September 29th, 2023: Cole, Judge, King, Mailbag

The final series of 2023 is upon us. This feels like the final series of 2013, when the 85-win Yankees closed out their season against the hard-tanking Astros in Houston. We all remember that series for Andy Pettitte’s complete game in the final start of his career (video), but do you remember Game 162 going a wholly unnecessary 14 innings? It happened (box score). Imagine the Yankees and Royals playing 14 innings Sunday? This season is just dumb enough for that to happen. Let’s get to today’s post.

1. Weekday thoughts. The Yankees have clinched! Fourth place, that is. Wednesday’s win combined with the Red Sox’s loss locked the Yankees into fourth place in the AL East. It is their lowest finish since 2016 (also fourth). This is Boston’s third last place finish in the last four years. Seems not great. Not my problem though. Here now are a few thoughts on the last few games.

Cole’s Cy Young chase

Gerrit Cole’s season is over and hoo boy did he put an exclamation mark on his Cy Young case. Cole threw a two-hit shutout (video) in Toronto against a desperate Blue Jays team fighting for a postseason spot. He retired 24 of the final 25 batters he faced and he made it look remarkably easy, didn’t he? The score helped, but that was about as low-stress as two-hitters get.

“I’m on my second Labatt’s, so …” Cole jokingly told Greg Joyce when asked whether he’s started thinking about the Cy Young. “... I think lately, (my teammates) kinda rallied around (the Cy Young chase) and maybe in a certain sense, after some of our collective hopes fell by the wayside, it motivated them to continue to play hard. I’m just so grateful for that.”

Cole wanted the complete game – “For the next start I'm on 180 days rest, so can you let me go tonight?” Cole said he told Matt Blake after the eighth inning (video) – to put the finishing touches not just on his Cy Young case, but on one of the best pitching seasons in Yankees history. Here are a few nuggets on his season:

• Cole is the first Yankee with multiple two-hitters in a season since David Wells in 1998 (he also did it April 16th against the Twins).
• His 2.63 ERA is the lowest by a Yankee with enough innings to qualify for the ERA title in a 162-game season since Rudy May in 1980 (2.46 ERA).
• Cole’s the first Yankee to win the AL ERA title since May in 1980. Sonny Gray would have had to throw 12 shutout innings Thursday to steal away the ERA title (he allowed one run in four innings in a abbreviated postseason tune-up start).
• Cole finished with a 0.98 WHIP. He’s the first AL pitcher with a sub-1.00 WHIP in 200+ innings since himself. Cole had a 0.90 WHIP with the Astros in 2019.
• Cole allowed two runs or fewer in an MLB-leading 26 starts (out of 33). That ties 1978 Ron Guidry for the most such starts in a single season in Yankees history.
• Despite the lack of run support, Cole’s record is 15-4. Eleven times he allowed two runs or fewer and didn’t get a win, and on two other occasions he took a loss.
• At +7.5 WAR, it’s a top eight pitching season in Yankees history, and the best since Andy Pettitte in 1997 (+8.4 WAR). It’s one of only 11 +7 WAR seasons by a Yankees pitcher.

“He’s the best pitcher in the game,” Aaron Judge told Bryan Hoch after Wednesday’s win. “This is Gerrit Cole’s era, that’s for sure. He’s the benchmark for what an ace is supposed to be like, on and off the field.”

In his last two starts Cole held the Blue Jays – again, a desperate team fighting for a postseason spot – to one run on four hits and no walks in 17 innings. And it’s not just the two Blue Jays starts. Look at Cole’s last seven starts. This is how you a) put any questions about the Cy Young race to bed, and b) do all you can to keep your fading team alive in the Wild Card race:

Seven starts with a 1.29 ERA, 52 strikeouts against five walks, and a .163/.185/.250 opponent’s batting line. That’s basically an elite reliever but as a starter. Five times in the second half Cole went seven innings while allowing zero walks and three hits or fewer. OptaSTATS says no other pitcher in the Modern Era (since 1901) had five such starts in a season. Cole did it in the second half.

