About Yesterday: Tigers Tame the Yankees

By Paul Semendinger

August 18, 2024

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About Yesterday Afternoon:

The Tigers got to Carlos Rodon early and never gave up the lead. It was all Tigers all day.

Quick Stats:

• Carlos Rodon: 3.1 innings, 7 hits, 4 runs - LOSS

• (This is ugly) The following Yankees went hitless for the game: Gleyber Torres, Juan Soto, Austin Wells, Giancarlo Stanton, Alex Verdugo, and Ben Rice

• The Yankees managed only four hits in the game - two from Oswaldo Cabrera. The other two hits came from Anthony Volpe and Aaron Judge who had one each.

• The Yankees' bullpen threw 4.2 innings of shutout ball

The Big Story:

Ladies and Gentlemen, Presenting the 2024 Yankees! Yes, a remarkable group, these baseball players who can look like the greatest of all time one day and minor leaguers the next.

On Friday night, the Yankees shutout the Tigers. Yesterday afternoon, the Tigers returned the favor by shutting out the Yankees.

Carlos Rodon lasted only into the fourth inning. That, simply, is not good enough. There are games when it seems he has figured it all out and then he comes out and throws a game like he did yesterday. He didn't lose to the 1955 Dodgers or the Big Red Machine of the 1970s. He lost to the also-ran Tigers. Rodon has to be better.

The Yankees have to be better. The winning pitcher for the Tigers, Keifer Montero, gave up only two hits in five innings. Even with that win, he's only 4-5, 5.28 on the year.

The Yankees have played some ugly games this year. Yesterday's game wasn't ugly, it was simply uninspired. It was like the Yankees walked through the effort. For a team battling for first place, putting forth a game where the effort simply did not seem to be there is not good enough. (No effort isn't good enough for a last place team either.)

Player of the Game:

Keider Montero of the Tigers.

Notable Performances:

For the Yankees? Really? One could say the bullpen kept them in the game, but the way this team goes, with good followed by bad, that becomes a concern for me for the next time the Yankees have to use the bullpen.

Better to Forget:

The Yankees should try to forget that they even played yesterday. On the other hand, the played like they forget to get enough sleep or that they didn't take their opponent seriously enough, or that they forgot there was even a game.

My Take:

Remember last year, when supposedly, over dinner, Austin Wells taught Anthony Volpe how to hit again? What a great story that was. Chicken Parm and hitting instructions from Wells turned Volpe's season around. So many repeated it, over and over, until... well, until Volpe stopped hitting. I guess the chicken parm effect didn't last. If there really was a magical chicken parm solution, how did Volpe hit only .163 in September/October last year? If Volpe figured it out, why, oh why, was he hitting .177 in August this season heading into yesterday's game? Either he figured it out, or he didn't. Or it was simply a good media story, fiction presented as fact, that everyone "ate" up.

Anthony Volpe has now played 282 big league games. We are not talking about a small sample size. Volpe's career On Base Percentage is under .300. (Heading into yesterday's game, it was .290.) That is, simply and clearly, not good enough. At all.

As a point of comparison, Rafael Santana was a good glove/no-hit shortstop who was able to hang around the big leagues for seven seasons. Santana's OBP was .295. Yes, it was higher than Volpe's. Further, Anthony Volpe's career batting average is .227. Santana's was .246. At one time, people were talking about Volpe and Derek Jeter in the same sentence. Right now, Volpe compares more to players like Rafael Santana.

I would imagine that Anthony Volpe will begin the 2025 season as the Yankees' shortstop, but if 2025 is a replay of 2023 and 2024 (to date) for Volpe, his career as a starting shortstop could be quickly coming to an end. He is getting his chance to demonstrate that he can be a productive big league hitter - and he is showing that he cannot. (His lifetime OPS+ is 85.) Volpe, very clearly, isn't even an average big league hitter yet. No chicken parm stories can change that. I hope that all changes. I hope Volpe comes around, but it's starting to seem that it might not. Anthony is getting his big chance, but to date, he is falling short. (Note - this will be the topic of today's Readers' Thread at 10:00 a.m.)

On another topic, Giancarlo Stanton came back from an injury and played in exactly zero minor league rehab games. The result is that he is batting .191 since returning to the lineup. That also is not good enough. At all. So often the Yankees make decisions where they act as if they know better. "A minor league rehab? That's crazy. When Stanton is ready, he'll be ready." Bad news Yankees, he wasn't and isn't ready.

The season before he became a Yankee, D.J. LeMahieu batted .276. In 2024, his On Base Percentage (not his batting average) is .265. Worse, LeMahieu is slugging .254. Since signing a six-year deal, LeMahieu has had an OPS+ of 95. That's right, he's been a below average big league hitter. He's had one season where his OPS has been over 100 since signing his $90 million contract. LeMahieu's OPS+ this year is an abysimal 48.

Oswald Peraza was called up to the big leagues. In his first game back, he homered. The next game, he was on the bench. Why didn't he start? So that Gleyber Torres could. Torres is also having a bad year. He's batting .237. His OBP is only .310. Going forward, the Yankees need to play Peraza every game to see what he can do. He might not hit, but they already know that Torres isn't hitting. Peraza might be part of the Yankees' future. Torres will not be. It's safe to assume that Peraza could be every bit as good (poor) as Torres has been in 2024, but by playing him, the Yankees can, at least, get an idea of what he might be going forward. I don't understand calling a player up, having him perform, and then telling him to sit the bench. "You did good kid. Now sit." If they were sitting Peraza for a player who is performing, that's one thing, but they aren't.

Next Up:

The Yankees and the Tigers finish up the weekend series with an ESPN game at 7:00 p.m. Marcus Stroman will pitch for the Yanks. They will be playing at Bowman Field in Williamsport, PA.