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.

[Yankee4Life]

Why Anthony Volpe won’t be the Yankees’ first choice shortstop in the playoffs

 

        By Joel Sherman, New York Post

 

Anthony Volpe's struggles at the plate and at shortstop have drawn no small share of boobirds.

 

I am not much for predictions. I like sports for many reasons — among the biggest is that as opposed to most of life, we will get resolution on everything, from who wins each game to who earns awards to who captures championships.

 

I don’t like the current sports ecosystem in which folks boldly state — usually they scream, actually —what is going to happen and then boast about the one-in-four they get right.

 

So you know what is coming next, right? I am going to make a prediction. Hopefully, it is borne of history, observation and experience — and also comes with a larger point.

 

I am predicting that Anthony Volpe is going to be Gary Sánchez.

 

You might remember that Sánchez arrived to the Yankees with fanfare and enjoyed terrific early success. The belief was he was more than just a power hitter, but a terrific all-around hitter who used the whole field. Slowly he fell under the organizational spell to pull the ball in the air, and with that came a plummeting batting average and a skyrocketing number of strikeouts.

 

Resemble anyone?

 

Stick with me.

 

Sánchez’s defense also was a problem, and his shortcomings kept showing up at the worst times.

 

Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe’s 19 errors leads the American League this season.

 

But no matter how bad the results became on both sides of the ball, Aaron Boone stuck with a “nothing to see here” approach. In fact, he kept insisting everyone’s eyes were lying, that Sánchez was actually a very good defensive catcher.

 

What we have learned over time, though, when it comes to the Yankees in general and Boone specifically, is to ignore what is said and concentrate fully on what they do.

 

In the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Sánchez started 38 regular-season games at catcher and Kyle Higashioka started 13. But then the playoffs rolled around and Higashioka started five of the Yankees’ seven games.

 

In 2021, Sánchez started 100 games at catcher and Higashioka 58. But in their only playoff game that year, Higashioka started. Some of this had to do with Higashioka evolving into Gerrit Cole’s personal catcher, but that evolution was forged out of a diminishing faith in Sánchez.

 

Sánchez was traded after that season as part of an ill-fated deal for Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa. It brought new players who were clearly failing, yet Boone insisted were doing great. Of course, then the 2022 playoffs arrived and IKF started just five of nine games at shortstop.

 

Volpe has similarities to Sánchez with a touch of Kiner-Falefa. He arrived to great jubilation from Yankees fans in 2023 and with the reputation as an all-field hitter. But we only have seen that all-field approach in spurts — notably in last year’s postseason, when he hit superbly. Mostly he has followed the organizational mantra for pull power in the air, leading to him opening up and becoming too easy of an out and subject to long cold spells. In the past 20 games before Tuesday night’s series opener against the Tigers, Volpe was hitting .130 (9-for-69) with one walk and 27 strikeouts.

 

Like Sánchez, his game has decayed with each passing year rather than improving. And in every phase: his offense, defense and baserunning. Volpe has stolen one base since Aug. 8. Of course, you can’t steal first, and Volpe’s .269 on-base percentage is the second-worst among qualified hitters.

 

In Sánchez’s final four Yankees regular seasons, totaling 361 games, he had a slashline of .210/.299/.444 and struck out 28.1 percent of the time. In 459 career games, Volpe has a slashline of .207/.269/.396 and has whiffed 25 percent of the time.

 

Sánchez’s defensive miscues and strikeouts brought out the worst of home booing in his time, as Volpe’s does now.

 

Gary Sanchez’s increasing struggles on defense led to his being benched during the playoffs in his final two seasons with the Yankees.

 

Yet, as with Sánchez, Boone talks about Volpe as if he is experiencing minor glitches. But, again, it is not what the Yankees manager says. In the final three weeks of the 2021 season, Boone began playing Higashioka equally to Sánchez and then had Higashioka start the postseason game.

 

We are not there with José Caballero, but — prediction alert — I think we are going to get there. Because at this moment (and perhaps more than just this moment), he is better than Volpe at everything — hitting, field and baserunning. It is not even that close.

