Schadenfreude 286: (A Continuing Series)

Wondering if the title of these posts should be changed to "(A Daily Series)" . . .

Worst Record In MLB (Under .400)

              W   L   PCT      STANDINGS        L10  RS  RA  DIFF
Rockies       4  12  .250  9.0 GB in NL West    2-8  66  76   -10
Yankees       5  10  .333  4.5 GB in AL East    2-8  55  64   - 9
Diamondbacks  6  10  .375  7.0 GB in NL West    4-6  73  83   -10
Tigers        6  10  .375  4.0 GB in AL Central 3-7  55  83   -28
Nationals     5   8  .385  3.0 GB in NL East    4-6  46  61   -15

Kristie Ackert, Daily News:

No matter how much he may want to, Gerrit Cole cannot do it all.

The Yankees right-hander cannot spark the offense or steady the defense behind him. With an impotent offense and more defensive lapses, the Yankees wasted another of his starts Sunday. . . . The Yankees . . . dropped their fifth straight game, losing 4-2 to the Rays at the Stadium.

The Rays swept the three-games to take their second series of the season from the Yankees. . . .The Rays have won the last six regular season series against the Yankees and beat them in the best-of-five American League Division Series last season.

The Yankees managed just three hits off the Rays, who started Andrew Kittredge for 1.2 innings and then went to their bulk guy in Ryan Yarbrough. In the three-game series, the Yankees managed 11 hits, (hitting .120 as a team), including three homers. They struck out 37 times.

The Rays led off the third with three straight singles against Cole, including Kevin Keirmaier's bobbled fly ball to center and an RBI, line drive single by Yandy Diaz which Aaron Hicks missed and let get by him. The error allowed Mike Zunino, who led off with a single, to score. Manuel Margot gave the Rays the lead with a sacrifice fly to left, which Clint Frazier then sent sailing past second allowing Diaz to advance to third. . . .

Cole retired 13 straight until Joey Wendle hit a one-out single in the seventh. It was a hard-hit liner, but even though Chad Green was close to being ready, Aaron Boone kept him in to face Yoshi Tsutsugo. The Rays' designated hitter doubled on Cole's 109th pitch of the game to drive in the Rays' third run.

Joey Wendle homered off Darren O'Day in the top of the ninth. It was the first run O'Day allowed as a Yankee.

Greg Joyce, Post:

Not even Gerrit Cole could save the Yankees from sinking further into the depths of despair.

The $324 million ace tried to play the role of the stopper Sunday . . . but the scuffling offense still came up empty as the Yankees dropped a fifth straight game and were swept by the Rays with a 4-2 loss at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees mustered just three hits as they fell to 5-10, their worst record to begin a season since 1997 . . .

[Cole] was burned by some poor defense in a two-run third inning before giving up the go-ahead run in the seventh. . . . 

[T]he Yankees . . . [had] their first lead of the series in the second inning . . . It was the first time the Yankees had led in 22 innings, dating to the sixth inning of Wednesday's loss to the Blue Jays.

It didn't last long, though, as the Yankees gave it right back in the top of the third, courtesy of a few costly defensive gaffes from their outfield.

Ian O'Connor, Post:

A baseball manager is not a head football coach. He cannot treat an MLB Sunday loss in April like an NFL Sunday loss in September, not when he has to lead his team on a grueling, 162-game journey that isn't best served by the dramatic mood swings that define pro football.

The adjustments are not as extreme, and the reprimands are not as explosive. But right now, with Tampa Bay's series sweep leaving his Yankees at 5-10, Aaron Boone is starting to look like one of those nice-guy NFL coaches whose teams rarely look ready to play. . . .

We quickly transition to the necessary disclaimers in your prototypical negative early-season baseball column . . .

But all that matters today is that there are 29 other teams in major league baseball, and the Yankees have a worse record than 28 of them. Despite a payroll about $134 million fatter than Tampa Bay's, the Yankees have allowed the Rays to take up permanent residence in their big-market heads. The Rays have taken six straight series from the Yanks, and have won 15 of their last 18 regular-season meetings, and eight of their last nine in The Bronx. If they see each other again in the postseason, a year after the Yanks were bounced from the ALDS, the Rays will feel all but invincible walking into that series. . . .

Boone could not even be rescued by his $324 million ace in the hole, Gerrit Cole . . . that wasn't good enough to prevent his team from losing its fifth in a row.

Boone even got a pregame assist from Jay Bruce, who suddenly announced his retirement and got everyone in the building . . . talking about something other than just the godforsaken state of Bruce's last team.

That didn't help, either. The Yankees entered this game 23rd in the majors in on-base percentage, 24th in runs, 25th in total bases and 28th in OPS, and they responded with a grand total of two runs on three hits in the 4-2 defeat. . . .

Worse yet, the Yankees’ amateur-hour play in the outfield did nothing to support the idea that Boone's team was mentally prepared to compete at the highest level. Hicks, the expert golfer, committed a double bogey on one play and a bogey on another . . . while Clint Frazier once inexplicably threw the ball to Cole instead of to second base. That's why most of the 10,606 fans in the stands booed loudly after the final out was made. . . .

Boone said he will consider "shaking some things up." The most obvious move is getting Hicks out of the three-hole . . . His 0-for-4 dropped his batting average to .160 and his OBP to .236, and the numbers — coupled with his defensive breakdowns — have earned the demotion. . . .

Boone has to understand that this horror film of a start is not only on Yanks' stumbling, bumbling stars.

This is very much on the man paid to make sure those stars play up to their billing.

Greg Joyce, Post:

Sunday was Jay Bruce's last game as a Yankee — and major leaguer.

The 34-year-old outfielder/first baseman is retiring after the Yankees' 4-2 loss to the Rays on Sunday . . . marking the end of a 14-year career in the big leagues. . . .

Bruce said his decision came into focus about a week ago . . . [He] was batting 4-for-34 [.118] . . . in 10 games. He started first eight games of the season at first base, but had recently been phased out of the lineup.

Wow.

Bruce would rather retire than spend even one more day on the sinking ship known as the SS MFY.

(Please note: I wrote the prior sentence well before I saw the Daily News back page.)

Saturday Feats

Thanks to Doug Kern's Twitter:

Xander Bogaerts: Also had 4 hits but 0 runs scored as cleanup batter on Sep 9 2018 vs HOU (W 6-5). Only other [Red Sox] cleanup hitter to do it twice at Fenway is Carl Yastrzemski.

Jackie Bradley: First Brewers leadoff batter with 3 hits including a triple in a home game since Jonathan Villar vs CHC, Sep 6 2016 (W 12-5).

Jacob deGrom: First pitcher since 1912 (when earned runs became official in NL) to strike out 14+, allow 0 *earned* runs, but yet still give up a homer. [The inning went: E4, K, 3B*, SAC9*, HR*, K]
Also struck out 14+ and allowed 0 earned runs at Miami on Apr 3 2019 (W 6-4). Only other pitcher in Mets history to do it twice on the road is Tom Seaver (1970 at PHI, 1971 at SD).
Second pitcher in Mets history with 14+ strikeouts in back-to-back games (any # IP). Dwight Gooden, Sep 12 & 17 1984.

Jordan Montgomery: First Yankees starter to give up multiple hits in a game and have them ALL be home runs since Mike Mussina at TOR, Apr 9 2002 (W 5-2).
First to do this and lose since Wade Blasingame gave up 3 homers to the first 4 batters of the game, Jun 27 1972 at DET.

Yu Darvish: First pitcher in Padres history to throw 7+ innings, allow 1 hit, strike out 9+, and take a loss.

Casey Mize: First Tigers pitcher to allow 3 homers and hit 2 batters in a game since Frank Tanana at CAL, Jun 24 1990 (L 2-10).

Huascar Ynoa: First [Atlanta] pitcher to allow 3 homers and throw 2 wild pitches in the same game since Kevin Millwood vs MTL, Aug 28 2001 (L 0-7).

