Tag Archives: aroldis chapman

A New York Yankees Diary – Day Eighteen – September 28th, 2024

Posted on by
Reply

So, game 161 and as so often happens at this stage of the season, the team who has least to achieve takes their foot off the accelerator and begins to lose.

Going into this game the Yankees had lost three of four, this afternoon to add to their stresses, the Pittsburgh Pirates had elected that potential National League rookie of the year, Paul Skenes should be on the mound. To this point in the season, Skenes is 3 wins – 1 loss with an earned run average of just under two, and September was his best month of the season so far.

The Yankees’ starter is no slouch either as they went with another potential rookie of the year – American League candidate Luis Gil. Gil is 15-6 with an ERA of 3.27.

With the season coming to an end, and little to play for, the main question is how long the Pirates would allow Skenes to remain in the game – how deep in the innings count, they would allow him to go.

My prediction, before the game, if I am honest, would have been that the Yankees would take this one, clinch top seed and Skenes would go five innings and no more. How wrong can you be!

Continue reading →

A New York Yankees Diary – Day Seventeen – September 27th, 2024

Posted on by
Reply

The Yankees now have a decisive lead over Baltimore, and Baltimore have a wild card qualification. The outcome of the series between the two teams could not really have worked out better for both participants. The Orioles really couldn’t expect to catch the New York team on the season, but just simply to leave town having taken the 3-game set, 2-1 gives them something of a psychological edge should the two meet again in the playoffs.

Really, only one matter remained for the New York Yankees. That was to clinch the top seed spot. This too seems likely to be the outcome, but the Yankees were balancing the need to do that with the need to rest players and keep them fresh. It is a difficult equation because the Yankees were likely to have the rest they needed if they did not play in the wild card series and rested everyone through that “bye” period,

Continue reading →

The New York Yankees in October – Part Two – The Pitchers (2022)

Posted on by
Reply

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.

Continue reading →

The New York Yankees in September – Part Two – The Pitchers (2022)

Posted on by
Reply

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.

Continue reading →

The New York Yankees in August – Part Two – The Pitchers (2022)

Posted on by
Reply

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.

Continue reading →

The New York Yankees in July – Part Two – The Pitchers (2022)

Posted on by
Reply

As we mentioned in our previous article, the Yankees just did enough to achieve a .500 win-loss record in July and as we survey the pitchers, we note that many of the starters began to buckle with only Nestor Cortes coming in at the end of the month with an ERA of less then 4.

Michael King was having another excellent month in July, but broke his elbow in the 2/3 of the month and is gone for the long term. You’d never want to see somebody go out with an injury like that, and in reality there is no compensation. However the Yankees did have longterm injuries Domingo German and Jonathan Loaisiga coming back this month. Clarke Schmidt who had been building up his stamina was recalled from Scranton, but oft-injured Luis Severino was lost to the team again.

Continue reading →

The New York Yankees in June – Part Two – The Pitchers (2022)

Posted on by
Reply

The Yankees pitching in June was nothing short of amazing. Having 22 wins in a calendar month is one thing, but when 10 of the pitchers your team used have a WHIP of less than one on the month, it is easy to see where the lion’s share of the credit might lie.

The starters underwent a wobble or two, but the bullpen were there to keep the wins coming in. As we survey the statistics of the month, we’ll see very clearly why they kept winning.

Continue reading →

The New York Yankees in May – Part Two – The Pitchers (2022)

Posted on by
Reply

The Yankees’ pitchers are on-the-whole doing amazingly this season. If at this time last year, we would have predicted that Clay Holmes would have signed with the Yankees from Pittsburgh and would have the record that shows in our table below, across a whole calendar month, then you would have been convinced that I was fooling. And I would have never have been that foolish.

Furthermore, after two months we are talking about Nestor Cortes as a possible Cy Young candidate, and yet there are 6 members of the bullpen (Nestor has the best May ERA of the starters) who have ERAs superior to his and some of those are people who you’d expect to be in the relief corps all season long. Strange days indeed.

Continue reading →

The New York Yankees in April – Part Two – The Pitchers (2022)

Posted on by
Reply

The Yankees were able to call on their main five starting pitchers throughout April, without any of them suffering injury. Gerrit Cole, Luis Severino, Jordan Montgomery, Jameson Taillon and Nestor Cortes were available from Opening day, and remained that way.

Domingo German remained on the injured list but the Yankees had anticipated that. There were no new faces amongst the starting pitchers and only a smattering among the relievers. Based on last season, the fanbase wouldn’t be too sure what to expect from this arrangement but as we have already suggested in our article about the batters, things worked out just fine as, after a few bumps, the team cruised to the head of the division.

Continue reading →

The New York Yankees in October – Part Two – The Pitchers (2021)

Posted on by
Reply

It was October and the Yankees’ starting rotation was struggling.

While Gerrit Cole was on the active roster, the Yankees elected to not use him in the series with Tampa Bay in order that he might be ready for the Wild Card game.

Jameson Taillon was back from injury and a rehab assignment and ready to go but, as already noted in last month’s report, the Yankees had sent Andrew Heaney to the bullpen and now assigned him outright to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders (Triple-A) – an assignment he would decline and so elect to become a free agent.

Let’s see who rose above the challenges of the end of the year:

Continue reading →