jacksonianmarch

Also, Sears’ start was a spot start, but that kid has some seriously nasty stuff. Keep him up and use him as another multi inning weapon. Glad to see Marinaccio get a few innings in as well.

Stanton’s issue is ankle inflammation. Sounds better than calf, which cost him a season previously. Boone said it looks like a minimal IL stay at this point, but with Stanton you never know

We’ve got the arms to weather the storm, not the bats

We were healthy for 6 weeks. No more Lemahieu and Stanton out for now, no IL yet Donaldson, Higgy, and Gallo on COVID IL Green and Gil out for the year Loaisiga and Chapman to the IL for arm and Achilles issues respectively

Dominguez is heating up. OPS now over .800 after a dreadful April. He's taking walks, hitting for power, stealing bases. Finally showing his 5 tool potential. May slash line of .319/.413/.623.

Lemahieu has a hurt wrist. Stanton tweaked a calf. Donaldson and Gallo have COVID. Yanks still score 7 and walk off a win. Cashman better be on the phones. The pen is getting tired and the offense is on life support

They'll win again tonight

Yanks lineup was a joke. Judge drove in 3 of their 4 runs. Cole was uncharacterically hittable in one inning and with the offense not clicking, that was enough to lose

Gallo, Donaldson, Higgy to the COVID IL. Chapman has MRI of achilles that is clean, but they may still put him on the IL. If his legs are hurting, why risk it?

Not really a comparison for baseball. Randy Johnson pitched into his 40s and pretty effectively. But there just haven't been any 6'7" 282lb position players in the shape Judge is in. There have been some behemoth fat guys, but not athletic monsters

Cueto made his return to the majors after nobody wanted him and spins a gem at Yankee Stadium. And Cueto didnt look good. Too many fat pitches that we just didnt center. As I stated in the pen thread, the Yanks have PLENTY of options. I know Gil and Green are now down for the count this year and Chapman has been hit or miss and Loaisiga has been downright bad. But I do think this pen is still a top tier pen. What we need to do is leave Chappy in the middle innings until he gets his yips under control. Chapman's fastball is straight, so while some other pitchers can hang with a 97 mph fastball, Chapman needs the higher velo to be successful. He needs to be hitting 100-101 with regularity. When he isnt, he seems to try to hump it up which leads to less command and gets him hit. Loaisiga lost his command of his fastball, even though it is still a top tier weapon. He needs to be sent to AAA and have the pitching coaches there tell him the same thing they told Clay Holmes. Your pitches have so much movement, be less fine with them, throw them to the middle and they will dive down in the zone. This will help him stay ahead in counts.

$300 mil is likely not realistic just due to age. Had he been Devers' age, yeah, $300 mil would be the starting point. My bet is he gets a 7 yr $245 mil contract, full no-trade, opt out after year 3 that can be mitigated with an 8th year at same AAV

Green going down complicated things. Loaisiga needs a breather. But we have the depth in the minors with some big arms. Time to test them. Bigger problem yesterday was the bats. 1 run in 18 innings is embarrassing

Chappy might be done. Also, Loaisiga might need a trip to AAA

Crazy thing is, the most expensive problems on this team are already filled. We don’t need starters. We don’t need a SS. We don’t need middle of the order hitters. Even with Green out for the year and Chappy diminished, the pen is deep and shouldn’t need anything more than a tweak which could come from the minors. The things we need are corner OFers. Judge can play CF. Hicks has been useless. Gallo has been entirely lost. If one of them gets going, then we don’t need anything. If the deadline comes, I expect a deal for Benintendi. He’s exactly what they need. A high average contact hitting OFer with great defense to offset the boppers.

Cortes has nothing today

I’d assume in a “he really doesn’t care about 2022 way”? I honestly don’t remember

Bloom proved you can be great without building foundational pieces. Every single player had a value and when someone offered at or above that value, they were moved. He was surgical in that approach. Boston and NY like to fall in love with foundational pieces and pay then premium dollars past their prime. Bloom won’t do that unless held against his will by Henry. Here’s the thing, I don’t want the Sox to suck this year and next. I want them to be playoff contenders but not make it. This will prevent Bloom from doing what I’m literally scared of him doing. And that’s trading players with big value because he knows how to win big trades. Ultimately, the Sox future will be a deep farm system. A major league team that may be a bit unconventional but with young talent with a smattering of dumpster finds (like Strahm and Renfroe) then he will fill in by adding veterans on shorter term high AAV deals a la Scherzer and Correa.

I’ve been nothing but complimentary of Bloom. I think his motive is not what Sox fans want for this season. He wants to blow this up

