There are plenty of culprits in the Yanks' limp to the finish of the first half, not least among them injuries. The team is missing some key personnel, and others—notably Mr. Severino—seem to be diminishing noticeably.
Fatigue at the end of a long first half? Or, perish the thought, something swannish?
But most notably absent has been the alleged powerhouse in the middle of the lineup. The new M & M Boys, Judge and Stanton, the Twin Towers who were supposed to whip each other into a race for the legitimate home-run record (whatever that is now).
Instead, both have essentially blinked out for the last ten games.
Stanton has at least been whacking line drives hither and yon for base hit, raising his batting average from .259 to .271 over the last ten games. But the power has been cut. He has just 2 homers and 2 doubles in those ten games, and all of 4 runs driven in.
Also, it's not even as if people are pitching around him. Stanton has just 3 walks to go with 12 strikeouts in that time.
His slugging partner, Aaron Judge, has only seen his batting average slip by a point. But again—the lights have gone out all over the powerhouse. Judge has not homered in his last nine game, and has just 1 in 10 games, along with 1 double.
Meanwhile, Judge has only 3 ribbies, and 6 walks against 15 Ks.
That's right, folks. A combined 3 HRs, 3 doubles, 7 ribbies, 9 walks, and 27 strikeouts.
What's going on?
I suspect that Judge, at least, is hurting. He has never really been the same since jamming his thumb against the Mets, and as we saw last year, he's not one to utter a peep, even when badly hurt.
It also doesn't help to have one of the team's less productive hitters wedged between the Twin Towers, no matter what side of the plate he hits from.
Well, you know, small sample.
Maybe they will both come out in the second half and start bashing again. But so far, these two guys are going to compete for nothing but Mark Reynolds' home-run record. (Right now, Judge would break it, Stanton would miss by 1.)
Sunday, July 15, 2018
Power Outage
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12 comments:
Great. That's just great. Thanks so much for the update, Hoss.
Yankees are not contenders... SELL
e-way uck-say
Don't sell. Just keep building.
What Hoss said.
Ditto Hoss and Rufus
I don't have the time/resources to research this. But wasn't the performance of the Twin Towers much better when Gary Sanchez and Gleyber Torres were in the lineup?
How many game-winning hits have they had between them? I don't know. Seemed a weekly occurrence when things were going well -- that is, in any given week, Sanchez would drive in a bunch of runs (in one game) OR Torres would come through in the clutch (in another). My imagination?
You will note that, despite his rotten BA, Sabathia has said that Sanchez looks to be a scarier hitter to face tha anyone else on the NYYs.
Sanchez went on the DL on 6/26. The team is little better than .500 since then. I believe it's about the same with Torres (on the DL 7/5).
When it comes to power, here are the HRs vs ABs:
Stanton 23HR in 371AB
Judge 25HR in 351AB
Sanchez 14HR in 231AB
Torres 15HR in 218AB
Yeah, I know HR is an over-rated stat. But this post is titled Power Outage.
Do the math. Sanchez and Torres have 29 HR in 449 AB (6.4% of time ABs = HR). The other two guys have 48 HR in 722 AB (6.6%).
It's not an either-or thing for me -- I want it all!
Among other things: A line-up with all 4 of these guys beats all heck out of one that has Neil Walker in it. Such a line-up seems to literally exhaust the other team's pitchers, doesn't it?
Thanks for doing the research, Joe FOB.
Yes, I think the lineup is infinitely better with both Torres and Sanchez (the real Sanchez) in it—particularly Torres. I would also say that when Andujar is hot, this is a whole other lineup.
But it makes it all the more alarming. There are times when your big men just have to carry the team. Neither one of our Towers seems capable of doing that.
But the reason why Stanton and Judge haven't hit as many HR or XBH is due to their lack of contact. They're both on pace to strike out 230 times this year.
Stanton strikes out every 2.85 times at bat (not plate appearances).
And Judge is even worse: every 2.66 times at bat. Judge's rate looks worse because he walks so many times.It makes his OBA high but the contact rate is abysmal.
Judge has 44 XBH in 423 plate appearances
Stanton has 41 XBH in 416 PA
THe Yankees as a team strike out almost 27% of their at bats. Both the Red Sox and Astros strike out about 22% of their AB. That's a significant difference. You cant move runners over or hit HR when you strike out. Yes, the Yankees will score a lot of runs but their lack of contact will keep that number lower than the Sox or Astros.
Indeed, Carl, and it shows.
Production was down to under 4 runs a game in June. It has rebounded somewhat in July, to 5.8 a game, but that's mostly because of a couple of big outings; this team continues to drift into long comas at the plate. Overall, they are now behind the Sox in runs per game—5.41-5.19—and still just ahead of Houston (5.05), but the gap is closing.
It's not just the lack of productive outs—it's the lack of productive hits, too.
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