There was Kevin Maas and Shayne Spencer. Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Hideki Irabu. Shelley Duncan and Greg Bird. The Yankees can boast the most championships in major league history and also that the franchise is the greatest of all-time at producing overhyped prospects.
Any Yankees minor-leaguer who arrives in the Bronx with a bit of pedigree or touch of early success is inevitably elevated to future legend status. Maas was the next Lou Gehrig when he hit 21 home runs in half a season in 1990. He only hit 44 more home runs with the Yankees over the next three seasons, becoming more the next Steve Balboni than Gehrig. So it’s easy to eye-roll whenever a Yankees rookie starts grabbing headlines. The natural reaction is to ignore it and wait for the inevitable collapse to come.
But if you’re doing that this year you’re missing a Yankees rookie that actually happens to be worth watching. Gary Sanchez, called up to the big club in early August as the Yankees embarked on their youth movement, is doing legendary things. It’s hard to find a hitting record the 23-year old catcher doesn’t hold for the first month of a career. He’s the first player to hit 11 home runs in his first 23 games, has the highest OPS in history through a player’s first 100 plate appearances, is leading baseball in WAR since the start of August and is the first American League player to win three consecutive player of the week honors since Albert Belle in 1998. There’s no over-hyping total dominance. You can say we’ve seen it before with a Yankees call-up, but baseball hasn’t seen anything quite like this in history.
Sanchez is playing so well that he’s helped the Yankees stay on the fringe of the wildcard race more than a month after the front office completely gave up on the season. And while his production at the plate draws all the attention, his play behind the plate is outstanding compared to most 23-year olds at the position. He can hold a spot in the majors on that alone even when he stops hitting major league pitching like he’s a 6ft 2in kid in the Little League World Series. The Yankees undoubtedly have their catcher of the future and they may even have a guy who can develop the “leadership” and “intangibles” that made Derek Jeter’s name holy words in the Bronx.
New Yorkers never quit. Neither will we @Yankees. Please keep coming out to support. Thank you. #YankeesDontQuit #IamGary
— Gary Sanchez (@ElGarySanchez) August 27, 2016
He is Gary. He is not just the latest Yankees hype creation.
Video of the week
was watching some video and came across this steven wright pitch from a few nights ago.
— Joon Lee (@iamjoonlee) August 30, 2016
holy crap. pic.twitter.com/l6ZEc46n9Z
Seeing a Steven Wright knuckleball move like that is hard to comprehend. It’s nearly as baffling as the question from the old Steven Wright joke: “OK, so what’s the speed of dark?”
Quote of the week
I would give him the same advice I would be asking for right now. I would sit with him face-to-face and then tell him the things that he has been doing wrong, the things he should do better to be a better teammate and stay in the big leagues.
– Yasiel Puig, Dodgers minor leaguer, on what he would tell his younger self if he could
Good for Puig if he feels like he has matured and become more professional since getting demoted to Oklahoma City. But it’s fiction that he was sent to the minors because he was a bad teammate. He had a .706 OPS with the Dodgers this year before he was demoted. He wasn’t playing good baseball, so they sent him to play baseball somewhere else. In his rookie year of 2013 his teammate skills were no better, but his OPS was .925. If Puig ever gets to speak to his younger self, he should tell Young Puig to stay really good at baseball because then he can behave however he wants to.
Who’s closer to victory: Donald Trump or the Cubs?
Hillary Clinton’s unfavorable numbers are way up again after her latest email controversy , forcing the world to again face the truly terrifying prospect of a President Trump. The Cubs keep rolling along, but they’ll have to get through a postseason tournament that includes nine other very good teams. Trump just has to beat one Hillary Clinton to win it all. That’s like the Cubs only having to get past the Twins to win the World Series. This week’s advantage goes to Trump.
How did the kids piss off Goose Gossage this week?
Three minor league players, two in the Pirates system and one with the Tigers, got in an altercation at a bar in Toledo, Ohio, this week when a bartender reportedly dumped out the drink of Indianapolis infielder Gift Ngoepe at last call. No one can speak for Goose Gossage here – speaking for someone is likely against a code – but I think we can all agree that a bartender dumping out a patron’s drink unprovoked is wrong. The three players ultimately were arrested and charged with assault, but at least they will never be charged with violating the unwritten rules of going to a bar.
