August 27th, 2019: Players Weekend, Judge, Urshela, Voit, Sanchez, Homers, Gearrin, Yajure

Was that a fun weekend in Los Angeles or what? That was no ordinary series. That was a postseason atmosphere and I'm glad the Yankees won two of three, and very nearly won all three games. Pretty great. Anyway, here are today's thoughts as John Goodman rocks a Low-A Charleston RiverDogs hat.

1. Players Weekend jerseys. Wow were the white Players Weekend uniforms terrible. The black uniforms were okay, I thought. Not good, not bad, just okay. They at least had a little contrast with the white lettering. The white uniforms though? Truly awful. Way to let the players wear a fun nickname on their jersey and make it impossible to read with white-on-white lettering. The white uniforms were so awful that the Dodgers asked MLB to let both teams wear their traditional home and road uniforms during Sunday night's game, according to Tim Brown. Of course MLB said no. They're trying to sell merchandise and Sunday Night Baseball is their biggest weekly draw. I'm glad MLB is loosening up a bit and willing to try new things. I really am. Those white jerseys were just terrible though. Huge swing and a miss. Go back to letting each team design their own uniform next year. A little color never hurt anyone. (Also, it's unfortunate Players Weekend landed on the Yankees vs. Dodgers series. Would've been cool to see them in their normal uniforms. I suspect it was not a coincidence Players Weekend included the Yankees vs. Dodgers series though.)

2. Judge's adjustment. Aaron Judge is all the way back. He is 13-for-37 (.351) with four home runs in his last nine games, including three homers in three games against the Dodgers. The Sunday Night Baseball broadcast showed a good graphic comparing Judge's swing when he was slumping to his swing right now. Specifically, they highlighted his timing. Fixed Judge is on the left, broken Judge is on the right:

When he was slumping, Judge wasn't getting his front foot down in time and his bat was late though the zone. Now that his timing is where it needs to be, Judge is getting behind the ball and really driving it. Look at his hips in those two images. His hips are wide open now and he's in position to attack the ball. There's power behind that swing. When he was slumping, his hips were still somewhat closed at contact. His swing was all arms, basically. “He’s kind of completing his move in his load and then getting off his good swing and making good swing decisions because he is getting started properly and getting on time. And that’s what he is. When he’s on time it is hard to keep greatness down," Aaron Boone told Kevin Kernan over the weekend. I've noticed a slight change in Judge's batting stance these last few games as well. The before and after:

The YES Network center field camera is closer to dead center than the SportsNet LA center field camera, which is why Judge looks more open in the screen grab on the left. He's not more open though. That's just the different camera angles playing tricks on us. Anyway, look at his hands. Judge has raised his hands a tad at the plate. His bat was pointing almost straight up previously. Now it's closer to parallel with the ground. Raising his hands could be an adjustment Judge made to get back to "completing his move in his load," as Boone said. During the slump, Judge's timing was not where it needed to be for whatever reason. Just one of those baseball things, I guess. He's since made some adjustments, most notably with his hand position, and now Judge is back to terrorizing pitchers. Slumps are no fun to watch and I know no one wants to hear it, but with a hitter as good as Judge, the solution is often "just be patient." Judge has shown throughout his career that his ability to make adjustments is elite. When he's slumping, trust him to figure it out, and he has. "I’m feeling good now, and I’m getting some good pitches to hit. If they get it over the plate I try to do some damage, but sometimes you don’t get too many pitches over the plate and you start to chase and go after some stuff, not something to drive. I’m trying to stay in my zone and you get rewarded for that," Judge told Kernan.

