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00:00The Yankees have the grandest plans for this season and that was really about how good their
00:05pitching was going to be and it's been hit at. You know it's not going to include LaGrange.
00:11I think you have to have some real doubts it's going to include Weathers now.
00:19Hello and welcome to Pitchtripe Post. My name is Ryan Sampson but he's the star of the show,
00:27Joel Sherman. Today is Monday, August 24th. Joel, since the last time we spoke,
00:31the New York Yankees have won two series against the Orioles and Blue Jays, both division rivals
00:35who are trying to get into that wildcard spot. We got some more injury news. Unfortunately,
00:40John Carlos Stanton suffered another setback. We'll discuss that and what it means for him
00:44and his Yankees career. We're also going to talk about Ryan Weathers landing on the IL with a left
00:48forearm strain and how this really impacts the rotation going forward. But before we get to
00:53any of that, as always on a Monday morning, Joel Sherman, how are you doing today, buddy?
00:59I'm good. I'm up here at MLB Network. Got a show to do in a little bit. But another interesting
01:06weekend of baseball. And yeah, the American League is terrible. And the Yankees beat. But by the way,
01:16I think the five best teams in the American League are all in the AL East. And the Yankees beat
01:22two of
01:22them. I think that the Orioles or the Blue Jays would win the Central or the West. As we're speaking,
01:29the West just had their third firing of a head of baseball operations. Dana Brown is out there
01:35following Perry Manazian with the Angels and David Force with the A's. So that's three out of five
01:41there. They have no winning teams, but they have three guys fired for not having winning teams
01:46in that division. So yeah, it's an interesting time in the American League. Just four teams over
01:54500. And one of them is the Yankees, obviously. Yeah, no doubt. And look, Joel, I do want to get
01:59into that discussion later on about just, you know, I know that we, I shouldn't say we, but collectively,
02:05we have talked a lot about the downfalls and what the heck's going on with the hitting and the
02:11offense and the Yankees shortstop position this year. But in all actuality, they are one of the
02:17best teams in the American League. They have one of the best rosters. I think we agree. And I think
02:21they have a chance to make a serious run, but the injuries continue to pile up. And I do want
02:26to
02:26start there. Let's start with the Ryan Weathers of it all, because I think that's going to have a
02:31bigger impact on in terms of the near term right now with the Yankees. Weathers was pitching
02:36phenomenal. I think to like a 3-6 ERA. He had a great run here the last couple months. He
02:42seemed
02:42to figure it out with Matt Blake and Aaron Boone, changing his style, I think a little bit. And at
02:48the same time, it's a tough blow for a guy who we had talked about all year long. It seems
02:53like
02:53he's going to be going to the bullpen, Ryan, most likely because of the game of musical chairs.
02:58When you get to the postseason, you really only need three starters for the first two rounds of the
03:02postseason. But it just feels like this was that injury you talked about last week of. They can't
03:08have another one of those, Ryan. And Weathers, unfortunately, lands on the I.L. So, Joel,
03:14how do they handle this going forward? He's supposed to be down two to four weeks before throwing,
03:19so that's a big gap. Two weeks is, what, September 10th, around Labor Day, around there,
03:24maybe that week after Labor Day. Four weeks, you're looking at, what, one week, two weeks left in the
03:29season. So, how do they handle the Ryan Weathers of it all? Well, I think big picture-wise, they don't
03:36put him in harm's way. He'll either be good enough to come back to pitch in some hybrid bullpen
03:42situation, and they'll try to do some pitching chaos with a guy like him and Clark Schmidt,
03:49perhaps giving them some bullpen innings. But, look, just the big picture of it all
03:56is you can't make plans about pitching, and you never have enough pitching. The big picture plan,
04:03say, two months ago, was that at some point, Carlos LaGrange and Ryan Weathers were going to be power
04:10lefties and power righties pitching out of the Yankee bullpen. LaGrange hurt his shoulder and almost
04:16certainly isn't going to pitch again this year. This just happened to Weathers. And just the good news is
04:22the Yankees are, I think, if not leading the majors right up there in, like, team ERA. They are really
04:30good at run prevention. They've been, you know, good at pitching. But it has been a small kind of unit
04:36that's done it. They haven't really used the, you know, like, the depth of a bullpen. And so, they've
04:41heavily used guys. And it put them into the red on a lot of guys, including Ryan Weathers, who has
04:48never
04:49pitched this much in a season before. And that's just the danger point for them when they didn't
04:55add at the trade deadline an arm or two. Now, I do want to be cautious about that. If you
05:01go look
05:01at most of the pitching that was acquired, like, I think if on the day of the trade deadline, the
05:06Yankees had acquired, you know, Huasca Brazaban, people would have went, oh, good. They deepened their
05:12bullpen. He's been terrible for the White Sox. Like, this is, you know, you know, Brooks Raley has blown a
05:17couple of games for the Phillies. Luke Weaver had a blow up for the Pirates against the Red Sox.
