River Avenue Blues

Yankees 6, Angels 5: No milestone for CC Sabathia, but a sixth straight win for the Yankees

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The Fighting Spirit has arrived in 2019. The gritty gutty Yankees erased a five-run deficit Wednesday night to earn their sixth straight win, and their eighth win in the last nine games. The final score was 6-5. Do we love this team yet? I can’t wait for Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge and Luis Severino and everyone else to come back and ruin it. (Kidding!)

(Presswire)

Sabathia Labors
History will have to wait until Arizona next week. CC Sabathia not only failed to strike out the six batters needed to join the 3,000-hit club Wednesday, he got hit around for the first time this year. One unearned run in his first two starts and ten innings, then five runs (four earned) in five innings Wednesday night, including his first, second, and third home runs allowed. Andrelton Simmons got him twice and Kole Calhoun got him once.

The two Simmons home runs were on mistake pitches right out over the plate. Nothing really to analyze there. Bad pitches that got hit out. It happens. The three-run rally following the Simmons homer in the fourth inning featured some classic 2019 Yankees dumb though. Albert Pujols dunked a single to left, then Brian Goodwin dropped down a bunt right in front of the plate, and Gary Sanchez bobbled it. He had Pujols at second easily and it looked to me Sanchez rushed it to try to get the double play. Instead, no outs.

With runners at first and second with no outs, Jonathan Lucroy hit a hard chopper to second base that DJ LeMahieu couldn’t handle. It was a double play ball, but the ball got away from LeMahieu, and the Yankees were only able to get the force out at second base. The Yankees gave the Angels two free outs and two free baserunners in the inning and Calhoun made ’em pay with his three-run homer. Sabathia’s pitch locations:

Sabathia was over the plate way too much with his slider and he seemed to have trouble locating his cutter in on righties. It was either too far in for an easy take or not in enough and over the plate. He couldn’t find the sweet spot on the corner. Sabathia’s final line: 5 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 3 HR on 86 pitches. Three strikeouts next time out gets him into the 3,000-strikeout club. Shake it off, big man. See you in five days.

The Comeback Rally
For five innings this looked like one of those routine “the starter didn’t have it and the offense couldn’t get going” losses. The kinda loss that happens what, 40-something times a year? At least. Then the Yankees went and erased a five-run deficit. Tyler Wade beat out an infield single to start the sixth, then LeMahieu brought him home with a double to left. LeMahieu later scored on a passed ball to get the Yankees to within 5-2.

Angels reliever Luis Garcia helped the Yankees get back into the game in the seventh. Garcia was brought in to face the 6-7-8-9 hitters and he let all four reach base with only one ball being put in play. Let’s annotate the play-by-play:

(1) We’re still in the process of learning whether Mike Ford is #ActuallyGood, but this much is clear one week into his big league career: He is hella disciplined at the plate. That was the book on him in the minors and we’ve seen it these last few days. Ford doesn’t expand the zone and he’s not at all afraid to hit behind in the count. Garcia got ahead in the count 1-2 on Ford. Four pitches later, it was ball four, take your base. There’s the rally starter. Six walks in 26 big league plate appearances for Ford (23.1%).

(2) I Can’t Believe He’s Been This Good Gio Urshela poked a little two-strike single to center field, then Mighty Mike Tauchman followed Ford’s lead with a seven-pitch walk to load the bases. He got ahead in the count 3-0, took the 3-0 auto-strike, fouled away two well-placed down-and-away heaters, then spit on the first breaking ball of the at-bat for the walk. Tauchman quietly has eight walks in 53 plate appearances (15.1%). He has a history of double-digit walk rates in the minors and I feel like I should’ve known that. He’s a grinder in that batter’s box.

(3) I like Tyler Wade. I do. Probably too much. I really wish he’d hit though. Even a little bit. This was my message in the group chat with my buddies:

Fortunately, Luis Garcia really stinks (or at least he did on this night), and he walked Wade on four pitches to force in a run. That is unforgivable. Throwing strikes it hard, that’s something that isn’t said enough, but man, walking the career .169/.234/.240 (27 wRC+) hitter with the bases loaded on four pitches is brutal. Wade took the free pass and the Yankees cut the deficit to 5-3.

