You're thinking about it too much.

The Yankees deserve blame for continuing to play a bad ballplayer; for throwing good money after bad; for organizational delusions.

But I see no reason to think that a trip to the minor leagues would have made Volpe "much better."

I see no reason to think that a disciplinarian manager would have somehow given Volpe the ability to throw the ball to the first baseman. 

I see no reason to think that Volpe's psychological reactions to managerial scrutiny are a bigger problem than his basic physical inability to play major league baseball.

Also, it doesn't matter where you place the blame. No one is solely blaming Volpe. Every fan who's angry at Volpe is also angry at the Yankees for acting as if nothing is wrong.

Same goes for Wells, by the way.

These young players at shorstop and catcher are disastrously bad.

So much for committing to the young players.

Just really, really good swings. Like, the best swings I've ever seen in an 0-for-4 game by a player in a 1-for-32 slump and with a season batting average of .206.

A drill down on a bad play.

"It also included him laying down a questionable sacrifice bunt in the fourth inning with one out and the Yankees trailing by three runs."

I would love to see Volpe sacrifice more often. I've said this many times.

He has a preposterously low number of sac bunts in his career given his inability to hit with RISP and his position in the lineup.

If he's going to be in the starting lineup (less likely as his performance continues to diminish), then just bat him ninth and force him to sac bunt as often as possible. Stop swinging for the fences every time, little man.

The errors are bad. The on-base percentage is bad. The high number of strikeouts is bad.

If Volpe was a smart, clutch, instinctive player, then he may add value beyond the box score. The intangibles that Yankee fans claim to understand so well.

But he's one of the stupidest players I've ever seen.

A sac bunt in the fourth inning trailing by three runs ... WITH ONE OUT! ... is not "questionable." That's what pitchers did before the universal DH. Only pitchers and only before the universal DH.

If he was bunting for a hit and missed, sometimes that happens. It makes no sense given his 0-for-career success rate bunting for base hits (as far as I know).

If he didn't know how many outs there were, that's a ridiculous trademark of the 2025 Yankees.

But what seems most likely is that he knew how many outs there were, he knew the score, he knew the game situation, and still thought it was a good idea.

It's not "questionable" and it's not "aggressive." It's stupid. It's really bad. I might refer to it as Little League stupid, except I think the Little Leaguers are smarter than this.

Also, it adds up when it's day after day and every routine ground ball to shortstop is a stressful adventure for everyone. It's rare to see the starting Yankees shortstop charge a routine ground ball, field it cleanly, rhythmically step into the routine throw to first base and hit the first baseman in the chest.

So it's not even the throw itself, which is a physical error that is going to happen from time to time.

It's not even the frequency of these ridiculous physical errors which indicate that this guy just isn't cut out to play in the major leagues.

It's the 50 or 60 bad plays throughout the season that don't count as errors.

It's this "fielder's choice" that had the Red Sox baserunners openly laughing at him.

"Every once is a while, Coney, you just out-think the play."

Who?

Who's "you" in this offhand comment? 

Who does this, Paul O'Neill?

I don't have to reflexively compare Volpe to the HOFer Jeter. I know you did that right away, yes? "Jeter would have never made a mental error like that."

This is true.

A high school backup shortstop would not have made a mental error like that.

Maybe wiffle ball in the backyard where you could get an out by throwing the ball at the baserunner? You aggressively try to peg the baserunner in the back before he or she gets back to the lawn chair that is second base?

This is the level of baseball aptitude we're dealing with, and this guy has been the starting shortstop for the Yankees for three seasons. 

 

 

That's a made-up stat.

Betcha don't know the record for number of Red Sox rookies to hit a home run vs. the Yankees in one season:

"He became the fourth Red Sox rookie (Marcelo Mayer, Kristian Campbell and Carlos Narvaez) to homer vs. the Yankees this year, Boston's most in a season since 2014."

So ... two pitches. In two games.

"I’m trying to throw it down and away there, and missed middle -- and obviously, he did what he did,” Williams said. “This game and the last one, it was really one pitch that hurt me. But that’s the difference between winning and losing sometimes, and I can’t let that happen.”

I mean, if you take away three or four bad plays ... let's say three ... if you took away three bad plays that everyone noticed just because he plays on the Yankees, Anthony Volpe is a gold glove winner in 2025.

If you eliminate all the bad pitches he threw, Dale Mohorcic is in the Hall of Fame.

If you took, like, ten losses and turned them into wins, then the Yankees have the best record in baseball.

Volpe rules, Devin Williams rules, and the Yankees rule. 

Just no.

At first, I thought Jazz forgot how many outs there were. I was mistaken. Instead, Jazz was anticipating an intentional drop and then a 4-3-rundown double play.

But here's the problem, Jazz and Boone and anyone else who defends this ridiculous baserunning.

If you think the second baseman is going to drop the ball on purpose, then your job is to just stay at first base.

In what scenario were you getting to second base?

I don't think you know the meaning of the word inexcusable.

It seems far-fetched, but I think there's a possibility that the players dislike their manager and subconsciously embarrass him.

It's more likely just bad modern baseball.

A fixation on home runs and strikeouts at the exclusion of all other skills.

While I don't defend Boone and believe the "nice guy" experiment didn't work, I also don't see how he can punish his players for mental gaffes. There are only 26 players on the team, right? Who's the error-free Charlie Hustle on the roster who's left?

So let's say Paul Goldschmidt has his head in the game, throws to the proper base, tries not to strike out with runners in scoring position, always knows how many outs there are, doesn't lose the ball in the lights, can field pop ups and ground balls, doesn't make the third out at third base, and slides when he is supposed to slide.

Paul Goldschmidt can't play all nine positions on the field. 

If only it were true.

Anthony Volpe had two walks in 97 plate appearances in July.

Which I would have thought was impossible. Eduardo Nunez walked more often than that. Mariano Rivera walked more often than that in his limited plate appearances standing far away from home plate with a bat on his shoulder.

"[Trea Turner's] slash line before the ovation was .235/.290/.368, and he only had 10 home runs and 34 RBIs. Then, superfan Jon McCann came up with the idea to voice support for Turner instead of booing him.

So on Aug. 4 that year, Turner received a standing ovation — and it did wonders for the shortstop. 

After the ovation, Turner slashed .364/.398/.754 with 11 home runs and 31 RBIs."

It's a great idea and I'm sure it's going to work.

I'm pretty sure that there is nothing the fans can do and there's nothing the manager can do at this point.

Volpe is convinced that swinging hard is what he needs to do. He will sacrifice all aspects of his game for a decent amount of home runs.

Or maybe there is something the manager can do. Bench him every time he hits a home run and move him up in the batting order every time he successfully executes a sacrifice bunt.

Because Anthony Volpe isn't actually a grown up professional baseball player. He's a social experiment. Let's all participate in the social experiment of pondering what actions we can take to heal Anthony Volpe's damaged psyche.

Hey, I know.

Pretend the first baseman's chest is your greatest fear. Visualize it. Then the baseball is a healing baseball and the only way to banish your greatest fear is by striking it with the baseball. So throw the baseball really hard at the first baseman's chest.

As a bonus, throwing the ball to the first baseman's chest is totally a thing that shortstops regularly do. The baseball objective being throwing the batter out at first base.