Aaron Boone Explains the Sean Casey Hiring | 931

Today is July 11th. The all-star game is today. The Yankees have a new hitting coach, Sean Casey. We're bantering with Boone Sharpstats. Let's do it. Let's talk Yanks. Hell yeah. John Hello and welcome to Talking Yanks. Myself, Jake Stromboli. Big Baby David is here. Jimmy Jomboy. Good friend of mine that you guys have maybe seen over social media through the years. He'll be joining us with manager of the Yankees, Aaron Boone. That's... Sometimes you got to say those words. Really appreciate it. This is all presented by SeatGeek. Obviously, we've been having a lot of fun at the all-star game. Me and Biebs are in the kitchen area of our Airbnb. We went to the Homeron Derby last night. That was a lot of fun. Garrett Cole. This kid on his shoulders. Wearing the full pinstripes. Having a blast. And he gets the start today. So that... There's a little juice there in Yankees land. That's fun. We know... We've been told and if the learning curve of Garrett Cole we know that this means something to him. So let's... Let's enjoy that. And then the other news that happened... We recorded Talking Yanks. Dan Canobio debut. Thank you, Dan. And they fired a hitting coach and we use our context clues to the best of our knowledge that the the one that got us was the tweet that said, you know, the Yankees are firing Dillon Lawson. They hope to hire outside the organization and have the coach there for the start of the next Rocky series on Friday. When you put all that in the blender, you know, you got an interview to find coaches and stuff, right? Yeah, it seems like they had the guy. We will ask Aaron Boone and we'll see what we find out. But it seemed like the Shaun Casey situation was set up leading into this. And like we talked about with... I remember when Stanton, Donaldson and Canely all came off the IL at the same day. Like, I don't know, that... I doubt their injuries got healthy at the same time. Like the Yankees... Happy accident. The Yankees target things and they clearly at some point mentally made a move on Dillon Lawson and they were gonna do it at the all-star break. Even if they swept the Cubs and scored 12 runs a game, it felt like that was gonna happen. I was... I was doing a little reading on it and... Sure. The story according to what Cashman has said is that he approached Hal Steinbrenner for the first time about it following Friday's game. Which is when they got shut out by Jamo. Shut out by Jamo. That's... that's the story at least. Again, when you have the guy hired Monday. Yeah. There's... There's steps we don't know and we're gonna ask Booney about it. So we're gonna ask Booney about that. We have sharp stats and I have Tommy John and if you don't know what Tommy John is... God, I am wearing them as my underoos right now and I may have to show the camera. The only problem with that is I've been wearing them for... well, I wore them yesterday. Because I wore all day yesterday. Wore them to the Derby. So that's a little into... a little into where I'm at. Tommy John... They're the most comfortable underwear in the game and I'm just gonna be real with you. Like if you're used to buying Like the cheap worst underwear that you've been running for years. Give Tommy John a shot. These cost a little more. They're real, but my goodness... I've had one pair leading up to this partnership and I was like, hey, I love Tommy John. Like when I heard there was whispers we were gonna be with Tommy John. I was like wait till we get that promo code and we... Have got it and you will get 20% off your first order at TommyJohn.com slash Yanks Okay, save 20% right now TommyJohn.com slash Yanks. They're so comfortable. I plan my laundry week around them. When I separate my laundry and I put it in, I then... I'm like, okay, what day... what do I have coming up this week? What am I gonna wear? My wedding week? Word on my wedding. Homer in Derby? Worm yesterday. That's just kind of how it operates. And I did a read for Tommy John on Talking Baseball, another program we have. I had a bunch of people reach out and were like Tommy John allies. They're like, dude, I didn't know you were in the game. They're special. Give them a shot. I'm going full Tommy John and you should do the best underwear in the game. Over 20 million sold and now a lot more with me reloading up. So... You need... sometimes you need a big game pair. Link in the description. Yeah, we'll get some more. And that's the thing. Like, I think for a while they've been my big game pair. But now I think I'm trying to be big game every day. Yeah, pretty much. I was at that point in my life, you know. I'm 33. I'm a Libra. You know, friendly people of Seattle. A lot of love in the streets. I think I just need to be Tommy John'd up all day. So... With that, Biebs, we do have a sharp stats, correct? We do have a sharp stats. Okay, we'll play that now. Hey guys, it is the Queen of Stats and happy all-star... Happy all-star break. Hope everyone is getting a nice little break there from the Yankees. And the big news, obviously, over the break has been the firing of the Yankees hitting coach and the hiring of Sean Casey as the new Yankees hitting coach. And we obviously, there's no need to rehash all the terrible offensive stats for the Yankees this season. But there is one area where I don't think Sean Casey is really going to help on offense. And that has been a really bad area for the Yankees. And that is their base running. And this has nothing to do with their hitting. This is just purely their base running. They're not helping themselves at all on offense. And so the one statistic that I'm going to throw out there first is what's a fan graph base running runs above average. Basically, they're all encompassing statistics for stolen bases, cross stealings, and other base running plays. And it converts them into a runs below and above average number. The Yankees currently are minus five in this runs above the average or worse than average. And that is fifth worst in the majors. If you want to look at like how important this is, the top four teams in this metric, all are leading their division. And four of the six division leaders are all within the top 10. The exceptions being the Indians who play in the AL Central, and the Rangers who just have an other word lead often. So those two teams, division leaders are not in the top 10, but the rest of them are. So this is an incredibly important statistic for winning the team. And just a few other notes that I want to throw out there for statistics. We know that they're fifth worst in this fan graph, all encompassing base running statistics. In terms of extra base taken