Aaron Boone Says Ben Rice is Very Valuable Off the Bench | 1345

Today is April 14th. The Yankees snapped their five-game losing streak with a wild win against the Angels. We're talking to Boone. All about it. Hello and welcome to Talkin' Yanks. Thank you very much for joining us today. It's brought to you by Fanatics Sportsbook. My name is Jimmy. His name is Jake. BBD behind the dish. Thankfully, the Yankees came back and won last night and snapped the skid, so we didn't have to go into this convo with Booney on a six-game loser and a lot of questions, although we did still ask about the bullpen, the bottom of the order, and a lot of stuff you're interested in. Jake, how do you do? James, Davis, everyone tuning in. Yeah, that's a little behind the curtains that a lot of the talking lengths, you yissiners, know. Is that we can't speak and the other thing they know is like we don't for the Boone interviews we don't love going old school WFAN mode although that comes up a little bit in the interview let me know if you find it time stamp it if you do that yeah Yankees on an L6 if they had blown a four nothing lead like Jimmy and I would have had a little bit of a pit in our stomach coming into the interview. We still, the bullpen, some of the defensive lapses. And, I don't know, talking about it beforehand when we were like, what can we ask? I mean, you know, the bullpen. A, we have a new player joining the team, so that's potentially exciting. And... I don't know. You can't replace the whole bullpen. So, yeah, we got some good questions and some good answers in there. Something with the depth and the infield rotation that's going to become louder and louder going forward. But it ended up being a healthy discussion. I think both sides were a little nervous of how haywire it could go. And I think we got productive and then ended a little silly even. It's still early. It's still early. So there's certain parts of this team I am like, it's early. And I agree. And let him, like, some of the top of the offense, you know? Like, you know, even Jazz, I do think he'll start hitting and playing to who he is. Grisham, then there's, and there, okay, so if I had to rank it, not really worried about that. Bottom of the lineup, concerned. Understand you can't do anything drastic right now. Bullpen, almost like. A week away from, hey, you have to do something drastic. Right. Like, you really got to change this up because you don't got the pieces to allow to just play out. Yes. And they did make one move today, which, I don't know, is really results-based or just kind of like need fresh arms-based, but. A little bit of both. Yeah. A little bit of both. Yeah. So, that's what we talked to Boone about. Yeah. Crazy win last night. We'll talk about that a little bit afterwards and recap what Boone says. Cheers. Come on. MLB season is in full swing and the weather's finally getting warmer. It was like warm yesterday. I would have loved to be at the game. If I had bought myself tickets, I would have used SeatGeek and I would have used code Yanks2026 to get myself 10% off. That's code Yanks2026 for 10% off your next set of tickets at SeatGeek. Go to the app. Find out where you want to sit. I'm going to go right now. You like numbers or do you like colors? Doesn't matter. They have both. They let you know if you're getting a good value seat and they're giving you 10% off when you use code Yanks. 2026 helps us out, helps you out, helps everybody out. Go Yanks in 2026. That's how you remember the code. Thanks, SeatGeek. Welcome back to Bantering with Boone presented by T-Mobile. Skip, we're back. Score. Scoreboard flips to 10-8 last night. Is there any fear that you have to deal with us in the morning? Um, no. Okay. Fair. It would have been more of the drive home. Oh, geez. Yeah. All right. How long does a game like that keep you up afterwards? Is there like adrenaline going or, you know, at this point, you're able to wind down from anything? Yeah. So, I mean, that was another, I don't even know how long it was, three and a half hours, 340. You know, we had the longest nine inning game in the. Yeah, 336. A couple of weeks ago. So crazy like that. Yeah. It took me a while to get to actually leave, leave the park yesterday. You know, we had to make a move and, uh, you know, so last night was a late one by the time I got home, but I'm able to wind down. I watch, I watch a few things when I, right when I get home for about 15, 20 minutes and then I go to bed. And, uh, so I got a decent night's sleep. What are you watching before bed? Selling Sunset. Oh, no, no, no. Just stuff on our game. I like to re-watch a couple things. Like, I'll watch our post-game interviews and stuff with guys. Yeah. Nice. Well, real quick, we heard the bird news. Is there a corresponding move that you can break to us right now? De Los Santos will be coming up today. Gary's coming back? Gary, Gary. Some heat in the bullpen. And then I'll just skip right to this conversation because you just led me to it. You go home, you watch players' interviews. You had one that you had to come back and talk about the next day, the past week. Doesn't always happen. So are you going home to wind down and you watch Jazz chatting with the reporters knowing, oh boy. I got it. Well, this is something, or how does that go down