Casey Mize/Huascar Ynoa: First time in modern era that two pitchers have done this on the same day. DET Bob Harris & PHI Hugh Mulcahy did it on consecutive days in May 1939.

[This is confusing because Mize and Ynoa did not do the same thing, but Mize and Mulcahy did.]
On May 8, 1939, Harris allowed 3 home runs and threw 2 wild pitches.
On May 9, 1939, Mulcahy allowed 3 home runs and threw 2 wild pitches.]

Astros: First game where they converted 10+ hits into 1 run and still won since Apr 24 1991 vs CIN (Ken Oberkfell walkoff [13th inning]).

Rockies: Second time in team history that they had a homer, a triple, and a double, but no singles, in a game. Other was Apr 19 2013 vs ARI (W 3-1).

Ryan M. Spaeder reported this:

Yadier Molina is the first player in #StLCards franchise history to be involved in back-to-back homers twice in a single game.

In the third inning, Molina and Paul DeJong hit back-to-back home runs.
In the fourth inning, Nolan Arenado and Molina hit back-to-back home runs.

Schadenfreude 285: (A Continuing Series)

The Yankees (now 5-9) have not had the worst record
in the American League after playing at least 14 games
since May 11, 1991, when they were 9-17.

It's been almost 30 years!*

Greg Joyce, Post:

Yankees Can't Solve Rays Again Even After Stern Aaron Boone Talk

The day after Aaron Boone's stern talk with the Yankees, they came up empty once again. . . .

They lost a fourth straight game, falling 6-3 to the Rays on Saturday afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

It hardly soothed the frustrations that had arisen Friday night, when the Yankees committed three errors and had another quiet game offensively in an 8-2 loss. Boone addressed his team after that game . . . [but] it did not lead to immediate dividends Saturday. . . .

The Yankees fell to 5-9 on the season and own the worst record in the American League.

After striking out 13 times and batting 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position, the Yankees . . . [hope] to avoid a sweep [on Sunday]. . . .

Rays ace Tyler Glasnow lacked command early, but the Yankees could not take advantage . . . [T]he Yankees loaded the bases with two outs in the first inning, but Brett Gardner grounded out to end the threat.

Glasnow walked two more batters to lead off the second inning, leading to [an] RBI single that tied the game at one. But Judge struck out and Hicks lined out to strand two more runners. . . . 

After that, Glasnow settled in, retiring eight straight before LeMahieu walked to lead off the fifth. . . . [S]trikeouts of Judge and Stanton help[ed] him get through the inning with the two-run lead intact. . . .

The Yankees [trailed 5-3 in the seventh, with the tying run at the plate] but Aaron Hicks and Giancarlo Stanton struck out . . .

The Yankees . . . are now 3-14 in their last 17 games against the Rays.

[I love the "even" in the headline.]

Sarah Valenzuela, Daily News:

It took seven innings for the Yankees to get the message.

Twelve hours after getting chewed out by Aaron Boone — and the fans — the Bombers finally showed signs of life late in their Saturday matinee against the Rays. But it was too late to save the Yankees on this day.

At least the fans didn't riot.

The Bombers lost 6-3 — a second straight loss to their division rivals . . . to sink further into the AL East basement at 5-9. They have the worst record in the American League and the third-worst in MLB. . . . 

The Yankees continued to struggle getting the big hit and went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base.

Southpaw Jordan Montgomery . . . didn't clip any batters this time, but was, however, stung by the long ball twice: the first a solo shot by [Francisco] Mejia and the second a two-run shot by Manuel Margot. . . .

Sarah Valenzuela, Daily News:

The Yankees had sunk to a shocking new low.

And so did the fans. It was around 10 p.m. on Friday night when the faithful could no longer tolerate what they were seeing on the field from their beloved Bombers.

Yes, you read that correctly. The Yankees, not the Mets, managed to piss off their fan base so deeply. And on Friday night, fans sitting around the Stadium (in possession of a bizarre number of rogue baseballs) started throwing balls onto the field the Rays were occupying while Clint Frazier was getting ready to bat. . . .

The game had already been mostly unwatchable to that point, but the look of disappointment that crossed Yankee players faces over the YES Network broadcast, said what anyone else watching from afar knew.

This is not the way fans should express their frustration about a team with the worst record in the American League after 13 games. . . .

But the record stands that the Yankees, for all their championship or bust talk, have not been performing to their capability and there's no sugar coating it.

Ken Davidoff, Post:

Umm … at least the Yankees embarrassed themselves less on The Day After? . . .

At least fans didn't pelt the Yankee Stadium field with baseballs or any other round projectiles?

Baby steps, right? Yet what the Yankees really need to escape this existential funk are more big flies. . . .

Ultimately, though, it proved the same old story, as the Yankees struck out 13 times and went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position to fall to 5-9, the worst record in the American League. What stood out from this tale, though, was how the Rays prevailed offensively:

Six hits, three of them long balls. Their first five runs came via the homer. The Yankees countered with five hits . . .

The Yankees' problem right now isn't that they're overly dependent on the home run. It's that they're not hitting enough home runs. . . .

It's challenging to string together a bunch of hits against someone as good as Glasnow, who now sports a 0.73 ERA. It's no easy assignment to go deep off him, either, yet if you succeed once at that, you've impacted the scoreboard, which is why clubs emphasize launch angle and sell out for the homer, accepting the strikeouts in return. , , ,

The Yankees have 15 homers in their 14 games, putting them toward the bottom of the AL pack. Even more alarming, their .354 slugging percentage gave them the AL's worst, by a comfortable margin ([Texas] ranked next-to-last at .366) heading into Saturday night's action. . . .

[Aaron Boone:] "There have been a handful of pitches each game that typically we do our damage on.  . . . When you do get a mistake, you'd better hammer it."

Right now, the Yankees are the nail.

Mike Lupica, Daily News:

Of course nobody should be panicking now because they came into Saturday at 5-8. You can see the state of the American League East, and how fast things can change and will change in that division over the course of the season. I thought the Red Sox were a dreary and unwatchable mess after they got swept by the Orioles at Fenway after their opening series, and they turned around and won nine in a row and nearly made it 10 on Thursday afternoon . . .

No, the problem with this season, at least so far, is that it looks an awful lot like last season. . . .

[T]he Yankees in the early going make you wonder how in the world they still think they can come into the season saying World Series or bust, after having won exactly one Series and played in one other since the roof caved in on them in Game 7 in 2001.

"It's the same thing every year," one respected baseball executive said to me on Friday. "They talk about the World Series before they prove they're good enough to win a division series."

This week I asked a Yankee fan friend of mine who follows the team closely enough to cover it what he has seen from his team so far. Here's part of what he said:

They can still win a wide-open AL East and even a wide-open American League, but it's not too early to believe that absolutely nothing has changed with these Yankees, that this still looks like a team that won't have the necessary kick to get them across the finish line six months from now. Last season can no longer be dismissed as a small sample size. The team we had last summer and last October remains the team we have now. They are a flawed team that will have to overcome their flaws as well as three teams in their own division — the Rays, Jays and Red Sox — who have been given no reason whatsoever to be scared of them.

Somehow they still cling to this silly idea that you don't need left-hander hitters, at least good ones — especially in Yankee Stadium of all places — to win baseball games. Other than that, yeah, things look great. After working hard to get out from under a top-heavy roster with bloated contracts, the Yankees are back to having —wow, guess what — a top-heavy roster of bloated contracts. At least Gerrit Cole is holding up his end of the bargain. Stanton? Even when he gets around to hitting home runs, he is still an anchor tying up too much payroll for a team that appears to be in dire need of another piece or two to really be considered anything special.

He makes sense about all of it. You know when the Yankees have won the World Series without a dangerous left-handed bat in their order. Never. . . .

[T]he issue with starting pitching once you get past Cole never goes away. They've got a second baseman playing shortstop and they've got one star in their outfield . . . Aaron Judge . . . has now conditioned Yankee fans to hold their breath every time he swings hard, or runs the bases hard, or chases down another ball in the outfield. . . .