percentage, they are fifth worst in the majors in that as well. If you look at their bases taken, and this is on baseball references, which is bases advanced on fly balls, pass balls, wild pitches, off and defensive indifference. They have 56, which is tied for the second fewest in the majors. And then looking at outs on bases, this is just for base running plays. We know that they're not in raw numbers. They can't be near the top because they don't get on base that much. But if you look at it as a percentage of total bases, base runners, they are sixth worst in that. So outs on bases as a percentage of total bases, they are sixth worst. And finally, if you want to look at stolen base percentage, they at 73% success rate is the fourth worst in the majors. So anyway, you look at it, their base running is terrible and firing and they're hitting coach and getting a new hitting coach. I don't think that can help that at all. That was Katie Sharpe. Thank you, Katie. Sorry, Social Kyle just knocked on the door mid episode there. We're bringing him in. OK, so let's let's unpack that. Katie Sharpe basically saying that your New York Yankees are not good at base running in many different ways and almost every way, which I'm I'm now having very big flashbacks to 2021 because a lot of these rang true. And it's it's the balance of Yankee baseball or what Yankees baseball is supposed to be. Like we've harped on the past few weeks, Yankees baseball is normally built on getting on base and hitting home runs. Three run homer helps you win baseball games. And it's funny seeing all the flashbacks to last year and seeing the Yankees record last year. A obviously having Aaron Judge break the home run record. That's a good one. Giancarlo was pretty good. First half player last year, all star. Anthony Rizzo was really good last year. Glaber was Glaber there. You know, there was a lineup. The Yankees were hitting and he's were one of the best hitting teams in the first half last year. And again, Judge, there's a little judge caveat, but he just got he's part of the team, just got a lot of money. And he's the captain. And he's when he was out there was actually the Yankees. The Yankees looked like a good baseball team this year. So I think we'll we'll all circle right around that right now. My my favorite game to do, and we did this in twenty twenty one, is just to go through the guys and like who who are your base runners? Because if you want, I can go through the Rays lineup and I can tell you on most nights, seven out of ten guys on the Rays lineup are high level base runners speed and their base running the Yankees. That's not their formula. So this almost drives home more. You know, Paraza is going to heat up whether people are dreaming of trades or people are dreaming of calling them up and some of the other guys on the team, which, you know, who who will be moved at the deadline? We'll see. But go around the horn quick. It's a fun mental exercise for you. The catchers not known for their base running, but no teams is. So I think that's more or less a skip. You know, Higgy and Trevi doesn't feel like they get out on the bases a lot. They don't specifically make mistakes, not to be not to be too backhanded, but I don't know. They're they're not on the bases too much. It's kind of rude. Yeah, but I guess, hey, part of it. Hey, you don't see them. There's rarely that we've ever hopped on an episode and been like, whoa, what was Trevi doing there? What was Higgy doing on the bases? I don't think we've ever said that about them. So good. They know their role on the bases. Don't make a mistake. That's out. Anthony Rizzo at first base is we've talked about it. He is slow on the bases. He's gotten slower. It's natural with a baseball. Savant has shown that. And he used to be in the level. You know, I remember being enthralled when Rizzo came over because he's a very high IQ baseball player throws up on himself. Rizzo, you know, and it's finding those moments. Remember when old Albert Pujols was in the league and he'd snag a few bags here and there and he was easily the slowest player in the league. But he's really good at baseball that he would recognize when a pitcher was giving him zero attention and he would be able to snag a bag. Rizzo had that when he first came over and that's kind of gone. And then we had like our boon tussle episode where he said that that Rizzo and Donaldson were doing something on the bases, but none of us knew what that could have been. The only thing I could take from that was like a general like they're not just sitting there trying to steal when they should like they're they're looking at someone looking at a sign, whatever, like just like they're not sitting there brainless. The Rizzo one, we thought there was something because you're on second base and maybe you're looking in and he's trying to base up the Donaldson one anyways. And while I say Donaldson, we'll just keep him moving. I mean, he's he's slow and I don't I don't think there's ever been a moment like Rizzo when he first happened, we saw him get a couple cheeky extra bases in there. I don't Donaldson's never that hasn't been part of his game as he's been here to even pursue that. I mean, I don't think even prime Donaldson was a more speed. You know, more of his story was the singles off the wall that he was pimping in previous years. D.J. LeMay, who has been slow, you know, he's getting older as well. I guess like I don't have him being a guy that makes a lot of mistakes, but he does. He's not an advantage on the base. No, but his the least you can do, you know, there was a chopper this weekend. It might have even been Sunday's game where he was the runner on first and it happened back to back times. There was one where there's two outs chopper to shortstop. There's a there's a decent runner on first base, so they couldn't make the flip to second. They threw the first. It was a tight play. They still got the same situation. For the Yankees, again, D.J. was the runner on first. I think Volpe was up because I think it was bottom of the lineup and Volpe chops one to short that maybe he could beat out. I think it's two outs and they flipped a second because they got D.J. out easily. So, I mean, D.J.'s speed is he's he is far, far from a plus. Doesn't need to be discussed, really. Volpe, obviously young, has speed, not like long stride Elie De La Cruz sprinter speed, but he's baseball fast and he's stolen bases. That being said, during his hot streak, we talked about this. He he wasn't getting on a ton and like taking extra bases or stealing bags. He's the Yankees' biggest advantage player on the base paths, and they haven't used that