The Yankees started their nine-game West Coast trip by getting swept by the A’s. They turned an 0-3 start into a 5-1 finish by taking two out of three from the Dodgers (and could have taken all three if not for an egregious umpiring decision) and sweeping the Mariners. The Yankees return home with the best record in baseball despite not having played a single game at full strength this season.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees on this off day as usual.

1. As much as I want the Yankees to win home-field advantage for the American League playoffs (and a potential World Series), and as much as I think they need to have home-field advantage to beat the Astros in a potential ALCS matchup, I don’t think they’re going to win home-field advantage. It’s not because they’re not good enough, it’s because their remaining schedule and the Astros’ remaining schedule suggest they won’t.

One-third of the Yankees’ remaining 27 games will be against teams fighting for a wild-card berth (Oakland, Boston and Tampa Bay), while the Astros’ only remaining games against any team with a real postseason chance is a four-game series against the A’s. Unfortunately, if the Yankees and Astros meet in the ALCS, the Yankees are going to have to win at least one game in Houston — something they were unable to do in the 2017 ALCS — and one game against either Justin Verlander (Game 1), Gerrit Cole (Games 2 and 6) or Zack Greinke (Game 7). If the Yankees are going to beat any of those three in the postseason, they’re most likely going to have to win the way they did in Los Angeles: with the home run.

2. The Yankees took two out of three from the Dodgers by hitting home runs against Hyun-Jin Ryu and Clayton Kershaw. With the nearly impossible task of stringing together multiple base hits against elite pitching, the Yankees were able to use their home run prowess to defeat the NL All-Star Game starter and ERA leader on Friday and the best pitcher of his generation on Sunday. It’s part of the formula the Yankees are going to need to win in October: home runs + five innings from the starter + 12 outs from the bullpen.

I had a lot of Dodgers fans and in-laws in Los Angeles tell me how impressed they were by the Yankees since they don’t get to watch them much. The majority of those fans and in-laws also felt like the Yankees would beat the Dodgers if the two teams were to meet in the World Series. While that made me happy, it doesn’t mean anything other than to know Dodgers fans are petrified of having to play the Yankees and possibly lose a third straight World Series.

3. After dominating the Dodgers in the series opener and then beating the Mariners in Seattle without his best stuff, James Paxton has now recorded a win in six straight starts, finishing August a perfect 6-0 (after the Yankees lost all five of his starts in July) with this line: 35.1 IP, 24 H, 14 R, 14 ER, 14 BB, 39 K, 5 HR, 3.57 ERA, 1.076 WHIP.

In my yet-to-be-updated Postseason Rotation Power Rankings from July 23, I gave Paxton the Game 3 start in the ALDS with Masahiro Tanaka getting Game 1 and Domingo German getting Game 2. I think I’m ready to give Paxton at least Game 2.

But the reason I haven’t updated the rankings yet is because I have been waiting on more and more information on Luis Severino.

4. Severino is going to make his first rehab start of the season on Sunday in Triple-A. As long as he stays healthy and keeps progressing, we’ll likely see Severino pitching for the Yankees in mid-September, giving him a little more than two weeks of the regular season to get ready for October.

If Severino does stay healthy and returns as his usual self, it changes everything about the Postseason Rotation Power Rankings. He could be anywhere as high as the Game 1 starter to a long reliever to a middle reliever in the postseason. I want him back as a starter, but Severino in any role is better than no Severino at all.

5. It wasn’t even two weeks ago when Aaron Judge’s 2-spot in the order was being questioned. Over the last 11 games, Judge is hitting .383/.408/.872 with five doubles, six home runs and 10 RBIs, quieting all of his critics who wondered where his power and pull power went. It’s good to have one of the best players in the world back to being one of the best players in the world. It’s even better that he’s back entering the final month of the season.

6. Maybe Gary Sanchez was playing through an injury for a while which eventually led to his late-July/early-August injured-list stint. In 17 games since returning from IL, Sanchez has six home runs and 11 RBIs and a .917 OPS, hitting his 100th career home run and 30th home run in the process. I’m sure Sanchez will always provide us with frustrating moments and painful-to-watch slumps, but he’ll also always provide us with streaks like the one he’s currently on, and for that, he’s irreplaceable.

7. There was an article on MLB.com the other day citing a storyline to watch for each team over the last month of the season. The Yankees’ storyline was getting J.A. Happ back on track and the article said he might not get a postseason start as of now and would be pitching out of the bullpen in October. Clearly, the author rarely watches the Yankees.

