Perspectives: March 11, 2023

By Paul Semendinger

March 11, 2023

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Happy Saturday.

I have lots to share here!

PROGRAMMING NOTE:

• Once the season begins, we'll be back to no fewer than four articles a day here at SSTN. These will be as follows:

  • 6:00 am- About Last Night (Game summary from the previous day/night)

  • 10:00 am - Article

  • 2:00 pm - Article

  • 6:00 pm (approx.) - Game Thread

  • 11:00 pm (approx.) - Quick Hit

• Also, please know that the regular articles such as the Tuesday Discussion and the Friday Mailbag will, of course, continue.

• We might have even more surprises in store...

• Over the winter, the New York Post began putting some articles behind a paywall. They join the growing list of sites that ask you for your money to read their content.

• I used to create a Saturday Links article each week for this site. That went away because most of the sites I'd try to read to find Yankees news went completely (or partially) behind pay walls.

• SSTN has been on-line and live every day since October 23, 2017. We've been at this for 1,972 days. In that time, we've provided at least 8,000 articles to our reading audience. And, no, we're not going behind a paywall.

YANKEES STUFF:

• Carlos Rodon is injured. Something is wrong somewhere. This just happens too often to too many Yankees pitchers.

• Harrison Bader is hurt. Here we go again.

• Yankees fans should appreciate Gerrit Cole for going out there every fifth day. He's among the last of a dying breed.

• Without Rodon, the Yankees starting staff looks a lot less impressive. A lot less impressive.

• Last year, the Yankees traded away the bulk of their highest level minor league starting pitcher depth along with Jordan Montgomery. Boy, Montgomery and those other pitchers would look good in pinstripes.

• I know most people love the Harrison Bader trade. To get a centerfielder, as good as he might be, the Yankees gave up a solid lefty starter. I think quality lefty starters are more difficult to come by than centerfielders. That's just my perspective. Bader, throughout his career, has also not been an example of a player who stays healthy.

• Mike Whiteman had an article last week where he put to bed the idea that Giancarlo Stanton hits better when he plays defense and doesn't DH. Thank you Mike!

• If I'm the Yankees, I keep Giancarlo Stanton as far away from the field as I can, except in rare cases. I also wouldn't move my $40 million right fielder to a different spot to accommodate Giancarlo Stanton on defense. To me, that makes no sense. Moving Judge to left field is one of those things that sounds okay, maybe could be okay, but is just bad thinking. It just is.

• Judge should be left in the position where he excels.

• The Yankees need to determine who of Anthony Volpe and Oswald Peraza is the shortstop of the future and keep that guy there and let him become the player they hope he becomes. Don't move that player all over the place. Let him play at shortstop and develop there. That player need to stay in one spot. Moving him doesn't serve his long-term interest. If they believe in the player, then believe in him, and leave him in his position.

A CRAZY IDEA:

• I don't like alternate Yankees uniforms. I don't even like the Spring Training uniforms. I am a traditionalist. Leave the Yankees uniform alone. No Names. Just the road greys and the home pinstripes. No city uniform or whatever it is that teams are doing. No Player's Weekend uniforms. No special hats for holidays. Leave it alone. It's enough. It's too much. BUT.... All that being said, I would love it if the Yankees had the player's names on the back of the uniforms for Spring Training only. I sometimes watch the games while running on my treadmill across the room. I watch with no sound and when all the kids are playing, I have no idea who they are.

BOOKS:

• I have a host of in-person and on-line meetings set-up to discuss my writings, my books, and specifically the new Roy White book. You can see all of these events HERE. Note, Roy White will be at some of these events as noted. This page is updated in real time with every new event that is scheduled.