Game Thread: New York Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays 6/15

And just like that it is game time here once again in the Bronx between the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays. In the second start of a four-game Father’s Day weekend set the Yankees will rookie pitcher Jonathan Loaisiga to the mound to make his MLB debut against a former member of the Yankees in Nathan Eovaldi. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET inside Yankee Stadium and can be seen on WPIX Channel 11. 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 team all season long. Enjoy the game, get Johnny Lasagna a victory, and go Yankees!!

Game Preview: New York Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays 6/15

Good morning Yankees family! The New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays will continue their four-game weekend set tonight with the second game of the series. In the start tonight the Yankees will send a young right-hander that has never made a start above Double-A named Jonathan Loaisiga to make his Major League debut while the Rays will counter with a familiar face for New York in Nathan Eovaldi. Let’s get to it here in the Bronx.

Loaisiga will make his MLB debut tonight after posting a 4.32 ERA in just six starts with the Double-A Trenton Thunder. Loaisiga was added to the team’s 40-man roster before the season giving him Rule 5 Draft protection due to his strikeout ability and his projections to be an MLB-caliber starting pitcher. Loaisiga has struck out 58 batters here thus far in 2018 to just four walks which is hopefully a trend that continues tonight inside Yankee Stadium.

Eovaldi, or “The Revolver” as Patrick Walsh of the site once donned him, has made three starts since coming off the disabled list after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Over that span Eovaldi is 0-2 with a 6.30 ERA, although he did show promise in his first start firing six innings of no-hit ball.

The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET inside Yankee Stadium and can be seen on WPIX Channel 11. 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, holster that revolver, and go Yankees!!

Welcome Back Nick Rumbelow!

The New York Yankees are at it again, this time they brought back Nick Rumbelow. The team designated Rumbelow for assignment earlier this winter as the right-hander will miss most of, if not all of, the 2017 regular season as he rehabs from Tommy John surgery but the team has brought him back on a new minor league deal according to Robert Pimpsner and our friends over at Pinstriped Prospects.

Rumbelow, just 25-years old, was originally drafted by the New York Yankees in the seventh round of the 2013 MLB First Year Players Draft out of LSU. By the 2015 season Rumbelow had already reached the Major Leagues appearing in 17 games down the stretch before hurting his arm just one game into the 2016 season.

Rumbelow had Tommy John surgery this season after going on the disabled list on April 11^th so a late August or September call up is not completely out of the realm of possibilities but it is very likely that he misses the entire regular season just to be sure he’s healthy and ready. Either way, welcome home.

Weekly Prospects Check In: Clint Frazier

Good morning Yankees family and Happy Monday. The weekend's go by far too quickly around here and the work week's just drag and drag and drag. Regardless I'm glad to be here and be able to bring you this content each and every day. You guys read it, retweet it, talk to us about it and comment on it so you must like it and I appreciate it. It's extremely humbling. With that said I planned on this post being more about Clint Frazier and his weekly check in of stats and less about the gushy stuff so let's get to it.

The Yankees top prospect is now in Triple-A and has to be watching Aaron Judge get an opportunity in the Bronx while making the most of it. This can either motivate a guy like Frazier or it can discourage him but looking at the stats and the box scores every night I'd say it's more the former in this case and not the latter.

Year	Age	Tm	Aff	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
2016	21	3 Teams	CLE-NYY	112	489	70	117	27	15	54	13	45	115	.269	.340	.448	.788

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Weekly Prospects Check In: Aaron Judge One Last Time

One last time let's do a weekly prospects check in post with Aaron Judge because I don't think we see him down on the farm at all again this season. Or next season either. I've been telling you all season long that Judgement Day is coming so surely I was going to get it right eventually and I did this week. Aaron Judge made his MLB debut yesterday afternoon in the Bronx after toiling down in the minor leagues all season long marking the beginning of #JudgementDay.

Let's see what Judge has done thus far this season down in Triple-A:

Year	Age	Lev	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
2016	24	AAA	93	410	62	95	18	19	65	5	47	98	.270	.366	.489	.854

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Weekly Check In: Aaron Judge

It’s too bad that Aaron Judge can’t play first base because I hear the Yankees may or may not be in the market for one this season. More on that later though. Judge may not be able to play first base, or he hasn’t thus far in his professional career anyway, but he can play the outfield and he can mash the absolute hell out of a baseball so that has to count for something.

As Carlos Beltran presumably makes his final laps around the Yankee Stadium outfield this season Judge has to be chomping at the bits to get the call up and the right field job. Judge has hit much better against Triple-A pitching than he did in 2015 and is merely biding his time until he gets the call as he puts in the work to get that much better.

The fact that Judge is not on the 40 man roster, and doesn’t have to be on the 40 man roster yet, is the only thing keeping Judge from the Major Leagues in my opinion. If Judge had been on the 40 man roster I don’t believe we would have seen Ben Gamel this season. Damn the 40 man roster crunch!

Year	Age	Lev	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
2016	24	AAA	48	212	20	44	9	7	25	1	16	55	.230	.292	.387	.680

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Game Preview: New York Yankees @ Arizona Diamondbacks 5/17

The New York Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks will battle it out once again tonight in the desert as these two teams face off head-to-head in the second of their three game set. In the first game last night we watched as Chad Green made his MLB debut against this team and tonight we get to see someone a little more experienced in Michael Pineda. Opposing Little Mike tonight, because let’s face it he’s been far from Big Mike this season, will be the Diamondbacks shiny new (expensive) toy in Zack Greinke inside Chase Field.