“I had a little bit of fun with that to bring some energy,” Cole told Joyce about the Blue Jays starts. “I was certainly aware that they were going to come at us tonight, needing to win. If that created a little different look in my eye, then maybe I should do that a little more often.”

Also, let’s not sleep on Cole finishing the year with a 0.86 HR/9 (9.4% HR/FB) after last year’s 1.48 HR/9 (16.8% HR/FB) was such a problem and a source of so much consternation. Cole posted the eighth lowest home run rate among qualified pitchers and cut his homer rate almost in half this year even though the league home run rate is up 14%.

It sucks the Yankees wasted this Cole season on a fourth place finish. That’s a conversation for another time though. Postseason or no postseason, Cole was the best part of 2023. He put on a clinic every five days and Wednesday’s shutout was a great FU finish to a season in which there were plenty of Cole doubters on Opening Day. Enjoy the offseason, Gerrit. You earned it and then some.

“He’s been a lifelong Yankee fan,” Judge told Joyce. “He’s looked up to the Yankees. He wanted to wear pinstripes. He wanted to come to this city and perform. It’s all coming true.”

Judge’s run at 40

Judge did not go deep in the final two games of the Diamondbacks series and then he sat out the first game of the Blue Jays series, so I thought alright, that’s it, he’s not going to hit 40 home runs this year. It’s fine, he still had a great season around the toe injury. Then Judge went out and hit two homers* Wednesday to keep the dream alive. He’s at 37 with three games to play.

“It’s kind of fitting that Aaron has that night on the night Gerrit probably locks up the Cy Young Award,” Aaron Boone told Hoch about Judge’s two-homer night. “It’s fun to watch two great players do their thing.”

* Judge had a chance to hit a third homer, but Jay Jackson threw him four pitches nowhere near the strike zone. It hearkened back to last season when Judge was unintentionally intentionally walked every other at-bat the last few weeks.

Assuming Judge plays all three games in Kansas City this weekend, he’ll finish with 107 games played, and his 37 homers are already the second most ever in a season with no more than 107 games played. Here’s the list:

1. Mark McGwire, 1995 Athletics: 39 HR in 104 G
2. Aaron Judge, 2023 Yankees: 37 HR in 104 G (and counting)
3. Albert Belle, 1994 Cleveland: 36 HR in 106 G
4. Rudy York, 1937 Tigers: 35 HR in 104 G
5. Several tied with 34 (including Gary Sánchez in 2019)

(I looked up the most home runs in a player’s first 107 games of a season no matter how many games he ultimately played, and it turns out Judge’s 37 is nowhere close to the most. He had 45 homers through 107 games just last season. Shohei Ohtani had 39 in his first 107 games this year. Judge’s 37 are the eighth most since 2010. I didn’t bother searching the rest of baseball history after that.)

Kauffman Stadium is not a good home run park at all, plus now it’s kinda chilly out, and the ball isn’t carrying the way it did a few weeks ago. Are you doubting Judge though? Since when have ballpark dimensions and weather mattered to this guy? Everything hit in the air in Toronto this week seemed to just die except when Judge laid into a pitch. (The new outfield was supposed to keep the place neutral but offense has been way down in Rogers Centre this year.)

Judge’s current pace is 58 home runs per 162 games and getting to 40 homers in 107 games works out to 61 homers per 162 games. He’s not far off from last season’s pace at all, even with the toe injury. We were robbed of at least a chance at back-to-back 60-homer seasons. As it is, getting to 40 homers in less than two-thirds of a full season would be absolutely incredible. Three homers in three games is 100% doable and I badly hope it happens.

King labors, throws six scoreless innings anyway

For the first time as a starting pitcher in 2023, Mike King labored Tuesday night. He still threw six scoreless innings. King walked five Blue Jays in his six innings (he walked four in his first seven starts combined) and it wasn’t because Toronto was seeing him for the second time in a week and had adjusted. King was just wild. Lots of misses far out of the zone for easy takes.

“I know that they say you’re not going to have your best stuff all the time,” King told Randy Miller after the game. “But good starters are the ones that are still able to still get outs and put up zeros and put the team in a good spot to win even without everything. So I’m proud of myself for that.”

