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Monday, July 2, 2018

Midway

All right, ignoring tonight's contest, the Yankees are now at the halfway point.  Most signs are, obviously, very good.

The team is 54-27, on a 108-win pace (and it would be a 110-win pace, were it not for Tampa Bay's insane ground rules).

This weekend brought some signs of life from the hitters, but one of the most alarming trends over the last month has been the drop in production. Through the first third of the season, the Yanks were on pace to score 909 runs on the season, nearly the same as the 915 they scored in 2009, their last championship season.

After this last, dismal month of hitting, they have dropped to a projected 834 runs on the season—a pretty significant plunge.

On the other hand, the pitching has really picked us up. At the one-third mark of the season, the pitchers were a on a pace to surrender 690 runs for the whole season. That has now dropped to a pace for just 606 runs.

This is not only a dramatic improvement, obviously, but a great improvement over 2009, when the Yanks' championship staff allowed 753 runs on the year.

Once again, of course, it demonstrates the inanity of going full-bore after another pitcher, when the staff has been carrying the team for at least a month.

Which brings us to the relative burdens on the starters and relievers.

Here the news is good, too.  The Yankees' starters have now compiled 450 1/3 innings, which of course projects to 900 2/3 on the season—the first time all year they are on a 900-plus inning pace, if only just barely!

This is still below the 937 innings that the 2009 starters ran up, of course, and the 946 2/3, 984 2/3, and 1,036 that the 2000-1998 champions compiled, respectively. But at least we're in the same ballpark.

It's the same with the relief pitching, which early on was setting a killing pace.

Now, the Yanks' top five relievers in innings are on a pace to reach 352 for the season; the top six, 414.  These are still well above the numbers the totals for the last four championship teams—on none of them did the top five relievers throw more than 329 2/3 innings, or the top six, more than 366. But the 2018 projections are at least down steeply from where they were at the 54-game mark of the season.

All stats compliments of baseball-reference, of course.


7 comments:

Leinstery said...

Why is Neil Walker still on this team?

Rufus T. Firefly said...

none of us know.

Alltogethernow:

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Leinstery said...

Bird is lifeless at the plate. That's twice tonight he's registered a 3 pitch K and looked like he didn't even belong. They're going to lose this game because they've left 80 men on base.

Leinstery said...

Why didn't the Advanced Analytics pinch hit Drury there?

Anonymous said...

Boone lost this game tonight when he pinch-hit WALKER, a black hole at the plate, with the bases loaded. Kay said that the Yankees "still have confidence in Walker" and are trying to get him some at-bats from the left side of the plate. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?

HoraceClarke66 said...

Definition of insanity, anyone?

Coops and Boone are classic examples of people convincing themselves they HAVE to do something that will not work.

They HAVE to keep Walker on the roster because Bird is so awful. Since he's on the roster, they HAVE to give Walker at-bats so he will "come around." And so on, and so on...

It would be infinitely easier to:

—Admit that there is something wrong with Bird beyond his chronic ankle/foot injuries, and at least send him down to the minors to see if he can get his stroke back.

—Admit that Neil Walker has nothing left and release him or trade him for lottery tix.

But...but...but...whatever will we do then??

Gee, what COULD be done? How can you possibly replace one guy who is batting .188 with a -1.0 WAR, and another guy who is batting .198, with a 0.2 WAR??

Ye gods, it strains the mind!!

Umm, well, there is this:

—Play Brandon Drury on first, as planned, at least for awhile.

—See if Stanton can play first.

—Bring Tyler Austin up for another shot at first.

—Give Ryan McBroom, previously just an icon, a shot at first.

—Give Billy McKinney a shot at first.

—Give Mike Ford a shot at first.

—Trade for a first baseman.

—When Sanchez gets back, platoon him and Bird at first.

Yep, that's it, absolutely nothing you can do but keep shoving Bird and Walker back out there!

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