Episodi
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Finally, the misery that was the 2023 Yankees is over. Baseball is still being played as the Division Series for both leagues gets ready to start this weekend, but the Yankees will not be participating, something many had resigned the Yankees to as early as June or July. Their play this season was simply pathetic and Aaron Judge’s long absence highlighted many of the roster construction flaws that his presence can usually cover up.
Alas, the first Podument Park in awhile eulogizes the Yankees and how things likely won’t be much different in 2024 unless significant changes are made. However, reports are indicating that there are going to be no drastic changes made to the front office or coaching staff. Even Sean Casey seems like he’ll be returning as the no-longer-interim hitting coach.
In addition to just the overall makeup of the organization, the hosts do take some time to celebrate some of the good, such as Gerrit Cole seemingly on his way to his first Cy Young award, Michael King’s emergence in the rotation, and that week of Jasson Domínguez. The show closes out out with the official 2023 Yankees and Manfreds of the Season. Congrats to our lucky recipients. You truly deserved it.
Lastly, a huge thank you to anyone and everyone who tuned in and listened to us during a dreadful baseball season!
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Note: This week’s podcast was sadly recorded prior to the news of Josh Donaldson’s release from the organization. But do know that we would have enjoyed dancing on the grave of his Yankees career.
Technically this past week of Yankees baseball was slightly more palatable than the previous week. They actually won two whole games this time, which is still an improvement over the eight-game losing streak they took into last week’s podcast. The streak went up to nine games before Aaron Judge had enough and put the team back in the win column, courtesy of a three-homer game.
Still, the Yankees haven’t won a series since they swept the Royals in mid-July, unless Harrison Bader’s moral victory against the Astros counts for something (it counts for nothing). This week’s podcast continues with the usual grumbling about the 2023 Yankees, but the co-hosts do offer some potential things to look forward to for the last month of the season. It's mainly all about Gerrit Cole’s Cy Young chase, debating how many dingers Judge can hit with nine toes, and wondering if there will be a Martian landing in the Bronx.
After checking in on the Baseball Reference WAR leaderboard, the weekly Yankee/Manfred awards were skipped with worthy recipients and a sequel to last week’s 2013 Yankees game presented itself in the form of Kunj guessing how many games players from the 2014 Yankees played that year. Will Suit Lady get revenge for last week’s defeat? There’s only one way to know.
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For a few weeks now, readers of this site and listeners of this podcast have read/heard us all talking about how much the Yankees flat-out stink. Well, the Bronx Bombers, er “losers of eight in a row,” have shown us that even we undersold how bad they truly are. With that, Andrew and Kunj had no desire to actually talk in detail about the 2023 Yankees (beyond recent prospect promotions), so they chose to avoid them as much as possible.
The co-hosts hopped in the time machine and traveled a decade down memory lane to 2013. Today’s podcast focused on Remembering Some Guys. Andrew named players from the 2013 squad and Kunj had to guess how many games they played for the Yankees that year (the nearly-always voiceless Zoom recorder we call “Suit Lady” was his foe in this exercise). They also added in a bonus element of trying to guess whether the particular player had positive or negative Baseball Reference WAR.
Prior to the game, the promotions of Oswald Peraza and Everson Pereira were briefly discussed. Along with Anthony Volpe and we suppose Gerrit Cole’s Cy Young bid, they’re the only real reasons to watch this team going forward! So tune in for that anyway.
Once the 2013 game concluded, there was an abbreviated check-in for the WAR leaderboard of the 2023 Yankees before handing out default and unenthusiastic Yankee and Manfred of the Week awards. Join us all in remembering the second-half fun brought by Alfonso Soriano, but stay to remember unquestioned Yankees legends Chris Bootcheck and Brennan Boesch.
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Believe it or not, the 2023 Yankees are not a good baseball team. The times when you think they’re going to win a game are few and far between, and even then, they go and find a different way to lose in frustrating fashion. They have a 60-58 record going into recording this podcast, and 58 of those losses all feel like they could qualify for “worst loss of the season.” That number is only going to get higher; the win total might not, though.
After another mini-hiatus, Andrew and Kunj return here at Podument Park to discuss the continuously annoying season that the Yankees are having. In addition to just general complaints about the team, they discuss the latest injury and roster moves, posit whether or not Aaron Judge should even keep playing, and then possibly narc on Nestor Cortes’ side hustle of selling game tickets.
