April 6th, 2021: Kluber, Loaisiga, King, Hicks, Urshela, Alternate Site

After a rough opening series against the Blue Jays, the offense woke up last night. You can always count on the Orioles to cure your offensive ills, eh? The Yankees are on pace to go 81-81 with 158 games to play. Let’s get to today’s thoughts.

1. Opening weekend observations. April is the worst time of year to write about baseball. There is baseball happening and that’s great, but the samples are so small, and it’s basically impossible to know what’s real and what’s noise. But, we soldier on. Here are some thoughts on the first four regular season games.

Kluber’s debut

Corey Kluber’s first start as a Yankee was so-so. Not great, not terrible, just okay I thought. His command still isn’t where it needs to be, particularly with his various fastballs. Marcus Semien’s home run came on a sinker that ran way back over the plate. Look where Gary Sanchez wanted the pitch and look where it wound up (video):

Longtime RAB readers know how much I love the “send the starter out for another inning with a short leash, then pull him after a leadoff baserunner” batter-to-batter move, especially when that leadoff baserunner is a homer. Love it. Baseball is truly back, baby.

Anyway, Kluber faced 19 batters Saturday, walked three, hit one, and went to a three-ball count on three others. Walks and hit batsmen are not a measure of command though. Those tell us about control (i.e. basic strike-throwing). Command is locating on the corners and hitting your spots. You can have good control and bad command (Michael Pineda is the poster boy for that), though Kluber is struggling with both right now.

“I thought Corey threw the ball well,” Aaron Boone said after Saturday’s game. “He had pretty easy first couple of innings there and then had to extend himself a little bit, had that little stretch there where he lost the zone a little bit. Just the movement on his pitches, the ability to move in and out I thought was really good.”

When Kluber needed to make a pitch Saturday, he threw his breaking ball, and he threw a few dandies. His second inning strikeout of Rowdy Tellez really stands out. Kluber back-doored three breaking balls for three called strikes. They look identical, but these are three different pitches (GIF via Lucas A):

At his peak, Kluber’s sinker and cutter worked in such a way that he’d get a quick out or two per inning. Ground ball, pop-up, whatever. I’m not expecting vintage Kluber, though I’d like to see that quick out ability return. Kluber needs to command his fastballs better than he has to get that back. Is he making progress? It’s hard to tell, though Saturday showed he has enough weapons and enough savvy to get outs even with his fastball command isn’t there.

"The movement on all his pitches, it's amazing," Sanchez said following Kluber’s start. "... There are going to be things we want to improve, of course. It was great to catch him and I want to keep that rhythm going."

Loaisiga’s start

Someone was going to have to get big outs with Zack Britton and Justin Wilson hurt and Aroldis Chapman suspended the first two games, and that someone was Jonathan Loaisiga. He retired all nine batters he faced Thursday and Saturday, including tossing two perfect innings with a one-run lead following Kluber’s four-inning start Saturday. He’s struck out four.

“I feel like strike throwing is natural to him and have always felt it should be a strength of his because of his athleticism,” Boone said over the weekend. “But at times I feel like probably being a little too fine, more less competitive pitches than he should throw all the time, and I feel like that’s gotten a lot better. He’s really attacked the zone and I feel like in a really good way this spring and so far in these first couple of games.”

Loaisiga’s changeup has stood out in the early going. He’s thrown it a lot (29.4% this year after 15.2% last year) though that could easily be a sample size thing. I’m nowhere near ready to say Loaisiga has intentionally increased his changeup usage. It could just be that the changeup was really working Saturday, so he leaned on it. We’ll see where this goes.

“The changeup has been a pitch that I’ve developed a lot of confidence in,” Loaisiga said over the weekend. “Being able to use it in certain situations. The work and the usage during Spring Training and the beginning of the season has definitely brought me a lot of confidence in the pitch.”

