Saturday, April 22, 2023

La plus ça change...


That's French, of course, for "Where the hell's my change??"

The more things change, the more they stay the same. That could be the Yankees' motto.

Remember how we kept hearing, from the mumblebums in the TV booth, and Brian Cashman's trained media, how THIS year, everything was going to be different? How THIS year, thanks to the pathetic, artificial, baseball equivalent of "stand your ground" rules—stand your ground on one side of second base or the other—EVERYONE'S batting average was going to shoot up like...well, I would say an Elon Musk rocket, but Duque's already used that analogy today, damn his jet fuel.

Instead, 20 games in, I believe the Yanks have all of one, count 'em 1, contest with more than 10 hits this season. Even when they scored 9 runs the other day...they got 9 hits.

Right now, the team has a total of 147 hits on the season. That's 7.3 a game, or fewer than they had during the plague years of 2013-2016. 

By way of comparison, The Great Team of 1998 AVERAGED more than 10 hits a game. The last-place, 1966 Yankees, playing in the midst of a pitchers' era, with the pitcher batting, averaged 7.7 hits.

The only Yankees team in the lively ball era—from 1920 on, that is—that I can find (in a less-than-rigorous search) that averaged fewer hits per game was the 1968 team, which set a major-league record by batting only .214, again in a pitchers' era with the pitchers batting, and pitching mounds the height of the Grand Tetons. And THEY averaged just 7.0 hits a game—a mark easily in reach of these Bronx Bummers.

Yep, we may be looking at a Yankees team that will set a 100-year mark in fewest hits. One that could easily run up the lowest hit total of any NYY squad in the DH era.

La plus ça Cashman...








30 comments:

Mildred Lopez said...


BUT...more hits than the Tigers and the Royals. We ain't last.

Thankfully I'll be missing today's hit parade. Our daughter made the all-Pennsylvania high school concert band and the performance is this afternoon. She's a bassoonist and we are very proud of her.

Doug K. said...

Mildred - Congrats on your daughter.

Hoss - I wonder what their BA is with runnners on 2nd and third with less than two outs. Do they even have one?

The Hammer of God said...

Amen, Hoss!

Yankee offense has looked very similar to the money ball Oakland A's style for a long time now. They simply can't win, unless they hit a bunch of home runs and turn it into home run derby.

Last night, perfect example, only one solo homer. That was their only run! Of course, you're not going to win many games by a 1-0 score. So it didn't really matter what Domingo German and the bullpen did. That was a loss all the way.

I don't know why Gleyber Torres is always trying to steal. He gets thrown out half the time, it seems. He's better off staying anchored to 1st base and hoping someone hits one out.

I always thought that banning the shift wouldn't have a drastic effect on anyone's batting average. If they can't hit with half the infield open, what makes anyone think they'll hit with the fielders in "normal" positions?

The pitching has been improving all over baseball for a long time now. But the hitting has simply not followed suit. If anything, hitting as an art form has almost disappeared behind the mechanical philosophies of exit velocity and launch angle. Unfortunately for us, the Yankees have been leaders in developing the mechanical approach to hitting. With an overemphasis on home run derby.

AboveAverage said...

Cole will be masterful today and not suffer any childish meltdowns or hit any batters.

BTR999 said...

Manoah WILL hit somebody today.

Doug K. said...

Hammer - Couldn't agree more about Gleyber. It like he doesn't understand the player that he is. He sees Volpe and Cabera steal and thinks he can too.

BTR999 said...

More RISP failures.

Local Bargain Jerk said...


That's French, of course, for "Where the hell's my change??"

You got me goood with that one, HC, thanks.

BTR999 said...

Someone needs to tie Boone up the dugout

AboveAverage said...

Or wrap him up in a giant roll of Cellophane with just enough space for his legs to move so we can chuckle as he toddles around the dugout

ranger_lp said...

VOLPE!!!

BTR999 said...

AV, dontcha see !

BTR999 said...

Welp, boone went through the BP until he found someone to lose the game for us.

AboveAverage said...
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AboveAverage said...
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ranger_lp said...

Yankees Win!!!

Ken of Brooklyn said...

DJ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JM said...

I was cringing, expecting another disaster. But they won!

Nicely done.

BTR999 said...

Phew!

Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside said...

Three enjoyable innings. I prefer a rout, but overall just a good baseball game. More like this please.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

I'd rather go to coney island to ride the roller coaster.

BP is a Hess Station. As in, as bad as the Jets.

Doug K. said...

They need a designated closer. Marinaccio please.

Still a win is a win.



edb said...

Cashman est un putz!

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Ca$hole est sous-merde.

3pco said...

Please don’t try to write anything in French, ever again.

Parson Tom said...

Horace put his finger on the problem: Yankees are 9th in the AL for runs scored. Not much of an offensive team, not at all.

Rufus T. Firefly said...

I give Ca$hole the finger every time I think of him.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Thanks, guys. And I had to miss the game, but glad they won!

Rufus T. Firefly said...

Ooh la la!

Publius said...

Best bad team in the league.