The Yankees have two chances to win one game to advance to their fourth ALCS in the last eight years. A late-inning homer and more excellent bullpen work gave the Yankees a 3-2 win over the Royals in Game 3 of the ALDS on Wednesday night. Since divisional play began in 1995, the winner of Game 3 in a best-of-five series tied at 1-1 has won 45 of 62 series, or 73%. Good omen, that is, but the series a...
2024-10-10 10:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostThe Yankees will finally play another baseball game tonight. Between the Wild Card Series bye and all the ALDS off-days, they’ve played two games in the last nine days. This is me complaining as a fan who wants to watch the Yankees play baseball. I’m not saying all this time off puts the Yankees at a disadvantage. The lower seed won three of the four Wild Card Series. I don’t want none of that best-of-three smoke. I just want to watch the Yankees, man. Feels like they’re on an NFL sch...
2024-10-09 10:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post
I gotta tell ya, if I’m the Royals, I’m feeling pretty good about escaping Yankee Stadium with a split after Bobby Witt Jr. went 0-for-10 in Games 1 and 2 and the two starters each went four innings. For the first time ever, all four Division Series are tied 1-1. The best-of-five is now a best-of-three, and the Royals have home field advantage. Here now are a few thoughts after Game 2 as we head ...
2024-10-08 13:59:51 +0000 UTC View Post
It wasn’t the prettiest win, but it was a win, and there are no bonus points for style. The Yankees beat the Royals 6-5 in Game 1 of the ALDS and are two wins away from their fourth ALCS in the last eight years. There were five lead changes in Game 1 and apparently that is the most ever in a postseason game. The MLB Network research crew and our research team at CBS both say so. How about that...
2024-10-06 14:21:48 +0000 UTC View PostI said it Friday and it’s worth repeating: The Yankees may never have a better chance to win the World Series in the Gerrit Cole/Aaron Judge era than they do this year. The Royals and either the Guardians or Tigers stand between them and the pennant, and there’s no superteam in the NL. Maybe the Phillies, and the Mets have a team of destiny thing going on right now, but there’s no powerhouse like the 2019-22 Dodgers. The baseball gods did their part. Now it’s on the Yankees to do thei...
2024-10-05 15:39:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Last week I answered a mailbag question about both teams celebrating postseason clinchers after a game, and noted it hadn’t ever happened. Then, sure enough, it happened Monday. The Braves and Mets split Monday’s doubleheader and each punched their ticket to the postseason. They didn’t just celeb...
2024-10-04 10:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
The best-of-three Wild Card Series gets underway Tuesday and the Yankees will be interested observers. They’ll spend the week sleeping in their own beds, playing simulated games, and waiting to find out who they’ll play in the ALDS. The Wild Card Series is Orioles vs. Royals in Baltimore. Winner comes to the Bronx for the ALDS beginning Saturday. Until then, we wait.
“I feel like we’ve ...
2024-10-01 10:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post
Longtime RAB readers and hardcore prospect watchers may remember catcher Gustavo Campero. He spent a few years in the Yankees’ system and had a big rookie ball debut in 2017 (.292/.444/.521 and 174 wRC+), but the bat stalled, and the Yankees cut him loose after the 2020 pandemic season. The Angels signed him, and as recently as 2022, he was their Double-A bullpen catcher. Campero got back on the field as a player in 2023, performed well the last two years, and got called up on Sept. 15th. N...
2024-09-30 10:00:20 +0000 UTC View PostMY BAD: Sorry everyone, I accidentally scheduled this post for 6pm ET instead of 6am ET. That's why it was late today. My mistake.
ORIGINAL POST: The Dominican Winter League is indeed coming to Yankee Stadium. It was made official earlier this week. Rivals Tigres del Licey and Águilas Cibaeñas will play two games in the Bronx on Friday, Nov. 8th (6pm ET) and Saturday, Nov. 9th (2pm ET). 2024-09-27 12:45:53 +0000 UTC View Post
UPDATE: The Yankees placed Cortes on the 15-day injured list with a flexor strain, they announced this afternoon. Poteet was called up in a corresponding move and Stroman will start tonight. The injured list stint takes Cortes out of play through the ALDS, though flexor strains are pretty serious injuries – they can be precursors to Tommy John surgery but not always – so Nes...
2024-09-25 15:32:52 +0000 UTC View PostIt’s official: There will not be a 100-win team this year. First time since 2014. The Dodgers and Phillies both took their 63rd loss over the weekend to clinch it (the Yankees lost their 63rd game last weekend, the Rafael Devers intentional walk game). There were at least three 100-win teams every full season from 2017-23. No 100-win teams this year but there is a 120-loss team. 2024-09-24 10:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Surprise: Alex Cora was not disciplined for admitting the Red Sox threw at Aaron Judge last weekend. I guess his comment was vague enough – “We had our shot in the sixth inning and it didn't happen” – to escape punishment. “We got too much important things going on in front of us right now to really get caught up in that,” Aaron Boone told Gary Phillips when asked about Cora not bei...
2024-09-20 10:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostImportant mailbag follow-up: I answered a mailbag question about splash hits at Oracle Park before the Yankees visited San Francisco earlier this season, and whether Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton could become the first ever right-handed hitter to hit one into the water. Neither did it that series, but this past Sunday, it finally happened. Heliot Ramos hit an opposite field splash hit. 2024-09-17 10:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Earlier this week Marcus Stroman was named the Yankees’ nominee for the 2024 Roberto Clemente Award, which recognizes players for their charitable work and community involvement. Among other things, Stroman launched a program this year that will provide 10 Bronx high schoolers with college scholarships. Here now is my annual rant that it...
