Will the Yankees finally beat the Red Sox in the Postseason? | Pinstripe Post

Will the Yankees finally beat the Red Sox in the Postseason? | Pinstripe Post

This is the Aaron Judge era of the Yankees. It’s not the Aaron Boone era. It’s not the Brian Cashman era. It’s not the Hal Steinbrunner era. It’s not the Max Freed era. This is about Judge. The Yankees need Judge to win games. Hello and welcome to the Pinstripe Post. My name is Ryan Samson, the host and producer of the show. That’s the star of the show, Joel Sherman. Today is Monday, September 29th. The New York Yankees finished the regular season with 94 wins. Joel, we had talked about it at the beginning of the season. How many wins are this team going to finish? Will they finish in top the AL East? Will they finish a wild card? Will they finish out of the playoffs? We we we were went through it all and they finally finished as the top wild card in the American League. We’re going to break down this playoff preview matchup with the Yankees and Red Sox set to go Tuesday night. This three game potential threeame set. Uh we’ll do talk about the pitching matchups, talk about Aaron Judge’s insane year. We’ll break it all down on today’s episode as always. And we appreciate you fans who come and join us every single week. It’s been another fun season for us. I just wanted to get that off off my chest here to start the show. Uh, but I’ll throw it as always on a Monday morning. Joel Sherman, how you doing today, sir? A lot better than the New York Mets, I’ll tell you that. Uh, I was at Yankee Stadium yesterday and Ryan, part of it is like I still thought I’d wake up today and the Mets would be in the playoffs. Yeah, I haven’t believed for one second that they wouldn’t make it. And I mean, when Ronnie Mauricio, who never draws a walk, draws a leadoff walk in the ninth inning yesterday, even with them down four nothing, I’m like, this is gonna be the game where they finally win when they trailed going to the ninth. They waited till the end. And how crazy is that? They never won a game ever. They look there’s a Yankee webcast. But in a way, I wonder if there’s a we should talk about the two New York teams because uh look, it’s easy and and and I participate on this where we we we deep dive the Yankees. We hold them to the highest standard and we should uh for a bunch of reasons, their history, their payroll, but also because they tell us all the time that they’re a championship robust organization. And so like, okay, that’s the standard we’re holding you to. The Mets and the Yankees both began a nose dive on June 13th. And the Mets nose dive never stopped right through the end. And the Yankees starting August 11th, have the best record in the major leagues. That was good enough to get them tied for the best record in the American League, have the same record as last year, uh when it was good enough to have give them the number one seed. This year, they needed one more win. Uh they’re going to be in danger starting immediately Tuesday night. Garrick Crochet, but they’re in. And they’re in because institutionally all the people we want fired all the time actually probably know what they’re doing uh and are good at this. And uh they know, you know, the Mets still have to get beyond this stigma of they don’t make the playoffs a lot. They they hardly ever make it two years in a row. They never make they’ve never made it three years in a row. And the Yankees know how to get there. And I know people turn around and say, “Well, it was a soft schedule at the end.” It was, but it began with a tough schedule where they went seven and five against four really good teams. Uh, and they took care of the soft spots. You could lose to them. The Mets lost series to Washington Miami. If they win one of those series, one more game in there, beat Washington two out of three or beat Miami two out of three, they go to the playoffs. It was only going to take 84 in the National League. It was going to take what what did it take? 88 in the American League. to 94. And so I think that this was look, the Yankees are going to be judged by 14 game. If they can win 14 games going forward, this is who the Yankees are. But on this webcast, we should take at least a moment to reflect that they got their act together and that they are a very at the minimum a very, very good regular season team. They know how to get in. And if you think, oh, the big payroll will get you in, the big payroll didn’t get the Mets in. No, it didn’t. Stars didn’t get the Mets in. The Mets had Juan Sodto this year. The Yankees had him last year. The Mets had him this year. And I mean, he almost had a 4040 season. And if I had told you nothing else on March 27th before the first pitch of the season, Juan Sto’s going to go close to 404. First of all, you wouldn’t have believed he had 38 steals. He, you know, that’s kind of like about a three or four year total for him. Uh it was a one-year toll. If I told you nothing else, he was going to go 40 plus homers, 38 steals. You go, “Wow, Mets are going to win a 100 in the division. They won. They didn’t even get to the 84. They couldn’t beat out the Cincinnati Reds. They couldn’t make a 16 wild card field in the National League.” So, uh, every once in a while we should probably stop and say there the first step is getting in. And while the Yankees have not proven under Aaron Boone and with Aaron Judge specifically, they know how to get through to the end to a parade, they certainly know how to get in. Well, look, this is the followup, right, to the World Series run that they went on last year, losing ultimately in that in that series. But this could have ended really badly for the Yankees. Like, we talked about it a ton this season in terms of the June swoon, July was really ugly, but then it turned mid August and then the schedule lightened up. They took advantage of that light schedule to what you were saying and now they put themselves in this position of look 16 I think 164 run differential this year for them like they they’re one of the top they were one of the top league teams in the American League. Uh it’s a very uneven American League I would say like in terms of like you don’t know who’s going to really stand out in this group but there’s a real chance in front of them here. Uh some notes before we get into this real deep dive of the of the Yankees Red Sox is, you know, the Yankees haven’t won a playoff series versus a nonAL Central team since the Athletics in 2018 when they actually won a wild card game against them. So Joel, for you, is there some kind of I don’t know if it’s like this o this cloud, but is there something here where this Yankees team has an opportunity to really step forward and get get past these demons of the the Red Sox and now the Astros are not in the playoffs, but get past these non AL Central teams and prove that they can win some real playoff games here. Yeah, the stigmas are on the table now. There