Remember that logjam in the Yankee outfield? It's over.

In case you missed it last night - choosing to watch plucky upstart Team USA beat the mighty world power, Paraguay - while running to second, Trent Grisham grabbed his nut sack and checked out of the months of June and July. 

The Yankee brain trust calls it "Hamstring Tightness." The Yankee fan base calls it "Business As Usual." Of course, we all must wait until the newly gelded Grisham rises from bed and moves to pee. From there, it's a question of weeks... or months. 

Once again, we are traveling the Yankee Circle of Dread:

Be healed. Be horrid. Be hot. Be hurt. 

Repeat as necessary. 

So will disappear Grish, the hottest Yankee, until - well - the All-Star break? The trade deadline? By then, rest assured that a new wave of injuries will take over. (Watch yourself, Belli. Beware, Ben.) 

Two weeks ago, The Athletic published a thumb-sucker study that said the Yankees, Mets and Orioles are baseball's most injury prone organizations. Since 2024, the Yanks top the field in games lost due to Injury List designations. The story came down as Aaron Judge awaited scans of his fractured rib. 

So here we are, as always, waiting for mystery re-enforcements. 

Aside from Tommy John situations, I'd argue that hammies are the nastiest issues. They're a certain six-weeks in the Ice Bucket Challenge, and they bring continual false hopes. Remember "Setback Sevy" Severino? There's nothing more dangerous than a player who is itching to test his hamstring, absolutely sure that it's good to go. Grish is 29. He better take his time.

In this case, Yank fans will, at least, get their wishes granted. We will soon see an outfield of The Martian, Belli and Spencer Jones - (Hey, can we nickname him for the old NY Giant star receiver, Homer Jones?) 

Since Grisham accepted the Yankee Qualifying Offer last winter - ensuring that Jones and the Martian would spend April and May in Scranton, we have waited to see what the two most interesting prospects in our farm system have to offer.

Soon, we will see everything. 

And in our hearts, we know what will happen.

Horrid. Healed. Hot. Hurt. Repeat as needed.

Game Thread Flashback – 2022 – (Hey - I really enjoyed El Duque's opening post today)

Bullpen

Bullpen (To the tune of Blackbird)

and with apologies to John Lennon and Paul McCartney

Blackburn pitching nowhere near the ninth.
Hoping for ground balls and shallow flies.
All your life…
Giving up a three run and letting the game get tied.

Jake Bird pitching nowhere near the ninth.
Hoping to command electric stuff.
All your life…
We are all still waiting for an outing that’s not rough.

Blackburn why?
Jake Bird why?
Do you both give up RBIs?

(Music)

Blackburn why?
Jake Bird why?
Are you where strong outings go to die. 

(Music)

Doval pitching nowhere near the ninth.
Cranking up a pitch to one-oh-two.
All your life…
No one knows where it is going. Especially not you.

We are stuck with all three and there’s nothing we can do.

We are stuck with all three and there’s nothing we can do.

We are stuck with all three and there’s nothing we can do.

Before he'll accept a trade to the Yankees, el Chapo wants an apology. Here's one.

Our dearest Aroldis,

Hope you're staying cool. For some reason, when I think of you enduring these 90-degree days of late, I get flashbacks to the Johnstown flood. 

Anyway, I see on the Interweb that you're still a bit miffed over how those mean old Yankees treated you, back in 2022. I couldn't agree more. You deserve an apology. 

It's hard to believe that those creepy management toadies fools left you - a great pitcher - off the Yankee playoff roster, simply because... 

a) you were getting regularly bombed. 

b) you were unable to throw strikes.
c) you let a new tattoo get infected, sending you to the IL.

and d) you missed a mandatory team practice. 

Why, the gall! The unmitigated gall! 

Not only that, but after the tattoo thing - and who doesn't have enough of them - those simpletons handed the closer role to Clay Holmes. And then, they had the nerve to suggest they did it simply because a few players hit walk-off HRs, leaving you to stand on the mound, smirking like Mr. Sardonicus, in much the way you must have looked after shooting up your ex-wife's garage, back in your madcap salad days, back when your trails of sweat didn't conjure comparisons to the 2021 Fukushima nuclear plant tsunami.  

I'm sorry, sir. O, how sorry I am! 

I'm sorry that your feelings were hurt by the bad people with the desks. And now, now, as the Redsocks prepare to dump trade you to - um - I'm sure that somebody, anybody, somewhere, will be delighted to hand their fate in 2026 to a petulant, 38-year-old toddler, who hasn't pitched a full season in the last four years. And it will soon be time to change venues once again.

Surely, I speak for the Yankiverse when I beg your forgiveness, allowing you to return to the team you so artfully destroyed in the early 2020s. Why, it would be like old times, watching you walk the first few batters! Maybe we can stage a reunion with Jose Altuve! Or Rafael Devers! Or Mike Brosseau!

O, well. I understand that you are a proud man. On that note, I hope you stay in Boston, to give the youngsters a role model. And next year... maybe the Mets? We can only dream.

With the Knicks overcoming their curse, maybe it's time to revisit the Juju Rules, starting with the first and most important one of all

"DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES?" I answered, "NO."

It's fair to say that every half-cogent NY baby boomer remembers where he or she was on the afternoon of Nov. 22, 1963, when the news came down: The president had been shot. The president was dead. The world had changed. You were no longer a kid...

