Mother Nature Beats Yankees Again...

Photo Credit: Getty Images (Elsa)

Ninth Postponement of the Season…

Friday brought another weather-related postponement for our favorite baseball team. It was the ninth of the season. The Yankees and the Kansas City Royals will play two today as a result with a day/night double-header. In one of the most used phrases ever in the Yankees Universe, ‘it’s not what you want’.  

I guess if there is a positive, the Yankees opponent today will be a little weaker. They lost significant power with last night’s trade of Mike Moustakas to the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers, who aggressively lost out on Manny Machado, presumably will move third baseman, and former Red Sock, Travis Shaw to second to make room at third for Moose Tacos. I am a little disappointed the Yankees were unable to acquire Moose. His left-handed bat would have played nicely at Yankee Stadium, and his power would have helped compensate for the temporary losses of Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez. I don’t really see any other options on the market that would appeal to me as greatly as Moustakas, who was batting .249/.309/.468, .778 OPS, with 20 homers and 62 RBIs.  

I was a little surprised to see him end up with Milwaukee. Earlier in the day, it had been reported the Brewers were in heavy talks with the Baltimore Orioles for second baseman Jonathan Schoop and possibly RHP Kevin Gausman. They must have pivoted to the Royals over a failure to make any headway with Orioles GM Dan Duquette or whomever is running the show for the O’s these days (surprise, surprise).  

I keep hearing Curtis Granderson’s name as a possibility. I enjoyed his time in Pinstripes but at this stage of his career, I am not really interested in a reunion. He is 37 years old and is no longer the player he once was. The Grandy Man is batting .231/.334/.421, .756 OPS, with 10 home runs and 31 RBIs in 288 plate appearances. No thanks. I’d rather get Clint Frazier healthy although admittedly I don’t know how long that will take. Oh man, my head hurts. No wait, that’s Frazier, not me.

Another name that seems to come up frequently is Jose Martinez of the St Louis Cardinals. The Aaron Judge-sized first baseman/outfielder has put up some good numbers this year (.295/.358/.463, 13 homers, 58 RBIs) but he is losing playing time because of his poor defensive skills. I am not interested in a guy who can only DH. Any acquisition the Yankees make would need to be someone who can continue to help the team after Judge and Sanchez return in late August or early September.  

I guess it’s not the end of the world for the Yankees to roll with what they currently have. I may not be Neil Walker’s greatest fan but I recognize he plays better with regular playing time. Using DH as a rotation between Walker and Neil Walker is certainly passable for a few weeks. I thought Tyler Austin would be the one to get the call when Aaron Judge was placed on the disabled list but the Yankees went with Tyler Wade instead. From a defensive perspective, Wade makes more sense. He can field the corner outfield positions better than Austin, making him a more useful fourth outfielder-type. But he can also spell relief at second and short, something Austin obviously cannot do. The only guy on the roster who doesn’t make sense to me right now, excluding Chasen Shreve, is outfielder Shane Robinson but he is expected to be demoted today to make room for J.A. Happ.  

The month of August is filled with winnable series. The only playoff contender they face is the Boston Red Sox with a four-game series starting Thursday, August 2nd. They won’t see a potential playoff team again until Labor Day (Monday, September 3rd) when they travel to Oakland, CA to take on Dustin Fowler and the Athletics. My concern is the difficulty the Yankees have had with losing teams this year. Boston is winning the games they are supposed to and as it stands right now, it is why they are the first place club in the AL East. Last night, they blew a lead in the ninth inning but still came back to tie it to push the game into extra innings where they won it on a walk-off home run by Mookie Betts. They are finding ways to beat the losing clubs. Sorry, Minnesota. Meanwhile, the Yankees are struggling against those teams. Well, maybe not against the Twins, but the other losing teams. The Twins, who apparently have given up on the season (they are 12 1/2 games out in the Wild Card chase), are a weaker team today after trading infielder Eduardo Escobar to the Arizona Diamondbacks yesterday and reliever Ryan Pressly to the Houston Astros last night. I am sure the Red Sox are salivating although they probably could have used Pressly themselves if only Dave Dombrowski had not stripped the cupboards of quality prospects.  

