Anyone else watching the Yankees....

[Déjà Bru]

I will let somebody else post an obit thread for Whitey Ford. I will just mention here that his passing seems to close an era of past Yankees greatness. They are all gone now . . .

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

I will let somebody else post an obit thread for Whitey Ford. I will just mention here that his passing seems to close an era of past Yankees greatness. They are all gone now . . .

Well, I'll amend that. Kubek and Richardson are still around, in their 80s, and Pepitone just turned 80 today. But the group of all-time Yankee greats from that time is now gone: Berra, Howard, Mantle, Maris, and now Ford.

[CONN CHRIS]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

I will let somebody else post an obit thread for Whitey Ford. I will just mention here that his passing seems to close an era of past Yankees greatness. They are all gone now . . .

I am on sad news overload. If Hank Aaron doesn't make it to 2021, I give up.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Heh, a headline for today: "Can Yankees, Rays coexist peacefully in the same hotel?"

Not trying to gloat (Mets fans have nothing to gloat about... ), but I really liked that the guy that threw 100 at the other dude's head was the one saddled with the L in the go-or-go-home game, courtesy of *the other dude*.

[Déjà Bru]

My wife, who is becoming baseball-literate in these pandemic times (more TV viewing than ever), picked up on this: these Yankees depend on the long ball. When that dries up, they seem to be outplayed by the other team. I saw this in the last regular season series against the Miami Marlins. The Marlins just played better baseball than the Yankees and were the superior team.

When the Yankees can club the other guys, they win. If not, they are mediocre at best. LeMahieu and Urshela, maybe Torres and Frazier, are the best all-around players. The rest, including Stanton and Judge, are one-sided palookas swinging for the fences.

This was hardly a season, so I can't say that I am overly disappointed by the results. I will say that the Yankees will not win unless all those other guys are hitting homers and, unfortunately, at the top echelons of MLB there are always pitchers that will stop them.

[CBeisbol]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

My wife, who is becoming baseball-literate in these pandemic times (more TV viewing than ever), picked up on this: these Yankees depend on the long ball. When that dries up, they seem to be outplayed by the other team. I saw this in the last regular season series against the Miami Marlins. The Marlins just played better baseball than the Yankees and were the superior team.

When the Yankees can club the other guys, they win. If not, they are mediocre at best. LeMahieu and Urshela, maybe Torres and Frazier, are the best all-around players. The rest, including Stanton and Judge, are one-sided palookas swinging for the fences.

This was hardly a season, so I can't say that I am overly disappointed by the results. I will say that the Yankees will not win unless all those other guys are hitting homers and, unfortunately, at the top echelons of MLB there are always pitchers that will stop them.

Didn't the Rays win the final game with 2 runs on 2 homers?

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by CBeisbol

Didn't the Rays win the final game with 2 runs on 2 homers?

Yes, but only after stifling the Yankees and ultimately beating them at their own game. The Yankees needed to hit their customary 3+ homers and failed. Scoring runs in other less dramatic ways seems to be difficult for them and their pitching, Cole notwithstanding, is not dominant enough to consistently win when the offense sputters. When the Yankees' long ball wanes, so do their playoff hopes. This year's team ended up pretty much where they should have, so no complaints.

[CBeisbol]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Yes, but only after stifling the Yankees and ultimately beating them at their own game. The Yankees needed to hit their customary 3+ homers and failed. Scoring runs in other less dramatic ways seems to be difficult for them and their pitching, Cole notwithstanding, is not dominant enough to consistently win when the offense sputters. When the Yankees' long ball wanes, so do their playoff hopes. This year's team ended up pretty much where they should have, so no complaints.

In 2020
The Yankees scored 3.35 R/HR
The league average was 3.62 R/HR

So, the Yankees do look to be more reliant on home runs than the average team.

Someone would need to do this for every team and then find the Yankees' z-score to really see if they are outliers in this regard.



