Hal Steinbrenner Addresses the Yankees Lousy Offense, Says All Will be Fine

The Yankees and Mets split the first half of the Subway Series at Citi Field, but before it began, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner met with reporters and addressed a number of topics which I thought I’d offer up here in case you missed it.

Steinbrenner doesn’t have too many dealings with the media. Unlike his father who had reporters’ numbers in his Rolodex and was almost always available to sit down and talk, Hal prefers to stay out of the limelight. So when he decides to talk, it’s a big deal, even though he generally doesn’t say much of anything, proof that the apple fell very far from the tree in the Steinbrenner lineage.

The league owners were meeting in midtown Manhattan Tuesday, probably to discuss what new ways they can suck more money out of fans and sponsors, and Steinbrenner knew he would have a very captive audience with the entirety of the New York media corps focused on the proceedings later Tuesday night at Citi Field, plus some of the national baseball media in town.

This was a way to do one big shabang and then he will recede back to the privacy of his office in Tampa and forget that the media exists until the next time he sees fit to emerge.

Among the things he was asked about:

➤ The sagging Yankees offense without Aaron Judge: “We’ve got to start hitting,” Steinbrenner said. “We’re putting way too much pressure on the pitchers. There are several of our veterans who need to step up, especially with Judge gone. Certainly DJ (LeMahieu), (Anthony) Rizzo and Giancarlo (Stanton), they’re struggling right now. I can’t believe that will last. Let’s just see if guys pick it up, particularly the veterans I’m talking about. I don’t think it’s a mental thing. I don’t think it’s in their heads. But it’s been a two-week sample size, and it hasn’t been promising.”

➤ What to do about struggling shortstop Anthony Volpe, which does not include sending Volpe down to Triple-A: “I’ve had zero conversations about that. I think defensively he’s been pretty solid. Pitchers have adjusted to him; he’s gonna have some adjustments to make himself. I don’t think any of this is out of the ordinary. I told Anthony at the end of spring training, I said, ‘You are the starting shortstop of the New York Yankees. This isn’t a three-week trial. So you’re gonna be that through the ups and through the potential downs and there probably will be downs.’ But again, I don’t think it’s anything unusual, but no, there’s been no discussion (of a demotion).”

➤ His views on MLB someday instituting a salary cap: “We went through this in the last agreement a year ago, right? I’m not necessarily against - depending on what it is, of course - a salary cap. But there has to be a floor. I think the two have to coexist. If you’re going to attack it, under the guise of, ‘We’ve got to fix this (revenue) discrepancy because it’s not good for the industry as a whole and the sport as a whole,’ then you’ve got to narrow the gap, not just by going down, right? But also by going up on the other side.

“I’m not going to deny that there’s payroll (disparity); there is, there is. And I understand some markets struggle more than others. I live in Tampa so I know what the Rays go through. What really gets me going in a negative way is owners that aren’t putting money into the team when they could. And that’s happened in the past, and probably happens every year to a certain extent. That’s what a lot of the owners like me don’t like. Their fans deserve a product that they can put on the field, and if they’re not doing it for whatever reason, that’s not good.”

➤ A quick thought on the Subway Series. I don’t really consider the Mets as a true rival to the Yankees, even though they share a city and their yearly games are treated like the World Series by the New York media. The fact is, the teams play four times a year and the games are nothing more than four games on the schedule. There’s no division race at stake when they meet, just superficial bragging rights in New York, and really, I kind of doubt any of the players are out on the town after the games bragging about their victory. That said, the games are usually more interesting than the run-of-the-mill encounters with most of the other teams outside of the AL East.

➤ The pace of these two games was a sad reminder of the pre-timer days. They were the longest two games of the season at three hours and 19 minutes Tuesday and 3:17 Wednesday, and it felt it. It seemed like every batter made sure he took his lone timeout, pitchers were doing more staring, and managers were making mid-inning pitching changes. As I said, it was a flashback to the terrible days before the pitch clock came along. The Yankees have played 60 of their 69 games in under three hours.

➤ The home run by Stanton in the first inning Tuesday gave him 78 in his career while serving as the Yankee DH, moving him into first place in franchise history ahead of Jason Giambi. So at least Stanton has that going for him in his very checkered, injured Yankee tenure.

