Bronx Bomber Ball

After not acquiring a pitcher at the trade deadline, the Yankees made a move internally as the team announced their top prospect Luis Severino would be called up. Severino’s debut has been highly anticipated as he’s quickly risen to the no. 16 prospect in the game according to MLB.com .

The July 31 st trade deadline for the Yankees was anticlimactic if you had to attach one word to describe it. The team acquired Dustin Ackley, who is much better than people think , but that was all Brian Cashman could spin off.

The Yankees were looking to win the series against the Rangers   on Thursday  and keep their AL East lead at 6 games. The Yankees started CC Sabathia and the Rangers started Yovani Gallardo.

Photo Via Outside Pitch MLB In the Yankees first deadline move, general manager Brian Cashman moved prospects Ramon Flores (OF) and RHP Jose Ramirez. In return, he got the former number two overall pick in 2009, a versatile left-handed hitting Dustin Ackley from the Seattle Mariners. Now I may not be speaking for all Yankee fans, but the common consensus around fans is that the Yankees have already lost this trade or that it’s a disaster. If you glance at Ackley’s numbers, you’re not going to be impressed. Those who know me know I’m a huge UNC Tar Heel fan, so I’ve watched Ackley since he was 19 years old. He’s now 27, entering his prime, and is surely an upgrade over Stephen Drew and Brendan Ryan. You don’t believe me? Let’s take a deeper look at it.

The Yankees were looking for their 5th win in a row trying to keep their offense as hot as it has been. Masahiro Tanaka started on the bump for the Yankees facing off against the Rangers Colby Lewis.

As the July 31 st trade deadline approaches, I am patiently watching other teams wheel and deal, while the Yankees stand pant, seemingly content with their current roster. I can only hope that Brian Cashman has some type of plan up his sleeve. Contrary to many other fans, I didn’t really want the Yankees to go after Johnny Cueto or Cole Hamels. David Price was my guy from the beginning.

One of my personal favorite baseball websites I like to go on sometimes is FanGraphs. FanGraphs not only gives you so many stats you don’t know where to begin, but can also give you future projections for any player. One of my favorite parts of FanGraphs is when you scroll all the way down on a player’s profile it has a section called value and it gives you an estimate on how much a player has been worth during the season. Not only does it give you the value of a player for every season they’ve played, it also gives you their actual salary to see if they’ve been playing to what they’re getting paid.

The MLB playoffs haven’t featured the Mets and Yankees since 2006, but it’s hard to avoid this thought if you take a look at what both clubs have done over the past few days: Is baseball back in New York?

It was the second of a four game road series against the Texas Rangers for the New York Yankees. The Yankees pitched Chris Capuano to start the game, so it didn't seem like it would be a good game for the Yankees with him on the mound. The Texas Rangers started Martin Perez.

I’m currently watching the July 28th game between the Texas Rangers and the Yankees. It has been ten minutes since Capuano exited. Yankees manager Joe Girardi sent Chris Capuano to the mound for a spot start, in an attempt to give the rotation, especially Masahiro Tanaka, some extra rest. Some context: Capuano started the season on the DL and started three times. He went 0-3 with a 6.39 ERA in those three starts. Not good. Since then, he’s been a mop-up man. In his last seven games, he’s pitched 9.1 IP, given up 7 earned runs and 11 hits. He didn’t improve even when thrown back into the mop-up role.

The Yankees opened up a four game series in Arlington on Monday continuing their 10 game road trip. Ivan Nova started on the mound pitching against Matt Harrison. The Yankees looked to stay hot and keep the offense going like it has been.

The Toronto Blue Jays have executed an armageddon like move of biblical proportions. They have drawn a line in the sand with the acquisition of one Latroy Hawkins. Without fail, every time I have seen him pitch, it was to give up a lead or crush any hope of rallying back. Thus why I gave him the nickname Latrine Hawkins. This is one heck of a reclamation project for the Jays!

Both the Yankees and Twins seeked the series win on Sunday, the first pitch at 2:10 ET. The Twins won game 1, 10-1, but the Yankees rallied in the 9th to win 8-5 on Saturday night. The Yankees sent Nathan Eovaldi (9-2, 4.43 ERA) to counter Minnesota’s Kyle Gibson (8-7, 3.19 ERA). The Yankees won 7-2 and won the series.

If you never had a reason to learn who Brian McCann was during his time with the Atlanta Braves, you probably found one when he infamously blocked Brewers outfielder Carlos Gomez from touching home plate in September of 2013.

It feels like such a long time ago when Hiroki Kuroda pitched in pinstripes, but it was only last year.

