Eleven Years and Counting...

  

Photo Credit: Corey Sipkin, NY Post

Rays cast Yankees aside, ending Pinstriped aspirations…

Well, that sucked.

If the Yankees had gotten any help from good health this year, they would be in the AL Championship Series, preparing to host the Houston Astros tonight in San Diego. I think the biggest disappointment is to miss the ALCS by one bad pitch. The path to the World Series this year might be the easiest it ever would have been for the Yankees. I don’t say that because I think the window is closing but the promising younger teams will only get better, increasing the competition so that you don’t have a team with a losing record and a history of cheating playing, sitting in the ALCS right now, for the right to advance to the World Series. The Yankees had a golden opportunity to exact revenge on Astros for their unethical play but sadly we must put our trust and faith in the Rays to do it.

Clearly, the Yankees must do SOMETHING about starting pitching. It will be an on-going Achilles heel unless there can be stronger and more reliable arms behind Gerrit Cole. Starting Deivi Garcia in Game 2 was a clear sign the Yankees simply did not have better options. After the high of Gerrit Cole pitching Game 1, I was deflated when I heard Garcia would get the ball in Game 2. Garcia has been a bright spot this season but the moment was too big for even him. Still, falling behind 2-1 in the series but winning the crucial fourth game, you had to like the Yankees’ chances for the fifth and final game with Cole on the mound. Unfortunately, the bats could not deliver and Year 1 of the massive Cole contract is in the books.

Photo Credit: Corey Sipkin, NY Post

As much as I’ve wanted the Yankees to bring Masahiro Tanaka back, he didn’t have a good post-season. If he had performed like he has in past Octobers, it is very possible the Tampa Bay Rays would be the team sitting at home right now.  The disappointing playoff starts have reduced my optimism the Yankees will or should bring back Masa. With the talk the Yankees will reduce spending, like all teams, after the lost revenue of the 2020 season, it is a near certainty the Yankees won’t make a big splash to land a number two starter like Trevor Bauer. Instead, it will be an off-season of looking for hidden gems ready to blossom.  It is clear Gerrit Cole needs help. He cannot do it by himself.  Whether it is Deivi Garcia and/or Clarke Schmidt or other young Yankee prospects, they need to take it to the next level. But the entirety of improvement in the starting rotation should not fall solely on the young arms. It needs to be a combination of veteran influence and exciting youthful talent and enthusiasm…just not as veteran as someone like J.A. Happ. 

I don’t have a grand plan for the off-season. The Yankees pay Brian Cashman and his henchmen a lot of money to make those decisions. However, I do know the Yankees must re-sign DJ LeMahieu. As one of the team’s best players the last two years and the 2020 AL Batting Champion, the Yankees cannot afford to let the superior defender and consummate teammate depart.

Photo Credit: Jim McIsaac, Getty Images

I’ve heard many fans call for the head of Aaron Boone. While I feel he regressed in 2020, the fact is there is not someone better out there. I respect Boone’s clubhouse skills and I think he will show the improvement evident in 2019 in future years. 2020 was just a weird, freaky, ridiculous and deadly year. Except for maybe the wave of the ten-game winning streak, there was never truly a time that I felt the 2020 Yankees had that “it” quality in terms of championship aspirations.  So, as disappointed as I was to see Mike Brosseau and the Rays beat the Yankees, I cannot say I was surprised. 

I don’t want to point fingers at the Yankees’ bench coach, Carlos Mendoza, who served as Boone’s right-hand man for the first time this season. Perhaps former bench coach Josh Bard was more valuable than what we could observe from the outside looking in. Maybe Mendy is not the right guy to offer choices to Boone in the heat of battle. I like the coach and I am not asking for his firing but maybe a different role is in order. I’ve always felt Boone would be better served by having an experienced manager as his bench coach. Not that I think Buck Showalter would accept that type of position, but he’s the type of guy I have in mind. Okay, maybe I am pointing my finger at Mendoza but I do believe the Yankees need to make the tough decisions to put Aaron Boone in the best possible position to succeed. 

As for Brian Cashman, he is not going anywhere unless a team like the New York Mets throw an overabundance of cash to Cash. I kind of like the idea of maybe bringing back former assistant GM Billy Eppler who was fired after the season as GM of the Los Angeles Angels (of Anaheim) by owner Arte Moreno. I thought Eppler did a decent job despite the handcuffs placed on him by Moreno. He could never get the pitching to support Mike Trout but I put that more on Moreno than Eppler. The obstacle for Eppler coming back is the apparent stranglehold on Eppler’s old position by trusted Cashman lieutenant, Tim Naehring. Eppler would most likely have to take a lesser role so I think he’s probably bound for another organization, maybe somewhere closer to his Southern CA home.

There are lots of decisions to be made if the Yankees intend to rebound with a vengeance in 2021. It will be another interesting (and strange off-season) with the pandemic continuing to rage across the globe and an impending battle for the White House next month. Although unrelated to baseball, these are factors that can influence significant financial decisions and commitments by all MLB teams.

