River Avenue Blues

Yankees sign Cliff Pennington to minor league contract

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(Presswire)

The Yankees signed veteran infielder Cliff Pennington to a minor league contract, the team announced this afternoon. He’s heading to Triple-A Scranton. Clearly, this is a move to replenish depth after Miguel Andujar and Troy Tulowitzki joined Didi Gregorius on the injured list.

Pennington, 34, went 8-for-27 (.296) with the Athletics in Spring Training, and he did travel with the team to Tokyo for the Japan Series last month. He was released after failing to make their Opening Day roster though. Pennington played a handful of games with the Reds last season and spent most of the summer in Triple-A, where he hit .211/.311/.289 (64 wRC+) in 287 plate appearances.

A career .242/.309/.339 (79 wRC+) hitter in over 3,000 big league plate appearances, Pennington has always been a glove-first utility type. Given all the injuries, he very well might be the next player call-up should the Yankees lose another infielder to the injured list. Let’s all hope that doesn’t happen.

Repeating past mistakes have come back to haunt the Yankees

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(Presswire)

It took six games for Troy Tulowitzki to wind up on the injured list. Banking on him to be the stopgap shortstop while Didi Gregorius recovers from Tommy John surgery was a high risk decision from the get go, and it’s already come back to bite the Yankees. I feel bad for Tulowitzki; his return could have been a feel-good story this season (and maybe still could). For a team in contention, it was never a good idea to count a player absent from the majors since 2017. It doesn’t matter how he looked in his offseason workouts.

Gambling on Tulowitzki was a move straight out of the 2013 and 2014 playbook. Those were highly forgettable Yankees teams that somehow finished above .500 while missing the playoffs. The likes of Travis Hafner, Vernon Wells, Brian Roberts, Kevin Youkilis, and Ichiro Suzuki were counted on as regulars. All of those players were either past their primes, injury prone, or both. Tulowitzki fits that mold.

Some of the aforementioned players actually got off to good starts in pinstripes. I recall Hafner and Wells raking early on. Pronk had a 198 wRC+ in the first month of 2013. Wells posted a 150 wRC+ during the same period. Things went (steeply) downhill from there. Others like Youkilis and Roberts never contributed much at all, and didn’t even last on the roster all season. Ichiro hit well when he was acquired in 2012, but was surprisingly signed a two-year deal thereafter.

Tulowitzki never really got a chance to show any semblance of his old self. Maybe he’ll be back much sooner than we anticipate, but it’s easy to be skeptical of his belief that it’s a relatively minor calf injury. At this point, as Mike noted, the Yankees have exhausted just about all of their depth, so they actually need him back. And that gets us back to the point: it’s a problem that the Yankees relied on Tulowitzki to be their starting shortstop.

DJ LeMahieu was ostensibly the contingency plan for Tulowitzki. It’s not that he’s a bad fallback, but rather, the issue is that it forces Gleyber Torres to spend less time learning a fairly new position, second base. Torres is capable of playing short, but if the Yankees have any intention of retaining Didi Gregorius, it would make sense to give Torres as many reps at the keystone as possible. That means having a more tenable shortstop during Gregorius’s absence would have been ideal.

This injury serves as yet another reminder that the Yankees passed on Manny Machado this past winter. I know, I know, you’re all tired of hearing about that. I’d rather not discuss it either. But what choice do we have? Sure, Machado could have become another one of the team’s walking wounded. However, that would have came as a surprise, unlike Tulowitzki.

It’s a rare opportunity to acquire a young superstar in the prime of their career for only money. The team could regret the decision for years to come. You think they regret letting Robinson Cano walk in favor of Brian Roberts? There were some dark years before the team finally found Starlin Castro and ultimately Gleyber. And sure, you can say that the Yankees had better internal options now as compared to Cano’s walk year, with Andujar and Gregorius on the left side of the infield. But who knows how Gregorius, and now Andujar, return from their injuries. It’s better to acquire as much high floor talent as possible and sort things out later if everyone is healthy at the same time. Instead, the Yankees went for the cheap low floor option with a low probability of significant contribution.

