Even though it’s only April 18th, it’s hard not to be excited about the 2024 Yankees. They’re in first place in a division in which all five teams are over .500, and not insignificantly, have been a heck of a lot of fun to watch.
With regards to yesterday’s fist pump generating come from behind win in Toronto, there was too much optimism generating fun stuff occurring to comprehensively cover today, but three things stood out to me.
Giancarlo Stanton is bashing baseballs again.
Coming into the season there were three givens in the Yankees lineup: Juan Soto and Aaron Judge are going to be monsters, and Gleyber Torres is going to hit. The rest of the lineup, however, was (still is) a long list of question marks.
Over the past two weeks, Stanton has posted a .382 OBP, .688 SLG, and 209 wRC+ with three bombs. Over that stretch he’s fanned only 17.6% of the time (not bad for anybody, great for him) with an average exit velocity of 94.4, bringing his season wRC+ up to 132, despite a very slow start.
Of course, streaks of all kinds are a given, but if Stanton can post a wRC+ of 132 on the season with 500 PA this lineup becomes very scary.
Aaron Boone had a great game.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who let out an audible groan when Boone sent a pinch hitter with a career 74 OPS+ to the plate for a hitter who’s been having good plate appearances all season. Regardless, Jose Trevino came through with a huge RBI single to tie the game in the ninth.
Prior to that, Ian Hamilton, the Yanks fWAR leader among pitchers, (say that again) had faced six batters and only allowed one hard hit ball and was clearly throwing the ball well. Yet with Daulton Varsho, who had already homered earlier, due up Boone went to Victor Gonzalez, who induced a groundout to end the eighth inning.
If you’re going to bash the manager when things don’t work out, speak up when they do.
Anthony Volpe has looked great – at shortstop.
There’s been a lot of discussion about Volpe’s results in the batter’s box this season, understandably so. Yet we all knew he wasn’t about to go an entire season with a BABIP as high as a fan sitting in the upper level at a Grateful Dead concert.
But that might not matter. Volpe has been so good at shortstop, that even if he hits “OK” he’s going to be a four-win player just with his defense and baserunning alone.
Volpe made two plays yesterday that had folks who love the eye test say, “wow, he made that look easy and it wasn’t an easy play”, and he’s currently tied for second among MLB shortstops in Fielding Run Value, and fifth in Defensive Runs Above Average.
Day off today for the team, then three this weekend against the Tampa Bay Rays in the Bronx. Looking forward to another good weekend!
Did I miss something? Let me know. Leave a comment below or yell at me @mybaseballpage1 on Twitter and/or the “My Baseball Page” on Facebook.
PS: I told you I was reading “Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball” and that I’d circle back. I’m just over 100 pages in and I can already say it’s one of the best baseball books I’ve read in years. The circumstances that brought Bill Veeck, Bob Feller, Satchel Paige, and Larry Doby together is a fascinating read.
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