WE'RE BEING MOCKED FOR VOLPE'S NON-WALK OFF HOME RUN. EVERYBODY CALM DOWN

Do ya'll realize that at this moment, 8:30am... VOLPE is trending? Not because he did anything spectacular in the ninth to walk-off the Yankees against the Red Sox last night. But instead, because he didn't.

The Yankees lost last night for the people playing at home that didn't watch the game.  We lost 3-2. The game was OK, but the Yankee bats couldn't do the job.  It happens.  But there was a "moment" if you want to call it that.  Volpe almost walked off.  Key word... almost.

But he didn't. Yet, YES Network tweeted this out which I found insanely odd:

Anthony Volpe came *this* close to a walk-off homer in his first career game against Boston. pic.twitter.com/E0O3NuHV50

— YES Network (@YESNetwork) June 10, 2023

And of course Boston fans love mocking us:

Yankees fans celebrating the Anthony Volpe walk off HR that never happened…
pic.twitter.com/e4h3nUkuKx

— Boston Strong (@BostonStrong_34) June 10, 2023

OK, OK, I'll give them that one. But here's the thing.  He didn't homer... he didn't walk off. We didn't win.

What the hell are we holding on to... what didn't happen?  Look, we are Yankee fans. We expect to win alot of games this year, but we're just not gonna do that.  But these moments of "almost" aren't gonna cut it either. Volpe is a good player.  Did the Yankees bring him up too quickly? I can't answer that. I kind of like his energy however. I kind of like that he's got a decent team surrounding him allowing him to figure it all out.  Is Volpe a major leaguer? I'd say yes. There have been worse players called up and have done a worse job that have figured it out over time. Maybe on the Tigers, Volpe finds his way more than on the Yankees because the Yankees are so prestigious and us fans expect perfection. But for the most part, Volpe will be OK in pinstripes.

I was disappointed to hear from this Keith McPherson dude suggesting Volpe's overmatched. I think that's a provocative stretch and ridiculous.  McPherson said this:

"The kid is overmatched. He’s not ready to be in the lineup every day at the MLB level."... He says the Yankees themselves didn’t do Volpe any favors with how they held him up heading into the season, while also shuffling him up and down the lineup.

"...he’s a kid.... They did him a disservice. They tried to have him lead off, then they had him at seventh, then ninth. It’s tough to swim in those waters at 22 years old doing it for the first time."

And while McPherson said he's gonna be fine, don't say they did him a disservice. Then don't say he's overmatched.  Don't say any of it.  Just shut up.  

The Yanks have tried this before.  They tried it with Derek Jeter.  They tried it with Mariano Rivera... first setting up Wetteland, then giving him a chance at the closer role and seeing how it worked. At one point they wanted to trade Bernie after things weren't going right for him.  

My point is there is so much that goes into these decisions, but the biggest one is patience.  The New York Yankees right now are in a great place to experiment with Anthony Volpe.  And you want to talk about overmatched? It sounds like McPherson's opinions are silly and overmatched compared to much of his competition. Maybe he needs to do better at being provocative.

But in the end, whether Volpe is ready or not, one thing is clear.... Us Yankee fans need to start worrying about rooting hard for our team no matter what.  If we stink, we need to still be there. If they're great, we need to keep rooting hard... and if they ALMOST walk off... maybe we just need to accept that part where they DIDN'T do it and just move on.

Today's a new day... maybe we scratch out a win today.  We have guys like Jake Bauers, Billy McKinney trying their best and a pretty solid group of guys in that lineup every day.  I mean sure, we're not gonna win 162 games this year, but that's not the goal, right? The goals to win each series.  And then win a championship.

Let's go game by game.  We got this!

Let's go Yanks!