Weekly Check In: Domingo Acevedo

In our Wednesday weekly check in post, and our last Wednesday check in post of the season, we look at a Yankees prospects that has made a name for himself in 2015, Domingo Acevedo. I admittedly didn't know much about Acevedo before the 2015 season but that has changed not because of an interest or a connection on my end but because of a strong season from the right-hander. His strong season, along with the rest of his Staten Island Yankees teammates, led the team to play for the New York-Penn League Championship this season.

Acevedo has been in the Yankees organization since the 2013 season and even spent time during the 2015 season with the Low-A Charleston Riverdogs before settling in and breaking out with the Staten Island Yankees. Acevedo has quieted the best hitters and the best offense in the New York-Penn League and has been as close to an automatic win this season as you can get.

Acevedo will likely be rewarded for his strong season this winter by being promoted back to Charleston or even Tampa, although Tampa may be a bit of a stretch for the 21-year old right-hander, and no one can take that away from him. He deserves it. Congratulations on a great season Mr. Acevedo.

Year	Lev	W	L	ERA	G	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9
2015	A--A	3	0	1.81	12	49.2	39	16	10	2	16	54	1.107	7.1	0.4	2.9	9.8
2015	A-	3	0	1.69	11	48.0	37	15	9	2	15	53	1.083	6.9	0.4	2.8	9.9
2015	A	0	0	5.40	1	1.2	2	1	1	0	1	1	1.800	10.8	0.0	5.4	5.4

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

This Day In New York Yankees History 9/16: Catfish Hunter Day

The New York Yankees have become known for the days they honor their current and former stars, players, and managers, and the Yankees did just that on this day in 1979 when they honored retiring closer Catfish Hunter. Hunter was surprisingly only 33 years old when the future Hall of Fame pitcher decided to hang up his cleats for good.

On the same day the Yankees got a glimpse into the future as a 20 year old rookie pitcher made his major league debut. His name was Dave Righetti.

Also on this day in 1948 Joe DiMaggio became only the 8th player in major league history to reach the 300 home run mark. DiMaggio joins Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Mel Ott, Jimmie Foxx, Rogers Hornsby, Chuck Klein, and Hank Greenberg in the 300 home run club.

Finally on this day in 1923 in a move that future owner George Steinbrenner would have made 23 year old shortstop Roger Peckinpaugh was hired to replace Frank Chance as the manager of the team. Peckinpaugh lasted a whole 20 games and went 10-10 for the 6th place Yankees squad.

Game Thread: New York Yankees @ Tampa Bay Rays 9/15

Thanks goodness for the Tampa Bay Rays, right? The Yankees have done much better against the Rays this season than they have against teams like the Toronto Blue Jays. New York will look to continue that streak of good play against Tampa Bay tonight when they face off in the second game of their three game set inside Tropicana Field. Tonight the Yankees welcome Adam Warren back to the starting rotation as he takes on Jake Odorizzi of the Rays. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network, MLB Network and MLB TV.

New York has an off day looming, the final off day of the regular season, and a tough stretch of games coming up as the 2015 season comes to an end. To see the Yankees one more time this season live inside Yankee Stadium click the Yankees Tickets link at the top of the blog, we appreciate the support of the blog and it helps us to keep this thing going. Also we appreciate every one of our Twitter followers so if you’d like to be one of them head over and give @GreedyStripes a follow. Thank you.

Warren is back in the rotation and back on the mound for the Yankees, a wrong has been righted. Go Yankees!

Alex Rodriguez Has Bone Bruise in Knee

According to a Yankee official Alex Rodriguez underwent an MRI on the left knee Tuesday in Tampa that uncovered a bone bruise.

— George A. King III (@GeorgeAKingIII) September 15, 2015

Alex Rodriguez has a bone bruise in his knee that he suffered after tagging up from third base and scoring on Sunday against the Toronto Blue Jays. A Rod played last night after suffering the injury Saturday afternoon and laced a game-tying double in the ninth inning before being pinch run for. A Rod sure looked healthy when he jumped up and down celebrating after Slade Heathcott's home run and when he hit the double so I wouldn't think that the injury is too serious.

The good news for New York is he is in the lineup tomorrow and faces a potential four days off with the off day on Thursday and the three-game series with the National League's New York Mets over the weekend. Stay tuned.

