Bomber Bits: Cleveland Rocks
Are we seeing signs of life from a previously ice cold Gleyber Torres? (Julia Aguilar / Getty Images)
Hello everyone, welcome to the first weekly “thoughts” column about all things Yankee and baseball related! This column will run towards the end of each week and cover a variety of free flowing topics. This week, we look at the red hot Yankees bullpen, the struggling Gleyber Torres, and a trip into a Yankees-Indians game of yore.
State of the ‘Stripes
This section of the column will gauge the state of affairs for the Bronx Bombers. This week, we open with a look at how things have gone for the first three weeks of the season for the Yankees.
It has certainly been a rocky start to the season for the New York Yankees. As of Friday morning, they sit 7-11, in last place in the American League East and owners of the third worst record in baseball (sorry, Twins and Rockies fans). They started the year 3-2, then went into a 2-8 skid, before rebounding to win two of their last three. As I’m sure you’re all aware, the offense has been...a problem. Everyone on the team collectively decided to go cold at the same time, leading to a stretch of offensive futility beyond anything that I’ve ever seen as a fan. The rotation has been hit or miss - Gerrit Cole has been as good as advertised and the other pitchers have shown flashes, but have yet to show any kind of consistency. The only standout part of the 2021 Yankees has been the bullpen - we’ll get to that later. So as we sit here languishing in last place while the Red Sox laugh at us from atop their division perch, how concerned should we be?
The answer is more optimistic than you think. For years, Yankees fans have watched an offense that has mashed home runs while failing to stay healthy. They’ve seen a pitching staff that has not had the necessary depth and come up short. Lastly, they’ve seen these shortcomings exposed every year in October. However, this year could be different. In a surprising turn of events, everyone has stayed mostly healthy and underperformed in the lineup. The pitching staff has actually been better than expected and kept the Yankees in many games that, if their offense was hitting at all, they would win. This wasn’t anticipated by anyone because it’s so different than the Yankees we’ve known since 2017. The long stretches in 2019 where the Yankees were giving up over 10 runs a game (an exaggeration, but not really) and scoring almost just as many may have been influenced by the juiced ball, but there’s no denying that this could be the deepest pitching staff the Yankees have rolled out. With inevitable improvement offensively (and this lineup is too good not to improve), we could be looking at quite a juggernaut come the summer. So stay optimistic, friends - things look really bad now, and the offense will have to build on the progress they made last night in Cleveland, but when the weather warms up, we could be in for a fun year in the Boogie Down. After all, we’re only three games back in the loss column and it’s never too early to scoreboard watch!
Highlight Player(s) of the Week
This week, the first Players of the Week award collectively goes to the Yankees bullpen . This unit has been dominant this year and has single handedly kept the Yankees in almost every game they’ve played. As I noted in the Braves series recap, the difference between previous Yankees bullpens and this one is that while previous ones featured star power at the top and mediocrity at the bottom, this year’s pen is dominant from top to bottom. Without Zack Britton, the Yankees have still been the best bullpen in baseball with a 2.37 ERA before last night’s game, where they pitched three scoreless innings. Look at this chart for evidence of some good bullpenning.
Those are the Yankees top relievers this year and they all have dominant statistics. Like the old Baltimore Orioles of 2012-2014 who had a dominant bullpen that gave you a bunch of different looks from all sides, this Yankees group has done the same (and utilized or will utilize two relievers from that group in O’Day and Britton).
Imagine if you had to go from this.
To this.
To this in three innings.
This is a brutal assignment for any hitter, and these are just three of the guys that they might see jogging in from the outfield. The emergence of Jonathan Loisaga and Mike King and the continued excellence of Zack Britton and Justin Wilson solidifies this unit as top notch. This week, they had to deal with even more pressure due to the low scoring offense, and still threw up 0 after 0 to preserve the Yankees’ chances of winning. An admirable effort from this group and against a run of poor offenses in the next few series, we should hope for more of the same.
The Yankees have consistently had a good bullpen, but this year’s looks to be a cut above thanks to both their depth and dominance. If the offense can get going, this could be a long summer for hitters in the later innings in the Bronx.