They were supposed to scare the rest of the division this season. Coming into the weekend, they were only scaring themselves. And their own fans.

This is a perfect quote:

It's the same thing every year. They talk about the World Series before they prove they're good enough to win a division series.

* * *

*: It was reported after Friday's game that the MFY last had the AL's worst record in April 1998. But that was after only three games (0-3), plus as I recall they ended up doing okay that season. I wanted to know when they last had the worst record in the AL after 14 (or more) games?

At BRef, I began in 1966 when I knew they were absolutely terrible. They finished that season in 10th place. I went through each season's game-by-game log, sorting by division "ranking" and looking for the latest date they were in last place, then (after divisional play began in 1969) checking the standings for each team's winning percentage.

The Yankees had the worst AL record at the end of play on August 5, 1967 (45-59). As I scrolled along, I found more recent dates:

End of day May 31, 1974 (23-27).

End of day May 18, 1975 (13-20).

End of day May 4, 1984 (8-16).

The Yankees finished the 1990 season with the AL's worst record (October 3, 1990): 67-95. (In MLB, only Atlanta (playing in the NL West) was worse: 65-97.) Oh, such fond memories of Stump Merrill!

End of day May 11, 1991 (9-17).

And once I got to the 1998 season, I had my answer.

Schadenfreude 284: (A Continuing Series)

The Yankees are in sole possession
of the worst record in the American League
for the first time in 23 years.

Ken Davidoff, Post [url refers to the Tampa Bay team as the "ryas"]:

In Michael Lewis' legendary book "Moneyball," the protagonist, Billy Beane laments, "My [bleep] doesn't work in the playoffs."

The 2021 Yankees have seen that concept and raised it: Their (bleep) isn't working at all.

What an embarrassing display of baseball Friday night at Yankee Stadium. What a shocking, distressing start to the Yankees' season. This early in the schedule, they are threatening impressively to post the sort of nightmarish campaign, with the attendant consequences, they haven't registered in a generation.

Their return home marked a new low point, an 8-2 debacle of a defeat to the rival Rays that featured three errors, three hits and enough boos — all of them deserved — from the announced Yankee Stadium crowd of 10,202 to fill a non-pandemic sellout crowd. . . .

"As we talk about all the time, we know adversity is coming for you," said Aaron Boone . . .

The adversity wasted no time this season. The loss, their third straight, dropped the Yankees' record to 5-8, worst in the American League . . . 

[T]wo-plus weeks into the season, they appear a wobblier mess than "Joey" (the "Friends" spinoff, remember?*). If Abner Doubleday were alive to see Friday night's fiasco, he'd regret pretending to invent the sport.

Against Michael Wacha, the Cardinals phenom turned Mets bust who brought a 2021 ERA of 7.00 to the mound, the Yankees' righty-heavy lineup flailed as if they were getting paid by the whiff, striking out nine times, tallying only [one] single in six innings and not even advancing anyone to scoring position. . . . [In] the top of the fifth . . . the Rays plated four runs thanks in no small part to [three infield] errors . . . Brutal. 

What in holy hell is happening with these guys? It's as if, in return for relatively good health, they sacrificed their skills. They're not hitting or fielding at close to acceptable levels . . .

They seem, in short, broken.

[* Pro Tip: If you have to explain your outdated cultural reference, you are better off not using it.]

The MFY have had only two games in their history in which they had three or fewer hits, made three or more errors, and struck out 14 or more times. One was last night. The other was September 14, 2016, a 2-0 loss to Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers.

This was also the first time the Rays scored eight or more runs against the MFY without hitting a home run since July 5, 2015 (an 8-1 win). That game was also the MFY's last home game against the Rays in which they committed as many errors as they had hits.

Peter Botte, Post:

The Yankees decided to employ an opener against the Rays on Friday night . . .

[R]eliever Nick Nelson coughed up two runs in the first inning [and] the Yankees' surprisingly low-octane lineup was throttled again in a deservedly boo-filled 8-2 loss to Tampa Bay at the Stadium . . .

Manager Aaron Boone admitted afterward that he "already addressed" his Yankees following the latest loss dropped their record to 5-8, worst in the American League. . . .

The ugly game also was punctuated by a delay of several minutes in the home eighth inning when a few fans among the angry announced crowd of 10,202 threw baseballs and other objects onto the field. . . .

[T]he Rays . . . [won] their 14th win in 19 games (playoffs included) against the Bombers since the start of 2020. . . .

Boone's team also committed three errors, two of them leading to three unearned runs in the Rays' four-run fifth inning that extended Tampa Bay's lead to 6-0.

The Yankees are batting just .222 for the season . . . Boone benched slumping first baseman Jay Bruce (1-for-19) Friday and dropped regular No. 3 hitter Aaron Hicks (.167) to the sixth spot for the first time this season.

The Yankees also opted to start Nelson as an opener . . . [He] had pitched to a 9.00 ERA over three relief appearances this season, [and] was down 2-0 three batters into the game after Austin Meadows walked, Randy Arozarena doubled and Brandon Lowe hit a two-run double.

Sarah Valenzuela, Daily News:

The Yankees just can't seem to figure it out.

In their second series with the Rays this season, this time at the Stadium, the Yankees got nothing right. Shoddy pitching and poor defense allowed the rival Rays to run away with an 8-2 win . . .

The Rays are perhaps the Yankees biggest threat to winning the division. . . . If the Yankees hoped to establish their dominance in the rivalry, they certainly did not start the season against the Rays on the right foot. . . .

The Yankees experimented with an opener and were burned badly by the team that perfected the method . . . 

Nick Nelson started for the Yankees and was tagged for two runs on two hits in the first inning. . . . Luis Cessa came in for the fifth and allowed four runs (one earned) courtesy of one defensive blunder after another . . .

The Yankees continued to unravel further in the sixth when Aaron Judge tried to chase down a pop up . . . and instead deflected the ball, loading the bases with no outs. . . .

The Rays went with an actual starting pitcher, Michael Wacha, who dominated over six innings, giving up one hit and two walks and striking out nine batters . . .

The Yankees barely got anything going all night, with only two men left on base over nine innings.

Bryan Hoch, mlb.com:

Frustration spilled out of the grandstands during the eighth inning on Friday, thrown baseballs littering the Yankee Stadium outfield . . . To hear his players describe it, the display was nothing compared to the anger that Yankees manager Aaron Boone would soon show behind closed doors. . . .

With eight losses in 13 games, Boone's squad owns the American League's worst record.

The Yankees have committed three or more errors five times in their last 28 regular-season games, dating to last season.

The Bombers' bats were ice cold against Michael Wacha, who struck out nine and permitted only one hit — [a] second-inning single — through the first six frames. . . .

[Trevor] Richards and Hunter Strickland combined to retire the final nine Yankees batters. New York hitters struck out 14 times in the loss. . . .

"We're definitely underperforming," Stanton said.

Dan Martin, Post:

Giancarlo Stanton went hitless on Opening Day, and afterwards Aaron Boone said . . . he wasn't worried about his slugger. . . . "The biggest thing is to make sure he posts all the time."

So far, Stanton has "posted" regularly, but the results have not followed. . . .

Stanton [has] delivered just two extra-base hits in 43 plate appearances.

He delivered a 120-mph single, the hardest ball hit this season in the majors*, to drive in a pair of runs in his most recent game on Tuesday. . . . [It] snapped an 0-for-17 skid. His walk rate is down, ground-ball rate — like much of the rest of the lineup — is up and he's not hitting line drives like he typically does. . . .

In his 10 games this season, he's hit just one home run and his production against left-handed pitching has mysteriously vanished.

Over the course of his career, Stanton has typically devastated lefties, with a 1.013 OPS. So far this year, he's just 3-for-15 with no extra-base hits or walks. And versus right-handers, Stanton has 10 strikeouts in 28 plate appearances.

[*: Before that, Shohei Ohtani had the hardest-hit ball, a double at 119-mph, on April 12.]

