They should all be like last night.
Five run lead in the second. Continual onslaught. Padding of numbers. Starter goes six. Luke Weaver not called upon to save the day.
Nine HRs, nine ponderings...
1. Five were solo shots. Altogether, HRs accounted for 12 runs. Not complaining, but this team still must learn to move runners, sacrifice, manufacture runs.
2. Redsocks now two down in loss column. They will come to NY behind us.
3. Soggy Tampa clearly needs a dome, instead of another internment camp.
4. Toronto's Yankee hatred - (see Vlad Jr.) - now boosted by "Elbows Up" national indignation. Young pitchers. Hitters in walk years. We're four behind.
5. Screw the HR derby. Yanks now place four in AL Top 25. (Judge, Bellinger, Chisholm and Grisham.)
6. For the record:
Bellinger: 24HR, 75 RBI, .272 BA, .825 OPS.
Soto 31HR, 72 RBI, .251 BA, .886 OPS.
Bellinger far better defensively. But Soto has adorable smile.
7. Yanks need another laugher before Boston. Bullpen needs rest.
8. Yanks need Stanton and Judge in the lineup. Stanton can handle small RFs, such as Yankee Stadium. Cannot roam vast spaces.
9. Yanks love Goldschmidt's heart. Can he sell his soul for one last autumn.
Posts
33 comments:
I've been watching from afar. Salzburg, in fact. Back to Germany's hicksville tomorrow.
But nine. Yow. The win streak must continue. We have to bury the Sox and catch the Jays. Upstarts.
JM - IRRATIONAL EXUBERANCE! It's a nectar I can scarce dare to drink. It will make my purplish prose ever more purple. Too many homers, not enough bunts. Too many gomers and too many runts.
The Rays are a long way from that "stable of pitchers that throw 98 mph."
With apologies to Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal:
It’s now being reported that Judge may not be able to return to the outfield this season. What say you to giving him reps at 1B (likely his final position anyway) in order to give Stanton more AB’s? This will cut into playing time for Goldschmidt, but he should only be playing against LH pitching anyway. Not a perfect solution, but it is what happens when you give outrageous multi-year contracts that extend player’s service time well into their 30’s. (Wait’ll you see what happens to the Cole/Fried/Rodon troika over the next few years)
Too many gomers and too many runts.
Life IS like a box of Chocolates.
These are chocolates, right?
RIGHT ?!?
No, they're really Ex-Lax.
Love the idea mostly because there now appears to be no other way to get Stanton in the lineup!
BTR - No disrespect and I mean that at face value not in the NY way but I can never understand how often people discount the position of first base.
I get it that first basemen don't need great throwing arms but It's a position that requires a lot of skills.
First off... It's an infield position. On the corner! That means, reaction time.
A first baseman needs a third baseman's reaction time when a lefty is up. Lot of doubles taken away with a quick leap or dive.
Judge has been an outfielder his whole professional career. His reaction to the ball of the bat is completely different. Doesn't mean he couldn't LEARN the position but you can't just go to first and be good.
Scoops. Yes he's a big target but infielders don't always reach it. Judging (no pun) when and where to scoop is a skill. One that Judge might be able to do but won't be able to do it do at the level required with out a lot of reps.
There's more to the position as well but think about the difference when you have Gold Glove level guys like Mattingly or Tino or even Rizzo before he got hurt and guys who are just stuck there to get their bat in the lineup.
I know you couched it as an out there kind of thought but 1B gets dissed a lot and while it's true that anyone can play it, they can, just not well.
I don't think anyone's disrespecting 1B. We all remember Sheffield trying to play it on '06 (-shudder-). I still think I prefer Judge at 1B to Judge as permanent DH and Stanton out of the lineup altogether or in RF and eventually hurt and unavailable altogether.
Last thing on having a good first baseman. Beyond his own fielding a first baseman is involved on pretty much every groundball hit to the infield.
A good first baseman saves errors on throws. Which saves outs. Which saves pitches. Which saves starters. Which saves the bullpen.
Volpe almost never throws an easily catchable ball. Jazz keeps side arming throws or soft tossing and never seems to throw the ball the same way twice.
If Judge has to be a DH at least Stanton was/is an outfielder. Just one with limited range.
Our middle infielder’s throws are always a teeth clenching adventure. However I have been enjoying the majority of the throws from third base
I’m fairly sure Judge played some 1b in college so it wouldn’t be totally foreign to him but I don’t love the idea of learning on the fly in the heat of the race.
Pocano -
I understand what you're saying. There's definitely an argument for it.
That said, the Yankees are entering the stretch run with very few games separating them from the division title and being out of the playoffs altogether.
Their starters don't go deep and if we learned anything from last year it's that defense wins ball games. Our defense is shaky. I just don't want to weaken it further.
Judge will get his AB's at DH. Stanton only hits lefties well. Jasson only hits righties so Bellinger, who is an offensive force in his own right, goes over to right field when there's a righty starter. The drop off is reasonable.
The last thing we want is an amateur 1B learning the position when every game is important.
I hold my breath when a ball is hit to Volpe. I don't want to do it on every groundball. :)
Judge talked to reporters after Boone said he won't throw normally again this year and basically said, "Bullshit!" Boone was talking out his ass yet again, and Judge called him on it.
First base may not be necessary, even as a theoretical.
Can't they all just get along . . .
Could you get along with Booney?
Uh, uhm, like, you know .. .I know it would kinda be like, right there, in a way to, you know, make it uhm, work out for the, uh long term of ah, the way it would
need to, you know. . . be fine
No issues here Doug… my only complaint about this blog is that we don’t disagree enough, outside of the immutable truths about boone, cashman, & steinsucker, that is.
I'm more with Doug on this one. Yes, Judge could save a lot of throws at first. But being the gamer he is, he can't seem to resist throwing himself after every gettable ball. I could easily see him diving for everything down at first—throws from the Katzenjammer Kids, Volpe and Jazz, line drives, etc.—and getting hurt much more easily and often than he does in right field.
And one more word: RUMFIELD! RUMFIELD! RUMFIELD!
SNY mischievously ripping Judge last night for daring to contradict his Solomonic manager in public. Gimme a break!
Well said. Very eloquent.
JM, how are you holding up over there? How is it all going? We're glad to have the interwebsthingy, but still miss your bodily presence.
Exactly my thoughts, Horace. First base is a bad position for Judge because the last thing he needs to do is dive around for balls hit anywhere near first. That's what caused his injury. If he plays there, his injury will never fully heal.
I think it was bodily presence on Monica's dress that nailed Bill Clinton.
Wasn't it there because Bill nailed Monica?
Now I need a double shot of eye bleach.
I'm doing better than I was. Going to Salzburg and hanging out with my brother in law and his family is great. The kids are great and interesting, and both parents are brilliant and cool. Can't do better than that. And today I proved that I can still go over the Moenksberg and back, which, believe me, is terrific at my age.
Thanks for asking, Hoss. But I still think you should move up the publication of the next book to ASAP. Lol
Not sure what the difference is between diving for a ball on the INF or the OF. If anything it would be worse in the OF. I think the move to 1B-DH for Judge is inevitable, certainly by the ‘28 season. I’d say 2027, but who knows what will happen with the labor situation? Right now both sides have drawn their lines in the sand.
Yes, the world needs volume 2 hasty posthaste. We are pretty rudderless here, as proven by this thread…
Yeah, Hoss. I need a NY Game II fix.
Same Hoss, looking forward to it!
And ok, I’d get a copy even it isn’t printed out on an AB Dick Memeograph machine
Post a Comment