You get two HRs by Aaron Judge and a six-inning start from anybody in this flimsy rotation, plus you're playing a homeless team, and it's Mother's Day Eve, and the Pope's from Chicago, I'm telling ya...
You should win.
Yeah, right, well...
1. With two yesterday, Aaron Judge is now HR leader in all of baseball - as God intended - with 14 dingers, leading by two over several players, including the Japanese Babe Ruth.
2. Judge went 2-5, his BA remaining at .396. In other words, it wasn't enough: .400 is a bridge too far.
3. Carlos Rodon pitched six rather solids and left with a two-run lead. We've come to take Rodon for granted. Into his third season, he's actually become indispensable. Not necessarily worth the $27 million per year that we're paying, but not a Pavano or Igawa, either. We have him through 2028, when he'll be 35.
4. Another bullpen meltdown. In recent weeks, that's how we've lost almost all our games: We bring in the lug nuts, and they either can't throw strikes, or they give up moonshots. If Luke Weaver starts to fade... Mayday.
5. Oswald Peraza hit a HR, his 2nd of the season. Didn't make any difference yesterday, and it probably won't next week, in terms of his future. Inevitably, the Yankees will disappear him. I suspect that, once he's out of NYC, he'll find new life. I don't know what went wrong, but it seems to happen regularly with the Yankees - prospects come up, impress in the spring, and then flounder. Peraza never recovered from the spring training injury two years ago.
6. Scott Effross - a Cashman acquisition of two summers ago - has been moved up a notch in the minors, in his latest attempted comeback from injuries. All we hear, winter after winter, is how the Yankees have built an assembly line of Olympian young arms, and then - when the need flares - we're signing some jabroney off waivers or bringing back - gasp - Scott Effross. Don't gemme wrong: I sincerely hope that Mr. Effross can shake of the naysayers and pitch without tweaking something. But he is not the answer.
7. If the A's were in the AL East, they'd be in second place, two games above .500 and two ahead of Boston. Two years ago, they were a running joke in American pop culture. They were so bad that the team was allowed to leave Oakland without bloodshed. Now, they're in contention for the postseason.
Listen: In this day and age, it doesn't take long to build a team from the ground up. Two years can do it. Maybe the Yankees ought to take note?
8. Watched Conclave last night. Those Cardinals are nasty buggers. Leo better watch his back.
9. Game time today is 4:05 p.m. Over in time for Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.
Ian needs to develop his namesake's "Folly Floater."
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/elPp7kNZF5A?si=5sV0KYspb4dnEgvF
I thought Conclave was a pretty good movie until the end. The conservative Italian Cardinal was an over-the-top character, and I didn't find him believable. But otherwise, good acting. And then the stupid trick ending, that turned the movie into something else entirely. Kind of cheesy, imo.
ReplyDeleteThe Folly Floater is a great pitch. When you get it in the strike zone, almost nobody can hit it. But I guess it's not "serious" enough these days.
Why didn't Boone bring in Weaver before the game was lost? Because Boone is saving him for another day, so he doesn't get too tired before the playoffs. Of course, these are the decisions that put our very playoff appearance into question. He is such an idiot. God, he drives me nuts.
Not a day goes by that little Emilio (another local Yankees fan) doesn’t wheel himself out onto his back yard deck and attempt to wish Aaron Boone into the cornfield (actually it’s a vast, heavily wooded area filled with wildlife that could easily prove hazardous to human life).
DeleteLittle Emilio is not a big fan of Boone.
Agreed, JM! I'm not a Catholic, but many of my friends and my extended family are. They said so, too: the church (and any church) can treat women better without needing to make—let's say, not to spoil it—an individual of that particular make-up, into their leader.
DeleteHuman empathy can and does extend beyond biology. That's what the religion's (or almost any religion's) all about.
Easy to forget that Peraza, not Volpe, was once seen as the Yankee’s future SS. But over more than 3 seasons and 307 total PA, he is hitting a mere .214. He is out of options, so he will need to clear waivers if he is to return to SWB. If I was the Red Sox I would claim him just to stick my thumb in the Yankees eye. Of course the team could easily return Vivas instead when DJLM returns. The team should’ve done more (anything!) to obtain Brendan Donovan from the Cardinals, he would've been an excellent fit. Instead, we’re stuck with 2 more years of LeMahieu since Steinscammer will not do the necessary and eat the last 2 years of his contract.
ReplyDeleteLet me tell yieu that DJ LeMahieu will likely not be on this team for long before returning to the D(J)L/IL.
DeleteHopefully his brief stay in the bigs will result in some mind blowing, unparalleled sports entertainment!
Perhaps both DJ and Stanton can re-injure themselves whilst singing a national anthem duet prior to their first game back together.
DeleteNow I would pay to watch (and listen) that!
DeleteThat was a really bad loss yesterday. They had to win that one because, today, it's going to be another bullpen game with the Yarlboro Man starting. Maybe four innings out of him at most? Probably going to be a disaster today.
ReplyDeleteJ.P. Sears is now a better pitcher than Rodon. Shoulda never been traded over there for injured garbage. 'Course, if Sears had stayed here, who knows, he might suck even worse than Rodon. After getting traded, Sears said the things the Athletics do are different from Yankee coaching. So the program is definitely different. He didn't go into specifics, of course. That would be top secret.
Pretty funny, AA! And all too true.
ReplyDeleteHorace....so you're saying Jesus wasn't woke when he wanted to help all the poor, hurting, and disadvantaged masses.
DeleteAA, perhaps while singing their duet, they can go for that high note and irreparably injure their testicles.
You're right, Hammer—and it's in keeping with our Peerless Leader's post, too: no one gets better, everyone gets injured.
ReplyDeleteThis goes on and on and on, and yet nothing is done. How many years ago did Pal vow an investigation into all the injuries? That never came about. Neither did any other change.
Bad as Boone is, it's not his retirement that really matters. It's that of Pal, and the man who keeps him there, HAL, our very own nepo baby.
Speaking of nepo babies, the New York Knickerbockers have won their last game of the season. That's too bad, but at least all laws of time, space, and dimension are functioning again.
ReplyDeletePam Bondi will investigate Trump's many financial enrichment scams before Cashman does an honest forensic inquiry concerning their organizational training routine.
ReplyDeleteDJ and Stanton should develop an act where they both try to play baseball wearing a body cast and clown shoes. I'm telling ya, they'd be on all the talk shows, day and night.
ReplyDeleteLove it!
DeleteOh, and about the Disney show: "...color...color...color...".
ReplyDeleteThat's how I remember the song ending. Then they would put on either something thrilling—Davey Crockett kills a zillion of Santa Ana's soldiers defending the Alamo—or a deadly dull nature documentary.
No game thread today? Sevvy is sucking.
ReplyDelete