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Chapter 1: What did Aaron Judge achieve in his spring debut?
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Chapter 2: How is Aaron Judge preparing for the World Baseball Classic?
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Welcome back. This is episode 514 of the NYYST podcast. We're presented by NYY Underground. I'm your host, Christian. We're recording here on Saturday evening. About an hour ago, the Yankees put on a 20-3 beatdown to the Detroit Tigers in their spring home opener. And I said, you know what, let's talk a little Yankee baseball here.
Let's rest and relax on Sunday because it does look like after we finally got rid of all this goddamn snow up here in New Jersey, we're set to get about a foot and a half of it Sunday into Monday, which is just awesome. Just completely awesome. I just love it so much that hopefully when you are listening to this on Monday morning on your favorite podcast platform,
It was a bunch of false hype, I guess you could say, and not closer to the snow totals that they are now predicting. This thing went from maybe, you know, 1 to 3 inches to now they're predicting 12 to 15 where I'm at, which, like I said, we just had a nice week of weather here.
We had some rain, warmer temps, got rid of 80% of the snow that had been accumulated over the course of the winter, and now it looks like we're going to get another foot and a half. So I said, you know what? Just watched the Yankee first spring training game at home. First game broadcast on. Yes. Let's talk a little Yankee baseball and I could just chill out on Sunday.
But hopefully, you know, fingers crossed this thing goes the other way. And, you know, maybe like an inch or two. And when you listen to this on Monday morning, you're like, hey, you know what? You guys locked we locked out here, but I don't know. All I'm saying is that it doesn't look good right now.
But what would look really good is if you hit subscribe on this very podcast platform you're listening to me on right now. And you would be subscribed to all new episodes of the NYYST podcast dropping Monday mornings at 6 a.m. And also all new episodes of The Thrill of the Fight 50 Years of Rocky, which drop Wednesday.
at 7 p.m currently right now you can listen to episode 6 which covers rocky 5 apparently i triggered a lot of bots with my social media clip from rocky 5 so if you're wondering why uh that happened you can go back and listen to that episode and also this morning you don't usually record twice in a day but you know this morning we recorded episode 7 covering rocky balboa
My personal all-time favorite movie, although it probably won't be my personal all-time favorite podcast that I ever recorded. A large part of that had to do with my dog and a missing Cheeto. But if you listen to that, when that comes out on Wednesday, you'll put the pieces together there. So you can subscribe there. Follow me on TikTok at Christian.NYYST.
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Chapter 3: What are the Yankees' plans for Anthony Volpe in 2027?
The spring has begun. Aaron Judge looks like he's in midseason form. Two home runs in Saturday's game. The second one, not as extreme, but kind of was reminiscent of the ALDS home run that he hit against Toronto. Inside pitch, you know, going down the line there. So fond memories of that. The only fond memories you really have of the Yankees in that ALDS there.
So he looks like he is in midseason form already, getting ready for the WBC, which he'll be leaving for shortly. which we haven't really talked a ton about here. There are a bunch of Yankees going to the WBC. David Bednar is going to be his teammate on Team USA, which we all know is a Yankee closer. Caballero is going to be playing. Wells is going to be playing.
Another big reliever for them, two of them actually, Fernando Cruz and Camille Duvall. So their top three relievers are going to be in the WBC. I think there's 11 altogether. Harrison Cohen is pitching for Team Israel. Which I think he'll have a role on this team. It's uncertain whether or not he's going to make the team.
I think he will have a role in the bullpen based on some of the things I've been hearing and seeing.
Chapter 4: What challenges does Anthony Volpe face this season?
11 guys in total. I don't think I mentioned all 11, but... Those are the guys that are coming to the top of my head. So I know a lot of people are kind of worried about Aaron Judge playing in the WBC and, you know, got to keep him healthy, got to keep him fresh and ready for the regular season, which, look, normally I'd be like, yeah, I do agree with that.
I don't really like my Yankee players in the WBC, especially the pitchers. Pitchers are always behind position players, and it's kind of easier to ramp up and go hit than it is ramp up and go pitch in these competitive environments. I think the WBC is going to be a hell of a lot of fun this year.
I had a great time watching it three years ago, especially the final game, the championship game when Otani got Mike Trout. That was high drama. That was as fun as any postseason game I've ever watched, not including the New York, that has not included the New York Yankees. So I'm really looking forward to it, and especially that Aaron Judge is the captain of Team USA.
He's going to be kind of the face of this whole thing. Hopefully Team USA has a big, deep run here. Aaron Judge is a big part of that. They do bring home the gold medal championship. I know he called it going for the gold today when he was speaking with Meredith. They call it the championship, I guess. I don't remember, to be honest with you. Hopefully, they do bring it home this year.
Aaron Judge is a big part of that.
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Chapter 5: How does Carlos LeGranje fit into the Yankees' pitching strategy?
