1) Boone started Gil instead of Warren because...some reason or other. Warren has been lit up sometimes, true, but Gil hasn't been able to regain his velocity this year, and he doesn't have the control to really pitch instead of throw. If you can't throw hard and you can't locate the pitches you can throw, you can't expect a great outcome.
3) After Game 1 of the Red Sox series, Boone got stung by criticism because he didn't play Chisholm and Rice. He started them in Games 2 and 3, and we won. Last night was, however, tailor made for a Goldie start. Better matchup all the way around, but did I mention Boone was stung by criticism for not playing Rice in Game 1 of the Sox series? Like a child, Boone is now a-feared of not starting Rice, who sucked. Goldie didn't even get in to pinch hit, which probably didn't make any difference considering Boone's pitching choices late in the game.
4) Aaron Judge is likely the most talented hitter ever to consistently suck when he's needed most. It's become mythic. In the postseason and late in close regular season games, he disappears. The greatest hitter of his generation, possibly the greatest right-handed hitter of all time, is worthless when it really would count. Head case? Hard to see any other cause. His season numbers are incredible, but he will not reach Mantle, Ruth, Gehrig, Yogi, Reggie or even Tino status. Hell, Aaron Boone at least hit that one home run way back when. Judge has done nothing. Over and over and over.
5) Stanton has been ice cold. That's not good, especially with Judge sucking his usual postseason wind.
6) Let's look for some good things amidst yeseterday's debacle. The Yankees' defense in this postseason has been pretty damn good. They're also not running the bases like a bunch of drunks (of course, last night, they weren't running the bases much, period). And Volpe has not sucked. Huzzah.
7) All year long, the Yankees have had to contend with a problematic roster. First, the hole at third and the highly questionable decision to keep playing Volpe while he has sucked, which was most of the time. Then, the terrible deal making to improve the bullpen, which didn't really improve the bullpen very much. Bednar turned into a nice acquisition. Doval seems to have found his footing. But they can't pitch every day in every tight situation.
8) All year long, as usual, the Yankees have had to beat the competition along with the terrible managing of Aaron Boone, the idiot. He improved in Game 3 of the Red Sox series. We shouldn't expect any other sudden outbursts of competency.
9) Toronto is not a better team. But with Boone and the bullpen and Judge choking all on their side, they look like one.
10) This post is way too long, but I'm frustrated. Last night was certifiably ugly. It made me wish we had four or five Bellingers on the team. He seems like he knows how to play baseball.
Buck Martinez might have had a point…
ReplyDeleteThe non-use of Warren is baffling.
ReplyDelete...until you realize who made the decision.
I dunno...Warren has been less than thrilling this year. Again, it comes down to how unreliable the bullpen is. But...
ReplyDeleteBut why is Blackburn on the postseason roster? He was so bad with the Mets that they cut him in the summer. He's been even worse with the Yankees.
Delete...Yesterday should've been a shrug-it-off playoff loss. Our No. 4 losing to their No. 1, in their home dome. It should've been like one of those games back in the 1970s when we would throw an injured Catfish to the wolves, uh, Dodgers, in order to preserve our pitching. You knew we'd come back to win it.
ReplyDeleteBut I have to admit that Judge's continuing failures, in the most chokeable ways conceivable, give a much darker tint to the loss. Don't see how we win if he doesn't, somehow, come around—and if "Little G" doesn't either.
Lest we forget, Stanton is a man with a .247 lifetime average in the postseason, the guy who once begged out of an ALCS against Houston, following a game in which he two hits, including a homer. He's like a faucet: he runs hot or he runs cold, and that's all you get. After running hot most of September, he's now 1-15 in the playoffs. Not saying he can't snap out of it...but he's just as likely to develop another of his myriad injuries.
Carl Weitz, I don't know. But I don't know why the Yankees make most of their personnel decisions. Why are we once again going with a once-outstanding first baseman now way past his prime? Why did we stop playing The Martian, period?
ReplyDeleteThe Yankees go by the analytics...which seem to be generated by a personal computer inside Brian Cashman's head.
There's nothing inside Cashman's brain, except his ego and his office-politics scheming to remain where he is. What you are witnessing is the AI program that quietly replaced the Yankees vaunted 'Analytics Dept,' and was programmed by chimpanzee randomly clicking boxes.
DeleteCashman puts the anal in analytics.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I worry too much. But, then, maybe I don't. Looking foward to the game later.
In fairness to Judge, Gausman throws a knuckleball-like splitter, which are difficult to hit with any accuracy. As a player, I'm pretty good at 'hitting them where they ain't' and I'm strong against knuckleballers. But that's because I sacrifice my ability to poke the ball wherever I like and square off on the ball. Were I a power hitter like Judge, I'd take some speed off my bat and do the same.
ReplyDeleteJudge went 2-4, so he really wasn't the problem. Since he was batting 2nd - one of the stupidest ideas I ever saw - his job was to get on base. Set the table. Push the leadoff hitter forward.
That Judge is batting 2nd and not 3rd, is just one of the most consistent stupidities of the Cashman/Boone era. But then that pales against the idiotic pitching & lineup decisions Boone or his AI program make on a regular basis
Doc....that Judge is batting # 2 is also a function of analytics that contradicts a hundred years of baseball history. It claims that hitting #2 will give that hitter an extra 40-50 at-bats during the year. True, but hitting #1 would add even more plate appearances; yet that's an inane manipulation of the data and ignores the common sense reason why your best power hitters have always batted third or fourth--more men on base in front of them.
DeleteDoctor, the issue isn't whether Judge got any hits. It's that he doesn't get them in clutch situations late in the game. Ever. And that is a big problem.
DeleteCarl, I went through the entire season's lineups and games a couple of years ago. Hitting #2 did not result in an extra 50 at-bats. If I remember, Judge hitting #2 came up as the last potential out maybe 15 times in games that were plus/minus 3 runs. And of course, he did nothing in those 15 at bats. He went O-for, with a whole bunch of intentional walks.
DeleteNo argument about Judge's clutch deficit. My instincts say a seasoned manager, who has his respect, might be able to correct what's in his head when he comes up in the late innings. I can see it from here. He wants to be a hero (fair enough). But he goes after balls he shouldn't, trying to things with the ball that he also shouldn't. In short, he makes himself vulnerable and loses control over the at-bat.
DeleteFirst, a Giants win (Betting tip: take NY and the 2 points. They'll probably win outright), and then the Yankees even the series. Plenty of consecutive hours watching NY sports today. Oh.....and fuck the J*E*T*S!
ReplyDeleteFirst, , let me say I thoroughly enjoyed the victory over the Sox. But even with my decades long fandom, I’m mostly here to undress this shoddy organization, run as it is by nepo babies, fools, idiots and their acolytes. Profit is their religion, money their eucharist.
ReplyDeleteI was a bit concerned with the unwarranted positivity of the commentary here going into the Toronto series. The team has struggled with Toronto all season, particularly in Toronto. It’s a short series, and the first game matchup was not in our favor. Our worst proclivities, the horrible hitting approach, the wildly inconsistent bullpen, and the astoundingly wrong headed decisions by boone were on full, megawatt display with predictable results.i believe the Rodgers Centre may be in their heads.
And then there’s Judge…his postseason failings have been well discussed. This year he’s hitting singles and getting on base, but when the game was being decided he struck out again. He is the terror of the first inning and April-May. Will his postseason moment ever come?
Today’s pitching matchup is decidedly in our favor. It is close to a do or die contest; if we fall behind 2 games to none, the series is effectively over. Win today, and it’s a new series. It’s mostly on Fried, but can we survive boone?