HOPE Week: Friends of Jaclyn

HOPE Week continued today with the New York Yankees organization showcasing Jaclyn Murphy who has been battling cancer since nine years old. Here is the writeup from the Yankees regarding Friends of Jaclyn:

Jaclyn Murphy was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and given a 30 percent chance of survival when she was only nine years old. When the Northwestern University women’s lacrosse team learned about what Jaclyn was going through and about her passion for lacrosse, the Wildcats “adopted” her as an honorary member of the team. Later that spring, Northwestern won its first-ever national championship.

Seeing how much it meant to his daughter’s recovery to be part of a national championship team, Denis Murphy knew what he had to do next.

“Everything that they were doing for Jaclyn impacted her health—I know that for a fact,” Murphy said. “I realized I had to do that for other kids.”

Thus began Friends of Jaclyn, a foundation created to improve the quality of life of pediatric brain tumor patients by pairing them with collegiate and high school sports teams. One such child is 12-year-old Ryan Tucker, a diehard Yankees fan who began his battle with cancer when he was only 3 years old. Tragically, Ryan’s 4-year-old cousin, Quinn, is also battling cancer and has already undergone two surgeries in addition to chemotherapy treatment.

“We strive to create relationships that provide love, support and friendship,” said Friends of Jaclyn executive director, Erin Perkins. “These children are nothing but loved by their teammates. Being adopted, in many cases, will be their only chance to be part of a team.”

Friends of Jaclyn celebrated its 500th adoption this May. Even though his daughter has been cancer-free for nine years, Denis Murphy continues to selflessly devote all of his time to the foundation. Having witnessed what the Northwestern women’s lacrosse team did for Jaclyn during her darkest days, he believes he has discovered the best medicine of all.

“Nothing—no chemotherapy, no pill, no drug—is more powerful than love and support.”

Joe Girardi, Ichiro Suzuki, David Robertson, Shawn Kelley, David Phelps, Matt Thornton, and Larry Rothschild surprised the honorees with lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. The Yankees also held a press conference to introduce 12 year old Ryan Tucker, 11 year old Sean Callahan, and 4 year old Quinn Ostergren who signed one day contracts with the team. They would receive uniforms, clubhouse lockers, and joined the teams for the pregame stretching. Awesome.

Denis Murphy and Jaclyn will throw out the ceremonial first pitch tonight.

Mark Buehrle Left His Family For A Dog.... Meme

Not exactly sure how much truth there is to this because honestly I don't care enough to look it up but if this is true... wow. I can understand being an animal enthusiast and lover, I am to some degree, but I am also a family enthusiast and a wife and kids lover myself. Maybe it's just me.

6/18 Yankees Game Preview vs. Toronto Blue Jays

The New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays will play in the middle game of their three game set at Yankee Stadium tonight. In this matchup the Yankees will send Chase Whitley to the mound looking for his third straight win against the surprise pitcher in baseball this season in mark Buehrle for the Blue Jays. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network, MLB TV, and can be heard on the radio with John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman on WFAN.

Whitley has improved with every start in the major leagues and looks to keep that going tonight in the Bronx against the Jays. Whitley beat the Mariners last time out allowing two runs in a career high 7.2 innings for his second straight victory. Whitley has not walked a batter in four straight starts, CC Sabathia who?

Buehrle is coming off back to back losses for the first time this season and hopefully the Yankees make that a three peat tonight in the Bronx. Buehrle did not deserve the loss on June 7 when he allowed one run in seven innings to the St. Louis Cardinals but did when he allowed four runs in 6.1 innings against the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday.

Get your Yankees tickets for tonight's game right HERE on the blog with no fees and shipping costs associated with the purchase. You can also get tickets for any game this season right here with the help of our friends at Ticket Monster.

Go Yankees!!

Yankees' Prospect Murphy Reportedly Drawing Interest

While he obviously wasn't amazing during his two months on the Yankees, Catching Prospect John Ryan Murphy definitely did alright.

The Yanks' 2009 2nd Round Pick, who made his debut in September of last season, hit .286/.308/.365 in 65 big league Plate Appearances, a three-RBI game back on April 26 included.

Again, those numbers aren't incredible, but according to a recent report from CBS Sports' Jon Heyman they were good enough to make some teams interested, as the Yanks are currently receiving calls about the youngster's availability.

For at least the next five years, the Bombers are set at the catching position, making a trade involving Murphy sensible.

From what we saw during his time on the bench, he has enough talent to hit consistently, possibly causing some teams to view him as a long-term solution.

Now while losing Murphy still doesn't necessarily sound appealing, we have to remember what a trade piece like him could bring to the table this summer, as the Yanks are pretty short-handed in that category.

