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Saturday, June 23, 2018

Casey Sez: Time for a Platoon!

If you'd told all the Knights of the Press Box before the season began that two guys in the Yankees' lineup were hitting in the .190s, they'd have nodded their ink-stained chins sagely and said, 'See? We told you that you can't have two rookies starting at the same time for a contending team.'

Needless to say—but I'll say it anyway, dammit!—it's the rookies who have kept the floundering offense afloat, while the sub-Mendozas are men already considered to be established rocks of our rebuilt dynasty-to-be, Greg "Bird Legs" Bird" and the ever-mysterious Gary Sanchez.

So...it's time to ask ourselves, as we always should:  WWCD?  What would Casey do?

The answer, I think, as it so often was for Casey: platoon.

Take a look at the splits. In their fairly short careers, neither player has seemed platoon worthy. Bird, lifetime, is actually somewhat better at hitting lefties than righties:  .226/.353/.429/.782 vs. southpaws, as opposed to .219/.299/.472/.771 against righties.

But THIS season...oy vey.

For 2018, Bird is a (not hardly) respectable .224/.268/.478/.745 versus those who throw from the starboard side, while just a sub-sub-Mendoza, .071/.381/.071/.452 vs. lefties.

Now granted, Bird's performance against southpaws this year is based on a very small sample size, just 21 plate appearances, mainly because Ma Boone has usually preferred to play someone else, such as Tyler Austin, against lefties.

But with Tyler back in Scranton, what does that leave us? More Neil Walker at-bats? Ryan McBroom??

Well, how about Sanchez?

Lifetime, Sancho has performed almost as well against righties as lefties, .266/.335/.531/.866 as against .243/.346/.546/.892. But this year...not so much.

In 2018, Sanchez is a very decent .255/.388/.564/.952 against lefties, but an atrocious, .174/.259/.401/.660 against righties.

So—why not platoon Sanchez and Bird at first? This will spare us what The WinWarblist would call Sanchez's suppurating defense behind the plate. He could spell Romine once or twice a week, to be sure; maybe, if a lefty is going that day, we could try slotting Stanton in at first, as a start on were he will inevitably play part of his endless contract.

Just looking for some way to halt our ever-decreasing production...






17 comments:

Leinstery said...

Sonny looking good so far. And terrific job by Bird. All they needed was some contact to score a run and he delivers a hard fought 3 pitch strikeout.

Leinstery said...

I blame Michael Kay. At the end of the game against Seattle Thursday afternoon that putz was bragging how the Yankees are the only team without a 3 game losing streak. I knew one was right around the corner due to his jinx.

Anonymous said...

The worst thing about watching these games is when they get the lead off men on 2nd (which seems to happen a lot) and you KNOW that they are not going to score him. It's so... I don't even have the words... predictable, boring, frustrating, lame... whatever.

Here's a fix.

1) How is Bird still batting before AnDUjar? Move Bird down.

2) Hoss' suggestion, sure platoon them. - anything that reduces the number of times I have to watch Bird fail to realize his Unlimited Potential

3) Extra bonus of the platoon. If you do the Sanchez as back up/ platoon to Bird. Then the one differentiator that keeps Walker on the team becomes moot opening the way for Drury to return to the team and be the 2B/3B sub. He hits for avg.

Dropping Bird, removing Walker, adding Drury, plus giving Sanchez better opportunities for success should fix it for the most part.

Doug K.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Bird gets more disappointing every time I watch him ground out.

He is as inspiring as Marvin the paranoid android.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

OK,

Shreve is worse.

13bit said...

Blow me, Sonny.

TheWinWarblist said...

Sonny did blue this game. We didn't win it. 1 run in 18 inning? Gloom failure doom.

TheWinWarblist said...

But yes, Sonny should blow us all.

TheWinWarblist said...

Yes, suppurating defense.

TheWinWarblist said...

Yes, suppurating defense.

TheWinWarblist said...

What is the sound of BLP flapping? 0-2 with one BB and no runs scored or RBI.

Leinstery said...

What's BLP stand for? You used it last night and I couldn't figure it out.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Usually, Sonny only pitches this bad at home. I hope he's not having problems with his Tampa annie.

And yes, Doug K., give us Drury! Give us anything but Neil Walker.

Story is, Andujar's wrist is hurting. Great. That will mean yet another shot for Neil to keep his job.

And Ma Boone? Yeah, the two-run homer strategy is really working. The way you can tell it's working is when you get shutout by mutt teams with unknown pitchers.

Another great idea? Keep your left fielder out there no matter how badly he's hurt his knee. Trust only him when he tells you he's good to go. Never, ever give a chance to the guy everyone says has the quickest swing they've ever seen.

Yanks now down to scoring 5.2 runs a game on the season, after averaging 6.25 in April. For June, they are scoring only 3.95.

What's that definition of insanity again?

Walkero delenda est!

Rufus T. Firefly said...

"Leinstery said...

What's BLP stand for? You used it last night and I couldn't figure it out."

(B)ird's (L)imitless (P)otential.

Leinstery said...

hahahaha. Bird has assumed Phil Hughes' shoes of the potential guy

HoraceClarke66 said...

Yep.

I'm fine with BUP (Bird's Unlimited Potential) as well as BLP.

What HAS happened to these guys? Why is it that all our players quickly decline once in the show?

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