German’s Perfect Game Highlights the Week

The best way to sum up the night is that the most imperfect Yankee pitcher was perfect. Domingo German has had a rocky tenure with the New York Yankees which has included multiple suspensions for both on and off-the-field issues. German has at times looked like a pitcher more worthy of being sent down to the minors than remaining in the rotation. However, against the Oakland A’s, he was masterful.

It was his moment of glory and because of his perfect game, German will always be remembered for his great outing. Not many fans know much about Don Larsen, other than the fact that he threw a perfect game in the 1956 World Series. Not many fans know a lot about Dallas Braden’s baseball career but a lot of casual fans know about his perfect game on Mother’s Day. German’s murky career suddenly isn’t as significant since he did the impossible, retiring all 27 batters he faced.

The on-the-field takeaway from his night is that if German’s curveball is clicking, he’s unhittable. He went to the curve for a majority of his 99 pitches on Wednesday and it allowed him to be dominant. He’s throwing it more this year, using the breaking pitch 41.7 percent of the time compared to only 37.3% in 2022 and only 34% in 2021. The hope for the Yankees, a team carried by their rotation, is that he can rely on that pitch to become a top-tier starter to help carry the team to the postseason.

Ohtani is the AL MVP & It’s Not Particularly Close

It’s become expected for Shohei Ohtani to have a remarkable week. He hit five home runs this week including a moonshot on Friday night that nearly traveled 500 feet. He started Tuesday night’s game and tossed 6.1 innings where he allowed only one run and struck out 10 batters. Ohtani’s numbers seem absurd at times and hard to fathom. The comparisons to Babe Ruth are used a lot but he’s in a category of his own.

Word is that Ohtani's home run is still in orbit.

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— MLB (@MLB) July 1, 2023

What has become crazy about Ohtani’s otherworldly play is that he is dwarfing Mike Trout, who was the best player in the game. Trout is everything you want in a player with all five tools, consistent great play, and a demeanor that at times makes you feel bad for him (why did he deserve to suffer on a hapless team). Yet, Ohtani puts him in a separate tier, look at some hitting stats from the two.

Ohtani: .306/.391/.666 slash line, 31 home runs, and 217 total bases.

Trout: .260/.367/.486 slash line, 18 home runs, and 148 total bases.

Trout is putting together a strong season yet isn’t anywhere close to Ohtani. To be fair, nobody is. Ohtani has a 6.6 WAR, the next best player is Ronald Acuna Jr. at 4.8 WAR and the second-best player in the American League is Wander Franco at 4.2 WAR. Last year, it was a debate about who deserved to win the MVP, and this year, there is no debate. Now, there’s only one thing missing from Ohtani and Trout’s legacy and frankly, it’s not their fault that the Los Angeles Angels can’t reach the postseason or win a playoff game.

Braves Are Baseball’s New Best Team

The Miami Marlins are having a good season. They’ve established themselves as a wild card team and entered the weekend, with a great pitching staff leaving the way, hoping to prove they could compete in the division. They looked hapless against the Atlanta Braves who not only swept them but outscored them 29-7.

The Braves moved to 56-27 with eight wins in a row, nine wins in their last 10 games, and capping off June with a mindblowing 21-4 record. They have the best record in baseball and frankly, they look like the best team in the league. It’s hard to find a weakness in the roster and the lineup can beat any team at any point, setting them up for success this year and in the postseason.

The All-Star selections reflected the dominance the Braves have had in the National League. Eight players were voted for the game, six of which are everyday players. What I find wild is that Acuna Jr. is a gold glove centerfield and an elite talent in the outfield but with the Braves, he plays right field. He does in part to keep him healthy as he doesn’t need to run as often at the corner position but the other big reason is that Michael Harris, another gold glove fielder is patrolling centerfield. Long story short, the team is so good that their MVP-caliber player who is an elite fielder isn’t even the best fielder in his outfield.

The Braves are cruising to the best record in baseball. The question is where they can improve. Ideally, they add some bullpen help at the trade deadline but only to round out a roster not to cover up a need.

Padres Continued Embarrassment

It’s easy to forget what the perception of the San Diego Padres was before the season started. They were expected to compete for the best record in the National League. They looked hapless this week, losing seven of their last 10 including series defeats to the Washington Nationals, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Cincinnati Reds.

The Padres are 38-46 and have to be more worried about finishing in last place in the division than making the postseason. To say their season has been embarrassing is an understatement. Juan Soto has bounced back and is putting together a great season but the rest of the lineup has fallen apart. Michael Wacha and Blake Snell have stepped up in the rotation but the rest of the pitching staff has struggled. The Padres are a team that rely on their stars and so far, they’ve only received some production from their elite players.

The question is where the Padres go from here. What do they do with this lost season and what happens moving forward? Ideally, they trade away some of their players at the deadline but this is a team that invested in long-term contracts, making it difficult to move many if any of their players. The other option is to do nothing, keeping a crumbling roster in the same state. The trade deadline will be interesting for the Padres, largely because it’s unknown how they’ll approach it but the angle they take will determine their future for both this year and for years to come.

The 4th of July Week Is Another Checkpoint

Just like Memorial Day is a checkpoint, the Fourth of July is another point in the season where we can look back and see how teams are doing. Memorial Day is when sample sizes start to matter but Independence Day, along with the All-Star Break, are the halfway points.

So, what are some of the takeaways? Well, the Braves, Tampa Bay Rays, and Texas Rangers are the top teams in baseball and they look poised to contend for the World Series. The Reds, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Baltimore Orioles have proven that their hot starts aren’t flukes and they can compete this year. The rule changes, while scoffed at initially, are a success. And Rob Manfred, well, he’s still got a lot to be desired.

Other Takeaways From This Week in Baseball

• The Toronto Blue Jays were swept this weekend at home against the Boston Red Sox. It’s a tough sweep for them since they could have made up significant ground in the wild card race if they took at least one game but instead, they are starting to slide again. So it goes with these hard-to-predict Blue Jays.
• The Milwaukee Brewers have won seven of their last 10 games and are tied with the Reds for first place in the National League Central Division. Maybe we’re in for a tight divisional race after all.

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Then something special happened. Something that all Yankee fans and even baseball fans will remember for years to come. Something that didn’t happen for over a decade and for the Yankees, it hadn’t happened since the turn of the century.

German was flawless. He pitched a perfect game, the 24th in major league history. 27 A’s batters came to the plate and he retired them all. It was a performance that he needed but more importantly was the start of the season for the Yankees, a team that needed an energy boost like this.

A Perfect Night For German

At first, nobody was thinking of a perfect game. It wasn’t on anybody’s radar. All that mattered was that the Yankees needed a bounce-back game. Through the first few innings, that’s what they got.

In the fourth inning, Giancarlo Stanton wrapped a home run over the left field wall. The monster blast gave the Yankees their first run and the lead. In the fifth inning, they put the game out of reach, scoring six runs in the frame. It was a rally that wasn’t seen in a while from the batting order, one that only scored five runs or more twice in the previous 12 days.

Suddenly, German retired the A’s in the bottom of the fifth inning and everyone started to notice something special was brewing. That was the inning when a hard grounder to first forced Anthony Rizzo to make a diving stop and flip the ball to first, a play that proved to be the biggest in the game.

Now, some folks in their heads were counting down the outs. Of course, nobody could say anything and the bench avoided German like he was possessed, fearing that they would be the ones to jinx him. he didn’t get the memo and went back out to pitch the rest of the game.

He threw only 99 pitches in total and tosses nine strikeouts. German’s curve ball in particular was his go-to. He tossed it 51 times for multiple whiffs and weak contact off the bat. By the time German retired Brent Rooker in the seventh, everyone sensed what was happening. The outing was still perfect and he retired the best hitter of an otherwise hapless lineup. Now, the only obstacle in German was himself.

When German was in the dugout, it seemed like the only two people who weren’t afraid to jinx him were Ryan Ruocco, who was calling the game on the Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network (YES), and pitching coach Matt Blake. Blake was chatting about what pitches to throw as if it were another day at the ballpark.

