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00:00:00It's a drive by Derry Dawson, Charles Chisholm goes deep.
00:00:10Welcome in to a special edition of Pinstripe Post.
00:00:13I'm your host, Ryan Sampson, but he's the star of the show, Joel Sherman.
00:00:16Today is Monday, September 21st.
00:00:19Joel, since the last time we spoke to you, Aaron Judge landed back on the IL with a calf strain.
00:00:25We'll get into that and what that means for this Yankees postseason roster.
00:00:28We'll dive into what we think could potentially be some of these playoff lineups
00:00:32with more players returning like Josh Chisholm, and we'll see what happens with Trent Grisham.
00:00:35And we'll also get your thoughts about Cam Schlittler and another great start over the weekend.
00:00:40But before we get to any of that, as always, Joel Sherman, how are you doing today, buddy?
00:00:45Good. I could tie a couple of things I did over the weekend to the Yankees or baseball.
00:00:50Oh, yeah. Should I do it? Yeah.
00:00:53Friday night, I was born and raised in Brooklyn, spent the first 35 years of my life there,
00:00:57been in New York my whole life. I'd never been to the Paramount in Brooklyn to see a show.
00:01:03I saw Brandon Flowers there with the reason it's tied to it is my one of my best friends in
00:01:09life
00:01:09is Jack Curry of Yes. And he said, I got a ticket. And I said, I you got a sidekick
00:01:15if you got a ticket.
00:01:16And we went and for anyone who wants his new album is great and his show was great.
00:01:22So we did that on Friday. Then on Saturday, my oldest friend in life, who was the ace pitcher of
00:01:30Canarsie High School baseball team and pitched at Brooklyn College, very good ballplayer, lefty,
00:01:37Hale Hallisey. His father worked and was a photographer at the Post for a long time,
00:01:40Don Hallisey, for decades. Hale still plays in an adult league in his 60s.
00:01:48And he's he's about to go on a trip with them. And he said, I went to see his new
00:01:52house on
00:01:53Saturday. He said, bring your glove. And I played catch for the first time in probably 15 years.
00:01:59As the arm. As the arm.
00:02:01I will I will say I will lift this one and tell you that I'm a righty.
00:02:06We did it. He decided that he still pitches. He's decided to spin a couple of curveballs to me.
00:02:11I said, man, I couldn't hit it. And I probably can't catch it either. Why don't we keep it straight
00:02:14from here on in? But that was good. And then on Sunday, I went to the Mets finale.
00:02:21So how we rose get lots of tributes justifiably. What a great guy and obviously a historic
00:02:29broadcaster. So I didn't see a lot of the Yankees finish out their road trip poorly on Sunday
00:02:34because I was at the Mets. But why don't we dive into it now that you know my what my
00:02:39whole weekend
00:02:40was. Yeah, look, it it sounds like a fun weekend, man. It sounds like a very eventful weekend.
00:02:45It was a jam packed considering you. Besides the fact that I can't lift my right arm. It's
00:02:51tremendous. Look, just don't get hurt on me, OK, because we're going to need you down these
00:02:55next couple of weeks down the stretch. No IL, man. No IL. Put some dirt on it and let's play.
00:03:01Yeah, look, you say no IL, but then the captain Aaron Judge has landed back on the IL. Joel,
00:03:07I was anxious when that news dropped on Friday. I'm like, oh, I don't I don't know how to take
00:03:12this news. It's not good, right? Like there's no other way around what happened with the Aaron
00:03:17Judge situation. Can you just walk me through? Because there's a lot here. There's a lot to
00:03:23unpack. From Judge deciding not to do any rehab games, we know that he was using the traject
00:03:30machine. He told or he said, I'm not going to do any any rehab games. My rehab games are going
00:03:36to be here at the major league level with the Yanks. He played right field a lot. He didn't
00:03:42DH as much to start. And then he gets pulled in that game last week. And that's when everything
00:03:48just started to unravel where we find out now he's dealing with a calf strain. They won't tell us
00:03:53what grade it is. So as she said, the doctors didn't reveal that on the MRI. And I don't know,
00:03:59Joel, he would have to be activated game 162, right before the playoff start.
00:04:07Just walk me through all this. I don't know what what to make of this Aaron Judge situation.
00:04:12So why don't we start with the most obvious thing? Of course, this is terrible news for the
00:04:15Yankees. Their best player who hasn't played a lot this season had just come back. I would
00:04:24have to say there's some strong possibility he doesn't play anymore. Uh, calf strains, uh,
00:04:31are notorious for when they heal, let them heal more because they, that it is a re-injury area of
00:04:40the body. Like, like everyone will tell you, you'll feel, by the way, I had one last spring training
00:04:45and the doctor told me the same thing. I'm not acquitting myself to an athlete. I'm just telling
00:04:49you what the doctor said to me, which is when you think it's healed, wait before doing anything
00:04:55active again for a while, because it's not. And so it's a very, very tricky injury. On the bigger
00:05:01picture, what you never could dive into Ryan is knowing for sure, uh, that, um, the, you know,
00:05:10like if he would have gone on a rehab, would he been okay? If the Yankees had backed off of
00:05:14more, uh, would he have been okay? Uh, you know, it's always easy to say, Hey, he should have done
00:05:21these things. The Yankees should have gone easier. But like, I have a feeling like if he,
00:05:27if, if he was playing say every other day for a while, uh, and the Yankees were losing games,
00:05:34their fans would go crazy, right? Why are he wasn't judge on the field? Come on. He's healthy
00:05:38enough to play. So there's no way to know, know that. Uh, so, but it was clear he was not
00:05:45Aaron
00:05:46judge when he came back and he was going to need the at bats to be, try to be Aaron
00:05:50judge by the
00:05:50first game of, of, uh, of the post season. So even if he came back for game one 62, again,
00:05:57I would
00:05:57be skeptical that that's likely, or he comes back, the Yankees beat the Red Sox and he comes back
00:06:03for the Rays. He's going to do that without real speed, you know, beyond the trajects.
00:06:11And he already was struggling with that. And he's Aaron judge. You've got to put him in the lineup.
