Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Quick Hit: Gary Sanchez and his Fake Cologne Commercial


It’s an off day ladies and gents so let’s have some fun like Gary Sanchez did recently for the New York Yankees. In a recent advertisement for the Yankees website the New York starting catcher starred in a fake commercial for a fake cologne and boy was it priceless.

Adam Warren is also in the commercial that shows a sweaty Sanchez taking slow motion swings in a batting cage. Warren casually finds the IAmGary cologne in his locker and is transported to an alternative universe after smelling the cologne. “Who is Gary?”


“Buy” #IAmGary at your local “retail shops.” Thanks to Yankees on Demand for the tweet and the commercial. 

Yankee Stadium Off Day Music Recommendation


The New York Yankees are off today as they finally get a day of rest as the team travels to square off with the Houston Astros so let’s have a little fun today with our relaxation, shall we?
Every off day the Yankees have, or close to it as we can get, we showcase one of the Yankees players walkup music as they step up to the plate or enter from the bullpen and today, friends, will be no different. Today we will showcase the walkup music of the one that makes us rise….. yeah not the greatest choice of words. Aaron Judge!


Every time Judge takes his place at the plate inside Yankee Stadium the song "Through the Late Night" by Travis Scott can be heard blaring through the Yankee Stadium speakers.


Also, from my own personal collection, I have been stuck on this Logic album called “Everybody.” I especially like the song below called “Everybody.”


Okay So Maybe I Was Wrong About Aaron Hicks

"Thank you God for helping me make THE Daniel Burch happy"

If you have been reading my work here on the site for the last five-years or so you know a couple things about me as a fan and as a writer. I’m passionate, I believe that I am always 100% right and when I am not I am the first person to admit when I’m wrong. I had the Yankees making the postseason last year and they didn’t make it, I made a post admitting defeat. Hell I post all my predictions before every season and then post them again at the end of the season so you can see just how bad I did which leads me to the topic of Aaron Hicks and how incredibly wrong I may have been regarding him and his roster spot with the team.

Hicks, in a word, is killing it right now. Hicks is doing better than some starting outfielders and has been delegated to a fourth outfielder spot here with the Yankees. Has a fourth outfielder or bench piece ever made the All-Star Game? Probably not but if you ask me right now, all bias aside, Hicks may be and should be the first if the game was played today. Hicks has been brilliant for the Yankees thus far this season and the sample size just keeps growing and growing while the stat line remains relatively the same. He’s been the real deal for New York this season and I am almost, ALMOST, ready to admit that I may have been a bit hard on him last season and into spring training 2017. Almost.

Heading into the series finale with the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night Hicks was sitting at an impressive .342 batting average and 1.106 OPS with six home runs and 16 RBI in just 73 at-bats while playing an impressive outfield defensively, as usual. Could Hicks, now 27-years old, be the late-bloomer that Brian Cashman described last season when many people, no one more than myself, was killing the guy? It’s looking pretty foolish to have doubted him now and it also looks pretty foolish for Cashman to have compared Hicks to Jackie Bradley Jr. as well because he is far exceeding what Bradley Jr. has done thus far in the Majors. Again, it’s 73 at-bats but again as the sample size rises so do his stats so I don’t know how comfortable I am being the one to doubt him again.


Keep hitting like this Aaron and you keep making me look like a moron for ever doubting you, and I’m totally okay with that. 

Pink and Pinstripes...NOT a Good Look!...




I’ll say it right now (well, maybe not with the fervor of a Bryan Van Dusen rant)...I am NOT on board with the special Derek Jeter’s Day hats to be worn by the Yankees on Sunday.  With no disrespect to the former Yankees captain or the countless mothers that will be in attendance for the joint Jeter-Mother’s Day game, the color pink does not have a place with the famed pinstripes.  Behind the pink hat is just someone trying to make a buck.  If all proceeds are given to a meaningful charity, then maybe I could buy into the dreadful hat.  Otherwise, it looks like a poorly thought out marketing scheme.
The DL epidemic seems to be impacting elite closers.  Depending upon who you ask, Baseball’s third and fourth best closers are now on the Disabled List.  Zach Britton of the Baltimore Orioles is out for 45-60 days following a visit with Dr Neal ElAttrache (the surgeon who recently performed Tommy John surgery on James Kaprielian).  For Britton’s sake, he received better news than Kaprielian did as surgery is not necessary for his left arm (throwing arm) strain.  However, he’ll be out until after the All-Star Break.  Meanwhile, the San Francisco Giants have placed their new high-priced closer, and former Yankee, Mark Melancon, on the DL with a “mild right pronator strain”.    Here’s wishing and hoping for good health for the premier closers, the Yankees’ Aroldis Chapman and Kenley Jansen of the Los Angeles Dodgers.  

I realize that TGP's Daniel Burch will be moving into “World Series or Bust” mode any day now but I still need more time before I am going to proclaim the Yankees as the team of the year.  I  want to see how the young Baby Bombers perform this weekend against Brian McCann, Carlos Beltran and the high flying Houston Astros.  If the Yankees are still making noise at the top of the AL East when the calendar flips to June, then maybe I’ll start to get on-board.  It’s a long season and it’s still early.  There’s no doubt we’ll experience a few bumps in the road.  It will be how the team responds to those downturns that will determine the eventual course for this season.