is not an going to be a soft AL Central touch to begin here. The two teams who they had trouble beating this season and the reason they didn’t win the AL East were the Red Sox and the Blue Jays. Well, to get to the ALCS to play somebody outside the AL East, they got to beat the two AL East teams. Yeah, they got to beat the Red Sox and then the Blue Jays are waiting for them uh as the number one seed if they get through. The Yankees did just win series against both recently. Uh, I think one to 26 the Yankees are a better team than both of those teams, but this isn’t on paper. On the field, those teams both beat the Yankees during the year. The Yankees, to your point, during going back to 2017, uh, in particular, but you really just want to if that’s the Aaron Judge era, uh, and beginning in 2018, the Aaron Boon era, they they’re really good at beating AL Central teams at this time of year. And then they don’t beat bigger teams from the AL East and AL West. As long as it’s not the what year, what town are they in this year? A’s. Um so, uh they’re going to have to prove that they’re going to have two players who get under two people who get under their skin. This is going to be about the two Alex’s. Yeah. Is they they lost playoff series to Alex uh Bregman in 179 and 22 Houston. They lost it to Alex Cora in 17 when he was the bench coach for Houston and in 18 and uh was it 20 21 uh when they lost a wild card game uh also to Boston. So we lost in 18 and 21. Uh 18 was the boom box with Aaron Judge. The Yankees tied the series 1-1 in Fenway. He played New York New York on the way out. They didn’t win another game. So I think those stigmas are on the table. Can they beat a 2024 problem which they couldn’t deal with the Red Sox and the Blue Jays? Can they win a lo a recent historical thing which is can they beat somebody who could flex a little bit also and not just curl into a fetal position from the AL Central and can Aaron Judge rise at this time of year? Um he had another historic season and what is missing from his Hall of Fame resume? He’s going to the Hall of Fame. What’s missing from any attempt to get on Yankee Mount Rushmore is a big October and rings. That’s how the Yankees are defined. I can tell you about the big Octobers for Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Mickey Mantel, Joe Deaggio, Babe Ruth, Lou Garrick, you name them. I can’t for Alex uh for um Aaron Judge. Uh he could hardly be going into an October better. Yeah, he’s on fire. Uh he’s probably done a lot in the last two weeks to seal the MVP or at least give himself a strong strong case for the MVP. Yet again, a third one. And it all is incomplete if he does not have some guys get on my back moments. I It’s funny. He needs a John Carlos Stanton in October. He sure he certainly does. Uh and he couldn’t be hotter going into the playoffs, but I know you’ve talked about it, Joel, and you said, Ryan, it doesn’t matter. It’s it’s it’s game one of the playoffs and anything can happen. Anyone can get hot. It doesn’t matter how hot you are going into the playoffs. Like you could be playing well and it just wild card teams make the World Series. Like it anyone can go on a run here. Well, you know how fickle this is, Ryan, because like the reality is going into the last day of the season, the Yankees could have played two teams on Tuesday night. One was Detroit and one was Boston. And again, one to 26 on paper. The Yankees are better than those teams. But those two teams have lefties who are going to finish one two in the Sai Young this year. So, you’re going to face either Scoo or you are facing Crochet on Tuesday night. the Yankees. Crochet has started four games against the Yankees this year. Boston is 4-0 in those games. He’s three and 0 in them. He’s pitched very, very well. And so by about 900 p.m. tomorrow night, I think first pitch is six. By about 900 p.m. tomorrow night, the Yankees season could be on life support. Uh because Garrick Coscher is great and this version of Araldis Chapman is great and those guys might be the only people who touch the ball on Tuesday night. Uh and the Yankees are going to have to beat a really outstanding starting pitcher or they’re going to be like, “Hey, uh it’s they follow with two ridies. Uh Brian Beo who before his last start really dominated the Yankees and Lucas Gel. So like like it’s not death. Could they beat those two guys? Could they beat the Red Sox? Sure. But then all the if they lose tomorrow night, all the history comes back. Oh, Corora is under their skin. Bregman’s going to beat him again. The Guardians or the Twins didn’t show up. Tomorrow is a very pressure-packed day in their ballpark. And you see how playoffs can go bad very quickly. Like like within 30 hours, your season could be over. Yeah. And then we’re doing a completely different podcast than this very nice one about, hey, they won 94 games. We’ll be back to me trying to talk you out of like, you know, bringing uh Aaron Boon to the Hague for Crimes against humanity. Uh but like uh you know, again, this is the rules of engagement for the Yankees. There is no This is part one where we can say that was really well done. It was like they they figured out how to pick themselves up again, but this is like the Guardians could lose in round one and people go, “What a nice job by the to come back this year.” The Yankees are held to a different standard. If you come here and take their dough, you get to understand that’s what the standard is. The standard is about, do they have 14 more wins in them? Ultimately, they’re going to have to win 108 games this year. And also the standard is can you beat the Red Sox in the playoffs? Team that you had highlighted before in this discussion where they’ve owned you recently. Joel, I got a little trivia for you. Do you know the last time the Yankees beat an AL East team in the playoffs? The last time the Yankees beat an AL East team, would it I I mean, just so I don’t delay a lot, is it the 03 ALCS? No, it’s it’s actually a little bit before that. So, they actually beat the Orioles in a game five 2012 ALDS. Did you pitch a complete game? Yeah. to to to beat them. Yeah. So, yes. So, like but but that’s what we’re talking about here. That’s 13 years, Joel, that they’ve beat since they last beat a division rival in the playoffs and winning a game. So, or or beating a a division rival in the playoffs. So, the Red Sox have owned them in recent history. The Red Sox have been that guy, that team that you can you imagine telling that to a Red Sox fan as Aaron Boon’s home run is going out of the park in 2003. Just take a deep breath. You’re about to start owning You’re about to start winning lots of championships and owning the Yankees. All of history is going to change. Alex Rodriguez, you’re is going to turn this in reverse on Babe Ruth. You’re almost going to get A-Rod. The Yankees are going to get them. And by the way, that’s going to signify the