Who Is Luke Voit?

jon abbey

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I'm starting a thread because it's not quite true that he came out of nowhere, as this article from when NY traded for him on July 30 points out.

https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2018/7/30/17626544/new-york-yankees-cardinals-luke-voit-aaa-first-baseman-chasen-shreve-exit-velocity

1) He was 4th in wRC+ in the PCL in 2017 at 152.

2) In his limited time with STL in 2017, he had elite average exit velocity, 11th in all of baseball, just ahead of Miguel Cabrera, Manny Machado and JD Martinez.

3) This year, he had an oblique injury early on which seemed to impact his numbers, but in June and July he was the best hitter in all of AAA.

Obviously no one expected him to have a 1.063 OPS through 59 ABs as he currently does, but there have been a lot of signs over the last two seasons that he could break out if given a chance.
 

Lose Remerswaal

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Like his twin brother from another mother, Luke Null, who will not be returning to SNL next season, Luke Voi(d)t will not be returning to the NYY next season*











*I honestly have no idea but I've been wanting to make the Null and Void joke since this guy was acquired
 

jon abbey

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He's definitely sticking in the organization, they moved Tyler Austin and traded for Voit because Austin is out of options going forward and Voit isn't.

Also the joke you're looking for is when they platoon Walker with him at 1B (an actual possibility), Neil and Voit. :)
 

terrynever

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Voit might be a comp for Steve Pearce, who got to the big leagues at 24 and struggled for a few years before getting regular work and hitting 21 homers for Baltimore in 2015. Pearce is more versatile in the field but the hitting prowess seems similar.
 

jon abbey

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Some one-handed weightlifting from our hero, he is a strong young man.

 

No Pepper

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Dunno why but like the first 12 times I read his name somewhere I read it as Luke Volt, not Voit.

Luke Volt would be kind of a cool superhero alter ego name.
 

Sampo Gida

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Some one-handed weightlifting from our hero, he is a strong young man.

Whats that, 115 lbs? Well, he is still growing I guess.

Voit certainly has been a god send for the Yankees.

Is it real? 9 HR in 270 PA in AAA (8 in his last 136 PA, mostly in hitter friendly PCL) to 7 HR in 69 PA with Yankees? Yankees continue to get young guys far surpassing their minor league power stats in MLB. I guess its the ball and park , although Voit has done damage on the road.

5 of 7 HR against Tigers and Orioles pitching so I guess I need to see more after teams get a book on him.

RAB comments shut down so may be around more
 

NJ_Sox_Fan

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Doesn’t in seem that every year, or at least every few years the Yanks always have some unexpected guy hit a shit ton of HRs?
 

jon abbey

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Voit certainly has been a god send for the Yankees.

Is it real? 9 HR in 270 PA in AAA (8 in his last 136 PA, mostly in hitter friendly PCL) to 7 HR in 69 PA with Yankees? Yankees continue to get young guys far surpassing their minor league power stats in MLB. I guess its the ball and park , although Voit has done damage on the road.

5 of 7 HR against Tigers and Orioles pitching so I guess I need to see more after teams get a book on him.
No idea if it's real obviously, but the first article linked above basically predicted this, also his average exit velocity numbers with STL in 2017 in limited ABs were impressive (that is from that article also).
 

jon abbey

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Two run double in the first today:

MLB Highest Pct of Batted Balls 95+ MPH (MLB avg 35.4%)

Aaron Judge 56.3
David Bote 55.4
Ryan Zimmerman 54.6
Kendrys Morales 54.1
Miguel Cabrera 53.7
Luke Voit 53.2

(min 60 batted balls)
 

Spelunker

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Doesn’t in seem that every year, or at least every few years the Yanks always have some unexpected guy hit a shit ton of HRs?
The "Yankee Minute" segment of the most recent Poscast was dedicated to this phenomenon.
 

Marciano490

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Whats that, 115 lbs? Well, he is still growing I guess.

Voit certainly has been a god send for the Yankees.

Is it real? 9 HR in 270 PA in AAA (8 in his last 136 PA, mostly in hitter friendly PCL) to 7 HR in 69 PA with Yankees? Yankees continue to get young guys far surpassing their minor league power stats in MLB. I guess its the ball and park , although Voit has done damage on the road.