September Call Ups Ruining Rob Manfred’s Pace of Play Rules

The talk of the 2015 offseason was the new Commissioner of Major League Baseball Rob Manfred and his new pace of play rules that he wanted to implement into the game. Sure the talks between the United States and Cuba and how the new found diplomacy between the two countries and how they would impact the game came up more than once and the potential reinstatement for Pete Rose was a hot ticket item for a minute but pace of play dominated much of the offseason. Pace of play started out great cutting nearly 15 minutes off of every game with attendance steadily climbing across Major League Baseball until the calendar turned to September and September call ups put a big monkey wrench into the whole operation.

More players equal more pitchers, more pitching changes and subsequently longer games unfortunately. That’s where we’re at and no amount of pace of play rules, clocks in the ballpark or anything short of a radical change can stop. Prior to the month of September you could watch an average MLB game in 2:55 but ever since the calendar turned over to September you’re spending at least 3:03 of your life watching a game, and it’s only 9/15. There is always the option of having 40 active players and having to name, just to throw a number out there, 26 active players for the game but that may be something the MLB Players Association fights against tooth and nail.

If Manfred is truly serious about speeding up the process of these games we may see even more radical changes to the game this offseason. I’m neither for nor against these changes to be honest, I am completely indifferent to be frank, as long as I can still recognize this game that I know and love from season to season.

USA Today’s Weekly MLB Power Rankings

We all know it’s coming, the fall from the rankings that the New York Yankees are most likely to endure. After losing two straight from Baltimore the team followed that up with three straight losses to the Toronto Blue Jays inside Yankee Stadium. The Yankees did win the first game of the Baltimore series and the last game of the Toronto series but I have a sneaking suspicion that the rankings and their God’s are not going to be kind to the Bronx Bombers this week.

Let’s not delay the inevitable, the Yankees position. New York fell one spot this week to fall all the way down to the #9 position. The rest of the American League East can be found at the #3 position with the Toronto Blue Jays, the #16 position with the Tampa Bay Rays, the #17 position with the Baltimore Orioles and the #19 position with the surging Boston Red Sox.

The biggest rise of the week goes to the New York Mets who rose four spots all the way to the #5 position while the biggest fall of the week went to the Washington Nationals after the team fell three spots to the #14 position. The Top Five teams according to the rankings are the #1 St. Louis Cardinals, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Kansas City Royals and the New York Mets. The five worst teams according to the rankings are the #26 Cincinnati Reds, the #27 Miami Marlins, the #28 Colorado Rockies, the #29 Philadelphia Phillies and the #30 Atlanta Braves.

It’s been a tough week for certain teams in the pennant chase and it’s been a great week for others, it’s just unfortunate that the Yankees were on the bad side of things this week. No worries, the team can regain that #6 or #8 spot they have held for most of the season with a good week this week, they just have to play like they want it and play like they mean it. See if they can do it next Tuesday when we bring you these rankings once again.

Game Preview: New York Yankees @ Tampa Bay Rays 9/15

The New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays will continue their three game set tonight inside Tropicana Field with another great pitching matchup. It seems like every time these two teams face off head-to-head the Yankees face off with Jake Odorizzi and Chris Archer, it never fails. Even if the series was a two-game series it seems like New York would face these two men and they face them again this series with Archer going tomorrow and Odorizzi going tonight in Tampa. Opposing Odorizzi will be Adam Warren who will be making his return to the starting rotation as a sixth man. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network, MLB Network and MLB TV.

• Warren has spent the entire second half of the 2015 season in the Yankees bullpen after starting the season in the starting rotation and the right-hander will make his return to the rotation tonight inside Tropicana Field. Warren is being plugged into the rotation after the Yankees learned they would be without Nathan Eovaldi for the remainder of the regular season as he battles with a bout of right elbow inflammation.

• Odorizzi is fresh off an impressive start against the Detroit Tigers where he allowed just six hits and one walk with six strikeouts and no runs allowed in a victory. Odorizzi notched his seventh win of the season last time out and looks for his eight win tonight inside Tropicana Field where he has posted a 3-3 record and a 2.61 ERA this season in 10 starts.

After a rough week and weekend facing off with American League East foes the Yankees need to beat up on the Rays a bit. That’s no easy task, especially lately as Tampa has played much better with their backs against the wall and with the playoffs on the line, but good teams beat the team’s they are supposed to beat and the Yankees are supposed to beat the Rays. Now do it. Go Yankees!

Is the Binder About to Choke Away the Playoffs?

Over the weekend the New York Yankees were left with a lot of “what if’s” and a lot more questions than answers as the team lost three games of four against the Toronto Blue Jays. What if Brett Gardner had taken that extra base on the wild pitch before Brian McCann’s game-tying single in the first game of the double-header. What if Luis Severino didn’t suffer a cut to his calf that no one seems to know how or when it happened and actually had control of his pitches Friday night? What if Joe Girardi’s binder didn’t manage scared and potentially choke away the playoffs for the club?

