These guys need an impulse.
‘I think of the off-day [Monday] comes at a good time, ”Brett Gardner said Sunday after his Yankees lost a walk-off, 4-3 loss to the Rays at Tropicana Field, their fifth loss in seven tries. ‘We’ve had that kind of a crazy scheme. It would be good to take a step back and watch some video and restart and come back on Tuesday. “
These guys need a fresh face.
“In general, we just need to get better as a unit,” Gardner said of the Yankees’ offense.
These guys need Clint Frazier.
OK, I plead guilty that I am overdramatic. This Yankees (10-6) – who still lead the American League East through two games over the Rays (8-8) in a season when winning the division will not bring much reward through the extended playoff structure – are barely free -fall. Even the loss of the gut-punch on Sunday brought some remarkably good news with the excitement of James Paxton, who dominated by six innings, allowing only one hit and 11 shots, before Aaron Boone pressed his luck with the Southpaw and paid for it in the seventh.
As Gardner pointed out, however, the Yankees’ ultra-deep offensive core has hit a mild funk. The aforementioned “crazy scheme” saw those seven games played in these past five days, and only twice have they exceeded their average runes per game of 4.9. They lost one of their toppers on Saturday, when the eternally fragile Giancarlo Stanton punished his left hamstring, continuing on the injured list Sunday.
And Frazier brings, if nothing else, energy like the potential to go on a roll. After a strong spring training 1.0 that saw him in the position to be a field goal regular with Stanton and Aaron Judge both injured, he also looked strong in the spring training 2.0, leaving the opening day roster only to the alternative site during the first weekend thanks to the healing of Judge and Stanton (temporarily, in his case) creating an abundance of bats.
However, Stanton is out, and Miguel Andujar is down, on Thursday opting to the alternative side after starting a meager 1-for-14 season. The Yankees made a telling statement Sunday by replacing Stanton with striker Thairo Estrada instead of Andujar, both men with the club as part of the taxi team. As for the rules regarding options for minor leagues, Andujar has to spend 10 days on the alternative side, unless he fills in the place of an injured player. That although he could be trusted for Tanton, he can not be trusted for Estrada, whose lock Boone said he would reconsider on Sunday.
It therefore makes sense to replace the bat Stanton with the bat Frazier, who was not in the taxi squad; even if the 25-year-old does not start against a right-handed starting pitcher (the Braves will face referee Touki Toussaint in the Yankees’ next game, Tuesday in The Bronx), he can serve as a weapon against lefty serveers. Shit, if the Yankees’ initial pitching didn’t go in shape, as they hoped on the 31st trade deadline, Frazier could potentially help both Yankees and show himself as a trader for a pitcher.
Boone dispelled all the worries he held about his crime. The manager said: ‘You know when you come here and play these guys that running will be at a premium. They are very good at run prevention. They do a really good job at that. They have a lot of poor quality. They match really well. That they make it difficult. I think it’s a bit of that.
“We still came in here and scored enough to win some games. … I feel we should move forward here in a good place with where our boys are. ”
They should be, and Frazier can make it even better. The fireworks seem to learn from pinstriped mistakes from the past, and he even wore a mask during his at-bats in camp, a symbol we could use against the terribly large anti-scientific contingent there.
Let’s see how the Yankees deal with their first 2020 moment of adversity. Let’s see if Frazier can help her deal with it. The rewards clearly swim across the risks.
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