beginning of the end of the Yankees and uh dominating you and the curse. It’s been it’s been a crazy decade plus now of just the Red Sox have more su two decades of the Red Sox having more success as a franchise in terms of championships than the Yankees. So now a strange dynamic, right? Because the Yankees have been by far the more consistent excellent team for the last 20 years. They almost they always have a winning record. They always pretty much make the playoffs. They did win a championship in09. They played for a World Series last year. They they I mean they’re really good. Again, we beat up on them a lot, but they’re really good and they’re in it every year. And in some ways, they become this this errors Buffalo Bills or the Bobby Cox Braves. They’re good enough to get in. So, we beat them up worse than we might beat up a team that loses 95 games. The Red Sox have a lot of last place finishes over the last 20 years. A lot of years not making the play. Like, it was been four years since they made the playoffs last before this one. Uh but when they get in, they have a tendency to make runs. And so it’s up to the Yankees to change that, to begin to re-establish that they’re the dominant team in the in this rivalry, cuz it’s look, it’s ugly when a Yankee season ends. It’s uglier when uh the fans in Boston are celebrating. And that’s, you know, these are home games for the Yankees. The Yankees have the better roster. The the they have an ace of their own to throw at Boston on Tuesday night. Their bullpen seems in order for the first time all season. Uh they have a lot of hitters going well, notably Judge. They’re the favorite. And baseball’s fickle. Yep. You know, you could be a great team that loses to a bad team for three days and it doesn’t mean that you’re not ultimately over 162ish better, but this is the game and the Yankees have to figure out how to beat Boston twice. They certainly do. And uh let’s let’s get into this. So, I I do want to ask you before we get really into the deep dive of these three games or potential three games. If the Yankees don’t win this series against the Red Sox and it’s a wildcard exit, be honest with me, Joel. I know you don’t want to do predictions, but like am I not do I am I not honest with you that you are all the time, but like are we talking about retaining this manager here? Because like this stigma is real. I so I I I’ll say this is uh I I’ll play along with hypotheticals uh but we should probably deal with this on the next show if that that happens. I think the Yankees very much the people who matter very much like this manager and think there is great value in understanding how to take a team from A to Z in the regular season and make sure you win 90 plus and get in. And that the theory of the modern front office, including the one of the Dodgers, is if you get in enough, eventually you’ll win. You’ll have the the the right draw like the Yankees had last year. You’ll have good injury uh situation, which the Yankees have this year. Like, it’s hard to say that they’re in a good injury position when they lost Cole in spring and then Schmidt, but really they took those hits. This is the healthiest they’ve been all year. They’re going in healthy. Uh will they stay healthy for three or four weeks? Who knows? Uh but you know, the idea is if you get in enough, you’ll win. And the Dodgers had to keep telling themselves that until 2020. And then when they got bounced early in 21, 22, and 23, and people said, “Well, that was just a COVID World Series. That one’s kind of an asterisk until they beat the Yankees again last year. Their philosophy of just get in enough and you’ll win took a lot of beating. By the way, Met fans, close your eyes. David Sterns believes in building a team to get in seven or eight out of every 10 years and take your best shot at it. The Brewer team he left believes that. And they’re in the playoffs again. I know no fan wants to hear this uh because they want to believe there’s magic and that um and I in some ways the Jeter Yankees of 96 to 2000 uh spoiled everybody and they were able to make themselves there there were lots of reasons why they were dynastic but the reality is we haven’t seen a back-to-back champion since that three repeated and I think championships are hard to win And my line always and I I used it yesterday to a bunch of my friends who are Mets fans who are all f firing Carlos Mendoza by about the third inning yesterday. I said it’s very easy to fire. Got to tell me this magic manager you have who’s going to make it all great. You know, because the Mets thought they had it all great when they hired Mickey Callaway. Like like by the way, multiple teams wanted to hire Mickey Callaway. The the Mets couldn’t let him leave for Philadelphia because they were afraid the Phillies were going to hire him. They didn’t want him lingering because the Yankees were in the playoffs till late that year and they knew the Yankees would have him on their list when Boone got hired, right? Okay. And so like it’s always easy to fire Ryan. And at some point you could say, “Well, they just need another voice.” Well, sometimes the other voice could be Mickey Callaway. The one thing is Aaron Boon could get them in. You know, we’ve talked about it. I see certain issues that crop up all the time that are uh disturbing to me when I watch the team. But since I don’t have this magic manager sitting there, right, who like, you know, it’s the it’s the oh, you know, I don’t like the pitching changes my manager makes, right? Like you’re sitting home and nitpicking June 12th, but you don’t tell me when you’re sitting there screaming he should take him out and then the starting pitcher gets a double play, right? Like you forget it. Not you, Ryan. I’m using the universe. No, I know what you’re saying. Like like everyone hates their manager. Dodger fans hate Dave Roberts. No, I know. Like, you know what I mean? It’s like and and it’s just the way it is. And I’m just not comfortable with the idea that there’s some magic manager out there. It it feels like old girlfriends week all the time. I hear people say, “Well, they should just hire Joe Gerardi again or Buck Sho Walter.” As if the same fans didn’t hate their guts when they were managers, but you forget, oh, we had such a good time on that picnic back in 21. I I should I should call her up again, you know? And I just You got to be careful, Ryan. I’m not saying this is a perfect manager. I’m not saying he should even hold his job, but then you’re going to be like, “Ah, Brian Cashman’s an idiot. That idiot better hire the right manager then, right?” Like, so that’s the that’s that was going to be my followup too about Brian Cman considering he put this thing together, you know? But what but the whole industry would have hired David Sterns. No, I know. Whole industry. And today, go ask a Met fan what they think of David Sterns. He had a disastrous year, Joel. He had a