(4) LeMahieu is coming out of his funk. He went into this game in a 3-for-37 (.081) skid, but he ripped a hard-hit double (101.9 mph exit velocity) to left field in the sixth inning, then clobbered a sac fly to left field in the seventh inning (98.8 mph exit velocity) to get the Yankees to within 5-4. Solid contact, swung at the right pitches, etc. etc. Ken Singleton always says to watch the type of outs a hitter makes when he’s slumping. The hard-hit outs will tell you when he’s starting to come out of it. LeMahieu ripped some liners into gloves the last few days. Now they’re finding grass or going from productive outs.

(5) The contact play … worked? The contact play worked! That’s for all you folks who say the contact play never works. Luke Voit hit a little chopper to Simmons at shortstop, the throw short-hopped in front of the plate, and the speedy Tauchman was able to slide in behind the tag to tie the game 5-5. The Angels were very willing to let the Yankees back into the game that inning. Garcia walked the Nos. 6, 7, and 9 hitters and Simmons couldn’t make a good throw to the plate to get Tauchman.

(6) Stupid sexy Mike Trout. He reached out to make a marvelous running catch at full speed in center field to rob Brett Gardner of extra bases …

… and start what turned out to be an inning-ending double play. Simmons put a tag on Wade at second base, he took his foot off the bag for an instant, and that’s an out. The obligatory screen grab:

I hate those ticky tack replays so much. The Yankees do it all the time and benefit from those replays as much as any team — this is my go-to example for the sheer ridiculousness of these plays — but I still hate it. That ain’t the spirit of instant replay. I also don’t have a good solution, and the rule is the rule right now, so it is what it is. Wade was off the base for an instant, Simmons had the tag applied for that instant, so inning over. I’m not sure I would call that the hidden ball trick, but close enough. Why Wade was at second base rather than tagging up and advancing to third on that play, I’ll never know. Game tied, rally over.

To Wade’s credit, he atoned for his seventh inning baserunning blunder in the ninth inning. He pulled a two-out ground ball single through the right side and immediately stole second base. Jonathan Lucroy bobbled the ball a bit and didn’t even make the throw, but it wouldn’t have mattered. Wade had that bag stolen. With two outs and two strikes, the no-longer-slumping LeMahieu inside-outed a single to right field to drive in Wade and give the Yankees a 6-5 lead. Two hits, a walks, and stolen base … and one bad mistake on the bases. It evens out.

Leftovers
Shoutout to Jonathan Loaisiga. He replaced Sabathia and tossed three scoreless innings, giving the offense a chance to get back in the game. Huge. With Chad Green in Scranton for the time being, I am very interested in seeing Loaisiga in a multi-inning relief role. He could really come in handy in that role, just like he did in this game. Aroldis Chapman pitched around a one-out walk in the ninth. The game ended with Trout on deck for the second straight night.

Rough return for Sanchez. Four at-bats, four strikeouts (on 14 pitches), plus an error. Ouch. Two hits for Wade, two hits for LeMahieu, and one hit apiece for Voit, Torres, and Urshela. Voit, Ford, Tauchman, and Wade drew walks. Not a ton of baserunners, but the Yankees really clustered them together. At one spanning the sixth and seventh innings, seven of ten Yankees to bat reached base.

And finally, Voit’s on-base streak is up to 35 games. Longest by a Yankee since Derek Jeter had a 36-gamer spanning 2012-13. Voit’s sitting on a .236/.358/.494 (128 wRC+) batting line at the moment. He’s been hitting well for two weeks now and I feel like his batting line hasn’t budged. Hmmm.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
MLB.com has the box score and video highlights and ESPN has the updated standings. Here is our Bullpen Workload page and here’s the win probability graph:


Source: FanGraphs

Up Next
The Yankees and Angels wrap up this four-game series Thursday night. That’s a 9:07pm ET start (?) on the getaway day. Masahiro Tanaka and noted pinch-hitter Trevor Cahill are the scheduled starters.