The lineup, without saying anything, also sent that message as they piled on the runs. It was 8-0 when German retired the A’s in the eighth and when he went out to end the game in the last frame, the score was 11-0. The only thing that mattered at the bottom of the ninth was whether a perfect game would be thrown or not.

German was nervous, as he mentioned after the game, but looked unfazed. He forced Aledmys Diaz into a 1-2 count and got him to ground out to short on a high fastball. On the first pitch to Shane Langeliers, he threw his unhittable curve and force a pop fly to center field, which was caught with a lot of energy and passion (as many final outs are in perfect games, hoping the fielder isn’t the one to make the error) by Harrison Bader. For the final out, German went with his best pitch, the curveball, to force a grounder to Josh Donaldson who fired the ball to first.

The perfect game was thrown and a sign of relief was exhaled by the starter as the Yankees stormed the field. German has had a rocky season to put it lightly. He’s been suspected of using sticky substances and he was suspended at one point in the season. Multiple times in the game, he was checked by the umpires with an understandable suspicion that his perfection, had to be coming from a doctor baseball. On this night, he was clean and flawless.

German has also had plenty of highs and lows on the mound. He’s allowed 45 runs in 81.1 innings pitched and his 9.4 Barrel Percentage is a particular concern. Opponents have hit the ball hard off of him and taken him deep throughout the year. His previous start had him booed off the mound at Yankee Stadium by fans who saw him as a liability in the rotation. At the Coliseum, he was perfect. Wednesday night was his moment in the spotlight as he became the hero the Yankees didn’t ask for but got anyway.

German Joins Elite Company

The Yankees have had no shortage of perfect games. German was the fourth to throw one in team history and that is more than any other franchise. Interestingly, his perfect game parallels the first one that was thrown in team history.

Don Larsen had a rough career and was a back-of-the-rotation pitcher, even with the Yankees. He notably went 3-21 on a last-place Baltimore Orioles team in 1954 and in his 15-year career, he pitched for seven teams (his career WAR is 18.4, a low total for someone who pitched that long). His 1956 season was one of his best but underwhelming as he allowed 72 runs in 179.2 innings pitched. But of course, none of that matters when it comes to Larsen.

In Game 5 of the 1956 World Series, he was unhittable. He pitched the first and only perfect game in World Series history and helped propel the Yankees to the series title over the Brooklyn Dodgers. It took the Yankees seven games to win the series but after a 2-0 win with a perfect game, the series was all but theirs.

In 1998, the game that turned the Yankees season around was pitched by David Wells. The team was 28-9 at the time but not a juggernaut in the American League at that point. Then Wells, while hungover, pitched his perfect game. The flawless start was the fuel the Yankees needed as they went 114-48 that season and 11-2 in the postseason to win the World Series. That team is regarded as one of the greatest in baseball history and the regular season was embodied by a perfect game.

The next year, David Cone had his perfect game. A mid-July game against the Montreal Expos was meant to commemorate the Larsen perfect game. Little did the nearly 42,000 in attendance know that they would witness history. Cone threw only 88 pitches and tosses 10 strikeouts in about as efficient a game as possible. His perfect game was another part of the modern dynasty as the Yankees went on to win the World Series that year.

Every time the Yankees have thrown a perfect game, it seemed to be followed by a World Series title. Likewise, the names of the pitchers who tossed them have gone down in memory as great or near legends. Say the name “Larsen” or “Coney” around Yankees fans and they’ll immediately say “perfect game” and some can even tell you where they were. While German’s outing won’t fuel a World Series title per se, his name will forever be linked to perfection even if his career suggests otherwise.

How This Start Can Turn The Yankees Season Around

The game itself was remarkable but also a reminder of how the Yankees will reach the postseason. If the Yankees are going to get on a run, it will come from their starting pitching.

Gerrit Cole has been everything the Yankees could have asked for in an ace. His dominance has singlehandedly kept the team competitive. Jhony Brito has shown flashes and Luis Severino when healthy can hold his own. German’s start showed that if his curveball is clicking, he can be dominant.

This is all being done without the help of Nestor Cortes, who is injured, and Carlos Rodon, who has yet to throw for the team. the expectation is that they will both join the rotation and put it over the top. However, the Yankees still have a rotation that can push them to the postseason.

German won’t be perfect for the rest of the season. However, he can build off this start and be a reliable part of a great rotation. And that is what the Yankees really need.

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The two teams combined for 47 runs in the three-game set. Every game in the series was decided by one run. There were many moments when a game could’ve swung one way or the other and flipped this series. That is postseason baseball. It’s when every pitch, every plate appearance, and every swing has significance. That’s where we start this week, with the Braves and the Reds and their series.

What You Missed Last Week in Baseball

Braves & Reds Give Us Postseason Baseball

The Reds entered the series looking unbeatable. They won 11 games in a row heading into the weekend series, including sweeping the Houston Astros, the defending World Series champion. With the Elly De La Cruz addition, the lineup has become tough to stop, scoring 4.92 runs per game including seven runs per game in the past 12 games. The rookie makes everyone in the lineup better from Jake Fraley to TJ Freidl to recent callup and longtime Red, Joey Votto.

De La Cruz’s impact was seen firsthand in Friday’s game. He hit for the cycle to drive in four runs and circle the bases three times. He’s a force in the heart of the lineup that forces opponents to pitch around him as he not only can power the ball for a homer but if it’s in play, it’s likely extra bases. This was helped by Votto’s presence as well with the veteran not only returning but hitting two home runs in the 11-10 win. With this lineup playing the way it does, it makes you wonder how far the Reds can go this season. Do they need pitching help? Yes. Do they need bullpen help? Alexis Diaz proved otherwise with his save in the Friday win.

MORE: Will the Reds stay hot and hit the OVER (65.5)?

That said, the Braves reminded the Reds of the gap between a good and great team in the National League. They took the next two games of the series with their lineup waking up and taking over the games. Matt Olson had two homers and drove in five runs while Ronald Acuna Jr. had three hits in the two wins. The Braves have a lineup that is star-studded and deep enough to take over a game at any point. Their batting order is what the Reds aspire to be someday.

And that is in a lot of ways how the series can be described. The Braves have been there and done that. They have a rotation that can win a World Series, as they’ve shown previously. They have a lineup built for October. The Reds are only entering their contention window and are seeing the gap. They know that someday they can reach the Braves level but they got some work to do.

MORE: The Braves were expected to win 95.5 games, are they on track?

London Ball

There was a lot of excitement for the London Series between the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals. Like the Field of Dreams game last year (and the year before that), the intrigue of playing major league baseball in a field not designed for that brings a level of excitement.

The games themselves weren’t that entertaining. The Cubs run away with the opening game and then scored four runs before noon (central time) only to allow seven runs after the opening frame and lose 7-5. However, a few things stood out from the game that are with noting.

The surface was different and it felt that way. Instead of a typical grass and sand field, London Stadium had a surface that resembled more of what the Toronto Blue Jays have. The ball was more lively and bounced with more speed and height while ground balls took off. It’s something that always seems to be a throwback to the 80s when every ballpark was astroturf and the game was built on speed.

The other part of this series is the fact that MLB is trying to grow the game and London is just another destination. Europe has felt like a frontier that baseball has yet to plant its flag into and there’s no shortage of cities that can be next.

Are the Mets Done?

Sunday’s loss has to be a low point for the New York Mets. With a 6-3 lead in the eighth inning, they looked like they were going to end the weekend series on a high note against the Philadelphia Phillies. The bullpen hasn’t been a strength but with David Robertson ready to close things out, it looked like a sure win. But, manager Buck Showalter didn’t bring in Robertson. Instead, he went with Josh Walker, who pitched six innings this year, and then Jeff Brigham to clean up the mess Walker made.

The Mets allowed four runs in the inning to lose the game 7-6. They’ve now dropped to 35-42 on the season, remain in fourth place in their division, and are eight games out of a wild card spot. The Mets have spent to the point where .500 ball would be a disappointment, they are seven games behind .500 at the moment. To make things worse, they trail the Phillies, who are in third place in the division, by five games while leading the Washington Nationals by five games. Long story short, they trail the third-place team by the same number of games as the last-place team in their division.

