I'm not hallucinating. They really do. These all-caring humanitarians - Met fans wash hands after each crapola - are celebrating Alonso's surreal start to 2025, as he is hitting an NL-leading .345.
That said, Alonso is second among NYC first-basemen, behind Paul Goldschmidt, who is batting .349.
Fun Fact: Last year, both sorta sucked.
Alonzo hit .240 (up from .215 in 2023) and Goldy did .245 - a drop so stark that he accepted a one-year, soul-saving Yankee contract. Right now, each is hitting 100 points above last year, and here's the thing:
In his heart of hearts, each knows it aint a-gonna last.
Nope, a big, nasty 0-for-20 Professor Plum is hiding in the conservatory with a candlestick. When the blow lands, everyone will know it was inevitable.
John Sterling has retired. You CAN predict baseball. Or at least I can... and I hereby predict that Alonso and Goldy won't finish 2025 hitting .280 - which means a big market correction is coming. It's not that I'm all-knowing. Honestly, I'm nothing-knowing. It's natural selection, random sequence, Darwinism, communism - whatever - it's the glowering Babadook of July and August - far enough down the road for us to drink and be merry - but close enough to remember that what goes up must come down.
On that note, let's talk Yankees...
Several players are in for a slide.
Aaron Judge. Sorry, people. But we all know he won't hit .400. He's human. He could hit .320 - a drop of 110 points, which would still provoke M-V-P chants. But he cannot keep up this Ty Cobb-meets-Babe Ruth pace. One of these days, he'll hit a skinny dip, and we better hope somebody picks up the slack.
Trent Grisham. Real or Memorex? I wanna believe he's a unicorn, a surprise that was waiting to be unwrapped - (he's only 28, not too late for a Bill Robinson resurgence) - but then again, this might just be a moment. In his last three years between San Diego and here, Grisham never hit above .200. What can we reasonably expect? Donno.
Ben Rice? Anthony Volpe? Austin Wells? Donno. We have no established ceilings or cellars to measure them by.
Jazz Chisholm. The cruelty of his oblique injury means that his rotten spring might expand into a rotten season. We assumed he would heat up and hit .270 - a hundred points above his current output. Now, what if he returns and starts cold? Yeesh. A big donno...
Cody Bellinger. He should start hitting. Any day now. Any way now. He shall not be released. Right now, he is our best card to play for a hot spell.
Jasson Dominguez? Oswaldo? Are they future Yankee mainstays, or lefty platoon hitters? Dunno.
Damn. A lotta questions here. You can predict baseball. But let's not.
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Goldschmidt's the better candidate to keep a high BA. He's a career .290 hitter. He's old, sure, but he's always been a good hitter. Alonso's a masher. He can't keep this up.
At the end of the day (or any part of a day) that’s what Viagra is for.
With 11 guys already on the IL, Kreskin predicts 4 more hit the trainer's table by the end of May, all of them with freak injuries that smack of too much time spent pushing the limits in the weight room, or too much muscle tightness when they take the field, because the Yankees never learned about the miracle of stretching before a game.
You're right, Publius. Alonso might not even hit .250. But he could easily hit 40+ home runs, something he's already done three times in his career. And unlike Judge, he's surrounded by genuine hitters in that lineup: Lindor, Alvarez, maybe Acuna, Nimmo, and Ventos; and—cough, cough—that other outfielder they have, cough...
...And, here we go again: all reports are saying that Volpe said he felt a "pop" in his shoulder when he went down yesterday.
Expect days, maybe weeks, of "more tests" and "he's not feeling just right yet" while the Yankees waste time determining that Brian Cashman's latest The Next Jeter (TNJ) needs surgery.
When they do finally acknowledge reality, well, expect to see our young SS about the time you see Gerrit Cole again. But much as it pains me to write it...will that necessarily be so bad?
Here's a thoughtful article from Thomas Carannante, in Yanks Go Yard, that details just how much Volpe gives us. It's not encouraging.
https://yanksgoyard.com/the-polarizing-anthony-volpe-conversation-among-yankees-fans-isnt-getting-any-easier
But hey, I don't know why I'm being so negative. After all, didn't somebody say that Giancarlo is hitting off a tee? No? Well, maybe he bought a tee(shirt). Or he's having tea...
Cantrun was in the dugout yesterday yucking it up with A Judge. To my eyes he appeared to be the happiest man alive…..
Don’t you hate it when you dive onto your shoulder and impinge it on impact, mangling some of the tissue to the point where it looks like chicken parm portions of a Swanson TV Dinner?
I think Stanton was out playing golf and the reporter got confused.
Disgusting mind pic, AA, but a really good description.
Hoss, I muttered "DL" as soon as Volpe reached for his shoulder. Haven't changed my mind.
Besides Judge, losing anybody on this lineup probably doesn't matter much. Maybe Goldschmidt, maybe Rice. Otherwise, assuming average pitching, pencil in 8 average defenders and slightly below average hitters round Judge and you'll win 85 games. Maybe enough to sneak into WC game. The way the industry operates these days, Cash can manage that.
Here's the thing: the only player who just might hit.400 happens to be Judge. Not saying he will, it's a ridiculously high bar to reach. But I don't see anyone else who might be capable of doing it.
I wouldn't mind being rid of Volpe for a while. The guy needs a shrink, and that's just for fielding under pressure. Maybe they can get a package deal and have the same doc work with Judge for batting under pressure.