DotF: Deivi Garcia strikes out ten in Tampa’s loss

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Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (5-0 win over Rochester)

  • LF Trey Amburgey: 0-4, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K — remember when he got off to that great start? he’s now 3-for-32 (.094) in his last eight games
  • 2B Brad Miller: 0-5, 2 K — organizational debut after signing a minor league contract the other day
  • 1B Ryan McBroom: 1-5, 1 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 2 K — took old pal Twins LHP Daniel Camarena deep
  • RHP Chance Adams: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 9 K, 4/2 GB/FB — 65 of 100 pitches were strikes … his best start of the season and his best start since last July … forgive me for wanting to see more before getting excited
  • RHP J.P. Feyereisen: 3 IP, zeroes, 3 K, 4/1 GB/FB — 26 of 43 pitches were strikes (60%)

[Read more…]

Game 24: Milestone Night?

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(Mark Brown/Getty)

Are they playing crisp and clean baseball right now? No, but the Yankees are racking up wins and they go into tonight one game behind the Rays in the loss column. Imagine if the roles were reversed and the Rays were closing in on the Yankees despite all the injuries? They’d write scripture about them.

Anyway, CC Sabathia has a chance to make history tonight. Six more strikeouts and he’ll become the 17th member of the 3,000-strikeout club. Sabathia isn’t a big strikeout pitcher anymore, plus the Angels rarely strike out, but six strikeouts is definitely doable. The milestone is within reach.

“Getting it out of the way early would be great,” Sabathia told George King about the milestone. “It’s not something I am focusing on. I making sure I stay healthy enough to help the team win.”

The milestone would be cool. Another win would be even cooler. The Yankees have won five straight games and seven of their last eight games. They haven’t all been pretty, but who cares. They are wins in the bank. Here are tonight’s starting lineups:

New York Yankees
1. 2B DJ LeMahieu
2. DH Luke Voit
3. CF Brett Gardner
4. C Gary Sanchez
5. SS Gleyber Torres
6. 1B Mike Ford
7. 3B Gio Urshela
8. RF Mike Tauchman
9. LF Tyler Wade

LHP CC Sabathia

Los Angeles Angels
1. 2B David Fletcher
2. CF Mike Trout
3. SS Andrelton Simmons
4. 1B Albert Pujols
5. LF Brian Goodwin
6. C Jonathan Lucroy
7. DH Kevan Smith
8. RF Kole Calhoun
9. 3B Zack Cozart

RHP Cam Bedrosian (opener for RHP Felix Pena)

Safe to assume it is another great night for baseball in Anaheim. Pretty great weather in New York too. Tonight’s game will begin at 10:07pm ET and you can watch on the YES Network locally and MLB Network nationally. Enjoy the game.

Injury Updates: Clint Frazier (ankle) went for an MRI today and the Yankees are waiting for the results. His ankle is still swollen and black and blue … Giancarlo Stanton (biceps) had to get a cortisone shot in his shoulder recently. The biceps is healed, but now his shoulder is barking. He’ll resume his work in a few days and won’t return before the end of the road trip … Miguel Andujar (shoulder) took live batting practice and could play in Extended Spring Training games soon. It should be noted he is not out of the woods yet with regards to potential season-ending surgery, but so far, so good … Aaron Hicks (back) took live batting practice as well and has ramped up all his baseball activities. He took could play in ExST games soon … Troy Tulowitzki (calf) also took live batting practice and could play in ExST games soon … Didi Gregorius (Tommy John surgery) is continuing to stretch out his throwing. All is going well.

Roster Moves: In case you missed it earlier, the Yankees sent down the struggling Chad Green. Bummer, but it had to be done. On the bright side, Sanchez is back! Hooray! Kyle Higashioka was sent down to clear a spot for Sanchez and Stephen Tarpley was called up to replace Green.