00:06:16If he's healthy enough to do it, say he's only healthy enough to DH. It means one of your better
00:06:21bats doesn't play. Uh, you know, if he goes to right field, that's different. So, so this is
00:06:26miserable for the Yankees, uh, and for baseball fans, look, judges, uh, you know, in a sport that
00:06:31doesn't break through nationally judges, a national star, I'm sure, you know, our good
00:06:36friends at like all the networks aren't thrilled that the Yankees and Red Sox are going to play
00:06:40and that there's a decent chance that Aaron judge isn't playing in that series. Cause he
00:06:44obviously draws eyeballs to it. Uh, then you suggested something that I'm probably going
00:06:50to go on a rant about here and you'll have to forgive me for it. And I hope the fans
00:06:56will
00:06:56forgive me for it. Um, I do not care what Aaron judge's injury is, how long he'll be out,
00:07:08what the grade is. I mean, beyond the fact that like when I, when I cover a game, I just
00:07:12assume all the best players play. It makes it more interesting. It, you know, I'm into drama
00:07:17and story. That's what I do. Uh, I'm not a better, so I don't care if he plays. I'm not
00:07:22a Yankee fan. I don't care if he plays. Okay. But, but I suspect millions and millions of Yankee
00:07:29fans care a great deal. I assume millions and millions of baseball fans again, cause he breaks
00:07:35through care. And I, unfortunately, everybody has jumped into the swamp of gambling. I'm assuming
00:07:41every odds maker and better cares about getting accurate news on Aaron judge, right? Cause the
00:07:48Yankees odds say to win the American league championship or any series would change depending
00:07:53on if judge is playing or not. So when the Yankees play nonsense games about what his status
00:08:00is and, and, and judge participates in it and Aaron Boone takes a dive for judge and the whole
00:08:05organization takes a judge. I'm like, look, they're not letting millions of fans into the
00:08:10clubhouses. You know, they're letting credentialed reporters in there. And what I do care about
00:08:17is trying to at minimum ask the questions I think fans want answered and they're paying
00:08:24everybody's salaries, the players, mine, et cetera. And when Aaron Boone says something like,
00:08:29it doesn't matter what degree of calf strain he has, uh, that is, you know, like, again,
00:08:39I want to bridge this. Aaron Boone is generally a friend of reporters. He's accessible. He's generally
00:08:46interesting, but on injuries this year, he became real squirrely and he's always been real squirrely
00:08:52on judge. I think we've talked about it before, what the Genesis of this is from 2018 judge just
00:08:59got a fracture chip fracture in his wrist. Uh, the Yankees said the low side for him returning was
00:09:05three weeks. It took seven weeks and judge claimed afterwards that, you know, he was maligned and
00:09:11criticized for taking a long time to come back. I frankly don't remember that. I certainly don't
00:09:16remember it from anything that I would call the legitimate news source, uh, criticizing him. I mean,
00:09:22anybody who covers judge knows he feels great responsibility to play, loves to play, wants to
00:09:27play, and no one's going to think he's a malingerer. And if somebody on social media, you know, Yankee,
00:09:34uh, a jerky fan, three 27 with an egg avatar calls him a, a, a, a malingerer. Well, he's going
00:09:42to do
00:09:42that anyway, because that guy's life is built around being a troll jerk. And he's always going to
00:09:48find the reason to be negative. So like, uh, so since then news around judges injuries have always been
00:09:57sparse. And, you know, like, again, like I, I will try to tell Yankee people, I've tried to tell judge,
00:10:03like, like I'm asking the question, I'm not selling it like heroin on a corner or anything.
00:10:08I talk about it here. I put it in a newspaper. I alert the fans of the team and the
00:10:12game and
00:10:13whatever other entities want to know this, what it is. I have access to ask the question. I didn't
00:10:18on this road trip, but the reporters who were getting stonewalled, by the way, you know,
00:10:22what never happens anymore. Almost nothing happens on a field anymore. When I first became a reporter,
00:10:28everyone took batting practice on the field. There was infield practice. There was outfield
00:10:32practice guys running around. There's all this stuff set up underneath. So when you ask even a
00:10:36question, like has judge continued to swing and you get stonewalled? Like I'm always asking like,
00:10:42to whose benefit is that the fans of the game want to know? I'm not asking it because somehow that
00:10:48makes
00:10:49me joyous. Like I'm only asking, cause I think fans want to know now, maybe I'm wrong about that.
00:10:56Ryan in this dynamic, you know, I'm not, I don't care. You're a fan. Do you want to know?
00:11:01You're a Yankee fan because it matters. Of course. That's, that's why the question
00:11:05is being asked. And when these guys stonewall, whether they understand it or not, they're being
00:11:11fan unfriendly. The people like you can tell me all the time. Oh, we love our fans. We care about
00:11:17our fans. We'll do anything for our fans, except for tell them what the player they love most,
00:11:23what his status is and how long he'll be out and what he's doing to rehab things that they're
00:11:28actually interested in. So I don't think they're fan friendly and they haven't been all year on
00:11:35injuries across the board this year, more than ever. And if they were standing for a principle
00:11:41like HIPAA law, I'd be like, great, you're right. But they're not, they're just squirrely in general
00:11:48and around this player in specific. And I don't think it's fan friendly. Go say again,
00:11:54I don't give a crap. Yeah. No, I know you don't, Joel, but they should tell us what Max Schumann's
00:12:00injury is. If he has one, and they should tell us what Aaron judge's injury is. It all goes back
00:12:04to like what you said, when judge first got hurt in 2020 with that wrist injury, everything is
00:12:09snowballed from that point forward on how he treats and reacts to injuries and the reporting around him
00:12:15because of his timeline and the uncertainty it's, it's all come to a head something. Was he
00:12:22criticized? I just don't remember. I don't remember it. I think it all really boiled down to, I think,
00:12:28I wonder if this is also like him with the Yankees. And, and I mean that by like the front
00:12:33office and whatnot and how they treat the players with injuries, because I think there was that
00:12:38uncertainty of like Boone gave the timeline out there and then judge didn't make, make that timeline,
00:12:44right? Like he didn't make it in time that Boone at first say, it's inexact, right? Like it's
00:12:50an exact, like, I think you could always abridge it by saying, Hey, our best guesstimate is two to
00:12:55four weeks. But when it comes to medicine, it's just a guesstimate like, but, or you could say, Hey,
00:12:59we've had three of these injuries in the last two years, the general timeframe to return, but this is a
00:13:05six foot seven athlete who does everything with incredible force. So could it take longer? It could,
00:13:11we're always, but to provide zero. And then to say something like, it doesn't matter what grade
00:13:18the strain is when the difference between a grade one, two, or three is the difference between he can
00:13:23play again this year. And he's got, we'll see you whenever the lockout's over next year,
00:13:28you know? And so to treat it that cavalierly and to act like you don't know the, I mean, come
00:13:35on,
00:13:36you don't know the grade of the injury of the most important player on the team.
00:13:39I mean, of course they do, but you know what that would mean? You should be fired. If you don't
00:13:44know, yeah, you should be fired. If you don't know the grade of the injury of the most important
00:13:48player on the team. They do. And like you said, they're being squirrely about it. And they think,
00:13:53but what to the upside? I don't know. There's no competitive advantage there. Like we know the
00:13:57Red Sox and Yankees are full steam ahead. They're going into the wildcard round to face each other.
00:14:03Right, Joel. Um, and I know you want to keep that thing of maybe judges back for the wildcard.
00:14:08Is he not back for the wildcard? Can you point blank answer for the fans here? Maybe some don't
00:14:13know this. Is he allowed to play on the wildcard roster if he's still on the IL after game 162
00:14:18going
00:14:19into the postseason? Yeah, he could be taken off the IL. Okay. So he could be activated and play for
00:14:24the wildcard round. And what you can do is go on the IL and come back quicker than 10 or
00:14:2815 days,
00:14:29depending on if you're a hitter. Right. So in this case, he'll have expired the 10 days. And as long
00:14:34as he doesn't go on it again, come off and go back on, he could after 10 days, starting with
00:14:39game
00:14:39160. So Sunday, starting with Sunday, he could come back at any point, uh, from game 162 and during
00:14:46the postseason. And by the way, uh, we're live on the YouTube channel, the New York post sports.
00:14:51Uh, I see a lot of fans flooding the comments here. Thank you for all your questions. We're
00:14:54going to get to some of them in a second. I still want to stick to this judge thing. Cause
00:14:57I think
00:14:57there's other things that are pressing to ask you about this, Joel. So since they're saying
00:15:01they're being cavalier, they won't reveal what grade strain it is. I, you look at every doctor
00:15:06and their diagnosis, a lot of Twitter doctors as well, two to three weeks seems like that minimum
00:15:10time, no matter what kind of calf strain, if it's the least amount. Uh, but if they do decide to
00:15:15active, if he does say, Hey, I want to play, I'm going to be there for the wildcard round.