No, J.A. Happ won’t be getting a postseason start, and there’s a better chance of David Cone pitching out of the bullpen in the postseason than there is Happ. It would take an abundance of injuries for Happ to even be on the postseason roster at this point. Some very worthy players who have helped the Yankees to the best record in baseball aren’t going to be on the postseason roster, let alone Happ, who has done very little to help the 2019 Yankees get to where they are and has done more harm than good. Happ has a month and say five-or-so starts of five innings and three earned runs or more left in his season.

8. This week the Yankees said they would “probably” call up Clint Frazier on September 1. “Probably”? If Frazier isn’t on the Yankees on September 1 then this whole thing will be taken to another level of ridiculous and the Yankees will no longer be able to hide behind the idea that he’s working on his defense in Triple-A or that he doesn’t fit on the current roster.

9. If the Yankees ever get completely healthy and get Severino, Dellin Betances, Luke Voit, Edwin Encarnacion, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Hicks all back, there’s going to be a lot of debate about the postseason roster, the postseason lineup and the postseason rotation. It’s likely that if everyone is healthy, Gio Urshela could be on the bench in the postseason as well as Brett Gardner and either Luke Voit or Edwin Encarnacion. If the Yankees don’t win the World Series, there’s going to be a lot of room for second-guessing the lineup, rotation and roster decisions which were made.

10. In the Off Day Dreaming on August 1, I said my expected record for the Yankees for August (by expected record, I mean a record I would be content with them having) is 17-13. Well, as of today, they are 20-8, so at worst, they are going to finish the month three games better than my expected record.

My expected record for the Yankees in September is 15-10. If they win of the two remaining games in August against Oakland, and meet my expected record expectations for September, they would finish the season 104-58, four games better than their 2018 record.

Now this October just needs to go better than October 2018.

***

My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is available!

There’s less than six weeks left in the Yankees’ season. On Tuesday, the Yankees will begin their third-to-last road trip and last trip to the West Coast of the season.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees on this off day as usual.

1. The division has been long over. It’s been over for nearly two months now. But if anyone out there is still worried …

The Yankees are 83-43. If they play .500 for the rest of the regular season and go 18-18 in their final 36 games, they will finish with a 101-61 record. The Rays would have to go 28-9 to tie them and the Red Sox would have to go 34-2. The question isn’t if the Yankees win the division, it’s when, and the sooner the better to rest their position players and line up their rotation accordingly.

2. At least the last two weeks of the season are going to be meaningless from a division standpoint, but they are going to mean everything from a home-field advantage standpoint. It’s going to be difficult to come out of the American League playoffs this season, but it’s going to be nearly impossible if the Yankees aren’t the No. 1 seed and don’t have home-field advantage throughout.

The most likely scenario in the AL playoffs is a Yankees-Astros ALCS. They are going to be the 1- and 2-seeds and they are the two best teams in the league. Two years ago in the ALCS, the Astros went 4-0 at home and the Yankees went 3-0 at home. The Astros outscored the Yankees 15-3 in Houston and the Yankees outscored the Astros 19-5 in New York. This season the Astros are 43-15 at home and the Yankees are 49-20 at home, the best two home records in the AL. Home-field advantage matters, especially in this postseason, and the Yankees can’t take their foot off the gas once they clinch the division. The goal is to win the World Series, and having home-field advantage will greatly increase their chances of accomplishing that goal.

3. CC Sabathia wasn’t good again on Sunday in his return from his second injured-list stint. He gave up four earned runs on four hits and three walks in three innings, including a three-run home run. He was on a limited pitch count and was pulled after 67 pitches.

Why is Sabathia on a pitch count? He’s retiring at the end of the season and has roughly six regular-season starts left in his career. There’s absolutely no way he can be given a postseason start unless the Yankees didn’t learn their lesson from last season and want to relive that misery. So Sabathia’s six-or-so remaining regular-season starts are the last of his career. There’s no need to protect his arm for October or for 2020. He’s done after Game 162. There’s no need for him to save pitches for retirement or leave anything in the tank. When it’s his turn to start, let him pitch until he wants to come out of the game. Let him eat innings, so I don’t have to watch Nestor Cortes or Luis Cessa anymore.

4. When it comes to the postseason rotation, Sabathia isn’t the only one who can’t get a start. J.A. Happ can’t either. That means the Yankees’ postseason starting pitcher option are currently: Masahiro Tanaka, Domingo German, James Paxton or an opener.