3. Urshela's breakout. Gio Urshela had a bit of a rough weekend against the Dodgers (3-for-13) before going 1-for-4 in last night's series opener against the Mariners. During that Dodgers series, I couldn't help but think about the two third basemen. Urshela has basically turned into an Adrian Beltre clone this season. I mean, even if he's not true talent .332/.371/.557 (141 wRC+) hitter, Gio's had an impact on both sides of the ball, and there are reasons to believe he is a greatly improved hitter. I mean, look at this:

The Dodgers have the truly excellent Justin Turner at the hot corner and six years ago he came from nowhere to develop into a middle of the order mainstay. Turner was a much better hitter with the Mets than Urshela was with the Indians and Blue Jays -- Turner hit .267/.327/.371 (97 wRC+) in 886 plate appearances with the Mets from 2011-13 -- but, after getting non-tendered, he reworked his swing to make better use of his legs and get the ball airborne, and the result has been a .303/.382/.506 (142 wRC+) batting line in nearly 3,000 plate appearances with Los Angeles. "It wasn't something that just happened overnight. (Hitting instructor Doug Latta and I) did it five days a week for four months, trying to fix (my swing) and get to where I can repeat it. Went to Spring (Training), had success. Throughout all (2014), from that base we established, we made adjustments on the fly within the parameters of the philosophies we had, and started having success," Turner told Phil Rogers in 2015. Urshela is only 27. Turner had his breakout year with the Dodgers at 29. As great and as unexpected as Urshela's season has been, this has happened before, and you don't have to look back far to see it. He made changes to his swing last year and over the winter, and is reaping the rewards now. Turner did the same thing when his career at a crossroads. Heck, we could include Josh Donaldson in this conversation. He had his breakout year at age 27. Turner (and Donaldson) is a reason to believe what Urshela is doing this year is sustainable long-term. It won't be easy -- making the initial adjustment is one thing, but there will be other adjustments necessary as the league catches on -- but it's possible. Seeing two third baseman with a similar backstory on one field was kinda neat this past weekend.

4. Voit's rehab. Luke Voit started a minor league rehab assignment with Triple-A Scranton late last week and is 5-for-12 (.417) with a homer through three games. Here's video of the homer. Apparently everything feels good and Voit is on track to rejoin the Yankees when they return from the West Coast later this week. "He’s on track, and (we) fully expect him to join us when we get off the road," Aaron Boone told George King the other day. The Yankees have an off-day Thursday before opening a three-game series with the Athletics on Friday. They could bring Voit back for Friday's series opener, or they could just wait until rosters expand on Sunday, and not worry about demoting someone (i.e. Mike Ford) to make room on the roster. The Yankees have a big AL East lead, so there's no real urgency here, but the A's are also a really good team. We saw what happened last week in Oakland. The Yankees are fighting for the best record in baseball and thus homefield advantage throughout the postseason, and every game counts. The race is very tight:

1. Dodgers: 86-46
2. Yankees: 86-47 (0.5 GB)
3. Astros: 85-47 (1 GB)
4. Twins: 79-51 (6 GB)

Winning the season series against the Dodgers could come in handy in a potential homefield advantage tiebreaker scenario. (The Yankees lost the season series 4-3 to the Astros.) Sending Ford down two days before rosters expand would stink -- the ten-day rule still applies in September, so Ford would not be eligible to return until September 8th -- but the Yankees are a better team with Voit in the lineup, and they'll need all the help they can get to beat the Athletics this weekend. Beyond this weekend though, I have to say, I did not expect Voit to come through this whole sports hernia thing as well as he has. I didn't even think he'd make it to a minor league rehab stint. A cortisone shot for a sports hernia? I'm no doctor, but that's a new one for me. Voit is not out of the woods yet -- we have to see what happens as the at-bats and games pile up -- but I am pleasantly surprised he's doing as well as he is. With the way this season has been going, I fully expected an early setback and for Voit to need season-ending (or close to it) surgery. That big lead in the division allows the Yankees to ease Voit back into things. They don't need him to jump right back into the lineup and play every single game. The Yankees can put him on the Didi Gregorius post-Tommy John surgery workload plan (two of three, three of four, etc.) for a little while just to make sure this sports hernia doesn't get worse. So far, so good though. Getting Voit back into the lineup this weekend means there should be plenty of time to get him back up to speed at the plate before the postseason. Welcome news, this has been.