Sandy Alderson Can Fuck Right Off

Yesterday, Katie Strang and Brittany Ghiroli (The Athletic) published their latest report from their in-depth and on-going investigation of the toxic workplace culture of the New York Mets.

In addition to more reports of sexist and inappropriate comments and text messages by several Mets employees (both current and former), there is also detailed information about the indifference shown by the Mets' senior management, legal department, and human resources department when they learned of these incidents.

The article also featured an actual, uncanned response from Mets president Sandy Alderson. He dispensed with his usual boilerplate of "I'm shocked, shocked to find sexual harassment going on in here!" Unfortunately for him, his statement was whiny in the extreme and completely dismissive of the dozens of allegations. He mocked the female writers, "chastis[ing]" them for what he claimed was "an unfair characterization" of how the Mets handled these numerous allegations.

So how did the Mets handle things? Alderson did not offer any specific information (I guess he forgot). The article states that the Mets' HR department refused to hear complaints from the victims and some victims were punished for complaining about their abuse.

Let me try to make a point as strongly as I can, OK? Not every instance involving men, women in the workplace is a capital offense, OK? Every time something happens, it doesn't mean somebody has to be fired. There are a lot of intermediate steps that can be taken and we've done that in a variety of different cases. And have included capital punishment as a consequence in some cases, but not every case rises to the level of execution. And that's what honestly I think is happening with these articles [in The Athletic]. People are getting executed, including women, by the way, for reasons that are unjustifiable . . . Is there ever a statute of limitations on coverage of some of this stuff?

Craig Calcaterra (Cup of Coffee) writes that "Alderson's reference to a 'statute of limitations' is absolutely rich given that the clock doesn't even begin to tick on the statute of limitations if a potential defendant buries the evidence of wrongdoing like the Mets are accused of doing. Given that Alderson is himself an attorney, one presumes he knows that."

In Alderson's mind, the problem is not the various Mets' employees harassing and stalking women and engaging in abusive behaviour. No, the problem is the media publishing stories about it. (We hear this a lot. For example, the problem was not the US military torturing innocent people in Iraq; the problem was that the torturers were allowed to have cameras and they recorded their war crimes.)

Here we have a couple of outside agitators (uppity broads, at that!) sticking their noses in places where they don't belong and stirring up trouble and getting everyone upset.

* * *

Katie Strang and Brittany Ghiroli, The Athletic, April 16, 2021:

On March 8, the Mets played the Washington Nationals on a warm, windy day in West Palm Beach, Fla. . . . 

On that same day, about 1,200 miles away in New York, Joe DeVito, the team's executive producer for content and marketing, told people he was leaving the team. . . .

Two days later, in an email to some Mets employees that included the subject line "roster move," DeVito wrote that "it's time for me to take a step back and assess what next steps should be in my life, and in my career, moving forward." . . .

Unmentioned in the email was that earlier in March at least two women who worked with or around DeVito had spoken to team lawyers, describing incidents they believed were sexual harassment.

Allegations of inappropriate behavior by Mets employees has been one of the dominant storylines in baseball over the last three months. In January, new GM Jared Porter was fired after ESPN reported that he had sent explicit photographs to a female reporter while he was working for the Chicago Cubs. In February, former Mets manager Mickey Callaway was accused in a report by The Athletic of sending and soliciting lewd photos and making inappropriate comments toward female media members and others who work in baseball. . . .

[DeVito] made unwanted advances toward multiple women, including sending text messages to one employee such as: "I've barely hit on you. So that counts for something." There was Ryan Ellis, a former hitting performance coordinator; three women previously complained he made aggressive sexual comments to them and sent persistent suggestive text messages. Seven employees (both male and female) told The Athletic that David Newman, the team's chief marketing, content and communications officer (and DeVito's boss), made inappropriate comments to female employees during his first stint with the team from 2005-2018. . . .

The Mets human resources department was supposed to be a firewall against such behavior and a venue for employees who wanted to raise concerns. But more than a dozen people – both male and female – said one of the department's top officials, Holly Lindvall, seemed to prioritize pleasing ownership, which made employees skeptical their complaints would be taken seriously. . . .

Newman, 59 and a native New Yorker, was hired in October 2005 . . . He ascended to the role of senior vice president of marketing and communications for the Mets . . .

Lacking a traditional baseball background, Newman often fixated on other areas – such as a kids crossword puzzle in the team magazine or particular wording in game notes . . .

Past and current employees say Newman frequently made inappropriate remarks about women's appearances, offering commentary on how they wore their hair, did their makeup and dressed and even what accessories were acceptable.

He told one woman not to wear bright lipstick so as not to bring too much attention to her mouth, going so far as to tell the woman in front of others that her lips "looked too wet." He criticized another female subordinate's hair, lamenting to her co-workers that it was too unruly for the workplace, and he asked them why she couldn't straighten it. . . .

One woman who worked for Newman said that when she was enduring a difficult pregnancy in 2013, Newman made comments about her "attitude," including once in a staff meeting. When she returned from maternity leave that fall, the woman said Newman noted in a performance review that she should be mindful of coming across to some with "an edge." . . .

DeVito, who previously worked for Vice Media, was hired in March 2016. . . . Serving directly under Newman, DeVito was a creative, field producer-type foil to Newman's more corporate, buttoned-up management style. . . .

Eventually, he began to make some women feel uncomfortable.

Among the allegations conveyed to Mets lawyers and to The Athletic by two women who worked with DeVito or were around the team: DeVito gave one of the women an unsolicited back rub in front of others in spring 2020; he invited another woman, a female employee, to a closed-door meeting during the 2019 season where he encouraged her to drink scotch with him during a workday; on multiple occasions – including as recently as December 2019 – DeVito sent that same woman suggestive text messages (which The Athletic reviewed). At least once, the recipient said that DeVito later told her to delete them.

Among the comments DeVito texted the woman: "At least I am not as creepy as Mickey. #goals" . . .

DeVito responded to interview requests with an emailed statement that read:

I've always tried to be a gentleman with everyone with whom I work and with whom I'm involved with personally. . . . I always try to grow and become a better person every day . . . I regret if that is what people are saying about me.

Newman left the Mets in October 2018 . . .

Last fall, word circulated within the Mets offices that Alderson was bringing Newman back. On the same day his return was to be officially announced, two women say they warned Alderson about him. . . .

Alderson responded that Newman's behavior was "unacceptable" . . . but then remarked that he believed in second chances and vowed to tell Newman to "knock it off." Newman's hiring was announced later that day. . . .

Since 2013, Holly Lindvall, who was hired after 10 years working in the hotel business, has held a leadership position with the Mets HR department. . . .

Said one former employee, echoing the opinions of others: "It was clear that her interest was protecting ownership and executives and not the office as a whole. You could not go to HR to feel protected, comfortable, anything." . . .

Lindvall came under scrutiny in 2014 when she was named multiple times in [former VP of ticket sales Leigh] Castergine's lawsuit [alleging discrimination based on gender, pregnancy, marital status and retaliation]. Castergine said Jeff Wilpon "frequently humiliated Castergine by … pretending to see if she had an engagement ring on her finger and openly stating in a meeting of the team's all-male senior executives that he is 'morally opposed' to Castergine having this baby without being married." . . . Castergine said that her boss, Lou DePaoli, and the team's general counsel, David Cohen, heard Wilpon make sexist comments to her, and that "neither one did anything to stop it or even, at minimum, reported Wilpon's behavior as they were required to do."

According to the complaint, when Castergine complained to Lindvall about Wilpon, Lindvall urged her to quit, on multiple occasions. Castergine was later terminated after informing the team she had retained counsel to explore legal action . . . Castergine and the Mets reached a confidential settlement in 2015. . . .

In an email to The Athletic, Lindvall wrote:

We have always had a strict policy prohibiting workplace harassment and discrimination, and have thoroughly and objectively investigated any and all complaints that were brought to our attention. Where our investigation confirmed that misconduct occurred, we have always taken swift and appropriate action to remedy it. . . .