As good as Loaisiga’s changeup was Saturday, the nastiest pitch he threw was this vicious 97 mph two-seamer under Bo Bichette’s hands. This is unhittable (GIF via Rob Friedman):

Yeesh. Bichette’s best case scenario with that swing is what, sawing his bat in half? Fouling the pitch directly into his knee? I’d say Loaisiga is about to fulfill his destiny as Chad Green With A Changeup, but even Green’s fastball doesn’t move like that. It’s incredible the Yankees signed an arm like this out of a tryout camp a few years ago.

“The two-seamer really became a really good pitch for him last year. The changeup continues to be a go-to pitch, a pitch that he has a lot of trust in and a lot of faith in,” Boone said over the weekend. “... I would just say trusting his stuff that he can throw it in the zone and the continued trust in the changeup has been really helpful for him.”

When you see that fastball and that changeup and oh by the way he has a pretty good breaking ball too, it’s so easy to dream on Loaisiga. We’ve seen flashes of dominance before though, so I’m not predicting a breakout yet, but he’s started well. It’s not now or never, but with Britton and Wilson hurt, Loaisiga won’t have a better opportunity to move up the pecking order.

“Experience it’s important. It’s big,” Loaisiga said Sunday. “Also the confidence behind my pitches definitely has been something that has allowed me to be better. When you talk about experience, I have the opportunity to be in the playoffs with the team and that has been key.”

King’s outing

What an outing for Mike King on Sunday. He pitched so well for so long that I thought he would find himself in Scranton in favor of a fresh long reliever yesterday. King allowed one hit and one walk in six scoreless innings and retired the final 16 batters he faced. He started his outing with a four-pitch walk, then threw 44 strikes with his final 64 pitches (a nice 69%).

“The first four pitches were a little scary,” King said. “... Then I was able to lock it in and get ahead of almost everybody, throwing both the sinker and cutter for strikes. Had some pretty good changeups. I was just able to get ahead of the count and get into the dugout as fast as I can.”

I don’t mean to keep picking on Kluber’s command, but look where he located his sinkers Saturday and where King located his sinkers Sunday (full-size image). Keep your sinker down and good things tend to happen.

“(Pitching coach Matt) Blake, (bullpen coach Mike) Harkey and I, we’ve made some pretty good tweaks to mechanics, to pitch sequencing, to even just different pitches that have allowed me to have success at this level,” King added. “All those little tweaks added to the confidence that I’ve gotten.”

Prior to Sunday, King’s longest scoreless outing in the big leagues was 0.2 innings (he’d allowed a run in nine of his 10 previous big league games). Here are the last five Yankees to throw six scoreless innings in relief:

• Adam Warren vs Athletics: 6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K on June 13th, 2013
• Kei Igawa vs. Red Sox: 6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 6 K on April 28th, 2007
• Aaron Small vs. Blue Jays: 6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K on Sept. 24th, 2005
• Ramiro Mendoza vs. Rangers: 6 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K on Aug. 17th, 1998
• Greg Cadaret vs. Blue Jays: 7.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K on Aug. 20th, 1990

The Blue Jays put 17 balls in play against King and the average exit velocity was 80.8 mph. That’ll work. That’ll work just fine. I’m not saying King should replace Domingo German in the rotation nor am I saying he’s the next great Yankees reliever. For now, I’m just appreciating his effort Sunday. He was great and kept the Yankees in the game.

“He pitched great, and to be as pitch efficient as he was to be able to complete that game was huge for us to save some guys obviously,” Boone said. “He was really in command and gave us a chance. We just couldn’t muster enough offensively.”

Hicks is hacking

Rough start to the season for Aaron Hicks, who is 1-for-15 (.067) in the early going and struck out six times in his first nine plate appearances. Last year his sixth strikeout came in his 20th plate appearance, and Thursday and Saturday were the first back-to-back three-strikeout games of his career. Hicks has looked lawst.