In addition to that, they do the usual check-in of Baseball Reference’s WAR leaderboard (where Randy Vásquez firmly sits in ninth place), and squint their way through handing out the usual Yankee and Manfred of the Week awards. Sprinkled into this week’s episode is a look at the upcoming schedule and their baseline for moral victories this coming week, because the Yankees almost certainly won’t have many actual ones.
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Due to some real-life things happening, Andrew and Kunj haven’t been able to record the podcast since before the All-Star break. What doesn’t help is that the Yankees haven't done much to motivate us to find some time either. It’s just been all bad. The highlight of the second half has essentially been being mildly amused at Domingo Germán getting scratched from a start due to armpit discomfort and then finding himself pitching five shutout innings in relief of Jhony Brito.
They’ve only won six games since the calendar flipped, and three of those came via a sweep of the second-worst team in baseball, the Royals. And now the trade deadline has passed and the Yankees did...nothing. Technically they acquired relievers Keynan Middleton and Spencer Howard, but those don’t really count as moves. They had the opportunities to be either buyers or sellers, choosing either direction would’ve been better than doing nothing. So, of course, they did nothing (as well-articulated by Sam this morning).
So, the co-hosts vented frustrations at basically everything that’s happened since the All-Star break. If you’re looking for trade deadline-only discussions, jump ahead to around the 16:25 mark (though ads might bump it a minute later). After saying their piece, they wrapped up the podcast with the usual check-in at the dire Baseball Reference WAR leaderboard and wrapped things up with handing out Yankee and Manfred awards of the week/second half to date.
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Whether you think the first half of the baseball season is the 81-game mark or the All-Star break, the first half of the baseball season is officially in the books. And was it ever so ... dull and disappointing for the Yankees? Scattered among the lifeless and uncompetitive at-bats of the first half were some moments of fun and competence, but overall this first half was just not a memorable one for the Bombers.
The struggles of the offense were so profound, it led to general manager Brian Cashman making his first-ever midseason coaching change by relieving hitting coach Dillon Lawson of his duties (and the title today riffing on the old #NextManUp mantra). On today’s podcast, Andrew and Kunj discuss how it’s never good to see someone lose their job, a change was needed just to see if a different mindset can get some of these guys going.
While Lawson was the main topic, they also discussed Carlos Rodón making his much-awaited Yankee debut, the MLB Draft officially being underway and the Yankees making their first-round pick in George Lombard Jr., and then provide the weekly injury updates. After that, they wrap of the podcast with our usual check-in of Baseball Reference’s WAR leaderboard, and then hand out the Yankees and Manfreds of the Week.
Best of luck to Lawson in his future, and even better luck wished to Sean Casey, who will be tasked with making DJ LeMahieu look like a machine again. (As a programming note, Casey’s hire was revealed followed the podcast recording.)
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The most recent of Yankees baseball has featured a perfect game, back-to-back double-digit run outbursts, a gutsy pure bullpen game victory, and the extremely welcome resurgence of rookie shortstop Anthony Volpe. Not bad, right?
Unfortunately, as Andrew and Kunj delve into on today's podcast, the highs were pretty much the lone positive developments (the same could be said for the first half as a whole). The Yankees managed to only go 3-3 against the last-place A's and Cardinals, and somehow, the offense found a way to look lifeless at the end of the week despite those 21 runs across two days in Oakland. The problem is that they only scored once in the opener and lost, and then the lineup failed up to show up in two of three games in St. Louis -- punctuated by getting no-hit into the sixth by old friend Jordan Montgomery. New York ended the series loss with a piddling three hits in the finale.
The script is the same and the Yankees remain in a holding pattern until they can get any kind of concrete news on Aaron Judge's return. The veterans who were supposed to keep the team afloat aren't doing the job -- DJ LeMahieu, Giancarlo Stanton, Josh Donaldson ... you name 'em. Even with Carlos Rodón on track to finally debut in pinstripes, it's getting late early out there, as Yogi would say.
There's all that, the B-Ref check-in, and Yankee/Manfred of the Week in our most recent episode of Podument Park.
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When there’s no real explanation for something, the best way to explain what happened is with a simple “somehow.” If it’s good enough for a billion-dollar franchise to explain their villain coming back from the dead, then it’s good enough for me. Somehow, the Yankees managed to win four games and two series this week. They weren’t the most exciting wins, but wins are wins and right now that’s all that matters.
Andrew and Kunj talk about how the Yankees desperately need to find ways to win games without Aaron Judge and the offense just needs to look somewhat competent. They offered some praise at least for doing just that with a 4-2 showing against Seattle and Texas. The Yanks “did something” and found ways to win without their captain. If they can put together a more sustainable approach and keep stealing wins, they should be able to stay afloat in the race until Aaron Judge returns.
