Yankees 2023 Season Thread

[moonslav59]

Let's see where Volope is when trade talks begin.

[Dipre]

Nothing would make me happier than to see the Yankees trading/demoting a guy with as much upside as Volpe. But I think they'll let him play and he will eventually break through.

[notin]

Nothing would make me happier than to see the Yankees trading/demoting a guy with as much upside as Volpe. But I think they'll let him play and he will eventually break through.

 

Even if they demoted him, it’s not really a big deal. Mike Trout got demoted after his first trial in MLB. It happens…

[Bellhorn04]

Volpe has an fWAR of 0.5, so if that metric means anything, he's not killing them.

[dgalehouse]

Volpe is struggling with his batting average , but he does have eight home runs. That is more than anyone on the Sox except Devers.

[bkzwhitestrican]

Pretty crazy stat. After taking 2 of 3 from the Dodgers, the Yankees now have a winning record against every active team in MLB over history.

[Bellhorn04]

This injury to Judge pisses me off. It's incumbent on MLB to make their playing facilities safe for players, but it's like they don't give a rat's ass. The guy makes a great catch but pays for it by smashing his foot into concrete and crashing through a fence.

[jacksonianmarch]

Stupid f***ing team. We are Judge dependent because our GM felt the need to add an injury prone starter vs offensive depth even though our offense has been the reason for losing the last 4 years. Now Judge is out for god knows how long and we cannot beat the hapless Red Sox. Figures. Hal finally came out and said that the Yanks need to target stars, but he won’t finance it, so who cares

[Dipre]

We're not hapless if we keep beating your ass. You're hapless.

[moonslav59]

Stupid f***ing team. We are Judge dependent because our GM felt the need to add an injury prone starter vs offensive depth even though our offense has been the reason for losing the last 4 years. Now Judge is out for god knows how long and we cannot beat the hapless Red Sox. Figures. Hal finally came out and said that the Yanks need to target stars, but he won’t finance it, so who cares

 

So, everything you said about how good the Yanks looked before the season bagan was what?

[Dipre]

The hapless Yankees only managed one run tonight.

[moonslav59]

After 72 games, the Yankees are just 2 games ahead of the team one Yankee fan called names I don't even want to repeat.

 

Yes, the Yanks have had a ton of injuries, but in some ways many were expected or pretty likely.

 

The Sox have had our top 3 SSs out and 83 key RP'ers out, too: Schreiber, Martin and Crawford.

 

Our #1 is on the 60.

Paxton missed a bunch of time.

Whitlock missed time.

Houck is out for the second time.

 

Those were our best 4 SP'ers going into the season.

 

 

[dgalehouse]

Without Aaron Judge, the Yankees flaws are very apparent. There are quite a few , but the most glaring is Stanton. As strong as he is , with all that power, he looks absolutely lost at the plate. With all respect, he resembles a Little Leaguer who is afraid of the ball.

[Jasonbay44]

The Yankees team OBP is under .300. That is actually insane

[Thunder]

Without Aaron Judge, the Yankees flaws are very apparent. There are quite a few , but the most glaring is Stanton. As strong as he is , with all that power, he looks absolutely lost at the plate. With all respect, he resembles a Little Leaguer who is afraid of the ball.

 

One of their other big flaws is Aaron Boone. Without Judge, it's harder to overcome your manager shooting yourself in the foot every night by the lineup cards he fills out and the pitching changes he makes, or doesn't.

[moonslav59]

When the Yanks win, much of the talk about Boone and Cashman goes away.

 

They both suck- winning and losing.

 

I hope they keep both for the next decade.

[bkzwhitestrican]

Their lineup is flawed for sure, but to make matters even worse all of their secondary pieces in the lineup are slumping when they're needed the most. Stanton/DJL/Rizzo/Donaldson are all past their prime, but even in their current state they should be hitting better than they have this month. The four of them in June combined are hitting .112 . That's.... very not good.

[moonslav59]

Their lineup is flawed for sure, but to make matters even worse all of their secondary pieces in the lineup are slumping when they're needed the most. Stanton/DJL/Rizzo/Donaldson are all past their prime, but even in their current state they should be hitting better than they have this month. The four of them in June combined are hitting .112 . That's.... very not good.

 

One would and should expect better than that, and unexpected declines happen, often. The Sox saw almost all their returning vets decline, all at once, and some were in or approaching their prime years.

