r/NYYankees • u/Elvisruth • 18h ago
When you watch the final 4 teams it is amazing how different the brand of baseball is
The Yankees pitching was excellent. The lack of contact and quality at bats is so stark it look like a different sport. If they Yankees can change their philosophy they can be there, but that would mean Cashman would have to admit his philosophy is wrong...I'm not confident that will happen.
48
u/newspark1521 17h ago
It’s crazy they genuinely looked like they could do it against the Sox, who did have very good pitching. Felt like they battled and manufactured runs very well in those 2 games against - again - very good pitching. Then it just all went out the window against the Rays as they went back to trying to ambush first pitch every AB
33
u/GymSockSurprise 17h ago
Those two games against the Red Sox gave me false hope. They truly looked like a different Yankees team. Granted they still got their big HRs to open up the lead, but they also battled and played small ball.
13
6
28
u/ViolaExpress 17h ago
I watch almost every game and when the Yankees make a productive out it gives me the same thrill as seeing an inside the park home run.
15
105
u/MoopsBubbleBoy 18h ago
No offense to Cashman, but he needs to go. Dude has been the GM almost 30 years. That's unheard of in professional sports. The problem is the Steinbrenner family will just hire someone that thinks in a similar faction. They aren't interested in winning like George was. They are interested in making money.
75
u/Uncleaces 18h ago
Full offense to Cashman. The dude is an absolute blowhard. Overrated overpaid shmuck who’s living in the golden years, 25+ years ago, off the backs of GMs and ownership that ACTUALLY gave a damn about winning. I haven’t watched more than 10 games over the last 2 years and as long as Cashman and Boone are at the helm, I’ll continue to do so
5
u/MoopsBubbleBoy 17h ago
The problem is fans expect him to create a good team and compete for the WS. That's not his job. His job is to make money for his boss. If they happen to win the WS along the way, that's good for everyone but it's not a priority. The only way change is going to occur is for fans to stop going to games and spending money. Look up some of the old games where Don Mattingly is at the peak of his career and you'll see 70% of the stadium is empty. George was threatening to move the Yankees to Jersey LOL. He was saying no one was going to the games b/c the Bronx was so dangerous. Meanwhile, you had a rapist like Mel Hall and shitty players like Alvaro Espinoza and Pat Kelly getting 500 at bats a year. Until Yankee fans start talking w/ their money, nothing will change.
10
u/Uncleaces 17h ago
Way ahead of you there. Can’t speak for others but I don’t watch games (the few times I do I surf the seven seas), don’t go to games, don’t buy merch. Fuck all that. These Yankees are a joke and they have been since 2020, maybe before
1
u/Shoddy-Listen6741 7h ago
I'd argue way before then. I thought he should've been shown the door before '09, but that seemed to just keep his detractors even more at bay. It's now been 17 years since their last WS and coincidentally matches their longest drought before '96.
Now, I've been a Yankee fan before even that, I remember the '77 series, Reggie's 3 HR game and all that and the time up until '96.
They make the "Bronx Bombers" their entire identity and it's sad. I remember Bernie hitting .300 for multiple years in a row. Now, you're likely not going to see a .300 hitter for more than a season or two with this organization.
I could care more really... I've seen/witnessed 6 WS TITLES in my lifetime. Certainly more than the average fan of the average team. But, I also won't even bother watching the continuation of the same thing I've been seeing for 50+ years!
1
u/Augustearth73 3h ago edited 3h ago
Bernie hit over .300 for eight straight ('95-'02). Paul O'Neil hit over .300 for six seasons straight from the time he arrived in NY in '93 through '98. Heck Tino Martinez hit .292 and .296 in '96/'97. Let's not forget they had Boggs and the tail end of Mattingly. Then in '96 a little someone at SS hitting .311
That team would demolish this one.
1
7
u/Nicholas1227 17h ago
George was interested in winning but he was awful at it.
4
u/AaronJudge2 17h ago edited 14h ago
George was good at winning in the 1970’s lol, but not so good after that.
A lot like Cashman, actually.
There’s a similar failure to adapt.
15
u/PrimeVector19 17h ago
A GM with no championships in 17 years would have been fired by any other team in sports years ago.
5
u/Nicholas1227 17h ago
Especially in a sport with a tilted field and a lack of competitive balance like baseball has.
