Will Mother Nature Sweep the Yankees Today?...

Detroit’s “All Wet”…

It sounds as though it will be a soggy Saturday and, unfortunately, Sunday for the Yankees. Rain is forecasted the entire day with no potential breaks in the weather. The first game of the double-header planned for today has already been postponed but it will most likely be two games lost to Mother Nature.  

Meanwhile, the Boston Red Sox keep winning. The Sox lead the AL East by three games over the Toronto Blue Jays after their destruction of the Baltimore Orioles yesterday, 10-3. The Yankees are five games back. For the Red Sox, it is the best start (12-2) in franchise history. They are averaging 6.14 runs per game with team ERA of 3.07. By comparison, the Yankees are scoring an average of 5.5 runs per game with team ERA of 4.78. Pitching, pitching, pitching.

With the postponement of at least one of today’s games, the Yankees will be forced to give up an off-day for the makeup. Depending upon the status of tonight’s schedule game, the Yankees will play at least nine and possibly eighteen innings of work on a day that should have been a day of rest. Mother Nature is not kind. Today’s games in Cleveland, OH and Minneapolis, MN have already been postponed.  

Credit: The late great Charles Schulz

Here are the common days off for the Yankees and Tigers. I have not analyzed the impact on the Tigers, but some of these would be very difficult for the Yankees. Best case would be a flight path near Detroit, however, none are ideal. It’s a bad situation all around for the Yankees.

• Thursday, May 24th: After finishing road game in Arlington, TX on the way home.
• Monday, June 4th: Traveling between Baltimore, MD and Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
• Monday, June 11th: Between games in New York at Citi Field and Yankee Stadium.
• Monday, June 18th: Between two home series at Yankee Stadium.
• Monday, July 30th: Between two home series at Yankee Stadium.
• Monday, August 20th: After finishing home stand, en route to Miami, FL.
• Thursday, September 6th: Between road games in Oakland, CA and Seattle, WA.
• Thursday, September 13th: After finishing another road game in Minneapolis on way home.

I guess it could be worse. The Yankees could be playing like the Los Angeles Dodgers, who were pre-season World Series favorites. The Arizona Diamondbacks, with or without Brandon Drury, have the Dodgers’ number. The D-Back crushed the Dodgers yesterday, 9-1, to drop the Dodger Blue to 4-9 and six and a half games behind in the NL West standings. Arizona’s victory was their eleventh straight regular season win over the Dodgers. The D-Backs still feel the sting of the NLDS sweep by Los Angeles last October, but in the regular season, they own the Dodgers.

Photo Credit: Associated Press (Jae C Hong)

The San Diego Padres added to their collection of former Yankees yesterday. Their latest addition was former Yankees reliever Tyler Webb, claimed off waivers from the Milwaukee Brewers. The Yankees traded Webb to Milwaukee last year for first baseman Garrett Cooper (who has since been dealt to the Miami Marlins and is currently on the disabled list). I always liked Webb, a lefty, and I hope that he finds success in San Diego with Chase Headley, Bryan Mitchell and Jose Pirela.  

Nice job by the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders yesterday. They survived a four-run deficit to the Charlotte Knights (White Sox affiliate) and one of the best pitching prospects in baseball, Michael Kopech. In the seventh inning, after Kopech had departed with the Knights leading 5-1, the RailRiders struck for six runs on their way to the 10-5 victory. The RailRiders are 6-3 and share the International League North division lead with the Syracuse Chiefs (Nationals). I don’t want to take away anything from the other RailRiders who keyed the win (newly acquired L.J. Mazzilli had a bases-clearing double) but we’re clearly under a Gleyber Torres Watch right now. Torres was 2-for-5, with a run-scoring double during the six-run seventh inning. He had two doubles after Kopech had left the game and three RBI’s, and scored once. Torres is 14-for-36 with .389/.410/.583 batting line and .994 OPS in nine games. The dude’s on fire and is ready to take his game to the Bronx. We’ll see later this week if the Yankees make the move to bring the future star to Yankee Stadium or continue to wait a few more weeks. I think most Yankee fans are ready to see Gleyber in the Yankees lineup next Thursday.

