There are ten questions in this week’s pre-Subway Series edition of the mailbag. RABmailbag (at) gmail (dot) com is where you can send your questions each week.
Many asked: Austin Romine. What the hell?
Romine went 0-for-5 to end his eleven-game hitting streak Wednesday night, but he’s still hitting .344/.425/.609 (182 wRC+) with four homers in 73 plate appearances this year. It’s only 73 plate appearances, yeah, but those 73 plate appearances happened. Even if he stops hitting today, those 73 plate appearances have helped the Yankees win. Romine hit two homers in 252 plate appearances last year. He has four and it’s June 8th. Pretty awesome.
I noted this back during the second week of the season, but Romine has gone the Giancarlo Stanton route and closed his batting stance this year. Here’s this image again:
A closed stance allows he hitter to better go the other way, and, sure enough, Romine has been wearing out the opposite field this season. He has driven two home runs to the left field side of dead center field, otherwise he’s shooting everything to right field. Here’s his 2018 spray chart:
Romine’s hard contact rate to the opposite field sits at 34.8% this year. It was 24.3% the last two seasons. Hmmm. The other thing is Romine has stopped chasing out of the zone. He has a 21.9% chase rate and a 12.3% walk rate this season. His career rates are 35.8% and and 6.0%, respectively.
There’s a lot going on here. New stance and new plate discipline? That suggests Romine’s improvement could be for real. I don’t think anyone expects him to hit like this all year. But can he better than his .228/.271/.330 (57 wRC+) line the last two years? Yeah, maybe he can. Intrigue!
Zack asks: Gleyber Torres for Jacob deGrom straight up. Who hangs up first?
Both teams. I don’t think the Mets would be crazy to ask for Torres in a deGrom trade at all. He’s a bona fide ace and he’s under control through 2020. It should hurt like hell to trade for that guy. The only trade benchmark I can come up with is Chris Sale. Maybe the Gerrit Cole trade works too, but deGrom now is flat out better than Cole was the last few years. Sale, like deGrom, was an established ace with three years of control. deGrom has two and a half years.
The Red Sox traded, according to Baseball America, the No. 2 (Yoan Moncada) and No. 32 (Michael Kopech) overall prospects plus two others for Sale. Moncada had some big league time when he was traded too. Not as much as Gleyber and he didn’t have nearly as much success either, but he was an MLB guy. Using the Sale trade as a benchmark, I don’t think Torres plus more for deGrom would be an unreasonable ask for the Mets. I’m not saying the Yankees should do it! I’m just saying the Mets could ask for it and it wouldn’t be nuts.
Frank asks: I just read your post about Jonathan Holder and the fact that he has basically 4 pitches in his repertoire. His fastball averages about 94 (albeit in relief), and he uses a very good curve and now a slider with a usable change up. He’s about 230 lbs and seems to have a starter’s build. I think they tried him as a starter in the minors, do you think he’s developed his pitches further enough to be tried there again?
Holder spent the 2015 season as a starter with High-A Tampa, and he threw 118 innings with a 2.52 ERA (2.85 FIP) with 18.7% strikeouts and 5.2% walks. The Yankees moved him back to the bullpen the next year because his stuff didn’t hold up well as a starter. He was more 88-90 mph as a starter and he didn’t hold his velocity into the later innings. That was then though. Can he do it now? Who really knows. Holder does have some effort in his delivery, so I’m not sure how that would hold up under a starter’s workload, and I’m not sure whether his slider and changeup are good enough to go through a lineup multiple times. I think, now that Holder is having some consistent success in the big leagues, the Yankees should just leave him in the bullpen. Bullpens are really important! Holder could be a setup guy at some point. Would you rather have a setup guy or a No. 4 or 5 starter? In this day and age, the setup caliber reliever seems more valuable, or at least as valuable.
Mark asks: Who is currently the Yankees emergency 3rd catcher since Toe went down? Also if there is a blowout game, who is the first position player to be asked to pitch?
Neil Walker is the emergency catcher. Aaron Boone said so after Ronald Torreyes was sent down. Walker was drafted as a catcher and he spent the first three years of his career behind the plate, but that was a long time ago. A long, long time ago. Walker hasn’t caught a game since he was in the Arizona Fall League in 2006. At least he has some experience behind the plate, so if he needs to do it in an emergency, it won’t be completely new to him.
As for the position player pitching, it has to be Tyler Austin, right? None of the regulars are going to do it, so it’s either Austin, Romine, or Walker. Romine is hitting too well (!) and the Yankees don’t have a ton of catching depth, so they can’t risk an injury. Walker is making real money and I think he’s just better than Austin. Austin is essentially the 25th man on the 25-man roster, so he pitches.
Mark asks: Yankees lead the league in Walks. What is the record for one season of walks for a team? Could the Yankees beat it?
Going into last night’s games the Yankees led baseball with 236 walks despite playing only 58 games because of all the rainouts. Weirdly enough, the top two teams in walks are tied for the fewest games played. The Yankees have 236 walks in 58 games and the Cubs were second with 233 walks in 58 games. The Yankees have only eight intentional walks though. The Cubs have 27 because of the whole pitcher hitting thing.
