It is easy to say it’s been only two weeks of games, a bunch of them played in unseasonably cold and miserable conditions, after an abbreviated spring training.
Maybe this all turns around — heck, the Red Sox hitters are off to an even worse start, their .284 OBP after 13 games their worst since 1963 — but theirs is essentially the same lineup that finished third in the majors in runs and OPS last year and with nearly 100 fewer strikeouts than the Yankees.
After similar maddening inconsistency last year, Brian Cashman chose to double down on analytics and hired not one but two analytics hitting instructors in Dillon Lawson and Casey Dykes, neither of whom ever played in the majors.
When the Yankees acquired him from Texas they knew what they were getting — a 40-homer guy who was going to strike out over 175 times, walk 75 times and do nothing in between.
DJ LeMahieu and Josh Donaldson need to be playing every day at second and third respectively, and while they’re at it, it’s time the Yankee brass finally conceded that Kyle Higashioka is not a good hitter, not a first-string catcher and start moving Jose Trevino into the No.
Another notable beneficiary of the restructuring would seem to be Dick Allen, who missed by one vote in each of his last turns on the Golden Days Era ballot, but will now be on the pre-1980 Classic Era ballot as the clear standout candidate.
. Even though Nashville is way beyond their territorial rights, it’s still just 273 miles from Cincinnati and 250 miles from Atlanta — and that’s what’s got the Braves and Reds fired up in opposition — and they are said to have plenty of support from the other clubs.
Belated kudos to Steve Cohen and the Mets for naming the Citi Field press box after the venerable Jay Horwitz, who on his podcast, April 26, will interview Bill Parcells.