Tag Archives: giancarlo stanton

New York Yankees Diary – September 8th, 2023

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Well, yesterday was yesterday, and today is today. And it couldn’t be more half-hearted, and worse. Right?

Wrong.

Austin Wells was restored to the catcher’s role. He continues to be defensively strong, but with the bat (0-for-3 today), he remains consistently weak. Oswaldo Cabrera who had come on to replace Aaron Judge in the field in the previous game, was now switched to leftfield. Everson Pereira was benched. The rather hopeless Giancarlo Stanton was also benched, with Judge taking over at designated hitter.

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The New York Yankees in August – Part One – The Batters (2023)

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So, you thought the July Yankees could not get any worse in August?

Wrong! 10 wins -15 losses in July, 10-18 in August.

At the beginning of the month, they had been deliberating whether to buy or sell at the trade deadline. At the deadline, they really did neither. Their only change was to bring in right-handed relief pitcher Keynan Middleton (from the Chicago White Sox) for another right-hander from their farm system, Juan Carela.

And by the end of August, as they were out of contention and the rosters were due to expand, they decide to do a little cleaning house. Predictably but expensively, they cut Josh Donaldson. Also going through the out door was Greg Allen, who wasn’t being used much, but did bring something to the team. More surprisingly, they placed Harrison Bader on waivers.

Let’s see what else happened:

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The New York Yankees in July – Part One – The Batters (2023)

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The Yankees needed to see a massive improvement in their performance in July, Instead, they went 10-15 on the month.

The Yankees wanted to narrow the gap on the teams ahead of them in the wild card race. Instead, they slipped out of contention and finished the month in fifth place in the American League East.

The logic had been that psychologically the Yankees were struggling without their captain, leader, and best player, Aaron Judge. His time out of the team went on and on and it was the 28th of July before he returned.

But the Yankees need to be more than just a one-man club, however significant that absentee was.

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The New York Yankees in June – Part One – The Batters (2023)

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The Yankees in the month of June have run 11-12. During that time, they have four new faces added to the injured list.

Crucially, Aaron Judge went in that direction. When he made an amazing fielding play whilst crashing into the wall in front of the bullpen, it seemed both amazing and humorous. Now, it doesn’t seem so funny anymore. Judge is injured, with no timetable for his return. And the form of others has nose-dived as the team in general seem to feeling his absence psychologically.

Also newly injured and unavailable are Nestor Cortes, Greg Allen and Willie Calhoun.

Returning? Ian Hamilton, Harrison Bader, Giancarlo Stanton, Tommy Kahnle, and Josh Donaldson.

Ryan Weber went from the 15 day injured list to the 60 day list.

On balance, if it wasn’t for the Judge injury, you’d think that the Yankees’ roster had gained in June, but if you consider that some of the returnees are notorious under-performers in recent times, then it doesn’t look quite that good.

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The New York Yankees in May – Part One – The Batters (2023)

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The Yankees’ injury situation in May began to settle down. Only four players were added to the injured – Aaron Judge, Jose Trevino, Ian Hamilton and Oswald Peraza. And whilst it is never going to be easy to lose Judge, in particular, it must be noted that three of these players bounced back at the end of the 10 days that their period on the injured list required. Hamilton will be out for longer.

At the same time, many players were heading for rehab assignments and moving closer to a return. These included Luis Severino, Josh Donaldson, Tommy Kahnle, and Ben Rortvedt.

Perhaps even more significantly the Yankees finally gave up on the wretched tenure of Aaron Hicks, accepting that clearing a space on the roster was more important than worrying how much of his contract they were still going to be liable for. They designated him for assignment on the 20th of the month – and when he cleared waivers without any notable interest, they released him a week later. Hicks signed for Baltimore by the end of the month.

In a parallel move, the Yankees traded with the Boston Red Sox, giving up minor leaguer Diego Hernandez and acquiring Greg Allen. Allen had previously played for the Bronx Bombers in 2020.

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The New York Yankees in March and April – Part One – The Batters (2023)

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Here we go… Harrison Bader, Lou Trivino, Tommy Kahnle, Carlos Rodon, Luis Gil, Frankie Montas, Scott Effross, Luis Severino, Ben Rortvedt, Jonathan Loaisiga, Giancarlo Stanton, and Josh Donaldson.

This is the shortlist of players that the Yankees had to place on the injured list through March and April in 2023. It is fair to say it left them with a much weakened team.

That they managed to come through to the end of April with a record of 15-14 was no mean achievement. But a 3 game losing streak against the Texas Rangers at the close of the month meant that they were 4th in the division table, albeit that the American League East is by the far the strongest of the divisions.

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The Best New York Yankees of 2022

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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:

Batters:

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The New York Yankees in October – Part One – The Batters (2022)

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When it comes to a situation like the Yankees face most every season these days, – getting ready for the post-season – they can make one of two choices. They can maintain momentum by choosing their best lineup every day, or they can rest the regulars and use the players off the bench. The latter is not as easy these days, because roster expansion is much lower numerically than it used to be a few years ago, but that still seems to be the route that the New York team chooses.

The thing that the Yankees would gain if they maintained that momentum, is that they would build the confidence of a line-up of a team who seem very, very conscious that they are likely to face the Houston Astros in the post-season. And the Astros, regardless of how they achieved some of their previous winning seasons, seem to have a hoodoo over the New York team which inhibits the Yankees performance.

So, once again the Yankees made their choices, and one again the season came to an earlier than hoped for end. The fans ran out of patience. They wanted to see the back of Aaron Boone, they treated Isiah Kiner-Falefa and his family badly. Hey, they even booed Aaron Judge.

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The New York Yankees in September – Part One – The Batters (2022)

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Well, after August it had to get better right? Well, thankfully, it did! Winning 17-8 on the month, it was the best month that the Yankees had since June. July had been ordinary. August was appalling, but September was just what the Yankees needed to head into the post-season.

Some new faces settled into the squad. Some players came back from injury.

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The New York Yankees in August – Part One – The Batters (2022)

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August 2022 was a nightmare month for the New York Yankees. If the New York Yankees hadn’t had such a good first half of the season, they would have been dead and buried by the end of August.

it still meant that the huge gap that the Yankees had opened prior to August was reduced from over 11 to 6. It meant that there was a genuine need for the New York team to snap out of it or one of the two pursuing team (Tampa Bay and Toronto) might catch them

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