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  • Writer's picturePaul Semendinger

Perspectives: As The Season Winds Down...

by Paul Semendinger

September 25, 2022

***

Where does the time go? There are just eleven games left in the 2022 regular season. It goes quickly, the baseball season. Too fast. It sometimes seems to move too fast.


The Yankees have 93 wins. They could still reach 100 wins. Considering the way they played in July and August, that's amazing. I don't think they will win that many games though. I see the Yankees resting players galore once they clinch the A.L. East and the #2 playoff seed. That can happen as early as a day or two.


I know most people are most excited about Aaron Judge reaching and exceeding Roger Maris' home run record, but for me, I'm more excited about watching his bid for the triple crown. I'd love to see him win the Triple Crown - even if it means he doesn't get another home run the rest of the season. (For the record, I am sure he'll hit a few more homers.)


I felt, for a long time, that Aaron Judge would not resign with the Yankees for a lot of reasons. Many of those reasons are still valid. We can get into all of that after the season. I also said that I'm sure he doesn't know where he will be playing next year. I'm sure he has a lot of conflicting thoughts on this - and a lot of this will play out over time. But, I do think that a Yankees home run record, and/or a triple crown, and/or a World Championship could help bring him back to the Bronx. It certainly could. If he (and the team) accomplishes those things, the Yankees would feel tremendous pressure to bring him back and that could mean that they offer more than they wanted to. They might even offer more than what's reasonable.


I have high hopes that Zack Britton can be the closer going forward. I have no faith in Aroldis Chapman at this point. If it's not Britton, I think the Yankees have the talent to mix and match the pitchers they do have. I don't think the Yankees have to use just one pitcher in that role in the playoffs.


Not much can be determined by how rookies play over a season's final weeks, but I sure hope the Yankees play Oswald Peraza a bunch these last eleven games to see him over an extended period as a big leaguer.


I did not want the Yankees to trade Jordan Montgomery. I thought that trading him for an injured guy was a poor decision. That being said, Harrison Bader has been an exciting player. I love his energy. He seems to have so many skills. His defense is great. He runs well. He his enthusiastic. Thus far, he is a great addition to the club.


I like players that have positive energy. Harrison Bader is one. Oswaldo Cabrera is another. Bring me positive energy!


Jordan Montgomery has also last his last three starts. Uggg.


If the Yankees fail to win the World Series, has this been a lost season? At what point is it good enough to reach the post season year-after-year? The Yankees have done that, of course. They haven't been able, though, to get to the next step.


A lot was made about the fact that Aaron Boone is the first manager to ever reach the post season in each of his first five years as a manager. Deservedly so. That's a tremendous accomplishment. No one else has ever done it. Aaron Boone deserves a ton of credit for that. He did it. It has not been easy. Congratulations to Aaron Boone.


Of course, with limited ballclubs who have the resources that the Yankees have, and with so few such teams willing to give teams on the precipice of greatness to rookie managers, and with expanded playoffs, there are reasons why Boone has been able to be the first in this category. Still, he has done it. I sense he'll be the only manager in this club, again a very impressive club, for a long time.


If they had expanded playoffs a long time ago, the Yankees would have probably qualified for the playoffs in every single season from 1946 through 1964. (They only missed a few seasons in that period (1946, 1948, 1954, and 1959), but they never finished lower than third place in that entire period.


Or, how's this? The 1945 Yankees finished in fourth place. That was the only time, the only time, the Yankees finished lower than third place in the years from 1926 through 1964. For 38 years, in every season but one, the Yankees were one of the top three teams in the American League. They also did win 19 World Series in that time.


I'd like to see a World Series victory this year. It's time.


The Yankees have a late season double header on the second to last day of the season in Texas against the Rangers to make-up a rainout from a long time ago. What a way to end the season...with a meaningless double header. I sense the ballpark will be mostly empty for those games. The Rangers have not been good this year. I can't imagine lots of fans circling their calendars to attend those games.







18 Comments


yankeesblog
Sep 25, 2022

Don Mattingly not returning as Marlins manager in 2023

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fuster
Sep 25, 2022
Replying to

my apologies for offering a disingenuous comment that I expected to be understood as entirely unserious

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Philip Cashier
Philip Cashier
Sep 25, 2022

Matt Blake got a lot of credit for how well the relievers pitched early on. So why hasn't he fixed their problems yet?

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Philip Cashier
Philip Cashier
Sep 25, 2022
Replying to

Thank the baseball gods he's not in charge of throws from RF!!

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Len
Len
Sep 25, 2022

Perhaps Holmes can regain his early season form. As for congratulating Boone, a blind chimpanzee could have won that many games. They should have won 5 to 7 games/season, with the roster they had!

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Paul Semendinger
Paul Semendinger
Sep 25, 2022
Replying to

Yes. I made that point. And many times.

Boone has failed to get the Yankees to the promised land.

I have written (and will again) if the Yankees don't win a WS this year that he has had a longer tenure than any Yankees manager without a World Championship under his belt. (I hope I don't have to write that article and a similar one about Brian Cashman's lack of WS titles this century).

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fuster
Sep 25, 2022

excellent points about Judge's extraordinary season and attainments forcing the Yankees to acknowledge his extraordinary value and cause them to paay the man.

it may well be that the money will be more than is rationally justifiable when it's easier to exploit the profits that Judge was placed in their coffers. far easier to pretend that the money generated rightfully belongs to the team rather than to the player.

easier to spend less and gather other, younger and less expensive players.

easier to break faith with the fans who provided the money.


but when the player has provided everything and more, has excelled in games and burnished the reputation of the team and has won the respect of all of…


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Patrick J. Sullivan
Patrick J. Sullivan
Sep 26, 2022
Replying to

Ah yes, I do miss RAB.

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