“I think they’ve pitched him tough. Feel like they’ve executed well against them,” Boone said over the weekend. “He’s had probably a couple pitches within those at-bats to do something with that he hasn’t. Really liked his last at-bat (Saturday) where he fell behind again in the count but does what he does and worked his way back in and ends up getting a (walk). Nothing I’m too concerned about.”

Hicks has uncharacteristically chased out of the zone while passing on a few hittable pitches in the early going. Some quick small sample numbers going into last night’s game:

• Chase rate: 27.3% (15.7% in 2020)
• In-zone swing rate: 54.3 (63.8% in 2020)

Hicks is nothing if not ultra-disciplined and right now he’s caught in-between a bit, chasing pitches he usually doesn’t and not offering at hittable pitches he usually does. Given everything we know about Hicks, I can’t imagine the fouled up approach will last. He is way too disciplined and knows the strike zone way too well. I don’t think that disappeared in an offseason.

Boone more or less shot down the idea of dropping Hicks in the lineup -- “It’s one weekend,” he said -- which isn’t surprising. The Yankees aren’t the type to shake things up after a few bad games. That said, Hicks slumping means the Yankees have no lefty threats in the lineup (with all due respect to Jay Bruce), so the offense is even more imbalanced than usual. It’s a problem. It’s not the problem, but it is a problem.

Hicks losing the strike zone was pretty far down my list of possible things that could go wrong early in the season. He walked more than he struck out last year and he walked more than he struck out in Spring Training, so of course now he’s chasing out of the zone. Go figure. This will correct itself in time. Hicks losing the zone is the epitome of you can’t predict baseball, Suzyn.

“He wanted to just get out there a little bit early today,” Boone told Bryan Hoch yesterday, after Hicks took extra batting practice. “Everyone's trying to find that good feeling here as you get started. It was just a few extra swings for him on the field, and something he wanted to do.”

Gio’s starting slow

Through four regular season games Gio Urshela is 3-for-15 (.200) with five strikeouts and zero walks, and if you include Spring Training, Urshela is 9-for-55 (.164) with 16 strikeouts and one walk in 2021. The calendar year has not been kind to him at the plate. 16 strikeouts in 55 plate appearances (29.0%) is an awful lot for a guy who had a 17.2% strikeout rate from 2019-20.

“Waiting for him to get it really clicking,” Boone said over the weekend. “Nothing that I’m overly alarmed at. Feel like he’s had a couple games where he’s got it. Sometimes, especially for good players and good hitters, a lot of times the difference between when you’re really rolling and you’re not is you’re missing pitches that you should do stuff with.”

Urshela is hitting the ball hard when he makes contact. He’s put 10 balls in play and four have been over 95 mph. That’s fine. The larger issue is Urshela is jumping at everything and his lower half is a mess. Look at his feet here (video link):

There’s stepping in the bucket and then there’s whatever Urshela is doing there. How are you supposed to make consistent contact when your swing is that disjointed? It’s no wonder Gio is running a 16.1% swing and miss rate in the early going (10.7% from 2019-20). In short, Urshela’s not in control of his swing right now.

Gio had elbow surgery in December and the rehab disrupted his usual offseason routine. He did not resume swinging a bat until he got to Spring Training, so he may still be playing catch up at the plate. Urshela did play a month’s worth of Grapefruit League games, though that’s not always enough to iron things out. Not when guys these days are used to swinging year-round.

“The timing, I need to keep working on that,” Urshela told Hoch yesterday. “I’m trying to keep the same routine and all that stuff from the last couple of years. That’s what I’m doing right now. I’m feeling better every day.”

There’s always a chance the clock has struck midnight on Urshela. I don’t think that’s the case, but it’s not impossible. Maybe he’s just Scooter Gennett? A guy who had two huge seasons at ages 27-28, then is done as even an average player at age 29, and out of the game entirely at 30. Wouldn’t that suck? I don’t think that’s happening, though there’s a small chance it is.

