Game Preview: New York Yankees @ Kansas City Royals 5/27

This afternoon the New York Yankees and the Kansas City Royals play in the classic afternoon getaway game with the Yankees setting their sails to the west coast after the ballgame. In the finale of the three game series here inside Yankee Stadium the Yankees will send Michael Pineda to the mound looking to bounce back from a couple bad starts while Chris Young starts for the Royals. The game will be played at 1:05 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network and MLB TV.

• Pineda is coming off a pair of bad starts against these Kansas City Royals and the Texas Rangers after striking out 16 Baltimore Orioles on Mother’s Day three starts ago. Last time out against the Royals Pineda allowed five earned runs on 10 hits, both season highs, in a Yankees series loss.

• Young has pitched well since coming into the Royals rotation from the bullpen allowing just one run across all four victories he has secured this season. One of those victories included a win over the Yankees on May 15.

This is quite possibly the worst part of any MLB season, and I touched on this a bit in this morning’s TGP Daily Poll, as the Yankees head out west to start a long road trip. I hate the West Coast games because they don’t start until 10:00 pm ET meaning with me having to be up at 5:00 am ET by the time the game starts the most sleep I am going to get is seven hours. If I stay up for even a Rob Manfred Special, three hours or less, I’m down to four hours of sleep. Now I am a huge “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” kind of person but I also have to keep in mind my children will want me to play, talk to them and be a living and breathing human being.. So yeah. I’m going to miss a few games. Anyway as long as we’re winning those games that is all that matters to me, go Yankees!!

TGP Daily Poll: Hate West Coast Games

I hate when the Yankees travel out west to play because 5:00 am ET comes awfully early for me. With the Yankees heading on an extended road trip to the West Coast I can expect myself to watch no more than one complete game this road trip.

Vote in our prediction poll on Knoda.com 

Weekly Check In: Bryan Mitchell

This is normally Greg Bird’s slot for the weekly prospect check in but with him still on the disabled list I figured we could have a bit of a revolving door here until he returns. This week we’ll check in with presumably the next in line in the starting pitching department, Mr. Bryan Mitchell. Mitchell was called up to the major leagues once already this season, although he was not used, so with his option burned for the year I expect to see the right hander go back and forth quite a bit this season if necessary. Mitchell’s stats mirror those of Shane Greene’s before he was called up and pitched much better in the major leagues and is my personal breakout candidate for the 2015 season.

Stat line looks a little something like this:

Year	Lev	W	L	ERA	G	CG	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9
2015	AAA	2	4	3.80	9	1	42.2	41	21	18	0	23	37	1.500	8.6	0.0	4.9	7.8

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

This Day in New York Yankees History 5/27: Knuckle Ball Glove is born Against Yankees

On this day in 1997 Luis Polonia of all people ruined the Oakland A's Steve Ontiveros bid for a no hitter with a two out sixth inning single. The single by Polonia would be the only hit that Ontiveros would give up in the A's 3-0 victory over the Yankees.

Also on this day in 1960 the knuckleball glove is born for catchers as Orioles catcher Clint Courtney became the first backstop to use the glove. Manager Paul Richards came up with the 45 inch glove that helped knuckleballer Hoyt Wilhelm go the distance in a 3-2 win at Yankee Stadium over the Yankees. Wilhelm did not throw a single wild pitch or passed ball in the game, amazing.

Game Thread: New York Yankees vs. Kansas City Royals 5/26

The New York Yankees and the Kansas City Royals are facing off for the second time this week in their three game series in the Bronx. Well it's 7:00 pm ET and it's game time between these two clubs as Adam Warren and Jason Vargas face off head-to-head. The game will be played and seen on television on WPIX 11 and MLB TV.

You only have one more shot to see the team at home in the Bronx before they head west and start a bunch of 10:05 pm ET games that I don't look forward to so get your Yankees tickets right here off the blog. If you can't make it live then simply jump on Twitter (@GreedyStripes) or the comments section of the site to interact with us during the game and keep the conversation going.

Mr. Warren will take it from here, go Yankees!

My Plan to Fix the Yankees

The New York Yankees are going down and it seems like no one can save them right now, no one but me of course. I have a plan and while the plan may be a bit radical and probably only realistic on 25 Major League Baseball teams this season, and one of them not being the Yankees, it is a plan and if it's allowed to see fruition it can work.