05:24You know, the reality is you don't want to acquire the Elliott Ramos of relief pitchers just to say
05:31that you acquired one and then you wouldn't be using them in the postseason. Part of the Yankees
05:36problem this year, Ryan, I think is you could track to last year, which is they gave up a lot
05:41of
05:42prospect collateral for Jake Bird and Camilo Duval and neither guy pitched well. And so now they had
05:48less, you know, they didn't have an answer with Duval or Bird who were under their control and they
05:56ended up trading at the deadline. Plus, they didn't have the prospects to go ahead and find the next
06:03version of that or another pitcher. And they are a team that has been, you know, I know that there's
06:09always a lot of hitting at Hal Steinbrenner, you know, like, oh, they don't go for it. Like,
06:14one of the ways they show, I mean, prospects are worth a lot of money because you're not paying them
06:20a lot. There's future value there. And they've traded a lot of it over the last four or five
06:26years to try to go for it. And that left them with just less to trade at this deadline. Having
06:34said
06:35that, I still think they needed to find a way to an arm or two that they like just to
06:40give them some
06:40greater depth because they, to me, they're just in harm's way now. I think that what they did this
06:49week against the Orioles and Blue Jays pretty much assures they make the playoff now. I mean,
06:56they would have to like finish like eight and 22 or something like that, I think to put themselves in
07:01harm's way. And so I think that they know they're going to get in, but they still want to at
07:09minimum
07:09be the number one wild card. And the Rays are not that far, you know, ahead of them. And the
07:16Rays
07:16are playing probably as bad as they played all year recently. So they want to try to catch it because
07:21whoever wins the AL East is going to be the number one seed in the league, which is a first
07:26round buy
07:26in home field advantage throughout the AL playoffs. So, you know, they want to go for it. And I do
07:32think they're in some danger zone with their pitching. They have a doubleheader coming up this
07:37week against Boston, I believe, which is going to challenge their pitching even more with an even
07:42with the off day today. You know, they're going to have to expose themselves to some like, you know,
07:47Brendan Beck innings or bring back up Elmer Rodriguez. They're going to be challenged here for
07:57pitching in the short term. And it has been the strength of the team. So the loss of Weathers is
08:04significant. The best that could happen to, as I see it from 20,000 feet is he comes back with
08:13a week
08:13or two left and gets enough work out of the bullpen where the Yankees feel comfortable putting him in
08:19the bullpen, which by the way is 30 years after his father was in the bullpen and helped the Yankees
08:24win the world series in 96. Funny how it works like that, right, Joel? And by the way, he was
08:28acquired
08:29from the Marlins too. It was the first trade ever made between the Marlins and the Yankees was for
08:34his dad. I guess the real question there would be like, did you ever think you'd be covering his son
08:3830 years later? I've done a lot of it. I've, you know, Lance McCullers Sr. was on that,
08:44the first team I ever covered and I've covered junior, you know, a lot of big Astro Yankee games.
08:51Yeah. So I, I, I'm old enough when I was at UPI, I covered Ken Griffey Sr. Also I covered
08:57Clay
08:58Bellinger and I've got Cody. So yeah, I'm, I'm getting old. When I, when I get to grandchildren,
09:05it's going to be really, really bad. You know, look, look, I, at UPI, I covered games that Bob
09:10Boone played in. Wow. So, and that's Aaron's dad. So yeah. It's a, it's, it's a funny, a full circle
09:17moment. And what I take away from what you're saying is the one to two weeks, right? At the end
09:21of the
09:21year, if they can get him back and put him into the bullpen, first off, you have highlighted on the
09:26show earlier this year about how difficult it is when we were talking about LaGrange of, of converting a
09:31starter into a bullpen piece, that's going to be a challenge in itself for Weathers to now go from,
09:37you know, a starter who was pitching the most innings he's ever pitched in his career, right?
09:41Like he was trying to go the full season as a starter. Unfortunately, he gets the injury and
09:46that's been a part of his career early on. But how does that, like, how do the Yankees have
09:52confidence in that Joel that they can just, well, they can't. Yeah. Like, like the confidence is he's
09:58done a little relief pitching along the way and that, but you're going to ask a guy as late as
10:04you possibly can to go into the bullpen and you know, max out after an arm injury. Now, the other
10:12thing though, to keep in mind is baseball history is filled with lots of guys like Madison Bumgarner
10:18and all of those nationals pitchers in 2019, who were starters, who went into the bullpen with very,
10:25you know, like just because that's what you do with this time of year, you play tournament baseball,
10:30tournament baseball, and whatever you need, you do. Uh, and, uh, you know, I do think that the
10:38Yankees will probably feel Schlittler Cole and, uh, they hope freed, uh, you know, if you want to
10:45talk about him, I'm happy to talk about him. Like we'll start games and that Rodan will start it.
10:51And that, you know, perhaps for the Rodan start in particular, like if they've got to be into a
10:57scramble each time, again, I will, uh, go back 30 years ago, uh, when David Weathers father helped
11:05with, uh, when Ryan Weathers father, David helped with this. If you go look, the Yankees had three
11:09trustworthy starters in 96. The fourth was Kenny Rogers. Kenny Rogers pitched terribly in each round
11:16of the playoffs and the Yankees won all three of his games. Like, I don't think he got out of
11:21the
11:22third inning and any of them. And they won all of them because their bullpen was deep and talented,
11:27including David Weathers. And they won a game in each round that Kenny Rogers started and he pitched
11:34terribly, uh, in each round. Uh, so like, I know it could be done, especially if you're limited to
11:40one starter who really has to, you know, do that for you. Uh, and, and we'll see like, you know,
11:48but that means that Cole off of Tommy John surgery has to stay healthy the rest of the way. I
11:54mean,
11:54Schlittler who's already beyond whatever he's done innings wise, uh, is going to have to stay healthy.
11:59By the way, this is into and through October, not just to September means Max Fried, who has had this
12:06elbow issue crop up now twice this season has to stay healthy. It means David Bednar, who's a heavily
12:12used closer has to, uh, stay healthy. It means Hedrick and Blackburn who have never been full
12:19season relievers and are among the most heavily used along with a cruise relievers in the sport have to
12:24say, I mean, this was what I was highlighting last week is that unit of eight or nine has been
12:29exceptional, but it is heavily used. And there is a lot of red lines on all of them. We're
12:36you would have concerns. Now I I'm sure I could do this for almost every contender pitching is a
12:41hazardous job, but the Yankees have the grandest plans for this season. And that was really about
12:48how good their pitching was going to be. And it's been hit at, uh, you know, it's not going to
12:53include
12:54Lagrange. I think you have to have some real doubts. It's going to include weathers now.
