Tag Archives: chris capuano

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

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“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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The New York Yankees – The Pitchers in September and October (2015)

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One of the interesting factors for the New York Yankees over the last several seasons is how they handle the roster expansion in September. This year, as in the past, Joe Girardi seemed to feel under an obligation to try to use everybody, almost as though the season was already over and it was just a case of giving people game time. But this wasn’t Spring Training, it was a crucial chase to catch the Blue Jays and watching players like Chasen Shreve, and Bryan Mitchell coming apart at the seams wasn’t helpful to them or to the cause. Let’s see what happened:

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The New York Yankees – The Pitchers in August (2015)

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So whilst the bats were labouring the New York Yankees really needed the pitchers to pick up the slack. As it worked out their ERA was only marginally worse – 3.70 to 3.83 but the lack of batting left them with only a 14-14 record on the month which left the field wide open for the Toronto Blue Jays to steal the lead in the American League East which they were quite happy to do. Lurking behind the stats were impressive months for Masahiro Tanaka and Adam Warren particularly but let’s see what the rest of the picture reveals:

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The New York Yankees – The Pitchers in July (2015)

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The Yankees showed a significant improvement in their pitching in July and if we combine that with their great batting form it is easy to see why they went from 15-12 in June to 17-7 in July. Having Andrew Miller back from injury certainly helped and the trio of Dellin Betances, Justin Wilson and Chasen Shreve delivered more than could be expected of them during the month. The team’s ERA fell to below 4 compared to the 133 run produced in those 24 games. It is not hard to see how so many games ended in the “Wins” column.

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The New York Yankees – The Pitchers in June (2015)

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The Yankees pitching has been in a steady decline all season. In April, the average ERA of the team’s pitchers was 3.23 with a WHIP of 1.16. In May, that ERA was up to 4.38 and the WHIP was 1.33. In June, the WHIP was exactly the same but the ERA was up again to 4.48.

The bullpen kept the team rolling in April but was overused. In May it had begun to creak. By June some key players were injured but thankfully the batting had improved enough to keep the team alive – but they have used more relief pitchers prior to roster expansion than in any season in the team’s history. For a team at the head, or near to the head of the division, times are proving hard.

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The New York Yankees – The Pitchers in May (2015)

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May in the pitching ranks of the New York Yankees went pretty much the way of April. Most of the starters struggled – Michael Pineda was the obvious exception. The bullpen began to look tired: the inevitable result of overuse, caused by sub-standard starting.

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The New York Yankees Off Season Update 6

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The Yankees have had a pretty good Spring Training with a 15-12 record at the point I am writing this article which ranks them 4th in the American League and 4th in the Grapefruit League.

In this article, we will survey the players who are possibles to make the opening day roster and check out what they have done in the Spring games…

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The New York Yankees Off Season Update 5

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Well, the New York Yankees have had a weird off-season and it just keeps getting weirder. As we walk through the trades the Yankees made in January, I just keep hearing warning bells ringing that tell me that unless almost everyone who had an injury or a downturn in their career last year encounters a significant upward surge than this team looks worse on paper then the one which won 84 games last season and missed out on the post-season. Unless they give their manager Joe Girardi the right tools to work with, he doesn’t have a hope of turning this team into a winner.

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The New York Yankees Off-Season Update 3

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Sometimes an article changes direction just as you’re writing it and this is one because the Yankees’ progress over the last month has had more twists than the average tornado.

First there was their majorly disappointing decision not to make an offer to David Robertson. If you’d asked me in September who was the most important player that the Yankees must re-capture in 2015 then there would be no doubt in my mind that it would have been Robertson.

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The New York Yankees – The Pitchers in September

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As we move on to the second half of our survey of the Yankees’ performance in September, we find a fairly surprising picture amongst the pitchers. Whilst the team averaged giving up between 3 and 4 runs a game which is pretty competitive, more surprising was that those who had been successful prior to September struggled and some new faces were successful.

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