00:00I spent this season saying the Yankees don't have a shortstop and that they were either going to have
00:04to trade for one or Lombard was going to have to be the answer. And I know you could show
00:10me DRS
00:11on somebody like Jose Caballero. I know you can tell me that the Yankees would rather run off a
00:21cliff than say something negative about the defensive play of Anthony Volpe at shortstop.
00:25But the thing I would constantly say to Yankee people is one of the blessings of my job is
00:31there's two teams in New York and I get to watch Francisco Lindor play shortstop, for example.
00:36And there's something about how a real shortstop moves, how they set up their arm. Like to me,
00:43Anthony Volpe has never looked like a real major league shortstop, even when he was winning a
00:47gold glove and playing better because he's playing way too fast. He's on the ground like a hockey
00:54goalie way too much instead of comfortably fielding the ball. And he just didn't have
00:59the arm for the position. Absolutely. Caballero could do the spectacular, but I think your shortstop
01:05center fielder and catcher in particular have to do the routine over and over. It's got to be like
01:10a hundred percent play pretty much in the center of the diamond in those three positions. And really,
01:15you want that everywhere. After a week, what I am very comfortable saying about George Lombard is
01:21he is a major league shortstop. He's a major league shortstop. He makes, he makes every play
01:28and he makes difficult ones look routine. The first play of the game of the cold start on Saturday is
01:34105 mile an hour bullet to his backhand. And he like, we won't talk about it because he just made
01:42it
01:42look like a player shortstop should make. And you know what? It's a player shortstop can make.
01:47And the Yankees, doesn't it seem all of a sudden, because they're getting that kind of steady play
01:52at shortstop, like they're just a good defensive team again. It's amazing what plugging one player
01:58who can really handle a position as important as that into the lineup.
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