They finally had decent turnout in Tampa and took that as vindication lmao. But then game 2 the crowd pop when Rice hit the homer was still embarrassing.
I wonder if the owners are understanding this. Put in a salary cap, make the sport more competitive, then what? Nobody's watching Tampa and Milwaukee in the World Series. Manfred is praying the Dodgers make it lol. He's praying to every deity.
Very. I'll be late to watching it, I'm taking my nephew for his basketball practice. I'll catch it in the third inning or so. I'd love to see Milwaukee just take control and win. But we'll see. Snell is a really good pitcher.
listened to about 10 seconds of LA sports radio this morning.
"what happens if the Dodgers lose and there's two small market teams in the WS? that means there's nothing wrong with baseball and the dodgers are fine"
as if the Dodgers FO wouldn't react to this outcome by trying to buy the next available superstar. entitled af
Guardians with more hits than the Yankees all three games and more heart than this team showed the whole series. Damn, shamed by two of the lowest-paid teams in the league.
If I could name one player to add their career to the Yankees instead of the team they actually played for, Jose Ramirez would probably tip the scales to us having had multiple world series wins given that gaping hole we've had at third base for almost the whole span of his career.
welcome to the club. I feel bad because I honestly am very happy with the production relative to my expectations. I expected it to be joey gallo/washed anthony rizzo bad, and even if he had worse babip luck he exceeded this.
Just still so many red flags and he's a few breaks not going his way from being awful
You mean he’s not going to maintain a 1.100 OPS against LHP? And his .647 OPS against RHP isn’t concerning? Not to mention his floor was at worst a glove first CF and his defense has been below average.
Super interesting interview with Girardi with Sherman and Heyman. Threading the needle about Boone being let go. A bit of the company line, but also some great insight into what is wrong organizationally.
Girardi is a great dude for even talking about it considering the awkward circumstances.
Pounding a ball in to the turf for an infield hit, then a ball lands on the lip of the turf and JRam misses it, all with 2 outs. You can not tell me that this Rays team doesn't rely on dumb luck
So in hindsight Stearns wasn't wrong to acquire Freddy, he still had ace capability. But something about the Mets just made him pitch so terrible for some reason. Although bad coaching played a part which Stearns is accountable for in huge regard.
The blunder was getting rid of Jeremy Hefner and building such a wacky infield too. Peralta needs a good infield behind him and Hefner is a really good pitching coach. Braves scooped him up.
Everyone becomes obsessed with name value in the off-season. Meanwhile here I am thinking that Jacob Young is the perfect fit for the Yankees outfield. Anybody else got a specific lesser-known player they’d like to see the team pursue?
He's a RHH, he had a .791 OPS against LHP, and he's pretty good in CF, though his defensive stats declined a lot this year (the drop is dramatic and I wonder if there's a bit of noise going on there as he got used to Chicago since he's still 29). He's also 93rd in sprint speed. But he does have a high K rate and he's an arb player so I'm not sure if he's gettable.
Young is a better player, I think, and I'd rather have Young. But similar sort of thinking.
Would've been a solid fit. I know everyone's focused on the infield right now, rightfully so.
But I'm pretty concerned about CF. Bellinger doesn't grade out there well and we need him in LF. Jones was pretty bad in CF and I have concerns about how his offense plays out over a full year.
We can use a speedy, RHH CF who plays solid defense and hits LHP.
I am for getting a full time CF via trade (although the Suzuki FA idea Ryan Garcia had was also intriguing) and then doing the subsequent McMahon + prospects for Seranthony Dominguez trade (SEA needs a 3B) and Garcia + prospects for Parades trade.
Move Jones to RF and have Judge DH 50% of the time. Rice to 1B.
Sounds pretty good to me, though I imagine you'd have to eat most of the McMahon contract.
My biggest question mark is Hal (and his minority owners) appetite to spend. I mean I put myself in his shoes and I can't help but wonder how frustrated he must be. He won't fire Cashman, that's clear. But man oh man, he must be irritated.
I'd estimate about half the time he speaks in public he's whining about the cost of Yankee Stadium and not wanting to maintain a $300 million payroll. He's spending more than he really wants to spend and they got beat by a good, but not great, Tampa team with a third of his payroll. Gotta be frustrating and he might demand cuts in the payroll.