enough this year. Glaber, you've heard it in the tone of my voice that just changed like, what's up, pop was never fast. I think I think when we talk Yankee grooming, you know, when 22 year old Glaber was with that team that like wasn't running to first, it's like, what, man, you're a kid. You should you should be sprinting. You should accidentally be sprinting. You should be in the grocery market finding yourself accidentally like riding the grocery cart. And now we have this frustrating this 26, you know, there's some balls to first, you'll see him actually run and go and you're like, OK, nice play. Where's where's that? But the mental mistakes this year have been so frustrating and half on the bases, half defensively. So, yeah, that's going to take a chunk out. So that's your infield. Our list of outfielders, our list of outfielders is listed as the Yankees 40 man website right now. Camilo Duval's profile, real baseball players know Harrison Bader. Sure. Bader runs pretty well. He did. He came off a hamstring when he came back. He sold base that first game, but we haven't seen him. He's preserving and base stealing isn't his strength necessarily. And I, you know, if you go through his year by year game log, he doesn't have like a big, massive stolen base season. He's fast. I guess we haven't seen him and maybe it's just Yankees offense. I feel like we haven't seen a ton of moments where he's taken an extra bag or been like, oh, Bader gets Bader gets a third on that. That's nice. Like, I feel like we haven't had that. I can't remember a specific one. I think we've had a couple first of thirds that we've liked. I feel like there would be more if the Yankees offense would be going. So I think Bader's a little. The other guys got got more singles. Put a ball in the gap or something. And the rest of this outfield is listed. And I think this is still the bigger problem is Oswaldo, Franchi, IKF and Billy McKinney. So those guys could be doing whatever on the field. And this is before we get to probably one of the guys that hurts our base running the most in Giancarlo Stanley. So, yeah, and again, I guess the only thing with the 2021 flashbacks that have been happening with this team as we hopefully wait for judge news and maybe a trade and maybe Volpe has been fixed. You know, 2021 got a got a shot of life in the best part of their season and the biggest winning part of their season when they added a little bit of speed and it was squid and it was what's what's got called a Greg Allen, Greg Allen, Greg Allen in that time period. Glaber was running well and smart. He got like an on he got like an on switch for a little bit that it goes back to Jake's theories of lotto balls. Right now, the Yankees, a team built on power and on base, aren't doing that. So they're getting no lottery balls from that, which there's no batting average either. Speed and defense aren't there. So, yeah, it's a bad it's a bad recipe. And I guess the other thing, because Katie said, you know, this isn't a Sean Casey thing, obviously, you know, Luis Rojas actually got a lot of love from us last year because remember, he came in, he came over from the Mets and it was like, hey, he's going to be our defense base running guy. And the Yankees have still, you know, done fairly well defensively in their their shifts and stuff like that, which, again, I think more so analytics than Luis Rojas. But we saw him working with a lot of guys on their base running stuff. And again, during during the good times last year, it was there, but it's not there right now. So thank you, Katie Sharpe. And I think this is going to lead us into bantering with Booney, bantering with Boone is brought to you by Vizio. You guys already know Vizio at this point. Vizio means value. Value means if I got to explain that to you, Vizio award winning TVs and sound bars at great prices, 4K screens under 500 bucks. That's the value thing that I was kind of leading you into there. Their Vizio Watch Free Plus offers MLB Network totally for free. They're sneaky, a baseball sports company like Vizio's in on it, kind of the best thing to watch on TV. I am. Oh, Vizio has always been the MVP of value premium performance for surprisingly low prices. So head over to Vizio dot com. Check out how you can elevate your viewing experience all season long, whatever your budget, whatever your size of your home. Vizio has you covered with the perfect TV and soundbar combo. There's a link in the description. Get your TV game up with Vizio. Welcome back to another episode of Bantering with Boone. I don't know if you know that's what we call this, Boone, but that's what we call it. Bantering with Boone. I like it. Nice. The first midseason episode. We're not in the swing of things. We are on pause and the Yankees have a big announcement as soon as the season ends that the parting ways with the hitting coach, hiring a new hitting coach. The first time in over 20 years, this has happened where we have a coach let go in the middle of a season. I want to ask just if you could just walk us through kind of the process from your end. We know that they let Dylan Lawson know after the game, the last game. But but Cashman said that Saturday night he reached out the house. So where was your kind of where do you fit into the process or how did it go for you this decision? Yeah, I mean, it was definitely Cash and I, you know, kind of walking through this the last couple of days and, you know, and then ultimately making that decision Saturday night. Cash let me know that, you know, we were going to definitely do it Saturday night and that that how was on board. And so then, you know, obviously it took place Sunday. So always difficult. Again, this isn't, you know, this is just the feeling of, you know, Cash and I believe in, you know, at this time and where we are in the season, as he's talked about it now, the sprint that we have from from the start of the second half on that this was something we probably needed to do to, in our opinion, you know, give us the best chance to to turn the corner and be the team we think we can be. You know, again, it doesn't make us right and doesn't this isn't about, you know, blaming or whatever it is about us feeling strongly that we at least needed a new voice at this time to to reach our potential as a team. I guess, Jim, you know, do you have any Dylan side of the questions? Because obviously the exciting part for Yankee fans is the the Sean Casey side. It's a name everyone's familiar with. So, Jim, I guess, is there anything you want to loop with there before we jump to the next part of it? Well, I just think the switch is that is it you know, we say process over results