It's like, "let's teach Anthony Volpe how to play second base. It will increase his value in the short-term and the long-term."

So what have you been doing the past four seasons?

Not to mention all the time in the minors? 

528 regular season MLB games plus 21 playoff MLB games is 549 pregame opportunities to take infield practice.

50 ground balls per session. I'll do it myself. Let's grab a fungo and learn how to play baseball together, Mr. Volpe.

If 27,000 practice ground balls isn't enough, then guess what? He isn't good enough.

Which we already know to be the case.

I understand that we ought not to take these proclamations literally. Boone also said Volpe has been playing good defensively at shortstop, which is ridiculous.

Boone is a genuinely nice guy. It's just not in his nature to criticize anyone.

But in this situation, it doesn't do anyone any good to ignore the reality of the situation.

Both Dominguez and Volpe have suffered from a lack of commitment to the craft. These young players perhaps should motivate themselves, but it's also quite clear the Yankees haven't insisted. The Yankees just anointed them and hoped for the best.

Dominguez and his .270 on-base percentage was batting 3rd, 4th, or 5th in the majority of the games in which he played.

I really think the Yankees were just wishcasting with these guys. 

First I have heard of Matt Olson's streak.

The best way to field a ground ball in the outfield is to wait until it stops rolling and then pick it up.

On account of he's a three-time MVP.

He's also the current MVP.

I looked it up on baseball-reference.com.

Mike Lupica is always the go-to journalist for breaking baseball news. 

1-7 in extra innings.

"Sanchez told reporters after the game that he wouldn't take back the decision to try and throw Murakami out, even with the third out at the plate, but that he simply needed to make a better throw. Aaron Boone agreed."

This is a stupid thing to say and a misunderstanding of risk vs. reward.

 Also, watch the play again.

A perfect throw and the runners is easily safe. You didn't trick anyone. You say that you thought the runner was slow getting back to third base. You were obviously wrong.

I don't get it.

Dominguez can't track a fly ball, Dominguez can't hit the cutoff man, Volpe doesn't know how to field ground balls or pop ups, Volpe doesn't know how to turn double plays, Volpe can't catch pop ups.

Nobody seems to be able to judge the speed of opposing baserunners.

Do Yankee minor leaguers practice fielding? Do they practice baseball? 

 

Watching the Yankee catchers is like playing a video game with a glitch.

Just catch the ball and throw it back to the pitcher.

The basics.

The 0-for-whatevers and the strikeouts with RISP and the inability to throw runners out? We're used to it.

How about just catch the ball and throw it back to the pitcher?

No catcher's interferences, no passed balls, no giving away ballgames with two outs in the bottom of the 11th.

Then McMahon is like, "I should have blocked it." Yeah. You should have.

Also, when you endlessly sees this self-sabotage, at some point it reflects poorly on the manager, the coaches, and the culture.

 

I remember when Suzyn Waldman would praise Anthony Rizzo for his well-timed visits to the mound to calm down the pitcher.

“I’m sure in a lot of ways, it weighs on you when you’re capable of more offensively,” Boone said. “But especially at that position, you’ve got to be able to separate. And he’s done a good job of that.”

I mean, sure. I hope an opposite field 430-foot home run gets him started. There is nowhere to go but up.

As for his supposed defensive prowess, the dubious stats back it up. The defensive WAR is high.

Is he throwing out runners trying to steal bases? No. May not be his fault.

Is he calling a good game? I don't know. When the Yankees have good pitchers on the mound, he probably calls a good game. When they have Fernando Cruz on the mound, he suddenly instructs the pitcher to walk a lot of batters.

He doesn't seem to be too good at blocking pitches.

In any case, there is no argument that can possibly be made that his defense compensates for his offense.

The Yankee Manager is an encouraging guy who will never bad mouth his players. "At least he's not as bad defensively as he is offensively" is quite an amazing thing to say. 

Bednar has not allowed a run since May 18th.

I think it's 22 2/3 innings in a row without an earned run.

I don't ever see this streak mentioned in the headlines or in the game recaps.

I suppose it isn't going to get much worse than this.

That's one way to look at it.

I also think "isolated nightmare" is bad enough. But that's just me. 

The Yankee offense scored one run in nine innings. That run was an unearned run.

Cole was great. Two earned runs in six innings.

Sure, the two-run home run was the pivotal play. I think Boone will make that decision 100 times out of 100. No offense to Headrick or the Yankee bullpen.

