Roberts' 9th Inning Homer Wasted in Extras as Yankees Drop Third Straight to Rays, 4-3

Going into this season's trade deadline, it's common knowledge that the Yankees have a lot of holes to fill. 

With Michael Pineda set to miss most of summer and the entire infield struggling to hit above .250, it's obvious that a solid starter and a reliable bat would be much appreciated, although after tonight the Yanks just might have one more kind of player to acquire.

A long reliever.

Yes, that notion sounds a little dumb, but after Jose Ramirez blew another game this evening it just might become legitimate, as the Bombers fell to the Rays again, 4-3.

To start off his top of the twelfth outing, Ramirez actually retired the always-dangerous Evan Longoria and James Loney, a success that quickly went for nothing, as the youngster would go on to walk Brandon Guyer and surrender an RBI Single to Logan Forsythe that broke the tie.

That sudden and painful collapse wasted a pair of scoreless innings the Yankees had gotten from the struggling Shawn Kelley, as well as a huge, game-continuing solo home run from Brian Roberts in the bottom of the ninth. 

Prior to those seemingly momentum-shifting occurrences, David Phelps also gave the Bombers 5.2 frames of two-run ball (solo homers from Matt Joyce and Kevin Kiermaier), almost matching the line of the Rays' Chris Archer, who, besides an Brett Gardner triple and Derek Jeter groundout in New York's half of the third, was great in his 21-out performance.

Still, as I said earlier, everything the Yanks did in this one ended up being worthless, as they dropped to an ugly 2-7 in their last nine contests, 2.5 games out of the division lead, and 3 games out of the second and final wild card spot, again proving that things are not actually getting better for them.

Luis Severino Named FSL Pitcher of the Week

RHP Luis Severino Named FSL Pitcher of the Week

Tampa, Fla. - The Florida State League named Tampa Yankees RHP Luis Severino Pitcher of the Week today. This honor was for games played June 23 - June 29, 2014.                 Severino pitched on June 25th and got his first Tampa Yankees win. He had a quality start throwing six innings with six K's. He didn't allow a run or a hit and only gave up one walk for an ERA of 0.00. Severino joined the Tampa Yankees roster on June 20th after he was promoted from the Single-A Charleston RiverDogs.                      This is the second year of professional baseball for Severino. He is ranked No. 9 by Baseball America for Top Prospects in the Yankees organization.           The Tampa Yankees are the Single-A Advanced Affiliate of the New York Yankees. For more information about the Tampa Yankees call (813) 673-3055 or visitwww.tybaseball.com.

Game Thread: Yankees vs. Rays 6/30

Welcome to tonight's open thread, it's game time ladies and gentleman. The New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays will play on this last day of June tonight at Yankee Stadium in the first of a three game set in the Bronx. The Yankees will send David Phelps to the mound to face off with Chris Archer for the Rays. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network, ESPN, MLB TV, and can be heard on the radio with WFAN.

Don't forget to snag some Yankees tickets for this weekend's series with the Rays by using our ticket partners right here on the blog. Follow @GreedyStripes on Twitter or find us on Facebook by searching for The Greedy Pinstripes to interact with myself and the rest of the writers. You can also interact with Yankees fans across the country by dropping us a line in the comments section of the site.

Enjoy the game Yankees family and enjoy the rest of your night.

Yankees Tried To Eat $4.5 Million To Trade Ichiro

According to those anonymous sources and leaked information and all those easy cop outs the New York Yankees tried to trade Ichiro Suzuki to the Houston Astros before this season and were willing to eat $4.5 million of his $6.5 million in salary owed to him in 2014. The Yankees also reportedly tried to trade Chris Stewart to Houston before shipping him off to Pittsburgh for little to nothing, his worth.

The Astros have acknowledged the leak of information, seen HERE, and the FBI is supposedly on the case. Scary stuff but wow would I love for the Yankees info to be released.

