Why I'm Not Afraid of Tyler Glasnow Tonight

Notice I didn't do one of these for Blake Snell? There's probably a good reason for that. While I wasn't necessarily afraid of Snell, I know how tough he can be against this team with his devastating breaking stuff, so my confidence was probably as low as it has been all postseason before last night's game. A Yankees 9-3 victory later and I feel much more confident about the rest of this series, even with the Rays second best starter in Tyler Glasnow taking the mound for Tampa Bay. 

Glasnow is a great pitcher and I could not, and would not, ever take anything away from him, but that doesn't mean I have to be afraid of him tonight. The Yankees tend to do better against a pitcher that they have seen at least once, and the Bombers offense have seen the Rays right-hander three times already this season. A fourth time only sways the momentum in the Yankees offense's hands, in my opinion. The Yankees still have to go out there and do what they have to do, I am not overlooking Glasnow by any means and I am far from guaranteeing a victory, but this is most definitely not mission impossible tonight inside Petco Park. 

Glasnow has faced the Yankees three times this season, but only one of those times were when the Yankees offense was THIS healthy and firing on all cylinders. With that said, I refuse to focus on the August 31st start against New York where Glasnow fired six innings of shutout baseball, and instead I will focus on his start on August 8th inside Tropicana Field where the Yankees tagged the Rays right-hander for four runs in just 2.2 innings pitched. 

Here is what the Yankees offense has done against Glasnow career, via ESPN: 

New York Yankees Career Statistics Vs. Tyler Glasnow

PITCHER	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Mike Ford	8	2	0	0	1	2	0	2	.250	.250	.625	.875
Clint Frazier	8	1	0	0	0	0	0	3	.125	.125	.125	.250
Brett Gardner	7	0	0	0	0	0	3	5	.000	.300	.000	.300
Aaron Hicks	3	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	.333	.333	1.000	1.333
Aaron Judge	5	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	.400	.400	.400	.800
DJ LeMahieu	9	1	0	0	0	0	0	4	.111	.111	.111	.222
Gary Sanchez	8	2	0	0	0	0	0	5	.250	.250	.250	.500
Giancarlo Stanton	4	2	0	0	1	2	1	0	.500	.600	1.250	1.850
Mike Tauchman	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	.000	.000	.000	.000
Gleyber Torres	6	2	0	0	0	1	1	3	.333	.429	.333	.762
Gio Urshela	7	1	1	0	0	3	1	1	.143	.222	.286	.508
Luke Voit	6	1	0	0	1	1	3	3	.167	.444	.667	1.111
TOTALS	76	15	1	1	3	9	9	31	.218	.289	.421	.709

Listen, I'm not taking anything away from Glasnow. He is a great pitcher and he is absolutely filthy when he is on, but he isn't the first great pitcher that is absolutely filthy when he is on that the Yankees have faced during the 2020 postseason. This offense knocked around the presumptive AL Cy Young Award winner for 2020 in Shane Bieber, they beat Carlos Carrasco who isn't who he once was, but is still a strong starter for Cleveland, and they've beaten Blake Snell as well. In my opinion, Glasnow will be just another ace-type starter that went down to a healthy, and clicking on all cylinders New York Yankees offense. 

Getting to Know Petco Park in San Diego

 

Welcome to the MLB Bubble Postseason 2020. What a year 2020 has been, so it's no surprise that baseball has been kind of wonky as well this season. Major League Baseball has decided to play the remainder of the postseason in a bubble format, meaning that the best-of-five series between the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays will not be played in the Bronx, nor down in the Tampa area, but instead will be played inside Petco Park. The San Diego Padres call Petco Park home and are seemingly very familiar with the dimensions and such of the beautiful stadium out there, but the Yankees and their fans may not be as familiar. 

For all the talk on how hard it is to hit the ball out of Petco Park, the dimensions tell a little bit of a different story for me. Petco Park has a little bit of a short porch down the right field line at 322 feet, while down the left field line that 334 feet looks obtainable for these Yankees right-handed sluggers. Center field is shorter than Yankee Stadium's 408 foot target while the right-center and left-center field walls remain deep. Long story short, the Yankees may not have the opportunity to steal a "cheap" home run (and the Rays wont either), but there should still be plenty of offense to go around, in my opinion. 

For comparison, here are the dimensions at the current Yankee Stadium: 

The games will be played at 4:00 and 5:00 pm local time, which means the sun setting and the shadows that come with it will be a factor in the early innings of these games. The Yankees have spent the weekend working out during these peak times at the stadium, doing their homework on the shadows, the sun patterns, and anything else they can use to ensure a victory against their American League East rivals in this series. 

