Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. It pains me to say it but I don’t feel good about the Yankees.
🌽 Verducci in the game Field of Dreams
☘️ All-league honor for Bill Russell
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A reversal of fortunes in New York
August has not been good for the Yankees so far. This may interest you : Amazon Prime Video orders Dutch version of ‘Killer Camp’ reality format.
2-7 this month and 7-13 since the All-Star break. As of July 8th, the Red Sox have gone 61-23 (five more than any other team in baseball), and are 10-18. Their 71 wins are fourth in the majors, now trailing the Dodgers, Mets and Astros. They’re still in the AL East by 10 games and are one of the top contenders for the World Series, but they’re not on pace for the historic season they would have been a month ago.
So what’s the problem? The first explanation is injuries. They haven’t injured many players but the ones on the sideline are significant. Giancarlo Stanton has been out since July 23rd with Achilles tendinitis. Shortstop Michael King, who had been one of the team’s most reliable relievers, broke his elbow throwing a pitch the day after Stanton was hurt and will miss the season. Starter Luis Severino went to the IL on July 13th with a strained lat and wasn’t expected to miss much time, but when he was transferred to the 60-day IL (keeping him out until mid-September), he told reporters he “wasn’t happy.” The latest blow came this week from Matt Carpenter. when he had an amazing resurgence (.305 batting average, 15 homers, 37 RBI) when he fouled a ball off his foot and broke it.He’ll be out 6-8 weeks.
Another problem is that the boys are getting cold. That July 8 turning point I mentioned above coincides perfectly with the struggles of Clay Holmes. After picking up his 16th save of the season on July 7, Holmes’ ERA was a paltry 0.47. But he failed in his next at-bat on July 9 in Boston and then gave up four runs in the ninth inning on July 12 against the Redskins. He pitched a scoreless inning on Tuesday, but has still given up six runs in his last four outings.
Holmes’ struggles are especially painful because the Yankees have other reliable former relievers who have been struggling for years. Aroldis Chapman’s ERA is a career-worst 4.26, allowing him just nine saves all year. Jonathan Loáisiga, the Yankees’ best reliever last year, has a 6.57 ERA and has struggled with his control. He has walked 14 batters in 24⅔ innings.
The Yankees made some moves at the trade deadline to address those issues, adding outfielder Andrew Benintendi, starter Frankie Montas and relievers Lou Trivino and Scott Efross. Trivino has just one hit in five appearances with New York, but the other guys have struggled. Benintendi is batting .175 with a .595 OPS in 13 games, Efross has given up three runs in four innings and Montas has allowed six runs over three innings in just one start so far.
Meanwhile, across town, the Mets are playing like the Yankees at the beginning of the season. Since the beginning of July, they are 26-10. They already had one of the best offenses in the National League (second only to the Dodgers in runs per game), but they went out at the deadline and added three quality pitchers—Tyler Naquin, Daniel Vogelbach and Darin Ruf—all of whom have hit. they have a hot start with the new team. Max Scherzer is healthy again and Jacob deGrom is finally back from injury. The Mets’ current success won’t be a hot streak; they might be that good.
How hot are the Mets? Fangraphs’ playoff odds currently have him as the World Series favorite with an 18.5% chance of winning the championship, ahead of the Dodgers at 18.1%. (The Astros are third with 15.9% and the Yankees fourth with 9.8%). Baseball Reference’s odds are still strong for the Yankees, however, giving them an MLB-best 26.2% chance to win the World Series. I still think the World Series goes through Los Angeles, but there’s an incredibly good chance we’ll see another Subway Series.
The best of Sports Illustrated
Aaron Rodgers isn’t the only athlete to talk about the benefits of psychedelics, writes Julie Kliegman in today’s Daily Cover: To see also : Tony Hawk launches video game gig in East London: ‘I had to join the party!’.
As psychedelics begin to gain traction in the athlete and ex-athlete communities, they may be poised for more widespread use in sports, if they aren’t already. Asked if he knows of any athletes in the NFL or other professional leagues who use psychedelics to treat their mental health, Rodgers said, “Of course.”
If you watched the Field of Dreams game last night, you saw Tom Verducci reporting from the Fox dugout. He also wrote about why the game should be an annual matchup for MLB. … Sure, the players and coaches are what make college football interesting, but Pat Ford also has a list of the 25 most interesting figures in college football who wear suits to work. … Ross Dellenger spoke with a few college sports insiders to explain why the Big Ten’s break with ESPN is so strange. … Our NBA experts dished out the best, worst and most surprising moves of the offseason.