from your side? I mean, usually I'm not watching to see like, you're not checking it. You're not. Yeah. So very rarely am I going to the next day, you know, but although that was, that was one of them. Um, So yeah, we talked about that a little bit. Yeah, you talked about it, and we talked about it on our show. The first sentence Jazz says is basically the correct answer. He says, I wanted to tag the guy and throw it to first. All right. Then the whole rest of it is a headache. And it's a headache if it's true. You know, I don't know the rules. Or it's a headache if that's something he's presenting to people as like a... Defense mechanism or something? Yeah, it's just there in front of your locker. Yes, that's all it is. He very much knows it. What about the play, the infield play in general against the Rays? They bunted on you guys eight times. I mean, obviously they have speed. They have, a lot of them were an attempt to move a runner, and then they ended up being safe as well because they have speed and put it down. What goes into defensive alignments? Is there a single one of those bunts that goes to the whiteboard with the coaching staff and the players the next day? Or, you know, hey, we got to rework this. What was the post aftermath of all those bunts? And kind of like one no one covered first, one they just got beat. Yeah, one the Simpson, one down the line where if you have any kind of Any kind of hiccup, he's going to beat it. That's the one where Rosie kind of double-clutched a little bit. Hedrick didn't handle one at him, I think, in the first game of that series. The, the, the... The safety squeezes, if executed, you're not really defending. Benny came home with it because when he really had no play, so probably just taking the play at first, although that's kind of the game there. So I think a lot of things just lined up to where they had situations lined up, teed up for them, the right personnel on the bases and at the plate. Yeah. What about the Bednar one? He goes home with it. Rice, Jazz, and Bednar all crashed the ball. You know, we don't know the answer, but someone's got to cover first, right? Yes, but that's a moot point once we go home. Like Bednar, it's kind of the winning run there. He's coming home with it. But yes, in that situation, because we have the first baseman in and because the pitchers are crashing there, yeah, we have the second baseman go to first. Okay, so if you play the Rays again or another team, more teams are bunting than ever now. Is this something that's in the back pocket of like, you know, Playing in more, I don't know, is there a way to defend it, or is it just you scratch your head and say they're going to do it? Like a first and third safety squeeze, you know, it's why you hear, like, well-executed, it's sort of indefensible. Well, is that something then that the Yankees should, like, you know, we're not a bunting squad. You guys aren't really a bunting squad. Always been fire, power, patience, and pop. Do you see that and say, hey, I like that weapon? We do safety squeeze every now and then. But an executed safety squeeze first and third is very, very... I mean, you're going to get an out, so you're giving up an out, typically. But executed, meaning putting the bunt down correctly, is going to be successful, typically. Anything else on the defense? I was looking it up. The infield defense, it's not been what we expected with McMahon, Cabby, and Jazz right now. There's been some shining plays. But right now, Yankees lead the league in infield singles against. There's been just a lot of plays, either make the stop, can't make the throw, or just runner beats the dribbler. Yeah, I mean, I don't know how all the ones were ruled, but probably a couple of those are contributing to that. I feel like Caballero the last week has been playing really well at short. He's made some really good plays. Jazz has made a couple good plays. We didn't make the play to finish the game on the chopper by Aranda, Great, you know, just great raise. Like, there's a little fortune to that. Like, you know, not lining up. So, and Mack, I feel, I always feel great about it. Third, there's been a couple where he's been in, where they, you know, slapped the ball by him, where we are taking the way or honoring the bunt. So those, you know, you got to live with a little bit too. Hey, we got a lot of Yankee questions, and guys aren't going to care about this super much, but have you seen anyone play baseball with Chandler Simpson's speed? Because I don't know, man. Like, with how his arms and legs move, it feels different than baseball speed. It feels like he's on the wrong court. Yeah, it's impressive, I mean, how that next level fast he is. And then when he, you know, he hit the ball really well against us, too. Like, it was... You know, extra base hits, which turns into triple, not a double, you know, obviously gets on. He's going. So it's, I played with Dion. Okay. That's a good one. Cincinnati. So, you know, Dion was like that a little bit, but it is, he is another level fast. Let's, um. Speaking of speed, hey, Volpe, rehab starts tonight, right? What do we need to know about the rehab plan and process with him, or when's he going to get the good to go? Yeah, so my guess is this week will probably be four games. He'll probably