Let’s Remember Some Guys from the RAB Era

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Dramatic photo for Dustin Moseley. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

There are five days remaining in the RAB era. We’ve been at this — I’ve been at this — more than 12 years now and it’s time to move on to something else. RAB started as a passion project and the passion is not there anymore. It’s become a burden. It sucks, and I am bummed about it, but it is time.

Since RAB launched in February 2007, the Yankees have played over 2,000 meaningful games, and 319 different players have worn pinstripes. The leader in plate appearances during the RAB era? Brett Gardner. He has roughly 600 more plate appearances than second place Derek Jeter. CC Sabathia of course leads in innings. He’s thrown nearly twice as many innings as second place Andy Pettitte.

We’ve been fortunate enough to watch some all-time great players these last 12 years. Jeter, Sabathia, Pettitte, Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano, Mariano Rivera, Jorge Posada, Mark Teixeira, Aaron Judge, on and on it goes. We’ve also seen an army of bit players and up-and-down guys. Most don’t contribute much. Everyone once in a while one of those guys does something memorable though.

Since we’re closing up shop soon, I figured it would be fun to go back through the years and Remember Some Guys. I scrolled through 12 seasons worth of rosters, picked out some names that stood out for one reason or another, and now we’ll pay homage to the random players who suited up for the Yankees. Come with me, won’t you?

Anthony Claggett

Y’all remember the first series at the new Yankee Stadium? The Yankees lost two of three to the Indians and got clobbered in the series finale. The final score: 22-4. Only the fourth time in franchise history the Yankees allowed 20+ runs. It is still the only time the Yankees have allowed more than 15 runs in a regular season game at the new Yankee Stadium. I remember that series for the collective shock at how small the ballpark played. Pretty funny thinking about it now.

Claggett came over in the Gary Sheffield trade with the Tigers and he made his MLB debut in that 22-4 loss. It did not go well:

Zoinks. Claggett made only two more appearances in his big league career (one with the Yankees and one with the Pirates) and he finished with eleven runs allowed in 3.2 innings. The highest ERAs in baseball history (min. 3 IP):

  1. Lewis: 60.00 ERA (20 earned runs in three innings)
  2. Dave Davidson: 30.00 ERA (ten earned runs in three innings)
  3. Steve Dixon: 28.80 ERA (16 earned runs in five innings)
  4. Jim Brady: 28.42 ERA (20 earned runs in 6.1 innings)
  5. Anthony Claggett: 27.00 ERA (eleven earned runs in 3.2 innings)

It is literally just Lewis. He’s some guy who pitched for the 1890 Buffalo Bisons. Not the best company for Claggett.

Colin Curtis

I think you might remember the first and only home run of Curtis’ career. In July 2010, he replaced Brett Gardner after Gardner was ejected for arguing balls and strikes in the middle of an at-bat. Curtis inherited an 0-2 count and whacked a home run. Check it out:

Curtis only played 17 more games in his big league career and went 4-for-32 (.125) in those 17 games. Pinch-hit home run as a Yankee in 2010, out of baseball by 2013. Rough. As far as random Yankees homers go, Curtis is right near the top during the RAB era.

Matt DeSalvo

Longtime RAB and DotF readers will remember Mighty Matt DeSalvo. The Yankees signed him as an undrafted free agent in 2003 and he worked his way into their top prospect mix during the farm system’s lean years from 2003-05. From 2003-06, DeSalvo pitched to a 3.63 ERA in 439.1 minor league innings and that was during the peak of the box score scouting era. The numbers were good and therefore he was a good prospect.

DeSalvo was the guy everyone wanted the Yankees to call up, and they eventually called him up in 2007, and in his first start he held the Mariners to one run in seven innings. Next time out: Two runs in 6.2 innings against those same Mariners. Things went downhill after that (17 runs in 14 innings) but hell yeah Mighty Matt. Those 27.2 innings in 2007 represent his only stint with the Yankees (he also threw two innings with the Braves in 2008).

Before hanging up his spikes in 2016, DeSalvo pitched everywhere from the Bronx to Atlanta to China to various Caribbean countries to independent leagues. Twelve seasons in professional baseball with some big league time is a hell of a career for an undrafted free agent.

