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Post by chiyankee on Jun 8, 2024 14:45:43 GMT -5
No Soto in the lineup.
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Post by chiyankee on Jun 8, 2024 14:55:34 GMT -5
Until I see Soto playing again, I'm nervous about all of this. I don't trust the Yankees and the statements they release.
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Post by bumper on Jun 8, 2024 15:14:38 GMT -5
the lineup suddenly becomes a lot shorter w/o soto. obviously the hope is that they're being cautious regarding his return.
neither rizzo & DJ are doing anything. rizzo over his last 100 PA is batting .170 w 3 doubles and .412 OPS. not driving the ball at all. looks a lot like the post-concussion rizzo of last year. maybe DJ needs more time but no rbi and no xtra base hits in his 8 games. again not driving the ball. then you have wells and grisham ...
lineup looks more like last year's with 3 guys on the interstate and you can essentially add a 4th with rizzo. despite the 45-19 record before last night, a bit concerning long term.
need nestor to right the ship tonight.
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Post by kaybli on Jun 8, 2024 15:15:18 GMT -5
Until I see Soto playing again, I'm nervous about all of this. I don't trust the Yankees and the statements they release. Exactly Chi. I don't mind Soto not playing a few games over this. I just don't trust the Yankees with being honest about their injuries. |
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Post by JEGnj on Jun 8, 2024 15:17:50 GMT -5
If he doesn't come off the bench or play tomorrow time to worry.
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Post by kaybli on Jun 8, 2024 15:48:39 GMT -5
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Post by qwik3457bb on Jun 8, 2024 16:02:09 GMT -5
Until I see Soto playing again, I'm nervous about all of this. I don't trust the Yankees and the statements they release. Me, neither. Some of that is legit, in that they don't want word of a serious injury getting out to raise the price on any trade they might want to make for replacement, but some of is indecisiveness, and some of it is internal panic. |
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Post by qwik3457bb on Jun 8, 2024 16:05:00 GMT -5
A couple as in the rest of this series, or 7-8 as in they don't want to put Soto on the IL before they have to and are willing to play a man short for a week before they finally come to a proper decision, or maybe because Boras demands they either put him on the IL to protect him, or keep him off the IL to pad his stats for the free agent bids? Rhetorical questions to you, kaybli. You need not answer. More for the GM and the Crack Medical BrainTrust™ the Yankees employ for these matters. |
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Post by qwik3457bb on Jun 8, 2024 16:08:05 GMT -5
The Dodgers try to win the series today by sending righty Gavin Stone to the mound to face the Yankees. The Dodgers drafted Stone in the 5th round in 2020. Stone moved steadily through their farm system over the next 3 1/2 years, pitching well at every level until he got to the high-altitude pitcher-killing parks of the Pacific Coast League (AAA). In 2023, he struggled some at AAA, and got hit hard in the majors. The Dodgers called him up no less that 5 times last year; they were dealing with multiple serious injuries to their key starters.
In May, he got a start against the Philles and they got 8 hits and 4 runs off him in 4 innings. Back down he went. After two good starts at AAA, they called him up to take two pastings in late May, and fwoop, right back down. 4 bad games at AAA, called up for one relief appearance in early July and bam, right down again. He then threw 8 solid games in AAA and at the end of August, they called him up to make him eligible for the post-season if he could replicate in the majors what he'd being doing in the minors. He threw a mediocre six innings against the Red Sox, so the Dodgers decided he wasn't ready for the post-season. He made one more excellent AAA start, and then to fill innings down the stretch when the divisional race was a blowout in their favor, the re-called Stone for the final time. He made a spot start and two relief appearances down the stretch, but the Dodgers didn't put him on their roster for the NLDS against the Diamondbacks.
Stone had been a top 100 prospect on all four major lists after 2023: Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, MLB Pipeline, and Fangraphs. After the disappointing season in both the minors and majors, all the lists dropped him before this season except for Baseball America, which left him at #82. That drop might have been mistaken. Still with multiple projected rotation starters on the IL to start the season (Walker Buehler, Clayton Kershaw, Dustin May), he opened the year in the rotation, and struggled in his first four starts: 1-1, 22 hits and 10 BB and a 6.00 ERA, but notably, no home runs. He's been superlative in his last 7 starts: 5-1 with a 1.64 ERA. He went at least 5 innings in each of them, going 6 or 7 in all but one, and gave up more than one run in just one of the seven. (Similar to Luis Gil's white-hot run, but not as dominant) On the season, Stone is 6-2 with a 2.90 ERA. In 11 starts, he's pitched 62 innings, allowing 55 hits, 20 runs, all earned, 4 HR, and 19 BB with just 47 K's. His WHIP is now a solid 1.194 (0.95 in those last 7 starts). In his most recent start, he threw 5 shutout innings against the Rockies in LA, and got the W in a 4-0 win. This is Stone's first game against the Yankees in his career. Stone is still technically a rookie; despite his 5 stints with the Dodgers last year, he didn't spend more than 50 days on the roster.
