drewski6

WEll the height advantage doesnt go away, but thats not the only thing. This dude was the talk of the town in his college, first couple post-college seasons. Might have the best slurve in MLB.

I dont see anything wrong with adding extra emphasis to the stretch run/playoffs.

Lodolo? 6'6 lefty went 7 overall in the draft, absolutely filthy in college. Was a top prospect, that took a little while longer than expected to come into his own a lot because of injury but is now coming into his own. Would ding him a bit for the increased injury risk, but yes. Well above your average starter/middle-of-the rotation guy.

Im honestly not sure if Casas isnt running hard or if he is just that slow. Its hard to know because he actually doesnt even ever really run. He waddles.

I really hate Joba though, he stands alone.

My buddy is a yankee fan , and he asked me: are there any yankees / former yankees that you like/respect? And Im like, of course! Best yankee of all time: Kevin Youkilis. I also like Boggs, Clemens (Ive forgiven him), Ellsbury took a lot of money from you guys, love that. Eovaldi def up there among my fave yanks all time. Bellhorn had a stint there. David Cone I remember played one year on the sox , throw him on the list. Franchy Cordero was worse for you than he was for us, plus he use to wear celtics jerseys, so that gets points with me. Id have a beer with Andrew Miller. I even have a player who I recently added to my list of yanks/former yanks who I like - Aroldis Chapman! Add Navraez too. Least fave yankees of all time: Joba chamberlain, Jeter, Posada,

Yes, Jeter is a myth. Most overrated player of all time. Give me AROD all day. All day. I have no respect for Jeter. I do have respect for AROD

Hoskins still your guy? Odd clamoring for a guy who was left off his team's postseason roster to be our big bat who we all agree we need, but when you were selling him to me, you showed me a pull-air profile and that gets a lot of points with me. I also cant see him being expensive considering he lost his job to Andrew Vaughn. And no way we are getting Andrew Vaughn.

Thats fair. But personally, I wasnt going to prioritize keeping Casas healthy over Devers.

To piggyback off Reds point, I dont necessarily disagree that this could have been our best defensive alignment. I just thought that if Raffy has a better chance of staying healthy at DH than 1b, Id rather have him at DH. Similarly, Bogey vs Story who plays SS, who gets moved over? I dont think its worth the drama. I dont think optimal defensive alignment is worth rattling cages. Unless you are talking about a significant upgrade to SS or CF.

Its not even just sports. You would be shocked what top salesman and executives get away with in corp america. We dont all live under the same set of rules.

The reason you dont care that Jeter and Arod play the same position is because if you can have both , you have both. You dont not get Michael Jordan if you already have Kobe. You play one at small forward or point guard even though they are both 2 guards.

Devers wasnt healthy at the start of camp, that is a big thing in all of this. Had he been, I do think it would have Bregman at 2b from the rip. That was plan A. Plan B was to have Devers start at DH while he healed up. But it was always shaky. Because if Devers wasnt healthy at the START of the season, could we really expect him to get and stay healthy while playing third? You dive around a lot at the hot corner. Ball comes at you fast. Initially, I wanted Devers at 3b and Breg at 2b. I was willing to live with it to have them both in the lineup. But I started souring on it because I was concerned about Devers getting and staying healthy. And if you are worried about health, it makes more sense to put him at DH than 1b. Low risk of injury playing 1b but lower risk sitting on the bench. Then we got deep into the preseason and Devers arm did still not feel 100%. So it started looking like he was going to open as DH. ANd then I think thats when it became apparent (the slow healing) that his body was probably best reserved for doing what we pay him to do (hit). Yes , teh defensive upgrade you got along the way from turning Devers into a DH was a nice bonus. But Devers wasnt fired from 3b for being bad at it. He was fired for not having the body for it and not healing. Which , honestly, makes him seem even more like a blockhead. Like do you not realize that you are all but guaranteed to get hurt again playing 3b, man? Regarding who asked who to do what and when, Im hazy on. But I really dont think Brez was stepping in to do Coras job for him. Its possible. Cora and Brez seem to get along better today than they did at first. It seems to me like their relationship improved. Which is good news. And if Im wrong about that and they dont have a good working relationship, Brez needs to go. BUt im not as anti-Brez as I was because I think he earned Coras respect and that impresses me and I trust Cora. Also re-reading my post before this one, the one you responded to, I dont love my own tone. Sorry about that.