Freddy Guzman

That is World Series Champion Freddy Guzman to you. Guzman was on the postseason roster for the entire 2009 World Series run as the designated pinch-runner. He pinch-ran twice during the ALCS, neither stole a base nor scored a run, and that was it. No appearances in the ALDS or World Series. Hey, it’s good work if you can get it. Guzman last played in Mexico in 2017.

Darnell McDonald

Man did McDonald get hosed. The Yankees claimed him off waivers from the Red Sox in July 2012 specifically so they could use his righty bat against Boston’s lefty starters in an upcoming series at Fenway Park. He went 0-for-4 in the three-game series before being dropped from the roster. McDonald had to cut his dreads, which his daughter loved and he’d been growing for more than two years, to get four at-bats with the Yankees. The hair policy is just ridiculous.

Juan Miranda

It was a big deal when the Yankees signed Miranda. They gave him a four-year deal worth $2M in December 2006, though he wound up spending the next few years as an up-and-down depth guy. Miranda never hit much in the big leagues, but I do remember him hitting this moonshot:

Miranda also drew a walk-off walk against the Red Sox in 2009. He hasn’t played in the big leagues since 2011 but he was active as recently as 2017 in the Mexican League.

Dustin Moseley

I remember Moseley for two things. One, the photo at the top of the post. Very cool and dramatic photo for … Dustin Moseley. And two, Game One of the 2010 ALCS. The Rangers scored five runs in four innings against CC Sabathia, then Moseley struck out four in two scoreless innings out of the bullpen, giving the offense enough time to claw back and take the lead. He earned the win for that.

Moseley threw 65.1 swingman innings with a 4.96 ERA for the Yankees in 2010. He spent a few years in the big leagues with the Angels and Padres in addition to the Yankees, so he wasn’t some random player who only made like four MLB appearances. I assume Moseley is pro-DH. He wrecked his shoulder taking a swing while with San Diego and basically never recovered.

Rico Noel

Run run Rico. Noel was the designated pinch-runner in September 2015 and he actually had an impact. He pinch-ran 12 times, stole five bases, and scored five runs. That’s a lot of action for the late-season pinch-runner. Their impact is often very overstated. Noel was on the AL Wild Card Game roster that year as well, though he was not used.

As the story goes, Noel talked the Yankees into signing him to serve as the designated September pinch-runner after getting released by the Padres. Joe Girardi made sure to give Noel some at-bats in the final regular season series too. He went 1-for-5 with an infield single. September 2015 was Noel’s first and so far only big league stint. He spent the last two seasons in independent leagues. He may not have gotten a ring out of it, but Rico had more of an impact on the field than Guzman.

Chris Parmelee

I spent a good 15 minutes looking and I can’t find it, but somewhere on the internet is a video of skinny and baby-faced Dellin Betances facing Parmelee in a high school showcase event prior to the 2006 draft. I remember coming across it a few times back in the day. Can’t find it now though. Alas.

Anyway, at one point in 2016 the Yankees used four different starting first basemen in a 12-game span, and roster moves were involved each time. Mark Teixeira to Rob Refsnyder to Chris Parmelee to Ike Davis. Teixeira got hurt, Refsnyder wasn’t very good, then Parmelee got hurt. Parmelee went 4-for-8 with a double and two homers in his brief time in pinstripes. Remember this game?

The next day — literally the very next day — Parmelee blew out his hamstring stretching for a throw at first base. Even though they didn’t make the postseason, the 2016 season was a very important one for the Yankees given their trade deadline moves and late-season call-ups. First base was a total mess that season though. Teixeira was hurt and unproductive much of the year, and Parmelee was one of several short-term fill-ins.

Scott Patterson

Patterson was the bullpen version of DeSalvo. An undrafted free agent (technically an independent league signing) who put up shiny numbers and was supposed to be the next bullpen savior. From 2006-07, Patterson threw 116 minor league innings with a 1.44 ERA and 136 strikeouts. The Yankees called him up 2008, he made his MLB debut as an almost 29-year-old, and he allowed one run in 1.1 innings at the Metrodome in Minnesota.

