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4/26 to 4/28 Series Preview: San Francisco Giants

by

(Presswire)

Well, this is it: the last series preview here on RAB. How about finishing up this blog’s final days with a sweep in the City by the Bay?

Their Story So Far

It’s been a sluggish start for San Francisco. They’re 11-14, even with the Rockies for last place in the NL West. The Giants can’t hit a lick – they own a putrid 64 wRC+, second worst in baseball. However, their pitching has kept them in ballgames. Thanks to the majors’ fifth-lowest team ERA, their run differential is only -8.

San Francisco just completed a quick two-game sweep against the Blue Jays in Toronto. Yesterday was a travel day for the team, so they’re going to be rested for the upcoming series against the Yanks.

Injury Report

Only one player is on the Giants’ injured list: Johnny Cueto. Must be nice, huh? Not nice for Cueto, of course, who’s expected to miss all of this season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. Anyway, San Francisco is literally the polar opposite of the Yankees’ injury situation.

Player Spotlight: Buster Posey

Frankly, there’s not much to write home about for the Giants this season. There are aging remnants of its former championship clubs who are certainly fan favorites out in San Francisco, but when it comes to up and coming talent, there’s not much to be excited about. So, let’s check in with future Hall of Famer Buster Posey, even though he’s far from the player he once was.

The Giants’ catcher took his first significant step into his decline phase last season when he recorded a 106 wRC+ and 2.4 fWAR in 105 games. That’s still very good for a catcher! It’s just not what we’ve grown accustomed to for Posey. That WAR total was half his 2017 mark, and well below his customary 6 or 7 wins he had recorded annually since 2013.

This season, Posey is off to a poor start. In 82 plate appearances, the 32 year-old owns an 81 wRC+ and a strikeout rate (17.1 percent) well above his career mark (12 percent). His power is virtually gone (one home run) but he is still reaching base via walk (9.8 percent). He still adds value defensively behind the dish.

On the bright side, he’s warming up a bit. As of ten days ago, Posey had a .192/.263/.269 batting line (46 wRC+). His 116 wRC+ since that date isn’t jaw-dropping, but it’s certainly much more in line with what we’d expect from him. It’d be nice to see him remain a strong player during the decline phase of his career, albeit not this weekend.

Potential Lineup

There are a handful of moving parts in San Francisco’s batting order as a result of handedness, so they haven’t had a consistent lineup thus far. Since the Yankees are tossing two lefties to begin the weekend, below is something along the lines of what we can expect during this series. That means lefty-swingers like Joe Panik (48 wRC+) and Gerardo Parra (51 wRC+) might not be in the lineup tonight or tomorrow, but we could see them off the bench. They’ll join Pablo Sandoval (167 wRC+) and Erik Kratz (45 wRC+) on the pine.

  1. Steven Duggar, RF (.230/.269/.370, 68 wRC+)
  2. Tyler Austin, 1B/LF (.286/.375/.286, 90 wRC+)
  3. Buster Posey C (.230/.305/.365, 81 wRC+)
  4. Brandon Belt 1B/LF (.222/.330/.494, 118 wRC+)
  5. Evan Longoria 3B (.222/.255/.400, 71 wRC+)
  6. Brandon Crawford SS (.202/.280/.226, 40 wRC+)
  7. Yangervis Solarte 2B (.205/.255/.295, 42 wRC+)
  8. Kevin Pillar CF (.232/.257/.449, 77 wRC+)
  9. Pitcher Spot

Belt has been their only respectable hitter all season. Yikes. That isn’t to say Posey isn’t a threat, but just a bit of exasperation at how bad this offense has been. Of course, noted Yankee-killer Longoria will probably have a big weekend. At least he won’t get to face Sabathia.

Pitching Matchups

Friday (10:15 PM ET): LHP James Paxton (vs. Giants) vs. LHP Madison Bumgarner (vs. Yankees)

Potential trade deadline target Madison Bumgarner is still good, but he’s not longer the same guy he was earlier this decade. He’s striking out hitters less often than his prime and has become more susceptible to the long ball. Through five starts this year, he has a respectable 3.66 ERA and 3.93 FIP, but has allowed 5 homers in 32 innings.

