Bronx Bomber Ball

After Thursday’s game got rained out, the Yankees and Red Sox were able to start a three game series Friday night in the Bronx. Chris Sale looked to continue his great May against a Yankees lineup that was missing many of their top righties. The offense, led by the bottom of the lineup and D.J. LeMahieu, was still able to score four runs against him though, and the pitching staff all did their job to secure a 4-1 victory. The win puts the Yankees eighteen games over .500 and 8.5 games ahead of the Sox in the AL East. Photo Credit: Rob Tringali/Getty Images

The 2019 season could not have started much better for the Yanks. It was a beautiful day in the Bronx, the weather was perfect, the Yankees were back, and they had the perfect opponent in front of them; the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles lost 115 games last season, and it appears that they will reach that mark once again this season. The Yanks made the most of this, and were clicking all day, as they win the first game of the year by the score of 7-2.  The Yankees set the tone in the first inning, as Judge and Stanton both got base hits, to set up the clean up hitter Luke Voit. Voit was a great story last year, but there were no guarantees that Voit would continue to be that guy. Well, Voit showed that he’s still the guy, as he blasted a three-run home run into Monument Park, to give the Yankees an early 3-0 lead.

The Yankees have reached an agreement with right-handed free-agent reliever Adam Ottavino, as first reported by Robert Murray of The Athletic and Jeff Passan of ESPN. The Athletic's Ken Rosenthal reports the deal is expected to be for three-years, $27 million. Ottavino becomes the third former Rockie to sign with the Yanks in the past few weeks, joining DJ LeMahieu and Troy Tulowitzki. Photo Credit: David Zalubowski/AP

The Yankees’ recent decision to not re-sign David Robertson , aka D-Rob, aka Houdini, provoked a cross-section of reactions from both my Yankee fan friends, as well as members of Yankees Twitter. He should have stayed, it was right for him to go, D-Rob sucked, D-Rob is the best, and boo Brian Cashman were just a few of the opinions held by fans. Photo credit: New York Times

Per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic/MLB Network and Jeff  Passan  of ESPN last night, the Yankees have come to terms with LHP Zach Britton on a new contract that will keep the lefty in the Bronx for at minimum two season.  The contract has a base of three years, $39 million guaranteed, however, after year two the Yankees have an option in which they can extend the deal to a fourth year.  If the Yankees decline the option, Britton can then opt out and hit free agency after the second year.  If neither team enacts their respective options, the deal will be for three  season .   Zach Britton's financial details: Three years, $39 million guaranteed. If Yankees opt into fourth year, $53 million guaranteed. If Yankees don't and Britton opts out, he'll have made $26 million over the first two seasons. — Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 6, 2019

For the third consecutive season, I’m going to be taking a stab at who I believe is primed for a bounce back season for the New York Yankees.   Many key Yankees underperformed by their own standards in 2018, and some just flat out stunk, w hether it be due to injury, general underperformance, or perhaps something else altogether.  With the team's sights set firmly on #28, who is in best position to redeem themselves in 2019?   Photo Credit: New York Yankees (via Twitter)

There’s no easy way to answer this question. Or, rather, there’s no one answer. The surrounding factors change, creating different situations and, as such, different fits -- both from a financial and from a team standpoint. A case can be made to bring back either of these free agents, or both of them, or… neither. But it’s almost impossible to make a blanket answer that fits in every possible scenario. Photo Credit: Elsa/Getty Images

When Zach Britton was acquired from the Orioles in late July, he was viewed largely as a luxury to an already loaded Yankees bullpen. However, as the regular season winds down, and the calendar flips to October, Britton has become much more than that. In fact, at this critical point of the season, the 30-year-old lefty has established himself as the team’s most trustworthy reliever. This development is somewhat hard to believe considering the inauspicious start that Britton’s New York career got off to, but here we are. Photo Credit: Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

Aaron Judge made his return to the Yankees’ starting lineup today, going 0-for-4. He looked comfortable in the batter’s box, however, with a couple hard-hit line outs and a questionable non-check swing call with a 3-2 count. He also looked very smooth in right field, making a few catches throughout the day. Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

The Yankees ended their nine-game road trip in aggravating fashion Wednesday with a 3-1 loss at the hands of the lowly Minnesota Twins. Somehow, New York went 4-6 against three AL Central teams (Chicago, Detroit and Minnesota) with records well under .500 over the last two weeks. With the loss, the Yankees are now only one game up on the Oakland Athletics for the top Wild Card spot. This is extremely concerning considering Oakland has a much easier schedule down the stretch. Photo Credit: Jim Mone/AP Photo