Apparently the weather is impacting J.A. Happ’s ability to get to New York City. His flight was cancelled yesterday so he has yet to join the team.  He is expected to arrive today. I am always curious about numbers since there is such a limited selection with so many retired numbers. Happ will take number 34, a number previously worn by A.J. Burnett and Brian McCann. With Zach Britton getting Phil Nevin’s #53, the third base coach will flip the numbers to grab 35. Happ is expected to get the start in the series finale with the Royals tomorrow although we’ll see if Happ’s late arrival alters those plans.

The Yankees received some good news for Sonny Gray. Assuming he is not traded, Gray will make his next start as planned. X-rays on his thumb were negative and he’s feeling much better after the come-backer off his right hand during Thursday’s game.  

For today’s double-header, Luis Severino will get the start for the day game. Sevy (14-3, 2.63 ERA) looks to get back on track after a couple of bumpy starts. He’ll be opposed by Brad Keller (3-4, 3.20 ERA). For the night game, yesterday’s scheduled starter, CC Sabathia, will take the mound. CC (6-4, 3.51 ERA) will face Heath Fillmyer (0-1, 2.82 ERA). The Yankees enter the day five games behind the Boston Red Sox. A perfect day would find the Yankees trailing the Sox by only 3 1/2 games when the clock strikes midnight tonight. It’s a great day for two wins and a Red Sox loss. Let’s do this.

Go Yankees!

Game Preview: New York Yankees vs. Kansas City Royals 7/28

In the third game of the four-game set between the New York Yankees and the Kansas City Royals this weekend the Yankees will send Luis Severino to the mound to face off with Heath Fillmyer for the Royals. These games continue to be must wins for the Yankees if the team has any hopes or aspirations of making it to the postseason as a division winner and not as a Wild Card, so let’s get to it here in the Bronx.

Severino is going through a rough patch right now on the mound but a team like the Kansas City Royals could be just what the doctor ordered for the Yankees right-hander. In Severino’s last start the Yankees ace allowed seven runs, six of them earned, in just five innings of work against the Tampa Bay Rays, resulting in his third loss of the season.

Fillmyer is another rookie right-hander for the Kansas City Royals to take the mound this weekend against the Yankees in what will be just his third career start. Fillmyer pitched 6.2 innings in his last start allowing just one run in a no-decision against the Detroit Tigers in his last start.

The game will be played at 1:05 pm ET inside Yankee Stadium and can be seen on the YES Network and MLB Network. 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 the legendary duo of John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman.

Enjoy the game, let’s see if Brian Cashman has one more ace up his sleeve, and go Yankees!!

Hello… Saturday

Good morning Yankees family and welcome back to the blog. The weekend is upon us, Happy Saturday to us all. I truly hope everyone enjoyed the bold predictions for all 30 teams that we covered yesterday here on the blog. That was a difficult post series to write with the dynamic and everything changing constantly, and even after I scheduled the posts there were a few trades that went down involving players that I had mentioned specifically. But, so is the ways of a blogger I guess. Anyway, I hope everyone has a great Saturday and an even better weekend!

And to you, my absolute favorite thing and the love of my life, I hope every day, not just the weekends, are better than you could have ever imagined… because you make my days that way. I loves you!

This Day in New York Yankees History 7/28: David Cone is a Yankee

David Cone had a very interesting tenure as a member of the New York Yankees that all started on this day in 1995 when the Yankees gave up Marty Janzen and two minor leaguers, Jason Jarvis and Mike Gordon, for his services. The trade was considered early to be one of the best deals in franchise history as Cone was an integral part of the dynasty and World Series championships in the late 90's.

Cone hit a wall in 2000 though and on this day was sent to the team's minor league camp in Tampa by Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. Cone was demoted after not being able to pick up a win in over four months. The struggling Cone was placed under the supervision of Billy Connors, the Yankees vice president of player personnel.