GAME ONE (NYY 3 vs. BAL 2) The Yankees began a 3 games series at home on the 21st against the Orioles, a big division opponent that could help or hurt a lot depending on how they do. Nathan Eovaldi started looking for his 10th win this season facing off against Wei Yin Chen of the Orioles.

Lets Take a Minute And Be Grateful… As I listen to New York sports radio on my way home from work everyday, I have to painfully endure continuous Mets talk. The bias some of these commentators have towards the Mets is truly disgusting by the way. From my observations, it really sucks to be a Mets fan. Could you imagine rooting for an organization that is not dedicated to putting the best product out on the field? As much as I have criticized Hal Steinbrenner, Brian Cashman, and the rest of the Yankees management, I have not once questioned their dedication to winning. Maybe they are not as vocal as George Steinbrenner with an unwavering commitment to winning, however I do not doubt that commitment is present. Watching what is going on across town in Queens is really sickening as a sports fan. Unlike the Knicks and Jets who have been plagued by incompetency, the Mets find themselves in a different situation. They have owners, who despite having one of the best starting rotations in th...

The Yankees came off one of its worst losses of the year in a 10-1 defeat last night. In an effort to get revenge, they sent CC Sabathia to the hill in Game 2. Sabathia came off one of his best games of the year, beating King Felix in his last outing. Minnesota sent Tommy Milone to the hill. The Yankees played one of its best games of the year and won 8-5.

    The Yankees started their ten-game road trip in Minnesota at Target Field. They will play 3 in Minnesota, 4 in Texas against the Rangers, and 3 against the Chicago White Sox. The Yankees sent Michael Pineda to the hill to face the former Yankee Phil Hughes. The Yankees lost 10-1.

Following Sunday’s late-inning victory against the Seattle Mariners, there were reports of the Yankees scouting Cincinnati Red’s All Star pitcher Johnny Cueto. The Yankees were in fact in the building for Cueto’s start this afternoon along with scouts from the Dodgers, Jon Morosi of Fox Sports reports. The idea of Cueto being traded to the Yankees should excite many Bomber fans. On the season Cueto is 6-6 with a 2.73 ERA. In a free agent year, this would be the ideal time for the Yanks to make a move for the Ace.

As this year’s July 31 st non-waiver trade deadline approaches, GM’s across the league are looking for ways to improve their teams for the upcoming pennant race, or at least those employed by contenders are. We can only assume that our very own Brian Cashman is diligently working the phones, and looking for ways to improve this year’s Yankees squad. As currently comprised, the Yankees are likely good enough to win the AL East, and return to the playoffs for the first time since 2012. My worries, however, are for the postseason. I may be looking too far into the future, but in my opinion, without a middle infielder that can hit and a front line starting pitcher, the Yankees will be facing an early playoff exit.  

I can imagine trading a baseball player could be quite the task. At the minimum a calculated risk. You have to take into account the projection of the player you are looking to acquire versus the projection of the player (s) you will be giving up. Then there's the almighty pride that no team admits to. Will the players they give up come back to burn them? That's the reasoning behind not trading within one's division. Of course if you want to add more headaches to the confusion, add in the almighty sabermatricians who use what I can only describe as excel codes to determine such things as how many times a ball player chews his food before swallowing.

Well it seems that 4 games and 12 at bats into it, Brian Cashman and the Yankee brass has had about all they could stomach. Robert Refsnyder should consider himself lucky for being called up in the first place as he does not even posses the pre-requisites for being a Yankee regular. He is not on the wrong side of 30, he does not reek of bengay and he's not overpaid.

The Yankees have played beyond expectations this year. They currently hold a 50-41 record and a 4 game lead on the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East. With 71 games to go, they must go on a run to separate themselves from the rest of the AL East and solidify its lead in the division. The top of the lineup has been consistent; the bottom not so much. Starting pitching has been average to bad, but the Yankees bullpen, as you'll read in the latter part of the article, has been monumental to the success of the Yankees this year. These next ten statements are either FACT or FICTION and revolve around all aspects of the Yankees as we enter the second half. Since my colleague on Bronx Bomber Blogger Steven Eareckson already had a predictions article , I tried to discuss other content that he didn't focus on, so hopefully the two articles complement one another.

The Yankees and Mariners finished off a three-game set in the Bronx with a lopsided pitching matchup. Perennial Cy Young contender Felix Hernandez (11-5, 2.84 ERA) faced CC Sabathia (4-8, 5.47 ERA), who is having one of his worst years ever. The Yankees played one of their best games of the year, winning a pitcher’s duel against King Felix, 2-1, even though the game winner was hit off of Fernando Rodney.

