FanGraphs | Davy Andrews: Do you fully understand what xwOBAcon is and could you explain it to someone? Me neither. But it\u2019s part of this article. Also, have you ever heard the old phrase \u201ca walk\u2019s as good as a hit?\u201d Of course you have. In reality, this season, a walk is about 61.5 percent as good as a hit.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s where this gets wild. In 2025, when Aaron Judge puts the ball in play<\/em>, it results in a .685 xwOBAcon. So Judge putting the ball in play, which for mere mortals is far from a sure indicator of success, is only marginally less guaranteed than… a free pass. Read the whole article. And then add it to the ocean of words that have been expended trying to make sense of how historically phenomenal the Yankee captain is.<\/p>\n The Athletic | Chris Kirschner ($): How is the trade deadline only a month an a half away? With the end of June approaching, Kirschner looks at three storylines to follow. To what extent will Hal Steinbrenner agree to take on payroll? If DJ LeMahieu continues to succeed at the plate, how much does that change the Yankees\u2019 plans? How hard will Brian Cashman chase pitching, both in the rotation and in the \u2018pen? Feel free to argue in the comments.<\/p>\n ESPN | Eric Karabell: Heading into Friday night\u2019s game versus the Red Sox, Trent Grisham sat at 13 home runs, four off his career-high. That begs the question… how high can he go? Well, Karabell is making a bold prediction. The ESPN scribe writes that no one should be surprised if Grisham, playing in his walk year by the way, hits 30 dingers before it is all said and done. From your lips to God\u2019s ears, Karabell. We\u2019ll all sign up for 30 homers from Grisham.<\/p>\n CBSSports | Julian McWilliams: Max Fried is good at pitching. Really good. One reason for his success this season? An increased reliance on his heater. After his four-seam usage tailed off to around 30 percent the past few years, it has spiked to 40 percent in his first campaign in pinstripes. But it\u2019s more complex than that. Fried is able to throw the pitch with pretty wild variation in its velocity. Skipper Aaron Boone notes that the lefty tosses his heat as low as 90-mph with a ceiling of around 97-98 mph. The end result? Opposing hitters are \u201chitting\u201d .149 against Fried\u2019s fastball. Keep that up, good sir.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Trying to describe Judge\u2019s greatness; what to track as the trade deadline approaches; what\u2019s Trent Grisham\u2019s ceiling; Max Fried is pretty good<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":61430,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"yoast_head":"\n