For New Yorkers, next came the night of Feb. 22, 1980, in the sleepy Adirondacks town of Lake Placid. There, as the final seconds counted down, the immortal Al Michaels shouted, "DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES? YESSS!" as the USA hockey team somehow beat an all-world lineup from Russia. A moment frozen in time. We remember where we were.

For hardened NYers, there was the night of Nov. 18, 1985, when Lawrence Taylor hit Washington QB Joe Theismann so hard that he changed the dynamics of football, making Left Tackle the most important position on the line. Taylor broke Theismann's leg, a brutal blindside, and his frantic gestures for help were probably the greatest act of humanity in his violent career. We remember where we were.

There are other moments. 

Of course, Sept. 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center fell.  

Oct. 12, 2001, Derek Jeter's flip play at home plate, to nab Jason Giambi's brother. 

Nov. 8, 2016, Election Night, as the country chose Donald Trump. 

March 27, 2022, when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock during the Oscars.

July 13, 2024, the assassination attempt on Trump.

And then there is last night, when the Knicks - down by 29 - inscribed themselves into the cultural history of Gotham... and Hollywood. We will never forget where we were when OG Anunoby's hand soared in from outer space to score the winning basket with one second on the clock.

I certainly will never forget where I was.

In bed, sleeping. 

I'd watched the first half, seen enough. I trundled off to the Land of Nod, thanking my stars for not going whole-hog onto the Knicks/celebrity bandwagon. Nope. I reminded myself - they're still the Nixx, guaranteed to disappoint - be it against Reggie Miller or Wemby. They hadn't fooled me. And I was going to get a good night's sleep, maybe waking up only once to pee.

So, today I wear the shame of disbelief. My gravestone will say, "COWARD WENT BEDDY-BYE, MISSED KNICKS' COMEBACK." 

Do I believe in miracles? No. (And now, having made my bed, I must do it again in Game 5. The juju worked. Forget FOMO. I am a lost cause.)

Today's Game Thread – Car'Loss and Volp'EEEEE ! ! !

The Catching Conundrum and Other Stories

 

With the neck injury to Austin Wells, one that will be difficult if not impossible to truly come back from, the Yankees need a catcher. 

But who and from where? There are very few quality catchers left, not only in the Yankee farm system, but throughout baseball and there is a very good reason...

It’s a crappy job. The worst in baseball.

Crouching the whole game, wearing extra padding on 90+ degree days, taking foul balls off your head and bounced balls in the nuts, having to react in a millionth of a second to a 100 MPH fast ball thrown by a guy like Carman Doval who has NO idea where it’s going and, if it gets by you and the runner scores from third... people blame you.

Who needs that kind of aggravation?

Let’s face it, kids don’t want to be catchers anymore. Not even the bottom heavy, tough, slow ones.  

Speaking of... Last year’s MVP  candidate Cal Raleigh “The Big Dumper”  is shitting the bed this year, hitting a paltry .161 this year and is currently on the IL.  

Just an aside, after 2333 MLB at Bats Raleigh's lifetime BA is 222.   That’s Lloyd Hanes territory.

---

I spent the morning drinking Old Overholt and looking for solutions to the Yankees catching situation and to baseball's as well but all I could come up with, and it's long term is... people need to impregnate more Molinas. 

The real issue isn't finding catchers per se, it's finding catchers that can hit. 

It's kind of inexplicable. Why aren't catchers better hitters? 

They see more pitches than anyone else by a lot. Well over one hundred a game. They see the spins. They gage the speeds, Track the movement of the ball... 

Is the issue that their gloves are so big that they only need to approximate where the ball is going to end up? Whereas with a bat being off, even by as little as a quarter of an inch is the difference between a hit and pop up.

Even if this is true you'd think they would walk more because they should be able to tell what pitch is going to be a ball right out of the pitchers hand. 

I can't figure it out.

---

Wemby knew that the league couldn't call a flagrant foul. 

Why? Because he already has one on the books for an earlier dirty play.  

His next one carries an automatic one game suspension. There is no way that the corrupt and shameless NBA commissioner would suspend him during the finals.  Consequently he was freed to be as dirty as he wanted. 

International marketing face of the league. 

Think Othani and gambling. 

Hard to be a fan of anything these days. 

--

Jose Ramirez...  clone or unacknowledged child?  No other explanation. 

---

The Knicks face a staggeringly powerful juju curse. Ten warnings from The Abyss.

Our world exists to be discussed by twosomes. Vladimir and Estragon on the hill. Charlie Brown and Linus in the pumpkin patch. John and Suzyn in the booth... 

O, to be a fly in the MSG owner's box Monday night, as drooping eyelids and long, liquid breaths suddenly changed conversation into soliloquy.  

On that note, here's mine: Ten singular thoughts on the NYC condition, which now faces existential dread.

1. Soul-crushing Knicks owner James Dolan launched a massive curse Monday night, when he hosted Donald Trump. You don't invite the vampire into your house. This was a juju atomic bomb, from which the Knicks will not recover. In every game thus far, the Spurs have improved. Tonight, a blow-out.  

2. Gotta think the Yankees - watching NYC go bonkers over the Knicks - must imagine themselves riding down the Canyon of Heroes in a pandemonium of good cheer. If (and when) the Trump-stricken Knicks fail, the city will grow even more rabid for a world championship.

