Bleeding Yankee Blue: MIKE PLAYS RIGHT

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

MIKE PLAYS RIGHT

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Perhaps forced by the fact that the Yankees are playing in a National League park, Giancarlo "Mike" Stanton took his rightful place in right field last night in Marlins Park. I have to say this crap about him needing to be at DH because of a strained hamstring is just that, crap. Once again I have to refer back to Aaron Boone's managing and choices of playing the best team each night. But for tonight and likely tomorrow, he got it right with Mike in right.

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"It's getting there. We're gonna have some NL games soon, so I have to jump out in right field. It's getting better," Stanton said after homering for the seventh time in 12 games in Saturday's 11-6 win over Toronto. "We're gonna get there. Run around, test it and make sure it's ready to go," reported Newsday.

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The Yankees have elected to play Shane Robinson (BA .114) and Neil Walker (BA .225) in right field in Aaron Judge's absence. Why? I really see no advantage to playing either of these two in right field and taking the bat out of the hands of Ronald Torreyes (BA .329) who has spent 60 days in Triple A or Tyler Austin (BA .250) who they elected to trade. Likely, Clint Frazier would have platooned with Stanton in right if he was well, but he's not so that leaves that option out. Luckily for the Yankees, Neil Walker has decided to start hitting and Greg Bird hit a grand slam but has gone virtually hitless since, like most of the season.

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"Stanton has been used only at designated hitter for 11 games in a row due to a tight hamstring and the Yankees would like to keep it that way a while longer, but he’s apparently healthy enough to play the field and he will this week when there is no DH for road inter-league games in Miami.
And if Stanton survives those one or two starts in right feeling OK, he’ll probably be back in right one or two times this weekend when Walker plays second base," reports NJ.com.

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Boone, Stanton and the Yankees need to just be grittier about the way they approach the game. Didi Gregorius, before getting injured, played consistently at short stop. He was never out. He always showed up and gave his best. He played banged up. He stayed focused. He gave it all. To see him go down is just heart-breaking. His reaction to the injury was priceless.

At the end of the day, I am glad to see Mike back in right, where he belongs, every night. With only a few weeks left of the season and Houston and Seattle breathing down our throats for the Wild Card, we need our best team on the field and that includes Mike in right.