The Beginning of the End

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(Rob Tringali/Getty)

Isn’t that a great photo? I’ve been sitting on it since last August waiting for the right post.

This post has been more than 12 years in the making and I still don’t know how to start it, so I’m just going to come out and say it: We’ve decided it’s time to shut down RAB. More accurately, I’ve decided it’s time to shut down RAB, since I’ve been running the show the last few years.

RAB is not shutting down right away. The final day will be Monday, April 29th, so we’re going to keep going through the end of the month. It will be business as usual until then, with analysis and game stories and minor league updates and all that. It’ll be the same old RAB the next 24 days.

Believe me, this was not a rash decision. I’ve been year-to-year for a few years now, and two years ago I was leaning toward calling it quits. Then the Yankees started socking dingers and got good and fun in a hurry, so I decided to go another year. I’d been waiting nearly a decade to blog about a young and exciting team.

Sometime last summer I indicated to Ben that I’d close up shop after the season. I changed my mind shortly after the season and decided to stick it out another year, but I realized that was a mistake about two days into Spring Training this year. My heart is not in it anymore. Careless mistakes are piling up and everything I write feels forced. It’s time to do something else with my time.

RAB celebrated its 12th birthday in February and 12 years for an independent team blog is about 1,200 years in internet time. I’m just some dope with an internet connection. I never imagined RAB would become as popular as it did, but I’m proud of what we’ve built and I sincerely hope you’ve all enjoyed it.

I’m still with CBS (my archive) and in all likelihood some RAB-style Yankees content will wind up there once we close the doors here. It’s not like I’m going to avoid the team completely. Also, I think we’re going to keep the @RiverAveBlues Twitter account active because it’s easy enough, so we’ll have thoughts and GIFs and other things there.

I am considering a newsletter/mailing list with a weekly “thoughts” post. I’m not certain if I’m up for it yet. There will probably be a mailing list signup post at some point just so people can sign up should I decide to give it a go. If it’s something I’m up to doing, I’ll probably turn it into a $3 per month Patreon or something like that. Nothing set in stone yet but that’s something I’m considering.

The last 12 years have been a lot of fun. A lot of work, but also a lot of fun, and these days the work outweighs the fun. There will be some sentimental farewell posts (maybe even a podcast!) in the coming days and weeks. For now, this is just an announcement that RAB will soon be no more.

I thank you all for reading and I thank everyone who’s contributed to site the last few years, because without them, RAB would’ve closed up shop a long time ago.

Mailbag: Infield Trade Market, Lineup, Span, Ottavino, Voit

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There are ten questions in this week’s mailbag. It’s a good mailbag, I think. Send your questions to RABmailbag (at) gmail (dot) com and I’ll answer as many as I can each week.

Round two with Starlin? (Mark Brown/Getty)

Eric asks: So I can’t be the only one writing in about this (if it’s not resolved by Friday) but what is the market for infield help? Todd Frazier comes to mind and I know you tweeted about it. The Yankees do have the luxury of being able to find anyone who plays a non first position, but what’s really out there?

The Blue Jays have already traded Kendrys Morales and Kevin Pillar, so at least one team is open for business. With the new single July 31st trade deadline, maybe more teams are in sell mode early in the season than usual. That would obviously help the Yankees right now given all their injuries.