When most articles are written about prospects they’re about either prospects on the cusp of the Big Leagues or prospects with a lot of upside and hype. For this article, I’ve decided to take a different route on a prospect story. The prospect I’m writing about is Ty McFarland, who was drafted by the Yankees in the 10 th round of the 2014 draft. McFarland was born October 13 th , 1993 in Bridgewater, Virginia and played his collegiate ball at James Madison University which is only a couple minutes from my college in Harrisonburg, Virginia. His father, Spanky McFarland, was actually the head coach of the team for 18 seasons until he announced his final season would be this past spring. In 196 games played at James Madison, McFarland had a career .315 average to go along with 15 home runs, 131 RBI and a .446 slugging percentage. McFarland had an impressive senior season for the Dukes as he hit .317 with 9 home runs, 37 RBI and a whopping .507 slugging percentage that earned him a Fir...

The MLBPA is one of the strongest unions in the world. They are known to protect the interests of players since 1966. That last sentence may or may not agree with you. Maybe you have a favorite player; you wish them the absolute best and are happy that they are being backed by this juggernaut union. But what if your home team is stuck with a contract. A player for which you cannot seem to fathom how someone could ever agree to pay them the dollar amount they are receiving to perform at a level that is not acceptable to you? Well there's nothing anyone can do about that scenario as there would be hell to pay for even suggesting it. If this union can protect Alex Rodriguez who at times had tsunami like turbulence with them during his PED battle, there's no telling what would be of attempting to void a major league contract. But what if we could suspend disbelief for a moment? What if we lived in a world where there was no players union and you were Czar Steinbrenner? What if yo...

That future, which of course consists of familiar names in the Yankee organization like Luis Severino, Aaron Judge, Greg Bird, Gary Sanchez, Rob Refsnyder and more, may also include guys that you’re more familiar with, but aren’t currently in the organization.

Since it’s officially the second half of the season I figured I would come up with some first-half awards in the time being.

As the Yankees gear up for the second half of the season, I thought it would be a good idea to make some bold predictions that would elicit response. Let me preface this by acknowledging most of these predictions will unfortunately not come true, however I thought it would be a fun exercise. Since I’m so accustomed to looking at the glass half empty, I decided to take the opposite approach with my conjecture. In fact, some of these predictions might contradict one another. Needless to say, I’d be ecstatic if even a few of them came to fruition.

The American League, led by solid pitching, Trout, and Fielder, won the All-Star Game 6-3 on Tuesday in Cincinnati. The Yankees then enjoyed two days off before beginning a three-game, weekend set. Masahiro Tanaka (5-3, 3.63 ERA) started against Seattle’s Mike Montgomery (4-3, 2.29 ERA). The Yankees won 4-3.

The Yankees ended the first half of the year with a record of 48-40. They were known to be an extremely streaky team, going on long stretches where they won most, if not all, of their games and then losing many in a row. The first half had its good and bad memories and here are the top ten moments from the first of the Yankee season.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015 - American League 6 @ National League 3 Angels CF Mike Trout of the American League led off the All-Star Game with a liner into the right field stands for a leadoff home run. Cardinals shortstop Johnny Peralta of the NL tied the game at 1 after he singled home Arizona 1B Paul Goldschmidt. The American League took the lead 3-1 in the top of the 5th when Texas DH Prince Fielder, with 2 out and against Dodgers LHP Clayton Kershaw, singled home Trout. Then, Lorenzo Cain doubled home Pujols. Pirates CF Andrew McCutchen homered in the 6th to cut the NL deficit to 3-2. The AL added two runs in the 7th and led 5-2 when Machado doubled home Brock Holt and scored on a Prince Fielder sacrifice fly. Dozier’s HR (American League) and a NL sac fly in the bottom of the 9th added one run for each team. The American League won 6-3 and secured home field advantage for the World Series.

The last time New York had three baseball teams was in 1957. Way before the Mets had their fans wearing paper bags over their heads, NY was home to the Giants and Dodgers. There were many battles between the three as at times, the Giants owned the Yankees and the Yankees owned the Dodgers (some say they still do). They have had their share of memorable moments as the Yankees finally took down the mighty Giants in the world series of 1923 after being beaten by them in 1921 and 1922.

The old cliché that pitching wins championships tends to always be the case. The Yankees have one of the best bullpens in baseball and if they add a starting pitcher to bulk up the rotation, the Yankees could also have one of the better starting rotations in baseball. For now, let’s dive into our midseason report cards across the board for Yankee pitchers.

The offense of this year’s team is much improved over the team in 2014. On the defensive side of the ball, the 2015 Yankees have done a good job overall as well. This has led the team to a record of 48-40 and a 3.5 game lead over the Tampa Bay Rays. The team couldn’t be in a better position. We have graded each Yankee position player on the basic A-F scale with some players receiving a grade of “I” for “Incomplete.” Enjoy!

