Thursday, August 18, 2016

Yankees Off Night Open Thread


The New York Yankees are off tonight and traveling to sunny California to take on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim over the weekend. The Angels are struggling mightily here lately so I am hoping the Yankees don’t lay down and get caught napping against a “lesser” team like they have so many times before this season. Keep the good times rolling and keep the “W’s” piling up. We’ll worry about that tomorrow though as we take one step at a time, tonight we rest.

With that said I leave you with the open thread for the night like I do on each and every Yankees off day to enjoy and talk about whatever you would like. Enjoy and we’ll be back at full strength tomorrow. Go Yankees and have a great night everybody.


And we’re still praying for Bob Watson. He’s going to need it!

So Hal Actually Listens To Us?


2016 was supposed to be a really bright year for the Yankees, In the 2015-16 offseason they acquired 2B Starlin Castro from the Chicago Cubs for RP Adam Warren and SS Brendan Ryan (Yea, remember him?) Then, another move that they made this past offseason was acquiring CP Aroldis Chapman from the Reds for a load of mid-level prospects. Many analysts predicted the Yankees to win the AL East but oh did they fall far from that prediction.

By July 1, 2016 the Yankees had a poor record of 39-40 and fans were begging Hal to sell off the team to give us a haul of prospects that we can use for future years in which we would actually be able to contend. Hal listened to us! He traded Aroldis Chapman to the Cubs for the Yankees new #2 prospect Gleyber Torres, OF Billy McKinney, along with one other prospect. Then the next big move was trading RP Andrew Miller to the Indians for the Yankees current #1 prospect Clint Frazier along with LHP Justus Sheffield who has been killing it in the minor leagues ever since joining the Yanks. Then on August 1, the day of the deadline he send Beltran to Texas for Dillon Tate and then somehow traded Ivan Nova to Pittsburgh for 2 PTBNL.... We were all pretty content with the moves that Hal approved Yankees GM Brian Cashman to make--But where did Hal get this crazy idea from???

So did Hal actually take our opinion into account while making his decision at the deadline to sell of the team or not? According to the New York Post he did exactly that, “We’ve been following these guys for three years, all the ups and downs and the progressions,” Steinbrenner said. “My goodness, the hope that you have. Then when you come up and see [Gary] Sanchez, the last two weeks, what he’s doing. And then Saturday … it would be hard as managing general partner to not be emotional about something like that.”…
Selling off veterans midseason broke a long precedent for the Yankees, and Steinbrenner admitted, “I think it’s kind of in my DNA to absolutely not trade anybody at the deadline. If anything, we’re normally buyers, right? Last year we did nothing. So I had to overcome a little bit of DNA issues, I think.” He overcame them thanks to views of social media, where Yankees fans strongly supported the reboot. Steinbrenner also recalled a sponsor’s event before a spring-training game in Tampa when a slew of fans delighted in meeting injured first baseman Greg Bird, who shined in his debut last year and should play in the Arizona Fall League."

There ya have it! Hal Steinbrenner actually listens to us on Twitter so here is what we have to do, Everyone talk on Twitter about how McCann should be traded to the Braves so then maybe Hal will fulfill our wishes!

Follow Me On Twitter- @Yankeesfan0504

Yankees Off Day Walk Up Music Recommendation


The Yankees are off tonight as you may have guessed by all the content here on the blog today and like we do on every off day here on the blog we like to bring you a little something different. While some bloggers, not naming any names whatsoever, enjoy the night off I just can’t do that for whatever reason and I have to keep the content flowing. Today I bring you a music recommendation from Yankee Stadium, the walk up music for Aaron Hicks.

I have been harder on Hicks than probably anyone has this season and I am willing to eat a little crow and sit here with egg on my face if and when he can turn things around and prove me wrong. He has come a long way in doing that since the Carlos Beltran trade but I am a firm believer in large sample sizes and FYI, three weeks is not a large sample size.


So here is Hicks walk up music. Get used to it because no matter what the stat line says Joe Girardi is going to play him every single day until the end of the season. The name of the song is “Fire” and the artist is the Ohio Players. Enjoy. 


Are the Yankees Worth It? The Pitching


The New York Yankees had many believers this offseason despite adding a single major league free agent to the roster over the winter but the team has drastically underachieved and became sellers at the August 1st trade deadline. Was this because of the offense? We took a look at that earlier and determined that yeah, it might be, but what about the pitching? Has the pitching been worth their weight in Steinbrenner gold or did Brian Cashman screw up, hindsight being 20/20 and all, not adding to the rotation this winter? I’ll at least attempt to answer that question here for you today.


We didn’t need a graph or a chart or a visual aid to see that the Yankees pitching left a load of room for improvement in 2016. Masahiro Tanaka has seen better days, although he has been the model of consistency atop the rotation, but the Yankees biggest downfall may have been their reliance on Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Pineda, Ivan Nova and CC Sabathia. The bullpen has been amazing and that group of guys won the team a lot of games that they probably had no business winning otherwise but the starters have been an Achilles heel all season long unfortunately. Hopefully the Yankees organization is watching and reading and know where to start either before the August 31st trading deadline or before Opening Day 2017 because this absolutely cannot happen again. Not if you want to win.


