Bronx Bomber Ball

  The Yankees sitting back at the start of free agency has been, in a word, infuriating.   Every winter, Yankees fans around the globe fantasize about the potential injection of new talent to a team that fell short of it's goal the previous season.  After making just a Wild Card Game appearance in 2021 and losing badly to the hated rival Boston Red Sox, this offseason was expected to be no exception.  Immediately, fans began to reminisce about major offseasons past like 2008 when the Yankees flexed their financial might and brought home a championship the following season.  To this point, that has not been the case.

  The Yankees shuffled their 40-man roster last night in advance of December 8th’s Rule 5 Draft, saying goodbye to some familiar faces to make way for five prospects. Outfielder Everson Pereira (the organization’s No. 13 prospect according to MLB Pipeline), infielder Oswaldo Cabrera (#16), and pitchers Ron Marinaccio, J.P. Sears, and Stephen Ridings were all protected ahead of the 6 PM deadline. In turn, the club designated Clint Frazier, Tyler Wade, and Rougned Odor for assignment, while trading Nick Nelson and newly-selected catcher Donny Sands to the Philadelphia Phillies for minor leaguers T.J. Rumfield (1B) and Joel Valdez (LHP). Photo Credit: Adam Hunger/USA TODAY Sports Pereira, a right-handed centerfielder, had a very strong year at the plate between three levels of the Yanks’ system. In just 188 at-bats, the 20-year-old cranked 20 home runs and drove in 57 RBI -- good for a .303/.398/.686 clip -- along with nine stolen bases. He finished the season with High-A Hudson Valle...

The New York Yankees entered the 2021 season as World Series favorites but struggled through mediocrity and general malaise over the course of the entire season before fizzling out well short of their goal in the American League Wild Card Game at the hands of hated rivals Boston Red Sox.  Two weeks after their playoff elimination, it was announced Manager Aaron Boone's contract would be renewed for three more seasons with a fourth-year option.  Writers of the BBB weigh in on both below:   Photo Credit: Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post

  When new leadership comes into any position it takes some time to make it your own and bring your influence to it. In the case of sports and baseball specifically, people generally say that teams take on the personality of their manager. These few ideas are why I sit here very disappointed that the Yankees decided to not only bring back Aaron Boone but did so with a ringing endorsement by Brian Cashman and a 3-4 year commitment. Going back to those ideas, when Aaron Boone was hired as the manager, he was coming in with no experience and taking over a 91-win team that overachieved the previous year. A team with young talent that just pushed the juggernaut (cheating) Houston Astros to the brink in the 2017 ALCS. A team with all those young players that stepped up in the heat of battle well before anyone expected them to. Boone was brought in and expected to build on that and bring a team that had room to go and still got close to a World Series and get them over the hump. Well, its...

Photo credit: Washington Post

 

Through all the troubles and frustrations in this Yankees season, the time is finally here. Playoffs. Thanks to the first ever walk off hit in the career of Aaron Judge, the Yankees beat the Rays in Game 162 to give the Bombers a playoff berth and send them to the Wild Card Game. 

  Just ten short days ago, this team looked on death’s door, dropping back-to-back games to the Cleveland Indians at home by a combined score of 22-4.   They had fallen out of a wild card spot by 1.5 games, and trailed Boston for the top spot by 2.5 games.   All of the good vibes and positivity accrued during their 13-game winning streak from August 14-27 was seemingly out the window.   They appeared headed for an early end to their season – one that began with lofty expectations of a World Series title.

  How Luis Severino has looked and how the Yankees should use him the rest of the way Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images

  The Yankees open a season defining series Friday night against the Boston Red Sox. The Yankees are the number two Wild Card team as of this writing, holding onto their spot by one full game ahead of Toronto while sitting two games behind Boston in the loss column for the number one spot. It's not news, but after their 13-game August winning streak, the Yankees struggled mightily and gave all that progress that they made right back. It has been a mixed bag since those struggles, but they have since stabilized a little bit. It basically comes down to this: The Yankees’ next six games are against Boston and Toronto. If they win most of them, they will very likely make the playoffs. If they don’t then they’ll be watching like the rest of us. Let’s get into some news and notes. Credit: Sarah Stier/Getty Images

After Monday’s improbable, come-from-behind walk-off against the Twins, Aaron Judge described the 2021 Yankees’ season as a rollercoaster, a testament most fans would wholeheartedly agree with. The undisputed favorite in the American League just three weeks ago, the Yanks are losers of 12 of their last 17 games; though they are still in possession of the second wild card spot, the surging Blue Jays have overtaken first and the Red Sox, Mariners, and Athletics are inching closer every day. Looking to right the ship, Aaron Boone has recognized one of the major issues that has plagued his club all season: the infield defense. Photo Credit: Mike Stobe/Getty Images Monday marked Gleyber Torres’ first appearance at second base since September 29, 2019, and per Boone, that will be the norm for the remainder of the season. His 18 errors at shortstop this year rank fourth in all of baseball, trailing only Bo Bichette, Javier Baez, and Fernando Tatis Jr. -- with four of those coming in the last ...

