Hour 1: Yankees Pitching

**SPEAKER_1** (0:05)
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**Michael Kay** (0:31)
This is The Michael Kay Show Podcast.

**Jake Asman** (0:34)
I gotta get more Kay.

**Michael Kay** (0:35)
Listen live weekdays at 1 on the Espn New York app and your smart speaker.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:41)
Ah, no Michael Kay.

**SPEAKER_5** (0:42)
No Michael Kay.

**Jake Asman** (0:44)
Jake Asbit in for Michael as we take you till 3 o'clock. Hope everyone's having a great Thursday, Friday, Eve as I believe they call it. And by they, I mean me. We got a lot going on in the world of New York sports to hit on. We will hit on some football. We did a lot of that yesterday because we were stream only for basically the entire show with the Mets and the Yankees playing during the day. It made sense to lean into a lot of football talk. So we had both Rich Semene and Jordan Renat on and we had Mike Greenberg on as well. So today we'll hit plenty of baseball because we have not won but two Yankee games, two O'Pine on and I think there's an obvious takeaway as we start with the Yankees right away. The obvious takeaway is they are good enough to get to the World Series in the American League even if Aaron Judge does not return if, this is a big if, Brian Cashman does his job properly. Because you can't tell me watching Garry Cole pitch the way he did yesterday, watching how well he pitched against the Dodgers before the unfortunate home run Max once he hit off him, how good Max Fried looked in his first start back when he only found out 24 hours, if that, he was starting, instead of having another rehab start, he was going to start in the majors. And he gives you five strong innings the way he did yesterday. We know how good Kam Schlitler has been and what he has done in the playoffs in his career. You can't tell me watching the Yankees that between those three, the back end of their pen, which may be Will Warren who closed out the game, ends up playing a vital role back there. But even some of the other guys in this Yankee pen, some of the guys that have gone out there and have completely rewrote the script for what we thought they were supposed to be. How good has Paul Blackburn been? He's had nine games now with at least an inning and a third pitch and zero hits allowed. That's tied for the most among American League pitchers. His last 23 games, Paul Blackburn's ERA is under one. They have enough in this American League. Is this a great Yankees team? No, but they have a great rotation. The bullpen seemingly has the potential to be great. Maybe it's another arm they add, but the focus from Brian Cashman needs to be to improve this Yankee offense. They don't just need one addition at catcher. I keep hearing that. Well, they need a catcher. They need two meaningful offensive additions. You hope Stanton comes back, you can't rely on him. I do think Judge will be back, but let's call it for what it is. Outside of last year, and again, I'm a Yankee fan and I love Aaron Judge, but we gotta be honest with ourselves.
Aaron Judge has not been great in the playoffs. In fact, the year the Yankees went to the World Series, the two best Yankee hitters were not Aaron Judge as one of them. It was Soto and Stanton. Think about that.
They've gone on playoff runs without Judge because in moments where he hasn't hit, they've still been good enough to get to the ALCS. And the difference is this Yankee team can pitch better than some of those teams in 18, 19, 2022 Like 2022, they got to the ALCS. Judge didn't hit the playoffs. He hit 62 home runs in the regular season. He didn't hit that year in the postseason. Go look it up. Same with 2019 So they could get to an ALCS without Judge being a big impactful player for them. Can they take the next step? Well, we could debate that. But I know for a fact that Brian Cashman makes two meaningful offensive additions with how good this pitching staff is. And the Yankees, rotation and bullpen combined, have the lowest ERA in the sport. They're good enough to get to the World Series. They are. And if you get to the World Series and you're starting Schlittler, Cole, and Fried, one, two, and three, you could beat the Dodgers. You can. Would I pick the Yankees if they played LA? No. But one, there's no guarantee they get there. It's baseball. Crazy things happen. And two, as good as the Dodgers are, they were trailing in the ninth inning of game seven to the Blue Jays last World Series. And now look at Toronto. You just never know. And we've seen teams in baseball history lose their star player and still go on to win a championship if Judge doesn't come back, let's say. The Braves did it. They didn't have Ronald Acuna Jr. the year they won the championship against Houston in 2021 He was out all year. So I'm watching Freed yesterday go five-scoreless. His fastball velocity is back up. Change up is looking great. Cole was awesome in the first game. We know how good Cam's been. Blackburn, Bednar. You go down the line. Some of the guys that have really stepped up in a pitch well for the Yankees.