If there is one guy on the roster who must improve headed into next season, it is Gleyber Torres. I am not advocate for trading him or, at this point, moving him back to second base despite the availability of so many talented shortstops. I guess I’d change my opinion if the Yankees let LeMahieu get away, but until then, I like DJ at second and not the rover he played during his first season with the Yankees. Gio Urshela has proven his worth as the starting third baseman and same with Luke Voit at first. I will always be enamored with having a guy like Francisco Lindor at short, but realistically, it will never happen. I’d rate it more likely the Yankees would go after a guy like Andrelton Simmons.

Not sure what I think about Gary Sanchez. I’ve always given him my support but after this season, given how he was first cast aside by Gerrit Cole and then later in the post-season by Aaron Boone, I don’t think he has a future in Pinstripes anymore. I certainly do not want Kyle Higashioka as the starting catcher (sorry Higgy fans). Options do seem limited, however, especially if the Yankees are looking to cut payroll. A move away from El Gary may not bring in a J.T. Realmuto to serve as his replacement. Keep expectations low seems to be the theme this year with the monetary constraints expected as a result of the pandemic.

I’d buy out Brett Gardner. Sorry. I can’t say enough about how great of a Yankee he has been. In his final game against the Rays a few days ago, he made a magnificent catch in left. But it is time to pass the baton. Clint Frazier should be the undisputed left fielder next season, with support by Mike Tauchman (or someone else if the Yankee can find an upgrade). Time to give Gardy a gold watch, pat him on the back, give him his day at Yankee Stadium and wish him well in his future endeavors.

Photo Credit: NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

I am hopeful and optimistic for the 2021 despite my concerns noted above. I do think the Yankees will make the right decisions. I don’t see any team going hog wild in free agency this year and I trust the Yankees to find the undiscovered gems. The monster teams growing in San Diego, Chicago (White Sox), and Toronto concern me but the Yankees are a resilient organization with an eye for talent. There are more Gio Urshela’s to be found…the Yankees just need to move quicker before an intelligent team like the Rays can snatch them up.

As for the 2020 playoffs, it sickens me to think the Houston Astros are a series away from the World Series. I hate the Tampa Bay Rays so the ALCS is truly about the lesser of two evils. I’d rather see the Rays (ugh) advance than the pathetic Astros. The Los Angeles Dodgers are my favorite NL team so the decision of which team to support is easy. So, win or lose, this is the order of teams I’d support for winning this year’s World Series:

1.       Los Angeles Dodgers

2.       Atlanta Braves

3.       Tampa Bay Rays

4.       Houston Cheaters

The NLCS should be a classic. The Dodgers have a great team but so do the Braves. I think this is the National League’s year to win the World Series so in my opinion, the winner of the Dodgers/Braves series will be the World Series champion. As long as the season ends with no celebrations by the Rays or Astros, I will be happy.    

Before I go, I’d like to say a final farewell to the great Edward Charles “Whitey” Ford.  The Chairman of the Board, one of the all-time greatest Yankee Legends, passed away on October 8^th at age 91. He suffered from the effects of Alzheimer’s disease in recent years. He was apparently at his Lake Success, NY home watching the Yankees play when he died. No jokes. This is a sad time for the Yankees. I recall my feelings of disappointment when the 2019 Old Timer’s Day at Yankee Stadium did not include Ford. I had feared we were nearing the end of the road for the ten-time All-Star and six-time World Series champion. I never got to see Ford pitch but as a Yankees fan, his historic accomplishments are why the Yankees are such a wonderful collection of Legends who stand above all other teams. Rest in Peace, Whitey. We thank you and we will miss you…

Photo Credit: Ray Stubblebine, REUTERS

As always, Go Yankees! 

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. 

ALDS Game 2 - New York Yankees @ Tampa Bay Rays

 The New York Yankees, behind the duo of Cole World and Higgy, sent a huge message to the Tampa Bay Rays last night in Game One of the ALDS, sending Blake Snell and company home crying with a 9-3 loss to take a 1-0 series lead. Tonight for Game Two a little history, and maybe a little animosity, will be on full display as Deivi Garcia becomes the Yankees youngest postseason starter in their franchise's history at 21 years and 140 days old. One thing of note to watch out for in this one is the bad blood that still exists between these two clubs. Giancarlo Stanton put the game out of reach last night with a big grand slam, a monster shot that he kind of posed for, that the Rays pitching, specifically John Curtiss, seemingly took offense to. Will there be retaliation tonight?

Deivi Garcia made six starts this season, posting a 4.98 ERA along the way, and will make the biggest start of his young career tonight for the Bombers. Deivi will surpass Whitey Ford (1950 World Series) as the youngest starter in Yankees postseason history when he takes the mound tonight for the Yankees. 

Tyler Glasnow has already faced the Yankees three times this season, which can only help the Bronx Bombers offense in my opinion, posting a 1-1 record with a 3.77 ERA with 22 strikeouts in just 14.1 innings pitched. The Yankees have been able to get to Glasnow, take their walks, and get him out of the game while getting into the Rays bullpen, which is undoubtedly the plan again tonight. 

The game will be played at 8:10 pm ET inside San Diego's Petco Park and can be seen nationally on TBS. 

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.