I don't believe the ballpark will be a factor in this series. The Rays always play the Yankees tough, but they are especially tough at that monstrosity that they call a home park down at Tropicana Field. With the ultimate equalizer in Petco Park becoming a reality, along with the emergence of Cole World and Higgy, I think the Yankees will be just fine throughout the ALDS. 

If Fernando Tatis Jr. can hit home run after home run out of this ballpark. and end up on a Bat Flip Brotherhood t-shirt because of it, then so can the likes of Voit, DJ, Judge and Gleyber. 

ALDS Game 1 - New York Yankees @ Tampa Bay Rays

The New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays are familiar foes who both reside in the American League East Division, so this best-of-five game series should offer little in terms of surprise, right? Well you must remember that this is 2020, and in 2020 if there is a curve ball to be thrown you should expect it to either be in the dirt and 20 feet short of the plate, or up and in towards your chin. Hopefully this latest little thing is more like the former and not the latter as these two teams will enter the MLB Postseason bubble while playing inside Petco Park in San Diego, home of the San Diego Padres. The Yankees have not played inside Petco Park since the 2016 season, so sample sizes will be limited, but these two teams know each other well... and it's well known that they just don't like one another. 

Gerrit Cole has not been good against the Rays this season, let's go ahead and get this out of the way early, but many of those starts came early on in the season before Cole both found his groove, and found comfort on the mound pitching to Kyle Higashioka. No, I am not worried about his 0-1 record this season against Tampa, nor am I worried about his 4.96 ERA against them in 2020. What I am worried about is how Cole has pitched to a 1.32 ERA over 34 innings since being paired with Higgy on September 5th, hurling 47 strikeouts with just five walks. 

Blake Snell, future Yankee #2 starter, became the first pitcher in the (Devil) Rays postseason history to get through the first five innings of a game without allowing a single hit. In two starts against the Yankees here in 2020, Snell has gone 1-0 with a 3.38 ERA, striking out eight batters over eight innings pitched. Snell has handled the Yankees, but not dominated. The playoffs are a new season. 

The game will be played at 8:07 pm ET inside Petco Park in San Diego and can be seen nationally on TBS. 

Why I'm Not Afraid of Carlos Carrasco in Game Two Tonight

 The New York Yankees offense was not afraid of 2020's presumptive American League Cy Young Award winner, so should they be afraid of Carlos Carrasco tonight in Game Two? In a word, no. Here's why!

The New York Yankees generally struggle against pitchers that they are seeing for the first time, it doesn't make sense but it is definitely a thing for this team. The good news tonight is that the Bombers have seen Carrasco plenty, to the tune of the stats below provided by ESPN: 

New York Yankees Career Statistics Vs. Carlos Carrasco

PITCHER	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Clint Frazier	3	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	.333	.333	.667	1.000
Brett Gardner	22	6	1	1	0	3	5	6	.273	.407	.409	.816
Aaron Hicks	10	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	.000	.091	.000	.091
Aaron Judge	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	.000	.333	.000	.333
Erik Kratz	4	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	.500	.500	.500	1.000
Giancarlo Stanton	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000
TOTALS	42	9	2	1	0	3	7	14	.184	.277	.263	.540

Is that a huge sample size? Unfortunately not, but it is better than nothing. With the above, do the Yankees start Clint tonight or do they start Gardner? Originally, my thought process was that Clint would get the start, but that was before Gardy's big game last night against Bieber and the Indians. 

Carrasco has made 12 appearances, nine of them starts, in his career against the Yankees and currently owns a 5-5 record with a 4.04 ERA. Carrasco has allowed eight home runs to the Bronx Bombers over that span with a 1.204 WHIP. Carrasco will get his strikeouts against this team, he has struck out Yankees batters 60 times in 55.2 innings pitched against them while drawing just 15 walks. That's not what you want to see, but ultimately I think the Yankees offense should be fine. 

Remember, Carrasco is not the same pitcher he was just two-or-three seasons ago, he is a shell of his former self. A lot of this gaudy strikeout numbers came while Carrasco was at his peak, and Carrasco has since fallen from that level due to injury. Carrasco's 3-4 record, 1.206 WHIP and 1.6 WAR, while good, are not what he was in 2017 and 2018. 2017 and 2018 were his Cy Young contending years, while he has stepped back each of the last two seasons. 

Bieber scared me a little last night, although I wasn't worried, but Carrasco really doesn't. I'm not looking past Carrasco by any means, but I am confident that the Yankees will close out this series with a victory tonight. See you in the ALDS.