Lowlight Player of the Week
What’s up with Gleyber Torres? It has been a long period of struggling for the Yankees star shortstop. Dating back to last year, Torres has hit .226/.338/.323 with 3 home runs and 17 RBI in 58 games. That’s really bad! Additionally, Torres has taken over for Didi Gregorious at shortstop and provided a lackluster to bad defense to pair with his subpar bat. To add insult to injury, it seems like Torres has let the struggles go to his head, as he failed to hustle to first on a few ground balls on Wednesday night. Thursday morning articles claiming that Torres should be sent down to the minors were far too extreme, but their sentiment is understandable. For a player who looked like an ascendant star after his age 22 season, Torres has taken a few steps back. So what has happened and is there hope for change?
Gleyber’s struggles at the plate come from some very evident mechanical issues. In the box, he has not seemed comfortable all year, flinching at pitches in the middle of the strike zone and lunging for pitches off the plate. He has failed to recognize hittable pitches and he has yet to homer in the season. The problem for Torres has been balance - he has not taken many powerful swings this year and has ended many at bats off balance. Torres is best when he is able to load on his back leg and drive the ball. Look at this at bat from 2019 Gleyber - he stays back on the ball and launches it to left field.
Now compare it to 2021 Gleyber, who flinches out of the box at this Charlie Morton curveball. That’s not a relaxed hitter - that’s one who looks very uncomfortable.
Gleyber has not shown that same balanced swing and his hitting has been worse for it. His underlying stats have been similar to his career stats, save for two important ones - his hard hit and pull percentages. Before 2021, Torres’s hard hit percentage stood at 38.8% and his pull percentage was 29.9%. This year, his hard hit percentage is 31.8% and his pull percentage is 22.9%. Torres has not been hitting the ball hard as often and is poking a lot of balls to the opposite field instead of pulling the ball with authority. The stats back up the eye test here.
The good news is that Torres’s plate discipline hasn’t suffered much, as his OBP is still respectable at .315 and his walk rate is better than it was in 2018 and 2019. The key with Gleyber is getting him back on track as a power threat in the lineup rather than a singles hitter. Last night, Torres went 3 for 5 and showed some signs of offensive life. Picking up hits is great, but the long term goal is to get Gleyber back to that homer crushing Orioles killer we loved in 2019. Just for posterity, here’s a video to remind you of how he murdered the Orioles in 2019. Cue the Sad Gary Thorne.
Around the League
A recurring feature of the thoughts column will be “Around the League”, where, in six bullet points, we check in on the happenings around the rest of the MLB.
AL East - The Red Sox are bopping, the Yankees are slumping, and the other three teams are somewhere in the middle. Somehow the Rays forgot how to pitch and injuries have hurt the Blue Jays in the early going. This should be a wild one.
AL Central - The Royals are partying like it’s 2014, with a resurgent offense and pitching that’s somehow getting it done. The favorite White Sox have been inconsistent and the Bomba Squad Twins have been just as bad as the Yankees (yes, the Yankees are not the only bad team in baseball this year!). Keep an eye on this one.
AL West - Something is happening in Oakland! The A’s, previously 0-7, have now won 11 straight! And in even crazier news, the Mariners are right behind them for a battle for first place. The Astros sit at the bottom of the division (the three 2019 AL division winners - Yankees, Astros and Twins are all in last, by the way).
NL East - This division features a lot of mediocrity. The Phillies and the Mets lead the way with .500 records, but all teams are within a game of each other. People thought the NL East would be the best division in baseball, but not for this reason.
NL Central - The Brew Crew learned how to pitch - look at that 40/0 K/BB ratio from Corbin Burnes! The Reds, who got off to a hot offensive start, have fallen off a bit, but the rest of this division is bunched up as well.
NL West - The Dodgers are already 3 games better than any other National League team, and in a surprising twist, its the Giants - not the Padres - in second right now. The Rockies, meanwhile, are just as bad as everyone thought they would be.
And just for posterity, your top ten players in WAR three weeks into the year, courtesy of Fangraphs.
Great starts from Corbin Burnes and Bryon Buxton, and a resurgent Clayton Kershaw is always nice to see. And is that Carson Kelly’s music we hear??? This is mostly a reminder that Gerrit Cole is doing all he can to keep this Yankees season alive.
