It All Comes Down to This...

This is the final off day of the regular season. No more rest until October 5th, no more getting them next time and no more taking their foot off the accelerator. It all comes down to this for the New York Yankees as the team continues their march towards the postseason. The chase for the American League East Division is far from over with three more head-to-head matchups with the Toronto Blue Jays, although lately they have shown to be the superior team, and the team remains in the driver's seat for at least one of the American League Wild Card slots. The season is no longer a marathon and it's not even a sprint, it's more of a run for your life from the herd of flesh eating zombies that are looking to end your life.

The Yankees remaining schedule includes a pair of three game series against the New York Mets and Toronto Blue Jays, both likely playoff teams, before returning home for a pair of four-game series with the Chicago White Sox and the Boston Red Sox, both of which will likely be officially eliminated by then. The final three games of the season will be back out on the road inside Camden Yards when the Yankees face off with the Baltimore Orioles. Buck Showalter loves to stick it to the Yankees anytime he can so if these games are meaningful for New York you can expect Baltimore to bring their "A" games in those final three games.

Just in case you were wondering here is the Blue Jays remaining 2015 schedule.. spoiler alert, it's pretty soft with multiple games against the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays.

My IBWAA Season Awards Ballot

As a member of the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America I get the priviledge and duty of casting my ballot for the American League and National League MVP Awards, Cy Young Awards, Rookie of the Year Awards, Manager of the Year Awards and an award that is exclusive to the IBWAA, the Rollie Fingers American League Relief Pitcher of the Year Award and the Hoyt Wilhelm National League Relief Pitcher of the Year Award (labeled AL and NL Reliever on this ballot). Here is my ballot.

Did I snub anyone? What would you do different? Leave it below in the comments section.

Yankees Final Off Day Music Recommendation

The final off day of the season as we look to close the book on the 2015 regular season and start spreading the news. Speaking of spreading the news our final off day music recommendation will be the final song you hear inside Yankee Stadium after Andrew Miller closes the door and the Yankees win, “New York, New York” by the legend that is Frank Sinatra.

Enjoy the song and be sure to rest up, we can’t rest again until the playoffs!

Weekly Check In: James Kaprielian

James Kaprielian will finish his first professional season in Major League Baseball with a playoff appearance with the Staten Island Yankees. Kaprielian had to watch as Domingo Acevedo started Game One of the Championship round while Dario Agrazal started Game Two with the SI Yankees back against the elimination wall.

Kaprielian dropped his ERA over nine points from his time with the GCL Yankees to Staten Island, although he was a relief pitcher in the GCL and was a starter in the New York-Penn League. Kaprielian will pitch much more in 2016 but he had a great 2015 that he can build off of and that's worth more than any stat line is.

Year	Lev	W	L	ERA	G	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9
2015	A--Rk	0	5	3.90	18	64.2	56	41	28	1	18	38	1.144	7.8	0.1	2.5	5.3
2015	Rk	0	0	11.57	2	2.1	2	4	3	0	2	2	1.714	7.7	0.0	7.7	7.7
2015	A-

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

TCNJ Grad to Participate in the Trenton Thunder World Famous Case's Pork Roll Eating Championship

The Trenton Thunder World Famous Case's Pork Roll Eating Championship, taking place from 12-4pm at ARM & HAMMER Park on Saturday, September 26, will put 2015 TCNJ graduate Carmen Cincotti in a field that will feature Major League Eating's Joey Chestnut.

Cincotti is the "Face of Case's Pork Roll" and won the qualifying contest that took place between games of the Thunder's doubleheader on September 5 by eating eight pork roll sandwiches in under five minutes.

The Pork Roll Eating Championship won't be the first Major League Eating sanctioned event that Cincotti has participated in. In June at Pocono Raceway, Carmen finished third when he consumed 13 hot dogs in just four minutes of competition.

"That event hooked me," Cincotti said by phone. "I've always been the one to eat the most among my friends and I consider myself fairly competitive."

A Biomedical Engineering major at TCNJ, Cincotti spends his time as an engineer at Black Light Power in East Windsor, NJ when he's not eating competitvely. In addition to hot dog eating contests, he's participated in events that had him consuming Chickie and Pete's crab fries and at the New Jersey Taco Festival.

"I wasn't much of a pork roll eater, but Case's is the first competitive food that I'm eating that is actually good," said Cincotti.

The inaugural Trenton Thunder World Famous Case's Pork Roll Championship at ARM & HAMMER Park will feature great food and drink specials including The Ultimate Beer Special where attendees of age can purchase a 10 oz cub for $15 and get $1 refills of all nine Fall Brew selections that will be available at the ballpark.

For more information visit www.EatPorkRoll.com.

Recap: Yankees 3, Rays 1

Luis Severino tossed 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball and the Yankees snuck past the Rays, 3-1, on Wednesday night at Tropicana Field.

Never Give In: Severino clawed his way to career win number four, holding the Rays to one earned run on six hits while walking one and striking out seven. The 21-year-old rookie -- who beat Tampa Bay for the second time in as many weeks -- ran into trouble in the second and fifth, but hunkered down with runners in scoring position as the hosts went 0-for-7 in such situations.

Doing Everything: First base sensation Greg Bird drove in two of the Yankees' runs, doubling home Carlos Beltran in the second before taking Andrew Bellatti deep to right in the ninth. In all, Bird plated four of New York's 10 runs in the series, his two homers bringing his total for the season to seven.