Frazier is currently on a minor league rehab assignment for his oblique and is expected back next week. The Mets have Jeff McNeil and J.D. Davis at third base, and Jed Lowrie’s on his way back from a knee injury, so they have third base depth. Giving up a Grade-C prospect and taking Frazier (and his $9M salary) off the Mets’ hands seems like a decent enough move given the state of the roster. Some other possible trade targets:

  • Asdrubal Cabrera: As a recently signed free agent, he can’t be traded for anything more than $50,000 until June 16th. I imagine the Rangers will hang on to Cabrera and look to trade him for a prospect at the deadline rather than give him away for nothing now.
  • Starlin Castro: Owed $12M between his salary and option buyout this year, and I’m sure the Marlins would give him away to unload that money. A more expensive option than Frazier, but it’s the same idea. Get a rental infielder in a salary dump.
  • Neil Walker: Yet another former Yankee. Walker is dirt cheap ($2M), he can play three infield spots, and he was much more productive as an everyday guy than as a part-timer last year. The June 16th rule that applies to Asdrubal also applies to Walker.
  • Jonathan Villar: Good player who is affordable ($4.825M in 2019) and is under control in 2020 as well. I assume it would take an actual prospect(s) to acquire him whereas some others are salary dump candidates.

The Giants have some expensive infielders I’m sure they’d love to unload in Evan Longoria ($60M through 2022) and Brandon Crawford ($45M through 2021), but taking on multiple years of those guys does not appeal to me at all. Even if the Giants eat a ton of money to facilitate a trade. No need to go after those guys when there are viable rental trade candidates available.

My preference would be Castro over Frazier and, frankly, a Yankees-Marlins trade seems much more realistic than a Yankees-Mets trade. Bring back Starlin, move Gleyber Torres to shortstop, keep DJ LeMahieu at third base I guess? Then figure it all out once Miguel Andujar and/or Troy Tulowitzki return? Blowing through the $246M third luxury tax tier to bring back Castro would be a hell of a thing after the offseason the Yankees just had.

Ryan asks: How about DJLM for leadoff while we wait on Hicksie? Big contact guy, seems to understand the zone.

DJ LeMahieu against lefties and Brett Gardner against righties is probably the way to go right now. LeMahieu’s has never really hit righties all that well and he’s not a true talent ~.500 BABIP hitter, so he’s going to come back to Earth at some point. The first week of the season shouldn’t change what we think about anyone as a player. LeMahieu’s the same guy he was two weeks ago. Players have good (and bad) weeks all the time.

Personally, I want the Yankees to stick Gleyber Torres in the leadoff spot. The Yankees are without four regulars (Miguel Andujar, Didi Gregorius, Aaron Hicks, Giancarlo Stanton) and now one replacement (Troy Tulowitzki), so there’s no sense in trying to lengthen the lineup. There’s no length to add. I say go with this:

  1. 2B Gleyber Torres
  2. RF Aaron Judge
  3. DH Luke Voit
  4. C Gary Sanchez
  5. 3B DJ LeMahieu
  6. 1B Greg Bird
  7. LF Clint Frazier
  8. CF Brett Gardner
  9. SS Tyler Wade (I think the best defensive alignment has Wade at short and Gleyber at second)

Stack your best hitters atop the lineup and get them as many at-bats as possible. That is the easiest way for the Yankees to increase their chances of scoring runs in any given game. Give the best hitters the most opportunities. LeMahieu at leadoff against lefties would work, but I wouldn’t push my luck against righties until he gives us a legitimate reason to believe he’s better able to handle them than he did the last seven years of his career.

Max asks: I saw that as part of Chris Sale’s extension, Boston deferred up to $50M — $50M deferred at $10M per year from 2035-2039. Does that make financial sense for a team if they want to try to stay near or under the Luxury Tax? Does deferred money count towards the cap or is it dead money that a team can look at simply as an expense?