The clock was already ticking on Showalter. The question is if this weekend was the last straw. Every game counts for the Mets and a blown lead like Sunday’s game was one that fell on the manager. He had plenty of chances to turn to his closer to end the game but kept Robertson in the bullpen and allowed the Phillies to win. It’s ironically, the same big mistake he made in Baltimore with the Orioles in the 2016 wild card game. In the game, he kept Zack Britton in the bullpen with the game tied in extra innings as he was having his closer for a save situation. Now, that mistake could be his lasting impression in New York.

Giants Surprise Surge in the National League

The San Francisco Giants have snuck up on everyone. A 10-game win streak followed by back-to-back wins put them in second place in the National League West Division, only 2.5 games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks, the team they took the weekend series against. The Giants are 44-34 and have the second wild card spot in the National League.

The question is what makes the Giants good? The answer is the same thing that made them dominant in 2021. They have elite pitching or more accurately, good pitching behind a good enough fielding team. On top of that, they have a lineup that has depth with six active batters having an OPS+ over 100. The Giants don’t have one intimidating bat in their lineup but they have multiple tough outs in every game. It makes their lineup one that nobody wants to face.

The Giants aren’t going to replicate their 2021 season where they won 107 games. However, this is a team that will be tough to deal with and they can easily snag one of the wild card spots in the National League.

Hot & Cold Streaks Galore

The last big thought from this week was the surprising number of hot streaks and cold streaks in baseball. The Reds won 12 games in a row while the Braves won eight straight and nine of the last 10 games. The Giants won 10 in a row while the Miami Marlins won six of eight. The Pittsburgh Pirates lost 10 games in a row and 12 of their last 13 while the Oakland A’s lost eight consecutive games and 10 of their last 11. It was one of those stretches where if your team wasn’t on a streak, something wasn’t right.

Other Notes From This Week in Baseball

• The Los Angeles Angels put a beatdown on the Colorado Rockies on Saturday night. They scored 25 runs, 13 of them in one inning, to take the game. Unfortunately for them, momentum is only as good as their next starting pitcher. They lost the Friday game and the Sunday game to lose the series and fall out of the wild card position.
• I hope you like Sox. The Chicago White Sox face the Boston Red Sox this weekend. Otherwise, the series felt rather meaningless are both teams are going nowhere this season. To be fair, the Red Sox are a game above .500 but their luck has them in baseball’s best division so they are in last place.
• The New York Yankees took two of three against the Seattle Mariners and two of three against the Texas Rangers. They did this while scoring a total of 17 runs in the last six games. Will they make the postseason on the backs of dominant starting pitching? We’ll find out.

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Entering this series against the Seattle Mariners, the script was clear. They needed their pitching to step up to secure the series. With the lineup struggling, the starters delivered to secure a 3-1 victory and a 4-2 win to take home back-to-back games.

The Yankees have been led by their starting pitching this season. With the lineup looking hapless, the pitchers have kept the team above .500 and in the Wild Card race in the American League. The question is if this is sustainable. More importantly, can the Yankees remain a contender with a great pitching staff but an awful lineup?

Cole Continues To Carry The Yankees

Gerrit Cole had another remarkable start. On Tuesday, he pitched 7.1 innings and allowed only one run while striking out eight Mariners. What stood out in the start was his usage of the slider, a pitch he throws 21% of the time but used for 28 of his 105 pitches. The pitch resulted in multiple swings and misses and quick strikeouts to allow for a strong outing.

Cole’s bread and butter this year has been his fastball. The 98-mile-per-hour high heat is what can blow batters away and allow him to control games. However, his slider has started to become the putaway pitch. It drifts away from right-handed batters and forces ground-outs on left-handed hitters. While Cole will still rely on his fastball (throwing the pitch 56% of the time) his secondary pitch is what makes him a Cy Young-caliber pitcher.

This season, Cole has carried the Yankees. Aside from the strong starts every five days, he’s stepped up on a team that has otherwise struggled. His 3.3 WAR leads the Yankees and his performance on the mound has kept the team competitive. In a season where the lineup hasn’t been great, Cole makes the team postseason worthy.

The Rotation Is Coming Into Form

Jhony Brito returned from his injury stint to pitch Wednesday night’s game. He pitched a gem. Ok, maybe a gem is an exaggeration but he tossed 5.2 scoreless innings, allowing only two hits and one walk while striking out three.

The 25-year-old has had plenty of highs and lows on the mound this year. In his previous start, he allowed four runs in four innings. This season, he’s allowed 28 runs in 40.1 innings pitched. However, in his first start in over a month, he showed he is ready to take off. His outing proved that he can take up the final spot in the rotation and remain a reliable contributor.

The best thing about Brito stepping up is that the rotation suddenly looks like a reliable one, one that can carry the Yankees. Domingo German and Luis Severino have struggled at times but have both stepped up to become solid middle-of-the-rotation pitchers. Clarke Schmidt has pitched poorly for most of the season but has improved in recent starts. Schmidt has allowed only six runs in his last three starts and only nine runs in his last six, bouncing back from an awful April and early May.

Eventually, Carlos Rodon (fingers crossed) will pitch for the Yankees. He finally threw a ball on a mound in a game. granted it was a few innings with the double-A club (Somerset Patriots) but that is progress for a pitcher that was doubtful to return this season. If Rodon is back in the rotation, he puts this pitching staff over the top. He’s the pitcher that can make the Yankees’ rotation a legitimate one that nobody would want to face. This is of course if he stays healthy which still feels like an uphill battle.

The Bullpen Rounds Out The Yankees Pitching

The rotation has stepped up specifically in the last two games but the bullpen has been remarkable all year. The Yankees don’t have leads often but when they do, closing out games has felt easy.

The Yankees have had a great bullpen since the Mariano Rivera days and it seems like he’s blessed the team with a good bullpen. Since he’s retired, they’ve gone from David Robertson, Andrew Miller, and Dellin Betances to Aroldis Chapman, Chad Green, and Adam Ottavino to Wandy Peralta, Michael King, and Clay Holmes.

This year’s group is led by Holmes who has not only been the closer but the most valuable in the bullpen. His 1.2 WAR, 179 ERA+, and zero home runs allowed are all best in the bullpen and his sinker remains one of the best pitches in baseball. As the setup relievers, Peralta has been the pitcher capable of coming into a game at any point to pitch a scoreless inning, allowing only 10 runs in 28 innings pitched while King has put together a remarkable year as he’s allowed only 12 runs in 38.1 innings pitched.

The pitching staff stepping up has made the Yankees a formidable team. It’s something many of us weren’t expecting when this season started but it’s how things are turning out. It’s oddly similar to the 2019 season. That year, the lineup was a disaster with too many swing-and-miss hitters and not enough plate discipline. Instead, the Yankees reached the postseason on the backs of Cole, Nestor Cortes, and a reliable rotation. It’s something that makes it easy to believe that this team can figure out a way to compete even without a great lineup.

Is This Sustainable?

The bottom line is that the Yankees can only go so far with a hapless lineup. This lineup is not only bad but looks like one of the worst in baseball when Judge isn’t in it. Think of this. The Yankees only have three batters with an OPS+ over 100 and that includes Judge. Without him, their leader in that category is Anthony Rizzo at 118.

The Yankees with no run support can make the postseason, maybe, as a Wild Card team. But, they would be eliminated rather quickly by a team that not only has a great pitching staff but a lineup that can put up a few runs on Cole and the others.

Fortunately, the expectation is that this won’t be the lineup the Yankees have in October. For starters, Judge will return from his toe injury. His return immediately makes the lineup average. On top of that, Giancarlo Stanton, the definition of a boom or bust hitter, has been all bust at the moment but eventually looks to start to become the powerful presence everyone anticipates (so it goes with him). Lastly, the Yankees won’t shy away from making a few moves at the trade deadline. This year, it will be about adding contact to the back half of the lineup and they will be sure to do that if the lineup remains a liability.

