Bronx Bomber Ball

Photo credit: NJ.com Admit it: Isiah Kiner-Falefa wasn't your pick for starting shortstop for the Yankees while they were making their offseason moves. Trevor Story and Carlos Correa were on the market.  You watched in agony as each of them came off the board in the free agency fever dream after the MLB lockout.  And the Yankees, in Hal-Cashman era fashion, end up with IKF (who was originally traded to the Twins but was literally freed up so that they can go get Correa… AGONY, right?).  And then you realize that you were in for a surprise. While IKF got off to a rough start in Pinstripes, he has more than righted the ship in recent weeks.   According to the New York Post ’s Joel Sherman, IKF “initially struggled on both sides of the ball -- a few bobbles mixed with a 6-for-28, seven-strikeout first 10 games.”  But, as of May 5th, he is hitting .311 (23-for-74), with 15 runs, seven RBIs and five walks.  And unlike a parade of his teammates, he’s done al...

We've finally arrived. Opening Day is upon us.  It's coming a week later than expected. The team doesn't look the way we expected them to when the offseason began six long months ago.  But here we are.  The Yankees chose not to make any of the marquee acquisitions Twitter lost their mind over all Winter, but at the end of the day they plugged some holes, and bring a much more versatile and athletic club into the 2022 season.  Did they do enough to dethrone the likes of Boston or Tampa or keep the quickly ascending Toronto Blue Jays at bay? Only time will tell.  In "The Late Show with David Letterman" fashion, here are our Top 10 factors to the Yankees getting off to a fast start. Photo Credit: Adam Hunger/Associated Press 10.      Playing strong defense It’s no shock that the New York Yankees were a defensive nightmare at times during the 2021 season and they made a point of addressing those issues in the offseason.   According to...

  With mere hours to go before the Yankees kick off their 2022 campaign, we’ve reached the point that even a few weeks ago we thought may never come. We finally get to witness Yankee baseball today! An added bonus on top of that is that today’s season opener comes against the rival Boston Red Sox, the team that booted the Yankees out of last season’s playoffs. The Yankees’ season begins with a tough 10 game stretch against division opponents and this season opening series against the Red Sox at home provides the Yankees with a golden opportunity to make a statement and get off to a great start. The team has come under scrutiny for their approach to free agency and team building this offseason. In spite of all that noise, the team performed well this spring and now stands ready to take the field in the Bronx. Lets take a look at some matchups. NY Charles Wenzelberg Friday 4/8. 1:05pm EST: Gerrit Cole vs Nathan Eovaldi   The Yankees will step into the batters box on Friday again...

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. 

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 ...

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 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.

The Yankees offense looks f***ing dead. Every single one of them. Even DJ LeMahieu, the Yankees’ best hitter by leaps and bounds, is in the middle of an uncanny stretch of bad hitting. Of the Yankees every day starters (Higgy is 4-for-13 for a .308 avg  and also Tyler Wade is 1-for-3 apparently lol ), the three highest batting averages are: DJ (.277), Gio Urshela (.276), and Aaron Judge (.268). The next highest… Gary Sanchez with a .200 average, unless you want to count Brett Gardner as every day, in which case the next highest is a .214 average (which props up the team average of .205). And that isn’t even a knock on Gardy, who still puts up Gardy at-bats whenever he’s in the lineup (plus, of his six hits, two of them are doubles) or Gary, who I think has actually put up some really nice at-bats; and, of the team’s 17 grounders into a double play (tied for 3 rd worst in the league), he has grounded into zero (also Gary has walked 7 times and has a .321 OBP, which is third among ev...

  Don’t let Sunday’s gritty come-from-behind win fool you. This Yankees team is still highly flawed and until they can prove otherwise, should not be counted on to win more games like they did on Sunday.

  We are approaching the end of our first full week of the 2021 season now as the Yankees have completed two series against the Jays and Orioles. While the results have been mixed and at times very frustrating to watch, the Yankees are sitting at 3-3. They now head to Tampa, to face the team that eliminated them from last year’s playoffs. The Rays are coming off of six straight games on the road to open the season and just finished getting swept by the Red Sox in three fairly non competitive games earlier this week. A strong weekend could vault the Yankees into first place in the early goings of the season, lets take a look at the matchup. Credit: ESPN

The countdown to April 1 is officially on.  The Yankees have made some excellent headway in their Spring Training games, with a record of 13-6 in the Grapefruit League. Opening Day roster predictions are coming in quickly.  Some decisions have been affirmed with some degree of certainty, while others have not.  Photo credit: SpringTrainingConnection.com