2
u/LordJiraiya 5h ago
Top 3 spending for over 15 years with only 1 WS appearance, where they were completely embarrassed. Fuck CashAss
12
u/khearan 17h ago
100% agree. Cashman is the root of the problem and it drives me crazy that so much of the flack is directed at Boone when Cashman drives the way he operates. From hitting philosophy to player accountability, it’s all driven from Cashman and his team. If we want philosophical change, it comes with replacing Cashman, and a new GM will likely choose their own manager.
The other piece of this, I think, is Judge is failing as a captain. The number of times players make glaring mistakes and then tell the media they’d do it again without remorse is unbelievable. Not practicing at the Trop before the ALDS.
I listened to a Podcast yesterday with Rosenthal and Heyman (I know, I know), and Rosenthal mentioned Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts are on the field taking infield reps 4 hours before every single game. These are Hall of Fame guys. That’s the kind of discipline it takes to win.
Judge has influence in that organization with the org’s leadership. These are all things Judge and the locker room leadership have influence on (and obviously Boone as well). Maybe he is a hard ass behind closed doors, but it’s obviously not working.
3
u/mdp300 16h ago
Cashman has no interest in winning because Hal doesn't, either. Even when they suck, the team makes bank just because they're the Yankees. Management has openly said that they just want to make the playoffs. Hal is the real root of the problem.
Agree with everything else you've said.
5
4
u/underwear11 17h ago
Hal will never get rid of him. I think they hire an actual GM to manage roster construction and promote him to "president of operations" or something.
0
24
u/WestTwelfth 13h ago
Cashman’s poor strategy is the result of his failure to understand the game combined with his own arrogance. Ignorance + arrogance is often an insurmountable combination. He won’t change. He’s got to go. Let’s remember that Cashman did not earn his position through deep experience. He was a rich kid whose daddy got him a job with George, and by Cashman’s own account, he worked his way onto George’s good side by mollifying the old bastard. That’s maybe be part of the problem here MAYBE Hal clings to Cashman because maybe they are each, in his own way, the wounded children of George Steinbrenner.
7
38
u/FreedomCalls1105 17h ago
Actually this is how the game is supposed to be played. Cashman and fools just think they're too cool for school.
26
u/No_Cover_6217 16h ago
Grisham batting leadoff in an elimination game is them thinking they're smarter than everyone else. They think they're playing 4D Chess and the rest of us are eating checkers.
12
u/juniorRjuniorR 15h ago
You've activated my trap card! A bad player getting the most at bats! Muahahahahahahaha
3
u/AaronJudge2 15h ago
Grisham batting leadoff in an elimination game is the definition of insanity.
6
u/Much_Purchase_8737 13h ago
It’s mal practice by Boone and Cashman. Literally a top 10 worse lead off hitter ALL TIME and they do that shit in a do or die game.
54
u/thistlefink 18h ago
Playoffs: everyone can pitch, only a few can put the bat on the ball to manufacture runs and force mistakes
5
u/tinkinc 17h ago
No. Playoffs is all elite pitching and batting for contact is ever more important
18
u/krypto909 17h ago edited 17h ago
The team that has hit the most HR this playoffs has won every game except the Yankees 5-2 loss. Because of course we would be the exception.
4
u/Taimaishoo2 16h ago edited 15h ago
Dodgers-45% of runs scored via HR, 4th best at not striking out
Rays-39% of runs scored via HR, best at not striking out
Guardians-43% of runs scored via HR, 5th best at not striking out
Brewers-36% of runs scored via HR, 20th best at striking out
Yankees-52% of runs scored via HR, 25th best at not striking out.
HR usually = wins in the postseason, but it’s much harder to hit them when you don’t make a lot of contact. You also have to be able to score when the HRs dry up, and the Yankees struggle to do so.
Until the offensive philosophy changes, we will continue to see the same results year after year.
2
u/OMYGoodnesz 16h ago
Do we know the stats on only solo homers? Like does the team with the most 1-run homers win more often or do 1-run homers not matter as much?
Because sure, you score runs when you hit a homer, but the biggest blows come when there's men on base. And men don't get on base often by selling out for homers.
Not to mention the work a pitcher has to put in when teams aren't all or nothing on homeruns. When you have a 7-8-9 in the lineup that can see pitches and work counts, and maybe get on base a little, you're setting he HR hitters up for much more success. More pitches, more tired pitchers, men on base = pressure. Hitting homers to win games is the end result of many other things.