Clutch: Chase Headley blooped an RBI single to left with two on and two out in the sixth, increasing the Yankees' lead to 2-0 against Chris Archer. Headley had been hitless to that point in the contest, but following a lengthy battle that saw Archer's pitch count reach 108, was able to softly flare a slider to the opposite field.

Showing Off the Athleticism: Brian McCann ended the fifth with a diving catch in foul territory, retiring Evan Longoria with men on second and third. Severino originally looked like he might make the play -- he charged in from the mound and was near McCann when it happened -- but the catcher ultimately located the pop-up first and in doing so put a stop to the Rays' rally.

A Unique Escape: Dellin Betances walked three consecutive upon entering with two out in the seventh, but avoided any damage with a strikeout of James Loney. Betances was appearing for the first time since Sunday, and simply had no control over his knuckle curve until Loney came to the dish.

Next Up: The Yankees will have their final off-day of the regular season on Thursday, returning to action Friday with a crosstown visit to the Mets. Masahiro Tanaka (12-6, 3.40 ERA) will get the nod versus lefty Steven Matz (3-0, 1.88 ERA), beginning at 7:10 p.m. ET on YES and WFAN.

This Day In New York Yankees History 9/17: The All-Time Hits Leader In Yankee Stadium

The final season of the old Yankee Stadium, or better known as the House that Ruth Built, was 2008 before it was demolished and turned into a parking lot for the new Yankee Stadium that we see today. Yankee Stadium had one more milestone in it's blood before being demolished as on this day in 2008 Derek Jeter became the All-Time hits leader in Yankee Stadium. Jeter passes Lou Gehrig with a first inning single in a 6-2 loss to the Chicago White Sox. Jeter would accomplish the feat with his 1,270th hit in the 85 year old ballpark in the Bronx.

Also on this day in 1977 Yankees DH Dave Kingman became the first player to hit a home run for four different teams in one season. The veteran would have a total of 26 home runs that season including nine for the Mets, eleven for the Padres, two for the Angels, and four for the Yankees.

Game Thread: New York Yankees @ Tampa Bay Rays 9/16

The New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays are set to finish off their three game set this weekend between the two clubs inside Tropicana Field. The pitching has been great for both clubs, the hits have been timely and the games have been hella-entertaining. What more could you ask for? Well if you asked for a game that pitted two team’s aces against each other you got it as the Yankees send Luis Severino to the mound to face off against the Rays starter and ace Chris Archer. The game will be played at 7:05 pm ET and can be seen on WPIX Channel 11 and MLB TV.

The Yankees are off tomorrow before heading to Queens to take on the first place New York Mets inside CitiField. The Mets mathematically have a shot at clinching the National League East Division title with a strong showing against the Yankees so the Bronx Bombers will look to play spoilers while improving their own potential playoff scenarios. To see this go down live click the Yankees Tickets link at the top of the blog and grab a pair of seats for the series. If you can’t make it live simply jump on Twitter and give @GreedyStripes a follow and we’ll root like hell from afar as the team does it.

Severino is ready and the offense better be ready because against the Yankees you know Archer is ready. Let’s make it two in a row, Go Yankees!

Ivan Nova to the Bullpen

Ivan Nova is going to the New York Yankees bullpen and he's taking the whole idea of a six-man rotation with him. The Yankees announced their pitching rotation for their weekend series with the New York Mets and announced that Ivan Nova would be working out of the bullpen during the series, essentially swapping places with Adam Warren.

Nova to the pen is a bit surprising as the team seemed against it in his first year removed from Tommy John surgery but it seems like the team and manager Joe Girardi are going all in for the playoffs this season.

New York announced that Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda and CC Sabathia would go in that order against the Mets this weekend potentially lining up Warren, Severino and Tanaka in the three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays inside Rogers Centre. 

UPDATED: John Sterling Home Runs Calls

John Sterling has become known for his home run calls during his tenure as the Yankees radio man over the years so I thought this would be a good time to go over his home run calls from the 2015 season. Have a little fun with it before the game tonight.

Brian McCann – “Oh McCann can, yes McCann can.”

Mark Teixeira – “You’re on the Mark… Teixeira. A Teix message!”

Stephen Drew – “Stephen Drew… How Do You Do?”

Didi Gregorius – “Gregorius makes Yankees fans uproarious. Yes and Didi!”

Chase Headley – “You can bank on Chase. Headley is Deadly.”

Brett Gardner – “Gardy Goes Yardy!”

Jacoby Ellsbury – “Ellsbury Ells…buries it.”

Carlos Beltran – “un Correazo by Beltran. Beltran belts one.”

Alex Rodriguez – “An A-Bomb… From A-Rod”

Chris Young – “Chris Young, Younger Than Springtime. Chris Young… Forever Young.”

Robert Refsnyder –“ Rob Refsnyder has Seoul”

John Ryan Murphy – “John Ryan Sends One Flyin’”

Dustin Ackley – “Dustin goes bustin’”

Slade Heathcott – “A heat shot from Heathcott”

Greg Bird – “Bye, Bye Birdie. Here he is, the Birdman of New York. “

Jose Pirela – “Jose Pirela, He’s a Happy Fella”

If you have any more that I may have missed please leave them below in the comments section.