I’m not going to sweat that now. Urshela’s issue seems clear to me. His swing is out of whack and he has to get back to taking his stride, planting his feet, and taking a controlled swing that is direct to the ball. The elbow surgery rehab cutting into his offseason routine likely contributed to Urshela’s current slump. Hopefully he’ll snap out of it soon.

“We talked about that the other day with Gary, where you get that pitch that is a strength of yours or a mistake pitch, especially as good as these guys are now, as good as these pitchers are now, you gotta make sure when you do get it you pitch your pitch in play with authority,” Boone said. “I feel like that’s close. Once he starts doing that he should take off.”

2. Yankees sign Montgomery. The Yankees have their Jhoulys Chacin replacement. Robert Murray reports the Yankees have signed veteran southpaw Mike Montgomery to a minor league contract. I assume he’s heading to the alternate site. The contract probably includes an opt out at some point this summer as well. That’s how these things usually work.

Montgomery, 31, got the final out of the 2016 World Series with the Cubs and he had his best years with Chicago, throwing 320 swingman innings with a 3.74 ERA (4.28 FIP) from 2016-19. He’s never been a strikeout guy (career 18.8%). At his peak, Montgomery got a healthy number of ground balls (career 53.6%) with better than average exit velocities.

A lat strain limited Montgomery to 5.1 innings with the Royals last year and I signed him to a minor league deal as part of my Offseason Plan. He was in camp with the Mets this spring and allowed five earned runs in 7.1 innings, and all five came in his final outing (2.2 innings). That likely cost him a spot in their Opening Day bullpen (it went to Robert Gsellman instead).

The Yankees are short on the lefties throughout the organization, and that is especially true with Zack Britton and Justin Wilson on the injured list. Montgomery provides some lefty depth, and mostly he’s just another warm body. Someone who could be an emergency long man type and chew up innings. Chacin opted out and Montgomery takes his spot, basically.

Not a whole lot to say about Montgomery beyond that. You can dream on him getting back to where he was with the Cubs now that he’s over last year’s lat strain, though the injury doesn’t explain his 4.95 ERA (5.52 FIP) in 91 innings in 2019. It’s a no risk minor league contract and there’s no such thing as too much pitching depth in this post-60-game-season year.

3. Alternate site updates. At long last, we have an alt site roster. No thanks to the Yankees, of course. The alt-Yankees and alt-Phillies played an alt-game in Scranton on Sunday, and man on the scene Conor Foley was nice enough to pass along the roster. Here are the 31 players the Yankees have stashed in Scranton (asterisk indicates the player is on the 40-man roster):

As a reminder, only players at the alt site can be called up until the minor league season begins in May, so that’s the pool of players available to the Yankees. Miguel Andujar (wrist), Robinson Chirinos (wrist) and Asher Wojciechowski (lat) figure to head to the alt site once healthy. Warren (shoulder) is healthy enough to be at the alt site now, so that’s good. Mike Montgomery will presumably join the crew in Scranton soon, if he hasn’t already.

Bristo and Koerner are the only players at the alt site who weren’t in big league camp. Bristo, 26, is a fastball/curveball reliever who had a 2.60 ERA (2.74 FIP) with 31.9% strikeouts in 65.2 innings split between High-A and Double-A in 2019. Koerner, 27, is a kitchen sink guy. He had a 5.00 ERA (4.88 ERA) in 138.2 innings at Double-A and Triple-A in 2019. Neither is much of a prospect and both have been passed over in multiple Rule 5 Drafts. Injuries (Wojciechowski, Zack Britton, Justin Wilson) opened spots for them at the alt site.

The only real surprise on the alt site roster is Gil and he’s not that big a surprise. He’s on the 40-man, so he can easily be called up should a need arise, and his fastball/new slider combo could probably play in relief. The Yankees certainly think so, otherwise he’d still be in Tampa in Double-A/Single-A camp. I don’t think the Yankees want to call Gil up, but he is available if necessary. They’re covering their bases.