Once upon a time, Bumgarner could hit 95 or 96 when necessary. That isn’t the case anymore. Those were the days when his four-seamer was still his primary option. Now he leans on a cutter and sinker much more.

You’ll notice that his quality of contact metrics are ugly. This is a pretty new development for him. He’s generally kept his exit velocities under 88 MPH since Statcast began tracking such numbers, but that has ballooned to 90 MPH this season. His hard hit percentage is up to 42.7 percent as well, almost 8 percent higher than last season. It’s early so take it for what it’s worth, but that’s definitely a troublesome trend.

Bumgarner has a reputation for being a good hitter despite a lifetime 48 wRC+ (81 wRC+ since 2014, though). Nonetheless, 18 homers as a pitcher in 614 plate appearances certainly ain’t bad. Given the state of the Giants offense, Bumgarner seems like a pretty big boost on the days he pitches.

Saturday (4:05 PM ET) LHP J.A. Happ (vs. Giants) vs. Derek Holland (vs. Yankees)

Last season was something of a renaissance for Holland. After a few years of struggling to find his early decade form that he had with Texas, Holland bounced back to record a 3.57 ERA and 3.87 FIP in 171.1 innings for San Francisco in 2018. He’s yet to rekindle that magic this season. In 27 innings thus far, he’s given up six homers. Somehow, he’s managed to keep his ERA to 4.33 in spite of the gopher balls, though his 5.04 FIP tells another story.

Perhaps what’s kept Holland’s ERA down is that high strikeout rate — 30.6 percent — which well exceeds his career norms. This, despite a heater that comes in around 91 miles per hour. The days of him throwing in the mid-to-high 90s are long gone, yet he’s still managed to punch hitters out at a high frequency.

Holland’s two weaknesses are his control and batted ball profile. He’s walked a hair under 12 percent of opponents this year and does not generate much weak contact. His groundball rate is a career worst 33 percent and hitters are barreling the ball 21 percent of the time, which is not a recipe for success.

Sunday (4:05 PM ET) RHP Domingo German (vs. Giants) vs. RHP Dereck Rodriguez (vs. Yankees)

Pudge’s son has pitched well early in his career despite a lack of overpowering repertoire. Since debuting last year, Rodriguez has posted a 2.95 ERA in nearly 150 innings, though that nearly beats his FIP by a full run (3.79). He basically throws the kitchen sink: four-seamer, changeup, curveball, cutter, and sinker in order to induce a bunch of weak contact.

His hard hit percentage and exit velocity aren’t anything overwhelmingly impressive. Yet, he draws a bunch of grounders (45.8 percent) and very few barreled balls (2.4 percent). Rodriguez is around the zone a whole bunch too. He doesn’t walk many batters and works around the edges pretty often.

There’s nothing in Rodriguez’s game that’s terribly exciting, but he does seem to be a perfect fit for his team. Strikeouts are always great, but they’re not overly valuable in a pitcher’s park like San Francisco. Further, weak contact will play anywhere.

Bullpen Status

The Giants own baseball’s lowest bullpen ERA and FIP this year, and it’s not particularly close. Bet you didn’t expect that. Former Yankee Mark Melancon is not their closer, even though he was originally signed to be. It’s Will Smith’s job, and he’s a perfect six-for-six in save opportunities so far. The lefty has a sparking 1.04 ERA and 29 percent strikeout rate.

Melancon hasn’t allowed a run yet in ten appearances, but he’s not the dominant reliever he once was with Pittsburgh. If he keeps this up, he’ll certainly earn his way back into high leverage innings, but right now the most important outs have been recorded by Tony Watson and Reyes Moronta (before getting the ball to Smith). Moronta is a fireballer who is striking everyone out this season (40.9 percent) whereas Watson has been a ground-ball heavy southpaw out of the pen. The Giants will also run out former Rangers closer Sam Dyson along with Nick Vincent, Trevor Gott, and Travis Bergen. Their relief corps should be fresh since Thursday was an off day.