NESN: Plus Ça Change, Plus C'est La Même Chose

I have not listened to more than an inning or two of NESN this month, but it appears nothing has changed from past seasons.

The network is still a joke, with the producers, directors, and announcers still making the same mistakes they have been making for years. Red Sox fans deserve a far better, far more professional broadcast.

Inexperienced cameramen, clueless direction/production, missing pitches/plays, pretending years-old footage is live, horribly placed advertisements, misinformation from the announcers, lack of prep about the other team, repeating redundant statements, inability to see on replay what is obvious to fans at home, calling plays before they (might or might not) happen . . .

NESN is like a veteran rock band touring well past its sell-by date, mechanically churning out its greatest hits night after predictable night. Except its "hits" are all boring, uncatchy songs that hurt your ears.

Most reasonably educated people learn from their mistakes . . . eventually. Why does that not apply at NESN?

Hey @RedSox and @NESN these super-imposed logos on the mound during the broadcast are the worst. 👎 pic.twitter.com/AGRQi3tj10

— Michael Kearney (@kearney4life) April 2, 2021

What is that awful background buzzing on the @NESN #RedSox broadcast? It sounds like fake white noise and is #painful to listen to.

— Mr. CH1GGS (@MrCh1ggs) April 2, 2021

@RedSox @NESN So all the ads plastered in every inch of Fenway wasn’t enough? Now there’s ads on the mound? Horrible.

— Miguel (@mescobar2010) April 2, 2021

Another year of the Nesn cameraman zooming above the monster on a fly ball to the warning track...

— Brendan Guinnane (@breakingbender) April 2, 2021

NESN has some of the fucking worst cameramen in baseball. holy shit

— Keith (@nysoxfan79) April 2, 2021

As did the NESN broadcast along with the cameraman, who acted like the ball was 50 feet over the monster

— Eli Canfield (@CanfieldEli) April 2, 2021

This is the worst camera guy NESN has ever had

— Barstool Boston (@ConnorBSBoston) April 3, 2021

There has to be someone better than Dave O'Brien out there. The Sox start 0-2 and all he talks about is how they had to start hot and they're not doing that. Get this fucking muppet outta here @NESN

— Josh Steffen (@haveyametjosh) April 3, 2021

@RedSox @NESN The ad digitally added to the mound is AWFUL

— SixRings (@sixrings9880) April 4, 2021

This NESN camera person thinks every ball hit to left field is going onto the Pike.

— Adam Sicklick (@adamw_sicklick) April 6, 2021

NESN camera man remains absolutely awful at his job

— Justin Wolfe (@_JustinWolfe) April 6, 2021

NESN has the worst website, app and channel. I don't know what they're doing over there.

— Christian Renzi (@ChristianmRenzi) April 6, 2021

.@NESN PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get rid of the ridiculous ads superimposed on the pitcher's mound. Give them billboards or something else of value, but these are HORRIBLE. Please have more respect for Red Sox fans!

— Marilyn Whipple (@MarilynWhipple) April 7, 2021

@NESN Why don't O'Brien and Remy provide information about the other teams? There's no research and no respect for other teams players. Watch @SNY broadcast and learn a professional broadcast.

— masshealthquote.com (@MasshealthCom) April 8, 2021

Nesn cameraman needs to be drug tested

— Brett (@BrettIsNotATree) April 8, 2021

I absolutely can’t stand Dave O’Brien. @NESN got rid of Orsillo for this guy? I still can’t believe it to this day. Nothing infuriates me more than when he says something like “Garret Richards is going to win it” the games not over. Shut the fuck up. That is my rant.

— Joe (@jabes2019) April 11, 2021

some high quality camera work tonight from NESN

— Mikewichter (@mikewichter) April 11, 2021

(And I think it IS noteworthy that a team in the AL East goes from 0-3 to alone in first five games later. So yeah they shoulda fuckin' said it.)

— JPS (@rsfpt) April 11, 2021

Is it just @nesn and @RedSox or is all game camera work horrible this year?

— Mike (@Mike01588) April 11, 2021

Dave O'Brien has learned one fun fact about Kiké Hernandez and he will use it in every single game. #RedSox @NESN

— Jason Seaver (@JaySeaver) April 11, 2021

NESN has to be one of the worst streaming services

— Matt Ferreira (@MattFerreira49) April 11, 2021

Dave O'Brien is probably so happy he gets to go home early and not broadcast the Red Sox game today 🖕🖕

— Terry Cushman Jr (@cushmanMLB) April 12, 2021

Every single game I have the same thought .... #BringBackDonOrsillo .
Dave O’Brien is beyond awful.#NESN #RedSox

— Steven Miller (@StevenM88824872) April 12, 2021

NESN showing a replay from 3 years ago of the Mookie GS off Happ is why they are the worst in the business. Could not have less awareness

— franchy cordero (@dinnie_voyle) April 13, 2021

J.A. Happ leaves in the 5th, finally giving up runs. @NESN's Dave O'Brien said BOS "didn't seem like they were going to get to Happ but finally did."

I need ⚾️ broadcasts with basic Savant graphics so that commentators don't spew BS. We were on Happ all day. #DirtyWater #MLB pic.twitter.com/sc7UtzD7g6

— Ahaan Rungta (@AhaanRungta) April 13, 2021

I finally get the TV broadcast on just in time to hear OB say “Red Sox are looking for their first lead of the series.”

It’s the first fucking game of the series!!!!!

— JPS (@rsfpt) April 13, 2021

Red Sox lead! I’ve been waiting the *entire series* for this moment....

— JPS (@rsfpt) April 13, 2021

So, the @RedSox game hasn’t even started, and @NESN’s O’Brien has said at least 4 times that the Sox are going for a tenth straight win. Yes, Dave, we know. We all know. Find a new talking point! #captainobvious

— Clyde S. Dale (@Guinness74) April 15, 2021

NESN’s “coverage” of the winning run crossing the plate. pic.twitter.com/Bg89uwyxmv

— JPS (@rsfpt) April 15, 2021

NESN in a very serious moment on the postgame pans across Boston...we get to the spot where the Four Seasons tower is (it topped out in 2018)... and it’s not there. See the crane?

In fairness, it’s only the tallest residential building in New England, I’m sure nobody noticed. pic.twitter.com/kKUTqTUCKo

— JPS (@rsfpt) April 16, 2021

In the world that exists only in my head, this would be the moment where literally every viewer goes “wait a minute, a skyscraper is gone, I now understand that NESN uses years-old footage and pretends it’s a live shot!”

— JPS (@rsfpt) April 16, 2021

But you’d think they’d think “this shot’s too dated, can’t use, big building missing.”

& when TC is narrating the thing talking about how “today is 1 Boston Day” and we’re seeing a pan of Boston (with matching weather!), that is a blatant attempt to make viewer think it’s live.

— JPS (@rsfpt) April 16, 2021

Last 5 Seasons Red Sox's ERA Was Below 3.75 After 13 Games: 2004, 2007, 2013, 2018, 2021

Tonight's home game against the White Sox has been postponed because snow is expected in Boston. It has been rescheduled as part of a doubleheader on Sunday.

The Red Sox (9-4) are the first team in major league history to begin a season with three losses followed by nine wins. (The 1895 Cleveland Spiders and 1991 Seattle Mariners each began a season with 3+ losses and then won 8+ games.

2021 is the 10th season in which the Red Sox have won at least nine of their first 12 games: 1904 (10-2), 1918 (10-2), 1920 (10-2), 1939 (9-3), 1946 (9-3), 1952 (10-2), 1978 (9-3), 1993 (9-3), and 2018 (10-2). It's also only the third season the team has started out 6-0 on the road: 1946 (7-0) and 2002 (8-0).

Last year the Red Sox won five games in which they trailed in the fifth inning or later. They already have five such wins this year and have come from behind in six of their nine wins. The Red Sox have won two games this season when trailing after eight innings, after having only one in 2020.

