Aaron Boone Says Aaron Judge Wasn't Cheating | 907

Today is May 16th. We've got SharpStats. We've got Booney coming on. A little bantering session with him. So let's do it. Let's Talk Yanks. Hello and welcome to Talkin' Yanks, brought to you by SeatGeek. My name is Jimmy. Jake is here. BBD in the corner. The Yankees are 1-0 in their last one game. The mood is high and the vibes are... Is that song? How are you, Jake? The mood is high and the vibes are kickin'. If that's the song, the tide is high and I'm holding on. Yeah, you got a different song. James Davis, everyone tuning in. Booney, all Boone's relatives that tune into this episode. Hello. Welcome. We'll get there in a little bit. Yeah, vibes are high, man. It's going into every game. We're going to win and we're going to win big. It's pretty cool. The lineup is clicking and it's different dynamics everywhere you look. There's the speed guy. There's the young guys. There's Waldo's walk-in last night. The power judge. Casual two-homer game. Smoked one, yeah. Lenoa's sad now. I was sad about that. Like an adversary just gone. You know, you like to have people that are thorns. Get up and fight. Yeah. And he kind of didn't have it. No, he had nothing. It was a muted game for a while. Coming from the Rays. Just remembered it's a four game during the week session. Usually on the midweeks, we do talk about the first game when it's a four game so we can talk about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We didn't mention that it was a cozy game for a while and then like they tried to fake not being cozy and whatever. Who cares? There was I never thought they were going to lose that game, which is nice. It's a new feeling. And Boone hit some good buttons yesterday that everyone kind of probably doubted or like what the hell are we doing? So excited to talk to him about that. Excited to see a lot of you guys hopefully at our live event. That's coming up. Amtrak is hooking us up with that one, right? So I'm excited. It's on the tickets are on sale. Do we have an update? Are we sold out yet? tickets just went on sale. So we sold probably a third of selling out which is higher than we wanted to be. I don't know that was just a tough standard how you phrased all that was a bad delivery. But no, it doesn't deliver in a bad way Amtrak Jim because they're doing that event with us and Amtrak there I was watching. What was it there's an old Yankees highlight the other day. It was like 90s Yanks and Amtrak in the outfield. Like Amtrak has been around trains the first train Jim. I don't think I don't think Amtrak gets credit for that. But they've got the best trains now. And if you live in the Northeast, you're probably familiar but you get to New York City or get out of New York City Moynihan station. Super easy. And that's super close to our watch party. So come through. We're gonna watch some Yanks. We're gonna have a good time. We've done a few of these watch parties. When is it June the third Jim, you're gonna be there. June the third I will be there. I will be there. June the third. And it's going to be at the Taylor located at 505 8th Ave. Wow, that's phrase listed pretty word. 505 8th Ave at 530. A lot of fives. So that's I mean, yeah, feels like a trick or treat there, but it's real. So take Amtrak to the city and come hang out with us. Amtrak watch some Yanks. What goes to what's more Americana than trains and baseball? Hot dogs on the train. Yeah. And listening to jazz that would have you really set. Yeah, I feel like the euros tried to snag jazz. Oh, no jazz is one of the more American things going in France. I've heard a lot of jazz. Oh, they're way too structured. They cannot have the Lucy gooseness that comes with jazz. I'm saying but they've also declined our hot dogs. So thanks, Amtrak. The rest of the world has declined hot dogs. Yes. They've been like, Oh, out. Oh, you just grind it all up and eat it. No, thank you stuff. You didn't want to eat. It's getting the sharp stats, the sharpest of stats. I'm excited about this. I think that actually, it's on the pitching is what I'm guessing. And now I'm a little nervous, actually, to be honest. Hey, guys, it's the queen of stats. And now that the offense seems to be getting into its groove and is rolling. It's time to start talking about the pitching again, unfortunately, and the one pitcher that we it's really been the most disappointing this season. And that's Nestor Cortez. You guys mentioned this on the last pod. He's got a 5.53 ERA in his last four starts. He's allowed 19 runs in 19 innings. This just isn't the Nestor that we saw last year. And the one thing that you did, you did mention is that that third time through the order problem that he's been having this year. And it's really stark. I want to just throw out these numbers for you, just because they're so shocking. So last year, he allowed a 531 OPS, 0.531 OPS, the third time through the order, which is really good. Among pitchers with at least 100 batters faced, that was the second best in Major League Baseball. So last year, he was the second best. This year, his OPS allowed third time through the order is 1.608. Yeah, that's twice as high or more than twice as high. And among all pitchers that have faced at least 30 batters in that situation, the third time through the order, he has the worst OPS. So a shocking turnaround there, which I think is probably the biggest difference for him. And what that 1.60 OPS looks like, it's 15 for 33, with six homers, four doubles, and three walks. And so then just kind of looking at some more of his stack pass stuff, all his pitches are just getting hit a lot harder and more in the air. So a lot more fly balls and line drives. His hard hit percentage has increased from 34% last year to 42%, where the average is 36. And his average launch angle has increased from 19 degrees to 28 degrees. That's not what you want. And another thing I think that's worth mentioning in terms of his pitches, his foreseeing fastball movement is about the same as last year and is expected. Stats on that pitch are the same. So there's some hope there. There's some room for optimism there. But both his sweeper and his cutter have less horizontal movement. So he's getting a lot less cases this year. Last year, he had a 31% case percentage, where the average is 28%. And this year, it's down to 23%. So I think, you know, there's obviously a lot going wrong with Cortez. And I just touched on a few things. But maybe some good