Good afternoon everyone, it's time to dive back into the mailbag and answer some of your to send in your questions for our weekly call by email to pinstripealleyblog [at gmail [dot com.Chip23 asks: Is George Lombard Yankees' starting third baseman by the middle of July?Lombard is certainly carving up minor league pitching down in DoubleA right now, fueling hope that he'll make the jump from top prospect to an impact bat in the lineup this course, we're very early in the MiLB season and Lombard has only played 10 games and they've been played two levels away from the majors important things to year, Lombard started off on a similar hot streak and earned a promotion from HighA Hudson Valley to DoubleA after posting a.329.495.488 tripleslash in 24 games, a breakout performance after a down 2024 season that saw him never really figure things out at the , that step up in competition caused Lombard to struggle again once he started facing DoubleA pitchers, as he posted a.695 OPS the rest of the way, nearly 200 points lower than his initial Yankees would have to see enough out of this start to give him the green light up to Scranton first, a promotion that is probably a good couple of weeks away if he comes close to maintaining the elite 1.18OPS he currently has, and then also monitor how he handles the jump before making any kind of considerations on how he could impact the big league 's not out of the question that Lombard could make that happen the talent is there and is being recognized by plenty of scouts now, as he's been a fast riser in top 100 bigger question is how fast and loose will the Yankees play with their best prospect https://www.newyorkfanoutlet.com/Thurman_Munson_Jersey, especially given how they handled the last middle infielder to come up as their top Volpe's development is surely a parallel they're hoping to avoid Volpe wowed the crowd in 2021, produced a very solid 2022 that got him a cup of coffee in TripleA and then went straight to the big leagues with little time to ensure his bat was ready, to underwhelming results offensively thus team is under pressure to compete this year, and they have a glaring need in their infield right now, but patience may outweigh everything else with Lombard's ETA to try and ensure he can s쳮d as both an elite defender and 's currently covering third base down in Somerset with Volpe rehabbing there, and we may be getting a preview of the Yankee infield down the line, but a lot still has to go right for that to be the infield in Giant asks: He may walk a lot but he sure ain't if Grisham reverts to his pre 2025 play and is again, best off the what?Grisham got his getright game on Monday against the Angels, pinchhitting for Randal Grichuk and proceeding to go 2for3 with a pair of home runs including a tworun shot to tie the game in the bottom of the at least, it would've been nice if that breakout performance was his getright game, because in reality he followed that up with an 0for4 night with three strikeouts, getting just a tworun single in the second inning of Wednesday's win before going 0for again on results haven't been there for Grisham https://www.newyorkfanoutlet.com/Chase_Hampton_Jersey, but out of all of the hitters pulling down the lineup, there's the most to be optimistic with the Yankee center posting a paltry.155 batting average, the contact that Grisham is generating has been very 's in the 94th percentile for hard hit percentage at his average exit velocity of 90.9 mph is good for the 71st Statcast page doesn't quite read as unlucky as Ben Rice was looking last year, but it looks clear that the process has been good for Grisham and that he's just not finding the outfield grass as much as he should that with the elite eye for strikes that he's shown, and there's good reason that he's still regularly been the leadoff hitter for New idiot that said, Harper is coming asks: I'm sorry, I have to say is managerial malpractice that Ben Rice, who currently ranks fourth in MLB in batting Average, first in OBP, and first in SLG% ranks 140th in plate Yankees have more plate appearances than he does right now.A healthy Ben Rice needs to be in the lineup EVERY single day.I get the frustration with not seeing Rice in the lineup Austin Green Jersey, and share the sentiment in wanting the team's best hitter to this point to get in the game as much as or not there's a platoon being deployed with him and Paul Goldschmidt has been the biggest gripe fans have had with Aaron Boone's management of the team this year, and you could argue that he's sat a game or two more than is necessary, but they're also making sure that their star in the making is going to ramp up to a full season of work and be in it for the long PSA editors myself, Jake Devin, and Andrew Mearns discussed Rice's torrid start and the conversation around his starts recently, and as Jake noted, Rice is on pace to play in about 150 games and earn 620 plate appearances anyway despite the occasional spot on the 'd also be the most he's ever played in a single season, and as Andrew pointed out, Rice hasn't had that fullyear volume of games played due to having builtin days off as a catcher and having his college games cut down due to , I'd like to see the Yankees utilize that catcher flexibility a bit and get him behind the plate occasionally especially with J. not providing much, and that would help bridge the gap between playing Goldschmidt the proper amount while also getting Rice his atbats, but I'm not as compelled to raise the alarm over him sitting the occasional game as most 'll get into plenty of games, and as the season goes on I imagine the Yankees will be sitting him less and less whether that's due to him being built up and ready to roll through longer stretches without offdays or injuries to the rest of the roster forcing him into action elsewhere.