Further, the Yankees were 1st in the AL, 3rd in MLB, in OBP. So a characterization of them as only hitting homeruns would seem off base.

*https://www.baseball-reference.com/l...MLB/2020.shtml

[CBeisbol]

The Dodgers at 2.96 R/HR made it to the next round
The Cardinals at 4.71 R/HR, did not


*The teams with the most, and fewest, HR

So, we can eliminate the Yankees as outliers as the Dodgers are more reliant on home runs than the Yankees are

[CBeisbol]

The remaining playoff teams runs/hr

Dodgers 2.96
Atlanta 3.38
Rays 3.61
MLB 3.62
Houston 4.04

One team, the Dodgers, who appear to be much more reliant on the HR than the Yankees
One team, Atlanta, that's about equal to the Yankees
Then the Rays and Atlanta who are less reliant

2 teams more reliant on home runs than the average team
1 team right at the average
1 team less reliant

I see no evidence that relying on home runs makes a team less able to advance in the playoffs

We shouldn't expect to as 1) hitting is only part of what wins games and 2) hitting home runs is good.

[Déjà Bru]

All sorts of postmortem headlines on the Yankees page on ESPN now. A couple of favorites:



Most definitely.



Almost certainly tongue-in-cheek.

[Westheim]

Who'd be dumb enough to trade for Gary San-

BRODIE!! GET OFF THE PHONE!!

[mytreds]

Also remember this years small sample size and it’s effects.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by mytreds

Also remember this years small sample size and it’s effects.

I would settle for Sanchez if he could consistently produce results like he did in 2019, let alone 2017. It's what he did in 2018 and 2020 that harms him in my estimation because on top of those performances, it is perceived that he is not that good defensively or as a battery-mate. The recent emergence of Higashioka as the regular catcher, in addition to being the apparent preference of Cole if not other Yankee starters, means Sanchez is on the way out. I would say that, if he does not start next spring like the barn's on fire, he will be gone then if not sooner.

[CBeisbol]

Catcher with a 116 career OPS+
That'll play

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by CBeisbol

Catcher with a 116 career OPS+
That'll play

Do the math again with 2016 and 2017 removed, then figure that this is a game of "what have you done lately" as is true in much of life. I cannot see the Yankees going into 2021 saying "Gee, maybe he will regain his form of four years ago."

[CBeisbol]

Originally Posted by Déjà Bru

Do the math again with 2016 and 2017 removed, then figure that this is a game of "what have you done lately" as is true in much of life. I cannot see the Yankees going into 2021 saying "Gee, maybe he will regain his form of four years ago."

He was 118 last year

And a 98 over the last 3 years
Which is the 17th best (minimum 300 PA)
That'll also play

And "what have you done for me lately" is terrible. Much better "what will you do for me"

[Westheim]

Isn't Sanchez close to being the very worst defensive catcher in the league? And he strikes out A LOT. I wouldn't touch that with a 60-foot pole. You can get 30 dingers from just about anybody these days.....

[CBeisbol]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Isn't Sanchez close to being the very worst defensive catcher in the league? And he strikes out A LOT. I wouldn't touch that with a 60-foot pole. You can get 30 dingers from just about anybody these days.....

Literally 1 catcher other than Sanchez hit 30 HR in 2019.
https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.as...12-31&sort=5,d

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Isn't Sanchez close to being the very worst defensive catcher in the league? And he strikes out A LOT. I wouldn't touch that with a 60-foot pole. You can get 30 dingers from just about anybody these days.....

Well, I would take 30 dingers with a .232 average. And a high rating in defense.

In 2020, he projects to 27 HRs and 65 RBIs over a full season. Marginal; not bad for a catcher, I'd say, but the .147 BA and .253 OBP means that he is not getting on base himself enough to score runs.

Again, if he had an aura of defensive wizard and pitching mentor behind the plate, maybe he could get by as is. He does not have this reputation. The Yankees may keep him around until the spring to see how he does but I don't see them going much further unless he can recover his offensive success of a few years ago.