During the winning streak, Rafael Devers homered in four straight games. He was hitless in yesterday's loss, but in the six games before that, he hit .417 and slugged 1.083.

During the nine-game winning streak, the Red Sox averaged 7.4 runs per game and batted .319 with a .922 OPS. Overall, the Red Sox lead the AL in runs scored (75, tied with the Dodgers and Reds for most in MLB), doubles (34), batting average (.273), and on-base percentage (.337). They are second in slugging percentage (.456) and OPS (.792).

Boston pitchers allowed only nine runs in a four-game sweep of the Twins. They have allowed three earned runs or fewer in 10 of their 13 games. Boston's starters have pitched five or more innings in 12 of 13 games, including the last 10. The Red Sox are 6th in the AL (11th in MLB) with a 3.56 ERA. The last four seasons in which the Red Sox had a team ERA of 3.75 or lower through 13 games were 2004, 2007, 2013, and 2018.

Xander Bogaerts made his 908th start at shortstop on Thursday. Only Everett Scott (1,081), Rick Burleson (987), and Nomar Garciaparra (951) have more starts at shortstop for the Red Sox.

And:

Joel Sherman, Post:

What are the Yankees good at?

They are good when Gerrit Cole starts. They are good in the bullpen. And they are good at …

OK, let's get back to that in a bit. Because usually we would include power.

For now, maybe the question should be: Are the Yankees good?

Of course they are, right? . . . 

Besides, this is just two weeks. Just a dozen games. . . .

But . . .

When they don't [hit home runs], the Yanks seem ordinary — or worse. What they don't do well — namely field or offer a strong rotation behind Cole — is exposed when the Yanks do not compensate with multi-run homers, in particular.

The 2021 Yanks are 1-6 when they score four or fewer runs . . . In four of the six losses, they failed to hit a homer.

A sleep-walking offensive opening to this season followed a somnolent spring training that was dismissed because it was spring and these are the Yankees.

But what if these are the Yankees? The early-season trends are alarming. . . . The team is constituted in a certain way, and being 23rd in slugging percentage is not it. . . . 

[T]he 2021 Yanks have a 48 percent ground-ball rate. That is the fourth-highest mark in the majors. In the 20 years FanGraphs has charted this stat, 2021 is the Yankees' highest percentage of grounders and second-lowest fly-ball rate (34.1). . . . Aaron Judge, DJ LeMahieu and Giancarlo Stanton [have] hit into seven of the Yankees' AL-leading 15 double plays. . . .

What are the Yankees good at? Yep, there's Cole — thus, any injury to him would be devastating. Their relief is good . . . but worse if the starters do not begin compiling more innings to avoid pen overexposure and wear and tear.

Normally, next would come power bats. So far, that has not been true.

MLB To Test Moving Mound Back 12 Inches In The Independent Atlantic League This Summer); A "Double-Hook" DH Rule (Lose The DH When You Pull Your Starter) Will Also Be Instituted

I step away from the internet for two fucking days and come back to discover MLB (in its infinite lack of wisdom) has found yet another way to tinker with the intimate foundations of the game and dream up a new gimmick for absolutely no good reason.

Back in 2019, MLB formed a partnership with the independent Atlantic League, which agreed to act as a testing ground for various ideas and rules MLB was interested in trying out. Two new rules will be implemented this summer: the pitching rubber will be moved back one foot (to 61 feet, 6 inches) and a "double-hook" designated hitter will be employed. The season begins May 27.

The "double-hook" DH means that when a team pulls its starting pitcher, it will also lose the DH. The team will morph from an American League team into a National League team and will thereafter have to allow its pitcher to bat or send up a pinch-hitter. I cannot see any real reason to institute this rule, other than to stifle strategy by strongly discouraging teams from using "openers". There could also be an additional risk of injury if teams push starting pitchers to throw more innings so as to keep the DH.

Moving the pitching rubber to 61 feet, 6 inches, will be implemented only in the second half of the Atlantic League's 2021 season. The league had planned to move the mound back two feet in 2019, but abandoned the idea.

MLB's press release stated that the speed of the average fastball increased 1.7 mph since 2010 (91.6 to 93.3). Supposedly, a batter's reaction time on a 93.3 mph pitch thrown from 61 feet, six inches is roughly identical to his reaction time on a 91.6 mph pitch thrown from 60 feet, six inches.

My first reaction to all of this is wholly negative, as you might expect. The distance of the pitching rubber from the plate has remained constant for the last 129 years. The height of the mound was officially lowered after the 1968 season, but that has been the only change in well over a century. These are field dimensions that are carved in stone, relatively speaking, and I find it difficult to believe the game has changed so radically and irretrievably that such measures must be taken.

ESPN reported that after the National League moved the rubber back five feet before the 1893 season, batting average increased from .245 to .280 and strikeouts dropped from 8.5% to 5.2%.

The total number of strikeouts have set a record for the last 12 consecutive full seasons. There have been more strikeouts than hits in each of the past three full seasons, something that had never happened  even once in major league history.

The Washington Post spoke with "one of the people familiar with the discussions, who spoke on the condition of anonymity so as to freely detail the private sessions". MLB has been internally discussing altering the distance from the mound to home plate for years, but until now has felt the decision was too radical. Now, MLB executives have

reached the conclusion that the things that drew us to the game in the first place are being eclipsed by absolute outcomes and, frankly, people find it boring. Batters will hit the ball more frequently, and that's really the root of what we're doing here. . . . We kept coming back to the fact that we can try to change four or five things — and we're going to — to try to nudge the game in the right direction and get more contact back. But we'd probably be negligent if we didn't at least try the one solution that, while we were calling it radical, might in and of itself be the solution.

Ben Lindbergh wrote a lengthy and thought-provoking article for The Ringer last month: "The Mound Is Too Damn Close". I need to read it (and others) to have something other than a knee-jerk reaction. (Just because MLB has had an alarming number of asinine ideas in recent years does not automatically mean this suggestion is also worthless.)

The rationale for moving the mound back is simple: Modern pitchers are much taller and throw far harder than 19th-century pitchers. Thus, their pitches are being released closer to home plate and flying faster toward their targets, which means that today's hitters have less time to react. . . .

The current pitching distance was set less than a decade after full overhand deliveries were first permitted and hitters lost the right to specify whether they wanted pitches high or low. Pitchers have been throwing from 60 feet, 6 inches since long before integration and internationalization; before the rise of relief pitching and an invasion of one-inning arms; before the advent of weight training and scientific velocity development; before recent advances in injury prevention and treatment; before the invention of velocity-tracking technology and the subsequent quantification of (and fixation on) the value of throwing hard.

And also before the player population experienced a growth spurt. Modern MLB pitchers, weighted by workload, are almost 6-foot-3, on average, more than 4 inches taller than they were in 1893.

Taller pitchers generally have longer limbs, which allow them to stride and extend their arms farther forward. According to Statcast extension data provided by Baseball Prospectus, MLB pitchers from 2017 to 2020 released the ball 6.15 feet in front of the rubber, on average, or less than 54.5 feet from the plate. . . . The momentum-generating mechanics of today's flexible and ultra-athletic pitchers likely also give them greater extension than 19th-century moundsmen even on an inch-per-inch basis. . . .

Granted, position players have gotten more talented too, and air-oriented launch angles have allowed them to lift the lively ball enough to prop up scoring. But sharper eyesight and swifter reactions aren't enough to help hitters compensate for faster pitch speeds and stop contact from cratering. They haven’t yet benefited from tech-aided training to the extent that their pitcher opponents have, and pitchers are poised to take advantage of new advances in pitch design and biomechanics. The velocity surge has leveled off lately, as has pitcher height. But absent intervention, MLB would be stuck with its powerful-pitcher problem, just as the NHL would with its big-goalie problem and the PGA would with its big-golfer problem. . . . But when athletes outgrow their environments in a way that leads to less entertainment, there's an obvious solution: Make their jobs more difficult . . .

