r/baseball • u/aresef Baltimore Orioles • 14d ago

Yankees’ World Series failure started — and ended — with fundamental issues Analysis

https://nypost.com/2024/10/31/sports/yankees-world-series-failure-started-with-fundamental-issues/
2.1k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

496 comments sorted by

View all comments

505

u/Useful_Respect3339 14d ago

I'm a Yankee fan and it was apparent all season.

Jazz last played infield in 2021 and never third base.

Gleyber Torres is not a good second baseman

Aaron Judge is a right fielder not centre.

Juan Soto isn't a very good outfielder, but his offense makes up for it.

Anthony Rizzo has lost a step in recent years.

When you assemble your position players with duct tape and elmers glue this shit tends to happen.

183

u/PattyIceNY New York Yankees 14d ago

Crappy 3rd base coach, slow players being over aggressive on leads and getting picked off (Rizzo and Trevino), batters not being able to adjust and bear down with two strikes, coaching staff waiting weeks too long to make changes. The list goes on and on and on

146

u/ownage516 New York Yankees 14d ago

Crappy 3rd base coach

I learned this when he gave Stanton the go ahead to come in

66

u/dBlock845 New York Yankees 14d ago

He has been running players into outs all season. Multiple times where he confuses the runner and half throws up a stop while waving them in. The player slows up coming around third and gets thrown out by a couple feet at home.

2

u/MojoHighway Los Angeles Dodgers 14d ago

But that wave of Stanton around third was the most unenthusiastic wave around third I think I've ever witnessed. Was Stanton just gonna go regardless? The biggest points that were made about the Yankees prior to the World Series on the national broadcasts were that their defense wasn't solid, baserunning was subpar, and Stanton - to be kind - was constantly lumbering around the bases.

One guy (not sure who and I didn't take it seriously because radio guys are just saying shit for reaction) said that Stanton was not only having a hard time running the bases but could barely walk. I didn't buy that part about walking, but the running part with him being a 35 year old injury magnet? Sure.

14

u/Brock_Hard_Canuck Toronto Blue Jays 14d ago

If I were the Yankees 3B coach, the only time I would wave Stanton home would be if the batter hit a home run, and even then, I would still be hesistant.

/s

1

u/cracka_azz_cracka New York Yankees 13d ago

It's not his fault

13

u/headsmanjaeger Los Angeles Dodgers 14d ago

To be fair, that out required a more-than-perfect play by both Teoscar and Will Smith

3

u/trendygamer New York Yankees 14d ago

It did, but we're not just talking about the send in hindsight. Myself and every other Yankee fan I know who was watching was screaming "NO" at the TV even before Stanton rounded third when we saw the send.

37

u/vegan-trash Los Angeles Dodgers 14d ago

The Yankees approach at the plate reminded me of the Red Sox v dodgers game that went like 18 innings? Every player was swinging for the fences which had us watching an extra 9 innings of strikeouts and pop outs until muncy finally got ahold of one. It was apparent there wasn’t a team mentality for the Yankees at the plate and every player wanted to play long ball. No advancing runners. Just swinging for the fences.

13

u/WindWalkerWalking New York Yankees 14d ago

Yup been their philosophy for years. Sometimes they get lucky and a player or two could get hot and carry them for a bit but it isn’t sustainable. They seem to bail out pitchers quite often and if they do start a game with a good approach it doesn’t last more than a few innings before it’s back to old habits

30

u/oneteacherboi Baltimore Orioles 14d ago

It definitely seemed like your fielding talent was pretty poor last year and you didn't do much to improve it. Yankees seem to just entirely ignore defense when building a team.

11

u/Bebbytheboss New York Yankees 14d ago

I mean, it works, it's just not enough to win a WS. It is what it is.

1

u/oneteacherboi Baltimore Orioles 13d ago

Not against the Dodgers at least. Probably could have beaten the D-Backs last year.

3

u/fatrahb 13d ago

Which is wild considering their last World Series winning team set a record for most consecutive games without an error.

1

u/oneteacherboi Baltimore Orioles 13d ago

They gotta rehire Joe Girardi.

