by Paul Semendinger
April 25, 2023
***
About Last Night - The Yankees, the once mighty Yankees, have now lost three of their last four. Remember all the talk a few weeks ago, "The Yankees are on pace to win 100 games." Yeah. Yeah. They're now on pace to win 92 games. Yeah, it happens quickly. If they lose tonight, they'll be on pace for 88 wins. This is who they are. This isn't a great team. Often times, this will not be a good team. There will be a lot of games like this this year - six hits. Not much offense. They are 13-10 on the season.
Last night, in the top of the ninth inning, the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs. John Sterling tried to get the listening fans excited by stating, "The Yankees have Cabrera, Trevino, and Hicks coming up." (Forgive me if I was not inspired.)
Quick Stats -
Jhony Brito pitched only 2.2 innings as the starter
Brito's ERA is now 6.11
Aaron Hicks made the last out in the game. He is now batting .107
The Yankees managed only six hits. Yes, that's less than one per inning.
Big Story - The big story is that the Yankees are not very good. They simply aren't. At all. Might they win 93 or 94 games? Sure. But, I believe it is equally likely that they'll fail to crack even 90 wins this year. It's not a deep team. It's not an especially interesting team. If Aaron Judge doesn't hit, they're going to be in trouble more often than not. They are also expecting Anthony Volpe to jump start the offense. That should not be his role one month into his career.
A 13-10 start isn't all that impressive in spite of the "they didn't lose a series" stuff to begin the year.
The Yankees are in fourth place in the American League East. Sure, it's early. I know. But, I remember talking about the fact that the Yankees needed a left fielder in November. Some people responded, "It's early." Then I heard, "It's only December." And soon the mantra was, "It's January." Later it was "Spring Training first started." Now we get, "It's only April." Yogi was correct when he said, "It gets late early."
It's not too late for this team, of course, but I don't sense any urgency. I didn't sense any urgency in the roster design all off-season, and I don't sense any now. The Yankees are built to make the playoffs and then hope for good fortune there. But, as we saw in the second half last year, it can all fall apart quickly, especially if the foundation is built in sand (or players that are old, or injured often with no real depth).
Player(s) of the Game - Was their one? D.J. LeMahieu had two hits.
Here are the batting averages for the starting players from last night's game at the conclusion of play last night:
Volpe .194
Judge .244
Rizzo .300
Torres .257
LeMahieu .299
Cordero .174
Cabrera .211
Trevino .208
Hicks .107
Better to Forget - The Yankees need to forget this game, they scored a meaningless run in the top of the ninth, and get back out there tomorrow.
My Take - Before the season, I stated that I was not impressed with the roster. I noted there were a lot of concerns. Thus far, and it's early, those concerns have proven to be mostly playing out as very real:
The Yankees don't have enough left-handed hitting
The Yankees don't have a deep lineup
The Yankees are very short on quality outfielders
Gleyber Torres is very talented, but is streaky and can't be relied upon
Giancarlo Stanton won't be a presence for much of the time because he's hurt too often.
Harrison Bader's injury history is a huge concern
DJ LeMahieu is getting old and won't be an every day player
Here's a stat for all to consider - The Yankees have played 80 regular season games since they acquired Harrison Bader. Bader has played in 14 games. Jordan Montgomery, the starting pitcher traded for Bader, has started 15 games for the Cardinals since the trade.
Next Up - The Yankees continue their series in Minnesota at 7:40 tonight. Nestor Cortes is starting. He and Gerrit Cole have had to shoulder the burden from a broken down starting rotation and an offense that doesn't (and probably won't) score much this year.