12:58Wow. Uh, that's saying something, Joel, and that, that stinks because he, he, again,
13:02has been awesome this year. Uh, and I think he, and was giving them length when they needed to
13:08protect their bullpen and he pitched well against some really good offenses, uh, during this period
13:14also. So it wasn't like, Oh, he's just stacking it up against like bad teams. I thought he had
13:19really, he had done a little bit. I, the, the guy I compared him to, if it was going to
13:23work out well,
13:25perhaps, uh, was Nathan Evaldi. Like the Yankees had made a trade with Miami, maybe like 10, 12 years
13:31ago. And Evaldi wasn't when he was not with the Yankees before he got to the Yankees was an off
13:36injured guy, but everyone was like, man, he's so talented. What if you could keep them healthy?
13:41Uh, and the Yankees, like the first year kept them healthy. I think he won 18 games for the Yankees
13:46that first year. Uh, and he was really durable. He was a great teammate. Uh, you know, and then he
13:52needed Tommy John, I think in his second year with the Yankees. Uh, so hopefully that isn't going to
13:58happen for Ryan Weathers in his career, uh, that this is something that that's gotten over, but you
14:04do see when you have a big step up in innings, uh, it is hard to make it through the
14:08season and
14:09they're high stressful innings too. Like again, to what you've talked about, like they're always
14:13in one run games. Ryan Weathers had all season long, no run support, uh, from the Yankees
14:18offense. He was pitching a lot of games where they were down. Yeah, go ahead.
14:22Can I throw like a bizarre thing that I noticed, uh, uh, in the last like day or two is
14:29just
14:29it's, I think offense in the American league stinks, uh, in particular, do you know the
14:35five highest scoring teams in nine of the top 11 or national league teams for runs per
14:40game? Doesn't shock me. I mean, 2022, we went to the universal DH, you know, used to be all
14:46AL teams led in runs per game, right? Cause they had, it made all sense. They had an extra hitter
14:50in the lineup instead of a pitcher. And now the top five average scoring teams per game and nine
14:57of the top 11. And, uh, you know, the Yankees are kind of like about 17th or so, like they're
15:03right. They they're, they're averaging about the, the, the major league average, but a lot of that
15:08dates to earlier in the year when judge was playing and they did some scoring. Um, uh, it's a
15:15little off the, I think they're at bats have been a little better for about the last week,
15:20even as they've still struggled in a lot of these runner on third one out, no out situations
15:25to get a run in, uh, the at bats have been a little better. Bellinger just got back and
15:33you know, I think you can see judge starting to appear on the horizon as he increases his
15:41workload. You want me to give a guess on judge? Yeah, please. So again, I know how crap gets
15:49aggregated. I have no, nobody has told me a day, nobody has told me a day, but I've been
15:54around the team and sometimes when you're around a team a lot, just how people talk, you could
16:02start to get like, Oh, he's doing this. He's feeling this and whatever. So they play the
16:10Mets September 11th to 13th. I believe, uh, it's not an unimportant weekend for a variety
16:17of reasons, including the 25th anniversary of nine 11, the Yankees and Metro playing that
16:22Friday. Uh, I'm if, if I had to set an over under, I would set it the day before against
16:30Colorado, September 10th. I say like, like DH September 10th against college. And by the
16:38way, again, I know how this crap goes. It's a total kind of gut from talking to people
16:44as opposed to somebody saying, Hey, Joel, you should make September 10th, the over under.
16:48Uh, but, uh, I feel like Aaron judge, if he can be on the field for that nine 11 game,
16:56we'll, we'll try to be on the field for that nine 11 game. Again, if he can't be, he can't
17:02be, but I think he's trending in the right way. Uh, especially the last week and someplace
17:10on that Rocky's Mets homestand feels like about right. And, and by the way, that would
17:18considering everything where we keep saying that the Yankees keep saying he's going to
17:23be back this year. And I keep saying to them, well, there's a big difference if he's back
17:27in game one 61 or game one 41, right? Like what, you know, where he has 20 games to kind
17:32of like get it right. Cause you know, we talk about the pitching Ryan, but you know, they
17:39need Aaron judge and Aaron judge in full, especially watching this offense, especially what's happened
17:44in the first inning with this offense where they simply can't get a run across in the first
17:48inning. And he's worth something, uh, as a, both a producer and a fear factor in the first
17:54inning that they desperately need. Uh, I would, I think someplace on that home stand is, is
18:01in play. That's, that would be huge for them, obviously. Like you said, uh, and it, it would
18:06make sense considering where he's at. Like you're, like you've mentioned, he's doing more, he's
18:10hitting off a tee from what we understand, uh, that next video or, or news I'm waiting for
18:15is Aaron Boone saying he's taken live BP. Uh, cause that again, we'll just mean that he's
18:19getting closer and closer to that return date. If that's the one is, is I, I,
18:24I'd like to hear he's working off of the trajects, which would mean he's dealing with high velocity
18:29and not just batting practice, because to me, that's how players in 2026, we, in, in, in,
18:37in a different age, we'd be talking about hitting on the field in batting practice, but that's
18:42still against the guy throwing 60 miles an hour, an old coach throwing 60 miles an hour
18:47or going on a rehab assignment. To me, trajects means I'm getting ready for the major leagues.
18:53I'm getting really close where I could put a velocity machine at 95 plus and start hitting
18:59off of it regularly. Uh, so that that's the one I'm curious about. And look, I think, I think it's
19:07a,
19:08a rare injury for a baseball player he had, and he's a big guy with obviously incredible strength
19:14torque torque in everything he does. So, you know, until he's back, he's not back. Uh, but I would
19:23say the last week of news since the Yankees give so little news about Aaron judge injuries, the fact
19:28that they've given some positive updates in the last week, I would think is pretty encouraged.
19:35Absolutely. Joel, uh, Yankees fans are obviously excited, waiting to hear when Aaron judge is going
19:41to be back. The trajectory machine is insane. I've seen some videos on YouTube. Now there's like
19:46these content creators that put like a hundred mile per hour knuckle balls and they're trying
19:50to hit all it. It's insane. You can do any pitch, any truth, like any form spin rate, whatever you
19:55want. It's as close as possible to actually facing the real thing. Uh, because it's, it's really cool
20:01how, how, how that machine works, but that's why that's what I want to hear Ryan. Like if I hear
20:07he's working off of that machine to me in the old days, we would hear a different thing in 2026.
