I think I am the only Yankee fan who likes Harrison Bader.

So maybe they mean "fan" favorite quite literally.

Damn.

Where's the lie?:

"Count Rays' second baseman Brandon Lowe among those not buying the Yankee pitchers' explanations.

'Looking at it, it’s a last-place team against a team that’s in contention,' Lowe said. 'They’re just trying to ignite something over there. Whatever. Not worth our time at this moment. We’re focused on bigger things right now than worrying about a little on-field scuffle.

We need each game. They're not really in each game.'

He added: 'We need to focus up on what we need to do down the stretch. But if they lose a guy, it's not going to be quite as big of a deal as when we lose one of our guys.' "

The Rays have been embarrassing the Yankees for a while.

NYY hope for 2024.

The path to success is basically staying healthy, of course. I just think the starting rotation could be quite good if Cortes, Montas, and Rodon get healthy and perform up to expectations.

I was ready to give up on LeMahieu, but he may still have something left in the tank.

I don't know what's up with all the strikeouts this year, but he has been productive in the second half of the season, commensurate with less strikeouts.

This optimism also could be small-sample-size wishful thinking.

Nostalgia is a distortion.

Agreeing completely with C-Mac.

Jeter was a bad owner/GM for the Marlins.

Mattingly has never won a World Series as a player, manager, or coach. I don't think he has. But he was the answer for one of my cells in today's Immaculate Grid.

This has been a bad and disappointing season for the Yankees. Not the "worst" season of your lifetime, really, unless you're seven years old. 

It's accurate and appropriate, albeit tedious, to rhapsodize about the Jeter era.

It's also easy to forget about the Jayson Nix era and the Mike Gallego era. "Those teams never gave up and they had character!"

Sure. 

Mel Hall and Lenn Sakata were both highly regarded for their leadership skills and never-say-die attitude that permeated the clubhouse and inspired Joel Skinner to hit a home run every couple of months.

The fans want to start over. The fans want acknowledgement that something is very wrong. But I see no reason to think that the Old Timer's Day crew and a bunch of prospects is the best way out.

Play the kids!

Easy enough to dig up this gem from the past; ARod comparing Greg Bird to Don Mattingly; etc.

Yankee pitchers should practice fielding. I still haven't gotten over Mariano's throw into center field in 2001.

A google of "Clay Holmes fielding error" shouldn't have multiple entries for 2023.

Also, please drop this goofy idea that it's "instinct" to not get out of the way of a ground ball and let your second baseman field the ball for an easy double play. It's a matter of training. It's a matter of practice.

28 LOB in two games?

The buzz is that the "hit strikes hard" approach wasn't working and the Yankees are now getting back to the "work the count" approach. Wear out the pitchers, get more walks, stop swinging for the fences, stop worrying about launch angles.

Small sample sizes don't reveal too much, but the Astros beat the Yankees with nine runs on six hits. Launch angles worked for them.

Sure, the Yankees walked 20 times in two games, but then they can't hit with RISP ... and they can't hit sac flies with RISP, either.

Judge can't save this team and neither can Sean Casey.

The part that bugs me, frankly, is that every player should be 100% responsible for each of his at-bats. These entire team seems to be engaged in an alarming amount of blame-shifting.

Don't blame the umpire or the hitting coach or "analytics." 

If you don't know how to play baseball in the majors ... if you can't make adjustments after the league has adjusted to you ... then you're simply not an effective professional baseball player.

I knew it.

It may even be a plausible reason for his descent.

But if you get a debilitating concussion on May 28, then go on the IL on May 29.

The players have to play better.

"Despite having baseball’s second-highest payroll, the Yankees entered the season without upgrading their offense and with holes in left field and at third base. Those glaring deficiencies would have ultimately hurt this team even if the likes of Anthony Rizzo, Giancarlo Stanton and DJ LeMahieu were playing to their standards.

And it’s not like the injuries are a surprise.

The Yankees are extremely reliant on players who are known to get hurt, in addition to ones who have shown signs of decline. The depth required to survive their absences has been inadequate, with the club often turning to career fringe major leaguers and playing people at less than comfortable positions."

Cashman is ultimately responsible for putting good players on the field. He naturally shoulders a lot of the blame for a bad season.

But the problem isn't depth.

Forgotten Jake Bauers is the second-best hitter on the team.

Forgotten Clarke Schmidt has as man wins as Severino and German combined.

The bullpen is really good.

Most people doubted Hicks and Donaldson before the season started. The doubters were proven correct. The Yankees can absorb two failures ... they can't absorb seven.

I will list the remaining problem players in order, which is not a strenuous task at all:

• German
  
• Stanton
• LeMahieu
• Severino, the worst pitcher in baseball.
• Rizzo, the worst position player in baseball.

The biggest problem is not the bottom of the lineup or the outfield depth. The bigger problem is the veterans who are being paid a lot of money batting right in the middle of the lineup.

Like, I see no circumstance where the Yankees would be in last place if, in fact, LeMahieu, Stanton, and Rizzo were playing up to their standards.

Using baseball-reference's WAR: Stanton is 0.1; LeMahieu is 0.2; Rizzo is 0.6.

Rizzo's elevated 0.6 is extremely top-heavy; all April and May. Didn't exactly step it up when Judge got injured. Also, Rizzo's WAR might be elevated if he is given credit for knowing precisely when to visit the mound to calm down the pitcher.

 

Seven runs, thirteen hits, a steal of home.

1. Keep Rizzo on the bench.
2. There seems to be an unusually high number of steals of home this year in MLB. I couldn't find the stats to verify this. First thought is that the pitch clock has something to do with it.

Where were you?

When Rizzo got his first hit with two outs and RISP?

No RBI, but it still counts.

1-for-31; and 1 for his last 1.