BOONE'S LINEUP FIZZLES AGAINST MONSTER DODGERS

The Yankees got their asses handed to them by the Dodgers—plain and simple. 

Friday night’s disaster was, in my opinion, entirely on Aaron Boone. Leaving Max Fried in to face Shohei Ohtani a third time? That’s not gutsy managing, that’s just being asleep at the wheel. And once that blew up, the whole team followed suit. Boone looked lost, like he had no clue how to stop the bleeding. Honestly, it feels like the Dodgers live rent-free in his head.

Then came Saturday, and if you were hoping for a bounce back, you were out of luck. Will Warren got his tits lit up. 

He didn’t even make it out of the first inning cleanly—39 pitches just to escape the first frame. The Dodgers overpowered him, and Max Muncy made damn sure there was no coming back with two three-run bombs that buried the Yankees early. And of course, the offense did nothing. 2 runs all from Judge on 2 solo shots. When you’re depending on Aaron Judge to carry the lineup by himself, you’re already screwed. Final was 18-2. You can stop reading here, unless you want to see profanity and anger.  Then keep reading.

Yes, I get it—sometimes hitters go cold. But this series was hyped as the matchup of the season, and what we got was one team clearly outgunned and outcoached. Boone keeps getting exposed in these big moments. And then to top it off, he drops this gem after the game:

“Obviously a challenge, but that’s what the 162 brings you sometimes... you’ve got to navigate some tough moments.”

No shit, Skip. That’s called managing. You don’t get a cookie for acknowledging that baseball is hard. Maybe try having a game plan that doesn’t rely on wishful thinking and a spreadsheet.

Now we’ve got Ryan Yarbrough on the mound today. Great kid, not intimidating. Sure, he’s been solid lately—but let’s be real: the Dodgers are a juggernaut right now, and the Yankees look like a JV team trying to keep up. LA’s got the firepower, the swagger, and a fanbase that’s fully behind them right now. The Yankees? They’ve got Aaron Judge and a manager who looks more and more like he’s guessing.

Let’s call this weekend what it is: a beatdown. 

And if, by some miracle, the Yankees claw their way to the World Series, they’ll likely be facing this same Dodgers team again. If that happens, you can already pencil in the result. The Yankees aren’t built to beat them—not with Boone making gutless decisions, not with a front office too in love with bad analytics, and not with Hal Steinbrenner asleep at the wheel.

Yankees fans deserve better. Right now, we’re getting screwed.

DODGERS SPENDING HABITS ARE TOO MUCH FOR THE YANKEES

Could it be possible that the spotlight of evil is off the Yankees? The Athletic thinks so. In fact their quote is this, "Maybe the Evil Empire really has relocated to the West Coast." Yes, maybe, and eventually they have to pay up. I feel like they just keep racking in the "Bobby Bonillas". In case you don't know, this was the contract the New York Mets agreed on in order to bring in and eventually cut Bonilla back in 2001. He is paid every July 1 through 2035. The Dodgers have a few of those kinds of contracts. In fact, "The Dodgers have committed nearly a half-billion in guaranteed dollars to players this offseason, second only to the New York Mets, who signed Juan Soto to a historic 15-year, $765 million deal." So it is safe to say that the Dodgers spending habits are wide and deep, perhaps too deep for the Yankees.

According to The Athletic, "This winter, the Dodgers made the following big-money signings: Lefty starting pitcher Blake Snell, five years, $182 million; lefty reliever Tanner Scott, four years, $72 million; outfielder Teoscar Hernández, three years, $66 million; righty reliever Blake Treinen, two years, $22 million; outfielder Michael Conforto, one year, $17 million; and infielder Hyeseong Kim, three years, $12.5 million. They also landed Japanese free-agent starting pitcher Roki Sasaki, the most coveted international prospect of the winter." This is in addition of course to Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, Mookie Betts, Max Muncy, must I go on? You can see the whole payroll here.

But the Yankees haven't been quiet in the off season. They have made some upgrades for sure. But not quite at the expense that the Dodgers have. They have picked up starting pitcher Max Fried, veteran first base man Paul Goldschmidt, outfield Cody Bellinger and likely the best closer in the game right now in Devin Williams. Yet, still, the Death Star march plays for the Dodgers who have positioned themselves as not only the team to beat but the team to hate.

What likely adds salt to the Yankees wounds is that the Dodgers are favored to repeat in 2025, perhaps a rematch in the Fall Classic with their rival Bombers. But I think Hal Steinbrenner has the right mindset here, “They still have to have a season relatively injury-free for it to work out for them, and it’s a long season, as you know, and once you get to the postseason, anything can happen. We’ve seen that time and time again. We’ll see who’s there at the end.” He's right. The season is unforgiving. And injuries are inevitable. It is about who is left standing at the end. And this year, the Yankees hope it's them and that they have done enough.

With Spring Training only a few weeks away, the anticipation for the new season is high. Will the Yankees start early and stay strong? My prediction is yes. They have a good start; they lead the East through the All-Star Break, and they have a heck of half of a season. But guess what, so do the Dodgers. So, then it really comes down to do the dollar pay for endurance and greatness? We shall see. It will be interesting to watch what money can pay for. 

--Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Senior Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof

AARON BOONE IS "WAITING" FOR AN EXPLANATION WHILE WE WAIT FOR ROBOTS

And he is going to turn blue in the face waiting for the "good explanation" that he is still waiting for, read HERE. Someone needs to tell Aaron Boone to stop waiting. What answer could he possibly get that he would actually like?

There's only one, in my opinion and he is not going to get it. The only answer is "Well, we were wrong" about what happened on Saturday. He should of protested the game immediately. Now just waiting for an explanation is like waiting for pigs to fly. Or maybe a unicorn. It's pointless.

We've seen everything we need to see. Brett Gardner has been implicated in virtually every controversial play this season. His character has been called into question, read GARDNER IS DAMAGING HIS ONCE SOLID REPUTATION even though he's reacted in the same frustration as some of his peers read MAD AT GARDNER? YOU BETTER HAVE MORE NAMES ON YOUR LIST. It's crazy.

Look, I think Mike Axisa said it best....the play at second base in not in question here. The slide was clean AND he beat the throw to second base. There was no interference, if so the umpires could have ruled it a double play. Max Muncy deserves an Academy Award for his theatrics on Saturday night and he doesn't deny it. He knew Torres was likely to score. Good for you, Muncy....you picked up a hobby living so close to Hollywood and got some acting skills. You won that time.

But what really grinds my gears is the call made about the "time out" given while Gleyber Torres is CLEARLY already running home. What a convenient time to call a "time out," right? Torres was off the bag, he was a player in motion. The umpire shouldn't have called a time out.

So were the Yankees screwed out of a win? You can argue both sides but with Torres running to home he likely would've scored and that could've changed the game completely. Potentially, but ideally the Yankees should've gotten to a struggling Kenley Jansen.

This season has just been too frustrating to watch. Commissioner Rob Manfred wants to make changes to pitching clocks and trade deadlines....why not replacing umpires with robots at this point? It's bad already. Why not take more of the human element out of it to maybe make it more accurate? At this point, I am not opposed.

Just my opinion but the Yankees got screwed here. Maybe they weren't screwed out of a win, but they wee definitely screwed out of playing a fair game. They have also been screwed out of a lot of calls this season, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised by this one. This just sets a precedence that I shouldn't expect the Yankees to get a fair call for the rest of the season.

--Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa
BYB Managing Editor
Twitter: @nyprincessj

GLEYBER CALLS OUT UMP IN POST GAME INTERVIEW

Source: Associated Press

The West Coast series has been a trying collection of games for the Yankees.  After being swept by the Oakland A's earlier this week, and the beasting of the Los Angeles Dodgers in Friday's night game 10-2, the Yankees were on the losing end of a pitchers' 2-1 duel with an unbelievable series of events in the 9th inning.  It was this series of events that led not only to frustration, but the Yankees' youngest player calling out the umpires.

Gleyber Torres was trying to do some heads up base running after Brett Gardner slid hard into the second base to avoid being called out and preventing a double play which would have halted the Yankees rally in the 9th. "Torres was questioning why plate ump Gabe Morales called time out," reported the NJ.com. “I don’t know what’s wrong with the umpires today,” Torres said. “We can’t control that.”

MLB umpires have been under fire, seemingly a lot more this season than ever before, partly because of the challenge and replay functionality of the game.  This has given fans and even the media a reason to question the actual rules of the game and the latitude that umpires have in applying them.

"Morales called time out after Brett Gardner’s hard slide into second base knocked Max Muncy to the ground. Torres took off for home and crossed the plate but he was sent back to third base because Morales said he had called time out. Manager Aaron Boone said Morales told him Torres was sent back to third base because closer Kenley Jansen had called time out. But replays left the situation unclear. Jansen motioned to Morales, but it wasn’t clear whether he did it before Torres starting running home," reported NJ.com.

YES Network's Jack Curry reminded viewers that unlike players and managers who give post-game interviews and press conferences, umpires don't.  Maybe now that umpires have more of a voice in the game due to technology, it is time for MLB to require umpires to give post game interviews too.

"Gabe said he killed it," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after the game. "Just looking back, Kenley held his hands up -- it looked to me Gleyber had already started down the line with a guy down on the field. Home plate umpire said he had killed it," reported CBS Sports.

"Can you call time when an outfielder hits the wall and prevent the runner from taking an extra base? No, because the play is still live. Even when pitchers are hit by dangerous come-backers, the play is played to completion," raised CBS Sports.  I tend to agree with that sentiment yet, regardless, the game ended with the Yankees coming up short.  This leaves us all with a bad taste in our mouths.

Source: New York Times

It certainly has been a month of umpire hell, if you will, for the Yankees and even our youngest player, who usually seems unfazed, is frustrated.  Let's hope the Yankees can put their heated emotions into winning tonight as they close out the series with Dodgers and head to Seattle, the last stretch of the West Coast series for the Bombers.

--Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof