Yankee4Life

8 out of 10, 65 seconds. Two questions I should have known. 😬

9 out of 10, 46 seconds. A bad day all around.

7 out of 10, 59 seconds. Exactly the same as Jim!

Aaron Boone’s Fenway Park decisions come with much bigger Yankees consequences By Larry Brooks, New York Post Yankees manager Aaron Boone walks off the field. Sometimes the Yankees can be the stick, just as they were while taking two out of three from Houston and Toronto in consecutive series the first week of the month. But the Yankees can also be the piñata, just as they were in The Bronx in dropping 12-2 and 11-1 games to Detroit on consecutive nights this week when the bullpen became combustible leading into Thursday’s series finale. The Yankees had Cam Schlittler on the mound against the Tigers with José Caballero at shortstop for the second straight game, Aaron Judge in right field, Giancarlo Stanton at DH, Austin Slater in left field, Cody Bellinger in center, Ben Rice behind the plate, Paul Goldschmidt at first base after sitting for three of the previous four, and both Austin Wells and Trent Grisham on the bench. These were choices. But more interesting will be the lineups manager Aaron Boone prescribes for the three-game series at Fenway Park against the Red Sox that starts Friday night. This is the series in which the Yankees and Boston will fight for home-field advantage in what is shaping up to be the best-of-three, first-round playoff series that would be played entirely in the higher seed’s ballpark. The Yankees entered Thursday’s game in a virtual tie with Boston with a one-game lead in the loss column and percentage points lead of .001 while trailing first-place Toronto by 3 ¹/₂ games with 17 games remaining and leading the third wild card Seattle by 2 ¹/₂. It is possible things could change but not all that likely. Does home field matter? The Yankees entered Thursday 43-31 at home and 37-34 on the road. The Sox, who were idle, are 44-28 at Fenway and 37-38 on the road. The Yankees are 0-3 in Boston thus far while finishing 2-5 at the Stadium. Yankees first baseman Ben Rice flips the ball after fielding a grounder hit by Tigers designated hitter Kerry Carpenter. Schlittler, who was rocked his last time out against Toronto in which the 24-year-old right-hander surrendered four runs on five hits in 1 ²/₃ innings, is auditioning for a spot in the postseason rotation. Slater, in his third game back after sustaining a pulled hamstring in early August, is also vying for a spot. By the way, a year ago the most pressing issue in Pinstripe World was whether Alex Verdugo or Jasson Domínguez should get the start in left field. Verdugo, a one-and-done Yankee, started all 14 postseason games. Domínguez got into three, all as a pinch-runner. He did not get an at-bat. The 22-year-old switch-hitter — once the Next Great Hope — is a long shot to even be in the conversation about the postseason roster this time around. Domínguez has started just two of the last 15 games, amassing only nine at-bats in that span. He is slashing .257/.329/.389 with 10 homers and 46 RBI while being a defensive deficiency. Something unforeseen would have to intervene to make Domínguez a lineup option for the postseason. Anthony Volpe reacts after he strikes out swinging during a game against the Blue Jays. There are choices for the rotation, where Max Fried, Carlos Rodón and Luis Gil are in the post positions. There are going to be choices for the outfield, where Aaron Judge patrolled right field Thursday for the first time in six games. There is going to be a choice whether Rice is on first base or catches that will obviously impact Wells’ and Goldschmidt’s playing time. And there is going to be a choice at shortstop that might have become even more complicated with the news that colleague Joel Sherman broke in The Post on Thursday afternoon that Anthony Volpe had received a cortisone shot Wednesday after aggravating a left shoulder issue Sunday that he had been dealing with since the first days of May. This was apparently the second cortisone shot of the season for Volpe after the Yankees volunteered that he took one over the All-Star break, which he responded to splendidly with a two-week stretch in which he slashed .280/.315/.720 with a 1.035 OPS and seven home runs over 14 games. Contrast that to the season’s .206/.268/.383 that is one of baseball’s worst with defensive metrics that are toward the bottom of the league. Operating with a partially torn labrum might go a long way to explaining the 24-year-old Volpe’s crash dive to the bottom. But no, and not at all, for Boone insisted that this issue has had almost no impact on Volpe’s season. Players play hurt all the time. Players succeed while playing hurt. This particular one has not. Boone refused to provide a cover for Volpe. The words were interesting. The manager’s decisions going forward will be more interesting. We’ll see if the manager still perceives Volpe as his best option in the postseason. We’ll see if Volpe regains his starting role and maintains it through the playoffs. We’ll see if he responds to this injection as he did the first one. Boone said that Volpe was unavailable for Thursday because of the injection, but that he should be in play “in some way” for the weekend. “Day by day,” said Boone. We’ll see.

