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:
Continue readingThe Best New York Yankees of 2023
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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
Continue readingNew York Yankees Diary – September 24th, 2023
And there was rain… New York rain.
Yesterday, there was no game. Today, a 51 minute delay, but there was a game.
For 3 hours and 2 minutes we sat out in the rain. Before the game, at least we were able to have friendly conversation with Ed Alstrom, the Yankees organist of the day. That chat and the free food in the Stadium suites was more enjoyable than sitting in the rain and watching this game.
Continue readingNew York Yankees Diary – September 22nd, 2023
The Yankees went into their last home series of 2023. In reality, the Arizona Diamondbacks’ record on the season isn’t that much stronger than the Yankees, but they are in a much weaker division – and, therefore, whilst the Yankees will finish fourth or fifth, Arizona will finish second or third.
Today, the Yankees sent Luke Weaver to the mound, who is trying to rebuild his career, whilst Brandon Pfaadt (pronounced “Fought”) is trying first time around to establish a Major League career.
Weaver started the season at Cincinnati, and then when the Reds released him, he was signed by Seattle. The Mariners placed him on waivers, and the Yankees claimed a couple of days later. His career might seem to be on the garbage heap, if he can’t turn things around soon. His first game for the Yankees came in Pittsburgh where he pitched four innings for 3 runs. Tonight, he had a second opportunity to turn it all around and rebuild his career.
Pfaardt went into this game with a 2-8 record on the season, His Earned Run Average stood at 5.86.
It was not hard to predict that the outcome of the game depended primarily on the two teams’ batting performance on the night.
Continue readingThe New York Yankees in July – Part One – The Batters (2021)
The New York Yankees seemed to begin to turn a corner in July and their results improved – particularly in the second half of the month.
It is difficult to analyse exacly why but strangely the results started to improve when many of their first choice roster members became unavailable and were replaced partially by untried players and partially by journeymen, perhaps spotting one final opportunity to breakthrough.
Some of those regulars were unavailable because of conventional injuries. Others were forced into isolation by positive Covid tests which hit the roster in ever-increasing numbers.
On the face of it, having to subtract Aaron Judge from the selection of available outfielders and add in Greg Allen, who in four previous stints in the Major Leagues (with Cleveland and San Diego) had managed to hit around .230, was not a recipe designed for success – but somehow the energy and enthusiasm of the new faces seemed to work.
Let’s survey the statistics of the offensive players in the month of July…
The New York Yankees in June – Part Two – The Pitchers (2021)
The world of baseball pitching began to be shaken up in late-May and early-June as MLB announced that it would be checking the hats, gloves and belts of pitching staff during games.
Rumours had begun to spread about the use of a substance called Spider Tack which was allowing pitchers to get a better grip on the ball and consequently increases spin speeds. Players like Josh Donaldson of Minnesota became very vocal in their criticisms of pitchers including, for example, the New York Yankees’ Gerrit Cole.
Now, there have been allegations like that. There also been suggestions that spin speeds for certain pitchers have dropped since the announcement of the rule-enforcement may have caused some pitchers to relearn their craft but so far that’s all we know.
So as we examine these statistics for the month of May, let’s consider those pitchers whose performance seems to have varied most dramatically – but I’ll go no further – the jury is still out – and we may never really know.
Here’s the stats for the whole team and then we’ll begin with a closer analysis of the starting rotation:
The New York Yankees in July 2019 (Part Two) – The Pitchers
On the face of it, the Yankees’ starting pitching in July wasn’t really much different than the way it had been in June. In June, the team had come out 17-9 on the month and the starters had picked up 8 of those wins. Excluding the rather bizarre decision to open with Stephen Tarpley in the second “London series” game, the team had depended on 4 principal starters and one opener, Chad Green who did exceptionally well both as an opener and as a reliever. In July, the Yankees reverted to the more usual tactic of using 5 starters, now that Domingo German was available for the full month. Indeed, German was the pick of the starters but nothing else quite went to plan but even so, the starters just about got away with it. Whilst the win percentage was down (14 out of 25 games), the starters were still responsible for 50% of those wins. However, the real truth can be seen in the ERA (earned run average) and WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched) columns.
The New York Yankees in July 2019 (Part One) – The Batters
July was a peculiar month for the Yankees. After going 17-9 in June, they found themselves struggling with injuries and below-par pitching and having to settle for a weaker record in the new month. They still, however, came out 14-11 and with a half game increase on their lead in the American League East. The two game series at the end of June in London with the Red Sox which was followed by a two-games series against the Mets at Citi Field can’t have helped – but somehow they got through.
The New York Yankees in June 2019 (Part Two) – The Pitchers
With their surprisingly successful starting pitcher, Domingo German, headed for the injured list on the 9th of the month, where he would stay for most of the rest of June, it was up to the relievers to bolster the pitching staff, even more than they had needed to do in May. Thankfully, the bullpen were more than up to the task. And the arrangement of using Chad Green as an opener paid off even better than it had in May. Green had, by far, his best month of the season.
Again, let’s explore who else led the way:
The New York Yankees in June 2019 (Part One) – The Batters
The New York Yankees did not quite maintain their May level of performance in June but they weren’t still far off that pace.
In June, they had the somewhat bizarre London series which produced 50 runs in two days to inflate the earned run average (ERA), runs scored and batting average columns.
https://twilightdawning.com/2019/07/03/professional-baseball-in-the-uk/
Despite winning those two “road” games, the Yankees finished the month 17-9, compared to 20-7 in May.
However, they had finished May only one and a half games ahead in the division. Now with Tampa Bay falling off the pace, they led by 7 games.
Let’s see who led the way with the lumber:
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