The Yankees grabbed David Cone on this day on 1995 and they also grabbed Ruben Sierra and Jason Beverlin from the Oakland Athletics for Danny Tartabull. The Tartabull era started when the Yankees signed him a deal worth over $5 million a season after the 1991 season but he never lived up to the hype like he did as a Kansas City Royal.

Finally on this day in 1983 the American League president Lee MacPhail decided that George Brett's "Pine Tar" home run should be allowed. The game will be finished on August 18 and the Royals would win the game 5-4.

Game Thread: New York Yankees vs. Kansas City Royals 7/27

And just like that it is game time here in the Bronx between the New York Yankees and the Kansas City Royals. In the second of this four-game weekend set between the two clubs the Yankees will send out CC Sabathia to the mound looking for his first victory of the second half while the Royals will counter with rookie starter Brad Keller. 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 the legendary duo of 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, let’s give a warm welcome to the Bronx for Mr. Keller, and go Yankees!!

BOLDLY Predicting the MLB Trade Deadline: National League West

The July 31^st trading deadline is fast approaching here for the 2018 MLB season, so let’s take the chance to post a few bold predictions for every team in the National League West before the deadline next Tuesday. Enjoy, and leave your comments and thoughts below in the comments section.

The Arizona Diamondbacks need a shortstop and a catcher, but their biggest issue will be the lack of prospects that their farm system has available in order to acquire either one of these positions of need. Another area of concern for Arizona this summer will be money, especially with the bulk of their allotted salaries going to RHP Zack Greinke. The window to win in Arizona is quickly closing as Patrick Corbin will hit the free agent market after the season leaving Arizona with no choice but to take advantage of the slow start by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2018. The team will need to go all-in, but unfortunately the market for both shortstops and catchers is dry and barren. The team needs to make some additional moves in my opinion to hold off the rest of the National League West, but I just can’t see them having the pieces and the dollars to make any substantial moves.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have already made the biggest splash to date in the July 31^st trading deadline season and you would be a fool if you thought that they were done. The Dodgers stumbled coming out of the gates here in 2018 and have a lot of ground to make up, but the good news for Los Angeles is that now they are back within striking distance of not only the playoffs, but the division as well. The team needs second base help and could look at a veteran rental like Brian Dozier to team with Chase Utley and others as well as a relief pitcher or two to help get the ball to Kenley Jansen. The Dodgers are not done though, not by a long shot, so stay tuned.

The Colorado Rockies need a first baseman or an outfielder as well as more pitching, much like every single contender and potential playoff team here in 2018, so why wouldn’t the team get all that done in one major deal with the Cincinnati Reds. I truly think these two teams can matchup for a blockbuster trade that could bring in outfielder and first baseman Adam Duvall along with reliever Raisel Iglesias. If the Rockies truly want to get greedy they could also try and pry away Matt Harvey in the deal as well to plug in a hole at the back end of their rotation. The Rockies window for winning is closing as Nolan Arenado, their third baseman, inches closer towards free agency so the time to strike for this club may be now. They have already solidified the bullpen some this trade season, but this move may finally push the Rockies to the “All in” category. The team is close not only to clinching a postseason berth, but also close enough to potentially snipe the National League West away from the Dodgers and the Diamondbacks.

The San Diego Padres will trade Kirby Yates, Tyson Ross and Craig Stammen. The Padres are not going anywhere this season and will likely trade away all their valuable arms before the deadline much like the team did with Brad Hand and Adam Cimber. Kirby Yates is a true rental and is having a career-year, which to be honest was likely aided by pitching in baseball’s equivalent of Yellowstone Park, while Ross came back to San Diego this season on a Minor League deal. I could see a team like the New York Yankees taking a waiver on Ross just because of how cheap he is in terms of dollars and cents, or any other team for that matter who needs a starter including the Atlanta Braves, Washington Nationals or the Milwaukee Brewers.

