Yankees vs Astros | Postgame Recap & Fan Reactions | 8/10/25

Yankees vs Astros | Postgame Recap & Fan Reactions | 8/10/25

[Applause] All right, let’s hit the field. It is Sunday, August 10th, and the Yankees were trying to take two out of three against the rival Houston Astros. Max Freed was on the mound looking for win number 13 on the season. My recap and your reactions coming up next. This is pinstripe territory. Just wanted to talk, that’s all. Oh, somebody kill me, please. I want to die. I’m getting tired of having to play that intro. TK TK, another tough day for the Yankees. Um, let’s start off real quick. They placed Ahmad Rosario on the injured list. So now of their trade deadline acquisitions, Bird is in the minor leagues, Slater’s on the injured list, and now Rosario is on the injured list. So not exactly uh roster bolstering here. Um DK, this just feels like one of those seasons where anything and everything is going wrong. It started when we lost Garrick Cole and it’s just been body blow after body blow since March. So vibe check. Uh are we even feeling like this is a playoff team right now? How you feeling about it? No, I don’t think we’re making the playoffs. Um this feels a lot like 2023 to me. Um and uh just just they they can’t get it together. just they can’t go on a run and I I don’t know how you can expect this team to go on a run the rest of the way. There’s been a large enough sample size now where they’ve been playing poorly and I just have no confidence in them to go on a run. I agree with you 100%. I mean to me they just they look like they’re just kind of going through the motions at this point. I mean we’re seeing a lot of um just lethargic baseball. Just just don’t see the energy on the team. I mean, even guys who typically have the swag like Jazz Chism or whatever, just just not feeling it this year. I mean, I think the reality is just starting to set in for these guys, you know, as they play these teams that are better than them and and beating them like a drum. Hey, probably not our year. Let’s talk about the game real quick. Um, as you can see, the game notes, things went poorly. Uh, so Altuve hit a home run in the first inning. This guy’s the human version of a mosquito. just annoying, drains the life out of me. I’m gonna be so happy when he retires. DK, uh, we had a nice running catch by Chisum. Uh, Walker made it two nothing with a double off the left field wall. I think in a year or so, Dominguez probably catches that ball. Only had a 15% catch probability today, but he has the speed to get there. He almost got there. Max Freed, not good today. And we’ll talk about him more in a minute. We’ll spotlight him, but um, he has kind of been struggling for a few months now. If you look at the numbers, uh, he left after five innings, Yankees down four nothing. The Yankees did get a run. Uh Devin Williams absolutely dominated the sixth inning. Let’s hear for Devin Williams completely dominated in the sixth inning with no pressure. Coincidence? I think not. Um Yankees didn’t even get their first hit until the sixth inning. Ben Rice and they ended up uh losing seven to one. Disgraceful. [Music] Three hits on the day. You had a hit from Rice. You had a hit from Jazz and you had a pinch hit single from John Carlos Stanton. Uh Tim Hill was awful again in the bullpen. I mean, you know, uh well, he he hasn’t been horrible, but someone in the bullpen seems to be awful every day. And today was Tim Hill’s turn. So, uh just any final thoughts on this game in particular? Microcosm for the season. Just lifeless. Uh doesn’t look like they care. I think uh old-timers day, if you caught some of those interviews, I think that was really telling with some of the old old Yankees players coming in and talking about this Yankee team and um some of the comments being like, “No one’s afraid to play us anymore. Sort of lost that mystique, lost the shine on the interlocking NY, the t the Tiffany’s NY, man. They lost the shine.” Um, you know, and I think a lot of I think Jorge Pada said that like they’re not like angry when they lose, you know, that’s kind of just like whatever. Um, and that just shows me a team that I don’t want to say they don’t care because I think every pro alete cares about winning, but there’s definitely this feeling of just sort of like, no, we lost. Okay, let’s move on. We’ll try to win tomorrow, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, Aaron Boon once again gets tossed. I I would love to see him redirect a little bit of that energy inward at his own team to try and spark some guys. You know, I remember when Joe Gerardi would uh not to go back to the Gerardi thing, but whenever he would come out and yell at the umpire or whatever, it seemed like the team would get fired up. Doesn’t seem to have that same effect with Aaron Boon for whatever reason. Uh Max Freed very quietly has been an average pitcher now for a couple of months. Uh he’s got a 6 erra since July 1st. In his first 11 starts, it was 1.29. In his last 13 starts, it is 450. It is now creeping up towards 3.0. For the season, it’s at 2.94. Um just another tough game. I mean, he threw 94 pitches in five innings. He doesn’t seem to be as efficient as he was earlier in the year when he was going, you know, six, seven innings most most times. Uh he was getting quick outs. He’s not getting those quick outs now. He’s He’ll get up 02 in the count and then it’ll be 3-2 and he’ll get three foul balls. He just hasn’t had that putaway pitch. Uh what is your concern level for Max Freed? I’m more concerned about his arm blowing out now the way he’s having to grind every single day. Yeah, I’m somewhat concerned. I think that start that first bad start