No .600 teams in MLB at the moment.

The Dodgers might be bored with the regular season and laying in wait, ready to turn on the switch in the postseason ... I'm looking at you, Mookie Betts.

Or there might not be any dominant teams and we're going to get a 12-team free-for-all. Which it always is, anyway.

Yankee fans are traumatized by last year's World Series and I personally think the 2025 team won't get that far in the playoffs.

But they might.

I don't say this because I am buoyed by a thrilling win against an AL East rival.

I say this because this is what MLB wants. They've rigged it.

The season is far from over. The Yankees may have their worst days ahead of them. They may collapse physically, emotionally, and mentally, sabotaging the career of Aaron Boone, a manager they secretly despise.

But that's what it will take for this team to miss the playoffs.

It's quite possible that the Mariners, Red Sox, or Rays can catch the Yankees. It's very possible that the Blue Jays win the AL East this year.

But what's not likely is that the Mariners, Red Sox AND Rays all catch the Yankees. To miss the playoffs, the Yankees will have to come in seventh place in the AL. I frankly don't see how that is going to happen.

Because when Yankee fans identify all the problems with their own team, they are not applying the same scrutiny to all the other teams. 

Torpedo Bats

The Yankees lead the majors in home runs, walks, slugging percentage, and on-base percentage.

They homer their way out of a lot of sloppiness.

Do you think they will be able to do win in the playoffs with this characteristic?

Neither do I. 

But that is the enduring narrative of the Yankees. Bad fundamentals, sloppiness in the field, a lack of productive outs.

Then Rice clocks one in the ninth inning and everyone goes home happy. 

The Breakthrough

Shortly after the All Star break, Volpe had a great game. Two home runs and four RBIs. It was a turning point!

In the small-sample-size three games since?

• 1-for-10 with two big errors.

 

Including the outlier, this is Volpe's July:

• 65 at-bats. 9 hits, .138 BA, 3 HR, 9 RBIs, 7 runs, 1 walk.

 

One walk in July!

Through July 22!

The only explanation I have is the most straightforward explanation. Opposing pitchers know he can't hit, so they refuse to walk him. Like, the mirror image of an intentional walk. 

Volpe is going to snap one of these days with these passive-aggressive questions.

Meredith Marakovits is actually hilarious with her roundabout ways of regularly challenging Volpe and Boone.

"How disappointed are you? Since you hold yourself to a high standard?"

 

Also, to be fair, at this point, this is only a story because it keeps happening. It didn't cost the Yankees the game. 

The Yankees scored one whole run.

Rodon sort of had a decent stat line, but he walked five batters and threw 100+ pitches in five innings.

Peraza's error was a legit error; Volpe's bad throw (NO REASON TO RUSH THE THROW) really should have been handled by Goldschmidt.

Make the scoop at first base, trot to the dugout, Yankees lose 3-1 instead of 4-1, someone else gets the mics in their face.

 

Boone is willing to debase himself to support his players.

The original video is here.

"Three or four plays" is not the "separator" between Volpe's current season and winning a gold glove.

"Number of errors" is not a valid assessment of a player's defensive ability. Volpe's defense has been far worse than his league-leading errors.

On the flip side, highlight reel "range-y" plays are also not a valid assessment.

I'm sure I can find a highlight of Manny Ramirez diving for a shoestring grab when he wasn't cutting off relay throws intended for a different player.

Jose Canseco occasionally ran down a line drive in the gap when balls weren't bouncing off his head and over the fence.

The Gold Glove was fraudulent; and if it wasn't, then we have a bigger problem. Because that would mean a deterioration in the player's mental or physical skills at a very young age. Not a great trajectory.

 

I also don't quite agree with the NY Post video.

The Yankees aren't going to get a new shorstop in 2025. They'll get a new third baseman. Maybe a relief pitcher to replace Loaisiga while they're at it.

Boone doesn't have to do anything with Volpe. What else can he do? Boone already dropped Volpe in the lineup and has started to pinch hit for Volpe.

Coddling Volpe doesn't work, pressuring Volpe doesn't work. Moving up in the batter's box doesn't work, moving back in the batter's box doesn't work. A higher leg kick doesn't work, a lower leg kick doesn't work. A chicken parm dinner doesn't work, a vegetarian dinner doesn't work.

Sure, it's an insult to our intelligence that Boone floats the idea that Volpe is playing great at shortstop other than "three or four" noticeable errors. But these guys always insult our intelligence. 

I personally think Volpe is undermined by his own anxieties and amateurish attitude (He rushed the throw last night? For real? Is this high school?), but all of that is probably a red herring. It's confusing the cart with the horse.

The reason Volpe isn't a very good baseball player at the major league level is because he isn't.

He's a focal point of anxiety for the fans because the fans see what's coming. My personal opinion is that the Yankees will flame out in the playoffs and I absolutely expect Volpe to make an ill-timed bad play in the field and Williams to blow a save.

Reliability and consistency aren't nice add-ons for professional athletes. They're basically the only things that matter. 

 

  

Sure, I hope it's a sign of things to come.

"But comments on social media or call-in radio don’t carry significant weight for the Yankees, who have steadfastly supported Volpe, believing his performance exceeds his stat line -- and that better days are yet to come."

A couple of things:

1. No one's performance exceeds their stat line. Your performance is your stat line. You can't have it both ways. You can't say he had a good game last night just because he hit two home runs and drove in four runs ... and then also say he was playing well through the first half of July, despite the fact that he hit .125 with no walks during that time period.

1a. Sure, there are intangibles that count for something. Volpe falls short in many intangible categories. Most of them. Clutch, leadership, and baseball IQ come to mind. He tries hard, no doubt about it, so that indicates good character and potential to possibly resurrect his career.