I see two notable omissions. One, Luis Medina. Gil making the alt site but not Medina is telling. It means the Yankees believe Gil can help in an emergency but not Medina. Or! Or it means the Yankees are more willing to disrupt Gil’s development with a premature callup and a month at the alt site (rather than Double-A/Single-A camp) than Medina’s. I think it’s the former. (Guys can get derailed when they’re called up and they stay up despite being in over their heads. A few scattered games usually won’t ruin a prospect’s development.)

And two, Tyler Lyons. The veteran southpaw saw time with the Yankees the last two years and he had a good Spring Training up until his last two outings, yet he’s not at the alt site. Either he’s hurt or he’s been released/opted out, and the Yankees never bothered to announce it. No way a guy with 4+ years of service time and nearly 300 big league innings was held back in Double-A/Single-A camp. My guess is Lyons is hurt.

Anyway, Foley reports the alt-Yankees and alt-Phillies will play 18 games in April, or roughly four times a week. Alt site teams can play games against each other as long as they’re within driving distance, and Philadelphia’s alt site is about an hour south of Scranton in Lehigh Valley. The Yankees and Phillies are natural partners, so no surprise it came together. The games themselves are pretty informal (Spring Training 2021 rules, basically).

Also, fans will be allowed at select alt site games in Lehigh Valley (no word on Scranton games yet). You can buy tickets here. It’s pod seating and masks will be required and all that, but you can go to those alt site games if you’re in the area, so that’s cool. The alt site is up and running though. They’re playing games and everything now.

4. 2021 draft prospect: Georgia HS C Harry Ford. The 2021 MLB Draft will take place during the All-Star break and J.J. Cooper (subs. req’d) reports MLB has informed teams the draft will be 20 rounds, the minimum number allowed under last year’s March agreement. The Yankees hold the No. 20 pick and RAB’s annual draft prospect coverage begins today.

Ford, 18 on draft day, is a unique prospect because he’s a catcher who’s fast and very athletic. He doesn’t move like a catcher. MLB.com ranks him the No. 19 prospect in the draft class and Baseball America (subs. req’d) ranks him No. 21. Here’s a snippet of MLB.com’s scouting report and here’s video:

Ford features some of the best bat speed in the high school class and has a track record of making loud contact against quality pitching. He's also strong and has good leverage in his right-handed swing, so he has all of the ingredients to have average or better power. He's very fast for a catcher, clocking a 6.42-second time in the 60-yard dash at the East Coast Pro showcase.

There's no doubt that Ford can remain behind the plate, though he still needs to polish up his footwork to get the most out of his solid arm strength. Quick and agile, the Georgia Tech recruit has stood out as a receiver while handling premium stuff on the showcase circuit. Though he doesn't have a lot of experience at other positions, he has the athleticism, quickness and arm to play second base, third base or anywhere in the outfield.

There seems to be a disconnect between the scouting report and the rankings, no? Ford has “some of the best bat speed in the high school class” and “there’s no doubt that Ford can remain behind the plate,” plus “he has the athleticism, quickness and arm to play second base, third base or anywhere in the outfield.” And yet he’s only (“only”) the fifth ranked high school position player on MLB.com’s list and seventh on Baseball America’s. Hmmm.

I asked around and it seems the disconnect between the scouting report and rankings is partly attributable to, well, a literal disconnect. Ford separates his hands during his load, which creates concern about his bat control and ability to fully tap into his natural power. It’s something he’ll have to clean up at the next level. Here’s a screen grab from the linked video:

The gap between Ford’s hands as he begins his swing is clear as day. Weird! Ford also starts his swing with his hands around his midsection rather than near his shoulders, something that typically creates questions about the player’s ability to handle velocity. Setting your hands low is not bad, necessarily. Anthony Rendon hits that way. It’s just a little unconventional.