a lot. Is this a switch in process? Obviously, the results have been poor. Everybody knows that. Is this a switch in process? Because with Casey comes on the outside surface level from what we know from interviews, a completely different mindset than what Dylan and his team had been brought on to instill. When you read what he was planning on doing and and merging analytics and merging like, you know, high velo BP and seeing the starting pitcher stuff by the technology where you listen to Casey and he's like, I don't even want to know who's on the mound. I don't want to prep. I just want to prep my swing. I don't want to prep my swing for this pitcher. I just want to prep my swing. So is this a is this a move to change the process? Yeah, no, it's not a completely different mindset. Yes, it is on its face and on the surface in the way you just described it. You know, I've I've known Sean for, you know, close to 30 years. And, you know, he's he's a great friend of mine. And I've always admired him from a hitting standpoint. Obviously, he was able to do it at a very high level. But he also can talk it and has a passion for it. And as much as anything, is one of the best people I know at being able to connect with people and to tap into people. And I just felt like he was the guy at this time that has the best chance to connect with our players. And I think that's really important and needed right now. But as far as philosophy, like, I mean, he's going to talk about, you know, we want to be the toughest, heaviest, grind you out team, hunting pitches, tough at bat. Like, it's not completely opposite of what we're talking about. We want to just enhance things. And and I feel like Sean's skill set will hopefully come in and and be able to connect on a different level with a lot of our guys and hopefully getting us moving in the right direction. How much, you know, you had a long career, you grew up in MLB clubhouses. How much can this actually change the players? I don't believe you guys would make a move if you didn't fully believe that it has a substantial way to help the team or some fans might be thinking just like a scapegoat, just, you know, finally acknowledging that this half season has been poor. What difference can this make? And are there certain players that you hope gravitate towards Casey's, you know, confidence in mantra more than others? But I think Cassius kind of record speaks for itself in that, you know, he's been doing this now 25 or so years and has never done something in season. So it's absolutely not something he or I do lightly. We certainly don't like doing this. And at the same time, we don't want to we're not trying to scapegoat or put blame on. But we felt strongly enough that a new voice was kind of needed to come in, again, to reach our potential of what we think we can be as a team. And there's many extenuating factors that go into, you know, why we have struggled a little bit. Obviously, we've had a strong amount of injuries to some significant players at different times, and that matters. That's a big deal. That's not always easy to overcome. So there's a lot of things that that have happened. But at the same time, as we honestly evaluate this and have tried to run to certain things throughout the first half, like we felt at least strongly enough that we at least needed to do this. And and we feel like and certainly I feel like in bringing in Sean, I believe his ability to connect is something that will serve us well in the immediate. And I can't wait to see him kind of spread his wings. And I also feel like we have the infrastructure in place that he'll come in and he doesn't have to be putting all these things in place. I want him to come in and do what he does best. And that's talk hitting and impact people and and tap into people. And that's what I want him to do. And we have the support system in place to, I feel like, really support him and make this transition. Although there's going to be that hair on fire to some degree because you're coming into a season, I do feel like we can support him very well so that he can kind of hit the ground running and and and use his his strengths immediately. Do you think the personal connection side of it? I mean, a guy with a nickname, the mayor like I do, do you think that's more important in today's baseball where a lot of these guys have their own personal hitting coaches like, you know, the judge is pretty public about his guy like and everyone in the offseason, they go to a different training facility and they they work with their guy that, you know, players know their swing mechanics better than ever. So having Sean Casey, a guy, you know, well, a known for hitting a little bit, you know that. But for B, who's who is known as like a class personality of baseball, is that one of the biggest things that went into the decision? That's part of it. But look, as much as yes, guys have their swings and have their guys away from the organization or guys they train with in the winter, like we're you're still with these guys all the time. So they lean on these guys and you have the ability to impact these guys in a profound way on a daily basis, especially in the grind of the season. So so, you know, look, and then everyone has different strengths as coaches. Right. Hitting some hitting coaches are are very technical and can break down swing mechanics. Some people are approach oriented. Some people are are, you know, the mental game and kind of in the fight with so so it can look a lot of different ways and and be successful. I just think and I feel really good about Sean coming in and and being able to not only help in every in every way and be able to tap into guys swings and what's their strengths and weaknesses and be able to relate with them in what they're going through on a given night in the batter's box and be able to communicate with them. And not only when we're not during the game, before the game, after the game, but in the game, in the box, he's going to have, I think, ability to connect with these guys. And and now we get to go find out one of the bullet points that Casey said in his kind of opening introductionary remarks, he pointed out that I don't want to treat every guy like it's the same swing. I want to everyone has their own approach and their own way to attack the ball and attack the at bat. If you if as fans, we want to speculate into like why mention that that come more from his mindset or is that something when Cashman and you guys reach out that you're looking for that you think maybe we haven't we've been the team has had kind of, hey, this is the approach for this pitcher. Everyone do it. No, I think