00:00John Carlos Stanton stand up and take a bow big dog you might be having your best stretch as a
00:05Yankee at the plate but there are still folks out there who are questioning if this man's body can
00:11hold up in the outfield for a long period of time with Judge at DH so let's talk all things Stanton
00:17hashtag all rise with Greg Joyce our Yankees beat writer for the post Greg thanks for hopping on
00:23with this man this dude has I've first and foremost I've been very critical of the Yankees
00:29throughout their slump throughout the late late summer so I want to make sure I give them their
00:34flowers right now and it starts with John Carlos Stanton we waited for him all throughout spring
00:38training and two and a half months into the regular season but he's on a heater right now
00:43five homers in his last seven games seven in his last 11 so how impressed have you been with him
00:49over the past what two months or so and do you think that he is really turning up his game right
00:55now because we're getting closer to late September and October yeah it's been pretty impressive like
01:00you said late September October is really where we usually see him kind of turn up his game and
01:05become the the guy the Yankees need him to be but you know over the course of his Yankees career we've
01:10seen him be streaky at times or for most of the time he's usually pretty hot or pretty cold uh but I
01:17don't I don't think there's been a stretch quite like this where he's just been so locked into play for a
01:21you know extended stretch not just hitting for power but you know hitting for average too usually
01:26he's uh you know even his in his good seasons with the Yankees he's been you know a power hitter but
01:32his average has been low 200s uh if that and so you just the stretch that he's on now is is you know
01:39I think Aaron Boone has said it a couple times this is probably the best he's ever seen Stanton as the
01:43Yankee uh and they certainly need it obviously all these games are so important this time of the year
01:47uh as they're kind of fighting for their their playoff lives uh and Stanton has been you know
01:52pretty much every day he's in the lineup he's he's making an impact with the at-bats and then
01:56even when he's not he's uh you know before this year he really wasn't didn't hadn't had much success
02:01as a pinch hitter uh not that he had done it a ton throughout his career but he's obviously doing
02:06it more this season uh in a different kind of role uh where he's on the bench a little bit more and he's
02:12been a legit threat there too so uh like you said he missed the first two and a half months of the
02:17season I think it took him maybe 10-15 games to hit his first home run when he came back but ever
02:21since then he's been he's been pretty locked in and uh you know he's pretty much delivered everything
02:26the Yankees could have hoped for uh just because you know as far back as spring it was a pretty big
02:31question mark where they were going to get out of him because he is still kind of fighting through
02:34the elbow issues and playing through it and managing all that and you wouldn't know it by the the
02:38results he's putting up well we know all about the damage he can do at the plate no one has ever
02:44questioned that and this dude is he I mean it's like he comes alive in the biggest moments uh with
02:49this team's back against the wall but he is back at playing at right field again since Aaron Judge is
02:55still at DH we know he's a guy whose body kind of struggles with the everyday wear and tear of
03:02major league baseball and he gets a lot of those soft tissue injuries so how do you think Aaron Boone is
03:07going to manage how much he's in the off in the outfield to keep him as close to 100 health wise
03:13going into the postseason yeah I think they know it's a injury risk pretty much every time they
03:19run him out there in right field um which is why he hasn't been out there every day uh you know we saw
03:24uh a couple weekends ago in St. Louis where they gave him the three straight days off
03:28uh out of the lineup after he'd played three straight in the field and I think there was a you know a good
03:33amount of criticism about that that that he couldn't play three straight days and then you know
03:37play that weekend but you know he knows his body pretty well and it's from all we've heard it's him
03:43and Aaron Boone have a pretty good communication line of communication to to be pretty honest about
03:47how he's feeling uh you know you know it's been he'll play a couple he'll sit one he'll uh mix in
03:53you know a decent amount of off days for him at least to to make sure that they're doing everything
03:58they can to avoid an injury obviously you want his bat in the lineup every day but I think they
04:03they've stayed fairly disciplined to to getting him uh you know semi-regular days off um just because
04:10you know we still don't know when Aaron Judge is going to get back in the field so uh you know they
04:15want his bat in the lineup as much as they can but you know Aaron Boone said the other day it's not
04:19it's not at that point in the season yet where they have to have him in there every day no matter
04:23what because they're you know it's not they lose their their season isn't over so there may come
04:28a point where they you know depending on what their playoff uh hopes are you know where they are in the
04:34standings that they try to run them out there on a everyday basis if Judge still isn't ready to play
04:39right field but um you know to this point they've they've been pretty fair in getting him days off
04:44as much as it hurts having his bat in the lineup you know every few days yeah it's great to get that type
04:49of production while Aaron Judge is kind of going on a mini slump himself at uh batting at DH so do
04:56you think that Judge is playing a lot more hurt than what he's kind of alluding to and what's he
05:01saying about the injury and how his body feels right now yeah I mean anytime we've asked him about
05:07whether the the flexor is um you know impacting anything with his hitting he said he's fine I don't
05:13think he would tell us if it was impacting his hitting so I think you have to take all that with a
05:17grain of salt when he said when he says he's not feeling it at all hitting wise obviously he's
05:21still not able to get back in the field um as they build him up carefully but you know I wouldn't be
05:26surprised if it you know he's at least feeling it in some of his swings uh but it also could just be
05:33you know a tough stretch you know you come to expect so much out of him I think his OPS is still
05:38pretty high the batting average obviously isn't there uh but the way he started the season you kind of
05:43come to expect that out of him obviously hasn't looked like that since he came back from the IL
05:47really um you know you kind of wonder if this is the kind of thing where you know he missed the the
05:5310 days timing a little bit off you see some guys struggle when they come back from the IL uh just to
05:58kind of get that time back you know in such a groove when you're playing every day so maybe it's sad maybe
06:03it's some of the injury uh maybe it's just a tough stretch we'll see but obviously I need to get him
06:08kind of locked in going uh as we head into September here all right Greg Joyce thanks for hopping on with
06:13this my man you got it thanks Brandon
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