Credit: MLB.com                                 

Photo credit: Elite Sports NY On a day when DJ LeMahieu rightfully made all of the headlines, there was more good news from the Yankees Front Office: every member of the Yankees who was up for arbitration in 2021 will avoid a hearing.  This season is the fourth season in a row that the Yankees will avoid going to arbitration with any of their eligible players.  As of 5:50PM on January 15, the Yankees had not yet agreed with Gleyber Torres, but that situation didn't last long: Gleyber Torres and Yankees haven’t agreed yet, which means they could be headed to a hearing — Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) January 15, 2021 As a refresher from last January, salary arbitration, as defined by MLB , reads as follows: " Players who have three or more years of Major League service but less than six years of Major League service become eligible for salary arbitration if they do not already have a contract for the next season." Among the Yankees aribtration-eligible players are a number of S...

Early this morning, MLB Network insider Jon Morosi broke the news that the Yankees were in advanced stages with 2B DJ LeMahieu on a contract to bring the reigning AL Batting Champ back to the Bronx. Pat Ragazzo was the first to report the contract details. Source: DJ LeMahieu is finalizing an agreement to return to the #Yankees . The deal could be completed as soon as today. @MLBNetwork @MLB — Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) January 15, 2021 I’m hearing from a source close to the situation that the DJ LeMahieu deal is expected to be for six-years, $90 million — Pat Ragazzo (@ragazzoreport) January 15, 2021 Negotiations with DJ have dragged out longer than most Yankees fans would have liked this Winter, with the Yankees in a firm standoff with their second baseman over number of years as well as total contract value, but it appears the two sides have finally come to an agreement.  Ragazzo later reported that DJ had offers of four years/$60 million from the Dodgers and four years/$78 mi...

The Yankees announced their roster for the Wild Card series early on Tuesday, and Miguel Andujar was left off of it. Heading into the postseason, the INF/OF Andujar was the biggest question mark for the team, and whether he would be included on the roster or not. Instead, the Yankees decided in favor of having first baseman Mike Ford and third string catcher Erik Kratz on the bench. The third baseman and outfielder was hoping that a strong finish to the season could earn himself a spot on the roster, as he went 9-for-25 in September with four extra-base hits. However, it seems that the lefty bat of Ford (who went hitless at 0-for-19 in the final month of the season) gave him the advantage, as the team only has three lefty bats plus the switch-hitting Aaron Hicks on the roster, not including Ford.  

Voit is adroit. 

There are a few big differences between last year’s story surrounding Yankees injuries and this year’s story.  The fact that this season only consists of 60 games and every game this season counts as much as 2.7 games in a 162-game season is chief among them.  The fact that history is repeating itself is another.  But another notable difference between this tale of two injury-heavy seasons for the Yankees is that DJ LeMahieu was not among the walking wounded in 2019.  Photo credit: FOX Sports

I’ve had the pleasure of owning the title of Yankees Fan since age seven, when I stayed up past my bedtime to watch the 1996 World Series with my dad while my mom fell asleep on the couch.   Tino Martinez was one of my first crushes.   Hearing the name Jimmy Key still brings tears to my eyes.   Joe Torre was one of my childhood heroes.   I watched the Don Zimmer brawl in shock while rooting for him the entire time.   I remember why Curt Schilling became known as “Ole’ Ketchup Sock” (you can thank Yankees Facebook for that nickname).   And my dad and I were in attendance at Game Two of the 2009 World Series, where we reminded Pedro who his Daddy is.   In my time as a fan, I’ve certainly experienced my fair share of highs and lows with the Yankees, feeling for them, hurting with them, celebrating with them. Photo credit: Newsday

Coming off a brutal road trip that saw them drop five of seven games to the Phillies and Rays in addition to the loss of Giancarlo Stanton to a hamstring strain, the Yankees needed a change of momentum fast as they returned home to the Bronx this week and got just that by taking both games in a quick two-game set against the Atlanta Braves. Photo Credit: Kathy Willens/AP Photo

The 2020 New York Yankees have officially hit their first rough patch of the season. The Yankees lost three out of four games to the Tampa Bay Rays this weekend to cut their American League East lead to just two games. The problem this weekend was largely on offense, as the Yanks only scored seven runs in their three losses (2.3 runs per game). New York has now lost five of its last seven games, and seven of eight at Tropicana Field dating back to last season. Photo Credit: Chris O'Meara/AP Photo In the series opener on Friday night, the Yankees’ bats fell silent. In one of their worst offensive performances in recent memory, New York managed just two hits and failed to score a run against six different Rays pitchers. The Yanks only real scoring chances came in the seventh and eighth innings when the team went a combined 0-4 with runners in scoring position. One of the defining moments of the game occurred in the eighth when Mike Tauchman led off the frame with a double,...