For now, using that metric, the fates of several Yanks could look rather tenuous. Consider the Ozempic Scale of Spring Yankeehood:
Jazz Chisholm
Weight: 184
BA: .160.
Cody Bellinger
Weight 203
BA: .177
Austin Wells
Weight: 220
BA: .182
Anthony Volpe - 180 lbs and .197 - barely misses this list. But lately, he's been rather anemic - fanning one-third of the time and stifling complaints about his infamous torpedo bat.
But but BUT...
Over the last five games, the Ozempic Scale can go out window with the bathwater. The Yankees have won losable games via defense, defense, defense! If that keeps up, the '25 team will look vastly different from the homer-happy unit that was hyped throughout spring training.
Last night, several Yankees made great defensive plays:
Volpe, a Jeteresque pivot and throw to 1B on a grounder into shallow left field.
Bellinger, a sliding stop in the LF corner that could have easily rattled around into a triple.
Paul Goldschmidt, a perfectly executed rundown with a man on third.
Trent Grisham, snagging a drive off the CF wall, throwing perfectly to Volpe, who launched a strike to 3B Oswaldo Cabrera to nail a sliding runner.
These are the kinds of plays that haunted the Yankees all last year - by our opponents. Last night, you could see the spiritual boosts felt by Carlos Rodon and Mark Leiter Jr., raising their emotions rather than draining them, as Gleyber Torres' stunning mental lapses did throughout the spring of 2024.
What a difference a play makes.
Listen: The BAs will rise - (though we can worry about Wells, who fell off a ledge last fall and has not returned.) Volpe is showing great defense, and the entire team is following suit. Unless The Martian is in LF - (and he has improved) - the Yankees show no glaring weakness defensively. And if/when DJ LeMahieu returns, we should not fear his glovework.
Defense. It's nice to have one. And it's why we have won five straight.
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17 comments:
It's truly strange to win a game 1-0. Even stranger that Rodent was the pitcher. And even stranger than that was the great defense.
Who are these guys?
Are you awakening in deutschland yet?
I suppose the next thing you’re going to say is how much the baserunning has improved
Re: Wells
There's a stat about hard hit balls (ouch!) but the eye test tells me Austin Wells had at least five at bats where he lost an extra base hits to really really good plays.
I understand that it happens to everyone but it seems like he gets robbed more than most.
Add the five hits and he's batting .272
Granted this is kind of bullshit and I sound like Boone, but what I'm saying is Austin Wells doesn't suck he's just run into "bad luck" .
Right now he has 3 HRs and 8 RBIs in 17 Games and he's appeared in 17 games of the 20 games.
So at that pace, he hits 24 HR and 64 RBIs. Not amazing but not horrible. Add some more hits dropping in and he's a . 250 or better hitter.
Again, I know this is bullshit and fun with statistics, but my point is he doesn't suck and could be good to very good eventually.
Right now I have his AYG-HAB at 5.3. I don't mind that he's up and have some form of expectation but not enough to be confident.
The ballplayer formerly known as DJL is a masturbatory fantasy. If and when he returns, nothing can be expected from him except a return to the Ellsbury wing at Montefiore Hospital where he rejoins his crippled former teammate
Giancarlo.
Gotta differ with you for once, Doug. I don't think Wells is the real deal, period. I loved him at first, but then he fell off that cliff—and to add to that, he doesn't seem like a smart player or a good defensive catcher. Never forget, we ultimately lost that fifth game of the Series when he managed to touch the bat of a crippled Ohtani. That, plus the fact that his response to months of slumping is to run a series of videos of his large self eating burritos in each park...this strikes me as a Gleyberesque level of seriousness about the game.
Gotta differ with your differing.
He has only 479 ABs for his career so far. What is that one years worth? 20 HRs. I don't know if he's smart or not. Lots of young player's have some kind of schtick these day.
Just last year he came in 3rd for ROY. Way too soon to judge in the negative. Look at Ben Rice. He figured it out. Don't look at Volpe, he didn't.
Nope, flying out Monday night. Oy.
Some nice glovework by Volpe, though.
Remember when shortstops weren't expected to hit? Solid defense used to be enough.
I wish to God that those four guys, Wells, Bellinger, Chisholm & Volpe would put away that stupid bowling pin bat and stop trying to hit moonshots on every pitch. Hitting below .200 ain't acceptable. Just take what the pitcher is giving you. Hell, that's what Judge is doing this year. Too bad he didn't do that in last year's World Series.
What's colossally irritating about the Volpster is that he should be hitting .300 or close to it. It's his approach. And the stupid bowling pin bat only seems to have exacerbated the fascination with swinging for the fences. When is he ever going to pull his head out of his ass and realize that he ain't Mini-Judge? Whatever....
Hey, besides the Yankee 1-0 win last night, the Islanders won 1-0 (on April 14, I think, meaningless garbage time game, but still a 1-0 shutout). 1-0, the hardest score to win by. Like threading the eye of a needle with a camel. Like sailing between Scylla and Charybdis. Like surviving the Clashing Rocks. After it's over, you wonder how the hell they did it. You have to admire the beautiful simplicity of a 1-0 win.
BTW, Sunday April 13, when the Yankees lost to the San Fran Giants 5-4, for the first time this year, I forgot to post the whooopppeee scream. Yeah, BaBoone had Aaron Judge hitting #2 in that game. And Judge came up with two outs in the bottom of the 9th as the last potential at-bat. WHOOOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Of course, he struck out, but whoooooppppppeeeeee nonetheless. Ain't those computer simulation geeks somethin'? Your best hitter in the #2 slot coming up as the last potential out, last chance saloon style, as The Master would've said. Just the way the computer assholes drew it up. Too fucking bad he struck out with nobody on base. Let's see how many fucking times that happens this year.
So Rodon with his best game as a Yankee to date. Now's the time to trade him. I would've traded him at the trade deadline last year and, failing that, over the winter. Every Rodon start is like a walking high wire act, every pitch a hair trigger away from annihilation. If you're going to keep Matt Blake as the pitching coach, Rodon has to go. If you're going to replace Blake, I suppose you can take a chance on bringing in someone who can hold Rodon's hand and get him through those tough innings. Blake is obviously not a real pitching coach. He might be great at crunching numbers and figuring out what percentage of pitches to mix up or what the pitch sequence should be, but he totally flunks as a mentor. If Blake stays, expect more innings like that World Series 5th inning disaster. Mr. Prima Donna and Rodon need a lot more from their pitching coach than computer algorithms.
Same thing with Volpe. Better to trade him before his value completely tanks. If he hits .190 this year, how many clubs would be interested in trading for him? (And I don't give a shit if he hits 30 homers, .190 is unacceptable.) If he has more games like that Oriole game with botched groundball on the potential final out of the game? That's another guy who needs a lot more hand holding than what Yankee coaches are giving him. If they can't help him with his needs, move him to a team that's willing.
Horace, I also think that your assessment of Wells is a bit "harsh". Nevermind the Ohtani play, that happens to every catcher. The games that I've watched (not nearly as many as you, I'll concede) he looks like he knows what the hell he's doing. As my dad would have put it. And his hitting, looks like he gets off a lot of good swings though I'm no scout. And of course his defensive metrics have been elite.
Duque, so spot on as usual. So far this team has actually played the best "baseball" of any Boone era teams. Gleybor and Sanchez, man they would have taken the steam out of any baseball team. I know that I was on the verge of actively hating the Yankees with their asleep at the wheel play. Boone. Now Boone still needs to be fired, but preaching to this choir is superfluous.
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