The Yankees Have One Job Tonight... Meme

We have one job tonight, beat this man. This man, Chris Archer of the Tampa Bay Rays, has a 2-0 record and a 0.60 ERA inside Yankee Stadium for his career. Time to change that, don't you think? We're on ESPN for a second consecutive game so hello mute button, unless we bomb Archer. Let's do it.

6/30 Yankees Game Preview vs. Tampa Bay Rays

The New York Yankees will start a three game set at Yankee Stadium tonight with the last place Tampa Bay Rays in an AL East battle. The Yankees will send David Phelps to the mound to face off with Yankee Killer and Yankee Stadium lover Chris Archer for the Rays. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network, ESPN, MLB TV, and can be heard on the radio with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman on WFAN.

Phelps was coming off consecutive wins before the Blue Jays hit him around in his last start in Toronto. Phelps allowed eight hits and six runs in five innings in a no decision. Phelps did strike out seven batters though and looks to start a new winning streak tonight in the Bronx.

Archer is coming off his fifth loss of the season after allowing five runs in seven innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Archer is a Yankee killer though and loved the new Yankee Stadium owning a career 2-0 record with a 0.60 ERA in the Bronx.

Get your tickets for this game or any Yankees game right here on the blog by clicking this link. We offer no fees and great rates without the shipping costs associated with those other guys. Get yours now!

Go Yankees!!

Cashman Wants Pitching, We Need Hitting

On more than one occasion we here at the blog were called "silly" and "out of touch" when we mentioned making a trade for a bat, namely Martin Prado. "The Yankees need pitching" they would say and the offense will be fine eventually, well it's basically July and eventually is going to be too late before we know it.

The Yankees have a substantial negative run differential and have been blown out more times than I would like to remember and count. The pitching staff is still second in the American League with a 10.5 WAR according to Fangraphs, although Baseball Reference has the Yankees listed at an 8.8 WAR for fifth best in the AL. I said all that to say this, even if we're fifth best in the league without CC Sabathia, Ivan Nova, Michael Pineda, Shawn Kelley for spurts, and a revolving door in the bullpen I don't think the pitching is the ultimate problem.

The bats are cold and it seems like every one of our big named acquisitions not named Jacoby Ellsbury are flirting with the Mendoza Line. The Yankees offense is 11th in the AL in WAR. We need pitching but we need multiple additions at the bat. Cashman, Yankees family, pay attention. The bats are in trouble.

What to watch for in this series against the Tampa Bay Rays

We all know what to expect when the Bombers play the Rays, usually 2 things happen:

1. There will be a pitching duel at least once in this series
2. Evan Longoria will hit a home run

Now that we got that out of the way, what else is there?

For the first game on our hands we have Chris Archer vs David Phelps. Seems innocent enough, usually Archer dominates the Yanks, albeit a very small sample.

The main thing I'll be watching for this whole series is the middle game of the series, the starters for that game are David Price and Hiroki Kuroda. Here are a few reasons:

-It'll be crucial to see if Kuroda can continue some semblance of what he has been pitching like recently. I think the days of last year Kuroda are over. We may get glimpses from time to time, but Girardi isn't putting him on the Andy Pettitte pitch count for fun and games. He is trying to prevent another September melt down.
-This is just pure speculation on my part, but say in this game, David Price shuts out the Yankees in the Bronx. Sure, we've seen Price do this a ton of times to the Yanks, not shut outs, but just complete dominance at times. With the state of the current rotation, I can't be the only one that thinks Cashman or Hal will see this and overreact. It wouldn't be the first time either for an overreaction from the front office.

Personally, I don't think the Yankees have enough attractive pieces to land Price over the Red Sox. But, weirder things have happened in baseball and it wouldn't shock me in the slightest to see this happen. I wouldn't want it to happen, I've been waiting for this team to fall back to Earth since the beginning of last season. This team just baffles me that they stay at .500.

All that said, everybody enjoy the series!

The Yankees stand 2GB the Blue Jays for 1st place and .5GB the O's for 2nd place. Need to start racking up wins before the All-Star Break.