The offense lost the game for the Yankees. Obviously.

Which brings us to the lingering question: Why is Austin Wells still on this team?

His function is to start the game behind the plate, go 0-for-2, and then be replaced by a pinch hitter as soon as possible? 

For all intents and purposes, the Yankees don't even have a starting catcher. 

It's the New York Yankees we're talking about here. They're just going to keep putting this guy out there and hope he doesn't come to bat at an important juncture in the game? A player whose OPS+ is 41?

High praise indeed.

The Dodgers must be thrilled to learn that Cam Schlittler has concluded that they are one of the top three teams in MLB at this time.

 

In Praise of David Bednar

No earned runs in 17 straight appearances. No earned runs in his last 19 IP. No earned runs since May 18th.

In Praise of Anthony Volpe

His strikeout rate is down to 22.2% and his walk rate is way up to 13.1%.

A .246 batting average isn't bad.

A .346 on-base percentage is excellent.

I can envision usefulness in a player like that. Bat ninth, get on base and steal some bases, improve your approach with RISP somehow ...

On the other hand, he's still a lousy fielder.

But I actually can observe and appreciate an improved approach that makes him a more valuable player. 

Why? Because the Yankees are unreliable narrators.

He is also a bad defensive catcher.

So ... 

Kodai Senga is the foreign pitcher the Mets have been searching for.

Mike Lupica doesn't write about the Yankees anymore because the Mets are the Kings of New York.

This was solidified about a year and a half ago, when the Mets lost to the Dodgers in six games while the Yankees lost to the Dodgers in five games.

This proved that the Mets were better than the Yankees and no one should pay attention to the Yankees.

So stop writing about the Yankees. 

But the Mets signed Juan Soto.

In 2024, the Mets lost to the Dodgers in the playoffs in six games, while the Yankees lost to the Dodgers in the playoffs in five games.

According to Mike Lupica, this is how you knew the Mets were better than the Yankees.

Which has been proven to be quite accurate.

Jynx

Screwed up two fly balls today.

I'm tired of hearing about it.

Just shag some flies. A lot of them. The outfield instructor is either incompetent or lying. Not really lying, I know ... he's just being publicly encouraging, or whatever.

There is no reason for anyone to be encouraged by Dominguez in the outfield. There is no reason he can't improve his defense. But he isn't going to.

I think Volpe has changed his approach for the better.

Just one home run in 81 at-bats, but a very high .371 on-base percentage.

Since Derek Jeter retired 15 years ago, let's talk about Derek Jeter.

"Since Derek Jeter retired, the Yankees have deployed 15 different players at shortstop, ranging from Didi Gregorius to this year’s tandem of Volpe and José Caballero. None have lasted more than four years, and it really felt as if the team wanted Volpe to be the next organizational success story and Jeter’s heir apparent. The team even gave Volpe the No. 11 jersey, which, considering the amount of low jersey numbers retired by the franchise, was seen as a sign of their belief in him"

There is a difference between data and information.

Counting up the number of shortstops the Yankees have played in the past 15 years doesn't really help evaluate Volpe's performance on the baseball field.

His uniform number is also not relevant.

You sound like Dave Sims. 

 

"The Yankees have legitimate World Series aspirations, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that Volpe isn’t a player who's going to enhance their chances of competing for a championship."

Correct. Though he has oddly walked a bit more this season. Just trying to be fair.

The Yankees also had legitimate World Series "aspirations" last year, and the year before that. That has nothing to do with Volpe's effectiveness, does it?

If the Yankees were a fourth-place team, what would be the reason for a major league team to put a guy at shortstop every day who isn't good at playing shortstop in the major leagues?

 

"He’s gotten measurably worse since he debuted in 2023, but the organization continues to give him chance after chance."

True. Welcome to the party.

 

"New York's brain trust must come to the realization that Volpe’s ceiling isn’t as high as the franchise had once projected—and with top prospect George Lombard Jr. looking more like the shortstop of the future in the Bronx, Volpe will likely wind up merely being a bridge shortstop until Lombard gets his big-league promotion."

Nice! George Lombard isn't actually Jeter 2.0 -- he's Jeter 4.0. Gleyber is Jeter 2.0 and Volpe is Jeter 3.0.

Also, I think the "brain trust" already knows Volpe isn't the answer. That's why he isn't really the starting shortstop anymore.