Game Thread: New York Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays 4/3

Weather permitting the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays are set to kick off their quick two-game set here in the Bronx. The New York Yankees are also set to open up their home schedule this afternoon welcoming Chris Archer and the Rays to Yankee Stadium. Jordan Montgomery will take the ball for the Yankees in their home opener. This is the first time we will truly and officially see Giancarlo Stanton in pinstripes, and I have to say that excites me probably more than it should. I can’t wait to see how Stanton and others can abuse that right field porch this season. Stanton made it a point to hit the ball the other way more here in 2018 for that exact reason and I just want to see all his work and his plans come to fruition at the rest of the league’s expense. Sue me. The game will be played at 4:05 pm ET inside Yankee Stadium and can be seen on the YES Network. You can also follow along on MLB TV, the MLB At-Bat app, and on the Yankees radio broadcast with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman on WFAN.

Follow us on Twitter, @GreedyStripes, and “Like” us on Facebook, The Greedy Pinstripes, to keep up with us and the Yankees all season long. Chris Archer, meet Giancarlo Stanton. Go Yankees!!

Help Wanted for the 2018 Season!

The 2018 season is upon us and as the New York Yankees and Yankee Stadium prepare for their home opener against the Tampa Bay Rays we here at The Greedy Pinstripes have some preparations to do as well. We need help, we need writers. The site wants to bring you as much quality content as we can day in and day out, and frankly there is just too much to be said and too many differing opinions out there to just listen to me rant, rave and ramble all day long over the course of the season. That is where YOU come in.

No experience is necessary, although it is obviously preferred, and all positions are open. We specifically need game recaps done on a daily (or as often as possible as this is NOT a paying position) basis on top of opinion pieces, trade proposals and ideas, etc. Whatever you guys and girls can bring to the table we would be happy to showcase here on the blog, so bring your ideas with you.

Contact us either by commenting here on this post, tweeting us @GreedyStripes or by sending us an email at thegreedypinstripes at g mail dot com. You can also contact me directly, which may garner a quicker response to be honest, at danielburch 1102 at yahoo dot com.

I look forward to hearing from all of you. Go Yankees!

ICYMI: John Sterling Home Run Calls Added to the Site!

In case you missed it, there has been a new addition to the site here for the 2018 season, an addition that I am personally pretty damn excited about. I have taken down the “TGP T-Shirts” link that was at the top of the blog and I have replaced it with what I hope to eventually be the most complete list of John Sterling home run calls in all of the Yankees blogosphere.

Obviously right now it is not in its complete state, especially if I want it to be the most complete list, but it is complete enough to go live. Consider this a “work in progress” so check in often, and always feel free to add your favorites to the comments section of the page so I can get them added. Requests work too, so add them as well. We can build this together, and just like Field of Dreams… they will come.

So, check out the constantly updated John Sterling Home Run Calls section of The Greedy Pinstripes and tell me what you think. This site is here because of you, and your opinion matters, so let it be heard.

JOHN STERLING HOME RUN CALLS LINK

Opening Day at Yankee Stadium, Take 2...

Photo Credit: NJ Advance Media for NJ.com (John Munson)

Let’s Try This Again…

Here we are…Opening Day at Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, New York! Of course, it’s not a certainty the game will be played given the rain currently in the forecast. According to my weather app, there is an 85% chance of rain at scheduled game time of 4 pm Eastern. Decreasing rains are expected throughout the evening.  Will the game be played or not?  Stay tuned.

If the game is rained out, there is a possibility the Yankees could play a double-header tomorrow. More rain is anticipated, however, the likelihood decreases later in the day. The Rays do not return to New York until Thursday, June 14^th for the start of a four-game set. Monday, June 18^th is an off day between home series.  Hopefully, the weather cooperates and there is no need to strategically alter the schedule for a makeup game.  

  

The way the schedule has played out, the Yankees will face the two best (healthy) Rays starters, Chris Archer and Blake Snell. Meanwhile, when the Rays travel to Boston this weekend, they’ll use the bullpen for at least one of the starts with their current four-man rotation. Sure, they go easy on Boston. The Red Sox have clearly benefited from the schedule early. They opened with a four-game set in St Petersburg, FL against the Rays, winning three of the games. They traveled down to Miami yesterday to beat the Marlins in front of Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada, with another game scheduled for today and their best starter, Chris Sale, on the mound. Then, they’ll fly back to Boston to face the lowly Rays again. The Red Sox do not face a playoff caliber team until they see the Yankees at Fenway Park next Tuesday. Aside from another series at Yankee Stadium in May, the Red Sox do not face a 2017 playoff team again until the end of May/first of June when they travel to Houston. Meanwhile, during that time in addition to the two Boston series, the Yankees face the Minnesota Twins, Houston Astros, Cleveland Indians, and Washington Nationals.  It doesn’t get any easier for the Pinstripers. Manager Aaron Boone needs to improve his bullpen management in a hurry and the big guys need to hit.

Photo Credit: USA TODAY Sports (Kevin Sousa)

Entering play today, the Red Sox lead the American League East by one game over the Toronto Blue Jays and a game and a half over the beloved Yankees. The Sox have won four consecutive games after losing the season opener against the Rays. I am looking for the Yankees to be aggressive in their series with the Rays and the upcoming weekend set with the Baltimore Orioles before next week’s showdown in Boston. Time to show the Sox the better team wears Pinstripes. 

