twilightdawning

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

The New York Yankees in July – Part One – The Batters (2025)

Posted on August 4, 2025 by twilightdawning

March 3-0

April 15-13

May 17-9

June 13-14

July 12-13

How did it come to this? After a good start in March and April followed by an exemplary month in May, the Yankees have now had two months where their record is below 50%.

The tailspin meant that there were always going to be a good number of changes as the trading deadline approached.

Most of those who came in were on the pitching side of the roster, but first we’ll survey the batters and those who have left and those who have arrived during the last few days.

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The New York Yankees in June – Part One – The Batters (2025)

Posted on July 2, 2025 by twilightdawning

I can’t believe how well he’s playing… He is batting much better than I ever expected he could… He looks so much better on the mound than his stats suggested he would…

And obviously, something had to give. And in June didn’t it just. The all-powerful Yankees who were strolling to the post-season and would be winners of the American League East. just ground to a halt and their true colours were shown.

June 2025 was not a good month for the Yankees

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The New York Yankees in May – Part One – The Batters (2025)

Posted on June 2, 2025 by twilightdawning

The Yankees have had a great month in May. They went 17-9 and some of their offensive players were amongst the strong reasons that it went this well. Aaron Judge, Paul Goldschmidt, and Cody Bellinger were at the forefront.

Jason Dominguez and Anthony Volpe also put in above average performances.

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The New York Yankees in March / April – Part One – The Batters (2025)

Posted on May 5, 2025 by twilightdawning

The New York Yankees led (in every sense) by their captain, Aaron Judge were quick off the mark in 2025. By the end of March, they were 3-0 and a game in front of the rest of their division. By the end of April, they were 18-13 and had increased their lead to one-and-a-half games.

Obviously, there had been many changes since their disappointing perfomance in the 2024 World Series.

Some of these had been by choice – some because they had been outbid on free agents they would have liked to re-sign.

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The Best New York Yankees of 2024

Posted on November 4, 2024 by twilightdawning

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 October – Part Two – The Pitchers (2024)

Posted on November 1, 2024 by twilightdawning

So, we have seen that the batters with the exception of Giancarlo Stanton and Juan Soto performed largely indifferently in October. This, of course, meant that if the Yankees were to carry on to win the championship then the pitchers would need to produce at a level above and beyond their usual. Let’s just say that, particularly in the case of the starters, this never even looked close to happening.

The bullpen did well, but by the time they came to the mound some games were already lost.

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The New York Yankees in October – Part One – The Batters (2024)

Posted on October 31, 2024 by twilightdawning

So, the Yankees in October were a mixed bunch. Sure, they made it to the World Series, but many of the players they needed to “turn up” in the vital games went AWOL.

Crucially, these included Aaron Judge, Jazz Chisholm Jr., and once more, both catchers. That combination was never going to end happily.

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The New York Yankees in September – Part One – The Batters (2024)

Posted on October 7, 2024 by twilightdawning

By the beginning of September, the New York Yankees were well on their way to the post-regular season playoffs. They were 79 wins, 57 losses with 26 games to play. The main question seemed to be surrounding the issue of whether they would win the divison or go through by wildcard qualification.

Amongst the regular players, Gleyber Torres was leading the way, by the end of the month, but their were real issues about how much he could be a team player as well as a strong individual performer. Trent Grisham was much improved in the little time he was given at the plate, and of course, Aaron Judge and Juan Soto continued to be masterful.

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A New York Yankees Diary – Day Nineteen – September 29th, 2024

Posted on October 5, 2024 by twilightdawning

So, game 162.

And this would prove to be my last game of the season. The news agency had offered me a contract for the post-season, but the need to move house and start a new position in England, was going to mean that there was no way of taking that up.

As in 2023, the last days of the season were visited by blanket rain, which meant delays and just getting generally soaked to the skin. First pitch didn’t come around until 4:36 by my watch.

On the mound? Clarke Schmidt for the New York Yankees who entered the game with a 2.55 ERA and a 5-5 win – loss record which partially concealed that he hadn’t achieved a win since May 16 and had missed a considerable portion of the season through injury. For the Pittsburgh Pirates, it was Bailey Falter who had an 8-9 record. This was his rookie season and other than not playing in the majors for most of July, he had produced a reasonable season pitching to a 4.17 ERA.

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

Posted on October 4, 2024 by twilightdawning

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!

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