play tonight, off tomorrow, play back-to-back, and then probably play Sunday would be my guess. Thinking that we've got lined up for him this weekend. Probably this week, like, first few games will be three to five innings. Maybe by Sunday it's, you know, five, six innings. And then I don't know if we'll transfer him to Scranton the following week where it will be four or five games in that five to seven range, kind of. And then we'll see where we are that following week. That's kind of the layout right now. The bullpen has kind of been coming up. It's an interesting thing. Doval struggled last night. We gave up three different leads. There's not many. You're using everyone, right? I don't know how much there is besides riding it out. Well, take out last night. The bullpen has been really good overall. Yeah, I, yeah, Bednar. Doval has... I think Doval has a seven ERA and I know bullpen ERA is always tough. I'm actually, I hate bullpen ERA, but I think he's got three now in a row where, um, and a couple that he didn't give up runs. He had to get taken out. Like he didn't finish his job and had to come out early. I feel like Camilo is throwing the ball. Well, even last night, you know, I. I look at him, and the stuff is there, the strike throwing's there. Like, I feel like he's set up right now to be successful. I think part of the tough part of last night, which was a little unfair to him, is he pitches yesterday. Then I got to go to him today, or he pitches two days ago. So it's a back-to-back with a two-up, which we don't do a lot with him. But last night was obviously, you know, unique, and you're up against it a lot. So that's a little bit of a tough scenario, you know. Trout is a different animal on that pitch down, like pretty good slider. He executes after a lot of good, you know, fastballs and cutters. So I do feel, I understand there's been some inconsistent results there, but like in my brain, I feel like Camilo's throwing the ball really well. And there's reason to be excited about it moving forward. And what about Bednar? His velo's down. I mean, he's obviously got some long outings. Mile an hour. It's April. Yeah. I'm not worried about that either. Bus is going to be fine. Okay. But do you think that has anything to do with just overuse? Not overuse, but. He's been playing really well. What's that? I said, do you think Velo or anything, like, he's been in some long games. Like, he had one quick one, which was nice, but he's hit 30 pitches more than he's hit, than he hasn't, I think. Yeah, the two long games. So, he went 40 pitches, two days off, 33 pitches, two days off, and then he went back-to-back. So we, and then we. We had him down for two days. So, yes, those first two outings of 40 and 33 were not ideal and something that we were trying to kind of, you know, make sure we overcompensated a little bit. But I think Bus is in a really good spot too. There's some things mechanically that probably blended a little bit to the down velo, but I feel like his pitches are there and where they need to be. He'll get taken off here, too. Are you saying bus? Yeah, we call him bus. Okay. I like that. Yeah. It kind of works, so we're good. You think you're seeing, I mean, we've seen the RB pitch one inning at a time now, which, you know, isn't what I think. He pitched two last time. Yeah, but shorter outings, I guess, in general is what I'm saying. And Blackburn comes in for the ninth. They're down two. He actually pitches a six-pitch ninth inning. Do you have to get those guys in the mix more in shorter outings? I feel like the strategy was to have some long men in the pen. Yeah. But with how many close games, every loss is a one-run loss, how many close games, I wonder if you start thinking we've got to use these guys more just to take the risk of the other guys. Yeah, I mean, that makes them up. I feel like they can serve both roles. Thank There's certainly shorter lefty lane roles for yards, but we do want to try as best we can to keep some of his length. That's really valuable too. Thank you. And then Blackburn I would put in a similar category because you feel good about Paul going through any righty or lefty lane you. as kind of a neutral guy. It was good to have him be really efficient last night He's a little bit of your length today, so maybe cut into some of that length out of him today, but certainly available. Is there... Call ourselves out a little bit. Anything going on with Goldie? There's been a couple games where he's been the last guy on the bench, and this is literally us being couch doctors. In the Tampa game where he was the last guy on the bench, you looked more ready to go in the game that you had the full uni on. I don't know if you were trying to get the losing. What's the last one? The Sunday? I believe so. It was either Saturday or Sunday. Oh, no, he's more than ready. Okay. He goes down and hits, and then he comes up and throws a sweatshirt on, so that makes him look like he's not ready. Okay. I would. The one on Sunday just came down to I didn't want to lose the DH and put Judge into the game, and, you know, after I hit Giancarlo and Wells there in the seventh. I didn't have another move to make unless I was going to put Judge in the game and lose the DH, and so that, yeah. Yeah, okay. A couple seasons ago, you