And that was it. Patterson was lost on waivers to the Padres soon thereafter. He appeared in four games with San Diego before settling in as a Triple-A journeyman. Patterson was last active in 2016, when he split the season between the Italian Baseball League and an independent league. Patterson and Colter Bean were the poster boys for the “he has great numbers call him up the bullpen needs him!” era.

Gregorio Petit

Petit was the infield version of Mike Tauchman of 2015. The Yankees got him in a minor trade right at the end of Spring Training and he made the Opening Day roster because Brendan Ryan was dealing with a calf injury. Petit went 7-for-42 (.167) with the Yankees and drove in five runs, including three on this swing:

Petit, Luis Cruz, Brent Lillibridge, Cody Ransom, Dean Anna, Cole Figueroa … we’ve seen plenty of random short-term utility infielders over the years. At least Petit is still playing. He spent some time in the big leagues with the Twins last year.

Brett Tomko

No Tomkos! Tomko is definitely the most accomplished player in our Remember Some Guys post. Dude spent 14 seasons in the big leagues, including a few weeks with the Yankees in 2009. He allowed 12 runs in 20.2 relief innings that season. I could be remembering incorrectly, but it felt like Tomko was always being mentioned as a possible spot starter while the Yankees cycled through Sergio Mitre and Chad Gaudin types. I remember him most for his post-meltdown painting sessions.

Yankees option Chad Green to Triple-A Scranton

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(Sean M. Haffey/Getty)

Chad Green has reached the end of his leash. The Yankees optioned Green to Triple-A Scranton this afternoon, the team announced. Stephen Tarpley was called up in a corresponding move. Also, Gary Sanchez was activated off the injured list and Kyle Higashioka was sent down, as expected.

Last night Green loaded the bases with no outs and allowed a grand slam to Justin Bour. He’s been tagged for 14 runs and four homers in 7.2 innings this season, matching his 2017 totals in 61.1 fewer innings. Green has a 16.43 ERA (10.03 FIP) and opponents are hitting .395/.465/.763 against him.

“Just frustrated,” Green told Kristie Ackert following last night’s game. “I feel good. Everybody goes through a point where they battle mechanics a little bit, but we’re at a point where we have to fight through that and still perform to get guys out. I’m not doing that.”

Aaron Boone indicated the Yankees were not ready to send Green down after last night’s game — “We’ll keep working at it and try and come alongside him and figure it out together,” he told Ackert — though these decisions get made above the manager’s head. Clearly, something had to be done.

If you’re curious, Green needs to spend 63 days in the minors to delay his free agency, though I would not worry about that at all. Once he gets things straightened out and is ready to help, call him right back up. How long will it take to get right? I have no idea. Hopefully it happens quick.

Tommy Kahnle and Luis Cessa jumped Green in the bullpen pecking order recently, so I imagine they’ll see some higher leverage work going forward, especially Kahnle. Tarpley was on the Opening Day roster but barely used earlier this year. He’s more of a lower leverage option.

Gleyber Torres is in a slump, but it’s not a cause for alarm

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(Sean M. Haffey/Getty)

Gleyber Torres ran into the rookie wall last September. He started slumping right around the time the typical minor league season ends, which is fairly common for new big leaguers. Through August 31, Torres had an impressive .282/.351/.507 (130 wRC+) batting line. In 101 September plate appearances, Torres recorded a paltry 82 wRC+. His postseason performance was unremarkable as well. Now, Torres’s slump has continued into this season.

In his last 191 regular season trips to the plate dating back to September 1, Torres has a .236/.286/.402 triple-slash. Through Monday’s play, he was in the midst of a 2-for-24 skid to boot, which dropped his 2019 wRC+ from 135 to 82. That recent string is why it can be so perilous to analyze early season performances; I would have never written this article a week ago. But now, after looking at his year-to-date line with a recollection of a slow finish to last season, my curiosity was piqued. At the risk of getting burned by arbitrary endpoints, Gleyber hasn’t been hitting well for a while now. Should we be concerned?