Anyway, the 236 walks in 58 games put the Yankees on pace for 659 walks in 162 games. Here are the five highest single-season walk totals in history:
- 1949 Red Sox: 835
- 1948 Red Sox: 821
- 1949 Athletics: 783
- 2000 Mariners: 775
- 1941 Browns: 775
Yeah, so the 2018 Yankees aren’t close to being on pace to break the all-time single-season walk total. If they do finish with 659 walks, it would be the 102nd highest total in history, tied with the 2009 Red Sox. I think having two free swingers like Didi Gregorius and Miguel Andujar in the lineup everyday — those dudes are awesome, don’t get me wrong, but they are free swingers — eliminate any chance at the walks record.
John asks: Any update on Clarke Schmidt?
Schmidt, last year’s first round pick, had Tommy John surgery last May. He faced hitters for the first time as part of his rehab on May 22nd — here’s video of that simulated game — and he faced hitters this past Tuesday as well, so it seems all is going well. Good news. The various short season leagues open up within the next two weeks and I imagine the Yankees will ease Schmidt back into things with a few short outings in the rookie Gulf Coast League at first. He’s not going to throw six innings on Opening Day for Staten Island or anything like that. Keep him close to the home base in Tampa and work him back carefully. This year is all about getting Schmidt healthy and back on the mound. Next year will be his real coming out party.
Michael asks: Would you take Zimmer over Frazier with the development of both and the team needs today?
Nah. The Yankees absolutely need a young center fielder more than a young corner outfielder, and Bradley Zimmer is an excellent defensive center fielder, but can he hit? The Indians sent him to Triple-A a few days ago with a .226/.281/.330 (65 wRC+) batting line and a 38.6% strikeout rate. He’s a career .237/.300/.370 (77 wRC+) hitter in 446 big league plate appearances. He’s also two years older than Frazier too. Eh. The Yankees reportedly had their pick between Frazier and Zimmer in the Andrew Miller trade and even though the Yankees have nowhere to play Frazier right now, I’m happy with the decision. I think he’s the better player now and will be the better player going forward.
Jordan asks: When is it time to discuss Gleyber Torres’ defense? He’s made several mistakes in the field and while I’m sure he will get better, hearing the Yankees announcers commend the plays he does make and say things like “he’s gonna win a gold glove one day” seem to gloss over his current defensive productivity. Is it possible Torres is not as sure-handed as we heard when he was in the minors?
Torres has eight errors in 39 games, which is already the eighth most errors in baseball. I’m not really worried about his defense though. It seems to me the game speeds up on Gleyber sometimes, which isn’t uncommon for a rookie. He thinks he has more time than he does and winds up rushing things. It’s not like he’s lacking defensive tools. We’ve seen the range, the hands, and the arm. He’s made careless errors more than anything. Booted grounders, errant throws, things like that. Plus he’s still relatively new to second base, remember. Played only 23 total games at the position in the minors before being called up. Give Gleyber some time and he’ll straighten himself out defensively. The errors are more an annoyance than worrisome at this point.
Caleb asks: What are your thoughts on Blake Snell as a potential trade deadline target?
Snell really would be an ideal trade pickup. He’s a lefty, he’s only 25, and he’s under control through 2022. And he’s very good too. Snell has a 2.36 ERA (3.08 FIP) with 29.5% strikeouts and 7.7% walks this season. His breakout started last year too. Going back to last August, he has a 2.57 ERA (3.08 FIP) with 27.4% strikeouts and 7.4% walks in his last 23 starts and 133.1 innings. That’s really good.
When he first came up two years ago, there were times Snell looked like a deer in the headlights. Not uncommon for a young pitcher! That Blake Snell is gone. He’s much more in control and confident on the mound. You can see it when he pitches. And, most importantly, his improvement on the mound can be traced back to a slight mechanical change. He moved from the extreme third base side of the rubber to the middle of the rubber in the middle of last season. His horizontal release points:
It doesn’t seem like much, shifting 8-10 inches closer to first base on the rubber, but man, it can everything. It changes all the angles on a guy’s pitches and the way both righties and lefties see the ball out of his hand. The shift also helped Snell throw more quality strikes and he took off from there. The Cubs moved Jake Arrieta from the first base side to the third base side of the rubber a few years ago and he turned into a Cy Young winner.
Snell didn’t come out of nowhere. He’s a former top prospect — Baseball America ranked him as the fourth best pitching prospect in baseball going into 2016, the last time he was prospect eligible — who went through some early career struggles, and has now found himself. Luis Severino did the same thing! He struggled early in his career too. The only real concern with Snell is a lack of ground balls (career 41.1% grounders). Otherwise I’d love love love him on the Yankees. This new version of Blake Snell is legit.
Todd asks: Hey Mike, There are plenty of leaders in that clubhouse, but who gets officially named the next Yankee captain?
If the Yankees were going to name a new captain tomorrow, Brett Gardner would be the obvious candidate. He is The Man in the clubhouse. Problem is Gardner will be 35 later this year and this is the final guaranteed year on his contract, so who knows what the future holds. Would they really name a guy captain when he could be gone after the season? Nope. To me, either Aaron Judge or Severino makes sense as the next captain. Even though they’re young, they’re both leaders in the clubhouse and great players.
One thing to keep in mind: Derek Jeter was not named captain until 2003. It was his eighth full season in the big leagues, he was early in a long-term contract, and he had four World Series rings. Think of all the things Jeter accomplished early in his career, and he still waited until his eighth season to be named captain. Maybe things will be different now since George Steinbrenner isn’t running the show. But with Gardner getting up there in age and Judge and Severino both being so young, I don’t think we’re going to see a new captain named anytime soon.
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