The Yankees & Their Threesomes

Did the title get your attention? Good! It was supposed to. The New York Yankees assembled a hell of a potential threesome in their bullpen last week when they "sold their souls" to acquire Aroldis Chapman from the Cincinnati Reds for Eric Jagielo, Rookie Davis and kitchen scraps in terms of top prospects, no disrespect intended. This got me wondering how this particular threesome compares to some great Yankees threesomes of the past.

We'll start with the Yankees dynasty years of 1996-2004-ish and we'll start with the 1996 season. Yes I realize the Yankees only had two reliable relief pitchers that season, Mariano Rivera and John Wetteland, but Rivera pitched so often he practically counted as two people. Rivera finished third in the AL Cy Young Award vote that season after striking out 130 batters in a whopping 107.2 innings pitched. Rivera pitched sometimes for two or three innings at a time setting up Wetteland who finished the season with an American League leading 43 saves and an All Star Game appearance.

Wetteland was gone in 1997 and Rivera was slid into the closers role. The Yankees were without their fireman while looking to defend their World Series championship so the team went out and added a pair of arms to essentially replace Rivera. In the Yankees bullpen was Mike Stanton and Jeff Nelson creating a threesome that was one of the best for the better parts of four seasons. From 1997-2000 these three led the Yankees to three World Series titles holding any and almost every lead the offense and the starting pitching gave them. Rivera had 160 saves in that span and led the league in 1999 with 45 saves. Stanton appeared in 273 games during that span which equates to a 69.1 innings pitched per season. Workhorse.

The final threesome in recent memory for the Yankees was when the team went back to a three headed monster in the bullpen for the 2004 season when Joe Torre had Rivera, Tom Gordon and Paul Quantrill at his disposal. Rivera was an All Star again and finished third in the AL Cy Young Award vote again pitching in 74 games while saving 53 games for the Bombers. Gordon was also an All Star and finished pitching in a whopping 80 games that season while Quantrill led the league with 84 appearances. It's a shame the World Series and season was cancelled after the Yankees went up 3-0 over the Boston Red Sox in the ALCS due to a strike.. these men deserved a World Series Championship.

Yankees Off Night Open Thread

The New York Yankees finally have another off day so we will have another off thread here on the blog to talk about anything you want. I apologize for going quiet for so long on the blog today but with Ben Embry making his blogging debut here on The Greedy Pinstripes I wanted to give his post plenty of time to shine and be read. If you haven't checked that post out about where the Yankees undrafted players are now, including Cal Quantrill and Mariano Rivera Jr., then check that out right now below and talk about it here.

The Yankees are back at it tomorrow night in Washington which should be fun because the Yankees pitchers will be taking at bats. The good news for the Yankees is Nathan Eovaldi will be on the mound after spending his entire career before 2015 in the National League East division so it should be not be as much of an adventure for him as it will be for Adam Warren on Wednesday.

Anyway it's an off night so you probably don't want to here from me so enjoy the night and we'll be back at it again tomorrow.

Yankees Draft Trio Of Former Yanks Family

The Yankees, in my personal prospect hugging opinion, did quite well for themselves in this years MLB First Year Players Draft drafting legit first round talent and likely stealing a few key guys in the later rounds. The Yankees used those later rounds to draft a trio of former Yankees players family members.

In the third round the Yankees drafted Michael O'Neill, nephew of former player and YES broadcast announcer Paul O'Neill, with the 103rd overall pick. O'Neill seems almost certain to sign with the Yankees so water coolers beware because another O'Neill is on the way.

The Yankees used their 26th pick to draft Cal Quantrill, the son of former Yankees pitcher Paul Quantrill, with the 794th pick overall. Quantrill is committed to Stanford but the lure of pitching for the Yankees may bring the 6'2" right hander to New York.

With their 37th round pick the Yankees took Andy Pettitte's son Josh Pettitte. Josh has two no hitters already this season but is expected to go to college unfortunately to iron out his weaknesses. The right hander will more than likely go to Baylor and work on his velocity and his secondary pitches. Plus his dad wants him to go to college so it is more than likely going to happen.

Will any of these guys make it to the majors? Who knows, it is still enjoyable to see recognizable names in a draft littered with guys we have never heard of and probably never will again. I personally look forward to buying those cheap Yankees tickets and seeing these guys down in the minors if they sign.