twilightdawning

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

The New York Yankees in Spring Training (2017) – Part Two

Posted on March 28, 2017 by twilightdawning

The New York Yankees’ pitching situation in 2017 is complicated by their failure to sign a new starting pitcher in the off-season.

Last year, they had Nathan Eovaldi and Ivan Nova to add to their supposedly “big three” of Masahiro Tanaka, CC Sabathia and Michael Pineda. Now Eovaldi is injured and has signed for Tampa should he return to the Major League level and Nova was given away very cheaply to Pittsburgh (where he has performed well). Of the three write-ins, Sabathia is stumbling towards the end of his career and Pineda was hideously inconsistent last season. Tanaka, if he can stay free of injury, is a true ace but this only points up what is the real weakness of the Yankees’ roster.

Continue reading →

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

Posted on August 14, 2016 by twilightdawning

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.

Continue reading →

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

Posted on August 13, 2016 by twilightdawning

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…

Continue reading →

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

Posted on July 19, 2016 by twilightdawning

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!

Continue reading →

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

Posted on June 4, 2016 by twilightdawning

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.

Continue reading →

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

Posted on May 16, 2016 by twilightdawning

Whilst the batters showed few highlights in April, you could almost divide the pitchers into two groups…those who were starters (bad) and those who were relievers (good). As we shall see, there were some exceptions but not many!

Continue reading →

The New York Yankees in Spring Training – Update 3

Posted on April 11, 2016 by twilightdawning

(with just a little insight into the first few days of the season!)

Well, if you compare my previous two articles on the Yankees in Spring Training,(https://twilightdawning.com/2016/03/18/the-new-york-yankees-in-spring-training-2016-update-1/ & https://twilightdawning.com/2016/03/25/the-new-york-yankees-in-spring-training-2016-update-2/ ), with what has actually happened you’ll find that I was pretty close to correctly predicting the opening day roster.

But I was lucky!

Continue reading →

The New York Yankees in Spring Training (2016) – Update 2

Posted on March 25, 2016 by twilightdawning

(up to and including March 23, 2016)

At the time of our last column, the Yankees stood at 5-8. Since then they have improved to 9-10 and they have seen Brett Gardner able to take regular at-bats and gain his first hits and RBI, and Jacoby Ellsbury take a pitch off his wrist which has limited his participation but, in general, the roster is taking shape.

Let’s survey the pitchers and who is likely to be on that roster as March turns into April.

Continue reading →

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

Posted on November 2, 2015 by twilightdawning

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:

Continue reading →

The New York Yankees – September Update – Truths revealed in the rain

Posted on September 28, 2015 by twilightdawning

What: The New York Yankees vs the Baltimore Orioles and the Toronto Blue Jays

When: 7th September to 13th September 2015

Where: Yankee Stadium, New York, New York

Stood outside Yankee Stadium on the 10th of September as the rain begins to gently fall, you realise that perhaps this is not going to go to plan. When the series with the Orioles had opened and a Yankees win meant that the lead that Toronto had in the American League East was cut back to half a game, the world seemed filled with optimism. Even when Baltimore took the next two games, things hadn’t seemed so bad – results elsewhere had gone in the Yankees favour. And after all, one and a half games behind doesn’t look so bad when the team ahead of you is just about to arrive in town for four games and anything could happen.

Continue reading →