Perspectives: The 6-5 Yanks

By Paul Semendinger

April 9, 2025

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Well, the Yankees got off to a hot start. It was just three games, but the way some fans were talking, it was as if the season was already over. "This team just crushed the Brewers. They are for real. There's no stopping the Yankees. They can score and score and score and score. They also have enough pitching. Hey, if you average a gazillion runs a game, the pitching is good enough."

Some fans were lining up for the World Series victory parade.

Since starting the year 3-0, the Yankees have gone 3-5 over their last eight games. Wait. What? How did that happen?

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Two weeks ago, the Yankees, we were told, were brilliant. They invented the torpedo bat. No one else ever thought of that we were told. Then there came questions of the bat's legality. (The legality of the bat was never acutually in question, but for a few moments, that was the talking point.) Next came the point that the torpedo bat isn't new. "Giancarlo Stanton used it last year in the playoffs." Then came the realization that Stanton got hurt. So next came, "There is no way the bat hurt Stanton." Then it was, "Oh yeah, many teams have tired the bats." Then it was no team can build these bats quite as well as the Yankees can. The Yankees use science and analyitics to build them.

Now, after scoring a grand total of six runs over the last three games, no one is talking about the torpedo bats any longer.

The Torpedo Bats - A Story That Keeps On Changing

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After three games, so many were ready to award the MVP to Jazz Chisholm. Since then, he has gone 3 for 36 (.111) with one homer. How is the torpedo bat not helping him any longer?

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Maybe the Brewers pitchers were all off their game for that first series....

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The Yankees set a few records to start the year. Many centered on the numbers of homers they hit. But, right after that, the Yankees set a record for striking out a ton.

It seems the World Series parades are a bit premature.

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The Yankees hitters stopped scoring runs. I know some will blame the cold weather in Detroit, but somehow the Tigers were able to blast home run after home run...

Maybe the Tigers have taken the Yankees' torpedo bats and replaced them with wet noodles.

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During Spring Training, I made the point that stats in Spring Training are essentially meaningless. I was told by some that I didn't know what I was talking about.

Some claimed that Carlos Carrasco's excellent pitching demonstrated that he was going to do well this season. After three appearances, ol' Cookie has an ERA of 7.71.

Somehow those great Florida numbers didn't carry over into the season.

This happens every single year and has been happening forever. Fans look at the super small sample size of Spring Training and assume those numbers have predictive value. The great majority of the time, they don't. At all.

In Spring Training, teams do not play all their regulars. When they do play, the starters don't play full games. No player is giving his all. Batters are experimenting with new approaches. Pitchers are trying pitches they'll likely never use during games that count. But that's the point... the games don't count and the results reflect those facts.

Finally, even if all the numbers are accumulated against the very best players playing their very best (two things that do not ever happen in the spring, in games that do not matter) the totals come from an extremely small sample size.

All of this renders most of the stats, the great majority, if not all, meaningless.

Years ago I stopped believing Spring Training stats matter. They do not. Carlos Carrasco is just one example of a player who is not performing anywhere near his Spring Training stats. If anything, since he was so good (or so it seemed) so recently, he should have at least started the season effectively, but he didn't because...

Spring Training stats are essentially meaningless.

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Carlos Carrasco's ERA+ the last many years:

2024 = 72

2023 - 61

2022 - 97

2021 - 67

Those stats were accumulated over 4 seasons covering 82 games and 399.1 innings. That body of work, obviously, is much more indicative of his ability and performance than 16 innings of scrimmage baseball in Florida in February and March.

As fans, we want to believe. That's what we do. We believe and we hope. When players do well in Spring Training, we hope and hope and hope that it's for real. Fans can be excused for believing and hoping.

For the Yankees, the supposed experts, to believe in those 16 Florida innings is more of a problem. The Yankees should know better. The Yankees have the same data I have. All they need to do is go to baseball-reference. (This isn't difficult.)

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DJ LeMahieu is supposedly now getting game ready. He is healing. He might be activated soon. For the Yankees to believe in him, at this point, is also foolish. It's as foolish as believing in Carlos Carrasco.

Over the previous four seasons, LeMahieu has missed 170 games. His OPS+ has been under 100 in three of the last four seasons. Over his last 478 games (and 1,762 at bats) his OPS+ is only 95. This is just a fancy way of saying that DJ LeMahieu has been a below average big league hitter overall over the last four seasons. This is an older player who can't stay healthy and when he does play, he hits poorly. His WAR in three of the last four seasons has been under 2.0 each year. Last year he had a negative WAR. Even when he does hit, his power has disappeared. All of these are bad signs. All of this indicates that DJ LeMahieu is not a viable option for the 2025 Yankees (if winning is their primary objective).

If the Yankees believe that at age-36, after four less-than-good years, that LeMahieu is an answer for this team, they are just hoping or wishing, but not looking at this logically nor reasonably. The very large sample size of the last four years indicates, very clearly, that he is no longer a viable answer for the team.

If at bats are given to Oswaldo Peraza, and he doesn't hit, that's one thing... Peraza might have a future. LeMahieu does not have a future. His past success is also long ago.

DJ LeMahieu led the A.L. in batting in 2020. Want to know how long ago that was? Here are the top five batters in 2020. Would any of these players be considered good players today?

1. DJ LeMahieu

2. Tim Anderson

3. David Fletcher

4. Jose Abreu

5. Alex Verdugo

The last time DJ was a top player was, in baseball years, a lifetime ago. When the Yankees talk about his potential and his batting championship and past success, they are saying things that might sound reasonable, but that simply do not hold up to scrutiny.

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In my league, my first baseball game of the season was rained out. I was slated to be the Opening Day starter. I'm hoping I get the nod on Sunday when we open the season (as long as the fields are playable).

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I hope the blip the Yankees are having is just a blip. I'm tired of writing articles talking about losing streaks, washed up players, obvious stats, and such. We've been writing here daily for about 2,700 days (since October 2017). We've posted over 10,000 articles in that span of time. It's time to write about sustained success and greatness.

As a fan, I want to write about wins and smart baseball decisions and championships and all of that. I'm tired of hearing about smart baseball people who all seem to make poor baseball decisions that one can see before they play out just by looking at simple stats and using logic and some understanding of baseball history and the way the game is played.

One mark of the Aaron Boone Yankees has been that they look unbeatable for periods of time, better than any team ever, and then they look as bad as any team ever. The problem is that no one with the Yankees ever seems to know why this happens and that's a problem.

When the Yankees win, the manager and the leaders all act as though they planned it all so well. When they lose, they do not have answers. Again, that's a problem.

If a team knows why it's losing, it can fix the mistakes. If a team does not know why it is is losing, that's a problem. This is the ways the Yankees have operated since we started this site all those years ago. They never quite seem to have any answers - for good or for bad. Things just happen to them. That isn't the way a smart organization or baseball team is operated.

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Let's Go Yankees!!!!