I’m not sure how any people remember this and I know that the people who said and wrote it will never admit to it now, but when the New York Yankees signed DJ LeMahieu they didn’t think it would be a good signing. By the time the Yankees had signed LeMahieu they had already added Troy Tulowitzki and believe it or not these people thought that Tulowitzki was the answer at shortstop until Didi Gregorius returned from his injury. How did that work out?
Tulowitzki managed to stay healthy for 5 games and hit just .182 before announcing his retirement. Good thing the Yankees where smart enough to sign LeMahieu as well as Tulowitzki even though there where people out their who thought it was a bad idea.
Of course sign LeMahieu was coming to the Yankees from the Colorado Rockies there was immediately talk about if his stats would translate, but they seem to forget that LeMahieu isn’t a power hitter.
In 7 seasons with the Rockies LeMahieu hit .299 and won a batting title. He only hit 49 home runs in his seven seasons with the Rockies, but he 161 doubles while with them. As a 2nd baseman for the Rockies LeMahieu picked up three Gold Gloves.
There may have been one or two people after the signing who realized that LeMahieu’s swing was going to play really well in Yankee Stadium and it has. LeMahieu is hitting .339 and has set a career high in home runs already with 21. For some reason people seemed to forget that LeMahieu has always been good at hitting the ball to the opposite field and Yankee Stadium has that short porch in rightfield; so that may explain the increase in home runs. LeMahieu is currently sitting at 86 RBI’s; so it looks like he’s on his way to his first career 100 RBI season.
With the injuries the Yankees have had this season imagine if they would’ve listen to some of the people out their and passed on LeMahieu. The Yankees may still be a playoff team if they had made another choice and let LeMahieu sign somewhere else, but they might not have the 10 game lead that they have in the AL East and their road to the playoffs might’ve been a lot tougher.
Pretty much every year they try to stuff Mike Trout down everyone’s throat for AL MVP, but this season there’s no need for that as he is probably going to be a unanimous for that award. If not for Trout having the season he’s having it may be LeMahieu who would be the player being talked about as an MVP. It looks like LeMahieu will finish a strong 2nd in the MVP voting which would be the highest finish in his career.
On the plus side for Yankees fans when they decided to sign LeMahieu they signed him to a two year deal; so he’ll be with the team next season.
Each team in Major League Baseball has a little over 30 games to play and there are still quite a few teams hanging around in the playoff race even if it is just for a wild card spot. We’ve seen wild card teams win the World Series before; so teams just need to get in.
As the Boston Red Sox slowly fade away it looks like there will be three teams in a race to for wild card spots. Right now the Cleveland Indians have one of those wild card spots while the Oakland A’s and the Tampa Bay Rays are pretty much tied for the final wild card spot.
In the National League it’s a different story as you can rightfully say there are seven teams with a legitimate shot at earning one of the two wild card spots. Currently the Washington Nationals and the Chicago Cubs who are holding down the wild card spots, but there are some teams nipping at their heels. The Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Mets are just 2 games out of a wild card spot. The Milwaukee Brewers are just 3 1/2 games out of a wild card spot. The Arizona Diamondbacks are 4 games out of a wild card spot and even though the San Francisco Giants have cooled off from the way they played in July they are still hanging around just 4 1/2 games out of a wild card spot.
The A’s don’t have any games left against either the Indians or the Rays, but next Friday the Rays will host a three game series with the Indians. Since we are looking at just three games with over 30 games left it might not mean a whole lot in the standings, but it could send one of those teams in a direction they don’t want to go.
Of course with so many teams involved in the wild card race they’re going to have quite a few games against each other. Also the Cubs and the Brewers are still right there in the race for 1st place in the NL Central; so it may be the St. Louis Cardinals as the Central team that’s chasing a wild card berth. The Cubs are just a 1/2 out of 1st place in the NL Central while the Brewers are currently 4 games out of the division lead.
In an interesting move the Atlanta Braves claimed outfielder Billy Hamilton off of waivers from the Kansas City Royals. Hamilton struggled with the Royals hitting just .211 in 93 games with the Royals. Now the Braves have suffered some injuries in the outfield as Nick Markakis and Ender Inciarte have recently joined Austin Riley on the Injury List. The interesting thing about the Hamilton signing is the way the Braves had said they’re goin to use him.
Atlanta has more or less said that they have no plans to let Hamilton make any plate appearances. That means he’ll be used exclusively as a defensive replacement and pinch runner. Hamilton has always bee a top base stealer and even in a down season he still had 18 steals which put him 2nd on the Braves as soon as he was acquired.
How do you think the Hamilton signing will work out for the Braves? Do you think that he’ll get any at bats with them?
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