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The Nevada legislatures passed the vote to allow the development of a new ballpark. That’s all John Fisher, owner of the club, needed. With that, the A’s are starting to relocate to Las Vegas. The move puts a lot of fans in a weird spot. How should they feel? Is this good for baseball? Why are we still talking about a team 36 games below .500?

This week, it’s hard not to think about the A’s and particularly the fans in Oakland. Likewise, it’s also hard not to think about commissioner Rob Manfred who not only let this happen, in a messy way nonetheless but embraced it. So, let’s look at this news in two parts.

A’s Have Their Week, Season & History Crushed

For a few days, things looked bright in Oakland. To be specific, the team was on a seven-game winning streak, their owner looked unlikely to close a deal, and fans reverse-boycotted the team by paying to sell out Tuesday’s home game.

The A’s weren’t just winning, they were beating up some great teams. The Milwaukee Brewers are in first place in the National League Central Division, they swept them. The Tampa Bay Rays have the best record in the American League, they beat them in consecutive games. The A’s for the first time all season, looked like a team that could win a handful of games and maybe in a few years be competitive.

The Tuesday night game was also one to remember not just for the people in Oakland, but for baseball fans as a whole. The fans packed a ballpark that is designed to keep fans out. They chanted for Fisher to sell the team and other chants that would be wise to not repeat. The people of Oakland showed in one game that they are not the reason that the team is leaving but instead, they proved that it’s the owner who wants the deal that best suits him, and he’ll try everything in his power to make sure that happens.

Then came the vote, one that gave Manfred, Fisher, and MLB the green light to build a ballpark in Las Vegas. Shortly after the A’s fans showed that they care about the team, the team showed they couldn’t care less about the fans. At times, it seemed like the A’s wouldn’t be able to move to Las Vegas, a city that is willing to put in the money but doesn’t need the flailing team as much as the flailing team needs them. Yet, the legislation passed, and with that, the end of the A’s as we know them. The vote and turn of events all but put the dagger into this team.

The immediate aftermath was a team that looked lifeless, as they have throughout the season. The A’s lost five games in a row since the ruling and are now 19-55. They look like a team that has nothing to play for and it’s hard to blame them. At this point, any baseball fan feels bad for the fans of the team, the city, the players, and everyone who was thrown into this mess that has become the story of baseball for all the wrong reasons.

The long-term takeaway from this week was the A’s era in Oakland is all but done. They left a unique legacy in the city but one that in a lot of ways, is unfortunate and sad. Yes, the A’s won three World Series titles in a row and four in the Bay Area. Yes, the green and yellow uniforms were introduced as they were heading west, and along with the jerseys, the A’s gave us a lot of iconic players, teams, and moments. But, it’s hard not to think of their tenure in Oakland without thinking about the owners and the bad luck the fans had to endure.

At first, the A’s dealt with Charles Finley, one of the worst owners in sports history. Finley’s teams won three titles in spite of him and not because of him. They won because they drafted well and free agency wasn’t a thing until the late 1970s. Finley meanwhile, drove the team to bankruptcy, feuded with players and fans, and didn’t even spend his time with the team (he was based out of Chicago). Recently, the A’s have dealt with Fisher, who is as incompetent as they come and actively trying to drive the team away from the fans.

The A’s haven’t officially moved to Las Vegas but this week was a dagger for what seems like an inevitability. The rest of the season will be weird, eerily, and at times, nostalgic. We will look back at Oakland’s time with the team and the highs and lows that came with the A’s, a team that is the definition of boom and bust.

Rob Manfred, Reminds Us That He’s Rob Manfred

When the season started, it looked like Manfred finally got something right. His tenure has been mired with rough moments and the rule changes looked like something that would define his legacy for the better.

The pitch clock, shift ban, bigger bases, and all the rules meant to speed up the game not only worked but made the game more exciting. Baseball looked like it was heading for a comeback in the national landscape. Manfred was ridiculed for the changes but a few weeks into the season, they became a hit for fans of all ages. But as the saying goes, “A broken clock is right twice a day.” The saying for those who don’t know is meant for people who always mess up or are always in the wrong but on the rare occasion, they get something right.

The rule changes were Manfred’s broken clock moment. This week was a reminder as he not only helped with the relocation but then stood by the decision to move the team while neglecting a fanbase that tried to keep it. He mentioned during his press conference that there wasn’t an offer from Oakland. The Mayor of the city stated that there was a proposal that Fisher wasn’t happy with. He belittled the fans for the reverse boycott stating how the attendance was average for most MLB teams, ignoring the premise of it in the first place. Overall, he sounded tone-deaf during his press conference and was covering up for an owner that didn’t want to speak for himself.

In a season that looked promising, this puts a stain on the year. The game hasn’t felt this exciting yet Manfred found a way to mess up a year with a lot of optimism. It’s a reminder that Manfred is still the commissioner that finds a way to put himself on the wrong side of things.

Small Market Teams Are Thriving (Surprisingly Enough)

After the first two notes were about Oakland, it’s time to look at what some small market teams are doing right. After all, this is the year where the smaller market teams are not only playing well but they are the dominant teams in the league.

The Rays are in first place in the American League East Division. The Atlanta Braves and Arizona Diamondbacks have the two best records in the National League. The Miami Marlins and Baltimore Orioles are in playoff position. The San Francisco Giants were the notable non-spenders of the offseason, failing to sign Aaron Judge and Carlos Correa, the top two free agents. The Giants have the fifth-best record in the National League.

In a league where the small market teams are typically stomped by the teams with higher payrolls, they have had the upper hand this season. Why? Well, there isn’t one answer but a common thread is that these teams have wisely invested in their rosters and are making smart moves, not big ones. These teams aren’t trying to acquire the best players but rather the player that best fits into their lineup or their field. Likewise, they have started to invest in the team, unlike a team that is looking to leave its city (ahem).

The takeaway from this season should be how many smaller clubs are starting to win. Baseball is known for being a sport where the spenders are the ones that usually end up in the World Series. This year, we might see the Rays go up against the Diamondbacks.

Is it Time to Believe in the Angels?

The Los Angeles Angels are 41-33 and in wild card position. After taking the series against the Texas Rangers and winning the weekend series against the Kansas City Royals, they have moved 4.5 games behind first place in their division. Every year, the Angels get off to a hot start and fans hope that this could be the year that they snap the longest playoff drought in baseball. Then, without fail, they fall apart. They haven’t reached the postseason since 2014, it’s tied with the Detroit Tigers for the longest drought.

So, is this their year? It’s early but this season does feel different. The big change is in the lineup with help around Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani in the batting order. Four active batters have an OPS+ over 100. Sure Trout and Ohtani do most of the work but this year, there’s more in the lineup that allows them to average 4.93 runs per game.

The pitching staff is where the questions start. Yes, Ohtani is putting together a Cy Young (and MVP) season but there’s a drop-off after that. The Angels don’t have a strong rotation and it’s unclear if they can hold up with that in mind. Otherwise, the Angels will have to outslog their way to the postseason. This week, they did that with a 9-6 win and a 7-3 win but that doesn’t look sustainable and they’ll need the pitching staff to step up.

Giants Batter the Dodgers

This was a slight surprise from the weekend. The Giants not only swept the Los Angeles Dodgers, they outscored them 29-8. This was a beatdown that the Giants gave the Dodgers, highlighted by the 15-0 Saturday win, and it flipped the two teams in the standings.

The Giants have been a rollercoaster team all season with a lot of groundball pitchers and a lot of contact hitters. At times, they look like a legitimate wild card team and are riding a hot streak, winning seven in a row and eight of 10. However, when they do cold, particularly when their fielding struggles, everything unravels and they look like a last-place team.

The real takeaway from this series was the Dodgers. They don’t look like the big bad team that they have been for years. Specifically, they don’t have a rotation which makes it easy to think that they’ll win every series. Sure, Clayton Kershaw looks great as expected but Julio Urias is hurt, Walker Buehler isn’t back from his elbow injury and might not return this season, and Noah Syndergaard has been a disastrous signing. The Dodgers were confident their rotation would hold up just fine as it did last year. It hasn’t and it’s showing.