I proposed a trade with SEA where we take back RP Seranthony Dominguez (1 yr/$9.5M). Dominguez also solves the Blackburn middle relief replacement issue.
We give them a couple of prospects like Hess and Jasson. They take on the extra $6.5M amd in return get the extra players. Seranthony Dominguez and McMahon both only have 1 yr left.
Hess might be the stumbling block. That's a big prospect to give up for a good but not great reliever with one year of control. Not really Cashman's style, honestly.
Doyle is a good shout, he would just be more of a part-time player unlike Young who I think can player center everyday. Either way getting a defensive-minded player out there should be a priority imo.
Dax Kilby right now is tearing through Arizona Fall League at the moment. Haven't been this excited for a bat this young since Gleyber when we acquired him. Insane bat to ball ability at such a young age. I think he has the chance to become a Kevin Mconigle type bat. Yostin Pena is another superstar level bat but I have to see him against better pitching to see if the whiffs turn him back to normal.
it’s kinda funny how much is being made about brewers, rays and guardians playing small ball when nearly every win from these teams this postseason was them out homering the opponent.
Obviously homer or bust isn’t great but we don’t need to swing so far in the other direction when that clearly isn’t the success formula.
Ultimately the postseason is just going to come down to who is hot. When the Yankees were mauling the Red Sox with 12 and 14 hit games and multiple homers everything was great, when they disappeared during the Rays series it was not
The Yankees didn’t switch teams between the WC and DS. They just got ice cold
Cleveland is up 1-0 with their big guns on the mound tonight and thursday. I liked their chances before the playoffs even began. I really like their chances now after winning game 1. They've got two really good starters, a good bullpen, a veteran all star, and play good defense. They don't have to win them all in a best of 7..... just be better in 4 of 7 of them than the other guys.
It’s so fucking depressing re-watching 2024 postseason highlights knowing that was as good as we have had it in this era, and that they couldn’t seal the deal because they blew Game 1 and 5.
I appreciate Ohtani playing through injury because I think it negates what could have been a lot of discussion about Judge rushing back and what he could have done
Judge is a better hitter than Ohtani but Ohtani is still an elite hitter and he is slashing just .159/.261/.150 | .411 OPS | 26 wRC+ in the postseason largely due to the fact that he clearly is playing through an injury.
Would have probably been very similar for Judge where he wouldn’t have been able to play to his standards
Hal is right in saying you shouldn’t need a $300 million dollar payroll to win the World Series but with Brian Cashman as the GM you certainly do, because he doesn’t spend the budget efficiently. Imagine the roster Cashman would build with the Rays’ budget
Fans truly are all the same. The 25 people in Tampa's sub are apoplectic about their offense and they're winning lol. Even our sub doesn't get quite that negative unless we're losing.
I don’t know if it’s COVID, hatred of participation trophies, the death of George Steinbrenner, or being forced to grow up during the twilight of Elizabeth’s reign.
But it’s universal and pervasive.
There’s no backbone. No “we’ll get em tomorrow”.
Half the Dodgers sub is contemplating life choices.
Ohtani's injury is one of the reasons I thought the Dodgers were vulnerable this year. I got a lot wrong about the Yankees, but I knew they were very beatable this year. Hell, they were beatable in 2024 and 2025. I wish we didn't play so poorly in the ALDS. I'd have loved a rematch or a shot at Milwaukee. Alas.
Some people had a problem with Caminero’s “Daaa Yankees lose” and celebration on the field, I didn’t know at first because I wasn’t paying attention to what was being said around baseball that night but honestly I kind get those who think it was disrespectful to do the “Daaa Yankees lose” chant the same year Sterling died but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if he didn’t know who Sterling was, he probably remembered Vlad Jr doing it so he did it too and Vlad Jr doing it made more sense to me given that he had a self fabricated rivalry for a few years but did Ortiz do it in the booth this year? I don’t know if he did.
Honestly if Caminero has a significantly worse season next year like Vlad Jr did this year after he pulled the same stunt last year and also has a painful playoff lost that would be pretty funny.
