Welcome.

It is that time again.

It is our annual predictions episode.

Today we'll give you ten predictions for the Yankees in twenty twenty six.

Now here's the catch.

We're not gonna make these unrealistic.

All of these predictions have a chance of happening, and we're going to keep them positive.

So ten predictions for the Yankees.

Get yours ready in the comments.

This is Pinstripe Territory.

Wanted to talk gets old.

How's it going?

Everybody?

Welcome back.

I hope you are staying warm.

It is quite cold where I am and it's about to get colder.

So tonight we're going to talk a little bit of baseball, a little bit of summer action, trying to get into that summer mindset and warm ourselves up.

I know a lot of you are not psyched about the team this year, and not psyched that the Yankees didn't get any of the big names this winter.

You know, they brought back Cody Bellinger, great, they didn't go after you know, Kyle Tucker.

They still have not acquired a major name from outside of the organization.

But I still think there's a lot of positive ways in which this season could go.

So Tonight, we're gonna talk about Austin Wells why I think he's possibly gonna have a big year.

We'll talk about Jazz Chisholm, who a lot of you think is gonna have a big year, and we'll play some of your predictions and reactions.

Later on, we'll.

Talk about Ben Rice and why he's gonna have a monster season and why there could be a twenty game winner in the Bronx for the first time since CC Sabbathia.

I think it was twenty ten he won twenty games.

Let me know in the comments which of these predictions you think are most likely to come true, which ones you think will obviously not come true, which ones you think I'm completely on completely wrong about, and what your predictions are.

We are obviously not gonna get all ten of these correct, obviously, I am not no stra Damis.

But I think maybe we can hit four hundred.

You know, I think we can hit four out of ten.

So if we hit four out of ten, I will call that destiny fulfilled.

We're gonna count on Frankie Baseball to kind of keep track of things this year, and we're gonna revisit these at the end of the season, and we've got a new top ten format four year for the live show this year, so here we go.

Number ten.

Austin Wells will hit thirty home runs in twenty twenty six.

Last year he had twenty one home runs.

I think we all felt like he could have done more damage, but he was not particularly good in the summer, and he usually gets red hot in the summertime, but last year seems like he just never quite got the wheels going, and he still drove in a ton of runs, still had over twenty home runs.

Rarely does Boone say that he expects more out of somebody, but he did say that he expects more out of Austin Wells this year.

And I would like to point out that a lot of Austin Wells value comes from his framing ability and he's going to lose some of that this year with the ABS system, so he's got to make up for it with his bat, and he knows that.

I'd also like to point out he just became a daddy, so let's hear it for him.

Let's count on him maybe flexing some of those dad muscles so that he can stay in the league for ten years, maybe make a hundred million dollars, which could possibly pay for one semester of college in about eighteen years.

I'm going to say thirty one home runs, and that is no small feat because not a lot of Yankees catchers have done that.

Pasada did it, Yogi Berra did it, Gary Sanchez did it a couple of times.

Bill DICKI never got there.

Not an easy thing to do.

Thirty plus home runs for Austin Wells.

All right, Next, we've got Max Freed will win twenty games in twenty twenty six.

Do you guys know there has not been a twenty game winner in the American League in the decade of the twenty twenties.

I know that a lot of new school fans will say that wins don't matter, and I agree that it's not the greatest way to judge a pitcher, but I disagree that they don't matter.

I think that they indicate that someone keeps the team in the game, that they give you innings, that they're consistent, And I think if you win seventeen eighteen nineteen games, odds are you had a pretty reliable season, if not a damn good season.

And last year Max Freid won nineteen games full stop.

You think he's not kicking himself about not getting twenty about that slump that he had in the middle of the summer.

You think he's not chewing on that all winter and using it as motivation when he's running the uphill treadmill like Ivan drago or chopping down trees like Rocky in the winter.

Come on, he wants twenty wins.

I think he's probably dedicated himself to getting even better after a great season.

That's the kind of competitor we know him to be.

That's the kind of competitor his teammates say he is.

And I think that winning nineteen games with two months of being absolutely awful is a sign that you know he can be even better.

So let's say twenty wins for Max Freed in twenty twenty six.

All right, Number eight Garrett Cole is going to dominate in the playoffs.

Here's the thing.

He probably won't look like the ace version of himself that we know when he first comes back.

Most pitchers have to shake off the cobwebs a little bit after coming back from Tommy John.

But if he's back in June, that means he's got about fifteen maybe eighteen, maybe twenty starts that he can make to shake off those cobwebs and try and get himself to mid season form right around the time that October's beginning.

I think he'll be getting his sea legs right around the time the Yankees are facing the Mariners in the American League Championship Series.

That's my prediction.

And think about the incredible possible one two or even one two three or even one two three four punch that the Yankees could have depending on what you think of Cam Schlitzler and Carlos Rodin.