Other Takeaways From The Week in Baseball

• There’s a power outage in New York. The New York Yankees face the New York Mets this week in the most anti-climactic Subway Series in years. The two teams were lacking star power and both teams split the set. After the two-game series, the Yankees went only to score eight runs on the weekend against their rival Boston Red Sox. The Mets, well they scored only 16 runs in their series but lost two of the three games, dropping to 33-38.
• The Royals are the new worst team in baseball. They’ve won only one of their last 10 games and have 19 total wins on the season. The Rays won more games than them in April (22-6) which speaks volumes to how bad they’ve been. The Royals however aren’t trying to lose. They are just a sorry team which is a shame since they have some players that should make them more competitive.
• The Cincinnati Reds, with their sweep of the Houston Astros, have extended their winning streak to eight games and are now 37-35. They keep rolling and look like the team to beat in the National League Central Division.
• On the flip side, the Astros were swept and are stumbling. They entered the season as the team to beat in the American League but they haven’t looked like a juggernaut in the slightest. The Astros face the Mets this week in a series where both teams will be desperate to turn things around.

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More on the smoke later but this week, was an eventful one in baseball. Andrew McCutchen notched his 2000th career hit, Kyle Hendricks had a no-hit bid through the eighth inning, and two divisions have a new team in first. But, the big highlight of the week for many baseball fans was the impressive showing from one of the top prospects in baseball. One player has given a fanbase hope for the first time in a decade and could help propel his team to a division title.

Takeaways From Last Week in Major League Baseball

De La Cruz Fuels Big Red Machine

Elly De La Cruz made his MLB debut on Tuesday, June 6. Before stepping up to the plate, there was already an understandable buzz in Great American Ballpark. The 6-5 200-pound infielder brings a large presence not just for his size but his skills and ability in the lineup. His first game provided the breadcrumbs for the fans as they saw him smash a double to the outfield wall and speed his way around the bases.

Then came the game where the national baseball world took notice of the phenom. The Cincinnati Reds were eager to return to the win column and put De La Cruz in the cleanup spot in the lineup. The second pitch of the plate appearance was high and inside and the power-hitting prospect pulled the ball with a sound off the bat that had anyone watching convinced that the ball was going to break through a wall. His first big league homer barely remained in the stadium and sent everyone into a frenzy. How often does a player hit a ball that hard? How often does a rookie make contact like that?

De Le Cruz wasn’t done that night. Later in the game, he powered a triple which allowed him to score another run in an 8-6 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers. The rest of the week wasn’t as eventful with only five singles but the baseball world has already seen his ceiling. The power, speed, and sheer athleticism have many Reds fans wondering what he can become.

More importantly, it puts the Reds back on the map. They have a 31-35 record but suddenly look like a formidable team. De La Cruz makes the rest of the lineup look better and suddenly, Spencer Steer has lineup support. Jonathan India and TJ Friedl look a little better with a power bat in the middle. It’s an overreaction to say one player turns a team into a contender but De La Cruz can boost a lineup and team to the point where suddenly a good roster becomes a playoff-caliber one.

For the Reds, this is what they’ve needed for years. The franchise has only reached the postseason once in the last nine seasons. Last year looked like a low point when they started the season 3-22 and ended the year looking like a hapless organization. This week gave the Reds hope, a possible return to the Big Red Machine days of the 1970s or even the days when they were perennial division winners in the early 2010s. For a fanbase that has gone through a lot, De La Cruz is the antidote they’ve needed and the player that they can look forward to watching on a nightly basis.

Marlins Are Sneaking Up On Everyone

Did you know that the Miami Marlins are 37-29 and in second place in the National League East Division? Did you know that they won eight of their last 10 games including a comeback win on Sunday against the Chicago White Sox where they scored three runs in the ninth inning to win 6-5? Unless you are a Marlins fan, this might be a surprise (it certainly has been a surprise for the one writing this article).

wheee! pic.twitter.com/J357wZcL7f

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) June 11, 2023

The Marlins are having a good season but it’s interesting to see how they are winning games. Their lineup is below league average, scoring only 4.00 runs per game but they have a batting order where the pieces fit. Reigning Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara is having a rough season on the mound but the rest of the rotation has been exceptional. The Marlins are a team of odd pieces but have put together a roster that can not only make the postseason but possibly take the division.

The highlight of their lineup and team as a whole has been Luis Arraez. While the batting average has been evaluated differently in recent years (with many using the slash line instead to evaluate a hitter), he’s batting over .400 at the moment. This is historic territory. Aaron Judge hit 62 home runs and that felt monumental but the last time someone had a batting average over .400 was in 1953 (by the great Ted Williams). Players have gotten close but Arraez is on pace to hit that monumental .400 threshold. But along with the average, he’s been the slap hitter that the Marlins have needed, slashing .402/.452/.491 and putting the ball in play to keep the line moving.

Along with Arraez, the Marlins have surrounded him with notable players that contrast his hitting style to form a dynamic lineup. Jorge Soler is a power hitter who has a .524 slugging percentage and 17 home runs. Jazz Chisholm Jr. was the speedster (before he got hurt) who when he got on base, could put himself in scoring position, stealing 14 bases in 16 attempts. The Marlins assemble a lineup that doesn’t have star power but the players fit alongside each other.

It’s still early in the season and a lot can change. However, the Marlins have shown that they will be in the fight for the rest of the season. They’ll compete for a Wild Card spot and they have a slight chance to win the division at the end of the day. Best yet, Alcantara can turn a corner and become unhittable again. Imagine if that happens.

Diamondbacks Win Five Straight

Sure, the hot streak can be taken with a grain of salt. The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Washington Nationals in back-to-back games and then swept the Detroit Tigers this weekend. However, they’ve been playing at a high level all season, and weeks like these are the ones that win divisions.

The Diamondbacks are 40-25 and in first place in the National League West Division by 3.5 games. The expectation is that the Dodgers will eventually overtake them in the division but they’ve consistently remained near the top all season.

The Diamondbacks finally have a lineup to pair with their strong pitching staff. Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly were expected to put together good years but they needed run support. Enter a team that averages 5.14 runs per game and has scored 38 runs in the last five games. Five batters have an OPS+ over 100 and Corbin Carroll looks like one of baseball’s best young hitters, slashing .301/.385/.565 with 13 home runs and 122 total bases.

The Diamondbacks have quietly leaped to the top of the National League. While the hot streak will cool off and they will regress to the mean, they’ve been playing well all year and have established themselves as a playoff team. They won’t buy in at the trade deadline but they have a core that is easy to like and expect to keep them competitive this season and for years to come.

Braves Over Mets Anyday

It’s hard to know whether teams or cursed or not unless you are a New York Mets fan. For this team, it seems like whatever can go wrong does. They sign Carlos Correa! Turns out, his physical leaves them concerned about his long-term health and they fail to come to an agreement. They have the best closer in baseball! Edwin Diaz suffers a season-ending injury after celebrating the final out of a game in the World Baseball Classic. They have a billionaire owner willing to spend big on free agents! Turns out, those players are underachieving or injured (they are 40 years old).

This week, the Mets faced their rival Atlanta Braves, a team that has had their number for the past 30 years. These two teams have gone through ownership changes, roster overhauls, and new stadiums, and just about everything has changed from 1990 until now except one thing. The Braves continue to own the Mets. Last year, everything went right for them in a 101-win season but they fail to win the division after they are swept by the Braves in Atlanta in the final week of the season.

Fast forward to this week. The two teams are playing in the same ballpark as they did in September and it felt like deja vu. The Mets would take commanding leads only to squander them late. They’d have great starts ruined by a terrible bullpen. They were swept by the Braves and to make matters worse, Pete Alonso, their best hitter, was hit in the hand by a pitch and will miss time.