disastrous year. Do you think he’s a good executive or not? I think it’s still TBD. I Well, I think he’s an outstanding executive who had everything go wrong this year. And likely over any five or 10 year period, you would say he’s the right guy. So like, cool. let the the Mets needed to wait two years to get to David Sterns because they had it at ultimately they hired a guy who didn’t even make it to the to the starting gate because he sent lewd pictures to somebody and then they hired Billy Eper who everyone thought was inept and then they hired David Sterns and at this time last year I live about five blocks from the Canyon of Heroes. You could have carried David Sterns down the Canyon of Heroes. Everybody would have cheered like crazy who’s a Met fan and 12 months later he’s an idiot. So, you got to be careful. Like we just talked about Brian Cashman. Like here, here’s what we forget. The Yankees lost Juan Sodto. The Yankees lost Garrick Cole. They lost their best day-to-day hitter in a lot of ways. You we want to say he’s second best to one of the greatest hitters of all time. So, uh Judge great. and they lost their ace and they won 94 games because the Yankees pivoted and got freed and Bellinger and and Sterns is the example that somebody really good at this could get it all wrong and they met and the Yankee people didn’t get it all wrong. They put together another really good team and it’s just let’s fire Brian Kman and then we’re going to go to the general manager store which I think is on 32nd and fifth, right? And we’re going to get this perfect guy who’s only going to make good moves and no bad moves and nobody’s ever going to call talk radio again and say about him. Like Ryan, the easiest thing is to fire, right? The easiest thing is to sit in one of our positions and fire. I get it. It’s we’re it’s passionate, etc. You’ve just got to tell me who you’re hiring and who’s making like Well, I think those are so those are all House Steinbrer is an idiot. Well, House Steinbrer is the guy who’s going to hire Brian Cman’s successor. I know that’s like scary. It’s scary, Joel. It is. It’s just It’s Why is it scary? How Steinbrer’s run as owner has been really good. You look at this. You could be you could be combed today. I I All right. I think I think I would disagree respectfully about Al Stein Benner’s run as an owner. What? What? Like again, there’s no championships. Championships are hard to win. Like I hear all the time, House cheap. I I don’t think he’s cheap. I don’t think he’s cheap. I think that’s a ridiculous narrative that people It’s a ridiculous narrative. I hear all the time he doesn’t care. The Tampa Bay people were in his stadium all year. Yeah, they told me the house nine burner comes to work at that ballpark every day. He watches the Yankee single a game at night every time they play. Anybody who works with the Yankees will tell you he lives and dies with the team because he’s not doing it in front of a camera. We have decided the narrative is he doesn’t care. And I’d just like to know what is the example of he doesn’t care. He’s investing the money. He’s putting in the time. He okayed multiple years now of trading prospects. He’s based in Tampa. He loves the prospects. He’ll talk to you forever. He literally watches every single a game. I I’m not I’m not here like there’s no perfect owners either, but like he there’s this vision of his father that’s a false vision of who his father was. His father had incredible failure for about a 15-year period. And people cheered. Yankee fans cheered on the day he was suspended. And by the way, he was a bully who who was not nice to people he punched down. Okay. Ultimately, he got cleaned up because the greatest deodorant is winning. And at the end, after he was suspended and couldn’t touch the team and Stick Michael put together a winner, right? And Brian Sabian’s farm system and and uh uh you know, put Bill Libsy’s farm system put together a winner. He came and he was the owner and he got he went out a winner. He went out a winner. House Steinbrunner’s done really well. I I mean I think he cares and I think he invests and trust me if the next instinct of every conspiracy theorist terrible person in the world is like oh he must I haven’t talked to Hal in six months like if you think oh he does this like how’s very nice when we see each other but we ain’t text buddies we ain’t call buddies but I know what bad ownership look like I covered the will ponds for the last 30 years I know what bad bad looks like. Yeah, that is not a problem. He is involved. He’s putting a lot of money into this. Like remember, whatever he’s spending on payroll, double it for what the infrastructure is behind the scenes. Then add 85 million a year for the bond for Yankee Stadium. I know. And this is the family business. It is. He’s not a hedge fund guy like Cohen. Like this is the business. This is his business. He’s feeding the whole family. There are a lot of grandkids who are being fed. I didn’t mean to make this referendum on how but I just think the easiest thing to do is bad like the reality is he’s a good owner. Ryan Cashman is a good baseball executive and Aaron Boon is a good manager who is going to have to prove that at this time of year he has a team that like to me this is going to be about mental toughness. They they they they they get in front of another team that fights back and when the other team fights back and plays baseball, well, they have fallen apart. What is interesting is over the last two months, this Yankee team has played baseball much better. Mhm. Ryan McMahon can’t hit. He can’t hit at all pretty much. But his defense at third base, especially because you have two lefty starters at the front of your rotation and the ball’s on the ground to the left side all the time and Bellinger’s defense wherever you put them in the outfield has helped the group. There’s a better athleticism. Now they’re going to make some mistakes on the bases which can really cost them. Jazz Chisum could still get adventurous with the ball in his hand and running the bases. And I suspect there’ll be a time or two where we’re sitting here going, “Oh my goodness.” Yep. But this team athletically and technically is so superior to the team that went to the World Series last year. And so we will probably look back and say the best thing that ever happened to the Yankees is they didn’t resign Juan Sodto. And it’s not because Juan Sodto isn’t a great historic hitter, because he is a great historic hitter. He’s going to probably go down as maybe one of the 25 best hitters ever by the time it’s all done. Maybe even better than that. But if the Yankees had Sodto, they wouldn’t have Freed. They wouldn’t have Bellinger. They they’d have to still have Judge in center field. What would that look like with no like the sodto loss was actually a gain for them and to the credit of the owner who then still supported the payroll and went to 750 