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Penn State recruiting rollercoaster continues with two pledges, one decommit

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Their View: Taking a look at the first 6 months of the new Congress

<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Since Friday was the longest day of summer, let&#8217;s discuss those dog days of summer that are almost upon us.</p><p>I&#8217;m talking about the days when Major League Baseball&#8217;s pennant races heat up and injuries mount and pitching becomes a premium and hitters go into prolonged slumps and managers get questioned on almost every move they make &#8212; especially if games are lost and losing streaks can&#8217;t be broken.</p><p>As stated before here, I am a lifelong Yankees fan. Can&#8217;t help it. But I&#8217;ve never been an obnoxious Yankees fan, even when the Bronx Bombers were dominating in the 1950s and 1960s.</p><p>In our backyard Wiffle Ball League, I was always the Yankees. We assumed our favorite teams and batted the way the real lineups batted &#8212; righties batted righty and lefties batted lefty. Switch-hitters, like Mickey Mantle, batted from the side dictated by the opposing pitcher.</p><p>It was all fun, but very competitive. I can still recite lineups submitted from those games.</p><p>Anyway, today&#8217;s big league baseball is way different than the days of my youth. We had players back then that could hit, hit for power, hit for average, advance runners, hit with runners in scoring position and, yes, they could even bunt. They did strike out, but not as often as today&#8217;s players.</p><p>Today, we have Analytics, launch angles, exit velocity and more. We hear commentators actually say that hitting .300 is no longer the standard &#8212; it&#8217;s run production that counts.</p><p>Baseball is a finely tuned game at any level, especially the major leagues. A player that gets two hits every 10 times up is a bum and he is soon out of baseball. However, if a player manages to get three hits every time up &#8212; one more per 10 at bats than those .200 average bums &#8212; he is surely destined for the Baseball Hall of Fame.</p><p>Now, the Yankees were having a remarkable season in 2019. They were hit with a slew of injuries to many of their top players. In came a group of young, hungry kids who started hitting the ball for average, putting the ball in play, advancing runners, plating runners who were in scoring position and striking out less. And, the Yankees were winning. They are currently in first place and despite questionable starting pitching (they do have a lights-out bullpen) they could. Go. All. The. Way.</p><p>But hold onto your pinstripes, Yankees fans. Don&#8217;t make plans for October just yet &#8212; at least not deep into October.</p><p>You see, these Yankee kids are likely going to be sent down to Triple A to make room for those sluggers who hit home runs with impressive exit velocity, and who also strike out an awful lot. Their names are Stanton and Judge and a new guy in town, Encarnacion. All three are big guys with power who also whiff a lot. They don&#8217;t advance runners too often. They have impressive exit velocity, but they will never look to hit a ball to the right side to advance a runner.</p><p>And perhaps even more important is the fact that the chemistry on this Yankee team is being messed with once again. A team that was faced with tremendous adversity managed to put a team on the field that played real baseball. And here they are in first place.</p><p>Some will argue that when you have a starting pitching staff that gives up a lot of runs, you need to score more runs than you give up, so high exit velocity home runs are valued. Perhaps, but when an opponent is scoring runs, you must score more and the odds on scoring more runs favor those teams with higher batting averages, clutch hitting, and putting the bat on the baseball even if it is only to get a single or to advance a runner or hit a sacrifice fly.</p><p>I hope I&#8217;m wrong, but I have a sick feeling when I see Clint Frazier sent to Triple A. And if the Yanks send down Cameron Maybin and Gio Urshela, that sick feeling will return. What happened to dancing with who brung ya? Or sticking with the hot hand?</p><p>I asked a Red Sox fan if he would accept this trade: Yankees give Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Edwin Encarnacion to the Red Sox for Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi and J.D. Martinez. My Red Sox fan friend laughed and said, &#8220;No thanks.&#8221;</p><p>He&#8217;s right. That&#8217;s why the Red Sox are World Champions.</p><p>And that&#8217;s why when crunch time comes, the Yankees will once again have a high exit velocity from the playoffs.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Bill O&#8217;Boyle </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/web1_Oboyle_Bill-2-1-4.jpg</photo0><caption0>Bill O&#8217;Boyle </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Bill O&#8217;Boyle</p><p>boboyle@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Bill O&#8217;Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle, or email at boboyle@www.timesleader.com.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Beyond the Byline: Beware the high exit velocity