King’s right, good starters put up zeroes even when they don’t have their best stuff or their best command, and he’s a good starter. He increasingly looks like a great starter, but let’s stick with good for now, and see where next season takes us. In six starts on a normal five-day routine, King has a 1.14 ERA (1.14 FIP) with 36.1% strikeouts and 5.7% walks in 31.2 innings.

In a way, King is in development mode right now, and learning how to get through a lineup three times. It’s a positive that he faced adversity Tuesday, most notably when the Blue Jays loaded the bases in the third inning, and he fell behind in the count 3-0 on Vlad Guerrero Jr. The game had a chance to get away from King there, but he buckled down and struck out Vlad.

“Honestly, it helped that I was able to groove a fastball 3-0. I said, ‘If he hits it, he hits it,” King told Miller about facing Guerrero in that situation. “And then I felt almost mechanically better after that and I executed a 3-1 sinker away.”

We all want our young players to come in and dominate right away, but this game is about failure and how you deal with it, and it was good to see King grind through messy innings. Anyone can pitch well when they have everything working. How do you perform when you’re not at your best? On Tuesday, we saw that King not at his best is still very, very good.

King is scheduled to start Game 162 on Sunday and he’ll finish the season with 105-108 innings. That sets him up to throw 150-ish next year? Maybe a few more? We’ll figure it out when we get there. For now, the King as a starter experiment is no longer an experiment. He’s a starter, full stop, and a good one too. What an exciting development in an otherwise forgettable year.

(Shoutout to Austin Wells too. He helped guide King through Tuesday’s start, plus he took Jordan Romano deep for the game-winning homer. Nice night at the office.)

The winning season streak

Did you know the Yankees are 13-5 at Rogers Centre since it opened back up in 2021? The other side of that coin is the Blue Jays are 17-8 at Yankee Stadium since 2021. Anyway, taking two of three in Toronto means the Yankees need one win this weekend to clinch a winning record for the 31st straight season. They’ve had a winning record every year since going 76-86 in 1992.

(81-81 ends the winning season streak because .500 is not a winning season. It’s not a losing season either, but it’s not a winning season, and I have no interest in tracking a non-losing season streak. Winning season streak or bust. The Yankees still need one win.)

Three games in Kansas City await, and although the Royals are very bad (54-105), they have won 10 of their last 14 games. They went 5-1 against the Astros during that stretch too. The best the Yankees can do this season is 84 wins, but at this point, it’s really all about that 82nd win, and Judge’s 40-homer season too. Pretty much nothing else at stake this weekend.

Miscellany

I’ve been trying to figure out who Wells reminds me of in the batter’s box, and it finally hit me Tuesday: Nick Johnson. Just aesthetically, he has that same look and presence. Johnson was a career .269/.399/.441 (126 wRC+) hitter. I’d sign up for Wells doing that in a heartbeat (not the injuries though). Anyway, Wells hit a no joke homer Tuesday  He muscled a 96 mph down-and-away heater the other way (video). That was the Yankees’ first go-ahead homer in the ninth inning or later this season. They were the last team in baseball to hit one, according to ESPN … Not pinch-running for Giancarlo Stanton following his one-out double in the seventh inning of a 0-0 game Tuesday was obviously very dumb. He couldn’t score on Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s single to right, then he was thrown out at home on a ground ball to Bo Bichette, who was playing back. I know the Yankees are out of the race, but as long as you’re not doing something reckless like overworking a young pitcher, you still have to play and manage to win. Leaving Stanton in felt like Boone was checked out and couldn’t be bothered to pinch-run … I get the YES Network has to talk up the Yankees and their players, but they’re laying it on a little thick with Luke Weaver chatting with Cole and maybe pitching his way into next year's plans. There’s a chance Weaver gets designated for assignment this weekend (for Frankie Montas?) because he’s not going to pitch again this year and he’ll be a free agent in a few weeks, similar to the Diamondbacks dumping Zach Davies earlier this week … And finally, Zack Greinke is Kansas City’s scheduled starter for Game 162. He hasn’t said anything about his plans for the future, but he turns 40 next month and he’s had a rough season (5.18 ERA in 137.1 innings). We might be in for a farewell ceremony Sunday. Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer, and Justin Verlander are pretty clearly the three best starters of this generation in whatever order. Greinke is No. 4 and I’m curious to see how things go come Hall of Fame time. Historically, 224 wins and 2,972 strikeouts are Hall of Very Good numbers, but we can’t compare today’s starters to starters of the past. The job description has changed. Anyway, we’ll see. Sunday may be Greinke’s last game, it may not.