Unfortunately, as also discussed on the podcast, the latest on No. 99 shows that there’s still no real timetable and he’ll presumably be out longer than anyone initially thought or expected, now that there’s confirmation of a a torn ligament in his toe. Fortunately, we did also have some good injury updates for Ian Hamilton who should rejoin the team in Oakland and Carlos Rodón, whose Yankees debut actually appears to be on the horizon. As always, we end by checking in on Baseball Reference’s WAR leaderboard, before handing out our weekly Yankee and Manfreds of the Week. Hooray for the inexplicable Billy McKinney!
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If you missed the Yankees this past week/weekend, consider yourself lucky. Since the last podcast, the Yankees won the opener of the series against the Mets and haven’t won since. They split that series at least, but then got thoroughly embarrassed on the way to getting swept at Fenway Park. The Aaron Judge-less Yankees continue to look lifeless and there’s no end in sight for that.
As Andrew and Kunj discuss on the latest episode of Podument Park, the Yankees have to learn to score runs and win games without Judge. There’s no timeline for his return and if they want to stick around in the playoff race, they have to make do without him. Some reinforcement is at least on the way in the form of Harrison Bader who will return from the injured list tonight against the Mariners. Between him and the Yankees’ ace on the mound, maybe we’ll see some signs of life from the Bombers.
In addition to the usual musings on the team, the show ends with Andrew and Kunj's weekly check-in of the Baseball Reference WAR leaderboard (which appropriately tells the tale of the Yankees season), hand out Yankee and Manfred honors of the Week, and look to the upcoming schedule and what might be in store for the Yankees. Just for fun, they also roast Rob Manfred himself for his asinine comments about Oakland A's fans and gawk at the topsy-turvy MLB standings -- particularly in the NL West (Dodgers in third?) and NL Central (Reds leading??).
Help us, Obi-Wan Giancarnobi. You’re our only hope.
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Welcome to another episode of Podument Park; please leave your socks at the door as they are not welcome on this podcast. As we saw during Aaron Judge’s first stint on the injured list earlier this year, this team has a tough time winning games, scoring runs, or convincing us that they’re actually living human beings when he’s not around. With the Dodger Stadium wall getting the last laugh over Judge, we saw a return to that form as the Yankees dropped a six-game homestand to the White Sox and Red Sox, winning just a game apiece in each series.
In addition to the offensive ineptitude on display this week, Andrew and Kunj discussed the air quality issues New York faced this week, the at least-commendable pitching, and some love was given to Billy McKinney, who has been one of the few to show signs of life this past week. Lastly, of course, there was the obligatory injury updates (please come back soon, Judge and Harrison Bader).
As always, the podcast ended with a look at the schedule and seemingly abundance of off-days coming up, the weekly check-in of Baseball Reference’s WAR leaderboard, and handing out of the Yankee and Manfred of the Week. Kind of a shocker the schedule-makers didn’t win Yankee of the Week for the sheer amount of off-days the Yankees have been gifted this week while they try to weather the Aaron Judge-less storm.
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For the first time, perhaps ever (only slightly exaggerating), a West Coast trip for the Yankees was not miserable. Sure, they’ve had winning trips near the Pacific before, but between the pitch clock letting games that started late end at a reasonable-ish time, and taking two out of three at Chavez Ravine against the Dodgers, it was a mostly great week!
Still, it wasn’t all LA sunshine for the Yankees this week as they also dealt with some Seattle rain in the form of injuries. The absolute revolving door of injuries continued in a very hectic way this week. As discussed on this week’s podcast episode, the Yankees welcomed back Giancarlo Stanton, Josh Donaldson, Tommy Kahnle, and Jose Trevino off of the injured list, but in true soul for a soul fashion, put Harrison Bader, Greg Allen, and Ryan Weber on the shelf, with Nestor Cortes most likely joining them to further deplete the rotation.
Aaron Judge also decided to wage war against a fence, and while he did his damage, we wait await the results of his testing to see if the fence ultimately gets the last laugh. And as always, Andrew and Kunj do their weekly check-in of Baseball Reference’s WAR leaderboard before handing out their Yankee and Manfred of the Week (spoiler: that fence will not be pleased with the latest addition to its trophy shelf).
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The past week got off to a bit of a bumpy start with the Yankees dropping two out of three to the Orioles in the Bronx in a series loss that featured one of the worst innings you'll ever see in the Bronx. New York then fell in its series opener with San Diego before rebounding to win three straight games in exciting fashion! Isiah Kiner-Falefa continued his recent run of solid play with a walk-off hit in the 10th inning on Saturday and the offense had elusive back-to-back 10-run outbursts on Sunday and Monday against the Padres and Mariners.