00:15:19You're taking away Ben Rice's bat because you would be DH and judge. You couldn't put him in the
00:15:24outfield in a compromised state that he'd be with his calf. What's that risk factor in discussion
00:15:30like for the Yankees? Because this seems like, this seems like real quick. Ben Rice is playing
00:15:35no matter what. Well, I think he'll just play first base instead of Goldschmidt, but he hasn't
00:15:39played first base at all. Really? The last like couple of months he's been playing DH. I don't
00:15:42think they're taking Ben Rice's bat out of the lineup. Maybe, maybe, I don't know. The answer is
00:15:47it makes everything trickier. It's why one of the questions right away being asked as judge started
00:15:54to get closer to healing from his rib situation, which again, they were very squirrely about for
00:16:00a long time and didn't give any kind of real updates on much publicly, but, uh, was, is he
00:16:09a right fielder when he comes back? Because obviously the Yankees are set up with a triangle
00:16:14of Goldschmidt, Garcia, and Rice were only two out of three can play in any game. And I think
00:16:21we've clearly seen down the stretch here as Rice has continued to do damage in general
00:16:26and to left handers included, uh, in it in specific and Goldschmidt's numbers have remained
00:16:31very strong against lefties while Garcia has really struggled down the stretch here that
00:16:36if everyone were healthy, judge was going to play right. Goldschmidt was going to play first
00:16:40and judge, um, Rice was going to DH and Garcia would be first, first main lefty off the bench
00:16:48to hit, uh, in a big spot. And so, uh, without that, you know, they're going to have to make
00:16:55some decisions, you know, Elio Ramos has hit a lot better. He's even hit a couple of homers
00:17:01off of right-hand pitchers late in the season. Uh, the games are at Yankee stadium. So you
00:17:07could hide him a little better in right, the small right field, uh, if you want to play him
00:17:12and right. And then, you know, my suspicion is it will be Goldschmidt, uh, will play first
00:17:18and, um, and Rice will DH and Garcia will be on the bench. Uh, cause cause I'll be curious
00:17:25what Boston does. I have a feeling they're going to stay away from Sonny Gray, which means
00:17:29it will be two or three lefty starters in the first round of the playoffs. And then a bunch
00:17:33of lefty relievers and they're trying to beat the clock with Garrett crochet to see if he could
00:17:38come back, but you see how tricky that is. Like, look how tricky it's been for Clark Schmidt
00:17:41trying to come back from missing a long period of time. You know, we always think like they're
00:17:47healed and now they're back, but you've got to go from, from mild speed to the biggest speed
00:17:54in the world where it comes to baseball. And that changes the physical dynamic and performance
00:18:00and ability to stay healthy. So we'll see, but even without crochet, the Red Sox are blessed
00:18:05with a ton of very good lefty pitching from their starters, right down to closer or all
00:18:10this Chapman. And so the Yankees going to see a ton of it over two or three days, uh, you
00:18:16know, next week, uh, Tuesday, Wednesday, and maybe Thursday. So, uh, you know, I would suspect
00:18:22that's how they'll line up unless like something changes again, down the stretch where suddenly
00:18:26Garcia gets really hot again and they have to rethink it. Uh, so just from what you're saying
00:18:32right now, and this is, again, you have no idea. We have no idea. Would it be your best
00:18:38guess that Aaron judge would not be playing in the wildcard round?
00:18:42Yeah. I hate to guess on, on physical stuff. I've covered the game for a long time. Uh,
00:18:49calf injuries don't feel like something you'd come back from in less than two weeks. Uh,
00:18:55am I right? Didn't, uh, both Lindor and Soto had calf and even Soto's, which wasn't as big a grade
00:19:04as Lindor's was, was what three weeks. And that was, that was quick for a calf injury. And once again,
00:19:14this is not just any athlete on a healing calf. It's a six foot seven, 280 ish pound, uh, mountain
00:19:24of a
00:19:24human who does everything with incredible force and to simply put him in compromised, I think would
00:19:32be a mistake. You know, they're going to have to, you know, try to be the Knicks making it to
00:19:37the,
00:19:37to the finals without Patrick Ewing. And what was that? 99, 2000, uh, you know, where everyone else
00:19:43rallied around it and they played very well. The American league stinks. Uh, uh, they've been the
00:19:50second best team in the American league all year that has included a half a season without judge
00:19:55already. Uh, they, you know, excuses are for, uh, losers. Uh, everyone is going to be down somebody.
00:20:05Obviously they're going to be down an incredibly important player, maybe the best hitter in the
00:20:09world. Find a way to beat Boston, find a way to beat Tampa Bay. And if you do, you might
00:20:15be lined up
00:20:16with a real patsy in the ALCS, uh, because the other part of the drawer in the American league is
00:20:22soft. Hey, you know, there's not going to be any, Hey, poor you guys. Like I get it. It's very
00:20:30crap
00:20:30shooty. One of these years, you got to win it. And, uh, uh, the Yankees are still no less and
00:20:39probably
00:20:40more talented than any other team in the American league, even without judge. And, uh, it will be
00:20:47up to the rest of that group, especially their starting pitchers to prove that over the, over
00:20:54the next few weeks, or maybe by Wednesday night, you and I are doing an emergency, uh, a week from
00:21:00Wednesday night, me and you are doing an emergency pinstripe post about their season being over and a
00:21:05lot of uncertainty moving forward. Yeah. Uh, it's just, it's crazy how it it's all going to come
00:21:10down to now this three game set that's coming up with the Red Sox. Um, just to finish up this
00:21:15judge
00:21:15stuff, uh, before I ask my final question, I do want to ask you this one too. Would it shock
00:21:23you if
00:21:24judge is playing DH game one of the wildcard round? Uh, not shock, but surprised. Okay. Yes. Unless look,
00:21:35I don't know about you, but I, I think the Yankees have lost the right, not for us to be
00:21:44suspicious about everything they do when it comes to injuries in general. And this player in specific,
00:21:49when he was wincing, I think it was against Minnesota. It did not look like he was wincing
00:21:55with a calf injury, right? Like that did not. So I'm not even sure I believe them about anything.