Apparently deferred money reduces the player’s luxury tax hit now. I was under the impression it was straight average annual value. Guaranteed dollars across guaranteed years because the Collective Bargaining Agreement doesn’t say anything about deferrals. Alex Speier says the annual luxury tax hit is “based in part on net present value of the deal,” which is reduced by deferring money, because $1 today is worth more than $1 five years from now. Sale signed a five-year, $145M extension that begins next year. Straight average annual value says the luxury tax hit should be $29M from 2020-24. Ken Rosenthal says the deferrals reduce Sale’s luxury tax number to $25.6M. That’s a big difference! Jacob deGrom’s extension includes some deferrals that lower his luxury tax number as well. It takes two to tango — the player has to agree to the deferrals and most guys want their money ASAP — but yeah, if the Yankees can reduce luxury tax hits through deferrals, it seems worthwhile. An Aaron Judge extension could be a candidate for deferrals. The Yankees have historically avoided deferrals, it should be noted. I’m sure they have their reasons.

Rob asks: Do you ever see an opener winning the Cy Young or MVP with the way bullpens are now constructed? Do you think a team will ever construct a pitching staff without any starters?

No to an opener winning the Cy Young. That guy is still effectively a reliever and it takes a lot for a reliever to win the Cy Young. They have to have an overwhelmingly great year in a high-leverage role. A guy starting, say, 60 games and throwing 70 total innings without any late-inning accolades probably won’t get any Cy Young support. Or shouldn’t, anyway. If you’re going to throw that few innings and win the Cy Young, you better be getting the highest leverage outs possible. I can’t see the voting body going for this anytime soon.

As for a pitching staff with no starters, yes, I think we’re heading in that direction. It’s probably still several years away, but it does seem possible. Starting next year each team gets a 26-man roster with a 13-pitcher maximum. I could see a team going with 13 pitchers who are two or three-inning types and never go through the lineup a second time. Or maybe it’s 12 two or three-inning guys and a closer, something like that. You could plan on each guy giving you three innings every four days or so, with plenty of rest built in. It’s coming. Not sure when, but eventually.

Michael asks: So Denard Span is still a free agent. I’m surprised he hasn’t even gotten a minor league deal yet. With all the OF injuries, wouldn’t it make sense for the Yankees to sign him to a minor league deal at the very least?

Yes, definitely. I’d give almost anyone a minor league contract. In this case, we’re talking about a team that has two regular outfielders on the injured list, and a free agent who hit .261/.341/.419 (112 wRC+) last season with good baserunning. Span isn’t much of a defender anymore, but geez, the Yankees need some offense and outfield depth. Something like the Gio Gonzalez deal could work. Minor league deal with an April 30th opt-out or something. Span gets to work out and play in actual games to showcase himself and effectively go through Spring Training, and the Yankees would add a depth player. If the injuries persist, they can call Span up. If not, they can let him walk with no strings attached. I’m not sure what Span’s up to right now or what his contract demands are. A minor league deal should be an easy yes from the Yankees’ perspective.

(Omar Rawlings/Getty)

Rich asks: How many innings do we expect Ottavino to throw this year? As of Tuesday night, Boone has gone to Ottavino 4 out of 5 games. I know it’s early, but is there any concern that he may be overused over the course of a season?

Using him four times in the first five games is not ideal, obviously, but there was a team off-day in there and one of those appearances was one batter (four pitches). The Yankees are very diligent with their reliever workloads and I’m not worried at all about Ottavino being overworked during the season. They’ve earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to resting relievers. Ottavino’s early workload seems like one of those random baseball things. He pitched four times in the first five games, then, before you know it, he’ll go five days between appearances and have to pitch in a six-run game to get work in. I trust the Yankees to take care of Ottavino and their other relievers. This is just a blip.

Michael asks: After Tuesday’s 3-1 loss to the Tigers, I was looking at Yankees numbers with RISP. After Tuesday, they somehow ranked 14th with a 109 wRC+ with RISP. If you use OPS however, it is only .621 which was ranked 22nd. In this example, wRC+ puts them at an average team with RISP, but OPS has them in the bottom 3rd of the league. Which one is a better to use?