We know what Max Freed is.

Great pitcher Garrett Cove, he comes back to even close of one hundred percent of his form.

Just knowing his mind and his ability to control the baseball, he's gonna dominate.

You pair him up with Max Freed, Cam Schlitller throw one hundred mile an hour pills.

Carlos Rodin won eighteen games last year.

He's gonna miss part of the season.

He should still be mildly by the time October rolls around.

Yankees have a chance to run a pretty good stable of horses out there in October number seven.

A lot of what the Yankees doing this season is going to depend on the bullpen, and so we need somebody to step up, and for me, it's Camillo dove All last year at the trade deadline, he was the guy I was most excited about when we were waiting for the Yankees to make a move, and they finally made some moves before all of those moves promptly combining to combust and blow a series to the Marlins.

But there's a reason I was super excited about him.

He's got legit stuff.

He's got almost manual class A level stuff, just without the gambling problem.

And I think most of us would admit last year that despite the stuff, he was awful as a Yankee.

Yankees couldn't use him down stretch four point eight to two ERA in twenty two games more hits than nings pitched.

But he's already been an All Star back in twenty twenty three.

I think he can find it again.

This was a prediction that I was most iffy on, so I stuck it at number seven, and I hope you guys forget it if he has a bad year.

Number six.

Spencer Jones will hit his first MLB home run in just a few months in April he's been to Triple A, and as we often say on this channel, if you're in Triple A, you're just a hamstring pull away baby.

And I have no doubt that if John Carlos Stanton has his customary leg issues early in the season, that we're gonna see Spencer Jones as the fourth outfielder and Dominguez will likely become the dh which means that Spencer Jones will get periodic playing time, and I'm sure he'll get a couple of starts at Yankee Stadium to get the crowd into it, especially trying to keep Judge off his feet a little bit as he plays in the WBC, and you know want his season extending too much because you don't want him to wear out before the year's over or get hurt.

So they're gonna rest these guys early on in April, and I expect that Spencer Jones could get some at bats.

He's on the forty man roster and there is a good chance that he will go deep in April if he gets them at bets.

Anybody who's watched him hit home runs knows that when he hits them.

They stay hit.

This guy hits long enormous home runs.

So don't be shocked if he comes up in April and you see him on a you know, a Saturday afternoon park one over the right field bullpen into the bleachers, you know, four hundred and fifty, four hundred and sixty feet, don't be shocked.

I just wish we had Sterling on the radio still so he could break out the Shane Spencer home run to Spencer call revive that a little bit Spencer gifts one into the grand stands.

All right, number five.

Speaking of very tall, very large human beings, Yanks already have one of those guys, Aaron Judge, and he will hit a base five hundred feet in a game for the first time as a major league player this year.

Four ninety six is the longest he has had.

That was off of Marcus Stroman.

He also hit one four ninety five against the Orioles.

I'll never forget that one.

I remember Dedi's reaction, Remember that he's just like he couldn't believe it.

He was dumbfounded.

It was astonishing, and it's still astonishing.

I still watch that replay all the time.

But I think it's about time that we got a proper five hundred footer out of Aaron Judge.

Now, he hit one in Seattle.

Some of you will remember this that landed right around the last row of the upper deck in left field.

Now, stat cast took a long time to read it, and then when it did it finally said four fifty eight.

I think he broke stat cast.

I think that ball might have gone five hundred feet and he got robbed of it.

But I think it's time that he goes five hundred without a doubt on stat cast.

I just hope he does it at Yankee Stadium.

And let's not forget this guy hit five hundred in the playoffs thirteen for twenty six.

That's a one point six one eight ops in the Division Series.

He can still rake the Yankees.

Not winning a World Series last year was not his fault.

He did have one really bad at bat, but he had that huge three run home run on a pitch that was impossible to hit for a home run.

He did it anyway.

He does things that people don't do.

He won the batting title by twenty points, as the tallest man ever to win a batting title.

He's only got a few things to check off his list.

World Series obviously number one priority triple Crown maybe longest home run ever hit five hundred and sixty six feet.

Do you have it in you?

I'll take five hundred Number four.

Cam Schlittler will lead the team in strikeouts, with Garrett Cole being out for the first couple of months and Rodin may be missing the first month.

Max Freed not really being an overwhelming strikeout pitcher, had one hundred and eighty nine strikeouts last year, but less than a strikeout pernings pitch.

I think Cam Schlitler, who turns twenty five next week, by the way, February fifth, is the odds on favorite to lead the team in strikeouts.

He throws as hard as anybody on the team, throws bout as hard as anybody in the American League.

Last year, he made fourteen starts, struck out eighty four hitters in seventy three innings.

He also had ninety nine strikeouts in the minor leagues.

