Anthony Volpe Makes the Yankees Roster | Profile & Projection | 884

Wow Mouse Hello What's going on welcome to another player profile and projection here on talking yanks We've got a big one a fun one one that we weren't sure if we were going to get to do anthony michael Volpe He's announced as a starting shortstop for the new york yankees Pretty exciting. We had some empty slots We saved towards the end of these ppp's because you didn't know who was playing up the middle It worked out perfectly that we were recording one today and last night It became official jake that this 21 year old kid from new jersey Is a starting shortstop for the yankees Jim, let me give you a little history lesson risotto No, i'm not doing that. Um I went back to 2019 didi gregorius had been our shortstop for a few years He had a weird final year as a yankee coming off tommy john and he just never got settled in Flavor torres was supposed to be given the shortstop role. It did not go well at shortstop And then we've been in a weird little area where we've had two of the best shortstop free agent classes ever We had a stop gap year of shortstop with two prospects along the way one we got a taste of And then it came into camp in this volpe kid who we've heard so much about and ever since his two Uh 2021 breakout minor league campaign And everyone we've ever talked to in the yankees organization who's mentioned him said he's next um, and the time is now so uh, we couldn't Go on volpe until we saw that they would go on volpe They announced it before the season. I do think part of it was a true competition Barraza had a bad spring volpe had a great spring and they're gonna roll with the kid and it's um It's as exciting I mean as excited as you can get for a young ball player 21 years old. I believe he's gonna be 22 soon. I think his birthday is in april So he'll have a couple of days as a 21 year old kid um Yeah, man, I mean, it's really cool. It's really cool And I want to I want when we talk to boonie soon I want to ask him what his leash is and what like because I hope just let him just let him play Let him flounder let him fail Let him figure out the league and make the adjustment because you made this call And when boonie gave him the news that he was in camp, he said, uh, you know, you've only had 20 at bats in triple a There's more development to have but I think you should have that development happen In the bigs is what boonie's words were basically so as fans Who are very excited and finally we have a short step that's supposed to be the mainstay like we haven't had that Since dd in 2015 who even then you weren't really sold that he was going to be the You get in the caveat a little bit because the job was given to glaber to be the shortstop, but he couldn't hold on to it yeah, but He kind of muddied up because he started at second Yeah, they kind of muddied it up before they even like did that but this is a young kid. So um Even ikf last year who obviously we wanted to switch on and move on it was because we this these kids were ready And he was a stopgap he was never sold as the long-term guy like Hope he's being sold to us as you know through his free till fridge. It was six years He's gonna be the starting shortstop. So i'm excited. I hope the rest of the team plays around him Uh well, so the pressure is a little off him and they get to slot them in the eight hole or the nine hole I like the nine hole a lot because what? He can provide jake Even if the bat has to develop more and get used to it is speed And Uh at bats or speed and defense. I'm sorry. It's like the speed is crazy valuable The speed is crazy value. I you can tell how excited we are We got a circle back on a lot there, uh, even what you just ran through. Um, because Defensively, let's see. Uh, we've we've heard the kid is good with his hands. We've heard if there's any question It's about arm strength that can mean a lot of different things Um, you know dansby swanson won the gold glove in the national league last year And I think he was the best defensive shortstop and he has questions about his arm. So if you use your arm the right way Uh, it's not a problem Let's see what volpe looks like his arm looks good in spring if anyone has watched like he's no double pump Quick with it and mostly it looks like he has his decisions made before the ball gets to him And he's just like concise or confident and like get the ball. Oh i'm going to first i'm going third I'm going home like right away That's what i've seen in spring that i've really liked and let's say and We're gonna see a lot of what he looks like overall as a ball player I I know Ian beebs were talking this morning like what what what's his opposite field power swing look like? I don't know, but we've seen him go to dead center. Um, I remember the like storyline Last off season about him or last spring training Was that like he went to one of those like pitching labs to get his arm strength improved? Upon so like he's he's worked on that get strong kid. Um Where jimmy was heading is what to expect from anthony volpe? speed for sure uh 50 stolen bags in 132 minor league games last year Um, he had 33 in 109 games a year before that he's used to the pitch clock and the big bags He played in them with the minor leagues last year The kid is gonna run and that's gonna be exciting especially if he's in that nine hole Which they said it'll be at opening