2016 Yankees Season thread

[jacksonianmarch]

The off-season thread can officially be retired. I am a little late in starting this one. Regardless, ST is upon us and we are 3 or so weeks from opening day. I am intrigued by this year's team, yet come in with limited expectations. I feel they have the personnel, should things shake their way, to make the playoffs. They also have the possibility to crash and burn due to age and injury history.

 

Some updates out of ST. Rob Refsnyder is expected to make the team. He provides versatility, especially since he has shown enough to the brass to at least be a passable backup 3b. This leaves the possibility that Headley could be floated over to 1b or Ackley could see time at 1b if Tex goes down or when he needs a breather. The loss of Bird makes the point actually relevant, as he would have been the guy backing up Tex had he not lost his shoulder. As it stands now, the position players are as follows

 

1. McCann C

2. Sanchez/Romine C

3. Teixeira 1b

4. Castro 2b

5. Gregorius SS

6. Headley 3B

7. Gardner LF

8. Ellsbury CF

9. Beltran RF

10. Rodriguez DH

11. Hicks OF

12. Ackley UTIL

13. Refsnyder UTIL

 

It basically looks as if the only position battle is backup catcher. The rest are likely to be as above unless/when someone is injured. I do like the positional depth we have.

 

First base could be manned by Tex, Ackley, Headley or even Refsnyder

Second base could be manned by Castro, Ackley or Refsnyder

Shortstop could be Castro or Gregorius

Third base could be Headley, Refsnyder, or ARod (in a pinch)

The only OFer of the 4 incapable of handling CF is Beltran. Refsnyder and Ackley can also play the corners if needed

 

It's good to have redundancy, especially with a 1b and RF who are ancient and a CF and LF who seem to get nicked up a lot

[Bigemu23]

Apparently Miller could be out for a while now. He got hit in the wrist by a liner and it is described Cashman said Miller has "at least a bruised right wrist." Tests will tell the entire story.

[jacksonianmarch]

Chip fracture to non throwing wrist. Probably a 6 week injury. He'll be out longer than Chapman. Gonna be an interesting month. Betances should hold down the closers role. We have a TON of young power arms who are big league ready. It's time to see what they can do.

[mvp 78]

Brian Mitchell out 3 months with fractured toe.

[Bigemu23]

Apparently Miller wants to try and pitch through his injury

[jacksonianmarch]

Mitchell was our swing man for the most part. Nova will occupy that role out of the gate. Miller pitched through it today successfully.

[jacksonianmarch]

Postponed until tomorrow.

[jacksonianmarch]

Castro with a 2 run double in his first AB!

[User Name]

Castro was a good get for the Yanks. If they can keep him focused, he's an AS level 2B.

[jacksonianmarch]

Yanks get screwed there. Betances should have just drilled the runner. Instead he airmailed him as he was well within the field of play

[jacksonianmarch]

And two runs after the guy should have been struck out. Umps f***ed us today

[jacksonianmarch]

Was a real good game today until it fell apart late. Tanaka didn't have velocity, but nobody seemed to have their prime velo in the cold (including in CLE). But he was mixing in his stuff to perfection for the first turn through the lineup (which was perfect). Starting in the 4th, the ball kinda rode high on him, and it didn't help that his defense let him down a bit. Hicks came in on a liner that would have hit him in the chest had he frozen, and the ball ended up a double. That was run #1 and it was earned. Correia blasted one out to right on a hanger. But the 3 runs in the 8th were inexcuseable. With a runner on 2nd and 1 out, Springer hit a little roller down the 1b line. It was about 5 feet inside the basepath and the runner nearly kicked the ball. Betances picked it up and instead of drilling the runner in the back, he tried to throw it over him and sailed it into RF. Girardi tried to challenge, but was rebuffed, and played the game under protest. Later in the inning, Valbuena took what should have been strike three on a wicked slider that was well within the strike zone. The next pitch was a 2 run single, effectively ending the game. We mounted some rallies early, but were mowed down late as Kuechel retired his final 11 batters prior to exiting. We wont win the protest, but it was as obvious as most anything. Spring nearly kicked the ball, he was so far inside the line. Regardless, Betances looked shaky, Tanaka looked pretty good. Barbato and Shreve looked good. Gregorius and Castro swung the lumber, but the other guys looked pretty weak against the former CY winner. Tomorrow is another day

[Thunder]

Keuchel's an ace. Can't expect to have a field day on him. Castro looked very impressive, seems like coming to NY gave him new life after his role with the Cubs had diminshed over the past year. If the bullpen doesn't come through for you in tie game situations, then you'll have some problems. We know that the pen with a lead is fine. Betances of course is so lights out. Even so, I bet things will stable out when Miller and Chapman get healthy. 3 runs in the 8th does not look good though, even if it is only day 1.