told us that you do treat the older 30-year-olds a little different in April. So we didn't know maybe if, like, getting him hot quickly was kind of off the board early in the season. It only happened. Yeah, okay. That's what we were wondering. Like, there was, I think, two times where we thought he was going to pinch hit. I think the one night. Was it the first night? You know, one I probably should have fired him. Offensively, bizarre numbers. It's such a small sample size. I totally understand that. But, you know, ranking lasts in a lot of things. And some guys, besides Grish, who just popped off last night, none of the other guys has kind of been, like, giving us, like, well, there's something. Like, that's going to build upon itself. You know, Grisham is not striking out. He's walking and hitting the ball hard. And that came to fruition last night. But the rest, it's kind of, I'm scratching my head, like, what's going on here? Judge had a quote, like, I think we need to be more aggressive. Or he said the opposite. He said, we need to stop just swinging everything and find our pitch. But you guys are the third lowest in zone swing. Like, it's, the stats kind of go opposite of what Judge said. And I was different. Look, you stick a microphone on somebody's face right after a game, like. I know. I get it. We talk right after the game and say things the next morning. We're like, oh, man. I mean, it's like, you know, look, it's, I think the point Judge is making is, like, keeping it simple right now where you're simplified. Like, you want to get going individually, and guys start chasing results, and that's when you start to press a little bit. It's like, man, as best you can, and the challenge of it is focus on the at-bat, keeping it simple, getting your pitch. And I know over time when we do that, we're going to be fine and we're going to hit our stride. So no question some guys have started out struggling. I do feel like Wells is at bat the last handful of days, starting to get to where I like to see him, where I feel like he's on a lot of pitches right now. Um, you know. Jazz has had some at-bats, you know, some lefties have given him some trouble, but I feel like even in the Tampa series, he's been on time for some things, got some pitches to handle, and has just missed them. So, you know, clearly we've got to get some guys rolling. Like you said, I feel like Grish's at-bats have been solid throughout, even though he hasn't got a lot of results from it. We're going to hit. Thank Hopefully, last night's a little springboard into that. Have you or anyone in the organization considered warmer gloves for Jazz? He said, it's just that my hands are cold. The cold weather, he said, it's not an excuse. you. It's just what it is. So I was wondering, you're inventing torpedo bats. We should just invent some warm material, like a weighted blanket that he can wear underneath. Is that legal? We just got to grind through and deal with it. Okay, we'll be fine. I mean Brad can get like a blow dryer and like just you know get his hands warm right beforehand. Yeah Today's episode is sponsored by Shady Rays. Shady Rays are built for real sports fans, like me. No more squinting through the sun to track a fly ball when you already got your sun bows on. I wore my Shady Rays to opening day. Big ol' facts. And if you're looking for sunglasses, which you should, people, we're getting back to sun season. And whether you're at the ballpark, the golf course, watching the game on the outside patio, Shady Rays is there. And they're there with their lost and broken protection. If you lose or break them, even right after you get them, Shady Rays replaces them. No drama, no stress, no replacement guilt. Just a new pair headed your way. And when we team up with Shady Rays, we get you an exclusive offer. Head to ShadyRays.com. Use code YANKS40. 40% off two or more polarized sunglasses. So get yourself two or maybe go in with a frenzy. Hello. YANKS40. ShadyRays.com. 10-19 in the AM. We're joined by Aaron Boone, manager of the Yankees. He's good. Boone, you got Cole and Rodon, these updates. You know, both these guys are throwing near 50 pitches, but they're, you know, they're not throwing in real games. What's the next update with these guys? What does that do? That's the dog. It's kind of a shout-out to Mad Dog, I think. I think it's a tribute to Mad Dog. He doesn't ask questions. Mad Dog doesn't ask questions, though. He goes, you got Cole and Rodon throwing in the bullpen. Tell us about that. Like that. Yeah. What's happening? Yeah, so Garrett through Sunday. ...in Hudson Valley, 3-42, and then Carlos was yesterday, 3-50. So I think Garrett's going on a five-day, so he'll be, what's that, Friday? Friday. Friday. It could either be in a game or it could be another live. I think they're going to make that call here in the next couple days. And then Carlos... Probably another live, but could also be a game also, but he might be getting close to that 60 pitch mark. So, yeah, that's the next call. So one will be Friday, the other will be Saturday. So Rodon still, we came into the season with Rodon being mentally a month or so ahead of Cole. Again, it's all timelines, and we're doing the best we can. I think that's probably still accurate. Okay. Yeah. Okay. When Romano comes into