Although [Chris] Young [hired as the Rangers' general manager in December, but before that, he worked as an executive at MLB, joining the league office as vice president of on-field operations, initiatives, and strategy in May 2018 and rising to senior vice president in charge of on-field operations and umpiring in February 2020] acknowledges that some fans, players, and media members are loath to tinker with a tradition that dates back almost 130 years—why mess with supposed perfection?—he points out that despite the longstanding continuity in pitching distance, "We're not playing the same game that has been played historically. I know that there's a nostalgia attached to 60 feet, 6 inches, but I think that the style of the play is probably more important than the distance between home plate and the pitcher's mound."

The league's style of play has become increasingly contact-averse. Hitters struck out in 23.4 percent of all plate appearances last season . . . The K rate has climbed slowly but fairly steadily since the beginning of major league baseball, plateauing or receding only when steps were taken to restrain it. . . .

Moving the mound back, in isolation, would do nothing to address some of the others [issues]: an expansion of the strike zone, accelerated by a tech-aided adherence to the rulebook zone and a data-driven cultivation of catcher framing; an analytics-fueled reduction of the stigma surrounding offensive strikeouts, enabled by the epiphanies that strikeouts aren't any more damaging, on average, than other types of outs, and that they sometimes go hand in hand with patience and power; the low-drag ball that makes it more rewarding for hitters to swing for the fences (as does the shift, albeit only when lefties are up); and teams' efforts to prevent hitters from facing the same pitcher three or four times in a game.

But blunting the velocity advantage would be a big step, and moving the rubber back by, say, 2 feet would have a meaningful effect on pitches' perceived speeds. When I visited this topic for the first time almost seven years ago—during the 2014 season, when the strikeout rate cracked 20 percent—I asked Alan Nathan, a professor emeritus of physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a decorated expert on the physics of baseball, to calculate the effect on flight time of moving the mound back. According to Nathan’s equations, a 95 mph pitch released at 57 feet would have the same flight time as a 91.7 mph pitch released at 55 feet.

Thrown from 2 feet farther back than usual, that 95 mph pitch would fly for about 15 more milliseconds before reaching the plate—a roughly 4 percent increase in travel time. But because batters can only observe a pitch for about half of its roughly 400-millisecond total flight time before deciding to swing—after that, it's too late for the hitter to process and apply any new information—Nathan says the increase in useful observation time is actually about twice the increase in flight time, or approximately 8 percent in this scenario. That doesn't sound enormous, but it would hand hitters back much of the reaction time that pitchers have whittled away in the 21st century. . . .

A front-office analyst who asked not to be named comes down on the side of increased offense. "I think added reaction time will help hitters more than pitchers," the analyst says. "I think pitchers would really struggle to throw bigger breaking balls for strikes depending on the distance." The analyst adds that prior proprietary research suggests that subtracting 2 feet of pitcher extension, all else being equal, is probably worth about .003 runs per pitch in favor of the batter. In this case, all else wouldn't be equal—pitch movement would be slightly augmented—so the benefit to the batter might be more like .002 runs per pitch, which would boost scoring by about .25 or .30 runs per team per game. (The analyst adds that the three true outcomes could still increase if hitters adopted more uppercut-oriented swings to launch pitches on more negative approach angles.)

Glenn Fleisig, the research director at the American Sports Medicine Institute and a consultant to MLB, also suspects that moving the mound back would help hitters. "The extra break is going to be an extra challenge," he concedes, "but I think the extra time would be beneficial." And Young believes that moving the mound back is the best way to address the strikeout's ascendance.

All of these parties are experts on pitching, physics, or both. Not all of them agree. So how do we decide what the true effect would be? "The only way to know for sure is to test it," Boddy says.

Schadenfreude 283: (A Continuing Series)

Dan Martin, Post:

The Yankees' first road trip of the season ended the same way it started: with a loss to a division rival.

Chad Green gave up a homer to Bo Bichette to lead off the bottom of the ninth and the Blue Jays won 5-4 on Wednesday at TD Ballpark.

It was Bichette's second solo home run of the day. More importantly for the Yankees, it meant they had lost another series to a division rival.

"We've got to play better in every area,'' manager Aaron Boone said after his team fell to 5-7. . . . 

Corey Kluber provided another short start, forcing the bullpen into the game after just four innings. . . .

Boone said he wanted to stay away from Aroldis Chapman unless the Yankees got to a save situation. The move didn't work out, as Bichette hit one out to right-center to end the game. . . .

[T]he Yankees had just five hits and their lineup continues not to click.

Kristie Ackert, Daily News:

The Yankees (5-7) dropped their second straight series, their second to the division-rival Blue Jays this season and have now won just two of the six they have played against the Jays so far this season. . . .

There are plenty of areas the Yankees could improve on.

[The MFY] went just 1-15 with a walk against the Blue Jays' bullpen.

An offense that was expected to crush with power is ranked 22nd in the majors in OPS. Built to hit the ball out of the ballpark, they are 14th in the big leagues in homers. . . . 

The long ball can erase a lot of mistakes and take the pressure off pitchers, but when the Yankees aren't hitting them, the warts show. . . .

[T]heir lack of starting pitching length by anyone not named Gerrit Cole is pushing them to the brink. The bullpen went into Wednesday's game . . . [having] pitched the second most innings (49) in the American League behind the A's and the third most in the majors. . . .

It is April and there is a long season ahead, but the Yankees have a lot of little things to fix to turn this around.

Ken Davidoff, Post:

What's the difference between a crappy baseball team and a good baseball team that plays crappily?

Twelve games into the season, absolutely nothing.

Hence, it's time for the Yankees to proactively address their crappiness. . . .

This vaunted Yankees offense, though underachieving like Robert De Niro in "The War with Grandpa," features at least two players who should see the field less often starting immediately. This lineup requires a shake-up. . . .

Turn Aaron Hicks into a platoon player. . . . [He's hitting] .087/.250/.087 from the left side. . . .

Get Jay Bruce off the roster. . . . [Bruce] now sports a .118/.237/.235 slash line. He has not provided the Yankees with the "Big, hairy monster" energy that they hoped . . . he hasn't really done that for anyone since 2017 . . .

If the Yankees aren't ready to cut bait with Bruce, perhaps they could conveniently discover an injury, if you catch my drift . . .

These moves alone won't fix the Yankees' offense, which is averaging exactly four runs per game and paces the American League with 15 double-play grounders. . . . 

It's time, as Judge said more politely, for the Yankees to stop being crappy. . . .It is not time, the date on the calendar notwithstanding, to fully stay the course.

NOTE: In related crappiness, the Post recycled the same picture it used only four days ago for Joel Sherman's column:

MEANWHILE!

The Red Sox have won nine in a row and own the largest lead of any of the six divisions.

Boston has the best record in the AL and the second-best record in MLB (Dodgers, 10-2). 

The Red Sox also have the second-best run differential (Dodgers, +32). And only the Reds have scored more runs (75).

           W   L   PCT   GB    RS   RA   DIFF
Red Sox    9   3  .750  ----   72   48    +24
Blue Jays  6   6  .500   3.0   54   44    +10
Orioles    5   6  .455   3.5   50   59    - 9
Rays       5   7  .417   4.0   46   68    -22
Yankees    5   7  .417   4.0   48   46    + 2

Earlier This Week

April 12

Ken Davidoff, Post:

[The Yankees hit] four Tampa Bay batters over the weekend, once each Friday and Saturday and then twice on Sunday.

"It happens basically every series with them, and it's something that we've got to stop," said the Rays' Austin Meadows . . .

In the bottom of the first inning Sunday, Meadows took a 93-mph Jordan Montgomery fastball to his front shoulder, enraging the Rays' dugout and prompting the umpires to warn both benches against any further such violence. Montgomery nevertheless hit Meadows again in the fifth inning, this time on his left (back) hand, although the umps huddled and decided to let the Yankees' southpaw stay in the game . . .

