Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Game Thread: New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox 9/19



And just like that it is game time here in the Bronx between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. In the middle game of this three-game set this week in the Bronx the Yankees will send Luis Severino out to the mound to face off with David Price for the Red Sox. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET inside Yankee Stadium and can be seen on the YES Network in New York, NESN in the Boston area, and on ESPN nationally. You can also follow along with the game on MLB TV, with the MLB At-Bat app, and by tuning into the Yankees radio broadcast on WFAN with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman.

Follow us on Twitter, @GreedyStripes, and “Like” us on Facebook, The Greedy Pinstripes, to keep up with us and the New York Yankees all season long. Enjoy the game, David Price sucks, and go Yankees!!

"Fans" Make Watching The Yankees Less Fun

Perhaps you've noticed that I have not been around much lately. Or maybe you did notice and have been perfectly okay with that. Either way, I thought I'd let you know what's been going on.

For starters, work has been crazy. One of the managers at our location went on a 17-day cruise to Alaska (yeah, I'm jealous), making another manager and I work 60+ hour weeks for a few weeks. I pretty much worked, ate, tried to keep up with the Yankees, and slept during that entire time.

Secondly, my wife and I celebrated our first anniversary by taking a vacation to the place I proposed to her. That vacation came a week after that other manager came back, so as soon as he returned any extra time I had went into making sure we were all set to go.

So right now is the first time in over a month that I've been able to sit down and think about writing anything.

Like I said, I've had to depend on Twitter to keep up with a lot of the things going on in the Yankees universe. I would say that's a good thing because you can get a lot of great up-to-the-minute information on Twitter. At the same time I'd say that's a bad thing because of the following...

I actually tweeted something like this a few days ago, but I wanted to say it here. Not only can I write a few more characters through the blog (at least without having to tweet a dozen or so times), but I didn't get much response to my tweet and I was curious what more people thought.

Here it is... I'm having less fun watching the Yankees this season than I have in a very long time. So long, in fact, that I actually don't remember having less fun. I just didn't want to say "ever", because that reeks of hyperbole, and I try to avoid that. Oh, and unlike what most people probably think, it's not because of how the team is performing.

Sure, it would be nice if the Yankees had a winning percentage of better than .545 since the All Star break. Do you realize six teams in the American League have a better winning percentage for the year than that? Hell, if the Yankees had a winning percentage of .545 this season they would likely miss the postseason.

But that's not it. I'm having so little fun watching the 2018 Yankees because of Twitter. Well, not because of the program itself, but because of so many Yankees fans on Twitter. Or as I like to say... "fans", because oftentimes they act more like haters than actual fans.

Now that I think of it, my Twitter problem is probably just like the Facebook one Daniel wrote about a little while ago. But alas...

I understand getting frustrated watching the Yanks when they have runners in scoring position, with one or zero outs, and fail to score. I understand getting ticked off when they commit two errors in the 9th inning, both of them coming on possible double-play balls that could end the game... against the Red Sox for God's sake!

Some of the decisions made by Aaron Boone, whether on the advice of his coaching staff or not, are baffling. Such as bringing in their lesser relievers when they are only down a run or so, instead of putting their better relievers out there to keep the game within striking distance (aka "punting"). Or batting Gleyber Torres, their second best hitter according to OPS+, at the bottom of the lineup where he's likely to get the least amount of plate appearances (note, their best hitter in terms of OPS+... Aaron Judge... was on the disabled list for nearly two months!).

So I get it... there are things to be upset about when it comes to this year's squad, and Twitter is a great place to vent those frustrations. But it goes beyond "venting", extending into an area of negativity that oftentimes stems from complete nonsense.

The 2018 Yankees do not suck. Sure, like I said earlier, being just five games over .500 since July 20th isn't great. However, having a .545 winning percentage is not horrible. Especially when they played .653 ball before the break, giving them the ability to be merely "okay" for nearly two months and still be in a good position to host the Wild Card game.

Here's more proof that the 2018 Yankees do not stink...

Batting
1st in home runs (37 homers ahead of 2nd place Oakland)
2nd most runs scored
2nd best wRC+
3rd best batting WAR
2nd best wOBA
4th best OPS+

Pitching
4th best ERA
3rd best ERA+
2nd best FIP
2nd best pitching WAR
2nd best K/9

By the way, some of you may scoff at the idea of even playing in the Wild Card game, let alone hosting it. But let me remind you that the main reason they are in that position is because the Boston Red Sox are in the midst of a historically great season. One that is seen very rarely in Major League Baseball. If it weren't for the Sox having such a season, there's a good chance the Yankees would be 2.5 games behind the Houston Astros to clinch the best record in the league.

Oh, and I guarantee you, if any other team but the Red Sox were having this type of season, the Yankees woes wouldn't be magnified nearly as much. Any problem the Yankees are having is multiplied ten-fold when they are looking up at Boston, whether it be for the division crown or in any one of the 19 games they play during the season.

I kind of get that, but many "fans" lose perspective when evaluating things.

Look at it this way...

There's a difference between criticizing someone you don't know and criticizing... say... your spouse. Real fans criticize the Yankees like you would a loved one, whereas "fans" criticize the Yankees like you would a complete stranger.

Don't fall into that latter group.