Even though Torres’s results didn’t falter until September, his expected stats were a leading indicator of trouble ahead a month before. His exit velocity was down in August, hence the lower xwOBA, but it was no matter. He still slugged six homers and reached base nearly 37 percent of the time.

Then came September. His expected numbers tumbled further, but this time, poor results caught up to him. This has carried into 2019.

What’s hampering the 22 year-old budding star?

Perhaps his right hip, which he strained last July, slowed him down a bit. Remember, he spent about three weeks on the shelf that month, returning just before the calendar flipped to August. That’s convenient timing for a sudden downtick as I just highlighted, but difficult to assign blame to. Whether or not it lingered in any way is a mystery, despite the timing.

It’s also possible that Torres has been trying to do too much. After he was promoted last season, one of his most impressive traits that was quickly apparent was his at-bat quality. He never seemed overmatched or anxious at the plate. Torres was aggressive, swinging a bit more often than the typical hitter, but he wasn’t constantly chasing unhittable pitches. Even as pitchers began to show him more respect by throwing fewer pitches in the zone, Torres became a bit more patient. Then, in September, the infielder’s approach changed.

Gleyber began swinging at roughly 52 percent of offerings that month, and is up to 54 percent this year. Opposing hurlers are giving him more pitches to hit, but even so, Torres wasn’t this aggressive last season against similar in-zone rates. Further, his chase rate climbed from August to September, and though it’s a tad down this month, it’s still above his norms from when he was going good last season.

The gameplan to get Torres out has changed slightly too, albeit nothing drastic. He is seeing fewer fastballs this season, which happens to any respected hitter. Plus, pitchers can throw more junk to Torres since he’s one of the few regulars to avoid the injured list.

Although pitch type allocation has changed a tad, it doesn’t appear that pitchers are trying to exploit a particular area of the plate. I won’t post a bunch of location heatmaps here, but they all look pretty similar. It’s not like other teams have discovered something like an inability to turn on pitches down and in.

Now that we’ve examined a few potential root causes, I want to circle back to Torres’s expected numbers with a focus on contact quality. Interestingly enough, he’s still in a good position when it comes to exit velocity and hard hit percentage early this season. Those two metrics are up over last season, 1.6 MPH and 6 percent respectively. However, because of a lower launch angle (16.8 degrees vs. 18.8 last year), his expected stats and results are suffering.

Ultimately, this kind of rut happens to all players in some shape or form. Not much is going in Torres’s favor right now, but it’s nothing to be concerned about just yet. Perhaps a little more selectivity and lift can get Torres back on track.

The Yankees have a big stolen base problem right now

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(Presswire)

Something unusual happened two weeks ago and I wouldn’t blame you for not noticing. In the seventh inning on April 14th, White Sox slugger Jose Abreu stole second and third bases against the Yankees. They are his only two stolen bases this year. Abreu stole two bases all of last season and has ten steals (13 attempts) in 763 career games.

Allowing stolen bases has been a constant and impossible to ignore problem for the 2019 Yankees. They went into last night’s late West Coast game having allowed an MLB leading 25 stolen bases in an MLB leading 29 attempts this year. No other team had allowed more than 19 steals and only one other team allowed more than 16 steals.

The Yankees rank dead last in caught stealing rate this year (14%) but success rate is not the best way to measure stolen base susceptibility. Stolen base attempts is. Opponents will tell you how vulnerable you are to stolen bases by how often they try ’em. There’s a reason there have been roughly 25% (!) fewer steal attempts against the Cardinals than any other team since 2005. It’s because teams don’t test Yadier Molina.

Going into last night’s game, opponents had attempted 29 steals against the Yankees this season, the most in baseball. Teams have attempted a stolen base in a whopping 9.9% of their opportunities against the Yankees, with a stolen base opportunity defined as a runner at first or second base with the next base open. The leaderboard:

  1. Yankees: 9.9%
  2. Tigers: 9.1%
  3. Reds: 7.9%
  4. Astros: 7.3%
  5. Rays: 7.3%
    (MLB Average: 5.3%)

In the early going this season, when a runner has had an opportunity to steal a base against the Yankees, there’s a one-in-ten chance he’s going, and a better than eight-in-ten chance he’ll be successful. That is bad. Really, really bad. Between steals and sloppy mistakes, the Yankees are giving away too many extra bases this year.