news is his fastball looks the same. The bad news, those secondary pitches are just not getting it done. Yeah, all right. I touched on this last episode a little bit as I gave him my MFR award. And I think, thank you, Katie, for bringing this to light, organizing the stats for us. What's interesting to me is he's still good first and second time through the order, with the sweeper and cutter, with less movement, with the harder hit rate. Or I wonder if you go a step deeper, and if those peripherals, those advanced analytics, the chase rate being down and the movement being different, if in the first two innings, if those are the same, and the hard hit rate, like if the third time through is causing all the changes, right? Do you follow me? Because then it's like, I would really just lean on fatigue and legs. Well, that's the whole conversation, right? Is it? Well, the flip side is the pitches are less good. They're good enough to get through first and second time. But the third time the batters see them has nothing to do with his stamina or his fatigue. It's just the pitches aren't good enough to get through a third time through. So that's where I wonder those movement numbers, if the pitches are in the first time through as sharp as last year, or is it at the end they get so much less sharp, they're dragging the numbers down? Yeah, I think it's the debate that we don't know the answer to. I will say this. I think I had a head tilt moment last night. We mentioned Manoa right now doesn't look like the Alec Manoa we know. And who knows what's going on there. You can speculate everything from injury to stuff not being sharp to new rules that I did have a head tilt when they first mentioned, like maybe the new rules are getting to Manoa. He's a, Michael Kay said, he's a big burly guy. And maybe the, with the speed of the game, that's getting to him. And when I heard that, I was like, no, why for Manoa? Yes. He was one of the slower paced pitchers in the league last year, but Cortez was one of the faster, but that wasn't his, that wasn't Manoa's problem last night that that very much felt like for whatever Manoa has going on. And that's talking Jays, which coming up after this is for me, for what I saw last night would have been number three option easily. Like from everything else I saw from Manoa, like the stuff looked worse. His confidence looks shot. Like for, for Nestor, like you said, correlating it to the new rules, the time thing, Nestor was one of the quickest pitchers anyways. Um, but I, I don't think it's pure fatigue and the stuff itself. I guess Nestor stuff in general has looked fine. You had an interesting note that he's not doing any of the funny business, like at all, like even slowing down the late kicker. You would have assumed coming into the season, knowing who Nestor is, that he would be like the king of clock manipulation. He kind of was the king of manipulation pre clock. Yeah. He's got called for quick pitching a couple of times. So maybe that's just like made him lose his joy. The gusto. Um, for me, I don't know. I still think there's some small sample size. I I'm honestly leaning that his other pitches haven't been as sharp and I think that's throwing everything off. I think that's, um, the fastball has seen fine. I guess the other thing I'm going to back in my head, whenever we talked about a good Nestor start, there would be a couple times a game that he'd dial up a 94 95 and it'd kind of jump off the map to you. And you'd be like, Oh, Nestor really tuned that one up. I currently don't mentally have that. So I guess that's something I'd like to double check or watch going forward. And yeah, I mean, if it's going through a lineup three times, traditionally you just need multiple pitches. That's why everyone gets lost on Johnny Brito developing a third pitch or Clark being able to get out left. He's like, that is what you need. It's proven throughout baseball over time that you need that. And I feel like Nestor doesn't have that right now. And it's a, it's what's getting them in trouble. I want to look at how many starts is Nestor made this year is nine, I think. I guess around there. So just to compare to last year, I'm going to look at last year, April through May. And I don't know how much this is going to tell us his eight right now, eight right now. Okay. So well, last year, April 12th is when they started. I forgot about that. Um, all right. So he's thrown the 723 pitches this year. And I'm looking at his release, um, his release point to see how many times he's dropped down. Cause that's one thing I feel like he hasn't dropped down and that's when he's having fun. Um, so when was his eighth start last year to make it fair? It was May 21st. So do, do, do, do, do. So through his first eight starts last year, because he hasn't, I have it here. He's dropped down 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 times this whole season. It doesn't seem like that many times. Usually it was a couple of times per game he would go down there, but I might be wrong. So his release point chart from last year in the first eight games, when he was really good first half of the season. Oh yeah. Way more. So to show you this, this is last year and his release points were just kind of everywhere as part of his trickery that he could throw all the pitches from everywhere. And then, uh, this year it's very much all there besides these down here. So that, I, I don't know what this means to me, but I just think he's not having as much fun. Like his, like part of his game was funky deliveries that like, I feel like two strikes, two outs. How many times did we see him go Laredo to freeze a guy? Like what you're saying 94 from sidearm and walk off the mound after like the balls out of his hands. I remember in that White Sox start last year, it happened a couple of times. And I was like, damn, that is like Nestor's bad-ass. We just haven't seen, I think you gotta have some more fun. We'll always encourage that. Uh, you know, I've been a big proponent of, uh, Glaber doing that as well. Um, yeah, I guess I'm trying to see the, the fastball itself. Um, hmm. Expected batting average is very similar to last year, but the actual numbers are getting rocked. So that's interesting. Um, Cutter's fine. Sweeper's been, um, getting hit, but it got hit a little bit last year. Changeup seemed like more of an option. