2017 YANKS

[Beezer34]

Had someone told me a month ago, that the Yanks would be this hot heading into May.. no way I would've believed them. But here we are, 12 wins over our last 15 games.. and we're doing it without Didi & Sanchez.

I don't normally post my Yankee opinions here. I go to another board usually.. but, truth-be-told, I'm eating alot of crow over there right now, because I was hard on Cashman for selling as quickly as he did last year @ the trade-deadline. (by August 1st 2016, the Yankees were only 4 games back from the wildcard) Boy was I wrong. A week later against the Sox, the Yankees went on a 4 game winning streak.. and we've been an astonishing 40-28 since. .600 baseball, off what was being billed as a: "rebuild" by the front office.

 

We'll see how this season plays out. If this keeps up, alot of fans (starting with me) will be owing Brian Cashman a huge apology. Go Yanks.

[Daniel]

I've been a Yankee fan since the Cecilio Guante days.  Ever since the new stadium though, my interest has steadily waned.  I barely cared about the 2009 World Series, and I always said that since then, I would probably watch a Devils/Canucks game over Game 7 of the World Series between the Yanks and the Dodgers.  Even when they won, I just found the team to be pretty boring and I really dislike the stadium. 

However, since the trades that Cashman made last year, the team has started to interest me again.  So we'll see where it goes.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Crazy as it may sound, depending on what happens with this team, it's these years that could truly come to define Cashman, that might be remembered as his best (he made his share of iffy moves that he was able to work around due to the Yankees' willingness to spend big earlier in his tenure...he wasn't always terribly creative, often going for the big-name, obvious targets).  He's really gotten this team on an interesting path, in timely fashion, all things considered.

For comparison's sake, take a gander at the glacially-building, smug and arrogant, undermotivated Sandy Alderson, who inherited some nice talent to boot.  If/when the Yankees are in a similar position that the Mets were this past offseason, Cashman will at least try to make some things happen.  Not Sandy.  Re-signed Cespedes and basically mailed it in the rest of the offseason, save for keeping some guys from last year around. 

Cashman's doing some nice things for sure.   

[Beezer34]

Yanks going for the sweep later tonight against the defending champs. If they win, they'll be 20-9.

No words as a fan witnessing all this. No words.

[Onddeck]

love this team. don't even know where to begin.. a chance to sweep the defending world champs tonight? sign me up

outside of Tommy Layne, this team is amazing

[Hi, I'm VALUE!]

23 hours ago, Onddeck said:

love this team. don't even know where to begin.. a chance to sweep the defending world champs tonight? sign me up

outside of Tommy Layne, this team is amazing

The last two years of Yankee teams find multiple ways to lose that game.  

I'm so happy with the April and start of May that the Yanks have had - hopefully they can sustain that through the entire season (and hopefully the playoffs).

[Onddeck]

that Judge catch just now... are you kidding me

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

On ‎5‎/‎8‎/‎2017 at 1:31 PM, Hi, I'm VALUE! said:

The last two years of Yankee teams find multiple ways to lose that game.  

I'm so happy with the April and start of May that the Yanks have had - hopefully they can sustain that through the entire season (and hopefully the playoffs).

Always nice when you can get to 10+ games over .500 so early into the season (Yanks hit a high of 12-over at the 30-game mark)...means you can hover at around 10 over for a while without it doing too much harm.   

[Onddeck]

damn im actually off today, was hoping for some afternoon baseball... o well, breaking up the 20 straight games isn't the worst thing

how about Sevy's gem last night?? BEAUTIFUL, DOMINANT. His slider was on point and generated 7 whiffs...  

but check this out, its not often you see a dominant performance from a starter using 3 pitches the whole night http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/pfx.php?month=5&day=24&year=2017&game=gid_2017_05_24_kcamlb_nyamlb_1%2F&pitchSel=622663&prevGame=gid_2017_05_24_kcamlb_nyamlb_1%2F&prevDate=524&league=mlb

his big thing last year was not having confidence in the changeup.. he went to it 15 times last night though. but having an arsenal of three pitches is probably why he's had trouble facing batters the third time around

[Onddeck]

8 minutes ago, Martyisth3b3st said:

So, a few updates on Yank prospects:

1. Gley-Bae is already up to AAA, and a recent article on NJ.com says that the Yankees see him replacing Headley as the every-day third basement at some point this season. That surprises me, and I hope we don't rush him, but boy would that be exciting.

2. Manny Machado's slump has me a bit in the dumps, and I wonder what the Yanks will do moving forward with two game-changing infielders and not a ton of room to put them. I can see Torres eventually taking DiDis spot, but I really really like Sir DiDi's game. Can't see Castro going anywhere after a stellar start to this season.

3. I'd look for Ginger Jesus to join the squad when rosters expand if we get any slumping out of Gardy or Ells. Hicks' solid play this season has me wondering if he could be swapped with a prospect for a middle-of-the-rotation guy later in the year. A perfect world has Ellisbury traded before the deadline (for genuinely anything), because we're going to need room in the field for...

