AV Clubbed

 

This is such a weird Yankee team. Volpe's up and he's stealing bases but not hitting for power yet. Our outfield options have consisted of Franchy Cordero, Jake Bauers and Willie Calhoun. Ian Hamilton's one of our best relievers. LeMahieu has more RBIs than Judge. And we're in last. It ain't boring, but it's not ideal.

That's really where we're at, there's pieces of good things happening, but they're not fully happening. We can sweep the A's, of course we can sweep the A's, but the second a good team like the Rays come along, then it's no contest. And, like, if we're going against people like Drew Rasmussen, Shane McClanahan and Taj Bradley and all we have is...Domingo German, Jhony Brito and Clarke Schmidt? Uh...we're gonna lose.

Volpe is doing relatively well. He can steal bases, he can play a strong shortstop, but he's only hitting .205. Something something Jeter had a slow start too. The kid is 22 years old, and he is doing so many things at MLB level that took people a while to crack. The hitting will get there. He hit a grand slam the other night, he will get there. LeMahieu and Gleyber have been hot recently, they've both been responsible for crucial RBIs in times we've needed them. Not sure when Judge will be back to what he was doing before he got hurt, hopefully it'll be soon enough. Rizzo's still batting .300, Bader's still batting .400, there's enough people who can do well. The back half of the lineup is still scary. It just is. With like 3 big pieces out, it's gonna be.

Cole and Cortes have been efficient, Schmidt has rebounded slightly but is still an issue, Brito's still too inexperienced, German...I dunno, man, he barely got through last night's game. When Sevy or somebody comes back, we need German out of the rotation. You have Deivi Garcia, he proved the other night he can work several innings, and if you hadn't have demoted him immediately he could have started a game. What's nice is that the bullpen is pretty efficient, even without Loiasiga, and having Mike King, Clay Holmes and Ian Hamilton for some reason in good form is at least mending some of the wounds of having an incomplete rotation. 

The rotation stuff, and some of the back half of the lineup, is gonna kill us til we get people back. Bader's presence helps somewhat but until Montas and Rodon and Severino and Stanton get back we're gonna look pathetic and keep landing in the bottom half of the division. The Rays can have their fun now but, uh, Wander Franco left last night's game early. So maybe we'll have the last laugh.

Coming Tonight: Guy with a mustache who throws really hard.