Thanks to a generous friend, I’m taking my kid and two of her friends to tonight’s game and have great seats. Literally crawling out of my skin with excitement about what I think will be a very competitive game as preseason goes. BTW if any of you in the NY area want to take a “casual” fan or a young kid to a game but not pay typical premiums, preseason is an excellent choice…the ambiance at MSG is pretty close to the real thing.
That’s great, Z-man. Although it’s preseason, it should be fun too. I hope it’s a great game 😉
Thibs kind of lost me with the Bridges incident last year….while maybe Mikal should not have spoken about minutes the way he did, for Thibs to both publicly say that they never spoke about it, and to be as dismissive about a respected player having a very logical concern, really rubbed me the wrong way.
Typical case of “he should have built bridges, not burn ’em”. LOL
But i still love Thibs, he brought us back to respectability and i will never forget it.
There’s no sin in appreciating Thibs for having raised both our floor and our ceiling, even as we all understand that the ceiling needed to get higher than he could probably go. Will Brown be that guy? I hope so. To me, it’s less about the “players’ coach” thing, since a bunch of guys on the team — especially our best player — loved Thibs. (Though obviously some strong disliked his style.) It’s more about his willingness to be flexible with lineups and style of play. I don’t know that he or his assistants will turn out to be absolute master tacticians. But given the talent level of our top 7 guys, simply having a staff that actually follows the “the game tells you what to do” philosophy, rather than paying lip service to it while stubbornly sticking to the same plan at almost all times, could work wonders.
At least, that is my hope.
Bummed but not surprised about the Yankees. Toronto was the better team over the course of a season, they had a very good offense in their own right, Cashman has made the lineup really top-heavy, Boone is extremely limited tactically, etc.
Yet I’d be shocked if Hal seriously considers replacing either of them. Making the playoffs every year seems enough for him.
Variance is just very high in baseball. The 2023 Arizona Diamondbacks, a mediocre 84 win wild card team, knocked off the 100 win LA Dodgers in three games. Was that because of Arizona’s October-optimized roster, or was it because fluky shit happens constantly in baseball playoffs?
You’re right, JK. That’s variance.
And then the Dodgers hit the cover off the ball in in 2024 and 2025. Because that’s how variance works.
I’m not talking about one series. I’m talking about 12 series across 6 postseasons (2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2024, 2025). 52 games. A large sample.
The Yankees have posted a BA & OPS that would have ranked last in the AL in 7 out of the 12 series (and it would have been 8 if they didn’t score 7 runs after Toronto invoked the mercy rule in game 2).
They’ve posted an OPS above the league average just 3 times in 12 postseason series (twice because of Juan Soto last year, who represented a one-time departure from their failed philosophy; and once against the Twins in 2019).
If it were variance, JK, occasionally they’d hit.
This is a failed organizational approach to hitting and player acquisition. That’s why it never varies.
The 2022 Yankees were the epitome of Cashman’s failed philosophy.
They were 2nd in the AL with a .751 OPS, loaded with high OPS guys who couldn’t get their bat on the ball: Rizzo (.224 BA), Donaldson (.222), Hicks (.216), Gallo (.159!), Stanton (.211).
In the ALDS they hit .182 with a .643 OPS against the Guardians.
In the ALCS they hit .163 with a .502 OPS against Houston.
That’s not variance, dude. That lineup was born to swing and miss. It was the most predictable thing ever.
Fluky shit has happened to the Yankees with remarkable consistancy the past 25 years and when they had a team that batted +/- .280 fluky shit seldom happened.
Do you not understand that no teams bat .280 anymore?
Remember the 2000 Yankees? The ones that beat the Mets in the World Series? They were 10th in MLB in the thing you believe is the most important statistic, which is batting average. They batted .277. League batting average that year was .270.
The 2025 Yankees, guess where they ranked in batting average, Bob? They ranked tenth! Just like the world champion 2000 Yankees. They batted .251 as a team. League batting average was .245.
It’s actually pretty common for teams to win the World Series and rank 10th or lower in batting average. The 2022 Astros, 2021 Braves, 2020 Dodgers, 2016 Cubs, 2014 Giants, 2010 Giants, 2008 Phillies, 2005 White Sox, and 2000 Yankees all did it this century. That’s 9 out of 25 WS winners. Another 3 teams ranked 8th, so if you want to expand the definition to “above average but not elite batting average” that’s about half of all World Series winners this century that qualify.
In the same period 10 champions ranked in the top 5.
Bob’s being unnecessarily snarky and it’s distracting from the issue.
There’s nothing wrong with a TTO approach to baseball.
It’s about Cashman’s willingness to systematically overlook contact, defense, situational hitting, IQ, and base running if you can post a high OPS.
It’s the baseball equivalent of teaching to the test.
Okay now do the 1990’s-2000’s Atlanta Braves. How did they manage to win only one title in 15 years of dominant regular season baseball? I don’t seem to remember entitled Atlanta Braves fans blaming that on John Schuerholz.
Was the strategy of having pitching staffs full of Hall of Fame pitchers a bad October strategy? Those were well balanced teams that could hit and pitch. Yet every year except one, they got eliminated. What’s the explanation of that?
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You keep avoiding everything I’m saying to make random points about variance that have nothing to do with my position.
I believe in variance. This isn’t variance because it hasn’t varied.
I look at baseball playoff series as coin flips. Flip a coin 10 times, you might get wild results like heads or tails 8 out of 10. You might need a lot more coinflips for things to even out. And each playoff
season is a new set of coin flips.
That’s my deep, complex explanation for the 90’s-00’s Braves.
🙂
The Atlanta Braves were 52-44 (.541 win %) in the postseason from 1991-1999. They consistently hit and pitched in the postseason within a reasonable range of their league position. They were really good. They lost a couple of heartbreakers. Only winning one World Series is just unlucky.
The Yankees are 26-29 (.473) in the postseason since adopting this approach. They’ve consistently hit like the worst team in baseball, consistently played terrible defense, consistently failed to hit with RISP, and consistently made baserunning blunders.
When they lost to the Blue Jays this year, the Dodgers last year, the Astros in 2022, and the Red Sox in 2018, no one walked away thinking “that was close.” They were humiliating, predictable, one-sided losses.
Comparing them to the 90’s Braves is ludicrous.
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It’s not ludicrous. Just inconvenient to your narrative.
Do you not understand that no teams bat .280 anymore?
Did you not read the link I included when Jeter completely agreed that the Yankees philosophical approach to line up construction was azz?
“Derek Jeter cut through the modern spin. “I’m so tired of them telling me and telling America that batting average is overrated. RBI is overrated. Contact’s overrated,” he said. “Well, if you think winning the World Championship is overrated, then sure.”
Ortiz agreed with his fellow analysts. He pointed out that Toronto’s approach wasn’t about swinging for the fences but finding ways to score in every situation. “Contact, timely hitting, that’s for titles,” Ortiz said.
The panel praised Toronto for investing heavily in Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who signed a record extension before the season. Guerrero’s all-around offensive game set the tone.
“He’s a great hitter that happens to have power,” Ortiz said, contrasting Guerrero’s balance with New York’s lineup construction around Aaron Judge.
The Yankees are 26-29 (.473) in the postseason since adopting this approach.
FWIW while Bob is talking about 25 years… I’m just talking about the Boone era, in which the player development and acquisition strategy has been unique.
Cashman’s teams in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2011, and 2012 all could have won World Series and were just unlucky not to. Those teams compare reasonably to the 90’s Braves.
The teams of the Boone era (from 2018 on) have not been unlucky.