The Braves built off the series sweep and moved to 40-25. They are in first place in the division and the common theme is that it’s their division to lose until it’s not. The Mets meanwhile lost two of their three games to the Pittsburgh Pirates and dropped to 31-35 on the season. The Mets division hopes seem crushed and now the questions start to swirl around manager Buck Showalter and if he’ll remain with the team for the rest of the season. As Yogi Berra once said “It gets late out there early” and in June, the season looks bleak for a team with World Series aspirations.

Smoke & Pollution Create a New Obstacle for Manfred

Whether the forest fires are an outlier or something to expect moving forward with global warming, they create an uncomfortable and difficult problem for Commissioner Rob Manfred. If extreme weather issues can and will affect the playing conditions, baseball as we know it will have to change. Specifically, those beautiful summer nights with teams playing in the great weather might not be available or there will be stretches where it will be impossible to play outdoors.

This week, the air quality made it not only a bad idea to play baseball in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington DC but it made it deadly to do so. Breathing in the smoke would result in fatigue, dizziness, coughing, or worse, collapsing. Poor air quality in the summer can be commonplace not just on the east coast but throughout the country.

Along with air quality, there are other possible weather issues MLB must consider after this week. Extreme heat, flooding, and hurricanes can force the league to postpone more games. It’s an issue that baseball has to confront and this week was a reminder that there must be answers that allow the league to continue to play (although admittedly, baseball isn’t the priority for tackling the extreme weather).

The first thing that can be expected is a push for teams to move indoors. More accurately, teams will need to build ballparks in the future that are open-air but have the ability to play with a closed roof. Baseball fans know the pleasant feeling of sitting in a ballpark on a nice summer night and watching the sunset while taking in the experience. That shouldn’t be taken away from fans. However, baseball needs to prepare for a time when there are weather issues and make it possible to still attend games without health risks. This week was a reminder that baseball needs to adapt sooner rather than later.

Other Takeaways From The Week in Baseball

• The Tampa Bay Rays took two of the three games in the weekend series against the Texas Rangers. In a matchup between the two best teams in the American League, the series felt like a postseason preview even though it is only June.
• The Pirates took two of three this weekend and have won seven of their last 10 games. In a division where it seems like nobody wants to win, they are in first place again with a 34-30 record. That record, by the way, would have them in last place in the American League East Division.
• The Oakland A’s have been the laughingstock of baseball this season and oftentimes, a basket case. Yet, they’ve won five games in a row. They still have the worst record in baseball at 17-50 but the Kansas City Royals at 18-47 are not far behind.

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What about the pitchers? Well, that is a bit more straightforward with a few names being clear favorites to make the All-Star team. That said, let’s take a look at which pitchers might make the cut.

Under the same theme as the everyday players, each pitcher will be put into a box. There are the locks, the squints (hey, it could happen but likely won’t), and the no-chance players. So, here we go!!

Which Yankees Can Make the All-Star Team? Pitchers Edition

Gerrit Cole – Starting Pitcher

Lock – The question isn’t if Gerrit Cole will make the All-Star game but rather if he’ll win the Cy Young Award at season’s end. He’s allowed only 27 runs on 79.2 innings pitched while tossing 84 strikeouts. The unquestioned ace of the staff is also allowing a .234 expected opponent batting average, a .393 expected opponent slugging percentage, and a 3.85 expected ERA indicating he is allowing minimal contact and opponents are rarely crushing the ball off of Cole this year.

How is Cole getting it done? Well, he’s gone heavy on the fastball this season. He throws the pitch 55% of the time, which is the most of his career and the high heat particularly allows him to earn strikeouts. Cole has had a few rough outings, notably in recent games. However, his spot in the All-Star game seems all but locked up.

Clarke Schmidt – Starting Pitcher

No Chance – Clarke Schmidt being the number two starter in the rotation speaks volumes to the drop in the rotation. Schmidt is having a brutal season on the mound, allowing 39 runs in 61.2 innings pitched. He has time to turn this season around but is far from All-Star consideration.

Domingo German – Starting Pitcher

No Chance – The sticky situation, which resulted in a 10-game suspension, is one strike against Domingo German. Then there are the results the Yankees have received from him. While German has put together a strong season, allowing only 27 runs in 61 innings pitched with 59 strikeouts, it’s far from All-Star level. He can still put together a strong season and make himself a “squint All-Star” but it would be a surprise if he gets any votes.

Nestor Cortes – Starting Pitcher

No Chance – Aside from the disappointing season, Nestor Cortes is injured and might not pitch again until the break. He’s an All-Star-level pitcher but is having a rough season on the mound. The rule changes (which prevent him from dancing and all that fancy movement on the mound) have played a role in the struggles but he’s also become too reliant on the fastball. Cortes throws heat 52.9% of the time while he’s not turning to his sweeper, slider, cutter, and change-up as often making him more predictable.

Wandy Peralta – Reliever

Squint All-Star – Here’s where we get into the nitty-gritty. Anyone who has watched the Yankees know the value Wandy Peralta brings to the bullpen, helping it look like one of the best in baseball. He’s only pitched 25.2 innings this season but allowed only 10 runs. His .350 expected opponent slugging percentage and 33.3 hard hit rate are among the best. So, what’s preventing Peralta from getting the All-Star nod? Well, there are a lot of qualified relievers and Peralta is the third-best on his roster. It’s hard to quantify a bulk inning reliever but an All-Star nod would validate his place on the Yankees.

Michael King – Reliever

Lock – Michael King has been one of the best relievers in the American League this season. In 34.2 innings pitched, he’s allowed only eight runs while tossing 40 strikeouts. His 1.4 WAR is third-most on the Yankees and third-most among American League relievers. The All-Star game tends to reward starters and closers but as one of the game’s best set-up relievers, King will be in Seattle.

Clay Holmes – Closer

Squint All-Star – Clay Holmes is having an exceptional season, allowing eight runs in 26.1 innings pitched while striking out 32 batters while earning seven saves (for those still keeping track of that stat). The obstacle Holmes faces is the closer supply and demand for the All-Star game. There are only a few spots available and a surplus of elite arms.

Yennier Cano is a lock while Baltimore Oriole teammate Felix Bautista will receive strong consideration. Pete Fairbanks of the Tampa Bay Rays is having an exceptional year but he’s currently injured. Holmes has put himself into All-Star consideration but he not only must continue to pitch well but hope other relievers drop off a bit in the coming weeks.

Final Thoughts on the Yankees Pitchers

It’s a bit surprising to see the number of Yankee pitchers that could make the All-Star game. There are two locks and four players if all goes right. Considering how the Yankees have pitched this year, that number seems high.

However, breaking down where the votes might come from, that number not only makes sense but summarizes the Yankees’ pitching season. The rotation has struggled outside of Cole, who is having an exceptional season. The bullpen has been a team strength with multiple good arms and a few elite ones. It shows where the weakness on the roster is and how the Yankees need to improve as the season heads toward the halfway point.

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The New York Yankees have their fair share of players that could play in the All-Star game this year. They have a top-heavy roster but a few names are all but locks to make it. Which players are going to make the game and which won’t, let’s do a quick look.

But, instead of ranking the most likely players, let’s look at the everyday players and put them into three categories. There are the locks, the squints (they can make it if X happens), and the no-chance players. Let’s begin.

Which Yankees Can Make the All-Star Team?

Jose Trevino – Catcher

Squint All-Star – Jose Trevino is one of the glue players on the Yankees. He plays every day and keeps the team competitive on a daily basis. His strong play behind the plate not only makes the Yankees a great fielding team but makes him one of the best catchers in baseball. The problem, he’s been awful as a hitter. Trevino’s slashing .213/.261/.315 with only two home runs and 34 total bases. If he gets in, it will be on fielding and on-the-field persona alone but otherwise, expect Jonah Heim or Adley Rutschman to get the call instead.

Anthony Rizzo – First Baseman

Lock – It might be bold to call Anthony Rizzo a lock. After all, there are a lot of qualified first basemen who can get the All-Star nod including Yandy Diaz, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and Nathaniel Lowe. However, Rizzo has been one of the best players in baseball and arguably the most valuable Yankee. Along with steady play at first base, he’s slashing .289/.363/.477 with 11 home runs and 104 total bases and carried a lineup that has been riddled with injuries. It would be a complete shock if he didn’t get the call.