20:16I think if you're working off of that machine, it means you are as close as you could be to
20:21getting
20:22into a game. So I think, especially if you stack up dates, like he's done it back to back days,
20:27three times in four days, something like that. I always think back to when Joel Sherman tells me,
20:33Ryan, this stuff always works itself out. There was this thought Joel, uh, with Stan coming back,
20:38obviously with Bellinger first, then Stan, who was supposed to be, then it was going to be judge
20:42that there was going to be this log jam of DHs with Ben Rice and Luis Garcia. Well, we get
20:47the news
20:48of Giancarlo Stan re-injured, or I should say had a setback and injured his other calf, uh, compared to
20:54the one that he had injured two times in a row that he was originally nursing and rehabbing from
20:58before we get to the stand part with judge, are the Yankees now okay with accelerating a little
21:06bit more? And he might not return to the field right away where it's like, Hey, you could be the
21:11DH
21:11for the next couple of weeks before you're ready to, to go into the field. But I don't know,
21:17you know, the player more than anyone else, Aaron judge, like it feels like he's going to be,
21:21I don't need the player. I, I literally asked Aaron Boone this question on Saturday. I was alone
21:26with him, uh, and got some time. And I just said, Aaron, when he comes back, is he the DH
21:32or the
21:32right fielder? And he says, the plan is for him to be a full player. So, and I think that's
21:38very
21:38important for the Yankees. Uh, if he's able to come back now, now will they work in some DH, uh,
21:46with
21:46him? I would think so. And I think he'll be the priority and everyone else sits, you know, like
21:51if rice has to sit, I mean, Aaron judge is the priority, but you know what it means. If you
21:57get
21:57Aaron judge back in full, you get a all around terrific, great baseball player. And that includes
22:04the right field, uh, of it. And, you know, uh, it's a righty back. They badly need it. Uh, uh,
22:13look, they just need him. There's a presence that he brings that I think helps the whole lineup kind of
22:20like, you know, calm down. The, the heavy weight is back. If you just do your job, everything will
22:28be fine. Uh, and I think, so I, I, I think from talking to Boone, I think the plan is
22:35for him to
22:35be the right fielder most of the time when he comes back. But if he's got a DH, he's going
22:41to have
22:41priority over everybody else. His bat, uh, is going to be the priority bat and, you know, right field and
22:47first base, like it could be a log jam, but Aaron, uh, Aaron judge is going to play every day.
22:52If he can play every day, he's going to play every day. Yeah. He's that type of player. He's
22:55going to hit every day. Yeah. He's that type of player too. He wants to be in there every day.
22:59Uh, I'm sure he wants to play right field every day. It, and there's a long way from here to
23:03there.
23:03Let's see what happens. And that's why I always say it's like, like, like I look, I do this with
23:09my
23:09children, uh, on real important decisions, which is make the decision when you have to make the
23:15decision. Uh, don't make the decision today. If you've really got two weeks to do it. Yeah. Uh,
23:22there's a lot of baseball that will be played in the next two weeks. And the luckiest thing that
23:27will happen to Aaron Boone and the Yankees is if he has to make tough decisions every day on a
23:32lineup that has been disappointing for the last two months. No doubt, Joel, no doubt. Uh, with that,
23:38John Carlos Stanton now, his season's in peril. Uh, boom was, was pretty straightforward about how
23:46there's, you know, maybe at the end of the season, I don't know if it's like a Kyle Schwarber or
23:50world
23:51series type thing, Joel, if, if Stan were to make a comeback this year, but, uh, really a tough,
23:57tough go of it. And, and it, what stinks is because I think you have said so many times again
24:02on this
24:03show, and we thank all the fans, obviously who are watching Pinstripe Post. Joel has always come
24:07on here and said, I appreciate John Carlos Stanton, the human, the player. He, he always answers the
24:13questions that you guys ask him. He wants to be out there with his teammates. He desperately wants
24:18to be out there, but his body is just not allowing him to be on the field, Joel. Help me,
24:25help me sort
24:26this out. Right. Because there's multiple questions here about Ryan. I'm glad you, you, you, you, you're
24:31asking about this, uh, because, um, I think we've done this show long enough. You know, I tried very,
24:39very hard to stay away. Like I generally don't read my email. I generally don't look at mentions on
24:46social media. Uh, I think that it's a nasty cesspool. I think I have a thicker spine than most,
24:54but why tempt it? Uh, because I feel like most of it is mean, uh, spirited or purposely distorted
25:02and an attempt to just get your goat. And I'd rather not play that game. Like if you got to
25:08play
25:08that game, this is what you want to do, then do it. It was brought to my attention. I don't
25:14want to say
25:15the colleague's name, uh, cause I don't know if he'll want me to do it. It was brought to my
25:19attention
25:20by a colleague. He said, do you see how Stanton is getting killed on social media? And I go, what
25:27do you mean? And he goes like people like, uh, like good riddance, get rid of him. What a dog.
25:32And I'm like, so I made the mistake and I gave myself 10 minutes of looking at it. And I'm
25:38like,
25:38now I know why I don't look at this stuff. Uh, I mean, look, I understand there's a bunch of
25:44miserable pricks in the world and they're just going to be miserable pricks and you can't do anything
25:49about it. But do the, does the average Yankee fan think that John Carlos Stanton actually doesn't
25:55want to play major league baseball? Let's just take it from a selfish personal reason. He wants
26:00to get to 500 homers that gives him his best chance to make the hall of fame. Uh, if you
26:05think
26:06he's a candidate or not, his candidacy improves with 500 homers. Part of his candidacy already is
26:13that he's been an exceptional post-season hitter. So if he were able to add to that, that also would
26:19help his legacy. And I'm here to tell you that he burns to want to win a championship for himself
26:27and for the others. He wants to do it here. Uh, he is become kind of the wise man of
26:35their clubhouse.