Tbh I honestly didnt really care he did it lol because hes been complete dogshit against us while Vladdy always destroys us. At a certain point I wish the players on our team would use the hate as fuel rather than always laying down whenever a fight comes
I think they already have. Beat the Padres in 4. This series goes at least 6 now guaranteed. I would say playing 10 post season games is a serious run.
The Yankees philosophy is broken and I think it’s best captured in the Heliot Ramos trade. We dealt an organizational top 10 prospect and a potentially solid infield prospect for a bat we didn’t play in the post season? A bat that hits the ball hard but also K’s and whiffs a ton, and also didn’t even play in the October? A guy that is terrible defensively? I’m not even trying to debate or defend the professional futures of LaLane and Kent- it’s the process that led to dealing them for a player like Ramos that is frustrating.
It feels like the front office values a very narrow set of hitting analytics and stats and disregards so many other things that make for a well rounded baseball player.
The biggest issue with that trade was giving Boone a roster full of platoon players. You just knew there was no way he was managing that properly and he didn't. Ramos had a .910 OPS against LHP on the year, was one of their best hitters down the stretch and didn't sniff a PA in the ALDS.
I think it's hilarious that they are building a new ballpark in Tampa. I know it's a real bitch to get to Tropicana, but I'm just not convinced that they will draw even in a more convenient location.
I just don't buy it, true fans would find a way to show up to playoff games. They can't sellout an ALCS game. Come on man. I'd sit in 3 hours of traffic to watch the Yankees in the ALCS.
I've said the same thing. My 10 year old nephew doesn't need to see Sydney Sweeney naked in a friggin gambling ad and frankly neither do I. She's really hot, I'm a guy, I get it. But watch porn or go on onlyfans if you want that, I don't understand why the hell it's on during a baseball game.
It’s funny how all we heard during the ALDS was how loud and packed it was at the trop but that’s the bare minimum anyway. And even then when Rice hit a homer in game 2 it sounded like Yankee stadium. No semblance of logic in that sub whatsoever
So, last night, Kevin Cash’s bullpen management may have actually been worse than Boone’s in the 2024 WS. He won’t get the attention that Boone got because of the fact that he manages the Rays, not the Yankees, and that it wasn’t on as big of a stage, but from a pure strategy standpoint, it was worse. With a tie game in the 8th inning, starting off the inning facing two of the best/hottest hitters on the team, Ramirez and DeLauter, who already homered last night, Cash opts to bring in Tyler Wells - who hadn’t pitched in a month (sound familiar?). What made this worse though is that Cash had access to a fully rested bullpen (aside from Booser who was coming out of the game); at least in Boone’s case, while he evidently made the wrong choice, at least he had only two (not ideal) pitchers to choose from.
That said, a lot of people in the sub, instead of appreciating the Rays losing last night, felt the need to doom that Cleveland’s performance was a referendum on the Yankees, but the two bullpen guys who gave up runs didn’t face the Yankees and were coming off long layoffs while it appeared Rasmussen had much better command and stuff against the Yankees than Cleveland. His average four seam velocity was 96.2 vs the Yankees and 95.6 vs Cleveland; it was 95.8 average in the regular season. His stuff/location/pitching+ stats were not available yet for last night but in the ALDS he vastly outperformed his average numbers in the regular season (I have a feeling his numbers will also be higher in the ALDS as compared to last night) and the numbers were elite
Stuff+ =110 In reg season; ALDS = 110
Location+ ref season = 106: ALDS= 123
Pitching+ reg season = 114; ALDS = 132
To put in perspective, Cy Young Cam had 113/102/114 in the regular season and 119/99/117 against the Red Sox in the WC and 119/99/117 in the ALDS
The Yankees deserve criticism for how they performed in the ALDS but last night points more to the randomness of baseball than an indictment on the Yankees .
Also…. FUCK. THE. RAYS.
Edit: I see downvotes from people who can’t handle nuance
There's this weird myth that these teams are better because they make more contact. While that is true, homers and hard-hit balls are what rule in October. The Yankees don't win in October mainly because they go into these series with tons of holes within their lineups, and that makes them easy to navigate. The last complete lineup they had was in 2019, and unfortunately, those teams simply did not have good pitching. The Yankees should be building out talented lineups with length. This is what made the 2000s Yankees so fucking good. From top to bottom, you have great hitters who worked the count and punished the baseball.