The San Francisco Giants will trade Jeff Samardzija. Yes, I said it. The team went out and aggressively acquired Evan Longoria and Andrew McCutchen before the season, but to date their efforts have been for nothing as the team is once again on the outside looking in at the postseason as we stand here today. I don’t think the Giants are out of it enough to completely tear everything down, and I don’t think they are at the point yet where they will or where they need to trade Madison Bumgarner, so a simple trade that could net them a prospect or two in a weak pitcher’s market while also clearing some money off the luxury tax cap could be in order in San Francisco. Sorry, Giants fans… I know you expected more.

Disclaimer: BOLD predictions are meant to be BOLD for a reason. Keep that in mind before directing hate mail towards me or any of my writers on the blog or on Twitter. Thanks in advance.

BOLDLY Predicting the MLB Trade Deadline: National League Central

The July 31^st trading deadline is fast approaching here for the 2018 MLB season, so let’s take the chance to post a few bold predictions for every team in the National League Central before the deadline next Tuesday. Enjoy, and leave your comments and thoughts below in the comments section.

The Chicago Cubs will acquire JA Happ (went to the New York Yankees after this was written) or Steven Matz, whichever comes off the board last. The Yu Darvish experiment has failed, and Theo Epstein and company are in the market for a starting pitcher, specifically a starting pitcher that could potentially start a playoff game for the team behind Jon Lester and company. I would trust either Matz or Happ (Yankees) in a Game 3 or Game 4 situation if I were the Cubs, and I’d trust him a whole lot more than I would trust Darvish right now specifically. Chicago may also be in the market for lesser upgrades like a left-handed specialist in the bullpen or a bench piece, but a starting pitcher is likely the main target for the Cubbies as we speak.

EDIT: The team acquired Cole Hamels, does "close but no cigar" count?

The Cincinnati Reds will trade Matt Harvey, Scooter Gennett, Raisel Iglesias, David Hernandez, Jared Hughes, and Adam Duvall. While this sounds like a lot of movement for the Reds to accomplish in just five days I could totally see multiple players moved in a single deal. For instance, if the Boston Red Sox were to acquire Scooter Gennett, which I boldly predicted, then they might want to package a deal with Jared Hughes or David Hernandez as well. There will be many teams interested in Raisel Iglesias and he could fetch a premium in the trade market, but no team probably needs him more than the Colorado Rockies. After the money the team spent on their bullpen in the offseason this may come as a surprise, but if you check the stat lines for those highly paid relievers and if you then check how close Colorado is to the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the division the deal begins to make a little more sense. I can see a blockbuster deal going down between the Reds and the Rockies that also includes Adam Duvall along with Iglesias as both are needs for Colorado while the Rockies have the prospects to get such a deal done.

Milwaukee Brewers need a shortstop and a starting pitcher, everyone else around the league is telling Milwaukee to “join the club.” Obviously, that is my speculation, but it seems like every team that is contending or close to contending needs a starting pitcher and a shortstop. The Brewers revamped their outfield this winter and have a young and exciting team with plenty of prospects that could be moved in any number of deals, but I can’t see Milwaukee making those deals just for the sake of making them. That doesn’t seem like their style given their history over the past 10-or-so years. If the right deal comes along, for example a potential deal for James Shields to help with the rotation or a deal for Asdrubal Cabrera with hopes that he can handle the shortstop position again, then I could see the team making it. I just can’t see a substantial deal being made by Milwaukee, although watch out as they could look to acquire Yangervis Solarte from the Toronto Blue Jays with the hopes that possibly he could handle the shortstop position for the remainder of the season. 

EDIT: I mean, or they could acquire a closer or reliever like Joakim Soria and throw a monkey wrench into my whole post. Or that. 

The Pittsburgh Pirates will not make another move. The Pirates could win 12 games in a row, or they could win 25 games in a row, but I just can’t see the team doing anything substantial. Just a few weeks ago if I had written this post it would have been littered with a laundry list of players that the team was absolutely going to trade but winning a dozen or so games in a row has the tendency to change things. The Pirates management likely knows better that the team will eventually come back down to Earth here in 2018, and with that so will their hopes of a 2018 postseason spot in the National League.