that's more him. I mean, you're hearing about his philosophy now. We've talked to him and and we are very comfortable and think he lines up with our way of thinking and what we want to do. But I think that's part of the personal touch that he is going to have and and wants to have. And that's, you know, getting to know these players as good as he can, as fast as he can and really being able to tap into, OK, what are some things you you do really well or even think you do really well? And what are some things that you struggle with or think you struggle with and have it? And Sean then can kind of absorb that and kind of be eyes and ears for that, you know, as well as, you know, you're always game planning and building certain things in. But I think it's him wanting to get to know each individual. And we all have strengths and weaknesses as players, but tapping into those and truly understanding those and being able to accentuate the strengths and and kind of plug some of the weaknesses. But he's I just know him so well and I'm I'm so excited to see him really start to tap into these guys. And these guys, these guys don't want to run through a wall for you. Have you seen him clean shaven ever? Wow. I didn't even think about that. That's a great question. Best question you've asked in a couple of weeks. Mark it down. Please. No. But he's he is. Yeah, he's got a shave because he's always kind of had the goat going. I'm sure I have at some point, like coming up in the minor leagues or I think when we first got to the big leagues with the Reds in 97, I think I think we were still a clean shaven organization. But, you know, the Reds were we're like the Yankees. They were one of the last ones when I was there to to change the facial hair policy. So that's a great question. I don't know that I have seen without facial hair. Real nice. Yeah. Text him. He might be going through a little bit of a crisis right now or or or his family. You know, whoever hasn't seen him as kids or I don't know if he's married or kids, but you know, it's a different different ballgame. Oh, yeah. So, Booney, you know, there's an exciting part of this. We kind of had to cover, you know, with with the Yankees and why we got this decision. How does how does the Sean Casey side of this start? Like, you know, is this a dream at a pool bar at spring training in 97? Did it like how does this process happen? Because this is a guy, you know, really well, like this is a guy like minor league baseball to to here we are in twenty twenty three, like, you know, kind of run in the show for the Yankees. So when when does this become real? Sean Casey is getting hired for the when's his name when and how's his name first pop up? Well, I mean, obviously, I know him really well, you know, so I actually have talked to him over the years about his interests and he's always been somewhat interested. I even talked to him this winter about interviewing and he was all in. He he wanted to interview, but then couldn't quite go all in with me to go through the interview process. So we put it on pause. So and then, you know, obviously, we were we were considering this over the last few days and I just reached out to him again, thinking I was going to get the and I'd love to, brother, you know, I want to be with you, but I can't do it right now. I can't be all in. And when I called him and I said, sleep on it. And the next day he was like, I'm all in, brother. And I knew at that point, you know, he was convicted. So it happened really quick from there. And, you know, obviously, you know, spoke with Cash and a couple of our guys and and here we are. So it's been something that I've always had an interest in really even going back to before this winter. For the first time this winter, I really wanted to consider, you know, interviewing him for something. And then obviously with the situation now, it's just kind of all lined up for him to come on. I want to move past this and the ripple effects of this, but one more question that I've talked about a lot, so I figure it's only fair for me to throw it your way and you can correct me and tell me I'm wrong or dumb. But when Volpe story comes out that Austin Wells and him are eating chicken parms during the off day and Austin Wells puts on, hey, why don't we watch tape when you're swinging? Well, and then, hey, look, your stance is different. A lot of people heard that and it was a cute story and it was fun. I heard it in my stomach kind of dropped like how, how have we now, how has no one pulled up tape from when he was going well and noticing this difference? Because even Sean Casey in his like four bullet points of hitting, it was watch good footage of you crushing the ball every day. So like how that to me was like, how have the three hitting coaches, how has nobody, how is Volpe himself? Not like, let me see if there's something different about my swing. Is it wrong to have that thought process? I think a little bit. I think it's oversimplifying it because there's, there's things that are going on all the time. That's, that's too close teammates on an off day talking and oftentimes teammates influence each other all the time and you're talking and unlocking each other or giving little tips or talking about, you know, things, things you've done or things they've seen, especially guys that have played with you a lot. So I get the look and I get what you're saying, but I think it's oversimplifying to just say, Oh, you know, our group wasn't, you know, tapped into certain things. Um, and, and obviously it became a story, but that happens all the time where, you know, just going back to my days as a player, I made a, may have seen a guy on TV and something clicked watching another player, like do something to kind of click with me. Or somebody says something to you that, Oh, a light bulb goes off a little bit. Um, but you know, these guys are pouring over video and swing mechanics all the time. And so it's not really fair to, you know, necessarily say that. Okay, fair. Uh, this is a big move, right? So it's first time in 20 plus years that we've let go of a coach. It's, uh, obviously, uh, reflective that the first half has been a disappointment compared to what expectations and what goals have been, especially offensively. Is this a sign of other moves being closer to being made, you know, that if they need to be made, are you closer to pulling trigger on things instead of, uh, it's always been, Oh, we believe in our guys. We believe in our guys, but you know, from a fan's out outlook, Barraza, who you had said, you know, I, I know he's going to have a chance to impact the team this year. As fans were thinking, Hey, there's