Tag Archives: wilkes-barre

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

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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 9th, 2023

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Mike Jerzembeck.

Mike Jerzembeck?

Mike Jerzembeck was introduced to the crowd at Old Timers’ Day at Yankee Stadium, and a large percentage of the crowd (including those in the row near me) seemed to collectively go “who?”. Especially since Old Timers’ Day concentrated on the squad of players who played for the Yankees in 1998, and Jerzembeck was one of them.

Now, the 1998 Yankees are one of less than a handful of teams who are considered when the question is raised as to who is perhaps the greatest club Major Leagues history so to even be a minor figure in that story is quite something…

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The New York Yankees in August – Part Two – The Pitchers (2023)

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So, we are thinking about the Yankees’ performance in August, and obviously based on their record during the month (10 wins – 18 losses), you wouldn’t expect an upswing in the quality of their pitching performances but in reality there were some positive signs.

Indeed, in the bullpen there were as many significant improvements as there were players who made a significant decline.

Let’s see who the strong performers were, and those who buckled under the strain:

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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 Two – The Pitchers (2023)

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So, continuing on with this theme of the Yankees appalling collapse in July – It is not appalling because the Yankees have a divine right to success. It’s is appalling because the Yankees’ roster is not the roster of the Kansas City Royals, or the Oakland Athletics. It is appalling because going into the season, it appeared that the Yankees had a roster which was the envy of everyone, and had a starting rotation which looked like one of the best, if not the best in the Majors.

Gerrit Cole – Carlos Rodon – Nestor Cortes – Luis Severino – Frankie Montas — and if injuries arose Domingo German and Clarke Schmidt to fall back on.

Injuries came – and too many. Even then the bullpen held up the weight, but by July the relievers were over-tired, and with Aaron Judge injured the team was going nowhere but down.

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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 March and April – Part Two – The Pitchers (2023)

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Potentially, from the injured list we gave you at the head of our last article, you could put together four-fifths of a starting rotation, and four relievers to add to your bullpen.

The injuries included Carlos Rodon, who was intended to be the number two starter in 2023, Luis Severino a potential number four starter, and Frankie Montas who was originally brought in from Oakland to be a number 5 starter.

Leading bullpen pieces who were missing in action included Tommy Kahnle, and Jonathan Loaisiga.

There was no question that these were going to be devastating for the Yankees’ early season chances of success.

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