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, knowing who Nestor is and, you know, getting everything out of them, using tricks and location and deception and all of it. Uh, it feels like he's using that all up the first two times through. Um, and yeah, I guess the other thing when I'm picturing Nestor in previous years, you know, it was never third time through or it was never, you know, normally when Nestor got hit last year, it'd be like, I'm doing my thing. And when someone hits me, he kind of turns around and he's like, yep, you got me. And then he gets the ball back and he goes back to it. And this year it's very clearly like the engines, whatever, something is running out and it's stamina. It's his arm. It's going too fast or it's the stuff isn't as good. So there's not much to go to. And that's where, you know, with how wild he got, um, in that raise game, that was just, that was bizarre. It was bizarre. Kind of want to get Booney's thoughts on it. We can ask him. Sure. Like our, I'm sure he's going to say he's not worried, but, but how do you get back? Like what, like what, I guess the question for me is, is it stuff or is it stamina? What's happening in that third time through? Right. Cause there's two different fixes there. I think. Cause I, I guess the other thing you'd, you'd pinpoint out of this and you know, we, Nestor got off to an incredible start last year and then he, um, he had an incredible finish at well. So it, it looks like his worst stretch last year. If Jakey butter knives is here, there's a six start span where Nestor had a five, three, four ERA. Um, you know, he, he was getting last year. Yeah. And that was the first start was the raise or, or right around the raise. There was a row. There was one before that he had a bad Minnesota start back to back raise, which weren't ugly, ugly. The second one, um, was bad. I mean, I guess that's the thing. None of them are blow up, blow ups like Nestor's worst start. But I, I believe if you give me the date of that, that twins and Ray start, I believe he made a big adjustment. We were on his cutter a last year. That was the, that was the primary change, but it's not, well, his cutter, um, was that around June last year? Uh, yes. Cause the first two months he was a two pitch pitcher last year. And then the raise jumped his cutter in that game down at the trough. Uh, and then after that, he became a three pitch pitcher very much. So when the sweeper jumped up to join the cutter. So he had a six game stretch, um, where his numbers are kind of similar to what this stretch has been, but it's nine games this year. So again, with baseball stretches, it gets tricky because if you, you know, we'll see what the St. Louis Cardinals do the rest of the way, but every team will have bad stretches here. Every player will have a bad stretches here. It just gets magnified. If that happens to be the start of the season, cause you're worried about the rest of the year. Um, I wonder if he didn't have any blowups last year, Jim, his most earned runs allowed in any game last year was four. Yeah. It's crazy. His where, where was his most recent bad game? Is it at the stadium? Yes, there is. It was. Yeah. He gave up the grand slam because that was his, but for that, the stat was that Nestor has never given up more than 300 runs at the stadium. Uh, I wonder if in that bad stretch, you can, if you can, is there any correlation to third time through or was he getting rocked early in those six games? I don't know how to use, I don't know if baseball reference has got to really dive for that. Yeah. Sometimes Katie Sharp builds queries for me and I'm like, can I do this on the front end? And she's like, no, that's a bummer. Yeah. I like to learn. Um, I don't know, again, I guess for me, I'm, I'm still giving Nestor leash cause he's obviously earned it and it can, you can look back and call it a small sample size. Um, he can get out of this easily. And I mean, you know, it, not to play the baseball gods a little bit, but the two teams that got them were Texas and Tampa who have been hitting the cover off the ball. Um, and you know, in that Tampa game, he was cruising. He, he gets in a tough spot that, like I said, that first, the walk is on a pitch clock violation, which like, Hey, you know, would have loved to have that three, two pitch. Um, and then I know he ends up leaving a meatball to Yandy. So you're not going to forgive that, but you know, if it's not a great swing by Yandy and it's a line drive, one hopper to third baseman, it's a double play. He's out of the inning and it's a five innings, two earned run start. So I think the baseball gods come into play a little bit. I think obviously something needs to be tweaked. Um, and yeah, I, the biggest thing for me, was it when Nestor stopped attacking the zone? Was that, does he know the stats? Was it lack of confidence? Was it fatigue? Is this a stop? Can't hit his spot. What is that? Cause his, his fastball on that bottom line is so good. Um, so yeah, I'm interested. Uh, and I, I, I don't think he's doomed at all, but I am worried about it. I'd like to see it coming back the other way. Like if we have another, he gets to the third time, you know, fifth inning and it's just like, falls apart again. Like if we're, we get one or two more of those, oh ----, it becomes talking about Chester again. Chad, where are you? I was looking at his game long against the Rays in that game last time. And, uh, in that game, Higashioka hit a Homer off McClanahan, just like he did this year. So Higgy just owns that dude. Owns him, owns lefties. Way to go Higster. Anything else? No, I don't know. Um, you want to talk Yogi bear? I know you've seen the movie. They're doing the commercials for it the whole time now. And everyone's saying the same thing you're saying that has seen the movie, like Kay and them. They're like, uh, you know, he was pretty good too. It's not just a cartoon character. It's kind of the theme of the movie. Cause Kay and Coney said they hadn't seen it yet. Oh, okay. Meredith. Um, and Susan got to see a screening of it at spring training. I got to see it. Uh, who was in the building for that? You're asking yourself. Was it me? Yeah. Rob Manfred. Uh-huh. Country Joe West sure was, uh, the three amigos as we call ourselves. Speaking of umpires, did you see the angel Hernandez thing? Yeah. That's pretty wild. They did come out and say it's like a family medical thing, but he'd be on the crew during this blue J series. I think the umpire that just ejected Boone is like one of the rookies that's subbing for