26:36He has brought great leadership as far as maturity to the other players. And that's obviously a lot
26:42easier done when you're playing them when you're not playing. And so when people do the good riddance
26:49and stuff like that, it's like, like, look, I'm, I don't expect people to have sympathy for somebody
26:56making $25 million a year and living the, the, the professional baseball life. But like I, I, to,
27:03to, to kind of stomp on a grave there. I mean, there's a, a not 0% chance that he
27:09can't play major
27:10league baseball anymore. He simply can't get his body healthy to sustain anything. And I assume
27:16he wants to continue to do it. Um, it would be no different than a singer who loses his voice.
27:23It's, uh, you know, uh, it's, it's, it's, it's literally a ditch digger losing his arm.
27:29I just don't understand. It's, you know, when I even saw stuff like, Oh, good. They can,
27:34why don't they just cut them now? It's like, what, what you really care as a fan, if he's sitting
27:40on
27:40the injured list, it's not your money. You know what I mean? It's like, like, he's not taking anybody's
27:45space, even on the 40 man. He's not on the 40 minutes, his 60 day IL. It's not like he's
27:51keeping
27:52somebody else from playing. Like, why is everybody so freaking miserable? Can I, can I answer that
27:57to why I think they are? And I think it has to do with again, stuff that we shouldn't be
28:02talking
28:02about today's episode, but it's the house Steinbrenner of it all and how he operates.
28:06And, and we've just, we've talked about this. He has this, the, one of the top five payrolls
28:11of baseball. It's every single year they operate at the top of the margin, always in baseball,
28:16but people feel like he spent $300 million. It's still the record for a player.
28:22But the, the fans will always tie back the John Carlos Stan acquisition to the year.
28:27They didn't go after Bryce Harper when he was a free agent that following off season
28:30and the money spent on John Carlos Stan, the Yankees fans feel like that is stopped them
28:36from going out there and acquiring. And I'm not, I'm not, I'm just giving you again,
28:40the perspective of those negative Yankees fans. Let's say that's true. Yeah. Let's say,
28:43let's say that's true. Let's say it's true. Let's say house Steinbrenner is a cheap
28:48whatever. Cause he's only spending $350 million plus tax on this team,
28:53whatever that is. Uh, and you know, okay. I'm not going to go through the whole list.
28:59No, no, no. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What does that have to do with, what does,
29:02what does that have to do to, with belittling John Carlos Stanton?
29:05Because he's making so much money and he, he doesn't, he doesn't,
29:08he doesn't get on the field as much as, as he's getting paid.
29:12But, but then you, again, you, he doesn't get on the field, but then you would have to believe
29:16he's jaking it. Like, in other words, like there's not getting on the field. I believe that there's
29:21probably players who are comfortable on the IL. Right. I, I, I mean, I do think there's guys who
29:27don't mind being there. I just don't think Stanton is one of those guys. Yeah, no. And so like,
29:33like he wants to play major league baseball and he wants to do it for the Yankees and he wants
29:39to do
29:39it in October. And when he's had the chance, he's been great in October. And I just, I,
29:45I understand like general fan frustration. Hey, you want him to be there or you've created this
29:50myth in your head that Hal Steinbrenner isn't spending, whatever it is like, I get it. But
29:55what does that have to do with attacking another human being who physically is breaking down? He was
30:01running to try to heal, to play baseball. And his body is, you know, I think I use this term,
30:08they used to say about the banks that had to be saved by the government, that they were too big
30:14to fail. I think he's too big to succeed. I just think that judge is almost a freak that at
30:20his size,
30:21he can mainly stay healthy doing everything he does at his size and strength. I just think that
30:26John Carlos Stanton can't stay healthy. And that's, that's just a reality. And I just think attacking
30:34the guy, and again, I, it isn't like Stanton has like my buddy, like I talked to him a few
30:40times a
30:40year in a clubhouse or something like that. It's not every day. And he's never given me a story. Like
30:46it's not my guy. I just think it's, I think he's a serious baseball player. I think he's a leader
30:52of
30:52this team. And I think he wants to play baseball and his body's broken. And to attack him seems crazy
30:58to me and, and, and of the time and mean and like mean for what, like purpose. But I guess
31:05this is
31:06just the age we live in. It's the age we live in. It's the social media, short sightedness,
31:11always got to be on the attack and take your shots when you can, because you have that voice. I
31:17don't
31:17know why it's used for that purpose, but it is for most of the time. And it's, it's sad to
31:21see,
31:21but I think what's more sad to see again, really sad again. I don't do it a lot, Ryan. I
31:25went and
31:26looked at some of this stuff. I was encouraged. I was encouraged on Saturday by a colleague of ours
31:32to look at it. And I looked at it and I wish I hadn't looked at it. We went ahead
31:37of these 10
31:38minutes here, but I it's, it's, it's a reason why I don't look at it. Right. And by the way,
31:44it wasn't even directed at me. No, no, no. It's directed at somebody I have a professional
31:49relationship with. Yeah. And it's someone that, you know, again,
31:54the Yankees can say what they want. I think they were counting on him to make a return,
31:58to be a part of their post-season plans. So talk to me, Joel, with the player and the reality
32:04of
32:04the situation that he is going to miss another amount of significant time, because it took him
32:08so long to just rehab from the first calf strain that he had. And now it's the other calf.
32:13Is it possible for him to return this year if they make a world series run or
32:18I don't know, like what are, what are the thoughts for the Yankees as an organization
32:23for how they're going to handle the rest of John Carlos Stanton's tenure here? Because he is under
32:28contract for two more years, technically with the terms, there's a club option there,
32:32but how does this all work out? Yeah, I think, uh, I think his chances of returning this year are
32:39pretty close to zero. Uh, cause I think even if you push it to late October, I would assume one
32:45of
32:45the reasons the Yankees get, if they got to late October is they're hitting enough and to disrupt
32:50that, to bring him back, uh, when he's a guy, you know, like, like he very well to walk on
32:58the field.