Former Yankee Stephen Drew has called it quits. I am not quite sure what Daniel Burch will do now with his Stephen Drew Sucks Award. He may have to find a new player to recognize although the Yankees bullpen…presently…is giving him plenty of candidates to choose from. For his Yankees career (2014-15), Drew played in 177 games. He swatted 20 home runs and drove in 59 RBIs. His batting line was a horrific .187/.257/.352. He struck out 107 times in 583 plate appearances, managing to draw only 50 walks. Farewell, Stephen. I hope your post-playing career accomplishments exceed those on the baseball field.

Photo Credit: USATSI 

How good would Bryce Harper look in Pinstripes right now? He belted a three-run homer last night against the Atlanta Braves, and has three home runs on the year and seven RBIs. His batting line is .417/.550/1.167. Here’s $400 million, Mr Harper. Please sign here. We’re keeping #34 warm for you (please don’t pay any attention to the A.J. Burnett stains). 

Photo Credit: Getty Images (Kevin C Cox) 

I saw some tweets yesterday that the Yankees had reacquired Minor League LHP Daniel Camarena, however, I’ve been unable to confirm it. Wikipedia states that he was traded back to the Yankees organization on April 1^st. Camarena, originally drafted by the Yankees in 2011, had signed with the Chicago Cubs in January as a minor league free agent. The Yankees could certainly use more lefties at Triple A, but Camarena is still showing on the Iowa Cubs roster and there have been no announcements through either the Cubs website or the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders site. Camarena did not have a great training camp for the Cubbies. He pitched in five games covering 4 1/3 innings. He gave up eight hits and six runs for an inflated 12.46 ERA. He walked two and struck out four. To his defense, he did register two saves. But until his acquisition is confirmed, I don’t know whether to say ‘Welcome back’ or ‘Good luck with the Cubs’. I’ll gladly take any decent left-handed options over the newly signed Oliver Perez.

Well, here’s hoping there is a break in the afternoon’s storm clouds so that we can play nine. 

Go Yankees!

Game Preview: New York Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays 4/3

The New York Yankees home opener had to wait a day after the Bronx and much of the state of New York was bombed with snow over the Easter holiday and into Monday morning. Have no fear though for the boys in Pinstripes are here today to kick off their Yankee Stadium schedule with a series with the Tampa Bay Rays. In the Yankees home opener the team will send left-handed starter Jordan Montgomery to the mound to face off with the Rays starter Chris Archer. This should be a fun one, the Yankees are home once again so how could it not be?

Montgomery takes the ball to start in the Yankees’ home opener, just a day later than expected, after an impressive rookie campaign in 2017. Last season the Yankees rookie left-hander started 29 games for the Bombers striking out 144 in 155.1 innings worth of work. Montgomery said this offseason he did so last season without command and use of his best pitch, a changeup he worked with this offseason and spring, giving the Yankees and their fans much hope for improvement here in 2018.

Archer is a perennial Yankees killer and, weather pending, will get another shot to shut down the Yankees this afternoon in the Bronx. Originally the Rays were scheduled to pitch Bull Penday yesterday in the opener, but Mother Nature had other plans allowing the Rays to pitch their ace on normal rest. Hooray for them, but for the Yankees not so much.

The game will be played at 4:05 pm ET inside Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and can be seen on the YES Network. You can also follow along with the Yankees on MLB TV, the MLB At-Bat App or by tuning into their radio broadcast with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman on WFAN.

Enjoy the game, destroy the Rays, and Go Yankees!

HELLO…. The Team Will Be Fine!

Good morning everyone. Let’s try this whole home opener in the Bronx thing again, shall we? Also, let’s try this whole “winning games against teams we should beat” thing again, shall we? The Yankees won their first two games this season in impressive fashion. They team pitched, they hit and while the bullpen didn’t have a scoreless game, they pitched well enough to win both games. The same could not be said for the following two games up in Toronto inside the Rogers Centre. The pitching was good, and the hitting did enough to win both games, but it was the bullpen that imploded leading to many frustrated fans and speculation as to whether Aaron Boone can handle a bullpen and a pitching staff.

Let me be clear, the sky is not falling after four games and the New York Yankees will be fine. Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez and others haven’t even begun to really hit yet while half their 40-man roster (slight exaggeration, but it feels like it) is on the disabled list. The team will get healthy, the team will start hitting and the team will start firing on all cylinders. The starters have been good, but they have left plenty of room to get better going forward and the bullpen almost has to be better. The bullpen is too talented not to improve, and some of these frustrating losses will turn into wins as the calendar continues to flip and turn.

It has been four games in a 162-game season. This team will be fine. We as fans will be fine. Relax, take a breath, and let’s beat up on some Tampa Bay Rays this afternoon and tomorrow to make ourselves feel better. We can only go up from here!

Kari, I know I bored you to death by watching the game on Sunday and you didn’t complain or say a word. Thank you. I love you. You are my rock, my heart and my soul, and you are my everything. Without you, nothing is possible. There would be no me without you. Thank you for being you.

This Day in New York Yankees History 4/3: Yankee Stadium & Citi Field

On this day way back in 2009 the Yankees and the Mets both debuted their new stadiums on the same day. The Yankees hosted the Cubs at the new Yankees Stadium and the Mets hosted the Red Sox at Citi Field. Both teams would win their debuts in these exhibition games and the Yankees would bring home a World Series ring in the same season.