What the? What's this? These are the numbers?
Look at these numbers, LOOK! This is disgusting! This is an outrage! You call yourselves Yankees? You oughta be ashamed of yourselves! LOOK AT THESE NUMBERS, NO, LOOK AT ME, DAMMIT, WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU, AND AT THE NUMBERS, BECAUSE I'VE HAD ENOUGH, DO YOU HEAR ME? ENOUGH...
But but BUT... we won last night. Everything looks better after a win.
(Okay, I know what you're thinking. I'm a coot, yesterday's meatloaf, for still looking at batting averages, when we have a vast menu of statistical delights - from BABIP to WAR - to ponder into the abyss. Well, I don't cater to WAR - Wins Against Replacement - because - wait a minute, REPLACEMENT THEORY? That's for right-wing nutjobs. GIVE ME OLD FASHIONED BATTING AVERAGES, AND AT LEAST WE KNOW WTF WE'RE TALKING ABOUT.)
So... we've won two in a row. Two. Are the Yankees becoming woke? (Not politically, but hittingly.) Hard to say...
For starters, dear old Cleveland looks like a bona fide, stock-issue, Del Monte-meets-Chef Boyardee tomato can. They are still recovering from the decade-crushing, soul-torching trade of Francisco Lindor, their best generational hitting talent since Manny Ramirez. For Indian fans, it will be a long year, and it might have just started with a visit from the Yankees.
Meanwhile, we must worry about Aaron Hicks' inability to hit from the left side. He was supposed to thrive batting between Judge and Stanton. So much for that experiment. From the left side, Hicks is hitting .100 with four measly singles on the year. That leaves us with nobody, nothing, nada to counterbalance a RH lineup. We have three LH homers this season, including one from AARP member Jay Ford. Tonight, Justin "Shane" Bieber - a fierce RHer - will rip through the Yankee lineup. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Still, look at those numbers. To a person, they are ridiculous. Over the next six grueling months, will they correct themselves, come in line with past performances? For now, that's the hope.
Everything looks good after a win.
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21 comments:
Well, yeah, they do stink. That's for sure.
BUT...
...looking at batting average as a barometer of offensive prowess is dead-ball era thinking. Even more so in our post-apocalyptic Bill James era. There are lies, damned lies and statistics.
The real measure of a team's offensive production is the on-base percentage, and by that measure, the Yankees are not as bad as we think they are. The league average is 308 and the Yankees stand at 304. Which is not bad. Not good, but not bad.
To your point Fearless Leader, the one glaring fault lies not in our stars, but in our slugging percentage of 350, which is dead last in the AL. To put that abysmal number in context, even the Pittsburgh Pirates have a better team slugging percentage. Which makes the Yankees look even worse - the Yankees are not only last in slugging in the AL, but in ALL OF BASEBALL. Worse than Baltimore, worse than Pittsburgh. Worse than EVERYBODY.
On the bright side, however, is that this is 2021, not 2020 (the year of aberration).
There are two bits of good news to report: the season is 162 games long (we've played less than 15% of the schedule) and the rest of the AL East is awash in mediocrity.
We've got a lot of baseball left to play. The end of the Yankees has not been written.
BUT...
...while the
@DickAllen1964 But slugging % also depends on batting average. If this team's batting averages were 100 points higher, where they should be, the slugging % would be much better too. I still think batting average is very relevant. When you have first and second, two out, a BB does not really do it for me. The bases are loaded, but if the next guy can't get a hit or another walk, the inning is over. Conversely, a single instead of a BB changes the game. It's often the difference between winning and losing. Even with the bases loaded, another BB only brings in one run. A single (to the outfield) with bases loaded will be a game changer.
And Duque I agree with you about WAR. What a stupid stat some brainless moron invented. What the hell is the difference between a .75 WAR and a .70 WAR? There is not enough differentiation there to sensibly compare two players. Sure, when a guy has the highest WAR in the league, he must be doing something right. But you can tell that by looking at any other stat as well.