him. All these new, there's so many young umpires coming up this year. You can't sub out Yogi bear at gym. No. And it ain't over. Uh, it's in theaters. That's where I saw it with the three amigos, like I mentioned. Um, and yeah, it's, it's interesting cause they say the untold story of Yogi and it's, we all kind of know Yogi, right? You're listening to talking Yanks, you know, Yogi bear, uh, and you know, some of the, some of the Naval stuff, you know, uh, some of the baseball stuff, but man, some of the full story and it got alluded to last night, uh, when they were talking about it, I had totally forgotten. I do talking Yanks. I have a bad brain. Um, Yogi and his absence from the Yankees a decade and a half. The day he comes back was Kony's perfect game. Like, I don't know, man, some people are magic and I think Yogi is one of those people. He grew up on the street with another major league catcher. Um, like there's just all these Yogi stuff. And yeah, the depiction of Yogi is pretty wild. Cause you kind of start with the silly one liner guy and you forget that he is one of the best baseball players to ever see this game. Uh, some slight tears, sniffles in the theater. I have a question for you. Go see it ain't over playing in select cities or click the link in the description to find out more. Do you, so he has no black bold on his baseball reference, but he has, he won three MVPs and those are bolded. So does he, does that count as bold in your base reference or is that a second category? Oh, that's interesting. The league and MVP. I think that counts. He never led the league. He just, he led the league in MVP votes. So he's in the, the Gibby club. He's yeah. Okay. I think so. Um, Yogi's power numbers are crazy and you get distracted by the, the five, seven, one 85 Italian, silly Italian man. Again, none of that's relatable. I'm going to go see his numbers versus um, Hall of Fame pitchers. Okay. And some Yogi lytics here. Yeah. Okay. So early, I thought it was Earl. I was going to say Earl when like Earl, you know, but it's early when, which is a really early as a first Homer off in the first, I mean, I'm going to be, I don't know if I'm embarrassing myself here or not. Who's early when he's like a famous old pitcher, but I mean, that's a hilarious name. When is a sports term and early, like, did he have a great start of his career and then faded out? Cause that's wild. No one, the Cy Young at 39. That sounds like a horse's name. Like if you were like, it is an early horse has been named. Hers has been named early when his, uh, his full name was early wind early. His nickname was Gus. Um, a lot of I mean, Yogi crushed a lot of these Robin Roberts, Jim Bunning, red roughing one for two off red roughing satchel page, two Homers off of him. Wow. The Hoyt Wilhelm got him. Yogi didn't like nothing else. No, no, still doesn't. Yeah. And Jim cot. Wow. Yeah. Don't have them playing together in my brain. Oh dude. And that's the other cool thing about Yogi. He connects connects like DiMaggio and mantle. He connects, he connects, he connects the Yankees. He is the early wind. I know Homer's off Bob lemon. Don't bring that in. What, what current MLB player do you think has the most similar stature statute? Uh, uh, Yogi bear five, seven, one 85. Yeah. But kind of built like a, like Altuva doesn't have his build. I don't think no. And Kirk is bigger. Kirk's a lot bigger. I mean, Willie Calhoun, are we looking at Yogi and saying, that's what, that's Willie Calhoun. I mean, again, you're still down, you know, I'd have to see Willie on the scale. I think you're down 20 pounds or so, at least for Willie Willie's real thick. Willie's real thick. Yogi's a thumb. Yeah. And I say that in the most endearing way because I'm saying, yeah, I guess, let me know who's out there. That is Willie's. It's us, Jim. It's us. If we were the best baseball player in the world. So maybe it is just like a different head. I need this. I need this picture framed. I just love that. They made him do that pose. Caught it. Caught it. All right. Let's head to the boon banter session. Bantering with the boom is brought to you by Vizio. You guys know Vizio. All of our banter with boons have been brought by Vizio. They have award-winning TVs and soundbars at insane prices. 4K screens for under 500. They got a crazy gaming TV. They got our guy Joe's all excited. I was on the Vizio bus, shows up at a lot of events and it comes with an MLB.TV subscription. So if you like baseball, you're listening to this. There's a chance. It already comes. Oh, you just link it. Okay. Vizio watch free also offers MLB network totally for free. Again, baseball MVP of value. They said Vizio value. They like the V words over there. Head over to vizio.com. Check out how you can elevate your viewing experience all season long, whatever your budget or size of your home. Vizio has you covered with the perfect TV and soundbar combo. Elevate your AV for the MLB season. Go click the link in the description, get a TV and a soundbar. I'm a face up Yogi. All right. Booney joining us from Toronto. How is it up there? Nice. A roof open yesterday. I heard roof open today. We got like nice, almost summer weather. Like it was really nice out. The new dimensions. Do you walk the grounds and look at them and be like, Oh, look, the wall's closer. Yeah, I did. Okay. I got there early, you know, and went out on the field, went out to the bullpen. It's really good. It looks really good. I hear there. I hear next year they're doing all the field level behind the home plate and around home plate. They're taking all those seats out and redoing the club houses underneath. So yeah, I think what they've done is it looks really good. And yeah, it's pretty cool. All right. Well, we got a couple like topics and segments today. And I think just up front, most of it falls under the like love column. You know, you guys are winning the offense's dynamic. And then we'll just sandwich a couple of the more tough lover like, Hey, what's going on here in the middle? Sound good. All right. But we will I did say we'll get this out of the way quickly with judge yesterday and the broadcast and the eyes shifting over in the postgame. You guys said that he was telling the dugout to, you know, shut up. Boone already got ejected. You don't need to yell anymore. Now, if my only question is, if that wasn't the case, if maybe the pitcher was tipping and the dugout could see it and then they could relay it to judge and