3. JM is right. (See below.) This cannot go on. Anthony Volpe is not hitting, and his defense grows shoddier by the day. This is Year Three of the Volpe experiment. It's not working. The guy plays hard, hustles, cheers his teammates: It's not a failure of character. But either Jose Caballero (or Max Schuemann) takes over at SS, or George Lombard Jr. should get the call. As for Volpe? I doubt he'll be a Yankee after July 31.

4. I just realized something scary: Next year, we will be watching the '27 Yankees.

5. Spencer Jones' massive HR last night, his first in MLB, did something rather rare: It scored two runs. Throughout his minor league career, Jones has been streaky. Could he start something? And could his HRs come with runners on base? 

6. Tampa won last night, maintaining their one game lead in the loss column. It's too early to play scoreboard. But until the Yankees pass the Rays, they're in the wild card ghetto. 

7. Jose Ramirez just kills us. Game after game. Guy is 33, he looks like a college dorm refrigerator, and he has 24 stolen bases. Twenty-four. Tied for the MLB lead. He hitting only .241, but no other MLB batter scares me more. Twenty-four SBs? WTF? 

8. Yankee bullpen held up heroically over the last two nights. But you can feel it burning out. Multi-inning saves in early June? That's how you develop Scott Proctors. Today, Carlos Rodon needs to go seven. But he's on a pitch count, too. We can't go on like this.

9. In June, Ben Rice is hitting .231 with one HR. He's pressing. I think Rice was benefiting from the Post-Judge Sigh Derangement Syndrome: The pitcher just faced the game's biggest slugger, so he relaxes. Rice jumped on mistakes. Now, he follows Trent Grisham. Aint the same.

10. Gerrit Cole's facial expressions last night were troubling. He looked genuinely concerned over his inability to secure strike three. You wonder if he has fully adjusted to his new, post-surgery reality.  He will. Eventually. I think. Maybe...

And now, a carefully considered, deeply researched, and meticulously presented analysis of our shortstop

Jesus fucking Christ, Volpe is terrible. 

He can't hit. He can't field consistently. David Cone says he works sooooo hard, he's really trying. I'll say he's trying. He's the most trying player on the goddamn roster.

He is now batting .190. McMahon is showing some signs of life, outhitting the hometown failure, while our catchers still can't hit for beans.

This can't go on. Volpe is getting worse, just as he has for three years now. And there's no injury excuse this time.

Boone is an idiot. Cashman is incompetent. Poor Volpe is just not a major leaguer, maybe he never will be, and what the Yankees have done to him by pushing him to this point is criminal.

Game Thread – Tuesday Swoon Ninth – 202SUX

Dear Influencers of the Yankiverse (You know who you are.) Enough with the Judge-replacement theories

Lars Nootbaar? Byron Buxton? Adley Rutschman? Your momma? That's it! Enough! We're done here! You're either stupid, or you hate America! Turn off the microphone, darling! This is over, Piggy! 

What? Huh? You're still here? Oh, I get it. You were watching the Knicks, anyway. Enough with the trade talk! Enough!

Ever since Aaron Judge went down with the bum rib - ribberty-bibberty! - the interweb has been bubbling-over with ridiculous, clickbait trade rumors, none of which make sense, aside from displaying the warped minds of people suffering from Volpe Derangement Syndrome, which has rotted our peanut-sized brains.

Listen: The last thing the Death Barge needs to do right now is trade what's left of our farm system for a two-month outfield replacement, or a rent-me veteran shortstop, or a catcher in the final throes of his contract. There is no reason to package whatever talent we have left in Scranton, or Somerset, or the back alleys of Tampa, for an OF who, come September, will simply add to the bottleneck of clogged baseball arteries. 

The Yankees have one play, one...

With Judge out, probably through mid-August, they must give Spencer Jones and Jasson Dominguez full-scale opportunities to show what they've got - even if it's nothing.

And yes, the means watching Jones attempt to hit with a stance that looks like he's taking a dump while practicing goat yoga. He's curled up and struggling like the way Clint Frazier once did, before the Yankees pulled the plug. Jones has a vicious, violent, uppercut swing, and when he does finally connect, it will be a 450-foot blast with an exit velo that causes David Cone to giggle another punk tune from the eighties, but I'm wondering if, instead of Blondie, we'll be seeing the reincarnation of Ron Kittle.  

Last night, Jones went 1-4 with three strikeouts, swinging through curve balls the way Trump goes through Diet Cokes. Fortunately, most of the Yankiverse was watching the Knicks game. And more fortunately, the Martian will soon return from his rehab in Scranton. From there, either Jones hits, or we go to Plan B: Jasson Dominguez, for at least another two weeks. 

After that, I suppose we can try Yanquiel Fernandez, a stepped-on former Rockies prospect, who has 13 HRs in Scranton, plus a cannon-arm. What we don't need is Nootbaar. Or Buxton. Or somebody that rips apart the current reality. 

Don't get me wrong. The Yankees will need bullpen lug nuts. Last night, they used an unsustainable eight pitchers to beat Cleveland. Had they not scored two runs in the 10th - if the game had, say, gone into the 11th or 12th, they would have either needed to cut into the rotation, or sent out a position player to pitch. (And they had run out of position players, as well.) You can't use eight pitchers per game.

And you can't trade the house for a two-month replacement. You hear me, Piggy? You just can't. Huh? The Knicks lost? WTF? How do I get outahere?    