in LA against the Dodgers, I was actually at that game. Uh I think that kind of was like the first sort of crack in the armor. Um, and then the blister that he had that he I think that kind of accelerated things. Um, obviously he was great the first half of the season, but you know, now again you have like a large sample size of him not being that good. And if I recall, didn’t uh Carlos Rodon kind of have that last season where he was pretty good the first half of the season, then he just sort of fell apart the second half of the season. So sometimes that’s like he’s not in shape where the length of the season has started to kind of get to him a little bit where you know he’s kind of laboring. Every start I feel like he’s laboring like like you said he doesn’t have that putaway pitch or he’s not getting through the fifth inning or is it are his legs tired? So I am concerned but I don’t know man. This season’s like a wash so I don’t even care. All right. Well on that note let’s talk about the season here. State of the Yanks. We had an interesting question yesterday, TK. Uh, with as good as Trent Gisham has been this year, fact that he’s only 28 year years old, do you think the Yankees are going to bring him back? Would you bring him back? Um, I mean, considering we got Spencer Jones, another home run today, he’s working his way up the ladder. He’s probably ready for the major leagues at this point or close to it. You got Cody Bellinger having a great year. He might opt out. He probably will opt out and and the Yankees will want to consider bringing him back either for the outfield or for first base, but I I think that they’re going to want him bring him back, but um what are your thoughts? Do you think they’re going to try and bring Gish back? By the way, Gisham Mo for three with a couple of strikeouts today, but a huge home run yesterday, 813 OPS, career best 21 home runs. Having a good year. Yeah, he’s having a great year. Um I’m not buying it. Sorry. I think that this he’s a career 218 hitter. He’s never been this kind of player. If this is a career year for him, he’s hitting .245. I mean, 20 home 21 home runs, but he plays really good defense, but he’s always been like a glove first a glove first, fourth outfielder. Like, I just think that this is a career peak year. And you guys can say that I’m an idiot for thinking that, but that’s just my opinion. I just don’t I’m not I really hope the Yankees don’t resign him and they just they don’t buy into the Mirage. And if they were going to resign him, they would have probably traded Spencer Jones. Yeah, maybe. So, I’m going to put you on the spot. Um, what’s your outfield for next year? I mean, do you think that they use Spencer Jones in center field? Does Dominguez play left? I mean, do you bring back Bellinger for center field? Does Bellinger slide to first base? Do you trade Spencer Jones in the offseason? How would you approach this if you were Cashman? Um, well, I I first of all, I think Spencer Jones getting called up in September. I, you know, September 12 just to see what he looks like at the major league level, right? Um, I probably I’d love to have Bellinger back and you know, I don’t know what Jo what Judge’s arm is going to look like if he’s going to be able to if this is like the first thing the first kind of thing to come. I don’t know about that. So, it’s funny, right? But I probably go Marshian and left. I’d probably go Jones in center and probably Judge and and right and Bellinger at first and then those kind of all rotate where Bellinger can play outfield or DH and Judge can DH and I’m sort of kind of rotating it but I think that it’s probably a Martian and Lev Jones and center and like Bellinger and right with Judge and those are all kind of rotating through the DH the first base position and and the outfield spot. I think Judge needs to get some reps at first base next year. I think that’s like got to be his ultimate position. One, he’s an enormous target for any infielder, right? And we’ve seen this year that some of our guys need a little bit bigger target over there. McMahon, I think, has solidified third base. I think he’s coming back. I mean, he’s under contract. He’s, you know, uh, a good defender, a little bit of pop at Yankee Stadium. Hopefully, he’ll start hitting some home runs soon. I do think they’ll stick with Vulpi again at shortstop next year, no matter what he does this year because they got Lumbard coming up. So, I think if if Opie fails again next year, you know, V uh you know, Lombard’s in AAA and then Lombard’s the natural successor the following year and four years that’s enough time I mean to see how the Vulpi administration goes. Uh and then um you know, Chisum probably be back at second base. I think first base is a question mark. I mean, you could you could go with Bellinger. You could try Judge there and play Bellinger and right. You could let Ben Rice take over at first base. I think Goldmith’s almost certainly gone. Um, I think Ben Rice could earn the starting catching job next year. Uh, Wells has not shown me a lot this year. I mean, he’s hitting .208 with a 679 OPS. I mean, Rice at least 777 OPS, 231 average. It’s not amazing numbers, but it’s much better than what Wells has given you. And he consistently hits the ball hard. I trust Rice much more as a hitter. He threw out Altuve yesterday. He’s got an arm back there. Um, what are your thoughts on that situation? Yeah, I definitely think that’s on the table and I’m I’m for it. I wouldn’t mind holding on to Wells as like a backup and just having Rice and Wells as the as the catchup. I I could live with that. That’s fine. Wells plays pretty good D and you know he’ll hit one out every once