2. Rapid fire thoughts. Remember when Hal Steinbrenner said the Yankees are “looking to bring in possibly an outside company to really take a look at the analytics side of what we do” a few weeks ago? It’s happening. Both Bob Klapisch and Chris Kirschner (subs. req’d) report the Yankees have hired an unknown consulting firm, though the work won’t begin until the season ends. Why are they waiting? Beats me. I don’t see why it can’t begin right now (or four weeks ago, when Hal said what he said). Here’s Klapisch with the details:

The investigation will begin in early October, although interestingly, the company conducting the audit will not recommend personnel changes. The analysis will instead focus on process and how the Yankees compare to other clubs.

The categories will include the success (and failure) of the Bombers’ trades in the last decade, the shake-out of the draft picks, including the international draft, the number of games (and dollars) lost to injuries and the state of minor league player development.

The final report will be data-driven and purely objective.

Independent data-driven analysis of the Yankees’ roster and farm system going back a decade? IF ONLY SUCH A WEBSITE EXISTED ON THE INTERNET. Anyway, I wish this didn’t feel like Hal saying “see? I’m doing something, leave me alone.” Even if this outside company provides hard truths instead of just telling the Yankees what they want to hear, I doubt the Yankees will tell us the steps they’re taking to remedy things. Maybe this audit helps, maybe it’s performative. I don’t think the Yankees will be especially transparent either way. My mental image is Hal calling 1-800-BASEBALL and paying $9.99 for the first 10 minutes and $2.99 for each additional minute to get insight like “don’t trade good starters for guys in a walking boot” and “employ a left fielder.” I can tell you that for $3 a month, Hal.

Mailbag Questions

Ray asks: Is there a way to tell if the Yankees lead the majors in being no-hit after five (or six) innings? The thought crossed my mind after Gausman had them no-hit through five on Tuesday (9/26). Seems like it happens a lot this season.

I’m not sure how to look this up but thankfully Katie Sharp does. She says Tuesday’s game was the ninth time this season the Yankees were held hitless through five innings. That is the most in baseball this year and also tied with the 2014 Red Sox and 1974 Brewers for the most in a single season in the last 100 years. Still three days to set the record, fellas!

The Yankees as a team are hitting .226. Only the bad on purpose Athletics are worse (.224). It will be the third lowest team batting average in franchise history, better than only the 1968 (.214) and 1967 (.225) Yankees. Those were the two years before MLB lowered the mound because offense was so low league-wide. The Yankees need more dudes who hit for average, if only to make us not sweat a possible no-hitter once every two weeks.

Nathan asks: Since Jasson Dominguez got hurt playing MLB level ball, will he accrue service time next year while on the IL or can he be optioned and be on the AAA IL?

Domínguez got hurt while in the big leagues and he’ll go on the MLB injured list next season, and collect big league pay and accrue service time. Luis Gil blew out his elbow in Triple-A last year, so he went on the Triple-A injured list the rest of the season*. Things reset in Spring Training though, and Gil had to go on the MLB injured list this year because he has prior MLB experience.

* I forgot about this, but the Yankees called Gil up and put him on the 60-day injured list on Aug. 28th last season. That opened a 40-man roster spot for, uh, Anthony Banda. Gil still counted against the 40-man roster while on the Triple-A injured list.