Repertoire: Stone is a 6-pitch righty (as many starters in MLB today, he has both the 4-seam FB and the sinker, and both are about equal in usage and velocity). The pitch mix: FB/sinker averaging 94-5 about 48% combined, change 87 about 26% of the time, slider 88 about 14% of the time, cutter 92 about 8% of the time, and a curve 83-4 about 4%.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Jun 8, 2024 16:12:47 GMT -5
Playing the name game...Gavin is yet another first name that has gained popularity in recent decades: there been seven in MLB history, none began their careers before 2004. As of now, the best is probably the first, Gavin Floyd, who had five solid years as a mid-rotation starter for the White Sox as the main part of his 12 years in the majors. There have been 15 players with the last name Stone, the best of them was Steve Stone, a solid #4-5 starter with the Cubs and White Sox who briefly became a shooting star when he got signed as a free agent with the Orioles after the 1978 season. In 1980, with the good offense, defense and bullpen behind him, he had one of the great outlier pitching years in MLB history, getting nearly 1/4 of his total 101 wins of his 11-year career. Stone was 25-7 in 1980 with a 3.23 ERA for a 100-win Oriole team that the Yanks barely held off for the division title, before the Royals finally broke their "Yankee curse" by sweeping them in the ALCS. Stone made the all-star team, and got Cy Young and MVP votes for the first and only time in his career that year. Manager Earl Weaver rode Stone very hard in 1980; his 37 starts and 250 2/3 innings were career highs by 5 starts and 36 innings. He broke down the next season, suffering what was called "shoulder tendinitis" after pitching less than 1/3 of what he had done the year before. He tried to come back in spring training of 1982, but retired 3 months later, obviously due to a more serious injury than tendinitis.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Jun 8, 2024 16:16:07 GMT -5
Nestor Cortes will try to even the series for the Yanks under some pressure to get deep into the game with the bullpen depleted by use the last two games. The Yanks are hoping that Nestor can continue to dominate in home games; right now Nestor is 3-1 at the Stadium with a 1.12 ERA in 6 starts, and 0-3 on the road with a 6.17 ERA in 7 starts. On the season, Nestor is 3-4 with a 3.45 ERA. When he makes his 14th start today, he'll move into a tie for the league lead again, and if he can last 5 innings against this tough Dodgers lineup, he'll move back into the top 5 in the AL. He's currently 9th in the AL in K-to-BB ratio and 9th in fewest BB per 9 innings. In 75 1/3 innings, Nestor has allowed 67 hits, 30 runs, 29 earned, 10 HR, 15 BB and struck out 74. In his last start against the Giants in San Francision, he couldn't get out of the 5th inning, allowing 7 hits, 2 HR and 3 runs in 4 1/3, although he struck out 7 and walked none. The Yanks rallied for four runs in the 9th to win, 7-5, the crucial blow being Soto's towering HR off of Giants' closer Doval.
Nestor has pitched against the Dodgers just once before, a 2-inning relief appearance against them in 2019, mopping up a 10-2 Yankee win in Dodger Stadium with 2 innings of scoreless, hitless ball, walking 1 and striking out 4. The sample for the Dodgers' team quadruple slash line against Cortes is silly, because it's just 7 batters, but for the record: .000/.143/.000/.143
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Post by qwik3457bb on Jun 8, 2024 16:17:25 GMT -5
Yankees lineup vs. Stone: He's never faced them, but three Yankees have faced him:
Verdugo is 0-3 vs. Stone.
Grisham is 1-2 with a double
On the bench: Soto is 2-3 with a RBI.
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Dodgers lineup vs. Cortes: He has only those two innings against the Dodgers, but six Dodgers have faced him before, four of them while they were in the AL:
Betts is 0-2 with a K
Ohtani is 1-9
Smith is 0-1 with a K
Teoscar Hernandez is 5-13 with 2 doubles, 1 RBI, 2 BB and 4 K
Kike Hernandez is 1-8 with 2 K
Chris Taylor is 0-1.
On the bench: No Dodger not in the starting lineup has batted against Cortes.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Jun 8, 2024 16:18:12 GMT -5
Last night, the Yanks were dominated by free agent ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto for 7 innings, held to 2 hits and 2 BB, with 7 K, and the excellent Dodgers' pen shut them down for 3 more. They finally got a run in the 11th off of Yohan Ramirez, but not until after they'd been beaten for a 2 run double from Teoscar Hernandez in the top of the inning of a tiring Ian Hamilton. After Judge's single got one run back, closer du jour Yohan Ramirez whiffed Stanton and got Rizzo to pop foul to catcher Will Smith to end it as a tough 2-1 loss. The Yanks 8-game winning streak was snapped, and they fell back to 25 over .500 at 45-20.