Luis Severino’s struggles are starting to be a bit of an issue… The man who just a month ago was in a race for the AL Cy Young now has an ERA sitting at 3.27 after his 4 inning outing giving up 4 earned runs, which wouldn’t be a terrible ERA until you consider the fact that just seven starts ago it was sub two. The Yankees offense attempted to keep the team in the game, scoring 5 runs in a game that Jacob deGrom started, but poor bullpen choices by manager Aaron Boone led to a very tough 8-5 loss to the team from Queens. Credit: AP Photo/Frank Franklin II

A massive late-game home run from the American League’s Rookie of the Year favorite propelled the Yankees to a huge 5-3 win over the Texas Rangers.  

This four-game set against the Red Sox at Fenway Park is the most important series of 2018 thus far. The gap between first and second place in the AL East seems to be widening each day, so it didn’t help that the Yankees suffered a devastating, awful 15-7 loss tonight. The Red Sox offense exploded for 19 hits, and none of the Yankees’ pitchers, including CC Sabathia, could stop them. The score may as well have been 25-4.   AP Photo/Michael Dwyer

Trade deadline summary: Yankees received: JA Happ, Zach Britton, Lance Lynn, Luke Voit, maximum amount of international spending money Yankees traded: Brandon Drury, Billy McKinney, Tyler Austin, Luis Rijo, Chasen Shreve, Giovanny Gallegos, Adam Warren, Caleb Frare, Dillon Tate, Cody Carroll, Josh Rogers Here is how our staff perceived the deadline:  Photo Credit: NJ.com

Following a series win versus the Royals and a flurry of deadline deals, the Yankees will face the cellar dwellers of the AL East, the Baltimore Orioles, in a short two-game set in the Bronx. These are two games the Yankees need to win, even though the Orioles are in the midst of a three-game win streak, as they come into play six games behind their rivals, the Boston Red Sox.

It is often said that it is extremely difficult to win both games of a doubleheader, no matter how below average the team you are playing is. That has been the case for the Yanks, as they have split all of their doubleheaders this season including the one on Saturday against the Royals, losing the first game 10-5 while edging out the night cap 5-4. It was an eventful day in the Bronx to say the least that saw Severino continue to struggle, Zach Britton lose the strike zone, C.C take a tumble and Neil Walker having his best day as a Yankee. Photo Credit: AP Rich Schultz 

In a span of 48 hours earlier this week, Yankees' General Manager Brian Cashman pulled off two trades to bolster both the starting rotation and bullpen as the Yankees hit the dog days of summer, still within striking distance of Boston for the AL East crown.  New York has one of the stronger lineups in baseball and few spots for obvious upgrades, so Cashman chose to focus on the other side of the ball.   Photo Credit: Frank Franklin/AP Photo

The Yanks finally gave their fan base what they have been clamoring for all year: a convincing win against an inferior opponent. After dropping another series to the Rays in Tampa, the Bombers traveled home to open a four-game set against the dreadful Kansas City Royals. Not to get excited about beating a team forty games under .500, but the Yanks needed to go out and take care of business against one of baseball’s bottom-dwellers. Photo Courtesy: NY Daily News Sports

Following a disappointing series loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, the New York Yankees now have a 64-36 record. It sounds unreasonable to be complaining, but the Boston Red Sox have a 5.5 game lead in the AL East, and the Bombers have been slacking as of late. The Yankees are 11-8 in July, their worst month of the season. The Kansas City Royals enter this series as one of Major League Baseball’s worst 2018 teams, sporting a dreadful 31-70 record. They are second to only the Baltimore Orioles in lowest winning percentage at .307. The Yankees must take advantage of the opportunity to sweep or win this four-game set against Kansas City in order to catch up to Boston and avoid the Wild Card playoff game. 

In his first move of the July trade deadline, Brian Cashman has opted to improve on the lack of left handed arms in the bullpen by acquiring Zach Britton from the Orioles, as confirmed by Jon Heyman. The Orioles will receive RHP Dillon Tate, LHP Josh Rogers, and RP Cody Carroll in exchange for Britton. Britton will be an immediate presence in the late innings for the Yankees and provide the bullpen with another weapon to dismantle opposing offenses. Photo Credit: Sportfella.com