10 out of 10, 35 seconds. Very good but I think you guys once again are going to zoom right past it!

4 out of 10, 68 seconds. I'm happy I got this many right. I had two questions about something called Euro 2004. I don't know what that is and I don't want to. On to Friday!

Book Review: The Yankee Way by Andy Martino This book was a very aggravating book to read. No, now that I think about it that is not the right way I would describe it. I should've said it was very disappointing to read and this opinion had nothing to do with the author who wrote it or how he presented it. I think that Andy Martino told a very interesting story that turned into a page turner for me. The Yankees themselves made it a very disappointing book because the author showed how they screwed up a good thing. Gene Michael had an outstanding eye for talent and when he was actually able to do his job because of George Steinbrenner's interference he may have been the best in the game. Because of Steinbrenner's suspension thirty-five years ago Michael was able to implement his ideas and before long the last place Yankees of 1990 became the best team in the American League in the strike shortened season of 1994. And we all know what they did after that. The Yankees were fortunate to have a man named Bill Livesey, who was the Yankees' scouting director from 1991 to 1996 and he was instrumental in assembling the "Core Four" that led the Yankees to their dynasty in the late 90's. In other words someone who knew what he was doing. What I didn't understand is the Yankee viewpoint that they could never go back to how it was in the late 1990s. They made it sound as far back as the 1950s. Change of course is inevitable and if you stay in one place you will see everything go past you. Steinbrenner gave Cashman full control in 2005 and that is when analytics really started to take hold of how the Yankees run things. They hired some jackass named Michael Fishman now is in charge of the analytics department for the Yankees. Fishman never played baseball and yet here he is giving advice to the general manager of the New York Yankees. His talent was sitting in front of a computer putting numbers in and telling Cashman what he learned. There is old saying that goes like this. There are lies, damned lies and statistics. In other words you can make a statistic say whatever you want it to mean. Analytics can be helpful but not when you are afraid to go against them like the New York Yankees seem to act. The entire book paints Brian Cashman as the greatest general manager around. I don't know if any Yankee fan would agree to that. Like I said it was a disappointing book because I could see that the Yankees were never going to shy away from analytics and the only thing that will change in the future is that they will depend on even more. A good book. Thanks KC.