Pineda will look to get out of the first inning tonight without a huge deficit like they have in many of Pineda’s starts this season. After the second inning Pineda is holding opposing batters to just a .202 average while the other team is hitting a whopping .437 in the first two innings of the contest.

Greinke has surprisingly not been the pitcher the Diamondbacks gave the biggest contract ever to but he has been coming around a bit as of late. In his last start Greinke allowed four runs on eight hits in six innings pitched against the San Francisco Giants. Along the way Greinke struck out four and walked three for Arizona.

The game will be played at 8:40 PM ET inside of Chase Field and can be seen on the YES Network and MLB TV. These starts actually work pretty well for me since I don’t get to watch the first inning or so of the game anyway. I won’t nearly see the end of it unfortunately but it allows me to get all my adulting done before chilling with you guys on Twitter. Hopefully I have good things to say when Pineda regains his “Big Mike” form tonight in the desert and keeps the Yankees rolling with a victory. 

ICYMI: Watch out for James Kaprielian

There are many examples of the New York Yankees going against what the fans think they should do and it all working out in the end. Sure there are examples and debates to be made for both sides but at the end of the day we as fans will never have the access or information that the Yankees GM and front office does. It is what they do with it that separates New York from the rest of the league sometimes though, for better or worse, and this was no more evident than in the 2015 MLB First Year Players Draft. Brian Cashman, the Yankees GM, caught much flak for his two first round picks last season in Kyle Holder and James Kaprielian from the fans but at least one of them is making Cashman and company look awfully smart right about now.


When Holder was drafted he was drafted as a raw talent despite the fact that he was a college shortstop. Holder had not committed himself to baseball full-time until a season before being drafted so while his defense at short is considered to be elite and MLB ready his bat leaves much to be desired. While Holder is probably at least two seasons away we may see the MLB debut of Kaprielian this season, and the rest of the league better watch out.


Kaprielian was drafted, we thought anyway including myself, because he was a polished college arm that was considered to be MLB ready straight out of the June draft. What I don’t think any of us saw coming was Kaprielian’s uptick in velocity and absolutely dominating stuff in the minor leagues. Kaprielian came out of the draft with a ceiling of a #3 starter but if Kaprielian can pitch the way he has been pitching at the Yankees minor league complex New York may have another future ace on their hands that is ready as soon as the 2016 season.


On Monday Kaprielian started against the Toronto Blue Jays in a minor league game and worked three innings facing 11 batters. Kaprielian did issue a walk and a hit or two but he managed to strike out seven of the 11 batters he faced with a dominating fastball and devastating slider. Kaprielian was clocked anywhere from 94-97 MPH with the fastball while his slider was coming in at 85-87 MPH.


Kaprielian is expected to skip Low-A Charleston and head straight to High-A Tampa to start the season with his eye on the ultimate prize, the Bronx, before the end of the 2016 season. Kaprielian seems ready and the New York Yankees are absolutely ready to have another stud starter in their rotation, is the rest of the league ready for it? I hope not.

Watch out for James Kaprielian

There are many examples of the New York Yankees going against what the fans think they should do and it all working out in the end. Sure there are examples and debates to be made for both sides but at the end of the day we as fans will never have the access or information that the Yankees GM and front office does. It is what they do with it that separates New York from the rest of the league sometimes though, for better or worse, and this was no more evident than in the 2015 MLB First Year Players Draft. Brian Cashman, the Yankees GM, caught much flak for his two first round picks last season in Kyle Holder and James Kaprielian from the fans but at least one of them is making Cashman and company look awfully smart right about now.

When Holder was drafted he was drafted as a raw talent despite the fact that he was a college shortstop. Holder had not committed himself to baseball full-time until a season before being drafted so while his defense at short is considered to be elite and MLB ready his bat leaves much to be desired. While Holder is probably at least two seasons away we may see the MLB debut of Kaprielian this season, and the rest of the league better watch out.

Kaprielian was drafted, we thought anyway including myself, because he was a polished college arm that was considered to be MLB ready straight out of the June draft. What I don’t think any of us saw coming was Kaprielian’s uptick in velocity and absolutely dominating stuff in the minor leagues. Kaprielian came out of the draft with a ceiling of a #3 starter but if Kaprielian can pitch the way he has been pitching at the Yankees minor league complex New York may have another future ace on their hands that is ready as soon as the 2016 season.

On Monday Kaprielian started against the Toronto Blue Jays in a minor league game and worked three innings facing 11 batters. Kaprielian did issue a walk and a hit or two but he managed to strike out seven of the 11 batters he faced with a dominating fastball and devastating slider. Kaprielian was clocked anywhere from 94-97 MPH with the fastball while his slider was coming in at 85-87 MPH.

Kaprielian is expected to skip Low-A Charleston and head straight to High-A Tampa to start the season with his eye on the ultimate prize, the Bronx, before the end of the 2016 season. Kaprielian seems ready and the New York Yankees are absolutely ready to have another stud starter in their rotation, is the rest of the league ready for it? I hope not.

TGP Prospects Night Open Thread featuring Marcus Thames

What's better than seeing a Yankees prospect come through the system, make an impact at the big league level and have a long career in the show? Coming back to the organization as a coach or manager, being re-introduced in a Meet a Prospect thread as a part of TGP's Prospects Month and then telling your own story from your MLB debut in the Prospects Night Open Thread on the same blog. Boy, the Yankees assistant hitting coach Marcus Thames has been busy. 

This is a video of Thames describing in his own words what happened and what was going through his mind when he made his MLB debut for the Yankees. Spoiler alert, he hit a home run off lefty Randy Johnson in his first MLB at bat. Enjoy it from his mouth, not mine.