How about these; What if Joe Girardi hadn’t pinch run for Alex Rodriguez in that same inning while he was on first base and the bases were loaded? Well if he hadn’t the Yankees would have had Alex up with the game on the line and not Dustin Ackley. What if Girardi hadn’t once again pinch ran for Brian McCann once again with the game on the line? The Yankees wouldn’t have been without Mark Teixeira due to injury and their two other best hitters in McCann and Rodriguez because of asinine, in my opinion, punch running opportunities.

What if so many times this season Girardi didn’t go to Dellin Betances and/or Andrew Miller with 5+ run leads thus making them unavailable for the next game or the game after that? Also, what if the last Masahiro Tanaka start before his shutout on Sunday against the Toronto Blue Jays Girardi had used Betances when the game was close or ties rather than running out Caleb Cotham, James Pazos and whoever else he ran out there that subsequently wasted a gem and cost the Yankees a win?

And by the way, #WheresRefsnyder?

Now I’m not calling for Girardi’s job or Brian Cashman’s head here, I’m not, but if so many want to play the “what if” game then I am going to play the devil’s advocate game. The problem is not Joe Girardi, he showed as a manager of the Miami Marlins that he could be a great manager and use his head, the problem is that damn iPad that he carrier around that used to be a three-ring binder that is merely labeled “the binder.” Ditch the binder and go back to using your head, baseball IQ and instincts Girardi. We liked you better that way. 

Quick Hit: Adam Warren’s 2015 Season as a Starter

Adam Warren was thrust into the New York Yankees starting rotation this season after a Spring Training injury to Chris Capuano left the Yankees shorthanded in the rotation. Warren did quite well as a starter for the Yankees and simply lost out on a numbers game in the rotation. The Yankees bullpen desperately needed a reliable 7^th inning guy at the time and especially needed a proven right-handed power arm and Warren was it.

Warren was the best man for the job to solidify the rotation at the beginning of the season, he was the best man for the job to solidify the bullpen in the middle of the season and he’s the best man for the job to save the Yankees rotation, and potentially their season, this time around. Here are his numbers as a starter this season and the results for the team. His record is in no way, shape or form indicative of how well he has pitched as a starter.

Rk	Date		Opp	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	Pit	GB	FB
1	Apr 11		BOS	L,4-8	GS-6	L(0-1)	5.1	5	2	1	2	1	0	1.69	98	12	7
2	Apr 17	@	TBR	W,5-4	GS-4		4.0	6	4	4	2	2	2	4.82	80	6	9
3	Apr 22	@	DET	W,13-4	GS-6	W(1-1)	5.2	5	4	4	4	3	0	5.40	101	8	10
4	Apr 27		TBR	W,4-1	GS-6		5.2	5	1	1	0	6	0	4.35	81	4	12
May			Opp	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	Pit	GB	FB
5	May 3	@	BOS	W,8-5	GS-6	W(2-1)	5.2	4	4	4	2	2	0	4.78	100	10	8
6	May 8		BAL	W,5-4	GS-5		4.2	7	2	2	3	2	0	4.65	89	10	7
7	May 13	@	TBR	L,2-3	GS-7	L(2-2)	7.0	7	3	3	1	7	1	4.50	94	7	12
8	May 20	@	WSN	L,2-3	GS-7	L(2-3)	6.1	4	3	2	4	4	2	4.26	98	10	9
9	May 26		KCR	W,5-1	GS-7	W(3-3)	6.1	2	1	1	0	5	1	3.91	88	8	8
10	May 31	@	OAK	L,0-3	GS-7	L(3-4)	7.0	6	2	2	1	4	1	3.75	99	9	12
June			Opp	Rslt	Inngs	Dec	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA	Pit	GB	FB
11	Jun 6		LAA	W,8-2	GS-7	W(4-4)	6.2	4	2	2	3	2	1	3.64	105	9	12
12	Jun 14	@	BAL	W,5-3	GS-5		4.2	6	3	3	3	5	0	3.78	92	5	10
13	Jun 19		DET	W,7-2	GS-8	W(5-4)	8.0	7	2	2	0	7	0	3.62	110	11	10
14	Jun 25	@	HOU	L,0-4	GS-6	L(5-5)	5.2	5	3	2	1	4	0	3.59	89	7	11

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table