Just saying "WELL HR CLEARLY WIN GAMES" is not even half of the picture.
2
u/Taimaishoo2 14h ago
Yankees-57% of HRs were solo
Dodgers-57% of HRs were solo
Guardians-55% of HRs were solo
Rays-63% of HRs were solo
Brewers-46% of HRs were solo
3
u/Nicholas1227 17h ago
While this is true, there are definitely games where both team teams hit zero home runs, or both teams hit one home run. In those games, putting the ball and play and contact hitting are absolutely important.
3
u/krypto909 17h ago
Yes and a HR with men on is way more valuable then a solo shot. Im partially lamenting how we somehow turned a 2 HR advantage into a 4 (should have been 6) error loss.
1
u/TheDJMaxey 8h ago
I understand the sentiment but what if the team that hits more homers is also focusing more on contact. You can’t hit a HR if you don’t make contact
4
1
25
14
u/rondeuce40 16h ago edited 15h ago
The final four teams all play fundamental baseball. The Yankees showed flashes of that during the season, but crunch time showed up and they were not capable of meeting the moment. Between non competitive at bats, base running blunders and brain farts in the field, they eliminated themselves. Not the other way around.
3
u/GonzoTheGreat22 12h ago
Meh… you’re giving LA too much credit. They’re playing money all, just better and more money full than the Yankees.
They’re still looking for the big hits.
1
u/rondeuce40 12h ago
I think that group is starting to show their age. The Brewers appear to have their number. Maybe they play better at home, but the Brewers don't give away at bats and play 27 outs.
2
1
u/Lightning_Empire 10h ago
What's interesting is the Brewers made some poor defensive plays and got away with it in Game 2. But what really stands out to me is how deep their lineup is. No easy outs.
2
u/rondeuce40 10h ago
And we had Jake Bauers here a few years ago. Doubt he learned how to work a 12 pitch at bat in NY.
1
6
u/Optimal-Judgment-982 15h ago
and for all of that, I blame Boone, not Cashman.
Cashman may be setting the "philosophy" for the team, (we don't know), but Boone has to drive it and manage it and make it work situationally, and for 9 seasons, he has failed.
Cashman is bringing in guys, trying to make parts fit the whole. He's made more good moves than bad ones, and we fans ALWAYS remember those and forget the good
It's Boone that put Nestor Cortes in. It's Boone that mismanaged the bullpen FOR YEARS. It's Boone that failed to kick Gleyber Torres in the ass for jogging to first. It's Boone that failed to substitute right handed hitting bench guys against Tampa, etc, etc, etc
5
u/nemoid 15h ago
Cashman may be setting the "philosophy" for the team, (we don't know), but Boone has to drive it and manage it and make it work situationally, and for 9 seasons, he has failed.
Boone is driving and managing the philosophy that Cashman has set. That's what you're not understanding.
It's Boone that put Nestor Cortes in.
No. This was an organizational decision before the WS even started: https://www.mlb.com/yankees/news/nestor-cortes-hopeful-for-world-series-roster
from the article:
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said there is a “decent chance” the club will carry Cortes, envisioning him as a relief option who could neutralize Dodgers lefties like Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy.
1
u/Optimal-Judgment-982 15h ago
sorry, I disagree. many teams have an excellent philosophy. many businesses too. ultimately, management determines the direction and forward thrust of that philosophy. shitty managers can befoul the best people with bad attitude and bad leadership. if Cortes was an "option" that doesn't mean Boone had to choose it. Grisham was an "option" to lead off. was that good managing?
4
u/rondeuce40 15h ago
I would love to know whose decision it was to bat Grisham lead off in a win or go home game. I suspect it was not Boone's decision alone and it was an organizational move.
When fans who watched this team all year saw that, we come to the conclusion that management is not serious about winning a baseball game.
2
3
u/idster 14h ago
Sorry Cashman's not a good GM. "If he gets fired, he'll be hired immediately by some other team." Great. The Yankees in 1995 let go Showalter and hired Joe Torre. And Showalter was hired by the Diamondbacks. So what? Still a smart move.
The Yankees should hire someone with enough imagination to see what players are winners. Honestly, why would a good GM keep bringing players back like Grisham, Wells, McMahon, and Chisholm year after year? The Dodgers don't have anyone like that and the Brewers only have one player like that.