I haven’t updated the Yankees’ Postseason Rotation Power Rankings since July 23 because they remain the same. Tanaka in Game 1, German in Game 2, Paxton in Game 3 and an opener in Game 4. The only way that will change is if Luis Severino comes back.

5. I’m getting more and more excited that Severino is going to return. I realize any setback now means his season is over with only five-plus weeks left in the regular season, but he threw off a mound over the weekend and said he felt great and is now very, very close to pitching in rehab games. Because of the end to the minor-league regular season in a couple weeks, it’s likely Severino will pitch a couple of games in the minors and then really build up his pitch count with the Yankees.

If Severino were to come back as his old self, to me, he would be the Game 1 starter in the postseason. But I could see the Yankees starting Tanaka in that game no matter what, given his postseason success (1.50 ERA in five starts) and having Severino pitch the second game. Either way, Severino is seeming more and more like an actual option this October, which will make me feel a lot better about the Yankees’ rotation and chances in the postseason.

6. The return of Dellin Betances is as important as the return of Severino. Aroldis Chapman is going to pitch the ninth inning no matter what, but I have trust issues with Chad Green, Tommy Kahnle and Adam Ottavino, and I don’t have any trust in Zack Britton. Betances was the best reliever in baseball for the last five years before this season-ruining injury, and I expect him to be the same Betances once he returns. That pushes everyone down in the bullpen pecking order and takes some of the high-leverage situations away from those who have trouble navigating them.

The Yankees are 40 games over .500, going to win the division with at least two weeks left in the season and could win the World Series right now, as currently constructed, and they’re close to having their best starting pitcher and best reliever back for the first time this season. I wish I could bottle this emotion to feel this way every day.

7. Luke Voit is nearing a return, Giancarlo Stanton is rehabbing his way back from yet another lengthy injured-list stint and at some point, Edwin Encarnacion could return as well. The Yankees aren’t going to have any roster issues with September 1 less than two weeks away, but they’re most likely going to have some problems come October. Let’s say the Yankees were at full strength for the postseason, who would be on the postseason roster?

Gary Sanchez and Austin Romine are two roster spots. Voit, Encarnacion, DJ LeMahieu, Gleyber Torres, Didi Gregorius and Gio Urshela are another six. Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks, Brett Gardner and Stanton bring the total to 12. Severino, Tanaka, German and Paxton make it 16. Chapman, Betances, Ottavino, Britton, Kahnle and Green equal 22.

That leaves three spots for Mike Tauchman, Cameron Maybin, pinch runner Terrance Gore, CC Sabathia and J.A. Happ, not to mention the possibilities of Clint Frazier, Jonathan Loaisiga or Deivi Garcia. (I’m assuming Luis Cessa and Nestor Cortes have no chance at making the roster.)

8. The actual postseason roster isn’t as much an issue as to who will be in the starting lineup. Either LeMahieu, Voit or Encarnacion will play first. Either LeMahieu or Torres will play second. Either LeMahieu or Urshela will play third. Either Torres or Gregorius will play short. One of the two odd men out could be the designated hitter, but then that would mean Stanton plays left field and Gardner is on the bench.

The Yankees are going to have a real lineup issue in October if everyone is healthy and there’s no consensus lineup to make everyone happy. On top of that, because there are too many good, worthy players for not enough spots, whichever lineup they go with is going to need to work because there will be equal or possibly even better players not in the lineup making everyone wonder what could have been if it doesn’t work out.

For this to happen, the Yankees would have to be completely healthy for the first time this season, which isn’t something I would count on. But because they haven’t been healthy all season, I could easily see the postseason being the first time they are finally at full strength to make things complicated.

9. I’m happy to see the Yankees have a “thing” again with Judge pretending to be Gardner hitting his bat against the dugout roof when he reached base via a hit yesterday. It seems like that motion is going to be the 2019 version of the 2017 “thumbs down” which the Yankees used through the end of the season.

What started out as Gardner’s frustration over striking out might be his way of rallying the team now, which is why he was confused over his ejection on Saturday. If Gardner is going to use the bat banging as a way to get a rally started, I’m all for it, but if he’s going to do it following called third strikes, it’s embarrassing.

10. In the last Off Day Dreaming on the Yankees’ last off day back on August 1, I wrote that my expected record for the Yankees in August is 17-13. They are currently 15-4 and would have to go only 2-9 for the rest of the month to achieve my expected record (by expected record, I mean a record I would be content with them having).

