Sunday, August 21, 2016

Angels Avoid Sweep. Shut Out Yanks, 2-0, NY Fails to Get to Five Over .500 Again

For the eighth time this season, the Yankees failed to win the deciding final game of a series that would have otherwise resulted in a series sweep. Chad Green took the mound for New York this afternoon and pitched extremely well for the second consecutive outing. Unfortunately for the righty, however, zero contributions from his offense led him to fall to 2-3 while actually lowering his ERA to 3.66 during his second straight quality start. Getting the call and the win for Anaheim was Jhoulys Chacin, who improved to 4-8 while also lowering his ERA to 5.61 with his rare near six inning shutout performance today.

While the Yankees did their damage last night with two outs, it was some two-out Angels offense that put the first run of the game on the board in the bottom of the first. Albert Pujols hit a two-out single to center, advancing to second when C.J. Cron walked. Andrelton Simmons then found a hole on the left side of the infield for a single, plating Pujols to put the Halos up 1-0.

It's not like the Yankees didn't have their chances to score on Chacin in the first four innings. But, a Gardner double-play to end the scoring threat in the third and a fourth inning two-out Teixeira bases-loaded fly out to Trout squandered both of the opportunities to either tie the game or take the lead.

For the second straight game, Yankee fans were treated to another Yankee outfielder robbing an Angel of a homerun. Last night, Brett Gardner stole a round-tripper from C.J. Cron to prevent the Angels from getting back into the ballgame. And this afternoon, Jacoby Ellsbury robbed Albert Pujols of a blast that would've put LAA up by three. If only their bats could have got going.

The Halos added another run in the bottom of the eighth to give themselves a two run lead headed into the top of the ninth. With one out, Mike Trout walked and was gunned out at second base trying to steal off of the rocket right arm of Gary Sanchez. Albert Pujols recorded his third hit of the game, a single passed a diving Gregorius, advancing to third on a C.J. Cron single. Another Andrelton Simmons "seeing-eye" single passed a diving Castro would score Pujols to make it a 2-0 ball game, where the score would unfortunately remain for the rest of the game.

Every time the Yankees try to reach their high watermark of the season at five games over .500, they shoot themselves in the foot with a poor pitching performance or, as in today's game, an inability to put any offensive threat together in support of a tremendous outing by there starting pitcher. Green was awesome today, tossing six innings of one run ball, allowing just five hits while walking one and striking out five. But once again, the Bomber bats were silenced and the Yankees failed to sweep yet another series.

The Pinstripers head to Seattle to begin a three-game set with the Seattle Mariners tomorrow, with first pitch scheduled for 10:10 PM/EST.

Weekly Prospects Check In: Chance Adams


The Yankees have more than a few hidden gems in the starting pitching department down on the farm system and we have gushed over Jordan Montgomery a ton over the last couple of days but I don't Chance Adams to get discouraged or feel left out. Adams was actually a guy I was really high on when the Yankees drafted him and I even predicted that he would be the first to hit the Major Leagues after being drafted in 2015 Draft and I even asked the question whether he could reach the Major Leagues by September of last year.

I was that high on Adams and just because he didn't make it last September or hasn't made it since doesn't mean I am necessarily down on the guy. When those predictions were made it was widely thought that Adams was going to be a bullpen piece for the Yankees going forward but New York has decided to stretch him out and give him every shot to fail as a starter. Thus far that has turned out to be one of the better decisions the Yankees have made recently.

I have included Adams 2015 stats as well so this can serve as not only just a weekly check in post but as a bit of a catch up post as well. Enjoy.

YearAgeLevWLERAGGSIPHRERHRBBSOWHIPH9HR9BB9SO9
201520A+-A-A-311.7814035.12411709450.9346.10.02.311.5
201520A-100.93409.252103130.8284.70.02.812.1
201520A113.095011.276404160.9435.40.03.112.3
201520A+101.295014.0123202161.0007.70.01.310.3
201621AA-A+1312.342423123.07337329371340.8945.30.72.79.8
201621A+502.65121257.2411817415730.9716.40.62.311.4
201621AA812.07121165.1321915522610.8274.40.73.08.4

The Most Important Offseason

We may be on the verge of the most important offseason for the Yankees of all time.

"What? No 'lol'?"

Okay, there may be a bit of hyperbole in that statement. After all, I was born in 1977, and the Yankees' history goes back a little further than that. But what this team looks like on Opening Day 2017 will tell likely tell us for sure about where this organization is going.

Yeah, it's great to see young players like Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge play as often as they have. Knowing a prospect the caliber of Clint Frazier is so close to Major League Baseball is very exciting, too. And there's so much more talent in the minor league system. But what happens once the World Series is over with?

Do the Yankees use top prospects like Clint Frazier and Jorge Mateo, along with sprinkling in a few other good prospects, to trade for a starter like Chris Sale?

With their need for pitching, I could see the Yanks making the aforementioned trade as well as signing somebody like Doug Fister. And we all know Fister, along with every other starter, is going to get a larger contract than they deserve due to the outrageous prices for starters these days.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want either of those thing to happen, but looking back on this team's history it wouldn't be that much of a surprise. Which is scary.

Thin about it. A rebuild like this is unheard of for the Yankees (at least since free agency became a thing). The last time we can remember the Yankees being anything close to "sellers" at the trade deadline was in 1989 when they traded away Rickey Henderson. And in my opinion that's a big stretch, seeing as how their offense was not the problem that season (out of 26 teams, the Yankees were tied for 7th in MLB in runs scored/game and 25th in runs allowed/game).

But if we go into Opening Day with a lineup similar to what we've seen in the past couple of weeks, that will tell me for sure that the New York Yankees are headed in the right direction, and truly have a very bright future ahead of them.