1
u/Careless-Run-4692 9h ago
No. He's made far more bad moves than good ones. Like an order of magnitude. Like what the fuck are you talking about.
Baseball is not a tactics sport, by and large. It is a skill sport. 95% of the problem is collecting the right set of players to produce and prevent runs. The manager's tactical impact on the game is tiny -- beyond very broad strokes things like matchups and batting order.
For the love of god, when will you people get the idea out of your head that the manager is important. The failings of this team are 100%, without exception, Cashman's fault.
1
u/EvilDrFuManchu29 8h ago
This is the issue
Hal says Cashman put together a great team
They both say Boone is an excellent manager
If the team is excellent and so is the manager, the play should be excellent
It is not
That’s the issue. We see that. They keep telling us we don’t
Something has to change
It won’t
7
u/Much_Purchase_8737 13h ago
The Yankees for some reason like to go all in on a thing that happens 1% of the time for at bats… home runs.
Being the top home run team will not win a World Series and we’re almost always the top home run team.
It’s insanity at this point that the Yankees keep value homeruns so much when they will not win you a ring.
1
u/Augustearth73 3h ago
Some knucklehead put up a list of the last 5 or 6 years worth of WS winners with their overall homerun ranking on some social media app recently. It spanned 1-4 over that timespan. He claimed it was evidence that HR is king in determining WS winners. I looked into the stats. All the same winners were either 1 or two in the entir league in OBP, which makes much more sense. You win when you manufacture runs. I believe the correlation with batting average was very similar, and definitely a tighter ranking spread than HR.
16
u/StayGoldenPonyBoy71 15h ago
I watch the Brewers and I can’t believe how far the Yankees are from playing like them.
6
u/CatRescuer8 14h ago
I love my Yankees and watch almost every game but the Brewers are more fun to watch than waiting for someone to hit a home run.
5
u/Much_Purchase_8737 13h ago
Bingo. Homeruns happen 1% of the time for most players, yet we rely on that.
Slot machine jackpot chasing mentality.
4
u/levendis56 12h ago
Brewers are out homering the dodgers this series. They won game 1 because of a homer. We lost game 1 and 3 in the Alds because we got out homered. Issue is not homeruns. You need to hit homers in the playoffs, but you won’t hit them when you have awful contact rates and strike out a ton. That’s been our bigger issue.
3
u/NicholasAtNite_ 11h ago
Yes sir! I think both sides have a point, you are correct that HRs aren't the problem, not hitting is the problem. I also think the Yankees have a release angle/methodology problem where they are specifically pushing a swing for the fences mentality which is leading to not getting hits.
1
u/Much_Purchase_8737 9h ago
The difference is they are not trying to go for homers every single at bat. That’s what the Yankees do.
Their players still grind out at bats, make the pitcher work, and try to make contact.
The brewers can win games without home runs, the yanks cannot.
2
u/NicholasAtNite_ 11h ago
Same, The Brewers are just out there fighting and fighting, The Yankees always just feel like they are going through the motions. I feel like thats a culture problem more than anything else
5
u/Outside-College-2797 14h ago
Thought the same thing. Watching the Guardians and Brewers is like a breath of fresh air. The Dodgers on the other hand remind me exactly of the Yankees right now. With that said, go Brewers!
5
u/Much_Purchase_8737 13h ago
That’s real baseball. Most of their guys can do all the little things.. steal bases, bunt, play small ball.
Then there’s the Yankees where most of our guys can’t do those things. It’s sad how far from reality our baseball team is.
Yanks are built to win regular season games, not the playoffs.
11
u/therealgranny 17h ago
These teams let their players play to their strengths and we try to change players we acquire. This has proven effective for our pitching but for nothing else. Dumbass philosophy they have needs to change.
4
u/Friendly-Profit-8590 12h ago
The Yankees went from grinding out at bats to get to the underbelly of opposing bullpens to swinging for the fences and either succeeding or striking out. The brewers knocked out Yamamoto the other night in the 4th. The Yankees would’ve been facing him into the 7th.
2
u/Unlikely-Tone-6269 5h ago
Because all you need to do in baseball is hit strikes hard duh
2
1
u/loosterbooster 7h ago
The thing is, bullpens don't have underbellies anymore. Teams aren't built like how they were in the 90s
11
u/ryan21503 16h ago
You mean it's just baseball. I'm tired of "brewer ball" They are playing the game the way it was meant to be played and it's just escalated in the post. Putting pressure on good pitching with contact and speed works! Waiting for a HR every 3 innings, not so much.