The St. Louis Cardinals will also be quiet at the trading deadline in my opinion as that team is in that scary and uncomfortable position somewhere between obvious contender and should-be seller. The Cardinals have all but said that they would not move Carlos Martinez in any deal this summer and that all but told me that the Cardinals plan is to either go all-in and sell or stand pat with the core that they have now for potentially one last run at the playoffs in the 2019 season. If the team was at least open to discussing a trade for Martinez then I could see them tearing it all down, but since they wont I truly believe they will stand pat more than they will do anything before July 31st, 2018.




Disclaimer: BOLD predictions are meant to be BOLD for a reason. Keep that in mind before directing hate mail towards me or any of my writers on the blog or on Twitter. Thanks in advance.

BOLDLY Predicting the MLB Trade Deadline: National League East

The July 31^st trading deadline is fast approaching here for the 2018 MLB season, so let’s take the chance to post a few bold predictions for every team in the National League East before the deadline next Tuesday. Enjoy, and leave your comments and thoughts below in the comments section.

The Atlanta Braves need relief pitching and will likely be in the market for any rental arm or veteran bullpen piece that could become available. I believe the Braves could also be in the market for a starter with Mike Soroka likely not due back any time soon which could lead them to come knocking on the Kansas City Royals door for Danny Duffy. The Braves and Diamondbacks (who I predicted would acquire Duffy earlier) could get into a bit of a bidding war for the veteran lefty as both team’s sprint towards a potential playoff spot. Names like Fernando Rodney could also be an option for the Atlanta bullpen as the team tries to piece together a team that can make the postseason a year or two before even they thought they could. Does this mean next offseason they will acquire their own Giancarlo Stanton (like… say… Bryce Harper just for ironic purposes) like the New York Yankees did after they defied even their own odds making the postseason a year earlier than expected? Now that’s bold, stay tuned.

The Miami Marlins will sell J.T. Realmuto, Starlin Castro, Brad Ziegler, Martin Prado, Kyle Barraclough, Adam Conley and Drew Steckenrider before the deadline. The Marlins tried to empty the cupboards before the beginning of the 2018 season but were unable to do so. Derek Jeter and company will finish the job this summer with huge trades for Realmuto, Castro and Ziegler while lesser deals will be struck for Prado, Barraclough, Conley who is emerging as a breakout candidate this season, and Steckenrider. Sell, sell, sell, sell, sell.

The New York Mets will not trade Jacob deGrom or Noah Syndergaard, but they will deal Asdrubal Cabrera, Devin Mesoraco, Zach Wheeler and Steven Matz. Wheeler will likely command a Top 10 prospect and that prospect could currently be wearing a Cleveland Indians (or one of their affiliates) uniform at the time of this writing. Meanwhile Matz could be calling Chicago and Wrigley Field his new home for the rest of the 2018 season and beyond.  Many teams are looking at starting and backup catchers including the New York Yankees, but the Mets will have to eat much of Mesoraco’s salary in order to move him. The Reds are already paying for some of his salary after the trade for Matt Harvey so potentially Mesoraco could be drawing three different (not literally) paychecks from three different teams here in 2018. Asdrubal Cabrera is a mystery as to where he will land. I wanted to say a team like the Milwaukee Brewers could potentially look at him with the hopes of moving him back to shortstop, but with his recent slide and tempter tantrums thrown on the field your guess is as good as mine as to where the veteran second baseman will land.

The Philadelphia Phillies need bullpen help, shortstop help and third baseman help. Much like the Atlanta Braves I can see the Phillies being interested in any and all of the veteran relievers and the rental relievers that are on the market this summer including Fernando Rodney. The Phillies are sprinting towards the playoffs maybe a season or two earlier than expected and will look to bridge the gap between talented starters like Aaron Nola and Jake Arrieta, to the back end of their bullpen. The team will also look at acquiring position players on the left side of the infield and could look at renting Mike Moustakas from the Kansas City Royals. The Phillies were said to be aggressive in their attempt to acquire Manny Machado from the Baltimore Orioles before the deadline so theoretically any shortstop that fits their price range could be of interest to Philadelphia.

