Bronx Bomber Ball

The red-hot New York Yankees, winners of 17 of their last 19, welcome the Oakland Athletics into the Bronx following a series win over the rival Boston Red Sox. Oakland comes into town sporting an 18-19 record after being swept by the Houston Astros earlier this week. The big storyline for this weekend’s series is Sonny Gray facing his former team for the first time since last July’s blockbuster trade that brought him to New York. Conversely, Dustin Fowler is expected to make his Yankee Stadium debut, just not in the way he envisioned when he was drafted by the Yankees in the 18th round of the 2013 draft. Photo Credit: Elsa/Getty Images Game 1: Friday, May 11th at 7:05pm on YES/MLBN Sonny Gray (2-2, 6.00 ERA) vs. Kendall Graveman (0-5, 8.89 ERA) Sonny Gray gets to face his former team in the series opener coming off his two best starts of 2018. In his last two outings (at Houston and vs. Cleveland),  Gray allowed just four runs over 12 innings (3.00 ERA...

With 2018 spring training now in full swing, we continue to dive deeper and deeper into our Pinstripe Previews at BBB. Today's feature will focus on 2017 trade deadline addition, Sonny Gray. The 28-year-old right-hander was acquired from Oakland at last year's trade deadline for what many considered to be another fantastic Cashman deal. The Yankees sent rising prospect Jorge Mateo alongside injured prospects James Kaprielian and Dustin Fowler to Oakland in exchange for Gray. The latter two certainly have quite a bit of upside, however each were in the midst of recovery from serious injuries with Kaprielian having undergone Tommy John and Fowler recovering from a ruptured patellar tendon. We certainly wish both a complete recovery and successful careers, but the Yankees felt comfortable parting ways with them to acquire a pitcher in Gray, who had been an ace in past years. Photo Credit: Newsday.com

Coming into this year’s trade deadline, Brian Cashman claimed the Yankees would be “careful buyers.” With that, Cashman was looking for controllable assets without compromising the future, and he did just that. In his first move, Cashman dealt a potentially blocked prospect in Blake Rutherford, often-injured arm in Ian Clarkin, lower level prospect in Tito Polo and struggling reliever Tyler Clippard to the Chicago White Sox for David Robertson, Tommy Kahnle and Todd Frazier . Then, the Yankees went out and acquired lefty Jaime Garcia from the Twins for pitching prospects Zack Littell and Dietrich Enns. Finally, the Yankees acquired Sonny Gray in a final-hour splash for prospects Dustin Fowler, Jorge Mateo, and James Kaprielian. Here’s what our writers think about how the Yankees did at this year’s trade deadline. Photo Credit: Brad Penner | USA TODAY Sports

After days and days of endless tweets, reports, and rumors swirling around the Yankees and Athletics, approximately an hour before the July 31 Trade Deadline Jack Curry of YES announced that the Yankees had indeed acquired their number one trade target, Sonny Gray, from Oakland. Jeff Passan followed up with the package, which consisted of IF/OF Jorge Mateo, SP James Kaprielian, and OF Dustin Fowler. It was then reported that the Athletics would also be sending over 1.5 million dollars of international signing money along with Gray. Photo Credit: AP

The Yankees have officially acquired RHP Sonny Gray and $1.5 million in international signing bonus money from the Oakland Athletics for OF Dustin Fowler, INF/OF Jorge Mateo, and RHP James Kaprielian. The deal was first reported by Jack Curry of YES Network , and the deal was reported by Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports . Photo Credit: Frank Jansky | ICON Sportswire

Over the past few seasons, the moves that Brian Cashman has made has built the Yankees farm system into one of the best in baseball, and that fact was amplified when the MLB released their mid-season top 100 prospects list, a list that features six players in the Yankees system.  Photo Credit: David Monseur

After experiencing a myriad of injuries to Tyler Austin, Matt Holliday, Aaron Hicks, and most recently, Dustin Fowler, the Yankees are reportedly calling up one of their top prospects, Clint Frazier, according to Jack Curry of YES Network . Photo Credit: Kim Klement | USA TODAY Sports

Before Dustin Fowler’s tragic injury Thursday night that ended in a rupture in his right patellar tendon, he was named to the Triple-A All Star Game, along with lefty Caleb Smith. Photo Credit: Bill Tarutis/For Times Leader

After a promising win last night in which included an incredible MLB debut from phenom Miguel Andujar, the Yankees reversed back to their losing ways in a 4-3 loss Thursday night.   Photo Credit: Nam Y. Huh | AP

Dustin Fowler had his Major League debut cut very short after a heartbreaking injury in the bottom of the first inning. On a ball hit in foul territory, the 22-year-old outfielder crashed into the wall, rupturing his patella tendon in his right knee, which required immediate surgery during the game in Chicago. Photo Credit: AP

The Yankees have been forced to make a ton of moves lately due to fluke injuries, and that continued to be the case on Thursday afternoon. All in all, they made a total of five roster moves: Photo via The Times-Tribune

With the July Trade Deadline on the horizon, teams are starting to realize where they stand amongst the rest of the teams in Major League Baseball. The Yankees were not projected to be in the thick of things once the season hit the halfway mark, but here they are tied for first place with the Boston Red Sox. This by default labels the Yankees as “buyers” like most teams are with a legitimate shot at a postseason berth. According to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports, the Yankees could potentially make a huge splash for the Oakland Atheltics’ ace, Sonny Gray. Photo Credit: SF Chronicles In the Yankees’ recent skid, their bullpen was an obvious weakness as they blew game after game. Passan noted, however, that the “cratering of their starting pitching” was also to blame for the Yankees losing their comfortable first-place lead. In their last 60 innings pitched before Montgomery’s magnificent start against the White Sox on Monday, the Yankees’ starting pitching had allowed 13 home runs ...