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Here’s a wild Yankees lineup Aaron Boone should consider for Game 1 of Wild Card series

ByThomas Carannante|
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - AUGUST 02: (NEW YORK DAILIES OUT) Aaron Judge #99 and Giancarlo Stanton #27 of the New York Yankees celebrate after defeating the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium on August 02, 2020 in New York City. The Yankees defeated the Red Sox 9-7. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - AUGUST 02: (NEW YORK DAILIES OUT) Aaron Judge #99 and Giancarlo Stanton #27 of the New York Yankees celebrate after defeating the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium on August 02, 2020 in New York City. The Yankees defeated the Red Sox 9-7. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

The Yankees can’t keep things as they are to kick off the Wild Card series.

If we’re being honest with ourselves, the best hitters on the New York Yankees at the moment are DJ LeMahieu, Luke Voit and Gio Urshela. And this isn’t any sort of recency bias — these guys have carried the load for the entire year.

So when we’re talking about entering a best-of-three Wild Card series on the road that will determine if the Bombers will move on to the MLB bubble in California to take part in the ALDS/ALCS, that means Aaron Boone’s side absolutely needs to win Game 1 with Gerrit Cole on the mound. There are no exceptions.

And to make sure you win that game, you need to put together a lineup that will give Cole the necessary support. An early lead with the ace on the mound will do wonders for morale. Perhaps Boone should consider bumping down a few big names to give the Yankees a ton of firepower to start things off.

Projected Yankees Playoff Lineup

This hypothetical Game 1 lineup would be especially troubling for any opposing pitcher:

  1. DJ LeMahieu
  2. Luke Voit
  3. Aaron Hicks
  4. Giancarlo Stanton
  5. Gio Urshela
  6. Aaron Judge
  7. Gleyber Torres
  8. Clint Frazier
  9. Kyle Higashioka

First thing’s first: Aaron Judge and/or Giancarlo Stanton cannot be among the game’s first three batters. They’re far too cold right now to be given prime positioning in the lineup. And this wouldn’t be permanent. Perhaps getting bumped down a bit will help them get back in a rhythm, because right now you cannot pitch around DJLM, Voit or Hicks.

Secondly, Judge and Stanton also cannot be hitting back to back. The two are a combined 14-for-69 (.203) with one home run, six RBI and a nauseating 29 strikeouts. Most of that positive production has come from Stanton, who has one homer, four doubles and four RBI over that span, which gives us good reason to bat him cleanup, for now.

As for Judge, he clearly has a lot of things to work out until returning to MVP status for the Yankees. Another troubled year characterized by injuries has to be affecting him mentally, and is obviously doing so physically, because he’s been having a hard time getting back into a groove.

https://twitter.com/BronxPinstripes/status/1305940658188845057?s=20

This is not an indictment of what these guys are capable of overall. They’re two of the best sluggers in all of baseball. They’re just largely still not up to speed and the Yankees cannot keep wasting time by giving them premium spots in the lineup when every game is now a must-win.

The bright side here is that the team has the necessary reinforcements that can step up and produce while Judge and Stanton work themselves back to being more comfortable in the box. There’s no reason to keep forcing this as we turn the page to the postseason. Let them get back on track outside of the top-three spots in the lineup and then we’ll really be talking.

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