Outside of Dellin Betances, Gary Sanchez, and Jose Ramirez, they don't seem to really possess anybody capable of drawing a lot of interest, making Murphy somebody they might have to part with.

My Plan To Expand MLB To 32 Teams: Part One

It's a tad outdated with an old Florida Marlins logo but you get the point. 

Just for fun I wanted to take a look at whether it would be a good idea for Major League Baseball to expand to 32 teams, much like the NBA and NFL, and whether it would work or not. The keyword to that first sentence is that this was done for fun. If you have constructive criticism or something that I missed or that could be improved on, by all means let us know in the comments section. If you just want to be a douche and tell me this will never work or happen and don't have reasoning to back it up then please don't bother and derail this post, thank you in advance.

My reasoning for this post was because ever since the second Wild Card was added the fun has been taken out of the July 31st trading deadline. As a Yankees fan I used to constantly refresh MLBTradeRumors and such waiting to see who the Yankees would acquire or trade every season. I used to love getting on my Playstation on August 1st and trading all the players on my MLB game to keep the rosters current (before online game play really got popular). The fun of the July 31 trading deadline has been taken out of the game because with the second Wild Card there are just too many contenders and not enough sellers.

MLB wants five playoff teams and wants the ratings (this is a business after all) then have no fear, I have a solution. Rather than contracting teams like the Marlins and the Twins, which has been discussed in years past, why not add two more teams? You turn three divisions of five teams each into four divisions of four teams each and go back to a single Wild Card winner. You can always go to the eight teams making the playoffs like the NFL later on if you would like, although I don't think that works in MLB unless you want World Series games in December.

What lucky cities would be presented with the new franchises you ask? I'm glad you asked!

To be continued.....

Derek Jeter Holding Off Alexei Ramirez In All Star Voting

In the latest tally for the  Major League All Star Game voting Derek Jeter is still the leading vote receiver for shortstops but not by much as Chicago's Alexei Ramirez is right on his heels. Jeter has a total of 1,810,450 and is being tailed closely by Ramirez's ,1568,620 votes.

If Jeter were to be selected by the fans, and it's a travesty if he isn't, he would become the 7th player in history to be voted in at least nine times. Make it happen Yankees family!

Jeter, to date, has a career 45,315,271 All Star game votes to his name, cool fact for your Wednesday. Jeter ranks second all time to Ken Griffey Jr. and his 50,045,065 votes in his career.

Here is the complete American League list courtesy of MLB.com:

MERICAN LEAGUE ALL-STAR VOTE LEADERS

FIRST BASE
Miguel Cabrera, Tigers -- 2,030,773
Jose Abreu, White Sox -- 1,117,743
Albert Pujols, Angels -- 869,164
Chris Davis, Orioles -- 777,807
Mark Teixeira, Yankees -- 569,288

SECOND BASE
Robinson Cano, Mariners -- 1,513,052
Ian Kinsler, Tigers -- 1,117,345
Dustin Pedroia, Red Sox 1,008,809
Brian Dozier, Twins 642,122
Jose Altuve, Astros 556,343

SHORTSTOP
Derek Jeter, Yankees -- 1,810,451
Alexei Ramirez, White Sox -- 1,568,620
J.J. Hardy, Orioles -- 912,006
Jose Reyes, Blue Jays -- 745,928
Jed Lowrie, Athletics -- 523,677

THIRD BASE
Josh Donaldson, Athletics -- 1,953,423
Adrian Beltre, Rangers -- 953,318
Evan Longoria, Rays -- 904,638
Manny Machado, Orioles -- 856,976
Brett Lawrie, Blue Jays -- 657,365

CATCHER
Matt Wieters, Orioles -- 1,488,884
Brian McCann, Yankees -- 1,075,210
Derek Norris, Athletics -- 1,072,827
A.J. Pierzynski, Red Sox -- 641,098
Kurt Suzuki, Twins -- 623,984

DESIGNATED HITTER
Nelson Cruz, Orioles -- 1,792,432
David Ortiz, Red Sox -- 1,316,921
Victor Martinez, Tigers -- 1,101,028
Edwin Encarnacion, Blue Jays -- 1,049,898
Brandon Moss, Athletics -- 646,456

OUTFIELD
Jose Bautista, Blue Jays -- 2,906,878
Mike Trout, Angels -- 2,544,658
Melky Cabrera, Blue Jays -- 1,454,528
Yoenis Cespedes, Athletics -- 1,111,613
Adam Jones, Orioles -- 1,053,228
Jacoby Ellsbury, Yankees -- 1,027,390
Michael Brantley, Indians -- 954,555
Carlos Beltran, Yankees -- 875,585
Torii Hunter, Tigers -- 834,218
Nick Markakis, Orioles -- 833,558
Shin-Soo Choo, Rangers -- 596,137
Alex Rios, Rangers -- 595,026
Coco Crisp, Athletics -- 594,638
Brett Gardner, Yankees -- 579,363
Josh Hamilton, Angels -- 538,928

Can't Predict Baseball: Jeter's First Grand Slam

We'll start this latest issue of Can't Predict Baseball with a little bit of Red Sox news because on this day in 1967 the Sox first basemen Joe Foy saved his parents life. Foy was spending the night with his parents prior to a series with the Yankees in Yankee Stadium when a fire broke out. Foy was able to get his parents safely out of their home in the Bronx. Foy did lose many souvenirs and keepsakes from being a baseball player but I think he would trade them all for his parents any day.

