Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Mets, deGrom Royally Pound Yankees in Queens, 7-1

On The 37th anniversary of Thurman Munson's tragic passing, the Yankees were obliterated by the cross town New York Mets tonight in game two of the four-game series. It was a battle of aces at Citi Field tonight, featuring Masahiro Tanaka and Jacob deGrom in this lopsided affair that saw the Mets win just their third ball game in the last nine. Outside of a few quality innings, Tanaka was ruffed up all night long, falling to 7-4 while raising his ERA to 3.46 in the loss tonight. Jacob deGrom, on the other hand, was masterful tonight as he improved his record to 7-5 while lowering his ERA to 2.41 with his dominant outing this evening.

After working two perfect innings, Tanaka gave up the first hits and first runs of the game for the Mets. With two outs in the bottom of the third, Tanaka served up a first pitch single to the opposing pitcher deGrom, who scored when the next batter Alejandro De Aza smacked a two-run blast into the seats in right field, giving the Mets a 2-0 lead. The Yankees did have their chances to score in the first two innings but were unsuccessful, leaving four men on base in the first two frames.

Tanaka got bit by the long ball again, this time coming in the bottom of the fifth. The first batter of the inning Travis d'Arnaud launched a deep homerun to left that extended the Mets lead to three.

The Mets offensive onslaught continued in the bottom of the seventh as they knocked Tanaka out of the ball game. Wilmer Flores started the inning  with a single to left, advancing to second on a throwing error by Brett Gardner. Michael Comforto then doubled to left, scoring Flores and making it 4-0 Mets. After a ground out, Matt Reynolds flipped a ball over the drawn-in infield to left for a single, that scored Comforto, 5-0. And it was the star of the game on both sides of the ball Jacob deGrom's single, his second hit of the game, that drove Tanaka from the game. Richard Bleier came on and relief of Tanaka and immediately proceeded to serve up an infield single to pinch hitter Yoenis Cespedes that scored Reynolds and moved deGrom to third, 6-0. And finally, Neil Walker ripped a double to left that scored deGrom, breaking the game wide open to the tune of 7-0.

Didi Gregorius did put a run on the board for the Yankees in the top of the ninth when he launched his 12th homerun of the season, a solo shot that made it a 7-1 game. But, in what was probably his last at-bat as a Yankee, Alex Rodriguez popped out to newly acquired Jay Bruce to end the ball game.

The series shifts tomorrow to Yankee Stadium, as the two New York teams square off in game three of the four games set, with the first pitch scheduled for 7:05 PM ET.

Subway Series Game Two Game Thread: New York Yankees @ New York Mets 8/2


The New York Yankees and the New York Mets face off for the second time this series and for the last time this season inside Citi Field tonight as the two clubs continue their annual Subway Series. In the second matchup the fans will be undoubtedly entertained by the All-Star worthy pitching matchup of Masahiro Tanaka for the Yankees versus Jacob DeGrom for the Mets. The game will be played at 7:10 pm ET inside Citi Field and can be seen on the YES Network for the Yankees feed, WPIX Channel 11 for the Mets feed and MLB TV.

The Yankees return home to the Bronx tomorrow night to play host to these same New York Mets and Steven Matz and to see that matchup live click the Yankees Tickets link at the top of the blog to secure your seats now. Also make sure the fans in the stands know just who you’re rooting for by getting a Jacoby Ellsbury milk carton shirt or any of the other great Yankees-related shirts on the site.


Follow along during this game and every game this season by liking our page on Facebook or by giving @GreedyStripes a follow on Twitter. Happy Tanaka Day ladies and gents, let’s get a victory. Go Yankees!

Meet a Prospect: Clint Frazier


The New York Yankees are going through top prospects in their system like most people go through underwear, they have a new one every day or every other day it seems. I joke about people changing their underwear every other day, at least I hope that I am, but not about the Yankees top prospects in their system. For the entire season it was Jorge Mateo who occupied the top spot until Aroldis Chapman was sent to the Chicago Cubs and Gleyber Torres was brought in to dethrone the Yankees shortstop. Now like many transitions and power struggles there is a new king already after the Andrew Miller trade and his name is Clint Frazier. Don’t let the red hair fool you, Frazier is the real deal. Let’s meet him. This is Meet a Prospect: The Clint Frazier Edition.

