twilightdawning

A writer's thoughts – mainly about music, sport and theatre. Shakespeare, Bob Dylan, live shows, New York Yankees

New York Yankees Diary – September 10th, 2023

Posted on September 12, 2023 by twilightdawning

And there was more rain…

Thankfully, it was nothing like the day before. The delay amounted to only 16 minutes. But there was added time for the fans – this one ran into extra innings.

More surprisingly, the Yankees limited the Brewers who had so dominated them over the previous two days, to a mere three hits over the regulation nine innings. Even more surprisingly, the Yankees didn’t get a hit at all until the 10th.

And so much of the weight of the Yankees staying in the game fell upon the able shoulders of Gerrit Cole, who if there is any justice in the baseball world will walk away with the American League Cy Young award for 2023.

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New York Yankees Diary – September 9th, 2023

Posted on September 11, 2023 by twilightdawning

Mike Jerzembeck.

Mike Jerzembeck?

Mike Jerzembeck was introduced to the crowd at Old Timers’ Day at Yankee Stadium, and a large percentage of the crowd (including those in the row near me) seemed to collectively go “who?”. Especially since Old Timers’ Day concentrated on the squad of players who played for the Yankees in 1998, and Jerzembeck was one of them.

Now, the 1998 Yankees are one of less than a handful of teams who are considered when the question is raised as to who is perhaps the greatest club Major Leagues history so to even be a minor figure in that story is quite something…

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New York Yankees Diary – September 8th, 2023

Posted on September 9, 2023 by twilightdawning

Well, yesterday was yesterday, and today is today. And it couldn’t be more half-hearted, and worse. Right?

Wrong.

Austin Wells was restored to the catcher’s role. He continues to be defensively strong, but with the bat (0-for-3 today), he remains consistently weak. Oswaldo Cabrera who had come on to replace Aaron Judge in the field in the previous game, was now switched to leftfield. Everson Pereira was benched. The rather hopeless Giancarlo Stanton was also benched, with Judge taking over at designated hitter.

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New York Yankees Diary – September 7th, 2023

Posted on September 8, 2023 by twilightdawning

(Having been commissioned to be at Yankee Stadium for the home games during September, I kept a diary to submit to my publishers. I am now able to present some of my writings on the games here).

Before tonight’s game, the Yankees, who had been told in no uncertain terms in August by General Manager Brian Cashman that their season was a disaster, then had one of their best runs of the season winning 8 of their previous 10 games. Indeed, one of the two they had lost was due to a walkoff. They were pretty much in contention for every game.

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The New York Yankees in August – Part Two – The Pitchers (2023)

Posted on September 6, 2023 by twilightdawning

So, we are thinking about the Yankees’ performance in August, and obviously based on their record during the month (10 wins – 18 losses), you wouldn’t expect an upswing in the quality of their pitching performances but in reality there were some positive signs.

Indeed, in the bullpen there were as many significant improvements as there were players who made a significant decline.

Let’s see who the strong performers were, and those who buckled under the strain:

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The New York Yankees in August – Part One – The Batters (2023)

Posted on September 4, 2023 by twilightdawning

So, you thought the July Yankees could not get any worse in August?

Wrong! 10 wins -15 losses in July, 10-18 in August.

At the beginning of the month, they had been deliberating whether to buy or sell at the trade deadline. At the deadline, they really did neither. Their only change was to bring in right-handed relief pitcher Keynan Middleton (from the Chicago White Sox) for another right-hander from their farm system, Juan Carela.

And by the end of August, as they were out of contention and the rosters were due to expand, they decide to do a little cleaning house. Predictably but expensively, they cut Josh Donaldson. Also going through the out door was Greg Allen, who wasn’t being used much, but did bring something to the team. More surprisingly, they placed Harrison Bader on waivers.

Let’s see what else happened:

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The New York Yankees in July – Part Two – The Pitchers (2023)

Posted on August 4, 2023 by twilightdawning

So, continuing on with this theme of the Yankees appalling collapse in July – It is not appalling because the Yankees have a divine right to success. It’s is appalling because the Yankees’ roster is not the roster of the Kansas City Royals, or the Oakland Athletics. It is appalling because going into the season, it appeared that the Yankees had a roster which was the envy of everyone, and had a starting rotation which looked like one of the best, if not the best in the Majors.

Gerrit Cole – Carlos Rodon – Nestor Cortes – Luis Severino – Frankie Montas — and if injuries arose Domingo German and Clarke Schmidt to fall back on.

Injuries came – and too many. Even then the bullpen held up the weight, but by July the relievers were over-tired, and with Aaron Judge injured the team was going nowhere but down.

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The New York Yankees in July – Part One – The Batters (2023)

Posted on August 3, 2023 by twilightdawning

The Yankees needed to see a massive improvement in their performance in July, Instead, they went 10-15 on the month.

The Yankees wanted to narrow the gap on the teams ahead of them in the wild card race. Instead, they slipped out of contention and finished the month in fifth place in the American League East.

The logic had been that psychologically the Yankees were struggling without their captain, leader, and best player, Aaron Judge. His time out of the team went on and on and it was the 28th of July before he returned.

But the Yankees need to be more than just a one-man club, however significant that absentee was.

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The New York Yankees in June – Part Two – The Pitchers (2023)

Posted on July 5, 2023 by twilightdawning

As we have seen in the analysis of the batters’ statistics the Yankees really over-depended on the pitchers in June, and in particular their bullpen.

Obviously, this cannot continue. In a peculiar way, the steady drip, drip, drip, of pitchers returning from injury means that fresh arms are being made available. Some have been out all season (Tommy Kahnle), others for a shorter time (Ian Hamilton). And the return of Carlos Rodon is not too far away.

It seems likely that before the trading deadline, the Yankees will need to bring new offensive and pitching stars. Let’s hope they are able to do so without giving too much away.

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The New York Yankees in June – Part One – The Batters (2023)

Posted on July 4, 2023 by twilightdawning

The Yankees in the month of June have run 11-12. During that time, they have four new faces added to the injured list.

Crucially, Aaron Judge went in that direction. When he made an amazing fielding play whilst crashing into the wall in front of the bullpen, it seemed both amazing and humorous. Now, it doesn’t seem so funny anymore. Judge is injured, with no timetable for his return. And the form of others has nose-dived as the team in general seem to feeling his absence psychologically.

Also newly injured and unavailable are Nestor Cortes, Greg Allen and Willie Calhoun.

Returning? Ian Hamilton, Harrison Bader, Giancarlo Stanton, Tommy Kahnle, and Josh Donaldson.

Ryan Weber went from the 15 day injured list to the 60 day list.

On balance, if it wasn’t for the Judge injury, you’d think that the Yankees’ roster had gained in June, but if you consider that some of the returnees are notorious under-performers in recent times, then it doesn’t look quite that good.

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