5. Gary's 100th. Gary Sanchez hit his 100th career homer Friday night in the series opener against the Dodgers. Here's the video. Homers don't get much more aesthetically pleasing than that. Great pitcher, great ballpark, dropped to one knee ... that was a lot of fun. I look forward to watching that on highlight reels for years to come. Gary made history twice with that home run. First, he reached 100 career homers faster than any other catcher in baseball history. He did it in 355 career games. Mike Piazza held the record previously. He hit his 100th home run in his 422nd career game. I know the ball is juiced to the gills right now, and that Sanchez has been able to DH (19 homers in 60 career games at DH) unlike Piazza early in his career with the Dodgers, but hot damn, Gary shattered Piazza's record. "It’s special to be the catcher who gets there the fastest. I feel happy about that. It’s special, but there's probably another catcher who is going to come up and break that record," Sanchez told Bryan Hoch following the game. Secondly, Sanchez reached 100 career home runs in fewer games than any other player in American League history, regardless of position. The list:

1. Gary Sanchez: 355 games
2. Joey Gallo: 377 games
3. Mark McGwire: 393 games
4. Joe DiMaggio: 395 games
5. Rocky Colavito & Rudy York: 422 games

Ryan Howard hit his 100th home run in his 325th game. He is the only player in the history of the universe to hit 100 career homers in fewer games than Sanchez. That blows my mind. Think how much Sanchez struggled last year, and how poorly he played the month prior to the injured list stint this year, and all the wear and tear he deals with as a catcher. And he still hit 100 homers faster than anyone in league history. I know Gary has his flaws. He's become a low average hitter and there are still things to be ironed out defensively, but we are talking about a historically great power hitter here, and not only relative to position. He's one of the best young sluggers the game has ever seen and that's not hyperbole. The injury and the slump sabotaged his chances of hitting 40 homers this year, something only five catchers have done in a single season in history. Sanchez is going to get there one of these years though. What an incredible talent. "Special talent. When he's controlling the strike zone, he's elite. It's good to see him continue to swing the bat as well as he is and building that confidence. Hopefully he will continue with the momentum he's got going," Aaron Boone told Hoch over the weekend.

6. Dinger problem. Speaking of homers, the Yankees have a serious home run problem this season. I don't mean any of that #TooManyHomers nonsense either. You know me better than that. The Yankees hit 267 home runs last season, the most in baseball history. Well, their pitching staff is on pace to allow 261 home runs this year. Their team 1.63 HR/9 is third worst in baseball behind the Orioles (2.04) and Mariners (1.71). That is: bad. It's not strictly a Yankee Stadium thing either. Look at the home/road splits:

• Home: 1.45 HR/9 and 15.9 HR/FB%
• Road: 1.83 HR/9 and 18.9 HR/FB%

Huh. Somehow Masahiro Tanaka has the lowest home run rate among the five starters at 1.44 HR/9. Go figure. You know what the crazy thing is too? Aroldis Chapman, Zack Britton, and Adam Ottavino have combined to allow nine homers in 161.1 innings, or 0.50 HR/9. The late-inning guys are keeping the ball in the park, which is an obvious plus because they usually pitch in close games. The rest of the staff has been extraordinarily home run prone though. Home runs are up all around baseball, I know that, but the Yankees have already allowed 37 more homers than last year with 29 games still to play. The team home run rate is up 45.5% from last year. The league home run rate is up 16.7%. At this point, there's no real way the Yankees can solve their home run problem. The pitching staff is what it is, and trying to turn a bunch of fly ball guys into ground ball guys in September seems like a recipe for disaster. The Yankees have a great offense because they can hit the ball out of the park at pretty much any time. The Yankees also have a worrisome pitching staff because they can give up the long ball at pretty much any time. The home run has been a real problem this year. The staff's single biggest weakness, bar none.