Between this off day and the next off day on Thursday, Aug. 29, the Yankees will play nine games on their West Coast trip against the A’s, Dodgers and Mariners. The Yankees have a 3 1/2-game lead over the Astros for home-field advantage in the AL and a one-game lead over the Dodgers for home-field advantage in the World Series. Home-field advantage and health. Those are the only two things the Yankees have to worry about now.

***

My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is available!

Today isn’t a great day to be a Yankees fan. Despite the team’s first-place standing and enormous division lead, their direct competition to win the American League went out and did everything possible to be the best team in the league. The Yankees? They added a 20-year-old minor-league pitcher.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees on this off day as usual.

1. I feel the way I do when the Yankees’ season ends. The way I feel when the Yankees are depressingly walking off the field while another team celebrates around them. The way I feel when the postgame scene in the Yankees clubhouse is silence aside from players giving interviews about how they didn’t get the job done, while the postgame scene in the opposing clubhouse is victory music, champagne and beer. The way I feel when there’s no baseball for the next six months.

I realize I shouldn’t feel that since the season is far from over and the Yankees are still a first-place team with a chance to win a championship, but how can you not feel that way after the team the Astros built? Had both the Yankees and Astros done nothing, like we all initially thought at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, I would have been upset the Yankees didn’t improve their starting pitching, but I wouldn’t be distraught.

It was always going to be hard to come out of the American League in the postseason and represent the league in the World Series. Now, it seems impossible. 

2. The Astros aren’t messing around. They know they’re in the middle of a championship window and they’re trying to build a dynasty, clearly not content with sitting back and having 2017 be their only championship. Over the last three seasons, they have acted like the Yankees once acted, taking on Justin Verlander’s salary, trading for Gerrit Cole, signing Michael Brantley and now trading for Zack Greinke. I’m jealous of the Astros. They’re going for it, and not just talking about going for it like the Yankees do, they’re really going for it, for the third straight season.

3. The Yankees half-assed their way to building a roster once again. They put together the best run-producing lineup in baseball and the deepest and most vaunted bullpen as well. But when it comes to their rotation, they were cheap before Luis Severino got hurt and remained cheap as James Paxton got hurt and struggled, CC Sabathia got hurt and struggled and J.A. Happ struggled. Knowing. Domingo German (who also got hurt) would be pitching this season with an innings limit also did nothing to open their wallet.

The Yankees could have addressed their rotation in the offseason by signing Patrick Corbin or Charlie Morton or once draft pick compensation was no longer attached to Dallas Keuchel. They chose not to each time, forcing themselves into a corner on deadline day. And with Marcus Stroman having been traded to the Mets and Trevor Bauer going to the Reds, the viable options dried up. The Yankees mishandled the offseason, misread the trade market and mismanaged the days leading up to and on deadline day.

4. What has been the Yankees’ goal this entire time? What has been their plan? Was it to hope Severino will eventually come back healthy sometime in August or September and be healthy enough and good enough to be the team’s No. 1 starter again for the postseason? Was it to think Paxton would eventually find himself for the first time since mid-April? Was it to pray Sabathia, in his final season, and Happ, in his age 36 season, would get better as the season progressed and the pitches and innings piled up on their veteran arms?

Brian Cashman has said countless times in his tenure as general manager that starting pitching is “the keys to the kingdom” in terms of winning a championship. But if he truly believes that (which he should) then why does he rarely construct a rotation capable of holding the keys to the kingdom? Why does he think the current Yankees rotation gives the team the best possible chance to win a championship in their current championship window? How could he feel comfortable pitting this rotation against the Astros, Twins or Red Sox in a short series?

5. The starting rotation has always been the 2019 Yankees’ glaring weakness. It was even after they traded for Paxton and brought back Sabathia and Happ. It was even more so when Severino went down in spring training and when Paxton, Sabathia and German all spent time on the injured list, and when Paxton struggled, and when Sabathia and Happ weren’t any good.

Signing Corbin, Morton or Keuchel and trading for someone prior to July 31 wasn’t going to guarantee the Yankees a championship, but it would have put them in a better position to win one. There was a time when the Yankees gave themselves every chance to put together the best possible roster. We are far removed from that time.

6. Supposedly, the Yankees were trying to add relievers in the hour leading up to the deadline when it became apparent the starting pitching market wasn’t going to work out. This was another way of the Yankees admitting their starting pitching is unreliable as they tried to acquire bullpen help to potentially further shorten postseason games. But all the elite relievers and bullpen help in the world doesn’t matter when the team manager’s doesn’t have the slightest idea on how to manage a bullpen during a game.