the game last night, do you feel a bit of confidence? No shots fired against him, but you guys have ruined a lot of his save attempts over the years. I think five different times. Really? You've gotten to him. Yeah, Judge. I feel like he's had some success against us, too, where he's closed us out. So, I don't know. I mean, you always feel like you got a shot, and, you know, we get a base hit to start that inning, and it's... You know, we were able to put together a lot of really good at-bats, which was good to see. Like, to see us string together a lot of at-bats last night that were really good. Angels did the same thing, man. I thought they – because I thought Will Warren's stuff last night to start was excellent, and then they just – they got a beat on them. And, I mean, they were just having a tough at-bat for tough at-bat and then squared a few balls on them in a row, like with two strikes and two outs. So, um, But it was good to see us kind of have the level of at-bats we did last night throughout the night. Like even early, I feel like we could add eight, nine runs on the board. Like Rosie hits that, scalds the ball to center with the bases loaded for an out. Ritchick hits the ball that looks like it might be going out to center. So I thought our at-bats were really, really encouraging as a group. And hopefully it's something that kind of springboards us a little bit. It's fun to see Judge with a little emotion. Didn't like the up-and-in fastball. Hits a big shot afterwards. You don't usually see Judge, one, kind of like look at a pitcher in that way. Like, come on, dude. And usually he's really good at not showing that. Yeah, there were a couple up-and-in last night. Yeah, they kept, like, missing their first pitch. They had a couple of the season kind of up-and-in. So, yeah, that's a pretty good way to answer with a take the slider and stick it in the seats. I know you're going to have a. I'm going to poo-poo this, and I will too, but it's funny. Do you remember your first season managing? Judge hadn't pulled a home run, and it was becoming a talking point. Yeah, was that my first season? I feel like it was a little later. It was 2018 or 2019. I don't know which one. One. He hasn't gone to right field yet this season. The one in the drop doesn't count. That's center. I think it was dead center. Yeah. The way they look right to the right center to the right center. But you know what I mean? Short porch. Like he usually lets the ball travel deep. I am not worried, but it is of note. Cause he usually like when he pulls one. We were just like, oh, wow. Like, he was like, because he's usually letting it go deep and letting the ball travel. It was interesting that when, that's not a question, but it was a, that's, the public is not concerned. But when he hadn't pulled a home run a couple years ago, it was like a big talking point where Meredith ended up asking about him after the game. I do, yes. And Judge was like, what? But he actually hits the ball out in front almost better than anyone in the game. I mean, that was the hardest home run hit of the season. That ball was, I mean, that ball was torched. Giancarlo-esque. Giancarlo almost went down on a swing last night. Also not a question. I have a question. Are we going to get a Ben Rice catcher game anytime soon? Not soon. He caught Rodon's live, though, yesterday. Thank Don't feel like he's, like, I would put him in a game, like, if it. you so Came, you know, late for a couple innings, but I'm not ready to do them, you know, five, five plus innings yet. much for And part of that is, you know, like in spring, joining just wanting him to like really dive in the first and like, you know, get as many reps as he was still doing some of his catching stuff and us today. catching pens and things like that, but not quite ready to start them in a game yet. You have a ton of lefties coming up. Um, Rice has, I think started 10 of 13 and in two of the ones he didn't start, he got, he came in and got like two at bats. He's played a ton. Uh, he's also as hot as ever. He's his numbers reflect his expected numbers for the first time. And it's like very fun. Uh, the at bats are awesome. How do you juggle the next couple, you know, six games or so, I think four against lefties. Yeah. I mean, the, the unique part is not having him catching yet. And then like, What Goldie is against lefties, too. It's like, so my plan was to have Rice. Rice was going to play today against Detmers, especially Detmers being much more of a neutral lefty. Like, I don't mind any of our lefties against them. But, you know, the last two times where Goldie's played against the lefties, obviously it's impactful and good at bats and allows me to use him in those. But it also allows me to have Benny, like. As you've seen, I fired him really early and kind of leveraged really good Ben Rice at bats. So I'm doing that again today, but I wouldn't hesitate going to Benny almost immediately just because I have no worry about him facing a lefty as the game unfolds either. He's ready for that. But it also allows me to leverage in that batter too for Goldie where I like him. But he's going to get in there. He's going to play. And also having these couple in a row where Goldie hasn't played, and it gets him kind of playing and some regular