day. We'll see how long he's in that nine hole Uh him in front of dj. LeMay who is awesome I mean, you know if the hit and run makes a comeback it sounds like you have the perfect combination there um and You know within that in 21 In 109 games. He had 27 homers in the minors. He had 21 homers Last year and you know doubles when you have that kind of speed whether it's natural pop or what? You're gonna run into doubles because you're fast. So um Anthony volpe is going to be a shot of life to this team and when we're talking expectations whether Defense or just being a young ball player in general And the evopia 22 games at triple a let's call that the month of april Uh 99 played appearances 236 313 a 718 ops. So he He came up to triple a didn't light it on fire. It's not a bad stat line, but it's not a good stat line It's not what is expected to be So in this first month of anthony volpe I think the yankees know that they've made this decision. He's at shortstop this year We gotta we have to ride all of it out. And by the way I don't think there's going to be a lot of it to ride out But if it is the first month which for a lot of young baseball players, it's tough to adjust to the big leagues Um, make sure you're giving anthony volpe some leash at home Yeah, cheer him on and hopefully get on base and half speed. He's supposed to have really good control of the zone Yes, even for a young a young player, which is nice and I think in spring what was his on base percentage in spring 400, which Spring stats, right? Blah, you've heard us say it a bunch, you know Higgy hit 10 home runs bird hits 10 home runs wade had a great spring every single year and doesn't always translate um Choosing to believe it will translate in some regard in in not results, but in base running and what I saw in his like throwing motion and Not swinging at balls. The only thing that would change there is you get a little antsy You get a little like you want to get that hit. I hope he gets his first hit out of the way early, right? Did we get a big ovation first hit first swipe first homer? Um, and yeah his uh, I I enthuse you if that's a word to go check out Uh his baseball reference in his minor league pages because it is interesting when he when he was at low a ball He had more walks than strikeouts, which is very impressive That's that's a very tough thing to achieve at any level when he got called up to high a that same year so, you know not not to Shoot down any casuals, but you know a and high a not a lot of people get into the depths of that When he went up to high a same amount of games 27 walks 58 strikeouts So there's going to be a learning curve and he's kind of shown the learning curve at every level Which is actually kind of cool Like the fact that he's had to take it on the chin for a little bit and learn and get better That was the story of judge, too I mean, that's you know, it's the story of a lot of young baseball players So, uh, I guess that's why I was trying to get in front of the like, you know Don't bulky spring this year where he won dotted like, you know, that might not happen in april. Hope it does Maybe he does it for the rest of his career. Maybe some sort of freak show but um It's pretty cool that they're giving him the gig And something that i've been asking for from the yankees for a long time that our guy chose mcfly mentioned this morning He earned it He played good in the minor leagues He came to spring training. They said you were going to have an opportunity to earn it and he did he did nothing but earn it He got hits off some cool names in spring, too Two off aaron nola big leaguer chris martin tanner hawk mitch keller who had like the best spring good stuff Going uh, pablo lopez hit a home run off him And I also like that if you're diving into his spring numbers and stuff, which is all we have right now I mean besides minor league, but they don't keep as good a track as that as this is that he had one, two, three, four, five six hits off of sliders, okay Three off or three off of change-ups one off a curveball And four off fastballs one cutter one sinker So he it's not like, you know, if you open that up and you see just fastball you're like Oh, well a lot of pitchers throws their fastballs a lot in spring training a lot. That's a little bit of the higgie story and Now seeing all those sliders and sliders from like pablo lopez, which was a cool one because he got Pablo struck him out on the slider. He made the adjustment pablo lopez even said in his post game um, it's cool to look at former yankee pablo lopez, um Yeah, no crazy, um high velo which is of note I guess if i'm gonna Point at what we're looking at like no hits off balls Only one 95 or more Okay, colin selby got yourselves um I I think another thing I like here. Um, because I I do think we've come, you know They you know the biggest prospect since blank and like glaber torres was a big prospect glaber torres was top five You know, we knew he's a middle infield type The joke that we've talked about for years now was that the scouting report on him was he was a good baseball player um And we've we've kind of seen why now I guess for volpe I love that. He has a calling card of speed like if you're anthony volpe and you're on the bases this year Go like run wild run young wild and free um And have fun out there Um, and then all the other stuff is gonna take care of itself like let's let's see