Game Thread: New York Yankees @ Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 8/21


Here we go ladies and gentleman as the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim finish off their three game set this weekend inside sunny California. In the finale of the three game set the Yankees will send another young arm to the mound looking to find his way in Chad Green while the Angels will counter with a new piece to their rotation in Jhoulys Chacin. The game will be played at 3:35 pm ET inside Angels Stadium of Anaheim and can be seen locally on the YES Network as well as MLB TV wherever you are.

After the game the Yankees head north to Seattle to take on Robinson Cano and the Seattle Mariners so if you live in the Seattle area and want to see the game live or if you simply want to have your seats reserved for when the team returns home to the Bronx click the Yankees Tickets link at the top of the blog.

Chacin vs. Chad Green. Let's go. Follow along during this game and any game this season by either liking our page on Facebook or by giving our Twitter handle @GreedyStripes a follow. Go Yankees!

Which MLB Ball Park Should You Visit?


Let's say you only have time to see one more MLB stadium before you go, which stadium should it be? That's a hard decision to make for some. Sure, you have the stadium of your home team but it's likely that you've been there a few hundred times in a lot of cases. What about a rival's stadium? You may or may not have visited this stadium but do you really want to head into enemy territory for your final stadium visit or ultimate stadium visit? Decisions, decisions, decisions but that's where Fox Sports is here to help. 

Fox Sports has developed a quiz that asks a few questions about your ultimate stadium viewing and visiting experience and chooses the stadium that you should cross of your bucket list and head out to visit. To take the quiz CLICK HERE and you can see below for an example of the results as the quiz gave me Yankee Stadium. I kind of thought that was coming by some of the questions asked but I answered honestly anyway and this is what I got. Leave your choice in the comments section below or tweet us them @GreedyStripes. 

Yankee
www.foxsports.com
Only the Coliseum in Rome can match the grandiose of Yankee Stadium. It's massive, grand and a tribute to the House That Ruth Built. Though it's not the historic ballpark that sat across the street, it's still a must-see for any baseball fan.

Game Preview: New York Yankees @ Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 8/21


The New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim will finish off their three game set this afternoon with a game that us on the East Coast can actually watch without staying up  half the damn night. I have a serious beef with West Coast games and MLB schedule makers, I just wanted to make sure that came through in some of my blog posts here. There's no reason a Saturday game cannot be played in the afternoon like today's afternoon game but I digress. In the finale of the series the Yankees will send Chad Green to the mound looking for a repeat of his last start while the Angels will counter with Jhoulys Chacin.

Green was absolutely stellar in his last start against the Toronto Blue Jays as he led the Yankees with six shut-out innings against a tough offense. Green had a perfect game heading into the fifth inning and struck out 11 in the Yankees only victory of the series.


Chacin has only been back in the Yankees rotation for two starts now and with any player who was removed from the rotation the expected lack of stamina has hit Chacin hard. Chacin has only been able to give the Angels six innings combined in two starts and last faced the Yankees in June, a start that resulted in five runs allowed, seven hits and a loss for Los Angeles.


The game will be played at 3:35 pm ET inside Angels Stadium of Anaheim and can be seen on the YES Network and MLB TV. Let's crush these geographically confused group of 25 MLB ball players and let's get traveling to the rainiest place in the continental United States, shall we? Go Yankees!

What About Lourdes Gourriel Jr.?


Major League Baseball has finally declared Lourdes Gourriel Jr., younger brother of now Houston Astros player Yulieski Gourriel, a MLB free agent. Yulieski just recently signed a five-year deal worth $47.5 million and Lourdes is expected to sign for either longer, more money or both due to his age. Currently Lourdes is 22-years old meaning due to his age and lack of professional baseball in his career he is subject to the international free agent signing restrictions. If Lourdes waits until October, which all reports say he will do, when he turns 23-years old he would be a true free agent and could be signed with restrictions. Is that where the Yankees come in?

Here is what I wrote about both Yulieski and Lourdes back when they defected. I wanted both now and I would take Lourdes now. He will have to go to the minor leagues for a year or three to fine-tune his talents and won't be an immediate impact but the Yankees don't need an immediate impact. The youth movement has begun and the youth movement takes time. This signing makes a lot of sense. Will it happen? Leave it below in the comments section.

Weekly Prospects Check In: Jordan Montgomery


Yesterday we talked this young man up as the next in line to come up from the Yankees farm system and enter the Yankees starting rotation not only this season but next season and beyond as well. We talked about what kind of pitches Montgomery throws, when Montgomery was drafted and what I thought the future held for the University of South Carolina product but you know what they say. A picture is worth a thousand words so that means a stat line is probably worth at least double that, right?

I need to step up my game though. This post was only 139 words. Anyway, here is what Montgomery has been up to lately in the statistical department and I included his 2015 stats as well just to get everyone caught up and on the same page. Enjoy:

YearAgeLevWLERAGGSGFCGSHOIPHRERHRBBSOWHIPH9HR9BB9SO9
201522A+-A1082.952524110134.111851445361321.1467.90.32.48.8
201522A432.689900043.2361513112551.0997.40.22.511.3
201522A+653.08161511090.2823631424771.1698.10.42.47.6
201623AA-AAA1152.312222011120.211037315421151.2608.20.43.18.6
201623AA942.551919011102.1943529536971.2708.30.43.28.5
201623AAA210.983300018.1162206181.2007.90.02.98.8

This Day In New York Yankees History 8/21: Another Boston Massacre


On this day in 2006 the Yankees held the second Boston Massacre when sweeping a five game series in Fenway Park burying the Red Sox that season. After the five game sweep, the first since 1943, the Sox found themselves 6.5 games behind in the AL East and four games behind in the wild card race.


Also On this day in 1931 Babe Ruth becomes the first player in Major League history to hit 600 career home runs.