New York Yankees Baseball: Week 13 (Fading Fast)
Last Week: 6/19-6/25 (2-4) The nightmare stretch continued as the Yanks dropped back to back home series to LA and Texas. Injuries continued to pile up and an end in sight became bleaker and bleaker.
This Week: As the injury toll continued to mount, the Yanks had no choice but to call up all their young guns. It was all hands on deck this week to try and stop the bleeding, and that didn’t even work. A four game series against the last place White Sox ended with about the same dissatisfaction as a girl with me after sex. Then it was time to head to Houston for the weekend, which at one point seemed like a turning point, only for them to fall flat on their faces. Once again there was a lot of bad, and very few good things from the week but let’s dive in.
Blown Leads
It’s crazy that for the better part of seemingly two months, the strength of this team was the bullpen. With any sort of lead late in the game, it was a wrap. Dellin was untouchable as was Clippard and Warren. Now it seems like the only man we can trust is Chad Green. Thankfully Adam Warren comes back on Tuesday to help relieve some pressure off of the tired arms. At the end of the day you can’t blow 3-1 and 6-3 leads in the 8th inning.
Those two games are the difference of a 3-4 road trip and a 5-2 confidence booster. Saturday was the definition of a giant kick in the balls and as I wrote about, it was probably the worst loss of the season. Chapman in the 9th is still solid, but he’s no longer a sure thing unfortunately. We’ve discussed what potential deals the Yanks will seek out at the end of the month, but their main priority may have to be one or two arms in the pen. A guy I’m targeting if I’m Cashman is Jason Motte of the Atlanta Braves. Atlanta loves their prospects so a 35 year old reliever doesn’t hold much value to them. In 25.1 innings this year the revitalized right hander has a 1.78 ERA with his third best WHIP on his career. I can’t see how he’d be expensive by any means, and he’s been nothing but productive, so right now he looks like a solid option.
Major League Debuts
It was a bizarre week where he saw multiple major league debuts. We saw the likes of Miguel Andujar, Tyler Wade, Clint Frazier, and of course Dustin Fowler make their debuts. Fowler’s was absolutely soul crushing as in the bottom of the first inning he sprinted towards the right field line and crashed into an electrical box. It was a tough scene for everyone involved as Fowler tried to put pressure on his injured knee, only to collapse to the ground. Baseball can be a cruel sport, and for Fowler to work his way up to get to the point where he was leading off the next inning only to injure his knee in the worst way possible. Shit just rips your heart out. There have been players to fully recover from the type of injury he has, and there have been players who were never the same so we’ll just have to pray for the best.
Miguel Andujar surprisingly got the call up this week and did not disappoint. DHing on Wednesday, the big time bat delivered going 3 for 4 with 4 RBIs. Decent debut I guess? Well, he was sent down the following day and has yet to return. A lot of people didn’t like the move, but the fact of the matter is he can’t play third base right now because his fielding is no where near ready. He needs reps in Scranton, but he’ll be back up soon enough because his bat is too hot at the moment.
It was a tough debut week for the do it all man Tyler Wade as he went 2 for 16. He looks a tad over-matched right now, and it’s probably just him pressing. He’s valuable to the team regardless because of how many positions he can play on any given night. Until we get full healthy he’ll be very important.
Clint Frazier had an electric debut on Saturday which of course was overshadowed by the bullpen disaster.
It’s pretty obvious he’s not going to have a tough time hitting at the major league level. The dude is without a doubt a deadly weapon, especially when we’re sticking him at the bottom the lineup, helping turn it over smoothly. It’ll be interesting how Girardi mixes and matches the lineup for the next few weeks. You’d have to think it’s going to be a one of Frazier, Gardy, Jacobo, or Judge DHing while the rest man the three spots in the outfield. This explains Andujar’s quick demotion back to Scranton since there’s just no room for him to play every day.
All Star Selections
With no surprise at this point in the season, Aaron Judge was announced as the starting right fielder for the 2017 MLB All Star Game. He ended up leading the AL in voting with a cool 4.88 million votes. He’s been unreal from the get-go and currently leads two of the three triple crown categories, and is 3rd in batting average. In an interview with ESPN as he was announced as the leading vote getter, Judge was asked about the chances of him competing in the Home Run Derby which is being hyped as the best one in years considering the names being thrown around. Judge couldn’t help but smile during the interview and said an announcement would be coming soon, as if to give away that he’s going to enter the ring and try to put on a fucking show. Joining Judge on the team will be Sevy, El Gary, Betances, and Starlin Castro. You have to be ecstatic for Severino especially as he’s having a monster bounce back season and deserves this honor big time. A big thank you to Pedro Martinez for mentoring Sevy in the offseason and getting him on track.
Didi Gregorious was chosen to be among five players in the Final Vote competition to be the last man selected for the game. He’ll have to beat out a stacked group including Elvis Andrus, Logan Morrison, Mike Moustakas, and Xander Bogaerts. You can vote using the link below, or Tweet #SirDidi4Sure between 10:00 Am and 4:00 PM on Thursday, or you can text “A3″ to 89269. Let’s get Didi in the All Star Game, the man deserves the honor.
Chase Headley Error of the Week
Got nothing folks. He’s been hitting just fine since Gleyber went down and his fielding has actually been pretty solid. What the hell happened?
All Star Snub of the Week
Chris Carter: By God’s good grace Chris Carter re-entered our lives this week. In twelve at bats he struck out six times. Yesterday he made sure the Yanks didn’t get shutout by ripping a single in the 9th to drive in the team’s only run. For me that’s good enough for an all star bid I don’t know about you. Literally everyone had to get hurt for this guy to come back to the majors and that’s exactly what happened. That’s baseball Susan.
Looking Ahead
We’ve got one week until the All Star break folks. The season is going down the shitter, but a successful homestead coming up could give us some momentum moving forward. As I previously mentioned, Adam Warren is expected back Tuesday and C.C. Sabathia might be joining him as well which would be massive. A three game set with Toronto followed by Milwaukee could be the energy boost this team needs. Toronto just got their asses handed to them by that red hot team from Boston. Milwaukee continues to be a giant surprise in the NL as they lead the Cubs by two games at this point in the season. At this point I’m just looking to win one of these series because that hasn’t actually happened since Baltimore came to town on June 9th. I was in the stands for that series and guess what? I’ll be there tonight to try and right the ship. Don’t call me a hero, but it’s time to erase this nightmare from existence. Tanaka has been solid over his last four starts so I’m expecting a little pitcher’s duel between him and Stroman tonight.
Happy 4th of July everyone!