The Yankees Release Their 2013 Schedule

The Yankees released their 2013 schedules along with the rest of Major League Baseball today, if we make it that long. As we all know the Astros will be heading over to the American League West, Interleague play will be all year long, the Yankees will play the NL West in said interleague play, and the Subway Series will be reduced from six games to only four.

The Yankees open their schedule on April 1st against the Boston Red Sox and will finish their season in Houston to face the Astros on September 29th. The Yankees will host the Diamondbacks for a three game set in April, travel to face the Rockies in May, host the Dodgers at Yankees stadium in June, travel to play the Dodgers in July,  travel to play the Padres in August, and host the Giants in late September at the stadium. The Yankees and Mets will play four consecutive games in May where the first two games will be played at Citifield and the last two at Yankees stadium.

If the Mayans were not right after all and there is a 2013 season it should be fun!

Yankees @ Red Sox 9/12/12

Curtis Granderson and Robinson Cano add home runs to make it 3-0 Yankees

Yankees win 5-4

#untuck

The Yankees are tied up top of the AL East with the Baltimore Orioles after last nights loss in Boston. Those same two teams will go to the mound today with first place on the line for the Yankees. The Yanks will send David Phelps to the mound who has struggled with command and confidence his last two starts. Opposing him will be Aaron Cook for the Red Sox. The game will be televised at 7:10 pm ET on YES and ESPN Wednesday Night Baseball.

Lineups

Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Alex Rodriguez DH
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher 1B
Raul Ibanez LF
Eric Chavez 3B
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Chris Stewart C

Go Yankees!!

David Aardsma Improving In Rehab Assignment

David Aardsma threw another inning for the Trenton Thunder last night and this time it was a scoreless inning. David was not without his troubles though as he walked two guys and allowed a single, loading the bases, before he struck out the next batter and induced a double play to get out of the jam and end the inning. He threw 30 pitches in the outing, half of them for strikes, and showed a lot of heart in getting out of the jam. He will pitch again tonight in his first back to back games since going on the rehab assignment. Keep at it David, you're doing great!

This Day In Yankees History : 9/12/12

In a game in 1996 Bernie Williams drove in 8 RBIs with two home runs and a single in a 12-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers.

Add Dellin Betances & Mike Montgomery To The AFL List

Earlier this week we learned that Yankees prospects Austin Romine, Danny Burawa, Zach Nuding, Slade Heathcott, and David Adams to the Arizona Fall league after the season. Late yesterday we learned that we can add Dellin Betances and Mike Montgomery to that list. All of these guys are here for very specific reasons whether it be to make up for time lost to injury (Romine, Burawa, Nuding), make up for lost confidence (Betances), learn a new position (Adams), or just fine tune some things (Heathcott, Montgomery). Should be fun to watch!

Tweet Of The Night

I cannot embed this tweet because, and probably for good reason, twitter is now blocked at work but I received a tweet last night from my good friend @nvalenti14 and I just had to share.

"hey i just met you, and this is crazy, but we blew a 10 game lead, so kill me maybe? #Yankees #wtf" - @nvalenti14

My thoughts exactly Nick...

Andy Pettitte Cleared To Run On Fractured Ankle

This is probably the biggest hurdle for Andy Pettitte to have to leap over on his way back from a fractured ankle and he just got the green light from the doctor. After seeing the Yankees team doctor yesterday he was given clearance to begin running and will participate in fielding drills in order to make it back to the Bronx before the playoffs.

Yankees @ Red Sox 9/11/12

The Yankees start a three game series starting tonight with the Boston Red Sox at Fenway, their last trip to the historic stadium this season. The Yankees need a sweep here to put some distance between them and the Orioles and the Rays who are playing each other this week. The Yankees will send Hiroki Kuroda to the mound and he will be facing off against John Lester for the Sox. The game will be televised at 7:10 pm ET on MY9 and MLB Network.

Lineups

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Alex Rodriguez DH
Robinson Cano 2B
Russell Martin C
Steve Pearce 1B
Curtis Granderson CF
Andruw Jones LF
Jayson Nix 3B

Go Yankees!!

This Day In Yankees History : 9/11/12

In 2001, as we all know, baseball was shut down and Yankees Stadium was evacuated when terrorists ran planes into the Twin Towers and Pentagon.

In 2002 former Yankees Phil Rizzuto and Whitey Ford unveiled a monument for the victims of the  September 11th attacks on the twin towers.

In 2009 Yankees Derek Jeter not only tied but passed Lou Gehrig for the Yankees all time hit list in it's storied history. The Yankees lost after two lengthy rain delays.

From Here On Out

There's a lot of negativity surrounding the Yankees right now, and I can't say it's totally uncalled for. Of course there are those out there that make me roll my eyes, as the team seemingly can't do anything right, but even the most level-headed fans out there had reason to be concerned about the Yanks chances of winning the division, or even making the post-season. But here's the way I see things...

For starters, in the first half of the season the team went 52-33, good for the best record in the American League. The Yanks also had the 2nd best run differential in the AL, and were up 7 games in the AL East. So... how did they do it?

"It was a miracle, sort of like magnets, right?"

In the 1st half of the season Yankee pitching had an ERA of 3.73, while the hitters put up an OPS of .796. So far in the 2nd half of the season, both the Yankee pitching and hitting have dropped. The team's ERA is at 4.20 in the 2nd half, while the team's OPS is at .763. On the surface those numbers may suggest, in actuality, the Yankees aren't as good as some previously thought.

Although I don't expect Yankee pitching to have an ERA of 3.73 from now until the rest of year, I don't expect them to be as bad as the 4.37 ERA we've seen over the past 30 days. Like you've probably heard quite a bit, I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle of those numbers, like say 4.05. And over the course of the season a 4.05 would be the 2nd best ERA in the AL East.

I don't think the team will have an OPS of almost .800 from here on out, like they had in the first half of the season. Nor do I think the team will have an OPS of .723, which is what they'd done the past 30 days. Again, I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle, like at... say... .762. And a .762 OPS would be #1 in the AL East if it was done over the course of the season.

By the way, that "4.05" is actually higher than the 3.91 the team currently has for all of 2012, and that ".762" is quite a bit lower than the team's season OPS of .783.  So I may actually be betting low on the team.

Hopefully the Yankees have better hole cards than this.

As for individual hitters we have to take into account that Robinson Cano has hit .235 over the past 30 days, Nick Swisher has hit .231, Russell Martin has hit .238, Mark Teixeira has hit .240, Curtis Granderson has hit .200, Raul Ibanez has hit .115, and Andruw Jones has hit .140. All seven of those guys are hitting below their career averages, which tells me they all should see at least a slight boost in production. To be fair, though, I don't expect Jeter to hit .361 from here on out, or Ichiro to hit .325 either.

The point is the hitting is better than what we've seen the past few weeks, and the pitching is also better than what we've seen the past few weeks. In my heart of hearts, the 2012 New York Yankees are the best team in the American League East, and they will show it by winning the division by 3-5 games.