Not today.
In fact, Judge is hitting, sorta. In all of MLB, he is tied for 3rd in HRs and 25th in RBIs, though his BA sits at a Volpean .234. Also, he fails the eye-test, lunging at balls off the plate. He hasn't yet figured out the ABS system, which was seemingly added just for him. He doesn't challenge called-strikes that arrive by way of New Jersey. But he will. Soon. I'm sure of it. Yes. He will. Uh-huh. Excuse me. I can't get the Luger taste out of my mouth. Humina-humina-humina....
It's not Judge's fault that the floundering, flailing, flobbing, flatlining, flapping, flatulent, flucking Yankees are now tied for 2nd in the AL East, behind the Hateful Rays. The problem: A massive chasm, a Continental Divide, that occurs after No. 5 in the order - triggering a two-inning cigarette break. If you're watching at home, it's time to check out the Turner Movie Classics channel and figure out the evening's theme. (Last night, it was SON OF LASSIE, followed by SHE-WOLF OF LONDON. Any ideas?) Once the meat of the meat of the lineup turns over, spare yourself the frustration, waiting for Ben Rice to return.
Statistically, right now, he is baseball's best hitter. Moreover, there are reasons to believe it's no fluke. Last year, as we're tired of hearing - his exit-velos and bat-barrel rates were among the highest in the game. He beat the shit out of balls and often got nothing. This year, the juju gods - in the form of random sequencing - may be paying him back.
Look at those numbers. Fukkinay. If the All-Star balloting were held in April, he'd be the AL starting 1B and probably hit leadoff (in front of Judge.) That said, there are some caveats to popping the corks.
1. The All-Star balloting is not held in April.
2. It's April.
3. It's mid-April, not even late April.
4. Soon, opposing teams will start pitching around Rice.
(At this point, I'd like to pause this righteous prosecution of the universe for an observation of Yankee Truth Social.
GARRY FUKKIN SANCHEZ!
He's still going. He's now 33, five years out of pinstripes and playing 1B for the Brewers. His 5 HRs leave him among the MLB leaders. It's been a lifetime since the Kraken was cast out by Brian Yahweh for the crime of not living up to hype, and everybody assumed he'd fade into the Heartland and never shadow our doorstep again. He didn't. He dusted himself off, went to Minnesota, moved to the Padres, the Mets, the Brewers, the O's, and then back to Milwaukee. He's still going. Who'da thought?)
So... ahem... Ben Rice? The Great Yankee Hope. This could be his breakout. But if the Yankees don't start hitting at the bottom of the order, I'm not sure it will matter.
(BTW: Last night for Scranton: The Martian 1-for-3; Mr. Jones 1-for-4. Not that I'm following them. Why would anyone do that?)
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This team needs an enema.
Here's a very interesting scouting report on George Lombard, Jr. by Zach (Eighteen) Wheeler:
https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/yankees-george-lombard-jr-gets-033012845.html
Boone is deteriorating nightly, right before our eyes. I understand that asinine moves like making Rice semi-platoon with a 38-year-old probably come straight from the Great Humongous Cashman himself, but gimme a break. Boone doesn't have enough leverage to tell the boss to piss off, he's playing the 27-year-old with the hot hand?
I guarantee you that if he did that, The Brain wouldn't say boo. Or has Boone drunk the Kool-Aid, too?
What I love is how there is never, ever, a sense of urgency around the Yankees.
Thanks, Carl Weitz, that was interesting to read about Lombard. (The same piece noted that Volpe struck out twice in as many at-bats, in his rehab start. Sigh.)
Boone hasn’t drunk any Kool-Aid Hoss. He’s a YES man. Literally and figuratively
I have a great love for European football, and statistics are taking hold there these days. So, I was interested in seeing a clip about that very subject as it related to baseball which is still very much under the sway of Moneyball. This from ESPN:
“...In the late 1970s or early 80s, the Houston Astros commissioned a study about what might happen to their team's performance if they moved the outfield fences closer to home plate. They wanted to move the fences in because they figured it would lead to more home runs, and because fans love home runs, they figured they'd sell more tickets. Except, given the types of hitters and pitchers on Houston's roster, the study's authors found, moving the fences in would actually lead to more losses for the Astros.
Houston's decision-makers looked at the data, and they decided ... to order that the study never be made public. They'd already made the decision to move the fences in and only wanted data that would support their choice...
...One of the more memorable stories from "Moneyball" is the one where Billy Beane is arguing with his scouts, who are obsessing over how big a guy's butt is, what kind of face he has, or if his girlfriend is attractive. Beane keeps coming back to the question, "But can he hit?" Eventually he becomes enraged, and yells to everyone in the room, "I repeat: We're not selling jeans here."
I've heard it suggested that having someone who understands data and giving them an actual voice in your club is valuable simply because of all the things they'll keep you from doing, by reminding you to keep the main thing, the main thing. But can he hit?"
And this is the logic behind our so- called genius and his crack analytics team. They are suffering from a pre-determined blindness outcome and are justifying it be suggesting that last year’s team almost made it to the top and so, this year’s team could go all the way. Without acknowledging that half the team can’t hit.
We all know what doing the same thing and expecting different results is a product of, don’t we?
OK OK. Im still persisting in my delusion that this team is really good. But Boone, alas, is a complete idiot. To think that this guy has a job for life while Maddon, Showalter, and Mattingly beg for work. I guess kissing the GMs ass is the most important qualifications for the job
David Dinkins' attempt to re-characterize the American melting pot as "a gorgeous mosaic" may not have done him much good in politics, but it's a good way to look at a baseball team.
"Moneyball" and Sabremetrics were great additions to the mosaic of baseball at its best, a constantly evolving sport that—at the same time—still must rely on certain verities.
OBP, exit velo, home runs, etc., should all be part of the equation. But it can't be everything...
...Let's be real. For all the good that Billy Beane did propping up the bench and role players of those Athletics teams, the turn-of-the-century A's won because they had a terrific starting pitching staff, and at least two great juicers, in Giambi and Tejada. (Eric Chavez may have been a third.)
Beane and Moneyball downplayed things such as fielding, base running, and field savvy...and the A's lost every October because too many of their players couldn't field, run the bases, or know what to do in a given situation under pressure...
...So yeah, as we have long discussed, power hitters are great. So are guys who can get on base, and take what they're given by superior pitchers and single when they can't drive the ball out of the park. So are guys high on fundamentals, and those who can steal a base.
Why this eludes Brian Cashman and whatever moaxes serve as his advisors, escapes me. Beyond that...
...A good deal of Cashman's "analysis" is simply wishful thinking. To bring up another old NYC mayor, I remember someone writing about Jimmy Walker that "he hoped like a child."
Cashman constantly brings in injured or inadequate players and hopes that they will somehow exceed their previous inadequacies.
This is nothing like Gene Michael, to take one example, noting that Paul O'Neill was suffering under Lou Piniella trying to make him into a pure power hitter, and bringing him to NY where he could let Paulie be Paulie.
This is thinking that somehow, Joey Gallo or Chris Carter or Jazz Chisholm or Ryan McMahon is going to become a completely different ballplayer and suddenly give you just the sort of production you want.
It is a childish hope. And Brian Cashman never stops being a child.
Good God Hoss, are children that stupid?
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