5
u/CocoabrothaSBB 15h ago
A HR every 3 innings would be great actually. One every 3 games not so much.
9
u/GraySonOfGotham24 17h ago
The guardians could very well be up 2-0 if not for a crucial error by their best player. A lot of postseason success is who gets hot at the right time and a little bit of luck but don't act like these teams never err
3
u/njwineguy 17h ago
Nobody said that.
10
u/GraySonOfGotham24 17h ago
The rays beat the Yankees in games 1 and 3 by hitting home runs. Something they didn't do much at all during the regular season. They just beat the guardians because of a fielding error. So what exactly is the approach being talked about? Is their philosophy to not hit home runs in the regular season and then all of a sudden hit them in the postseason?
2
u/Much_Purchase_8737 13h ago
To be truthful, the Yankees beat themselves. Every game against the rays was winnable when it should have been total destruction like the blue jays versus the yanks last year.
The Rays are not playing hot, they’re still better than the Yankees.. but the Yankees played their absolute worst and the games were still winnable.
The Yankees beat themselves.
0
-2
u/AaronJudge2 17h ago
That just tells you that maybe our pitching isn’t quite as good as people are making it out to be either.
6
u/GraySonOfGotham24 17h ago
I think the pitching is top 2 in baseball with the Dodgers, who are also down 2-0 right now. The postseason is a lot of who gets hot at the right time and luck
0
u/Much_Purchase_8737 13h ago
Hard to get hot and lucky when the Yankee strategy relies on something that happens 1% of the time… homeruns.
It’s a horrible strategy.
-1
u/AaronJudge2 17h ago edited 16h ago
Maybe that’s it. The pitching SHOULD be up there based on who we have and the amount of money we are spending.
Matt Fried keeps folding in the American League Championship Series. I wonder what’s going on there.
3
u/GraySonOfGotham24 17h ago
That's 1 game. The pitching overall was great
1
u/AaronJudge2 16h ago edited 16h ago
The pitching is great overall, no argument there, but Schittler got the loss in game 2 and Fried took the loss in game 3. Unfortunately.
1
u/Much_Purchase_8737 13h ago
They gave up little to no runs.. but our offence was non existent, that’s the problem.
1
-1
20
u/RollofDuctTape 18h ago
Every regular season this most of this sub defends the roster construction, which is typically based on hitting the ball as hard as possible at the expense of contact. Anyone who criticize it is downvoted. They talk themselves into and defend hitters who fit this profile like Jazz and Trent, and defend guys like McMahon and Volpe because “they can hit 20 homers.” Even as they’re playing atrocious ball—because I guess their xwOBA says they’re actually better than their production.
The story is that their sub .230 batting averages and .300 OBP don’t matter so long as they slug .380+, or as long as they theoretically could slug .380+.
Then the team, built with swing and miss, and who doesn’t get on base, predictably fails to hit playoff pitching and we lose. And then, like clockwork, we have the same post mortem conversations.
I just want to move past this more than anything. Contact and batting average are important. Trent Grisham and Jazz Chisholm Jr. are awful archetypes for winning teams. McMahon’s glove doesn’t make up for his bat. Let’s say it together now.
7
u/AaronJudge2 17h ago edited 16h ago
100%
Volpe used to be listed at 5’9”, but now he is listed at 5’10”. Even so, why is someone that height always trying to hit home runs? Not everyone can be Aaron Judge. Volpe would be a much better hitter if he focused on hitting line drives into the gaps. And that’s true of a lot of the Yankee players.
You need HR hitters AND Contact hitters in order to win in the playoffs now. It’s pretty obvious.
Let’s make contact, make the OTHER team play defense, and see what happens.
-12
u/RIP_Greedo 18h ago
There are people on this sub that still insist that Jazz only gets criticism because he's black.
8
u/Bootglass1 17h ago
SOME of the critisism jazz gets is because he's black. That BS in Boston about stealing bases when we're ahead was 100% racially based and you can't convince me otherwise. Bostonians are racist, who knew.
It's not racist to suggest that jazz shouldn't be airmailing throws to 1st in the playoffs.
