Some New York Yankees players were again available for Zoom interviews yesterday and last night. Here are the major take-a-ways from those calls.
Zack Britton: Zack spoke at some length on how he stands pitching-wise. He said he’s doing well, but his changeup is a little inconsistent, but that he is working on it. He expressed a little surprise at how all the pitchers were pitching at such a high level after being away from the game for so long. He mentioned specifically Tommy Kahnle, Chad Green, and Adam Ottavino. He said he thought it was easier for pitchers to stay ready compared to hitters. Mentioning that, he said the hitters seemed to be behind the pitchers in readiness.
When he was asked about what it’s like to play in a quiet stadium, and if he thought crowd noise would help the players.
“I think it is a good idea if they are going to allow steady crowd noise to be pumped in. That would be good for the guys, obviously, it gets pretty quiet,’’ Britton said Thursday night at the Stadium. “I have heard of teams, including ours, that might be exploring putting in some type of crowd noise throughout the game. I am not sure how loud it is going to be and what it would look like, but I think it is a good idea, and our team would like that and create some type of atmosphere in the Stadium.’’
Kyle Higasioka: Kyle was asked about some neck soreness he has experienced earlier in the day. He said he didn’t feel it was much of an issue, but it better to take a day now than two weeks later in the season.
Kyle was also asked about crowd noise at Yankee Stadium.
“I don’t know. I don’t think I would be opposed to it,†he said. “We have some light music out there while we are playing to break up the dead silence. It’s better than it was the first day, where we were just playing in an abyss, just a void of sound. I wouldn’t be opposed to crowd noise.’’
He was asked if he had been told what his New York Yankees schedule would be like, and if he knew what Gary Sanchez’s schedule was. He said he has not been told and that it’s not something I think about. I just show up every day ready to play. He was asked if he agreed with Zack Britton that the pitchers were ahead of the hitters, and he said, yes that he agreed. He cited that pitchers can stay ready, they can throw into a net. It’s different for hitters if they don’t see live pitching.
MikeTauchman: Mike was asked how he was feeling? He responded that he was 100%, I feel great. He was asked about what he expected this season? “I don’t know if anybody knows what to expect this season.” He continued that that stuff always seems to work itself out. I’m 100%, I’m excited, and I’m ready for whatever my role will be.
On what’s it like to play during a pandemic he said: Being from Chicago my wife and I had strick stay at home orders, so It’s really nice to get out here, I’m excited to be with the guys. We are doing what we can to act responsibly to keep as safe as we can. I’m excited to play some baseball.
He was also asked if he thought the pitchers were ahead of the hitters? He laughed and said I think Gerrit Cole is ahead of everyone. He then added that he thinks this season is no different than any season, the pitchers always have an edge over the hitters early on. He feels the hitters will adjust pretty quickly once the season gets started.
Aaron Boone: Boone was first asked what he thought of how prospect Deivi Garcia looked. Boone responded that he thought he looked efficient, he was getting some fastballs up and getting some strikeouts, he threw some good breaking pitches, so it was good to see him out there and get going.
In the process of questions, Boone offered that Friday would be an off day for the New York Yankees, so that the rain wouldn’t be much of a problem. He also stated that they will will have a game Saturday that would be started by J. A. Happ and would have Schmidt in there too, he thought. He said that there would be a day game on Sunday that Cole would start.
Boone touched on the subject of hitters being ready. He stated that with just a few weeks compared to the normal six or seven weeks the process has to be sped up a bit. I think the hitters are a little overwhelmed right not facing 98 mph. Timing is a fickle thing, sometimes it clicks right in, sometimes it takes a while.
He was asked if he had a rotation set for the New York Yankees start of the season. He replied that he had not had serious conversations about that. In the next few days, we will start to have some conversations but it will be the last week when we firm that up.