Bronx Bomber Ball

Photo credit: NY Daily News

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

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. 

Photo Credit: USA Today

  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.

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

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

  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.

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.

  Well that stunk. The Yankees got their season underway with a series loss against the Blue Jays this weekend. While their pitching was very solid and left reasons for optimism, it was a very frustrating weekend of hitting to watch. For most of the weekend, the Yankees had a lot of traffic on the bases, but were not able to cash in time and time again. The hits and the RBIs will eventually come but until then, lets look at what the Yankees have coming up. Credit: ESPN.com

The New York Yankees opened up their 2021 campaign this weekend in unsatisfactory fashion, dropping two of three games at home to the rival Toronto Blue Jays.   The New York offense was held to just eight runs over the three games and only Gary Sanchez was able to put the ball into the seats over the three games.   The big story in this series was the total ineptitude of the Yankees’ offense, particularly in the clutch.

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

This feeling is familiar.  Photo credit: ESPN

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.  

Your attention please, ladies and gentlemen… after a rather depressing dry spell, it is fun to be a Yankees fan again in 2020.  The Bombers just came off a ten-game winning streak, are locked in to complete their 28th winning season in a row and have clinched a postseason berth in the shortened 2020 season.  In spite of Sunday’s loss to the Boston Red Sox, they showed some fight in late innings in an attempted rally.  They swept the Toronto Blue Jays.  They set MLB records for most home runs hit in one game on consecutive days.  They came back from behind to beat the Red Sox in extra innings on Friday.  They’ve made such a comeback to the point that losing on Sunday did not hurt their playoff chances.  But there’s still something to play for in the upcoming regular season games. With one week to go, the Yankees sit 3.5 games behind the Rays for the division lead. With playoff rankings and home field advantage at stake, the Yankees will return to Buffal...

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

That Gary really hasn’t been scary. Photo credit: NJ.com