2024-09-13 10:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostIt’s time for the annual post: Saturday afternoon the Yankees won their 82nd game and clinched their 32nd consecutive winning season. They haven’t had a losing season since going 76-86 in 1992. This is the second longest streak of winning seasons not just in baseball history, but in the history of the four major North American pro sports leagues. Here’s the list:
1. 1926-64 Yankees: 39 seasons
2. 1993-2024 Yankees: 32 seasons and coun...
For the third time this season, Aaron Judge was named AL Player of the Month. He slashed .389/.530/.856 (268 wRC+) with 12 homers in August. Per James Smyth, Judge is one of only three players to win three Player of the Months in a single season, and he’s now done it twice:
For the first time since 2019, the Yankees entered September with the best record in the American League. The last two and a half months haven’t been the prettiest, I know, but the Yankees are 79-58 with a +121 run differential. They’re one up in the loss column in the AL East. As a certain someone likes to say, it’s right in front of them. Take care of business these last 25 games and it doesn’t matter what the Orioles or any other team does. Here now is Tuesday’s post on Monday. I...
2024-09-02 10:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostJazz Chisholm Jr. slugged a solo home run in the eighth inning Monday (video) and, in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t mean much. It put the Yankees up four, they won by three, yadda yadda yadda. But that home run is notable because it was the Yankees’ 674th run of the season. They scored 673 runs all of last year. The 2024 Yankees have o...
2024-08-30 10:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostOld Timers’ Day was Saturday and, depending who you ask, the players either want an Old Timers’ Game (CC Sabathia) or say they can’t do it because everything hurts (Jorge Posada). Isn’t the solution to have an Old Timers’ Game for the guys who want to play, and anyone who doesn’t want to play doesn’t...
2024-08-26 15:46:44 +0000 UTC View PostThe folks at Pitch Profiler had a fun list the other day. They measured the most “feared” hitters by comparing the difference between Stuff+ when a pitcher faces a specific hitter and when they face all other hitters. Aaron Judge is atop the list, meaning he gets everyone’s nastiest stuff. Juan Soto is high atop the list too. Know who else? Anthony Volpe! I guess this is because Volpe hit lead...
2024-08-23 10:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostI need to correct something I posted earlier this month. I misread the postseason schedule and there is an off-day between Games 4 and 5 of the ALDS. The ALDS schedule is Game 1, off-day, Game 2, off-day, Game 3, Game 4, off-day, Game 5. Three off-days in a best-of-five seems excessive. Lots of built-in rest for the bullpen though, plus you can start your Game 1 starter on normal rest...
2024-08-19 17:18:07 +0000 UTC View PostOld Timers’ Day is next Saturday, Aug. 24th, and Alex Rodriguez will be there. The Yankees announced the list of attendees earlier this week and A-Rod will be on hand for the 15th anniversary celebration of the 2009 World Series. It will be his first Old Timers event. Would’ve been kinda silly to celebrate the 2009 title wit...
2024-08-16 10:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post
Jazz Chisholm Jr. suffered a UCL injury in his left elbow on that play at the plate Monday night (video), Aaron Boone announced Tuesday afternoon. Chisholm is still going through testing to determine the severity and whether surgery is required, but he’s likely going on the injured lis...
2024-08-13 22:31:31 +0000 UTC View PostIt’s kinda remarkable there are no powerhouse teams this year, isn’t it? No team is on pace to win more than 96 games. Excluding 2020, there have been at least three 100-win teams every year since 2016, and at least one 98-win team every year since 2013. Call it parity, call it mediocrity, call it whatever you want. Whatever it is, it’s widespread. I remind myself of this whenever I get frustrated by the 2024 Yankees, which happens often these days. Anyway, here is today’s post.
I was hard up for CBS content the other day so I turned something I mentioned in Tuesday’s post – Juan Soto is on pace for a top five offensive season by a Yankee in the Expansion Era – into a post there. Here it is if you’r...
2024-08-09 10:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostGot a few (free) links to pass along. First, Michael Baumann wrote about the historic greatness of the Aaron Judge/Juan Soto duo (and the Yankees being so reliant on them). Second, Mike Petriello wrote about Soto getting no help from the short po...
2024-08-06 10:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post
Could you imagine giving up a grand slam to DJ LeMahieu? Or losing to Road Nestor Cortes? Or letting Clay Holmes nail down a save? Phillies fraud status: confirmed. For real though, the Yankees are a perfect 5-0 in the Jazz Chisholm Jr. era (4-0 in games he’s played) and they just won back-to-back series for the first time since winning three straight against the Angels, Giants, and Twins in late M...
2024-08-02 10:00:11 +0000 UTC View Post
The trade deadline came and went Tuesday and it was a quantity over quality deadline league-wide. Lots and lots of trades, but the biggest name to change teams was … Jazz Chisholm Jr.? Maybe Randy Arozarena? Not a single Baseball America top 100 prospect was trad...
2024-07-31 00:26:09 +0000 UTC View PostUPDATE: My note about Marcus Stroman's player option in the Miscellany section is wrong. The player option is tied to his innings in 2025, not 2024. The usually reliable Cot's Baseball Contracts says 2024, but the Associ...
2024-07-29 10:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post
UPDATE: The Yankees have announced the trade and it is as reported: Chisholm for Serna and the two Ramirezes. No word on when Jazz will join the Yankees. Hopefully Sunday, but it might he Monday.
ORIGINAL POST: The trade deadline shopping has begun. The Yankees are acquiring second baseman/center fielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. from the Marlins for three pr...
2024-07-27 21:27:41 +0000 UTC View Post