Garrett Jones The Hero!

It looks like this game is going to take us well into the next day, and sitting here watching this intense battle only means one thing; extra inning picks! Garrett Jones is going to win it with a big hit. Just so you know you heard it here first. Garrett Jones with the Yankee win!

Game Thread: New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox 4/10

It’s Friday night and it’s game time as the New York Yankees continue their home stand to start the 2015 MLB season. Tonight the Yankees and Yankee Stadium will play host to their most bitter and hated rivals in the re-tooled Boston Red Sox. The game will showcase two starting pitchers who are getting their first tastes of the rivalry in Nathan Eovaldi for the Yankees and Wade Miley for the Boston Red Sox. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET and can be seen on WPIX Channel 11 and of course MLB TV.

Get your Yankees tickets for any game this weekend against the Boston Red Sox or any game home or away this season right here on The Greedy Pinstripes. Through our partnership with Ticket Monster we can offer you a discount on already reduced tickets without the bulky and annoying shipping costs and add on fees. If you’re more of the watch at home type be sure to jump on our comments section of the site or join us on Twitter (@GreedyStripes) where we try and chat during every single Yankees game.

This one should be fun so let’s start the weekend out on the right foot, shall we? Go Yankees!!!

The Curious Case of Masahiro Tanaka

If you are already tired of hearing about Masahiro Tanaka’s elbow this season after just one start raise your hand. I regret to inform you that if you are reading this you will have to hear about his ulnar collateral ligament at least one more time because that’s the topic at hand for this blog post. Another raise your hand type group activity, raise your hand if you’re confused on what the hell is going on with Tanaka this season? I mean is he throwing more two seam fastballs and adjusting his mechanics to save some wear and tear on his elbow? Is he doing it to give the hitters a different look and keep them off balance this season? Is it a little of both? If it is then just say so.

We’ve heard that we, the fans, should expect a dip in velocity from Tanaka this season as he throws more two seam fastballs and less four seam fastballs. This makes sense on paper because his four seamer was probably hit the hardest of any of his pitches in 2014, pre and post-surgery, so giving opposing teams a new look can never hurt. Despite what ESPN said (and said again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again and again) Tanaka did not throw less fastballs on Opening Day and his velocity was pretty consistent with his 2014 numbers but the Yankees are still defending the treatment of their 25 year old ace.

Over the winter we heard that Tanaka altered his mechanics and repertoire a bit to accommodate his right UCL and now Joe Girardi is telling the media that the change is simply strategic and not health related at all. I can understand wanting to change your approach for the better and I whole heartedly understand that it will probably take a few starts, real starts not spring training starts, to adjust to new mechanics, new pitches and a new approach but just shoot me straight. Is it to protect the elbow or is it to improve on his 2014 campaign?

Does the Yankees brass even know anymore? This is less the curious case of Masahiro Tanaka and more so the confusing case of Masahiro Tanaka. I’m lost and now I don’t know what to expect. The team is already pulling the “lost in translation” card and pulling the language barrier excuses? It’s April 10^th. Just admit it, Tanaka does not trust his stuff and until, and unless, he does the Yankees are going to suffer for it. I’ve said this many times, don’t pee on me and tell me it’s raining. I can deal with pee, and rain, as long as I know what I’m walking into and as long as I know to keep my mouth closed.

So which is it Girardi? Do you even know?’

Ben Affleck/Matt Damon Movie in Works about Yankees Wife Swap

On March 5, 1973 the New York Yankees made history by having the first documented wife swap in Major League Baseball history. Yankees teammates Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich announced that they traded families, including wives, children and dogs, in an interesting turn of events. The swap worked out well for Peterson who eventually married his best friend’s former wife and had four children with her while things didn’t go as well for Kekich and Marilyn Peterson. These two broke up shortly after the swap and had to watch as Fritz and Kekich’s wife went on to live happily ever after. You can’t make this stuff up but directors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck will try to at least dramatize it enough to make it into a major motion picture in the coming years.

No release date has been announced for the project and no cast members have been cast as the idea has been thrown around back and forth and almost scrapped all together. The project, for now at least, seems to be back on and should be an interesting watch if you’re a Yankees fan. I wouldn’t go to the theater to see this but it will be something I will definitely check out if the movie idea ever comes to fruition. 

Game Preview: New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox 4/10

The fans of the rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox did not have to wait long in 2015 as these two teams face off in just the second series of the season. The first time around the Yankees will act as the home team and will host Boston inside Yankee Stadium with New York’s starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi getting his first taste of the rivalry. Similarly one of the new faces in Boston in Wade Miley will be opposing Eovaldi in his first start of his career in this intense rivalry. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET and can be seen on WPIX Channel 11 and MLB TV.