Clint Frazier was born on September 6, 1994 in the Atlanta, Georgia area where he attended high school at Loganville High School in Loganville, George. Frazier was a top prospect entering the 2013 MLB First Year Players Draft and caught the attention of the Cleveland Indians who took the outfielder with the fifth pick overall that season. Frazier had committed to the University of Georgia but the Indians offer was too good to pass up thus beginning his professional career.

Frazier is a former third baseman and pitcher which shows you that he has a strong throwing arm but it is center field where he is making his mark at these days and he played at that position for most of his Cleveland Indians tenure. While in the Indians system Frazier cemented himself as a powerful prospect that has 30 home run potential in his future while stealing an absolute ton of bases as a

potential five-tool player. Frazier is an aggressive hitter but he has worked on that in recent years and has seen his strikeout numbers go down while his contact and walk numbers go up which is always encouraging for a prospect. It shows maturity at the plate which Frazier definitely has.



ETA for Frazier to the Major Leagues: 2017



Frazier was seen most recently in the 2016 XM All-Star Futures Game where he went 2-for-3 with an RBI double and a stolen base for Team USA while also earning a promotion to Triple-A with the Columbus Clippers. Now Frazier is in Scranton/Wilkes Barre with the RailRiders with the Yankees organization and I think I speak for Yankees fans everywhere when I say we sure are happy to have you. Many of us, myself included, did not want to see Andrew Miller traded but it’s hard to argue against the absolute haul that Brian Cashman got for his lefty closer. So Clint, welcome to the organization .

Remembering Game Two of the 2000 Subway World Series



The 2000 World Series featured the New York Yankees and the New York Mets facing off in the World Series for the first time in their history. This was the first Subway Series since 1956 when the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees faced off. Let's take the time to remember Game 2 of the 2000 World Series.



The New York Yankees would send Roger Clemens to the mound in Game 2 to face off with Mets pitcher Mike Hampton. Roger Clemens was already not a favorite in the Mets clubhouse after this seasons match up in Interleague play where Clemens hit Mets catcher Mike Piazza in the head with a fastball that gave him a concussion and landed him on the disabled list. The bad blood came back when in Mike Piazza's first at bat Roger Clemens sawed off Piazza's bat with a fastball that went foul. A large piece of the bat came flying towards Clemens and he would pick up the bat and throw it down the first base line in the general direction of Mike Piazza. Clemens said after the game that he did not see Piazza running down the base line when he threw the bat but that did not placate Mike Piazza. The Yankees would take a 6-0 lead into the 9th inning when Mike Piazza would get some sort of pay back when he hit a home run against Yankees reliever Jeff Nelson later in the game but the Yankees would ultimately win the game 6-5 to take a 2-0 lead in the Subway World Series. Roger Clemens would take the victory and Mike Hampton would take the loss.

This would be the Yankees 10th consecutive World Series game victory tying the longest American League winning streak in World Series history.

The Greatest Game I Have Ever Been To...


Last night, August 1st 2016 I was lucky enough to be able to attend the first game of this years Subway series at Citi Field. Let me just start it off with this, it was one of the greatest games I have ever been to live.

The Yankees entered this game by finishing of their selling spree by trading Chapman to the Cubs, Miller to the Indians, Beltran to the Rangers, and Nova to the Pirates. While the Mets entered this game going in a totally opposite direction by buying at the deadline and trading for RBI leader Jay Bruce and former Met Jon Niese. The Yankees entered this game at a .500 record while the Mets entered with a record of 54-50 which isn't much better then the Yanks but it keeps them in the NL playoff hunt.

Now let's get to the game, I have never been to a Yankee-Met game before so it was a very new experience to me despite all of the previous games I have been to including last years AL Wild Card game. It was also my first time at Citi Field and let me say it is a really nice stadium, ton of options for food, and the bullpen gate is something really cool that all fans who go there should check out. I also like how as I entered the stadium they had a separate express lane for people who didn't have bags that needed to be checked which made my process going into the stadium go much quicker. I still don't believe it is better then Yankee Stadium but it was definitley up there.

