Podument Park: A New York Yankees Podcast Podument Park

Finally, the misery that was the 2023 Yankees is over. Baseball is still being played as the Division Series for both leagues gets ready to start this weekend, but the Yankees will not be participating, something many had resigned the Yankees to as early as June or July. Their play this season was simply pathetic and Aaron Judge’s long absence highlighted many of the roster construction flaws that his presence can usually cover up. 
Alas, the first Podument Park in awhile eulogizes the Yankees and how things likely won’t be much different in 2024 unless significant changes are made. However, reports are indicating that there are going to be no drastic changes made to the front office or coaching staff. Even Sean Casey seems like he’ll be returning as the no-longer-interim hitting coach. 
In addition to just the overall makeup of the organization, the hosts do take some time to celebrate some of the good, such as Gerrit Cole seemingly on his way to his first Cy Young award, Michael King’s emergence in the rotation, and that week of Jasson Domínguez. The show closes out out with the official 2023 Yankees and Manfreds of the Season. Congrats to our lucky recipients. You truly deserved it. 
Lastly, a huge thank you to anyone and everyone who tuned in and listened to us during a dreadful baseball season! 
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Note: This week’s podcast was sadly recorded prior to the news of Josh Donaldson’s release from the organization. But do know that we would have enjoyed dancing on the grave of his Yankees career.
Technically this past week of Yankees baseball was slightly more palatable than the previous week. They actually won two whole games this time, which is still an improvement over the eight-game losing streak they took into last week’s podcast. The streak went up to nine games before Aaron Judge had enough and put the team back in the win column, courtesy of a three-homer game.
Still, the Yankees haven’t won a series since they swept the Royals in mid-July, unless Harrison Bader’s moral victory against the Astros counts for something (it counts for nothing). This week’s podcast continues with the usual grumbling about the 2023 Yankees, but the co-hosts do offer some potential things to look forward to for the last month of the season. It's mainly all about Gerrit Cole’s Cy Young chase, debating how many dingers Judge can hit with nine toes, and wondering if there will be a Martian landing in the Bronx.
After checking in on the Baseball Reference WAR leaderboard, the weekly Yankee/Manfred awards were skipped with worthy recipients and a sequel to last week’s 2013 Yankees game presented itself in the form of Kunj guessing how many games players from the 2014 Yankees played that year. Will Suit Lady get revenge for last week’s defeat? There’s only one way to know.
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For a few weeks now, readers of this site and listeners of this podcast have read/heard us all talking about how much the Yankees flat-out stink. Well, the Bronx Bombers, er “losers of eight in a row,” have shown us that even we undersold how bad they truly are. With that, Andrew and Kunj had no desire to actually talk in detail about the 2023 Yankees (beyond recent prospect promotions), so they chose to avoid them as much as possible. 
The co-hosts hopped in the time machine and traveled a decade down memory lane to 2013. Today’s podcast focused on Remembering Some Guys. Andrew named players from the 2013 squad and Kunj had to guess how many games they played for the Yankees that year (the nearly-always voiceless Zoom recorder we call “Suit Lady” was his foe in this exercise). They also added in a bonus element of trying to guess whether the particular player had positive or negative Baseball Reference WAR. 
Prior to the game, the promotions of Oswald Peraza and Everson Pereira were briefly discussed. Along with Anthony Volpe and we suppose Gerrit Cole’s Cy Young bid, they’re the only real reasons to watch this team going forward! So tune in for that anyway.
Once the 2013 game concluded, there was an abbreviated check-in for the WAR leaderboard of the 2023 Yankees before handing out default and unenthusiastic Yankee and Manfred of the Week awards. Join us all in remembering the second-half fun brought by Alfonso Soriano, but stay to remember unquestioned Yankees legends Chris Bootcheck and Brennan Boesch.
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Believe it or not, the 2023 Yankees are not a good baseball team. The times when you think they’re going to win a game are few and far between, and even then, they go and find a different way to lose in frustrating fashion. They have a 60-58 record going into recording this podcast, and 58 of those losses all feel like they could qualify for “worst loss of the season.” That number is only going to get higher; the win total might not, though.
After another mini-hiatus, Andrew and Kunj return here at Podument Park to discuss the continuously annoying season that the Yankees are having. In addition to just general complaints about the team, they discuss the latest injury and roster moves, posit whether or not Aaron Judge should even keep playing, and then possibly narc on Nestor Cortes’ side hustle of selling game tickets. 
In addition to that, they do the usual check-in of Baseball Reference’s WAR leaderboard (where Randy Vásquez firmly sits in ninth place), and squint their way through handing out the usual Yankee and Manfred of the Week awards. Sprinkled into this week’s episode is a look at the upcoming schedule and their baseline for moral victories this coming week, because the Yankees almost certainly won’t have many actual ones.  
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Due to some real-life things happening, Andrew and Kunj haven’t been able to record the podcast since before the All-Star break. What doesn’t help is that the Yankees haven't done much to motivate us to find some time either. It’s just been all bad. The highlight of the second half has essentially been being mildly amused at Domingo Germán getting scratched from a start due to armpit discomfort and then finding himself pitching five shutout innings in relief of Jhony Brito.
They’ve only won six games since the calendar flipped, and three of those came via a sweep of the second-worst team in baseball, the Royals. And now the trade deadline has passed and the Yankees did...nothing. Technically they acquired relievers Keynan Middleton and Spencer Howard, but those don’t really count as moves. They had the opportunities to be either buyers or sellers, choosing either direction would’ve been better than doing nothing. So, of course, they did nothing (as well-articulated by Sam this morning).
So, the co-hosts vented frustrations at basically everything that’s happened since the All-Star break. If you’re looking for trade deadline-only discussions, jump ahead to around the 16:25 mark (though ads might bump it a minute later). After saying their piece, they wrapped up the podcast with the usual check-in at the dire Baseball Reference WAR leaderboard and wrapped things up with handing out Yankee and Manfred awards of the week/second half to date.
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Whether you think the first half of the baseball season is the 81-game mark or the All-Star break, the first half of the baseball season is officially in the books. And was it ever so ... dull and disappointing for the Yankees? Scattered among the lifeless and uncompetitive at-bats of the first half were some moments of fun and competence, but overall this first half was just not a memorable one for the Bombers.
The struggles of the offense were so profound, it led to general manager Brian Cashman making his first-ever midseason coaching change by relieving hitting coach Dillon Lawson of his duties (and the title today riffing on the old #NextManUp mantra). On today’s podcast, Andrew and Kunj discuss how it’s never good to see someone lose their job, a change was needed just to see if a different mindset can get some of these guys going.
While Lawson was the main topic, they also discussed Carlos Rodón making his much-awaited Yankee debut, the MLB Draft officially being underway and the Yankees making their first-round pick in George Lombard Jr., and then provide the weekly injury updates. After that, they wrap of the podcast with our usual check-in of Baseball Reference’s WAR leaderboard, and then hand out the Yankees and Manfreds of the Week.
Best of luck to Lawson in his future, and even better luck wished to Sean Casey, who will be tasked with making DJ LeMahieu look like a machine again. (As a programming note, Casey’s hire was revealed followed the podcast recording.)
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