moonslav59

That's exactly what I pointed out on another post. Until the last 9 games, JD had been one of our most consistent hitters- not the .950 to 1.000 guys we all wanted, but remarkably near .800 the whole time. Now, because of a super horrid 9 game stretch of stench, people want us to believe this has been a 3-4 month "slump." I'll take an .800 slump for 3 months followed by a 9 game super slump all day long. Sure, I hoped for better from JD, and I still do, but people are equating his steady decline in OPS as being a long slump. When you start out at over 1.175, even hitting .950 for 3 months will show a steady decline in your OPS. Cherry-picking sample sizes can be very misleading, too. Here's one, that to me, is not misleading but very telling. After reaching 1.189 on May 1st, JD hit: .819 in 84 games (up to this bad 9 game slump). That is very decent. The 9 game slump is so bad, it can warp any recent sample size you choose into looking like his slump is much longer than 9 games. .305 OPS in last 9 games. Although he had a 1.394 OPS in the previous 6 games (with 11 RBI), that 9 game slump turn the last 15 day total to .753. The 9 game slump can now look like a 15 day slump, despite the fact that JD went nutty in those 6 previous games! Now, he did have another, longer 15 game slump before these last 15 games: .411 in 62 PAs, so I can see how someone can take the last 30 games and call it a prolonged slump. It's totally fair. .582 in last 30 games, with the bulk of the good coming in just a 6 game stretch within those 30 games. Of course that is concerning, if not frightening. But let's mix around the sample size choices. Let's look at the prior 21 games before this past 9 (the good 6 with the bad 15). Now, it's just .698- not as rotten as .582. Let's just go back two more games to make the sample 23: .837!!! Yes, 2 games makes it jump from .698 to .837. Let's now add the last 9 games to those 23 to make it a 32 game sample not 30, and the OPS goes from .582 to .691. While .691 is not great, it's also not a horrid slump, except for maybe hitters like JD. Let's keep adding game to the front end: .758 in his last 39 games. .805 in his last 48 games .801 in last 55. .780 in last 68 and .782 in last 77. .801 in his last 95 .859 on the season

While I agree, will the Yanks go 13-0 or 25-4 in their next few games?

I kinda thought Taylor did a fine job, that one time, although it was not a save situation. I was thinking he might have been given the nod, last night, over Ottavino. He may still get the next chance, depending on the match-ups. I would not be surprised to see Barnes get a very high leverage chance, soon.

Yes, before we got Mayer, most would have viewed the Sox rise in the rankings, yes, we were rising in the ranking before the draft, as being depth- orientated. It's not like Casas and Downs were lighting the world on fire and lifting our ranking on their shoulders. Far from it. Bloom used last year's trade deadline, the Betts & Beni trade, IFA and the rule 5 draft to build some serious depth. The Beni trade, alone netted us 5 players, only one of which was not technically a prospect (Cordero). Now, Whitlock, Houck and Duran have or will graduate soon, so maybe we'll see a slight dip inn the rankings, but that Whitlock move was pure genius. I still count that as building farm depth, even though rule 5 players, by definition, are no longer on the farm. Many of the additions Bloom made have not done all that well this year, and some have fallen in the rankings, but look at this list and tell me it's top heavy. Just because you have a super player at the top, it shouldn't devalue the rest of the farm. Here is the youth Bloom has added, besides Whitlock, Verdugo and Arauz: Downs Seabold Yorke Jordan Winckowski Wong Ro. Hernandez C Miguel Bleis Nathan Hickey Tyler McDonough Eduard Bazardo Jeisson Rosario Hudson Potts Shane Drohan Victor Santoz Freddy Valdez Grant Gambrell and several others

Barnes will be given a chance to earn back the trust. That's who Cora is. It would be nice to be able to pull Houck from the rotation and give his a shot as closer, but that's a huge gamble, and who starts? Seabold? Perez? Move Richards back after he has earned back some trust? If we try, or I should say when we try Barnes back at closer, depending on how well or poorly he does, this board is going to have a lot to say. That's one fact we can take to the bank.

Max, you have been nailing it. I'll just add that not only will a line-up with Schwarber at 1B, Arroyo at 2B and Kike in CF, assuming it does happen, be the best we've seen all season, it will also improve the defense over wwhat we have been seeing while Arroyo and others have been out injured. Kike belongs in CF. Period. Arroyo is a fine defensive 2Bman. Schwarber at 1B is a huge question mark, but our defense at 1B, especially over the past 2-3 weeks has been about as bad as can possibly be, so it's hard to imagine it being any worse. Also, having Dalbec on the bench as a PH'er vs a lefty is a huge plus. I know Cora has his own ideas on line-up construction, and I'm not saying my plans is better than what he will do, but here's how I would do it: vs RHP 1. Kike CF 2. Schwarber 1B 3. Bogey SS 4. Devers 3B 5. JD DH 6. Verdugo LF 7. Renfroe RF 8. Arroyo 2B 9. Vaz-Plawecki C vs LHPs 1. Kike 2B 2. Schwarber LF 3. Bogey SS 4. JD DH 5. Devers 3B 6. Renfroe RF 7. Dalbec 1B 8. Verdugo CF 9. Vaz-Plawecki C Basically, Arroyo and Dalbec are platooned.