I sat in the 500 level where I thought that it would be tough to see the field but it was actually a great view for being that high up. As the game started I saw Brett Gardner come up to bat... Next thing I know is that he hit a deep fly ball to center field and Ruggiano had a tough time playing it so Gardner is speeding around the bases and gets thrown out at the plate going for the inside the park HR. It was devastating because I had Mets fans sitting all around me and they were all going nuts while I was just sitting there with my hat down very dissapointment.

The game was then very quiet until the bottom of the 2nd when Mets 3B Wilmer Flores launched a solo home run off of C.C. Sabathia and the only thing that I thought in my head was "This is when Sabathia is going to collapse" and oh boy was I right. Then in the top of the 3rd Refsnyder was on first base and Sabathia dropped one of the worst bunts I have ever seen right back to the pitcher and it winds up becoming a double play.

Then in the top of the 5th the Yankees got things going again, with two outs Gardner doubled to right field with Refsnyder on 2nd which gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead. Then the next batter Jacoby Ellsbury singled to center which allowed Gardner to score therefore making the score 3-1 Yankees. I was very confident in this lead until I remembered that Sabathia was pitching....Which made me not surprised that in the bottom of the 5th Conforto doubled to deep right field and scored Nimmo making the score 3-2 which involved a Yankees lead that would not last very long.

The very next inning in the bottom of the 6th Sabathia gives up 2 singles and then allows Matt Reynolds launch a 3-run homer off of him to give the Mets a 5-3 lead, at this point I am just dissapointment in the Yankees thinking that they have no shot to come back because this is how the entire season has gone.

Little did I know that they were going to spark a rally in the 8th inning. The inning started with a Gardner walk and then a strikeout from Ellsbury and then another Strikeout from Tex (which should not be a suprise to anybody) Then McCann comes up and singles to right which allows Gardner to move to third. This is where things get interesting... Girardi puts in Torreyes for McCann and he quickly takes 2nd after a ball in the dirt from Addison Reed. And now Didi comes up, our best hitter all season might be able to have his shining moment as a Yankee. After practically a 10 pitch at bat that had me biting my fingernails and the crowd going nuts, Didi bloops it into left field scoring both Gardner and Torreyes. I WAS GOING CRAZY!!!!

Now this is the moment that I wished we still had Miller and Chapman to pitch in this game but we don't so then we have to put in Adam Warren to pitch the bottom of 8th and 9th.

This is when we can move to the top of the 10th inning when it all goes down. It starts with an Ellsbury walk, a Tex single, and then a bunt by Gamel which was perfectly placed so that everybody was able to be safe which led them to bases loaded nobody out for Didi! He struck out swinging.... Then I started losing all faith thinking that they would not score but then Castro hit a deep fly ball to right center and I thought it was gone but Granderson was able to catch it and the Yankees were able to score that one run that inning and I was hoping that it was going to be enough to hold down the Mets.

Betances comes in to close the game and put it to rest... First batter was James Loney and he doubles to deep right field and at this point I was just praying that Betances would not blow this game. Next batter was Reynolds and he bunted back to Betances which brought Loney to third with only one out. Betances then hits De Aza with a pitch which brings up Rivera and all he does is ground out to Betances. This leaves 2nd and 3rd two outs with Granderson up... Everyone at the stadium is on the edge of their seats waiting to see what is going to happen... After a long at bat Betances throws Grandy a nasty curveball and THE YANKEES WIN!!! Part of the crowd was going crazy and the other part looked like they were going to cry.

Bottom line, out of the countless number of games I have been to in my life including playoff games, this was DEFINITLEY the most exciting and most fun I have ever had at a baseball game!

Follow Me On Twitter- @Yankeesfan0504

Subway Series Game Two Game Preview: New York Yankees @ New York Mets 8/2


The New York Yankees and the New York Mets will continue their annual Subway Series tonight with the finale game in Queens before shifting to the Bronx for the next two contests. Last night we watched as each team sent their fifth starters to the mound for the contest but today we get the treat of watching two aces go at it head-to-head as the New York Yankees send Masahiro Tanaka to the mount to face off against, and hit against unfortunately, Jacob DeGrom for the Mets. Make no mistake about it DeGrom can hit almost as well as he can pitch so there isn’t exactly eight batters and an easy out tonight for Tanaka by any means.