5 of 7 HR against Tigers and Orioles pitching so I guess I need to see more after teams get a book on him.

RAB comments shut down so may be around more
135. I’ve never tried this, but it seems legit. Benching 135lb dumbbells makes you fairly strong, and it’s probably harder to do it one handed with a barbell.
 

jon abbey

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He is the 5th Yankee alltime with 30 hits and 10 HRs in the first 30 games of his Yankee career, the others were Gary Sanchez, Glenallen Hill, Roger Maris and Babe Ruth.
 

cheekydave

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135 Bench press one armed needs not just strength but balance, only other guy I seen do this is James Harrison. That is really impressive at my peak I did dumbell presses with 110, on a flat bench. Do I think he is yet another roid monkey who the Yankees find from no where that will be a faint memory in 1 or 2 years? Yup.
 

jon abbey

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Today's HR, exit velocity 109, hitting the back wall of the bullpen the opposite way, to right center.

 

jon abbey

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Voit is still going, hitting third for NY currently (Hicks and Didi are out admittedly) and coming very close to a game-tying grand slam off Romo last night (it ended up being a long single to the wall when the runner ahead of him held up):

Luke Voit in 36 games with the Yankees: 135 PA, 121 AB, 38H, 4 2B, 11HR, 28 RBI, 13BB, 36K, .314/.385/.620/1.005, 164 OPS+
 

hbk72777

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And here I thought the Yankees should've released Shreve

Cashman is a genius
 

jon abbey

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3 more HRs plus 3 other hits in 11 ABs since the stats I posted above pushed him up to a 1.095 OPS for NY, ahead of Trout (1.088) and Mookie (1.078) and everyone else (125 PAs minimum).
 

jon abbey

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Luuuuke won AL player of the week with an impressive .458/.519/.958 performance.
 

KillerBs

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Answer: An older journeyman Grade C minor leaguer, who has had an unexpected good month in the bigs. Just traded by the Cards for a cromulent LOOGY.

I mean I get it. They call this place Sons of Sam Horn for a reason.
 

jon abbey

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JD Martinez took a while to figure it out too, he was released by HOU when he was 26 (Voit is 27). Carlos Pena was on his 5th team at age 29 when something clicked and he hit 116 home runs the next three years, sometimes it takes guys a bit longer to break through.

Obviously I have no idea if Voit will keep this up, but he has shown promising signs before this, as detailed in the first post in this thread.
 

KillerBs

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Luke Voit and JD Martinez in the same sentence is a stretch to say the least. Let's see him do this for more than 5 weeks, let alone 5 years.

I mean Babe Ruth was a left pitcher too, but that's not much evidence that Jon Lester might hit 60 HRs one day.

Pearce is a better hitter than Voit isn't he?

Not trying to say Voit cant hit, but I think we can be pretty confident that he won't "keep this up." He is slugging .689 with the Yankees. Whatever he is, it ain't that.
 

54thMA

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Nevermind who Luke Voit is, the bigger question is who's his fucking barber, that haircut is an abomination, I'm guessing it's an Enzo, there is no way Geno butchered him like that.
 

jayhoz

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Nevermind who Luke Voit is, the bigger question is who's his fucking barber, that haircut is an abomination, I'm guessing it's an Enzo, there is no way Geno butchered him like that.
and why won't the team tailor replace the poor guy's 2nd button on his jersey that he has apparently lost?
 

54thMA

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and why won't the team tailor replace the poor guy's 2nd button on his jersey that he has apparently lost?
He's a grade A, dead from the neck up cementhead, ie, your typical Yankee, right out of central casting, I hate the fucking guy with the fire of 10,000 suns.

And that was before I saw his haircut.
 

cromulence

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He's a grade A, dead from the neck up cementhead, ie, your typical Yankee, right out of central casting, I hate the fucking guy with the fire of 10,000 suns.