on sodto and then supported the payroll to the baseball operations which traded for Bellinger which didn’t non-tend to Gisham which signed Freed who got David Bednar and not Ryan Hley at the trade deadline who saw the value of putting McMahon at third. There’s no perfect. Only on talk radio is they’re perfect. This really is very, very good with the understanding that they’re judged by this month coming up. And they have not been technically good enough and mentally tough enough. When the opponent shows up and is not afraid of them, when it’s not an AL Central team, this is the bugaboo. Yeah. Starting Tuesday night, they’re gonna have to prove that they could get beyond that bugaboo or not. It doesn’t matter what I said. We’re going to I can’t I’m the little boy with his fingers like I’m not going to stop the how Stein Burner sucks, Brian Cashman sucks, Aaron Boon. It’ll be a flood, Joel. It’ll be a flood. Demol because we just watched 12 months ago con Sterns and Mendoza were heroes. Today they’re all idiots who the fans want out. It’s the easy answer all the time. Um David Sterns didn’t get really really dumb in 12 months. He had a bad 12 months. He had a bad 12 months. And there probably needs to be a question about sense of urgency with him that in his desire to build something umbrella big for the next 10 years, you can’t lose sight that there’s a parade every year. Yeah. that you gotta sometimes gulp and do what you don’t want to do and spend sometimes when you’re in New York and you’re playing for the most you got to spend a$125 of the future for a dollar today and I think David Sterns will learn that probably he’s very much smarter than you and me and he’ll figure it out but I don’t think he became an idiot in 12 months and I don’t think he’s an idiot I just like you said there’s that sense of urgency that I think a lot of fans were hoping for that they didn’t see trade deadline offseason like all that. You can get into that later. We can get to that another time. But let’s talk about this matchup. Garrett Crochet. Uh the Yankees do not have good numbers against this guy. He has dominated them in in pretty much every form this season and in history. Aaron Judge has two career uh three hits against him. Two home two of them are home runs. Uh John Carlos Stanton uh he’s two for seven in his career against him. One home run. Like Joel, what’s his lineup going to look like? Are we going to see Paul Goldmid going up against him? He’s two for 15 in his career against Garrick Crochet. And do you take a guy like Ben Rice? Wow, he’s hit to a bad a lot of bad luck. Has put together an insane season. Another two home runs yesterday. Uh he’s hit lefty on lefty. I’ve seen him do it. He hits the ball hard. So there’s that question of if you’re Aaron Boone, do I weigh the defense with Paul Goldmid a better defender at first? uh he’s a righty bat versus another lefty pitcher or do I put the guy who potentially could hit a big home run for us in a big spot in Ben Rice? How is he gonna weigh that position? Well, I think the Ben Rice question is interesting because if Goldmith plays, do you catch Rice? You know, because the bat has been so good late uh and he’s clearly not afraid. And you know, you saw like it was interesting, Ryan. I thought in game 162 and again I was at Yankee Stadium yesterday. I think you saw a lot of the Yankee issues even while they were winning the game. They won the game because Rice hit a couple of home runs. That’s how they win games, but Caballierro made a dumb base running play. Chisum made a dumb throw. Um, and the bottom of the order was pretty much dead with McMahon and Austin Wells striking out six times in six at bats. Um, and so you see like again how this happens. And the Yankees are a left-hand hitting power team and Crochet destroys lefty hitters. Like his slider is one of the five best pitchers it pitches in the sport. Uh, so how many lefties do you play? I assume Rosario starts at third base, which is interesting, right? Because you got freed on the mound and the ball’s going to be hit there. But Rosario started the last time uh against Crochet and I think hit a home run off of him. So I think you’re going to see him. Do you see Austin Slater and left or is it a Bellinger Gisham um uh judge outfield? I think that’s an interesting question. I don’t think Cababierro starts I I took a quick look yesterday. I think like Caviarro, if you have this up on your screen still, was like 0 for seven with like five strikeouts against 0 for seven, five strikeouts, one walk. Uh Anthony Vulpi is two for five in his career against uh with two strikeouts. So So I think he got a first base, left field, third base question. I think Rosario will start at third. And I think part of the the game tomorrow, uh, Ryan, is can they get Crochet out? Yeah, because ultimately the Yankees want to get to their left-handed bats. Now, again, if if Wells is catching and Goldmith’s at first and they get uh Crochet out and they’re winning four to one, Goldmouth’s going to stay at first base because that’s the superior first baseman to Rice. Uh, but McMahon’s going to get in the game uh at that point. So you could you potentially pitch hit Rice in a spot and then put I guess McMahon at defense like if Rosario comes up against a tough righty. I think that’s all in play. I think the Yankees have a much more versatile deep team than last year also. That’s part of the thing is you know like like you might not love Jason Dominguez but Jason Dominguez and Cabayro speed off the benchario that’s a real bench. Uh it’s a real bench. It’s good. You got speed. You got lefty hitting. You got righty hitting. you know, you got some stuff. So, it’s a it’s a better group. Uh, you know, good lefty starting as well as great as the Yankees did against lefty pitching this year in a year where teams didn’t do uh great against lefties, it it gets the Yankees to a lineup they don’t want to play. Uh, so can they get Crochet, you know, getting Crochet up to 95 pitches and five and a third has a lot of value tomorrow. And yet, I think if you talked to scouts and said, “How do you attack Crochet?” They’d say, “First fast ball you see, jump on it.” Because you don’t want him to get to a slider. So, sometimes you could get like to a situation where the innings are easy because you’re attacking early. That’s scary again. And so, the Yank the Yankees hit a couple of homers off of him at Fenway uh and uh and had pretty good at bats against them the last time. They are seeing him for a fifth time uh this year. On the other hand, Boston is not unfamiliar with Freed. They’ve seen him now plenty. Uh the Yankees are a three-point shooting team. Yeah, they’re a home run hitting team. If they hit two or three homers against Crochet in their ballpark where they are really a home run hitting team, that’s a so much is on Judge and Stanton as the power righty bats tomorrow night. And look, we saw this. Crochet