After his ill-advised day off and Henri's cancelling of the Sunday game, Joey Joe Joe was back in full effect Monday with 2 whiffs. And the Yankees won again, making me think back to Ruben Sierra's old mantra "If you want to win, put Ruben in."
The Yankees have won 10 in a row and are now 20-4 since acquiring the Man Who Would Be Mark. He's up to 168 strikeouts, an 8-whiff lead over Matt Chapman. Nobody else is within 19 of Late Night with Joey Gallo. His pace right now is 217.78. The Yankees have played 125 games, they've got 37 to go.
How dominant has he been? Noted teammate whiffers Judge and Stanton are on pace to strike out 156 and 154 times this year. Joey already has more than that right now.
In the NL, Javier Baez came back from his injury and promptly struck out, proving the time off was worth it. He's up to 146, but has been passed in the overall standings by Ohtani (149), and Joey's Ranger teammate Adolis
Garcia, who has clearly tried to take on the mantle left by Joey's depature.
But much like when Ultra Magnus tried to take the Matrix of Leadership for the Autobots after Optimus Prime's untimely death in the 1986 Academy Award winning movie, Transformers: The Movie, Garcia is finding that not so easy does the crown rest.
In the all-time category, Justin Upton struck out twice last night to surpass Jose Canseco for 7th place on the all-time whiff list. He's up to 1,943 for his career. He won't have enough time to get to 2,000 this year, but it's a virtual lock early in 2022.
A moment then, for Jose Canseco, one of the most incredibly gifted athletes (both pre-steroids and with steroids) we've ever seen. A physical freak long the lines of Magic Johnson, Bo Jackson, and LeBron James - 6 feet 4 inches, 240 pound freak.
In his first three full seasons, he hit 33, 31, and 42 home runs, drove in 117, 113, and 124 runs, had the 40-40 season, and of course, for our money, struck out 175, 157, and 128 times.
Of course, had the steroid issues, and struggled mightily to stay healthy, especially after the Ranges traded, ironically, Sierra for him. Had a remarkable comeback year in '98 with 46 HR that largely went unnoticed because of McGwire and Sosa, and fell short of the 500-home mark by 38.
Lost in Gibson's heroics of the '88 World Series was the fact that Canseco - the 40-40 man and AL MVP - was horrific, hitting .053 with 1 homer.
Once his tell-all book and all the steroid stuff came out, he was officially persona-non grata in baseball. he was first eligible for the HOF in 2007, the year Ripen got 98.5% of the vote and Gwnn got 97.6% - further proof that some baseball writers should be taken out back and have their legs broken for not voting for those two. In that first year of eligibility, Canseco with 462 career HR, an MVP, and 7 All-Star games got 1.1% of the vote.