7. Unless Luis Severino comes back and pitches like he did in the first half of 2018 or James Paxton magically becomes the pitcher the Yankees thought they were trading for, Masahiro Tanaka is getting the ball in Game 1 of the ALDS. I have no problem with Tanaka getting the ball in Game 1, and currently want him to, because I trust him more than anyone in the postseason. It’s a problem when Aaron Boone doesn’t even trust him to go five innings against the Diamondbacks in July.

8. It’s OK to be a Cashman fan, but it’s another thing to be on board with every decision ownership or the front office makes, thinking they are never wrong. If you find yourself today defending the organization’s decision to do nothing for months to improve the starting rotation, go take a lap. Take a few laps. Maybe just keep running until the postseason starts when we can all evaluate their decision to not completely go for it in a championship window.

9. There’s a good chance both Luke Voit and Giancarlo Stanton (if he ever resumes baseball activities) will return to the team with only a couple weeks left in the regular season to get at-bats. By then, the division will be officially clinched, so the results of the games might not matter, but there’s not going to be a lot of time for two middle-of-the-order bats to get back to their normal everyday routine and comfort level at the plate. I pray the Yankees will recognize this and  not bat them in the Top 5 in the lineup in the postseason if they’re not their usual selves because of their career resumes or recent resumes.

10. My expected record for the Yankees for July (by expected record, I mean a record I would be content with them having) was 13-12 and they went 14-11, one game better. In August, the Yankees have a chance to get fat again in the win column with a rather easy schedule, including 14 games against the Orioles, Blue Jays and Mariners.

My expected record for the Yankees in August is 17-13, which would give them a 85-52 with one month to play.

***

My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is available!

That wasn’t the best weekend. The Yankees lost three of four to the Red Sox and lost two games off their loss-column lead in the process. But that loss-column lead is still 10 games, and the division is still over. A bad week of pitching and a series loss to the Red Sox doesn’t change that.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees on this off day as usual.

1. The results of the last week aren’t as bad as you think. I’m not talking about the pitching (we’ll get to that), I’m talking about actual wins and losses. I wanted the Yankees to go 3-4 on their road trip and with Sunday night’s series-salvaging win, they did exactly that. Sure, they lost two games off their 12-game, loss-column lead to the Red Sox, but a 10-game, loss-column lead is more than enough of a comfortable cushion. Let’s get to my favorite game: If the Yankees play .500.

The Yankees have 57 games remaining, so they can’t play .500 baseball, so let’s say one-game-over-.500 baseball. If the Yankees play one-game-over-.500 baseball for their remaining 57 games and go 29-28, they would finish with a 96-66 record. The Rays would have to go 36-18 and the Red Sox would have to go 37-18 to tie them. The Yankees aren’t going to go 29-28 though, considering they have 23 games remaining against the Orioles, Blue Jays, Mariners and Tigers. The division is still over. This past weekend did nothing to change that. The Yankees’ magic number is 48.

2. The starting pitching is a very, very big problem. Normally, to me, a loss is a loss no matter the score, but having your rotation get embarrassed every night is a different story.

If the Yankees think this team, as currently constructed, is good enough to win a World Series, they are probably going to be let down and could be let down as early as the ALDS. This team has 2002-2008 written all over it with an offense that can outhit its mediocre starting pitching for 162 games, but isn’t built for short series in October. The Yankees have until Wednesday 4 p.m. to address this glaring weakness, and if they don’t, the bats aren’t going to be able to go quiet for a second in October, or the 2019 Yankees will be another division-winning Yankees team which failed to accomplish their ultimate goal.

3. Marcus Stroman is now off the board, having been traded to the Mets on Sunday in a puzzling move. The Blue Jays were willing to give up their best starting pitcher with team control through 2020 for the Mets’ sixth- and seventh-best prospects, and a team five games under .500 just enhanced their rotation, while the Yankees took more time off the trade deadline clock, inching closer to having to start CC Sabathia, J.A. Happ or Chad Green in October.

Stroman was always my No. 2 in this trade market with Madison Bumgarner sitting at No. 1. So this is potentially good news for me if the Yankees are going to do what’s necessary now to get Bumgarner. But it’s potentially bad news if Bumgarner isn’t available with the Giants’ recent surge or high price tag is high with the demand for him now greater. This could mean the Yankees have to look at lesser options like Matt Boyd or Robbie Ray or some other lateral moves who won’t really improve the rotation. Maybe the Mets only acquired Stroman to flip him to a contender, or maybe they acquired him so they can move Noah Syndergaard. Because it’s the Mets, I could see them standing pat, holding on to both starters and trying to make a run at the second wild-card spot even though they are six games back and need to pass five teams to get there. That’s probably what the Mets will do.

