SSTN Not The Weekly Mailbag: Things I Think, Week 2

By Andy Singer

July 3rd, 2026

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By the time you read this, I will be somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.  I enjoy working, and I enjoy working hard.  As I get older, I recognize that there are people who need to be told to slow down a little and enjoy the little pleasures in life.  I certainly fall into that category.  I almost never say, “No, I can’t.”  I learned at a very young age that such a phrase was not part of my vocabulary.  Unfortunately, that means that I often find myself stretched to the point where I am hanging by just a thread.

This trip was special to me.  Yes, I was working (more than overtime by most people’s standards, I might add), but at the same time, my parents were traveling in Europe on a vacation that for a variety of reasons over the last year and change, I wasn’t sure would happen.  Well, it happened, and while I worked, I also got to finish working each day by spending irreplaceable time with my parents in places that were very special to me and them.  It was time that meant more to me than I can really put into words, and while I’m exhausted from playing double-duty (tour guide and international worker), I am exhilarated beyond words at how spectacularly well this trip really turned out, especially considering the fact that I wasn’t sure it would happen.  I worked hard (as always), and I played hard in ways that were incredibly meaningful to me.

What that means is that for once, something(s) had to give.  I know I promised that the SSTN Mailbag would return this week.  To properly accomplish both my work objectives and help give my parents (and myself!) the trip of a lifetime, I just wasn’t able to devote the time to the questions in the Mailbag that I feel is appropriate.  I care deeply about our weekly Mailbag; giving very cursory answers just isn’t my style.  We have a ton of questions, such that I have enough for a very long Mailbag on July 10^th (I’ve already started working on it). I sincerely apologize that for the first time since I started writing this Mailbag, we are going to miss 2 weeks in a row. For this week, I’m going to give you another general thoughts post.  Please know that this decision wasn’t made in flippant fashion.  I promise, things will get back to normal next week, and you’ll see me around again for game recaps, analytical posts, Tuesday Discussions, and yes, SSTN Mailbags.

With programming notes out of the way, let’s get at it:

·       For the last three years, I feel like every international trip I take between early June and August coincides with the worst of the annual Boone Swoon.  If you’re the superstitious sort, I apologize for my indiscretion.

·       I noted that I seem to travel for the worst of the Annual Boone Swoon.  The Yankees have lost 10 of their last 12 games (literally almost exactly when I left the US).  If this isn’t the worst of it, I don’t know that I’ll be able to watch the Yankees in a civil fashion when I get home.

·       I mean, I’ll be civil, but not by choice; I know my almost 4-year-old daughter has missed watching Yankee games with me, as I have with her, so I’ll be on my best behavior, even if it means my wife has to staple my mouth shut.

·       For Father’s Day, I bought my father, my brother, and I shirts that say, “All I need is a hot dog and to tell an umpire he’s blind.”  I might need a shirt that amends that to, “All I need is a hot dog and to tell the Yankee hitters that they’re blind.”

·       Seriously, what the heck is going on?  This team suddenly has absolutely zero discipline and almost no ability to take good, fundamental at-bats.  It would be one thing if this exact collection of players showed that tendency from the start of the season, but they didn’t.  The team assembled is genuinely deeper and better than Yankee teams in the last few seasons.

·       I recognize that this is beating a dead horse, but what’s the common denominator here?  Aaron Judge’s comments the other day were basically the worst indictment of a manager that I’ve heard.  To paraphrase, Judge said that the team lacks focus and that it needs to show up every day ready to do their jobs.  Isn’t the manager’s sole job, really the first thing in the job description, to have their players ready to play to the best of their abilities?!?  We now have overwhelming evidence over close to a decade that Boone consistently fails when scoring by this incredibly basic premise.  Managers lose their jobs for less all over the league.  Just look at the Mets – Mendoza lost his job because the owner is too proud to fire his handpicked GM so early into his tenure, despite the fact that Casey Stengel couldn’t help that team win games.  Aaron Boone is consistently handed rosters that are among the 5 best in all of baseball, yet they play easily a third of the season every year looking like one of the 7-10 worst.  Even Jazz Chisholm Jr., one of the players guiltiest of playing without focus, has noted the need for this team to play with more focus and attention to detail.  What does any of this say about the team’s on-field leader?