Game Thread – What'll you be watching tonight ?

 

Wearing Giancarlo's pants and swinging Judge's bat, Jazz Chisholm chases the defining contract of his life. Can he lead the Yankees?

First off, the trousers do look a bit clownish. Are weather balloon pants a thing? At least, he should get some cheap bases on pitches that zip the cotton, low and inside. 

The bat doesn't look different, though it's big enough to tweak a gonad.  

The mystery of Jasrado Hermis Arrington Chisholm Jr. is nearing its conclusion. All the suspects have gathered in the parlor, and soon, one will be accused of making - or murdering - his career. At age 28, "Jazz" has four months to reclaim his former slot as one of MLB's rising stars. How he performs on the Great Gotham Stage will determine not only his place in Yankee history, but his financial well-being. 

Whenever Jazz homers or has a big game - like yesterday - the YES team goes full Shane Spencer, spinning the bonkers fantasy that Chisholm has suddenly turned "The Corner" and is ready to fulfill the hype that came with the tabloid-level infatuation with his name. There was never another Yankee named Jasrardo. There was never one named Jazz. And there have been few with such high expectations. 

Maybe it's the position. In this millennium, the Yankees have basically put all their chips on three second-basemen: 

Robbie Cano
DJ. LeMahieu
Gleyber Torres. 

(In a distant alt-planet, Rob "Brigadoon" Refsnyder is the 4th, but in the era of "Shmigadoon," why go there?) That leaves Jazz as the current keeper of the keystone - following DJ and the Gleyb. 

This was gonna be his year. 

Last winter, Jazz famously suggested that he could be a "50-50" hitter - that is, 50 HRs and 50 SBs. (Last season, he was 31-31.) In simple terms, he was predicting an MVP season, above Judge and Ohtani, and one of the greatest years of all time. This was - well - fucking insane. The Gammonites - courtier descendants of Dick Young and Ring Lardner - ran with it like drunken Leprechauns. Ever since, Jazz has been a disappointment, figuratively and literally. 

Thus far, on the season, he is hitting .234 - the lowest batting average in his MLB career, aside from a meager cup of coffee in 2020, over 56 at bats, with the Marlins. Thus far, counting yesterday's blast, Jazz has 8 HRs and 16 stolen bases. Statistically, he's on a course to be a 20-40. Not awful, maybe. Definitely, not 50-50. 

It's been a tough year. In April, he hit .202. In May, .281. Thus far, in June, .176. But let's face it: We can make numbers jump through hoops. For Jazz, the next four months - through September - will either lead him to a $200 million payday - it's his contract year - or vault him into the cosmic void of selling himself after the worst season of his life. And the next two months - without Aaron Judge - will make the difference.

So, here we go. Tonight, with the Knicks game everywhere, with Trump coming, with the streets wild and the whole world watching, the Yankees can see how NYC might react to a world championship. They'll be in Cleveland, home to the A Christmas Story house. Presumably Jazz will be wearing his "Big Boy" pants. It's time to start something. 

Hopefully young Cam will be more on his game today, 'cause MR BOONE WILL BE WATCHING !

Gambling is stupid. Don't gamble stupid.

 

Just to cut in again before the game thread, the New York Yankees, having lost 4 of their last 6, and far and away their greatest player of a generation, and quite possibly two of their leading starters to injury—don't look for Cam to get out of the third today, more's the pity—are now...once again heavy favorites to take the American League pennant.

The Yanks are rated a 40.2 percent chance to do just that; the next highest favorites are Seattle, 18.3; and the Cleveland Guardians of Traffic, recent vanquishers of our boys, at 14.9.

AND...the Yanks remain the no. 2 favorite in all of baseball to win the World Series, at 20.6, trailing only the surging Dodgers (28.2). Next up is Atlanta, at 12.4. 

The next highest Series pick in the AL is Seattle, at 7.6 percent. Tampa Bay, which still leads the Yanks by half-a-game in their division, is only a 2.2 percent pick.

As always, this has to do with the "Pythagorean record" of the Yankees...never mind that they are, for instance. 7-12 in one-run games.

The real bet to take? The Bronx Bombers are considered to have a 99.8 percent chance of making the playoffs. They will not. 

Run out and take that money, if you can find it. Do it now, before we learn today that Cam Schlittler is having, oh, a little bit of a muscle spasm in his shoulder. Nothing serious, maybe just some imaging this week, to be on the safe side...

You heard it here first.

The perfect Yankees back-up catcher...is backing up the backstop in Flushing.

 

Remember this guy? 

Nah, why would you? Why would any of us?

He's Luis Torrens, the Mets starting catcher these days, now that the Mets' perennially injured chef catcher-of-the-future, Francisco Alvarez is, well, injured again.

Torrens was signed originally by the Yankees, at the age of just 17, in 2013. 

Since then, his road to the big leagues has made Job's existence look like a walk in the park. A torn labrum held back his development in the Yanks' system, but nonetheless, he'd battled back to hit .250 with Charleston in the Sally League in 2016.

Some genius in the front office left him off the 40-man roster, though, and San Diego picked him up in the draft.

(Meaning, let me spell out, that we got NOTHING for him. N-O-T-H-I-N-G.)

Torrens wound up in Seattle, where sharing catching and DH duties in 2021, he hit .243, with 16 doubles and 15 homers in 108 games. Not exactly Bill Dickey, but positively Ruthian numbers compared with a certain catcher hitting .166 today.