The Washington Nationals biggest and most glaring need on the team this season has been at catcher. When the Nationals need an upgrade at a certain position the team and their GM have never shied away from making the big deal or the deal necessary to propel the team into the postseason, and 2018 will be no different. The window to win with Bryce Harper still in town is now, and with that thought process the team will do whatever they can and whatever it takes to acquire J.T. Realmuto from the Miami Marlins. The Nationals may also dip their toes into the starting pitching marker after placing Stephen Strasburg on the disabled list with a pinched nerve in his neck earlier in the week. While I cannot see the team acquiring a big name and potentially an expensive name in terms of prospects like Chris Archer, I could see the team take on a player like Matt Harvey of the Cincinnati Reds. The team will not trade Bryce Harper to the Yankees with the stipulation that Harper will play first base, dreams are just that… dreams.

Disclaimer: BOLD predictions are meant to be BOLD for a reason. Keep that in mind before directing hate mail towards me or any of my writers on the blog or on Twitter. Thanks in advance.

BOLDLY Predicting the MLB Trade Deadline: American League West

The July 31^st trading deadline is fast approaching here for the 2018 MLB season, so let’s take the chance to post a few bold predictions for every team in the American League West before the deadline next Tuesday. Enjoy, and leave your comments and thoughts below in the comments section.

The Houston Astros will acquire a left-handed reliever Adam Conley from the Miami Marlins to solidify their bullpen after losing out on Zach Britton to the New York Yankees. After acquiring backup catcher Martin Maldonado from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim I believe the Astros are set and ready to try to defend their American League pennant, unless of course a deal comes up that they just can’t pass up.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim will not make a single move. Again. Well, unless you count moving Martin Maldonado to the Houston Astros as a legitimate move. I guess it counts. Let me rephrase then, the Angels won’t make any major or significant moves. Better?

The Oakland Athletics will not make another move. The team is young and exciting, but they are not close enough to being real and legitimate contenders in 2018 in my opinion. The team also doesn’t have many veterans that they can unload for prospects either unless the team decides to move Jed Lowrie or Jonathan LuCroy, but I just can’t see it given how close they are to a potential second Wild Card.

The Seattle Mariners will acquire Chris Archer from the Tampa Bay Rays to help bolster their starting staff and to potentially take some innings off of a taxed, but albeit great, bullpen out inside Safeco Field. Also, I find it interesting what the Mariners will do with their whole Robinson Cano situation. Cano is ineligible for the postseason after failing a test for performance enhancing drugs this season, so will the team merely plug him back in at second base when he returns? Will they let him split time with Nelson Cruz as the primary designated hitter? Will they move him to first base to learn a new position on the fly in the midst of a pennant race? And will this lead the team to enter the outfielder market? So many questions, not enough answers, but one thing is for sure… even if Cano didn’t have a no-trade clause written into his contract you have to think his trade value is as low as it has ever been and will ever be. Comes with the territory I guess.

The Texas Rangers will trade Cole Hamels, Shin-Soo Choo, Keone Kela, Jake Diekman, and Alex Claudio. Cole Hamels is doing the team no favors by struggling at the worst possible time for the team, but thankfully for Texas the starting pitching market is that dire and barren right now that they could still get a decent return for him. Given the state of his hefty contract and the looming option that his contract holds for the 2019 season the Rangers may have to eat some of his salary to move him and depending on how much they eat will determine how good of a prospect or prospects that the team gets back in return. There is zero chance that Hamels is not traded in my opinion, of course barring an injury (Hamels was traded after this was written to the Chicago Cubs). The Rangers will likely look for a suitor for Choo as well, but again they may have to eat some of his remaining salary to make a trade work. Keone Kela is the team’s closer and seemingly has come out of nowhere here in 2018 which could lead to a decent haul in terms of prospects from a team like the Atlanta Braves who are in need of some bullpen help before the deadline. Diekman and Claudio are both left-handed relievers that have not had stellar results this season, but both could benefit from the constant need for left-handed relief pitching from basically every contender not named the New York Yankees.

