Hour 2: Is Aaron Boone the Problem?

Chris McMonigle (0:00)

Everybody gets peanuts?

Craig Carton (0:01)

That's great! Nice!

Chris McMonigle (0:03)

Yeah, I feel so much better.

Craig Carton (0:04)

I'm going to reach out to Niko and see if he can bring me some peanuts, just to prove that they have them.

Chris McMonigle (0:09)

Yeah, just for, yeah.

Craig Carton (0:10)

Yeah, so anyhow, let's get back to talking about the game, of course.

Chris McMonigle (0:13)

I want to see some peanuts.

Craig Carton (0:14)

The lineups have not been announced yet. No. Probably about an hour away or so.

Chris McMonigle (0:19)

Look, I think there's going to be some tweaking to it. The manager mentioned that they're going to tweak the lineup a little bit. I wouldn't be surprised if it is Anthony Volpi at second base.

Craig Carton (0:27)

Is that a change for change's sake, though? More so than it makes more sense?

Chris McMonigle (0:33)

Yeah. It's just to change things up, have a different approach, have the right-handed starter see more right-handed pitching. I think there is something to be said about facing nothing but lefties and you get into a pattern. And I think David Cohn used to talk about this, but this was more when the Yankees were all right-handed, which I had more of a problem with, especially with the short portion left, the Yankees are built on lefty power. But the idea of just a pitcher being able to stay in the same zone and path to get outs over and over again. Like he's going to pitch every hitter the same. Every hitter is getting the same stuff. There are pitchers who throw different pitches to right-handed and left-handed batters. So you never make them pull out his curve ball. You never make them throw his cutter. And it's exclusive fastball change-up because that's what he throws against lefties and it's over and it's over and it's over. And he never has to change his game plan. Even if it's a lesser hitter, or even if it's someone who doesn't hit right-handed pitching, just to make Nick Martinez tonight not see nothing but lefties and have to change up his game plan batter to batter.

There's an argument to be made. There's an argument to be made. I just don't see a big enough advantage in playing Anthony Volpe over Jazz. But if they do it, I don't think it's a disaster.

Craig Carton (1:37)

Would you rather Anthony Volpe get forward-bounce tonight or Jazz Chisholm get forward-bounce tonight?

Chris McMonigle (1:41)

I'd rather have Jazz get forward-bounce.

Craig Carton (1:42)

Yeah, I agree. Because there's a better chance he puts one in the next season. That he puts one over the Bank of America side in right field. I agree. Here's Brian in Sanford, Connecticut on the fan. Brian, good afternoon. How are you?

Brian (1:54)

Gentlemen, how are we doing?

SPEAKER_3 (1:55)

Doing great, kid.

Brian (1:57)

Pretty good. I'm a little nervous. I'm a big Yankee fan, just like C-Mac and I have to say really enjoy the go get them. I think you do a great job with that.

I've been listening to what you guys have been saying and I definitely think changes are in order tonight. One thing I wanted to touch on, I would like to do, like you were just saying, Volpe at second, Cavallaro at third, and then get Grisham out of there, put Ramos in right field. I understand the thought process overall. Yes, is Jazz Chisholm a more talented player than Anthony Volpe? Yes, but when you factor in the fact that Volpe, and I know it's been a little bit now, but was hitting the ball well, Jazz has been making a lot of mistakes and seems like he's not sharp in clutch time when you need him in terms of in the field. I just think there's a lot more upside that Volpe could have a great game like he did the first game of the wild card. So I would like to see those changes in the wild card.

Chris McMonigle (2:52)

Jazz had a great game in the second game of the wild card.

Brian (2:55)

But would you not say, and I understand, I hear you about, and I was one of those guys complaining about Volpe, but would you not say that, especially since he's made the change in second, I know it hasn't been that long, that Jazz still has shown he's more prone to those mistakes that make you want to pull out your hair?

Chris McMonigle (3:14)

I mean, I guess maybe the throw, the specific mistake that he made in game two, yeah, he's more likely to make that than Volpe. But have we not seen Volpe fall all over himself? Have we not seen Volpe play things on a knee? Have we not seen Volpe fall down backwards on ground balls? Have we not seen Volpe make mistakes too? Like we're talking about a guy who over the last two years, we literally said can't play in the field anymore.