In 2022...Torrens hurt his shoulder again, this time ending up at the bottom of a pig pile in a bench-clearing brawl. Still, he was back before the end of the season, to become the first position player in a long, long time (Rocky Colavito?) to win a game as a fill-in pitcher. (In the second game of a doubleheader that day, he caught, and got a hit.)

In 2024, the Mets picked Double-Duty Torrens up as a free agent. Since then, he's hit all of .227, with (very) limited power. Nonetheless—again, unlike somebody else we could name—he's turned himself into a stellar defensive catcher.  

Among other things, here are his percentages of throwing out runners trying to steal, as opposed to the league average:

2024: Torrens, 46.4, NL, 203.

2025: Torrens, 40.8 (led league), NL, 23.2.

2026: Torrens, 44.0, NL, 25.0

Boy, makes you wonder what the Yanks could do if they ever hired a general manager.

The Yankees have a black hole behind the plate. Historically, that's a crushing blow. But they do have a solution.

In our distinguished and noteworthy lives, we have leaned upon one unshakeable truth: 

Every great Yankee team features a great Yankee catcher. Consider...

Bill Dickey. (1928-1946)
Yogi Berra. (1946-1963)
Elston Howard. (1955-1967)
Thurman Munson. (1969-1979)
Jorge Posada. (1995-2011)

And that, my friends, is why the '26 Yankees are a smoldering, moldering dud. 

It wasn't supposed to happen. Gary Sanchez was gonna save us. Oh well. Then, two Augusts ago, Austin Wells arrived, hitting 13 HRs over the final two months. Our search for the cornerstone seemed over. 

But the last two years have been a disaster.

This weekend, the Yankees finally punted. They ditched not only Wells but his backup, JC Escarra, two LH catchers with the worst positional stats in MLB. 

Friday, they demoted Escarra to Scranton to bring up Ali Sanchez, a journeyman RH catcher.

Yesterday, they slapped Wells onto the Injured List, dealing with neck pain. They brought Escarra back. The Scranton Express lives! 

What an exercise in hopelessness. Up the middle, this team underperforms at every slot. Wells? Volpe? Chisholm? Grisham? Tylenol? Sour diesel? There's nothing there. And now, a midseason without Aaron Judge? 

Of course, this team can chase a wild card berth. Thank you, expanded playoff system. But come October, these flaws will bite us in the caboose. The Yankees cannot win with a catching tandem that cannot hit .200.  

We don't need to reincarnate Bill Dickey. But until the Yankees find a catcher, this team is doomed. 

Which brings me - gulp - to Ben Rice. 

Okay, I know what you're thinking. I get it: This guy is perfect and should not be tampered with. But when Giancarlo returns, the Yankees will have one too many 1B and DHs. Paul Goldschmidt is not going to play OF, and Stanton will be barely able to run. 

This is what happens when, for two years, you trade away your entire arsenal of catching prospects. 

They gotta do something crazy.  It's an emergency. It's time to break glass.

Unless Escarra or Wells starts to hit - hello? is there a batting coach out there? - the Yankees must ponder the unponderable: 

Rice behind the plate. 

Because maybe - just maybe - we will find our great Yankee catcher.

It's everywhere, it's everywhere

As Michael Stipe once sang, everybody hurts.

 

Rainout Theater: "Rawhide" (1938) starring Lou Gehrig

Lou Gehrig... decides to give up baseball in New York for the life of a western cattle rancher. Once at the ranch, Gehrig encounters a protection racket preying on the ranchers by extortion and violence. He teams up with a crusading local attorney to fight the crooks. (Wikipedia) 

I have watched this twice, which should tell you something about me if not the movie. 

UPDATE: Game rescheduled for August 29. Enjoy Lou Gehrig! Did I mention that the movie is only 58 minutes and has four songs?  

Holy cow! This is from Variety, 9/2/42: 

 

NO GAME TONIGHt – So watch this instead . . . .

 

In their "Judgeless June," the Yankees lose. And across NYC, nobody cares.

Last night, across NYC, the entire festering tsunami of wild-eyed, knuckle-dragging, Gotham sports fans watched the Knicks beat San Antonio. 

From coast to coast, the NBA finals appeared on phones, radios and bracketed bar TVs, giving what would normally have been a big event - the Redsocks vs the Yankees! - the relevance of a Benny Hill rerun. 

Which is how I perceive the Yankee batting order - sped up and swinging to the tune of Yackety Sax. 

Imagine: The Yankees hosted Boston, and nobody cared.  

There was certainly no help from our middle of the order. It began with Paul Goldschmidt. Oh for four. Then Cody Bellinger. Oh for three. Then Jazz Chisholm. Oh for four. 

Sandwiched between five hits from Ben Rice and the mysterious Spencer Jones. Oh for eleven.

Insert a big oh-for-the-night into the order, and that's the Yankees - not only last night, but throughout 2026, when not facing a certified tomato can.  

Which is why last night was, well, mysterious.

For the record, Boson is a tomato can. The Yankees had four innings to score two runs. They couldn't solve Sonny Fuckin' Gray. In the nineth, their Aroldis Chapman - the sweaty el Chapo, the Cuban Water Cannon - generously walked two of our first three batters. Didn't matter. Coupled with Tampa's win, the Yankees now sit three games down in the loss column. 