Keys for the Series

Get an early lead

The Giants bullpen wasn’t necessarily expected to be this good, but there’s no denying their success thus far. They have some name-brand relievers who are fresh from off-days yesterday and Monday, so avoiding any come from behind situations would be nice.

Kick the Giants offense while it’s down

All three Yankees starters this series have pitched better of late, and given the upcoming opponent, there’s no reason for that not to continue. This is exactly the type of team (and ballpark) that should result in strong starting performances from Paxton, Happ, and German.

Health

I’m just going to copy what Steven wrote in the Angels series preview: Can we go one series without another major injury? Is that too much to ask?

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.

What’s wrong with Chad Green’s fastball?

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(Steve Ryan/Getty)

Not much has gone right for Chad Green early this season. After emerging as one of the team’s essential bullpen arms over the last two years, a few bad outings have pushed Green down in the pecking order. Unfortunately, it only got worse on Sunday. Up 5-0 against Kansas City, Green was handed a low leverage opportunity to help himself right the ship. After three hitters and no outs recorded, enough was enough. Adam Ottavino eventually allowed those inherited runners to score, but the performance ballooned Green’s ERA to 12.27 in just over seven innings of work.

Green’s problems generally boil down to hard contact and a lack of whiffs, as Bobby wrote about recently. Interestingly, as Bobby noted, hitters have historically been able to clobber Green’s trademark fastball, but only when they actually are able to make contact. As last season wore on, hitters gradually became more successful at putting bat on ball against the pitch, and this season that phenomenon has hit Green like a freight train.

Logically, it makes sense that major league hitters will eventually figure a pitcher out with enough looks, but this still seems weird to me. It’s not like the league suddenly figured out Green threw a ton of fastballs late last season. He’s been doing it for a couple of years now. Perhaps the pitch is simply more hittable now.

A few things that make any given pitch hittable are velocity, spin rate, movement, and location. Let’s see what’s going on with Green’s fastball. It’s his bread and butter, after all, and what made him successful in the first place.

Yikes. His fastball velocity has fallen significantly since last May. Maybe he’s still building up velocity, like many hurlers do early in the year, but that’s still an alarming trend.

Green’s fastball spin rate has dropped, albeit slightly, since 2017. It’s at 2434 RPM this season, down 10 RPM from 2018 and 50 from 2017. Probably within the margin of error, so I don’t think there’s much to make of this. He’s still comfortably above league average in that department. Movement-wise, Green’s fastball has always been pretty straight. Yet, because of his spin, it’s deceptive and has a rising quality (even though that’s physically impossible). Simply put, it just doesn’t drop as much thanks to backspin. And unsurprisingly, his movement on the pitch hasn’t altered. All good news here, at least.

What about location? Green’s never been a command guy, and hasn’t needed to be.

As you can see, Green pours fastballs over the heart of the plate, and that hasn’t changed early this season.

So really, the only thing that has changed is Green’s fastball velocity. Is that really enough to result in this?

I don’t know. I mean, surely a slightly slower fastball makes for a little more contact. But, it’s not like Green has gone from a mid-90s heater to high-80s. It’s still humming in there at 95 miles per hour with great spin to boot.

Maybe it really is just a matter of hitters growing accustomed to Green’s patented offering. It took some time, but perhaps opponents have finally adjusted to Green’s approach. It’s never been a secret that Green was going to attack hitters with the fastball, but even knowing that didn’t hinder his success. That’s a testament to how effective the pitch has been for him historically, as it took a long time for hitters to finally start improving against it.

If Green can make something of his slider or re-introduced splitter, perhaps his fastball can return to its former glory. He’s certainly trying to incorporate those pitches, as his fastball usage has decreased this year (albeit still at a very high 72 percent clip). Still, they aren’t even average options at this time, which ostensibly makes it easier to key in on the fastball.

Last but not least, it’s still really early in the year. Green’s not going to run a 30 percent home run to fly ball rate, .375 BABIP, and 50.9 percent strand rate all season. He’d have to be truly broken to do that. Some regression to the mean must be coming, even if he remains a one-pitch pitcher.