4. Bryce Harper is continuing to excite me. I think we've got a real gem with this one. Love to see him throwing punches last week, that kind of energy is exciting to be around. I absolutely cannot wait to see him share the field with Judge and Ginger Jesus. 

1. eh, im definitely as hesitant as you are.. in no way should the play of Headley affect the development of Torres. Its hard to believe but this is still a rebuilding team and the team cannot try and take shortcuts here.. Don't forget about Dustin Fowler- I would actually expect to see him called up if we need a replacement in the infield

2. Not worried about Machado's slump at all.. It is interesting to think about what the team will do at the end of the next season.. Yanks are pretty stacked at SS/3rd and tons of OF prospects as well.. so Machado/Harper will have to move someone

3. I'm SURE we'll be seeing Frazier up this year, certainly when rosters expand.  

4. Harper is definitely solid (i'd prefer Machado over him). and i have no problem with him charging the mound. Thats part of the game, just like throwing at a batter is.. If you want to take that risk and harm me with a pitch, then beware!

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Yankees 11-13 after that 21-9 start.

This wasn't supposed to be their year anyway, but they don't really have to be that much better than a .500 team from here on out...all they have to do is flirt with 90 wins or so (a 58-50 record the rest of the way gets them 90 wins) and keep playing an entertaining brand of baseball, and not only will they own NY this summer, but they should still hang around in both their division and the AL WC race...that's a pretty successful stepping-stone kind of year.  .700 starts in your first 30 games of the season work wonders...just like you can bury yourself with a bad start, a great start can buy you relevancy deep into the season.  All the Yanks have to do is stay away from an extended slump, and this season will be a good one well into September.  

[Beezer34]

21 hours ago, Colorado Rockies 1976 said:

Yankees 11-13 after that 21-9 start.

This wasn't supposed to be their year anyway, but they don't really have to be that much better than a .500 team from here on out...all they have to do is flirt with 90 wins or so (a 58-50 record the rest of the way gets them 90 wins) and keep playing an entertaining brand of baseball, and not only will they own NY this summer, but they should still hang around in both their division and the AL WC race...that's a pretty successful stepping-stone kind of year.  .700 starts in your first 30 games of the season work wonders...just like you can bury yourself with a bad start, a great start can buy you relevancy deep into the season.  All the Yanks have to do is stay away from an extended slump, and this season will be a good one well into September.  

Doesn't hurt that Baltimore has fallen off a cliff this past month. They're 6-17 since May 10th.

..if the Yanks can find a way to get one more winning streak when guys like Chapman, Austin, Bird, Ellsbury, etc. return.... then all we'll need to do after that is go .500 the rest of the way. It's like Francesa says: "Just win fifteen games a month, and yer at naundy for da year"

 

Cashman's gotta help them out though, and get a pitcher before the trade deadline.

[Onddeck]

54 minutes ago, Beezer34 said:

Doesn't hurt that Baltimore has fallen off a cliff this past month. They're 6-17 since May 10th.

..if the Yanks can find a way to get one more winning streak when guys like Chapman, Austin, Bird, Ellsbury, etc. return.... then all we'll need to do after that is go .500 the rest of the way. It's like Francesa says: "Just win fifteen games a month, and yer at naundy for da year"

 

Cashman's gotta help them out though, and get a pitcher before the trade deadline.

Quintana at the deadline.. maybe his price has dropped due to his production this year. Younger, cost controlled pitching. 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

58 minutes ago, Beezer34 said:

Doesn't hurt that Baltimore has fallen off a cliff this past month. They're 6-17 since May 10th.

..if the Yanks can find a way to get one more winning streak when guys like Chapman, Austin, Bird, Ellsbury, etc. return.... then all we'll need to do after that is go .500 the rest of the way. It's like Francesa says: "Just win fifteen games a month, and yer at naundy for da year"

 

Cashman's gotta help them out though, and get a pitcher before the trade deadline.

re:  the bolded...really depends on where the Yankees are by the deadline.  If they're still well over .500 (10+ games) near the deadline, then yeah, maybe Cashman expedites this thing a bit...if they're slowly but surely sinking closer to .500 (say 5 games over or less), I think he'll remain patient, and not go too crazy trying to bring in an expensive veteran arm.  11-13 doesn't sound that great of course, but at least the Yanks haven't seen a serious regression record-wise...like I've said, hovering for a while is OK. 

You do wonder about some of these guys though, being able to keep this up.  Castro currently has an OPS of .841...he's never been above .777 in any given year.  Can several of the other Yankee hitters (like Gregorius) also keep going?  A lot of guys are having excellent seasons, given their prior histories (or lack thereof).  Though Tanaka has obviously been erratic as hell (Yanks lost his first two starts, then won his next five, then lost his next four), the staff overall has been very very good...have to wonder if the Pinedas, Severinos, and Montgomerys can keep performing like this. 

If I had to put a number to it, I'd say the Yankees win 87-90 games...it just seems like there's going to be some level of regression in the overall team performance...the Yanks have a +70 run differential already on this season...they're on a +210 pace for the season, and +200 is usually hard to come by most years (only two teams have managed to do that in the past five seasons combined).  But I think the fact that this team is playing with enthusiasm and confidence means that they won't drop off a cliff...or fall to pieces if they lose three or four in a row.  I think they'll be very competitive from here on out. 

