Quick Hit: Surviving 27 Innings in 24 Hours

The New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays are set to play a whopping 27 innings, or more potentially, in less than 24 hours after the game on Thursday night was rained out in the Bronx. This is not going to be an easy feat for either team but it will be especially difficult for the Yankees since they have more to lose. How in the world is manager Joe Girardi going to navigate these three games and not shoot the team in the foot for the remainder of the season or for the foreseeable future?

The good news for the Yankees is that next Thursday they have an off day and face a team they have beat up on all season long in the Tampa Bay Rays Monday through Wednesday. The bad news is this is the last off day for the team until a potential playoff series. New York faces a trio of right-handed starting pitchers this weekend meaning the left-handed bats will be relied upon heavily. Expect Stephen Drew to play in at least two of these games, if not all three, while someone like a Greg Bird may have to play all three contests along with Chase Headley. The pitching is going to be the major concern for both teams though.

Girardi has already stated that he may have to pitch some of his pitchers three games in a row, something he hasn’t done all season, out of necessity. Chris Martin was called up from Triple-A for a fresh arm in the bullpen and he could end up pitching two or three nights if need be along with the trio of Chasen Shreve, Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller. Adam Warren may have to be used for multiple innings as well as Chris Capuano just to get the team through and to save somebody, anybody, to pitch against the Rays on Monday.

It’s going to be a grueling grind but if the Yankees can blow out the Jays in one or two of these contests, and trust me the offense is due for a blowout, they may be just fine. 

Weekly Check In: Gary Sanchez

El Gary Sanchez was activated off the disabled list this week and was assigned to Triple-A to assist the Scranton/Wilkes Barre RailRiders in their chase for the Governor’s Cup. Sanchez battled with a hamstring injury a week before September call ups and has been on the disabled list ever since with the injury. Sanchez is apparently healthy enough to bat and run the bases a little but he’s not been cleared to play catcher as he has instead played the DH position. If Sanchez isn’t healthy enough or able to play catcher than it seems unlikely that New York would bring him up to the Major Leagues as a September call up when Scranton wraps up their postseason play.

New York has tied their own record for the most players to make their Major League debut’s in one season in 2015 and could break the over 100-year old record with one more debut. The only player currently on the 40 man roster that has not made his MLB debut is Sanchez so the stars have definitely aligned it’s now up to Yankees GM Brian Cashman to pull the trigger and break the record. Why wouldn’t you at this point? Nothing to lose bringing up Sanchez to sit on the bench and get into a blowout late, right?

Break the record, call up Sanchez. 

Year	Lev	G	PA	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
2015	AA-AAA	93	400	50	100	23	18	62	7	29	78	.274	.330	.485	.815
2015	AA	58	254	33	61	14	12	36	6	18	50	.262	.319	.476	.795
2015	AAA	35	146	17	39	9	6	26	1	11	28	.295	.349	.500	.849

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

This Day In New York Yankees History 9/12: Bernie Williams Has a Week of a Game

Not much has happened on this day in New York Yankees history surprisingly but Bernie Williams did have a week of it on this day in 1996. Bernie had two home runs and a single as he went on to knock in eight RBI helping the Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers by the score of 12-3.

Other notable happenings on this day in Major League Baseball history was on this day in 1979 the Red Sox Carl Yastrzemski collected his 3,000th hit of his career in a victory over the Yankees in Fenway Park. Also Sammy Sosa became the fourth player in major league history to hit 60 home runs in a single season on this day in 1998 as he joined Babe Ruth, Roger Maris, and Mark McGwire as McGwire and Sosa attacked Maris' single season home run record.

Game Thread: New York Yankees vs. Toronto Blue Jays 9/11

Welcome to October baseball in September, or as close as you’re going to get anyway, as the New York Yankees play host to the Toronto Blue Jays tonight in the first of a huge four-game set. Both teams sit atop the American League East with the Yankees within striking distance with a good series this weekend. These head-to-head matchups, which the Blue Jays have all but dominated thus far in 2015, will absolutely decide the winner of the AL East Division race this season, 100%. The Yankees look to turn their luck around lately against the Blue Jays as they send Luis Severino to the mound to face off against the Toronto starter David Price. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network, MLB Network and MLB TV.

These are four huge games that you are going to want to see no matter what. If you can make it live then I absolutely recommend you click the Yankees Tickets link at the top of the blog and get yours now because I highly doubt there will be any tickets left at the stadium itself. If you can’t watch the game live then watch at home and join us on twitter, @GreedyStripes, to root on the Yankees all weekend and all season long, however long that season carries on.

Here we go, the games don’t get any bigger than this. Go Yankees!