32:58He's probably a guy who's going to need at bats to kind of become a threat again. And it's just
33:04going to be hard to be like, Oh, we're going to deal with an over 12 with 10 strikeouts in
33:09October
33:10to get him for what? So I think he returns onto the horizon for next year and you build anticipating
33:19that he will not be a factor. Uh, and I think they're already there, right? Because between
33:25Ben Rice and Garcia, they have a first baseman and a DH against most pitching, right? Against most
33:31pitching being right-handed. And I think, I think that there's some chance that if they're actually
33:39whole and Stanton is healthy, but like not looking great that he does, they, they eat the final,
33:46they're good at eating the final year of a contract. They've done this, uh, before, uh,
33:51right with Aaron Hicks and LeMayu, this is the reality of big market teams in general.
33:57They know they signed contracts there. They lower the annual value of the contracts by stretching them
34:03out over time and knowing that the back ends are going to be problems. Uh, every big team is
34:09eating money in some form. And I assume, uh, that'll be very difficult to get to even the
34:14finish line, which is next year on this contract. Uh, cause it's just, uh, it's sad because again,
34:20I like covering this player and I think he's generally been a very good major league player.
34:25Uh, but, but it's hard to plan around Stanton. You know, you can't, Brian Cashman got killed a couple
34:33of years ago when he said injuries are part of his deal and people were like, whatever. And I,
34:39he, all he did was say Tuesday follows Monday. He said something obvious.
34:43It's, uh, again, I think the, the key word there said, like you said, uh, because I can't forget
34:50that 2024 post-season run that he went on and he just absolutely demolished everyone that even the
34:56Dodgers, he was such a, such a big threat in that lineup. And so when you, I say it's sad
35:02at least.
35:02So like here's something is I'm a baseball fan. I don't, I don't root for a team, you know, whatever.
35:10Uh, when you said Yankee fans are looking forward to Aaron judge coming back, baseball fans should
35:15look forward to Aaron judge coming back. Like I'd like all the players to be as healthy as, you know,
35:22like nobody wants to go to Broadway and see the understudies. Uh, I want to go to the ballpark
35:28and I want to see all the best players, healthy and performing as at their peak and making this
35:34great. Uh, like there's no, uh, I get it. If you're a Yankee fan or a Met fan or a
35:42Dodger fan,
35:42maybe you're hoping, Oh, I hope the good guy on the other team gets hurt. But like, if you're just
35:47a
35:47fan of the sport, like, like, man, I want to see Aaron judge hit that's fun to do.
35:55Yeah. It's, it's a spectacle also whenever Aaron judges in the box. And like you said,
36:00it's going to be a warm welcome for the Yankees lineup. If they can get him back fully like the
36:05player he wants to be, uh, and it'd be a huge threat and it would, it would boost their chances
36:10here in the post season. Like Joel said, the Yankees are one of the best teams, the American league.
36:15And, and we, we kind of have to spin this positive, right? I, I, I, before we get to the
36:19things that I really want to talk about with what we've seen the past couple of games, the max freed
36:23of it all, we have to talk about this too, Joel. Uh, you know, boom kind of hinted at this,
36:28maybe
36:28being a, a minimal IL stint. Uh, I'm not going to say it was a phantom IL stint. Cause I,
36:34a player
36:35is going to be honest about an injury as always. And I don't think the Yankees are in that business
36:39of doing those type of things, but it kind of works out, but it doesn't at the same time with
36:45the weather's injury. If they get freed back, this starting rotation should be the best in the
36:52American league, right? Yeah. Uh, look, I, I would like to believe, uh, there are technical things
37:01that have to happen for a player to get on an injured list. And one of those is includes a
37:07doctor
37:07has to sign off that the player actually has the injury you say he has. So, uh, you'd like
37:15to believe some of the chicanery is down. On the other hand, I said that this, I wrote
37:22this in the post that this felt like a Los Angeles Dodger injury in that there's something
37:28there, but you know, you're making the playoffs and you're playing big picture and can fill
37:35in the blank on the Dodgers over the last three or four years pitch through this or come back
37:40sooner. Yeah. But we want to make sure he's pitching great on October 1st, right? Like
37:48if you've noticed, like Blake's still came back recently, Tyler glass now is starting on
37:53Tuesday. Shohei Otani is starting on the weekend. Hmm. Their rotation is getting whole just as
37:59September 1st comes around. So were there injuries? I bet you each of those guys were
38:04injured, but why rush it or push it when you're expecting all of those guys to make three to five
38:13more starts in October? Uh, and I think the Yankees probably, and, and Freed probably felt
38:18like, Hey, it's still in there. I could get through it, but it's affecting my pick the pitch,
38:25curve ball, slide, whatever. Uh, can we calm it down? And then I can make a run of like eight,
38:32nine starts from there to the finish line, hopefully including, you know, look, if they're
38:37whole, if they were fully whole with Weathers, you could say you could slot Freed in at three
38:42or four in a rotation and use them once a series or, you know, that kind of thing. So, uh,
38:49he's
38:49probably going to need to be used more than that now, but this felt like the kind of there's
38:55something there. If the season were ending on September 30th, fine, just pitch through it.
39:02But for the Yankees, they're hoping it ends a lot closer to October 30th. Uh, and that's a lot of
39:08games from now to then. And I think they wanted him as good as possible. Conversely, this is now the
39:15same elbow injuries cropped up twice. So, you know, like you just wouldn't bet a lot of money
39:21that it doesn't crop up again. Uh, and it doesn't end the season at some point prematurely. Uh, this
39:28is an attempt for that not to happen in October. It makes sense what you're saying, Joel, the whole
39:34Dodgers part of it too. Um, and I wonder with, with Freed, this is also, but by the way, that's
39:43happened on the, can I just say this is this happened on the front end also like Garrett Cole
39:48could have come back earlier than he did, but they weren't expecting, like they didn't want to be
39:55like, he's back May 15th and then he's not available October 15th. And so they slowed it
40:05and made sure could they have rushed Rodan? Could they have rushed Clark Schmidt a little? I think that
40:13this is all baked into taking care of the player and taking, trying to see that there are a few
40:21teams that are blessed with the knowledge that they're really good and have a very strong chance
40:26to play in October. And you have to figure out how do you play in October? Well, and I think
40:32the
40:32Yankees are one of those teams. And the other thing I'll say too, is, is the, the Yankees have been
40:39forcing their starters into so many high stressful innings for free to have to go through another two
40:45weeks. Instead, you back them off a little bit, let them calm down the elbow. You're not putting
40:49those high stress innings on him in regular season games where they're going to make the playoffs.
