Bleeding Yankee Blue: WE DON'T PLAY SMALL BALL BUT WE BETTER

Saturday, July 21, 2018

WE DON'T PLAY SMALL BALL BUT WE BETTER

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On the way to the beach this morning, I had a conversation with a Yankee fan about Aaron Boone vs. Alex Cora and it went like this. "Alex Cora will be manager of the year because, quite frankly, he can manage." Boone doesn't play small ball and I don't know how much he truly knows about the ins and outs of the strategy of the game.

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"Look," he acknowledged, "we have power," said Boone when faced with the question, "Can this team really thrive relying so heavily on home runs?" as reported by ESPN. But that's not enough. We have a number of missed opportunities without a plan, which includes situational hitting and the bunt. We can't just rely on putting the ball in the seats when we need to consider all other possibilities.

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The Red Sox win because they not only have pitching, they have a manager that emphasizes situational hitting. "We don't want to be known as the team that could just hit the most home runs," Aaron Hicks said. "We want to be the team that hit the most home runs and won the World Series." Right now, however, much to Hicks' and many Yankee fans' chagrin, we have a manager that emphasizes the home run as the end all be all.

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According to NBC Sports, "We can steal bases. We can manufacture runs. It’s a team that’s not dependent on winning on one way. I kind of remember when I was in Detroit it was like, we had to slug. That was what we had to do to score. Here, it’s different,” said Red Sox slugger JD Martinez.

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Meanwhile, back in the New York, we don't play small ball. And guess what, besides picking up another starter, we better begin a new strategy that includes bunting, situational hitting, base stealing and yes home run hitting. Baseball is back in the Bronx, folks, but right now, it doesn't look pretty.