Official Yankee fan thread

[Kccitystar]

Just my hot take on Volpe: 

I know Volpe looks lost right now and fans are tired of waiting him to bounce back, but I don’t think the answer is “he has to go.” The bigger issue to me is how the Yankees develop players.

 

The Yankees don’t really treat Volpe like a player to develop. They've had a heavy track record of treating players like him like an input > output equation. Boone’s recent quote in the media about "productive players come in many forms" is just front office code for waiting on their analytical model to spit out a result. That’s been the Cashman-era philosophy the front office has: They'll build player profiles based on proprietary metrics: exit velocity, launch angle, zone contact %, chase rate, OAA, sprint speed, then the front office decides which profile has the best probability of long term success, and then the development staff spends time trying to "nudge" players until they resemble those profiles.
 

So instead of tailoring instruction to the things the player is good at naturally (like the Dodgers or the Astros), the org will emphasize adjustments that line up with their models. A hitter with pull power might be told to flatten their swing to boost contact and OBP, even if it undercuts how they do damage in the batters box, for example. The idea is that over enough reps, a player will statistically “normalize” to their true talent. So if the numbers don’t look right early, the front office will preach patience: trust the process, the algorithm will prove out. So this delays interventions or coaching to set an identity (like being a table setter instead of a power threat) for a player.

 

As a consequence according to Statcast/Savant, Volpe's in a hitter's no-mans-land: His swing is not long enough to punish deep contact, not fast enough to cover late decisions, and too max-effort to stay controlled. Rather than the Yankees coaching him to fully commit to one identity and molding Volpe into something, they would rather wait to see who Volpe becomes in the algorithm, some abstract statistical ideal. This ends up ultimately making a roster full of depth pieces but never fully developing players who would end up being stars.

 

It’s why the org keeps doubling down on him and giving him as much runway as possible, because he’s supposed to be the proof that the efficient, quant-driven system they instituted to develop players works. To demote him or bench him for another starter is an indictment of their development process, and admitting that passing up on opportunities for a SS in consecutive years in favor of the homegrown guy was a mistake. For a brand and optics-obsessed team like the Yankees, they can't have that.

 

Judge is the only outlier on the roster that became a superstar and that's solely because since 2017, he's worked outside the Yankee bubble with his own trainers and coaches. His development and growth has been in spite of the Yankees' rigid system, not because of it. If Volpe steps outside that bubble in the offseason (whether that's spending an offseason at Driveline, listening to new coaching voices, whatever it takes), he probably bounces back, but just like Judge, it’ll be in spite of the Yankees’ development process, not because of it.

[Yankee4Life]

Well KC all I can say is that i am glad that Judge used his own coaches and training system. Can you imagine if he had not? He'd of been off the team by now and he'd of never gotten that big contract.

 

Eventually they are going to have to see that what they are doing with Volpe just isn't working, unless they are comfortable with nightly 0 for 4's and errors. 

[Yankee4Life]

The last two sentences here in this article. Oh boy.

 

The next six weeks can completely redefine this Yankees season

 

            By Larry Brooks, New York Post

 

It is still a six-month, 162-game marathon in which big league teams are on the field six or seven days a week. That has not changed over the past six-plus decades.

 

But pretty much everything else has. Pennant races are lost to history. There is a four-round postseason structure. Major League Baseball has become a playoff league just as surely as the NFL, the NBA and the NHL.

 

And that is why, as maddening as it has been to hear Aaron Boone insist multiple times throughout this summer that has left much to be desired, that “it is all in front of us,” the fact is that the Yankees manager is absolutely correct.

 

The wild-card Texas Rangers won the 2023 World Series with the sixth-best regular-season record in the league by defeating the wild-card Diamondbacks, who had finished with the 12th-best record. The NHL Florida Panthers captured the Stanley Cup this June after finishing with the NHL’s 11th-best record.

 

So, yes, it does remain all in front of the Yankees, who defeated woebegone Washington 5-1 at the Stadium on Tuesday with Unstoppable Force Giancarlo Stanton driving in all five with a bases-loaded double and two-run homer to maintain both MLB’s 10th-best record and a 4 ½-game cushion on a playoff spot over the Royals.

 

July is gone and so soon will be August. Good riddance, if you ask Boone. Good riddance, if you ask Anthony Volpe, reinstated before going 0-for-4. Good riddance, if you ask Devin Williams. But the summer need not define Volpe. The summer need not define Williams. The summer need not define Boone. The summer need not define the 2025 Yankees.

 

There is a month’s worth of runway for the team to get its house in order. There is a rotation to establish. There is a bullpen to reorganize. There are details that need to be emphasized. These should be the primary objectives over the season’s remaining 30 games.

 

Giancarlo Stanton hits a two-run home run scoring Cody Bellinger in the sixth inning against the Washington Nationals at Yankee Stadium, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025.