Leading the way, of course, has been Aaron Judge, who is firmly back at the heart of the Yankees' offense and now leads the American League with 17 homers, even though he missed those 10 games at the beginning of May. The man is playing at a separate level from the rest of baseball and Andrew & Kunj can't help but be amazed by him. They talk Judge, the latest on the Yankees' injury and rehab front (Giancarlo Stanton may be on his way soon, as well as Josh Donaldson), the B-Ref check-in, Yankee/Manfred of the Week, and whether a demotion for Oswaldo Cabrera might have to be in the cards.
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It’s been a busy week for the Yankees! After taking three games out of four North of the Border, the team traveled to Cincinnati and swept the Reds to end their road trip and 17 straight days of games on a high note before finally getting the day off today. A 6-1 record over the past week was good enough to properly move them away from last place and into third in the divisional standings; hopefully they continue to climb higher in the upcoming week.
While the inspired play was the highlight of the week, it certainly was not the only thing worth discussing. This last week came with some indirect and nonsensical sign-stealing allegations towards Aaron Judge, a sticky substance ejection and suspension for Domingo Germán, and tons of whining with a sprinkle of body-shaming from the Blue Jays. Following that, the Reds series also saw its own controversies with Clarke “Glove Fur” Schmidt, Reds skipper David Bell being ejected twice in the series, and Aaron Boone being ejected before noon during Sunday’s brunchtime affair.
In addition to all the noise happening during the games, co-hosts Andrew and Kunj also discussed some of the transactional moves from the past week including Jhony Brito being optioned to Triple-A, Jose Trevino and Ian Hamilton hitting the injured list, and most notably Aaron Hicks being designated for assignment after the Yankees acquired Greg Allen in a trade with the Red Sox.
Of course a podcast about the 2023 Yankees wouldn’t be complete without a good chunk of injury updates, and as always, the show ends with a look at the B-Ref WAR leaderboard and the Yankee/Manfred of the Week.
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Hey, the vibes are a little better in Yankeeland this week! It would have been c'est magnifique to have not blown that game on Sunday (and rest assured, we do get into some Aaron Boone/Albert Abreu frustrations) to win that four-game series against the Rays rather than settling for a split, but still, the Yankees have been playing much better lately.
Andrew and Kunj explore the highs and lows brought forth by the likes of Anthony Rizzo, Anthony Volpe, Aaron Judge's homerific Saturday, and more, albeit while also expressing some concerns about Nestor Cortes and Clarke Schmidt. The Yankees have another crucial series with a division rival coming up this week as they head up to Toronto to face the Blue Jays (note that this was recorded prior to Jimmy Cordero being announced as Monday's opener for Jhony Brito). It's time to keep up the better play and fully escape last place, as they're only half a game up on Boston for that ignominious rank.
All that lies ahead, as well as the B-Ref leaderboard check-in, injury updates (#SevySznSoon?), and the Yankee/Manfred of the Week. Let's go Yankees!
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If you squint and try real hard, there were some positive takeaways from the last week of Yankees baseball. Since the last episode, the team technically went over .500, they won a series, and they got Harrison Bader back in the lineup. Yet, it’s still not a fun time to be a Yankees fan.
As Andrew and Kunj discuss on the latest episode of Podument Park, what should’ve been a series-clinching win over the Rays at Tropicana Field turning into a Gerrit Cole meltdown and some questionable late-game decision-making (a recurring theme) put a damper on the week as a whole, even if it was marginally better than last week.
Hopefully, a series against the Oakland Athletics is just what this team needs before facing the Rays again, but this time in the Bronx. This is all discussed in addition to the jolt of energy that Bader brought in his first week back in action, the imminent return of captain Aaron Judge, and the possible roster implications of his return. As always, the show ends with a look at Baseball Reference’s WAR leaderboard for the Yankees, before the Yankee and Manfred of the Week recipients are announced. Spoiler alert: More frustration was directed at Yankees management. You can’t say that it’s not earned!
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The hits just keep on coming for the 2023 Yankees, and we're certainly not talking about hard contact from the lousy offense. Aaron Judge joined the Yankees' walking wounded with a hip injury, and the regular lineups have only become more pitiful since then as Aaron Boone's ballclub has sunk all the way to last place.