Beyond the swing weirdness, Ford also has history and industry bias working against him. He is a high school catcher and high school catchers have an awful track record. In the last 20 drafts only nine high school catchers managed even +5 WAR in the big leagues:

• Joe Mauer (2001 1st round): +55.2 WAR
• Brian McCann (2002 2nd round): +31.9 WAR
• Neil Walker (2004 1st round): +19.6 WAR
• Wil Myers (2009 3rd round): +11.5 WAR
• Daric Barton (2003 1st round): +8.9 WAR
• Derek Norris (2007 4th round): +8.8 WAR
• Martin Maldonado (2004 27th round): +7.3 WAR
• Tucker Barnhart (2009 10th round): +6.8 WAR
• Jarrod Saltalamacchia (2003 1st round): +5.9 WAR

Walker stopped catching in Double-A, Myers stopped catching in High-A, and Barton stopped catching in Low-A. So, in the last two decades, only six high school catchers reached the big leagues as catchers, and only two (Mauer and McCann) went on to have substantial careers. It is not a demographic with a high hit rate, historically.

The scouting reports indicate Ford has the athleticism to play elsewhere should catching not work out, and the “some of the best bat speed in the high school class” thing intrigues me. His tendency to separate his hands during his load seems correctable and is maybe even an easy fix, though there’s a lot of muscle memory involved there, so what do I know?

Ford has some similarities to Anthony Seigler, another high school catcher out of Georgia. Seigler is a very good athlete for a catcher who projects to remain at the position, though he’s a switch-hitting contact guy while Ford is a righty noted for his power. The Yankees have been attracted to the “athletic high school catcher” profile in the recent past and Ford fits.

The track record of high school catchers in pro ball is terrible and there is some weirdness in Ford’s swing, though the bat speed and athleticism are premium, and it sounds like he has the tools to stay behind the plate long-term or move to another up-the-middle position. It’s a unique skill set. History is not on Ford’s side given his position, but he has a lot going for him.

5. Remembering a random Yankee: Shelley Duncan. By request, this week’s random Yankee is a forearm smashing cult hero who played way fewer games in pinstripes than I remembered. Here’s the random Yankee archive. You can find links back to everyone we've covered there.

The Yankees drafted Duncan in the second round of the 2001 draft following his record setting career at Arizona. He was a career .322/.399/.664 hitter with the Wildcats and he still holds the school’s single-season (24 in 2001) and career (55) home run records. The Yankees paid him a $655,000 bonus. Here is part of Baseball America’s pre-draft scouting report (subs. req’d):

Duncan has legitimate major league power potential to all fields ... Overall as a hitter, he is vulnerable at the plate and can be pitched to. None of his other tools ranks above-average. He once was clocked at 90-91 mph off the mound, but he hasn't regained full strength in the arm after Tommy John surgery following an ill-fated pitching stint in 2000.

Despite spending three years at a major college program, Duncan climbed the minor league ladder slowly. He spent two full seasons in High-A and didn’t reach Double-A until 2005, his age 25 season. Duncan broke out with 34 homers in 142 games that year, yet the Yankees sent him back to Double-A the next year, and it wasn’t until 2007 that he reached Triple-A for good.

Up to that point Duncan was a career .251/.334/.452 hitter in over 2,600 minor league plate appearances (one-third of them while repeating levels). He started 2007 very well with Triple-A Scranton, hitting .295/.380/.577 with 25 home runs in only 91 games, and the Yankees praised his improvement despite never once bringing him to big league Spring Training.

“I always knew he was a strong kid and had some pop, but this year he turned a corner,” Ron Villone, who started 2007 in Triple-A, told Tyler Kepner on July 21st. “He was a man playing down there, stepping up to the plate and having people worry about what he was going to do. You see that, the way he changed the game for the other team.”

The Yankees were 49-45 on the morning of July 20th, the day Duncan made his MLB debut. He was called up to add power to a lineup that had a struggling Melky Cabrera and a banged up Johnny Damon. Duncan made his MLB debut two months shy of his 28th birthday and went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts in his first game. He batted ninth as the DH.