With Chad Green going down with a forearm issue, there is a real chance he has thrown his last pitch in a Yankee uniform. He is headed into FA and as a high leverage reliever with the stats to back it up, he was staring at a nice pay day. He still may get one a la Tommy Kahnle, who also blew out his elbow in his swan song in NY and signed a 2 year deal with league minimum for rehab year and a real salary for following year. Maybe that's the only way the Yanks get him back, who knows. That being said, the Yanks pen has been a real strength and has some serious depth waiting for it in the minors. Starting with the underperformers Aroldis Chapman- Aroldis is the old guard of the group and still the defacto closer, although the years are starting to wear on him. He lost about 1.5mph off his heater and has seen his K rate drop from other worldly (16+) to good at 10. He has limited homeruns which is good for him, but with the depth of the pen, he will likely be a matchup closer and may shift some of his work into the bridge innings depending on when the lefties will hit Jon Loaisiga- he has lost his command which has also caused him to leave some pitches down the middle to get creamed. HR rate is sky high, BB rate is sky high. He's seen a drop of 1mph in velocity, but not lower than his first season of high leverage performance 2 years ago when he was a comfortable 96.5mph. Of the two underperformers, Loaisiga is the one I expect to right the ship. Now the nails Clay Holmes- I don't know how anyone hits this guy. Walk rate under 1, no homers allowed thus far and putting up a Papelbon-esque 0.44ERA. 83% of the balls put in play are ground balls due to his 96.1mph sinker that moves 8-10 inches. He is under control for two more years after this one and will likely end the year as the closer Clarke Schmidt- likely the first guy stretched out if a starter goes down for a long period of time, Schmidt has adapted well to being a two pitch pitcher in short stints. His slider is one of the best in the game, and pairing that with a 94mph sinker, he has been able to keep the ball in the park. He is the first of the multi inning weapons Boone has at his disposal Michael King has been unhittable. Typically thrust into games after shorter outings, he is a multi inning swiss army knife that cuts through offenses like butter. He relies on a hard sinker that tops out at 98mph, he is the rare reliever who throws 3 pitches with regularity. He throws a change about 10% of the time that has the same downward break as his sinker and then throws a curve 24% of the time that is just death on righties. King has become an indispensable weapon to allow the Yanks to come back or to hold leads when a starter doesnt go more than 5 Miguel Castro has mostly been used to protect larger leads or throw in deficits, but he has been very good. He is throwing his typical 98mph sinker with a nasty hook. He walks the park, which is not new. He limits HR's which he has done for two years now. Metrics haven't loved him for years, but he has continuously outperformed them, mostly due to his high GB tendencies. He does well in his current role Lucas Luetge has seen a bit of a regression in luck this year. While still posting extremely solid peripherals, he has been unable to avoid the big innings. Mostly used in mop up duty, his 6+ ERA belies advanced metrics that say he should be a sub 3ERA pitcher again. He will continue to pitch in mop up for now until his production improves Wandy Peralta has been a hidden gem ever since getting him from SF. He is a rare lefty sinkerballer who relies on ground balls to get outs. He throws a mid 90s sinker that stays in the park and generates high numbers of ground balls. He has performed well when called upon and is the most likely pitcher to be called upon more now that Green is down The cavalry While injuries happen, losing Green won't be easy to replace. But with the Yankees, they always have pen arms in their high minors ready to fill in.. Ron Marinaccio is the most likely callup. He is also a three pitch reliever who is just death on opposing hitters. His brief cameo this year wasn't great with 5 runs in 4IP, but he has been absolutely dominant in AAA. Since going down, he has pitched 6 innings, striking out 15 batters. JP Sears is on the list as well. Sears is a starter in the minors, left handed, he throws mid 90s with a slider and a change. Since going back to Scranton, he has allowed 12 baserunners in 17 innings, a 0.53ERA and 23K's. He would be the next multi inning tool Hayden Wesneski is another starter in AAA. 2.31ERA, 0.81WHIP 41K in 39 innings. Would be a multi inning weapon with a big sinker Two guys in AAA not to forget about Shelby Miller- remember this kid? Once thought to be the next Cardinal ace, he was dealt around the league, got injured a ton of times and lost his fastball. After being out of the league, the Yanks signed him, had him focus on relief only and he has been a stud. 0.91WHIP, 15K in 14.1IP and an ERA of 2.53. Would it be surprising if he came up and was nails for the Yanks after all the s*** he went through? Manny Banuelos- remember him? One the Yanks #1 prospect, he was dealt away after having arm trouble. Eventually found his way back as a minor league FA and has been very solid as a starter in AAA. 2.88ERA, 1.16WHIP, 23K in 25IP. Top prospect Ken Waldichuk just got promoted to AAA. The guy has only improved his legend status after barging on the long season scene last year with 30+ scoreless innings. He has K'd 46 in 28IP with a sub 2ERA and been absolutely nasty. He may spend the rest of the year in AAA due to the other options available, but he has the highest ceiling Two other players who made names for themselves who have fallen off a bit. Luis Gil just left his start in AAA after throwing a slider then grabbing his elbow. Not good. No official word yet, but that sound like a UCL and that would crush him through the middle of next season Deivi Garcia, after jumping on the stage in 2020, he did not respond well to a demotion at the start of 2021 and cannot get out of his own head. He has gone from being a command first, movement and deception pitcher to a walk machine who gets hammered. He likely needs a demotion to AA or a phantom IL stint to get his mechanics right, but he has been passed by multiple guys who have their heads on straighter than he does

Sox lost one to Rangers I didn't expect but won the series vs the Astros. Since this post, they're 4-2, have leapfrogged Baltimore and gained a half game on Toronto for the last PO spot.

Yanks are 9-2 in their last 11 games. Both losses were walkoffs. Every single game they have played this year, they have been in

Judge is finally doing what he should have been doing all along. I never understand when these behemoth hitters outwardly try to pull everything. Judge and Stanton can hit the ball out to any part of any park. Judge got pull happy the last few years and was still productive. Now, he's not pulling much of anything. Almost all his HRs are to CF and RCF. That is very dangerous for opposing pitchers.

The only way I see Bello in Boston in August is if the sox rebound and are in contention and lose a starter to injury

Judge has 8HR's on the road and 6 at home this year. So how many of those pop ups are we talking about?