It seems that Major League Baseball would prefer to avoid a repeat of the Astros’ sign-stealing debacle, a scandal that only worsened when individual players escaped punishment due to a lack of a punitive framework and an exchange of immunity for information.
There’s a new structure for dealing with such matters, should they arise in the future, according to Evan Drellich of The Athletic (subscription link). MLB and the MLB Players Association have agreed to a series of rules that are designed to foreclose the round of controversy we’ve seen recently from the Astros and other teams.
The key here is that the commissioner’s office now has authority to impose suspensions — without pay and service time — against players and personnel. Punishment can be assessed upon a violation of the broad prohibition of utilizing “Electronic Devices or Visual Enhancement Devices during the game to identify, communicate or relay the opposing club’s signs or pitch information.”
There are some added protections for players. They’ll get union representation while the league investigates. Much as in the context of the domestic violence policy, the league will start fresh in terms of precedent for suspension lengths (at least for players). It’ll all be subject to appeal and final determination by a neutral arbitrator.
The league is also stepping up its monitoring and enforcement mechanisms. The video review rooms will be isolated and communications strictly limited; ultimately, cameras will watch over the proceedings. Trained security professionals from a third-party vendor will watch the door to the doors even to the clubhouse; notably, they’ll be given authority to document and even confront any players or personnel that violate rules such as the ban on in-game cellphone access.
For the time being, players will not be able to watch any kind of live or video feed during a game that features an angle of action that would reveal signs. That will ultimately change, but the league needs time to sort out a system for blotting out signs in the feeds its players will be allowed to access.
It’s all a game of whack-a-mole to some extent, but there’s a key backstop now — a clear threat of suspension — that was lacking previously. The new system is a reflection of the inadequacy of the old one. It would be an improvement if it could ferret out and adequately punish cheaters, but the league hopes for more. If this slate of initiatives really works, the likelihood of being exposed and fear of significant punishment will prevent would-be rule-breakers from even trying.
“I was getting older and I kind of felt like I was on my last legs,” he said.
Instead, a year later, he made his big-league debut with the Yankees, firing a scoreless ninth inning to help in a 9-3 win over the Orioles at Camden Yards on Wednesday.
He helped Gerrit Cole secure his second victory in pinstripes. He kept the ball from his first strikeout. After the game, Cole presented him with the lineup card.
“It was awesome following him,” Kriske said. “He’s the best pitcher on the planet.”
On Wednesday, Kriske was finally in his league after a tough time in the minor leagues. The Yankees called him up late Saturday night when they were in Washington, D.C., and in need of pitching depth. He was one of the relievers the Yankees added when they sent down Clint Frazier.
Kriske, 26, walked the leadoff guy but struck out two.
With the stadium empty due to the coronavirus, his family watched from home in Arizona. He said his phone was “pretty crazy” with calls and messages afterward.
“I’ve been telling my friends and family that two years ago I wasn’t sure that this opportunity would ever come,” Kriske said. “I was a 24-year-old in short-season A-ball. I was excited.”
The Yankees drafted Kriske in the sixth round out of USC in 2016. That season, he needed Tommy John surgery, which wiped out his 2017. In 2018, he performed well, but in 2019, he said he wasn't sure where he stood on the organization's depth chart.
“I was never going to quit,” he said. “We get one shot of this. Most of us are kind of wired the same way. We’re not going to quit. Definitely went into spring training in 2019 not sure if I was going to make it through spring training. So I put a lot of work in during the offseason and it paid off.”
“I knew I was going to make it through physically. I always wanted to play. I wasn’t sure if I was going to have a job at the end of spring training.”
Kriske earned a spot on the Yankees’ 40-man roster in the offseason with a strong performance at Double-A Trenton, where he posted a 2.08 ERA in 43 games.
Getting the final out meant the world to him.
“It was the culmination of the work and all of the people who have supported me this whole time,” he said.
With the coronavirus ravaging the Marlins, who haven’t played this week and won’t do so again until at least Monday, Major League Baseball is changing its COVID-19 protocols in an effort to keep the season running, Jeff Passan of ESPN.com reports.
The league still won’t force players or staff to quarantine when they’re on the road, but it is encouraging them to stay in their hotel rooms and socially distance from one another when they’re not at the ballpark. Additionally, they’ll have to wear surgical masks – not cloth masks – and each team must bring a compliance officer on the road. That individual’s purpose will be to make sure that teams follow the league’s coronavirus protocols, including arranging seating charts on team buses, according to Passan.
