So, explain this to me. Gary Sanchez, who was out since July 23rd, had been in a terrible slump at the time of his injury (as mentioned by SU at the time). He plays 2 games in his rehab assignment and you have to rush him back and put him in at clean-up today? Aaron Boone does this all the time. Players who come back off the IL (of which there have been many this year) are never given a chance to ease their way back into things. Rather, let’s put them in the middle of things so that they can screw up the line up for several games until they regain their footing.
It makes no sense to SU. Austin Romine has been on a tear and Higashioka had 3 home runs in his time as a back up. Clearly, Sanchez is the best hitter of the three but….. he also is stubbornly hitting only to left field again and striking out at a high rate. Romine has been on fire. Why not let Sanchez play several games in rehab to regain his timing? Of course, he may go out and hit 2 home runs today and Boone will look like a genius. It just does not seem like he is setting him up to succeed. He is also batting just 2 spots behind Judge who is in a bad slump of his own. SU is worried about Judge. Since returning from the oblique, he has not hit with much power. You wonder if he has tinkered with his swing to account for the oblique. Something to watch.
Jonathan Holder, who was extended into a 3rd inning the other night, is now on the IL with shoulder inflammation. SU says you can say it’s bad luck this year — to a point — but at some point it’s mismanagement of the talent by the coaches and the training staff. Gleyber Torres should also probably be on the IL – SU is wondering what they will do with him and his core injury.
Meanwhile, the Mets are on a tear and back in the wild card hunt. That will be the best race this year as the NL has several teams close in record for the wild cards slots. But that’s baseball. A manager can go from being on the hot seat to now being safe again. Joe Girardi is on hold for the moment – at least until the off season.
Sports Update Intergalactic 
It would be cool had someone predicted the Mets’ hot streak…
If you are in your 20’s or even early 30’s and you can’t throw 3 innings that’s ridiculous. It’s probably more the working out in the gym more than the actual throwing which causes the injury. Unless the communication has gotten better over these past 30 years I don’t recall that many injuries back in the day.
Time to take at least 3 out of 4 before the competition picks up. Lets get to 40+ above 500 as we enter September…then all we have to do is go +4 to reach 105 wins.
It seems the stats guys have dictated a style of play that is all-or-nothing. Everybody is throwing as hard as they can and swinging as hard as they can and the result is a whole lot of injuries. GMs are going to have to start viewing players like the NFL where just about everyone (who isn’t a quaterback) is replaceable. The long term challenge here for baseball is going to be that baseball that guaranteed contracts don’t really match up well with this reality.
Can the SU research team provide some perspective on the number of legacy major leaguers on the Blue Jays. I count Bichette, Guerrero and Biggio. That seems like a lot.