·       Aaron Boone seems like a really good guy.  I am sure there are things that work in his favor behind the scenes that we, as fans, no less than nothing about.  I’m sure players like him, because if they didn’t, he’d have been gone a long time ago.  I don’t buy into a lot of the peripheral things that many complain about when it comes to Aaron Boone (blowing bubbles with his gum, occasionally taking batting practice, etc.), but those ancillary items add to the storm cloud around the team when things aren’t good.  I once had a superior ask me what I thought of a new hire in a critical role.  I responded by noting that the person seemed like a really decent human.  My superior noted that my response told them nothing about how well they could do their job.  I feel that way about Aaron Boone.  He’s a nice guy who long ago showed us very little in the way of job performance to recommend him as a Manager.

·       Everyone is pressing.  Almost none of the hitters are doing what most Yankee hitters do well: working counts, and putting themselves in positions to get pitches to hit. Jasson Dominguez came through the system as a guy who could lay off bad pitches and wait until he got his pitch.  He’s swinging more freely than I’ve ever seen.  The same goes for Jazz, Ben Rice, Austin Wells, and Cody Bellinger.  That’s almost the whole lineup.  When it happens to the whole lineup at once, that speaks to a coaching staff’s inability to get their message through to the players.  Everyone on Aaron Boone’s staff has changed since he came on the scene for this reason…except for him.  It’s ludicrous.  If it happens one or even two seasons, it could be written off as a fluke.  But every year since 2020?  It’s managerial malpractice.

·       Aaron Boone might well be in high demand on the open market should he reach it.  That alone doesn’t recommend him for his current role.  From the outside looking in, he hasn’t grown at all as a decision maker or communicator.

·       Is Ben Rice hurt?  He has not been the same hitter since he took Max Fried’s pickoff attempt off the heel of his glove over a month ago.  Is it a slump, or something more?

·       We might have finally reached the point where Austin Wells is unplayable until further notice.  I still really like him, and believe in his raw talent, but he is currently yet another genuinely good prospect (and before anyone makes this comment, it wasn’t just Yankee media hype; multiple reputable national scouting outlets loved his bat, even if they questioned his defense, which is hysterical now) whose bat has completely stalled at the big league level.  Volpe fits into this category as well, as does Dominguez to some extent.  I’m a broken record, but the Yankees have changed everyone on the coaching staff over the last decade…except the manager.

·       Cam Schlittler finally got beat by the elements I said were beginning to drag him down.  Once he settled down, he began to use his curveball far more.  That’s a good start, but he needs to go back to splitting his cutter between his hard cutter and the firm, short slider that Statcast classified as a cutter during the playoffs last year.  He was deadly when he changed shapes and speeds with the same grip and arm slot.

·       I still believe that this is the best team in the AL.  They are managed like a bad team, but they are clearly the cream of the AL slop in terms of talent.  Now, they need to go back to playing that way.

·       What do you think it would take for Aaron Boone to lose his job?  20 losses in 30 games?   I hope the Yankees don’t push it far enough for us to find out.

·       I can’t help but think about the Marlins in 2003.  The team needed a spark, and they fired the manager at mid-season and hired Jack McKeon.  The move galvanized the young team, and they rolled through the playoffs, eventually knocking the Yankees off in the World Series.  I can’t help but see parallels between the 2003 Marlins and the 2026 Yankees.  The 2003 Marlins had a fantastic starting pitching staff, quality hitters around a star or two, and weren’t necessarily the best team in baseball, on paper.  All it took was someone to get that group of players to play their best baseball.

·       I still think this team can win the World Series.

·       They might even be able to do it despite Aaron Boone, although I believe that less with each passing day.

·       Carlos Lagrange is going for an MRI on his shoulder, and his velocity has been down a touch in recent outings.  Why can’t we have nice things.

·       A reader asked me about Garrett Martin.  I’ve had him on the periphery of my personal top prospects list for a couple of years.  He’s hitting the ball really hard and really well this year.  I wondered if this was just small sample size noise.  I started evaluating some video the other day – I’m very intrigued.  In fact, I think if I re-shuffled my prospect list today, Martin would crack the top-10.  It won’t help the Yankees this year…but it might soon.  I’ll answer more fully in next week’s Mailbag.

·       If Carlos Lagrange is hurt badly enough that he’s not longer an option to pitch in the Yankee bullpen this year, I wonder if Ben Hess moves to the bullpen.  His fastball has huge ride and his breaking stuff is devastating.  He might well be able to command his fastball well enough to pitch effectively in 1-inning bursts.  I think he’d live at 96-98 MPH as a reliever.  That’s more than enough to get the job done.

·       This  team needs Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger to wake up.  Real, middle-of-the-order help isn’t coming.  They need to put the team on their shoulders.

·       I hope when the Mailbag posts next week, there’s more good baseball to discuss.