A-Bs, which I think is valuable, too. How many games do you think you have managed that have been double-digit both teams? Can you remember? Twelve. No, see, we thought it was a good amount, too. That felt blind. That felt blind. How would I know that? Because those are crazy games. Now, the last one you won was an away game, one of the best endings. Minnesota? Yeah, that was the best. What was that final? The final, that was 14-12 in 10 innings. So that one, you know, what's funny is I feel like that might have been on the YES Network yesterday at some point during the day. I walked in my office and I saw Aaron Hicks diving for the ball. That was crazy. That was such a good ending. Yeah, you had... How many? Let's see. One in 2018 against Texas. One in 19 against the Red Sox. 17-3 win. How gross was the end of that game? That's not both teams double digits. 17-13? Did I say it wrong? 17-3. Sorry. 17-13. That had to be just a gross ending. Was that London? That was probably London, so that doesn't really count. Uh, and. And then 2019, you won that one in London. Tanaka, and who started for them? Pavetta? No. Pretty Ricky? Porcello, maybe? Yeah. And then... The Tigers in 2019, the 100-loss Tigers, you ended up losing 12-11. I looked at the box score of that game. The names are crazy. Chance Adams with the loss. And then last year, the Marlins, 13-12. So, four? One, two, three, four, five. This was your sixth. Wow. Yeah. It's pretty rare, especially two home runs from Trout, two home runs from Judge. That's crazy. Pinch run. Two off the bench. Two off the bench. That was a crazy game. Crazy. All right. Keep winning. I agree. We all agree. We always land on that. Uh... Trivia brought to you by T-Mobile. Booney, last night, Judge hit multiple home runs in a game for the 47th time in his career. Who did he pass on the Yankees list to get the number two spot last night, and who's in front of him? Mickey Mantle. He passed the Mick. I would say the Babes out there lurking. That's kind of where these lists normally land. And the fact that the big fellas. He's on a lot of black and white lists. Yeah. Yeah. That's when you know you're doing some big things, when they put you up on the board and three of the five pictures are in black and white. It's not bad. Yeah. It's not bad. All right. Anything else, Jimmer? No. Babe Ruth got to, he got to face starting pitchers like four times in a game. You ever seen those numbers? They were plumbers. Yeah, it's like you guys facing them. Hey! They were a little taller. Okay. Not all of them. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Babe Ruth. They were only throwing the straight ball. Babe Ruth versus a starter when he saw him four times in a game. 1.2 OPS, .729 slug, .354 batting average. Yeah. I don't think they had good alternatives to come in. No. They were just like guys you liked that couldn't start anymore. One more. All right, Boonie. I say you win again. Let's win. Win, baby. Yeah. See you, Skip. See you. Fanatic Sportsbook is the only place to swing for the fences this baseball season. Make every bet count at Fanatic Sportsbook. Earn up to 10% in FanCash on your wagers. Win or lose. FanCash is Fanatics' signature currency. Use it on authentic MLB merch from Fanatics.com. Exclusive experiences, profit boosts, and even bet with it like real cash. You're getting access to the world of sports every time you bet with Fanatic Sportsbook. They're also giving you daily profit boosts you can use on every hit, run, or throw. So every inning means a little more. And now, Fanatic Sportsbook is taking parlays to the next level with squad bets. Pick a market from hits, homers, runs, RBIs, total bases, strikeouts. Set a target goal, then build a squad of players to chase that number together. The difference is, if one game has a quiet game, But the rest of your squad rolls. Your bet's still alive all the way through. From first pitch to the final out, come see why winning hits different here with Fanatic Sportsbook. Okay, that was Aaron Boone, manager of the New York Yankees. Jake, there's one conversation that he had with us that I kind of want to chit-chat about. What a perfect forum. Yeah, so he let us know that Goldie is getting the start tonight. And that is going to make a lot of people upset. Uh, cause I think we tweeted out just like Goldie gets a start again, but I kind of liked what Boone said. Like Ben Rice has started 10 of 13 games. The three he didn't start one. He never got into the other two. He got pinch hit for, and he got hits in those games. Right. Uh, and if he is true to his word that he will fire him quick, like if it's the second at bat and they, and it's just. Bases are tucked. Like, he fired Grisham in the fifth, was it, to hit a three-run home run? I don't know if he would have done that in past years that early. I mean, dude, Grish, I think Grish had five at-bats yesterday. Is that right? No. Grisham had three at-bats. And hit two home runs. And hit two home runs and had five RBIs. So that's the first part of this conversation. It's like, I am fine with it because Goldie also led the game off with a double and then set up the Judge home run. Right. Yes, I think a couple things in play here. As much as we don't want to say it, it is early in the season, and you have the whole bench is a unit