Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Yankees Send Miller, Betances and Beltran to All-Star Game

Congratulations to these three men. Much deserved!

Game Thread: New York Yankees @ Chicago White Sox 7/5


The New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox are just about to kick off the second of their three game set this week in Chicago with another great pitching matchup. The Yankees will send their ace and stopper Masahiro Tanaka to the mound tonight looking to turn things around for himself and the team while the White Sox will counter with another starter who needs to turn things around sooner rather than later in Carlos Rodon. The game will be played at 8:10 pm ET inside US Cellular Field and can be seen on the YES Network and MLB TV.

The Yankees have one more with Chicago and then a short series with the Cleveland Indians before sending some to the All-Star Game and others home to rest for a few days. I think everyone needs a little bit of rest at this point for New York, especially if you look at their tough schedule after the All Star break. Check out the TGP T-shirts section of the site while we have all this time off and also check out the Yankees Tickets link at the top of the blog to prepare for the unofficial second half of the season.

Tanaka versus Rodon. Let's go. Go Yankees!

ICYMI: Blake Rutherford Is A Yankee!


By Bryan Van Dusen:

Some people didn't think it would happen, as they thought the Yankees had taken too big a risk, but it's true.

Blake Rutherford, the Yankees' first round pick in this past draft, has signed for $3.282 million. He was taken at #18, which is slotted for just $2.4416 million, but the Yankees were able to save a lot of money elsewhere in the draft in order to sign Rutherford.

Blake was the #10 prospect according to Baseball America, but was passed up on by many teams possibly due to concern that he was going to follow through on his commitment to play baseball at UCLA.

I'm very happy that the team was able to sign Rutherford, who could turn out to be a very nice piece of the puzzle in New York.

Most Popular Article of the Week: Imagining Kyle Schwarber in a Yankees Uniform in 2016/2017


The New York Yankees are playing hard to get when it comes to trading one or all of their three-headed monster that they have deemed “No Runs DMC.” D stands for Dellin Betances, M stands for Miller and C stands for Chapman and the Yankees will likely ask the world for any of the three. We already know that to be the case with the Chicago Cubs and their interest in Andrew Miller as the team has informed the Cubs that they would want Kyle Schwarber in return for the lefty set up man in the Bronx. Could you imagine a bat like Schwarber’s hitting inside Yankee Stadium 82 times a season?


Forget the fact that Schwarber has no position to play for a minute and use recent examples of why the Yankees could make this work. They have a 39-year old right fielder with bad knees currently out there coming off the books after the 2016 season, a 41-year old DH coming off the books the season after next, a third baseman who isn’t going to win a Gold Glove or a Silver Slugger any time soon and a wide open position at first base that is dependent on the health of Mark Teixeira’s knee and Greg Bird’s shoulder. The Yankees could find a spot for him if they wanted to and they could hide him defensively, they have done it before and you definitely do it again for a talent liker Schwarber.


The Cubs have said “no” to trading their 23-year old stud but of course a team doesn’t show their best hand right off the bat. It’s still early and the market has yet to really define itself. The tone has not been set and the top guys have not started coming off the board yet making other teams desperate. And the Cubs may stick to their “no” and that’s fine because I’m sure some team will sell a bit of the future for multiple years of Miller and if not, that’s fine too. Keep him. But seriously, can you imagine Schwarber in a Yankees uniform?





Looking at a potential and totally hypothetical 2017 roster with Schwarber in it and a healthy Greg Bird makes me salivate. An outfield of Jacoby Ellsbury, Brett Gardner and Schwarber and the addition of his big bat to the middle of the lineup finally giving the Yankees a true clean-up hitter that could hit 40-50 out of Yankee Stadium is exciting. Make it happen Cashman. Now.

Game Preview: New York Yankees @ Chicago White Sox 7/5


The New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox square off again today in Chicago for the second in their three-game set. In the second contest the Yankees will send their ace and stopper to the mound in Masahiro Tanaka, Happy Tanaka Day Yankees family, to face off against a tough left-hander in Carlos Rodon.

Tanaka will be facing off with the White Sox for the second time this season, the first time saw the Yankees ace allowing four runs and eight hits in just five innings of work. Tanaka did not look sharp in his last start either against the Texas Rangers but will be heading into this start with the glorified extra day of rest he sometimes needs.


Rodon had an up-and-down start last time out against the Minnesota Twins that saw him hurling five strong innings before the sixth inning doomed him and led to a no-decision. Rodon allowed four runs on five hits in 5.2 innings and will look to be better against the Yankees. In his career against New York Rodon has allowed 10 earned runs in nine innings pitched against the Yankees.


The game will be played at 8:10 pm ET inside US Cellular Field and can be seen on the YES Network and MLB TV. The Yankees and White Sox have faced off already three times this season before this series and New York took two-of-three from Chicago in that series. You have to remember that at that time Chicago was one of the best, record wise anyway, teams in the American League so that was a huge series win for the Yankees. This would also be another huge series win for New York because it's the penultimate series before the All-Star Game. Get a win, get a series win. Go Yankees!

2016 All Star Game Predictions


Major League Baseball will release just who won the votes in the fan vote section of the 2016 MLB All Star Game and the rest of the rosters will be announced tonight as well. That announcement happens at 7:00 pm ET tonight and can be seen on MLB Network and the announcement will include the "Final Vote" candidates as well. Who do I think will win the votes and which Yankees, or Yankee, do I think will represent the team? Keep reading. 



American League

C: Salvador Perez
1B: Eric Hosmer
2B: Jose Altuve
SS: Xander Bogaerts
3B: Manny Machado
OF: Mike Trout
OF: Jackie Bradley Jr. 
OF: Mookie Betts
DH:  David Ortiz

National League

C: Buster Posey
1B: Anthony Rizzo
2B: Ben Zobrist
SS: Addison Russell
3B: Kris Bryant
OF: Bryce Harper
OF: Dexter Fowler
OF: Yoenis Cespedes
DH: n/a

And the New York Yankees will send Carlos Beltran and Andrew Miller to the big game. Those are my predictions, what are yours?

Weekly Prospects Check In: Gary Sanchez


We're back ladies and gentleman. We hope you had a great July 4th holiday weekend and we hope it was spent with friends, family, good food, fireworks and even better memories. We kick off this short week with a check in with one of the top Yankees prospects in all the system, Gary Sanchez.

Last we checked in with Sanchez he was back off the disabled list after cracking his thumb, he was learning first base and he was chosen to represent the Yankees in the XM All Star Futures Game for Team World. What's he been up to this week?


YearAgeLevGPARH2BHRRBISBBBSOBAOBPSLGOPS
201623AAA5323327601783551034.274.313.470.784
201623MLB1400000001.000.000.000.000
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 7/4/2016.

This Day in New York Yankees History 7/5: Roger Clemens 3000th K


On this day in 1998 future Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens struck out then Devil Ray Randy Winn for his 3,000th strike out of his career. Roger would become only the 11th player to ever reach the plateau when he did it in a Toronto Blue Jays jersey.