One thing I do miss about Soto, he likes to be the hero and can come through when the heat is on. Something inside Judge just can't handle it. Which is another thing keeping him from immortal status, so far.
How many head cases is one team allowed? Cole, Rodon, Judge, Volpe...we seem to have more than our share.
Judge's problem in the postseason is simple: he can't stay within himself. Trying to do too much on every pitch. Still have to be patient and wait for a hittable pitch. Still have to take what the pitcher is giving you. Still have to take a professional at bat.
Which leads into what he's doing this year. It seems to me that he went to his hitting guru and demanded to know why the hell he can't hit in the postseason. And his hitting guru told him exactly what I just wrote above. So now Judge is simply staying within himself; taking what the pitcher is giving him; having professional at bats. Can he hit .400 this year? That's an awful high bar. I don't know, but he's definitely made a significant improvement already this year. A better question might be: will he hit in the postseason this year?
Terrible managing by BaBoone on the Volpe injury. That's a jammed shoulder or might even be a hairline fracture or a torn rotator cuff or a slightly separated shoulder. Shoulders are the most complicated joint and are the most difficult injury to diagnose correctly. BaBoone, a former professional athlete, a ballplayer, doesn't know that. Incredible incompetence. I don't care if Volpe jumps up and down that he's okay. That's just adrenaline and pride, wanting to stay in the game and finish it. You take him out immediately. He has to be evaluated by an orthopedic shoulder specialist, probably needs x-rays, probably needs an MRI, probably will need physical therapy. Minimum 2-4 wks on the shelf. If it's bad, it could be a season ending injury. The only good thing is that it's his non-throwing shoulder, but you still use the lead shoulder a lot when swinging a bat.
After the end of last year who among us could have predicted today's starting infield?
Oswaldo 3B
Peraza SS
Reyes 2B
Goldie 1B
and an outfield of
Dominguez
Grisham
Bellinger
I guess $300M doesn't get what it used to. Good thing we have Will Warren on the mound.
So we're going to lose the weekend series to Tampa right?
BaBoone leaves Volpe in there, a guy who makes a lot of errors at critical times even when healthy, and voila! There's the error. There goes the game.
And there goes any chance of trading him, not that Dumbass Cashman would've traded him anyway.
Oh yeah. Hey, if you wanna bet some money today, this would be the game to bet on the Yanks losing. I'd be super shocked if they won today. My odds on today would be 97.5% Tampa win probability.
OFC Judge won’t hit .400 or even close to it which means an epic correction is coming. Right now he’s carrying the entire flaccid offense, so yeah - this will be a huge problem at some point. I have nothing to say about the Mets because frankly I don’t give a shit about them and don’t follow them at all. I’d like to lose that that little Soto update on the header.
RE: Volpe. Not in the lineup, natch. Peraza with another chance.
As usual Keefe summed it up best:
“So Volpe was hurt enough to lie on the ground for minutes, but not hurt enough to come out of the game.
And not hurt enough to stay in and ruin the game with another crucial error.
And not hurt enough for tests to show anything.
But now hurt enough to not play today.”
God, Boone is such a fucking idiot. Can he really be as stupid as he seems? Can the players who love him be as stupid as that makes them seem?
I wonder if the average IQ of baseball players is lower than that of the general public? Looking at the general public, that would make them pretty stupid. Though for Boone, it's not out of the question.
Today. The team is 6-11 in games decided by 2 runs or less. If they don’t hit a bunch of homers they lose.
NYY Lineup
T Grisham (L) CF
A Judge (R) DH
C Bellinger (L) RF
P Goldschmidt (R) 1B
J Domínguez (S) LF
J Escarra (L) C
P Reyes (R) 2B
O Cabrera (S) 3B
O Peraza (R) S
What an awful fucking lineup, and Warren on the mound.
Draw your own conclusions.
IN BIG, FAT FLORID LETTERING.
Can you hear me tearing my hair out from over here in Germany?
Absolutely. Add Boone to the list of culprits for the ling line to the trainer's table and the IL, that practially defines Yankee 'training and conditioning.'
get me some tv dinner
Here we are once again the media and the Yankees overrating the Yankees farm system...but I've been telling all of you this for years...
oh, and @BTR999 WTG for labeling Peraza as short and not a stop...
...Again, as much noted here, I blame Boone for letting that fucking game get away. I always thought most of his problems were caused by Hal & Pal before that game, and this season. He is truly an unthinking fool, and it shows up constantly, in losses to teams the Yanks should beat.
That 6-11 record in close games is damning, 999. 3 of those games were blown by the Airbender. Hard to blame Boone for those, because he was supposed to be the great closer.
But another 3 were lost by The Toms River Tormentor, Leiter Junior, which is not forgivable. The guy has nothing, and he hasn't even bothered to get into shape. I doubt very much that even Pal is demanding to see more of him.
And hey—game's already delayed by an hour today. Maybe two. Maybe until never. Sure glad we didn't overwork our best relievers yesterday.
Oh, one more thing, 999: we should all pay lots of attention to the Mets. We should all hope that they are really turning things around, because the thought of the revenue they'll take out of HAL's pocket is, I guarantee you, the ONLY thing that will make him consider putting smart baseball people in charge of his lifelong cash cow.
Many a true word is spoken in jest
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