of people that are supposed to hit lefties. And, like, Paul Goldschmidt was our leadoff hitter and had a fine game last night. So that's kind of not part of the problem. The catching thing is interesting. I'm saying that I... I do think the Yankees sometimes get in their way. Like, even Boone talked about it. He's like, you know, if Bryce needed to finish a game, like, right now, I wouldn't want to give him more than five innings. Like, I don't know. In a way, I think we've gotten a long ways away from these guys are professional athletes. Like, I don't know. I don't know how limited Ben Rice's next anything would be if he caught a game. Maybe I'm wrong. Hand up. But I thought that would be an interesting solution, especially during this run. But no, I think. Shoot the righties, you have them. Let's still find out what we're looking for with all of them and who they're going to be throughout part of the season. And then, yeah, you can drag and drop Rice, which, hey, maybe you can line up your best hitter for one of the most important situations of the game if you do it right. So I don't have anything against that. And even pivoting to my guy... Ryan McMahon, I was like, man, obviously McMahon's in the dark place right now. That when he was playing defense with the lead, I was like, hey, maybe this is going to be, maybe this can be a perfect lane for Ryan McMahon to find his way out. That like the Yankees get a lead or he pinch hits for Rosario and then he gets his two at-bats later in the game. That maybe that's when he can run into one and start feeling the good emotions of baseball again. But yeah, we're facing a ton of lefties. And the Angels burned Mitch Ferris. Mitch Ferris. Lefty yesterday. Drew Pomeranz has pitched two games in a row. So that leaves them only with Brent Suter, only one lefty in the pen tonight, which is what Boone's saying. Like, if Soriano's starting. No, no, no. Detmers is starting. Lefty. If Detmers doesn't last long, they're going to righties. So then you bring Rice into the game. That led me, so I wanted to have this conversation because I appreciated that answer. And the bench has played well for the Yankees. I wanted to go look at the numbers. Okay. And let me find them because this is the league splits. And if you do, as a pinch hitter, you lose Grisham second. So instead, I'm doing as a sub player. They didn't start the game. They got subbed into the game. The Yankees have the second highest OPS of all subbed-in players. Um, nine. 980 OPS. Diamondbacks have the best. The Yankees have scored the second most runs by a player that got brought into the game, so I don't know if that's mostly pinch runners in those situations. They've hit the most home runs now because Ben Rice hit one earlier in the Rays series and Grish hit two. They have the second most RBIs, so he has utilized the bench well, and the bench has played well when getting inserted into games. And then Goldie, as a starter, 400 on base percentage, 1.067 OPS. Very limited size. Thank you guys. So, like, it has worked out so far, that element of the lineup. Yeah, I guess the way to spin that is, okay, having a Yankees platoon bench, which we've never had as the New York Yankees. Since 98. Part of the perk of that, okay, the starting part of that hasn't been great. But the bench part has, which is the other side that there's been a lot of times we've looked at the bench and we say, what do you do here? Yeah. Right now, the bench has identities. I will say this. You're a lefty or a righty. You play defense or you don't. The starting part has been good between Rice and Goldie. But Grisham, McMahon, Rosario, you're not getting both ends of that. Although Grisham, he scored. Rosario. Rosario is the only other person with a pinch hit. Ben Rice has two. Trent Grisham has two. Um, Grisham has scored three runs off as a sub. Yeah, I, uh, hey, I, um, I'll admit this. We have a soft spot for Randall Grisham. He came on Talking Yanks and dunked on us years ago. Uh, he also grew up with Kelsey Winger, who's, uh, a part of the John Boy Media family. Um, I'll just say this, uh, Gritchick came into a tough spot where he didn't get to play. He played one game in a week and a half and now 34 year old Randall Gritchick, part of his job duties are pinch running for Stanton. Um, so, hey, I, I get it where we want guys in pinstripes, uh, putting up better at bats and it feels like he has been lately and he's still, he hit the ---- out of that ball last night. We still got a run of lefties coming up that I'm, you know, don't fully sell your Gritchick stock. Um. But, yeah, I just picture, you know, you come up, you're a stud with the Blue Jays, Cardinals. You got some big homer years for you. Here you are at 34 years old, and it's an eighth inning. Go run for Stanton. Weird baseball life. It is for all these guys. But, yeah, let's hit a couple. Hit. They got a lot of hits yesterday. Boone had it at the end there. Win? Win. Win, baby, win? Did he drop one of those? Al Davis? What else do you want to talk about from the Boone combo? Or from last night's game? It's all available to you. I have something else, but it's a dumb ending thing. Thank Yeah, I wish there was a way to apply more pressure on the bullpen conversation, you but there really isn't. Cruz and Hill are kind of doing