The Yankees went into yesterday’s game with a 113 wRC+ (16th in MLB) and a .642 OPS (20th in MLB) with runners in scoring position. Their slash line: .190/.379/.263. They’ve drawn a ton of walks with runners in scoring position (22.4%) in the early going and getting on base is the name of the game with wRC+. OBP is a component of OPS and it says a walk is equal to a single, and a single is equal to a double, and so on, and no. Just no. If you’re going to stick with one number, go with wRC+ because it is adjusted for ballpark and more properly values events (singles, doubles, homers, etc.). Regardless of situation (runners in scoring position or otherwise), my preference is having the entire AVG/OBP/SLG (wRC+) slash line, especially early in the season when stat lines can be funky.

Adam asks: Do you think the cold weather is at least partially to blame for the Stanton and Andújar injuries? Shortening the season seems like a non-starter, we’re already playing the WS in Nov, northern teams opening the year in the south pissed a lot of southern teams off a couple years ago. Is there a solution that doesn’t involve building roofs?

Eh, I’m not sure if the injuries are related to the cold. Guys pull muscles all the time — Giancarlo Stanton strained his biceps on a swing and Miguel Cabrera tore his biceps during a swing on a 74° day last June — and Miguel Andujar dove into the bag awkwardly. I don’t know how much the cold was a factor there. Damaging a labrum on a play like that seems like something that could happen at any time. There’s no good solution to early season games in cold weather cities. The teams with domes and in warm weather cities don’t want their home games stacked in April (and September), and there’s basically zero chance existing ballparks in cold weather cities will be retrofitted with retractable roofs. Teams didn’t want to pay for them then and they’re not going to want to pay for them now. I’m not sure what other possible solution is available other than “suck it up.”

Eric asks: Does it seem like Luke Voit is pressing? Paul O’Neill on the YES broadcast noted that Voit is trying to pull everything where last year he was at his best going the other way. 

Yeah, it’s possible. Voit had the home run and reached base four times on Opening Day, then he went 2-for-22 (.091) with three walks and a hit-by-pitch (.231 OBP) before yesterday’s ninth inning homer. I know everyone is on high alert and ready to declare Voit the next Kevin Maas or Shane Spencer or whatever, but it’s been a week. Guys press in April, they press in June, they press in October. It happens. Maybe Voit is the next Maas or Spencer. It is absolutely possible. One week isn’t nearly enough evidence though. It’s a boring answer, I know, but it’s been a week. I’m not going to start changing my expectations for any player or any team on April 5th unless there’s an injury involved.

Mark asks: Considering the Yankees bad start against Baltimore and Detroit, it got me thinking: I feel like the Yankees have been bad against bad teams and good against good teams. It’s probably just my perception and my high expectations for my favorite team but what do you think? How bad have the Yankees been these last few years against bad teams?

It seems like every fan thinks their team stinks against bad teams. It is one of those universal beliefs. They stink with runners in scoring position, the third base coach doesn’t know what he’s doing, etc. etc. The Yankees dropped three of four to the Orioles at home last April, went 11-4 against them the rest of the way, and all anyone talked about was how they couldn’t beat the Orioles.

Anyway, here are the Yankees and their MLB ranks in parenthesis:

vs. 500+ teams vs. sub-.500 teams
2018 41-30 (1st) 59-32 (8th)
2017 26-22 (4th) 65-49 (11th)
2016 52-54 (11th) 32-24 (15th)
2015 40-47 (12th) 47-28 (7th)
2014 41-45 (11th) 43-33 (14th)

From 2014-18, the Yankees had .503 winning percentage against .500+ teams, third best in baseball behind the Cubs (.510) and Dodgers (.507). Their .597 winning percentage against sub-.500 teams was eighth best. From 2017-18, the “the Yankees are good again” years, they had the best winning percentage against .500+ teams (.563) and seventh best against sub-.500 teams (.605).