then that helps them out, which is totally legal, even if that was true, you guys would still say he was just telling the dugout to shut up. Correct. Yeah. I mean, there's really nothing more to say on this. I get it. It's juicy and everything, but we said all we need to say on it, you know, we're move on from it. Sorry. It's boring. That's a boring answer, but that's where we're at on it. That's a, Hey, that's our job. We'll keep, we'll just keep Brian these next 20 minutes. No, I, I actually, I want to help out my guy a little bit next to me. Cause I don't know if you remember, you got tossed last night. And my, my friend to my right is pretty good at reading your lips. Um, but he was sick all day yesterday. So could you just give us some spark notes so we could cut out like two hours of his day? Yeah, I was sick last night and it was a cozy, nice win. And then you get ejected. And then now I'm getting requested like crazy. Like when's the video, when's the video. And I was pretty upset with you because I'll just let you know when I'm sick next time. And I can't read your lips. You let me know beforehand. I didn't know. Hopefully you're feeling better. You look great. Better enough. And maybe I'll get to it, but I mean, it was a pretty simple one. A lot of horseshit, a lot of bullshit, a lot of that was low. You know, actually there's one, I didn't think, I didn't think I should've got ejected. That's what I was more upset about. I, you know, he, he kind of gave me the stop, but I wasn't being overly belligerent over there. You know, usually I'd know that line, got some experience with that line. Is he a new ump or is he, is he Angel's replacement right now while he's down? Cause I know Hoy's got some rookies, some rookie umps on his crew. Yeah, I'm not sure. I, you know, I, I think they rotate those, those, I think, you know, Clint's done it, usually done a really good job. I thought last night, you know, I just thought I, I, we kind of were taking exception the entire game. You know, like we're winning the game and things were going pretty well, but I thought there were a number of calls right from jump that, you know, we had an issue with. So I was trying to voice that a little bit, but I didn't think it rose to the level of getting tossed, but obviously it did. So that's, that's more what set me off. With it being a big four gamer, is there any more onus on you to kind of, Hey, let's, let's, Hey, we're going to be here for four nights. Like you can't call that low pitch on judge. Like, do you think there's a little more emphasis on your end to, to kind of say, we can't be doing this. I don't think so. It's just, look, I love where our guys are right now and the way they're playing and how hooked up we've been. I feel like you've heard me say that a lot over the last couple of weeks, like these guys are prepared and I feel like it's such a good competitive place, whether we've scored a lot of runs, whether we've had a night where we've struggled, whether we've won or lost. I really like where this group is intent wise. And you know, don't want to let up on that no matter what kind of game we're in. Yeah. And that's part of my top of the notes here of like the love section is I've kind of seen the light on, on the lineup and the offense. I, I think what you guys have done and what the guys have done in the last six games or so, and you're, you know, what, nine and four in the last 13 and three of those losses were one run games. Like, you know, things are kind of offensively changed. The lineup is deeper. And also we do have some of the small ball on the back end where, you know, Cabrera's laying down bunts for singles, Volpe's laying down bunts, they're stealing bases. As Waldo has three walks in the game yesterday. I think that's the first time in his career he's had three. The second time ever he has two in a game. Just seems like everything's kind of clicking where you have judge back Bader back. Does that, I mean, is it feel as refreshing for you as does for me? Cause for me, obviously, maybe I'm a little more hesitant to just like blindly believe that this was going to happen for you. I think you had that faith, but to actually see it come through, how's it feel? Yeah. Yeah, definitely. It's, it's been definitely good to see the group as a whole, you know the last couple of weeks really start to gain some traction offensively after struggling a bit and obviously getting Bader back with a shot in the arm and then, you know, judge missing those 10 games or whatever to get him back and now him rolling a little bit. And then those other guys starting to play roles and like contribute, you know, whether it's a Bowers, whether it's as Waldo starting to do some things, obviously both these in the middle of some things, but we've gotten a number of little contributions from a lot of different people around guys that, you know, the Rizzo's and the judges and that are, that are, you know, kind of carrying us a little bit. So that's been really good to see. And but again, I just go back to we're in the middle of a really long season, right. And, and, you know, you, you want to see things in your group and your team that you feel like are winning intangible things. And, and I feel like those kinds of things are happening. Are you calling these bonds, most of them, or is that, or those guys have the green light if they see the opening and want to lay it down, can they, they can do it? Yes. I mean, we do a little everything, so, you know, but mostly it comes down to these guys executing and they're doing a good job of that. And, oh, the other thing was yesterday you pushed a bunch of buttons, right? You start the lefties against Manoa. You give Willie the day there, you go with the opener Cordero, and it all works. Do you want to say F you to anyone on the show? Like that maybe doubted it, you know, everyone that got upset because if it doesn't work, they come for you. So we'll give, we'll give you the platform now. Do you have any like neighbors that text you or uncles that give you ----? Just you, this is what I gave you crap about in the winter. The start of this kind of relationship, you walked up at winter meetings, put a finger in Jimmy's chest. I grabbed you right back. That's how I remember it. And you said, you know, there's some splits numbers and some things that you guys miss sometimes. And yeah, there was a, it paid off a little bit last night, although Manoa this whole season, he, he seems a little