Saturday, July 6, 2019

What happens when everybody gets hot? We're seeing it.

Yankees in the last seven games.
Since his return in late May, Aaron Hicks has often flirted with the Mendoza Line. Not any more.

In the last month, Gio Urshela's average has dropped almost 30 points, undermining his impossible year. Suddenly, though, he's rising again.

Our biggest RBI man lately is a guy nearly left for dead on June 1: Brett Gardner.

Certainly, the pinball nature of the two London games has inflated the stats for Yankee hitters, but in this magical time, who wants to quibble? Not me. We are watching a lineup hot from top to bottom. In the last seven games, only two starters are hitting below .300, and each belted a key HR to help win a game.

Two more wins in Tampa, and the Yankees could enter the All-Star break with the best record in baseball, Giancarlo Stanton healing, Clint Frazier in reserve, and a farm system full of trade chips. 

When life is going good, enjoy it.

11 comments:

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Duque,

Your optimism is sort of ...unsettling. Are you OK?

JM said...

Sure, we're doing great and winning games hand over fist bump. But what's the WAR of each player? That's what we need to know. High BAs and HRs and RBI and wins are all well and good, but let's not lose sight of the measurements that really count.

Did you know that in the OPS list of MLB, our highest ranking player is the General...at number 25?!?!?

Shit, man. We're doomed.

The Ghost of Yankees Past said...

Keep your seatbelt on. There will be bumps in the road and who the hell knows where we will end up.

But it will be a fun ride , so enjoy it.

JM said...

From nj.com:

"The stats that stand out the most for LeMahieu, who was the free agent steal of last winter at two years at $26 million, has been what he’s done in the clutch.

"His .461 average hitting with runners in scoring position is the best in the majors for players with at least 15 RISP at-bats, and he’s had 75.

"Topping that is his success batting with the bases loaded. He’s been up 11 times with the bags juiced this year and now has nine hits counting his two-run, tie-breaking single Thursday when the Yankees scored five 10th-inning runs in an 8-4 win over the Tampa Bay Rays."

It's only half a season, and of course his full career stats will show he was no more clutch than anyone else. Which doesn't disprove that he is an amazing clutch hitter in 2019. Just amazing.

TheWinWarblist said...

What unholy holy treble slingshot reverse uJ-uJ have you unleashed!?! Beware!! Beware!!


Fuck you Hal.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

JM,

If you are too young to have driven a car with a 'standard' transmission, there is no clutch (and you don't know how to read an analog clock). If you are so old that you have driven more miles on a 'stick' than not, you don't need a clutch after the first gear. However in baseball, the time that you really need that (non-existent) clutch is in the last gear -- or inning.

Carl J. Weitz said...

As a teenager and college student, I ruined more clutches on my assorted VW's when high and/or drunk using it as a Vox "wah-wah" pedal to my air guitar. Ruined one alone just on White Room by Cream.

JM said...

White Room is the one that would do it. Go all Clutch Cargo during that solo.

Austria's Only Baseball Fan said...

This is off topic, but I need some help here: I was looking at the Yankees' website to check starting times so I know when to set my clock (please remember that I am six hours ahead of East Coast games). I clicked back to look at some recent scores, and found that one "Chapman, A" is credited with the win on Thursday's (04 July) game in which he gave up 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th to tie the game and send it into extra innings. Hale is credited with the save.

How the fuck does this work? This makes no sense to me whatsoever! Can someone please tell me how the decision is made to favour someone who almost loses the game for us and certainly does nothing to put us ahead?

Speaking of pitchers, how much do they expect to get out of poor See-Saw Sabathia? 126 pitches? Are they, for some obscure insurance policy reason, trying to make him keel over on the mound?

HoraceClarke66 said...

Good points, A.O.B.A.!

Yes, Chapman does get the win. He was the pitcher of record at the time the Yankees took the lead, even though he would soon be relieved. Thus, the win. That is the case for everyone but the starting pitcher, who must work at least 5 innings to qualify for a win.

This is a rule that is getting rather archaic in our age of "openers"—and in all cases, it shows the limits of "wins" or "losses" as statistics. Pitchers are very much at the mercy of their teammates in running up either, as deGrom on the Mets demonstrated last year.

And what they are doing to CC...I don't know. I still fear pitching will be our Achilles heel in the end.

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