2019 was a very deep lineup. not a single guy with an ops+ less than 100, besides didi who was injured most of the year. next lowest ops+ was gardner at 117.
Do you think Aaron Boone addressed other teams mocking and disrespecting the Yankees? Do you think he addressed the team about not having people celebrate on their field with sweep celebrations and "Da Yankees LOSE!!!"
I think that's something that should get under the skin of a manager of his tenure. It should bother Cashman too. One of them should be addressing it and instilling more pride in this team to not allow this disrespect. Overall working to be better.
This team gets zero respect under Boone. It was never like this before. I had to look it up because I didn't think "Da Yankees Lose" was a thing when Girardi managed. Looks like the first time it was said was the end of 2017 after a loss to the Astros. So it started there but its really been popularized with Boone as the manager.
I’m so over this “Guardsball” and “brewerball” BS lol. Like Jeter said they’re literally just playing baseball. That’s how the game was made to be played. Put the ball in play. Giving it cute names like that only normalizes the homerun or bust attitude analytics departments have adopted
I don't think so. What's to be gained? If he gets hurt again and it's a long-term injury, they can put him on the 60 at I.L. and keep a 40 man roster spot. If he plays, maybe he produces. He only played in 77 games in 2025, but he managed* a 155 OPS+ and frankly carried them for a few weeks over the summer. And right-handed power is so, so hard to find right now.
He's also a proven postseason hitter. Something this team needs, desperately. There's room on the 40 man roster and I don't really see what's to be gained by releasing him until his buyout in 2028, at which point I'd certainly part ways.
What is the plan with Judge.next year? Age 36 season, missed over 100 games this season including the post. Both injuries happened in the field... is it time to DH? If so... then Stanton has to go. Sucks... but it is what it is.
There’s no way for us to have him, Rice, and Garcia Jr in the same lineup. That means we have to reserve one bench spot for whichever of them isn’t playing, leaving us with just our BUC, Cabby, and our 4th OF for the other spots. Either you’re having Stanton and Garcia Jr platoon a lineup spot, Garcia Jr is relegated to PH for righties against righty relievers, or Stanton is just a dangerous righty on the bench against RHP starters.
I’m not sure if there’s a specific bench piece out there that I want badly enough to say “I’ll give up any chance of having Stanton in the lineup to get him.” But I also don’t like roster constraints, and Stanton poses them.
Between judge and Rice there just aren’t enough DH Abs to go around even when he’s healthy.
And if Garcia doesn’t even get a look at 2b there we will be none. Ever, it’s only one year then the option. I’m not sure if that option can be declined in advance
If the Guardians win this series, it becomes so much more damning on just how bad of a team the Yankees are. They had 14 hits last night, and Rasmussen started this game. The Yankees would have laid down after that 1st inning and lost the game, but the Guardians fought and won it.
It absolutely says a lot. Every time Rasmussen plays against us, he exposes just how shitty we are at hitting. Now granted, this dude is one of the best pitchers in baseball. But as we also saw from the Brewers yesterday, the right approach can go a long way towards a win. They knocked Yamamoto out early and pounced on that Dodgers bullpen.
Pre-arb (12 players to fill out 26-man roster): $11M (estimated)
40-man players in minors: $3M (estimated)
Dead money: none!
Miscellaneous: $21M (benefits, pre-arb bonus pool, etc.)
$279.51M total and Axisa rounds it up to $280 million.
Important to note that they don't really have a bullpen right now. Here's their roster, also courtesy of Mike Axisa. Green means guaranteed contract, yellow means arb-eligible, white is pre-arb.
Note that Castro, De Los Santos, and Sánchez are out of options and DFA candidates this offseason, and are unlikely to be part of the 2027 Yankees.
With the lockout coming, I think the biggest question I have for the offseason is who is going to be available on the trade market that we don’t expect to be made available, and how does that affect our plans?
For example, Cameron Maybin suggested Acuna wants out of Atlanta. Maybe the Astros decide to trade Jeremy Pena because they can’t extend him? Do the Phillies fire Dombrowski and decide to tear it down and start over? Will Preller go mad being unable to make trades during the lockout and think the team is better without Tatis?