Less than a week into the season, it’s up in the air whether the Marlins will even play a 60-game schedule (or, for that matter, whether any other team will). The Marlins have seen a combined 18 players and staff test positive, knocking their season off the rails in the early going, and their health issues have affected other clubs’ schedules. The Phillies, who hosted the Marlins last weekend, had been slated to play a four-game home-and-home set versus the Yankees, but that was postponed. Additionally, their game against the Blue Jays on Friday was pushed to Saturday.
Despite a less-than-ideal start to the season, commissioner Rob Manfred said Tuesday, “We think we can keep people safe and continue to play.” Clearly, the league’s hope is that the changes to its protocols will increase the chances of that happening.
The Yankees ace earned his second win in as many starts in an easy 9-3 victory over the O’s.
After an unplanned two-day hiatus, the Yankees were back in action, having taken an impromptu trip to Camden Yards to face off with the Orioles. As far as juicy matchups go, it doesn’t get much juicier than tonight; Gerrit Cole on the mound against a hapless Baltimore lineup, backed up by a Yankee brigade looking to feast on a staff they crushed for 61 homers last year.
Winner of the Game
This was a Yankees-Orioles game in 2020, and as such, there were plenty of good choices for tonight’s winner. You had DJ LeMahieu, who racked up four hits and two RBI, thanks in part to his leadoff dinger. Or Aaron Judge, clocking in with his first homer of the season en route to reaching base four times on the night.
And of course, there was Cole, who mostly cruised through a 6.2-inning, three-run start. Like his first game as a Yankee, it didn’t seem that Cole had everything quite clicking, and a two-run, two-out homer by Dwight Smith Jr. in the seventh marred what had been an otherwise strong outing. Still, Cole retired 14 in a row at one point and struck out seven against two walks. That’ll play most days.
Honorable mention: Catcher’s interference. The Yankees had two runners reach base via CI in the span of three plate appearances in the first. One must always appreciate a spontaneous tribute to Jacoby Ellsbury.
Loser of the Game
Another rough night for Gary Sanchez, who is still looking for his first hit after going 0-4 with three strikeouts. The Yankees will have to hope that their backstop is just going through a brief slump to open the year, one that will end promptly.
BALTIMORE — J.A. Happ has a lot to prove this summer. Coming off his worst year in a well-established 13-year career, Happ’s pride was wounded last winter when his name was mentioned in trade rumors. He spent most of the winter at the Yankees’ spring training complex working with video and biomechanics to revamp his delivery.
He was using that work to pitch well in February and March — and then everything stopped. The coronavirus stopped spring training and Happ tried to idle and maintain the changes with his delivery.
“That was a frustrating thing for me, I felt like I was in a good spot with my delivery,” Happ said. “And we tried to maintain that best we could. ... So I think that’s going to be a challenge to kind of maintain that, and my goal is to repeat that as often as possible.”
And Monday, Happ was finally going to get his chance to try it out in a real game — when the coronavirus struck again. The outbreak with the Marlins scrambled the Yankees schedule, having them sit tight for two days before rerouting to Baltimore for quick series against the Orioles. So Thursday night will finally be Happ’s chance to start a new chapter.
Happ pitched to a 4.91 ERA in 30 starts and one appearance out of the bullpen in 2019. He struck out 140 and allowed a career-high 34 home runs in 161.1 innings pitched.
While Happ was certainly hurt by the 2019 ball, which was livelier and produced a record number of home runs, he knew there were also issues with his mechanics. He worked this winter to basically be more in-line towards the play, driving off his legs and having all his momentum moving toward home plate.
“We just took a lot of the offseason, trying to break down some of the mechanics and some of the things that could maybe do a little bit better, try to be a little more efficient, use my lower half a little bit better,” Happ said. “And then we try to do some stuff with the pitch shape. Spin in that and try to really bear down and focus on one specific breaking ball. So we took a couple of months trying to play with both of those and try to get the reps in just to get comfortable with it.”
Happ has a lot on the line this summer.
In the second-year of a two-year $34 million deal, Happ had a vesting option for the 2021 season. That option, negotiated in December 2018 kicked in if he made 26 starts or pitched 165 innings this season. Of course in the 60-game season, that is not possible. The proportionate equivalent would be 10 starts or 61.1 innings to get the $17 million option, which seems like a fair compromise, but it has not been settled yet.
Happ, who has not been on the injured list during the contract, was on a list of players whose option was exempt from the deal that was agreed on between the league and union.
Happ said he and the Yankees were in the process of negotiating the option.