-1
3
u/amelz11 16h ago
Be very interesting if it’s Tampa and Milwaukee in the World Series and how that discussion over the CBA will be impacted by that. If anything, it’s not the salary cap but the salary floor that they should discuss. As for cashman, he’s more interested in being the smartest in the room so the chances of an admission over a philosophy error is less likely than a weekly viewing of Haley’s comet.
3
u/ajbadabing 12h ago
This is 1000% right. Thru the Torre Jeter years this is how we played and WHY WE WON. Look at the 98 team. We punished teams with our at bats and got them to high pitch counts & played great defense. We hit HRs too but they weren’t the strategy. How dumb can Cashman and Hal be to not understand this.
5
u/PrimeVector19 17h ago
That’s why there needs to be a philosophical overhaul. The Rays strike out less often than any other team in baseball and they put the ball into play. More than anything, they don’t beat themselves.
2
u/darth_sudo 14h ago
The Rays now have won two postseason games this year (one vs us and the one last night vs Cleveland) because the other team made errors.
7
u/Klutzy_Style_3494 15h ago
It’s the same thing every year. Fundamentals, putting the ball in play, making the plays you’re supposed to make - these are what matter in October and every year we have guys closing their eyes and swinging for the fences
8
u/wetcornbread 18h ago
Those teams have more talent actually playing and better managing. It’s not an analytical thing. Every team, including the dodgers rely on analytics. The Rays and Brewers rely on it the most.
The Yankees lack players with a killer instinct that give a shit about winning games in the playoffs. That falls on the manager and also the GM for bringing in and signing losers. Literally only Judge, Stanton and Rice have talent and care about winning but only one of the three played in the postseason.
4
u/RIP_Greedo 18h ago
Judge is also to blame for the team's soft mentality and cultural quirks. The only constants on the team since 2017 have been Boone and Judge (and Stanton but he never plays). Ever since Judge REALLY broke out and ascended to mega stardom and got the contract and became captain, the team's results speak for themselves. Every season is the same - hot start, horrendous summer where they piss away the chance to win the division, and then a totally humiliating post season exit where the other team celebrates at YS. Usually in that span they revive a dead team's season by letting them smack the Yankees around. Other teams wake up excited to take the Yankees down a peg; the Yankees don't get excited for anything. It's just another game of the 162! That mentality clearly doesn't translate to high stakes games.
5
u/wetcornbread 17h ago
How many teams have players that fire up their own team to win? Baseball isn’t the same as football. A lot of players within the same clubhouse don’t even speak the same language.
It’s a managerial and/or GM problem. Either their manager is allowing the players to be soft or the GM is bringing in soft players.
I don’t teams even get excited about beating the Yankees. Of course they’re pumped to win a postseason series. But Aaron Judge said after the playoff loss “we’re the New York Yankees.” So what? That doesn’t mean anything anymore like it did 25 years ago.
1
2
u/Vivid_Selection_6548 17h ago
Judge sounds like a country club manager that is chummy with everyone.
1
u/OMYGoodnesz 15h ago
I'm so sick of the "you do you" mentality the Yankees have under Boone and Judge.
I need some fire. Get mad at someone who makes a mental mistake. Pull them from the game. Get on them in front of the rest of the team. There's no accountability.
"You do you" is awesome over 162. Makes stats look great. Then when the pressure comes everyone shits their pants because they never had to deal with it before.
2
u/RIP_Greedo 15h ago
"You do you" is how the team has no situational approach at the plate, no cohesion in the field and seemingly no plan for how to attack other teams' pitching. It's just 9 guys doing their own thing, trying to pad their stats and highlight reels.
1
u/Much_Purchase_8737 13h ago
The players we sign are just not well rounded.
The only guy on the Yankees who can bunt, play defence, steal, play small ball… is the guy we don’t even play… its Jose.
1
u/Ohioguy6 14h ago
Another point with players. Just because you pay a lot for players doesn’t make them good. Who, among the Yankees playoff roster would start for TB? Bellinger and who else? Michael Kay made a good point. TB isn’t a bunch of “little engines that could”. They have some really good players. They just haven’t been in the league long enough to get the big contract. That doesn’t mean they aren’t good.
-1
u/AaronJudge2 14h ago edited 14h ago
It’s true. Players who are good long term consistently end up getting rewarded financially in the Major Leagues.
2
u/Lumpy_Boysenberry_12 12h ago
I watched the Brewers and the Dodgers the other night and I kept thinking “ so this is what it’s like to watch good baseball.”