For the time being, it makes sense for Aaron Boone to deploy Green in low leverage situations like Sunday. It’s incredibly frustrating that he couldn’t get the job done then, but those are also the only spots he really deserves at this point. Let him earn his way back into important situations. His fastball is still good enough to get hitters out, but perhaps he needs to work out the kinks in low stress situations. Whether that’s refining command by aiming for the corners a bit more or getting a better feel for his secondary stuff, Green will have to counter the rest of the league’s adjustment to his fastball. Hopefully that’s sooner rather than later, because this bullpen needs help.

J.A. Happ’s mid-game adjustment vs. Boston and what’s next

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(Presswire)

J.A. Happ’s last start began like a familiar tune. He surrendered two home runs in the first two innings, tacking on to the four he had already allowed in just over twelve frames to begin the year. Yet, Happ settled down and was able to reach the seventh inning without much issue. Maybe the struggling Red Sox were the reason he managed to soldier through after appearing to be on the ropes early on. Or, perhaps an in-game adjustment kept him alive.

It’s been well documented that Happ relies heavily on his fastball. He’s made a career of throwing his hard stuff about three quarters of the time. Although Happ has never lit up a radar gun, he’s been particularly successful with his four-seamer because of his command and the pitch’s high spin rate.

On Wednesday, Happ may have reached a breaking point with the four-seamer. To date, all six dingers the veteran has allowed have been against that pitch. It sure seems like that swayed him to make a change right away. Beginning in the second inning, Happ ramped up on his sinker and slider and eschewed the four-seamer.

For dramatic effect, take a look at the comparison of his four-seam and sinker usage by game since 2017:

It’s generally not a great idea to make sweeping conclusions about results over just a few innings, especially against a scuffling Boston team, but the data here is pretty convenient. Happ pitched much better once he ditched his trademark offering. That doesn’t make this approach a panacea for his early season woes, however. Really, the more important aspect of Happ’s game to analyze is his four-seamer. After all, it’s what made him a good pitcher in the first place. Does he really need to abandon it now?

Four-Seamer 2018 2019
Velocity 92.3 91.4
Spin Rate 2334 2363

The good news is that his spin rate is steady. He’s never been a hard thrower, rather, deception has always been the key for the pitch. Throwing high spin rate fastballs up in the zone generally makes for plenty of pop-ups and whiffs. He’s still targeting that section of the zone this season, similar to last year.

The not so good news is his pitch speed. It’s down a hair under one mile per hour compared to last year. Granted, it’s April, so there’s time to build that back up as the weather warms up. That being said, while Happ usually adds velocity as the season goes on, this year’s starting point is lower than ever before.

He may be able to approach the velocity he had at the very end of last year (which was already trending downward!), but approaching 93 MPH on the gun reliably seems out of the question.

Velocity may not be the name of the game for Happ, but losing a tick certainly can sap some of the offering’s effectiveness. Spin rate can only do so much, and ostensibly, is not as helpful when other pitch traits decline.

We already know that Happ’s slider and changeup are mediocre at best, so he’s not going to morph into the left-handed version of Masahiro Tanaka. But, if he can’t find his lost four-seam velocity, he may need to adapt like he did in his past outing against the Red Sox. Fortunately, he could learn a thing or two from his teammate, CC Sabathia, who’s made a living throwing sinkers and cutters over the last couple of years. Maybe Happ was serious when he asked this question to Sabathia:

I can’t tell you if Happ can be successful as a sinkerballer going forward. It certainly worked over the course of a few innings, but perhaps that just caught the Red Sox off guard. Furthermore, there’s no assurance that he’s going to continue that approach his next time out. Even if he does, opponents should be better prepared for it. Either way, Happ is going to have to figure out one of two things: how to pitch with diminished four-seam velocity, or how to regain a mile per hour on it.

Game 17: Complete the sweep

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(Elsa/Getty)

It doesn’t get much better than last night’s breezy 8-0 win, huh? Another one of those tonight would be just dandy. Sweeping Boston in this two game mini-series would alleviate some of the early season frustrations.

After punishing Chris Sale last night, the Yankees will face another one of Boston’s scuffling starters: Nathan Eovaldi. Ex-Yank Nasty Nate has been nowhere nearly as good as he was for the Red Sox last season and has coughed up six homers in just fifteen innings this year.