“It has been a process that we are trying to resolve. ... I am going to do my best and sort of just pitch,’' Happ said Sunday. “I have been in situations where there has been other things potentially hanging over your head [and] have been able to handle it, so I plan on focusing at the task at hand. Hopefully we get a resolution to that at some point.‘'
Yankees Mailbag: Juiced baseballs, Gardy vs. Clint, and weird percentages
Steve B asks: After a week of Major League Baseball, what are the players saying and what are the stats showing regarding the baseballs used in 2020? Are they more like those used in the 2019 regular season (i.e. smoother, lower seams, “juiced”) or like the ones used in last year’s playoffs (more flight restricted)?
I haven’t heard any players talking about the baseballs this season with all of the distractions that simply playing baseball has caused this year, but the ball certainly looks like it’s flying like it did in the regular season last year. Let’s look into this a bit.
Last year we had 6,776 home runs across the American and National Leagues, which rounds out to about 42 home runs per game day. Following Thursday’s games, there have been 227 home runs this year. Now, things get a little tricky trying to divide that by game days, since not all teams have played the same amount of games and there are some weird outliers with the Marlins and Phillies being sidelined this week.
The overwhelming majority of teams have played either six or seven games, however, so I went low and divided our total by six to get roughly 38 home runs a day. This number is a bit under last year’s homer-happy rate, but batters are just getting into their groove after the long layaway, and it’s still about even with the home run rate from 2017, another year where the ball was suspected to be juiced. Consdering all of this, I think it’s fair to say we’re dealing with some juiced balls.
Larry S. asks: Isn’t it time to sit Gardner, and let Clint Frazier play? At least it would let Frazier build up interest if the Yanks decide to trade him. Brett has looked overmatched so far this season.
It’s been a mixed bag of hitters either looking red hot out of the gate, or looking like they’d never seen major-league pitching before so far. It’s early, so even the hardest struggles (Gardner and Gary Sanchez) could turn it around before we know it, but the circumstances don’t give them much time to do so. It’s a tough situation, since there are fewer games and they therefore matter more — but no matter how heavier the games are weighed the human side of the game can only adjust based on the amount of games they’ve actually played.
Gardner’s situation is rougher than Gary’s, mainly because there are capable candidates to take away his playing time if the team opts to use them. Peter looked into Clint’s case recently, and it seems to me like the biggest factor to the decision is whether you favor Clint’s bat or Gardner’s defense. I’m of the opinion that Frazier should get playing time, especially considering there’s no minor leagues this year to get him consistent at-bats. Gardner was brought back for one last run at a title and to keep the leadership on the team intact, but I struggle to believe that he was meant to hold onto the starting job throughout the year. It’s hard to ignore Mike Tauchman either, who impressed with his opportunity last season. Between the three of them, Aaron Boone’s hand will likely be forced sooner rather than later.
Bill P. asks: Will the game of baseball have enough time in slightly more than a third of a baseball season to self-correct and produce percentages that are near normal? Or will there be a new highest percentage of wins ever, or a new percentage of losses ever?
I don’t think we’ll see some crazy disparities in records this year, simply because there’s not enough time to either lose out build enough of a win streak. Teams are going to be taxed from the rush of getting enough games in during this two-month stretch that the “on any given day” mantra you see typically in the NFL could apply. There’s already been some upsets, with teams like the Tigers and Mariners getting several wins within the first week.
For any team to reach the 1962 Mets level of incompetence, for instance, they would need to go 15-60. Even last year’s Tigers were a ways away from that percentage of losses, and they’re one of the teams that has impressed in the early going. Going the other way is more feasible, but still a difficult task. 43 wins would give a team a nearly identical winning percentage to the 2001 Mariners, which is possible depending on how well the division leaders can take advantage of the bottom-dwellers in both halves of their region. Besting the 1906 Cubs’ .763 mark, however, would require a 46-14 run. It would be impressive to see if a team could manage that from essentially a cold start, but I wouldn’t expect them to come close.
After the bullpen had blown the lead in the bottom of the eighth, Gio Urshela led off the top of the ninth with a walk. Following a Mike Tauchman fly out, DJ LeMahieu singled to put runners on first and second. As the broadcast booth wondered why the Yankees were not pinch-running for Urshela, Judge — who had struck out in his three previous at-bats — made the entire conversation moot by sending a 413-foot moonshot to left, 107 MPH off the bat.
The Yankees got on the board earlier, taking advantage of a rocky start by Baltimore starter John Means to take an early 5-0 lead in the top of the first. Means struggled out of the gate, hitting both Judge and Gleyber Torres to put two runners on after LeMahieu led off the game with a groundout to shortstop. Following a Giancarlo Stanton RBI single that he drilled 117 MPH, Aaron Hicks walked to load the bases — narrowly avoiding a HBP of his own! Voit then came up to the plate, and hammered a 2-1 pitch.
