Let’s face the truth: after watching the Yankees and the Giants this weekend, we can come to the same conclusion about the offensive production for both teams.
The Giants’ offense has been reduced to throwing quick passes to Barkley and hoping he can break 17 tackles to gain a few yards. Eli was running for his life all night and took a beating for an older QB. As Joe Girardi would say, “It’s not what you want.” SU says Eli has always functioned better in a no huddle offense. Why is it necessary to huddle up time and time again which just gives the defense more time to decide on what stunt they will be using on that play? Better to keep the defense off balance and push the pace. Eli can no doubt call as good a game as any offensive coordinator. It’s not necessary and he is a smart guy. Of course, if they don’t fix the offensive line soon it won’t matter either way but it seems obvious to me.
As for the Yankees, there are some interesting things going on here by Aaron Boone that you may have missed:
- He is stretching out the relievers. Lately, Green and Robertson have gone 2 innings and 40+ pitches. SU believes that they think Chapman won’t return and they need to find 4 innings (or more) in a playoff game out of Green, Holder, Robertson, Britten and Betances.
- Neal Walker is getting all of the pinch hit spots which means Bird won’t make the post-season roster. As a young player, this will likely kill his confidence for ever performing well in NY which means he will be gone next year. Now, you can say he had his chances and did not produce. But SU says what are you going to do if Voit gets hurt in the next couple of weeks or goes on a cold streak? Bird has some legit post-season experience and looked good in the one game he has played in 2 weeks. He deserves a shot. Btw, Walker has done nothing of late.
- SU asks why does Stanton fly under the radar? Relatively new SU subscriber, S. Greenberg, commented that Stanton is like A-Rod. An overpaid superstar who underperforms in NY. As we all know, A-Rod took a beating from the fans and the media, but no-one even comments on Stanton (other than SU of course which speaks the truth). Stanton will get all the at bats and you know every big game will come down to him. Perhaps Judge’s return will help – SU is not confident about that.
- The Yankees cannot score without the home run – especially with the bases loaded. They seem to be incapable of hitting with RISP this year. Sanchez needs to bat much lower in the order.
Question for Yankee fans: is it better to just lose in the Wild Card game or should they win and then risk getting humiliated by the Red Sox? It’s actually a tough one. If they lose home field for the wild card, will be a moot point.
Sports Update Intergalactic 
I always root for getting to next series even if we get humiliated, better to watch a game with a rooting interest than not. Stanton gets a bye until next year–getting to know the new league, etc. Hoping that if we have McCutcheon, Judge, Hicks batting at top of the order we get more men on base since they have highest OBPs on the team then follow with Andujar, Didi ,Stanton, Torrez and Sanchez. We gotta score 4 runs in that WC game. Sanchez should bat eighth with Voit 9th. Hoping Bird gets half the starts in last 13 games to see if he comes alive but I wonder if you’re right and he is dead to them at this point.
Greg Bird has hit a whopping .194 in the seasons following his 2015 “breakout”
Not sure there are enough games left for Voit to have a chance to match Bird’s BA.
Bird has had multiple “shots”…time to move on
Stanton seems like an altogether likeable guy. He may even be somewhat intelligent. That might explain some of it. Also, they sold a lot of shirts bearing his name before opening day so maybe a lot of people are invested in his success. I never liked the signing mostly because he seemed offensively redundant and created a headache in terms of rotating players around the outfield and DH. It turns out that it’s been even worse than that. He was redundant until he wasn’t. It turned out that they needed a right fielder after all and he was too brittle to play the field. I’m willing to continue to give him a chance but would be very open to trade offers during the winter.
Bird is a better player than he has shown this year. But he’s not as good as many hoped. I have no problem benching him or leaving him off the post-season roster. We have seen how he performs when he believes his job is secure. During the season, some of his comments about his expectations for playing time were disturbing. Confidence is important but he seemed oblivious as to how badly he had been playing. Let’s see if some accountability helps. As for the playoffs, I’ve been saying something along these lines in these comments for 2 years: If your offense is relying on a player like Greg Bird, then you’re not a championship caliber team. Despite recent weeks, I think the Yankees do have a shot and Greg Bird, batting where he should at the bottom of the order, shouldn’t be integral to the team’s success.
Stop coddling bird or that matter any professional player in any sport. Bird and Sanchez both did quite well last year. Not this year after a large enough sample size….quite large. We both knew that you olive and die with the home run. This due or die method in the long run doesn’t work. Though we all thought it just might at the end of the first half of the season. With a crisp 500 record since then obviously it does not work. Only Torrez, Andujar and Stanton… and I guess Judge as well …. OK… toss in Didi all have decent averages. I like Voit. Keep Bird for next year. He can always be trade bait if he continues to underperform half way through the season. Walked is a solid utility guy. Hicks can hit for average better so lets keep him. What about McCutchen? Can he re-sign on the cheap? Torreyas should remain too. There is plenty of power here so where is the soft area . To improve at the #1 hitting position and catcher. Sanchez was my pick for MVP on the Yankees this year. He has gone back to pulling everything again. Where’s the freakin hitting coach to push him to go the opposite way. I’m willing to give him a shot at next year, but his defense still has to improve. When was the last time we had a 300 hitter? Stanton is not a #2 hitter. Hicks or Torrez should be there. Who can we get as our leadoff hitter?
You can blame the O Line as much as you want…still Eli needs tpo find another 2 seconds to throw the ball. he is too slow to make that happen. He was quite fortunate during his 2 Super Bowl wins to have an excellent line. Once the line went downhill so did he. Did we make a mistake in not selecting a QB? I say no. We will end up with another 3-13 record and select one next year… followed by O linemen after O Linemen and let’s toss in a pass rusher as well. We had 0 sack last night. The rushes we had against Prescott ended in him throwing the ball away… not getting sacked. So what can we watch between the World Series and next spring? Not Michigan football… that’s for sure. What about the U Conn Lady Huskies… Oh yeah…. And if they don’t look that good there is always the NY Times Crossword puzzle.
Thought SU might comment on the latest addition to the Eli Manning “Meme face” hall of fame. My son forwarded me a steady stream of them from yesterday’s game – can’t figure out a way to post them here, but I’m sure that the SU galaxy has seen them all!
Would be a bold (and justified) move by Boone to play Romine in one of these games in the Red Sox series- may happen in any event if they get rained out tomorrow and have to play a DH on Wed.
One thing that is glaring when watching the Giants is noting how much they lose by having a completely immobile QB- any other game you watch has several plays in which the QB breaks the pocket and runs for big yardage when pressured- with Eli it’s generally just a sack or a rushed pass that is intercepted.
No love for Greg Bird in the SU universe. I get it. He has underwhelmed for too long. No love for Eli. I still think drafting Barkley was the right move – he seems to be a freak talent. But Eli’s mobility is a problem for sure.
I am in no position to decide exactly how much the Giants’ offensive woes rest on Eli’s mobility vs. the line vs. the play calling. But I agree with SU 100%. Barkley is tremendous and it’s exciting every time he touches the ball. During the game the showed how infrequently high picks have been used on RBs in recent history. He appears to be worth bucking the trend.
(BTW, I wonder what the hit rate is on RBs chosen in the top 5 vs. QBs?)
If the Yanks do go one and done will there be a shake up on the field? Would it make sense to unload Stanton’s contract on maybe the SF Giants and go out and sign Machado. Shift Andujar to first and we never need to utter the name Bird ever again. Just my 2 cents.