About Yesterday: Sunday Papers
- ebotti0
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
Ed Botti
April 14, 2025
Giants 5 Yankees 4
As I set my day up to watch the Yankees play the Giants at a finally dry Yankee Stadium, one single thought came to my mind; can Carlos Rodon battle workhorse Logan Webb and give his team and tired bullpen a much needed long quality start.
On most days, the thought that usually pops into my head is; can the Yankees put the home run derby aside and play the game of baseball as it was intended to be played, as it was played for about 120 years and has resulted in 27 Championship banners being hung on 161st Street and Rivera Ave?
However, when it comes to Carlos Rodon, when he pitches, my concern often shifts to him.
He is a hard guy to figure out. He has all the tools. He is physically imposing, has a great arm, and seems fearless.
But he seems to always have a weak moment.
Sunday, history repeated itself on his 88th pitch of the game in front of 36,449 loyal fans.
After being given a 3-1 lead through five fairly efficient and clean innings, Rodon took the mound for sixth, and after a walk and an excuse me infield single, he put a hanging curve ball on the plate for Jung Hoo Lee, who didn’t miss it and launched his second home run of the game against Rodon to wash away the lead, for good.
Quick Stats:
An alarming trend continues as the Yankee struck out more times (9) then they got hits (6). In my book, you make your job as an offense and the job of your pitcher extremely difficult when you do not at least put the ball in play and make the other team make plays in the field to earn the outs.
Notwithstanding Jazz Chisholm’s 8th inning home run to cut the lead to 5-4, he looks lost at the plate this season. He is currently in a 1-25 stretch. Somehow Jazz has bought into an approach that is simply not working for him, swinging from the heels on 4 out of every 5 swings he takes.
It is not what this team needs. What this team needs is for him to swing through the ball, not up up and away. Jazz starts his swing with a text book rotational swing path, and then launches upward with added thrust in the final few inches before the point of contact.
By the time the bat clears the striking point, his hands are too far in front and in contrast to what his initial rotational swing path requires. It is almost as if he is combining a linear swing path with a rotational swing path.
To my knowledge, combining the two has never worked. You have to pick an approach.
I believe his best approach is a rotational swing path, he has the leg strength to back it up.
To dig a little deeper, in 15 games this season Jazz has 10 hits; 5 of them are home runs, 2 doubles and 3 singles.
He has struck out 24 times, and walked a grand total of 4 times, to go along with his .169 average.
That is a 40.6% K rate, compared to his pervious rate of 30.6% over his previous 1,647 career at bats.
That is a 34% increase to his K Rate.
Do I need to go on?
What did he change and why? That is what I would like to know.
Maybe James Rowson could shed a little light on that!
He is much better than that.
I am starting to see what scouts saw in a 16 year old Jasson Dominguez from the left side of the plate. He is using the entire field and has power to all fields.
Right now his right handed swing is trailing behind, which is not unusual for a young switch hitter to be more dominant early on from 1 side.
Bernie Williams developed from the right side first, and then became better from the left side.
Jasson may just need more reps from the right side.
Big Story:
With Gerrit Cole riding pine for the entire season and Luis Gil out for an indefinite amount of time, it is imperative to this team’s success for Carlos Rodon to step up and join with Max Fried to make a solid 1-2 punch.
To do that, Carlos has got to get past the 5th inning. He should be at least a 7 inning per night pitcher, instead of getting pulled after 5 1/3.
He stands at 1-3 with a 5.48 ERA.
That simply is not good enough.
Whatever it was that Brian Cashman saw in him (we can debate that), he needs to find it and find in now.
He can start by eliminating the walks and giving free bases away.
In case you need a reminder, this past Monday in Motown he walked the 8 and 9 hitters before giving up a 3 run bomb. In the start before that against the D’Backs he started the game off by issuing a walk, and 2 batters later another bomb was launched.
Carlos now through his first 4 starts of 2025 has walked 12 hitters, and 6 have eventually scored.
In fact, the entire pitching staff is now second in the league in walks. That has to stop as well.
Player(s) of the Game
I give that belt to Jung Hoo Lee who went 2-3 with 4 RBI. I don’t follow Korean Baseball very closely, but apparently Jung Hoo comes from a long line a ball players. His father was a star in South Korean Baseball and was called “the Son of the Wind” and considered the Korean Ichiro; which would explain why Jung Hoo is wearing number 51 as a Giant.
Notable Performances:
Since this is a Yankee reporting medium, and even in loss there is some good performances to recognize, Rice and JC Escarra continue to impress with their performances and enthusiasm for the game. JC made some very nice stops behind the plate that would have impressed Igor Shesterkin, and Rice continues to put good at bats together.
It is early but both young men are fun to watch play, they both contributed with base hits on this day.
If Rice continues to play as we have seen so far, they have to find a position for him, because when Giancarlo comes back, the DH spot will be (right or wrong) taken.
Better to Forget:
When I see Tim Hill come into a game and efficiently retire lefty hitters, It makes it harder and harder for me to forget Game 1 of the 2024 World Series when Boone selected a rusty Cortes over a red hot Hill.
My Take:
The Yankees are 8-7 on this young season, so it would be just as foolish to hit a panic button as it would be to brag about them. However, what I do observe is an overall similar style of play we have seen before, with a new cast of characters.
The overall goal and mission of this team should be to get back to the World Series, and dominate the Dodgers. Every single movement, step, and pitch should be executed with that in mind.
So far, I don’t see it.
Congrats to Rory McIlroy on winning the Masters and achieving that elusive final piece of the Grand Slam!
First, Rodon is a classic case of Jekyll and Hyde. He was dominating thru 5 innings then in 6th inning he serves a meatball a hanging curve to Lee for the 3 run Homer. Rodon is an enigma that's for sure. Second, Jazz is an all or bust hitter. It's either home runs or strikes out. Maybe there's a reason why the Marlins traded him last year at the trading deadline. I start to think he's an overrated player. Jazz got to change his approach to hitting and not swing for the fences all the time.
As much as Yankee fans want to see better from Rodon... given his shortcomings and history, I believe what we are seeing is all about his inconsistencies from game to game. Hopefully he improves, but can the Yankees and fans count on him against the better teams? TBD!
The Yankees won 27 championships by not relying on the home run? 1923, led AL in HRs. 1927, led AL (by 102 over the next best team). 1928, led AL. 1936-39, led AL. 1961, led AL. 2009, led AL.
I didn't look at every one of the 27 (nor at the NL), but the Yankees have spent a century relying on home runs to win championships, including each of their greatest teams other than the '98 squad. There's a reason they're called the "Bronx Bombers" and not the "SoBro Small Ballers."
You're right about so much of what you wrote above, but I'd like to make one clarification about Jazz. What you see him doing is mechanically very similar to what he has always done at the plate. In fact, the Yankees have helped him quiet his swing compared to what he was doing with the Marlins, as he was prone to having his hips fly open early and he had way too much pre pitch movement. In fact, Jazz actually has a touch less loft in his swing now compared to his Marlins days. Check out these two home runs at the point of contact (the first is his homer yesterday, while the 2nd is from 2023:
His hands finish…
Great points, Alan. Boone did the same thing with Cole in game 5. There is no more effective way of reading a person than talking with and looking in their eyes. No data on a screen tells you what the eyes tell you. As far as conditioning the starters goes, i can't tell you first hand as I wasn't there in the spring, but it sure looks like these guys are now mentally conditioned to accept 80 or 90 pitches as a job well done. Its odd, but the less they pitch the more that get hurt. You'd think by now someone would have figured that out.