His second home run of the season and first grand slam of his career, Voit hammered that one 398 feet with a 97.8 MPH exit velocity.
Stanton continued his hot start with three hits of his own. In addition to his first-inning RBI single, he had two other hits that Statcast registered as “hard hit” — a 116 MPH single in the third and a 95 MPH double in the fifth. He is now batting .533, with a 1.678 OPS, and his average exit velocity is 98 MPH. If he can ride out his hot start, he becomes an instant front-runner for both Comeback Player of the Year and AL MVP.
Not everything was good for the Yankees, however. Happ struggled in his season debut, giving up four runs on four hits in just four innings, including two-run home runs to Hanser Alberto and Rio Ruiz. A lengthy rain delay held up the game midway through the sixth, when Loaisiga came in from the ‘pen. Loaisiga battled through the sixth, walking the first two batters he faced, but managed to record a clean seventh. He was tasked with going another inning however, and that’s where things feel apart. Loaisiga hit Anthony Santander, putting the tying run on base, and promptly gave up a two-run homer to Pedro Severino.
Despite blowing the lead, Jonathan Loaisiga receives credit for the win, his first on the year, while Cole Sulser gets tagged with the loss, the first of his career; Zack Britton earns his second save of the season. With the win, the Yankees improve to 4-1, and extend their winning streak against the Orioles to 18 games, and an incredible 16 straight in Camden Yards. To put this in perspective, the last Orioles pitcher to earn a win against the Yankees in Baltimore was Zack Britton, back when he spelled his name “Zach.”
The Yankees will be back in action tonight against the Red Sox, in what should finally be the 2020 home opener. Jordan Montgomery will be recalled from the alternate training site to make his season debut — he pitched well in both spring training and summer camp, and he’ll look to put his 2018 Tommy John surgery behind him. Ryan Weber will get the ball for the Red Sox. In his first start of the season, he could not make it out of the 4th inning against Baltimore, giving up six runs on six hits (including a pair home runs), walking three and striking out none. He has made three relief appearances against the Yankees in his five-year career, giving up two runs in 6.1 innings (a 2.84 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 7:05.
With roughly one week of the season in the books, I think it’s safe to say that it’s already been a wild ride. I admit that I’ve been worried about the feasibility of playing all 60 games this season in light of the fact that the pandemic continues to rage across the US. The Yankees have already been directly impacted by the harsh reality of COVID-19, as the team’s schedule was altered due to a breakout on the Miami Marlins. I love baseball, and it has brought a smile to my face to see it on TV, but I shudder to think about the risk being taken by players, umpires, coaches, and support staff just to play a game. I know that players are handsomely compensated for their work, but it’s hard not to focus on the realities of the world we live in today. For today, I’ll focus on baseball, but what’s happening in the world both in and around the league cannot be ignored.
We’ll get back to the Weekly Mailbag as soon as we get enough questions to run one consistently. Keep sending your questions to SSTNReadermail@gmail.com, and I’ll answer as many as possible in the Weekly Mailbag. For today though, I wanted to take a look at a few early areas of interest that I’ll have my eye on moving forward:
The O-Fers
As of Friday morning, Gary Sanchez and Brett Gardner remain 0-the world. Clearly the sky is falling, and we need a catcher and another outfielder. Oh right, we’re only 22-ish at-bats into the season. Yes, we all need to relax for a minute. We are still talking about a minuscule sample size here. As much as I’d like to see an equal and opposite reaction from both Gary and Gardy, we all need a little patience. Eventually, I expect both to come out of their funk and play as expected. Remember, players have been out of their routines for months now. As creatures of habit, I would have been surprised if we didn’t have a few Yankees start a little more slowly out of the gate.
The one caveat to the above is I am slightly alarmed by the rate at which Sanchez is whiffing. When Sanchez presses at the plate, he tends to swing at everything within 8 feet of the strike zone, trying to pound the ball into the moon. He looks like he could use a day to clear his head a bit. I remain confident that Sanchez will snap out of it, as Sanchez will often follow bouts like this with sheer dominance at the plate, but in the meantime, there’s no question but that it looks ugly on TV…although I’d imagine it looks just as bad in person.
The Bash Brothers Are Back!