Patrick Bailey on the bench for game 2. Guardians fans already ripping their manager for sitting arguably the hottest postseason hitter
SF Giants fans hated this guy so much lol. Dont blame them though because he couldnt hit in the regular season and ABS devalued his framing skills
My postseason wish was that some Yankee scrub hitter would get hot and along with Rice, that would kick-start the lineup. I’m wondering if Guardians fans are getting that wish
The Rays will probably end up winning the series, but it's infuriating watching the Guardians fight more than the Yankees. A team that is worse offensively on paper. That's when you realize that management and make the correct preparations are keys of this sport.
The Yankees knew that Rasmussen was a though pitcher and yet they still came totally unprepared and they got buried alive, obviously. Because the Guardians showed that you can hit him.
Now that Yankeesworldwide has mentioned it I'm all in on Suzuki or Arozarena signing and then having Jones either as a platoon fourth outfielder with Ramos or moved for bullpen pieces.
I listened to the same podcast. I’d definitely be down for Suzuki over Arozarena. Suzuki on a high AAV 3 yr contract would be great. 3 yrs/$81M ($27M AAV?)
One thing that Ryan and Sam didn’t mention though is that there totally is a way to keep Jones in the outfield (hopefully he improves in CF).
By just trading Garcia and putting Rice at 1B. You downgrade defense a little bit, but I’d rather downgrade 1B then downgrade both LF and CF (Belli to CF, Suzuki to LF). Just keep the DH spot open. Rotating between Judge, Belli and Suzuki.
I don’t know what you do with Ramos, but he is a good depth piece.
My thought-
We ended with a $341M payroll. We (Hal) aims to get it down to the $330M range.
$74M off the books (Jazz, Lemshieu, Trent, Blackburn, Bednar, Goldschmidt, Rosario, Hill, Yarborough, etc).
Let’s say $10M increase in Arb raises.
$341M+$10M-$74M=$277M
We have about $53M to spend.
$27M goes to Suzuki, let’s say Bednar gets $16M (4 yr/$64M?) and Kyle Higoshioka for 1 yr/$6M as RHH backup catcher leaves us with about $4M.
McMahon (1 yr/$16M-SEA gets their JO Crawford replacement), prospects like Hess and Avina to SEA for RH RP Seranthony Dominguez (1 yr/$9.5M). SEA “buys” a nice prospect in Hess (since they are taking on more money), we get an extra $6.5M to play around with and Dominguez at least serves as a bullpen body to replace Blackburn (who is too cost prohibitive).
Last deal is to trade Luis Garcia (1 yr/$11M) and some prospects like Hurd and Carr for Isaac Parades (1 yr/$13.5M). We desperately need a RH 3B. HOU desperately needs a LHH power bat. Because Parades is valued more we would have to also give up prospects. Parades and Garcia essentially make the same money and have the same amount of control left.
We have about $7M left to play with for depth pieces.
We use Warren as a trade chip for more controllable relievers.
Lineup-forget Stanton as an option. This lineup is SO much better with Seiya and Parades in it.
Bench-RH UTL Caballero, RH OF Ramos, RH 1B/3B Hardman (called up from AAA)
RH RF/DH Suzuki
LH 1B Rice
RH RF/DH Judge
LH LF Bellinger
RH 3B Parades
LH CF Jones
RH SS Lombard
LH C Wells/RH C Higgy (Platoon)
RH 2B Volpe
Pitching-
X-Starter
RH-Schlittler-X, Cole-X, Schmidt-X, Warren (if kept)-X, ERC (if kept), Dominguez, Lagrange (called up from AAA), Chivilli, Bednar
Ohtani had the best peak ever. I mean last year’s game 4 NLCS was just peak. 10 K’s and 3 for 3, 3 homeruns with a walk I don’t think there’s been any better performance and one of the best individual games in sports history. But man it’s kinda disappointing how the 2 way play will forever be very short lived.
He’a also a bit to blame for playing through injuries including his Angels days. Makes me even happier the Yankees protected Judge from himself this postseason
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u/beermeamovie 1d ago
Looking at the Rays’ post game thread on their sub and seeing them complain about BABIP and weak hits finding holes is just peak irony.