If a 40-man player with no MLB time gets hurt, he can be optioned down the following year. This happened when Manny Bañuelos had Tommy John surgery while in Triple-A in May 2012. The Yankees added him to the 40-man for Rule 5 Draft protection purposes after the season, but because Bañuelos had zero MLB service time, the Yankees were able to option him in 2013 and put him on the Triple-A injured list. Injured players can be optioned to start the season when they have no MLB experience. If they have MLB time, they go on the MLB injured list.

For the Yankees to claw back a year of team control, Domínguez would have to spend at least 52 days in the minors on an optional assignment next season. Rehab games do not count. Domínguez would have to be activated off the injured list and optioned down. I don’t see it happening. The Yankees expect him back in June or July, so Domínguez’s first full MLB season will be rehabbing in the first half and playing in the second half, assuming no setbacks.

Dan asks: Who do you feel has a better chance of being a fixture in the rotation beyond this year: King or Schmidt?

It’s pretty clearly Mike King and I don’t think that’s recency bias. The pitch models like King more – he’s at 114 Stuff+ compared to 102 for Clarke Schmidt – plus his command and execution are better. Schmidt wastes too many pitches nibbling on the edges and too many of his mistakes are in the middle of the plate. We’re waiting for Schmidt to make that jump to the next level whereas King has already made it. King’s a year older than Schmidt. Maybe Schmidt makes that jump in his age 28 season next year like King made it at age 28 this year?

Adam asks: What would you do and what do you think the Yankees will do with Gleyber Torres this off-season?

I would try to sign Torres long-term. A few weeks ago I said the Javy Báez/Trevor Story contract (six years and $140M) seems about right for Gleyber, who is still only 26 and looks to be entering his prime years. Above-average middle infielders are very hard to find and keeping Torres helps the Yankees win now and later. The Yankees need more players like him.

As for what the Yankees will do, gosh, I have no idea. Something’s gonna change this offseason. I don’t know what, exactly, but running it back next year is a non-option, and Torres is one of the few movable pieces on the roster. The Yankees could sell it as clearing a lineup spot for Oswald Peraza and cashing Torres in as a trade chip before he leaves as a free agent next winter.

Force me to pick and I’ll say the Yankees trade Torres this offseason. It saves money short and long-term, it opens an everyday spot for Peraza, and conditions might be ripe for maximizing the return. The upcoming free agent class is so incredibly bad. By 2023 WAR, the best free agent middle infielder is Elvis Andrus (+1.3 WAR). Even one year of Gleyber might fetch a haul.

Torres says he wants to stay and I hope the Yankees keep him. It feels like a decision has to be made this offseason one way or the other. Either extend him or trade him. You can’t let him leave for nothing but a draft pick next winter and it’ll be more difficult to trade him at the deadline than in the offseason because the market will be more limited (by the standings, payrolls, etc.). Taking Torres into next season on a one-year arbitration contract feels like the worst way to go.

Anthony asks: Who’s your NL MVP?

This kinda sorta feels like the 2012 AL MVP race, when Miguel Cabrera did the historic thing (won the Triple Crown) but Mike Trout was the better player (based on WAR). This year Ronald Acuña Jr. is doing the historic thing (40/70!) while Mookie Betts has been the better player (based on WAR). Here’s the quick comparison going into Thursday’s games:

The gap in WAR has closed significantly the last few weeks. On Aug. 31st, Mookie held a +7.6 WAR to +6.6 WAR edge. The difference now is negligible, and I don’t want the MVP to be the highest WAR award anyway. I don’t think it has to go to a player on a contender either, but blindly giving it to the guy with the highest WAR is not the way to go. WAR is a good tool but far from perfect.

The offensive impact is similar. Acuña has the edge in batting average, something that is underrated in today’s game*, and a major edge in baserunning. It goes beyond that incredible stolen base total too. Acuña’s better at going first-to-third and things like that. As good as Mookie is, he has slowed down with age. His sprint speed is roughly league average now.

* If you’re still saying “batting average doesn’t matter” in the year 2023, I invite you to step out of 2008 and get with the times. Just because AVG fluctuates year-to-year more than OBP and is difficult to project doesn’t mean it is not important and can be discarded. It is absolutely a skill, and a very valuable one at that.