It’s not ludicrous. Just inconvenient to your narrative.
You’ve said nothing about my “narrative” yet. You’ve been responding to Bob, whose argument is slightly different and easier to counter, and talking about the Atlanta Braves.
I miss RAB on days like these but its time to just focus on Knicks basketball. I feel like I’m back in middle school October 1993 waiting for my real chance of rooting for a championship team with Knicks season about to start, I must be in the Twilight Zone….
The Yankees are 26-29 (.473) in the postseason since adopting this approach. They’ve consistently hit like the worst team in baseball, consistently played terrible defense, consistently failed to hit with RISP, and consistently made baserunning blunders.
The Yankees led the 2024 playoffs with a 116 wRC+, led the 2020 playoffs with a 131 wRC+, and led the 2019 playoffs with a 102 wRC+.
They definitely underperformed in 2017 (7th), 2018 (4th), 2021 (7th), and 2022 (10th), but isn’t that consistent with the idea that all you can really do is put together the best team possible and hope for the best?
The Yankees’ team BA was .251 this season. The Dodgers, who are the odds on favorite to repeat, hit .253.
Am I to believe one of these is the result of rigorous, postseason centric roster construction, while the other represents a failed approach?
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Sorry but I don’t give a shit about Derek Jeter’s hagiography of himself in which he spouts the hoariest of baseball cliches.
There just isn’t a lot of difference between a .600 team and a .500 team in baseball. On sheer brute force odds the .600 team beats the .500 team in a single game 54% of the time. You get to the playoffs, that flattens even more as all the teams are in a smaller bandwith of quality. That narrow bandwith is doing like 80% of the lifting when it comes to which team wins the title. You get enough of your pitchers who have good stuff that day, or you get some BABIP luck in your favor, that matters too. Does it help to have good situational hitting or hitters who can make contact. Sure, at the margins. But a spit in the ocean compared to brute force variance. The Yankees and Blue Jays had the same record this year.
As time progresses it gets harder to have consistent playoff success, and in the Yankees’ case it’s not because they prioritize TTO and launch angle. It’s because EVERY TEAM prioritizes those things and it levels the playing field. The Yankees got outhomered 9-4 in that series.
We haven’t even discussed the elephant in the room, which is the Yankees’ pitching. It got clobbered every game. Schlitter did okay but other than that nobody was really able to record very many outs. It wasn’t a particularly good pitching staff in the regular season either, ranked about middle of the pack in WAR. Runs are usually scarce in the postseason, and I don’t care how many Derek Jeters you have, you ain’t winning shit if your pitching has an 8.00 ERA. It’s just very odd to harp on the team’s hitting after a series in which they were literally giving up almost a run per inning.
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I thought 2018 and 2019 were the years Yankees should’ve won it all. 2018 was tough because of how good Boston and Houston were but that Yankees roster going into the postseason was great and after they won Game 2 in Fenway I thought they were on their way before shitting the bed in Games 3 and 4.
2019 after winning Game 1 in Houston by absolutely smoking them I definitely thought it was their year but they just didn’t have the starting pitching that year with only Tanaka and Paxton healthy plus there were a decent amount of other injuries to the roster that didn’t have them at full capacity going into the playoffs. But they won 103 games in regular season and looked dominant winning their first 4 playoff games but Houston was unfortunately a damn good fucking team too.
The Yankees led the 2024 playoffs with a 116 wRC
Yes, I noted 2024 above. Cashman notably departed from his player acquisition strategy when he added Juan Soto, and it made a major difference. This exception supports my argument.
led the 2019 playoffs with a 102 wRC+
I noted 2019, as well. They dominated the Minnesota Twins in the ALDS.
led the 2020 playoffs with a 131 wRC+
The entire 2020 MLB season was random and is inadmissible.
Yankees starting pitchers had the 4th best ERA in baseball this year, it was the bullpen that killed them during the regular season.
Lol, that Jeter/Ortiz discussion is just Phil Jackson asking “How’s it goink?” over and over again.
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2019 after winning Game 1 in Houston by absolutely smoking them I definitely thought it was their year but they just didn’t have the starting pitching that year with only Tanaka and Paxton healthy plus there were a decent amount of other injuries to the roster that didn’t have them at full capacity going into the playoffs. But they won 103 games in regular season and looked dominant winning their first 4 playoff games but Houston was unfortunately a damn good fucking team too.
This is it! This is the exact moment when I became aware of what I’m talking about now. Game 2, specifically. (And at that point, keep in mind I’m still as big a Yankees fan as you are today.)
The lineup was incredible through 3 games against Minnesota and in game 1 against Grienke. I thought for sure they’d win the WS. But it wasn’t the pitching that did them in after that. It was the lineup. (Hicks got hurt, IIRC, and that was a big deal bc he didn’t suck yet.)
Against Verlander the top-heavy part of the lineup would get on base but then up would come Edwin Encarnacion batting cleanup and he couldn’t get his bat on a Verlander pitch to save his life.
Then Gardner would get on base, because Gardner can control a bat. And up would come Gary fucking Sanchez to swing and miss at everything.
And then Verlander would get to rest against the bottom of the order because Urshela, Maybin, and Didi weren’t going to get on base if you gave them a million PAs.
Losing that game in extra innings was the turning point of the whole era. They should have won that game and the World Series. And the reason they didn’t is the exact stuff I’m talking about right now. Edwin Encarnacion. Gary Sanchez. Gio Urshela. That’s the type! Automatic outs in those spots, every time. We never should have gone into the playoffs needing those guys to hit.
And instead of going away from those guys, we keep finding new ones. Three years later we had even more of them! Rizzo, Donaldson, Gallo, Higashioka, Peraza, IKF. That was insulting. I literally felt insulted that Brian Cashman thought we were stupid enough to think this would work. And that is when I started hating Brian Cashman and his approach to lineup building. In the 2022 ALCS.
“Derek Jeter cut through the modern spin. “I’m so tired of them telling me and telling America that batting average is overrated. RBI is overrated. Contact’s overrated,” he said. “Well, if you think winning the World Championship is overrated, then sure.”
I really miss Fire Joe Morgan. That was a really healthy outlet for me. These days I have to be my own poor man’s Ken Tremendous.
1
Why do people see eveything in all or nothing terms these days?
There can be a lot of randomess to baseball playoff results (there is) and also be ways to construct a team to reduce it (there are).
No matter what you’ll still get playoff upsets and even some shocking results because the gaps between teams are not large enough to dominate and the duration of a playoff series is relatively short, but certain team constructions will reduce or exacerbate the problem.
All you can do is try to build the best team possible to deal with both the demands of the regular season and the playoffs and hope to get a little lucky. But if you keep failing the same way in the playoffs, it’s time to take a look and what you are building and make sure it’s the best approach for the playoffs.
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But if you keep failing the same way in the playoffs
As noted, the Yankees have had recent playoff runs in which they hit very well and were failed by their pitching, they’ve had runs where the opposite happened, they’ve had runs where both the offense and run prevention flopped, and they’ve had runs where both have performed well but they still came up short because That’s Baseball, Suzyn.
Much as people would like for there to be some glaringly obvious way in which the Yankees are not optimizing for the playoffs, the data just isn’t there.
Back in 2019 I was still a Cashman guy and blamed it all on Hal. I figured it was his fault they stuck with Sanchez instead of signing Realmuto that year (a move that probably would have won them at least one WS). But it’s 6 years later and we’re still going after the same guys. There’s nothing about a budget that forces you to typecast.
As noted, the Yankees have had recent playoff runs in which they hit very well and were failed by their pitching
It may have been noted, but it was false.
