Monday, May 11, 2015

Game Thread: New York Yankees @ Tampa Bay Rays 5/11


For the eight time already this season it is game time between the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays. I'm not sure how I feel about playing all your American League East rivals so early in the season since it should create a ton of scoreboard watching in September but what do I know. Anyway tonight the Yankees send CC Sabathia to the mound to face off against Alex Colome for the Rays. The game will be played at 7:10 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network and MLB TV.

The Yankees are on the road for a week's worth of games before returning home to Yankee Stadium to play host to the Texas Rangers on Bernie Williams Day. Get your Yankees tickets for that series and the return to the Bronx by clicking our Yankees Tickets link at the top of the blog. If you can't make it to the Bronx then join us in our comments section and join us on Twitter (@GreedyStripes) to live chat with us during almost every single game.

Colome is on the mound and Jacoby Ellsbury is ready to start a new extended hitting streak so I'll get off here and catch the beginning of the game, hopefully a Yankees victory. Go Yankees!

Masahiro Tanaka On His Way Back


Masahiro Tanaka is on his way back from the disabled list after a forearm strain and a bit of wrist tendinitis temporarily derailed his season. Tanaka is scheduled to throw a 15 pitch bullpen session tomorrow after throwing various throws of long toss later in the week last week. This marks the first time since the injury that Tanaka will throw a bullpen session in an attempt to make it back to the Yankees rotation.

Michael Pineda Wins Player of the Week


Michael Pineda quieted many doubters, and Orioles, on Mother's Day with his 16 strikeout and zero walk performance and did enough to win Player of the Week honors for the American League. Pineda's 16 K's tied him with David Wells and David Cone for second in the team's franchise history for strikeouts in a single game. Ron Guidry owns the Yankees franchise record with 18 K's in one game in case you were wondering.

Pineda also threw eight shutout innings against the Toronto Blue Jays to begin his week earning another victory. Pineda improved his overall record to 5-0 on the season with a 3.10 ERA with a league leading 51 strikeouts to just three walks.

ICYMI: The Almost Daily Dozen: #Hashtags trending on TGP

From Bryan Knepper:

I really don't want to talk about how #TheBinder lost the game by trying to be cute tonight or how awful Headley must feel after the #FormerYankeeKiller Russell Martin hit the go-ahead infield single.  Instead here are some of my personal favorite hashtags that we, here at The Greedy Pinstripes, like to use during LIVE tweets of the games:

1. #TheBinder.  If you didn't know, Joe Girardi's nickname is "The Binder".  He goes to his faithful book of knowledge for virtually every situation and in my opinion out thinks himself quite often.  This mostly happens with the pitching staff.

2. #ForgiveARod.  Led by DBurchHero, we here have been trumpeting for A-Rod to be forgiven for his transgressions.  It is the only way to move on as an organization.

3. #GetGreedy.  The namesake of this blog came from a tongue-in-cheek effort by several of us here at TGP when we were over on another (and obsolete) forum.  It started with the effort to bring Manny Ramirez back to the Bronx and was used to make fun of the less-endowed bank accounts of lesser teams.

4. #NappyBeard.  This started last year every time Mike Napoli and his nasty beard would come to the plate against the Yankees or if he makes a stupid error in the field.  We don't like him...does it show?

5. #EllsBells.  Supposedly the Sahx fans used this for him at Fenway...since I've never been to FP, I contend that I came up with it.  Sorry Boston...you lose again.

6. #ShutTheKrukUp.  This was added to the TGP lexicon just last night and should be pretty self-explanatory. John Kruk is a horrible broadcaster and just needs to concentrate on eating chili cheese dogs instead of doting over Dustin Pedroia.

7. #FormerYankeeKiller.  It seems that every former Yankee that plays them comes up with big hits or big outs on the mound (re: Russell Martin tonight OR Philthy in the past OR even Joba on occasion).

8. #EnterSandman.  Wow...don't you wish this was still an active hashtag on twitter? Although that other guy is doing well right now, which brings me to...

9. #MillerTime.  Yeah...so it's not very inventive...so sue us! Wit and sarcasm takes a lot of work...it's nice to be able to rest our brains in the 9th inning.

10. #Knepper'sFault.  This is primarily used to describe when the Yankees start losing after I turn on the game or something bad happens due to superstition.  It's primarily (over)used by Daniel Burch.

11. #TanakaTime.  Let's hope we get to use this hashtag pretty soon, eh?

12. #GardyParty.  Use this whenever Brett #TheHitman Gardner does something great on the diamond, which is on average 2.5 times per game.

I hope you enjoyed this abbreviated list of a DOZEN #Hashtags commonly used by TGP.  What are some of your favorite #Yankees hashtags?  Feel free to add them to the comments section and who knows they may be trending during tomorrow's game!

#Untuck2?


Remember when the New York Yankees and their fans thought that the sky was falling above Yankee Stadium each and every night after Mariano Rivera tore his ACL in 2012? Many don't remember that anymore after Rafael Soriano came in and untucked his shirt 42 times after 42 saves essentially saving the Yankees season in 2012. Soriano is still out there on the free agent market and with the teams unwillingness to call up Jacob Lindgren, trust David Carpenter or keep Chris Martin healthy is it time to #untuck, again?

