I direct your attention to the above box score, the keeper of secrets and the bringer of insignificance.
Ryan Weathers - for whom the Yankees traded four prospects, and for whom the front office has congratulated itself, nonstop, ever since - got raked by the Mets. Of course, we can take comfort in knowing that, as Rose Leslie once told Kit Harrington, "You know nothing, John Snow." Because it's true. We do know nothing.
Still, in recent days, Yank pitching hopes are reminding us why their former teams are - well - former teams.
Weathers got trounced. After a 1-2-3 first, his barometric pressure caved. In the second: Leadoff single, fly out, walk, infield single, walk, single, hookaroo. Boone brought back out in the third, because - hey, it's March. Weathers didn't fare much better: Four hits, two doubles, and it was Cade Winquest time.
Yep, Cade Winquest, the Rule 5 draftee that last month had Cashman drafting his GM of the Year acceptance speech. He pitched to four batters, gave up a walk and a single. The Yankees may yet return him to St. Louis.
Yesterday followed a string of lame outings by hopeful bullpen lug nuts. Jake Bird and Angel Chivilli, I'm talking to you.
In recent years, the Yankees have started seasons with seemingly lockdown bullpens, only to watch them stride into quicksand by mid-season. This year, we might start the season with a problem.
Two young pitchers - Carlos Lagrange and Elmer Rodriguez - have provided excitement. Lagrange has pitched twice - 5.2 innings, 6 Ks, one earned run. Rodriguez went to the World Baseball Classic, for Puerto Rico, and threw three scoreless innings in an exhibition against Boston. Haven't seen him since.
The Yankees roster features two position players, similar to Legrange and Rodriguez. For the record, yesterday, The Martian and Mr. Jones played decently against the Mets.
Jasson Dominguez went 1-4 with 2 RBIs and 2 Ks. Most importantly, he threw out a runner. Any game in which The Martian does not commit an error or a non-box score snafu - that's a victory of sorts.
Meanwhile, Spencer Jones went 1-3 with an RBI and a strikeout. Any time he doesn't contribute a Golden Sombrero - a victory of sorts.
Any other team in baseball would pit these two against each other for at least the fourth OF slot; they possess talent that could sustain the lineup for the next five years. Not the Yankees, though. Nope. We're waiting on Randal Grichuk. (Who didn't play yesterday.)
And the Yankees wonder why their fan base has turned to the WBC? I'm just worrying that Aaron Judge will be to the Classic what the Quad God was to the winter Olympics. Or worse, what if he pulls something? Please, juju gods, protect him!
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All credit to the Martian's strong throw. But some killjoys on the internet are noticing that 1) he took a terrible route before catching the ball, 2) the throw was high and slightly off line, and 3) the call was bad, the runner was safe.
Poor kid.
I watched the game yesterday. The Martian did take misplay one liner in the gap. Took a direct route and it got by him to the wall, instead of angling back. Might've been a double anyway, or maybe he played a single into a double.
Looked to me that the runner was out & ump was correct. On replay, tag came down before player touched the plate.
Anyways, game was on WPIX in NY and the Met broadcasters, as usual, did a great job of analysis.
Some salient points: it's harder to play LF because of the way the balls slice off the bats. (When Dominguez first came up in 2023, did he not play CF? I don't remember any bad plays in CF. He might've been average but not horrible, right? Then they put him in LF, where he has zero experience.) But they also said Dominguez should be getting better by now, as he's had enough time. Maybe, but some guys take longer to learn a new position. Some guys take 3 years. That's a fact.
When Cashman got Ryan Weathers this winter, I worried about how our pitching coach would go about ruining him. And yesterday, I'd say we should all be worried. Weathers had great stuff: High end fastball, good off speed, at least in the 1st inning. But he pitched mechanically, robotically, like a brain dead zombie. In the 2nd inning, he looked like he was pitching for the first time in his life. In the 3rd inning, he looked even worse.
Once again, the Met broadcasters (hell, why didn't we get Ron Darling as our pitching coach) pinpointed the problem. Weathers was pitching to only one side of the plate, and stopped throwing strikes with his off speed. So one pitch (fastball), all on the outside to lefties, and inside to righties = getting lit up like a Christmas tree.
So there's your scouting report on Ryan Weathers: great fastball, good off speed, but has zero idea how to get hitters out, possibly location problems too, cannot pitch inside to lefties. And you know how many times our pitching coach came out to talk to him during his struggles: zero.
Met players, both pitchers and hitters, looked very well coached. In the 1st inning, after Yankee hitters touched him up a bit, new Met ace Peralta made adjustments, went to off speed in the 2nd inning. Yankees stopped hitting.