 

Watching Caballero play short is a reminder of how un-smooth Volpe is at the position. In this way, he resembles Kiner-Falefa, who never looked like a natural shortstop and notably, like Volpe, mixed frantic movement with unsure handling of the ball and needed to muster full force to throw. Watch Volpe field the ball and see how infrequently he gloves the ball in the pocket. There is no easy part of his shortstop game, no flow.

 

Caballero is smooth. He throws to first effortlessly. Plus, he is a dynamic base-stealer and has hit well as a Yankee.

 

I suspect the more Caballero plays, the more you will see stuff you don’t like. Already, he unforgivably was ejected from two games where his presence was badly needed. That is hot-headed, selfish behavior that does not have the team as the priority. It probably offers a window into why a talented player who is not yet even arbitration-eligible has been traded twice.

 

José Caballero has played shortstop with an ease and confidence the Yankees may need in the postseason.

 

But Boone ultimately gave up on Sánchez in the biggest games because he just became too much of a liability while sucking the air out of the home stadium with his struggles. Volpe has reached that point. Every ground ball is a hold-your-breath-moment. Every two-strike count feels like the inevitable will follow. He feels more and more untenable to hold the position.

 

Higashioka was not a star, but he removed the tension and uncertainty around a discomforting issue. Caballero feels as if he can do the same.

 

At some point, you can’t just hope, pray and delude as a reason why a championship-or-bust team sticks with a second-best choice. That would rise to managerial negligence.

 

So I predict that by the playoffs, Caballero will be the regular shortstop.

[Yankee4Life]

Book Review: The Yankee Way by Andy Martino

This book was a very aggravating book to read. No, now that I think about it that is not the right way I would describe it. I should've said it was very disappointing to read and this opinion had nothing to do with the author who wrote it or how he presented it. I think that Andy Martino told a very interesting story that turned into a page turner for me. The Yankees themselves made it a very disappointing book because the author showed how they screwed up a good thing.

 

Gene Michael had an outstanding eye for talent and when he was actually able to do his job because of George Steinbrenner's interference he may have been the best in the game. Because of Steinbrenner's suspension thirty-five years ago Michael was able to implement his ideas and before long the last place Yankees of 1990 became the best team in the American League in the strike shortened season of 1994. And we all know what they did after that.

 

The Yankees were fortunate to have a man named Bill Livesey, who was the Yankees' scouting director from 1991 to 1996 and he was instrumental in assembling the "Core Four" that led the Yankees to their dynasty in the late 90's. In other words someone who knew what he was doing.

 

What I didn't understand is the Yankee viewpoint that they could never go back to how it was in the late 1990s. They made it sound as far back as the 1950s.

 

Change of course is inevitable and if you stay in one place you will see everything go past you. Steinbrenner gave Cashman full control in 2005 and that is when analytics really started to take hold of how the Yankees run things. They hired some jackass named Michael Fishman now is in charge of the analytics department for the Yankees. Fishman never played baseball and yet here he is giving advice to the general manager of the New York Yankees. His talent was sitting in front of a computer putting numbers in and telling Cashman what he learned. There is old saying that goes like this. There are lies, damned lies and statistics. In other words you can make a statistic say whatever you want it to mean.

 

Analytics can be helpful but not when you are afraid to go against them like the New York Yankees seem to act. The entire book paints Brian Cashman as the greatest general manager around. I don't know if any Yankee fan would agree to that.

 

Like I said it was a disappointing book because I could see that the Yankees were never going to shy away from analytics and the only thing that will change in the future is that they will depend on even more.

 

A good book. Thanks KC.

[Yankee4Life]

Aaron Boone’s Fenway Park decisions come with much bigger Yankees consequences

 

              By Larry Brooks, New York Post

 

Yankees manager Aaron Boone walks off the field.

 

Sometimes the Yankees can be the stick, just as they were while taking two out of three from Houston and Toronto in consecutive series the first week of the month.

 

But the Yankees can also be the piñata, just as they were in The Bronx in dropping 12-2 and 11-1 games to Detroit on consecutive nights this week when the bullpen became combustible leading into Thursday’s series finale.