Betts has the upper hand defensively. The numbers say Acuña’s range is lacking in right, though he makes up for it a bit with a cannon arm. The eye test doesn’t really agree with that, but that’s what the numbers say. Betts is still a great defensive right fielder and he’s also played a bunch of second base and shortstop this season. Here’s his playing time distribution:

• 2B: +6 DRS in 59 starts and 464 innings
• SS: +0 DRS in 12 starts and 98 innings
• RF: +3 DRS in 76 starts and 696.2 innings

Mookie’s ability to play second has allowed the Dodgers to play the resurgent Jason Heyward in right against right-handed pitchers (Heyward has a 125 wRC+ against righties). Betts playing the infield is not a circus act. It provides a lot of value to his team and has contributed to wins. Being able to play the infield is part of what makes Mookie so great.

Of course, defensive stats tend to inflate the impact of multi-position guys, and should Mookie be given credit for Heyward’s performance in the MVP voting? Are we talking about this if Heyward has a 61 wRC+ like last season? No, definitely not. That said, Betts is playing good defense all over the field. In the role he has been assigned by his team, he’s been fantastic.

Overall, Acuña and Betts have performed similarly and their teams are in the same place. The Braves and Dodgers won their divisions by wide margins and secured Wild Card Series byes. If one player was on a team that cruised to a division title and the other helped his club sneak into the postseason as a Wild Card team, sure, that could be a separator, but that’s not the case here. We’re talking about the best players on the two best teams in the league.

Talking to a few writer pals of mine (who don’t have NL MVP votes), they mentioned they might look at high leverage situations in an MVP race this tight. Clutch, which compares a player’s performance in high leverage situations to his performance in all other situations, says Acuña has a big edge over Betts in those spots (+1.09 vs. -0.81). He’s raised his game more, so to speak. I think the larger point is we’re getting very nitpicky.

To answer the question, I would vote Acuña over Betts. When the race is this close, I’m cool with using “he went 40/70 and that’s rad as hell” as the tiebreaker. I’d go Acuña over Betts and would not be even the slightest bit mad if Betts wins.

Vincent asks: It's impossible to quantify, but I've been wondering how much of an impact Hank Steinbrenner had behind the scenes on Hal and decision-making in general before he passed. It seems clear as we sit here as fans that Hal lacks the passion for winning that George and Hank both had, and that he only sees this as a business. Clearly missing the championship drive in the owner's box, and Hank was certainly more like George in that regard.

When George Steinbrenner got suspended in 1990 for hiring Howie Spira to dig up dirt on Dave Winfield, the original plan had Hank taking over the day-to-day operations. The other owners would not approve him, however, so limited partner Robert Nederlander took over instead. Nederlander resigned in Dec. 1991 and Joe Molloy, George’s son-in-law, took over until George was reinstated in 1993. Hank ran the family’s horse stable, among other things.

George ceded operations to Hank and Hal in 2007 and Hank engineered Alex Rodriguez’s return in 2008. Hal and Brian Cashman were ready to let A-Rod leave (Cashman explicitly said the Yankees would not pursue A-Rod if he opted out) but Hank brokered the deal. He also created some headaches with public statements like ESPN is full of Red Sox fans, the revenue sharing system is unfair, and Derek Jeter was too busy building mansions.

Hank got pushed aside following the A-Rod deal and those public headaches, and Hal took over. Hal was really fourth in line to control the Yankees. George’s succession plan evolved over the years, though it more or less looked like this:

1. Molloy. He was first in line, but his marriage to Jessica Steinbrenner fell apart and they got divorced in 1998. He was working as a gym teacher as of 2008.

2. Steve Swindal. George’s other son-in-law. Jennifer Steinbrenner divorced him after he was arrested for DUI in 2007. The Yankees bought him out soon thereafter.

3. Hank. The family put him on the back-burner after the A-Rod contract and those controversial public statements. He passed away following a lengthy battle with an unspecified illness in 2020.

4. Hal. Someone’s gotta do it.

I’m not going to sit here and yearn for Hank. He was louder than his brother and more like his father, no doubt, but that’s not necessarily a good thing. George was not all that popular until the late 1990s dynasty. I wish Hal was more engaged and ran the Yankees like less of a finance nerd, but I’m not sure Hank (i.e. George Lite) would have been the better solution either.