Of course, the brain trust - in reaction to Judge's injury - made a bold move. They sent backup catcher J.C. Escarra to Scranton and promoted an obscure RH-hitting millhand named Ali Sanchez. (No relation to Gary, though there's a joke there, somewhere.) He's 29, and has kicked around the sport for 13 years, with the Mets, Cardinals, Marlins, Blue Jays and Redsocks. He was hitting .226 in Scranton, though it is hard to imagine him looking worse, offensively, than Austin Wells, now at .168.

Bright spots last night?

1. Spencer Jones had three hits. Naturally, in the nineth, he was removed for a pinch-hitter. You can't make this shit up. 

2. Nobody watched. Nobody. It was the night for the Knicks, in the Year of the Knicks. New York is preparing the Canyon of Heroes. It could be the biggest sports celebration in this decade. The Yankees will watch on TV. 

Why We Figh...er, Lose

Duque will probably highlight this, also, but I just had to...

Sorry, heading for the vomitorium...

Can we please get off of googly?

 They are the corporate overlords. 

Game Thread - The Fifth of Swoon - There's a (MASS)ive HOLE in Right Field

To win without Aaron Judge, the Yankees do not need another slugger. They simply need a bullpen

Yesterday, to finally beat no-name Cleveland, leaders of the disgraceful AL Central, Aaron Boone used up his entire so-called Circle of Trust. That is...

Brent Headrick, one inning, no runs
Fernando Cruz, one inning, no runs
David Bednar, one inning, no runs.

Altogether, no hits, the first seamless bullpen outing since - well - weeks, months? It was not exactly Quan-Go-Mo, Michael Kay's ill-fated, 2004 attempt to link Paul Quantrill and Tom Gordon to the great Mariano. But for this particular bullpen, a scoreless three is found money. 

The Yankees won their first game without Aaron Judge as an option. Throughout the day, the lack of an announcement from Yankee Central Command provoked growing alarm from Suzyn Waldman. You could feel her distress rising, as the silence grew louder. 

We might not see Judge again until August. It sucks. But the Yankees do not need a replacement slugger. What they need now is still what they needed last week: A decent MLB bullpen. 

Tonight, against Boston - a team that hates us the way Hall hates Oates - Boone will be back to stems and seeds, aka Camilo Doval and Jake Bird. Both have been rampant disappointments since the day last July when they were acquired. Neither shows signs of hope. Tonight, the Yankees will start Ryan Weathers, probably leaving Boone with a three-inning hole to fill. Having used the entire Circle of Trust yesterday, only God knows how the Yankees will navigate those final three innings. We better score nine runs.

The Yankees will face Sonny Gray, another of Cooperstown Cashman's two-way trade debacles, coming and going. (To get him, they traded three prospects, including James Kaprelian and Jorge Mateo. To get rid of him, they added Reiver Sanmartin to a package that brought back Shed Long Jr.) Not only did Gray spit the bit as a Yankee, but then he went elsewhere and succeeded. And tonight he faces us in the Stadium. 

The Yankees cannot trade their way out of missing Judge. It's time to see what Spencer Jones and Jasson Dominguez can do. Both have run their courses at Triple A. Let's see what we have.  

It's almost the same in the bullpen. Why trade for another Doval, another Bird? Two days ago, in Scranton, the Yankees shifted Carlos LeGrange - the breakout pitcher in spring training - to the bullpen. In March, LeGrange looked incredible - until he didn't. He threw 16 innings with an ERA of 4.95. But he reached 102 mph on the radar toy. On a one-inning basis, if he can throw strikes, he could be formidable.  

Another guy in Scranton, Yovanny Cruz, 26, seemed to find a new fastball in May. Last night, he gave up an earned run in 1.1 innings, with 2 Ks, against the Syracuse Mets. Dunno what we've got.

But without Judge, the Yankees must change their ways. They are no longer a HR-hitting factory. They need to nickel-and-dime. They need to steal bases, move runners, clip coupons. And somehow, they need to find a bullpen.

Is there another report that says he definitely has TOS?

"Pearl has performed thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS) surgery on Merrill Kelly, Chris Carpenter and Josh Beckett, among other players, over the years. It is still unknown if Judge is dealing with TOS, or if the stress fracture is the only injury."

So says The Athletic. Just how doomed are we? And--as has been said here repeatedly--can somebody tell Judge to stop diving for balls?

Ruh-roh! Rodón gets the start today as the Judgement on #99 should be revealed on 6/6/26

 

50/50 We Win Today

Looks like I picked...

 

...the RIGHT year to watch FIFA World Cup action!

Sure, it's a ridiculously corrupt international tournament, with the world's worst tiebreaker (penalty kicks is like deciding the World Series by having a fungo-hitting contest), but it will be very heaven compared to this year's Yankees season.

And GO KNICKS!

(Sorry to cut in, AA, just wanted to get this off my chest before you do the game thread.)

Without Judge, the Yankees are toothless and tired. Ten takeaways.

Bad omen. Horrible...

Aaron Judge needs more tests. That mystery booboo on his ribs? It might be a bruise. But when have more tests ever brought good news? The Yankees can Baghdad Bob this, but increasingly, it looks like Judge missing weeks - not days. Jose Caballero won't cut it in RF. The Yankees are on the verge of being swept at home by the first playoff-bound team they've seen since mid-May. (Afternoon game today.)   