Cashman Looking to Make Additions to the Starting Rotation

If you've watched any Yankees games lately, you know that their starting rotation's in trouble.

Their ace, Masahiro Tanaka, is no longer getting run support, while minor league call up Chase Whitley's beginning to fall apart. 

Because of those two and probably other issues, the Yanks are currently looking to acquire a reliable hurler, something that could be difficult with their weak farm system.

Still, they're trying.

"I'm looking to make some additions if I can," team GM Brian Cashman told The Newark Star Ledger's Brendan Kuty this weekend. "So I'd like to try to do things before (CC Sabathia and Michael Pineda) get back if possible. But I've already been trying. There's a reason we haven't done anything. It's not because of a lack of phone calls. But we'll see."

After throwing a rehab game with the High-A Tampa Yankees on Saturday, Sabathia stated that he felt "really good," a sign that he could be back in the next two weeks.

Unfortunately, Pineda's future doesn't look nearly as bright (he'll be out until at least August after suffering multiple setbacks), making the need for a new arm that much more dire, as the Bombers simply aren't winning contests anymore.

Five Realistic Yankees Trade Targets

The New York Yankees likely don't have the resources to acquire a David Price or Jeff Samardzija unfortunately but there are five starting pitchers I find to be realistic for the Yankees to be looking at. Obviously these guys will not knock Masahiro Tanaka off his ace pedestal but any of these five guys could really help the Yankees rotation right now.

Ian Kennedy, we all remember the name. Once a highly touted Yankee prospect and the last to make the majors in the same season he was drafted. Kennedy has a 9.7 K/9 which could help him switch from a pitcher friendly park in Petco back to Yankee Stadium.

The Rockies Jorge De La Rosa has struggled this season but it somehow may be easier for him to pitch in Yankee Stadium than it was in Coors Field. De La Rosa has a 4.78 ERA so he may not be the biggest Yankee upgrade but he would easily be the cheapest, plus he's left handed.

Brandon McCarthy gives up too many home runs for Yankee Stadium but sports a 9.67 K/9 to make up for it a bit. The Diamondbacks want to dump his $9 million in salary so he could also come cheap.

Jason Hammel is no Jeff Samardzija but he is solid and a free agent at the end of the season. Hammel has AL East experience and could fit into the Yankees price range prospects wise.

Cliff Lee is hurt and might not have much time to prove he is healthy before the trading deadline. He is high priced and an aging veteran, the Yankees forte. Plus we have a history of stealing salary dumps for nothing from the Philadelphia Phillies, see Bobby Abreu.

The Martin Prado Fire Is Heating Up & It Started Here

The Martin Prado to the New York Yankees rumors started here when my friend Bryan Van Dusen wrote about in a piece a few weeks back, see HERE and see below:

While Prado's batting line so far in 2014 is not impressive (.274/.318/.377, with only 1 SB in 2 attempts), he's hit pretty well this month (.307/.338/.427). Along with having a solid bat, Martin's versatility would work well in New York, since last season he played over 200 innings at both 2B and LF, while playing almost 900 innings at 3B.

Improving in the infield may not be the Yankees most pressing need, but Yangervis Solarte's fall from grace and Brian Roberts being... well... Brian Roberts, should make Brian Cashman take a hard look at Prado.

I then touched on it and tweaked the idea a little turning my attention to Prado replacing the Yankees Kelly Johnson and not Brian Roberts, seen HERE and below:

The first reason for not wanting Prado to replace Roberts is this is a typical Yankees move signing a veteran guy long term to block a prospect like Rob Refsnyder. The second reason is I do not believe Alex Rodriguez can be effective in 2015 after basically sitting out for two consecutive seasons late into his 30's. The third reason is Kelly Johnson needs to go and go now. Roberts plays adequate defense and is a switch hitter, if worse came to worse for Roberts he could be a pretty damn good bench guy for the Yankees. Johnson is basically a bench guy for the Yankees and is not having a great time at it.

