What: Cymbeline by William Shakespeare
Where: The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon (RST)
When: 22nd April-27 May, 2023
Who: The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)
An excellent production!!
But that does need some explanation and clarification.
What do we have here?
Potentially, from the injured list we gave you at the head of our last article, you could put together four-fifths of a starting rotation, and four relievers to add to your bullpen.
The injuries included Carlos Rodon, who was intended to be the number two starter in 2023, Luis Severino a potential number four starter, and Frankie Montas who was originally brought in from Oakland to be a number 5 starter.
Leading bullpen pieces who were missing in action included Tommy Kahnle, and Jonathan Loaisiga.
There was no question that these were going to be devastating for the Yankees’ early season chances of success.
Here we go… Harrison Bader, Lou Trivino, Tommy Kahnle, Carlos Rodon, Luis Gil, Frankie Montas, Scott Effross, Luis Severino, Ben Rortvedt, Jonathan Loaisiga, Giancarlo Stanton, and Josh Donaldson.
This is the shortlist of players that the Yankees had to place on the injured list through March and April in 2023. It is fair to say it left them with a much weakened team.
That they managed to come through to the end of April with a record of 15-14 was no mean achievement. But a 3 game losing streak against the Texas Rangers at the close of the month meant that they were 4th in the division table, albeit that the American League East is by the far the strongest of the divisions.
Each season, we award to players rankings according to outstanding performances during the season. Using this system, here’s how the Batters and Pitchers of the New York Yankees placed:
Batters:
The Yankees used 6 different starting pitchers in the last days of the regular season. First was Nestor Cortes, and then spot-starter Chi-Chi Gonzalez. Third was Luis Severino, and then Jameson Taillon in the first half of a doubleheader. The second half of the doubleheader was given to Gerrit Cole, and the final game of the season was handed to Domingo German.
Peculiarly since it gave them a chance to achieve a 100-win season, the Yankees didn’t seem to care to much about that last outing, and benched Aaron Judge, and went for an outfield of Aaron Hicks–Matt Carpenter–Oswaldo Cabrera, and ironically delivered a loss – primarily because of lack of runs.
In the American League Division series, they went with a rotation of Cole-Cortes-Severino, and the two games they lost were blown by relievers. In the American League Championship series, Jameson Taillon who had been an unsuccessful reliever in the previous series started in Game 1, followed by Luis Severino, Gerrit Cole, and Nestor Cortes. Things did not go well.
When it comes to a situation like the Yankees face most every season these days, – getting ready for the post-season – they can make one of two choices. They can maintain momentum by choosing their best lineup every day, or they can rest the regulars and use the players off the bench. The latter is not as easy these days, because roster expansion is much lower numerically than it used to be a few years ago, but that still seems to be the route that the New York team chooses.
The thing that the Yankees would gain if they maintained that momentum, is that they would build the confidence of a line-up of a team who seem very, very conscious that they are likely to face the Houston Astros in the post-season. And the Astros, regardless of how they achieved some of their previous winning seasons, seem to have a hoodoo over the New York team which inhibits the Yankees performance.
So, once again the Yankees made their choices, and one again the season came to an earlier than hoped for end. The fans ran out of patience. They wanted to see the back of Aaron Boone, they treated Isiah Kiner-Falefa and his family badly. Hey, they even booed Aaron Judge.
Aaron Judge…! Aaron Judge…!! The 17 games the Yankees won during September were primarily down to Mr Judge, their superstar outfielder, whose sixty plus home runs guaranteed them their place in the post-season.
But, it obviously wasn’t down to Aaron alone. We’ve already seen how much players like Gleyber Torres contributed to getting things rolling in September. And many of the pitchers, both starters and relievers, added great performances into this strong month.
Well, after August it had to get better right? Well, thankfully, it did! Winning 17-8 on the month, it was the best month that the Yankees had since June. July had been ordinary. August was appalling, but September was just what the Yankees needed to head into the post-season.
Some new faces settled into the squad. Some players came back from injury.
August…the New York Yankees. Two terms that in 2022 just didn’t go together.
Ten wins, 18 losses. Now, a large part of that as we have seen was due to the batters failing to hit, fielders failing to field. But the pichers were far from guiltless. far from faultless. Starters and relievers alike.
August 2022 was a nightmare month for the New York Yankees. If the New York Yankees hadn’t had such a good first half of the season, they would have been dead and buried by the end of August.
it still meant that the huge gap that the Yankees had opened prior to August was reduced from over 11 to 6. It meant that there was a genuine need for the New York team to snap out of it or one of the two pursuing team (Tampa Bay and Toronto) might catch them
twilightdawning 