kind of some guys that he might be able to, you know, sub in for an impact. This team is that on the table are more kind of like, let's push this button and write this ship moves on the table in the coming weeks before the deadline. Well, I think anything's always on the table, but we also do believe in the group that we have that it can still be a really dynamic offense and that is the expectation. And we know we're going to get guys back. We're going to get judgey back. Obviously we'll, we'll be huge. Obviously we got to improve in areas and get better in areas. And we believe Sean coming on, we'll, we'll help us. Um, but you know, as, as rough as in some ways, the first half has been for us and it's much of a grind as it's been for us. And you know, some of the injuries we've had, some of the adversity we faced, as I said, you know, Sunday after the game, like it's right there in front of us, we, we haven't, it, it by no means has been perfect or, or even close to it. We hold the pen right now and we're in charge of, uh, and we haven't dug ourselves this giant hole. We are in control of our destiny by going out and playing good baseball here the next two plus months to hopefully put ourselves in position to make an October run. So, um, and I believe we have a lot of people in the room that are going to be a big part of that. Now, as things go, if there's things that we think, uh, will make us better, we won't be adverse to doing anything like that. One, one of the new guys in the room, Carlos wrote on, uh, you know, Yankee fans, we, we get obsessed with the winning side and, uh, wrote on man, I, there was a little, like I, I said, healthy David Wells. And I wasn't saying that as a shot at David Wells, but more so like a lefty, just like a powerful presence with that top button undone. Like I'm going to come at you. Um, but was there anything you, you learned, uh, from seeing Rodon like live in front of you at Yankee stadium for the first time? And I did want to ask, you know, he throws 69 pitches. Did he throw one more after, did we get to 70 or where do we get right? He did not throw any more after, um, I was really excited by what, um, I've really enjoyed getting to know Carlos, just, you know, going back to, you know, the off season before we signed them to when we signed them on through spring training. And as he's gone through, you know, this rehab process, which is, I know been frustrating for him because he's wanted, you know, he feels that responsibility of wanting to come and impact our team. And, um, you know, I think over the last month as he's gone through his rehab starts, I've been really encouraged with the stuff and how he's looked. I found myself very nervous in the first inning, probably more so than ever when he went out there, just knowing, you know, he's this big signing, it took him a while to debut. And I just, what was really encouraging to me with was how under control he was with, I'm sure the adrenaline, the excitement being in the big leagues, you know, one of those awesome Yankee stadium, summer night crowds. And I just thought he looked the part, you know, he just, but he was really in control of his delivery. And I thought very much in tune with his delivery and not trying to overdo anything. And, and, and with that, you saw great life to the fastball. Um, I thought he got a little bit tired at the end, um, probably in that fifth and sixth inning. Um, and, and just based on not being to that pitch threshold yet, not having that level of rush and adrenaline, I'm sure to this point. Um, but I'm really encouraged where he's at. Um, and you know, we're, we're getting closer to having them all the way built up, but he's going to go that first game, uh, out of the break Colorado on Friday. And, um, you know, he's one of the reasons that we are really excited about again, the potential of this team. Um, because we, we, we absolutely feel like he, he can be a difference maker and a, and a huge impact player in our rotation with him back now and Nestor on his way, Seve's look pretty rough. I mean, I think there's two good games the whole season or the conversation starting about what, what maybe could you do to get Seve back on track, whether it's bullpen, whether it's go to Tampa and work on mechanics, whether it's just take a little bit of a breather for a couple of weeks or is it steadfast? Nope. Every, every five days he's he's out there. Yeah. He'll he'll pitch. I think he's scheduled to go in Anaheim. Um, so he, he met with our, our whole pitching crew and kind of just kind of mapping out the next, you know, you know, now going back a few days, the next 10 days and things to work on both physically mechanically, um, you know, deception tells all those things where he's at body wise, all those things. Um, I do feel like the one good thing is he's healthy. Um, the stuff is there. We, it's just about fine tuning, you know, it's, it's, and that could be delivery related, you know, could be a lot of things, but it's just fine tuning that and getting him there and that's, you know, on all of us to help, help Seve unlock that. Because it's not like we're talking about, this is a picture that's, you know, when he's been healthy has been nothing but a frontline starter in his career and the stuff would suggest that still should be the case. So, uh, we got to continue to work for him, uh, to get back to that point. And he showed flashes of it and he's had enough starts where we've seen it, but we obviously got to find that consistency now. So say a couple of months from now, the Yankees have climbed back up there in the playoffs. You're going to game one. You're feeling great about it, right? What's your ideal lineup and that dream who's on the card. We'll see. I'm not, that's you're asking me to get away. We got Friday night in Denver. That's that's our focus and trying to go out and play our best. All right. I knew you weren't going to answer that one. So now I'm going to ask another one to see if you'll dodge two in a row. Can you give the first half a grade? Incomplete. Not bad. It's true. Well, the first half is complete. That is an excellent rebut, rebut or come back. Yeah. Um, you know, not good enough. Um, but it's pass, fail, it's fail. You're not in the playoffs right now as a stance. We're not, but we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we're, we need to be to go do what we got to do in the second half and now it's on us. And then we'll see, you know, we don't, we don't grade has, we don't grade months. Okay. Where are we at the end? That's what we're shooting for. They do do like player of the week prior to the month. All of our goals are right there