Also on this day in 2005 Derek Jeter finally hit his first grand slam of his career. Jeter had accumulated 136 at bats and 155 plate appearances with the bases loaded before taking one out over the fences. The grand salami ended the longest drought, in at bats and number of home runs, among current major leaguers without hitting a grand slam.

Quick Hit: Grady Sizemore Worth A Look?

"I can pitch too." - Sizemore

In case you missed it yesterday the Boston Red Sox designated center fielder Grady Sizemore for assignment. I have been a huge advocate for signing Sizemore for over two seasons now and we have another shot, but would he be worth it?

Sizemore absolutely tore up the Red Sox Spring Training camp and won a job out of camp impressively but has struggled somewhat ever since. Sizemore is now on the books for $1.25 million for the Red Sox and could be acquired for a prorated league minimum salary, or roughly $320K.

The good news is that Sizemore is just 31 years old and has the speed and the glove that the Yankees seemingly covet these days and could be a huge bit of insurance for Carlos Beltran if his elbow gives out again. I realize he hit just .216/.288/.324 but he couldn't be much worse then Alfonso Soriano or Kelly Johnson at this point, especially if platooned well and was needed in a pinch.

There is no such thing as a bad minor league deal and I cannot say I entirely trust the cortisone shot in Beltran's elbow so I say, once again, Get Greedy... Get Sizemore.

This Day In New York Yankees History 6/18

On this day in 1977 the Bronx erupted into flames when Yankees manager Billy Martin removed All Star Reggie Jackson from a game in the bottom of the sixth inning against the Boston Red Sox in Fenway Park. Martin later explained that he did not appreciate Jackson's "curious" approach to a fly ball that turned into a cheap double for Jim Rice. In the dugout the two began screaming at one another and had to be separated by Yogi Berra and Elston Howard. The Bronx was burning.

Speaking of Billy Martin on this day in 1979 he came back to manage for the Yankees for the second time, replacing Bob Lemon. Lemon replaced Martin last season and led the team to the World Series title before being replaced by Martin the next season. Martin will spend 95 games as the manager of the club and will finish in fourth place winning 55 of those games.

On this day in 2012 Roger Clemens was finally acquitted of all charges after a ten week trial. Clemens was found not guilty to lying and obstructing Congress when he testified about his steroid use in baseball. Clemens claimed that his success later in his career was due to "over the top" work ethic and not performance enhancing drugs.

Tanaka Collects 11th Win As Yankees Beat Blue Jays, 3-1

After watching him give up a home run to Jose Reyes on the contest's first pitch, you could make the argument that tonight wasn't Masahiro Tanaka's night.

The Yankees' ace, who tossed a complete game in his last outing in Seattle, didn't look at all like himself in the first inning, surrendering a total of three hits.

Eventually, though, the rookie would bounce back, striking out 10 over a solid six innings as the Yanks beat the Blue Jays 3-1.

On the evening, Tanaka actually threw 104 pitches, something outshined by the rest of his numbers, as just one of the final 10 men he faced reached. 

The quality start, #19's third of 6 frames, was Tanaka's 14th consecutive to start the year, lowering his AL-best ERA to 1.99.

Still, the Bombers' offense didn't pick him up for a while, failing to record a hit until Kelly Johnson (went 2-for-3 starting in place of Yangervis Solarte) doubled in the bottom of the third.

Immediately following that knock was a Brett Gardner home run off the right field foul pole (his sixth of the year), giving the Yankees a lead they probably didn't deserve.

Be that as it may, the slim advantage was enough after a Mark Teixeira RBI Single in the fifth, as Dellin Betances threw a perfect two innings of relief and David Robertson closed it out in the ninth for his 17th save of the year. 

In that six-out performance, Betances faced the Blue Jays' 9-5 hitters, impressively retiring each while recording three strikeouts. 

With that accomplishment, the youngster's ERA dropped to 1.55, probably helping his chances of making the All-Star Game. 

As for Robertson, his inning wasn't nearly as pretty, with the four men he faced seeing a combined 26 pitches, a triple from Toronto Second Basemen Munenori Kawasaki included.