Tanaka was disappointing in his last start against the Houston Astros after giving up four runs in just five innings of work. Tanaka hasn’t been great against Houston this season in two starts but he has been much better in his two career starts against the Mets posting a 1-1 record with a 1.20 ERA. I’d take that ERA any day of the week and twice on Tuesday (since you know, today is Tuesday and all).

DeGrom has also faced the Yankees twice before in his career, the first time coming against Chase Whitley in a matchup of two young arms making their Major League debuts, and the last time coming April and these two starts couldn’t have been more different. In the first start DeGrom allowed just one run in seven innings of work while the second one resulted in just five innings and six runs allowed.


The game will be played at 7:10 pm ET inside Citi Field and can be seen locally for Yankees fans on the YES Network, locally on WPIX Channel 11 for Mets fans, and MLB TV no matter what your affiliation is. The Yankees may be in sell mode and fresh off selling many of their top players at the August 1st trading deadline but that doesn’t mean they still can’t beat up on the Mets for fun, right? Go Yankees!


Understanding August Waiver Trades

The August 1st trading deadline has come and gone but that does not mean team's are done making trades. Trades can be done for the rest of the season but they are just a little trickier and harder to understand. That's why we're here, you're welcome.

Any player that is traded needs to clear revocable waivers first which results in either the player being claimed by a team or he clears waivers. Teams want their players to clear waivers because once they clear once they can be traded to any team for the rest of the season. If the player is claimed the team has three options, they can pull their player back, work out a trade with the team who claimed him, or simply give the player and his contract away to the team that claimed him.

The waiver claim period lasts 47 hours and goes by worst record to best record in the players league (American or National) and then record worst to first in the other league. Teams can block other teams from claiming without any repercussions. When a player is claimed the team has two full days to trade the player or pull him back off waivers regardless of what day of the week it is.

A team can place their player on waivers a second time if they pull him back the first time but this time the waivers are not revocable. In terms even a Boston Red Sox fan could understand the second time around whoever claims him gets him. Players on the disabled list cannot be placed on waivers so therefor cannot be traded.

Finally, for all the playoff teams, any player acquired after the 31st of August is not eligible for the postseason. Now you know, carry on.

Weekly Prospects Check In: Gary Sanchez


The New York Yankees farm system is now absolutely stacked after the trades of relievers Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller. The Yankees system is so stacked now that in my latest set of prospect rankings I actually considered having today’s check in showcase Gary Sanchez outside of my Top 5. Remember when Sanchez was a perennial Top 5 candidate and at one point the best prospect in all of the Yankees system?

So Sanchez now not only has to fight and claw his way to the Major Leagues but he also has to fight and claw just to stay in the Top 5. Damn this is a good problem to have. Here are El Gary Sanchez’s stats for the week and for the season down in Triple-A and the Bronx.


YearAgeLevGPARH2BHRRBISBBBSOBAOBPSLGOPS
201623AAA70309398021105072044.285.340.473.813
201623MLB1400000001.000.000.000.000

This Day In New York Yankees History 8/2: That's a lot of Teix Messages and RIP Thurman Munson


Many switch hitters have played this game of baseball but none have had more games in which they hit a home run from both sides of the plate than Mark Teixeira. Teixeira sent a Teix message on this day in 2011 from both sides of the plate for the 12th time in his career. The amazing part was that the two home runs game in a rain shortened victory in Chicago. Teixeira passed Eddie Murray and Chili Davis for the record.

Also on this day in 2007 the Yankees started an inning by giving up eight runs to the Chicago White Sox in a single frame. The Yankees would answer in the bottom of the inning by scoring eight runs of their own to tie the game in an eventual 13-9 loss. This marks only the second time in major league history that eight or more runs were scored in the same inning by each team.

Finally on this day in 1979 the Yankees captain Thurman Munson is killed when the Cessna Citation I/SP jet he is learning to fly crashes near a Canton-Akron airport. The Yankees catcher had been learning to fly for over two years so he could get home to his family in Ohio during off days. Munson was 32.