And this is without his breaking ball really coming together until about August, right he was relying on mostly the fastball in the minor leagues, and then when he got up to the major leagues, we saw the pitch mix wasn't exactly ideal.

And I remember you can go back and watch the comments that I made on this very channel after his first couple starts.

I said, I love the stuff, love watching him great heater.

The only thing that's missing is the breaking pitch, and you know what, later in the season, by August he had it and he was great down the stretch and we saw what.

He did in the playoffs.

One hundred and seventy five innings for Camp Splitler this year, I think, and that's probably gonna be close to two hundred strikeouts.

So I'm going with Cam Slitler to lead the team in strikeouts.

Also, Will Warren could sneak up on this list.

He strikes out a ton of guys two and he was durable last year.

So if he makes thirty three starts somehow, you know he can miss some bats too, So watch out for that.

Number three on the list.

Ben Rice will hit forty home runs and he'll be the first Yankees first baseman to do that since Jason Giambi in twenty twenty or sorry, twenty oh three, now twenty three years ago.

Remember Mark t Sherra didn't get there.

Mark Tshera had thirty nine home runs.

I remember him saying, they didn't want me to get to forty back in two thousand and nine in the final game of the season when he was playing in Tampa Bay and they walked him and then a Rod ended up hitting a grand slam to bring him in, and you know, he never got to forty with the Yankees.

Ben Rice, I think will Ben Rice actually profiles on Baseball Savant about as good as you can profile on Baseball Savant.

I mean, he's up there with like Aaron Judge, Juan Soto cal Raley, and a lot of these categories.

Expected batting average two eighty three.

So he was still unlucky with his two fifty five average.

It was about halfway through the season that he fixed his launch angle and he stopped being so unlucky.

And after that the ball started going out of the ballpark.

Average exit velocity in the ninety fifth percentile, barrel rate in the ninety second percentile, hard hit rate in the ninety seventh percentile, squared up percentage in the eighty ninth percentile.

This guy is an elite hitter, folks.

He is an elite hitter.

Eight thirty six ops last year, he's going over nine hundred this year and he's going to hit forty home runs.

Book it absolutely, book it number two, and this one I'm simpatico with a lot of callers on this.

We had one.

We had a lot of calls.

I'll play some of the voicemails in just a few minutes.

Jazz Chisholm is going to join the forty four club and he's gonna do it in a contract year, which is gonna make his off season very interesting, especially with the lockout looming.

If I were the Yankees, I would have tried to re sign him before this year, or if he starts the season, hot resign him before he becomes a free agent.

He might be willing to do it because of this whole lockout situation.

Take advantage of there not being a salary cap right now.

But they won't do that because Hawle wants there to be a salary cap and he doesn't want to undermine his own message.

But Jazz Chisholm, I think in a contract year has a chance to be absolutely ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous.

I'm gonna say to eighty average, forty two home runs, forty five stolen bases, one hundred and fifteen runs scored.

The question is will it be his final year as a Yankee?

And number one, the Yankees will win more games this year than they did last year.

I've been thinking about it, and it is entirely possible.

We have a lot of haters, We have a lot of people that are down on the team.

But you know what, they got some good starting pitching.

They got deeper starting pitching than most of the teams in this league.

You know, I built this dashboard and I've been going through and looking at like every team's like qualified hitters and qualified pitchers and where they rank and all that stuff.

And I'm showing the Yankees right now for those of you who are listening.

And as I was looking through and testing this had it occurred to me a lot of teams don't have many pitchers that are even qualified for.

The er title.

The Yankees had several Yankes had a lot of guys with twenty plus home runs, and they could end up being pretty damn good and running it back at ninety four and sixty eight.

Not the worst thing in the world if you can avoid the summer June boone swoon, if you want to call it that.

But this team has a chance to win mid nineties in games.

Last year they won ninety four games, which was improbable and required a winning streak at the end of the season.

But they did it without Garrett Cole and without Wan Soto.

So don't count this team out to figure out a way.

You know, they invented to torpedo bats.

Maybe they invent something else this year.

We'll see.

All right, now it's time for your voicemail.

It's just a reaction.

We're gonna start with Austin.

Hey, Derek, this is Austin here.

My top six Yankees twenty twenty six predictions.

Haam Fchlitler wins fifteen or more games, establishing himself as an emerging ace.

Jaz Chisdon Junr goes thirty to thirty again while improving his defense at second base, cementing his position as a top three second baseman.

In the league.

Gret Cole wins at least ten games with sub three point five ERA in a successful return and from UCL syndery Ben Rice hits forty plus home runs while batting to seventy or better.

Famillo Daval evolved into an elite set up reliever for David Bednar, and finally, the Yankees match or exceed their ninety four regular season win total from twenty twenty five.

Thanks a lot, love all.

You Swear to God, I wrote my podcast before I listened to that, But we are simpatico in a lot of areas, so that's why I wanted to play Austin's predictions.