Why Anthony Volpe won’t be the Yankees’ first choice shortstop in the playoffs By Joel Sherman, New York Post Anthony Volpe's struggles at the plate and at shortstop have drawn no small share of boobirds. I am not much for predictions. I like sports for many reasons — among the biggest is that as opposed to most of life, we will get resolution on everything, from who wins each game to who earns awards to who captures championships. I don’t like the current sports ecosystem in which folks boldly state — usually they scream, actually —what is going to happen and then boast about the one-in-four they get right. So you know what is coming next, right? I am going to make a prediction. Hopefully, it is borne of history, observation and experience — and also comes with a larger point. I am predicting that Anthony Volpe is going to be Gary Sánchez. You might remember that Sánchez arrived to the Yankees with fanfare and enjoyed terrific early success. The belief was he was more than just a power hitter, but a terrific all-around hitter who used the whole field. Slowly he fell under the organizational spell to pull the ball in the air, and with that came a plummeting batting average and a skyrocketing number of strikeouts. Resemble anyone? Stick with me. Sánchez’s defense also was a problem, and his shortcomings kept showing up at the worst times. Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe’s 19 errors leads the American League this season. But no matter how bad the results became on both sides of the ball, Aaron Boone stuck with a “nothing to see here” approach. In fact, he kept insisting everyone’s eyes were lying, that Sánchez was actually a very good defensive catcher. What we have learned over time, though, when it comes to the Yankees in general and Boone specifically, is to ignore what is said and concentrate fully on what they do. In the COVID-shortened 2020 season, Sánchez started 38 regular-season games at catcher and Kyle Higashioka started 13. But then the playoffs rolled around and Higashioka started five of the Yankees’ seven games. In 2021, Sánchez started 100 games at catcher and Higashioka 58. But in their only playoff game that year, Higashioka started. Some of this had to do with Higashioka evolving into Gerrit Cole’s personal catcher, but that evolution was forged out of a diminishing faith in Sánchez. Sánchez was traded after that season as part of an ill-fated deal for Josh Donaldson and Isiah Kiner-Falefa. It brought new players who were clearly failing, yet Boone insisted were doing great. Of course, then the 2022 playoffs arrived and IKF started just five of nine games at shortstop. Volpe has similarities to Sánchez with a touch of Kiner-Falefa. He arrived to great jubilation from Yankees fans in 2023 and with the reputation as an all-field hitter. But we only have seen that all-field approach in spurts — notably in last year’s postseason, when he hit superbly. Mostly he has followed the organizational mantra for pull power in the air, leading to him opening up and becoming too easy of an out and subject to long cold spells. In the past 20 games before Tuesday night’s series opener against the Tigers, Volpe was hitting .130 (9-for-69) with one walk and 27 strikeouts. Like Sánchez, his game has decayed with each passing year rather than improving. And in every phase: his offense, defense and baserunning. Volpe has stolen one base since Aug. 8. Of course, you can’t steal first, and Volpe’s .269 on-base percentage is the second-worst among qualified hitters. In Sánchez’s final four Yankees regular seasons, totaling 361 games, he had a slashline of .210/.299/.444 and struck out 28.1 percent of the time. In 459 career games, Volpe has a slashline of .207/.269/.396 and has whiffed 25 percent of the time. Sánchez’s defensive miscues and strikeouts brought out the worst of home booing in his time, as Volpe’s does now. Gary Sanchez’s increasing struggles on defense led to his being benched during the playoffs in his final two seasons with the Yankees. Yet, as with Sánchez, Boone talks about Volpe as if he is experiencing minor glitches. But, again, it is not what the Yankees manager says. In the final three weeks of the 2021 season, Boone began playing Higashioka equally to Sánchez and then had Higashioka start the postseason game. We are not there with José Caballero, but — prediction alert — I think we are going to get there. Because at this moment (and perhaps more than just this moment), he is better than Volpe at everything — hitting, field and baserunning. It is not even that close. Watching Caballero play short is a reminder of how un-smooth Volpe is at the position. In this way, he resembles Kiner-Falefa, who never looked like a natural shortstop and notably, like Volpe, mixed frantic movement with unsure handling of the ball and needed to muster full force to throw. Watch Volpe field the ball and see how infrequently he gloves the ball in the pocket. There is no easy part of his shortstop game, no flow. Caballero is smooth. He throws to first effortlessly. Plus, he is a dynamic base-stealer and has hit well as a Yankee. I suspect the more Caballero plays, the more you will see stuff you don’t like. Already, he unforgivably was ejected from two games where his presence was badly needed. That is hot-headed, selfish behavior that does not have the team as the priority. It probably offers a window into why a talented player who is not yet even arbitration-eligible has been traded twice. José Caballero has played shortstop with an ease and confidence the Yankees may need in the postseason. But Boone ultimately gave up on Sánchez in the biggest games because he just became too much of a liability while sucking the air out of the home stadium with his struggles. Volpe has reached that point. Every ground ball is a hold-your-breath-moment. Every two-strike count feels like the inevitable will follow. He feels more and more untenable to hold the position. Higashioka was not a star, but he removed the tension and uncertainty around a discomforting issue. Caballero feels as if he can do the same. At some point, you can’t just hope, pray and delude as a reason why a championship-or-bust team sticks with a second-best choice. That would rise to managerial negligence. So I predict that by the playoffs, Caballero will be the regular shortstop.

8 out of 10, 78 seconds. I'll take it because with Thursday coming you never know how those questions are going to be.

7 out of 10, 51 seconds. Not bad for a Tuesday. When you get something right about a question about India and Pakistan about some sport you know you are lucky.

8 out of 10, 71 seconds. The ones that I missed really had me stumped. I learned two things today anyway.

Please search the forum in the MVP 2005\support area for answers to this and many other questions. Thank you.

10 out of 10, 37 seconds. Once again the time is too slow because the people I play against are really good.

9 out of 10, 96 seconds. 96 seconds? What was I, asleep?

9 out of 10, 38 seconds. I so look forward to Fridays and when I mess it up it is always on something I don't read all the way through. Like today. Ok Laroquece and Sabugo, fly right past me. 👍