Photo Credit: USA Today

Yankees fans knew this day was inevitable, but that fact does not mean that we are not emotional over the fact that it's arrived.  Photo credit: Yahoo Sports

  Riding the wave of an 11-game winning streak, the Yankees headed into Oakland this past weekend with a chance to bury the suddenly desperate Oakland Athletics. With the annoyingly good and suddenly streaking Tampa Bay hitting a soft part of their schedule, this was a doubly important series for the Yankees to not lose and hopefully win in order to keep their Wild Card lead and keep their division hopes within reach. We could go into a few excuses for why (winning streak hangover, awkward west coast start times, Oakland being a desperate team) but in somewhat disappointing fashion, the Yankees “earned” a split of this series with Oakland and now will head off for a three game set with the Los Angeles Angels. Let’s recap the series that was. Credit: Kiyoshi Mio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

  The Yankees have been the hottest team in baseball for a decent while now, extending their winning streak to 12 late last night in Oakland. The hitting has become more consistent with clutch at-bats taking place now that were missing earlier in the year. The starting pitching has been perhaps the biggest surprise, pitching as well as any other staff across the league, and that’s without Luis Severino and Corey Kluber.

  The Yankees are heading to the west coast, and they head off on this seven-game west coast swing as the hottest team in baseball. They are the owners of an 11-game winning streak and have won their last 10 consecutive series. It has been a remarkable turnaround for a team that looked like it was asleep for the first half of this season, but there is still work to be done. The Yankees current 11 game winning streak is their longest since 1985 and it has seen them go from trailing both the Red Sox and the Oakland A’s in the Wild Card standings, to leading both by four and five games respectively in the loss column. The Yankees flipped a switch in mid-July and now have ridden an impressive white hot winning streak into the driver’s seat for a playoff stretch as we head to the stretch run of the regular season. The first series up in this all-important stretch run, is the aforementioned Oakland A’s. The A’s are a talented team that had an impressive 13 game winning streak of their ow...

Coming into this series, the Yankees and Braves had been the two hottest teams in all of baseball for the month of August, with both teams going from out of a playoff  spot in July, to comfortably in one during the present day. As Paulie said on the broadcast, it was the first time since 1902 that two teams with nine game winning streaks faced  off against each other, quite the amount of time for something to not happen in baseball. This two game set started a vital week for the Yanks, as a four game set in Oakland looms with a team right on the Yanks tail in the wild card race. With this being only a two game set, the Yanks streak of consecutive series wins was at risk, needing to win two vs a very good team. Yet that’s just what the Yanks did, winning both games including an absolute nail biter on Tuesday night, in typical 2021 Yankees fashion. Credit: Todd Kirkland/Getty Images

Except for presumably Tropical Storm Henri, nothing, of late, has stopped the "New" New York Yankees from pursuing their path to a postseason spot. Photo credit: New York Post

The New York Yankees have essentially completely transformed themselves here in the second half of the season. Since they were 41-41 (1 more game than halfway through the 162-game season) the Bombers are 29-11 giving them the best record in the league over that span. 

Well, what a difference a month makes. On the fourth of July the Yanks were a .500 baseball team, while the Red Sox had the best record in the A.L. Fast forward to now and the Yanks are a full game ahead of the Red Sox after completing a three-game sweep of their arch rivals in the Bronx. As usual, none of the three wins were easy and all three games seemed to be heading off the rails at one point or another. However, a win is a win and the Yanks just keep getting it done, improving their record to 23-9 since the All-Star break.

  The Yankees finally wrapped up their home series against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Monday night, evening the season series at two games apiece with a 2-1 victory.   The Yankees continued to struggle at the plate on Monday night, but a two-run first inning home run off the bat of Joey Gallo was all the offense required in this one.

  After another crushing defeat in the Field of Dreams game last night, the Yankees and White Sox are off on Friday as they travel to Chicago to complete their three-game series.   Let’s use the off-day as an opportunity to check-in on the Yankees’ laundry list of injured and COVID-afflicted players.