Soriano has not pitched a professional inning this season after falling out of grace and losing his closer role in Washington in the second half of 2014 and even though he is a Scott Boras client you would think that money would not be an issue at this point. Any deal Soriano signs would be a prorated deal and would likely come closer and closer to the league minimum with every day that Soriano is a free agent. Soriano comes in as a veteran with experience pitching in New York posting these stats in his career season of 2012:

Year Age W L ERA G GF SV IP H R HR BB SO ERA+ FIP WHIP H9 HR9
2012 32 2 1 2.26 69 54 42 67.2 55 17 6 24 69 187 3.32 1.167 7.3 0.8
Soriano has been linked to the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Cleveland Indians, the Seattle Mariners, the Minnesota Twins and the Los Angeles Dodgers of late so the Yankees would not be without their competition but if the team puts their mind to something they tend to get their man. Would it be worth it to try a reunion with Soriano? Honestly probably not but if the team isn't going to trust Carpenter or call up Lindgren or even Luis Severino then why not, he gives the team a great chance to win when Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller are off for the night.

Game Preview: New York Yankees @ Tampa Bay Rays 5/11


The New York Yankees have left the friendly confines of Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and are back down in Tampa taking on the Tampa Bay Rays for the next four nights. The Yankees have already swept a three game series this season inside Tropicana Field and will look to do the same this week in a four game series back in The Trop. Tonight the Yankees will send CC Sabathia to the mound still looking for his first victory of the season as he faces off with Alex Colome for the Rays. The game will be played at 7:10 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network and MLB TV.


  • Sabathia was dealt his fifth loss of the season already last time out against the Toronto Blue Jays marking the first time in CC's career that he started a season 0-5. Sabathia has pitched well enough to win more than once or twice but has fallen victim to low run support from his teammates as he has received just one run in a game four times this season already. 



  • Colome is fresh off his second victory of the season last time out when he beat up on the shorthanded Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox were without Hanley Ramirez in the contest and Colome took advantage allowing just two runs on four hits while pitching into the sixth inning. Colome only has 10 innings pitched this season but also has 10 strikeouts to go along with them.



New York owns a 6-1 record over Tampa Bay already this season explaining much of the gap between the Yankees and the rest of the American League East right now. If the Yankees can keep winning against the Rays now when they don't have Alex Cobb, Matt Moore and others it will make a huge difference in September if the team plans on going to October for the first time in three season.

Most Popular Article of the Week: Jacob Lindgren & Weaknesses in Yankees Bullpen


Every time we do our weekly check in with Yankees prospect and top pick in 2014 Jacob Lindgren I post a slew of overly impressive stats along with a disclaimer that the bullpen for New York is too good to justify a spot for the young lefty. I think Lindgren and the fans may have finally found that weakness inside the Yankees pen that could go down or be designated for assignment to make room for the Mississippi State product. David Carpenter’s fall from grace out of Joe Girardi’s “Circle of Trust” came quicker than so many analogies that are just not coming to my mind right now. The lack of trust and the subsequent lack of use is only going to get worse while it gets less and less frequent so it may be time to finally make the move now.

Chris Capuano has already begun a rehab assignment to come back to the major leagues and presumably you would think he would return as a starting pitcher. When Capuano returns you have to think that Adam Warren goes back to the bullpen, especially after the way Chase Whitley has pitched in his first two starts this season, giving Girardi his 7th inning man back in the pen. Carpenter was supposed to be that 7th inning man this season before Chris Martin essentially jumped him on the totem pole alone with Justin Wilson and Chasen Shreve. Now it seems like Carpenter is the last man on the depth chart for Girardi and his performance is suffering for it.

None of this is to say that Carpenter is a bad pitcher or that any of it is his fault though because I understand the need to stay active and stay sharp. When you rot on the bench for six days out of seven a week as a pitcher it tends to mess with your command, control and your ability to get major league hitters out. That part is on Girardi, not on Carpenter, and so is bringing in Carpenter and expecting anything less than a failure more times than not. If you’re not going to use Carpenter it’s only going to hurt, not help, the Yankees pen in the long run so why not give Lindgren a shot and let him strike out two batters an inning in the Bronx instead of in Scranton.


Think of the matchups the binder would give Girardi replacing Carpenter with Lindgren. Let’s take the Boston Red Sox for example: You can pitch Dellin Betances to Mookie Betts and Dustin Pedroia, Wilson to David Ortiz, Martin to Hanley Ramirez, Lindgren to Pablo Sandoval, and the rest of the pen including Andrew Miller for anyone else. That’s an opposing manager’s nightmare matchup wise and no other team in the league can boast that. It makes sense but as we know that doesn’t always matter with Girardi and GM Brian Cashman so I’m not saying that the move will be made I’m just saying that it should. 

TGP Daily Poll: Tampa Bay Has Nothing on New York


The Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Yankees have played two series already this series with the Yankees sweeping the first and winning two of the three games in the second series. This does not seem like it's going to be Tampa Bay's year as the Yankees will win this third series as well with at least three wins.

Vote in our prediction poll on Knoda.com

Weekly Check In: Jacob Lindgren


With Chris Martin on the disabled list, David Carpenter falling out of the Circle of Trust and the likes of Andrew Miller and Dellin Betances being overused already this season tell me again why Lindgren is not in the major league bullpen? With stats like these it's going to be hard to justify keeping him in Scranton for much longer:

YearLevWLERAGSVIPHRERHRBBSOWHIPH9HR9BB9SO9
2015AAA011.8811214.1127307201.3267.50.04.412.6

This Day In New York Yankees History 5/11: Hidek Matsui is Human


On this day in 2006 Hideki Matsui's streak of playing in every game since starting his MLB career with the Yankees ends at 518 games. Matsui broke his wrist attempting to make a diving catch out in left field. The 31 year old All Star from Japan established the major league record for the most consecutive games played to start a career surpassing Ernie Banks' mark of 424 games.

Also on this day in 1946 the New York Yankees and Tiny Bonham end the Boston Red Sox 15 game winning streak with a 2-0 victory in Yankee Stadium. Before the loss Boston was 21-3 to start the 1946 season and would easily win the American League pennant that season.