The New York Yankees in July – Part Two – The Pitchers (2024)

As you will have seen in our batting coverage, the Yankees had another bad month in July. They are very thankful indeed for the start they had before June.

July was 11 wins and 13 losses. Imagine how it would have been if it wasn’t for the 5 straight wins they racked up between the 27th and the 31st of the month. They bounced back from a one game deficit in Boston to take the series 2-1, and then swept the National League’s strongest, Philadelphia 3 games to zero.

During that period the pifching started to bounce back after what had been otherwise a very weak month – especially for the starting rotation.

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The New York Yankees in June – Part Two – The Pitchers (2024)

If the Yankees batting fell apart in June (with the exception of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge – it’s becoming like a mantra), then the pitching, particularly the starting rotation also hit massive problems.

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The New York Yankees in May – Part Two – The Pitchers (2024)

The New York Yankees’ performance in the season to the end of May is better than any of us had a right to expect.

Part of that is due to the batting performances of the likes of Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, but that is not the whole picture. The pitching arms have been an essential part of the growth.

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The New York Yankees in March / April – Part Two – The Pitchers (2024)

And so we turn our attention to the Yankees pitchers. The starting rotation has had some necessary changes. The bullpen has changed beyond recognition.

Obviously, the major need is to cover for the absence because of injury of Gerrit Cole. He’ll be out until June.

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The Best New York Yankees of 2023

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:

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The New York Yankees in September / October – Part Two – The Pitchers (2023)

Injuries? The Yankees got ’em.

Nestor Cortes; Luis Severino; Albert Abreu; Anthony Misiewicz; Wandy Peralta; Tommy Kahnle; Ryan Weber; Luis Gil; Lou Trivino.

And Frankie Montas, and Keynan Middleton just made it back before the end of the season.

And Ian Hamilton by the middle of September.

No surprise then that the patched up Yankees rotation and bullpen struggled in September and in game 162 in October.

Thank goodness for Gerrit Cole.

Let’s take an overview of the stats…

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The New York Yankees in September / October – Part One – The Batters (2023)

At the end of August, Brian Cashman (Yankees’ General Manager) said “It’s been a disaster of a season. We’re embarassed by it”.

This came, of course, with the Yankees’ usual gift for hyperbole. It was what the less thoughtful fans wanted to hear, and it just built things towards the inevitable firestorm.

For Hal Steinbrenner, and those at the financial helm of the Yankees, it had of course been disastrous. They looked like they were going to miss the post-season (they still had an outside chance when the statement was made – and that would be a tremendous financial loss. They had cut Aaron Hicks, and Josh Donaldson was about to go down the same route. They would carry the can for those poorly chosen signings and their contracts.

But they have finished the season over .500, and were just about to pull themselves up by their bootstraps with a 17-11 last month plus of the season, and move above the old enemy, Boston Red Sox into 4th place in the American League East.

So, really not good, but not a disaster. It gave them a chance to look at some developing young players (not everything went smoothly as we shall see), and to re-examine their priorities. Some fans will still spit and cuss, but that’s a given. Here’s the batting stats for September and October.

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New York Yankees Diary – September 30th, 2023

So, my month at the Stadium is over.

What can I tell you? It didn’t work out quite the way I had anticipated it when I accepted the commission at the beginning of the season.

Then the Yankees looked like one of the strongest, if not the strongest team in Major League Baseball. I would have ranked them alongside the Atlanta Braves as the strongest team in the majors

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New York Yankees Diary – September 21st, 2023

The Yankees came into this one 2-0 down in their series with the Toronto Blue Jays, and with their bullpen and batters struggling. Clarke Schmidt had struggled two days ago, but Michael King excelled and still lost yesterday. The weight was now on the outstanding Gerrit Cole to turn things around.

However with Cole comes Ben Rortvedt, the weakest batter in the Yankees’ camp, and what the Yankees do not need is another weak bat especially if it meant benching Austin Wells who looked like he might be just about to turn things around.

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New York Yankees Diary – September 10th, 2023

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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