Ten takeaways...

1. Anthony Volpe is flatlining - 2 for his last 17 - and revisiting his old neighborhood, the .220. batting average. This is bad. We appreciated Caballero at SS, but Yank fans secretly thought Volpe would return, hit, and take the job, once and for all. Over the last few games, we're seeing the Old Volpe, who gets his pitch and hits a harmless pop fly. The guy hustles, and he's fielding decently. But .220 won't cut it. 

2. At Scranton, George Lombard Jr. isn't knocking down fences. Last night, the future Yankee SS went 0-2. At Triple A, over 31 games (114 ABs) he is hitting .193. Lombard is only 21, among the youngest sprites in the International League. The Yankees claim is glove is MLB-ready. If he starts hitting, would the Yankees vault him into the pressure cooker of a pennant race? Yeah, probably. 

3. The Martian starts a rehab assignment tomorrow. This is his chance. The Yankees need an outfielder, and Jasson Dominguez he needs a shot. In the meantime, why not retrying Spencer Jones? 

4. By the way, Jones went 1-3 last night for Scranton. Guy's hitting .268 on the season in Triple A.  

5. Against Cleveland, the Yankee bullpen has been undressed. In both losses, it's been our kryptonite. Last night, it was earnest Tim Hill, formerly of the Circle of Trust. His ERA is now above 4.50 and - get this - he's one of our better relievers. Don't get me started on Greg Bird and Camilo Doval. They have become signs of the apocalypse. 

6. Lost in the shuffle, Oswaldo Cabrera - of the CarShield commercial -is facing an existential crisis. Down in Scranton, he's hitting a Volpesque .222 and playing everywhere. (Last night, RF and 3B; he went 1-3 with a SB.) Oswaldo has been one of the most popular Yankees, and everyone remembers how, last year, he broke his leg sliding into home and came up asking whether he was out or safe? He's 27.  

7. Without Judge, It's Bellinger Time? The Yankees are paying him Judge money. Somebody has to protect Ben Rice in the order. He's hitting .272 with 8 HRs. He needs to get hot. 

8. Aaron Boone will soon decide: Giancarlo or Goldy? They have three DHs, and two can play 1B. Paul Goldschmidt has been hot lately. Would Boonie sit him for Giancarlo Stanton? Would they platoon Ben Rice? Something's gotta give.

9. Tampa is crumbling. They've lost 8 of 10. Remember how Nick Martinez shut us down on May 22? Last night, he got pounded by Detroit: 6 earned runs in four innings. The AL East looks weaker than in many years. It means that Boston, for all its strife thus far, is still in it. And they visit this weekend.

10. This weekend, nobody will give a shit about the Yankees/Redsocks. The Knicks could be on the verge of an NBA championship, and NYC will be going wild. The Yankees might just get to see what Canyon of Heroes looks like. Maybe it will give them ideas... 

No Judgeness, No Peace

Somebody hand me my powder blue tracksuit 

and medallion necklace. 

Game Thread – Swoon Third – 2026 – Which is your favorite Brian Cashman Joint ?

BRIAN  KLANSMAN

er, uhm

INSIDE (cash) MAN

how 'bout

MO (was much) BETTER BLUES

or

HE (ain't) GOT GAME

perhaps this

DUMBEST LOWEST

and finally

DOES THE WRONG THING

News item: Experts predict Yankees' June Swoon.

 

I'm sorry, what year is it again? 

How long has this season been going on? Since the Late Middle Ages, maybe? Or am I thinking of my own age? (Not "late middle age," that's for sure. I is OLD.)

But I digress. Yankees' now annual "June Swoon" expected? 

Aren't we about to launch on at least our third swoon this season already?

This Yankees season has already had more ups and downs than the venerable "Yankee Cannonball," one of the many attractions at Canobie Lake Park, just outside beautiful Salem, New Hampshire. This message brought to you by Canobie Lake Park—it's a lark!

As I recall—and remember, it's been decades—the first Yankee swoon came after our 8-2 start, when we went 2-7 against the Wandering A's, Rays, and Angels.

Next there was...May, and the wonderful 5-10 schneid, including the beatdown in Baltimore, and the pitiful Mets with a walk-off win of that series.

A constant, crazy mélange of injuries, recoveries, meltdowns, smash-ups, call-ups, and send-downs, that all ends up with José Caballero in right field...just as we sort of knew he would—the same way that we knew, back in 2023, that IKF would end up in center field for us.  

The injuries keep on a-comin', of course. Now Judge, which is sad, except that in a way it's a relief knowing that it's not simply time which is dragging him down. If he's out for any period of time, forget it, because there is nothing left behind him.

Like an old shirt, this team and its pathetic farm system has finally worn through.

Sure, this year's injury list was extended by the need for our nepo baby, greedhead owner to make still more ad money out in left field. But beyond The Martian, so far we're talking:

Judge

Stanton

Rice

Caballero

Fried

Various bullpen lug nuts, and now...

Cam Schlittler. 

You heard it here first. That start last night had all the earmarks of an injured pitcher trying to cover up his injury. It's a pity—though with that name, he was never going to be a great anyway.

So, whatta we got? June Swoon, then the July Cry, August Disgust, and the September Dismember?

Oh, the fun we'll have!

Aaron Judge's injury is why the Yankees haven't traded The Martian and Mr. Jones

Well, it's here...