Those numbers indicate that, relative to the league average, the Yankees have “played down” to their competition the last few years. They haven’t won as many games as sub-.500 teams as you’d expect (or hope). Still, winning six outta ten against sub-.500 teams and playing north of .500 (even slightly) against winning teams is a good recipe for 90+ wins. The Yankees have been consistently in the top half of the league against both good and bad teams the last few years. The year-to-year differences seem like normal fluctuation to me more than anything.

DotF: Clarke Schmidt outpitches Casey Mize on Opening Day

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The 2019 season is now really underway. Thursday was Opening Day down in the minor leagues. Baseball is officially in full swing. Here are some notes before we get to the performances:

  • OF Trey Amburgey, 3B Mandy Alvarez, and IF Wendell Rijo were added to the Triple-A Scranton roster, the team announced. They’re the corresponding moves to Clint Frazier, Tyler Wade, and Thairo Estrada being summoned to the big leagues.
  • RHP Brady Lail is still in Tampa dealing with an injury, Triple-A Scranton manager Jay Bell told Conor Foley. Not sure what the injury is, exactly, and there’s no word on a timetable for his return. This explains why Lail was not an Opening Day roster.
  • RHP Justin Wilson, last year’s 23rd round pick, is fully healthy after missing most of the last two years with Tommy John surgery, according to his Twitter feed. He was a bit of a sleeper going into the draft last summer.

Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (8-3 loss to Buffalo) since it’s Opening Day, here are the full lineups and pitching staffs as per DotF tradition

  • LF Trey Amburgey: 3-4 — excellent Triple-A debut for the 2015 13th rounder
  • DH Mike Ford: 1-4, 1 RBI, 2 BB — got picked off first
  • 3B Gio Urshela: 1-4, 1 2B, 1 K — I thought he might get the call instead of Estrada so the Yankees could go heavy on defense, but they’re effectively doing that with Wade, so whatever
  • 1B Ryan McBroom: 1-4, 1 K
  • RF Zack Zehner: 0-4, 3 K
  • C Kyle Higashioka: 1-4, 1 R, 1 2B — thus begins year five in Triple-A
  • SS Gosuke Katoh: 0-4, 2 K, 1 E (fielding) — Triple-A debut for the 2013 second rounder … he’s spent a full season at each level as he climbs the ladder, which is pretty old school
  • CF Matt Lipka: 2-4, 2 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 2 K — first Triple-A homer since 2016
  • 3B Mandy Alvarez: 0-3 — Triple-A debut for the 2016 17th rounder
  • LHP Gio Gonzalez: 4 IP, 8 H, 8 R, 8 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 1 HR, 7/2 GB/FB — 45 of 76 pitches were strikes (59%) … there’s time for three more starts before his April 20th opt-out, and they’ll have be much better than this for the Yankees to consider keeping him
  • RHP Adonis Rosa: 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 3/2 GB/FB — 15 of 20 pitches were strikes
  • RHP David Sosebee: 2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 1 WP, 2/0 GB/FB — 26 of 40 pitches were strikes (65%)

[Read more…]

Yankees 8, Orioles 4: Gleyber Torres to the rescue

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Turns out all the Yankees had to do to get their offense going was leave homer happy Yankee Stadium. Four homers and good enough pitching got the Yankees back in the win column in their 2019 road opener Thursday. The final score was 8-4. Hooray for remembering the Orioles are, in fact, bad.

(Presswire)

Paxton Grinds
On a day the Yankees could’ve really used a dominant start to get things moving in the right direction, James Paxton came out in the first inning. Paxton’s second pitch went over the fence for a home run — Jonathan Villar reached out and poked a pitch off the plate the other way just inside the foul pole — and eleven of his first 19 pitches were balls. A single and two walks loaded the bases after the homer.

The Yankees gifted the Orioles their second and third runs with unforced errors. Paxton made a funky little move with his hand to balk in a run and move the other two runners up — it kinda looked like he was going to motion to tell Gary Sanchez to go through the signs again, then he changed his mind and brought his hand back — then he bounced a curveball that skipped away and brought home another run. Two walks, a balk, and a wild pitch.

