Game 161: Pirates (Skenes) @ Yankees (Gil)

       Aaron Judge celebrates his 33 birthday shortly after the start of the 2025 season. How many more years do you plan on those knees holding up a 270 pound body ?   In New York Soto has to play in the field for at least the next 6 years. 

Maybe you're not speaking of me, Max, but I do get negative at times.

I watch the Yanks because I'm a Yankees fan.
Watched them all my life even in bad stretches like the Stump Merrill/Bucky Dent years.

I'm pessimistic, perhaps more than I should be, because although this team is near or at the lead in team run differential, it still has too many ways to lose. In my judgment and experience, more than a World Series title contender should have. They have too many weak slots in the lineup, rotation and bullpen.

If I remember right, Bill James once said something like the art of winning a title is to find 8-12 players that are at the same time healthy and good-to-excellent. It helps to have 2-5 elite players and pitchers, and you can have 2-3 holes among the 12-16 key slots on the roster. But I look at this team, and where are the other 6 to 8 of them, beyond Judge, Soto, Cole? Maybe Rodon? Maybe Gil? Maybe Weaver? Maybe Wells? Maybe Chisholm? Maybe Torres in the leadoff spot lately? I mean the 1980 Phillies were able to win it all with a very top heavy roster (the only elite players they had were Schmidt, Carlton and McGraw on a great season) so it does happen, but it's quite rate. It's a hard way to win, especially if you face teams that have more positions solidified AND more excellent players at the top AND successful post-season experience like, say, the Astros. 

I'm also getting older, and although I've been very lucky as sports fans go as the Yanks have won 7 titles while I've been alive, I've been wondering these last few years, ever since Judge broke through and they became contenders centered around him, if they'll ever put all the pieces together again before my time is up. And maybe that makes me more pessimistic, too.

      You might like this:

    thisdayinbaseball.com/joe-dimaggio-plays-firstbase-for-only-time-in-his-career/#:~:text=On%20July%203%2C%201950%20At,play%201B%20in%20an%20experiment.

Well, yes, not a successful conversion to 1st, to be sure. Joe was very prideful, he didn't want to be put in a position to look foolish. But Stengel knew he couldn't play the big centerfield at the Stadium by 1950, and was forced to keep using him there until Mickey came along and Joe had that last mediocre season in 1951 and he quit, because he couldn't face going on as anything less than The Great DiMaggio.

They can also try to move Judge to left, as they did with Winfield, at least for a couple of years.

only saw the 1st couple innings. heard the 2nd gil HR to gonzalez on the radio. when i checked later was stunned to see he had allowed 4 HRs. looking back at the game, was surprised boone brought him out for the 6th. with one more game and then 5 days off before the PS, didn't need to save the bullpen. call it a day after 5 mediocre innings. the final score inflated by warren, who has been overmatched for the most part. this time a bit surprised that only 2 down and the team chipping away, he might have gone for a higher leverage arm.

wow skenes is as advertised. guy is a beast. absolutely wipe out stuff. not enough innings to qualify but perhaps the best pitcher in baseball or at least on the same level as skubal, sales and wheeler. thought jared jones looked good as well.

not enough but some late offense. bases loaded in the 9th. chappy shut us down. for the 2nd straight game, jazz was the lone bright spot. soto was on base 3 times and wells worked a couple walks. judge w a platinum sombrero. don't see too many of them. guess that off day didn't help much.