The New York Yankees – The Pitchers in July (2016)

If the Yankees made some radical changes to their batting line up in July with the departure of Carlos Beltran that was nothing to the  way that they changed their pitching staff around.

Let’s recap… At the end of last year, the Yankees signed Aroldis Chapman for 4 minor league prospects including Caleb Cotham who had seen some action in the Majors in 2015. Now, Cotham has hardly set the world alight since joining the Cincinnati Reds (0-3, 7.40 ERA) but even so Chapman was a controversial signing. He was being investigated under the Major Leagues’ domestic violence ruling, was likely to be suspended and anyway, he was a closer – and the Yankees had one of the finest closers in all baseball, in 2015, in Andrew Miller.

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The New York Yankees – The Batters in July (2016)

When I was writing my coverage of the New York Yankees in Spring Training and April, I mentioned that this team looked like it could be an echo of the team that represented the Bronx Bombers in 1989.

(see for example my article “And on the Eighth day the Yankees did nothing”  https://twilightdawning.com/2016/03/04/the-new-york-yankees-off-season-update-january-february-2016-and-on-the-eighth-day-the-yankees-did-nothing/ )

Little did I realise how much…

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The New York Yankees – The Pitchers in June (2016)

In June, some of the pitchers that the Yankees felt they could rely upon started to creak. Meanwhile, some of those who looked like they weren’t going to perform began to improve. Rollercoaster. The team ERA during June increased from 3.75 in May to just below 5. No point in your batters improving if this is going to happen!

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New York Yankees (June 2016 Update)- Just passing through…

There has been an extensive list of players who have passed through the New York Yankees’ pinstripes between April and the 24th of June. In this article, I am going to survey the players who have spent at least 1 day on the roster for the Bronx Bombers but are no longer on the 25 on that date in June.

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The New York Yankees – The Pitchers in May (2016)

So if the batters were worse than terrible, it must have been the pitching staff who picked up some of the slack and gave the team a chance in the May games – leading to the Yankees achieving that surprising 16-13 record on the month.

12 of those 16 wins came from the starting staff so we’ll be considering them first.

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The New York Yankees – Off-season Update – November/December 2015 – “Ludicrous”

“Ludicrous”

How else to explain the moves that the Yankees have made since the season ended in October?

The Yankees might have listed their goals for the off-season as follows:

a) To strengthen their 25 man roster

b) To reduce the average age of players on their 25-man roster

c) To make themselves more competitive for 2016

d) To achieve the first three without majorly increasing their payroll for 2016 from its 2015 level.

As we are now halfway through that off-season period, it is fair to say that they have failed in the first three categories and, therefore, in the 4th.

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