I mean, who didn't fear the worst? The guy looked hapless, pathetic, lunging after balls in the dirt. Moreover, there'd been rumors of an injury in Tampa, a tweak or a pull. Was Judge hiding an ailment that could hinder him all season?
As we soared into May - on the shoulders of great pitching - we marveled about the greatness of Juan Soto and the rise of Luis Gil, and we feared the worst for Judge.
Idiots...
Yeah, you. And me. Idiots. Admit it: We thought the confluence of players facing their contract years would spawn an offensive surge. Soto was a generational star, a transformative hitter who raised all others. Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton were having comeback seasons. Gleyber Torres and Alex Verdugo were coming around - "good swings," the YES midway barkers promised. Yeah, we ate that slop with a knife and fork.
Idiots.
Soon, maybe as early as this weekend, the Yankees will start feeling the breath of Boston, their fake arch-rival, in the expanded wild card race, the MLB Little League where any team over .500 can chase a postseason participation trophy.
Tonight and tomorrow, we'll find out whether the floundering Yankees can win a home series against a genuine tomato can, the Reds of Cincinnati, who sit at five games below .500 in the International League NL Central.
Check out the HR leader board. There's Judge, and there is everybody else. Once again, the Yankee Captain is competing not with other players, but with historical legends: Babe Ruth in 1927, Roger Maris in 1961, and Aaron Judge in 2022.
If he stays healthy - and every Yank fan knows how quickly the Fates can change that outcome - Judge might be having - gulp, dare I say it - the greatest season in MLB history.
Yeah, I said it. And let me now repeat it, because - yes, it's hyperbole - but Aaron Judge may be standing on the brink of the greatest season in MLB history. He might break his own all-time HR record, win the RBI title by 20, and even take the batting crown, as well. Nobody - not Ruth, not Ty Cobb, not Taylor Swift - has produced more big hits. If he wins the Triple Crown, he deserves foot massages from Travis Kelce.
Soon, maybe it will be time for Soto to bat leadoff - (Anthony Volpe needs a rest) - with Judge batting second. (Last night, neither came to bat in the ninth, with the game on the line, as the struggling Volpe popped out to SS.) It would mean more at-bats for the twosome, who have been the only offense on this currently woeful team.
Look, every team suffers through doldrums. Maybe this is just a cold spell. But anybody who watches this team closely knows that the last three weeks have exposed massive holes on this team, the depth of which will not be spackled over next month with a few phone calls by Cooperstown Cashman.
What we have, though, is something that fans of every team covet. We have the great Aaron Judge. We might get a glimpse of the most prolific hitting season in the history of the game. If that's what we get in 2024, it's not nuthin.
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23 comments:
The Yankee lineup runs like an old V-8 with 3 cylinders working. They have only have 3 regular hitters with an OPS .315 or better, Judge, Soto and Volpe. And 315 is not impressive (sorry, Volpe). That Judge thrives even under these conditions is like witnessing an weeping willow in the Sahara Desert.
I swear I think this team has been designed to bait suckers into betting on them, so that the gambling companies can clean up on their foolish bets. I'd like to see an investigation into the contracts that MLB teams have with gambling companies. I smell corpses under the floorboards.
But, hey, we got a nifty new MAGA Yankee hat. If nothing else, the Yankee brain trust knows what suckers look like.
What I fail to understand, accept or acknowledge are Ohtani's Numbers:
2024 Regular Season 328 69 105 27 64 16 .320 .402 1.048
He is way too close to Judge's numbers:
2024 Regular Season 305 67 98 32 83 5 .321 .440 1.158
(even though 23 ABs separates them)
Boo
Hiss
and
What Not.
In addition . . .
It has also been brought to my attention that the Yankees play went straight down the toilet when I took a break from Haiku'ng on Haiku Tuesday.
I scoured the data, conferred with a couple of experts in the field and the numbers do in fact show that the Yankees collapse, due to injuries, general bad play and a spiked increase in Gleybermetrics can be directly traced back to me.
For this I sincerely and humbly apologize.
Haikus will begin again on Tuesday July 09, 2024.
Thank you for your understanding.
