They played taps for the 2018 Yankees last night. The team pounded out another 5 hits for the 2nd game in a row and for the 3rd time in 4 games, the starter only lasted about 3 innings. It’s not the formula for success – clearly. So, what went wrong? And what needs to be fixed for 2019?
- SU says this year’s team reminded me of the 2004 team. You had your new, over-priced and under-performing slugger back then in A-Rod, and a great offensive team with Gary Sheffield putting up crazy numbers plus Jeter, Posada in their prime years. But pitching? Do you remember who started the pivotal game 6 at home? Jon Lieber. And game 7? Kevin Brown. And who was in the bullpen losing every close game in extra innings? Paul Quantrill. An imperfect team with not enough pitching. 2018? Exact same thing.
- Goal #1 for next season: learn to hit against the shift. Mark Texeiria lost his way at the end of his career just pulled everything. He refused to change and the team suffered. Teams are daring you to take the single and put the ball in play. The Yankees should either teach this or get new batting coaches who do. And while they are at it, get some Spanish speaking batting coaches as the team has some young players who do not speak fluent English. Get with the times and put together a staff that looks like your team’s roster.
- Do not go out and sign some stud starter for $30 million. See the David Price mistake in Boston. This is the offensive version of trading for Giancarlo Stanton. The Yankees have some young up and coming starters in the minors. Let’s nurture them and get them in the mix. SU is much more comfortable going that route.
- Luke Voit is a great hitter but his fielding is pretty scary. He is a great DH. So, here is the dilemma. You don’t need to clog up your roster with Stanton and his $30 million salary when you are now managing to a payroll budget. You do not need the extra 15 home runs and 30 rbis that he provides over some other solid player. SU won’t kill him for coming up short again in the 9th inning last night as I had no expectations. My only hope there was that he didn’t hit into a double play and kill the rally. In any rally situation, my hope was to sustain the inning and maneuver around his expected lack of production. Fine – he is who he is in the clutch. There is still a chance to move him in the off-season and eat some of his salary. SU is not saying Bird is the answer as he may not be cut out for NY. But Clint Frazier is ready, Gardner is a free agent and he may move on. Cashman has some interesting decisions.
CC blasted Angel Hernandez after the game but I thought he called a perfectly fine game for both teams. Was this CC’s last game? Sanchez came close in the 9th inning – put together an excellent at bat there. SU would give him one more year to turn it around. He may be ready now to make some adjustments.
Bottom line: SU enjoyed the first half of the season – a lot. But the second half was a grind – perhaps it was the injury to Judge. You have to design a team that can get past Houston and Boston. The Red Sox put the ball in play. They had some flare hits last night but there was constant pressure with people on base. That is the formula. SU says batting average still matters as does hitting with RISP. The all right-handed line up is not the way to go. Get some balance for next season.
OK, let’s hear from you. SU is disappointed but by no means devastateted. I just did not see this roster as being championship material. The team has actually regressed from last year. If you are managing to a payroll, Stanton is a big problem.
Sports Update Intergalactic 
Feast or Famine gave us 100 wins. During the first half of the season we were 30 games above 500 with a team batting average 15 points higher. Our ERA remained about the same. So why did we only go +8 in the second half? Timely hitting and timely pitching. They both played a big role during the first half as well as they almost completely backfired in the 2nd half. I guess the law of averages caught up to us. There’s your feast and famine saga.
I do blame Stanton for his entire underachieving year. He left 15 runners on base during the playoffs. I repeat… 15 runners. I won’t even ask how many runners he left on base during the season as compared to others. I’m sure its way up there. It almost felt like whoever the Yanks put in the 4 hole that person would be guaranteed to drive in 100 runs. So when you look at his numbers… yes he did have 37 homers… not bad…. but do you know how many strikeouts he had as well. Do you want someone on your team who hits 37 homers and strikes out over 30% of the time….210+ times. JD Martinez had as many at batts but only struck out 150 times … 19% of the time. Oh yeah he also had 30+ more rbi’s and 6-7 more homers. I did not check both the number of walks they had but I’m guessing JD had more.
The bullpen gave up 1 run in 6 innings…. that is very good. Could we use a real ace… as Severino is definitely not a #1 pitcher. Picking up 2 dependable pitchers, getting rid of Stanton, working with Voit at first base and hoping that Clint Frazier will be an additional spark for the team… and releasing CC and Grey and we are set for 2019.
I’m sticking with 103 wins…. hey, I was only off by 3 this year.
PS We were one swing away from tying it up or even winning when our $30mm man got to the plate. I’m sure both your Report and my response would have been different IF ________________.
PSS With the Knicks an unknown commodity, the Rangers off to an 0-3 start and the Giants probably battling more with OBJ than on the field soon…. our focus should be on the UConn Lady Huskies.
I must agree. Sonny Gray was a major disappointment and did not even pitch in the playoffs. He was healthy all year too so that was a key to the pitching staff coming up short. They had a few chances last night – Hicks just missed a home run down the line and Sanchez was 10 feet short in the 9th. But the offense is not built to win these playoff games as currently structured.
Sadly, this defines the season. Whether or not the ball left the park. There’s nothing wrong with scoring that way. But how many HRs did the Red Sox hit? Same as the Yankees. But they scored 13 more runs over 4 games.