Mark Teixeira Out for 2015 Season w/ Fractured Leg

Cashman just told reporters at Stadium that Teixeira is done for the season. The latest MRI showed a fracture. Recovery time is 3 months.

— Jack Curry (@JackCurryYES) September 11, 2015

Damn.

The Tetrad, the Fourth Blood Moon & the Toronto Blue Jays

If you don’t know what a blood moon is or what the “tetrad” is then this is going to be a very informative, and hopefully very interesting, post for you. The tetrad is described as a series of four consecutive lunar eclipses, coinciding on major Jewish Holidays, with six full moons in between with no intervening partial lunar eclipses. I promise it will be worth it to keep reading, don’t let me lose you now.

The fourth blood moon will occur on September 28, 2015 completing the cycle that is called the tetrad. This will be just the 8^th tetrad during the 21^st century and has sparked much controversy with the people who think the blood moon is an omen for the end times. The blood moon prophecy is mentioned numerous times in the Christian bible making appearances in the Book of Joel, Acts in Pentecost by Saint Peter and of course in revelations which predict a great earthquake, the sun to become black and the moon to “become as blood.”

Whether you believe in the end times or not is not the point here, the point is that every prior tetrad of the last 500 years coincided with events in the Jewish and Israeli history that were tragic. All those tragedies followed triumphs of course, the Six Day War for instance, leading us to the 2015 Toronto Blue Jays.

Someone on that team has to be Jewish, right? So with that being said the team will choke under the pressure that is meaningful September baseball, lose the division lead and choke into the postseason. All because the sun is being eclipsed a certain way thus making the moon shine red at night. Thank you science.

This post was all done in fun, have fun with it. Don’t hate. 

Twitter Poll: Yankees Still a Playoff Team?

@GreedyStripes Gotta believe it! Then again I'm a little biased.

— Jacob Vincent (@JacobVincent_77) September 10, 2015

The New York Yankees have some impeccable timing, don’t they? I mean that with the utmost sarcasm as I reference the injuries to Mark Teixeira, Nathan Eovaldi and Brett Gardner while the offense continues battle against a bout of season-long inconsistency. If you asked me this question two weeks ago I would have said absolutely, 100% without a doubt but while my answer has not changed I can see where others opinions and answers may have so I leave you with this Twitter Poll before tonight’s game, will the New York Yankees make the playoffs?

@GreedyStripes I see yankees making playoffs for sure. This series w bluejays will show how bad they want it!

— Jimmy Vonderlinden++ (@CanesEagles1) September 10, 2015

@GreedyStripes Yes, but it feels like the Yankees are playing Jenga. They do well and then falter. Crucial games vs Jays coming up.

— Niral Patel ॐ ♏ (@npatel114) September 10, 2015

@GreedyStripes I'll be better equipped to answer this after the Toronto series. We're definitely the first wild card at least

— Braxton (@NYYfan2442) September 10, 2015

@GreedyStripes May win play in but lose afterwards more questions than answers

— donaldday (@donaldday0129) September 10, 2015

@GreedyStripes Season is far from over. This Toronto series will say a lot about if whether they want to win or not.

— Jessica (@FinnGirlJess) September 10, 2015

@GreedyStripes we will make the playoffs as a wild card. It won't matter -- we don't have the pitching depth or bats to do damage in October

— Mark Trova (@Mark_Trova) September 10, 2015

@GreedyStripes Absolutely. How well will we do post season may depend on injuries and how badly ALL want it. Everyone needs to step up

— Rach (@RachelG48NYY) September 10, 2015

@GreedyStripes Yes.. After that, I don't know how far they'll go tho..

— Clay Bellinger (@Clay_Bellinger) September 10, 2015

@GreedyStripes I see them making the playoffs but don't see the going far.They are very inconsistent &don't seem that hungry for a WS title

— sara (@jenfan01) September 10, 2015

Honestly I don’t see any teams that are trailing the Yankees in the Wild Card chase that really scare me or that I think are good enough to rattle off 18-of-20 or some insane run like that. Even with the Yankees struggling the team is still finding new and inventive ways to win so it’s not like the team is falling off the face of the Earth. They have a decent cushion for the first Wild Card spot and teams like the Minnesota Twins, Tampa Bay Rays, Baltimore Orioles and Texas Rangers simply don’t scare me that much. Ask me again in another two weeks and my answer may change again, that’s human nature and this is baseball, but right now I believe the team, will make the postseason 100%.

To be involved in our next Twitter Poll head over to Twitter and give @GreedyStripes a follow. 