00:22:02I mean, I'm going to believe them because doctors have to sign off on this and you have to put
00:22:06something on the IL, uh, you know, documentation and like no doctor's going to say it's his hip
00:22:12bone if it's his forearm. Uh, but it's also possible that there's other stuff going on. Uh,
00:22:20and so I just, it's a calf, it's a calf. I just, I, and, and, and again, I don't want
00:22:30to play doctor
00:22:30on TV. I am basing this totally on what I am reading from others. Apparently the region of the
00:22:37calf that he's struggling with is that lower part of the calf that connects to the Achilles. And that,
00:22:45that like, that was the kind of calf injury Kevin Durant tried to play with in the, what was it
00:22:50in
00:22:50the NBA finals against Toronto when he was with golden state and he tore the Achilles. And so the
00:22:57last thing you want to do is compromise judge where next year becomes in issue. Also, I understand how
00:23:03much it's probably killing him not to play. I understand what a domineering personality he is
00:23:09and how the Yankees do some kowtowing to him. If he has to be protected from himself, then you
00:23:15swallow, you protect him from himself because playing, playing a compromised guy who's hardly
00:23:22hit the last two years. Like maybe you get your, uh, your, uh, you know, Kirk Gibson moment,
00:23:29or maybe you get a torn Achilles and you have nothing but regrets because you know, you didn't do the
00:23:35right thing. And he's wearing it, right? Like he, you could see how much he wants to, of course,
00:23:41he's wearing it again. I go back to how ridiculous it is for anyone to think that Aaron judge, like
00:23:47going back to 2018, when he had the wrist injury to, by the way, to just watch him play is
00:23:54to know
00:23:54he wants to play. Right. I I've covered his entire career. Like he's not faking it. He feels gigantic
00:24:01responsibility to lead this team in every way. He understands the absent mark on his hall of fame
00:24:11bound career is the lack of a title and the lack of a great soup to nuts post-season. Those
00:24:17are,
00:24:17that's all that's missing. He's got three MVPs. He's got a ton of money. He's got recognitions as one
00:24:24of the greatest players on the all time franchise, right? Like to be a top five to 10 Yankee all
00:24:30time
00:24:30is like to be a top five to 10 song of all time. You know, like this, this is what
00:24:35it is. He's got
00:24:36everything else and he's a smart guy. And so he knows what's missing from this. So is he dying
00:24:43inside? Of course he's dying inside because how many he's 35 now, how many more opportunities
00:24:49are there going to be, especially with the American league, this piss poor where you might have a run
00:24:55and the Dodgers are a little more compromised than they've been in the past though. If you want to
00:24:59talk about them, I still think they're lined up great to, to win again this year, but, um, yeah,
00:25:06I mean, opportunities are precious. Championships are precious. And I think he's about to miss some or
00:25:14all of a post season in a very finite profession. Yeah. Uh, my life's got to kill it, man. And
00:25:22by the
00:25:23way, to know what kills them is to know, like, you could tell us about your injuries. We know you
00:25:26care. We know you're not soaking it up on the IL just to like hang out on the side. We
00:25:33know you want
00:25:33to play the, uh, the, the eagerness and the, the way he's gone about this specific injury, meaning
00:25:43the rib coming back from it. Uh, and the fact that he chose not to do the rehab games and
00:25:49the fact that
00:25:49he pushed to play a lot more early on and to push, to be in the outfield over the DH
00:25:55spot.
00:25:57I don't know, Joel, does it open them up for criticism here in the way he went about it?
00:26:00No, no, no. I, I, the desire to play the, the adult in the room always has to be the
00:26:07Yankees.
00:26:08I know that it feels like the, it does seem like the inmate runs the asylum a little bit.
00:26:14You can, this is another moment where Aaron Boone should say, no, I'm going to tell everybody what's
00:26:20going on with the injuries. I'm not going to mess with my credibility by acting. Like, I don't know
00:26:25the grade of your injury. Like, and I'm not going to play you it. Like, I feel like he
00:26:30did feel, I don't think Aaron Boone's thought was to play judge as much as he played him. I think
00:26:36the moment, and I think if this were May, June, July, he doesn't, but the calendar was dwindling.
00:26:44The desperation to try to catch the raise was palpable. The offense was performing a little
00:26:51better, but like still not fully formed. And I think the Yankees did get ahead of themselves
00:26:58and play him more than they probably intended to play him. That being said, there is some Monday
00:27:06morning quarterbacking in that because I'm going to assume very strongly that the Yankees are doing
00:27:15with judge post game, that they're doing all the things, having them stand on force plates work,
00:27:19seeing what his range of motion is in a variety of things. And if nothing pops up, judge could turn
00:27:27to them and say, Hey, you're planning to play me six innings today. I played nine yesterday and I
00:27:32walked out of it a hundred percent. What are we doing here? And you know, like, it feels like the
00:27:37noble thing. I probably told the story before and I might get the number of rehab starts wrong,
00:27:42but I think in 96, David Cohen had an aneurysm, uh, in his, uh, in his armpit kind of shoulder
00:27:49area
00:27:50and how to have it removed. And it, that was like late April, early May, and he missed four months.
00:27:57And, and, and like the rib, it was a rip back then a very rare injury for a baseball player
00:28:04to have
00:28:04what he had. His fingers turned cold and blue. The circulation wasn't good. They do the surgery
00:28:12and he made a re at least one rehab start. Did he make a second? I think the plan was
00:28:18three and he did
00:28:19two and Bob Watson was the general manager of the team. And he met with Bob Watson and it's the
00:28:26Yankees
00:28:26had about a 10, 12 game lead at the all-star break on the Orioles, second place Orioles. And it
00:28:31was down
00:28:32to like two or three by, by about labor day, by the beginning of September and David Cohn, who,
00:28:38who like Aaron judge, he was kind of the unspoken captain of that team in so many ways and was
00:28:45a
00:28:45gamer and wanted to be on the field said to Bob Watson, I only have so many bullets left.
00:28:51Firing them in the minor leagues is ridiculous. Let me pitch. And Bob Watson agrees. And David Cohn goes
00:28:59out and threw seven no hit innings on labor day in Oakland. And that's how he comes back. And that's
00:29:05a Kirk Gibson moment. So we all, Oh, what about, you know, like, so you can't applaud that because
00:29:09he's a gamer and wants to be back and then be critical of this. And of course, Cohn helped them
00:29:14win a world series in 96. And I'm sure in his mind, this is what Aaron judge is thinking he's
00:29:20doing
00:29:20literally 30 years exactly later, which is I'm coming back around labor day after missing a lot of the
00:29:27season because the team really could use me. I could use the 60 to 75 plate appearances I'm going
00:29:35to get for the most important games. We can still catch the raise, which is like winning a round of
00:29:40the playoffs and avoiding Boston. And I just, I'm not going to be critical of what, what otherwise we
00:29:48would call heroic. And if he didn't come back that quickly, would Bob scummy Yankee fan 367 with the egg
00:29:56avatar go, where is he? Where is he? And then Aaron judge would close up even more about it. So
00:30:02I,
00:30:02I don't want to be critical of it. I want to, I want to honor that an athlete who's making
00:30:07a ton
00:30:07of money felt the responsibility to get back. Yeah, no doubt, Joel. It's, it's the right,
00:30:12right thought process there. Unfortunately, we still got to continue to talk about other injuries
00:30:17for the Yankees because jazz Chisholm seems to be working his way back. I believe he's going to be
00:30:23activated tomorrow against the raise. It sounds like that begs the question, how do the Yankees
00:30:28handle this infield? Because right now it is a black hole at third base and Anthony Volpe has been
00:30:33playing pretty well. Okay. At second base you know, he's had some hits and I think he's done a decent
00:30:40job at second base defensively, but you're going up against the lefties. Jazz was losing playing time
00:30:46against the lefties towards the middle of the year, towards the end of the year here.
00:30:50And Volpe is the right-handed bat that you would hope to get in the lineup against the lefty.
00:30:56How do they handle that situation with jazz making his return?
00:31:01So, uh, I'll start with this, uh, until I see otherwise, and both guys will probably play
00:31:09because there's a double header tomorrow. I, and that, I think Jose Caballero is the third
00:31:13baseman of the Yankees and either nobody bothered to ask that question in Arizona, or they're trying to
00:31:19cover it up because, uh, I can't remember a time where it wasn't like an injury arrest where
00:31:25a right-hand pitcher was on the mound, like Corbin Burns and McMahon wasn't in the lineup.