The great unknown is how things would’ve played out had Swindal stayed in the family. He worked for the team for several years and was regarded as a bright baseball person driven to win. Swindal stayed in baseball after leaving the Yankees too. He and a few partners opened an academy in the Dominican Republic that has produced pro players. Hank’s not the great what if. It’s Swindal.

Mike asks: I read the quote about what Mike Harkey said to Mike King - I'm Mike, you're Mike, there are so many Mikes. At this point of this season, questions wander to things like "I wonder what the best team of Mikes would be?" For current Mikes, if healthy, Mike Trout would be in center - and he's gotta be the all-time best Mike for center, right? (many Mickeys are Michaels, but not Mantle). With the recent great streak, maybe Mike King would start for the current Mike team - would Mussina start the all-time Mike team? Would an all time Mike team be better than an all time Joe team? Joe D, Joe Morgan, Shoeless Joe - would Torre make the cut? Mikes v Joes, 7 game series, who wins?

There are a lot of us Michaels out there, aren’t there? When I got bored back in the day, in like 2005 or so, I would do a fantasy draft in MLB The Show and build an entire team of Michaels and Mikes. There were never enough to fill out a roster and I would have to fudge with a few Miguels to make it work, but I’d wind up with a decent enough squad.

Here are the all-Michael teams. I tried to stay true to everyone’s primary position, but if he played even one game at a position, he was eligible there for my team.

No one named Michael has played even one inning at shortstop this season, so Miguel Rojas it is. (I’m not going to spend any time digging through minor league rosters for shortstops named Michael, sorry.) I figured Zunino was a shoo-in behind the plate, but he was so bad this year (-0.3 WAR) that he got released in June. Journeyman Michael Pérez went 4-for-7 with a double for the Mets a few weeks back and is at +0.3 WAR this year. I guess he’s my catcher.

Harris in center and Trout at DH gives me the best team (and theoretically keeps Trout healthy), otherwise it’s Trout in center, Harris on the bench, and I guess Brantley (barely played this year) or Conforto (been so-so this year) at DH. The rotation behind Clevinger is solid enough: Kopech, Lorenzen, Soroka, and Wacha. Clevinger as the starter and King as the reliever is better than King as the starter and either Baumann or Tonkin as the reliever.

As for the all-time all-Michael team, I took the easy way out and grabbed the highest career WAR at each position. There is an excellent chance I missed an old timer whose real name is Michael but is known more commonly as something like Rat Face Flanagan or Tipsy Turnbuckle. Young played more career games at short than second, but he played plenty at second. The next best option at second base was Gallego, so I took some positional liberties.

I wanted to get Cameron in there, but Trout has to be the guy in center, and Cameron didn’t play nearly enough right to go with him over Cuddyer. Sweeney had more career games at DH than any other position, so he felt like the right call there. The all-time all-Mikes have several Hall of Famers, including an inner circle of the inner circle guy in Schmidt.

Here are the all-Joseph teams since Mike (the question asker) asked:

Only seven position players named Joseph have appeared in a game this year, so the all-Joes get José Ramírez at third base and Connor Joe in right. Also, the active position players all go by Joey while almost all the pitchers go by Joe (Jiménez, Kelly, Musgrove, Ryan, etc.). Joey Wentz has a 6.45 ERA. I think the name gods are telling him to become a position player.

Torre is the Michael Young of the all-Joes. He played more games at other positions (catcher and first base), but he played plenty at third, and he fits best there on our team. The active all-Mikes best the active all-Joes (+20.4 WAR vs. +9.1 WAR in 2023), but the all-time all-Joes mop the floor with the all-Mikes (+645.8 WAR vs. +511.9 WAR career). I’m willing to bet the all-Joseph team is the best all-first name team in the sport’s history.

(Send your requests for Friday's mailbag to RABmailbag at gmail dot com. The random Yankee series is on hiatus, but feel free to send in requests for when it returns.)