I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully, everybody comes back healthy and ready to go for the 2026 season. Anything can happen. I know you look at what happened to Edwin Diaz a few years ago, but The injuries can happen anywhere, and while I would rather them happen if they were to happen in Yankee camp, I don't know.
I got a different mindset about this thing after how much fun it was last time around in that Aaron Judge is doing it now, and he's the captain of Team USA, and I want to see him donning the red, white, and blue and leading us to a WBC championship. So...
You know, fingers crossed everything goes well, and he's back in Yankee camp right after that, and he has two championships he's hoisted this year. So the captain looked like in full MVP form this year. I want to talk about a couple of young guys that we saw on display in Saturday's game, one of them being Carlos Ogranje, which is...
He is somebody that is very, very intriguing to me in the sense that I know the Yankees are right now ramping him up to be a starter, to be maybe one of those break glass in case of emergency type guys. But I think the more intriguing thing would be to see what he can do out of the bullpen, be almost like the Yankees' Mason Miller. I mean, he was pumping 100 consistently.
All day long today, he does have 103 in his back pocket, as we all saw on social media when he got judged on it during practice the other day. So he's a guy that throws hard. What I saw today is a guy that does need work. We know LeBron needs work on throwing strikes, which, hey, he's a big guy.
You know, we've seen guys like Randy Johnson struggle with control early on with all those moving parts in his career, and he turned out to be a Hall of Famer. We can only hope so much for Carlos LeGranje. I know people are likening him to Michael Pineda, which if you're a Yankee fan, you're just like, maybe I don't want to make that comparison.
But I think as long as Carlos LeGranje doesn't smear pine tar all over his neck, he should be fine. I see a fastball that's got good velocity. This is what I saw today, okay? Somebody might be listening to this and tell me that I'm way off base. I don't know what I'm talking about. This is what I saw today. The first time that I really in-depth watched Carl Sogranje and saw him pitch.
I saw a fastball that has a lot of velocity but doesn't have a lot of movement or life on it, I should say, which is kind of weird to say about 100%. But, you know, you look at a guy like Cam Schlittler and Gary Cole where they have high velocity, but they also have late life on the fastball. I didn't really witness that a lot today.
And so it's maybe something he can work on or just didn't have it today. A lot of his off-speed stuff, change-up sliders were up in the zone. Again, something that maybe was just happening today. And you would like to obviously see that stuff down in the zone. He did have one nasty 93-mile-an-hour change-up that just completely fell off the table today. So the raw ability is there.
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Chapter 6: What are the expectations for Spencer Jones this year?
That's a weapon most teams don't have coming out of the bullpen with that strikeout stuff that he's shown in the minor league. So it'll be interesting to see how he develops this year and what the Yankees' ultimate goal is for him because we saw Elmer Rodriguez pitch yesterday.
Actually, I didn't see it because it was on the app and I wasn't home, but he's another highly touted pitching prospect for the Yankees. For me, The way I'm reading things, I think more so he will be left to his own devices to be a starter, where to me personally, I think that LeGron, he might transition more into a bullpen role.
Again, I could be wrong, but that's the way I'm reading things at this moment. Also, we saw Spencer Jones today. We talked about Spencer Jones on this show in the past. And what's his future here? He's 24 years old. He's obviously in that same judge camp of being an older guy because he went to college. At this point, Aaron Judge was already in the big leagues.
It doesn't look like Spencer Jones is making the team out of camp. And honestly, you shouldn't want Spencer Jones to make the team out of camp because that means there's injuries. And probably multiple injuries because I would think Jason Dominguez would be ahead of him.
On the depth chart, and he should be, really, because we know that Jason Dominguez can be X in the minor leagues where we haven't seen Spencer Jones at all. I mean, in the major leagues where we haven't seen Spencer Jones at all in the major leagues. But what we witnessed today from Spencer Jones is the big question about him. The power is there. OK, the power is there for Spencer Jones.
He's exhibited all the way through his minor league career. And he crushed the ball four away out of Steinbrenner field today. So first time you see him, you're like, there it is. That's the thing the Yankees are hoping for. That's the thing that keeps everybody coming back. That's the thing that everybody's hopeful for. But then the big question is, can he cut down the strikeouts enough?
to where he can be an even okay major league hitter I don't think with his defensive ability and his athleticism and his power, you don't need him to hit 260, 270. Can I get 230, 240 and not be Joey Gallo? Because I'm hearing that name in comparison to Spencer Jones, and that's scary as a Yankee fan.
Because Joey Gallo had a couple 900 OPS seasons before he got here, and then what happened to him once he got here? Now, what does that mean he wasn't built for New York and not sabotage his whole career? Well, we've seen guys like Sonny Gray not be great here and then reestablish themselves outside of here. Well, that didn't happen with Joey Gallo.
So maybe Joey Gallo had a window in Texas and then the league caught up to him and that was it. Can the Yankees even get a couple 900 OPS seasons or close to from Spencer Jones before it all bottoms out on him? I don't know. But then in his next two at-bats, what does he do? Strikes out.