Day three of July, 2024 continues.
"Sometimes you feel like a Nut.
Sometimes you don't""
If you keep watching only to watch Judge, you will not be disappointed. The pitching can continue to fall apart, the other hitters can continue to hit .210, but Judge will come through.
Forget about winning for a while, maybe a long while. Sit back, and enjoy watching a true generational talent. Who is quite a bit better than Soto, btw.
If Judge hit #2 from the beginning of the year, he'd only have about 60 RBI right now. It's been a huge improvement in the offense with Judge hitting #3.
Volpe has got to get his head out of his ass. He's caught "Big Swing Fever" from Giancarlo Stanton. Old time players used to say that when you try to hit homers, they always either pop up or fall short of the wall. Coaches can't get Volpe back on track again like earlier in the year. That does not speak well for them. It also goes back to Aaron Boone. The manager has to take Volpe aside and tell him to cool it. A couple days off, sitting on the bench, working with coaches on hitting liners wouldn't hurt. Unfortunately for us fans, Boone gives players who are sizzling hot days off, particularly before an off day, which tends to cool them off. When they're struggling, they play every inning of every game. Go figure.
This team ain't making the playoffs. Fuggetabout the wild card. When they play the Tampons, Orioles, Red Sox, Jays, almost all of those games are going to be losses. How they making the wild card losing most of their games against their division? They'll be lucky to finish above .500.
They can't even beat the Reds. When they lose the first game of a series like that, I always anticipate them getting swept.
No matter how great a year Judge has, the a-hole sportswriters will give the MVP to Ohtani. Watch & see.
I’d rather have a WS title than a Judge MVP.
I wasn’t fooled by the hot start, knowing the collapse was coming.
What pisses me off is listening to boone getting asked questions. Everybody lobs softball questions at him. In my job, if my department was failing, I had to provide a detailed analysis of what went wrong, and why, and most importantly, what my Action Plan was to correct. All to be submitted in writing and presented before all management. Boone just natters about tough stretches and how the team is focused, blah, blah blah. No accountability. Should be no surprise that things never change.
Of course, the best possible outcome would be a Series win with Judge winning the Triple Crown and MVP. But that looks like a pipedream at this point. It might change if and when Stanton and Schmidt come back, but that's a long way away.
I don't know, JM. Seems to me that they're worse with Stanton in there. That's why I say get rid of him. Addition by subtraction.
Schmidt: probably done for the year. I wanted to trade him during the winter. Didn't happen.
They keep on playing guys like Grisham, Trevino. I think management LOVES Grisham. Even if The Martian had NOT gotten hurt again, I think they would have gone with Grisham every day for the rest of the year. And The Martian would still be in the minors. Chances are they will retain Grisham for next year as well. And The Martian will play all of 2025 in the minors again.
Same thing with Spencer Jones. Looks like they won't bring him up this year. Or maybe he gets a couple of games in September.
Wow, what a loser organization this is. I'm tellin' ya, it's all done with a purpose. They don't even want to win. They don't want to develop new players. They want "to contend" every year, but get booted out of the wild card game. Nothing more.
Last night, after they fell behind 5-0, I tuned out and watched "Mad Max" again. One of my all time faves. 2.35:1 theatrical aspect ratio, with bonus features about the movie. Great car chases, motorcycle chases. All filmed at ridiculously real high speeds on desert highways in Australia. Makes for maybe the greatest car chase movie of all time. Fabulous scene of the Toecutter getting run over by an 18 wheeler. Cathartic!
Hear, hear, Peerless Leader! That's why you're...our Peerless Leader!
Yeah, I'm afraid Judge is going to be our only consolation for a long, long time. (Yes, he is better than Soto, JM. Which does NOT mean we shouldn't give Soto everything he might ask to stay here.)
The true disgrace of this "organization" is that they had no choice but to hit Grisham in the 9th inning, down a run, last night.
They are an insult to Yankees teams of the past, an insult to every fan they charge ridiculous amounts of money to see this team flounder.
Hammer, just look at the record of the team and at Stanton's statistics. He does help us win, he does have a good average with RISP, and opposing teams can pitch to our lineup somewhat differently when he's not there. He is a threat they can't ignore.