what the power swing looks like Let's see what the other way looks like because what you said in control at the plate has seemed overly apparent and i'm excited to watch more at bats because It doesn't feel like he's guess hitting It feels like he's just reacting um To and again, i'm i've watched, you know his 20 spring training games this year So I don't have the full scouting report But i'm interested to see what that looks like because it does seem like he's in control at the dish Kind of like that old school approach of like if i'm looking for a fast ball But if you throw a breaking ball, I can adjust to that and hit that too Which would mean he's a very special baseball player. I'm trying to see how many pitches he swung and missed at Okay spring training and see if there's any like giant grouping there Estevan florio swung and missed at 45 pitches. The next highest is like 20s swing big kid Uh swing and miss has been his issue. Yep. That's kind of his calling card no, the swing and miss is a plethora of pitches, too, so again, i'd rather see that than open it up and it's like All one pitch because then you got a hole Something you can work on but yeah Yeah So i'm excited man. 21. Yeah turns 22 april 28th. So mark that down full april birthday for the yanks going forward Um I don't know. I I guess he's He's in for a ******* whirlwind if he's good, man Yeah but Just being a local kid like I always talk about how they sold jeter as being local because he's born here and he visited his grandma every summer In new jersey, you know, you basically were growing up, but he's from new jersey. Mr. Brock smith played him in the summer league Yeah, yeah, uh, and he just gets from new jersey from jersey yankee fans idolized jeter the whole nine and How much love he's gonna get is It's gonna be crazy I mean picture but judge can go to lyndon and escape it You know But gallo tampa this kid's 21. He lives with his parents still probably he's gonna get the gallo rizzo italian love Yeah, remember that he's gonna get the cheater love. Yeah Yeah, man, it's um, it's gonna be interesting and that's why I um It's exciting and I I guess the other thing that's cool about it Is that anyone that you talk to when you talk volpe and oh, yeah speedy. Oh, you know short stops I can I don't know like let's see Ever not a single soul is worried about him as the human As if he is the truth if he is next in line to jeter Like he's gonna be up for it like he's kind of shown he is up Um, which again to be that way at 20 21 years old That's uh, that's a special That's a special guy and I think I think he kind of comes from like a special family. Both his parents are surgeons I keep keep saying that and saying he's probably got good hands. Wow. Um, And yeah, I I guess um I don't know. I I don't have too many fears yet You you'd get worried about any player getting off to a good start, especially a young player with all the pressure we talked about um, so, you know, you can you can really say that for anyone, um, I guess I I guess I know the offense is going to click at some point and it's to what degree um I want to see what the defense looks like day in day out Yeah, i'm a little bit the opposite. Okay Um just watching him in spring the defense looks like Even if you're not getting a gold glover, you're getting a kid who can make plays at shortstop like visibly looks like a shortstop We didn't see that in glaber nor did we see that in ikf last year? It's true But just visibly like oh, those are the hands of and footsteps of a shortstop So he seems like he can stick there So i'm not saying he's going to be a gold glover or amazing But he does seem like he can stick enough there where that's not going to be like the downfall But obviously you have to see the bat's always the biggest adjustment, especially not not seeing triple a for that long and the adjustment there so you never know but I'm excited. I I guess let's say the injury bug catches the yankees this year and peraza comes up and peraza's playing well Do you think they'd put peraza at shortstop and move volpe? Yeah. Okay. It's a second or something like that That's that's what I want to know because I know they did that this spring but that's where I and when you were doing your intro you were kind of saying, you know Volpe's got the starting shortstop job for the next six years. I I think there could be wrinkles to that, right? but this kid is is being Scouted and touted as a kid who's here to stay um And yeah, I think they want him to be the shortstop I I mean I agree with you I I guess short steps a very hard position just in the in the path of this season. It would be interesting if Injury trade whatever happened. Um Because you know, I know we're putting peraza a little bit on the back burner But I I think it first infield injury this year. I think peraza would be up that I um I don't know. I guess we just saw How nervous they were to move ik off ikf off of shortstop that um I don't know. It'll be it would be an interesting equation if peraza Is due every day playing time and he's kind of been touted as the better shortstop Will they do that? I don't I don't know I don't know either because some yankees marketing stuff comes in there like we just did the whole show I don't think they believe in peraza We kind of were saying that last year the way they treated him and they treated him odd and they they sent him down for this