For the final game of the 3-game set, the Yankees sent Nathan Eovaldi to the mound. Eovaldi has been extremely hittable all year. The Red Sox countered with Wade Miley, who hasn’t pitched too well all year. This was the last game before the All-Star Break, and the Yankees won it, 8-6 and went into the All-Star Break with a record of 48-40.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you most likely know that CC Sabathia is not having the best of years. In fact, at this rate, CC Sabathia’s ERA will be a career high this year and nowhere near his career ERA of 3.69. Through 17 starts Sabathia has a 4-8 record to go along with a miserable 5.47 ERA in 100.1 innings pitched. What’s even more startling is that Sabathia has already given up 19 home runs, 2 nd in the American League to the former Yankee favorite Phil Hughes. Sabathia has also had trouble putting hitters away as hitters are 12-40 (.300) on counts ending in 0-2.  

The Yankees have been running on muddy waters all year yet they are at a nose's length from finishing the first half of the season in first place. Coming off of an unconventional off season by their standards, they decided that instead of going for the high priced free agents, they would incorporate a new formula.

For the middle game of a 3-game set, the Yankees sent Ivan Nova (1-2, 2.65 ERA) to the mound to counter Eduardo Rodriguez (4-2, 3.69 ERA), the starter for the Red Sox. Also, the Yankees called up Rob Refsnyder from Triple A-Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to counter the LHP Rodriguez for this Saturday 7:15 PM start and for tomorrow as well. Boston won 5-3.

On a partly cloudy day in Boston, the Yankees traveled north into New England to start a three-game set against the Red Sox. The Yankees sent Michael Pineda to the mound to face Clay Buchholz, which figures to be the best pitching matchup of the series. The Yankees won 5-1.

Bet you didn’t expect song lyrics in the title did you? Maybe the hate isn’t what it used to be but Friday night in Boston the greatest rivalry in sports continues as the first place Yankees take on their historic foes, the surging Boston Red Sox. The Yankees have taken four of six from the Red Sox this year including a three game sweep in early May. New York is fresh off a series win against the Oakland A’s while the Red Sox have won their last four series and won nine of their last twelve. The Bronx Bombers have 5.5 game lead on the Red Sox who currently sit last in the division. This series could cement the division for the Yankees or allow the Red Sox to get right back in the thick of things in the AL East.

The Yankees came into the series finale with Oakland after losing game one and winning game two. With Masahiro Tanaka on the mound, the Yankees liked their chances as they came out victorious in the game by a score of 6-2. The Bombers took 2 out of 3 from the Athletics.

Here's the easiest test you will take this year: Match the Yankee to his walk-up song from choices a, b or c.   Chase Headley Chris Young Brett Gardner      a. Muckalee Creek Water - Luke Bryan      b. Poison - Bel Biv Devoe      c. Here I Go Again - Whitesnake

To this day I still remember where I was sitting when my dad called me to inform me that the great Derek Jeter was going to retire. I remember immediately buying memorabilia before the prices skyrocketed and I remember wondering how in the world were the New York Yankees going to survive without Derek Jeter? Without Captain Clutch? Without the captain who kept them all together? I was heartbroken even more so because I knew I would never be able to see him play shortstop again.

It was a big day for the Yankees, getting Jacoby Ellsbury and Andrew Miller back from the DL, two players that have been crucial to this season’s success. They faced off against the Athletics in game 2 of the series with CC Sabathia on the mound pitching against Scott Kazmir. The Yankees pulled out a win 5-4, almost giving it up at the end.

Dear Major League Baseball, As a passionate lifelong fan I feel confident in talking to you about an issue that has bothered me for a while, the All-Star game. You are big fans of tinkering with the game to make it more appealing, sometimes it’s good and sometimes it is bad but how the All-Star games work is broken and must be fixed.

The Yankees faced off against the Oakland Athletics Tuesday coming off of an off day and an 8-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday. Nathan Eovaldi was on the hill starting for the Yankees facing off against the dominant Sonny Gray. The Yankees fell short 4-3 in 10 innings.

Jorge Posada’s The Journey Home is a must read for any Yankees fan who enjoys a good book. I know the book was released a couple of months ago so I’m a little late, but there were some very important points which I’d like to touch upon.

The All-Star reserves for the 2015 Mid-Summer Classic were announced Monday Night, July 6 with Yankees reliever Dellin Betances and first baseman Mark Teixeira being the only two Yankees selected. Additionally, Brett Gardner still has a shot at making it as he is one of the five players up for the last roster spot in the American League.