The biggest problem with this lineup is that we're all right handed and mostly the same type of all or nothing slugger mentalities. This stuggle to start the season has caused some of our brainless sluggers to try to go the other way and make contact more. That's good. But it's going to take a lot more against quality pitching. Whether it's right handed pitching or left handed pitching, we simply don't score when we run into a quality start. Anyone who can hit a few spots or put a little on or take a little off puts this lineup into a quandary. Would six lefty hitters in the lineup have helped? Absolutely. And how about three guys who can flat out hit, with BATTING AVERAGES over .300? That would certainly have helped.
We had one of those guys and we let him walk away (Sir Didi). If we'd kept him and added one more lefty who knows what he's doing, and it could've been a different team.
The Hammer of God
Jay Ford?????? Really???
My trouble with WAR is how almost everybody remains above 0.0, in almost every category, every year. How can that be? It's like Lake Woebegone, where all the children are above average.
Its simple. If a player were below 0.00 WAR, he'd be at the alternate site playing catch. And someone would be playing in his stead.
Though I am certain if a player was below zero WAR so far this year, he'd be carried. God knows we have more than one (in fact, we have exactly eight players with negative WAR - Frazier, Odor, Ford, Tauchman, Hicks, Gardner and Wade - Bruce is #8) and one at 0.00 - Stanton.
Our highest WAR player? Kyle Hiroshima at 0.06
PS: I remember Ted Williams saying after he retired that OBP WAS your batting average. It's a much more accurate measure of a player's ability to GET ON BASE!!! And the more players you get on base over the course of a season, the more runs you score.
Most of the Yankee lefty homers this season are from odor.
But, but, Cashman and Boonie say that THEIR right-handed hitters are good enough to hit ANY pitching! You guys need to pay closer attention!
Those numbers would still look bad after a World Series win.
@Kevin Yeah, at the end of the year, their WAR will probably be comparable to any lefty hitter. So that the Brain & Co. will point to that and say "I told you so".
These stats don't measure the inability of our righty hitters to hit hard throwing righty pitchers who have nasty sliders. So even if we make the playoffs again this year, it would end the same as the others since 2010. In a big game, our offense gets stopped cold and the other team scores a couple of runs. We lose a close one. And it's wait 'til next year again. Long term stats like WAR don't really mean anything in a short playoff series. Matchups do matter, and we're always on the short end. Bottom line, we all know it, the Brain is an idiot. Maybe he's good at protecting his own ass. That would be all he's good at. As long as we have this club being run by these clowns, there will be no championships.
The Hammer of God
Maybe they fixed Odor...
OH!! THE ODOR!! THE STINKY HEADY ODOR!!
As Michael Kay would say, winning is the best deodorant...
Three wins in a row and… I feel nothing.
It's all just empty and meaningless.
And it’s not just us – it’s the whole damned show. It’s not half the game it used to be.
HAMMER, my thoughts exactly! BTW, why does a baseball team need analytic departments anyway? Do these guys do endless simulations on every type of thrown, hit, or fielded play? Or, maybe he IS the BRAIN, and WE are being simulated. Oooooeeeeeoooooo.....
@Kevin...because the Rays and the Rastros and the A's have become successful with that. The Rays and A's have substantially lower payrolls than the Yanks and have done better the last few years. And the Red Sox are going in that direction...lower payrolls and putting a respectful team on the field. Yea...it's that Billy Ball mentality...but owners will save millions to do this...
Every team will go this direction eventually...the Yanks will be last to do so.
WOW, that Cashman is a genius!!! Rouged Knees is a wonder! And Hicksie! Worth every penny!
Anon, I feel the same way you do. The game itself feels vastly diminished to me, all the subtlety and craft of it erased.
I feel the same way about so much of American culture and industry and politics. But then, maybe there is some sort of trade-off here.
Maybe, in some weird way, this is the exchange for all the barbarities of the past, that we are become a duller, slacker people, but also a gentler, fairer one. I don't know why this should have to be the bargain, but if it is, all right. I would take a ring with these stats (though it's not going to happen, the pitching will fold), and be happy to see it.
Three in a row!
Don’t get fooled again, folks.
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