for the taking. Like extreme things don't have to happen for us. We got to go play. Well, we know that. And, uh, you know, we don't have to leapfrog a thousand teams from games back or whatever. We need to go play well. If we play well for the next couple of months, we'll give ourselves a chance heading into October. If, uh, it goes on a happy note. What do you, you, you're going to watch Cole with like, you know, smiles or kind of like, no, I'm, I'm so excited for him. I really am. Um, you know, obviously he's done a lot in his career, um, to this point. And he's, he's, he's been so good for us and, and kind of a rock for us. And I know this is something that matters to him and it's important to him that he's always wanted to do. So to get him, see him start the all-star game. Um, I'm so excited for him. And, and that's, it's definitely a part of the game that I'll watch. Awesome. Well, we'll enjoy that. Enjoy the rest of the break. And then, uh, Colorado. Right. And Don on the bumper, baby. That was banter and a boon brought to you by Vizio Jim. Some of your and Boone's best interactions and bantering with Boone. IMO. Yeah. We just had a nice little giggle sesh over here. The, the first half grade and to incomplete to, well, it is complete. Uh, to him as fail to, uh, the monthly awards. Well, we don't measure baseball on months or weeks. He's well, there's a player good. I was trying to keep him, you know, in line. You had him in the Jimmy spin cycle there for a second. That was good. I did. I plan to ask the lineup question. Cause I knew he would dodge it and he wouldn't want to dodge two in a row. Even if I say that to him out loud, he's still, he's kind of trapped there. Uh, he tried his best, but Hey, respect to him. Cause when I said, well, the first half is complete. He said, that's a good rebuttal. And then he did say fail. So I think again, watch these. Don't just listen to these Boone interviews. You have to watch his face tells way more than his words. Yeah. He didn't say fail when, uh, when we followed up with, well, cause you know, you aren't in the playoffs right now. He said, that is true. Well, he knows, he knows if he says the F word that's in every media. Yes. Which is fine. But the look on his face, he not, and it was, he did a, a lesson for the kids. Actually, as we dive into this, the catching up with boom postgame gossip sessions brought to you by bird dogs. Cause you know what? Her dogs make me look good. Traveled in them the past two weeks to and fro Chicago. I wore them both ways to Seattle. I'm planning on wearing them from, um, I did, it was a six and a half hour flight. So I, I, I should wash them. I don't need to, because they do have their, they have special anti-stink sweat fabric in them, which adds that. Uh, and why do I drive home? The travel point people are kind of over it. It's because you want to be comfortable when you travel. They're comfortable. I wear them all the time. Uh, whether happy hour work traveling, go get yourself a pair of bird dogs at birddogs.com slash Yanks. Enter promo code Yanks. You get a free Eddie style Tumblr with your orders. That's birddogs.com slash Yanks. Um, promo code Yanks, free Eddie style Tumblr. Have your legs feel good. Have your drink feeling good too. Uh, with bird dogs. Um, I think that the reason why they let go of Dylan Lawson is a giant neon sign. I think Boone talked about it, you know, without saying it and Cashman talked about it. Uh, MLB players don't want guys who did not play in the MLB. Simple as that. I mean, they just, they said, well, I need someone else to send the message. Booney says they want a guy that they can relate to. That's been in the box with them. That knows what's going on in between the game at the plate. Dylan Lawson coached in college. Now they're just little whisper MLB players, eight college coaches, anyone that didn't play and through the minors up the system as, as fucked up as that is or not, there's an article about all they interviewed all the Nats players. Like, why do you think college baseball coaches don't go in the MLB? And if you ask any MLB players, we know they're like, cause college ball ******* sucks. And those coaches micromanage a ---- out of you. And that that's, they needed a guy that the players respected. I can, I can help you out a little more with that. Cause in an, in a not defending Dylan Lawson way, it's, it's a dead duck position to start like, you know, hitting hitting's the hardest thing to do in sports. So if you give yourself less of the street credit, if you're not someone known as Sean Casey, the mayor, um, that, yeah, if you're Dylan Lawson, you better be incredible otherworldly as a hitting coach to, to hold that position, uh, you know, Van Skojic with the Dodgers who revolutionized hitting and has saved a lot of guys. There's a little bit of a difference between a swing coach and a hitting coach, like, like judges guy, teacher, man, he's teaching him the mechanics of his swing, which some do what they're hiring Casey to do is mental approach and preparing for a game, which is what judges teacher, man, doesn't do, you know, and that, and that, and, and through their explanations and talking, it's very clear that that's what they're looking for from Sean Casey to is like mindset approach. He was an MLB hitter. He hit 300 in his career. You got to listen to what it says, right? Maybe there's some credence to what this guy's saying, where the other guy who's being like, all right, we're going to do BP on the field with a 95 mile per hour fastball. I was like, we asked some of the Yankees about that. And they were like, **** that, dude. You want me to go look bad in front of everybody? Yeah. It's very different. You do that under the stadium. Uh, yeah, I, I think, man, I think the other thing that'll be interesting with this, uh, we're, we are out here with, with Chris Rose and he knows Sean, Sean Casey, and he raved about him. Um, and we'll rave about him. He actually let out a Chris Rosa, ****. I now have to root for the Yankees. Um, cause that's how much he likes Casey. So that's exciting. It's cool to have that presence in the clubhouse. And I think the other thing that'll be interesting in these coming weeks as we sneak up, you know, three weeks out from the trade deadline or so is, um, I don't want to say short-term Yankees, but I don't know what happens with Sean Casey. Like I, uh, again, hitting coach is a tough position anyway. There there he could be two months go gets back into the grind and he's like, Whoa, that was, that was pretty crazy, huh? Like I'm, I'm good on that. Um, I, uh, you threw Cody Bellinger's name out there. Um, and I, you know, through