in a while, but um I’m totally fine with Rice. To me, Rice is like a guy that you have to hold on to just because he hits the ball hard all the time. He has been like the most unlucky hitter uh in the league this year. And I always think about Bull Durham that line or Crash Davis. He’s like, you know what the difference between like a 250 hitter and a 300 hitter is? It’s like an extra hit a week. Like a little seeing eye ground ball. Like I really think it’s in there. They just kind of have to keep giving him the run and I think it’ll come back to the means where I wouldn’t be surprised if Ben Rice kind of breaks out next season and hits 270. You know, I 270 25 home runs. I mean, that’s very good for a first baseman or a catcher. Um yeah, I mean I’m in favor of right now I think if I I was actually working on um my lineup for next year just kind of during the game when it was a slow point. I was like how would I set this up? And I actually have Rice as the starting catcher and Wells as the backup, right? And then I’m considering all my options at first base. Right now I’ve got Bellinger pencled in at first base with Jones and center and Judge and right. But I mean you could spare Judge’s legs some by beginning that transition next year. And I don’t think that’s out of the question. He’s played a little bit of first base in spring training, like not during games, but on the side there. It’s not a a overwhelming, it’s not an easy position by any means, but it’s not an overwhelmingly physically taxing position either. Um, I think it’s a good time to start it and then next year you can keep those guys basically healthy. Uh, and then, you know, Wells loses some at bats, which is obviously not ideal for one of your top draft picks, but um, he he just has yet to to prove it, right? Um Devin Williams scoreless inning today, three strikeouts under no pressure. We got a call about that which um I think sums it up pretty well. You know what, Derek? All I have to say is of course Devin Williams struck out the side when it doesn’t matter. Just of course. Of course. Of course. When when the chips are on the line, you can’t count on that guy. He’s definitely gone. It it’s going to be interesting to think about like this and I know we’re still a couple of months away from the offseason, but thinking about this free agent market, you got Michael King, you got Dylan CE, you got Famber Valdez, you got a number of starting pitchers that I could see them try and shore up the rotation with. I don’t see a ton of additions like offensively if they’re not going to go after Tucker, right? And then then there probably no reason to go after Tucker. You could probably get Bellinger who is almost as productive for less money. Um, you I mean you could try and sign Schwarber to play first base and hope he hits 30 some odd home runs, but he can’t. I mean, he’s a DH at this point. I don’t think he’d be any good at first base. I don’t see the Yankees doing that. Uh, I think he goes back to to Philly probably. I mean, there’s just not a lot of offensive upgrades. Maybe Bo Bashette for shortstop, but then you Brock you you block uh Lumbard. It’s just uh it’s going to be tricky to fix this team, man. It’s going to be tricky to fix them. Yeah, it’s it’s really frustrating. Um because I think the whole like philosophy is wrong. It’s to me this is much more of like an organizational issue. Um and I kind of like was thinking about this. So, you know, they put in all the new rules with the pitch clock and the you can only throw over two times in 2023 was the first season that they did that and they missed the playoffs, right? And now they’re kind of on the precipice of missing the playoffs again. Last year they made the World Series, but like who did you play? played the Guardians and the Royals. Give me a break. You didn’t go through Houston. Like, you didn’t really play Baltimore. I remember when when Houston got bounced and Baltimore got bounced and they had a good season. Like, everyone was like, if they don’t make the World Series, it’s an absolute failure. You’re better than Royals or better than Guardians. And you had Juan Sto on your team who’s no longer Yankee. So, that was to me kind of like almost like the worst thing that could have happened to this organization in 20 years because it validated what this front office was doing. Like, see, we made it to the World Series, but it’s like really is the process correct? Is the recipe correct? And I don’t think it is because if you apply the new way that the game is evolving, like Derek, think about all the good young players like PCA. That guy is a lightning fast athlete, right? Okay. Show Otani, freak of nature, but he’s an athlete. I know he doesn’t play the field, but the guy runs the bases really well. Uh, and he’s fundamental. Uh, let’s talk about like even like a Kyle Tucker. Like all of these guys are fundamentally sound and they’re athletes and the Yankees just don’t have a lot of that. They don’t. And I don’t know if this recipe really works for the way that the game is evolving and the direction that it’s going in. Cyberdino8 says, “Why talk about next year? What about this bloody year? Still 40 plus games left. Can go on a run and get a playoff spot.” I don’t think so, man. I don’t think so. Um, look, I I I don’t think that this team has what it takes to make a run. I They They I mean, it’s it’s been gut check time and and we’re finding out that they don’t have any guts. Blow it up. Blow it up. Uh TK, we’re going to get a quick word from uh DraftKings and then back to wrap things up. Tough Sunday after the dog days of summer means it’s time for the boys of summer to kick things into gear. And the best way to cash in on your baseball IQ is with DraftKings Sports Book. Never bet on baseball before? It is simple. Pick a guy to go yard, hammer some live odds midame, or just ride with your squad and hope for the best. No spreadsheets, just vibes and dingers. Here’s something special for the first timers. New DraftKings customers, bet $5 and get $200 in bonus bets instantly. Download the DraftKings sportsbook app and use the code foul. That’s code FO for new customers and get $200 in bonus bets instantly when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings. The crown is yours. Gambling problem? Call 1800 gambler. In New York, call 8778 NY or text hopey 467369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-77777 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Bootill Casino and Resort in Kansas. 