Photo Credit: MiLB.com (Ken Inness)

Although there’s rain in New York today and tomorrow, Tuesday night looks good for Giancarlo Stanton’s reunion at Yankee Stadium with his former Miami Marlins teammates. 

One of these days we’ll see Yankees baseball again. I am not optimistic about tonight’s game but we’ll see.  

Go Yankees!

Meet a Prospect: L.J. Mazzilli

The New York Yankees made an interesting move this week when they swapped outfielder Kendall Coleman for New York Mets prospect L.J. Mazzilli. It was interesting to see Mazzilli join the organization that currently employs his father, Lee Mazzilli, who is a special advisor to the Yankees front office, and his twin sister and YES Network personality Lacey Mazzilli. While trading Coleman makes sense for the Yankees, the former 11^th round pick has struggled in Low-A ball since his drafting in 2013, it hurts a bit as a fan as I have grown close to Coleman and even interviewed him shortly after the Yankees drafted him here on the site. I will try not to hold my fandom and personal feelings against L.J. as I introduce him to the Yankees and Greedy Pinstripes faithful here this morning. This is Meet a Prospect: The L.J. Mazzilli Edition.

Lee Louis Mazzilli Jr. was born on September 6, 1990 in Greenwich, Connecticut to former MLB player and pitching coach Lee Mazzilli and his wife Dani. Lee Louis, or L.J. which stands for Lee Jr., played Little League Baseball while in Greenwich and even won a Little League Home Run Derby at the age of 12 before truly beginning his amateur career at Greenwich High School. Mazzilli later transferred to Iona Preparatory School in New Rochelle, New York due to their stronger baseball program before ultimately ending up at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida for his senior year of High School. All the bouncing around did some good for Mazzilli as the shortstop was able to enroll at the University of Connecticut where he continued his amateur baseball career.

While playing for the Connecticut Huskies baseball team Mazzilli was moved to second base as the Huskies had Nick Ahmed already manning the shortstop position. Mazzilli showed great potential with his bat as a freshman, sophomore and junior garnering the attention of the Minnesota twins who selected Mazzilli in the ninth round, 280^th overall, of the 2012 MLB First Year Players Draft. Mazzilli ultimately decided not sign with Minnesota despite being offered a $260,000 signing bonus and returned to UCONN for his senior season. The decision turned out to be a good one for Mazzilli who hit .354 with 51 RBI and 29 stolen bases as a senior.

The New York Mets selected Mazzilli in the fourth round of the 2013 MLB Draft with the 116^th overall selection and was immediately signed to the New York-Penn League. Mazzilli was named to the Short Season All-Star team in 2013 before earning a promotion to Class-A Ball and the South Atlantic League (SAL) for the 2014 season. Another year and another All-Star Game appearance for Mazzilli in 2014, this time earning the nod in the SAL All-Star Game, before making stops in Class-A Advanced, Double-A and even Triple-A with the Las Vegas 51s before the end of the season.

The 2014 season was kind to Mazzilli but the offseason before the 2015 season could not say the same. During the 2014-2015 offseason Mazzilli was suspended for the first 50 games of the season after failing a second test for “drug abuse.” Mazzilli was assigned to Double-A Binghamton for the remainder of the 2015 season where he would remain for the rest of that season and for the majority of the 2016 season. In August of 2016 Mazzilli found himself back in Triple-A with Las Vegas, where he finished the 2016 and 2017 seasons. Mazzilli, drafted as a second baseman, was learning the outfield position with the Mets which led to the slow down in progression for him as a prospect.

Mazzilli was back in Triple-A to begin the 2018 season before the need for infield and outfield depth at the upper levels of the organization led the New York Yankees to come calling. The Yankees traded Coleman to the Mets thus bringing Mazzilli to the team and to the organization. Welcome, L.J.! Do us proud.