Mets hitters, after looking overwhelmed by Weathers in the 1st, made adjustments. Looked like the 2025 Blue Jays. All singles and doubles. No homers, no swinging for the fences. They took Weathers apart with liners the opposite way. And the Yankee infield defense was putrid, too many extra outs to count. Weathers certainly got his work in.
Our pitching coach doesn't get his pitchers to make the best use of their abilities. They pitch like zombies. Great fastball, great off speed? They throw to the same spots, obviously thinking only about spin rates, pitch shapes, and pitch percentages.
In this organization, they don't teach how to move the fastball around, how to properly set up the batter, how to read the batter. With a fastball like Weathers, he should be able to get through 2 or 3 innings just by moving his fastball around, inside outside, up and down. No, he only throws high outside fastballs to lefties (a very hittable pitch), high inside fastballs to righties. When he lost command of his breaking pitches, he got banged around badly.
Infield defense: I know they only played minor leaguers in the infield yesterday. But the lack of fundamentals and sloppy play show why this ball club is a joke.
And why was Lombard playing 3B? He's a shortstop, no? Somebody else was playing SS. Yeah, I know why Lombard is playing 3B. When Volpe comes back, Volpe will be cemented in place as the SS, so Lombard will be training at 3B in the minors. What a fucking joke this organization is! Everybody (except Volpe) must play every position and change positions every inning. You can't make this bullshit up.
They will say Weathers lost control of his off speed and that's why he got hit around in the 2nd and 3rd innings. No, that's not why. He got banged around because he is a thrower, does not know how to pitch. If he continues to do this, it's going to be a long, long year.
Hammer, I think it's going to be a long, long year whatever Weathers does. This team is run, managed, and coached by idiots.
But I'm really looking forward to seeing this Upchuk guy.
I fear that Weathers will be another Frankie Montas...we never learn from the past...
Along with everything you guys nailed, above, there is the sheer insanity of NOT putting Dominguez in center.
Judge is a natural RF, with a big arm.
Bellinger can easily play LF—or 1B.
That leaves center for the young guy who can run like hell.
Oh, right: Hal & Pal got duped into wildly overpaying for a noodnik with a lifetime .218 BA, so he's got to play out there.
Madness.
Yeah, very easy fix for the outfield. Either Dominguez plays CF, or Spencer Jones plays CF and Dominguez is the DH. They shouldn't have signed Grisham, but if they did as insurance, then Grisham is the new Bench Boy (BB) and Stanton gets released/put out to pasture (Ellsbury-ized). Simple, eh? I think that's already a much better ball club. You develop two players, get rid of dead wood, bench the older, ineffective player. But the Yankees are trying NOT to win, so that explains all of it.
Grisham last year hit .235, did he not? And that was supposedly a good year for him! I'm laughing my ass off! What'll he hit this year? How many of those cookies that he hit for homers last year will he get this year? Good for him that he was able to capitalize on all the cookies he got, but I really doubt he hits over 20 homers this year. The guy used to take a ton of third strikes. Last year, he became more aggressive and started hitting those cookies out. This year, betcha pitchers pay a lot more attention to him and he returns to form: hitting under .200 with a ton of strikeouts.
I knew Cashman would make the qualifying offer to Grisham. This is Cashman's type of player. He loves guys who hit home runs, even if their batting average is barely .200. (That's why Volpe is the starting SS. He hits home runs.)
The only question was whether Grisham would accept or not. I'm tellin' ya, it was Grisham who made the "mistake" by accepting the qualifying offer. Because if he declined, Cashman would've upp-ed the offer, maybe to 25 mill, maybe even 30 mill. He might've even offered a three year deal, for a reduced 20 mill per year. Hey, I know Grisham probably thought, "I'll just take the 22 mill because it's there for the taking and I don't have to worry about negotiations and especially with the lockout coming soon and all".
Cashman only sees the 30 home runs. Grisham might hit 30 homers again this year, but if he does, his batting average is going to be something like .135. Hell, he might not even make it on to the interstate. He might hit 30 homers/20 singles/5 doubles/0 triples in 570 AB, for a .096 batting average.
If Grisham had declined the qualifying offer, Cashman would've staked out Grisham's house, would've been stalking him with a bag of money, a new contract with the money line blank, and a fountain pen. Look at the signing bonus that Bellinger got. Some dumb Yankee fans think Scott Boras lost the blinking contest. Not really. Boras got Bellinger plenty, just not everything they were asking for.
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