Game Preview: New York Yankees vs. Toronto Blue Jays 9/11

The New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays will face off head-to-head for the next four games this week inside Yankee Stadium and that big series starts tonight in the Bronx. This is the biggest series of the year for both teams, well until the next and final series head-to-head inside the Rogers Centre later on in the season, as both teams continue to fight for American League East supremacy. The Blue Jays come into the contest with an 8-4 advantage in the season series and come into the series with the advantage in the division. The Yankees will send Luis Severino to the mound looking to turn things around for New York while the Blue Jays will counter with David Price. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET and can be seen on the YES Network, MLB Network and MLB TV.

• Severino will possibly be making his biggest start of his young Yankees career tonight in the Bronx against the Toronto Blue Jays. Severino has already beat the Blue Jays once this season but will draw David Price on the Yankee Stadium mound so it will not be an easy task getting his second win against the Yankees AL East rivals. 

• Price has been the ace that the Blue Jays were hoping they were acquiring when they sent their top prospect in a package to Detroit before the July 31st trade deadline. Price has made seven starts with Toronto since the trade and has posted a 5-1 record with a 2.15 ERA in a Blue Jays uniform. 

I cannot put into words how huge this series is for the Yankees. New York comes into the game with the news that both Mark Teixeira and Nathan Eovaldi are likely done for the regular season and come into the contest with many players “beat up” including Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury. You know what though? The Blue Jays are beat up and have done it all season long without the man, tomorrow’s starter Marcus Stroman, the team relied on to pitch on Opening Day. They aren’t making excuses and I know the Yankees aren’t either, excuses are for the fans. Start the battle cry and let’s do this! Go Yankees!

Yankees Post MiLB Season Top 10 Prospects List

Many of the minor league affiliates for the New York Yankees are done playing this season with just the Scranton/Wilkes Barre RailRiders, the Staten Island Yankees and the Pulaski Yankees making the postseason. Pulaski has since been eliminated but the story of the season has not been the Yankees prospects that are down on the farm as much as the story evolving around the top prospects that have seemingly taken the league by storm. With players like Luis Severino and Greg Bird lighting up and exciting the Yankee Stadium faithful the look of the Yankees Top Prospects list is expected to get a major face lift after all MiLB games are wrapped up. I wanted to get an early jump on this with my own Top 10 Post MiLB Season Prospects List for the New York Yankees.

1. Aaron Judge

2. Jorge Mateo

3. Gary Sanchez

4. Robert Refsnyder

5. James Kaprielian

6. Jacob Lindgren

7. Luis Torrens

8. Eric Jagielo

9. Ian Clarkin

10. Rookie Davis

The threshold for being a prospect or taking the next step is 50 innings for a pitcher or 130 at-bats for a positional player. A player can also take the next step out of the prospect arena by spending more than 45 days on the active roster with the exception of the month of September when rosters ar expanded. With that in mind you can realize why you aren't seeing Luis Severino who is just 14.2 innings away from the 50 IP mark and Greg Bird who is less than 50 at bats away from 130 for the season. If these two were to be shut down for the remainder of the season, which will not happen with Nathan Eovaldi and Mark Teixeira injured and likely to miss the remainder of the regular season, Severino would easily be #1 and Bird would probably be my #4 but that's the way the cook crumbles unfortunately.

What's your Top 10 without Bird and Severino?

The Yankees Play Best Against Good Teams?

Last week we brought you a post stating that playoff teams generally beat the teams they are supposed to beat, teams with inferior records for example, with consistency. Can the same be said about consistently beating the best teams in the league and the team’s that are either near locks for the playoffs or contending for a playoff spot? Do the Yankees beat them with consistency as well?

Taking a look at all the contending teams the Yankees have faced this season you run into this breakdown:

NYY vs. Toronto Blue Jays: 4-8

NYY vs. Baltimore Orioles: 9-7

NYY vs. Tampa Bay Rays: 10-6

NYY vs. Kansas City Royals: 4-2

NYY vs. Minnesota Twins: 5-1

NYY vs. Houston Astros: 3-4

NYY vs. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim: 4-2

NYY vs. Texas Rangers: 2-5

NYY vs. New York Mets: 2-1

As you can see here the Yankees have done well overall against potential playoff teams. They have had their hiccups against the Rangers and have been played tough against the Houston Astros but overall the team has taken care of business. The Yankees are fine ladies and gents, even against the Toronto Blue Jays who they have struggled against this season. The Yankees are still within striking distance and have plenty of head-to-head matchups left with Toronto. The Yankees have already dethroned the New York Mets once this season ending their 11-game winning streak, they stopped an 11-2 Detroit Tigers team who had the best record in baseball at the time three times in a row and New York was the team that stopped Toronto’s 11-game winning streak earlier this season. It can be done again, now it’s time to do it.