Around the sports world
Deshaun Watson is reportedly willing to accept an eight-game suspension to avoid a one-year ban. … As the Watson case drags on, the Browns are weighing a trade for Jimmy Garoppolo. … The NBA permanently retires Bill Russell’s No. 6. … The Ravens have now won 21 straight preseason games. … Tom Brady hasn’t been to the Bucs’ practice, but apparently that’s not a cause for concern. To see also : 6 Ways to Save on Video Games. … Barcelona have officially activated the ‘fourth lever’, raising more money to try and sign tomorrow’s top La Liga starters. … Tyson Fury, who announced his comeback attempt on Tuesday, now says he remains retired. … The Harry Caray hologram in the game “Field of Dreams” received very bad reviews. … Titans rookie quarterback Malik Willis had an impressive preseason debut.
SIQ
The 1994 MLB strike began 28 years ago today, but a few weeks later, the Twins traded Dave Winfield to Cleveland in exchange for a player to be named later. After sitting out the rest of the season, what did Minnesota get for Winfield?
Yesterday’s SIQ: When the Giants lost at home to the Phillies on August 11, 1951, the margin between them and the first-place Dodgers was the largest it had been all season. How many games did New York play?
Answer: 13 games. The Giants started the week trailing the Dodgers by 9 1/2 games, but after Brooklyn swept New York in a three-game series at the Polo Grounds, the lead grew to 12 1/2. A 4-0 loss to the Phillies while the Dodgers split a doubleheader across town seemed to be the final nail in the coffin.
“With the Dodgers completely out of contention as a pennant contender earlier in the week, the Giants yesterday found themselves in jeopardy of being knocked out of second place in the National League for a long time,” The New newspaper’s story of the game. The York Times began.
The loss dropped the Phillies to one game out of second place, but the Giants immediately turned their season around. They started on a 16-game winning streak and went 36-7 in the regular season, while the Dodgers went 25-22. He heard “round the world”.
From the Vault: Aug. 10, 1970
Mike Marshall’s 1974 stat line is probably the most unbelievable collection of pitching numbers I’ve ever seen. He appeared in 106 games (all in relief), recording a 2.42 ERA while pitching 208⅓ innings to become the first relief pitcher to win the Cy Young. (Neil Leifer also took a great photo of Marshall looking unbelievably handsome in the painting).
Marshall set a league record the previous year while with the Expos, appearing in 92 games. (Cy finished second in the voting, one less than Tom Seaver.) Montreal traded All-Star center fielder Willie Davis to the Dodgers that winter, and Los Angeles took advantage of the acquisition.
The Dodgers had an outstanding pitching staff that year, with Andy Messersmith and Don Sutton also earning first place Cy Young votes. But while they were playing well, they were often giving up to Marshall, as Ron Fimrit wrote:
[Marshall] can work so often and without appreciable diminution of skill that a manager can rest a Messersmith or remove a slightly shaky [Al] Downing without fear of consequence. Because of Marshall, Alston only carries nine pitchers on his roster, even though he usually prefers 10. It could be narrowed down to five: four headliners and “that pretty man in the bullpen.”
“If he wasn’t winning, I’d be complaining about not doing it,” said Charles Hough of Marshall. “What can you do when you’re playing behind the best there is?”
Marshall’s durability was incredible. No other pitcher who has made 80% of his appearances as a reliever has thrown more than 185 innings in a season. And only five pitchers—the last being Pedro Feliciano in 2010—have appeared in at least 90 games. (Marshall and Kent Tekulve each did it three times.)
So how did his arm not fall off? If you ask Marshall, it was because he understood the human body. During his MLB career, he worked toward a doctorate in kinesiology at Michigan State. In fact, he considered retiring before the 1974 season to focus on his studies.
“Mike believes in long distance running, not sprints, weight work and heavy muscle stretching,” Messersmith told Fimrite. “He knows more than anyone in the world what’s going on in the pitching motion. He gave me many lectures about the functions of the body.’
(He even took Messersmith to a cadaver lab on a road trip to teach him about the human arm.)
Marshall’s tendency to be more academic than his teammates earned him a reputation for being unique.
Autograph seekers might lean more towards the bad conclusion. Once, refusing autographs from a group of youths, Marshall explained that he would willingly sign if the boys showed their autograph books that included signatures from teachers and “people who were really important in their lives.” The children were understandably shocked by such a crazy idea, and since no one could make the necessary signatures, Marshall pedagogically passed them by.
But when Fimrit caught up with Marshall again in 1979, after recovering from a series of injuries (not involving his arm), “Marshall, the angry bullpen intellectual, has undergone a dramatic personality transformation.” In other ways, he was his usual self, appearing in 90 games for the Twins that year.
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