Gleyber Torres – Second Baseman

Squint All-Star – Gleyber Torres is having a career year and a much-needed one for both him and the Yankees. One of three batters with an OPS+ over 100, he’s notably making contact and thriving with the new shift rules. He has 58 hits, second-most on the team behind only Rizzo, and nine home runs. The big problem standing in his way is the competition. There are a lot of second basemen that are having great years and can get the call. Torres has an outside chance but needs to hope that the rest of the American League second basemen fall off while he continues to hit at a high level.

Anthony Volpe – Shortstop

No Chance – As much as Anthony Volpe has stepped up in his rookie year, he’s still far away from making the All-Star team. His batting average is .191 and his on-base percentage is an awful .268 and he’s still adjusting to major league-level pitching. He’s exciting and showing flashes but at an All-Star level (not yet at least).

DJ LeMahieu – Third Baseman

No Chance – This has been for the most part a disappointing year for DJ LeMahieu. He’s slashing .239/.301/.396 and looks like he lost a step at 34 years old. At this point, the Yankees are hoping he bounces back to round out the lineup much less aspire for him to be an All-Star.

Oswaldo Cabrera – Left Fielder

No Chance – A great fielder? Absolutely! Oswaldo Cabrera is one of the better outfielders in baseball with above-average sprint speed, arm strength, and outfield jump. A good hitter? One could hope someday but his 56 OPS+ suggests otherwise.

Harrison Bader – Center Fielder

No Chance – Harrison Bader would make the All-Star game if he was healthy and could play a full season. He hasn’t been able to do that, playing in only 26 games this season.

Aaron Judge – Right Fielder

Lock – Aaron Judge is reaching the point where you don’t need the stats to show that he is playing at an otherworldly level but let’s look at some anyway. He’s slashing .291/.404/.674 with a league-leading slugging percentage. His 19 home runs lead the American League and are second-most in baseball. His 194 OPS+ leads all of baseball. On top of that, he is putting together all these great numbers without a lot of lineup help. Judge is injured at the moment but you can expect to see him in right field in the first inning in Seattle in July.

Giancarlo Stanton / Willie Calhoun – Designated Hitter

No Chance – Giancarlo Stanton has only played in 16 games this year while Willie Calhoun, a pleasant surprise, is underwhelming at the plate. The Yankees aren’t going to send a DH to the All-Star game, a surprise for a team known for its slugging.

Final Thoughts on the Yankees All-Star Candidates

When it comes to everyday players, the Yankees have two locks, Judge and Rizzo, and two players that have an outside chance to make it if things go right. So, the ceiling is for four fielders to make it to the All-Star game but in all likelihood, it will only be two. It says a lot about the Yankees and their roster alignment. They have a top-heavy team that is carried by two or three players and they go as their stars do. How successful of a season that will result in, we shall see.

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The previous week had a lot of action. Starting with the Memorial Day slate and going through the weekend, the games showed us how this season will likely play out. There were a lot of good stories (we’ll circle back to that Yankees-Dodgers one soon) but the big one was the best thing any baseball fan saw and it was the return of Liam Hendriks.

Takeaways From Last Week in Baseball

Liam Hendriks Returns After Battling Cancer!!

In the offseason, it looked like Hendriks wasn’t going to pitch again, and that wasn’t a priority, to begin with. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in January and immediately started treatment. It’s a diagnosis that everybody fears and the mind of Hendriks was far from baseball and focused solely on the recovery. After months of battling, he recovered and by late April, announced he was cancer free.

On Memorial Day, he was called up to the roster and came in to pitch the eighth inning. the Chicago White Sox fans have had little to cheer about this season, with the team nine games below .500 and in fourth in the division. Everyone at Guaranteed Rate Field was applauding and cheering for Hendriks as he entered the game, something that was unthinkable in the winter. He gave up two runs but that wasn’t on the mind of anyone. All that mattered is that he was back.

To make the week better for Hendriks, he pitched two more times in the week. He was back to his normal self, pitching two scoreless innings with three strikeouts. Then came the moment that felt scripted but wasn’t, just a great moment in baseball. On National Cancer Survivors Day, he pitched a scoreless ninth inning in a tied game. In the bottom half of the inning, the White Sox walked it off with a Jake Burger grand slam, giving Hendriks his first win of the season and a wrap to a great week. The team swept the series and after a rough start to the year, they had a moment of sunshine and one that all baseball fans can appreciate.

Rangers Keep Rising

The Texas Rangers have become a team that has defined the 2023 season. The expectation was that they would be good but not lead the division through two months good. They are 38-20 and have won eight of their last 10 games. This weekend, they not only swept the series but outscored the rival Seattle Mariners 30-9.

It’s not only the fact that the Rangers have been good but it’s that they look dominant. Their lineup has eight batters with an OPS+ over 100. Corey Seager is slashing .349/.405/.623 while Adolis Garcia and Josh Jung have combined for 26 home runs and 222 total bases. A potent lineup like theirs is scoring a league-leading 6.48 runs per game and creating a run differential of +152 which is in 1929 A’s territory (back when that team was good).

It’s easy to think of the Rangers as a team that wins with their lineup as they overwhelm teams. However, they are far more than that. Their rotation has some of the best arms in the game with Nathan Eovaldi putting together another strong year while Jon Gray, Martin Perez, and Andrew Heaney rounding out the rotation. Marcus Semien is having a strong season at second base, leading the team in defensive WAR while Jonah Heim has emerged as one of the better catchers in baseball. To lead them, manager Bruce Bochy has been the steady hand who has already established himself as a Hall of Famer and this weekend won his 2,041st game, which is the 10th most in baseball history.

The weekend wasn’t anything extraordinary for the Rangers. They’ve been dominant all season. That makes this weekend notable. It’s a reminder that they continue to play at a high-level week in and week out and overwhelm teams with unprecedented scores. They aren’t the best team in the American League per se but this week was a reminder that the sky is the limit for them.

Judge is Breaking Baseball

More accurately, Aaron Judge is breaking walls or the outfield wall in Dodgers Stadium. In Saturday’s game, a deep fly ball had the 282-pound player running full force to catch up to it. He did but then came the memorable part as he broke through the wall and forced the grounds crew to repair the damage. There is a cliche that a player is willing to run through a wall to help the team out. Well, Judge literally did that and it did help the Yankees take the game 6-3.

Judge missed the rubber game and shortly after the impressive catch, he was placed on the injured list. It’s his second appearance on the IL and it spells doom for a Yankees team that rides and dies with him. It’s also a shame since Judge was after all in the middle of another MVP-caliber stretch.

In the five games he played this week, Judge hit four home runs and slashed a mind-boggling .294/.455/1.059 in only 22 plate appearances. He also made his mark (literally) in the field with multiple highlight catches including robbing a home run in the series against the Mariners. Now, he’s out of the lineup and the Yankees only have two active hitters with an OPS+ over 100 in it. It’s going to be a rough year for the Yankees if they have to deal with their best player being out of the lineup in many instances but this week was a reminder of the elite player that they typically will have. When he’s healthy, there’s no better batter in Major League Baseball.

The Middling Mets

The New York Mets are 30-30 and in third place in their division. They are 5.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves in the National League East Division and two games out of a wild card spot. After sweeping the Philadelphia Phillies, they looked like they were back on track, they were subsequently swept over the weekend. Just when the Mets seem to find their footing, they lose a series or a handful of games and they continue to sputter as the season is in full swing.

This is a team that shouldn’t be in this position. They had World Series aspirations and spent more money than any other in the offseason. Yet, here they are after a weekend where they only scored five runs. That leads us to their first and possibly biggest problem, this team can’t hit. They average 4.30 runs per game and are underachieving throughout the batting order. Jeff McNeil, their contact hitter, has a .282 batting average. Francisco Lindor has a .284 on-base percentage. Daniel Vogelbach, who is supposed to be one of their sluggers, has only two home runs and a .315 slugging percentage. The Mets’ elite hitters (or the ones intended to carry them) have been anything but, making them look hapless at the plate.

