With no huge, newsworthy topics of discussion today, let’s do a little out of left field. Reminder, out of left field is an occasional post about things that don’t require 1,200 words of analysis but are interesting things to discuss anyway.
In no particular order:
Let’s play a little Yankees trivia: Who is the Yankees’ all-time leader in defensive WAR?
- Thurman Munson
- Clete Boyer
- Phil Rizzuto
- Willie Randolph
We’ll get to the answer in a minute.
Who’s hot and who’s not?
I’ve learned a lot by interacting with Yankees social media and one of the things I’ve learned is that folks love themselves some small sample sizes – I mean love them. Personally, I don’t but I don’t mind playing along now and then. To that end, let’s look at the Yankees batters who’ve been red hot over the past 30 calendar days and the ones who’ve been fighting it at the plate a little bit:
Hot:
Trevino 192 wRC+
Torres 179 wRC+
Judge 174 wRC+
Not:
Stanton 90 wRC+
IKF 80 wRC+
Donaldson 66 wRC+
(Reminder, 100 wRC+ is league average.)
Among the hot group, it’s amusing to see Judge with a 174 wRC+ which is actually him cooling down. Judge coming down to earth is one of the best hitters on the team (and in the league actually). And it must be noted that the three in the “not hot” group all have been less than 100 percent at some point over the past month, so it’s not like there’s any cause for concern.
Rival Roundup
The Red Sox have been scalding hot and they’ve been hot for a while. On May 10th, the Sawx were 10-19 and dead last in the AL East, and 10 games behind the first-place Yankees. Since then, they’ve gone 27-12 (a 112-win pace over a full season) and have leapfrogged Baltimore and Tampa Bay in the standings – yet remarkably lost three and a half games on the Yanks.
The secret to their success hasn’t been a secret at all, as their star players have played like stars over that stretch. Rafael Devers, JD Martinez, Xander Bogaerts, and Trevor Story have all been pounding the baseball while Nick Pivetta has stepped up for an injury-riddled pitching staff. Since May 10th, Pivetta has made eight starts, thrown 55 innings, allowed only 47 baserunners, and posted a 3.85 xFIP with a 3.70 SIERA.
Boston is finishing up a series against Detroit, then they play Cleveland, Toronto, the Cubs, and Tampa Bay before they’ll host the Bombers in Beantown for a four-game set starting on Thursday, July 7th.
Already looking forward to it.
Trivia answer:
Phil Rizzuto is the Yankees’ all-time leader in defensive WAR with 23. (My guess was Munson – shows you what I know.)
Tonight’s game:
Going for two in a row. First pitch at 7:10 PM, watch on YES, stream on MLB.tv, listen on WFAN 101.9/660, and follow along @mybaseballpage1 on Twitter and the “My Baseball Page” on Facebook.
mybaseballpage.com 