Catchers are the primary line of defense against stolen bases, and the stolen base numbers so far this season tell you pretty much everything you need to know about how opponents view New York’s catchers when it comes to controlling the running game. The stolen base success rate against the individual catchers:

  • Kyle Higashioka: 10-for-13 (77%) in 41 innings
  • Austin Romine: 9-for-10 (90%) in 86.1 innings
  • Gary Sanchez: 6-for-6 (100%) in 71 innings

Teams have run wild on Higashioka, who’s throwing arm has never really been the same since his 2013 Tommy John surgery. They’re running plenty on Romine as well, and, oddly, teams are challenging Sanchez too. He’s made four errors (all bounced throws) on those six steal attempts. It’s a small sample, sure, but runners have attempted to steal with Gary behind the plate about 50% more often this year than last.

“Adjustments have been made. It’s simple. I pulled on the ball again,” Sanchez said to Dan Martin following an error a few weeks ago. “I tried to make a stronger throw than I wanted and ended up bouncing it. I believe I’m gonna be able to correct that sooner rather than later.”

Catchers are the primary line of defense against stolen bases but they are not the only line of defense. The guy on the mound is a factor as well and the Yankees have a few stolen base prone pitchers. Adam Ottavino is one (3-for-4 against him). Aroldis Chapman is another (3-for-3 this year and 27-for-31 the last five years). So is Dellin Betances, though he has not yet pitched this year. This stood out to me:

  • Aroldis Chapman: 3-for-3
  • James Paxton: 3-for-3
  • CC Sabathia: 3-for-3
  • Zack Britton: 1-for-2
  • J.A. Happ: 1-for-1

Runners are 11-for-12 (92%) stealing bases against the Yankees’ left-handers this year. The one wasn’t even a real caught stealing either. Britton picked Terrance Gore off first base. 11-for-12! Lefties are looking right at the runner at first base! They have a natural advantage when it comes to holding runners, and yet, opponents are running like crazy when the Yankees have a southpaw on the mound.

That has to improve. Literally all of this must improve. Sanchez has to stop bouncing throws — say what you want about his overall defense, but Gary’s throwing was never an issue before those errors this year — and Romine and Higashioka have to make more competitive throws. I know it’s not easy, but so many of these stolen bases allowed have not been close. The throws are pitiful.

The pitchers need to give the catchers help as well. More (and better) pickoff throws, varied times, quicker slide steps, etc. The guys on the mound have to give the runner a reason to stay close to the bag and also give the guy behind the plate a chance to get an out when a runner does take off. There have been too many sizeable leads and great jumps thus far. The catchers need a chance.

You can not steal first base, but stolen bases can be leveraged in a way hits and walks can not. When you have a man on first base in the late innings, you can’t summon a base hit at will. The runner can attempt to steal whenever he wants though. Doesn’t mean he’ll be successful, but he can go at any time, and so far this season runners have been very successful running against the Yankees. It is a capital-P Problem right now.

Chapman and Ottavino seemed to make an inordinate number of pickoff throws Monday night, which indicates the Yankees are aware of this stolen base problem, and they’re working on it. I mean, duh. They’re not oblivious. It might not happen overnight, but my hunch is the Yankees will better combat the stolen base going forward. Sanchez’s return will help (assuming his throwing is not broken forever), as will a conscious effort to hold runners by the pitching staff.

To date, the 2019 Yankees have not been the team we expected them to be, and injuries are the primary culprit. Shoddy bullpen work and sloppy mistakes can not be entirely blamed on injuries though, ditto what is truly an extreme stolen base problem. No team in baseball has been worse at preventing steals this year. This is something the Yankees don’t have to wait around for good health to clean up. It can — and must — begin now.