[jacksonianmarch]

Betances was the one who screwed up today (thanks in part to the umps). Miller is active at this time

[Thunder]

Betances was the one who screwed up today (thanks in part to the umps). Miller is active at this time

 

I meant that this was unlike him, it's going to be a one time thing.

[jacksonianmarch]

66 pitches and counting in the bottom of the 1st

[jacksonianmarch]

Pineda's command is awful tonight. Gonna be a softball score

[jacksonianmarch]

f*** you Pineda

[jacksonianmarch]

So Pineda was maddening tonight. He snapped off some absolutely nasty sliders, mixed in with hangers that got banged hard. Velocity was a bit down, sitting around 91, but again it is cold and early. I didn't see his change or cutter at all. He couldn't command his fastball like he usually does and missed a lot in the zone. He was sloppy as hell today.

[jacksonianmarch]

Starlin Castro has started out on fire.

[jacksonianmarch]

2 more hits today. One off the wall, another over it. He's really locked in. He and Didi look good as the 8-9. But ARod looks old and slow

[Youk Of The Nation]

2 more hits today. One off the wall, another over it. He's really locked in. He and Didi look good as the 8-9. But ARod looks old and slow

 

No, Bob Newhart looks old and slow. A-Rod looks like someone deflated a Dwayne Johnson blow-up doll and replaced all of the air with pudding and concrete.

[Spudboy]

I still have a gut feeling that A-Roid will have another good year.

 

Of course, it could just be the Indian food I had for dinner.

[jacksonianmarch]

You know, I post that, then he rips two singles on fastballs, the last one off Giles at 98mph. That being said, it looks like he has to cheat a bit on the heat, as he's missing too many cockshot fastballs earlier in counts

[jacksonianmarch]

Pleased to this point with the start. Both losses vs aces with Zimmerman silencing us and Keuchel settling down after allowing a couple runs. The funny thing is, an umpire error cost us the Keuchel game. Regardless, we have won with some timely hitting and dominant pen work. Considering only 3 guys are over .250, our bats haven't yet erupted. And on the staff, CC has the only quality start. Tanaka has had some atypical wildness, but has been able to get the big outs when needed. CC had a good performance in Detroit and if it wasn't for Girardi trying to see him go into the 7th, he'd have looked even better. Pineda was in the zone far too much and saw the ball fly out of the park on a chilly game. Eovaldi had the same issue. Severino fell apart after Ellsbury played an out into an EBH. Overall, maybe we have been lucky, maybe we are showing well, I don't know. The rotation needs to give more than 5 innings and multiple runs. The lineup needs to get going aside from our 6, 8 and 9. The pen cannot sustain a sub 1ERA. But to this point, I'm happy

[jacksonianmarch]

3 losses in a row now with an offense that cannot seem to hit with runners on and a rotation keen on giving up the long ball

[Kimmi]

3 losses in a row now with an offense that cannot seem to hit with runners on and a rotation keen on giving up the long ball

 

I like it much better when the sky is falling in Yankeeland than in Red Sox Nation.

[jacksonianmarch]

Yeah, the sky isn't falling, but the offense really goes into droughts more than a good offense should. They went 0-24 with RISP between Friday and Saturday

 

Yesterday, we still sucked on the offensive end, not being able to score runners on 3rd and less than 2 outs in two separate situations. But Tanaka looked really good and had some nice velocity topping out in the mid 90s on his seldom used 4 seamer. He allowed 1 unearned run and had another cheapie in the first with the 3 weak grounders causing a run. Betances and Miller struck out all 6 guys they faced. And the scary part is that on May 9th, we add maybe the most dominant arm of all in Chapman. That pen is going to limit all games to 6IP.

[jacksonianmarch]

Betances' K/9 right now is 22.5. Sick

[jacksonianmarch]

Bad news bears level today