 

Stanton turns 34, later this year. One would expect a dropping OPS, and that's what we see, His OPS dropped more, last year than it has this year:

.887 2020

.870 2021 (-17)

.759 2022 (-111)

.708 2023 (-51)

 

DJ turns 35 in a couple weeks. He dropped 300 points from 2020 to 2021, and he's just 32 below his '21 numbers, now- 2 years later. One might have expected more of a drop.

 

Donaldson started his decline before going to NY. He turns 38 in December.

.950 '16-'17

.875 '18-'19

.829 '20-'21

.686 '22-'23

He's actually improved on his '22 .682 OPS by hitting .724, so far. One could argue he's doing better than expected.

 

Rizzo turns 34 in August. His decline started long ago, but he was still hitting well.

,914 '16-'17

.883 '18-'19

.775 '20-'21

His .817 in '22 could be viewed as a blip.

.768 in 2023 is maybe higher than one might expect from the '20-'21 numbers and the age curve factors.

 

I'm thinking much of this should have been expected, but people tend to look at teams and players as they used to be, and forget about injury proneness and age decline projections.

[bkzwhitestrican]

Age related decline was expected. Nobody expects them to return to peak form, but I don't think anybody would've expected all four of them to have their worst slumps simultaneously. Just the ebbs and flows of the seasons I guess. Having the top half of the lineup bat .112 for three weeks, and then counting on rookies/Quad A guys to pick up the slack is a recipe for one of the ugliest offensive stretches in baseball.

[moonslav59]

Age related decline was expected. Nobody expects them to return to peak form, but I don't think anybody would've expected all four of them to have their worst slumps simultaneously. Just the ebbs and flows of the seasons I guess. Having the top half of the lineup bat .112 for three weeks, and then counting on rookies/Quad A guys to pick up the slack is a recipe for one of the ugliest offensive stretches in baseball.

 

Simultaneous slumps seems to happen more than chance seems to predict, but the flip side is, since most are where they should be on the season, they were all playing above expectations at the same time before the slump, and your O still sucked.

[jacksonianmarch]

They all fell off the cliff at the same time. They also have no major protector in their lineup. Judge was the straw that stirred the drink. Guys after him got pitches to hit with him on base, guys before him would see pitches so they didn't put them on for Judge.

[jacksonianmarch]

This is on Cashman and that hack Hal. He wants to just go get big stars but doesn't want to pay for them. He has a $293 mil investment and leaves it exposed. Awful management. While Boone needs to go, I feel for him right now. The guy has no other option other than s*** and more s***.

[moonslav59]

You guys had an old and injury prone team going into the season. Many of your players had already shown strong indications of decline, although some had upticks in 2022, that could/should have been viewed as blips.

 

I don't blame you for being very optimistic about your team's chances back in March, but you did seem very sure about how much better the Yanks were going to be vs the Sox.

 

On the idea that "all fell off a cliff at the same time," I want to say several should have been expected declines, and not all have gone over a cliff:

 

Judge has about the same OPS but has been hurt.

 

Carpenter's 1.138 OPS in '22 was a fluke.

 

Rizzo has declined slightly, as an age curve would have projected (.817>.794)

 

LeMahieu has been declining beyond this year's .734 to .669.

 

Stanton fell off a cliff and has been hurt. (.759>.635)

 

Was Cabrera ever for real? (.741 in 171 2022 PAs to .532) is a cliff dive.

 

To me, Donaldson's dive was expected.

 

Bader is doing better, this year, but has been hurt.

 

Higgy and I K-F about the same.

[jacksonianmarch]

It was a roster built on pitching who’s seen the pitching go down. It was an offense built around former stars and Judge with the hope the vets could get it done. They haven’t. Judge gets hurt and the entire offensive landscape has changed. A torn toe ligament sounds like a nothing, but it’s gonna take some time to heal and might need surgery. I wouldn’t be surprised if Judge is out for all of 2023

[Jasonbay44]

Oakland reached a new low tonight getting perfect gamed by Domingo German

[bkzwhitestrican]

Oakland reached a new low tonight getting perfect gamed by Domingo German

 

Funny comment I saw yesterday after it happened:

 

"If only he could no-hit his wife"

[Dipre]

Lots of hilarious comments.

 

"Just as perfect as his backhand". Some youtube comments sections are golden.

[Bellhorn04]

And now add another Yankee pitcher, Cordero, to the list of domestic abusers.

[moonslav59]

And now add another Yankee pitcher, Cordero, to the list of domestic abusers.

 

Do these guys compare notes or get ideas from each other?

[bkzwhitestrican]

I'm reserving my judgment until they release details of what happened, but based on the length of the suspension I'm sure it is very bad..