[W]hat left the Rays salty was the volume of HBPs and the overall recent history of violence between these two clubs, which Tampa Bay feels has been one-sided — since the start of 2018, including last year's American League Division Series, the Yankees have hit 30 Rays while the Rays have hit 17 Yankees — and not properly handled by the sport's sheriff. . . .

[Rays manager Kevin Cash] "It's been so grossly mishandled by Major League Baseball last year. … There isn't any recourse because it's just carryover . . . Major League Baseball is here to protect its players on both teams. On all 30 teams. And I don't think they did that last year. They could have done a better job . . ."

Kristie Ackert, Daily News:

There is no clean slate or turning the page. When Jordan Montgomery hit Austin Meadows twice on Sunday, the Rays not only reacted to that, but also to what they felt was the Yankees getting off light last year for hitting their batters.

[Kevin Cash:] "Don't care whether he did it on purpose or not, I don't like it. And then you add the other element of coming up around the shoulder and the head area, where like none of us like that."

The heated rivalry added more fuel to the fire with Montgomery hitting Meadows, who had homered on Saturday, high up on his shoulder in the first inning. Both dugouts were warned, but when Montgomery hit Meadows again in the fifth inning, there were no ejections.

But that was the fourth time a Ray was hit by a pitch in this series, to Gary Sanchez being grazed by a pitch in the seventh.

"I mean it was obvious I wasn't trying to hit him," Montgomery said. It was not so obvious to the Rays.

"Honestly, it's tough to say. It's one of those things where, going by some reactions, it may not have looked that way," Rays catcher Mike Zunino said. "But it was three games, it was three different guys, obviously Meadows twice today. Just one of those where, if it is coincidence, it's crazy to happen three days in a row."

The back-and-forth between the two teams reached a crescendo last September when Aroldis Chapman's 101-mile an hour fastball came dangerously close to Mike Brosseau's head. . . . They were also upset that Masahiro Tanaka, who had hit Joey Wendle with his hardest pitch of the night on Sept. 1, 2020, did not receive any punishment.

"I know Tanaka is over in Japan but he got off scot-free," Cash said. "He hit Joey definitely (intentionally), and nothing we can do about that."

Since this began back in 2018, with CC Sabathia retaliating by hitting Jesus Sucre after Andrew Kittredge threw at Austin Romine, Yankees pitchers have hit 23 Rays batters. The Bombers have had 15 hit-by-pitches against the Rays. The Yankees have not hit batters from any other team more in that span, while the Rays have hit the Red Sox and Blue Jays hitters more.

Mollie Walker, Post:

Kevin Kiermaier said if the roles were reversed and it was Rays pitchers plunking the Yankees this past weekend series, there would've been "a lot more controversy."

In the three games, Yankees pitchers hit the Rays four times. Joey Wendle was hit in the helmet while Austin Meadows took one on the shoulder. Mike Zunino absorbed a pitch in the opener, and Meadows was hit again, on the hand, on Sunday.

"With the history . . . it's frustrating," Kiermaier told Tampa Bay Times . . . "[W]e have every right to be very frustrated about what happened throughout the weekend."

Kiermaier echoed the sentiment by manager Kevin Cash, who said on Sunday that MLB "grossly mishandled" the bean-ball drama between the two AL East rivals last season. . . .

"You can sit here and think about what if this would have been flip-flopped. It would have been a lot more controversy. I truly believe that. We were mad. . . ."

Dan Martin, Post:

Aaron Judge said his left-side soreness was likely the result of "too many hundred swings before and after games" in the early part of the season. . . .

"I've got to pace myself . . . It's about being smart and taking care of your body."

That's still something he and the Yankees are trying to figure out, with Judge among the players who has had trouble staying on the field. . . .

"You learn over the years and find what works and what didn't work,'' Judge said. . . .

NOTE: Judge debuted in 2016. So this is his sixth season. He's been injured a lot in the previous five years and yet he hasn't figured out how to practice his swing without it leading to soreness and injury. . . . Dude is clearly not the brightest Louisville slugger in the bat rack.

April 13

Dan Martin, Post:

It was all set up for the Yankees to make the Blue Jays sweat this one out.

And then it wasn't.

After their sluggish offense finally started to come alive in the eighth inning, bringing the tying run to the plate, the Yankees found a new way to end a rally when Gary Sanchez got caught off first base on a wild pitch in a 7-3 loss . . .

The Yankees [got] within three runs, and after Sanchez followed with a two-out walk, Aaron Hicks came up.

Julian Merryweather's second pitch briefly got away from catcher Danny Jansen, but Jansen pounced on it. Sanchez was caught between first and second, and was tagged out by shortstop Bo Bichette.

"I think he knew he had second base,'' manager Aaron Boone said. "Giancarlo was going to third and had a little hesitation on his trek to third and that distracted Gary. . . . "

There were long stretches without Yankees baserunners, and there were three more double plays when they did get runners on. They've hit into an MLB-high 14 twin-killings this season.

Dan Martin, Post:

Aaron Boone said he and his staff "spent a lot of time" with Gary Sanchez, reviewing the play that helped kill the Yankees' comeback hopes on Tuesday night. . . .

Boone said Stanton had some "hesitation" going to third, which threw off Sanchez. . . .

[I]t's the third time on the road trip in which Sanchez has been involved in a baserunning mishap, and this one was especially costly. . . .

[Boone] called it "a bad look."

Kristie Ackert, Daily News:

Aaron Hicks had the bat taken out of his hands with a chance to tie the game in the eighth Tuesday night. . . . [Hicks] was at the plate with two on and two outs, when Gary Sanchez got picked off. Hicks, who had doubled to set up the Yankees first run of the night, flipped this bat in frustration.

The mistakes are proving costly for the Yankees, who dropped their fourth out of their last seven games with a 7-3 loss to the Blue Jays . . .

That was the fifth time in 11 games the Yankees have committed a baserunning mistake for an out. They also grounded into three double plays Tuesday night. They have 14 DPs already this season to lead the majors. And a team that is built to win on pitching and power had very little of that Tuesday night. . . .

Jameson Taillon got hit hard and could not get out of the fourth inning. . . . Taillon allowed five earned runs on eight hits. . . . [He] needed 84 pitches to get through 3.1 innings pitched. . . .

Gio Urshela, making his first start at shortstop since 2018, was charged with an error . . .

Hyun Jin Ryu shut down the Yankees bats for six innings . . .

Perhaps most concerning, however, is that the Yankees have not gotten the starting pitching they need. . . . 

The rest of the rotation [not Cole] is a combined 1-4 with a 5.94 ERA, having given up 10 homers and striking out 35 through 33.1 innings pitched.

April 14

Ken Davidoff, Post:

This won't work.

This will, at best, bring the 2021 Yankees back to their 2020 ending, which satisfied no one. . . .

Jameson Taillon's second Yankees start turned out to be a big-time dud, as the Blue Jays thumped the right-hander and his team to the tune of a 7-3 loss at TD Ballpark. Toronto ace Hyun Jin Ryu carved up the flailing Yankees' lineup like a Thanksgiving turkey before his bullpen teammates turned the contest more interesting late … until Gary Sanchez ran the visitors out of a rally, ensuring that they fell back below .500 at 5-6. . . .

[T]he concern about the Yankees' starting pitchers, besides ace Gerrit Cole, stems from their questionable recent track records . . .

[T]he early alarm sounds for the two imports, Taillon and Corey Kluber, and the returning Domingo German . . . That trio has . . . a collective 7.48 ERA through two turns apiece . . . walking eight while allowing eight homers in 21.2 innings. . . .

Taillon, acquired from the Pirates in a January trade, lasted just two outs into the fourth Tuesday. He was pounded for five runs on eight hits and a walk while fanning three. He didn't fool too many Jays batters, as four batted balls surpassed 100 mph in exit velocity. . . .

[Kluber] was signed to an $11 million contract in January despite pitching just one inning last season and will bring a 5.68 ERA into his third start of the season Wednesday afternoon in Dunedin, and the younger German, who currently resides off the team's major league roster after clocking two poor starts (a 9.00 ERA).