Weekly Preview: NYY @ KC 8/9 - 8/11,  NYY @ CHW 8/12 (Field of Dreams Game), 8/14-8/15   We should have so many reasons to be happy heading into the week of the highly-anticipated (and postponed) Field of Dreams game.   Photo credit: CBS Sports

Photo credit: Chicago Sun-Times It's been a roller coaster race to the trade deadline (with a miserable loss to the Rays in between) for the Yankees since last night.  After yesterday's acquisition of Joey Gallo, Brian Cashman is trying to outdo himself.  YES' Jack Curry had it first:  The Yankees are trading Alcantara and Vizcaino for Rizzo. The Cubs are picking up all of Rizzo’s remaining salary. — Jack Curry (@JackCurryYES) July 29, 2021 Yes, you read that correctly -- Anthony Rizzo is now a New York Yankee -- seemingly right out from under the noses of the Boston Red Sox .  The Yankees are sending two minor leaguers, OF Kevin Alcantara (Yanks' No. 12 prospect) and RHP Alexander Vizcaino (Yanks' No. 9 prospect), to Chicago in exchange for Rizzo.  The Cubs will also pay the Yankees the remaining $5.5 million left of Rizzo's salary for the 2021 season (his full season salary is $16.5 million).  Per ESPN -- "Rizzo wasn't in the lineup in the Cubs'...

  The Yankees have pulled off their first big move of the 2021 Trade Deadline week, acquiring a much-needed lefty power bat in the form of Texas Rangers’ slugger Joey Gallo.   The trade also nets the Yankees RP  John King Joely Rodriguez .

Here we go again. Photo credit: Talkin' Jake

The Yankees aren’t boring anymore! Well, maybe they still are, but not for the same reasons as they were previously.   The Yankees have been in a rut most of the season of bland, vanilla, stale – whatever you want to call it – baseball and were dealt another series of blows this weekend to start the second half, losing Jonathan Loaisiga, Wandy Peralta, Nestor Cortes, Aaron Judge, Gio Urshela and Kyle Higashioka to the COVID IL. Loaisiga is set to return later this week against Boston, however, news broke on Sunday afternoon that Darren O’Day’s hamstring injury will cost him the remainder of the season. Zack Britton returned from the IL, but Tim Locastro tore his ACL on Saturday, and his season is done.   Rougned Odor is showing some signs of life, but Luke Voit is back on the IL.  One step forward, one step back.

***Edit*** This was supposed to be a Series Preview before the Yankees got fucked up by Covid, so maybe enjoy the little bit of optimism I had before this news, if you want to, and watch my reaction to the news as it came out *s show order of edits  Photo by Alex Trautwig/MLB Photos Yankees vs Red Sox Preview 7/15-7/18 The Bombers start their second half tonight  tomorrow night, beginning a four game series with the first  place Red Sox. The Yankees (46-43) enter the second half of their schedule 8 games behind the Red Sox (55-36) for first place in the AL East and 4.5 games behind the Oakland Athletics (52-40) for the second Wild Card spot after their nightmare first half of the year. Winners of five of their last seven games entering the All Star Break, this series will be a play a huge factor in determining how they play out the rest of their season. Will they look like the confident team, who was having fun playing baseball, that we saw about to sweep the Astros this ...

In an otherwise bleak season for the 2021 New York Yankees, one bright spot in the bullpen comes in middle relief: Jonathan Loaisiga. 

Weekly Preview: LAA @ NYY 6/28 – 7/1, NYM @ NYY 7/2 – 7/4   So… where do the Yankees go from here?   Photo Credit: ESPN Every time it seems the club gets something going, whether it is winning a series, or getting a couple of comeback wins under their belt, the wheels fall back off the wagon. It is no secret that the Bombers have struggled this season, including many tough losses with just a handful of thrilling wins for this ball club. Following a sweep to the rival Red Sox in Boston, The Yankees sit in fourth place in the American League East with a 40-37 record.   The Yankees will have four games in Yankees Stadium against the Los Angeles Angels and two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani to start out the week on Monday and head straight into a three-game set against the crosstown rival New York Mets in the Bronx. Though the Angels record doesn’t show it, neither of these teams are ones to overlook, especially with the brand of baseball the Bombers have been playing this seaso...

  The question on everyone’s mind as we head into this week is: Are the Yankees back? 

Yankees fans (and all baseball fans): June 2 is now a day to remember.  It’s #LouGehrigDay. 

  Photo Credit: Charles Wenzelberg/NY Post Right-hander Corey Kluber will be shut down for a minimum of two months due to a sub-scapular strain in his right shoulder. First baseman Luke Voit will face another IL stint as well, as he’s dealing with a Grade 2 strained oblique. Corey Kluber will be out at least two months with the shoulder strain, Aaron Boone says. General rule is one week of build-up for each week missed. So four weeks (at least) down, four weeks up. Looking at close to August for a potential return for Kluber. — Lindsey Adler (@lindseyadler) May 26, 2021 Luke Voit has a grade 2 oblique strain... he is Headed to IL #yankees — Meredith Marakovits (@M_Marakovits) May 26, 2021 The news comes after Kluber was removed from Tuesday’s game in the third inning after experiencing shoulder tightness. Kluber’s injury hurts significantly, as he’s pitched tremendously as the primary guy behind ace Gerrit Cole. In 53.1 innings, he’s 4-3 with a 3.04 ERA and 134 ERA+, including a ...