On the flipside, it hasn’t been much better for J.A. Happ, who counters for the Yanks. He finished last year with a dud against Boston in the postseason and now he’s struggled out of the gate. Happ has yet to record more than 13 outs in a start this season and has surrendered four dingers in just over twelve innings of work. If recent trends hold for both starters, we won’t have a repeat of last night’s two hour, twenty three minute affair. Here are tonight’s lineups:

New York Yankees
1. CF Brett Gardner
2. RF Aaron Judge
3. 1B Luke Voit
4. SS Gleyber Torres
5. 2B DJ LeMahieu
6. DH Clint Frazier
7. LF Mike Tauchman
8. 3B Gio Urshela
9. C Austin Romine

LHP J.A. Happ

Boston Red Sox
1. RF Mookie Betts
2. SS Xander Bogaerts
3. LF J.D. Martinez
4. 1B Steve Pearce
5. DH Mitch Moreland
6. 2B Dustin Pedroia
7. 3B Rafael Devers
8. C Christian Vazquez
9. CF Jackie Bradley Jr.

RHP Nathan Eovaldi

It’s been a gorgeous day in New York and that’ll continue into this evening. No rain to worry about interfering with the game. First pitch is at 6:35pm ET and you can watch on YES locally and ESPN nationally. Enjoy the ballgame.

OOTP Simulation: The Official RAB 2018-2019 Offseason Plan

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(Presswire)

As the end of RAB draws near, I figured I would give an ode to one of the site’s annual features: the Official RAB Offseason Plan. Back in November, Mike published the plan to fill the roster for 2019. I’m giving it life in an alternate universe: Out of the Park Baseball 20.

As a refresher, let’s compare his offseason plan to what actually occurred:

What the Yankees actually did looks a whole lot different than what Mike came up with. Two more things to note about how I set this up, aside from making the aforementioned roster changes. One, the only injuries the OOTP team started with were the ones the team already had entering spring training (like Didi Gregorius, for instance). That means Luis Severino, Aaron Hicks, et. al. all got a new lease on life. Second, I let the computer take total control after the I set the roster up. Didn’t want any of my personal input to be included whatsoever. Now, time for the simulation.

By the numbers

This hypothetical club was a juggernaut in OOTP’s world. It scored a remarkable 888 runs and hit 272 home runs to shatter the record the team set last season. The pitching was good, but the bullpen was not as great as one might think (9th in reliever ERA in the American League). Player statistics are embedded below and here is a link to the Google sheet as well.

I think the real life Yankees have already spent more days on the injured list than this pretend team did. Other than the pre-existing injuries, only Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks, Raimel Tapia, Gary Sanchez, Patrick Corbin, and Hyun-Jin Ryu spent time on the shelf.

The hits

Corbin proved to be a home run even though he missed a few starts. The lefty accumulated 4 WAR in just over 150 innings pitched. He also recorded a 2.67 postseason ERA in four starts, winning three of those ballgames. The other wise free agent decision was to bring back David Robertson. Houdini had a 2.78 ERA and his typical high strikeout rate.

Tapia was a successful acquisition as well, though his season came to a bitter end. After hitting .296/.325/.455 (107 OPS+), the outfielder ruptured his MCL in September, which ended his season. Another trade acquisition, Jurickson Profar, wound up being a good get too. The jack of all trades infielder netted 2.5 WAR and a 111 OPS+.

The misses

Wei-Yin Chen was an unmitigated disaster. That said, I wouldn’t blame Mike for it. Rather, the fault belongs to the computer for letting him pitch so much. Chen posted a 6.91 ERA in more than 80 innings which made him two wins below replacement level.

I don’t know if it’s fair to call the next two misses, but they weren’t necessarily good. Neil Walker was actually cut loose in May, though he only had six plate appearances to his name. He had an emergency appendectomy early in the season and was ultimately released. Ryu was decent, pitching to a 101 ERA+ (4.66 ERA). He suffered a severe ankle sprain and missed a big chunk of the season to boot.

Better off elsewhere?