*all stats are stats accumulated with the Yankees only, not a previous or new team. 

New York Yankees Stats Leaders Through 120 Games


Offense


Games Played:

 Starlin Castro - 177



At Bats:

Starlin Castro - 443



Runs Scored:

Brett Gardner - 61



Hits:

Didi Gregorius - 177



Doubles:

Didi Gregorius - 24



Home Runs:

 Didi Gregorius - 16



RBI:

 Didi Gregorius - 54


AVG:

Didi Gregorius - .287 (qualifying)





Pitching


GS:

Michael Pineda and Masahiro Tanaka have each made 24 starts



AP:

Dellin Betances - 57



Wins:


Masahiro Tanaka and Nathan Eovaldi have 9 wins each




Losses:

Michael Pineda has ten losses? Ouch!



ERA:

Dellin Betances - 2.20 (BULLPEN)
Masahiro Tanaka - 3.40 (ROTATION)


K's:

Dellin Betances - 102 (BULLPEN)
Michael Pineda - 154 (ROTATION





Are the Yankees Worth It? The Offense


Have the 2016 version of the New York Yankees been worth it? Boy I don’t tend to ask the easy questions to answer, do I? What’s the fun in that? If I stuck to the script and didn’t say anything you coulnd’t already find on River Ave, Bleeding Yankee Blue or LoHud you probably wouldn’t come here so that’s why I keep pushing the envelope and trying new things. Today’s new thing I’ll try is to try to equate, based on stats like WAR, “Value” and by their current salaries, if the Yankees players have been worth their contracts in 2016. Is this a tell-all post with tell all stats? No, absolutely not. There isn’t a tell-all stat or post but this should at least get you thinking about it and give you a good idea how good some players have been this season and how some players need to step it up a bit.



It’s hard, even with this graph, to really decide whether the Yankees have been worth it this season. After scoring the second most runs in the league in 2015 you would think they would be at or near the top again this season after taking out Stephen Drew, adding Starlin Castro and after giving players like Didi Gregorius another year under his belt but it seems like the stats tell another story entirely.

The offense isn’t the only area of the team under the microscope today so be sure to check back later for the same post just only with the Yankees pitching.


*all stats are stats accumulated with the Yankees only, not a previous or new team. 

Weekly Prospects Check In: Kendall Coleman


You know I got on Facebook this week for the first time in like three weeks, my life and Twitter keep me pretty busy plus I just prefer Twitter over Facebook, and I saw a Yankees prospect posting about heading to Yankee Stadium to hang out with Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez and Tyler Austin. Then it hit me, why haven’t we checked in with Kendall Coleman this season?

Kendall is a great guy. I’ve spoken to him and his mother numerous times on Twitter and Kendall was gracious enough to give us an interview after being drafted by the club. We check in with Kendall from time to time, we know the MiLB season is a grind and his personal time is his personal time, but today I wanted everyone to be able to check in with him.


He’s not a prospect that many talk about because he is in the lower levels of the minor leagues but he is a scrappy as hell kind of player that won’t stop until the final out is recorded or the clock says zero. He’s that kind of ball player and an awesome person and those kind of people deserve recognition. Sorry it couldn’t be more Kendall but this is all I got. Thank you for being so kind and open to us over the years and we’ll keep rooting for you all the way to the Bronx!!

YearAgeLevGPARH2BHRRBISBBBSOBAOBPSLGOPS
201621A--A762932045522814183.182.298.235.533
201621A-391561021401102439.164.295.195.490
201621A371371024121711744.202.301.277.579

This Day In New York Yankees History 8/18: Longest Nine Inning Game In MLB History


In the early to mid 2000's the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox played some of the most bitter, the most entertaining, and some of the longest games in the history of the game of baseball. The Yankees and the Red Sox played the longest nine inning game in Major League history on this day in 2006 when the Yankees would beat the Red Sox 14-11. The Yankees completed a day and night double header sweep in Fenway Park and the second game took a cool four hours and 45 minutes to play. A team scored in nine of the 18 half innings and combined for 34 hits.

Also on this day in 1989 Bucky Dent replaced Dallas Green as the Yankees manager. This would mark the 17th time the Yankees had changed managers during George Steinbrenner's 17 year tenure as the Yankees owner. The Yankees were in 5th place at the time with a 56-65 record.

Finally on this day in 1940 Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig and roommate Bill Dickey filed a suit against the New York Daily News. Jimmy Powers, the sports editor for the Sunday New York Daily News, suggested the Yankees poor play this season was to blame for a mass polio epidemic that the team contracted from Gehrig. In the end the newspaper retracted its statement and apologized to the Iron Horse.