Eovaldi will be making his first regular season start for the New York Yankees tonight after being acquired from the Miami Marlins in a five player December trade. In the deal Martin Prado and David Phelps went to Miami while Eovaldi, Garrett Jones and Domingo German came back to the Yankees in the deal. The hard throwing RHP from Texas set career highs in starts (33), IP (199.2) and K’s (142) in 2014 and will look to improve on that in 2015 under Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild.

Miley also makes his debut for the Boston Red Sox after being acquired from the Arizona Diamondbacks over the winter. Miley has one start inside Yankee Stadium as a member of the Diamondbacks in his career when he posted a no decision allowing four hits and three runs over 6.2 IP with Arizona.

The Yankees and Red Sox play two totally different games it seems like early in the season as the Red Sox are content with outslugging teams while the Yankees look like they will have to scrimp and scrap for every run they score in 2015. It should be an interesting series for both teams and it should be even more interesting for the fans. I look forward to the first awkward exchange between the Yankees DH Alex Rodriguez and the Red Sox DH David Ortiz, if there even is one.

As always, Go Yankees!!!

As Gardner & Ellsbury Go, the Yankees Go

It’s pretty early in the season but just after a series in the books for the Yankees it looks like runs will once again come at a premium in the Bronx. New York may once again finish without a 100 RBI guy or a .300 batter and the team may have to manufacture almost every run they score this season. I’m not standing here telling you that the sky is falling or that I am ready to jump off the bandwagon now, I’m not, that’s just how the team was built. The team was built with speed, defense and were built for small ball. Looking at the first Yankees victory of the season Wednesday night against the Toronto Blue Jays it looks like as Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury goes, the Yankees will go in 2015.

This theory makes sense on paper because Ellsbury and Gardner hit #1 and #2 in the batting order and are considered to be the table setters for the lineup. Mixing in a speedy guy like Didi Gregorius at the bottom of the order only helps in the later innings when the Yankees turn the order over and bring up these two with runners on base. Ellsbury and Gardner will both take their walks and both have the on base numbers to be serviceable leadoff hitters for this team. Gardner’s power surge of the past couple of seasons, his strikeouts and his lack of trust in his own base stealing game (I assume anyway by what I see on the field) has dropped him into the second slot replacing the great Derek Jeter in the lineup. The fact of the matter is whoever is hitting first and whoever is hitting second doesn’t matter, what matters is if they get on base.

If these two get on base they can steal bases and create havoc with their legs. The pitcher has to constantly keep a mindful eye on both of these runners while on first and second base which may lead to a ball being left up or a slider simply spinning over the plate. The fact that both of these players can usually score from first on a double also adds to their importance with the middle of the order coming up. None of Carlos Beltran, Mark Teixeira, Chase Headley or Brian McCann are going to come anywhere near hitting .300 this season but all of them can come reasonably close to 75-100 RBI each if Gardner and Ellsbury are on base when they do connect or hit a home run.

As the top two hitters in the Yankees lineup go the Yankees will go. If Ellsbury has a 0-4 night or Gardner strikes out swinging three times in a night, and both will happen, then the Yankees will struggle to score unless the big boppers hit home runs. That’s just baseball and that is how teams that don’t want on the “too many damn home runs” play the game. So while you’re watching the game watch these two closely and you just may know the outcome before it happens and you too can become a Yankees Wizard just like I was deemed in 2014. 

TGP Daily Poll: Yankees Offense is Alive vs. Boston

The New York Yankees always do one of two things when playing the Boston Red Sox in recent years, struggle completely or knock the cover off the ball. Rarely is there an in between and on Friday the Yankees offense wakes up with three home runs and a win.

Vote in our prediction poll on Knoda.com

So Far So Good on Pace of Play Rules

The 2015 season has only just begun and still has that new car smell but if the first couple of opening series are any indication of how the entire season will go it looks like Commissioner Rob Manfred and company succeeded in speeding up the game without really a noticeable difference in the game itself.

Through just the first 35 games of the season the average time of a MLB game is 2:51 which is down from the 3:02 average from the 2014 season. While many won’t notice a difference or see what the big deal is in just 11 minutes but to a casual fan, which MLB is trying to attract more and more of, that could be an ice breaker.

The shorter times may coincide with the lack of offense that is running rampant around the league and may be counterproductive as 13 of those first 35 games ended in shutouts while the Yankees narrowly missed being shut out on Opening Day by a Brett Gardner home run.

Players are now subject to fines for intentionally slowing down the game and may even be dealt a strike from the umpire if they are intentionally delaying the game. It tough and it’s going to take some getting used to but the rules are there and they seem to be working, albeit in an extremely small sample size, and it’s hard to argue with that. 

This Day in New York Yankees History 4/10: Dave Eiland Hits a Home Run

On this day in 1992 Dave Eiland hit a home run in his first major league at bat. Eiland came through the New York Yankees system and also allowed a home run to first batter he faces in his career when he gave up a homer to the Brewers Paul Molitor. Eiland hit the home run in the National League in his first year with the San Diego Padres after coming over from the Yankees.