00:31:30But cause the problem for McMahon isn't that he isn't hitting. He almost never hits. It's that he's
00:31:35not fielding well. And if I'm not going to get either thing from him, like, I don't know what's
00:31:40happened to him on bunt plays, but like, if they're advanced scouting the Yankees and he's playing
00:31:48third base, you should bunt against him. Uh, and so if I'm not getting any defensive advantage from
00:31:53McMahon, I might as well put Caballero in and hope he, you know, the guy does have 13, 14 homers
00:32:00this
00:32:00year, Caballero, maybe he'll crack one. And again, I'll just put McMahon on the bench. And if I need
00:32:07a second or third lefty to hit at some point during a game, and I got to double switch him
00:32:12into the game,
00:32:13I'm going to do that. And so I think the likelihood is that Rosario Caballero were going to play anyway,
00:32:19cause it's going to be all lefty starters for Boston. But I think if the Yankees advance and
00:32:25play Tampa Bay and they're facing righty starters, I don't, unless something changes, I mean, Ryan
00:32:32McMahon, who I think I've defended a lot on these, uh, webcasts, uh, because I value defense
00:32:40as such a precious thing, especially at third base with left-handed starting pitching like the
00:32:45Yankees have, I can't make a case for it. If he's not going to field at a high level.
00:32:51Yeah. Uh, if, if that's what happens at third, what happens at second is jazz, the everyday second
00:32:58baseman, uh, in the playoffs. Well, I think there's not a lot of time left, but I do, I did.
00:33:06We we've
00:33:07talked about this before and it's not the out that the second best outcome that could happen to the
00:33:13Yankees is about to happen. The first, and I mean, it's miles ahead of the second was catching the
00:33:19raise and winning the division, having the best. It's going to be the best record in the league.
00:33:24So you get the number one seat. So you not only avoid round one, but everything goes through the
00:33:29Bronx as far as home field advantage for as long as you're in the playoffs. So that with a bullet
00:33:33was way ahead. The second thing was total clarity with about a week to go. And so I think the
00:33:40magic
00:33:41numbers kind of won both ways for them to be eliminated by Tampa Bay and them to eliminate
00:33:46Boston's chance to finish second with that, the case they could use this week as some kind of
00:33:53advanced spring training to do whatever they want. If they want to see Volpe play some third base,
00:34:00if they want to see Chisholm get a lot of at bats. And I think you use the week, you
00:34:07see where
00:34:08everybody's at, and then you're going to have a tough decision sometime before Tuesday. And I assume
00:34:14it will be an eight o'clock start for a playoff game, 8 p.m. Eastern on, you know, a
00:34:18week from
00:34:18tomorrow about what it is. I think we heard a lot of stuff that turned out probably not to be
00:34:28true
00:34:28about the 2026 Yankees. One of them was that they learned their lesson last year and they weren't
00:34:34going to leave things on the table. They left all the same stuff on the table in the middle of
00:34:38the
00:34:38season and aren't going to win a division again because of it. So forget that. And all the stuff we
00:34:44heard about ruthlessness, some of that went away also. Nothing but ruthless decisions from here
00:34:49until the last moment of the season, whether that's a loss of the Canyon of Heroes. He, Aaron Boone,
00:34:56like I know most Yankee fans will say, oh, he's never getting fired. He, whether he is or he isn't,
00:35:02he should manage like his job is on the line and really go with his baseball gut. If he thinks
00:35:09that Anthony Volpe gives him the best chance to win, play him. If he thinks Jazz Chisholm gives
00:35:16him the best chance to win, play him. Play who you think gives you the best chance to win at
00:35:20DH,
00:35:21at third base, in right field, whether to bring Trent Grisham back from the IL without any major league
00:35:27at bats down the stretch. Like this has to be utter ruthlessness because it's in Yankee years in
00:35:37specific. It's been a long time without a championship. There is a team almost every
00:35:43year who just outplays them in the AL East and wins the division. They get in, but somebody outplays
00:35:49them almost always. And that team last year eliminated them in the division series. This
00:35:56year, that team is sitting, waiting for potentially them in the division series. You got to win in the
00:36:02playoffs this year. You got to be ruthless, figure out as crap shooty as it all is. And I'm here.
00:36:10It's tough to win in the playoffs, but at some point you got to get the chip and they, and
00:36:17whatever
00:36:17decision you think gets you the chip. I don't care who you piss off. I don't care about what
00:36:23friendships you lose. You've got to make the most ruthless decisions from here to the end of the
00:36:28season. You hinted at the next question for me, Joel. Trent Grisham doesn't sound like he's going
00:36:32to make a return before the regular season ends. And if they want to activate him for the playoffs
00:36:38without any baseball being played in the last couple of weeks, Spencer Jones has been arguably
00:36:44your second best hitter behind Ben Rice the last month. Would you sit him in the playoffs in the
00:36:49wildcard round for Trent Grisham?
00:36:53I mean, I can't even come up with a way to get Grisham back on the roster if Jones is
00:36:59going to
00:36:59play. Because remember, it's 14 now. You're going to, well, in the wildcard round, you'll probably
00:37:05still go with 14 position players and 12 pitchers. That's traditionally the thing. Could you try to sneak
00:37:12a 15 and 11? I don't know. There's, I think two, am I right? There's two off days this time
00:37:20time. Well, there's no, you've got to play three straight days, but then there's an off day to
00:37:24the division. So I, I wouldn't screw around. I'd go with 12 pitchers just in case you have extra
00:37:29inning games or anything. And if, again, if you've got to hurt Trent Grisham's feelings, by the way,
00:37:33if you've got to hurt Trent Grisham and Jazz Chisholm's feelings, they're both free agents anyway.
00:37:38And you could, you'll deal with it. I just feel like if Aaron Boone, now Aaron Boone probably feels a
00:37:48lot different than you and me and probably puts a lot more stock in a veteran and feeling like they
00:37:57can handle a big, big spot. I don't know that I want to put Trent Grisham, who sometimes has trouble
00:38:04getting to full speed in a full speed moment as his first moment back when I'm on life support from
00:38:11the first pitch a week from Tuesday. It's, uh, it's going to be fascinating to see how they,
00:38:17they make, but we got a week. I know. And Ryan, my line to you has been walked for three
00:38:21years.
00:38:22These problems generally solve themselves because like, even with judge, we were going to have all
00:38:26of these issues, right? Then judge gets hurt. So now you've got, you actually opened the roster spot.
00:38:32So, uh, let's see them survive the week, uh, fully whole or, and, or get Grisham and, or get Chisholm
00:38:42back and everybody else stay healthy. And then we'll see how they line up Tuesday. But, but sitting
00:38:47here today, I think it's a pretty hard case for me to make that in 2026, Trent Grisham did enough
00:38:57that unless, and by the way, Jones has been striking out a ton again recently, like it's
00:39:03conceivable. Like could Spencer Jones strike his way out the rest of the week? And then you feel
00:39:08like, uh, it's all lefty pitching and like, like really great scouting reports that everyone follows
00:39:14to a tee in a playoffs, not like a June 17th, Tuesday night, and I'm tired and I'm not listening
00:39:18in the meeting. Uh, and I don't, I still would put Jones out there because when the ball occasionally
00:39:25hits his bat, it goes very far, but, uh, um, yeah, I, I just think it's a hard road for
00:39:32you to create a scenario where fully healthy the rest of the way for anyone who's healthy
00:39:37today and, and Chisholm and Grisham both get healthy that Grisham should be put on the
00:39:42roster. Joel, uh, it's, it's a great question. And like you said, sometimes these things,
00:39:49maybe Ryan McMahon's expense, right? Like if you're going to live with Caballero and Rosario
00:39:53against any type of pitching against Boston, do you want to make Grisham the X? Cause then
00:39:58you'll say like, I'd rather have Grisham as the left-hand hitter off the left-hand hitter
00:40:02off the bench. Then yeah. Then McMahon. Yeah. I mean, that's a pathway. And because then
00:40:08you, that's another reason to play Volpe at third base a couple of times this week, once
00:40:12you're actually officially eliminated is to say, okay, like we between among Volpe, Rosario
00:40:19and Caballero, I got three guys. I'd rather play at third base lefty or righty than McMahon.
