00:00This guy, Cam Schlittler, just might be the future of the Yankees rotation if he keeps throwing that heat.
00:05And I ask you guys, you don't have to answer right now, are the Yankees fake baseball bullies?
00:11Let's check in and talk some baseball in the Bronx with Ryan Garcia of Empire Sports Media and the Fireside Yankees podcast.
00:19Ryan, last time I saw you, you had a fro. My dog cut his hair. What's going on?
00:25Not much, you know. Good win yesterday and hoping for more of that.
00:28All right, let's get into that, man, because Aaron Boone called Cam Schlittler a future staple in our rotation.
00:35And then he got six scoreless innings from the right hander on Monday night's win.
00:40Has he pitched himself into being a future staple in the rotation?
00:44And if he keeps putting together these strong outings like last night, could he be a staple in the rotation come postseason?
00:52Yeah, I think he certainly put himself in a conversation where he should be in the conversation to get a playoff start.
00:58And when you look at the future of the Yankee rotation, I think Cam Schlittler is right in the middle of that mix.
01:04He has displayed the kind of upside that is very hard to find.
01:07There aren't a lot of pitchers throwing as hard as Cam Schlittler.
01:09There aren't any pitchers throwing the cutter that Cam Schlittler is throwing.
01:13He's got a nasty curveball, an emerging sinker.
01:15It feels like he is a tweak here or a tweak there away from being a potential frontline starter,
01:20a number one or number two starter for the Yankees if things fold perfectly for him.
01:24You're a numbers guy and you love the analytics.
01:28Is there a number that kind of backs what you're saying?
01:30Or is there a number that Schlittler has put out there that's impressive to you so far?
01:36Yeah, I'll actually give you two pieces of data here.
01:38Number one, he has the most pitches thrown by a Yankee starter at or above 99 miles per hour in a season since Garrett Cole in 2022.
01:47So this is a unique kind of flamethrower.
01:49The Yankees don't have someone throwing that hard in the rotation.
01:51And number two, there's a number out there called Stuff Plus, which just measures how nasty your pitches are.
01:58And he is second among starting pitchers with at least 40 innings pitched this year in all of baseball.
02:04So this is one of the nastiest pitchers in baseball.
02:07One of the hardest throwers, just a unique arm talent.
02:10Talk about taking your advantage when you get a chance at the show.
02:13This dude, I feel like we're going to be talking about him from years on in when we talk baseball in the Bronx.
02:18He has been a positive on this team.
02:23Unfortunately, we have to talk about a negative.
02:26Anthony Volpe and his whole situation.
02:29Our very own Joe Sherman kind of asked Aaron Boone in a question about his handling of the Volpe situation in his most recent column on the website.
02:38And it reads, were you publicly acting like all was OK with Volpe this year or did you actually think all was OK?
02:46In other words, were you disingenuous or incompetent?
02:49So I'm going to put you on the spot, Ryan, and I'm going to ask you, is Boone being or has he been disingenuous or incompetent with the way that he's handled Anthony Volpe's struggles?
02:59Yeah, you're not pulling the punches here.
03:02I think with Volpe, obviously, the organization is going to defend the player.
03:06They don't want to put him under all the spotlight, put all of their issues and struggles on him.
03:11I get that.
03:12But I do think that there needs to be a conversation about potentially not having him start the rest of the season.
03:19Not every single game on the bench, but at least being in competition with his teammate, Jose Caballero.
03:23Caballero Volpe is in the bottom five among shortstops in on-base percentage, OPS, wins above replacement.
03:30He has not been the standout defender that he had been in the first two years of his career.
03:34And with Caballero playing strong defense, being arguably the best base runner in the game and a decent enough hitter,
03:41you kind of have to ask yourself, you're Aaron Boone, what's best for winning games now?
03:45And the answer to that might be Caballero at shortstop.
03:48Do you think we're starting to see the beginning of the end to Volpe's tenure as a Yankee?
03:54Well, the issue with Volpe is instead of being on a rookie deal where you're making close to the league minimum,
04:00he's now entering arbitration.
04:01So at the end of this season, the Yankees will give him a pay raise.
04:04And the year after that, a pay raise.
04:06And then a year after that, another pay raise.
04:08So you look at the cost of rostering Anthony Volpe.
04:11If that keeps going up and the production doesn't get better, the Yankees are going to move on.
04:17They have Caballero, who's going to be cheaper next year than Volpe.
04:20I wouldn't be stunned if 2026 is that real last chance for Anthony Volpe,
04:24especially with George Lombard Jr. in their system and guys like Ryan McMahon on their contract through 2027.
04:30All right.
04:30The Yankees currently sit at 71 and 60.
04:33You talk about me not holding back on the punches.
04:36They beat up on the raise and the Cardinals.
04:38Then they got beat up by the Red Sox.
04:40Only the beat up on the Nationals last night.
04:43So it looks like the Yankees are that bully that beats up on the nerdy kid with the retainer
04:48and the glasses and the asthma only to get punked by the jocks.
04:53So what are the Yankees to you?
04:56Like, what is this team?
04:58How good could this team be with only a month left in the season?
05:01I think the Yankees are, at least this iteration of the Yankees, the most frustrating team I've watched in the judge era
05:10because I actually think this team has enough offensive firepower to go toe-to-toe with anyone.
05:16They have enough interesting pitching.
05:18You look at the names on the roster and you go, how is this staff struggling?
05:21They make a lot of mistakes that are self-inflicted.
05:24They cause a lot of their own issues.
05:26They make a lot of errors.
05:28They walk a lot of people in situations you can't really walk people in.
05:31And at the end of the day, they're going to make the postseason.
05:34And in baseball, and this is what makes baseball so painful, if you get in, you can do anything.
05:39And it makes it so painful because you know with this team, when they get in,
05:43I think there's not a single Yankee fan on the planet who can honestly tell themselves
05:46they're not going to be excited and at the edge of their seat for every pitch when October rolls around.
05:51Because I will be.
05:52I know everyone will be.
05:53And I think this team's capable of winning baseball games at a high level.
05:55It's just they haven't put it together.
05:57Look at the Boston series, a million errors, the Toronto series that they played, the last two they played.
06:03Tons of errors.
06:03So they do it to themselves.
06:06And that is both a reason to think they can turn it on in October
06:10and a reason to be very scared if they get to October.
06:13I got a number, some numbers for you.
06:15The Yankees are 30 and 32 against teams over 500.
06:19So that pretty much summarizes that frustration and that rollercoaster of emotions.
06:23We've kind of gone through watching this team throughout the season
06:27and, of course, throughout the summer.
06:29Ryan Garcia, definitely going to be reaching out to you pretty soon, man.
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