pitched one of the best games I saw this season. And Judge, who looked terrible all night, popped the home run in the ninth, was it to tie the game? A game I think was it the ninth or the eighth? I know it was the third at bat, but yeah. Whatever it was, is like So again, Judge and Stanton are going to strike out some tomorrow night, I would assume. Can they park one or two tomorrow? Because they’re they’re the key guys against Crochet. Uh it was actually the fifth inning. So and that he hit a home run in was that that was his last one. I’m talking about the one early in the season. Oh, early in the season. Okay. Okay. At Fenway the first time they were at Fenway. I think he homers in either the eighth or ninth inning to tie at 1-1. Okay. I remember you’re talking about now. Yeah. Yeah. And I think he had struck out his first three at bats. Might even have done it on like 10 pitches or 11 p. Like he like was dominated by Crochet, but then Pop one. And I assume there’ll be some strikeouts tomorrow night, but and that’s that’s what’s interesting, right? So the balance is that they got to get the ball over the fence. But that’s the balance, right? Like so you’re a three-point hitting team, but can you be patient enough at the plate to get Crochet’s pitch count up so you can get him out of the game? Then you got to attack his fast ball. I think every scout, that’s not me. Any scout you talk to just be like if if if you’re going to try to hit Garrett Crochet’s slider, good luck. Yeah. So that’s that’s fascinating. So, you asked and you posed this before. You do you potentially see Austin Slater starting in left and then them not playing Cody Bellinger game one of the wild card? No. No. Bellinger would play center. Gisham wouldn’t play. Oh, Gisham wouldn’t play. Okay. So, you would take Gisham out. I I didn’t say I would. I said I think that’s the decision he has to made. I would play Gisham. Okay. All right. I would I would be like, we’re a three-point shooting team and Gisham might isn’t going to be afraid and might click one off of um off of uh Crochet. Slater’s not going to click one off of Crochet. Slater might hit a single or something like that. Get on base. Yeah. And and his defense isn’t g like the Yankees best defensive alignment is Bellinger Gisham. Judge, by the way, I think it’s a big deal. judge threw legit threw over the weekend and I think maybe took that off the board as an issue which I’m sure not only thrills Aaron Boon but I bet you thrills my friend Mark D. Roza who’s Team USA’s manager and probably is worried about what offseason was bringing for Judge because uh Judge is the captain of Team USA for the WBC next spring but uh um yeah I I think that’s a big deal. I think Judge is a well above average right fielder when he has not only his athleticism to go get it but perhaps the best right field arm to to go do it. By the way, watch. So, I think you know we’re doing this. Keep in mind the Red Sox have the same issue. The Red Sox are very heavily left-handed and against Freed and Rhdan, they’re probably going to have to start Rob Snyder, which they like to do uh because he hits lefties so well. when it’s Duran, uh, Raphaela, and Abrau, they have the best defensive outfield in the sport. And usually it will be Duran who I think will come out and that takes out some fire and athleticism, but gets you the bat. Does he go further? We saw this in the games. Does he put Nate Eaton as a starter someplace on the field to get another righty bat in? uh watch Romy Gonzalez is going to play. He’s a sneaky good player and he beats up lefty pitching. So they the Red Sox are very left-handed also and I would assume minimum their good defensive outfield gets broken up until a righty reliever gets into the games for games one and two. Speaking of Yankees defense, uh you brought up Jazz Chisum and uh just there’s been a lot of throwing errors lately it feels like with him. Uh, is this a mental like, hey, toughness, like you said, got to lock in, man. You can’t have these sail throws. You can’t be skipping throws. Same thing with Vulpi. Like, the mental toughness has to be there where these guys have to be on their game. Yeah. I just think with Jazz, it’s Jazz Chisom fantasy camp, but I think he’s trying to do things hard. I think he’s trying to do them degree of difficulty. Hard fun. Like Luke Weaver said something to me after the game yesterday. I went over to his locker and we’re chatting. Uh Luke’s one of the best guys to deal with and I asked about winning 14 games in October and he said, “We’re positioned to win 14 games in October.” He said, “Our bullpens pitching well. Our starting pitching pitching well. We’re hitting well in general and we’re hitting home runs, which is he goes, look, let’s not pretend what our strengths are. That’s our strength.” He goes, “We need to be at our peak fundamentally. That was Luke Weaver. That was the term. We need to be at our peak fundamentally. And I think the Yankees fundamentally that these have been their best two months. I really think McMahon was important. And I I mean like McMahon’s a strange offensive player because he actually has a good eye. He swings and misses at pitches over the plate. He’s not a chaser who misses. So, I don’t know if anything could be done with his swing in the offseason to even try to get him to league average because I assume you’re about to see a very bad October for as long as it lasts offensively. And you got to play him because he just it really improved them defensively because Chisum is such a better second baseman. He could get balls and when he when he has to turn it, he could turn it. It’s just like he doesn’t have like Jazz doesn’t have that in real time editing valve. Eat it. Eat it. There is no There was no play at first base yesterday. There was none. Just eat the ball. Don’t try to do the spectacular like And he’s tried that a lot lately, it feels like. Yes. Especially on the pivot, especially on tough angle throws from the field where he’s on the ground and stuff. Sometimes you got to punt, play defense, and live for another day. Yep. It’s a great way to describe it. And Jazz doesn’t like to punt. No. No, he doesn’t. And he’ll be swinging for the fences tomorrow, too. Don’t for don’t don’t get that twisted either. Like he will be trying to hit homers. Three point shooting team and everybody’s going to be trying which is which is crazy because Gaz like you said is so athletic and if he can get on base, watch the hop hop. I mean, he doesn’t do the hop hop as much as as Cabay is a good throw. is a good throwing catcher and a and Alex Cororo is a sharp manager and if you’re going to start hop hopping against him, you might get a couple of easy outs and take some bats out of people’s hands. And by the way, I want the Yankees to be aggressive, but there’s a like even yesterday ner uh before he gets picked off when it seems to me pretty clear that he’s trying to get to 50 stolen bases