Bronx Bomber Ball

Photo credit: @Yankees on Twitter

Don’t look now, but the Yankees might be hitting their first real rough patch of the season.   While it’s hard to complain about a team with a 58-23 record at the midway point of the season, the Yankees have a crucial stretch of games coming up against the second-place Boston Red Sox, and the offensive has gone through a bit of a cold streak that hopefully doesn’t linger through those important games.

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...

  The Yankees remained hot against the second-best team in the AL East this week, extending their winning streak to 11 before dropping the final game of the series last night. Coming into the off day, the Yankees are tied for the most wins in the MLB with the Mets and hold the best record in the league courtesy of the Mets’ two extra losses. Photo Credit: AP Photo

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...

  On Tuesday evening, the New York Yankees agreed to terms with all but one of their arbitration eligible players, the one being star right-fielder Aaron Judge who is seeking a long-term extension with the club.   The Yankees have not gone to an arbitration hearing with any of their players since the 2017 debacle with Dellin Betances.   Aaron Judge has requested a salary of $21 million for the 2022 season and the Yankees have countered with an offer of $17 million.   If the two sides cannot settle in the middle or reach that extension, they’ll head for a hearing, which due to the delays brought on by the lockout, will likely occur in-season.

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

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

  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 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...

  Photo credit: Lineups.com

  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

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...