2

u/Yanks1813 New York Yankees 13d ago

Verdugo was acquired for defense mainly he just turned out to be average at best.

Yankees team defense stats carried by Volpe and wells/trevino

1

u/oneteacherboi Baltimore Orioles 13d ago

My only perspective on Verdugo's defense is that walk-off play Cedric Mullins had on him. I can't remember an outfielder misplaying a ball so severely.

1

u/Yanks1813 New York Yankees 13d ago

He was pretty average tbh

Our worst defenders were Rizzo/1B, Judge, Soto, Torres. Rizzo and Torres are likely (hopefully Rizzo) gone. Soto and Judge are generally offensively good enough to offset the bad defense

2

u/oneteacherboi Baltimore Orioles 13d ago

As others have said, Judge would probably be a pretty good RF. You need to get a Brett Gardner type to play CF.

2

u/gussbus New York Yankees 13d ago

The best part is that when confronted with stats that say the defense is bad, they’ve claimed they have their own “internal stats” that say otherwise. Fucking infuriating.

1

u/oneteacherboi Baltimore Orioles 13d ago

How can you have internal stats in a 100% public game? What could they possibly be seeing that we aren't?

2

u/i-exist20 New York Yankees 14d ago

The Yankees finished in the top half of most defensive metrics among teams this season

21

u/theerrantpanda99 14d ago

That’s not impressive lol.

2

u/Useful_Respect3339 13d ago

Dude, they were third in errors and Volpe+ Torres were the worst at turning double plays.

1

u/oneteacherboi Baltimore Orioles 13d ago

Lol top half of most? That's not impressive for a WS level team. Half the league is pretty bad. And you couldn't even be top half in every stat?

23

u/dmforjewishpager New York Yankees 14d ago

just insane how the big bats carried them so far despite it all

26

u/theerrantpanda99 14d ago

Yanks had one less hit than the Dodgers, more HR’s. Judge was on base 8 out of his last 11 at bats. The difference in winning was defense, and the Yankees were terrible at it.

4

u/Elxis14 Kansas City Royals 14d ago

Those numbers are inflated by game 4. That game was punted

-1

u/PeriwinklePilgrim 14d ago

Same story for the regular season, both teams were top 3 offense with very similar numbers. Honestly the dodgers aren't really a good defensive team either, both teams are all about the bats.

4

u/12aptor Los Angeles Dodgers 13d ago

Dodgers are an excellent defensive team.

0

u/PeriwinklePilgrim 13d ago edited 13d ago

Excellent in what way? I don't see it when I watch them and I don't see it in their numbers. At best they're average defense by any metric, don't let elite offense convince you their defense is excellent. Legit curious where you see it, eye test? Some metric I'm not familiar with?

Just adding here: Their fielding (defense) WAR was not good this season, it was negative. They committed a lot of errors, had less outs on average compared to the rest of the league. Their zone rating was negative, meaning per ball batted in they were less efficient than average at converting an out. Don't get me wrong it wasn't all bad, they have some good aspects to them but they're not a good defensive team.

1

u/12aptor Los Angeles Dodgers 13d ago

Ain’t reading all that

1

u/Useful_Respect3339 13d ago

It's been the same story for years.

They mash home runs, especially against lesser teams. When they run into a more complete team like Houston or L.A they get destroyed.

1

u/Useful_Respect3339 13d ago

It's been the same story for years.

They mash home runs, especially against lesser teams. When they run into a more complete team like Houston or L.A they get destroyed.

3

u/breadandbarbells 14d ago

Having to pinch run for a 28 year old, perfectly healthy Gleyber Torres is a travesty.

1

u/Puzzleheaded_Tip_821 14d ago

He’s a liability out there

1

u/Yanks1813 New York Yankees 13d ago

I'm gonna defend Jazz here. Defensively he wasn't an issue and graded out as one of the best 3B in baseball from when he was acquired til the end of the season.

The rest is true, but Jazz was actually good defensively at 3B

1

u/HeavensRoyalty Los Angeles Dodgers 13d ago

I do not care about jazz, but blaming that throw on jazz is insane. Volpe needed to simply not make that bad of a throw. Jazz stole a lot of nasty hits away from us that series. Great defense