00:40:25Then you could put Grisham back on as a left-handed bat.
00:40:27And you wouldn't, you wouldn't suspect the Yankees to try to put Garcia at second base
00:40:32either in jazz at third, zero shot, zero shot of that. Right. Yeah. No, right. I mean,
00:40:36some of the, not even doing it. Some of the fans are asking questions in the comments,
00:40:39Joel. I just want to make sure. I, I, I get it. I understand the fantasy baseball of the vacation
00:40:45of everything, but the guy literally isn't even doing it in batting practice and to say,
00:40:50oh, you know, we're going to play the biggest games possible. Just go play a position. You've
00:40:53never played or a position you haven't played in a year. Cause we want to shove as many bats in
00:40:57as possible. You know, I, and by the way, you were terrible at it the last time we saw you.
00:41:04So like
00:41:04here, we're going to do terrible on steroids. Cause you also haven't played it at all. And you're
00:41:09not practicing. You know, I hear it also, trust me, I pass lots of people on the street who
00:41:14some, you know, occasionally I got recognized and I, uh, hear the, uh, how come Ben Rice isn't
00:41:20catching? And I'm like, I, I don't know. He goes, you got to squat for three hours.
00:41:25There's still people on that one. Cause he hasn't squatted for, for, for one second in 10 months.
00:41:31And now you want him to do it for three hours in the biggest games of the season and risk
00:41:34his bat.
00:41:35That seems so. Yeah. You got to live with the roster and what guys have been doing.
00:41:40Joel. I feel like we should take some of these Yankees fans questions. There's a lot of them
00:41:44here in the chat. So this one I want to start out with is from MPN 816. He asked, Joel,
00:41:50is there a
00:41:50sense of concern around the recent struggles around Hedrick with his low velocity recently
00:41:55and Blackburn with their workloads this season, going into the biggest games of the season in
00:42:01the playoffs with their effectiveness? Uh, yes. Yes. I mean, that's just been a factor, but
00:42:09they spent over two months not hitting and they're playing close games and to even be in the position
00:42:18where they could assure being the wild card who hosts, they needed to win games and they didn't
00:42:24have a lengthy bullpen. They had those two guys pitching well and without them pitching well in
00:42:30that period and pitching often, you wouldn't be in an advantageous spot right now, as far as at least
00:42:35wild card. So I understand that. And again, I'll hearken to 1996. It's 30 years ago. It's a season.
00:42:41I know. Well, I wrote a book about, um, the Yankees won the world series for a bunch of reasons
00:42:48that
00:42:48year. Among them is like, you could not have pitched worse from when the Yankees acquired them
00:42:53to the end of the regular season. Then Graham Lloyd did that year. And without Graham Lloyd,
00:42:58they don't win the world series. By the way, Ryan Weathers, father, David was acquired to be a
00:43:04starter, pitched terribly, didn't pitch much better during the regular season out of the bullpen,
00:43:10then was nails in the postseason. So was a guy named Brian Bowringer, who was nobody's idea of
00:43:15like even being John Schreiber. So my, my point is in a very contained period of time,
00:43:24uh, guys will either perform like they did all year or we'll be shocked by who the stars are and
00:43:30who pitches well and who pitches poorly. You know, like the reality is David Bednar has probably been
00:43:36a top five closer this year in the major leagues. Maybe he's going to eliminate them by blowing a
00:43:42game Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday. And then, you know, it's just the reality. Yeah. You know,
00:43:48it's, or he's John wetland for them. Hopefully like you've said before on this show. Yeah. Right. In nine,
00:43:53in 95 buck show Walter ran away from wetland and 96 wetland saved all four Yankee wins in the world
00:44:00series and was the world series MVP. And so short series bring out crazy results. Uh, and if you
00:44:09told me Hedrick was unusable, I'd go sure. And if you told me he was nails, I'd go sure. Uh,
00:44:16Joel,
00:44:16I got another question for you. Doran hammer says, Joel, do you start Max freed or Garrett goal in game
00:44:23two? Yeah. Um, I think you start Cole, uh, uh, and
00:44:35is a little bit the pedigree of it, Garrett Cole. And I maybe stupidly feel like Garrett Cole will
00:44:43figure out a way to when he hands the ball to a reliever, the Yankees will be in the game,
00:44:49regardless of whatever his troubles have been recently. Is there a danger point there? Of
00:44:54course he's been, was Homer susceptible for those few games? I'm going to bet on the man. Uh,
00:45:01I'm going to bet on the moment. Uh, I'm going to invest in Garrett Cole. Uh, but I feel like
00:45:08I have,
00:45:08but I would rather feel like I have two good choices than a dilemma. I'll, I'm not going to get
00:45:16perfection. Freed has not been stretched out. Great still yet. You know, like where you feel
00:45:21fully, whatever, and what is ever going on with Cole is going on with Cole, but they're Max freed
00:45:25and Garrett Cole there. When it comes to games two and three, few teams would be able to match you
00:45:31for sheer ability with those two guys. And so you could see it as a dilemma, or you can see
00:45:37it as
00:45:38an opportunity is the fact that the Red Sox, there's a lot of bad history. We're calling the Red Sox
00:45:45as a Yankee. I see it, but if it's not to a sitting in game three, and I know the
00:45:52next question
00:45:52from a Yankee fan will be, why not Rodan in three? Uh, the answer is nobody will have much of
00:45:59a leash
00:45:59except for maybe Schlittler. Uh, and if Cole's in trouble, I would expect Rodan will be in a game
00:46:06very quick. You know, a reliever will finish an inning and Cole and Rodan will be in a game,
00:46:10uh, very quickly. Uh, I, I would bet on Garrett Cole cause he's Garrett Cole and that's not,
00:46:21I always try to be a little more educated and have good reasons for something than that.
00:46:27Um, and the good reason would be, he's still a very high quality starting pitcher in the major
00:46:32leagues who had a couple of bad starts. I'm going to, uh, bet on Garrett Cole.