Johnson was brought in because of his versatility and potential for pop and RBI's at the bottom of the order. Johnson has played 810 games at second base, 133 games in left field, 43 games at third base, and 27 games at first base in his career making him a good guy to have around. Prado on the other hand has played 374 games at third base, 252 games in left field and one game in right field, 245 games at second base,  56 games at first base, and 16 games as a shortstop. Losing the versatility of Johnson is not only replaced but improved upon if you add Mr. Prado.

Many thought we here at The Greedy Pinstripes were just pulling this awful idea out of our behinds and then Pinstripe Alley, one of the biggest and best Yankee blogs, wrote a piece on it. Now The New York Daily News and Billy Madden wrote about it. Now it's on MLB Trade Rumors. The fire is spreading, remember where you heard it first.

Can David Price Be The Yankees New Ichiro?

Anyone else constantly refreshing MLB Trade Rumors hoping that David Price gets traded before tomorrow night so the Yankees don't have to face him AND Chris Archer in the same series? Maybe it's just me. That line of thinking got me wondering, what if the Yankees pulled a 2012 when they traded for Ichiro Suzuki while in Seattle to play the Mariners?The cost would be substantial but the immediate impact and upgrade over Vidal Nuno would be even more substantial.

This is a pipe dream but wouldn't it be nice?

Whitley, Bullpen Hit Hard in Another Rubber Game Loss

While he was undeniably good in his first 7 starts, it's become more and more obvious that Yankees Pitcher Chase Whitley's beginning to run out of gas. 

The 25-year-old rookie, who went 3-0 with a 2.56 ERA before falling to the Blue Jays last Monday, didn't look sharp at all tonight, surrendering 5 earned runs in 4+ innings.

After his departure, the Yanks' bats did come back a little, but in the end, couldn't make up for the youngster's struggles, as they fell in ugly fashion to the Red Sox 8-5.

For the first two frames, the argument could be made that Whitley wasn't terrible, although a top of the third, three-run home run by David Ortiz definitely changed that idea, as the Sox took an early 4-0 lead off the right-hander.

In their following at-bats, the Bombers would pull to within one thanks to a single by Derek Jeter and a pair of solo shots from Mark Teixeira and Carlos Beltran, but that trio of positives would eventually prove irrelevant, as Whitley and Shawn Kelley would hand that progress right back to Boston in its half of the fifth.

In that inning, the Sox would make it 7-3 on a two-run single from Dustin Pedroia and an unusual steal of home by Daniel Nava, pretty much making the Pinstripes look done.

Yes, they did sort of come back in their next turn when Brett Gardner doubled in Ichiro and Jacoby Ellsbury grounded another home, but due to the bullpen's lack of reliability they would end up being defeated, the sixth time that's happened in their last nine games.

As you probably already know, tonight's loss also cost them this seemingly winnable series, keeping them 2 games out of both the AL East lead and the final Wild Card spot.

In other words, this evening's failure is a deflating blow to the already scuffling Yankees, who will begin a trio of home contests with the last-place Rays tomorrow.

This Day In New York Yankees History 6/30

Cy Young showed why Major League Baseball would soon name their prestigious pitchers award after him, well that and leading the majors in wins and losses in his career, on this day in 1908 as Young no-hit the Highlanders 8-0. The 41 year old Red Sox pitcher would pitch his third no hitter of his career against the team that would soon be the New York Yankees.

On this day in 1961 Whitey Ford became the first American League pitcher to win eight games in one month. Ford would throw a complete game win over the Washington Senators as the Yankees would win 5-1. This would be the Yankees 22nd team victory in June, a great month.

Finally, on this day in 2002 the Yankees became the first team in the American League since the 1956 Chicago White Sox to have four infielders and a catcher on the All Star roster. Jason Giambi, Alfonso Soriano, and Jorge Posada were voted in by the fans and Derek Jeter and Robin Ventura were chosen by the AL manager Joe Torre.