I sound like a broken record, but when he went on the IL, he had as many home runs as Soto, an OBP of .302, and had hit into fewer DPs than Judge. He was hiting .292 with RISP. In his last 61 ABs, he was hitting .295. And he was well on his way to a 100 RBI season.
All of that means we are much, much better off with him playing than not. According to reported quotes, Judge knows that, and knows how much it hurts when he's not in the lineup.
JM, We seem to have a healthy disagreement about Stanton. That's all right. We always talk about it like gentlemen.
Do they have a better record with him in the lineup? I wouldn't doubt it. The team was playing much better until about early to mid-June when the wheels suddenly came off.
Whether a team has a better record with a guy in there or not, I believe, is a pretty meaningless stat. There are always a zillion different things going on that influence the team record during that time. I remember that, whenever Bernie Williams got hurt, and somebody was subbing for him in centerfield, the stats guys would come up with the stat that team had a better record without Bernie in the lineup. Stat was true, but the insinuation that the team was better without Bernie? Stuff & nonsense!
And we are now routinely losing game one of every series, regardless of the opponent. Volpe needs some rest and there is no option by which we can do that. Good planning there Brian.
And how many of those RBI hits or homers came during garbage time for Stanton? Because I remember thinking at some point during this season that almost all of his big hits were during garbage time. Granted, with this bullpen, even a six or seven run lead might not really be garbagetime, but still.... Maybe the last couple weeks before he got hurt is when he started playing better and got some important hits, helped win some games. But where is he now? Hurt again, no? On the DL again.
I don't care if Spencer Jones learns on the job and hits .025 for a year, I'd rather have a kid with upside than Glass-man. I've had enough of Glass-man. If he does make it back and they somehow make the playoffs, you know he'll play the first game of a series, then get hurt and Jackass Cashman will then play the rest of the series short a man.
Stanton hurts this team in a zillion different ways. Earlier this year, when Stanton was on first base, he robbed Austin Wells of a hit by getting to second base late on a line drive one hopper to the outfielder. That's one that I know of. I'm not sure if there were other plays like that.
There is so much rigidity and inflexibility with Stanton on the roster that it forces them to play Soto in right and Judge in center. Judge should be playing RF. Soto should be playing a little bit of left and the rest of the time should DH. And Stanton is impeding the progress of The Martian and Spencer Jones.
All in all, we're much better off without Stanton. Do I want him taking an at-bat instead of Trent Grisham? Maybe, it depends on the situation and the pitcher. Like I've said, Stanton will hit meatballs out. When the pitchers pitch him carefully, he strikes out on three pitches. Other players (not named Soto or Judge) see that, and they think it's all right to swing for the fences on every pitch and take gruesomely unprofessional at-bats.
Judge is a real smart cookie and a team player, (aside from his dumbass contract negotiating skills). He'll NEVER say anything bad about a teammate or malign anyone to the press. I wouldn't take anything that Judge says about anyone or anything literally. If he has any negative thoughts about Stanton, he's going to keep them to himself.
All good points, Hammer. I don't know what stats might be available to look into some of that more deeply. So, we can just disagree. In a gentlemanly fashion.
As much as I hate Stanton, he represents a threat, and the Yankees don't have any other player who fills those shoes. He can't run, he can't field and he's been chasing (and missing) the same low and away pitch forever, but given any reasonable alternative, I'd rather have him in the lineup even though I completely agree with you Hammer: he does seem to hit a lot of meaningless home runs. Maddening to be sure, but on this (or any other) Yankees team, he is the lesser of two evils.
And while you're waiting for tonight's game, here's a nice little article courtesy of The Smithsonian magazine:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-babe-ruth-and-great-influenza-gripped-boston-180974776/
Volpe needs to be removed from leadoff e-mmediately . We currently have no leadoff hitter thanks to Cashman’s inadequate roster build, so my idea would be to move Soto into the leadoff slot and bat Judge second. After that? Well it doesn’t really matter does it? None of them are hitting currently. You could do no worse picking 3 - 9 out of a hat. 🎩
There is a game thread.
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