Kid, but I I do think I think if there's one yankees infield injury, I think peraza is the call Yeah, or you you put ikf there Right or as waldo That's replacing the position player with the first time they've had depth at the shortstop position Which is nice So, I don't know I am interested to see how his bat changes when pitchers see him a bunch and he sees them a bunch Uh, his splits are pretty good. Although he is a a slow starter in in minors last year april and may We're slower Basically a new league each time. That's the other thing Yeah, I don't know if that's a slow starts issue or or just his issue of just the first month or so at a new level He's to figure it out. Yeah, 2021 was the same but that's the first time playing baseball in a while It does get better as the season goes every year It looks like offensively so that's exciting. How about that? He should this year. What do you want out of him slash line? I know that's kind of rude to put on a young kid, but like what would you even be? What would you be ending the season saying yeah Run it back I mean for me, it's probably like, uh, 314 370 800 ops. That's cheaters rookie of the year stat line. Oh, that'd be nice. So that's that's my min no, man, I um I want to see what I think everyone should look for in a young ball player. I want to see growth throughout the year I want him to run wild like I don't I don't ever want to be at a point in the season where we're like, oh, yeah Volpe's not running much like no, this is what this team's been missing for the past couple of years like go nuts um What are you going to measure him on? Yeah, I'd like the batting average to be Up like above 250 and the on base percentage to be around 350 He's that's his skill like that's the one skill i'd rather i'd like to not see him loose in the bigs like if okay The power's kind of zapped Um, or he's like labor like hitting more for power unless every day hits um, but he's supposed to have a good eye had a good eye in spring i'd like the on base, uh, Because I think it's kind of like us, you know, um kind of like slows his nerves down too It's a sign of that. He's not he's composed in the box taking these pitches waiting for them to come to him So i'd like the on base percentage to be good Like if we leave if this if he plays the full season and the on base percentage is 300 305 I'm, not gonna feel great about that. I guess what's good. I mean, it's 340 100 miles 100 Around 100 higher 80 to 100 points higher than his batting average Okay I mean, that's good. That's really good That's pretty good I think like Try to think of some guys on I mean I think 60 75 points higher I mean, I don't know. I don't know the kid the kid's got big expectations Yeah, he's supposed to be a good player Like glaber was 257 310. We we have that as from last year and that's with shifts labor's not an on base guy No So he's an on this kid's an on base guy Hopefully I i'm just saying even for a rookie. That's a very high And and like I talked about at the different levels he'd come up There's been an adjustment period so that's I don't know. It's a good goal to have yeah 80 higher. I mean, that's okay. Look at good players. That's What they're doing Okay, I can do 80 100 100 100 clip me a little bit 80 80 to 100. Yeah I like I like it. I think 80s. I think I would have 80 as my loft goal I would have six for his rookie year i'd be 60 to 80 points higher Well, i'm talking about things that like are exciting me i'm saying if every other stat declines that's the one stat i'd like to not Okay, that's how it's rock walking to still be Yeah As if he hits 230 Give me 330 Is it hit 230 and you're at? two or 310 Yeah, so If the batting average is somewhat decent give me 80 points higher on the base percentage And the steals I i'm I we need need that can't have them be yankified No, we don't do that Yeah, I guess I i'll be focused on the speed. That's like my need requirement and then i'm I guess i'm interested to see what the pop Comes to because I I genuinely have no idea What to do with his minor league numbers there because again, you should be excited from them. The numbers are really good um, you know can will we be talking about him next year as a 15 homer guy a 20 homer guy a 25 homer guy. I don't know um But either way i'm excited to find out what it looks like because every everyone that talks about him and all the numbers literally everything is like Kind of chef's kit. He's like He's made in the yankees lap, man Yeah I want him to you know, if the bat's good be an everyday pat. Don't be more of what we got Which is non? Also non-bad here besides judge last year And rizzo, I think he was still really good at on base percentage. Yeah Yeah, all right Steal the captain from judge. Wow as well people are saying that right from under his nose opening day judge presents him with a co-captaincy Everyone else is like what? And my co-captain and thanks to hal for bringing him up Best owner in baseball. Love you hal And every episode like that now Sure, thanks hal church of hal love the team man How's about that for big 20 years? I don't know if everybody knows that yet Does he know george got booed before he got loved? That's true He was he would have been on a lot of uh Slide shows of bad owners before he became the best one judge is hyping him up the italy thing You start getting older and a little kooky. Cohen get one more story. Come on