2
u/shamiraclejohnson 11h ago
It’s just the long strings of empty at bats, which has been a Boone phenomenon since day 1. These four teams, they occasionally have 1, 2, 3 empty at bats in a row, it’s true - it happens.
But the Yankees have for the last decade made it a habit to string together 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 or more just absolutely empty at bats together, often several times in the same game. You cannot consistently win a game of baseball at a high level against a serious team if you’re giving away 9 outs at a time.
2
u/Humble_Video7006 11h ago
100% agree…. I’ve watched all the games between these 4 teams so far and the contact, hitting and grit is amazing. I really wish the Yankees had these basic baseball fundamentals.
2
u/longbeachny96 10h ago
Jake bauers’ at bat against Yamamoto to load the bases was just something we would never be able to do
2
u/jsprat5050 7h ago
If we just watch the Sox series and the Rays series again, it is striking how differently our offense went about their at bats. OK, so the Rays pitchers pitched better. But I think we can believe if we approached the Rays pitching as we did the Sox, we would have been a lot more competitive. We were almost two different teams. Against the Sox, we not only hit long balls, because we put good swings on the ball, but we hit to the oppo field, we moved runners over, we took smart at-bats with bunts, we thought through each bat - it looked. Against the Rays it looked like the normal Yankees when behind. Everyone was a hero and wanted to put a run on the board with a solo HR. The young guys on the team know how to play station to station. It seems those at the Major league level learn something different and their at-bats are all attempts to hit the cover off the ball every pitch, every swing. I can say, as someone who has been watching baseball and specifically the Yankees since the early ‘60’s, it is a lot more fun to watch station to station baseball with the occasional HR than it is to watch a game we get 2-hit and lose 4-0 or 4-1.
4
3
u/ScareTactical 18h ago
Completely different aura. The entire org is delusional and too up their own ass to see it
2
u/Rosemoorstreet 17h ago
The Rays Front Office is the smartest in MLB if not all sports. They saw the winds changing several years ago with the banning of shifts and other smaller changes. As part or that they drafted Chandler Simpson number one. They recognized that HR or K was no longer going to win games and they built their teams around what is basically old time baseball, meaning a more balanced offense and strong defense. The Brewers are the same, most likely because their GM came from the Rays.
2
u/EZmac024 16h ago edited 15h ago
Been saying this for almost 10 years. The go for homeruns strategy evens out in the regular season but not in the playoffs. You don’t face teams 4th, 5th, and 6th starters in the playoffs. The bullpens will (generally) be better too. Just put the freakin ball in play and get on base aka PLAY BASEBALL. Not every player is meant to go for HR just because they CAN hit them. Jazz has some natural pop, imagine a player like him going for singles and doubles and still running into 20+ HR, having a much higher OBP rather than TRYING to be a 30-40 HR guy and whiffing all the time. Volpe on no planet should be swinging for the fences, mans is 5’10” on a good day like why are you promoting this.
2
2
2
u/Mr-Dicklesworth 15h ago
Guaranteed if Jazz and Grisham tried pulling the bullshit they did on the Rays or Guards they’d be benched the entire postseason. Instead on the Yankees they get rewarded with more playing time cause the computer said they’re actually amazing
1
u/ElectronicJury1885 12h ago
Absolutely true about “I’m always right” Cashman. I would be surprised if there are any significant changes made. Hal has his cover man in Cashman in order to pursue his own interests. Empty seats will probably get his attention.
1
u/draiken2000 12h ago
I wonder what happened to all the run it back folks last off-season who were arguing that it was fine because we had the best offense last year. Many of us saw this train wreck coming
1
1
u/Bobby-furnace 8h ago
Yankees have a similar issue that the Phillies do but I believe the Phillies have more “dogs” but the yanks have better pitching. Schwarber batting lead off is very dumb as well as Trent Grisham for the yanks.
1
u/Turbulent-Paper800 5h ago
The irony is that these games are still dominated by homers and strikeouts
1
u/FoppyIn28 18h ago
They have analytics too but not the obstinate culture of analytics and zero fundamentals.