Baseball Fun Facts
Today’s fun baseball fact concerns potentially the most talented player in baseball, Shohei Ohtani. The pitcher/hitter virtuoso has put up impressive stats from the mound and at the plate. He made his pitching debut on Sunday Night Baseball a few weeks ago and over two starts, has put up a 1.04 ERA. He leads the league in walks, so the command isn’t quite there, but Ohtani has shown signs of being the ace that the Angels have expected for years with his 100 mile an hour fastball and nasty breaking pitches. The incredible part of Ohtani is that he has been stellar at the plate as well. In 16 games this year, Ohtani has batted .286/.328/.635 with 5 home runs and 13 RBI as a key part of the Angels offense. This combination of skills has not been seen since Babe Ruth and Ohtani’s start to the season has created a whole host of fun facts. Here are three of the best ones.
In his first outing, Ohtani pitched a ball 100 miles an hour and hit a home run 115 miles and hour.
Ohtani hit a home run earlier this week and sprinted around the bases in 17.30 seconds, the fastest time in MLB this season. He, by the way, is a pitcher.
Ohtani became the first American League starting pitcher to homer against an AL team since Roric Harrison in 1972 - otherwise known as the last year before the DH was instituted. He also was the first American League pitcher since 1901 with a home run batting first or second in the lineup.
Please enjoy these Ohtani videos and remember that we can still have nice things in 2021.
Remember Some Games
Each week, the “Remember Some Games” column will take a trip in the Wayback Machine to look at a game from ten years prior, in the season of 2011. This was a season right in the middle of the Yankees run of success from 2009-2012 and saw the Yankees win the AL East in a season where the Red Sox were considered by many to be the Greatest Team of All Time. This week’s game, in honor of Yankees-Indians this weekend, takes us back to June 10th, 2011 for a contentious matchup between two teams that were only a few years removed from the infamous “Midge” game.
In June of 2011, the Indians came to town for a three game set and they faced a Yankees team that had just been swept at home by the Red Sox, forcing them out of first place and seemingly confirming everyone’s belief that this Red Sox team was something special. The Yankees were fired up after being knocked down by the Sox and came out swinging against Roberto Hernandez/Fausto Carmona. They scored three in the first inning to support Ivan Nova, but the fireworks began in the second. Curtis Granderson homered off of Hernandez/Carmona, who proceeded to drill Mark Teixeira in the back with a fastball. It was a classic “I’m angry that I’m getting shelled and need to take it out on someone” pitch and the Yankees were pissed off. They had been hit a few times in the Boston series and were not about to be pushed around by the Indians. Teixeira took a step towards the mound and began barking at Carmona and the benches cleared in a hurry. Although no punches were thrown between players, it was the managers - Joe Girardi and Manny Acta - who had to be separated. To the video!
When asked about it after the game, Joe made it clear he was not going to let his players get thrown at. "I have respect for Manny. I actually had a nice exchange with Manny at 3 o'clock today. But that doesn't mean there's not some feistiness in me and when my guys are getting plunked, I'm going to protect them….I told him I thought he did it on purpose and I didn't like it." Teixeira chimed in as well, "It's just disappointing when you have a guy who gives up a long home run and is getting hit around a little bit and decides to throw one close to your head…Anytime it's a purpose pitch up near my head, near my neck, I don't like that. You want to send a message, just throw the ball low."
This was a wake up call to a Yankees team that had slept walked through a week of poor play against Boston and they didn’t let up after the benches clearing incident. Alex Rodriguez hit a monster home run in the fourth against Hernandez/Carmona and the Yankees tacked on more against Chad Durbin and the Cleveland bullpen.
The final score, 11-7, was closer than it appeared thanks to some garbage time runs allowed by Amauri Sanit (Mariano Rivera had to come into a game that was 11-3 in the 9th), but the Yankees held on to win and won 10 of their next 12 games. It was one of the moments that showed this Yankees team would not be pushovers and set up their eventual division title run. As we watch the 2021 Yankees, remember that sometimes little moments like this bring a team together and serve as a wake-up call to play better.
Thanks for reading the first edition of Bomber Bits - let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas for the column, or if there’s a specific 2011 game you’d like me to remember in the future!