Then there’s the other issue. The Mets are an old team. The average age of the lineup is 29.8 and the pitching staff is a 32.0 average age. Moreover, some of the key players are among the oldest in baseball. Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer are 40 and 38 respectively while closer David Robertson is 38 as well. Seven of the everyday players are 30 or older. The Mets bet on veteran stars to continue to play at a high level and not decline with age but that bet isn’t looking so great one week into June.

Blue Jays Impress But Remain Unnoticed

The Toronto Blue Jays swept their series (against the above-mentioned Mets), have a four-game winning streak, and have won seven of their last 10. Yet, it seems like their hot streak doesn’t carry a lot of significance. They’ve played well, especially recently but don’t seem to garner the attention of the baseball world.

Why is that the case? Well, they are in the American League East Division which is arguably the best in baseball. To add to that, they are in fourth place in that division and 8.5 games behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays. They’ve been good but not nearly good enough to register in their division, speaking volumes to how tough it will be to make the postseason or make noise this season altogether.

The big takeaway from the Blue Jays is that they have an uphill battle. They need to go on a run, a remarkable run, just to get back into the divisional race. Until then, they will remain an invisible team this season.

Other Notes From the Week in Baseball

• The Milwaukee Brewers and the Pittsburgh Pirates are starting to separate themselves in the National League Central Division. The Brewers with a three-game win streak are in first place with a 32-27 record while the Pirates won five games in a row to jump to 31-27. Is this sustainable? It’s doubtful but it could be a start for the two teams who are finally finding their footing to pad a divisional lead.
• The Baltimore Orioles played the San Francisco Giants this weekend in a uniform matchup made in Hell. Orange and black played black and orange. Who won the series? Well, if you can figure out which team was which, you can then figure that out.
• The Rays became the first team to win 40 games. They have the best record in baseball and remain the team to beat.
• The Dodgers are having a good year but for the first time in the Clayton Kershaw era, they look like they have a rotation that is pieced together. Usually, they have a dominant staff but injuries and underachievers have made the rotation a question mark. The hope is that prospect Bobby Miller, who pitched six scoreless innings in the Sunday game, remains a regular arm in the rotation. Otherwise, the Dodgers are being carried by the usuals, a great lineup, and All-Star everyday players.

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The Yankees season has been somewhat expected but also a bit surprising. For a team that hasn’t had a losing season since 1992, the expectation was that they’d figure things out after a sluggish start. That said, there have been some surprises on the roster and some interesting takeaways from the first two months. The first and most obvious takeaway from the season is that they go where their best player goes.

4 Takeaways From Two Months of Yankees Play

Judge Continues To Carry the Yankees

Aaron Judge was out of the lineup with an injury from April 27 through May 9th. In that stretch, the Yankees went 4-6 and fell (for a brief time) into last place in the American League East Division. Since his return, they have gone 14-7 and have looked like the best team in the American League.

It’s an exaggeration to say that one player makes all the difference. Judge doesn’t singlehandedly turn the Yankees into an elite team but his presence makes a significant difference. His 18 home runs, .679 Slugging Percentage, and 114 total bases inject power into the top of the lineup and make the rest of the batting order better as everyone hits behind the league’s most feared slugger.

The past week was a reminder of how Judge can take over games in a sport that limits the individual’s ability to do so. Judge had a three-hit game on Memorial Day with two of his hits clearing the wall for homers. To add to the night, he robbed a home run with a leaping catch to catch a fly ball that only his frame could get to, proving that he can win in the field and at the plate. By the end of the series, Judge had three home runs, four hits, and four walks including one in the ninth inning with two outs (the Seattle Mariners weren’t going to let him beat them).

He is proving that last season wasn’t an oddity and that he is perfecting his skills to become baseball’s best player. The power hitter has optimized his strength, plate discipline, and strike zone awareness to not only power the ball regardless of where it’s thrown but become the league’s best. The Yankees have Judge back in the lineup and he’s leading the team back to the top of the division and the league as a whole.

Cole is Great But Needs Help

The story early on in the season is that the Yankees are carried by Judge and Gerrit Cole while the rest of the roster struggles. To a point, that is correct. Judge and Cole have a combined 4.7 WAR and they have led both the lineup and rotation but the team has also seen Anthony Rizzo, Nestor Cortes, and a handful of others step up to make them a competitive team. The Yankees are top-heavy and their rotation is carried by one starter in particular. The question is if that is sustainable.

The short answer is no. Cole is having a Cy Young-caliber season, allowing only 26 runs in 73.2 innings pitched while tossing 79 strikeouts but he needs help in the rotation, especially considering his recent starts. In his last game, he allowed six runs in six innings including two home runs while the game before that he allowed five runs in five innings. The bottom line is that he will have his rough starts and the rest of the rotation needs to step up to assure that pitching doesn’t become a weak link.

Fortunately, Cortes has been putting together a respectable season. He’s allowed 35 runs in 59.1 innings pitched while striking out 59 batters. Likewise, Clarke Schmidt has progressed into a middle-of-the-rotation starter. Then there’s the drop-off. Luis Severino has only pitched in two games this year while Carlos Rodon, the prize offseason addition, has yet to play in a game this year.

The Rodon issue is particularly laboring since he was supposed to put the rotation over the top but the lingering injuries have made the offseason seven-year contract look like one of the worst in baseball. The backend of the rotation will make or break the Yankees and so far, it’s held them back.

Volpe Continues to Live Up to the Hype

At this point, rookie Anthony Volpe has settled into the shortstop role. It’s almost taken for granted that he will be the mainstay in the position and a reliable contributor every day. It’s easy to overlook how impressive it’s been for Volpe to not only settle in but put together a strong season so far.

His hitting numbers are underwhelming. He’s slashing .194/.272/.358 and has become a back-half of the lineup type of player. That said, he has eight home runs and is contributing everywhere else on the field. Volpe is 13-0 when it comes to stolen bases and his speed on the basepaths has allowed him to score 23 runs. Moreover, his play at shortstop has made him one of the better defensive players on the team. Volpe has a lot of room to improve and will have to step up at the plate soon but the Yankees have gotten what they’ve asked out of the top prospect.

The Yankees Bullpen is Still Fine

The Aroldis Chapman era ended with a whimper and it finally made the bullpen a question mark. It was good last year but at times, felt pieced together. This year, the bullpen is being carried by Clay Holmes, who was their top reliever last year, and Michael King, Wandy Peralta, Albert Abreu, and Ron Marinaccio. It looks pieced together again but it’s anything but.

The Yankees have Holmes in the designated closing role but otherwise, they have gone after the Rays model. It’s not about roles as much as situations. If a left-handed lineup is facing the Yankees late, Peralta will get his fair share of innings. If they need two innings to get the ball to Holmes, they’ll often rely on Abreu and Marinaccio to piece it together. Additionally, the bullpen often rides the hot or rested arm, allowing one reliever to pitch two innings one night while another goes two innings the next. At times, they look like they are using the bullpen arms on the fly but this year, it’s been by design the whole time.

Other Takeaways From Yankees First Two Months

The back half of the lineup remains a concern. While Judge continues to lead the scoring, the lineup drops drastically after him. Only three active batters in the lineup have an OPS+ over 100 and the Mariners exposed this weakness in the series finale by shutting out the Yankees.

Sure, the Yankees will improve when Giancarlo Stanton returns to the lineup. Likewise, when Harrison Bader returns from the injured list, the batting order will look like one of the best in baseball. This leads to the next problem. The injuries have piled up and have made the Yankees roster look depleted. They invested in players that had a high risk of getting hurt and players with injury reputations. So far, it’s exposed the roster as they can’t field a fully healthy roster.

This leads us to the final point about players that have been the glue of the roster this year. While Judge is the leader and is carrying the Yankees, Gleyber Torres is putting together a strong season at the plate. Likewise, catcher Jose Trivino has been the steady hand behind the plate to not only control the game but upgrade the team defensively. The Yankees have dealt with injuries but Torres and Trivino have been able to keep them afloat.

Main Image: Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports

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