By Paul Semendinger
September 18, 2024
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MY THOUGHTS - We start off with a hard reality. Anthony Volpe has not been a good hitter. That is clear. It's not debatable. At all. He does not get on base enough. Some argued and protested when I said he didn't walk enough. They were wrong. He doesn't. 2025 will be a big year for Volpe because if it's another year where he doesn't hit, the Yankees' star of the future, their shortstop for the next 10 to 15 years will be seeing his star fade, his brilliance dull. Rather than being the next Derek Jeter (it's never fair to do that to young players), he might be a better fielding version of the next Bobby Meacham.
MY THOUGHTS - Ok, enough with the bad stats. How about this one? Aaron Judge might have been once been thought to be the next Dave Winfield, but he just might be the next Babe Ruth!
Judge's Strat-o-Matic card from this season will be a sight to see when it comes out next February.
MY THOUGHTS - My goodness. Juan Soto must remain a Yankee.
MY THOUGHTS - Wouldn't it be nice if the Yankees did something nice like this? It doesn't even have to be this dramatic. Wouldn't it be nice if the Yankees just did something like: "Hey Season Ticket Owners, Come To Yankee Stadium during the week of February 5-12 and one current and one former Yankee will hand you your tickets." There are so many ways the Yankees could reach out to their fans in better ways...but they don't.
MY THOUGHTS - A great photo of Roy White. If you haven't read his (and my) book From Compton to the Bronx, you should.
Speaking of nice things the Yankees could do, it's way past time to get Roy White in Monument Park. This would be easy to do. Just do it Yankees.
MY THOUGHTS - Right on. Bring it on. Let all the best players play for the Yankees. Why not? :)
MY THOUGHTS - It should have read, "...they will retire the City Connect uniforms and never bring them back."
MY THOUGHTS - Ok. Ok. I know. I don't watch the Mets. I only hear about them if I have sports talk on the radio. But I like the whole Grimace thing. It makes no sense, but it's fun and silly. I'm finding myself hoping that the Mets make the playoffs. Go Mets! Go Grimace! (I need some french fries and a shake.)
Volpe 2024 oWAR 2.7. Tied with Gleyber Torres for third on the Yankees behind Judge and Soto.
Thank you for playing. We have lovely parting gifts for you.
They sort of did something similar to this recently. They had an Aaron Judge Yankee Football Jersey Giveaway recently at Yankee Stadium, and they had multiple Yankee players in the public common area right after fans enter the stadium personally handing out the jerseys to the fans, and not only handing them out, but personally engaging with the fans. Something the very social extrovert Luke Weaver was very good at as he did this, with his amazing personality.
The City Connect uniforms of…
Teammates each with 305+ Total Bases and 115+ Walks in a season in MLB History
Whenever I see a stat like that, I wonder if the writer is cherry-picking numbers to get a result. Why not 300 TBs and 100 or 110 BB? Why not 310 TBs and 120 BBs? Or 325 and 125?
"There are so many ways the Yankees could reach out to their fans in better ways."
They're more preoccupied with reaching in - to our wallets
Volpe. Sigh. How did Judge become a great hitter? Was it a hitting coach in the Yankees employ? Nope. What happened to the Yankees Triple-A HC that that made Gio Urshela into a real major league hitter? He was allowed to just leave and go to Jeter in Miami after 2019. Peraza has struggled up here. Rice has struggled up here. Pereira struggled up here. Both Spencer Jones and Roderick Arias have a MAJOR strikeout problem in the minors. (oh boy in Game 1 of the playoffs last night did Jones hit a monster HR shot). Cabrera even struggled. Plus I can't get that picture out of my mind of that Homegrown piece showing a minor league hitting coa…