They're not hitting at all, the back of the rotation is not offering quality starts, and even when someone like Domingo Germán steps up with 8.1 excellent innings last night, the team is apparently still too in love with Clay Holmes to believe that someone else might be a better option in the ninth inning. It feels like the Yankees keep stepping on rakes that they dropped themselves.
As Joe Girardi would say, "It's not what you want," and boy have the Yanks become an ugly watch in a hurry. Andrew and Kunj did our best to unpack the disastrous last week and while they're glad that Harrison Bader will be back tonight, it's hard for them to be overly confident in the May schedule ahead with this very flawed team. Put your hazmat suit on and explore the Yankees with us.
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If this past weekend of Yankees baseball seemed particularly annoying, it’s because it was annoying. Andrew and Kunj are back at it with this week’s episode of Podument Park where they discuss a .500 week of baseball for the Bronx “In Name Only” Bombers. The team was eventually going to lose a series, and got that first one out of the way after starting 2023 with five series wins and one series tie.
Losing the weekend series against the Blue Jays wasn’t the big issue, though, as the hosts discuss. The offense looking largely lifeless and problems from years past rearing its ugly head put a damper on the whole week. It’s not all bad though, as the pitching has been a rock and even the weaker spots in the rotation have looked better recently! Also discussed are Oswald Peraza getting a proper look at third base, DJ and The Tonys (Rizzo and Volpe) finding success, and Harrison Bader hopefully returning soon and what that means for Willie Calhoun’s storied Yankees tenure.
As always the pod ends with a look at Baseball Reference’s WAR leaderboard, and handing out of awards for this week’s Yankee and Manfred of the Week. Spoiler: Finding a Yankee of the Week was a bit of a struggle.
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The journey to get there wasn't exactly smooth sailing, but the Yankees had a winning week against the Guardians and Twins, recovering from a series-opening loss in Cleveland to win two in a row before doing the same after two irritating losses to Minnesota. That wasn't a series win, but New York will gladly take the split.
Andrew and Kunj revel in the pitching mastery of Gerrit Cole (and Nestor Cortes, too!) while bemoaning the latest malady to befall Giancarlo Stanton. Despite his hot start, a strained hamstring will keep him out of action for at least a month. Josh Donaldson is supposed to return to the Yankees on Wednesday, but the co-hosts are not exactly not looking forward to the embattled third baseman's return. They talk about a possible general infield platoon situation with the recalled Oswald Peraza, though it feels likely that the Yankees will just demote him instead of cutting ties with the struggling Willie Calhoun.
All that is discussed as well as injury updates, Clay Holmes' topsy-turvy week, Anthony Volpe's kleptomania (and first career homer), the B-Ref Top 12 check-in, and the Yankee/Manfred of the Week.
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It's time for another Twitter Space session to land on the podcast feed! Josh Diemert gathered Peter Brody, Alex Eisert, Malachi Hayes, and Jeff Middleton shortly after the Yankees' series victory over the Guardians to talk about that game, the Franchy Cordero Moment, Aaron Hicks' unclear role (plus last week's comments), and those damn 12-0 Rays. The Yankees have won every series in 2023, but Tampa Bay has yet to lose a game. How much credit should they get, and how much should folks raise their eyebrows about Tampa's meager competition so far? It's a tricky topic, but the five Pinstripe Alley writers gave it a shot.
Note: Twitter Spaces did not operate smoothly at the end of this episode (or very much at all, frankly), so it ends rather abruptly before a proper goodbye. Blame Elon!
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The Yankees have been rolling in the early goings of the 2023 campaign, winning every series thus far. After a weather delay forced Thursday’s game to Friday, which the Bombers dropped, they bounced back over the weekend to ensure that their streak continued. Andrew and Kunj talk about this and much more on the latest episode of Podument Park. Surprisingly, both hosts agree that the Yankees should continue winning as many series as they can!
Also discussed on this week’s pod is the potential makings of a home run race between the Yankees' captain, Aaron Judge, and his big beefy counterpart, Giancarlo Stanton. Both players decided that the Camden Yards wall being pushed back in 2022 is only a problem for mere mortals, like Austin Hays and Ryan Mountcastle. Kunj and Andrew also consider Franchy Cordero’s recent baseball bashing, the numerous roster moves having to be made due to injuries to players like Josh Donaldson and Jonathan Loáisiga, Clay Holmes meeting the moment in the bullpen, and Anthony Volpe’s tough week (albeit one with an encouraging triple).
Of course, they end by bringing back a podcast regular in reviewing the Yankees’ top 12 WAR leaders — oh-so-important in early April — per Baseball Reference, and then both offer their takes on the Yankee and Manfred of the Week.
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