At the time of the trade, and even more so after Rizzo started out with a couple nice games, what was the mood of this board on the deadline moves and Bloom? Hardly anyone thought Schwarber was a "no-brainer" over Rizzo. I'm thinking there were maybe 2 or 3 of us, but I could be remembering incorrectly.

Schwarber has to be counted in the top 3 or 4, but I agree with your point. They all need to start doing better. I've never been one to think a player's last 5, 10 or 20 game sample size is a good predictor of what will come next, so I fully expect all of these guys to pull their weight going forward. There is no reason to think otherwise. Of course, players slump, all the time. One of these guys may not do well, but my guess is that 3 of the 4 do wonders, and by that I just mean do what they normally do (.850+).

Well said. People see the 5.12 ERA and that's all they want to know. They forget the guy had serious issues with COVID and missed a whole season, yet still began pitching in early April. He's really done a fine job in his last 11 starts- a time when other starters were losing their roles, and the pen began its implosion. Despite having the worst D in MLB behind him, he's put up a 3.83 ERA and .693 OPS against in the past 11 games- not easy when the OPS have a .328 BAbip over that time (thanks to the D). The team has gone 11-4 in his last 15 starts and 16-9 over the whole season. The team W-L record with him starting, since 2018 is astounding. I believe it's the best team winning % in MLB. With Sale & Eovaldi looking solid, ERod might just be the key to it all.

What's doubtful is that Rizzo made a big difference. Without Dalbec and Schwabs bats, we might have 2-3 more losses. What's not doubtful is that the Yanks gave up more than we should have to get him. (To me, Gallo was the bigger get.) The Yanks wwere something like 7-3 before the trade, so I'm not sure one can point to Rizzo in the dugout and clubhouse as the turning point. We'll never know, and maybe who the Yanks gave up will not amount to squat, but we did the right thing, IMO.

One stat that always jumped out at me, well more like a kick in the gut, was how Marwin was top 6 or 7 in PAs. The guy is still 9th and won't likely be passed, unless Arroyo gets 100 more PAs. This got me thinking about how we might gain by subtraction, this winter. Only ERod and Ottavino's slots will be hard to fill. PAs 271 Gonzalez .567 136 Cordero .497 113 Santana .554 82 Chavis .549 That's about 600 PAs replaced by more from Arroyo, Duran and maybe an addition. IP 120 ERod 5.19 119 Richards 4.90 107 M Perez 4.89 50 Ottavino 3.58 37 Andriese 6.03 20 Workman 4.95 14 Brice 6.59 10 Robles 7.84 6 Weber 17.47 That's about 500 IP replaced by 2-3 additions and/or more IP from Sale Whitlock Houck Taylor DHern Brasier Seabold Davis Bazardo/Valdez

Enjoy the streak. Too early to peak. Yank fans are never meek. Go take a leak.

Other GMs should use this year's Sox example as the lesson on depth building in one short winter. Perez went from our innings leader to 5/6 starter. Eovaldi was second in IP, last year. Here is the rest of the horrific staff Bloom had last winter, listed by most IP, after Perez and Eovaldi: Weber Valdez Mazza Godley Brewer Brasier Barnes Springs Brice Houck Osich Covey Kickham Stock Walden Hart Pivetta Hembree Hall DHern Triggs Taylor Workman (under 6 IP) Leyer Tapia We used 30 different pitchers in a 60 game season! This year, Eovaldi and Pivetta are the innings leaders, then... ERod Richards Perez Whitlock Ottavino Barnes Sawamura Taylor Houck Andriese DHern Valdez Rios Workman Sale Brice Davis Robles (Under 6 IP) Weber Brennan Bazardo Brewer With everyday players be basically replaced these top 9 PA guys with... Chavis> Dalbec (Santana/Schwarber) Pereza> Arroyo (full year) & Kike (Marwin) Pillar & Beni> Kike & Renfroe (Cordero) That being said, I'd like to see us add a closer and a set-up man as we say good bye to Ottavino. Maybe have Houck pitch from the Pen. (I think Whitlock starts.)

We're just saying you may have given up more than you all tried to downplay it. Your farm got worse, this summer. Ours got better. The tides are turning.

Some of the results of deadline trades: Scherzer 4-0 1.55 Berrios 1-2 4.81 Gibson 3-2 3.77 Kimbrel 0-1 5.23 Bryant .877 Turner .804 Gallo ,694 Baez .678 N Cruz .745 Rizzo .707 Schwarber 1.205

You could say that about half the Yankee team, and didn't we hear this about Whitlock, too?

I know you guys don't want to hear this, but Barnes is going to close again, this year- mostly likely sooner than later.

Nope. Jacko assures us they only traded "duplicate values" and nobody special.

As always, many fell for the immediate gratification trick. Rizzo had an OPS barely better than Dalbec's. Some of us pointed that out, but the Bloom doubters swarmed this board. Not only did we get the best guy, we gave up less.

We're starting to pull games out, like we did the first 100 games. Let's hope we keep it going. We did this without JD, Kike, Arroyo, Renfroe, Barnes, DHern, among others.

LOL. Good one!

Despite the walks that always seem to be to the lead off guy, his numbers look pretty good.

He has to start learning to walk the 3rd guy not the first.

The walk was to the 4th slot. the next guys were 5, 6, 7 not 7, 8, 9, but yes, LOL!

Huge win!