Hurricane season. The doomsday glacier. The apocalypse. The Babadook. Friday the 13th.  Chernobyl. Ebola...

The wolf is at our door. 

Aaron Judge is going for tests.

In the movie "Armageddon," the world turns to Bruce Willis, who recruits a scrappy-but-lovable team of miners, including Steve Buscemi and Ben Affleck, to save humanity from an evil asteroid. Despite their hijinks, they come together and do the job, though Willis remains behind, in case of a sequel. 

Instead of Bruce Willis, the Yankees have Aaron Boone, who flags Doomsday every time he signals to the bullpen.  

That leaves Yankees entering June with a glowing rock on the horizon. 

For now, they're listing Judge as "day to day." This is what they always do.  When Gerrit Cole, two springs ago, felt a twinge, they listed him as "day to day." If Christie McAuliffe (Rest in Peace) had been a Yankee, after the entire world watched her spaceship explode, Brian Cashman would have still listed her as "day to day."

Considering Judge's history, and the Yankees' rightful concerns, we should expect him to miss at least two weeks. That means facing Cleveland, Boston Cleveland again, Toronto and the White Sox, rolling deep into June without our cornerstone slugger. And before you say "Giancarlo!" keep in mind that we already have a rotating DH in Ben Rice and Paul Goldschmidt. We have a gaping hole in RF, and Jose Caballero cannot fill it. 

But but BUT... when one door closes... 

This is why Cashman has not yet traded for a bullpen lug nut. This is why we still trot out Camilo Doval in close games. This is why we still have The Martian, why we still have Spencer Jones. 

This is their moment, their opportunity, a time when either, or both, can show themselves to be longtime Yankees.  

In his last three games, since returning to Scranton, Jones is 1-for-6 with three Ks and a SB. Overall, in Triple A, he is hitting .267 with 13 HRs and 47 RBIs. (He's still 2nd in the International League.) He can play LF or RF. This is the two-week stint he didn't get in May. 

As for Jasson Dominguez? He needs to immediately begin a rehab assignment in Scranton. After a few games in Triple A - presumably proving that he can hit - the Martian should vault into the Bronx. If Jones isn't hitting, Dominguez should take over.

This might be their last best chances to prove themselves before the Aug. 1 trade deadline. 

The Yankees cannot gamble with Judge. Whatever the tests say, he'll need time to heal. It's too early to threaten a season with a nagging injury. Also, it's unnecessary, especially when you've waited years to see what the kids can do. 

Listen: We can save humanity without leaving Bruce Willis behind. That said, Affleck could be expendable. (He's a Redsock fan, after all.)

 WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE TACKLE BOONE WHEN HE TRIES TO PUT DOVAL INTO A GAME?

WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE SEND DOVAL OUT FOR COFFEE WHENEVER THE TACKLE FAILS TO STOP HIM?

AND . . . SO IT BEGINS . . . (game thread)

Over the first two months, Cam Schlittler is the AL Cy Young

It's hard to discuss Cam Schlittler without bursting into tears. Guy's an angel from heaven, an emissary from God, a living saint from Weymouth, MA, the heart of Redsock Country. Every time he fans a batter, somewhere, a Boston fan throws up.

Where would we be without him? Probably 2nd place in the hot mess AL East, which is - well - where we are. But instead of being two behind Tampa, we'd be seven back, fighting off hateful Toronto. And every 5th day, our listed starter would be "TBD," if not Jake Bird. 

Yesterday, we discussed how Ben Rice has saved the Yankee offense. Today, let's go even further, some felony-grade, juju blaspheme. (Yes, I certainly fear sparking juju god retaliation, but as a teller of truth and sayer of sooth, I have no choice but to continue. Also, I should add that I recently aced my regular cognitive exam, amazing the doctors with my ability to identify a squirrel.) So here goes...

The Yankees - despite their system-draining deadline trades - have baseball's best young hitter and best young pitcher.

There. I said it. Whatever happens, it's on me. Because in all of American sports, there is nothing more freakishly fragile than a young pitcher's arm, and I just put a target on the Yankees' best hope. Dare we believe that Schlittler can last the regular season and still be bringing it in October? In this modern era, how many young pitchers do such a thing?

In February, Schlittler turned 25. Last year, combining MLB and the minors, he threw 149 innings. This year, he's thrown 72, which puts him on a trajectory to surpass 200. That should make us nervous, but the reality is that nobody in baseball knows how to handle a dominating young workhorse like Schlittler, and Boonie is gonna do what Boonie always does: Climb aboard the horse and ride until it fails.  

As of today, Schlittler ranks 5th in innings, 3rd in wins and 5th in strikeouts, with the best ERA in the AL. He would start the All-Star Game, if the Yankees let him. (They should not.)

If the season ended today, the Yankees would make the expanded playoffs - MLB's version of little league participation trophies. Schlittler would start game one of the wild card series. After 200 innings, he would face this schedule.  

Gerrit Cole would start game two. (Actually, if he keeps pitching like he has been, Cole could do game one.) Then it's Max Fried or Carlos Rodon, with Will Warren and Ryan Weathers going into the bullpen. 

The Yankees have gotten used to Cam Schlittler throwing a quality start every 5th day. But they better ease up on the pedal. When the angel flies down from heaven, you ought not ruin him.

Tonight, he stars against Cleveland. Godspeed. 

Thank you for your attention to this matter.