their part in their roles. for But they're kind of guys that you can't elevate in their roles, listening. which is kind of the whole conversation we've had about the bullpen. Duvall's usage, which Boone hid behind a little bit, it is up there when you look at the bullpen budget right now. He has been getting used a lot. Let's ideally get him a little reset. Um, and then. And then, yeah, man, I mean, my frustration is just that of, you know, hey, like, what does today's episode look like if Paul Blackburn comes in and blank? So, I don't know. Like, Paul Blackburn and Ryan Yarbrough are currently one- to two-inning relievers for us, which I don't necessarily like. Me neither. But Boone can't do anything about that. Yeah, he's got to use the people he has. He doesn't have a lot of good people. And he's shaken that up. Yeah. And then, you know, you start getting into a how much do I want Angel Chivile, Curvin Castro, Harrison Cohen, Rafael Montero over Paul Blackburn? Six good pitches. Six good pitches from Paul last night. I like that. It wrapped up quick. Uncata, Adele, and then I don't know who the last one was. For a very dramatic long game, like once Trent homered, or excuse me, Blackburn's inning, and the Yankees, like Romano got no outs. Yeah, Jazz got a hit, and then Trent got them. I wonder if they have something. If you're going to lose, lose. If you look at MLB team. Uh, positions OPS, not the player, the position Yankees are 29th, the two positions, and they are first at two positions. First at two and last at two 29th out of 30. Okay. Second to last at two. Yeah. Uh, I would say where's Ben Rice been hitting third defensive positions. Oh yeah. That changes things. Uh, I would say third base. Surprisingly not. Rosario. Rosario is helping out, but also there's some putrid. Third base play. Cincinnati, 354. And McMahon has somehow still been walking. And Boston, the Derbster, and IKF. And Monasterio, really just a derpster, 364, 354 through 64. So, yeah, they're 636 OPS. That's carried by a 1.1000 for Rosario and a 396 in McMahon. Yeah. Okay. Shortstop. Shortstop. They are 29th, 497 OPS by Caballero, and in four plate appearances, 250 by McMahon. McMahon fourth on the team in walks. Same amount of walks as Aaron Judge. I'm Nothing else. All starting I can just tell you if you give up. Yeah, what are you looking at? First base. First base and pinch hitting. And pinch hitting. That was the gotcha. right. And then, no, the interesting thing to was I thought you would guess third base. speak And then I was like, actually, that's like one of the highest positions for them. They have second base, shortstop. now. The center field, they're worse than third base right now. Just Rosario helping out, but I wouldn't have guessed that. What's going on with catcher? Catcher, they're 29th. They're rather bad there. What's the second base ranking? Second base, they are 27th. Texas, Philly, and Detroit not doing well at second base. I think I have something for you. It doesn't have to do with last night's game. Which wasn't epic. It has to do with tonight's game. Okay. And you're not going to care, but you might care for a second. All right. Oswald Peraza is probably getting the start for the Halos tonight. Where? I think he's been playing third or second base against lefties. It's Ryan Weathers tonight. Weathers versus Detmers. Kurt Suzuki versus Aaron Boone. What's their head-to-head in games played as players? Figure it out. Find it out. Comment below. I did. There was so much Yankee stuff to ask. I wanted to ask, like, hey, you know, when you're scouting the Angels, do you have to scout Suzuki's managerial tendencies and his team games as a manager? That's probably Brad's job. All right, get after it. Detmer's coming off a rough outing against the Braves. A good outing before that against Seattle. I don't So that's good. And then what? He's a neutral splits guy? Is that what he said? know if No. He said closer to me. No, he's been, this year, which is small sample size, you can but he shut down lefties this year. And he's cool. Well, Ahmed Rosario, six for 13 off of the debt dude. hear me Caballero, also good numbers, tiny sample size. now. Grichuk, the only one with a home run off him in their history. I am interested. Get a homer, Grichuk. If you get to Detmers fast. Their bullpen's not good, and then you get to bring your lefties back into the game like with Rice and Grisham if he's not starting. So I like that plan. Get to them early. Mmm, yeah. Four games set. How about Trout and Ohtani? Just a bunch of New Jersey kids hanging out? Yeah. Watch any Todd in the postgame? No. He said he called both Trout homers. Nice. Did he call any other bats too? Yeah, that's what I was wondering about that. He was good. He's Todd. I mean, Todd can. Todd can be no one else. He is Todd. Jake Bird, sweepers. Got it. Yeah. I thought about leading you and Boone down a sweeper conversation, but I didn't think that would. Even one of the hits Warren gave up in that inning was the same style, like same, like just right to left sweeper on the bat playing the whole time. I'm over that pitch, that pitch. Yeah. All righty. Go Yanks. Sweep the whole series. Mop them. Go Gribs. Go Yankees. Moon, how'd the convo with Wind Quest go? Definitely so. Thinking of you, Cade. Happy.