Austin and I great mind stack a life episode of Morons.

I guess here's call about Cashman there.

I just watched Brian Cashman's Zoom conference call, and you said a couple of interesting things I would like to get your opinion on, one being that this is not a runback of the team from last year, because the players they got at the trade deadline last year are now going to have an opportunit he to become accustomed to New York and playing for the Yankees, and this, that, and the third.

So in other words, he's counting the players from the trade deadline last season as upgrades for this upcoming season.

The other thing he said was that he felt like last year's teams was a championship team and they just didn't get it done.

I disagree with all of this, but I would like to get your opinion, have a good day.

I don't disagree that they have pretty much run it back, but I don't I don't necessarily think that's a death sentence for the team.

I think there's a lot of good players on this team.

As you see right there, Yankees had the batting champion.

They got one of the best young starters in baseball.

I just mentioned, they got a potential forty home run hitter at first base.

They got a potential forty to forty guy at second base.

They don't have a short stop.

I don't think Volpi is very good, and coming back from solder surgery, I think he's gonna be worse.

I said them they but positive, So that's my one little slip up.

But I think they have a chance to be pretty good.

And while I I relate to the fans who would have liked more splash year moves, I understand what Cashman's saying, and we're gonna find out after the season whether he's right or wrong.

Championship caliber to me means minimum competitive in the AL Championship Series, like you gotta win two or three games in the ALCS for that for that to ring true to be championship caliber.

You got to get close to the World Series at minimum, that's a championship.

Going out in the Division Series that's not championship caliber, that's playoff caliber.

That's an early that's an early round exit.

To be championship caliber, you gotta.

Be in the final four.

That's just my opinion.

That's one about Jake bir I.

Just want to throw a couple of quick traditions out there.

Jake Berg comeback Player of the Year.

He'll get at least five ten stread Terror totally belts Derick Cole.

I see him coming back late June, maybe early July.

He may have a minor setback and he should power through in the playoffs and late in the season.

Jack Sism forty forty this year, Aaron Judge fifty bombs Yankees.

I see them having eighty five to ninety wins.

As far as how far they go, whether they get the wild card or the division, that depends on what they do.

I portrayed Deadline.

Thank you so much, Eric, a great call.

I'm going to say eighty five wins will be a very tough season for me to do this show every single night.

I'm really hoping we can be better than that.

I got a call you about Wolpi.

Hey, Derek, this is Big Mac from Pennsylvania.

Call it again.

I really enjoy your show calling today because I'm a little bit tired of people beating up on Anthony Volpe.

Anthony Wolpe is a young guy hasn't really had a chance to develop.

He came up in twenty three.

He was a three War player.

He won a Gold Glove, he was in the top ten Rookie of the Year votes, and while his batting average wasn't where we wanted, he played pretty well the following year in twenty four, again a three War players.

Batting average was in the two forty two forty five range, something like that, maybe two fifty, I don't remember exactly.

But he played better last year.

He was half of what he was his first two years in the league.

But he was injured.

And here's the thing, Derek, we don't know exactly when he was injured, do we.

I'll ask you to go back and remember when Aaron Judge had the rib problem, the broken ribs, and they didn't diagnose it properly for several months.

I think the medical department may have had the same kind of problem with Anthony Volpi.

I guess what I'm saying is is that you you could see Volti pass the eye test when he came up as a rookie, and I don't think it's fair for us to judge his career or his long jar he had major League Baseball based on last year when he was injured, and I think we need to give him a chance to come back and be healthy and be the player that we thought he could be in twenty twenty three.

I think that's a fair take.

I think it's a patient take.

I think it's a very nuanced and debatable topic.

The Yankees dude misdiagnosed injuries, and he clearly played hurt.

He got off to a tremendous start in twenty twenty four.

He was hitting lead off, he was hitting over two ninety in June.

But I got to see it to believe it, right.

I want to see him get back to that level that he was at in the beginning of twenty twenty four.

Typically, when guys have major shoulder surgery, I'm hesitant to believe they'll come back strong.

And I think that this is going to be his last chance.

You know, if he doesn't come back strong.

We got Lombard on the come up.

He could be ready in twenty twenty seven, or if there's no baseball, so he's twenty twenty eight.

We'll see all right, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna call it a night.

Let me know in the comments, your predictions.

Let me know if you want more of these top ten episodes.

Is fun.

I made that little widget.

I thought it was a fun little countdown, and I want to hear what you guys think in the comments, your predictions.

All right, ladies and gentlemen.

We'll see you next time.

Baseball season less than a month away if you count spring training.

Stay warm, everybody, BIG's no storm coming.

Stay inside, you know, stay stay heated, heated blankets, all that stuff.

Have your soup, hot coffee.

We'll see you then.

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