“This is the biggest moment of my life,” Duncan told Kepner prior to the game.

Duncan started again the next day and that’s when the home run barrage began. He hit his first career home run in the first game of a doubleheader against the (Devil) Rays, a two-run shot to give the Yankees two insurance runs. The next day he went 2-for-4 with two home runs and two walks in a 21-4 drubbing of Tampa, and received a curtain call. Here’s the video.

“I’ve never seen anything like these last two days,” then-manager Joe Torre told Judy Battista. “Even in batting practice you don’t get hits every time you swing the bats. This was incredible.”

Three games later Duncan hit a pinch-hit home run, and the next day he started and went deep again. In his first eight big league games, he went 7-for-24 (.292) with five home runs. Duncan took over as the primary DH against left-handed pitchers, relegating Damon to the bench (Hideki Matsui played left field and Damon was the DH while nursing a leg issue).

“This is the only lineup in baseball that can come to the field every day and something extremely exciting can happen like that, one through nine,” Duncan told Kepner after the Yankees scored 34 runs in a three-game span in late July and early August. “It’s so much fun to watch, just being a part of it in the dugout.”

Inevitably, Duncan cooled down. He went 12-for-50 (.240) with only two home runs in the team’s final 54 games (Duncan started only 10 of those 54 games). Duncan finished his 2007 season with a .257/.329/.554 batting line and seven homers in 83 big league plate appearances. Three times in the four-game ALDS loss to Cleveland he pinch-hit for random Yankee Doug Mientkiewicz.

• Game 1: Pinch-hit vs. CC Sabathia in the 5th (singled)
• Game 2: Pinch-hit vs. Rafael Perez in the 11th (grounded out)
• Game 4: Pinch-hit vs. Rafael Perez in the 6th (singled)

“I was toying with messing with the lineup, inserting a couple of right-handers,” Torre told Kepner about possibly starting Duncan over Damon or Matsui against Sabathia in Game 1. “I just decided that these are the guys that got us here. And the reason we were able to turn things around in the second half was our left-handers started handling left-handers a lot better.”

Duncan went 2-for-4 in the ALDS overall. It was the only postseason action of his career. The Yankees went into 2008 with an unsettled first base position. Jason Giambi was essentially a full-time DH at that point, and Duncan’s competition at first base included Wilson Betemit and non-roster invitees Morgan Ensberg and Jason Lane. Dark days at first base, huh?

That spring Duncan made headlines not with his bat, but with a slide. On March 9th, Tampa utility man Elliot Johnson ran over Francisco Cervelli at home plate, breaking his wrist. Four days later Duncan slid spikes up into second base and cut Akinori Iwamura’s knee. Jonny Gomes ran in from the outfield and tackled Duncan, and the benches cleared. In Spring Training!

“The ball beat me by quite a bit. When you’re out by a mile, sometimes you have two things to do: take a weird slide around him to be safe, or slide hard into his glove. I went hard into his glove,” Duncan told Kepner. “... You see their intensity level, and you just try to match it. When they play as hard as they do -- which I like --— that steps up your game. That awakens you a little bit. This isn’t just going through the motions. This is baseball. You play hard.”

The Rays weren’t happy with the slide and the Yankees didn’t exactly rush to defend Duncan. “You’ve got to ask Shelley. I’ve got nothing to say,” Jorge Posada told Kepner when asked about the slide. Joe Girardi, then in his first Spring Training as Yankees manager, said “I need to look at a replay to determine exactly what I thought,” adding he would speak to Duncan privately.

Duncan made the Opening Day roster but had to serve a three-game suspension stemming from the brawl -- again, a Spring Training brawl! -- and he didn’t hang around long once the suspension ended. He went 1-for-5 in two games, then was sent to Triple-A. Duncan returned in late April and spent seven weeks on the roster, going 9-for-52 (.193) with one homer.