 

The Yankees, who are 4 ½ games behind division-leading Toronto after the Jays lost to the Twins, appear destined for a best-of-three wild-card series against either Boston, Houston or Seattle, with all games in the higher seed’s ballpark. The matchup as of Tuesday would have the Yankees at Fenway for three without a scheduled off-day. But they could wind up hosting Seattle. All TBD.

 

Regardless, the Yankees would need three starters for this round. Of course they have to get from here to there, but unless health issues intercede, you’d expect that Max Fried and Carlos Rodón would get the ball for Games 1 and 2. Then the leading candidate for Game 3 would be reigning AL Rookie of the Year Luis Gil, who went five innings against the Nats in his fifth start after missing the first four-plus months with a lat strain.

 

Surely he is the incumbent. But don’t hang up the phone just yet, for Cam Schlittler has likely entered the conversation following another impressive performance Monday in which the 24-year-old rookie right-hander pitched six shutout innings while allowing four hits and striking out eight in the 10-5 victory over the Nats.

 

Schlittler, who has pitched to a 2.76 ERA over his first eight major league starts and has not allowed a run over his past 13 ²/₃ innings, may be on track to become the latter-day version of the 1964 Mel Stottlemyre, who came up in August and went 9-3 while leading a veteran Yankees team to the seventh game of the World Series before going down to Bob Gibson.

 

“We’ve got to get to the postseason, so that’s hopefully for another day when we’re lining things up,” Boone said. “We think very highly of him, obviously he’s throwing great. We know we’re going to need him down the stretch to be a key figure especially the way he’s shown so far.

 

“Hopefully we’re having that conversation down the road when we’re ready to do that.”

 

Gil limited the Nats to one run and five hits over five innings. The manager is looking for consistency from the 27-year-old, who has walked 12 batters in 15 ¹/₃ innings over his past three starts, including four Tuesday. Gil, though, seems confident that he is on the right path.

 

“I think with every outing I’m feeling stronger and more confident,” Gil said through an interpreter. “There’s work to be done, but I feel like I’m on the right track, and there is no doubt in my mind that I will get back to that 100 percent level.”

 

There are six weeks until the playoffs, six weeks for the team to get in postseason mode. That might not be a particular goal for which to aspire, come to think of it, since the Yankees have not won a playoff series against a team outside of the AL Central since 2012 and the first-round victory over Baltimore.

 

There are also these six weeks for Aaron Judge to ramp up as he continues to rehab from the elbow injury that has prevented him from playing the field since he came off the IL on Aug. 5. Before going 0-for-3 with two K’s, No. 99 had a slash line of .210/.380/.403 with a .783 OPS in 18 games since returning. Six weeks for him to get into playoff mode.

 

The reality, though, is that Judge has a slash line of .205/.318/.450 with a .761 OPS over a career 58 postseason games. The problem is that No. 99 might already be in playoff mode.

[sabugo]

This guy sure sounds optimistic. Until the last sentence.

[Kccitystar]

7 hours ago, Yankee4Life said:

Well KC all I can say is that i am glad that Judge used his own coaches and training system. Can you imagine if he had not? He'd of been off the team by now and he'd of never gotten that big contract.

 

Eventually they are going to have to see that what they are doing with Volpe just isn't working, unless they are comfortable with nightly 0 for 4's and errors. 

The thing about Judge was that he initially followed the system. The Yankees emphasized contact, short swings, “stay up the middle.” His size and natural leverage clashed with that. He had strikeout issues and inconsistent contact in the minors, and there were doubts whether he’d make enough contact to succeed in MLB. Some in the sports media world thought he would be an AAAA bust in 2016.
 

In his first call-up, Judge struck out 42 times in 84 plate appearances. This was the red flag for him. The Yankees’ “shorten up” mantra wasn’t solving the issue. It was treating the symptom, not the cause. Judge is described as being meticulous and self-analytical, so after that disastrous debut, he didn’t just wait for the Yankees to fix him. He researched alternatives and found Richard Schenck ("Teacherman"), a coach pushing mechanics rooted in rotational power and bat-path efficiency, basically the opposite of the organizational teaching.

See, the problem with the Yankees is that on the hitting side, they've been successful at producing MLB contributors: Rice, Bird, Wells, Dominguez, Cabrera, even Volpe despite the struggles, but not enough impact players. I'm fully convinced this is intentional/by design based on their approach to develop guys into a safe, low-ceiling template. Judge has been the only one to break through to become a bonafide star since Robinson Cano, who also improved outside of the Yankees' system.

On the pitching side it's the complete opposite, mainly because pitching development under Blake gives guys individualized plans, their team tailors guys to strengths, constant adjustments, etc. That’s why they’ve had so much success with arms in the minors ready to contribute at the MLB level right away when there's room to do so.