"We all know how good Judge is."

I got a laugh when I checked out baseball-reference.com this morning and Fried was listed as #4 in the Yankees' 2025 WAR ratings. Just shows that WAR is not always reliable, as if you didn't know that already.

At this early stage of his Yankee career, I can give Fried one of the highest compliments I can pay a starting pitcher. He's a stopper.

The "pleasant surprise" factor of Fried and the relative state of the Yankees' starting staff isn't nearly enough to elevate him above Aaron Judge.

Just to casually dismiss Judge's first 100 at-bats because we knew already doesn't really account for a staggering .406 batting average and 1.217 OPS.

He might just be a choker.

The sample sizes are short with the Yankees and in the postseason, but his ERA with the Yankees is 11.25 and his ERA in the postseason is 23.14.

Volpe is still a choker and no one seems to notice.

RISP: 29 AB, .172 BA and 14 Ks.

Two outs RISP: 19 AB, .158, 10 Ks.

It's also, like, the fan base ran Clay Holmes out of town and I remember that.

I think a demotion is coming soon enough and the question in October will not be whether or not Williams is the closer, it will be be whether or not Williams is on the playoff roster.

I like this guy.

Just hit better in the playoffs.

When a pitcher is mediocre, it's alway "one pitch."

“ 'But then the walk ahead of the homer, it’s that small of a separator between him being in a dominant position right now to — the reality is he’s throwing the ball incredibly well. It’s that next level of avoiding that ball that today is one ball.' ”

The walk ahead of the homer, though.

That batter didn't walk himself.

"Rodón has given up 51 homers in 50 total starts for the Yankees. That figure leads the majors since his Yankees debut on July 7, 2023."

That's a lot of "one pitches," huh?

Sounds disgusting.

Is it difficult to play left field?

It comes with the territory.

I mean, I understand the story line.

It's opening day and that's what happened in his Mets debut.

I also think that this type of scrutiny just doesn't comport with baseball.

What happened in this particular at-bat? I swung and missed on a 99 MPH slider. I had 1/100th of a second to make up my mind. It looked like a strike for the first 1/1,000th of a second, so I started to swing.

Babe Ruth, Shohei Ohtani, and this guy.

He will soon realize that it's difficult to get major league batters out. To be more specific, major league batters who aren't himself.

I propose a Presidential executive order to elect Lou Whitaker to the MLB Hall of Fame.

Bonus: As far as I know, Whitaker has never been accused of statutory rape.

That's the thing with Pete Rose. You have to be more specific when granting him a pardon.

While we're at it, maybe Congress should get over the whole "you're gambling with World War III" thing and discuss Tommy John's HOF credentials.

Why not take this to the next level?

At the next general assembly of the UN, all the world's delegates should be presented with a dossier explaining that the mostly forgotten Bobby Grich has one of the highest non-steroid career WARs amongst those not elected to the HOF.

Grich has a higher career WAR than Andruw Jones.

That's surprising, right?

Right?

Hello?

Are the translators working today?

 

The Orioles must not exist.

The article is behind a firewall, so I can't say for sure if Madden is ignoring the Orioles. But the headline is funny either way.

Each fly ball represents a learning opportunity.

Heck, I could be the best student the Yankees ever had. I can strike out every time and drop every fly ball to the outfield. Embrace the stink.

I don't know where this guy's career is headed, but he just strikes me as another player who never bothered to learn the craft and take care of the easy parts.

Quick! Name one thing Roger Clemens is infamous for.

No, not that.

Or that.

No. I had forgotten about that, but that's not it.

I mean his five o'clock shadow:

"In 1991, club legend Don Mattingly, frustrated with ownership’s lackadaisical attitude toward improving the roster, grew his curls out to his shoulders. He was punished with a one-game benching before he agreed to a haircut. Hall of Famer CC Sabathia and seven-time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens, both of whom were in Tampa with beards as guest instructors on Friday, were infamous for showing a good deal of 5 o’clock shadow.