➤ Harrison Bader started his rehab assignment at Double-A Somerset. He went 0-for-4 and played seven innings in the field. It is expected that he’ll be activated at some point this weekend for the Red Sox series, very possibly Friday. And then we’ll see how long he can play before the next injury.

Here are my observations on the two games against the Mets.

June 13: Yankees 7, Mets 6

➤ Well, this was some start to the Subway Series, a back-and-forth game that was filled with drama, especially at the end when Clay Holmes did one hell of a job averting a brewing disaster and basically saving the game, even though he’s not the pitcher who was actually awarded the save.

➤ I’ll start with the bad. Luis Severino. What the hell is happening with this guy? He was pitiful for a third start in a row, this time giving up six runs (five earned) on seven hits, three walks and two balks inside of five innings. Once again he was not generating swing and miss (incredibly there were only five misses on 104 pitches) and he had no command of anything. He is officially a problem. And Wandy Peralta was nearly as bad. He came on for the eighth inning and nearly blew the game. He faced four batters and the result was walk, single, groundout, and hit batsmen which loaded the bases. Holmes then came in and threw 16 high leverage pitches which struck out Francisco Lindor and Starling Marte. The ballpark was electric during those two at bats, and thankfully it was the Yankee fans who roared when it was over.

➤ Severino put the Yankees in a quick 5-1 hole, but then the Yankees shocked me and probably you with a five-run rally against fading Max Scherzer in the fourth. It started with two players in horrendous slumps producing two runs. Rizzo snapped a career-worst 0-for-25 with a single and LeMahieu - who hadn’t had an extra base hit since June 3 or a homer since May 27 - crushed a two-run shot. Then Isiah Kiner-Falefa singled, Kyle Higashioka singled, Volpe had an RBI double, and Jake Bauers a go-ahead two-run single.

➤ Severino then allowed the tying run to score in the bottom of the fifth, two pitches after Aaron Boone visited him on the mound with two outs and two men on. He stayed with a pitcher who clearly had nothing and was already at his season-high pitch total, and not surprisingly, Luis Guillorme singled to make it 6-6. Just another failure by Boone to have a feel for what was happening.

➤ The last run of the night came in the sixth when Billy McKinney singled, took second on a wild pitch, and went to third on a fly ball to center by Volpe that was dropped by Brandon Nimmo yet was still scored as a double - truly amazing stuff these days with official scoring. Here, Boone pinch hit Josh Donaldson for Bauers and Donaldson hit a sacrifice fly, so, shockingly, he actually did something useful.

➤ The Mets lost a pitcher to a sticky stuff ejection before the seventh as the umpires tossed Drew Smith, adding further misery for Buck Showalter whose team lost for the ninth time in 10 games. It didn’t really impact the Mets because they used three relievers who blanked the Yankees for the final three innings on two singles, but it will impact them moving forward because Smith is gone for 10 games and the Mets can’t fill his roster spot, same deal the Yankees faced when Domingo German got caught.

BOX SCORE

June 14: Mets 4, Yankees 3 (10)

➤ These are two enormously expensive and mediocre teams, so it seemed right that the first half of the Subway Series was split. I’ll expect more of the same when they play the second half at Yankee Stadium July 25-26.

➤ Once again, the Yankees offense and the players who are supposed to be their studs, sucked. A ridiculous night of nothingness as they went 1-for-15 with runners in scoring position. As usual, they were helpless against Justin Verlander, who is to pitching against the Yankees what Rafael Devers is to hitting against them. Verlander hasn’t even been good this year, but he has some kind of mesmerizing hex on the Yankees. I was shocked they scored even one run on him. He retired 15 of the first 16 men he faced through five innings, but in the sixth Jose Trevino doubled and Bauers singled him home before the big stiff, Stanton, grounded into a double play.

➤ The only other runs they scored were a pair in the seventh off Jeff Brigham and it didn’t require a hit. Donaldson, who has taken the reigns from Aaron Hicks as the worst hitter in MLB, drew a walk and Rizzo, who is now in a 2-for-37 slump, was hit by a pitch. Mets fans must have been screaming as they watched Brigham allow those two guys to reach base. With one out, Kiner-Falefa hit what could have been a double play ball. Instead, he hustled down the line to beat the throw and when it got away from the first baseman, Donaldson was able to score to make it 2-1. And then IKF literally stole a run. He stole second base and kept going to third when the throw went into the outfield, and then he stole home. Yes, he stole home when reliever Brooks Raley paid no attention to him. Just great hustle and smarts the entire trip around the bases by IKF. If only that guy could hit, I’d find a place in my lineup for him.

