Relax for a minute and take a deep breath. Breathe in and then slowly breathe out. There, do you feel better?
Yes, the Yankees aren’t playing like everyone was hoping they would play. But no, this season is not over. As Yankees fans, we tend to take history, tradition, an excess of trophies and legends and twist it all into a hardened ball of despair and depression when the team isn’t undefeated. But I’m here to tell you to relax. The team is 5-9, which is patently different from 0-14, or even 1-13 (you get the picture). Yes, the Yankees are in last place in the AL East, but no one in the division is undefeated.
There’s just more parity in the game right now. And 162 games of baseball is a really long time. That’s enough time for this slump to straighten out, for the Yankees to go on a good run, get into another slump and then straighten THAT one out. It’s just unrealistic to think that this will continue for the entirety of the season.
As I’ve mentioned in other columns, there have been bright spots in the season so far. And we continue to get slivers of hope as recently as the series against the A’s (a series that, at first glance, was about as devoid of hope as one thing can get).
After a rocky start, Luis Severino threw 6 innings of two-run ball and had what is considered to be his best start of this rocky season. There are murmurings of him not being the ace that the Yankees were hoping he’d be, and his starts have ended with a slew of tweets wondering where the phenom we’ve all heard about is, but that’s when you step back and remind yourself “this is a 22-year-old kid, in his sophomore season, who has the right stuff, but needs to keep developing as a baseball player.”
Do you see how easy that is? Won’t your life as a Yankees fan be a whole lot better when you find the positive side of things?
Apparently, Severino is struggling with pitch deception. Batters are able to tell, almost immediately, if he is going to throw a strike or a ball. This, as opposed to a pitcher like Masahiro Tanaka who will throw a pitch that looks like a strike, dupes the batter, and then breaks out of the strike zone. “Great, so Severino only needs to change the entire way he pitches, easy fix!” That’s more positive than you would think.
Severino has actually pitched pretty well at times, and that means he’s getting outs with his stuff and sheer will power. Imagine if Tanaka, CC, or anyone else helps him to start throwing pitches that break out of the zone. In reality, Severino could have this figured out before the All-Star break.
And Severino hasn’t gotten any favors from the Yankees offense. But last night, the Yankees were 3-for-11 with RISP, which after going 2-for-46 leads to a dejected “I’ll take it!” Starlin Castro is still making something of his early time in pinstripes, and Aaron Hicks is finally acting like he knows how to hit a baseball, which nicely compliments his incredible defensive plays. Eventually, in time, A-Rod is going to start hitting and Mark Teixeira will replace his evil twin who refuses to hit in the early months of spring.
And that brings us back to time. Time heals all wounds. Players are going to start hitting, other teams are going to cool off, and there have been some pretty bad teams in the World Series (2003 Marlins ring a bell?). And so to look at this team and think the season is over is just ridiculous, and I encourage you to find the positives. Chapman will be back soon, the early season slumps will end, and the things will start clicking. Keep your chin up.