The Yankees sent Duncan down to Triple-A in early June and a few weeks later he separated his shoulder diving in the outfield. He returned in August and did not receive a Sept. call-up. All told, Duncan went 10-for-57 (.175) with one home run in the big leagues in 2008, and put up a .239/.365/.483 line with 12 homers in 58 Triple-A games.

The Yankees signed Mark Teixeira in Dec. 2008 and outrighted Duncan off the 40-man roster a month later. He went to Spring Training 2009 as a non-roster invitee, though with Teixeira at first base, Matsui at DH, and Damon and Nick Swisher (and Xavier Nady) in the corner outfield, there was no room on the roster for Duncan. He had no role other than Triple-A depth.

Duncan, then 29, spent the minor league regular season in Triple-A and hit .277/.370/.546 with 30 homers in 123 games. That earned him the International League MVP award. The Yankees brought him back as a Sept. call-up but he didn’t play much, going 3-for-15 (.200) in 11 games. Duncan was dropped from the 40-man after the season and became a minor league free agent.

“I feel really privileged to be in that organization for as long as I was,” Duncan told Kepner in Spring Training 2010, after signing with Cleveland. “... You learn to play the game the right way, go about your business the right way. They do things right over there from the bottom up. I think being there as long as I was has set me up for a lifetime of lessons, or lessons that transcend my playing days.”

In parts of three seasons as a Yankee, Duncan authored .219/.290/.411 batting line with eight home runs in 163 plate appearances spread across 68 games. Five of those home runs came in his first 28 plate appearances, so that was 63% of his homer output in the first 17% of his plate appearances. To paraphrase Erik Kratz, Shelley was the R in WAR: +0.0 WAR in pinstripes.

Duncan spent three years with Cleveland as a platoon bat, hitting .231/.309/.430 with 33 home runs in 770 plate appearances from 2010-12. He had a short stint with the Rays in 2013 (10-for-55) and spent most of the year in Triple-A, and he spent a few weeks in Triple-A with the Reds in 2014. Duncan was a career .256/.351/.484 hitter in parts of eight Triple-A seasons.

Shelley’s playing career ended in 2014 and he jumped right into coaching. He managed in the minors with the Diamondbacks in 2015 (rookie ball), 2016 (short season), 2017 (High-A), and 2018 (Double-A). Duncan spent 2019-20 as the Blue Jays’ Major League field coordinator, and this year he is with the White Sox* as their analytics coordinator.

* I must note Shelley’s father Dave was a longtime big league pitching coach, including under Tony La Russa with the Cardinals. His late brother Chris also played for La Russa in St. Louis. I’m not sure whether the La Russa connection contributed to Duncan landing with the ChiSox this year, though it obviously didn’t hurt.

6. Rapid fire thoughts. Couple injury updates. One, Luis Severino (elbow) recently started throwing sliders during his bullpen sessions and all is going well. He can’t be too far away from facing hitters at this point. Definitely before the end of April, I’d think. Two, Justin Wilson (shoulder) faced hitters Saturday and will do so again today. That puts him on track to be activated when eligible Friday (technically Thursday, but that’s an off-day). And three, Clarke Schmidt (elbow) is not yet asymptomatic, so he still hasn’t begun a throwing program. It has been six weeks since he was shut down 3-4 weeks. Over/under on the number of times Schmidt pitches for the Yankees before the All-Star break is set at 0.5 … MLB is moving the 2021 All-Star Game out of Atlanta and has yet to name a new host city. I thought Yankee Stadium would be a candidate for a number of reasons (iconic name, near MLB’s central offices, large market with massive sponsorship opportunities, etc.), though Buster Olney says it will be Coors Field. Words for me. Let's get some leftover 2019 rocket balls in the Home Run Derby and really light it up.

(Send your requests for Tuesday's random Yankee series and questions for Friday's mailbag to RABmailbag at gmail dot com.)