Unless you live under a rock, or you don't have a television or Twitter, you've heard all about Corey Kluber's historic no-hitter on Wednesday night.   Photo credit: Cleveland.com

  We are now firmly underway with this 2021 MLB season. At 34 games in, we are a little bit past “it’s still early” territory and at this point we can start to discuss some of what we’ve seen with a more meaningful sample size behind it. The Yankees did not get out of the gates strongly this season and while they have played better and strung together wins the past few weeks, their performances have been uneven. While several key names are still worth being concerned about offensively, the Yankees have managed to not lose a series since the Tampa Bay series from April 16th-18th. The obvious strengths of the team to this point of the season have been 1) Gerrit Cole, 2) The bullpen and 3) The recent white hot hitting streak of Giancarlo Stanton. While the Yankees starting rotation and offense had both been inconsistent to start the season, it is the rotation that is leading this Yankees charge back into solid baseball and series wins. Specifically, it is the stabilization of Corey Kl...

  The Yankees wrapped up their nine-game homestand this weekend taking two of three from the Washington Nationals, finishing the homestand 7-2 overall.   Both of the Yankees’ wins came in walk-off fashion, following an ugly loss on Friday night in the series’ first game.  The Yankees will hit the road at 18-16, in second place in the AL East, 3.5 games back of Boston.

The Yankees have chosen to Get Higgy with it -- as they’ve made the decision to largely start Kyle Higashioka as their starting catcher. Photo credit: MLB.com

  In an exciting weekday series in the Bronx, Giancarlo Stanton led the Bombers to taking two out of three from the Astros. The series ended on somewhat of a sour note, as the Yankees definitely could have completed the sweep, but I’m not going to harp on the team’s first loss in a week. Chad Green had a pretty rough outing, which isn’t going to happen often. It just sucks that it was the short man Altuve who took him deep after the sh*t he got from fans all week. Before that homer, Altuve was 2-12 on the series, and heard enough “F*ck Altuve” chants from fans to make Manager Dusty Baker cry to the media about it. Fans even chanted “F*ck your birthday” yesterday for the Houston Second Baseman’s 31 st  birthday. I got to go to the game Wednesday night and it was incredible getting to go to the stadium and be a part of that for the only time Houston comes to the Bronx this season (unless they meet in the postseason).   Anyway, what hurts more than the loss itself, is the in...

  New York Post/Getty Images After missing the last month and a half due to knee surgery from a left meniscus tear suffered during spring training, the reigning MLB home run king approaches his 2021 debut in Tampa next week against the Rays. His presence could provide an extra jolt to a Yankees lineup that has shockingly struggled to begin the season. Luke Voit finished the 2020 regular season with an MLB leading 22 home runs, a slash line of .277/.338/.610, and an OPS of .948 which is comparable to the red-hot Giancarlo Stanton. A New York roster lauded for its outstanding depth from the 1 to 9 spots in recent years can't seem to get any production outside of the top of the lineup. Especially from the first base spot that has seen a rotation of DJ LeMahieu, Mike Ford, and the now retired Jay Bruce, with the latter two combining for a paltry .100/.086/.267 and 6 RBIs, to 20 strikeouts. Even if Voit cannot repeat his 2020 pace, anything is better than what the Bombers have gotten so...

  Fresh off a weekend sweep against the lowly Detroit Tigers, the Yankees welcome the Houston Astros to the Bronx in a long-awaited rematch.   This will be the first time since the 2019 ALCS that the two teams have faced off against one another, the first time since the Astros were caught cheating during their 2017 World Championship campaign, and the first time fans will be in attendance to hopefully boo the ever living shit out of them.   Following the three-game set against the Astros, the Yankees will wrap up their homestand with a weekend series against the Washington Nationals.

Photo credit: Lineups.com After a weekend series in Cleveland leaves the Yankees record at 9-12, they will be traveling to Baltimore for a four-game series. Immediately following that, the bombers head back home to take on the Tigers in a three-game set.   The Yankees took three out of four in a much-needed winning series against the Indians, their first since their second series of the season the last time they saw the Orioles.   The bats have looked better, the pitching is more consistent, and it looks as if the Yankees may finally be turning a corner from their historically bad start. However, this is just the start as the next 7 days present two must-win sets if they want to keep themselves on a winning path against two squads the Yankees beat out on paper.   Here’s what the next two series of the season will look like…   NYY @ BAL: Game 1: Monday, April 26, 2021  – Yankees @ Orioles | First Pitch 7:05 PM | TV: YES Network, MASN Deivi Garcia (0-0, -.-- ERA) ...