm missing it.
Hammer -- This obsession is destroying you. It would take only one batter in front of Alonso with an OBP tgat is twenty points higher than Torres's to account for this minuscule difference, no matter where Alonso was batting g in the order.
Hammer: Ypur math is way off. Combining two guys with an OBP of .350 does not equal one guy with a .580 OBP. The Yankees so a team are below average on OBP.
The Yankees are 24th in team OBP, and the Mets are 14th. That accounts for the differences between Judge and Alonso being discussed here, not whether either bats second or fourth. Both are batting behind the team's upper echelon guys in OBP . THE Mets are just much better in that department than the Yankees.
Bottom of the 4th. Yankees hit total = 1
A juggernaut this team ain't!
Hold everything: Bottom 4th
Total = 2
DJ LeMahieu singled to center
Anthony Rizzo singled to left center
Ready to break out?
Nope -
Harrison Bader hit into a fielder's choice.
Yankees on some TV station I never heard of.
Sterling is absent on WFAN.
Boone is home trying to blow some new types of bubbles with his gum.
What is going on here?
Thanks, Joe FOB. And I do apologize. The pigeons are at least TRYING to do what they do. The Yankees? Not so much.
mik, obviously that cool Memorial Day invite did not come through. Major bummer. So now they're wondering about which bar on the East Side the party's at tonight.
East Side party? First rounds on me!
Point taken, JM. Yeah, Judge is a much more complete ballplayer. He steals bases, plays a very strong outfield. But Alonso is a lot of fun. And I fear what he will do to us this year.
21st century. The humiliations continue!
You're right, Hammer—and as I think you've pointed out before, Judge batting 3rd or 4th gives the Yanks an increased possibility of leading 3-0 from the first, just with one swing of the bat. Something that it is currently impossible for him to do by himself.
Playing ahead always gives one an advantage. It limits opponents' options, and increases your own.
Enough with pitchers named Vasquez
What's this presumably harrowing decades old bus/plane ride Suzyn doesn't want to talk about? "It's in books!" Shackil said. Suzyn shut the topic down. "Were not supposed to talk about it".
Not to mention Randy
The Ride that Must Not Be Named.
pathetic, once again.
I don't think I've seen a game this year in which Marinario comes in and doesn't allow a run or two. His ERA i must be calculated by monkeys on typewriters or something. It can't be the 4 something showing on the app
Good boy, when you ain’t hitting you better be bunting. “Bunting, it’s not just for terrace level on opening day any more”
What makes me sad is just how bad, boring, predictable, and ultimately unwatchable this team is. I enjoy the blog WAY more than I enjoy watching them.
Barf.
Quoth HC 66 : "Judge batting 3rd or 4th gives the Yanks an increased possibility of leading 3-0 from the first, just with one swing." This is statistically and mathematically absurd, and Hanmer has demonstrated no such thing--only that his command of logic and statistical probability is shaky, to use the politest term available. And the only advantage of batting Judge fourth goes to the opposing team, which can therefore enjoy the heightened probability that the Yankees' best hitter will not come to bat in the first inning at all, and that he is likely to have one less plate appearance in the game, possibly in a late and close situation. Hammer and HC66 are awash in nostalgia for the good old days, when hidebound tradition trumped evidence in baseball strategy. That all began to change with the ascendancy of Branch Rickey, but it took decades for the rest of the game to catch up with him. This blog is one of the last holdouts against evidence-based decision making. Fortunately, neither HC66 nor Hammer is making any baseball decisions apart from a Strat board.
Sorry but after my Boone song earlier this morning I was pretty much on the road all day.
Did we win today.
Did we dominate San Diego and make ‘em wanna crawl to LaGuardia directly after the game?
Is Larry Storch our new manager?
PLEASE SOMEONE- update me asap
Well, I was spared this depressing spectacle since I don’t have a paid Apple + sub.
I see the bats were slumbering again.
Vásquez did more than OK for a first big league start.
And just for the record: it doesn’t make a fuck’s worth of difference where you bat Judge.
He will either hit or not.
What matters is an organization fully committed to the goal of winning a Championship,
and acts accordingly. We don’t have that now, haven’t had it for years. That is why we can’t
clear the final hurdles.
Thanks B2R999.
Guess I didn’t miss much
Beggin' the Colonels' pardon, but if analytics really had such a profound effect on the game, then why aren't teams scoring significantly more runs/game, especially with the juiced/jacked players, and sometimes balls? Not to mention that balls in Mr. Rickey's time (which is what, seventy years ago?) were used way more times before they were "retired". Another point, forty years ago, continuing to this day show far less total effect on the game than most fans would believe. In regards to RBIs, how did players, until very recently routinely hit 100-110+ of them per season (a few outliers excluded). On a well optimized team, Judge hitting third or fourth should have hit 140+ last year. Having your homerun hitter batting first/second was something tried and tossed over the past century. Driving in runs isn't the stuff of advanced statistics, it's merely hit the ball over the fence, in the power alleys, and the mindset of situational hitting (choking up on the bat with two strikes (which the player has to concede not hitting the ball 450', and the ol' sac fly).
Some people can't separate cause from effect, in fact some people don't have the ability at all. This team isn't scoring because of some esoteric error that Boone or the Pinheads make. No, the problem is that this team is never on base, and when they are with few exceptions, don't run the bases well. HC66, THE HAMMER, Duque, and many others here carry on, please. The Game is fully in your grasp. But then, you guys already knew that.
Well, good point, 999.
But that's also part of the problem. Nobody—NOBODY—with this club does anything to maximize the possibility of winning.
HC, there's iron in your words of wisdom.
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