Freaky Friday: The New York Yankees as New York Rangers
What happens when the New York Yankees hit the ice? From Judge to Stanton, we imagine how the Bombers would fare as Rangers.
Well, we can’t let the Mets fans here at Blueshirt Banter have all the fun now, can we? (Are any New York area baseball fans actually having fun right now, though?) Now that Chris has given you his Freaky Friday that turns the New York Rangers into New York Mets, and then Mets into Rangers, now it's time to give the same treatment to the New York Yankees. (Again, those are two words not frequently found in the same sentence together these days: Yankees and fun.) Also, after getting swept in a weekend series by a mediocre Florida team, the Yankees and Rangers are showing they have a lot in common.
So, if for no other reason than to distract ourselves from the tire fire that is this current Yankees season, here's how we'd imagine those Yankees as Rangers.
Forward Lines
Line 1: Cody Bellinger - Aaron Judge - Giancarlo Stanton
Remember when the Flyers had the Legion of Doom line with Mikael Renberg - Eric Lindros - John LeClair? Yeah, well how about a line that makes that line look tiny and weak?
Cody Bellinger brings a lot more speed than a guy his size should bring, and is an exceedingly smart player. He knows what to do in every situation, offensively and defensively, and can make all the plays. He's a former MVP who had some bizarrely poor seasons, but is experiencing a renaissance.
And then there's Aaron Judge. This is the elite playmaker that the Rangers have been hoping to land for years. I mean, just imagine if Matt Rempe had that size but also the skill of an MVP player? That would be sheer insanity, right? A player 6-7, 282 pounds with immense power, speed, and physicality. Picture Tage Thompson or Quentin Byfield, but waaaaay better. Just as many of Judge's gargantuan home runs seem effortless, Judge the hockey player would pot goals at an effortless pace that would alarm most people. Of course no one is ever coming close to Wayne Gretzky's single-season goal scoring record of 92 goals. But could Judge break Auston Matthews's current era record of 69 goals? The guy who jacked 62 homers a few seasons ago to set the new AL record might!
The sidekick of the Twin Towers, Giancarlo Stanton, hasn’t been the model of health during his Yankees tenure, but he’s an extremely productive player who is going to bring it hard every night and launch rockets at net so hard that goalies will crap their pants when the puck is on his stick. Let's face it: He's never going to win a footrace. Speed is never going to be his strength. But what he does have is that clutch gene; the kind if guy who is going to come up big for you in the playoffs when it matters the most.
