by 
New Yankees hitting coach, former Major Leaguer Sean Casey, spoke to the media on Wednesday and he immediately explained what he has seen from his new team so far, and it is not very good.
The Yankees are batting .231 as a team this season, the third worst in the sport, tied with the Detroit Tigers and trailing only the Oakland Athletics. They also have the second lowest hits in baseball (690), ahead of only the A’s.
Casey, sporty a Don Mattingley-like moustache, told reporters via Zoom that he hasn’t seen much film of the team yet, but saw a few of their games before the All-Star break and the biggest takeaway for him was that there was “some tension” at the board.
“I know in this game, when you’re struggling, the fear kind of creeps in and you chase a little bit more,” Casey said. “Maybe you’re swinging sooner than you’d like because you actually want to do it so well.”
Casey added that he will preach to attack the zone when the team returns in the second half, and to limit the “quick outs”.
“I see a lot of maybe five, six, seven, eight pitch innings,” he said. “When I look in from the outside, I’m like, ‘That’s very different from the Yankees. That’s not the Yankee way. That’s not the way these guys do it.'”
The new hitting coach said he has been in contact with the team’s players and had extensive conversations with him Aaron Judge, Anthony Rizzo, Josh Donaldson, Harrison Bader And Anthony Volpe.
But despite his lack of coaching experience, Casey believes his time as a player will benefit the Yankees, especially in turning around the team’s problems in the first half.
“I’ve been there. I’ve been to a point where I underperformed in the first half. I’ve had those struggles,” Casey said. “I know I’ll be able to tap into these guys and take their talent to We’re too talented. This team is too talented. This team is full of professional hitters. I always think the back of the baseball card doesn’t lie. In the end, we had to figure out a way to get it going. I got feeling like I’m the right guy to tap into these guys and get this cast hot in the second half.
The 49-year-old, whose contract with the Yankees runs for the remainder of this season, said that when he was a player it was comforting to know that his coaches were former players. .
The team has hung above .500 for six or seven games and is currently without a playoff spot. The team’s low offensive numbers and current malaise forced a general manager Brian Casman to implement a coaching change during the season for the first time in his tenure.
Wash out Dillon Lawson and Casey enters. But the new coach knows that he is not the answer to all the Yankees’ problems and that it is a process.
“I’m not crazy enough to think I’m going to come in and all of a sudden all nine guys are going to start beating because I’ve arrived,” Casey said. “Everyone needs to collectively look at themselves and say, ‘What do I have to do to get started? What do I have to do to get hot?’”
With Judge on the IL, the offense has taken a nosedive. Donaldson strikes below. 200, Giancarlo Stanton isoars above the Mendoza line and the hit machine, DJ Le Mahieu only hits .220. It will be Casey’s job to try and make the most of this lineup until the trade deadline and/or Judge returns to try and make a playoff push, because Casey knows that as a Yankee, your mission is to give it your all. to go.
“We’re here to win a World Series. That’s the bottom line,” Casey said. “Anything less than that is a failure in New York, and I understand that and I understand what that means.”
The Yankees’ second half begins Friday with a three-game series against the Rockies in Colorado.