Nine thoughts in order
1. Tim Tebow held his (much-anticipated?) baseball workout on Tuesday in Los Angeles. One National League scout said off-the-record that he “sucked,” while another NL scout said “he hit some bombs, just bombs. Talk about exit speed off the bat. It was amazing.” No one knows where Tebow’s career will take him next, but we can be sure that no matter what he does, exactly half the people will think he’s great and the other half will insist he’s the worst ever.
2. A pitcher in the KBO named Lim Chang-yong came up with a great new way to hold runners on the base without needing fielders to cover the bag: just throw the baseball at the baserunner’s head.
KIA's Lim Chang-yong's been suspended for 3 games & must complete 120 hours of community service for this 'pick-off' pic.twitter.com/VXRx1P6sVK
— Dan (@MyKBO) August 29, 2016
A three-game suspension for innovation? Outrageous. Geniuses are so rarely appreciated in their time.
3. Max Scherzer has taken a no-hitter into the sixth inning nine times now since joining the Nationals last season. As baseball continues to search for ways to speed up the game, this fact presents a fairly obvious one: in all Max Scherzer games, just skip the first five half-innings in which he would pitch. That’s 30 minutes saved right there. You’re welcome, baseball.
4. Bartolo Colon had two hits in his last start to become the second-oldest Mets player in history to get two hits in a single game. Colon will break Julio Franco’s record during the 2021 season when he is 48 and hits two triples. Then maybe people will finally believe me that Bartolo is the greatest athlete in the sport.
5. The Rangers are now 30-8 in one-run games this season, putting them on pace to best the 2012 Orioles for the best winning percentage in one-run games in baseball history. Impressive. But that Baltimore team didn’t make it out of the first round of the playoffs. And despite having the best record in the American League and the second-best mark in all of baseball, the Rangers are only tied for 13th in run differential at plus-9. Run differential is the stat that tells if a team is truly dominant – the Cubs are plus-221, for example – while winning one-run games is often a function of luck. The Rangers are going to make the playoffs, but they’re going to need a lot of luck to do anything there. For a team that has never once had even a hint of postseason luck, that’s a daunting fate.
6. Carlos Beltran spent the last two and a half seasons with the Yankees before getting traded to the Rangers at the deadline. The Yankees have long had strict requirements about player hair; the Rangers clearly don’t have any such policy.
BARBER: what'll it be?
— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) August 28, 2016
CARLOS BELTRAN: Lather it up with some engine sludge
BARBER: Say no more pic.twitter.com/aFJBPEHhYS
You don’t have to like the Yankees. But the organization can’t be all bad if it prevent disasters like Beltran’s paint hair from occurring.
7. The Mets took the first two games of their series this week with Marlins to stay right in the thick of the wildcard race, but pitcher Noah Syndergaard did not appreciate seeing fans do the wave.
Very happy we won....but I want the name and address of the person who started the "Wave" tonight. #banthewave #resisttheurge
— Noah Syndergaard (@Noahsyndergaard) August 31, 2016
This is a losing battle for Syndergaard. Most fans like the wave. There are only a few, the brave, who sit while all those around them stand. Like this Blue Jays fan.
it's not lit. pic.twitter.com/Yc7ck1kVCu
— Scott Johnson (@_scottjohnson) August 28, 2016
8. Major League rosters expand today, giving teams the option to grow from 25 players to 40. It’s an odd time as contending teams suddenly have their playoff fates tied to lesser players who days ago were toiling away in forgotten towns. Or maybe it’s not that odd. MLB lets the Twins and Braves and Reds have an impact on World Series homefield via the All-Star Game, so why not spread that approach out over an entire month.
9. Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the national anthem is probably the biggest sports-related anthem controversy since Roseanne Barr screeched the song – punctuating the performance with a crotch grab and spit – before a San Diego Padres game in 1990.
It was so bad that then-president George HW Bush called it “disgraceful.” But it wasn’t without its positive qualities. For example, Roseanne had the courtesy to sing the anthem that way before the invention of Facebook, so no one had to deal with their aunt angrily posting about it four times a day for a week.