There has not been one single postseason series since 2017 in which the Yankees hit well and were failed by their pitching.
Al’s recollection of the 2019 ALCS is wrong. The Yankees batted .214 with a .673 OPS, both of which would have ranked last in the AL that year. (And that includes an offensive explosion in game 1; their bats went completely silent after.)
In 5 of the 6 series the Yankees lost, they hit extremely poorly. The only exception was the World Series against the Dodgers, and the pitching was pretty good in that series other than that bum Rodon.
JT Realmuto has a .661 career OPS in the postseason. Somehow I don’t think that was the guy standing between the Yankees and immortality.
Facing Verlander and Cole 3 times in the next 5 games had a little something to do with the Yankees struggling on offense. Greinke wasn’t no picnic either although by 2019 he wasn’t anywhere near his previous Cy Young level.
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As noted, the Yankees have had recent playoff runs in which they hit very well and were failed by their pitching, they’ve had runs where the opposite happened, they’ve had runs where both the offense and run prevention flopped, and they’ve had runs where both have performed well but they still came up short because That’s Baseball, Suzyn.
Much as people would like for there to be some glaringly obvious way in which the Yankees are not optimizing for the playoffs, the data just isn’t there.
Again, there is unavoidable randomness to baseball results just like in other sports. That includes regular season and playoffs baseball.
However, imo the playoffs are also a moderately different game and so is a short series as opposed to 162 games.
In a short series CONSISTENCY matters more than during a 162 game season.
The Celtics would have beaten our brains out last year in a 20 game series, but they couldn’t hit a key 3 in a couple game and we escaped with a couple of upset wins andn the series. Their approach was begging for greater volatility and it cost them.
The series you are describing probably contained quite a bit of random luck, but you are also describing very inconsistent results.
You have to ask, how are you generating your runs?
You have to ask, do you have all or nothing type pitchers?
It’s not how you build or randomness. It’s BOTH.
It’s not just hitting or pitching. It’s BOTH.
You don’t just want to build a team to maximize net runs over 162 games.
To the degree you can, you also want less volatility in your run production from game to game. More difficult, would be more consistent pitchers.
In 5 of the 6 series the Yankees lost, they hit extremely poorly.
…don’t you see the selection bias issue here? Yes, teams will tend to not look so hot if you only look at data from series they lost. Why is offensive data from series they won not equally as valid?
I’m still seeing nothing indicating the Yankees underperform in the playoffs to a degree not explainable by noise, and that isn’t regularly experienced by other teams.
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But it was your selection; you claimed there were times they lost when they hit well.
I included all the data earlier:
The Yankees have posted a BA & OPS that would have ranked last in the AL in 7 out of the 12 series (and it would have been 8 if they didn’t score 7 runs after Toronto invoked the mercy rule in game 2).
They’ve posted an OPS above the league average just 3 times in 12 postseason series (twice because of Juan Soto last year, who represented a one-time departure from their failed philosophy; and once against the Twins in 2019).
So you have 12 series total. 56 games. And you’ve entered all of them with a good regular season offense.
In 8 of the 12, you’ve hit extremely poorly, well below the level of every team in baseball.
In 3 of the 12, you’ve been average, well below your regular season standard.
And in 1 series (3 games, out of 56), you’ve hit well.
But you insist there is no data that suggests this may be a real thing.
I was talking about performance over the course of the entire playoff runs as to avoid the selection bias issue, but in any event, is there any indication the Yankees’ offensive underperformance relative to regular season baseline is unusual among MLB teams?
As best I can tell, teams usually drop off to some extent and the name of the game is limiting it.
OPS goes down in the postseason for pretty much everybody. You might get an occasional outlier team that matches or exceeds their regular season OPS, but for reasons that should be obvious, league wide OPS takes a substantial dip in the postseason. Occasiojally you’ll see a series like Yankees-Blue Jays were one team lights up the other one for eight runs per game, but that’s not the norm. The typical drop in OPS is something like 40 to 50 points.
i think we have a preseason game against the wolves tonite right
It might make some sense to just look at the standard deviation of the Yamkees runs scored (and against) in the regular season vs other high level teams just to see if they have a less consistent team than some of the other contenders.
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JT Realmuto has a .661 career OPS in the postseason. Somehow I don’t think that was the guy standing between the Yankees and immortality.
As best I can tell, teams usually drop off to some extent and the name of the game is limiting it.
Yes and this is a discussion about identifying the cause of their systemic failure to limit it.
OPS goes down in the postseason for pretty much everybody.
But it has gone down to worse-than-the-worst-lineup-in-the-league in 66% of all series. That doesn’t happen for pretty much everyone
JT’s AAV is $23M. So you get a couple hundred points of playoff OPS for that $23M.
That’s $23M you now can’t spend on something else. Unless of course we’re assuming that the Yankees have no upper budget limit.
ChatGPT vomitted, but Grok gave it try.
I can’t format the output well here and I’m not sure how much it matters anyway, but here are the standard deviations of runs scored by team. Yankees 2.45 vs league 2.18
I’ve listed them below in alphabetical order by team abbreviation, along with each team’s mean runs per game ($\mu_i$) for context. Values are rounded to two decimal places. The league-wide average standard deviation is 2.18, as previously noted.
TeamAbbr. Mean Runs/Game ($\mu_i$) Std. Dev. ($\sigma_i$)Arizona DiamondbacksARI4.882.35Atlanta BravesATL4.472.12Baltimore OriolesBAL4.182.05Boston Red SoxBOS4.852.28Chicago CubsCHC4.902.42Chicago White SoxCHW4.001.98Cincinnati RedsCIN4.422.15Cleveland GuardiansCLE3.971.92Colorado RockiesCOL3.692.01Detroit TigersDET4.682.25Houston AstrosHOU4.232.08Kansas City RoyalsKC4.021.95Los Angeles AngelsLAA4.152.03Los Angeles DodgersLAD5.092.38Miami MarlinsMIA4.382.14Milwaukee BrewersMIL4.982.31Minnesota TwinsMIN4.192.06New York MetsNYM4.732.26New York YankeesNYY5.242.45Oakland AthleticsOAK4.522.18Philadelphia PhilliesPHI4.802.29Pittsburgh PiratesPIT3.601.89San Diego PadresSD4.332.11San Francisco GiantsSF4.352.13Seattle MarinersSEA4.732.24St. Louis CardinalsSTL4.252.09Tampa Bay RaysTB4.412.16Texas RangersTEX4.222.07Toronto Blue JaysTOR4.932.32Washington NationalsWSH4.242.10
These standard deviations capture the game-to-game variability in each team’s offensive output, with higher values indicating more inconsistent scoring (e.g., “feast or famine” patterns). Teams like the Yankees and Cubs show higher volatility, while lower-scoring teams like the Pirates have slightly lower deviations. If you’d like visualizations, calculations for runs allowed, or comparisons to prior seasons, let me know!
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FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE STOP ARGUING ABOUT BASEBALL!!!!
Folks…Jalen Brunson plays basketball today @ the garden.
One of my favorite sports-related activities is watching Yankee fans eat their own.
Interestingly we have a bunch of Mets fans on here, but it seems we’re all curled up in our respective corners licking our wounds.
But unlike Swiftie, don’t take this as a suggestion to stop. I’m enjoying it as a visceral flagellation ceremony sort of akin to tatbir, plus it raises some interesting points I don’t usually bother to think about (mostly because I don’t care, but it’s still interesting…).
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From my understanding, Mets fans have the same discussions too. It’s just that they’re usually in the months before October!