Also last night, the O's hit 3 more HRs for 5 runs, and beat the Rays 6-3, breaking a small two-game losing streak. Garrett Crochet allowed the Red Sox just 1 earned run over 6 innings on 3 hits with 10 K, and the White Sox took the lead with 3 in the 4th and gradually pulled away to win 7-2, finally breaking their 14-game losing streack. The Jays got held to 5 hits and 1 run by rookie starter Hogan Harris and three relievers, and outfielder J.J. Bleday walked it off with a leadoff HR in the 9th off of embedded-Yankee Chad Green for a 2-1. Fireballing reliver Mason Miller got the 1st win of his MLB career after throwing a 1-2-3 9th with 2 strikeouts (Guerrero, Jr. and Bichette, no less).
As of this morning, the Yanks now lead the O's by 3 1/2 games. The Red Sox are in 3rd, 12 1/2 back. The Rays are 4th at 13 games behind, and the Jays remain in the basement, 14 games out of 1st.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Jun 8, 2024 16:25:53 GMT -5
Elsewhere in the AL East today: the Jays lead the A's 4-0, top 5 at the Coliseum, Kevin Gausman vs. ex-Yankees prospect Luis Medina in that game. The O's lead the Rays 1-0, bottom 4 at the MysteryDome™; Kyle Bradish vs. Taj Bradley. A solo HR in the 5th by Bobby Dalbec has the Red Sox leading the White Sox, 1-0 in Chicago: Brayan Bello vs. Nick Nastrini. I'll update the scores nearing gametime, they might all be over by then.
In a little over 2 hours from now, it's Stone vs. Cortes at the Stadium.
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Post by qwik3457bb on Jun 8, 2024 16:27:21 GMT -5
Now, it's time for the Saturday Leaders© (through gamees of Friday, 6/7):
Among AL hitters....
Aaron Judge has taken over the league lead with 4.4 bWAR. Juan Soto is 4th at 3.6 bWAR.
Bobby Witt, Jr of the Royals now leads in BAVG at .323. Soto is 2nd at .318, and Judge is all the way up to 7th at .294. Anthony Volpe is virtually tied with Rafael Devers for 10th at .286. Devers is a bit ahead at .28643, Volpe is at .28626
Judge has passed Soto for the lead in OBA at .429; Soto is 2nd at .424.
Judge still leads in slugging at .662; Soto is a fairly distant 2nd at .603
As you can guess, Judge also leads in OPS at 1.091, and Soto is 2nd at 1.027
J.J. Bleday of the A's is still tied with Judge and Gleyber Torres for the league lead in games played with 65, but Soto has dropped out and been replaced in the 4-way tie by Julio Rodriguez of the Mariners.
Bobby Witt, Jr. still ha a decent sized lead in runs with 56, 7 ahead Soto in 2nd, Judge is 9 back in 4th, tied with Volpe and Jose Ramirez of the Guardians. Gunar Henderson of the O's is in 3rd with 48 runs.
Jarran Duran of the Red Sox has passed both Volpe and Maikel Garcia of the Royals now leads in at bats with 263, Volpe is 1 behind Duran, and Garcia is 1 behind Volpe.
Witt, Jr. has pulled into a decent lead in hits with 83. Soto is 2nd with 76, and Volpe is 3rd with 75. Judge is in a 4-way tie for 10th with 68, along with Garcia, Rodriguez and Marcus Semien of the Rangers.
Judge still leads in total bases with 153. Soto is 3rd at 144, with Witt in 2nd.
Judge leads in doubles with 20; Duran leads in triples at 9, Volpe is 3rd with 6.
Judge still leads in HR with 21, 2 ahead of Gunnar Henderson and Kyle Tucker, Soto is tied for 4th with Ramirez at 17, and Stanton is 7th with 15.
Ramirez has still leads in RBI with 60; Judge is in 2nd at 55, and Soto is 3rd at 53.
Judge leads with 54 BB, Soto is tied for 2nd with Tucker with 46.
Cal Raleigh leads in batter K's at 76. Giancarlo Stanton has passed Judge into 4th with 72 K. Judge is 5th with 71. I suppose that's a good thing because it means that both of them have been healthy so far this season.
Jose Caballero of the Rays still leads in steals with 21, but Witt, Jr. is closing in, just 2 behind. Volpe is in a 4-way tie for 6th wtih Duran and two others. Caballero still leads in caught stealing with 8; Witt, Jr. is 1 behind now.
Vinnie Pasquantiino added a sac fly this week and leads with 8; Verdugo is 2 behind, Soto is in a 4-way tie for 4th with 4.
Ryan Jeffers and Andres Gimenez are still tied for the lead in HBP with 10. Anthony Rizzo is in a 8-way tie for 9th with 6.
Judge continues to hold a lead the AL in GIDP with 11, but Bo Bichette of the Jays is now just 1 behind at 10, and Sal Perez of the Royals is one behind Bichette now. Stanton is in an 8-way tie for 4th with 8. If he stays healthy, he might take the title.
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