As you can tell by the length of the “out” list, there are a number of current Yankees who played for other squads in the OOTP universe. Let’s see how they did:

  • Brett Gardner (Cleveland): 512 PA, 79 OPS+, 1.3 WAR
  • James Paxton (Seattle): 211 IP, 109 ERA+, 3.3 WAR
  • Michael King (Texas, did not play in majors)
  • Jacoby Ellsbury (Miami): 60 PA, 83 OPS+, 0.1 WAR
  • Luis Cessa (Miami): 15.1 IP, 58 ERA+, 0.2 WAR
  • Jonathan Loaisiga (Colorado): 20 IP, 82 ERA+, 0.1 WAR
  • Troy Tulowitzki (Texas and San Diego): 448 PA, 73 OPS+, 0.9 WAR
  • DJ LeMahieu (Angels and Minnesota): 623 PA, 107 OPS+, 3.0 WAR
  • Mike Tauchman (Colorado): 651 PA, 108 OPS+, 3.0 WAR
  • Zack Britton (Dodgers): 29 IP, 149 ERA+, 0.0 WAR
  • Gio Gonzalez (White Sox, Dodgers, Cincinnati): 155.1 IP, 99 ERA+, 2.7 WAR
  • J.A. Happ (Baltimore and San Diego): 187 IP, 109 ERA+, 1.8 WAR
  • Adam Ottavino (Washington): 67.1 IP, 152 ERA+, 0.5 WAR

Standings and postseason results

The faux Yankees won 99 games and secured a Wild Card berth. Yes, the Red Sox were division champions once again, winning 104 games. Midseason acquisitions of Brian McCann and Justin Smoak helped put them over the top while their bullpen was surprisingly good. This year, however, the Yankees got the last laugh in the division series. In a rematch of last season, the Yankees toppled the Red Sox in five games. To backtrack for just a second, the Bombers knocked off the Angels in the Wild Card round before facing Boston.

The championship series was yet another rematch, this time against the team that eliminated the Yankees in 2017. It took seven games, but the Yankees outlasted the Astros to move on to the World Series. Didi Gregorius was the series MVP. He swatted three taters and reached base at a .516 clip. Nice to get revenge against the two franchises that knocked them out in the two seasons prior.

In the World Series, the Yankees took on the Rockies. Just as we all expect to happen! After an 11-1 victory in game one, things were looking good. Most notably, Giancarlo Stanton drove in five runs and hit his seventh (!) postseason home run. Things went downhill from there: the Yanks lost the next four games and thereby the series. Three of those losses were by one run and the bullpen blew two games. Chad Green coughed up the lead in game three and David Robertson did the same in game four. In the fifth and decisive game, Corbin tossed his only stinker of the postseason. The Rockies took home their first championship.

Awards

A few Yankees took home awards. Aroldis Chapman was named the American League’s best reliever. The lefty tallied 36 saves, 91 strikeouts, and a 2.35 ERA in 57.1 innings. No Yankees took home Gold Gloves, but a couple won Silver Slugger awards. Gary Sanchez took home the reigns at catcher after a monster season. 41 home runs for a backstop will do that. Meanwhile, Giancarlo Stanton won as designated hitter. He blasted 53 dingers. Somewhat humorously, Aaron Boone won Manager of the Year. The Cy Young award went to Chris Sale, but Luis Severino finished in second.

Leftovers

You might be wondering about what trades the AI made midseason, if any. There are a myriad of deals that went down around the league, but the Yankees only made one trade: Austin Romine for Mark Canha. Why? I don’t really know.

So, would you sign up for a World Series loss right now if it meant postseason vengeance against Boston and Houston? It’s kind of hard to stomach losing the World Series to the Rockies, yet this hypothetical season kind of reminds me of 2003. The ALCS *felt* bigger than the World Series that year. Not that I didn’t care that the Yankees lost to the Marlins, but rather, the bigger memory was the seven games against Boston.

Roster speculation and be-the-GM type thinking always makes for fun discussion and debate. There are a million great things that RAB has done over the years, but I always enjoy Mike’s thought process about acquisition targets. One facet of that has been his offseason plans, and I figured it would be fun for OOTP to shine on a light on what could have been from his perspective.