40:55That's just that, that is where the Yankees are. They're the best, they have the best, uh, wildcard
40:59position right now. They're, they're, they're closing in on the raise a little bit who have, who have
41:03taken a step back the last couple of weeks. So we'll see how it goes down the stretch. And if
41:07he can
41:07make his return in the next two weeks, back to the rotation, the Yankees should start seeing
41:12hopefully that playoff rotation of Schlittler, Freed, Cole, Schlittler, Cole, Freed, however you
41:18want to make mix and match those one, two, three, Joel, let's talk about some positives here about
41:22this Yankees team. The last couple of days, I got to start with Spencer Jones though. Spencer Jones
41:28continues to impress me in the at-bat quality that he provides to this lineup. I know Lombard,
41:32we've talked about what he provides there at the bottom of the lineup, but Spencer Jones,
41:36I think had easily the best series of his career over the weekend against the blue Jays.
41:41He had a big home run against the Orioles last week and the kid just continues to go out there,
41:46whether it's like, Hey man, you might lose your spot when Aaron judge comes back, but the kid
41:51continues to prove Joel that it doesn't seem too big for him right now. What are you seeing from
41:56Spencer Jones? Yeah. Well, Ryan, we've done a lot of shows. Uh, and, uh, I think for at least the
42:05last
42:05three or four shows I've been, the at-bats are good, even when they end in strikeouts,
42:10this isn't a guy who strikes out on three pitches. This is a guy who strikes out three and two
42:13and
42:13fouls off two pitches. And so to me, the strikeout quality is good. It was like when Ben Rice's
42:19strikeout quality was good two years ago, or when Austin Wells' strikeout quality was good. You know,
42:24you're getting to three and two, uh, and a guy's making a great pitch, but you force them to throw
42:29six, seven, eight pitches. It is a minor victory within a loss. It's a, you know, battle war thing.
42:36Uh, and it was not, these were, these were not meek strikeouts. Um, he to me has done what you
42:45would
42:45hope a young player does, which is he gets a taste of the majors. And if it's, he's not quite
42:52up to it,
42:52he goes down and learns something and starts working on his holes. And that happened twice to Jones. And
42:58to me, since he's come back in late July, you could argue he's been their best hitter. Uh, he's had
43:06the
43:06most impact. Uh, he's had the best at bats. Uh, by the way, to add to that, he brings real
43:13great
43:14athleticism. He steals bases. Uh, he moves around the outfield. He's a, to me right now,
43:19an average outfielder, but he moves around the outfield. Well, uh, he has a great arm. Uh,
43:26there's a lot to work with. And I think the comparison, there's a couple of comparisons,
43:31uh, to me, he is what the Yankees hope Joey Gallo was going to be. Uh, right. Like you might
43:38live with some low batting average and strikeouts, but you'd get homers, you get on base percentage
43:43cost of walks, you'd get stolen bases and you'd get high end defense because of the athleticism
43:48Gallo didn't work here. And this is a reminder of why a good farm system matters because somebody
43:54like Spencer Jones spends a couple of years in spring training around the major league team
44:01and seeing how they deal with reporters and seeing how they deal with crisis and mixing in. And so like,
44:08it's a little, that transitions a little easier than say Joey Gallo's was. So there's that, uh,
44:15I think there is, and you hate to do this. It's Aaron judge. He's one of the like 25 to
44:2150 greatest
44:22hitters ever. Uh, so, but judge in 2016 came up and struck out 45% of the time in his
44:31cameo
44:31that off season went to the lab, found a swing that worked and came back and nearly won the MVP
44:40and did win rookie of the year and became Aaron judge. Is there a potential for Spencer Jones to
44:48be 80% of that 75 it's, it's an interesting lump of clay, right? Like there's great athleticism when
44:54the ball hits his bat. I mean, it really, he doesn't hit like meek singles or doubles. Uh, he
45:01really rockets the ball. He doesn't give that bats away against lefty pitching. Uh, I think he's a
45:07really interesting, exciting young player with a chance. Again, the league is going to adapt to the
45:14adapt. Uh, there is an obvious space up and especially in hard that he swings and misses a lot,
45:22but it feels like even that space is a little smaller and he got a little better at laying off
45:27a sum of it, not all of it, some of it. So he's learning, uh, and he does real damage.
45:35And since
45:37he came back, his strikeout percentage is more in the range of like Murakami and Schwarber, which is
45:44like 31, 32%, which is high. It's, but it's different than 38% or 40%. And it's really different
45:52if there's going to be a lot of extra base hits, including homers and walks. And in his case,
45:58stolen bases and defense. And so he's bringing something to the party. He's a really interesting
46:05young player with a chance that he might be a 40 Homer player one day. Cause the ball comes off
46:15of
46:15his bat special. Uh, and you like, this is the kind of thing, no matter what city played,
46:20played in, you would say like, and I'd like to see some more of that just to see, does he
46:26keep
46:26growing? Because the growth this year has been real growth. Uh, and it's impressive.