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One of my favorite sports-related activities is watching Yankee fans eat their own.
Cool story but that’s not happening. For one thing, JK47 is a Mets fan. For another, I may be arguing passionately with him, Noble, and Al but we are all people who can disagree with each other respectfully. Even BBA’s quips about me are just good natured ribbing. I thought his one about sticking to my basketball takes was hilarious.
JT’s AAV is $23M. So you get a couple hundred points of playoff OPS for that $23M.
That’s $23M you now can’t spend on something else. Unless of course we’re assuming that the Yankees have no upper budget limit.
That 2019 Yankees team was really close, and Sanchez is the epitome of what I’m talking about: a terrible defensive player, dumb on the base paths, couldn’t hit situationally to save his life, but we carried him anyway because sometimes he would crush a mistake.
He batted .130 in the ALCS against Houston, struck out 12 times in 23 ABs, and probably left a dozen runners in scoring position.
Swap him for Realmuto’s bat, gold glove, and pitch framing in 2019 and I feel very confident suggesting the Yankees would have beaten that Astros team and won the World Series.
(Of course the transaction that would have really swung that series — and the 2017 ALCS — would have been claiming Verlander off of waivers before he fell to Houston. But we just had to get under the luxury tax that year.)
“Folks…Jalen Brunson plays basketball today @ the garden.”
yeah i basically already mentioned that about 45 minutes earlier than you did but it didnt quell the yankees talk not that i thought it would
Gary Sanchez was the starting Catcher for the AL in the 2019 All-Star game!
Don’t worry I’ll be watching the Knicks game tonight, pretty sad that I prefer to watch a Knicks preseason game over the Giants Eagles game…
Jealous of Z-man and the kids. Tonight’s game is probably more informative than at least the first 15 regular season games. Looking for the little stuff that Brown values. Given his proximity, expect nothing less than an in depth analysis. No rush…
Sanchez had a pre-arb contract and made $670k that year. He had 3 and 4 WAR seasons at age 23 and 24, was injured at 25, and was an All-Star at 26. You can kind of understand why they didn’t think catcher was a hole that needed to be filled with an 8 year commitment to JT Realmuto.
@shamsbot.bsky.social
Lakers star LeBron James is sidelined for at least 3 to 4 weeks due to sciatica on his right side. He is out for the start of the 2025-26 NBA season.
He was a terrible catcher. They were talking about moving on from him as early as 2017. Keeping him was a huge mistake that may have saved them money but likely cost them at least one WS.
…and just for the record, Hubie, I meant eating Yankee players and entire teams, not the people you’re arguing with.
Do carry on…
Oh, cool. I’m ravenous for that.
BTW the most interesting thing Jeter said last night was not the stuff Bob highlighted earlier but this: “Look, I’m pretty sure Aaron’s not the one that’s calling every move they make throughout the game.”
Derek Jeter’s not some fan on the internet. I don’t think he would have said that if he didn’t know it was true.
@jledwardsiii.bsky.social
Mike Brown said Josh Hart (illness) won’t play tonight.
BTW the most interesting thing Jeter said last night was not the stuff Bob highlighted earlier but this: “Look, I’m pretty sure Aaron’s not the one that’s calling every move they make throughout the game.”
Derek Jeter’s not some fan on the internet. I don’t think he would have said that if he didn’t know it was true.
I don’t think he was breaking any news there. It is everyone’s default position. In other news, the sky is blue, Breaking news at 11!
I think we all know Cashman plays a major role in the lineup card but I didn’t think he was making decisions in the game.
Sanchez had a pre-arb contract and made $670k that year. He had 3 and 4 WAR seasons at age 23 and 24, was injured at 25, and was an All-Star at 26. You can kind of understand why they didn’t think catcher was a hole that needed to be filled with an 8 year commitment to JT Realmuto.
The Sanchez decision in 2019 was actually a mirror of the Volpe decision now. Volpe’s pre-arb, makes $900k, had a 3+ WAR seasons at 22 & 23, was injured this season. Literally a mirror. You can kind of understand why someone might think SS isn’t a hole right now, but just like C in 2019, it is one of the biggest needs on the team next year.
There is a massive, major difference between Sanchez and Volpe: Volpe will be 25 next year and has never been able to hit big league pitching. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to dream on him anymore. Sanchez had already put up a full season of a 131 wRC+ at Volpe’s age and had mashed to the tune of 170 the year before that in a half season.
Volpe is similar to the Mets’ Brett Baty— a blue chip prospect who stalled at the MLB level. They gave Baty another chance this year and he ended up being a decent regular, but he was penciled in behind Vientos at the start of the season.
I’m not going to put in writing the things I would do if it ensured a healthy Mitch this year.
I’m all for shooting more 3s but I hate watching offense when the first somewhat available 3pt attempt is immediately fired up and misses.
Kat making dumb…lazy passess….check
Yabu in the Garden. Sounds like a children’s book…
Yahhhhhh……booooo
That’s already more synergy than Brunson and KAT showed all last season
Oh yeah, that’s why Randle was so infuriating
Definitely some growing pains with this offense
I’m not going to put in writing the things I would do if it ensured a healthy Mitch this year.
If Mitch is healthy all playoffs, including the Finals 😉 , i’ll go on a pilgrimage on foot to Fatima*.
*it’s a big sanctuary/cathedral here in Portugal, around 120 miles from Porto.
We speculate about how Brown’s system can improve the offense but we might be underestimating how much he can also improve the defense. Looks like they won’t be as rigid to defensive principles and pre-help like with Thibs and be allowed to play more freely and instinctive on defense.
What a sequence. This team can be scary good
Yabu in the Garden. Sounds like a children’s book…
LOL
That Clarkson shot was infuriating.
I wonder how very many times I’ll be saying that this season…
Clarkson Clarksoning a little too hard there
Now a good pass from Clarkson
This team already looks much better than last year’s team. Yabu and JC are a big improvement over Achiuwa and Payne.
I know it’s early in the third game of the preseason, but if Mitch holds up I’m putting him down for DPOY. I mean, he’s in the middle of virtually every defensive play, just blowing things up constantly or grabbing misses.
14 3PAs in the first quarter. I can’t believe my eyes.
Robinson should have a much better season as long as he stays healthy. He also needs to gain confidence at the line. He still looks scared there. That’s why starting him makes sense. Right now he still can’t close a quarter.
Clarkson will be…polarizing. But he looks pretty good physically right?
Actually 19 three-pointers hoisted so far. Unfortunately they’ve only made 3.
Clarkson will be…polarizing.
His roll, on team-2, will be as a primary scorer. He’s an undeniable offensive weapon.
Clarkson three straight shots on one possession. Just crazy.
Actually 19 three-pointers hoisted so far. Unfortunately they’ve only made 3.
It’s just so refreshing to see them increase their 3PT rate. It was one of the lowest hanging fruits with this offense, and it looks like Brown knows it.
The Undeniable Offensive Weapon is 0-5 from three and 2-7 overall so far. Go UOW!
But he looks pretty good physically right?
I think the line can be pretty thin, but yeah he’s not looking too terrible athletically. Still want to murder him already.
Clarkson will be…polarizing.
On the contrary – I think we will all be on the same page about him, unfortunately.
Yabu is, um, no Josh Hart on the break…
Yabu is completely invisible for his 3rd straight game
We must have one infuriating player every season, so this is Clarkson turn.
We speculate about how Brown’s system can improve the offense but we might be underestimating how much he can also improve the defense.
That was actually my first dumb basketball take of the Brown era two months ago.