00:46:37Next question for you, Joel Glenn Denigree 1996 asks any chance the Yankees bring up Carlos
00:46:43LaGrange this week as a tryout? Yeah, again, this is an interesting week because they're going to be
00:46:50spring training games. Uh, the one thing to remember is if you, uh, bring him up, somebody's
00:46:58got to go probably off your, off your roster and is lost. Now you can say who gives a damn
00:47:03if you lose
00:47:04Michael Fulmer except for if LaGrange doesn't pitch, Michael Fulmer still might be a guy who,
00:47:10if you're winning a game six to one in a playoffs, like a playoff game might be able to give
00:47:14you an
00:47:14inning or two. Like I understand you're not going to bring them into a big spot. Also I'm fascinated
00:47:21by LaGrange and I covered the 2002 post-season, which includes the angels beating the Yankees
00:47:29and friend and Francisco Rodriguez K rod. I think only pitched like five games in September that
00:47:36year. And then was a sensation in the post-season for the only angel championship ever. So can,
00:47:42you know, I don't think Ryan Weathers is even going to pitch this week coming up. And I think he
00:47:46is going to be, if not on the roster for the Boston series, I think he'll be on the roster
00:47:52if they get
00:47:52through to Tampa Bay. Okay. If he's healthy, if he's healthy, if, if the reason he's being slowed
00:47:58down, see like his, it never jived with me that he would pitch during the regular season again,
00:48:05because I know pretty much what the Yankee schedule for rehab is to get a guy, how many
00:48:12batting practices, how many like, like side sessions, batting practice, rehab games. And I guess
00:48:18like, could they speed it up a little? Yes, but it was never going to be speeded up enough for
00:48:22him
00:48:22to get into a game to me. And so he's not going to get into a game. Having said that,
00:48:29would you
00:48:29rather Ryan Weathers blind or Tim Hill, who's become home run susceptible as the second lefty
00:48:36right now? You know, this is the moment where you just, there's going to be some rolling of the
00:48:41dice. By the way, I'm suggesting the same thing. When the White Sox bring in Garrett Crochet,
00:48:47the White Sox, the Red Sox bring in Garrett Crochet. If Garrett Crochet is on the roster,
00:48:53is Garrett Crochet coming in or a shadow of Garrett Crochet coming in? Like that's a roll
00:48:58of the dice. Also, they're not the only team that's going to be doing this. There are some guys who
00:49:04are
00:49:04not going to fully beat the clock and might be on a post-season roster. And it's going to be
00:49:08because
00:49:08of their ability, their pedigree, their name, et cetera. I think it's tough. Logranje at his best
00:49:16is not a command guy and has no major league experience. And what can he do? Let's say he
00:49:29came into a game Thursday and Sunday and went six up, six down, six strikeouts.
00:49:36I guess that puts him on the roster, right? That's so great. Would you feel good about it
00:49:41the first time he showed up in a playoff game after facing six major league hitters in his life?
00:49:46Maybe a little better than if it was Michael Fulmer or John Trebek. But you're not going to feel like,
00:49:51oh my God, there goes a dude for sure. I mean, it's like a mystery guest and it's a talented
00:49:58mystery guest. And that's why I'm suggesting Ryan Weathers, who does have lots of major league
00:50:02experience. I'm willing to roll the dice with a major league proven mystery guest,
00:50:08Garrett Crochet, Ryan Weathers over the other thing. But if you told me simply that Logranje looks
00:50:16really good right now and looked good this week in two appearances, I'll bring him in instead of
00:50:21Michael Fulmer. Very fair, Joel. Very fair. And like you said, this is going to be a weird week
00:50:26where the Yankees are going to try to do a lot of things. They're going to try to keep Max
00:50:30Freed
00:50:30in the game longer though, to build his innings up, right? I mean, you wouldn't stop that or pause
00:50:36that, would you? I think we're going to see abbreviated starts this week. Right. And I would
00:50:41get that for Cam Schlittler and I guess Garrett Cole, but with Freed, he's not fully built up yet.
00:50:46Wouldn't you want to let him get a full run of like 95 pitches? He's at what? 75, 80.
00:50:50I would think that's where he'll be with the feeling that if he's at 75, 80 comfortably,
00:50:56he could give you a 90 to a hundred in a playoff game. Like I, I think the last thing
00:50:59they want
00:51:00to do is push and get in. Like, like they're already dealing with the big guy being injured.
00:51:04They're, they're going to treat once everything is settled and everything could be settled right
00:51:09by tomorrow night. Right. Like the Yankees win one of the games and Tampa Bay wins one of the games.
00:51:19They eliminate Boston and Tampa Bay eliminates them. So we can know by tomorrow night it's over.
00:51:24I think Wednesday becomes the third preseason NFL game for the Yankees till Sunday, where it's like,
00:51:31if you see starters, it will be in somewhat limited capacity where it's like, I'm going to give you a
00:51:38two series at the quarterback three series and then pull you because I got to make sure that when
00:51:44the games really begin, you're behind center. How many other sports can I get in here?
00:51:51I don't know. That's a good one though. Um, I, I want to ask you about, uh, this Yankees heading,
00:51:58this Yankees team hanging into the post season. The fact that it sounds like they're going to be
00:52:02doing it without their best hitter, their best player, Aaron judge. Can this Yankees team make
00:52:07it interesting, Joel? And by, I don't mean just interesting for the viewer. I mean, for the fans
00:52:12to actually make a run here because of the weak American league, you're going up against the
00:52:16gauntlet of the AL East with the Red Sox and the race. Can the Yankees do real damage and make
00:52:23it
00:52:23interesting even without Aaron judge? Uh, the short answer obviously is yes. Uh, fickle things happen in
00:52:32a post season. I will say this is the worst I have felt about the team all year is right
00:52:39now going
00:52:39into the playoffs. A large chunk of that is no judge, but the other part is they got sloppy with
00:52:47the ball again late in the year. Uh, that Lombard has done the spectacular, but botched a lot of stuff.
00:52:56Uh, Jones and center field has botched a lot of stuff. Uh, it's the middle of the
00:53:01diamond. I think they're better than the alternatives. I think Lombard is better than
00:53:06Volpe and probably Caballero. I think Jones is better than Grisham. Uh, and I think you're just
00:53:14going to have to live with it and hope it doesn't kill you, but like them, the Yankees on bunt
00:53:21plays,
00:53:22I don't like, I would be doing that this week. If I were the Yankees, I'd be on the field.
00:53:28Like it
00:53:28was February at Steinbrenner field and doing some PFP because their handling of bunts has been
00:53:34terrible. Uh, and I work on some of that. Uh, having said that myopic is a word I use a
00:53:45lot on
00:53:46this show. Uh, because we, we, in my case, I watch a ton of Yankees and a ton of Mets
00:53:51and you could
00:53:52sometimes lose sight that the Yankees have had the pretty much either the best or for the long period
00:53:58of time, the second best record in the American league means almost everybody else is playing
00:54:02worse than them for a long period of time. So other teams, the, you know, the Red Sox haven't
00:54:07played well now for a, for a period of time, uh, they're not hitting. Uh, so they're going to come
00:54:13in with pathologies. Also, we're just much more aware of the Yankee pathologies. The one thing the
00:54:19Red Sox definitely have is a lot of lefty pitching and the Yankees are going to have to have,
00:54:25even for in a best two out of three, I think to win the series, some of their left-hand
00:54:32hitters
00:54:32have to leave the ballpark that, that the ballpark is made for them. The lineup is built
00:54:38around the best players are lefty hitters pretty much. And there's gotta be an Austin Wells left
00:54:44on left moment, a Ben Rice left on left moment. If he plays Chisholm, a left on left moment,
00:54:49because they're going to be in the game and they're going to face lefty pitching. And while the
00:54:54Yankees have done a little better recently of getting guys on base, they're not great at getting
00:54:58them all in. And the, the best thing they do is put a ball over the wall. And if they
00:55:05don't,
00:55:05if their left-hand hitters don't, we know they're not going to get any probably from their biggest
00:55:09right-hand hitter, unless there's some, you know, he went to some German doctor, you know, in,
00:55:16in Munich and got a mystery cure over the last 72 hours, I would assume you're not going to see
00:55:22a judge in at least this series. So their most proficient homer hitter isn't in their second,
00:55:30most proficient homer hitter has essentially not played this year in Stanton, who has been a great
00:55:35post-season player and is right-handed and would have caused some threat against lefty pitching.
00:55:39You're taking that off. You're putting it a lot on the lefties, on Bellinger, on Rice, on Chisholm,
00:55:46on Jones, et cetera. Some of them got to leave the yard, man. Some of them over two or three
00:55:52days
00:55:52against Boston, got to go left on left and get the ball out of the park. Well, luckily they have
00:55:57Yankee stadium and they got the short portion, right? And they got the home field. Yeah. Yeah.