Paxton struck out Joey Rickard and Chris Davis to escape the first inning without further damage, and he did retire 11 of 14 batters at one point. The O’s tagged Paxton for another run in the fifth inning on a Dwight Smith Jr. double to left — did I call that guy being annoying or what? — and a Renato Nunez single back up the middle. The two-out run-scoring single was a letdown. They always are. Paxton was close to stranding the one-out double, but no luck.

The final line: 5.1 IP, 8 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 9 K, 1 HR on 99 pitches. Can’t say I expected the Yankees to let Paxton throw 99 pitches this early in the season, but the bullpen was a little short after Jonathan Loaisiga only went four innings Thursday, so Aaron Boone pushed his starter a little. Paxton finished with 20 swings and misses, seventh most by any pitcher in a game this year, and many of those swings and misses were on pitches in the zone:

Being able to throw fastballs by hitters in the strike zone is a hell of a skill. The Orioles took 40 swings against Paxton’s heater and missed 14 times, or 35.0%. The league average since the start of last season is 20.6% whiffs-per-swing on four-seam fastballs. Paxton was comfortably above that at 26.1% last year and he was way above it Thursday. This was one of those “the starter doesn’t have it but still grinds through 5+ innings” starts. The offense and bullpen picked Paxton up and made it work.

The Sixth Inning Rally
Through five innings Thursday, the Yankees did a whole bunch of nothing against Alex Cobb. Brett Gardner had two ground ball singles, Gleyber Torres hit a solo home run in the third, and Torres shot a double into the right field corner in the fifth. That was pretty much it for five innings. The Yankees finally broke through in the sixth. Let’s annotate the play-by-play for the first time this season, shall we?

(1) Sanchez has turned #TooManyHomers into #AlmostOnlyHomers in the early going this year. He is 5-for-23 (.217) with three solo home runs so far (.609 SLG). More homers than all other hits combined would be kinda fun. Much like the first Torres homer, Cobb left a splitter up in the zone to Sanchez, and Gary swatted it to dead center field. After watching a 109.2 mph line drive and a 107.5 mph fly ball go for outs in his first two at-bats, the 109.3 mph fly ball would not be kept in the park. Sanchez, Nelson Cruz, and Javy Baez are the only players with three 107+ mph batted balls in a single game so far this season. Two teams (Angels and Reds) do not have three 107+ mph batted balls all year. They have two each despite the presence of Mr. Trout and Mr. Votto, respectively.

(2) This was the quintessential DJ LeMahieu at-bat. Fell behind in the count 0-2, fouled away a pitch, worked it back full, then found a hole with a well-struck (96.3 mph) ground ball. LeMahieu works the count well but he doesn’t walk a whole lot because he makes so much contact. That is pretty much exactly what happened there and it is the exact opposite of most Yankees. Most hitters on the roster will work the count, swing-and-miss a bunch, and hit for power. LeMahieu works the count, rarely swings and misses, and slaps singles.

(3) Unquestionably the biggest hit on the young season. The Yankees have been desperately waiting for someone, anyone, to come up with a big game and a huge hit. Torres provided both. His second home run of the game was a three-run go-ahead blast. To the action footage:

There’s a lot going on there. First of all, don’t miss catcher Jesus Sucre’s reaction. He knew it was gone off the bat and he didn’t hide it. Secondly, look where Sucre set up for that pitch. He wanted it down and away, maybe even off the plate in an attempt to get Torres to swing-and-miss at the 0-2 offering. Mike Wright missed over the plate and up in the zone. And third, Torres swung through the same pitch earlier in the at-bat. The pitch locations:

The swing-and-miss was a 93.8 mph fastball. The home run was a 94.6 mph fastball in the same spot. The pitch was not supposed to be there, but Torres was ready for it after seeing it earlier in the at-bat. One homer against Cobb and one homer against Wright. This is the first four-hit game and the first three-extra-base hit game of Gleyber’s career, and his first two-homer game since last August 1st, when he went deep against … Alex Cobb and Mike Wright. Baseball is a flat circle.