We could do so much more with Bridges than we did last year.
Prigs alert!
The Undeniable Offensive Weapon is 0-5 from three and 2-7 overall so far. Go UOW!
And you know he’s not going shoot 0% from 3-pt range during the season. He shot 36% from 3 last season. What he can do well is create his own shot.
I really hope Brown will control Clarkson’s minutes, because otherwise he might lead the team in FGAs.
1
Apparently I’m missing Dart dominating the Eagles in the 1st quarter.
Based on how terrible we’re shooting from 3, we should probably be losing by more
Man, when Clarkson was out there 5 out felt like 1 out somehow 🤦🏾♂️ I really hope he gets with the program and accepts that is not his role here.
But that is his role here…
The only thing that stands out so far is the gargantuan size of Yabusele’s ass
So you’re saying Phil Jackson would’ve loved him.
Z-Man, thank you for saying that. I’ve spent all game trying to think of a way to broach that subject appropriately. I swear just his glutes outweigh my entire torso, and I’m a solid 185.
When Clarkson, the UOW won the 6th man of the year award, he attempted 8.8 3pt shots in 26.7 minutes. Just sayin, he’s coming in ready to shoot. But it seems that nobody can hit from 3 today.
We fucking suck
You said it, GoNY. I’m very glad this is a preseason game and means (almost) nothing, as they’re currently 27% overall and 13% from three (that’s hoisting 30 of them so far…)
Raven, if they just shot 30% they would have 27 points from 3 as opposed to the 15 points they’ve scored from there. And most of those were open 3’s.
Well let’s see if Dadi-o can do something useful…
Okay, to be fair, Clarkson made me very happy with that pass inside to Yabu.
Dadiet a quick 0-2 from three to stay in the Knicks wheelhouse, but a Brogdon three makes it a four point game.
Huk doing good Huk things. And Deuce with the three!
And Pacome with the three and the lead!
At least the Yankees’ season didn’t finish like the Phillies’ season. Ouch.
I was about to say didn’t want to talk anymore baseball but holy shit what a way for the Phillies season to end.
Our 2nd unit will be waayyy better than last yr
I love Hukporti.
51 3PAs. I could cry.
I guess Mathews isn’t clutch.
Yeah, but you don’t want to meet Matthews out in the yard when he’s holding a shiv…
Pardon my French but Dart looks fucking good.
OT in preseason is actually a good thing. It gives the fringe players a chance to demonstrate their talents with significant minutes.
Huk sure seems like an upgrade over Sims as the 3rd string C.
Huk with a plus 15 in 11 minutes.
I actually think Kolek did okay today. Looked like an NBA player, almost.
So much fun! Details tomorrow.
Thanks for doing the Yankees, guys. Now do the Phillies.
Bridges looks good.
Huk looks solid as 3rd string.
Kolek looked a bit better.
OG is OG.
I mostly wonder why Mitch didn’t play more. I hope nothing is going on.
Clarkson and Kolek tied Brunson for the lead in assists with three each. That’s pretty promising.
133 replies on “2025-10-09 Daily Post”
Thanks to a generous friend, I’m taking my kid and two of her friends to tonight’s game and have great seats. Literally crawling out of my skin with excitement about what I think will be a very competitive game as preseason goes. BTW if any of you in the NY area want to take a “casual” fan or a young kid to a game but not pay typical premiums, preseason is an excellent choice…the ambiance at MSG is pretty close to the real thing.
That’s great, Z-man. Although it’s preseason, it should be fun too. I hope it’s a great game 😉
Typical case of “he should have built bridges, not burn ’em”. LOL
But i still love Thibs, he brought us back to respectability and i will never forget it.
There’s no sin in appreciating Thibs for having raised both our floor and our ceiling, even as we all understand that the ceiling needed to get higher than he could probably go. Will Brown be that guy? I hope so. To me, it’s less about the “players’ coach” thing, since a bunch of guys on the team — especially our best player — loved Thibs. (Though obviously some strong disliked his style.) It’s more about his willingness to be flexible with lineups and style of play. I don’t know that he or his assistants will turn out to be absolute master tacticians. But given the talent level of our top 7 guys, simply having a staff that actually follows the “the game tells you what to do” philosophy, rather than paying lip service to it while stubbornly sticking to the same plan at almost all times, could work wonders.
At least, that is my hope.
Bummed but not surprised about the Yankees. Toronto was the better team over the course of a season, they had a very good offense in their own right, Cashman has made the lineup really top-heavy, Boone is extremely limited tactically, etc.
Yet I’d be shocked if Hal seriously considers replacing either of them. Making the playoffs every year seems enough for him.
You’re right, JK. That’s variance.
And then the Dodgers hit the cover off the ball in in 2024 and 2025. Because that’s how variance works.
I’m not talking about one series. I’m talking about 12 series across 6 postseasons (2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2024, 2025). 52 games. A large sample.
The Yankees have posted a BA & OPS that would have ranked last in the AL in 7 out of the 12 series (and it would have been 8 if they didn’t score 7 runs after Toronto invoked the mercy rule in game 2).
They’ve posted an OPS above the league average just 3 times in 12 postseason series (twice because of Juan Soto last year, who represented a one-time departure from their failed philosophy; and once against the Twins in 2019).
If it were variance, JK, occasionally they’d hit.
This is a failed organizational approach to hitting and player acquisition. That’s why it never varies.
The 2022 Yankees were the epitome of Cashman’s failed philosophy.
They were 2nd in the AL with a .751 OPS, loaded with high OPS guys who couldn’t get their bat on the ball: Rizzo (.224 BA), Donaldson (.222), Hicks (.216), Gallo (.159!), Stanton (.211).
In the ALDS they hit .182 with a .643 OPS against the Guardians.
In the ALCS they hit .163 with a .502 OPS against Houston.
That’s not variance, dude. That lineup was born to swing and miss. It was the most predictable thing ever.
Do you not understand that no teams bat .280 anymore?
Remember the 2000 Yankees? The ones that beat the Mets in the World Series? They were 10th in MLB in the thing you believe is the most important statistic, which is batting average. They batted .277. League batting average that year was .270.
The 2025 Yankees, guess where they ranked in batting average, Bob? They ranked tenth! Just like the world champion 2000 Yankees. They batted .251 as a team. League batting average was .245.
It’s actually pretty common for teams to win the World Series and rank 10th or lower in batting average. The 2022 Astros, 2021 Braves, 2020 Dodgers, 2016 Cubs, 2014 Giants, 2010 Giants, 2008 Phillies, 2005 White Sox, and 2000 Yankees all did it this century. That’s 9 out of 25 WS winners. Another 3 teams ranked 8th, so if you want to expand the definition to “above average but not elite batting average” that’s about half of all World Series winners this century that qualify.
In the same period 10 champions ranked in the top 5.
Bob’s being unnecessarily snarky and it’s distracting from the issue.
There’s nothing wrong with a TTO approach to baseball.
It’s about Cashman’s willingness to systematically overlook contact, defense, situational hitting, IQ, and base running if you can post a high OPS.
It’s the baseball equivalent of teaching to the test.
Okay now do the 1990’s-2000’s Atlanta Braves. How did they manage to win only one title in 15 years of dominant regular season baseball? I don’t seem to remember entitled Atlanta Braves fans blaming that on John Schuerholz.
Was the strategy of having pitching staffs full of Hall of Fame pitchers a bad October strategy? Those were well balanced teams that could hit and pitch. Yet every year except one, they got eliminated. What’s the explanation of that?
You keep avoiding everything I’m saying to make random points about variance that have nothing to do with my position.
