For the first time in the Brian Cashman era, the Yankees have fired a coach mid-season.
For the longest time they really liked to ride out their issues before acting on them.
Dillon Lawson is out as the Yankees hitting coach, let’s talk about it.
Now some may look at this as a necessary move.
Others view it as Cashman nominating his scapegoat to distract from his incredibly poor lineup construction.
I’m a believe it’s a combination of the three.
We’ll start with the first part.
This had to happen.
They agreed he needed to open up his stance more and move closer to the plate.
Volpe wasn’t hitting any outside pitches prior to that game and was instead pulling off.
Since that change Volpe’s season has been given CPR.
All of that is great, but you know what was alarming about that adjustment?
It took being noticed by Austin Wells, a Double A prospect, to actually happen.
Dillon Lawson’s mentality was basically to keep believing.
Almost everyone in the lineup has underperformed.
The team ranks in the bottom five of batting average and OBP across the league.
According to Lawson he didn’t care about that.
THE HITTING COACH DIDN’T CARE WHERE THEY RANKED IN OFFENSIVE STATS.
His “hit strikes hard” approach that harped on exit velocity has failed miserably.
If you’ve watched them all year it’s bizarre as there’s little to no approach from anyone.
They don’t work counts whatsoever.
They let starting pitchers enter the 7th inning more than anyone in the league.
The starting lineup today only had two hitters with a .300 OBP.
That can’t happen no matter who the hitters you are sending up.
Something had to be done.
Now another part to this is it’s definitely not all Lawson’s fault.
There’s a chance his firing results in no change at all in terms of results.
The lineup Brian Cashman has constructed here is abysmal.
It relies on way too many often injured, older players to produce and channel back their glory days.
Stanton, Donaldson, and LeMahieu have been zeroes.
Anthony Rizzo hasn’t homered in a month and a half.
They straight up just don’t have a left fielder.
There are infielders playing the outfield almost every single day.
Without Judge there’s no one to rely upon to get them going.
Make no mistake about it, Brian Cashman should be shouldering the blame here.
Once again he ran with the hope that players who underperformed and were injury prone/aging would bounce back.
Now we’re here again with the same damn issues.
This is on Cashman.
A lack of urgency is something this entire organization lacks.
Maybe something like this lights a fire under Boone and co. to wake the fuck up.
Players feelings > winning baseball.
I love pulling guys just to pull guys.
They hate giving relievers clean innings and it’ll always bother me.
So will this change be a sign of good things to come?
Let’s be realistic, probably not.
The roster is still painfully flawed.
Even trading for someone like Cody Bellinger likely won’t be enough.
Pitching wise I do think they have enough, but the offense needs so much it’s sad.
Usually he’d just hire someone from within who shares the same philosophy.
They desperately need a shakeup with their approach.
Supposedly they have it narrowed down to two external candidates.
Pray it’s someone who preaches getting on base, situational hitting, and not worshipping launch angles.
I am so fucking tired of launch angles.
I wish Francesa was still on WFAN so people could call up tomorrow incessantly and beg for Jason Giambi.
The Yankees will enter the 2nd half on the outside looking in of the playoff picture.
They’re just a game in front of the Red Sox for fourth place.
Tampa has gone on a big slide lately and they were unable to gain any ground.
That could also be a stretch where we really come to the realization this team is hopeless.