[Beezer34]

Yanks looking for their 7th consecutive win tonight. If CC gets to 8-2 by tomorrow morning.. you really got to start asking yourself: Is a 20 win season attainable?  --how many people saw that coming in February?

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

45 minutes ago, Beezer34 said:

Yanks looking for their 7th consecutive win tonight. If CC gets to 8-2 by tomorrow morning.. you really got to start asking yourself: Is a 20 win season attainable?  --how many people saw that coming in February?

Probably not...but he's not too far off from his 2012 season, which would've seemed like a pipe dream coming into this year...in his last four seasons overall, in 99 starts, he was 32-39 (of course that's far from the best measure, but it was easy to wonder how much left he had in the tank).  Last season he was inconsistent (but had some good stretches), and he's kind of been that this season (he's followed up four poor starts in a row with five terrific ones...I think that's what CC is now, kind of up and down, which a hell of a lot better than looking finished, as he often did from 2013-15).  If you get 15-11 or something like that from him this season, with him making 30+ starts, I think you happily jump all over it.

And not hard to see why teams love getting those compensatory picks for lost free agents...Aaron Judge was drafted 32nd overall in the 2013 draft, as compensation for the Cleveland Indians having signed...Nick Swisher. 

[Onddeck]

Who would've thought that even with Tanaka having such a bad year... that the yanks would have the second best team ERA in all of baseball?!? It's insane really 

http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/sortable.jsp#elem=[object+Object]&tab_level=child&click_text=Sortable+Team+pitching&game_type='R'&season=2017&season_type=ANY&league_code='MLB'&sectionType=st&statType=pitching&page=1&ts=1497368737908

Edited June 13, 2017 by Onddeck

['7']

The year that Judge is having is reminding me of the year A-Rod had in 2007. Otherworldy. I mean sure guys have been on torrid HR paces before but with a .350 average? Ryan Howard and Sosa and McGwire and Ortiz never did that. This is the closest to Bonds I've seen in terms of a pure dominant stretch.

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

Just now, '7' said:

The year that Judge is having is reminding me of the year A-Rod had in 2007. Otherworldy. I mean sure guys have been on torrid HR paces before but with a .350 average? Ryan Howard and Sosa and McGwire and Ortiz never did that. This is the closest to Bonds I've seen in terms of a pure dominant stretch.

What's amazing is that it's not like he was THAT incredible in the minors at any given point...you wonder how much longer it will be before someone brings up the S word (not saying that he's doing them...just that whenever someone is on a tear like this, there's always that group who gets on the "Gotta be PEDs" kick. 

[Onddeck]

15 hours ago, Beezer34 said:

Yanks looking for their 7th consecutive win tonight. If CC gets to 8-2 by tomorrow morning.. you really got to start asking yourself: Is a 20 win season attainable?  --how many people saw that coming in February?

Sabathia just left with a left strained hammy..

Great.. thanks a lot  Beezer!!

[Beezer34]

9 hours ago, Onddeck said:

Sabathia just left with a left strained hammy..

Great.. thanks a lot  Beezer!!

I know.. I put the whammy on it. 

[Colorado Rockies 1976]

7 hours ago, Martyisth3b3st said:

That's you who's bringing up 'the S word'. Look at his swing in the minors versus now. Night and day.

6'-8" don't need no juice, baby.

No, it's not me...don't make it sound like I'm passively accusing Judge of anything, because I'm not...that's not my point.  You've been watching baseball long enough to know that when someone is seemingly coming out of nowhere (geez, even his brief major-league sample last season didn't hint at this kind of uber-rapid development) to have an All-World kind of season (especially a slugger), there's always going to be some fans who will want to attribute that player's success to PEDs...from what I've seen, no, no one's done that with Judge so far as I know...it's more wondering how long it will be before that happens.  I'm not implying that he's on them...if anything, even though he's playing on a team that I clearly don't root for, I'd love nothing more than for Judge to be a guy who's simply so damned good that he's doing this with zero assistance...it'd be great to have a young player who's so awesome that people can point to him and say "Here you go, this guy doesn't need a damn thing, he's doing this all on his own!"  But it does suck on some level that if he keeps this up, in time you'll likely hear someone or multiple someones start to wonder aloud if PEDs are involved, because fans (and even some media) just kind of do that now (MLB is heavily to blame for much of that of course).  I'm just looking forward to a day where Judge-types won't be subjected to that kind of crap, just because.  Yeah, obviously there were some serious offenders, and some guys will continue to roll the dice, but that doesn't mean that everyone's doing it by default. 

My post was more of a general lament, more than anything else. 

Edited June 15, 2017 by Colorado Rockies 1976

[Onddeck]

ROY and MVP next 

[Beezer34]

[Daniel]

Big Yankee trade, although it seems like they gave up a lot in parting with Rutherford.  Yeah, he's probably three years away, and it figures to be a crowded outfield especially if they go after Harper, but they only got a rental so-so corner infielder and two pretty good middle relievers.