I believe in variance. This isn’t variance because it hasn’t varied.
I look at baseball playoff series as coin flips. Flip a coin 10 times, you might get wild results like heads or tails 8 out of 10. You might need a lot more coinflips for things to even out. And each playoff
season is a new set of coin flips.
That’s my deep, complex explanation for the 90’s-00’s Braves.
🙂
The Atlanta Braves were 52-44 (.541 win %) in the postseason from 1991-1999. They consistently hit and pitched in the postseason within a reasonable range of their league position. They were really good. They lost a couple of heartbreakers. Only winning one World Series is just unlucky.
The Yankees are 26-29 (.473) in the postseason since adopting this approach. They’ve consistently hit like the worst team in baseball, consistently played terrible defense, consistently failed to hit with RISP, and consistently made baserunning blunders.
When they lost to the Blue Jays this year, the Dodgers last year, the Astros in 2022, and the Red Sox in 2018, no one walked away thinking “that was close.” They were humiliating, predictable, one-sided losses.
Comparing them to the 90’s Braves is ludicrous.
It’s not ludicrous. Just inconvenient to your narrative.
Did you not read the link I included when Jeter completely agreed that the Yankees philosophical approach to line up construction was azz?
“Derek Jeter cut through the modern spin. “I’m so tired of them telling me and telling America that batting average is overrated. RBI is overrated. Contact’s overrated,” he said. “Well, if you think winning the World Championship is overrated, then sure.”
Ortiz agreed with his fellow analysts. He pointed out that Toronto’s approach wasn’t about swinging for the fences but finding ways to score in every situation. “Contact, timely hitting, that’s for titles,” Ortiz said.
The panel praised Toronto for investing heavily in Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who signed a record extension before the season. Guerrero’s all-around offensive game set the tone.
“He’s a great hitter that happens to have power,” Ortiz said, contrasting Guerrero’s balance with New York’s lineup construction around Aaron Judge.
FWIW while Bob is talking about 25 years… I’m just talking about the Boone era, in which the player development and acquisition strategy has been unique.
Cashman’s teams in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2011, and 2012 all could have won World Series and were just unlucky not to. Those teams compare reasonably to the 90’s Braves.
The teams of the Boone era (from 2018 on) have not been unlucky.
You’ve said nothing about my “narrative” yet. You’ve been responding to Bob, whose argument is slightly different and easier to counter, and talking about the Atlanta Braves.
I miss RAB on days like these but its time to just focus on Knicks basketball. I feel like I’m back in middle school October 1993 waiting for my real chance of rooting for a championship team with Knicks season about to start, I must be in the Twilight Zone….
The Yankees led the 2024 playoffs with a 116 wRC+, led the 2020 playoffs with a 131 wRC+, and led the 2019 playoffs with a 102 wRC+.
They definitely underperformed in 2017 (7th), 2018 (4th), 2021 (7th), and 2022 (10th), but isn’t that consistent with the idea that all you can really do is put together the best team possible and hope for the best?
The Yankees’ team BA was .251 this season. The Dodgers, who are the odds on favorite to repeat, hit .253.
Am I to believe one of these is the result of rigorous, postseason centric roster construction, while the other represents a failed approach?
Sorry but I don’t give a shit about Derek Jeter’s hagiography of himself in which he spouts the hoariest of baseball cliches.
There just isn’t a lot of difference between a .600 team and a .500 team in baseball. On sheer brute force odds the .600 team beats the .500 team in a single game 54% of the time. You get to the playoffs, that flattens even more as all the teams are in a smaller bandwith of quality. That narrow bandwith is doing like 80% of the lifting when it comes to which team wins the title. You get enough of your pitchers who have good stuff that day, or you get some BABIP luck in your favor, that matters too. Does it help to have good situational hitting or hitters who can make contact. Sure, at the margins. But a spit in the ocean compared to brute force variance. The Yankees and Blue Jays had the same record this year.
As time progresses it gets harder to have consistent playoff success, and in the Yankees’ case it’s not because they prioritize TTO and launch angle. It’s because EVERY TEAM prioritizes those things and it levels the playing field. The Yankees got outhomered 9-4 in that series.
We haven’t even discussed the elephant in the room, which is the Yankees’ pitching. It got clobbered every game. Schlitter did okay but other than that nobody was really able to record very many outs. It wasn’t a particularly good pitching staff in the regular season either, ranked about middle of the pack in WAR. Runs are usually scarce in the postseason, and I don’t care how many Derek Jeters you have, you ain’t winning shit if your pitching has an 8.00 ERA. It’s just very odd to harp on the team’s hitting after a series in which they were literally giving up almost a run per inning.
I thought 2018 and 2019 were the years Yankees should’ve won it all. 2018 was tough because of how good Boston and Houston were but that Yankees roster going into the postseason was great and after they won Game 2 in Fenway I thought they were on their way before shitting the bed in Games 3 and 4.
2019 after winning Game 1 in Houston by absolutely smoking them I definitely thought it was their year but they just didn’t have the starting pitching that year with only Tanaka and Paxton healthy plus there were a decent amount of other injuries to the roster that didn’t have them at full capacity going into the playoffs. But they won 103 games in regular season and looked dominant winning their first 4 playoff games but Houston was unfortunately a damn good fucking team too.
Yes, I noted 2024 above. Cashman notably departed from his player acquisition strategy when he added Juan Soto, and it made a major difference. This exception supports my argument.
I noted 2019, as well. They dominated the Minnesota Twins in the ALDS.
The entire 2020 MLB season was random and is inadmissible.
Yankees starting pitchers had the 4th best ERA in baseball this year, it was the bullpen that killed them during the regular season.
Lol, that Jeter/Ortiz discussion is just Phil Jackson asking “How’s it goink?” over and over again.
This is it! This is the exact moment when I became aware of what I’m talking about now. Game 2, specifically. (And at that point, keep in mind I’m still as big a Yankees fan as you are today.)
The lineup was incredible through 3 games against Minnesota and in game 1 against Grienke. I thought for sure they’d win the WS. But it wasn’t the pitching that did them in after that. It was the lineup. (Hicks got hurt, IIRC, and that was a big deal bc he didn’t suck yet.)
Against Verlander the top-heavy part of the lineup would get on base but then up would come Edwin Encarnacion batting cleanup and he couldn’t get his bat on a Verlander pitch to save his life.
Then Gardner would get on base, because Gardner can control a bat. And up would come Gary fucking Sanchez to swing and miss at everything.
And then Verlander would get to rest against the bottom of the order because Urshela, Maybin, and Didi weren’t going to get on base if you gave them a million PAs.
Losing that game in extra innings was the turning point of the whole era. They should have won that game and the World Series. And the reason they didn’t is the exact stuff I’m talking about right now. Edwin Encarnacion. Gary Sanchez. Gio Urshela. That’s the type! Automatic outs in those spots, every time. We never should have gone into the playoffs needing those guys to hit.
And instead of going away from those guys, we keep finding new ones. Three years later we had even more of them! Rizzo, Donaldson, Gallo, Higashioka, Peraza, IKF. That was insulting. I literally felt insulted that Brian Cashman thought we were stupid enough to think this would work. And that is when I started hating Brian Cashman and his approach to lineup building. In the 2022 ALCS.
I really miss Fire Joe Morgan. That was a really healthy outlet for me. These days I have to be my own poor man’s Ken Tremendous.
Why do people see eveything in all or nothing terms these days?
There can be a lot of randomess to baseball playoff results (there is) and also be ways to construct a team to reduce it (there are).
