Two-Minute Drill With Jim Monaghan and Chris Swendeman

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What's your Panic Point?

YANKEES - with the season almost a week over, what kind of changes do the Yankees need to make both in terms of the front office and the roster?

RANGERS - with a possible season-ending injury for goalie Igor Shesterkin, what will the Dawn of the Dylan Garand Era be like?

GIANTS - three straight games that could have easily been losses but weren't.  Should the fans be worried?

Let us know what YOUR Panic Point is with the local teams.

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Fresh off a dominant two-game sweep of the Red Sox in the American League Wild Card Series, the Yankees have found a FAR more difficult opponent in the Tampa Bay Rays.

For one, unlike the Red Sox, the Rays have an experienced coaching staff made up of major league veteran coaches.  Boston basically had a minor league staff in their dugout, and it showed.

For another, the Rays are a much more fundamentally sound team than the Yankees.

Also on tap this week -

GIANTS - no, despite their 3-1 record, they are not dominating teams.  Yes, they're winning.  And for fans, that may be enough right now.

JETS - they're a disaster.

And we can't leave Chris Swendeman's Buffalo Bills out of the conversation after dropping a close one at home to the struggling Drake "Maybe" and the New England Patriots.

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When the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees get after it this week at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx this week, there's more to this Wild Card Series matchup than these two storied franchises with a long history.

Yankees Captain Aaron Judge is not on the roster for this series.  Oft-injured Giancarlo Stanton is.

The Red Sox have activated starting pitcher Garrett Crochet, indicating that he will be used out of the bullpen.  Keep in mind that the last time Stanton and Crochet saw a Major League field as anything other than a specator was the fourth week of April when the first round of the NBA playoffs were underway.

We have SO many questions.

Stanton over Judge?  The Yankees defense?  

But here are the three possible matchups we want to see in this series.  All involve possible game-changing moments as Giancarlo is announced as a pinch hitter.

Will that moment be Stanton versus Peyton Tolle late in Game One?  Will it be an at bat againt Garrett Crochet?  Or, will it be something like the bottom of the 8th or 9th inning with Red Sox closer Aroldis Chapman on the mound?

And one football question - what do the Minnesota Vikings know about J.J. McCarthy that the Giants don't?

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This has been a bad few days for at least three of the local sports teams.  And a fourth one made sort of an unexpected move.

GIANTS - QB1 Jaxson Dart was injured in the first quarter of Monday night's game against the Rams and could need surgery that would end his season.  

Dart's replacement, Jameis Winston looked COMPLETLEY unprepared to com into the game.  And what is hard to comprehend - the Giants didn't have a 3rd QB dressed for the game, in the event of an injury to Winston.

JETS - following a thrilling road win over the Titans in the season opener, the Jets reverted back to form with an ugly OT loss to Green Bay that left a lot of people throwing shade at head coach Aaron Glenn and his clock management skills at the end of regulation time.

YANKEES - no Aaron Judge for the upcoming Wild Card series, most likely against the Red Sox.  You don't need a weather man to tell you which way the wind is blowing (thank you, Bob Dylan), and Yankees fans don't need anyone to tell them how important #99 is to this team's offense.

METS - nothing really bad happened, but the decision to not conduct an "exhaustive search" for a new manager is leaving a LOT of people scratching their heads.

And we bid a very fond farewell to legendary Mets broadcaster Howie Rose.

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 Former Mets slugger Pete Alonso made his first return to Citi Field this week after signing with the Baltimore Orioles as a free agent in the offseason.

One half of our team - that would be Jim Monaghan, of course - said at the time that it was no big loss for the Mets.  Alonso's defense wasn't at the Gold Glove level, he strikes out too much, and he's on the wrong side of 30.

After seeing the numbers that Alonso has put up for the Orioles this year, it would appear that Monaghan is the one who is on the wrong side of something.

We also introduce "Panic Point" to the Two-Minute Drill, taking a look at Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole, and George Lombard Jr who have all struggled the past couple of weeks.

And the Jets and Giants did something over the weekend that hasn't been done since 2009. 

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When the Yankees woke up on the morning of Tuesday September 8, the news was REALLY good.  Captain Aaron Judge was returning to the lineup, and what seemed like a VERY slim two-game lead over the Red Sox was actually four.

Remember the Jimi Hendrix song "If 6 Was 9?"  For the Yankees, it's "If 2 Was 3, But Really 4.

Jim Monaghan and Chris Swendeman break down the "new math" that takes the Yankees 2-game lead and doubles it.

Plus, the NFL season starts this week with the spotlight on QB1 for both the Giants and Jets.

Actually, with the Giants, QB2 might be more important.

And don't look now, but Anthony Volpe is CRUSHING the ball in AAA. 

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 The Yankees just came off a 3-1 series win over the Red Sox in the Bronx this past weekend, but have VERY little to show for it.

At the beginning of last week, the Yankees trailed the first-place Rays by 3 games, and led 2nd-place Boston by the same number of games.

On the morning of September 1, the Yankees are looking at a 5-game deficit to the Rays in the loss column, and are still just three games ahead of the Red Sox.

Still no Judge, who may (or may not) be back during the next home stand.

The one advantage the Yankees did gain over the weekend is a season-series win over Boston so that in the event they finish the season with the same record, the New York will hold the tie-breaker and the Wild Card series (assuming it's New York and Boston) would be held in the Bronx.

And on the musical side of things, at what point do legacy bands just need to hang it up, based upon who is (or really who isn't) in the band these days? 

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With about five weeks left to the 2026 regular season, the Yankees entered this week just three games behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays in the loss column in the American League East.

With four games remaining on the schedule against the Rays, you could say that the Yankees are at least somewhat in control of their destiny.

The problem, though, is this - the Boston Red Sox were just three games behind New York in the standings.  And the Yankees host Boston this coming weekend in the Bronx in a four-game series that might actually be more important for New York than the Tampa Bay series.

Yes, it would be great to catch the Rays and finish first in the division, but the prospect of facing the Red Sox at Fenway for the Wild Card Series is NOT a good scenario for the Yankees.

Plus, Chris Swendeman had the opportunity to catch Rush on tour in Philadelphia and he was more than excited about how the band sounded.

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While the Yankees wait for Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Cody Bellinger to return from their respective injuries, the team's depleted lineup is struggling to score runs.

In fact, since the trade deadline a couple of weeks ago, the Yankees are 6-5, falling slightly farther behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East.

For the time being, the Red Sox, who were tied in the loss column with New York for the top Wild Card spot in the American League just a few days ago, have cooled off.

Making the playoffs most likely isn't the issue.  But with three important pieces of their offense on the shelf until at least the beginning of September (and let's face it, Judge might be a couple of weeks beyond that, if he comes back at all this year), the odds of making a deep run in October get worse each day.

And it most certainly doesn't help that pitcher Max Fried is injured again with a bone bruise in his left elbow.

Also up for discussion this week - Tommy John's chances at the Hall of Fame, and an update on Anthony Volpe.

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Just following the trade deadline last week, the New York Yankees made a move that a lot of fans had been clamoring for, sending Anthony Volpe to AAA and calling up George Lombard Jr.

Volpe's struggles both at the plate and in the field were on display on an almost nightly basis, and in the process, the fan base turned on him with a vengeance.

None of that anger was deserved.  Or if it was, the fans' collective ire was VERY misdirected.

This is 100% the fault of the organization.  

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