2. Part and parcel with point #1: The problem is not social media or call-in radio discussions. The problem is a third-year, 24-year-old player who batted .125 with no walks through the first half of July. A third-year, 24-year-old player who lacks most of the intangibles associated with successful major league ballplayers.

Let's be honest about it.

It's very hard to find good ballplayers who suddenly got good at the age of 25 and stayed good. 

Sandy Koufax suddenly got good and made it all the way to the HOF. 

Gregg Jefferies had one good season out of nowhere.

I'm sure there are others, but it's not a common occurrence.

On the other hand, crummy ballplayers have two-HR, four-RBI games every day.

A big part of the growing discontent with Volpe is that he isn't getting better. Without question, a 24-year-old veteran has different expectations than a 22-year-old rookie. 

It would be great if Saturday's game was a turning point. I've heard it before with tales of chicken parmesan dinners and adjustments to his whatever ... batting stance or weight shift.

I think it's most likely the Yankees have a mediocre shortstop for a long time who never wins another Gold Glove, accumulates a career WAR of 20 or so, and makes one All Star Game in his career. His North Star isn't Derek Jeter. His North Star is Roy Smalley. 

Did you see how hard he swung on that second home run?

I also foresee a scenario where a two-HR game ... a World Series Grand Slam! ... just reinforces bad habits and he continues to sacrifice batting average and productive at-bats for a lot of strikeouts and warning track flies. 

But we don't talk about the Yankees anymore.

The Yankees are not relevant "around here."

The Mets are the Kings of New York.

The Mets are going to win 109 games because they're just like the 1986 Mets, only better. 

Say "I should have been more aggressive" again.

Those who defend his defensive prowess don't watch the games. All defensive metrics are questionable in my opinion. "Number of errors" is not a good gauge, though Volpe also has a ton of errors.

I wasn't confident in a 2025 Subway Series until the moment Mike Lupica said it wasn't going to happen.

Thin skin.

Still waiting:

Fiery and defensive throughout a scrum that lasted over 90 minutes, Brian Cashman’s frustration reached a high point at the General Managers Meetings in Scottsdale, Arizona on Nov. 7, 2023 when a reporter asked him about the Yankees’ difficulties developing homegrown hitters.

His organization had just failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2016, and rookie shortstop Anthony Volpe endured an uneven, strikeout-heavy season despite joining the 20-20 club as a 22-year-old.

“So if Volpe winds up crushing it this [coming] year, are you gonna be like, ‘Hey, I guess their player development system does produce hitters?’” Cashman shot back before adding, “I look forward to you telling me, when Volpe crushes it offensively for us this year, that you’ll say, ‘Hey man, I guess your development program did a good job.’”

WFAN callers are left with one less talking point.

The infamous Sunday lineup.

No one expects Chisholm and Dominguez to play every game.

Both of them are playing pretty well recently, so it doesn't make a lot of sense from that perspective.

But it also demonstrates a major disconnect between the decision-makers and the fan base.

The lack of urgency.

The insistence that the team is pressing instead of pondering the possibility that the team is slacking.

They'll start playing great as long as Boone takes the pressure off. 

The Yankees are not in first place anymore. They're in the midst of another six-game losing streak and Boone is comfortable leaving it up to Max Fried to avoid a weekend sweep by the Mets.

You really ought to read the room and put your best foot forward. 

A boy playing a man's game.

Pre-IL and post-IL, Weaver has been bad.

Five home runs in last eight innings pitched.

Has the league figured him out?

Or is it just a short-term blip due to rust and injury? 

This is the 10,000th time the word "agressive" has been tortured and abused to describe a stupid play by Anthony Volpe.

You kind of have to watch the play in question to believe it.

I can't find much discussion of the term "clutch fielding," but I believe in clutch fielding, and Volpe is a choker in all aspects of baseball:

"The sixth-inning grounder was hit to Anthony Volpe's right, and as he pursued the bouncing object on the Rogers Centre turf, the Yankees shortstop had a split second to read the play. The tying run would score, Ernie Clement was digging hard for first base and Nathan Lukes was chugging into second representing the potential go-ahead run.

Volpe went for the gold, banking on a miracle putout at first base. It backfired; his throw arrived late and Lukes grabbed a free base. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. made the Yankees pay with a hard go-ahead two-run single that rocketed under Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s glove at third base – the deciding runs in New York’s 5-4 loss to the Blue Jays on Monday night."

I also like the pointless ritual of postgame monitoring of his response to bad games. Is he contrite? Did he learn?

The daily deer-in-the-headlights look of the perpetually "young" player.

This guy is going to be described as an up-and-coming rookie with a big upside after twelve years on the bench. 

“'We’re going to be aggressive, try to make plays and back up the pitcher,' Volpe said. 'So that’s baseball. It happens. We had a lot of opportunities after that, too. I feel like we still took good at-bats and put good swings on the ball.'"

"We."

After I screwed up in the field, my teammates almost came back to win the game.

"That's baseball! It happens! What are you gonna do?" 

Again, you have to actually see the play to understand the lack of baseball intelligence and instincts. It's on display from the Yankee shortstop every day. He benefits from a widespread presumption that shortstops are intelligent.

There was no play at first base. The runner is nowhere to be seen as the camera pans across the field and the first baseman catches the ball. The runner is a few steps past the base, down the first base line. 

The Yankees have wisely dropped him in the lineup.

Pretty soon, he's going to be benched.

The Volpe Experiment is over. They gave him a shot and he couldn't do it.

 

I also have a new favorite stat of 2025. Still don't think Volpe is a choker?

In tie games, Volpe is batting .101 in 69 at-bats.

Within one run? .169.

Withing two runs? .188.

Etc.

When the score of the game is within 4 runs, Volpe is batting .205.

But when the margin is >4 runs, Volpe is batting .364.