I agree with most of this. But my thing is that Brez is going to look to add, hopefully power. You can replace Casas/Breggie/Abreu/Duran/Masa with a 2b. Hes going to seek to add talent. Its possible that its in the form of a 2b. I know you dont think that the Ketel Marte trade is going to happen. But if it does, that does go a long way towards replacing Breggie. Because now, you are more comfy playing Mayer in there because we ended last season with a slap hitter with no speed at cleanup and the last thing you, me, or brez wants to see is the removal of one of our few non-noodle bats without replacing with MLB proven power. If you lose a superstar CF but gain a superstar 3B, one does go a long way towards replacing the other. I agree that we have a lot of work to do, and I agree that the focus should not be on replacing a 2b. BUt the focus should be on adding 2 very good hitters, 3 if we lose Bregman. And if one is a 2b because he's on a team with a stupid GM and you have a chance to get Marte, you do it. Prob not gonna happen, but Im not ruling it out. And there are more good 2b than just Marte. I either wanna keep Bregman and add 2 good bats, or add 3 good bats. I care not where they play. Im not trying to get a 2b, but Im not trying to not get one either....Because..... Positions arent rigid in 2025. But again, I mostly agree with you. Just instead of : they are going to have the same 2b gimmick again... Its they are going to have the same 2b gimmick again* Unless a very good hitter who happens to be a 2b falls into their lap. They arent going to turn away good hitters, who are gettable because said good hitter plays 2b.

"The whole situation was weird to me" because thats not the situation. Brez did NOT step in and try to make the lineup card. The lineup card changes every night. This is all your own speculation. What happened is Brez made a throw-a-way comment to the media. And the media overblew it. That in combination with the fact that Devers was being a complete block-head. He was being stubborn and too old school. But it was fixable and had mostly been fixed. This all seems weird to you. But listen up. AC is not some weirdo who does things crazy. Who should play 1b vs DH devers or Casas? These are not 2025 questions. Is story better suited for ss or 2b? These are not 2025 questions. Is it worth to have a sub-optimal defensive alignment to not piss off your best player who is easily pissed off? 1 million times yes. The reason he didnt agonize over Bogey vs Story at SS is because like I keep telling you - thats not the lens of how things are viewed in 2025. Yes, the plan was Bregman to play 2b and devers to play 3b? It didnt change because brez stepped in. It changed becasue Raffys arm wasnt healing. So how do keep him in? We juggle. So do you play him at 1b or DH? Prob both but who cares. AC is just too smart to be worrying about something like perfect positional alignment. Hes worried on the important stuff like finding a way to get his best hitters in there while having a defense that is good enough. Like I said: Offense (50%) = pitching (40%) + defense (10%). That 10% can sink you but you dont construct your roster philosophy about maximizing it. The Yankees did not care that Jeter and Arod were both SS.

Mike Jordan use to hustle his teammates. He was a millionaire, they were rookies making very little, and he would stiff em with bills and force them to play him at golf for money or he would have them kicked off the team. I think you can win a championship and still be a bad teammate.

singles hitter batting clean-up.

Injuries yes, but also slumps and handedness. All of which will continue to happen. You only get so many spots on your 26 man roster, and on your 40 man roster. If you have two second baseman who are both starter quality, but one is riding the pine more than they should (just odd man out in a numbers game) and your 3b gets hurt, you dont sub in a guy who is strictly a thirdbaseman, you find a way to work in the MLB caliber 2b who previously couldnt get in there. You also take into account handedness, current streak. Plenty of guys play position x against righties and position x against lefties, because they need to move over for a dude who only plays against one or the other. ANd prolonged slumps can also be a reason why you shake things up. But its about having options and versatility, so you can play your best players.

Why?

Yankees had a lot of injuries to their pitching staff too. I wouldnt be cursing the bad luck to our SP as a reason we are golfing though. We scored 6 runs over 3 games against the yankees. Toronto scored 29 over 3 against the yankees

Yah, I dont know why you would play Story at 3b. I guess if like Dham and Story are the last 2 standing maybe and one has to, but can he ? Yes. Its sub-optimal but its not an avoid at all cost. More SS can play 3b than cant. More SS can play 2b than cant. Most CF can play of. Most players on your roster can play 1b. Most starting pitchers can relief pitch. Most catchers can play 1b (if they can hit). Most 3b can play 1b (if they arent going to have a hissy fit). Its just a way the game has changed. Most guys arent at one position their whole careers.

Maybe, but its not bullet point 1.

Agreed.

yes

Heres my answer: Dont care, dont care, dont care, dont care, dont care Now-a-days you cross-train and you have positional redundancy and versatility. You figure out how to get your 9 best bats in the lineup while having a defense thats "good enough" You do not pigeon hole every player into a position, and then prioritize optimal positional lineup, while seeking to have an offense that is just "good enough" Offense (50%) = pitching (40%) + defense (10%) That 10% can sink you, but you dont revolve your roster construction around maximizing it.