out of whack himself. It works sometimes it doesn't, whatever. I mean, I mean, the biggest thing was in this stretch of games we're in, it's like, I kind of know I need to get Bader same with DJ being mindful of that. And it's like, and then you look at the rest of your roster. It's like, all right, what's the best day to get them? So that's what you're always kind of planning out. And it felt like yesterday was a good day to get some, you know, a little more lefty balance in those guys came through. So that then the other thing was the Cordero as the opener, how does that come to be? Like when, when was that decided? How does he get chosen out of the bullpen? Is it due to availability and innings or the day the game before, are you saving him? Cause you already know he's opening the next day. Yeah, not saving him. He was in play the last game of the series in against the race, although he had thrown one, one plus the day before. So he was a little, maybe a little less than play, but, but you know, had we needed them in that game, we would have used them. So once, once he wasn't used you know, I, I liked, I liked Jimmy a lot, especially against right-handed hitters and right-handed lanes when we have them. And obviously, you know, Toronto presents three, three really good right-handers right out of the shoot at you. So once we got through Sunday's game basically, you know, Blake and I just, and Mendy, Hey, what do you think? Yep. Let's do it. And so, yeah, so we, we I let, I let Jimmy know actually, as we were leaving the clubhouse for the airport and then I, I was able to let Johnny know on the, right when he got on the plane. Well, let's, let's do a little, you know, the highs have been highs. There's, there's one moment that kind of everyone wants to talk about in that final raise game. It's Albert Abreu comes out, which, you know, there's any discussion you can have. I, you know, I, I was interested in maybe Ron in that spot because he, you know, won out first, what would have been a lefty with walls on the switch, switch hitting. And, you know, again, we get to play the result because if, if that's a different stadium that might even be caught by a right fielder. And I guess the other part of that is the four change-ups, which every Yankee fan kind of turned their head. So I was curious about the decision itself. And then the pitches is that, is that Blake, is that Trevi on the fly feeling out Abreu or how does, how do both those go down? Yeah. I mean, so yeah, look, we're, we're a little up against it just from, from the day before and kind of exhausting our pen. So we're going to have a little bit of a hard time getting to the finish line and in a tight game with leverage guys. So, you know, the reality was we're going to have to get through a few innings, you know, with some, not all of our high leverage guys. So it was a tough call there. You know, I was really wanting to get Clark through it, but, you know, he was having a little bit of trouble, obviously going through that third time. And so we're just based on the usages we had all, all weekend, we were just in a little bit of a tough spot and needed to get a big out from, from, from somebody else. So as far as the four change-ups, yeah, I mean, definitely in hindsight, you know, probably wish we would've sprinkled something else in, but at the end of the day, it comes to execution and probably if he executes a good pitch there ahead in the count where he's got leverage, we're in a better spot. But, you know, that, that, that starts with game planning, which starts at the beginning of a series that carries into each and every day. And then Trevi, who's as good as it gets, you know, executing and feeling out the game, how he, how he sees fit. With Abreu, the numbers, the stats with him and inherited runners, is that something you consider or, or take into account? Like you bring him into that situation with runners on over the last two seasons. Yeah, it is. So are you aware of the numbers with him in those? Cause they're not great. So, so moving forward, does that get more consideration in a spot like that against the team and division? I don't know. It's just, it's always considered, look, there's days, it's just, you still, we still got to get out and he's capable of that. So you know, you just can't use everybody every day and every spot you want. But he's certainly capable. And the one thing is obviously a mistake there, but you know, he came in and, and executed initially to get himself count leverage. And then to his credit, you know, gave us two quality innings beyond that. And, and let us, you know, kept us in the game. We creep back in, almost got all the way back in. So, you know, that's part of it. And part of that is, you know, you do think those things will regress a little bit and, and some of it's, you know, some of it's just baseball and, and a little, a little stretcher in, but also things you got to be aware of too. Yeah. Another, another, you know, conversation about analytics and, and where you see them. And we talked about this earlier on the show would be Nestor and the third time through, or even after the fifth inning right now. And I kind of, we both agree that, you know, Nestor can easily get out of this and be, you know, the same form as, as he was last year and even the year before that. So we're not trying to come out of like a super negative place, but there is some concern with how drastic the fall off has been even visibly watching, like kind of laboring to find his spots. My question is, do you, do you think it's more, you know, there's, there's numbers that show the movement on his secondary, his cutter and his sweeper are less than last year. So is the stuff right now less than, and that's easier to get to in the third time you see it as a hitter, or is it more fatigued stamina that he's kind of like running out of gas the third time through or, or neither? Yeah, maybe, maybe a little, all of it. Look, I think once, I think Nestor is going to be fine, by the way, I really do. Like his stuff is starting to take back and he's getting his power back. So, and once he gets rolling, he is a guy that I believe is capable of getting going the third time through. I think he's, he, he's been a little off with the cutter as far as more so execution and getting it where he wants, you know, where he's gotten into some troubles when he gets kind of down and in and gets in that slug zone, that cutter, he needs to be up