Bronx Bomber Ball

Photo credit: NY Daily News

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.

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 ...

  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

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.

  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...

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.

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

Photo credit: The Athletic

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.  

I’m not typically a fan of small sample size theater, but it’s hard to deny how good Gio Urshela has looked through his first 16 appearances of 2020. Entering the season, there were some questions regarding how Urshela would follow up his stellar 2019 campaign. After all, prior to last year’s breakout, Urshela was a widely unknown 27-year-old with a career batting average of .225, that the Yankees acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays for $25,000 in August of 2018. He was known as a solid defensive player with little to no offensive ability. That narrative changed drastically a year ago. Photo Credit: John Minchillo/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,...

It’s time for a do-over. Photo credit: Hamlet Hub

This weekend in the Bronx, the Yankees completed a three-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox to bring their record to 7-1 in this unprecedented short season. In game one, Suzyn Waldman serenaded an empty Yankee Stadium with the National Anthem and CC Sabathia returned to throw out the first pitch.  Jordan Montgomery and the bullpen held the Sox to just one run­–a solo shot off the bat of Michael Chavis in the third.  Home runs from Aaron Judge, Gio Urshela, and Brett Gardner propelled the Bombers past the Red Sox to a 5-1 win.  Gardy’s homer ended his hitless start to the 2020 season, where he was previously 0-for-12 with seven Ks. 

Photo credit: Getty Images

Colorado Rockies’ star third baseman Nolan Arenado has not been shy this offseason about his desire to play elsewhere. This time last year, Arenado had just signed an eight year $260 Million extension and the Rockies were coming off back-to-back playoff appearances. This year, the circumstances aren’t nearly as happy for both sides. The Rockies had a disappointing 71-win season and are projected to be one of the worst teams in the league again. This prompted Arenado to request a trade this offseason, with the leverage of an opt-out clause following the 2021 season. Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images                            The Rockies would be scrutinized mightily if their star were to walk out after next season and they lose him for nothing but compensatory picks. This makes a possible trade much more likely, and a trade this offseason would...