(4) Five straight hits? In this economy?? The sixth inning was not only the first time the Yankees had five consecutive hits in an inning this season. It’s the first time they’ve had as many as three consecutive hits since the Aaron Judge single/Giancarlo Stanton single/Luke Voit homer stretch against Andrew Cashner in the first inning on Opening Day. Let’s do more of these, mmmkay?

The Short Bullpen
Loaisiga’s short start Thursday meant both Jonathan Holder and Chad Green had to throw two innings. Adam Ottavino pitched four times in the first six games, and based on their bullpen usage Thursday, the Yankees didn’t want to make it five times in seven games. That meant Tommy Kahnle would have to get important outs. He entered with a runner on first and one out in the sixth and his ten pitches that inning went:

ball
ball
ball
strike looking
ball (walk to put runners on first and second)
foul ball
ball
ball
ball
6-4-3 double play (inning over)

Things went from real bad — Luis Cessa was warming up in case Kahnle walked the bases loaded — to real good in a hurry. Kahnle stayed in to pitch the seventh inning as well and that one was much less eventful. Three up, three down on 15 pitches. Against the top of the order too. Hell yeah high-leverage Tommy Tightpants.

Former Oriole Zack Britton made a bit of a mess in the eighth inning — a walk and a single put two on with two outs — but was able to pitch out of it. Hanser Alberto had the single. He was a Yankee for about two months between waiver claims in the offseason, and he pinch-hit for Chris Davis. Davis went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts in the game and is 0-for-17 with eleven strikeouts this season. The Orioles owe him $92M through 2022. What a mess.

Aroldis Chapman was warming up for the ninth inning when Voit gave the Yankees some much needed insurance with a three-run home run to right field. A Tyler Wade infield single and a Gardner walk set that up. Here’s what I wrote ahead of time for the recap, not expecting Voit to get that one last at-bat in the ninth:

Luke Voit went 0-for-4 with a strikeout and is 0-for-15 dating back to the last game of the first Orioles series. More like Fluke Voit amirite? I kid, I kid. But seriously, snap out of it dude.

Voit’s home run stretched the lead to 8-4 and, because he was already warmed up and there’s an off-day Friday, Chapman pitched the ninth inning anyway. He allowed a soft leadoff single to center before getting the final three outs. Since I know you’re wondering, Chapman averaged 96.2 mph and topped out at 97.4 mph with his fastball.

(Presswire)

Leftovers
Four strikeouts and a ground out for Aaron Judge. He’s sporting a 41.9% strikeout rate in the early going. Remember when the no-stride swing was going to help him cut down on strikeouts without sacrificing power? Good times. Spring Training is full of lies, folks. Believe nothing. First hitless game of the year for Judge. He reached base multiple times in five of the first six games.

Every starter had at least one hit except Judge. Gleyber had four hits (single, double, two homers) and Gardner reached base three times (two singles, walk). Greg Bird (single, two walks) reached base three times as well. Twelve hits is a new season-high. Seven strikeouts is a new season-low. The Yankees went 2-for-7 with runners in scoring position and the two hits drove in six total runs. Long live dingers.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
For the box score and video highlights, head over to MLB.com. ESPN has the updated standings and we have a Bullpen Workload page. Here is the win probability graph:


Source: FanGraphs

Up Next
This was the O’s home opener, so Friday is the “off-day after Opening Day in case Opening Day get rained out” off-day. Good timing too. It’s supposed to rain pretty much all day Friday. The Yankees and Orioles will be back at it Saturday night with a 7pm ET game (groan). J.A. Happ and Dylan Bundy are the scheduled starting pitchers.