And that was before I saw his haircut.
I know he seems like that, but his personality actually isn't like that at all (source: his appearance on R2C2). I know I know, you guys have to hate him, but he's refreshingly un-Broish.
 

jon abbey

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I think they should bring in a 3B and then Andujar, Voit and Bird fight it out for 1B and DH in spring training. Also I think that Cashman has been preparing for this winter for 2+ years now and I am excited to see what he puts together.
 

jon abbey

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As if our burly hero never left, his first two spring ABs were a roped RBI single to RF in the 1st and then this mammoth blast in the 4th, he pulled 97 from Stanek and hit the roof of the tiki bar in left center, not a euphemism in this case.


This caused the normally calm Buster Olney to tweet:

"Manny Machado after the trade to the Dodgers: .273/.338/.487, 29 XBH in 296 plate appearances.

Luke Voit after the trade to the Yankees: .333/.405/.689, 19 XBH in 148 PA. The guy knows how to hit."

But I am posting more because of his quotes after, he was blocked in STL by Carpenter and Jose Martinez, and now that he has a chance at 28, he is not going to give it up easily. The whole article below is worth reading but the part about his D is especially exciting, he made one nice backhand play on a hard grounder in the hole:

==========================

This offseason, Voit traveled to Tampa to work with infield coach Carlos Mendoza and picked up drills designed to improve his defense.

“My goal this year is to make my defense night and day,” Voit said. “I want to win a Gold Glove, that’s kind of my mindset.”

Voit impressed Aaron Boone as much with his RBI single as his home run.

“Going the other way with a runner in scoring position to get it started and a really good at-bat with a real short, compact [swing],” Boone said. “It was a good start for him.”

Boone also noticed the back-handed play by Voit, and talked before the game that the defensive work he did in the winter is paying off.


https://nypost.com/2019/02/24/luke-voit-one-ups-greg-bird-in-sizzling-start-to-yankees-battle/?utm_campaign=iosapp&utm_source=twitter_app
 

jon abbey

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Voit has kept it going so far this spring, hitting his 4th HR today:

2018 w. Yankees: .333/.405/.689/1.095
2019 spring (SSS): .294/.385/.676/1.061
 

jon abbey

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Most HR since Aug. 24, 2018

Christian Yelich (MIL) 28
Luke Voit (NYY) 19
Khris Davis (OAK) 19
4 players tied 18
 

jon abbey

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Another HR tonight brings his total to 22 in 230 ABs for NY.
 

jon abbey

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Today he is AL player of the week:

"Luke Voit has been named American League Player of the Week

.433 BA | .528 OBP | .867 SLG 13 H | 10 R | 4 HR | 10 RBI | 5 BB"

 

jon abbey

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Bumping this one because he is scorching hot again, four HRs in the last three games. He has continued to hit incredibly well since coming to NY, even more so if you drop out the second part of last season where he tried to play through a badly torn hernia before getting offseason surgery.

2018 (for NY): 1.095 OPS in 148 PAs
2019 (pre-injury): .901 OPS in 349 PAs
2019 (post-injury): .715 OPS in 161 PAs
2020: 1.067 OPS in 78 PAs

Total for NY including the injured stretch: .913 OPS in 628 ABs coming into tonight, 44 HRs, 113 RBIs, 91 BBs. If you drop out the injured stretch I am sure he is well over .950, and since we discussed JD Martinez earlier in the thread, I checked what his career OPS has been since he blossomed in DET in 2014 at 26, and it is .949, peaking in 2017-18 and trending down in 2019 and so far this year.

JDM has obviously still done it for far far longer than Voit but another nice score by Cashman (he did give up Gio Gallegos who has been fantastic for STL but NY has no shortage of relievers, plus they got international money in this deal which allowed them to sign highly regarded Cuban pitcher Osiel Rodriguez as essentially a second player in the trade for them):

https://www.mlb.com/news/international-prospect-osiel-rodriguez-signs-c287910060
 

jon abbey

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MLB at-bats per home run leaders:

1) Luke Voit, NYY -- 7.0
2) Mike Trout, LAA -- 8.3
3) J.T. Realmuto, PHI -- 8.6
4) Fernando Tatis Jr., SD -- 8.7
5) Nick Castellanos, CIN -- 9.0