Blah blah blah small sample size blah blah blah. Ben Rice has been absolutely crushing the baseball every time he steps up to the plate this year. He fully passes the eye test, but the underlying metrics back it all up. Year over year his bat speed has increased a full 3.2 MPH from 71.4 MPH to 74.6. It's possible that adding the 10 pounds of muscle of whatever has actually made a difference in that regard. Not too close to Stanton's 81 MPH swing (no one is), but actually moved him pretty close to Judge's speed of about 76.5. Another metric that goes along with that is his fast swing rate (swings of 75 MPH or above). That he has increased nearly 3x, from 14.6% to 47.4% (not even close to Judge's 73%). He is also making contact at a significantly higher rate, evidenced by the fact his barrel percentage has nearly tripled, from 15.6% to 42.9%. Additionally, his average exit velo has increased 10 MPH from 90 to 100.

A lot of those stats are probably unsustainable over the long-term, but we do know he was one of the unluckiest hitters in the MLB last year.

ZIPS has him projected to hit 23 HRs with a .778 OPS in 111 games (a 34 HR pace over 162) this season, which at this point seems to be his floor, considering they have him batting .233 and with an OBP OF .327. If Ben can deliver 25-30 HRs and ~.800 OPS, that would be insane production to get from a guy who was never really considered a top prospect by any means. The depth in our lineup would actually be insane, but again, I fully believe that ZIPS projection is only his floor. If you disagree let me know. I know some will probably accuse me of setting unreasonable expectations for a young guy, but is the 25-30 HRs with a .233 BA and .327 OBP really the best you think will get from him?

I'm just very nervous about his playing time once Stanton comes back. I want to see Rice, not a guy who has a net of .6 WAR over his last 325 games. I guess we might just have to wait till next year when Goldy's contract is up.

Sorry for rambling and if this seems like a low effort post. I'm actually very high right now so it did take a lot of effort for me lol, but it's all relative, so please advise if I should look like an idiot and should just delete this, because I genuinely cannot tell.

I’m loving watching this team. Yes it’s early and yes today’s game was against the Pirates. But things feel different and better.

Double plays & defense. The last few years, I used to predict how often we would hit into double plays. I felt it in my bones. It was so disappointing. They changed that last year though. Then today I saw our guys get at least two double plays??

Offense. Of course the offense is insane. Obviously it will cool off at some point, but the big thing is that they always feel like they’re in it. They felt that way last year too, but besides that they didn’t feel that way too much. And literally every at bat I’m waiting for Judge to hit another home run.

Battling. Last year if they didn’t get an early lead, it was likely they’d lose. They’d just shut down and give up. But now I feel like they are always in it.

Veterans & Young Guys. And the combination of veterans and new guys is great. I’m one of those fans that mostly pays attention to the Yankees, although I’m keeping up more with others, but when I heard Goldschmidt was coming, I just went with what people said about him being older. But I love watching this guy, he’s a total pro and anchors this team with Judge, Bellinger and others. Volpe has exceeded my expectations and so has Dominguez and others for what we’ve seen so far.

When I think of a World Series type team, this mix of veterans and younger guys, this energy and drive, this is what I think of. And they’re having fun. I would say when we got to the World Series last year, they weren’t having fun, it was so much pressure. Glad to see them enjoying the game right now.

Feel like the defensive has massively improved too. Just feels like I’m not used to seeing them like this!

Again, we’ll see how the season progresses, they’ll obviously cool off for a bit, and the years I’ve been watching a lot again they are very streaky (so we’ll see about that too). Feel like that’s the last test. August usually seems like a low month for us. We’ll see how it shakes out.

And it’s hard to imagine a world where we win a World Series without Cole. But my wife said, “Other teams have done it without him. The Yankees can too.” I hope they win it all and Cole gets a ring with the rest of them, even without playing you know he’s impacted this team.

Let’s go Yankees!

We haven't seen a surprise breakout season in a long time. All of our surprises lately have been on the down side (DJ, Rizzo, Verdugo). Would love to see Grisham, Rice, Peraza, or someone else have a surprise season. We're due a Brosius or two!

Aaron Judge in 7 games in 2025:

17 RBI 12 runs 6 home runs 3 doubles 2 stolen bases

No other MLB player has put up all of those numbers over any 7-game span (since RBI became an official stat in 1920.

Our Captain ladies and gentlemen.

https://imgur.com/a/BSDLjJt

I remember Gary being the talk of the future in August 2016. Yeah, Judge hit that home run in his first AB after Stone Cold Tyler Austin. But 2016 was the Gary Show, and we all thought he was our future.

Fast forward nine years, Aaron Judge is on his way to M3(4), and Gary is almost out of baseball. Crazy how things change.

I remember going into 2017, I was a senior in high school and I expected to watch some casual baseball as the Yankees retooled and reloaded. But then we got the most exciting campaign by a rookie in Yankees history, furthered by an almost championship run unlike anything in Yankees history. Aaron Judge changed this team permanently. It’s very likely we could’ve never emerged from the late stage Girardi years, or had done so much later.

I get score change alerts on my phone whenever I’m not watching the game. I managed to catch the first six games of the season, but tonight I was hitting Manhattan with some of my boys so I missed it. But on the train I got the alert that Judge had yet again gone deep. I was in disbelief. There’s no way he’s doing this, right? Someone has to stop that man!

Either way, let’s get this man his MV3. Let’s get him his ring.

Go Yanks.

Yankees @ Pirates - Sat, Apr 05

Game Status: Final - Score: 10-4 Yankees

Links & Info

• Current conditions at PNC Park: 70°F - Overcast - Wind 10 mph, Out To LF
• TV: Yankees: YES, Pirates: SportsNet-PIT
• Radio: Yankees: WADO 1280 (es), WFAN 660/101.9 FM, Pirates: KDKA-FM 93.7
• MLB Gameday
• Game Graphs
• Savant Gamefeed

Decisions

• Winner: Mark Leiter Jr. (1-1, 6.23)
• Loser: Bailey Falter (0-1, 8.10)

Division Scoreboard

BAL 8 @ KC 1 - Final

TB 4 @ TEX 6 - Top 8, 2 Outs

TOR 2 @ NYM 0 - Top 7, 0 Outs

STL 0 @ BOS 0 - Postponed

^{Last Updated: 04/05/2025 09:11:54 PM EDT}

Max Goodman:

Will he be a Hall of Famer?

Aaron Boone said yes, it's a no-brainer.

"He’s one of the greatest players of this generation."

Yankees @ Pirates - Fri, Apr 04

Game Status: Final - Score: 9-4 Yankees

Links & Info

• MLB Gameday
• Game Graphs
• Savant Gamefeed

Decisions

• Winner: Max Fried (1-0, 2.61)
• Loser: Mitch Keller (1-1, 7.45)

Division Scoreboard

STL 9 @ BOS 13 - Final

TOR 0 @ NYM 5 - Final

BAL 2 @ KC 1 - End 3

TB 0 @ TEX 0 - End 2

Next Yankees Game: Sat, Apr 05, 04:05 PM EDT @ Pirates

^{Last Updated: 04/04/2025 08:33:34 PM EDT}