with, you know, he's going to shoot his fastball up in the strike zone and he's going to spray that around up above the belt and everything. But the cutter is that pitch he's got to have where it's more at that belt and then he's cutting it in on their hands. When he starts yanking it down and in, that's where it can turn into some slug. And the other thing is, you know, I mean, look, we've been short some starters. Obviously we've had starters down a little bit and you can't just, you know, every day race to the pen in the fourth and the fifth because it's the third time through when you haven't got a ton of innings and you're, you know, leaning on your pen as much. So you gotta, you gotta get through those and go through some uncomfortable spots in the game from time to time, especially, especially when you're in a stretch of 33 out of 34, where you can't just lean on the pen every day for half the game. Are there numbers with Hermann that say the opposite? Like he's a guy a couple times now, it seems like he could have given you another inning and saved the pen. And, and in that game against the Rays, he's looking kind of easy breezy. And I understand you have, you have Ron and you have the full, the best of your pen available. So I don't really hate going to that because that's the game plan, but he was at 88 pitches and you talk about needing more innings from the starters and stuff. It seems a couple of times Hermann's been in a spot to give you that extra inning and you guys have pulled it before he falls off. A couple of times, a couple of times we've lost over one of those eight and a third innings. So it's true. Very true. He went pretty far. Yeah. Yeah. But I just, he hasn't been stretched out to like 100 or I just wonder if there's a limit that you guys have on him. No, I mean, sometimes that's, that's that day dependent and he's certainly earning more and more, um, you know, the way he's throwing the ball, you know, you're getting more and more comfortable with him getting deep in the game. And I know he feels like he can get deep in the game. And it's, the biggest thing is seeing him throwing the ball really well is exciting. You know, I, I think I try not to look at it as, and I think sometimes you can get yourself in trouble where, well, he only had 65 pitches or he only had 90 like, it's not so much that it's like, where are you at in the game? What's available. So you can get yourself in trouble just saying, well, he only threw this many pitches. So he's it's, it's a lot of times the other team making the adjustment and getting to see you again, not so much how many pitches a guy's thrown. These guys are cut out to, you know, throw 90, a hundred, you know, in Garrett's case, you know, sometimes we push a hundred or 10, 15, whatever it may be. So the big thing with Domingo and they're, and I hear you, there's certainly a case to be made for a couple of times, like, Hey, get that final out here. And that's the rub every, every time, you know, it's like, you know, what are you available? Penn wise, where are you set up for the week? You know, what's the risk reward to, to pushing, pushing someone through maybe a place you're a little bit uncomfortable, but the biggest takeaway for me right now on Domingo is how well he's Yeah, it's, it's been nice. And you had the three that were kind of questionable and not pencil in the starting five. You got Sebi coming back and you got a lot of off days coming up. What's the rotation going to look like in June and with the success of Cordero how much, how well that set up a burrito as the opener, is there more opener days coming for burrito for Clark and, and you go to a four plus one with all these off days or what's June rotation look like. Yeah. It just kind of depends again, like the, because Jimmy was available that presented itself and we're playing in Toronto unique situation where kind of like the matchup. So it'll depend on team usage, who's available. And sometimes you don't know that till the night before, you know, now, now you're good. Now we're going to put Sebi in the mix. Obviously he could be in play as early as this next turn. So we'll juggle some things there if we have to, or if we want to give them one more, we'll kind of see, see where we're at after this one tonight. And then, yeah, we'll, we'll be open to a lot of Clark lineup for Cincinnati right now. Is that Clark lines up on right. All right. Well, they don't got a lot of lefties, so that could be one more fun time for, you know, Clark. Yeah. I think with, with free to loud, I think they're, they're kind of frailies. They're only left and then Ramos is a switch. So yeah, it's a lot of righties. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Exciting. Boonie. Like we said, the boys are bopping. Let's, let's end with the fun one. Jim, what do you, what do you think the baseball one or the, the fits baseball one, let's go baseball. This game that we've creatively named is one game, one pitch or pass. So one game, one pitch or pass. So you get, you get to do it for the whole game. You get to do it for one pitch or moment or you're out. Oh, okay. Okay. You get to, you get to hit a judge in blast four 65 ish, like just new, the mood of the building changes. So, you know, you get four at bats, maybe you get to hit two, I don't know. You get to pitch his coal, you get this stuff, you're pumping a hunch, you get wipe out, you're nasty, or you get to be Bader for a day and you get to track down multiple balls. Oh, I have my answer to this. All right. So what are, what are the definitions of them again? So one, you get to do for a whole game to do all day and the whole game, you're, you're judging, you're balling out, you're Bader and you're balling out or you're start as Cole, uh, uh, four at bats as judge or, uh, you know, a full game and nine innings in center field as Bader would be the game or just one pitch. My full game, my full game would be Garrett Cole. Yeah. I always fantasize that as a player. When I was a player, I used to be, man, I'd love to be like Roger Clemens for a full, you know, just like go out there and see what that feels like to walk out there with your stuff and feeling. So I'll take the Garrett for the full game. Uh, one play, one play. So yeah, you're either one judge blast or you're that Bader catching the gap. Yeah. I'd like a nice judge in one. Okay. Cause I didn't hit a lot of homers the other way. Nice, nice. No doubter. Okay. Big ball to right center. That's