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Chapter 7: How does Jazz Chisholm's attitude impact team dynamics?
So you've seen it today from Spencer Jones, the power in the strikeouts. You know, the thing with Spencer Jones that keeps everybody coming back is the power, the power, the power, the power, and the fact that he is a really good center fielder, the athleticism, the power in the athleticism, the ability to play center field.
And so maybe you think that you can slot right in the center field next year when Trent Christian finally takes a walk away from the New York Yankees. Hopefully, because again, who the hell knows with this team? So he can slide right in there, play great defense in center field, and hit 40 home runs. But is he going to strike out at a 30%, 40% clip? We don't know.
And today, I mean, yeah, Texas, Detroit wasn't throwing Verlander, Scooble, and Valdez at him, but he still showed the power in the strikeouts. So again, it remains to be seen. This is something that we're going to watch this year because I think this is it. This is the final year you can keep Spencer Jones in the minor leagues.
So by 2027 rolls around, you're going to have to figure out what you're going to do with him, which always comes back to Jason Dominguez. And if you listen to the game at all today, you heard Kay and Cone push that he's going to start the season in AAA narrative, that there's no room for him. And because of...
You know, Bellinger and Grisham being back and there's just not going to be the bats for him and you don't want and you don't want him to sit on the bench and you need to play every day and all that nonsense that you keep hearing from him from everybody. But then they keep prefacing by it. But it's a long spring and you don't know who's going to get hurt and blah, blah, blah.
Look.
I just knocked my headphones out. You don't know. That's true. You don't know what's going to happen throughout the course of spring. Anything can happen. We would love G to be healthy on day one. Is it a given that G's healthy on day one? No. So could Dominguez make the team by default? But who's your fourth outfielder?
I mean, honestly, you're looking at a scenario where the Yankees really don't have a fourth outfielder if they send Dominguez down to AAA. It's not coming to the top of my head right now. I know you have guys, you have these all first base outfielder types, the 40 of them that Brian Cashman picked up in the offseason.
So maybe one of them, you'd rather have one of them sitting on the bench than you would Jason Dominguez. But I think there are ways to work Jason Dominguez into the lineup a couple of times a week. The Yankees are going to be committed to Trent Grisham more than they were at the beginning of last year, but I'm not committed to Trent Grisham at all.
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Chapter 8: What are the fans' expectations for the Yankees' championship run?
Because... I don't want to assume everybody's stupid, but it's also social media, so people have shown themselves to be pretty stupid at times. So I had to do my investigating, and Joel Sherman speculated that the New York Yankees could in fact start Anthony Volpe, a healthy Anthony Volpe, in AAA when the season starts. Now, there's a multitude of reasons why they would do this.
Now, number one, it was preferenced by if Jose Caballero was playing well. What is Jose Caballero playing well? What is that definition? Is it hitting 250, 720 OPS? He stole 10 bags already in the first month of the season, playing stellar defense. Is that playing well? Does it need to be more than that? A guy's hitting 280, closer to an 800 OPS?
what's the definition of him playing well, number one? We need to know that, okay? Because to me, I have a hard time believing that Jose Caballero, even hitting 940, is going to keep Anthony Volpe from taking shortstop back when he is healthy.
Number two, there is a report out there that if Volpe spends, because of the rehab assignment and his accrued service time, if he spends like 20 days in AAA, the Yankees will get another year of service time. Now, the Yankees haven't cared about manipulating Anthony Volpe's service time at all throughout the course of his tenure here. They've ran him out there every friggin' day.
So why do they care now? That's another point. To me, why would they care now about manipulating his service time? If they've invested so much into him being the franchise shortstop, why now? Unless they're finally going to be ready to admit that this has been a failure thus far. Also, Pete, the point of him, the pressure, the pressure is going to be taken off of Anthony Volpe.
I think a healthy Anthony Volpe starting the season in AAA, only adds more pressure to him. Because now he has to come up right away and prove this. And now he's had this elephant sitting on his shoulder for three weeks or a month or whatever it is that the Yankees have decided that he's not good enough to take his job back healthy. And now...
I think he's going to be, to me, I think he's going to be pressing whether he starts on day one or day 40, whatever it is. I think he's going to be pressing. I think he's going to be pressing just that much more to prove that the Yankees were wrong by keeping him healthy while healthy in AAA. That's my opinion. I don't see it happening.
I need to see the Yankees actually do this before I believe that a healthy Anthony Volpe will be playing AAA games. that an Anthony Volpe not on a rehab assignment will be playing AAA games.
I need to see that actually happen before I believe it because nothing the New York Yankees have done in the history of Anthony Volpe's career have proven that they will admit failure or do anything other than put Anthony Volpe at shortstop. We've seen it now for three, four years. Yeah. Excuse me, three years that he's been here. It's his job. Heller High Water, he's playing shortstop.
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