 

The Yankees had Cam Schlittler on the mound against the Tigers with José Caballero at shortstop for the second straight game, Aaron Judge in right field, Giancarlo Stanton at DH, Austin Slater in left field, Cody Bellinger in center, Ben Rice behind the plate, Paul Goldschmidt at first base after sitting for three of the previous four, and both Austin Wells and Trent Grisham on the bench.

 

These were choices. But more interesting will be the lineups manager Aaron Boone prescribes for the three-game series at Fenway Park against the Red Sox that starts Friday night. This is the series in which the Yankees and Boston will fight for home-field advantage in what is shaping up to be the best-of-three, first-round playoff series that would be played entirely in the higher seed’s ballpark.

 

The Yankees entered Thursday’s game in a virtual tie with Boston with a one-game lead in the loss column and percentage points lead of .001 while trailing first-place Toronto by 3 ¹/₂ games with 17 games remaining and leading the third wild card Seattle by 2 ¹/₂. It is possible things could change but not all that likely.

 

Does home field matter? The Yankees entered Thursday 43-31 at home and 37-34 on the road. The Sox, who were idle, are 44-28 at Fenway and 37-38 on the road. The Yankees are 0-3 in Boston thus far while finishing 2-5 at the Stadium.

 

Yankees first baseman Ben Rice flips the ball after fielding a grounder hit by Tigers designated hitter Kerry Carpenter.

 

Schlittler, who was rocked his last time out against Toronto in which the 24-year-old right-hander surrendered four runs on five hits in 1 ²/₃ innings, is auditioning for a spot in the postseason rotation. Slater, in his third game back after sustaining a pulled hamstring in early August, is also vying for a spot.

 

By the way, a year ago the most pressing issue in Pinstripe World was whether Alex Verdugo or Jasson Domínguez should get the start in left field. Verdugo, a one-and-done Yankee, started all 14 postseason games. Domínguez got into three, all as a pinch-runner. He did not get an at-bat.

 

The 22-year-old switch-hitter — once the Next Great Hope — is a long shot to even be in the conversation about the postseason roster this time around. Domínguez has started just two of the last 15 games, amassing only nine at-bats in that span. He is slashing .257/.329/.389 with 10 homers and 46 RBI while being a defensive deficiency. Something unforeseen would have to intervene to make Domínguez a lineup option for the postseason.

 

Anthony Volpe reacts after he strikes out swinging during a game against the Blue Jays.

 

There are choices for the rotation, where Max Fried, Carlos Rodón and Luis Gil are in the post positions. There are going to be choices for the outfield, where Aaron Judge patrolled right field Thursday for the first time in six games. There is going to be a choice whether Rice is on first base or catches that will obviously impact Wells’ and Goldschmidt’s playing time.

 

And there is going to be a choice at shortstop that might have become even more complicated with the news that colleague Joel Sherman broke in The Post on Thursday afternoon that Anthony Volpe had received a cortisone shot Wednesday after aggravating a left shoulder issue Sunday that he had been dealing with since the first days of May.

 

This was apparently the second cortisone shot of the season for Volpe after the Yankees volunteered that he took one over the All-Star break, which he responded to splendidly with a two-week stretch in which he slashed .280/.315/.720 with a 1.035 OPS and seven home runs over 14 games. Contrast that to the season’s .206/.268/.383 that is one of baseball’s worst with defensive metrics that are toward the bottom of the league.

 

Operating with a partially torn labrum might go a long way to explaining the 24-year-old Volpe’s crash dive to the bottom. But no, and not at all, for Boone insisted that this issue has had almost no impact on Volpe’s season. Players play hurt all the time. Players succeed while playing hurt. This particular one has not.

 

Boone refused to provide a cover for Volpe. The words were interesting. The manager’s decisions going forward will be more interesting. We’ll see if the manager still perceives Volpe as his best option in the postseason.

 

We’ll see if Volpe regains his starting role and maintains it through the playoffs. We’ll see if he responds to this injection as he did the first one. Boone said that Volpe was unavailable for Thursday because of the injection, but that he should be in play “in some way” for the weekend.

 

“Day by day,” said Boone.

 

We’ll see.