First and foremost Jacoby Ellsbury is on the disabled list with Slade Heathcott taking his spot on the 25 man roster. I say he's taking his 25 man roster spot and not his position because manager Joe Girardi has continued to throw Chris Young out there despite hovering around the Stephen Drew line since his hot start in April. Plug Heathcott into the center field position and let him hit at the top of the order. His speed, base running and ability to take walks will leave more runners on base when the Mark Teixeira's and Alex Rodriguez's come up to the plate which can never be a bad thing. Get back to speed kills and away from speed killing an inning.

Speaking of Drew, he sucks. Pretend his name is Brian Roberts and designate him for assignment for another rookie. Pretend that Robert Refsnyder's name is Yangervis Solarte, hell pretend it's Stephen Drew just do what you have to do to get the kid up. Drew's defense is not stellar and neither is his back up's Jose Pirela. What do you really lose with Refsnyder at second base? Nothing, but the gains with the bat and with the offense cannot hurt a team struggling offensively right now.

Use Jacob Lindgren. Lindgren was closing at Triple-A and dominating the upper levels of the minor leagues since he was drafted last June. David Carpenter sucks and he doesn't have the rust and lack of use excuse anymore. Chasen Shreve has been better than Justin Wilson and both have been used completely wrong thus far this season. Adam Warren would head back to the bullpen with Ivan Nova and Masahiro Tanaka's return to the rotation with Chris Capuano joining Drew on the "I SUCK" pity party parade. With this rotation and this bullpen the team turns the games into six inning contest and take an immense amount of pressure off the offense.

I know this won't happen because the Yankees flat out refuse to rely on their farm system or rookies but it should. Use Heathcott, use Lindgren, use Shreve more effectively, call up Refsnyder, dump Drew and dump Capuano. Make the playoffs, win the World Series. Canyon of Heroes.

ICYMI: Bernie Williams Night Video

Game Preview: New York Yankees vs. Kansas City Royals 5/26

For the second time this week the New York Yankees and the Kansas City Royals will face off against each other inside Yankee Stadium. The Yankees have already lost one series against the Royals this week and the team will look to prevent that again this week. Tonight the Yankees will send Adam Warren to the mound to face off against Danny Duffy for the Royals. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET and can be seen on WPIX Channel 11 and YES Network.

• Warren has had a ton of success as a relief pitcher in his career against the Kansas City Royals but has never seen them as starting pitcher. Warren owns a 1.35 ERA against the Royals in three relief appearances in his career and will look to make his case to stay in the rotation when Masahiro Tanaka and Ivan Nova return from the disabled list. 

• Duffy has faced the Yankees five times in his career already including just a couple weeks back and owns a 8.05 ERA with 23 hits allowed and 17 runs in 19 innings in his career. The Yankees of this year did not hit well against Duffy this season though as New York struggled against the left handed this month.

The Yankees play a getaway game tomorrow afternoon in the Bronx before setting out west for an extended west coast road trip. New York has been losing a whole lot more than they have been winning lately and need something to build on going forward. The defense will have to be better, the pitching will have to be better and the offense will have to be better and that starts tonight inside Yankee Stadium. Let's go Yankees! Time to get it together.

New Superstitions & Winning Streaks

The New York Yankees started out the season on a terrible 3-6 record before the team started growing mustaches as a team building exercise. After the team grew out their mustaches, or in some cases it was more like peach fuzz, the Yankees went on a roll and started winning a ton of games. Now the team has been losing much more then they have been winning and in true superstitious nature the team shaved off the mustaches looking to turn things around. The shaving of the staches apparently did not do much for the team's offense, defense and pitching so I have come up with an idea for a new superstition and a new hope to turn the team around, shave their heads.

The Yankees have a no facial hair policy on the team where any player, coach or manager is restricted from growing a beard of any kind and is only allowed to grow a mustache that does not exceed their bottom lip. The team also cannot have long hair that touches their collar on their jersey but there are no rules against shaving their heads. Could you imagine?

Mark Teixeira as a skin head, Jacoby Ellsbury without that beautiful black hair of his, Nathan Eovaldi without his longer set of locks, Stephen Drew looking like a chemo patient just because and even Alex Rodriguez getting a 2014 Derek Jeter cut. It may or may not work but it would be interesting to see either way, Brett Gardner needs to get this done.

Call it "The Jeter" cut

For men or for women

Even Tom Brady is doing it....

and this guy thought he was original... psh

TGP Daily Poll: Yankees Will Use Jacob Lindgren

It seems like the Yankees have to have a 10 run lead or deficit to use a rookie in their bullpen and it may come down to that before New York uses Jacob Lindgren. The Yankees bullpen is tired and they will have to use him against the Royals.

Vote in our prediction poll on Knoda.com