Interesting that it came down to weak starting pitching, which was the concern from Spring Training.
I got the sense that the Red Sox stats team is once again ahead of the rest of the league. The game changed thanks to statistical analysis. Strategy changed. Fielders are shifting. Pitching styles have changed. Batters swings have changed. This has been league-wide for about a decade. And while most teams seem to think they’ve adapted and they’re done, the Red Sox have gone and reacted to this. They hit against the shift. They take the extra base. They steal. Whatever it is, they seem to be a step ahead.
That said, the Red Sox do not look like world beaters. Despite their record, I don’t see them as the favorite against the Astros.
As for the Yankees, they didn’t embarrass themselves. Judge continues to look like a superstar. Boone proved to be a decent manager. I preferred Girardi but Boone is not a disaster. Sanchez seemed to have turned things around but balls were dropping out of his glove yesterday and there was one pitch that he didn’t even see coming. This was after near flawless catching in the previous playoff games. Something is wrong with him. SU diagnosed an eyesight problem and this would explain the hitting and catching decline. I hope he’s having this checked. Stanton needs to go. I like him but he’s not the right guy for this team. He got from 0-0 to 0-2 so quickly in so many at bats. He struck out in the 9th when Kimbrel really only threw him one strike. And Kimbrel’s problems were no mystery at that point. He was in the middle of walking or hitting everybody. I know Stanton is paid to tie the game up at that point but he didn’t give himself a chance. Cashman should spend the winter figuring out how to move Stanton and get something in return. He’s a superstar and if the Marlins and Yankees are paying portions of his salary, could be very attractive to a lot of teams.
I like Ron Darling a lot. I cannot stand him on these broadcasts. He applies so much certainty to every comment and observations. This style may work when you follow a team all season. When you’re doing the national broadcast, you can’t talk like you know everything about every player. I guess this may fly with the casual fan but if you watch the full season, it’s brutal to listen to him.
We don’t need a lot. CC and Gardner are gone. Maybe sign Happ to short contract–he eats innings. Give Gray one more year (cant get much for him anyway on the market). Go get a starter or two, Keuchel would be a good number 1 or 2. Personally would love Kershaw but that’s just because, as a fan he is Sandy Koufax to me and Sandy went to my high-school (before my time) and was a Sports god in Brooklyn. Stanton is not going anywhere, maybe bat him 8th in front of Sanchez next year. Voit and Andujar need to get better defensively otherwise we have two more DH candidates. Bird gets one more shot to put together a full year coming out of camp. Need a big left handed bat either for DH or as 4th outfielder (calling David Justice, Reggie Jackson, Oscar Gamble,)
Hoped for a little more luck like last year but not disappointed with the year. Boston and Houston are really good, well balanced teams so nothing to be ashamed of.
Stanton would love to go to LA so maybe there is some play there for a trade. Think that Voit can be made serviceable at first- how many years did Giambi play there? Definitely need to shore up the starting pitching- also have a lot of free agents so next year the roster could be very different.
oh by the way if we don’t make it to the World Series next year, it will be the first decade since we acquired Ruth that we didn’t get there. The eighties was the only decade we didn’t win a World Series (lost to Dodgers in 81)
Howard, how have the Yankees not replaced Cashman at this point? This is one of the worst runs in Yankee history. Since 2001, the Sox have won 3 and we’ve one 1. Would George have replaced him years ago? Feels like Cashman has some dirt on somebody.
Josh, it’s funny but this year in particular, Cashman has gotten more praise than any year that I can recall. He is being hailed for restocking the farm system quickly by trading off some pieces the last couple of years. Andujar, Torres, Clint Frazier, Judge, Didi, Severino. I have been down on him in the past (during the boring Chase Headley era) but I would have to agree that they are primed for a long and sustained run now. The reality is that once you get into the playoffs in baseball, it’s a crap shoot. They won 100 games this year. I think 2019 will be the break through year for them with a couple of tweaks that many on this blog have mentioned. They need to do it soon before certain players become free agents. There has been a drought but much reason for optimism now for the future.
But Cashman didn’t make the big move to get the starting pitching they need. He tried Gray and Happ, which were both failures (Gray probably more so than Happ), but again failed to make the move Houston made for Verlander and the Cubs made for Chapman to get it done. I think 1 World Series since 2001 is unacceptable in New York and if George were around, they would have moved on from Cashman years ago. He isn’t a bad GM and has made a lot of great moves to rebuild the farm system, but there have certainly been better GM’s out there who have done more with less. The formula hasn’t really changed that much since we went on our run in the 90’s. We had solid starting pitchers that were all gamers in the postseason and scrappy, unselfish contact hitters that could play small ball. We went away from that in the 2000s with Giambi, A-Rod, Tex, Sheffield, etc. and it hasn’t worked. Houston, LA and the Red Sox have seemed to figure it out. It’s like the NY Giants thinking that as long as we have great skill position players, it doesn’t matter how terrible our O-Line is. The formula works and by trading for Stanton, Cashman blatantly disregarded the formula and fell into the A-Rod trap all over again. Other towns may accept it because they are still very competitive, but I like to think New York is different and I’m surprised that more people aren’t calling for his job. If Girardi lost his job after being so close to the World Series last year, then how is Cashman any less accountable after losing in 4 in the ALDS to the Red Sox?