Disclaimer: BOLD predictions are meant to be BOLD for a reason. Keep that in mind before directing hate mail towards me or any of my writers on the blog or on Twitter. Thanks in advance.

Step Back From The Ledge, Folks!

I'm not the least bit surprised to see so many Yankees fans overreact to the news about Aaron Judge's injury.

Before I get into why there's little to no reason to be worried, I want to say that losing Judge for a month or so stinks. Aaron is one of the best players in baseball. And yes, I said "players", not just "hitters". While I shouldn't have to go into why Judge is one of the best batters in the game, I feel the need to point out that he's also one of the best right fielders too. Among all qualified right fielders in Major League Baseball, Judge is #1 in Defensive Runs Saved. As for UZR/150, Aaron ranks 2nd behind Mookie Betts, and well ahead of the third place Max Kepler.

So don't confuse what I'm about to say, and make it into a "Bryan doesn't think the Yankees need Aaron Judge" type of things.

Aaron clearly makes this team better and is perhaps the biggest reason the Yankees made it to within one game of the World Series last year, and may very well get them all the way this season. But losing him for the next month is not a season killer what-so-ever.

Here are the teams the Yankees will face in the next month...

Kansas City - 3 times
Baltimore - 6 times
Boston - 4 times
Chicago White Sox- 4 times
Texas - 4 times
New York Mets - Once
Tampa - 3 times
Miami - 2 times

Now, let's look at each team individually...

Kansas City
The Yankees have not only outscored the Royals 27-11, Kansas City has the worst offense in the entire league with just 367 runs scored (the Yankees have scored 524)

Baltimore
The Yankees have outscored the Orioles 60-42, and Manny Machado was responsible for 10 of those 42 runs. Baltimore was already the second worst offense in runs scored, and they just traded away their biggest (and arguably only) weapon.

Boston
This is the only stretch of games in which I have any level of worry. I don't think losing this series would be the worst thing to happen (as long as they aren't swept), as they could still make up the 4.5 games they are currently behind, but the Red Sox are the only team the Yankees will face over the next month to have outscored them (53-49). But note that Gray has been better as of late, and he gave up a combined 12 runs in just 5.1 innings against them in two starts this season. Gray's not the only starter that's been hit hard, as Tanaka gave up six runs in five innings, and Severino gave up five runs in 5 innings. I don't know about you, but I firmly believe Gray, Tanaka, and Severino can and will do better.

Chicago White Sox
The Yankees have yet to face the southsiders, but I'm hardly concerned about the Yankees' four games against them coming up in the next month. The Bombers have scored 112 more runs than the White Sox this season.

Texas
The Rangers are not a bad offensive team, and in their three games against each other, the Yankees have only outscored them 24-23. But when I see poor starts from Sabathia (seven runs in 4.1 innings) and German (six runs in 3.2 innings), along with a couple bad relief performances from Shreve (two runs in .1 innings) and Robertson (a run in .2 innings), I'm actually not worried at all.

New York Mets
When you look at the fact the Yankees have only outscored the Mets 20-19 in their five games, there may be reason for concern. But keep in mind that three of the runs the Mets have scored came in that horrible relief appearance from Chapman. Furthermore, the Mets scored four runs against German in just 3.2 innings.

Tampa Bay
In three games the Yanks have outscored the Rays 51-36. Yeah... I think the Yankees will be okay without Judge's offense.

Toronto
In three games the Yankees have outscored the Blue Jays 51-36, and there's a good chance the Toronto offense will be worse as the Jays may be selling some of their bats before the trade deadline.

Miami
And finally, there's the Marlins, who have actually hit the Yankees fairly well, as you can see by their 10 runs against us in just two games. But when I see that seven of those ten runs came in just five innings against Tanaka, and two more were against Cessa in just one inning, my level of concern drops very low.


So, like I said, there's very little reason to be concerned and absolutely no reason for Brian Cashman to make a knee-jerk reaction and trade prospects of any value for another bat. If the Yankees lose at all, and not just in the next month, the blame is much more likely to fall on the pitching staff. Which makes the acquisitions of Zach Britton and JA Happ that much bigger than what it already was.