 ...

Steinbrenner’s willingness to adapt to the shifting sands is a recognition of reality. Times have changed. The Yankees can no longer rely on their aura, their tradition of excellence and their bottomless caches of cash to nab top free agents. Every advantage — and disadvantage — matters.

In other words: Players care about tradition, but they care about winning more, much more."

I mean, sure.

Times have changed.

I'd go even further and say players don't care one bit about tradition. 

The Yankees don't rely on tradition or aura, they rely on big bucks. In certain circumstances, they can appeal to a free agent who wants access to a big market, but that's not going to matter to Devin Williams, much less the catcher Austin What's-His-Name.

The Yankees have lost their intimidation factor and aura because they have just one championship since 2000.

The Yankees' lack of world championships in recent years has much more to do with the expanded playoffs than anything else.

No one likes it when Cashman correctly points out it's a crap shoot, but it's a crap shoot.

Players like money and they also like winning. The two things are correlated somewhat, but not too much. One thing that is not correlated to either of these things is facial hair. There are quite a few mediocre free agents with beards who signed with mediocre teams.

 

 

 

That's fun and exciting.

Alex Rodriguez is very tan in February.

Alex Rodriguez can also find $10k in between his couch cushions if he really feels the need to give money to college students.

Money Talks

I am not saying Williams is lying.

I also think the facial hair policy was outdated.

Yankees have an uptight corporate image before, during, and after this particular policy.

In some instances, it's conceivable that a corporate culture or clubhouse cohesion could influence a player's decision. They're in for a rude awakening if they sign long-term with a team because they enjoy the Spring Training camaraderie, just to find that all of their best bid whist partners were traded to Oakland before the season even begins.

As for Williams's free agency, let's play one regular season game first.

He might win the Cy Young Award and World Series MVP and ask for a lot of money.

That would be a high-demand scenario.

Or the opposite may occur.

In any case, the size and grooming of his beard will be about 100th on his priority list.

Dodgers are great, but ...

I saw the headline at MLB.com and knew it was Lupica.

The following is Mike Lupica praising the 2025 Yankees.

Which is something he will never do in the Daily News:

"The Yankees have reigning MVP Aaron Judge, who hit 58 home runs last season and came that close to being the first New York slugger in history to hit 60 homers in a season twice. They have Gerrit Cole, who finally won a Cy Young Award the season before last, and has been one of the true aces in the sport for a long time. They just signed free [sic] Max Fried to the biggest free-agent contract any left-handed pitcher has ever signed.

In addition, the Yankees now have one of the game’s star closers in Devin Williams -- Williams now getting the chance to bring that Airbenddre pitch of his from Milwaukee to Yankee Stadium, and perhaps give the Yankees their best 9^th-inning option since Mariano Rivera.

The Yankees also will have two other former MVPs in their regular lineup in addition to Judge with Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt, both veterans showing up at The Stadium with much to prove. They have lost a lot in losing Soto, of course, but may come out of that an even more complete team. And maybe this is the season when The Martian, Jasson Domínguez, becomes the hot kid people have been expecting him to be for a while, even though he is still just 22."

This isn't difficult to figure out.

To the New York audience, he's trolling Yankee fans.

To the national audience, he's trolling Dodgers fans:

"The Dodgers are loaded again, absolutely, having now added former Cy Young winner Blake Snell to a world championship team, and Japanese star Roki Sasaki to a team that at some point will get Shohei Ohtani back as a starter. It still won’t make LA any more of a star town in baseball than New York. Sound the trumpets and play the season. The Yankees and Mets will worry about the Dodgers later."

The whole premise is weird.

It's a shot across the bow to all the people who are saying ... ummm ... what are they saying?

They're saying that the LA is more of a star town in baseball than New York! They're wrong! LA is not more of a star town in baseball than New York!

C'mon, man.

 We're talking about Joe Kelly.

 A poor man's Adam Ottavino.