00:56:02You know, a final thing, Joel here. M bomb Bay is makes a prediction. Let's get your thoughts
00:56:08here. First game versus the Red Sox in the wildcard round, leading off Goldschmidt playing
00:56:12first, Bellinger batting second, playing left, Ben Rice, the DH batting third, Elliot Ramos
00:56:17cleaning up in right field, Lombard at short, Volpe at second, Rosario at third with Wells
00:56:23catching and Caballero in center field. Would they do that? I mean, I guess it's possible.
00:56:30I think he'll play Jones in center field against the lefties, at least in game one. Look, you know,
00:56:36here's the thing is not long ago, the wildcard round was single elimination.
00:56:40Yeah. Now, now going down one, nothing is incredibly perilous because you either have a two game winning
00:56:48streak or your season is over, but you do have some ability to watch say Spencer Jones. See,
00:56:54to me, Caballero becomes an interesting chess piece. If it's all seems too big for Lombard or Jones,
00:57:01you could put Caballero on the field in one of the two positions. You can also put Bellinger in center
00:57:07and, you know, like, and, or, you know, if you don't put McMahon on the team, you could put Grisham
00:57:16in center, you know, and he becomes another guy. 2025, Trent Grisham pops some left on left homers
00:57:27and he's hit a lot in a Yankee tenure where the fan base is generally disliked the player for most
00:57:35of the time, except for a period of time last year when he got really, really hot and got the
00:57:39ball
00:57:39out of the park a lot. He has had a lot of big hits. And I, if I were going
00:57:44to say the best thing
00:57:45about Trent Grisham is the moment I watched him hit two homers in a playoff game against the Mets as
00:57:50a,
00:57:50as a Padre, I don't think the moment will scare Grisham if he got the moment. So sitting here
00:57:59today, I would have a hard time justifying Ryan McMahon being on the Yankee post-season roster
00:58:05against Boston, against all that lefty pitching, if Grisham were healthy enough to play. And I
00:58:12believe that Volpe could be part of a third base solution if in a, in a scrap, I needed them
00:58:18to go
00:58:18there and do it. I just, I have a hard time as a fan wanting to believe that Grisham is
00:58:24going to be
00:58:24fully healthy in center field. I feel like he's still going to be compromised there with a hamstring
00:58:29injury. And I said that at the beginning. Yeah, no, I know you would. And I, and I feel also
00:58:34with
00:58:34the, with the Volpe thing at third, it would worry me with his arm and his arm strength throwing across
00:58:39the diamond there as well. It's, but I guess I would ask this question is the Yankees are winning
00:58:44three to two in the eighth inning against Boston, top of the eighth inning. And the way they've
00:58:50switched into the game, he's left with one of these two choices, Volpe at third or Rosario at third.
00:58:57I'd probably play Rosario at third because he's done it more. Okay. Yeah. And I might do that also.
00:59:03And because you're going to get, but I think I trust Rosario's bat more as a righty. Yeah.
00:59:09Well, at that point you're protecting a three, two lead. So you want to do everything you can to
00:59:13protect the lead. I'll say this is it would be wrong if the Yankees get eliminated in the next
00:59:20day or two, if Volpe doesn't play some third base the rest of the way, just so the manager and
00:59:26the
00:59:26coaching staff could see it live. Because again, this is, this is the exhibition season. Now
00:59:32there, you can't move up. You can't move down. You're locked into Tuesday at 8 PM against the Red
00:59:39Sox. You've got to use these last there. There's no such thing as wasted time. There's only people
00:59:47wasting time. The Yankees can't waste their time. Even once they're eliminated from certain things,
00:59:53don't waste time, use the time as wisely as possible. And by the way, if that includes Carlos
00:59:59O'Gran, Hey, pitching an inning on Wednesday and Saturday, Thursday and Sunday, some combination
01:00:05if Clark Schmidt gets healthy enough and you want to see him for two innings twice, like whatever it
01:00:10is, you're going to get a free look for about four or five days. And there's only you waste time.
01:00:18There is no wasted time. It's up to the individual. If you're wasting it or not.
01:00:23Final thoughts, Joel, about Cam Schlittler. Did he lock up the Cy Young for you in the American
01:00:27League? Yeah, especially, I think Cease won't pitch again. Uh, you know, he was going for an MRI of his
01:00:34shoulder. Uh, you know, Schlittler has outpitched him, I think this year, uh, not by a ton maybe,
01:00:40but by enough. Uh, and, uh, I would say this is true about Cease also, you know, Cease dealt with
01:00:48being a weightlifter in a heavily injured rotation. Uh, you know, uh, there were a lot of reasons the,
01:00:54the Jays were damned to not repeat as AL East champs and probably they've got maybe like a 10%
01:01:00chance still to make the playoffs. They need the White Sox to do a lot of losing over the next
01:01:05few
01:01:05days and they have to do a lot of winning. Uh, but, uh, they had a lot of pitching injuries.
01:01:12Guerrero played poorly this year, et cetera. Uh, so he was weightlifter, but Schlittler,
01:01:17I think besides pitching great, you know, no Colin Rodon at the beginning, Rodon went on the
01:01:23injured list, uh, like right again, didn't he have two this year? He had two and three this year as
01:01:30well. Weathers is on it. Like we talked about how heavily used their main bullpen guys were. Imagine
01:01:38if Schlittler isn't giving you 200 innings, what the weight is more. Think about all those one,
01:01:44nothing to one games. He's pitching in the middle of the season where the Yankees are only winning
01:01:48once or twice a week cause they can't score. But Cam Schlittler day is still pretty much win day,
01:01:53uh, for them. Uh, so there's, I don't think he's the most valuable player in the American league,
01:01:59but there's incredible value that you could add to his Cy Young candidacy. And I think he is, uh,
01:02:05you know, the Cy Young award winner, which is again, a remarkable story, you know, like
01:02:13right now the Yankees are under incredible pressure. This administration is under incredible
01:02:17pressure. That pressure should be there. As I say, you got to get the chip some point as unfair as
01:02:23that
01:02:23might be. Got to go get it. One of these years, you can't just tell me how hard it is
01:02:27every year.
01:02:28It's hard for everybody and somebody wins it every year. You've got to win it one of these years.
01:02:32Uh, but when we look back on this season, uh, Schlittler is an incredible success story,
01:02:39mainly about him, but also about the organization. Well said Joel. Uh, and he joins a, an historic
01:02:46list there with a sub two ERA, as long as he doesn't have a crazy blow up here in this
01:02:50next week.
01:02:51Um, it's an incredible season for him. And like you said, it's an incredible story.
01:02:54One of the lowest road ERAs in history. He's, he's been their absolute dominant ace. I look forward
01:03:00to seeing him week, uh, week one game one in the wild card, uh, and facing the Red Sox again
01:03:07in the
01:03:07playoffs, seeing if he can put together another gem, Joel Sherman. This was fun. Yankees fans.
01:03:13Thank you for joining us. If this pinstripe post live show, uh, Joel obviously has made the time
01:03:19for us to, to answer some questions for you guys. We're looking forward to seeing Joel's coverage over
01:03:24the next week. And then we're going to be, before you know it, talking wildcard round Yankees,
01:03:28Red Sox previewing that upcoming matchup, Joel, thank you so much, man. Thanks Ryan. All the best.
01:03:34And thanks everybody for joining us on the on pinstripe post. Keep doing that through the playoffs.
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