Follow me on Twitter at @BryanVanDusen

My IBWAA 2018 MLB Awards Ballot Reveal

2018 IBWAA Season Awards Ballot






AL MVP
AL CY YOUNG
AL ROY
AL MANAGER
AL RELIEVER
1
MOOKIE BETTS
CHRIS SALE
MIGUEL ANDUJAR
KEVIN CASH
EDWIN DIAZ
2
JOSE RAMIREZ
IAN SNELL
GLEYBER TORRES
BOB MELVIN
CRAIG KIMBREL
3
MIKE TROUT
LUIS SEVERINO
SHOHEI OTANI
ALEX CORA
AROLDIS CHAPMAN
4
JD MARTINEZ
JUSTIN VERLANDER

5
FRANCISCO LINDOR
COREY KLUBER

6
MATT CHAPMAN

7
AARON JUDGE

8
JOSE ALTUVE

9
GIANCARLO STANTON

10
CHRIS SALE







NL MVP
NL CY YOUNG
NL ROY
NL MANAGER
NL RELIEVER
1
NOLAN ARENADO
JACOB DEGROM
RONALD ACUNA
CRAIG COUNSELL
KENLEY JANSEN
2
FREDDIE FREEMAN
MAX SCHERZER
JUAN SOTO
GABE KAPLER
FELIPE VAZQUEZ
3
LORENZO CAIN
AARON NOLA
BRIAN ANDERSON
BRIAN SNITKER
RAISEL IGLESIAS
4
JAVIER BAEZ
PATRICK CORBIN

5
MATT CARPENTER
ZACK GREINKE

6
CHRISTIAN YELICH

7
PAUL GOLDSCHMIDT

8
EUGENIO SUAREZ

9
JACOB DEGROM

10
MAX SCHERZER


Game Preview: New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox 9/19



The New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox will continue their series and their rivalry tonight in the Bronx with the middle game of their three-game set. In the start tonight the Yankees will send Luis Severino to the mound to face off with David Price for the Red Sox. This game has all the makings of being really fun for the Yankees and their fans, or really, really frustrating, so let’s find out which one it is as we get to it here in the Bronx.

Severino looked better in his last start despite being pulled after throwing just 83 pitches. Severino was dealing against the Minnesota Twins with two outs in the sixth inning before being pulled by manager Aaron Boone. Since July 12 the Yankees right-hander has posted a 3-6 record with a 6.43 ERA which may have been the reason for the premature exit from the game.


Price has been spectacular for the Red Sox over the last two months including a 5-0 record with a 1.56 ERA in his last nine starts since the All-Star break. Price, however, has struggled against the Yankees and especially struggled inside Yankee Stadium since joining the Red Sox to the tune of an 0-5 record and a 10.44 ERA in five starts.

The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET inside Yankee Stadium and can be seen on the YES Network in New York, NESN in the Boston area, and on ESPN nationally. You can also follow along with the game on MLB TV, with the MLB At-Bat app, and by tuning into the Yankees radio broadcast on WFAN with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman.


Enjoy the game, make David Price say uncle, and go Yankees!!

Hello… Injuries Didn’t Matter



Good morning Yankees family and welcome back to the blog. Trust me, Yankees family, it pains me to even type out this sentence… but Jared Carrabis was right. If you don’t know who Jared Carrabis is, he is the writer for Barstool Sports that covers the Boston Red Sox. He is a douche bag that loves to rile up Yankees fans for exposure, for clicks, and for fun. The worst part is, it works in most cases. Not with me, but that is for another blog post and another day. One post he made recently actually made a little sense to me, and it was a post calling out the Yankees fans who blamed injuries for their struggles this season and used it as an excuse as to why the Red Sox were winning the division and not the Yankees.

Here is his tweet that I am transcribing, because why give him THAT much notoriety by embedding it?

The Red Sox (27) have had more DL stints than the Yankees (23) this season, resulting in 1,185 games missed by 19 players on the Red Sox to just 20 players and 1,088 days missed for the Yankees. The Red Sox lead the Yankees by 11.5 games (at the time of this tweet).

Now I did not stat check this by any means, but I checked the comments section and no one else exposed it for being untrue. And you know Yankees fans, if he were off by a half a game SOMEONE would have called him out for it. So, in closing, no more blaming injuries for a lackluster second half and bad coaching decisions. It is what it is, just keep rooting until the schedule tells us not to or go root for the Mets. Either way is fine with me.

And a special good morning to you, my Kari. I love you with all of my heart. I always have, and I always will. 100 kisses for you this morning.

This Day In New York Yankees History 9/19: Mariano Rivera Is The All Time Saves Leader


The New York Yankees built a new billion dollar stadium for the 2009 season and on this day in 2011 the Yankees saw their smallest crowd in the three year history of the stadium. Coincidentally this was also the day that the great Mariano Rivera became Major League Baseball’s all-time saves leader. The Yankees would beat the Minnesota Twins 6-4 on this day as Rivera nailed down his 602nd career save, breaking Trevor Hoffman’s record, retiring Trevor Plouffe, Michael Cuddyer, and Chris Parmelee in order.


Also on this day in 2001 Roger Clemens continued to dominate Major League Baseball and the Chicago White Sox in a 6-3 Yankees victory. Clemens would get the victory on the day to improve his record to 20-1 becoming the first pitcher to ever start a season 20-1. Clemens would win his last 16 decisions to reach the feat.