like a back breaker. I'll take that one. And then I guess I got to pass on Bader. Sorry. Sorry, Harrison. And no, no appeal to hunting a down ball in the gap like that. That does nothing for you, huh? I had the same answers, but I had to pass on my body. And I used to, you know, I, I used to be a good power shagger. I felt like, so I've kind of experienced in my own world, like what it's like to go track one down on the gap, not at Harrison's level, but Aaron Boone power shagger. That's what we'll label the episode. I have one more, uh, one more thing for you to walk away with in your head. And we've been talking about this behind the scenes and, uh, Brad Wilkerson on your staff. Now, if you close your eyes and you take Garrett Cole and Don Zimmer and smash their faces together, it looks just like Brad Wilkerson. So just next time you're walking around the clubhouse and you see him, I will, I have a picture to prove it. If you want it. What's that? I do that kind of stuff all the time. Like this, you know, I come out every time we play the blue Jays and I'm like, Matt Chapman comes up and I'm like, Hey Clark, here's your brother really sees. I'm like, Oh wow. There you go. Look, doesn't that look like him? Can you see that? Wait a minute. Who's the guy? So it's Garrett Cole on the left Don and then on the right, on the right, that's Garrett Cole and Don Zimmer facemask, facemashed. And it kind of looks like Brad Wilkerson. I love facemash. I was, I think we're going to make a new site at the end. I'll put, I'll put some, you know, historical Yankees and current Yankees. You got to guess the two. They used to do it on the scoreboard. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Okay. They need to bring that back. They need to cut some of the ones that bring that facemash back. I mean, that's actually Brad. Yeah. Yeah. So just let him know. We're thinking of him a lot more face mashers. Yeah. All right. Well, I think you should, I think you should sweep guys. Okay. I just, just win the next three and might be a good idea. I think that's my plan. One game at a time was one game at a time. Ah, all right. See ya. Yeah, that was bantering with Boone. Is that what we're calling? I kind of don't like that name, but it's almost stuck the Boone, the Boone, Boone, Boone banter with Boone brought to you by um, what did you learn, Jimmy? What are 10 things you learned in that segment? Uh, not much. Maybe there's more that you're going to remind me of. I was interested that Cordero was available for their brand new thing. I think if I, if they lost yesterday, maybe I push harder on that because it was just like a bad decision. And he's aware of the inherited runners. And if Cordero was available, then he's even a better option there. So I just didn't, I think available means two different things. I think if they needed Jimmy Cordero to pitch in that game, he was available. I think, I think they, they knew if they could not use Jimmy Cordero and he could open against Toronto that they wanted to do that. Yeah. So I think available is a unique choice of words there because like he also said, Cordero did pitch Saturday. So if he Sunday, he wouldn't have been available to open. Yeah. So I think that was a little Saturday. I think available is a unique word there. Yeah. There's some questions I got left on the table because we didn't have time for it that we want to, we'll bring next time the extra inning situation and all that. Um, and Bowers at lead off, I have to kind of know the answer to those. I don't know. I mean, he wasn't going to give us anything on the judge situation. We knew that he kind of said that as soon as he started. Yeah. He gave us a disclaimer before he's like, I'm going to be pretty boring on the thing you guys are going to ask about. I'm like, yeah, it's like, I get why you got to ask. Um, babes put it on our sheet midway, but I guess Buster, just the Jays said that they're pretty sure that the catcher was tipping. So looking towards the dugout for that. Yeah. It makes, I mean, I, in my heart believe they had a tip and judges looking at, you don't look at that time. And then, you know, the God, Jason Zillow with the, Hey guys, he was telling the dugout to shut up, spinning it into captaincy is awesome. But have you, uh, and Kirk's numbers are bad and Kirk only catches or Kirk catches every Minoa game. So maybe that's like they, the Jays really need to go look at this. If he, the catcher's tipping. Um, did you guys look at the Buster tweet I put in there and how it was all phrased? No, he phrased it as there's an assumption on the Jays side that their pitchers slash catcher were betraying the identity of forthcoming pitches last night, betraying the identity of forthcoming pitches. Many revolutionary war videos. Did you watch last night to phrase it like that? I mean, that's amazing. Um, a good, good means. And yeah, I, um, Jim, I told you this and it was my head turn coming into today. It was okay. Why weren't if, if there was a tip, why weren't more pitchers catchers doing this? The two hitters before judge were lefty that Jackson saw. So they wouldn't, they wouldn't be able to turn. Yeah. It's the second one is so funny. He he's standing there. He glances over kind of pauses his motion a little bit and then he sees whatever he sees and he just starts ramping to swing. It's like, it's like a button got switched in his brain. Like, Oh, get ready. And then he just smacks a home or so. It wasn't a good pitch anyway. As long as they're not using technology, as long as they're not doing anything that's against the rules and it's just getting tips. I like it. And, and, uh, no one's ever going to admit to like, you know, you, we asked Trevor Poole, like they're not going to admit to a tell, especially not a division opponent that you might see again the next three days. Yeah. So they're going to play it coy and that's just part of the game. It's baseball, Susan. Uh, all right. Is that everything we got? I think so. Appreciate you guys subscribe to the channel. Also live event coming up. If you're in New York, your local, your, or your Amtrak right away, come join us June 3rd, which is, uh, if you're born on June 3rd and you're a lefty, let us know. Cause I know three people born on June 3rd lefty all left. Yeah. Click every link in the description. Yeah. Well, lefties are half tilt lefties. No, no lefties are full lefty because the world hates them. See ya. Go Yanks. Tell them grams. Go Yankees.