➤ Gerrit Cole matched Verlander with a solid six innings. He was perfect through four but doubles by Lindor and Tommy Pham in the fifth gave the Mets a 1-0 lead. Then Boone pulled him before the seventh, and the Mets immediately tied the game. Jimmy Cordero, who has been very good, wasn’t in this game. He gave up singles to Francisco Alvarez and Pham and then a two-out walk to Mark Vientos, so Boone brought in Ron Marinaccio. And splat when the lead within eight pitches. Marinaccio plunked Nimmo to force in a run, and then Marte singled to left for the tying run, though the Yankees caught a break when Nimmo rounded second too widely and Trevino threw behind him for the last out. The Mets would have had the bases loaded, but Nimmo killed it.

➤ However, Nimmo certainly redeemed himself, and he had the Yankees lame offense to thank. Volpe led off the eighth with a double and the top of the order - Bauers, Stanton and Donaldson - all failed to get him in. In the ninth, LeMahieu doubled and Gleyber Torres walked, but McKinney and Willie Calhoun failed to get anyone in. And then in the 10th, after Albert Abreu had retired all four men he faced, Boone pulled him to bring in lefty Nick Ramirez to face lefty Nimmo. Nimmo launched his second pitch off the wall in right to score the free runner from second for the walk-off win.

BOX SCORE

 ➤ June 15, 2018: The Yankees were in a bind on this day five years ago because Masahiro Tanaka was sidelined and there was a hole in the rotation, so they reached all the way down to their Double-A team, then located in Trenton, and called up 23-year-old Jonathan Loaisiga to make his major league debut.

At the time the Yankees saw Loaisiga has a future starter, and he sure looked the part as he pitched five scoreless innings against the offensively-challenged Rays at Yankee Stadium. He gave up three hits and four walks and he struck out six before giving way to the bullpen as Jonathan Holder, David Robertson, Dellin Betances and Adam Warren threw four innings of scoreless one-hit relief which finished off a 5-0 Yankees victory.

Loaisiga became the first Yankee in the live-ball era to record at least six strikeouts without allowing a run in his major-league debut. His first strikeout came against Jake Bauers who is now his Yankees teammate.

The big hit of the game was a three-run double by the catcher who everyone thought was going to be a future superstar, Gary Sanchez.

“Everyone got a peek at the stuff,” Boone said. “And I thought he competed really well. A few walks that didn’t allow him to get deep into the night, which I think as we go forward will be a little uncharacteristic, but I thought for the first time out, he gave us everything we needed tonight.”

Loaisiga would make 11 starts through 2020 but has been a full-time reliever, when he’s not hurt, ever since.

It’s the Red Sox again, this time at Fenway Park for three games over the weekend, and because it’s Yankees-Red Sox, all three games are at night, and on three different networks.

I understand why FOX and ESPN want these games for their Saturday and Sunday night national broadcasts, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it. I much prefer day baseball on the weekend, especially Sunday because when the Yankees play at night, it makes writing this newsletter and getting it out for you by 7:30 a.m. the next morning pretty challenging.

Also, if I was a general baseball fan, I’d be asking this simple question: Why do we need to see the Yankees and Red Sox in the national TV windows in every series they play, especially given that neither team is special in any way? You can make the case they’re both just middle of the road teams, and there are far more interesting teams to focus on. Of course, the ratings probably tell a different story because if they didn’t, FOX and ESPN wouldn’t continue to force feed Yankees-Red Sox every time.

Not much has changed with the Red Sox since they took two of three in the Bronx. They’re still the very definition of mediocrity led by Devers, Justin Turner and Alex Verdugo and a bunch of other guys who don’t really scare you. They just lost a series at Fenway to the Rockies, one of the worst teams in MLB.

Here are the pitching matchups: Friday, 7:10 on YES, German (3.49 ERA) against Tanner Houck (5.23); Saturday at 7:15 on FOX it’s Clarke Schmidt (4.70) against Brayan Bello (3.78); and Sunday at 7:10 on ESPN it’s Severino (6.48) against ex-Yankee James Paxton (3.09).