Daily Report – 4/8/25
Here is today’s report:
Yankees
The Yankees’ bats have suddenly gone cold, especially against left-handed pitching. They have now lost three straight games, and they haven’t homered since Saturday. They have scored six runs in their last three games after plating 72 through their first eight contests.
The Yankees couldn’t sweep Pittsburgh because Andrew Heaney shut their offense down. Then Casey Mize did the same yesterday, and Tarik Skubal today. Meanwhile, Carlos Rodón is crying about home plate umpires while Austin Wells and Michael Kay are feuding on Instagram about burritos and chicken tenders. And Cody Bellinger has food poisoning from bad chicken wings.
Moreover, Aaron Boone said that Carlos Rodon’s performance yesterday – in which he gave up six runs (five earned) off four hits and three walks – was “excellent” aside from the three-run home run he permitted in the third inning. So, it was excellent aside from the runs he gave up. That’s simply a not-so-well-crafted way to say Rodón made some bad mistakes.
“I’m definitely tired of walking people,” said Rodón yesterday after his team’s 6-2 loss in Detroit. This season is Carlos Rodón’s third of six in New York, and throughout his time with the Yankees, he has struggled to recover from mistakes. When he puts runners on base, they almost always tend to score. Yesterday, in the third inning, a poor ball four call from home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman put runners at first and second with two outs. “That’s bad,” Rodón yelled at Dreckman a couple of times. Rodón then struck out Justyn-Henry Malloy before Andy Ibáñez reached down in the strike zone and hammered a changeup down the left-field line.
“Not so much that I didn’t move on, I’m obviously frustrated with the call [to Kreidler], but it was called a ball, and it was a walk, so I tried to move on quickly,” Rodón said. “I wouldn’t say it affected me. Obviously, it’s in the back of my head, obviously, I want that pitch called a strike, but it wasn’t. Then I gave up a three-run homer, that’s what hurt me.” Rodón understands how important he is to the Yankees rotation right now. He was dominant on Opening Day with his best start in pinstripes. He had a cold during his second start against Arizona, but he found his pitches late and recovered. Yesterday, in his third start, he had his pitch mix, command, and velocity available, but one overreaction cost him a successful outing.
Today, the Yankees lost the series to Detroit with a 5-0 shutout led by Tarik Skubal, the reigning Cy Young Award winner and pitching triple crown recipient. Carlos Carrasco got the start for the Yankees, and he struggled, most notably by allowing three solo home runs in the fourth inning. At this point in his career, Carrasco doesn’t have much velocity in his pitches, so he must rely on spin rate and location to be successful. On a cold afternoon in Detroit, his spin rates were not where they needed to be, and every pitch traveled down through the strike zone. Meanwhile, Skubal located his pitches beautifully, and the Yankees struggled to work the count against him.
Paul Goldschmidt and Ben Rice, the Yankees’ first and second hitters, both singled in the first inning, but Aaron Judge struck out before Jazz Chisholm Jr. grounded out and Anthony Volpe went down looking. “I mean, you’ve got to take advantage of those small cracks that you get, whether it’s a pitch in the heart of the plate,” said Aaron Boone after today’s loss.
Boone then tipped his cap to Tarik Skubal, saying, “His delivery’s deceptive, so there’s that to deal with. Then, it’s three pitches. He’s going to be mid-[to]-upper-90s with the fastball. […] So he won that Cy Young for a reason.” But Skubal didn’t pitch well in his first two starts of the season, and with a new batterymate, the Yankees failed to capitalize on their chances.
I was impressed by how the Yankees handled Corbin Burnes last Tuesday, so I tipped my cap to Zac Gallen’s career-high strikeout performance on Wednesday. But when their off day arrives on Thursday, the Yankees need to reevaluate their approach against the league's top pitchers because trying to swing at first pitches poorly affects the young hitters at the bottom of this Yankee lineup.
The schedule doesn’t get much easier for the Yankees. They will face the reigning World Champion Jack Flaherty tomorrow, but the Yankees conquered him in the World Series. Then, on Friday, the 8-2 Giants will visit the Bronx for a three-game series. Ultimately, they need to win tomorrow to enter their homestand with confidence. But returning home will benefit the Yankees offensively. Say goodbye to snowy Detroit!
Rangers
Have the Rangers players given up on their team, or has the team given up on its players?
Last night, the Bah Bah Boo Shirts lost to Andrei Vasilevskiy and the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-1. The Rangers gave up three first-period goals in a 1:45 span. The Rangers are the only NHL team without a multi-goal comeback win this season, so at that point, the game was as good as over.
Somehow, these New York Rangers led the NHL and set a franchise record in wins and comeback wins last season. Now, they’re going to become the fourth defending Presidents’ Trophy-winning team to miss the playoffs. When asked about his message to the team after last night’s loss, Peter Laviolette said, “I don’t have a message right now. I don’t go into the locker room after [games].” And there it is: Peter Laviolette wants out.