No matter what you’ll still get playoff upsets and even some shocking results because the gaps between teams are not large enough to dominate and the duration of a playoff series is relatively short, but certain team constructions will reduce or exacerbate the problem.
All you can do is try to build the best team possible to deal with both the demands of the regular season and the playoffs and hope to get a little lucky. But if you keep failing the same way in the playoffs, it’s time to take a look and what you are building and make sure it’s the best approach for the playoffs.
As noted, the Yankees have had recent playoff runs in which they hit very well and were failed by their pitching, they’ve had runs where the opposite happened, they’ve had runs where both the offense and run prevention flopped, and they’ve had runs where both have performed well but they still came up short because That’s Baseball, Suzyn.
Much as people would like for there to be some glaringly obvious way in which the Yankees are not optimizing for the playoffs, the data just isn’t there.
Back in 2019 I was still a Cashman guy and blamed it all on Hal. I figured it was his fault they stuck with Sanchez instead of signing Realmuto that year (a move that probably would have won them at least one WS). But it’s 6 years later and we’re still going after the same guys. There’s nothing about a budget that forces you to typecast.
It may have been noted, but it was false.
There has not been one single postseason series since 2017 in which the Yankees hit well and were failed by their pitching.
Al’s recollection of the 2019 ALCS is wrong. The Yankees batted .214 with a .673 OPS, both of which would have ranked last in the AL that year. (And that includes an offensive explosion in game 1; their bats went completely silent after.)
In 5 of the 6 series the Yankees lost, they hit extremely poorly. The only exception was the World Series against the Dodgers, and the pitching was pretty good in that series other than that bum Rodon.
JT Realmuto has a .661 career OPS in the postseason. Somehow I don’t think that was the guy standing between the Yankees and immortality.
Facing Verlander and Cole 3 times in the next 5 games had a little something to do with the Yankees struggling on offense. Greinke wasn’t no picnic either although by 2019 he wasn’t anywhere near his previous Cy Young level.
Again, there is unavoidable randomness to baseball results just like in other sports. That includes regular season and playoffs baseball.
However, imo the playoffs are also a moderately different game and so is a short series as opposed to 162 games.
In a short series CONSISTENCY matters more than during a 162 game season.
The Celtics would have beaten our brains out last year in a 20 game series, but they couldn’t hit a key 3 in a couple game and we escaped with a couple of upset wins andn the series. Their approach was begging for greater volatility and it cost them.
The series you are describing probably contained quite a bit of random luck, but you are also describing very inconsistent results.
You have to ask, how are you generating your runs?
You have to ask, do you have all or nothing type pitchers?
It’s not how you build or randomness. It’s BOTH.
It’s not just hitting or pitching. It’s BOTH.
You don’t just want to build a team to maximize net runs over 162 games.
To the degree you can, you also want less volatility in your run production from game to game. More difficult, would be more consistent pitchers.
…don’t you see the selection bias issue here? Yes, teams will tend to not look so hot if you only look at data from series they lost. Why is offensive data from series they won not equally as valid?
I’m still seeing nothing indicating the Yankees underperform in the playoffs to a degree not explainable by noise, and that isn’t regularly experienced by other teams.
But it was your selection; you claimed there were times they lost when they hit well.
I included all the data earlier:
So you have 12 series total. 56 games. And you’ve entered all of them with a good regular season offense.
In 8 of the 12, you’ve hit extremely poorly, well below the level of every team in baseball.
In 3 of the 12, you’ve been average, well below your regular season standard.
And in 1 series (3 games, out of 56), you’ve hit well.
But you insist there is no data that suggests this may be a real thing.
I was talking about performance over the course of the entire playoff runs as to avoid the selection bias issue, but in any event, is there any indication the Yankees’ offensive underperformance relative to regular season baseline is unusual among MLB teams?
As best I can tell, teams usually drop off to some extent and the name of the game is limiting it.
OPS goes down in the postseason for pretty much everybody. You might get an occasional outlier team that matches or exceeds their regular season OPS, but for reasons that should be obvious, league wide OPS takes a substantial dip in the postseason. Occasiojally you’ll see a series like Yankees-Blue Jays were one team lights up the other one for eight runs per game, but that’s not the norm. The typical drop in OPS is something like 40 to 50 points.
i think we have a preseason game against the wolves tonite right
It might make some sense to just look at the standard deviation of the Yamkees runs scored (and against) in the regular season vs other high level teams just to see if they have a less consistent team than some of the other contenders.
Here’s what we got with who we went with:
2019 (Sanchez) – .476
2022 (Trevino) – .089
2022 (Higashioka) – .143
2024 (Wells) – .460
2025 (Wells) – .488
Yes and this is a discussion about identifying the cause of their systemic failure to limit it.
But it has gone down to worse-than-the-worst-lineup-in-the-league in 66% of all series. That doesn’t happen for pretty much everyone
JT’s AAV is $23M. So you get a couple hundred points of playoff OPS for that $23M.
That’s $23M you now can’t spend on something else. Unless of course we’re assuming that the Yankees have no upper budget limit.
ChatGPT vomitted, but Grok gave it try.
I can’t format the output well here and I’m not sure how much it matters anyway, but here are the standard deviations of runs scored by team. Yankees 2.45 vs league 2.18
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PLEASE STOP ARGUING ABOUT BASEBALL!!!!
Folks…Jalen Brunson plays basketball today @ the garden.
One of my favorite sports-related activities is watching Yankee fans eat their own.
Interestingly we have a bunch of Mets fans on here, but it seems we’re all curled up in our respective corners licking our wounds.
But unlike Swiftie, don’t take this as a suggestion to stop. I’m enjoying it as a visceral flagellation ceremony sort of akin to tatbir, plus it raises some interesting points I don’t usually bother to think about (mostly because I don’t care, but it’s still interesting…).
From my understanding, Mets fans have the same discussions too. It’s just that they’re usually in the months before October!
Cool story but that’s not happening. For one thing, JK47 is a Mets fan. For another, I may be arguing passionately with him, Noble, and Al but we are all people who can disagree with each other respectfully. Even BBA’s quips about me are just good natured ribbing. I thought his one about sticking to my basketball takes was hilarious.
Knicks back at MSG? With Julius and DDV too?
I guess that is…
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=naOzftxOKig
🧡💙
That 2019 Yankees team was really close, and Sanchez is the epitome of what I’m talking about: a terrible defensive player, dumb on the base paths, couldn’t hit situationally to save his life, but we carried him anyway because sometimes he would crush a mistake.
He batted .130 in the ALCS against Houston, struck out 12 times in 23 ABs, and probably left a dozen runners in scoring position.
Swap him for Realmuto’s bat, gold glove, and pitch framing in 2019 and I feel very confident suggesting the Yankees would have beaten that Astros team and won the World Series.
(Of course the transaction that would have really swung that series — and the 2017 ALCS — would have been claiming Verlander off of waivers before he fell to Houston. But we just had to get under the luxury tax that year.)
“Folks…Jalen Brunson plays basketball today @ the garden.”
yeah i basically already mentioned that about 45 minutes earlier than you did but it didnt quell the yankees talk not that i thought it would
Gary Sanchez was the starting Catcher for the AL in the 2019 All-Star game!
Don’t worry I’ll be watching the Knicks game tonight, pretty sad that I prefer to watch a Knicks preseason game over the Giants Eagles game…
Jealous of Z-man and the kids. Tonight’s game is probably more informative than at least the first 15 regular season games. Looking for the little stuff that Brown values. Given his proximity, expect nothing less than an in depth analysis. No rush…
Sanchez had a pre-arb contract and made $670k that year. He had 3 and 4 WAR seasons at age 23 and 24, was injured at 25, and was an All-Star at 26. You can kind of understand why they didn’t think catcher was a hole that needed to be filled with an 8 year commitment to JT Realmuto.