and that’s more important than the game I guess um for um Cabayro. Cabayro. Uh Cababayro was so far off first base on his steel. I do not understand why the pitcher doesn’t like to me the catcher should literally stand up. That should be the signal. Break the mound, turn around. It’s an easy out. The catcher has to be able to see that on his peripheral vision. I’m assuming Carlos Nvas, who’s excellent catcher, will see that on his peripheral vision. I’m assuming Alex Corora, who’s a terrific manager, will school them today at the workout. They’ve got a couple of hoppers. Calabayro, Jazz, Vulpi, and Nirva’s going to throw some back picks. Yankees got to if they hop, they better not just be leisurely back to the base. You’re going to be out with Nirvas behind the plate. You better if you’re hopping, you better if you don’t go, you get you better treat getting back to first as hard as you treated trying to get to second. Well, Joel, let’s talk about the starting rotation. Uh Freed Rodan slated to go game one and two. Uh Schlitler seems like he’s penciled in for number three spot. I mean, he looked great again this weekend. Longest he’s gone in a game. Uh do you get a sense that this could potentially be, you know, your three horses? like this is who you’re going to rely on. And what’s the legacy defining moments here that we could see from Freed and Rodon? Both guys who, you know, I mean, Freed has won a championship. Rodon has not done great in the playoffs recently. What can these guys do to help support that? Yeah. So, let’s deal with the regular season uh first because again, and I I I I’m scared that this becomes uh oh, you’re you’re just uh toad to the man or they give me story or whatever nonsense comes up is. Let’s give the Yankees some credit. Uh I spent this entire season on this webcast saying the ultimate kill for them was starting pitching depth. that I thought they that what happened to the Mets I thought had a good chance of happening to the Yankees where they simply ran out of starters. So uh when you spend money you could spend it poorly or you could spend it on Max Freed and it turns out Carlos Ferdan who turned out to be two of the 10 best pitchers in in in maybe the whole sport this year certainly the American League. Freda is probably going to finish fourth or fifth for the Sai Young. Rodan will get some down ballot votes. Uh you and let’s give the Yankees credit for and Rodan credit which is a lot of people get knocked down in New York especially the Bronx and never get back up. 2023 could not have gone worse for Carlos Rodon and today he’s a guy we’re talking about. He led the American he led the American League in batting average against. He had a three erra. He made 32 33 starts. He’s durability, which was always going to be a question for him, has not been a question the last two years. He’s been very durable. And by the way, with Cole out, if Freda and Rodon are not durable, Yeah. and excellent, the Yankees do not make the playoffs. From their own system, they had a rookie of the year last year in Hill. This year, Will Warren was a league average starter who made 33 starts when there was nobody else to make those starts. Schlitler came up and looks like he might be something. He might be something. He’s certainly something this year when they needed it for a game game three starter. Uh, and Heel came back and he’s not the Luis Heel of last year. I don’t know what’s going on. There’s a lot less swing and miss. Uh, but it’s hard to score runs against him. I don’t know how because he’s not as dynamic as last year. And since the beginning of August, they’ve had kept those five guys healthy and round the round when there was no I mean the sixth option is Paul Blackburn and then Ryan Nora like Yeah. And so like there should be credit there for developing starters, paying for the right starters, and fixing a guy like Rodon in his repertoire and helping him mentally get through that first year. So there’s that. These are good starting pitchers. Sometimes good starting pitchers are great at this time of year and sometimes they’re not. I don’t think Max Freed is afraid. He won the dec he he was a differencemaker in the Braves championship in 21. He pitched great that postseason, won the clinching game against Houston in Houston. Uh and then the last couple of years he’s been bad for the Braves. I think it’s probably been physical issues where he’s wear and tear. Is there going to be wear and tear? Both Freed and Rodan set careerhighs in innings pitch for regular seasons. So where are they? They both look great down the stretch. If they pitch like they did down the stretch, the Yankees are in good shape. If Schlitler pitched, I I talked to a scout who watched Schlitler’s last start and he said, “I don’t care that that’s the Orioles. That’s stuff, man. That’s going to get people out.” And when the lights turn on, if there’s a do or die game at Yankee Stadium on Thursday night, I’ve liked everything I’ve seen from Schlitler, that’s a magnitude that’s way higher. On the other hand, it’s also pretty high for Lucas Golo stadium, right, who’s a veteran. Uh I think the Yankees are in good shape with starting pitching if the guys who’ve thrown the last month show up. How exciting would that be? the kid from uh Wapole, Massachu WPO, is that how you say it? Massachusetts. How about how about if the battery is him and Ben Rice who are both from Massachusetts? Yes. How crazy would that be? Uh look, so the the thing I I do want to talk about is let’s say Freed and and Crochet dominates the Yanks game one and the Yanks lose game one. That’s a lot of pressure on Carlos Rodon in a must-win situation. A lot of pressure anyway. Like this guy pitched under a lot of pressure last year. He’s either I I get it. Rodan’s going to be one of those guys we never trust fully, right? Because of that first year in particular where it’s always going to be like and also because we know there’s going to be that illtime walk just in front of the homer. Yeah. Which happened in his last start, I think, too. And it happens. Carlos Rodan has great stuff. He seems at such a better level of peace with being a Yankee, being a guy who they’re counting on. I mean, it’s pretty simple, right? If he doesn’t have this year, they don’t make the playoffs. Nope. Like, like the the 95 96 starts they get from Freed, Rodon, and Warren, I don’t know what they do without it. And I don’t know what they do if if in those if 66 of them aren’t freed and Rodan pitching both like aces. I mean the sad thing for the Yankees and their fans is if this team had Cole, I actually think they would have won the division. Yep. And they’d be the favorites even over the Dodgers to win it all. Yeah. But and I talked to Rodon after the game yesterday. I was all he had his kids around so I wanted to keep it tight. But I went up to his locker and I was just talking to him and he, you know, and I could I could tell it’s