Today, I’m going to take a break from blaming the players for this miserable season. I’m not even going to blame Peter Laviolette. Instead, I’m going to blame Chris Drury.
There has been so much organizational turmoil in the last four years that this group of Rangers has never had the chance to improve defensively. Now, missing the playoffs is the biggest collapse of all, and Chris Drury is the first person to blame because he has turned his back on the team he built. On November 24, he released a memo to the NHL saying that he would be open to trading any of his players at any time. That ignited a miserable 4-15 stretch for the Rangers.
It has been said for several years that the Rangers have a negative organizational culture. They have consistently failed to communicate trades and hockey personnel changes, like how Ryan McDonagh, Ryan Callahan, and Marc Staal were sent away. The culture issues became more public when Chris Drury fired head athletic trainer Jim Ramsay after the 2023 season. While the grounds for Ramsay’s dismissal were clear, the decision upset many of the Rangers players, especially Chris Kreider.
Chris Kreider quit on the Rangers from the start of this season because waiving Barclay Goodrow was his final straw. He also didn’t appreciate how Chris Drury handled Jacob Trouba’s situation throughout the summer, and his complaints and poor play led to a healthy scratch in December. Kreider battled back spasms throughout the first half of the season, and while he is healthy now, he plays less than 15 minutes per game. He also has just five assists this season and one power play goal in his last 30 games despite needing to net one more to pass Jean Ratelle for the franchise lead. Mark my words: Chris Kreider will leave the Rangers without setting the franchise power play goal record, and it isn’t just because the Rangers’ power play is struggling.
While Kreider’s decisions have been insensitive, Chris Drury is the culprit here. While the Rangers have had many wonderful playoff moments throughout Drury’s tenure, they collapsed year after year. They collapsed in 2022 by dropping a 2-0 series lead to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Final. They collapsed in 2023 by dropping a 2-0 series lead to the New Jersey Devils in the first round of the playoffs. They collapsed in 2024 by dropping a 2-1 series lead against the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Final. And now, they’ve collapsed in the 2024-25 season by flipping a 12-4-1 start into a 4-15 mess, and despite sniffing the playoffs a week ago, they have failed to win enough games to compete for the Stanley Cup.
Also, in the last four seasons, the Rangers have burned through two head coaches. Two well-respected NHL head coaches. Are the players to blame for that? Maybe. But I blame Chris Drury more. Even including last season, the Rangers haven’t done enough as a team to win a Stanley Cup. They have repeatedly been an offense-first team with outstanding goaltending but little physicality or defense.
For seven years, the New York Rangers have failed to fulfill their promise to return the Stanley Cup to New York.
Just days after Drury traded Jacob Trouba to Anaheim, he traded Kaapo Kakko to Seattle. The former second-overall pick was a bust in New York, but he is suddenly emerging as a top Western Conference power forward and a key player in Seattle. Former Rangers have been finding success elsewhere for decades. Chris Drury worsened this trend. A few days after trading Kakko, Drury met with the Rangers face-to-face in Dallas, and they began to play somewhat better.
But why did it take Drury so long to meet with his team face-to-face? So much occurred between October and December, and his team was responding very poorly. The reigning Presidents’ Trophy winners went 4-15! The 18,006 high-paying Blueshirts faithful booed them off the ice every night! What was missing for Chris Drury?
The answer: Heart. Love. Appreciation. Courage. It was a gutless decision to publicly announce that he was willing to trade every player on his struggling veteran team. Chris Drury gave up on the Rangers in November.
It didn’t matter that once the calendar flipped to 2025, the Rangers went on a 7-0-3 run. It didn’t matter that on January 31, Chris Drury brought back JT Miller.
Then, at the trade deadline, Drury traded away Ryan Lindgren and Jimmy Vesey, two veteran Rangers. Since the NHL trade deadline on March 7, the Rangers have been 5-8-2. I predict that the entire team, including Peter Laviolette, is quite disturbed by the front office right now.
Knicks
Tonight, at 7:30 PM (6:30 PM CDT), the Knicks have one last chance to beat the Boston Celtics in the regular season (TNT, TruTV, MAX). Can they do it?
The Knicks have been excellent against the NBA’s worst teams. But against Boston, Cleveland, and Oklahoma City, they are a combined 0-8. But tonight, the Knicks have their top five starters healthy and ready for the playoffs. They need to treat tonight’s game like a playoff game.
“It’s obviously an ongoing process [trying to close the gap on the Celtics],” Tom Thibodeau said after the Knicks lost to Boston on February 23. “Their team is a well-oiled machine.”
Schedule
7:30 PM (6:30 PM CDT): NYK vs. BOS; TNT, TRUTV, MAX
That will conclude this report. Enjoy your evening!