He was a terrible catcher. They were talking about moving on from him as early as 2017. Keeping him was a huge mistake that may have saved them money but likely cost them at least one WS.
…and just for the record, Hubie, I meant eating Yankee players and entire teams, not the people you’re arguing with.
Do carry on…
Oh, cool. I’m ravenous for that.
BTW the most interesting thing Jeter said last night was not the stuff Bob highlighted earlier but this: “Look, I’m pretty sure Aaron’s not the one that’s calling every move they make throughout the game.”
Derek Jeter’s not some fan on the internet. I don’t think he would have said that if he didn’t know it was true.
I don’t think he was breaking any news there. It is everyone’s default position. In other news, the sky is blue, Breaking news at 11!
I think we all know Cashman plays a major role in the lineup card but I didn’t think he was making decisions in the game.
The Sanchez decision in 2019 was actually a mirror of the Volpe decision now. Volpe’s pre-arb, makes $900k, had a 3+ WAR seasons at 22 & 23, was injured this season. Literally a mirror. You can kind of understand why someone might think SS isn’t a hole right now, but just like C in 2019, it is one of the biggest needs on the team next year.
There is a massive, major difference between Sanchez and Volpe: Volpe will be 25 next year and has never been able to hit big league pitching. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to dream on him anymore. Sanchez had already put up a full season of a 131 wRC+ at Volpe’s age and had mashed to the tune of 170 the year before that in a half season.
Volpe is similar to the Mets’ Brett Baty— a blue chip prospect who stalled at the MLB level. They gave Baty another chance this year and he ended up being a decent regular, but he was penciled in behind Vientos at the start of the season.
Volpe should have a short leash from now on.
You know what time it is…
https://c.tenor.com/yHP9K-NeAp0AAAAC/tenor.gif
Lookin’ good so far…
Mitch being dominant, Gobert just being tall.
OG against several defenders – check 😀
I’m not going to put in writing the things I would do if it ensured a healthy Mitch this year.
I’m all for shooting more 3s but I hate watching offense when the first somewhat available 3pt attempt is immediately fired up and misses.
Kat making dumb…lazy passess….check
Yabu in the Garden. Sounds like a children’s book…
Yahhhhhh……booooo
That’s already more synergy than Brunson and KAT showed all last season
Oh yeah, that’s why Randle was so infuriating
Definitely some growing pains with this offense
If Mitch is healthy all playoffs, including the Finals 😉 , i’ll go on a pilgrimage on foot to Fatima*.
*it’s a big sanctuary/cathedral here in Portugal, around 120 miles from Porto.
We speculate about how Brown’s system can improve the offense but we might be underestimating how much he can also improve the defense. Looks like they won’t be as rigid to defensive principles and pre-help like with Thibs and be allowed to play more freely and instinctive on defense.
What a sequence. This team can be scary good
LOL
That Clarkson shot was infuriating.
I wonder how very many times I’ll be saying that this season…
Clarkson Clarksoning a little too hard there
Now a good pass from Clarkson
This team already looks much better than last year’s team. Yabu and JC are a big improvement over Achiuwa and Payne.
I know it’s early in the third game of the preseason, but if Mitch holds up I’m putting him down for DPOY. I mean, he’s in the middle of virtually every defensive play, just blowing things up constantly or grabbing misses.
14 3PAs in the first quarter. I can’t believe my eyes.
Robinson should have a much better season as long as he stays healthy. He also needs to gain confidence at the line. He still looks scared there. That’s why starting him makes sense. Right now he still can’t close a quarter.
Clarkson will be…polarizing. But he looks pretty good physically right?
Actually 19 three-pointers hoisted so far. Unfortunately they’ve only made 3.
His roll, on team-2, will be as a primary scorer. He’s an undeniable offensive weapon.
Clarkson three straight shots on one possession. Just crazy.
It’s just so refreshing to see them increase their 3PT rate. It was one of the lowest hanging fruits with this offense, and it looks like Brown knows it.
The Undeniable Offensive Weapon is 0-5 from three and 2-7 overall so far. Go UOW!
I think the line can be pretty thin, but yeah he’s not looking too terrible athletically. Still want to murder him already.
On the contrary – I think we will all be on the same page about him, unfortunately.
Yabu is, um, no Josh Hart on the break…
Yabu is completely invisible for his 3rd straight game
We must have one infuriating player every season, so this is Clarkson turn.
That was actually my first dumb basketball take of the Brown era two months ago.
We could do so much more with Bridges than we did last year.
Prigs alert!
And you know he’s not going shoot 0% from 3-pt range during the season. He shot 36% from 3 last season. What he can do well is create his own shot.
I really hope Brown will control Clarkson’s minutes, because otherwise he might lead the team in FGAs.
Apparently I’m missing Dart dominating the Eagles in the 1st quarter.
Based on how terrible we’re shooting from 3, we should probably be losing by more
Man, when Clarkson was out there 5 out felt like 1 out somehow 🤦🏾♂️ I really hope he gets with the program and accepts that is not his role here.
But that is his role here…
The only thing that stands out so far is the gargantuan size of Yabusele’s ass
So you’re saying Phil Jackson would’ve loved him.
Z-Man, thank you for saying that. I’ve spent all game trying to think of a way to broach that subject appropriately. I swear just his glutes outweigh my entire torso, and I’m a solid 185.
When Clarkson, the UOW won the 6th man of the year award, he attempted 8.8 3pt shots in 26.7 minutes. Just sayin, he’s coming in ready to shoot. But it seems that nobody can hit from 3 today.
We fucking suck
You said it, GoNY. I’m very glad this is a preseason game and means (almost) nothing, as they’re currently 27% overall and 13% from three (that’s hoisting 30 of them so far…)
Raven, if they just shot 30% they would have 27 points from 3 as opposed to the 15 points they’ve scored from there. And most of those were open 3’s.
Well let’s see if Dadi-o can do something useful…
Okay, to be fair, Clarkson made me very happy with that pass inside to Yabu.
Dadiet a quick 0-2 from three to stay in the Knicks wheelhouse, but a Brogdon three makes it a four point game.
Huk doing good Huk things. And Deuce with the three!
And Pacome with the three and the lead!
At least the Yankees’ season didn’t finish like the Phillies’ season. Ouch.
I was about to say didn’t want to talk anymore baseball but holy shit what a way for the Phillies season to end.
Our 2nd unit will be waayyy better than last yr
I love Hukporti.
51 3PAs. I could cry.
I guess Mathews isn’t clutch.
Yeah, but you don’t want to meet Matthews out in the yard when he’s holding a shiv…
Pardon my French but Dart looks fucking good.
OT in preseason is actually a good thing. It gives the fringe players a chance to demonstrate their talents with significant minutes.
Huk sure seems like an upgrade over Sims as the 3rd string C.
Huk with a plus 15 in 11 minutes.
I actually think Kolek did okay today. Looked like an NBA player, almost.
So much fun! Details tomorrow.
Thanks for doing the Yankees, guys. Now do the Phillies.
Bridges looks good.
Huk looks solid as 3rd string.
Kolek looked a bit better.
OG is OG.
I mostly wonder why Mitch didn’t play more. I hope nothing is going on.
Clarkson and Kolek tied Brunson for the lead in assists with three each. That’s pretty promising.
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