killing him the the like the the pressure not being Oh, sorry. You said Rodan. So Oh, I’m sorry. I went up to Cole. Okay. So, Garrick Cole, I’m sorry. I I I misspoke. Uh I went to Cole after the game. I was at his locker. I really like talking to Garrick Cole. He’s very bright. He’s very good on the whole team. He’s very good on pitching. And I he was just like he was praising everything up and down. And then we talked about him a little bit. I won’t don’t want to go too deep. And I could just tell like this is like one of those moments like it he hasn’t won a ring. And if the Yankees won a ring, he gets a ring. Yeah. But it’s not really a ring. I hear you. You know what I mean? And even though I’m sure he has lots of involvement behind the scenes, I bet you guys like Warren and especially Schlitler who stylistically has some stuff in common with him. He’s been a great help. He’s part of the team, etc. You know, he wants to be out there against Crochet tomorrow night. Oh, yeah. He’s pitching. He’s pitching that game already in his head as he would. And uh it just just something to join. But but the Yankees overcame that. That’s their ace and uh they overcame it because of how good Freedom Rhdon were and how durable they were. Well, look, this is where they get the chance to actually, again, we talked about the stigma. We talked about this thing hide laying over their heads. Can they beat the Red Sox in the playoffs? This is their opportunity to for Aaron Judge to to build on his legacy and actually be, you know, be that that guy we all seen all during the regular season. So, Joel, I want to say for Joel’s notebook, I’ll leave it here for you. I’m not asking for a prediction, but can you tell me what are you looking for in this series? What’s going to determine ultimately who wins this wild card series between the Yankees and Red Sox? This is about Aaron Judge. This is the Aaron Judge era of the Yankees. It’s not the Aaron Boone era. It’s not the Brian Cashman era. It’s not the House Steinbrer era. It’s not the Max Freed era. This is about judge and assuming the Yankees pitch well enough to be in games. And let’s be honest, right? Devin Williams is going to be like Rodon. Every time he touches the ball, if you’re a Yankee fan, you’re going to be sitting there going, I don’t really gonna get three outs here, right? Like as well as he pitched down the stretch, it’s going to be like, he walked the lead off hitter. I knew never to believe in him, right? You know, kind of thing. So, but if they’re generally a team that holds the opponent to three or four for nine innings, the Yankees need Judge to win games. Judge needs Judge to win games. He is a Hall of Fame player. He’s one of the greatest players I’ve ever seen. I think as great as Raleigh’s been this year, can you imagine how great you’d have to be to be the MVP in a year where a catcher hit 60 homers and yet I actually think Judge is the MVP? This is not about April through September Judge. This series is about and this October and it’s set up. He’s hitting great going in. He also seems to be at an incredible peace about who he is. Can he have his moment? I would point out Barry Bonds was an October failure until 2002 when he dominated all the way to game seven of the World Series, which the Giants ultimately lose. But he has a great postseason. Again, that’s always a tough guy to talk about because of PED stuff. Yeah. But he ultimately had his big October. Remember what I said earlier about teams trying to get as many reps. If you get make the playoffs enough, you believe that at some point we’re going to have the health and the luck and it we’ll win a championship. Aaron Judge gets a lot of reps playing in the postseason. You would assume a player as great as him will get one where for three weeks you sit there and feel about him how you felt for the last three weeks watching the regular season which is I’m watching every at bat. Home runs are hard to hit and yet every at bat you think he’s going to hit one because that’s how locked in he is right now. This October is a lot about him. Can he win a game or two for the Yankees? You know, like Sodto had a moment last year that Judge has yet to have. It came and went because Sodto came and went, but that is a forever moment against the Guardians. Stanton has had some forever moments these last couple of postseasons. The Yankees are going to be hardpressed to win 14 games in total or even two against Boston if there are not big moments by their rise above everybody else on the team star. Does he have those moments or not? It’s where uh it’s where the heroes and legends are made. Uh especially here in the Bronx where uh the Yankees have this long history. Can Aaron Judge def extend and build on that legacy that he has already put together here in the Bronx? John Caran I think is such a huge X-factor here as well. The way he’s been swinging the bat this season and he looks locked in. I’m looking forward to seeing his at bats. We’re looking forward to seeing your coverage, Joel Sherman all postseason long. I know you’re a very busy man. We appreciate you always hopping on here on the Pinstrike Post talking Yankees baseball. I know we’re gonna have plenty to talk about throughout this playoff run, however long or short it is. And then we get to break it all down with you. Joel Sherman, enjoy the playoffs and we’ll catch you next time. Okay, sir. Yeah, I’m on the way to a Yankee workout and then I’m gonna hop from there to David Stern’s press conference at City Field. So, I’m glad you got me up early because I’m uh I need some coffee and always always I appreciate everybody who watches. Joe Sherman, you’re the man. We’ll catch you next time.

On today’s episode of Pinstripe Post with Joel Sherman and Ryan Sampson, the guys preview the Yankees Wild Card round vs. Red Sox. Joel discusses how important this postseason is for Aaron Judge’s legacy and why he can solidify his all-time great status with a World Series championship. Ryan asks Joel about lineup decisions the Yankees must make vs. Garrett Crochet and how important Carlos Rodon’s start in Game 2 will be. Joel breaks down why the Yankees have had an overall good season and the front office deserves credit for getting them into this position but it will all come down to the postseason.

Timecodes***
00:00 Intro
1:35 Yankees had a good season
6:00 Postseason Narratives
16:00 Boone’s future in doubt?
32:00 Lineup Decisions vs. Crochet
40:30 Jazz Chisholm’s defense
45:00 Fried, Rodon & Schlittler Preview
52:32 Joel’s Notebook on Aaron Judge

#yankees #nyy #Nyyankees #newyorkyankees #yankeesnews #yankeespodcast #pinstripepost #joelsherman #aaronjudge #aaronboone #redsox #bostonredsox #mlb #mlbplayoffs #mlbwildcard #wildcard #gerritcole #jazzchisholm #anthonyvolpe #maxfried #carlosrodon #codybellinger #playoffs #postseason #benrice #giancarlostanton #garrettcrochet

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