The injury bug and a flashback to 2007

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(Presswire)

Twelve Yankees currently reside on the injured list. Twelve! It’s put a pretty big damper on the start of the regular season, to say the least. Sure, a few players on the shelf aren’t surprises: Didi Gregorius and Jordan Montgomery, to name a couple. The Yankees had time to plan for their absences. However, they could have never anticipated the myriad of injuries that have happened since spring training began. It’s a bit reminiscent of 2007, when a handful of Yankees suffered hamstring strains early in the season. This year, there have been various health issues, but a fair amount of them have been muscle strains, stiffness, or soreness.

Prior to 2007, the Yankees hired Marty Miller as the team’s director of performance enhancement. He lost his job by early May. Injuries piled up within a month of the season beginning and it proved to be Miller’s undoing. Hideki Matsui, Mike Mussina, Chien-Ming Wang, and Phil Hughes all suffered hamstring strains. Johnny Damon played through a calf strain and Andy Pettitte powered through back soreness from a weight lifting mishap. This season, there have been two calf strains (Troy Tulowitzki and Gary Sanchez), Giancarlo Stanton’s biceps strain, Aaron Hicks’s back stiffness, and Luis Severino’s lat strain. Those seem to be related to strength and conditioning issues. To add insult to injury, there have been some bad luck and pitchers break issues too. Miguel Andujar tore his labrum sliding back into third, Severino had shoulder inflammation before his lat strain, and Dellin Betances has a shoulder impingement and bone spurs.

Aside from the litany of maladies, communication has been a problem as well. Hicks, Betances, and Severino have all had setbacks. How many times have we heard that Aaron Hicks is close to ramping up baseball activities? He was suppose to get back into the swing of things before camp ended. The Yankees downplayed Betances’s velocity in spring training, and now we find out that he’s had a bone spur for years. There was no mention of that when he was initially diagnosed with an impingement. Severino, somehow, suffered a new injury (lat strain) while trying to recover from shoulder soreness.

Matt Krause has been the team’s director of strength and conditioning since the 2014 season. Are all of these muscle injuries his and his team’s fault? Who knows. One thing’s for sure: the optics are bad. Back in 2007, the way things looked almost certainly contributed to the team cutting Miller lose. Even so, Cashman declined to blame Miller for the parade to the disabled list:

Last month, when a rash of muscle-related injuries felled five key players in four weeks, Cashman did not blame Miller or his assistant, Dana Cavalea.

“I’m constantly evaluating everything we do,” Cashman said in a telephone interview at the time. “But do I blame Marty and Dana for this? No.”

Cashman had said there were many reasons the injuries to key Yankees could have occurred, apart from Miller’s new strength and conditioning program, in which some players had declined to participate.

That last sentence is telling, though. Players declining to participate in a team’s strength and conditioning program is not a good look! If that wasn’t the final straw, it was definitely alarming.

This year, Cashman hasn’t placed blame on the training staff. Nonetheless, his reaction to Severino’s lat strain makes it easy to wonder if its starting to become the subject of his ire.

Cashman certainly sounds annoyed that the team has no idea how the ace succumbed to a new injury. On one hand, I could see him questioning if Severino did something extraneous to the “protocol” that caused the injury. That would be a hefty and damning accusation to make, though. On the flip side, it’s the training staff’s responsibility to get players back on the field as soon as possible. The fact that they’re in the dark about how this happened, or perhaps the idea that it was never caught in the first place, is significant. Not only is it a physical issue, but it is also a communication deficiency. These kind of mistakes can (and already have) throw the season way off course.

To give the conditioning team the benefit of the doubt, a few of the players who have gotten hurt have a reputation for being injury prone. Tulowitzki and Hicks, in particular. Further, maybe Severino’s ailments are just a symptom of being a pitcher. Whoever or whatever is to blame, it’s been nothing but bad news all around. Fortunately, like that 2007 team, all of these instances have happened very early on in the season. That squad still won 94 games when it was all said and done. For this team to accomplish that, it needs to get its house in order. Part of that is some better fortune moving forward, but also identifying the source of the numerous muscle strains, setbacks, and communication breakdowns.