So…does all of Yankee-land want to trade Stanton now?!?!? I know that the contract is large, and I fully recognize that a few good games does not change the long-term ramifications of Stanton’s deal, but wow does he look locked in right now. I couple of weeks ago on the Bronx Beat Podcast, I picked Stanton to lead the team in RBIs (and I thought long and hard about picking him to lead the team in homers), and he’s making me look smart in the early going. Stanton is one of the most talented hitters in baseball, and he looks like he did in his MVP year a few seasons ago. Most importantly, he looks healthy - I’m not sure that you can hit balls 120+ MPH as Stanton has this season unless your lower body is healthy. I have no problem with Stanton DH’ing all year if it keeps him this healthy.
Stanton is one of three players on this team capable of truly otherworldly dominance at the plate. One of the others is Aaron Judge, and he looks good at the plate as well. 3 of his 5 hits have gone for extra bases, so I’d say Judge is ready to go on a similar tear. The Yankees have such a luxury in the middle of the order when they can bat Stanton and Judge between 2-4 in the lineup. These two are going to propel the Yankee lineup all season long. They’re going to get plenty of help, but it’s fun to watch these two at the plate when they hit like they have early this season.
A Platoon Emerges
Lost in the discussion of Gardy’s early season struggles at the plate is the fact that he sat against a left-handed pitcher on Thursday night. Miguel Andujar got the start, and I expect to see this as long as Andujar proves to not be a disaster out there. I think it has become easy to forget just how good Andujar is at the plate. No, he doesn’t walk, and his success at the plate is dependent on contact, but he makes some of the loudest contact on the team. He’s only hit two balls in play this season, but they left his bat at 98.9 MPH and 100 MPH, respectively.
Gardy is a forever Yankee, but his career splits are pronounced, with a .765 OPS against RHP and a .682 OPS against LHP. Getting Gardy some much needed rest against LHP makes sense, as does getting the platoon advantage with a hitter of Andujar’s caliber. Finding Andujar at-bats is difficult on this team, but he deserves playing time.
Tandem Starter?!?!?
All of you know about my oft-repeated drum-banging for tandem starters. I’ve identified numerous young Yankee arms who might fit such a role beautifully. One ore more of those arms could also be dynamite relievers in short outings with their stuff. If one were to use a Venn Diagram with reliever on one side and starter on the other, Jonathan Loaisiga is a guy who would wind up squarely in the intersection of the two circles.
I’ve noted numerous times that he could be either one-half of a starting tandem in one slot of the rotation, or a dynamite reliever in the mold of Dellin Betances. As such, his early season usage has been fascinating. He served as an “opener” in his first appearance, but not as a true opener. Loaisiga went 3 innings, giving up a solo shot while striking out 3 against a potent Nationals lineup on opening weekend. Last night, he went 3 innings following Happ’s outing, striking out 4 despite getting beat for a two-run shot late in his outing. Overall, I’d call his early outings a success, despite some issues with the gopher ball.
Yes, I’m excited about Loaisiga’s early usage pattern. I hope it continues, as I have believed for over a year now that he is uniquely suited to a role like the one in which the Yankees have used him early this season. I sincerely hope they try it with one or more of the other young guns waiting on the 60-man roster as the season rolls along.
Brooks Kriske’s Debut
I highlighted Brooks Kriske when he was added to the 40-man roster back at the end of 2019. To sum up, I noted at the time that he was a reliever with college experience who had suffered arm injuries, but had experienced a noticeable bump in velocity in 2019 (where have we heard that before?), jumping from the low-90s into the mid-90s, while pairing the fastball with a new splitter that earned positive reviews and a serviceable change-up.
Kriske had a good debut the other night, and now we have some statistics and pitch maps to go with the scouting report. Take a look:
Brooks Kriske 7-29 Pitch Map, Courtesy of Baseball Savant (Click To Enlarge)
Brooks Kriske 7-29 Pitch Velocity, Courtesy of Baseball Savant (Click To Enlarge)
The chart shows that Kriske threw 6 change-ups, but I believe that the pitch was actually a splitter. We’ll be able to confirm as the season moves along. Kriske showed good location with his pitches, working primarily down and on the edges of the zone. Kriske’s velocity was on the low end of my expectations, but still within the range quoted at the end of last season. Kriske seems to live in the mid-90s, and he pairs the pitch with the splitter/change-up and a show-me slider. All-in-all, I was reasonably impressed. Kriske is really the last guy in the bullpen on this team, but he’s useful all the same. I’d like to see more of him in the coming weeks.
Conclusion
I’ll be interested to see how some of these trends play out in the coming weeks. Look for Gardy and Sanchez to awake from their slumber; Judge and Stanton to keep mashing; Johnny Lasagna to pair with Yankee starters; Andujar to force his way into the lineup; and Brooks Kriske to show that last season’s improvements are for real. Keep sending in your questions to SSTNReadermail@gmail.com, and I’ll see you next week!
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