The Yankees have an off-day today, their third in the last six days thanks to the weather, and tomorrow night they start an 18 games in 18 days stretch with the first of four against the Blue Jays. Blue Jays, Twins, Angels, Astros, Indians. Fun!. Anyway, I have some thoughts on things, so let’s get to ’em.
1. A small lineup change I’d like to see: Flip Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. Everyone is talking about dropping Stanton in the lineup — Aaron Boone was asked about it again last night and didn’t dismiss it entirely like he did last week — and I get it. I totally do. I think sliding him up a spot is the better play. As great as Didi Gregorius has been this season, he’s not going to scare me into pitching to Stanton. Sorry, love you Didi, but no. Aaron Judge is a monster though. A top five hitter in baseball in my opinion, someone who could legitimately have an impact on the way the opposing team pitches to the guys hitting in front of him. There aren’t many of those dudes out there. I’m a crazy person who doesn’t think the reigning NL MVP suddenly forgot how to play baseball. The home/road splits mean absolutely nothing to me — they’re eight-game samples! not even played consecutively! — and Stanton could snap out of it tonight. I still want him hitting in the first inning and I still want him getting a lot of at-bats because he’s one of the best hitters in the world. Judge is the only player on the team I expect to safely out-hit Giancarlo from this point forward and even that isn’t set in stone. The season is 16 games old. Sixteen! Before you drop the dude who hit 59 homers last season down in the lineup based on 16 games, flip him and Judge, and see what happens.
2. The Yankees managed to lose Tommy Kahnle (shoulder) and Luis Cessa (oblique) to the disabled list yesterday. Kahnle got hurt, Cessa was called up to replace him, then Cessa got hurt. That’s after Aaron Hicks and his replacement, Billy McKinney, got hurt in the span of two days earlier this season. It’s been that kinda year with injuries. I suppose the good news is the shoulder issue might explain Kahnle’s velocity/effectiveness issues. The bad news is that this is a shoulder injury and shoulder injuries are always trouble. Aroldis Chapman went down with a shoulder issue early last year and we were saying all the same things — this explains his performance, blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda — and when he came back, he still struggled. He was demoted from the closer’s role and it wasn’t until September that he got back to being the Aroldis Chapman of old. I’m on the Cessa bandwagon and I was looking forward to seeing what he could do in short relief. Now he’s presumably going to miss a few weeks. Sucks. The Yankees are down to two healthy pitchers on the 40-man roster and not in the big leagues: Jonathan Holder and Jonathan Loaisiga. Loaisiga is a Single-A kid and not an MLB options. Pretty soon the Yankees might have to dip into their non-40-man roster pitching depth. It seems like they’re losing a player a series this year.
3. I’m not sure what to think about Brandon Drury responding “all the time” when asked whether he ever went up to the plate with blurred vision. That seems … unwise. Low-end fastballs these days are 90-91 mph and believe me, even an 80 mph fastball can do serious damage if you don’t duck out of the way in time. I just can’t imagine going up to the plate with blurred vision. It’s so dangerous. At the same time, Drury is a career .270/.319/.447 (96 wRC+) hitter in over 1,000 plate appearances, so more or less league average. If he did that with blurred vision at least part of the time, what’s he going to hit with proper vision? It’s hard enough to hit with 20/20 vision. Doing it with blurred vision seems stupid, frankly. Stupid and dangerous. And yet, I can’t help but wonder whether getting this taken care of will allow Drury’s offensive game to blossom because, you know, he’ll actually be able to see the baseball.
4. Big fan of the 6:35pm ET starts. I’m not sure they’ll last long-term given how empty the ballpark has been at first pitch — if you work in the city, getting to the ballpark in time for first pitch can be tough even for a 7pm ET start — but I love the early starts. It’s only a half-hour, but the difference was noticeable to me. These last two games were over at 9:30pm ET or so. How often does that happen? Less waiting around before the game and more time to do whatever after the game. (I’ve been able to watch a good amount of playoff hockey the last two nights thanks to the early starts!) The goal of these early starts is attracting more families and younger fans, the crowd that needs to be home earlier than everyone else, and I’m not sure it’s working. The park has been pretty empty at first pitch in the three 6:35pm ET games so far. If the Yankees scrap it, I wouldn’t blame them. I selfishly hope they go forward with more early starts. It’s nice to get the show on the road a little earlier than usual.
5. Derek Jeter didn’t show up to Yankee Stadium for either of the two Marlins game and I don’t blame him one bit. He said it would be awkward. I think it would better be described as a no-win situation. Had Jeter shown up to Yankee Stadium, he would’ve been asked who he wants to win, and there’s no good answer to that question. Do you say the Marlins and upset literally millions of Yankees fans that adore you? Or do you say the Yankees and alienate a Marlins fan base that might already be too far gone? Coming to the two games and ducking the media would create it’s own set of problems too. There was just no good that could come from Jeter showing up to Yankee Stadium for the two Marlins games this week. I’m sure he’ll be at Marlins Park when the Yankees show up in August. Right now, it’s a little too early to show up to your old stomping grounds when the team you bought and dismantled looks so hopeless.
6. Love the new mound visit rule so far. The game flows so much better. I’m still trying to learn the rules though. I was under the impression that a mound visit by the catcher (or another position player) meant the next visit in the inning would necessitate a pitching change. That is not the case. Last Wednesday, during the ninth inning against the Red Sox, Gary Sanchez went to the mound twice to talk to Chapman, then pitching coach Larry Rothschild made a trip as well. I guess only the second visit by a coach requires a pitching change? Also, visits in extra innings roll over. I thought it was just one visit per extra inning. Instead, if you don’t use the extra mound visit you get in the 11th, you can still use it in the 12th. Overall though, the rule change seems to be working well. Just wish the rules had been a little more clear. I didn’t realize the catcher could make multiple visits in an inning without necessitating a pitching change.
7. The weather has really stunk so far this season. Not just with the Yankees either. The Twins and White Sox had three straight games snowed out over the weekend. As of Sunday, already 21 games have been postponed this season, four fewer than the entire 2016 season. (There were 39 total postponements last year.) Starting the season in March certainly didn’t help matters. It’s easy to say MLB should play lots of April games in warm weather cities and in ballparks with a dome or a retractable roof, but it’s not quite that simple. Those teams don’t want home games stacked early in the season. It means fewer home games later — attendance is always better in the summer months, no matter where the team plays — and more road games down the stretch. Cold Aprils will continue to become the norm in this part of the country and it’s something MLB will have to cope with eventually. Retrofitting existing ballparks with a retractable roof will be costly. Requiring all new parks to have a roof, retractable or otherwise, seems like a good idea, though given the way these things usually go, taxpayers will foot the bill. Players don’t like the idea of regularly scheduled doubleheaders, which would allow MLB to start the season later. Another solution: Shorten the season to something like 144 or 154 games, and start in mid-to-late April. The owners won’t want to give up the home dates though. Hopefully this is an anomaly year and the weather won’t be so bad in Northeast and Midwest in the future. That doesn’t seem like a viable long-term plan though, just hoping the weather is better. Eventually MLB will have to figure out a way to make April baseball more playable.
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