7. Gearrin pickup. The Yankees have aggressively added pitching depth this month (Ryan Dull, David Hernandez, Tyler Lyons, Joe Mantiply, Trevor Rosenthal) and, late last week, they claimed Cory Gearrin off waivers from the Mariners. I mentioned him as a possible trade target in an early Patreon post, so it's cool they got him for nothing on waivers. Buster Olney says teams are agreeing to waiver claims ahead of time to effectively make salary dump trades now that trade waivers are gone. The Yankees only owe Gearrin about $300,000 the rest of the year, but it is $300,000 in real money, and the Mariners didn't want to pay it to an impending free agent if at all possible. Anyway, Aaron Boone indicated the Yankees have some adjustments in mind for Gearrin. “I’m not going to get real specific with it but there are some things that our guys have already seen. Hopefully we can help (him) go to another level. We think he can really help us, especially with his ability to get right-handed hitters out," Boone told Brendan Kuty. Sure enough, the Yankees already have Gearrin throwing way more sliders than sinkers:

It's only been two games, so we'll see what happens, but a pitcher joining the Yankees and suddenly throwing more breaking balls than fastballs is in no way surprising. The Yankees are still an anti-fastball team. Last night got a bit messy -- seriously, how dumb was that toe-tap balk thing? -- but Gearrin has been very good against righties this year (.293 wOBA with a 25.2% strikeout rate), and I suspect he'll help the Yankees quite a bit down the stretch, even though he's only going to throw something like 12 innings in pinstripes. With Jonathan Holder hurt and Chad Green doing the multi-inning thing every few days, Gearrin can be a perfectly fine middle reliever behind the high-leverage guys. Depending on the matchups, it wouldn't surprise me to see him wind up on the postseason roster either. We'll see.

8. Yajure's season. The Yankees promoted 21-year-old righty Miguel Yajure to Double-A Trenton over the weekend, and he allowed one run in 5.1 innings in his first start with the Thunder last night. Here's some video. Yajure had a 2.26 ERA (2.74 FIP) in 127.2 innings with High-A Tampa, and while his 23.8% strikeout rate wasn't eye-popping, it certainly wasn't bad, especially not when paired with a 5.5% walk rate. The late season promotion is neither undeserved nor surprising, plus Trenton is going to the postseason and Tampa is not, so it'll be a good experience. MLB.com ranks Yajure as the 27th best prospect in the system, which feels light. Here's their scouting report:

Yajure got stronger during the grueling rehab process after having his elbow reconstructed, and he now operates at 92-95 mph with his fastball. His best pitch is a solid to plus changeup that keeps left-handers honest and he has added a cutter this year that has similar potential. He also has feel for spinning a curveball that should be at least an average offering ... He's on the path to becoming a back-of-the-rotation starter.

Tampa manager Adam Holbert recently told Brendan Kuty that Yajure's "velo has spiked up" and that he "touched 97 his last time out." Who knows whether that's actually true, but the Yankees have a history of increasing velocity, plus Yajure is getting further and further away from Tommy John surgery. His velocity spiking is at least plausible. There is a very Jonathan Loaisiga vibe to Yajure. They were both low-profile signings -- the Yankees gave Yajure a $30,000 bonus as part of their mostly failed 2014-15 international spending spree -- who became afterthoughts after having their elbows rebuilt, then jumped onto the scene with increased velocity and firm secondary pitches once getting healthy. The Yankees took no chances with Loaisiga and protected him from the Rule 5 Draft after only 32.2 innings post-elbow reconstruction. Yajure is at 198 innings since Tommy John surgery. That's a pretty big sample when it comes to evaluating a dude's stuff. Yajure may not have Loaisiga's pure ceiling, but I think he's pitched his way on to the 40-man roster this winter. Even if it's only to trade him later in the winter or next year. I don't think the Yankees will risk exposing Yajure in the Rule 5 Draft because the odds are pretty good some crummy rebuilding team will grab him and give him a chance to stick as a long reliever. It's pretty amazing. Yajure was largely an unknown at this point last year, and now, if nothing else, he's forced a conversation about a 40-man roster spot. "(The) best pitcher in the organization right now might be Miguel Yajure," a scout told Kuty. 

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