1
u/jawnquistador 14h ago
Every series I watch I’m baffled by how much better they all are at baseball than us. The small ball, baserunning, taking pitches, team energy, all of it. And when we actually got to the World Series in ‘24 we got pantsed on national television. It’s a well-known fact among players and teams that we are horrible at several crucial fundamentals. They laugh about it on podcasts and interviews after whooping our ass. Every. Single. Year. When are we going to learn?
1
u/Karudero 18h ago
I couldn’t imagine this team being half as exciting to watch in the playoffs, even if they were somehow winning.
5
u/squishyliquid 17h ago
I've gone from watching 100 games a year to less than 10 because I simply don't like to watch the type of baseball they play. It's endlessly frustrating.
1
u/drcheesegod 16h ago
It’s been the same team philosophy for us in the entire Boone era. HR or bust, no small ball. Pitching saves us, but without proper runs, how is that supposed to lead to a title. Idk how they’ve been eliminated so many times without changing the philosophy. It’s not just the names you bring in, just seems like everyone is trying to send the ball to the upper deck.
1
u/AJTP89 15h ago
Watching the Cleveland Tampa game last night was actually fun. After Volpe’s HR was called back I knew they were done, that 1R might as well have been 10. Meanwhile a couple run lead never felt safe in other playoff games. The Yanks got bounced by a better team. Their philosophy has repeatedly failed, it’s time for a change from the top down.
1
u/idster 14h ago
The bottom line is that the Yankees have at least four guys on their team who are too arrogant or selfish or lazy to be contributors to a winning team. A good GM would have replaced those guys a long time ago. The Dodgers have NO ONE like that now that Will Smith's back at catcher. The Brewers have only one player like that.
The Yankees have just enough talent to make the playoffs so people think Cashman's doing a good job. If your payroll's the highest in baseball you should be making the playoffs every year. But Cashman has not removed the bad apples. He has been GM since 1998 and he only won one World Series with his own team (2009).
I think it's crazy that he has been given nearly three decades.
1
u/ChiltonA 13h ago
Whether one supports Cashman as GM or not, the fact is he has been SVP/GM of the team for nearly 30 years. That is the longest tenure of any GM in MLB history. Nearly all major organizations, businesses, foundations, etc are never helmed by the same person for that length of time. Marquis names like Apple Computer, JP Morgan Chase, Exxon/Mobil, Costco, Harvard University and more, all have succession plans for leadership to bring in fresh ideas and structure. I appreciate Cashman‘s time with the Yankees, and the the team is sui generis in MLB, but…IT IS TIME FOR A CHANGE, EVEN FOR NO SPECIFIC REASON.
-1
u/enterjiraiya 18h ago
The dodgers and Yankees aren’t that different honestly, just kind of hoping on those swings to hit and superb pitching
-3
u/JodieFostersRevenge 17h ago
There is more than one way to play the game and win. If the Yankees hit their average number of homers per game in the ALDS that would be 3 more home runs and they likely win games 1 and 3.
3
u/Elvisruth 15h ago
Doesn't happen that way against quality pitching - against Baltimore's starters or the Red Sox bullpen - sure - we go home every year waiting for the 3 run homers to start happening
0
u/Lightning_Empire 10h ago
Nothing wrong with having all or nothing hitters, not in today's game anyway, so long as you have a few contact guys that are tough to strike out sprinkled in. This team desperately needs a legitimate leadoff hitter.
-2
u/Radical_Sim 17h ago
Those better teams have more spanish players in their starters than the Yankees.
0
u/njwineguy 17h ago
Yes. We need more racism not less.
1
u/Radical_Sim 15h ago
Call it whatever. It's a fact. Most of the better teams have top Spanish players. Look it up
2
u/Brave-Secretary2484 13h ago
Zero of the players you think you’re talking about are “Spanish”. Fucking idiot
1
1
-1
u/kmarx 12h ago
The Dodgers as a team are hitting .193/.263/.328 this postseason.
The Rays as a team are hitting .215/.271/.329 this postseason.
3
u/Elvisruth 12h ago
and the dodgers are down 0-2. The Rays have made enough contact to beat the Yankees and be even in this series...another way to look at it - What were the Yankee stats against the rays this year in the play offs and then do last year and the year before and so on...there is a trend here. No one is compaining becausr they lost this year - it's the fact that they lose - for the same reasons - every year. From a philosphy point of view they are not playing in a way that produces enough wins to be a champion.
398
u/SamJoe24 18h ago
I watched 5 innings of brewer baseball and realized we wouldn’t have had a chance