CC Sabathia was awful for one inning last night but that’s all it took to shut down the Yankees’ six game winning streak in the 5-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds.  Ten men came to the plate against Sabathia in the second inning.  Six singles and a walk later and the Reds had erased a 2-0 Yanks advantage by pushing five runs across the plate.  Sabathia (2-2) went 6 innings, allowing 7 hits and the 5 runs.  He walked 2 and struck out 2, while pushing his ERA to 5.77.  Right now, at least, Sabathia is the weak link in an otherwise strong Yankees rotation.  But as the saying goes, you are only as strong as your weakest link so this is certainly a concern.  

Credit:  John Minchillo/AP

The Yankees had a chance to win at the end.  With any game, that’s all I can ask.  After Aaron Hicks and Matt Holliday walked with one out in the 9th inning, Gary Sanchez came to the plate with the chance to erase the Reds' two-run lead.  Sanchez had already homered in his first at-bat of the game, a ball that travelled 448 feet to center.  But he lined a shot to Reds third baseman Eugenio Suarez, who threw to second, catching Hicks off base, for the game-ending double play.

Didi Gregorius is starting to heat up which is a good sign.  He went 3-for-4 with a first inning home run.

The Baltimore Orioles defeated the Washington Nationals 5-4 in extra innings last night, so the Yankees (21-10) fell out of first place in the AL East by a half-game.  The Boston Red Sox lost which is always a fun thing to see.  I'd take joy in that even if they were the worst team in baseball.  

All things considered it was a good (albeit short) road trip as the Yanks took four of five.  With an off day today (Sleep, I love you!), the Yankees prepare for a long four game set against the Houston Astros at Yankee Stadium beginning Thursday.  The series concludes on Sunday with Derek Jeter Night and the aforementioned pink caps.  

The former Yankees coming to the Bronx are Astros catcher Brian McCann and DH Carlos Beltran.  Lance McCullers, Jr, one of the Astros starting pitchers, is the son of a former Yankee.  His father pitched for the Yankees from 1989 to 1990 (three years before Lance Jr was born).  


The probable pitching matchups for the Astros series are as follows:

THURSDAY
HOU:  Dallas Keuchel (5-0, 1.88 ERA)
NYY:  Michael Pineda (3-1, 3.12 ERA)

FRIDAY
HOU:  Lance McCullers, Jr (2-1, 3.40 ERA)
NYY:  Jordan Montgomery (2-1, 3.81 ERA)

SATURDAY
HOU:  Mike Fiers (1-1, 5.64 ERA)
NYY:  Luis Severino (2-2, 3.40 ERA)

SUNDAY
HOU:  Charlie Morton (4-2, 3.63 ERA)
NYY:  Masahiro Tanaka (5-1, 4.36 ERA)

Speaking of former Yankees, the Detroit Tigers have named Justin Wilson as their closer, replacing Francisco Rodriguez.  The lefty, who brought pitchers Luis Cessa and Chad Green to New York, is currently carrying a 1.32 ERA with 22 strikeouts in 13 2/3 innings.  Regardless of how Cessa and Green ever perform, it sure would have been nice to have Wilson in this year’s bullpen.  But then again, Andrew Miller would have looked good too.  Oh well, onward and upward!

Have a great Wednesday!  

Quick Hit: Derek Jeter’s One Regret in MLB

"Yo, I should have started this blogging stuff YEARS ago"

The YES Network recently had an interview with former Yankees captain and shortstop Derek Jeter before his number is retired with the team and before a ceremony goes down on Mother’s Day in the Bronx. In the interview, which can be seen on the YESNetwork.com Jeter spoke about numerous things but one topic in particular caught my eye when I read it, Jeter talked about his one and only regret during his 20-years in Major League Baseball.

Keeping a journal. Derek Jeter’s one and only mistake from his entire 20-year tenure in Major League Baseball and with the Yankees is that he did not keep a journal for the first 19-years of his career. Jeter said in the interview that he did keep a journal during his final season and wished he had done so during his entire career.

How cool would it be to be the child of Derek and Hannah Jeter and to read that journal? How awesome would it have been to read a journal from his entire 20-year tenure with the Yankees? I don’t think you could put a price on that but if you could I would pay it without blinking an eye.


Name your price Jete. Name it. 

So it Seems We’re Taking the Day Off


Well, not on the blog. The Yankees are taking the day off though and boy do they need it after spending 18 innings with the Chicago Cubs only to do nine more innings with the Cincinnati Reds the very next night. It figures that those two teams would go for 18 innings while on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball and not during one of the Cubs numerous day games, huh? Oh well, it was fun and New York won.

So today we have a long-awaited and much-needed off day. Enjoy it. Have a great day everyone.


This Day in New York Yankees History 5/10: Don Mattingly Who?


On this day in 1953 the Brooklyn Dodgers catcher Roy Campanella hit a double and a home run driving in all five Dodgers runs in a shutout victory over the Phillies at Ebbets Field. Campanella had 40+ RBI's in the first 30 games of the season setting a Major League record. The record would not be matched until the Yankees Tino Martinez matched the feat in 1997. Don Mattingly who?


Also on this day in 1934 the New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox 11-3 and the Yankee clipper Lou Gehrig had himself a week. Gehrig hit four extra base hits tying a big league record including two doubles and two home runs. Gehrig had 12 total bases and seven RBI's in just five innings when he benched himself due to a severe cold.