21 plus age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire 7 days after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming sources, see dkg.co/audio. All right, TK. I don’t think any of my weekend predictions hit. Uh I was predicting more offense from this team. I’m a little concerned that Judge is not hitting since coming back. I mean, I wonder how much that arm is still bothering him. Uh I I really need him to go on a run. Now, I want to advise everybody against Fool’s Gold coming up this week. The Yankees play the Twins Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and they always beat up on the Twins almost always. Um not I mean there the Twins will get them every once in a while, but um I fully expect the Yankees to win these three games and everybody to get their hopes back up before getting thoroughly trounced by uh St. Louis and and Tampa Bay after that. So, um TK, I mean, what’s what what’s your vibe right now? Are you are you are you feeling like all hope is lost? I I I don’t I don’t feel great about it. I I really don’t think that they’re making the playoffs. I I I’m not going to lie to the viewers here and try to put lipstick on a pig here. I’m watching the games. I’m watching this team. They have shown me over the last like two like the second third of that middle third of the season, they’ve just been terrible. Like there’s nothing about them that tells me that they’re going to go on a run. I haven’t seen it. So, and I will say also, just want to make this point in free agency where we were talking about that. So, Kyle Tucker is a name and stuff. Once Cody Bellinger opts out because he’s a Boris guy, he’s going to let Kyle Tucker set the market, right? And who do you think everyone’s going to start bidding on when Cody Bellinger is the second option? So, they better lock him up quick if they can manage that. But, you know, that’s not even a guarantee that he’s coming back, man. And he’s he’s part of the solution, not the problem. But yeah, um I’d approach him with an extension, but but you don’t want to go six or seven years for him either because he’s had so many injuries. Oh man, it’s just such a tricky situation that the Yankees are in right now. I’m glad I’m not the GM. I always thought that that would be like a dream job. It’s got to be a stressful, difficult job. I know we rag on Cashman a lot, but to to do this job for so long, you understand why he’s so bald because it it has got to be stressful. Um anyway, uh what what are your thoughts on uh this this Twinkie series? Uh I mean, is it pretty much a must sweep at this point? I don’t think you can afford two out of three. I think you got to win all three to even give yourself like hope, dude. It is a must. First of all, it’s the Twins. All right, so it’s the Twins and they sold like all of their pieces. I think they they traded 10 guys on their 40man roster. I mean, that’s enormous. So, yeah, you got to sweep them and uh we’ll see if they do. I I don’t even think taking two out of three is enough. But again, man, I think that’s fool’s gold if they sweep them. I just even if they make the playoffs, right? Let’s say they’re the third wild card. They’re going to get probably bounced in the wild card round. Like really, is that going to do anything? And it’s almost like if they miss the postseason, I think they probably do have to move on from Aaron Boon. And I don’t even think necessarily is that fair because he’s just managing exactly the way the organization wants him to. I know everybody hates Aaron Boon and they’re ragging on him, but trust me when I say this, this is an organizational problem. This is an organizational philosophy where the fish rots from the head, right? Like I really do think that whether that’s cashmen, whether that’s scouting, this is an organizational issue and I really want people to understand that it’s not just an Aaron Boon problem. Yeah. Yeah. Well, TK, uh, tough day for the Yanks. We’re going to let you go. Uh, I’ll be back tomorrow, uh, as the Yankees kick off a series with the Twinkies. We’re going to do a little pregame voicemail show. So, call in with your voicemails. Uh, probably tomorrow afternoon, I’ll I’ll go live with that. Uh, and then, uh, postgames on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Thursday, we’ll do some kind of another voicemail show on the off day. And then um you know basically a a stay of execution here until until Friday I think. But uh tough tough series for the Yanks. We’ll see you next time. If you enjoyed this content, please hit that like button and subscribe. Check out nydesigns.shop for some great merch. Support our sponsors. It helps keep the show going. And you can find us on all major audio platforms. So, be sure to subscribe there, too. But most importantly, come back again soon. We’ll see you next time. [Music]

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