46:33It really is. Uh, and, and I think everything you've highlighted there are things that this
46:38Yankees lineup desperately needs, uh, especially with the athleticism, especially with getting on
46:42base and stealing, making steals when he can defense, obviously. But the, the other thing is when
46:48you talk about him and George Lombard, both of them provide those long a B's that this Yankees
46:55lineup has just not been great at this year. Uh, but maybe it's getting better. Like, I wonder if
47:02the, we're starting to see some signs, Joel, of them being a little bit more, I guess, attentive in
47:09the box and, and more and decisive in the decisions on what they're going to swing and when they're going
47:14to swing, because I, while I'm discouraged that they still can't get a runner in from third,
47:19there's still some signs that, Hey, jazz laid down a bun. Spencer Jones put together a quality
47:24at bat. Trent Grisham walks in a run. Like there are some signs. Maybe this lineup is starting to
47:30turn right before the return of the big bat and Aaron judge. Do you see that happening right now?
47:36So it's an interesting thing you bring up. And it, it, it, it again brings to mind,
47:40cause I'm old something from the Yankees were a very, very, very, very add as many varies as you
47:46like want bad offensive team in the early nineties. And I think I told the story where, where stick
47:52Michael started to talk about the idea of guys having grinder at bats. And I thought that it
47:57worked. And then in a move that was really more, uh, probably George Steinbrenner pushing than anybody
48:04else in the organization wanting. They brought Wade Boggs in after the 92 season. And even though
48:11it was an older version of Boggs, Wade Boggs simply would not swing at a ball. If it wasn't a
48:16strike,
48:17it was incredible to watch. I, I'm so glad I, I, I covered baseball in New York for a variety
48:23of
48:23reasons. Uh, particularly the Yankees do this. You will see a lot of great players come through,
48:28even if it's at the end of their career, the Sheffields, the each rows, the Randy Johnson's,
48:33they were older. They weren't the full version of who they were, but, and Boggs was like that.
48:38And I thought Boggs's influence on the lineup, which already was starting to trend towards grinder
48:44at bats. Really? I thought he had incredible where like, wow, Wade Boggs was, I mean, you don't look
48:53at Wade Boggs and go, there goes an incredible athlete there goes. So I don't, but his hand-eye
48:58coordination and understanding of the strike zone sent them to Cooperstown. Right.
49:02Right. And so they, it did it. And I do think that Jones and Lombard are having some impact
49:11on the lineup. I thought, like I said earlier in the show, I thought the at bats have been better
49:15now for about a week or so. And I think that that they have something to do with that.
49:20Now I will say this is I don't, I'm shocked by the Lombard mistakes in the field. Uh, I thought
49:28that was going to be his carrying tool and he's blowing easy stuff, which I thought was going to
49:33be his calling card, which was just going to be, um, yeah, I can make the five or 10%
49:37tougher play
49:38also, but anything hit to me is going to be an out. Uh, and I don't know what's happened here
49:44for like
49:44the last four or five days, almost like he's gone through a fielding slump. Uh, cause even on some of
49:49the ones that aren't errors, he's getting some bobbles and uncomfortable plays and they can't live with
49:54that. You can't, the Yankees need their shortstop to play well defensively. First, the offense is a
50:00bonus from Lombard. It's okay for him to hit ninth, as long as he fields the hell out of shortstop.
50:06Uh, but yes, the at bats have been good and Jeterian, right? Again, you don't want to compare
50:10Derek Jeter is one of the five greatest shortstops ever, but like lots of balls to right field,
50:15lots of using the whole field to get hits, using his legs to get hits. Uh, so yeah, I think
50:22that
50:22they've, they've helped the lineup. And I think with Grisham, when you see, when Grisham walks,
50:28Grisham also hits. And in about the last 10 days, he started walking a lot more again,
50:35and there's been some, you know, really timely hits. Uh, I think Austin Wells is at bats have
50:41been longer and better, uh, in general for a while now. And look, if they could get Bellinger back to
50:47being Bellinger and judge at some point, it makes the lineup longer and tougher. Obviously Helio
50:53Ramos has been a real dud for them since they acquired him. Uh, so getting him out of the lineup
51:00regularly and maybe like seeing if you could salvage him by feeding him a lot of lefty pitching to see
51:08if you could get them going, which the Yankees haven't faced a lot lately. They have not faced
51:12many lefty starters. I haven't faced a lot lately, but I mean, he's just been a bad baseball player.
51:16He's a bad fielder also. Yeah. He hits into a ton of, he hits the ball on the ground a
51:20lot. So
51:20there's a lot of double plays that are rally killers with him at the plate. It hasn't worked
51:25out. I mean, look, let's be frank. Uh, Busta Posey hasn't done a lot right. Uh, in charge of the
51:32Giants front office, making two trades with the Yankees for Duval and Ramos has been two of them,
51:37uh, that have gone right. So, uh, yeah, you know, it's, uh, it's something I, you, you notice,
51:45uh, but I think with Bellinger back, Ramos will play a lot less. And if judge gets back,
51:50I'm not sure when he plays, uh, Joel, this was a fun episode, man. Uh, I appreciate you taking me
51:56through all of it. Uh, it was a lot with the injuries and, and how this team is going to
52:00be
52:01shaped up going forward. But like you said, there's more baseball to be played in the next couple of
52:05weeks. And we always appreciate you hopping on here, giving us your analysis, uh, for all you
52:09Yankees fans, we're obviously watching Pinstripe Post. Make sure you hit that like and subscribe
52:12button on the New York Post Sports YouTube channel, follow Joel on social media. He's not
52:15going to read your, your comments and your, and your tags on him, but make sure you follow him for
52:20his analysis though. Cause, uh, Joel's always okay to write something nice though. And break,
52:25break the, uh, break the momentum, uh, that everything has to be so mean spirited. Uh, but yes,
52:32uh, but certainly, uh, we, we appreciate everybody who takes their time to, to, to watch this. And I
52:38know, uh, we'll, we'll be doing it right through the playoffs, uh, and towards whatever is a lockout
52:45this off season. So, uh, so we, we appreciate it. And, uh, thanks Ryan. Thanks Joel. We appreciate
52:51you. We'll catch up with you next week.
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