our baseball grapevines, I I've heard he would, he would love to go and get it and, and do the Yankee thing for like a couple months. Rental people have said long-term Cody Bellinger kind of not an NYC guy. Um, but I, I'm not saying that as a knock on him. I'm saying that as, you know, some, you can read into Cody Bellinger means if you want. Uh, I think he would, he would, he would love it. The hunt and like, let's go get it. He's already done LA and all that stuff. So it's not that it's just who you are as like a person and a man. He, I think he'd prefer a different, different scene. He's kind of more of a California. Um, I mean, yeah, Yankees have convinced guys to get it after a little taste before. Yeah. All of that was said about call. Right. Um, I don't know, man, if judge, if judge isn't healthy, you almost need to hook judge or judges, personal doctors or the doctors up to like a lie detector that's real. Because if judge isn't going to be back, right. If there's another setback, if he's going to be back and it's going to be at 50% of his output, you got to sell some pieces and just scan this season. Yeah, I know Ruko said that to you as well, but like, they might be very, very late deadline trigger pullers here because they got to see if judge can compete. Otherwise there's this team's awful at hitting the ball. Yeah. Awful. Yeah. They're 30th and Babbitt, which Boone acts like is a good thing. It's not a good thing. They're, uh, they're 26 and on base percentage shake. This team's been top five and on base percentage since 2017, besides one year where they were like eighth and 30th, we're not even watching Yankees baseball. So I don't know if a hitting coach is going to change that. Yeah. It's not just magically all going to snap too. No, no. The, the hitting coach. I mean, you can, you can kind of honestly drive yourself wild because it can be very scapegoaty, but Hey, you can also spin it. And we'll see where we're at with Boone in a couple of weeks. It's like, well, you know, you guys firing a coach for the first time and you know, 30 years or whatever. Um, you know, admit, if you admit things are going wrong, then you admit, you might, might have to look at things differently. I don't think they will even, even in that Boone interview, you heard him say, judge, you will be back. And Hey, you know, you can overread and under read into that as much as you want, but it was, it was the most cheery. He said it in a while. So who knows what other info they have? And Hey, I'm, you know, I'm not trying to get Booney or the Yankees in trouble. Um, you know, his, his Sean Casey answers were interesting that, you know, how, how long was this in the pipeline? You wanted them last year. Yeah. Like it sounds like he was up for the Brad Wilkerson role that, uh, yeah, I don't know, that's a, that's very interesting how that, how that all came together. So if there's any micro credit, I know everyone's bashing them all the time. And the roster construction, we've been talking about how terrible it is forever. So I'm not anything positive. I'm about to say, doesn't Hey, we were, we were stoked with Dylan Lawson for the first half of last year's season. Cause the Yankees were a great I wasn't. I remember cause I had been told not to give credit to him. Uh, I guess they're an agent coach thing. Yeah. But, um, what was I going to say? Uh, this compliment doesn't drown out all the negatives, but Hey, they pulled the trigger and they went out and they're hired someone who's got a different philosophy as much as they're saying it's the same philosophy. It's wildly different than what we're seeing. the first means anything or good players still got a hit. You know, I want, I wonder how much confidence boost or some ---- vibes mayor mayor. Good voice like that. Cool. Jake. I just bought myself one of those jerseys. I don't know if I have one, but I didn't get to go on the all-star trip. I have one. You guys are all wearing the idea. Yeah. Oh, I got two now. Look them books, baby. Yeah. It looks good. I like that color. Obviously. Yeah. A lot of compliments on this. Derby was awful, dude. Not a TV event. You Courtney, my sister who's out there and she's trying to like stay in touch with, uh, cause she's doing stuff on behalf of John boy media. So she's trying to like watch baseball and know the conversations. You know, she texted me cause she's watching the Derby trying to figure it, trying to like be in tune. She goes, uh, you can't even tell what's happening. She said something. She said, uh, hold on. It was really funny what you said. Yeah. I think, uh, you just said like, I'm watching nothing. West, uh, West coast has sneaky hurt the Derby in the past couple of years. Cause it's normally like a night event on the East coast. We haven't even felt that yet. And Chris Rose was like, dude, wait till you get an East coaster. Be like, it's at night. It feels more like a thing. And I was like, wow. I hadn't even factored that. Um, I think we need to tweak the rounds. You and I talked about that before the show, just a little bit. Like the unlimited homers is cool, but everyone's gasped by the end that literally every year you have the guy who won the event, Julio Rodriguez. And then you have like the winner of the event that we tweak that a little bit. Um, and yeah, we just texted, she texted, you're basically watching nothing, which I thought summed it up so well from an outsider who's trying to watch. She's like, I haven't seen a home run. Yeah. Just put a steady camera behind the hitter. Yeah. Golf, like tracking of the ball. And then we'll say it was on, but if it was, yes, but they love showing multiple screens going. So like the more in person, the format is pretty fun. Like the two I went to and that, and like that Julio rounds it's fun because it's nonstop. It's also very dangerous for the crowd, but, uh, yeah, that was bad, man. Um, yeah. And Seattle, dude, there wasn't a ton of outfield seats. So we were, you know, we, we had one outfield seat, uh, do it in places without field seats, cause that's, that's more fun. Hot takes only. Yeah. Hot takes. All right. I think I'm back on talking yanks from here on out. Okay. I believe so. I'm just made my schedule for the, uh, part-time send it over. I know. Well, you're busy. It's going to wait until this concludes. Okay. So we'll see you Sunday. Yeah. And I want to be back on it. Cause I got thoughts and takes and stuff like after that. It's a good time. It's pretty. It's a good time to talk Yankees crunch time. All right. Oh, yeah. Thanks. Tom grams. Oh, Yankees. Come say hi. We're about to wrap up in like five seconds. It's on the outro. Yankees are so good.