4. I wrote the first edition of my Yankees’ Postseason Rotation Power Rankings last week and in it I had the following:

Game 1: Masahiro Tanaka
Game 2: Domingo German
Game 3: James Paxton
Game 4: Chad Green, opener/bullpen

Even with the way Tanaka and Paxton got lit up and the way Green got lit up in relief, I wouldn’t change the order. German finally put together a respectable start to right the rotation, and while Tanaka got destroyed for 12 earned runs, I would still give him the ball in Game 1. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t feel confident entering the ALDS against any opponent with this rotation, but this is the best possible order for it. If Luis Severino doesn’t return and return as his 2018 first-half self or the Yankees don’t trade for Bumgarner, the rotation isn’t getting much better. The Yankees are going to have to slug their way through the postseason or receive a miracle with these starters going on a magical, unexpected run for a month.

5. James Paxton is the left-handed A.J. Burnett, and we’re getting to a point where saying that is an insult to Burnett.

Back on June 13, I wrote This Is Not the James Paxton the Yankees Traded For. Paxton had just come off a start in which he got knocked around by the Mets (2.2 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 1 HR) and his ERA sat at 4.04 through 10 starts as a Yankee. Since then, Paxton has made eight starts and has pitched to this line: 40.2 IP, 57 H, 28 R, 25 ER, 15 BB, 53 K, 12 HR, 5.53 ERA, 1.770 WHIP. In that time, hitters are batting .333/.387/.526 against him. Yes, he’s allowed a 1.013 OPS against him since June 16.

Like Burnett, Paxton’s “stuff” is raved about with his no-hit history and high strikeout totals. But like Burnett, you never know which Paxton you’re going to get. Are you going to get the guy who pitched 14 scoreless innings against the Red Sox and Royals, striking out 24, in back-to-back April starts, or are you going to get the guy who has failed to pitch five innings in eight of his 18 starts?

Paxton isn’t going anywhere and he’s going to be given the ball in a postseason game. I wish between now and then he would find consistency from start to start, but he has never been able to in his career, so I have a hard time believing he’s going to find it in the next two months.

6. Part of the reason I don’t think Paxton is going to all of a sudden find consistency is because of Larry Rothschild. Whether you’re the pitching coach, hitting coach, first-base coach or third-base coach, you don’t want casual fans to know your name. You want to stay out of the spotlight, fly under the radar, be part of a major league organization, collect a nice paycheck and have about four months a year off. It’s not good that Rothschild had to speak with the media following Saturday’s loss and it’s not good that his name is becoming a household name for casual Yankees fans.

Brian Cashman and his staff have never known pitching. They have drafted an endless list of failures, have signed free agents to big-money deals only to have them flop and have traded for young, controllable starters who could never figure it out while wearing the pinstripes. The last trade Cashman made for a starting pitcher who worked out was Roger Clemens, and that was 20 years ago, and acquiring arguably the best pitcher in history wasn’t exactly a roll of the dice.

Cashman’s trades for controllable starters like Paxton, Sonny Gray, Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Pineda, Javier Vazquez and Jeff Weaver all failed, despite those pitchers having success before or after they were Yankees. Outside of CC Sabathia, Masahiro Tanaka, Hiroki Kuroda, Mike Mussina and El Duque, Cashman has failed miserably signing free-agent starters as well.

Cashman and the front office are the ones who have to approve and sign off on these decisions, but then it’s Rothschild’s job to either maintain the success the pitcher had prior to them being a Yankee or try to regain the success they once had, which is why the Yankees wanted them. There has always been this idea that Rothschild is one of the best pitching coaches in the game and it’s why he continues to get new contracts from the Yankees, but the growing sentiment of late seems to suggest otherwise.

7. Gary Sanchez is on the injured list with another groin problem, which means Austin Romine is the team’s No. 1 catcher, even though Boone said Kyle Highashioka would be getting equal playing time in what could be some offseason roster foreshadowing. So if Romine is currently the team’s starting catcher, why was he pitching in a blowout game on Thursday night? Is Aaron Boone that clueless?

Romine relieved Luis Cessa, who had thrown 18 pitches. In July, Cessa has appeared in four games, making three appearances since July 4. On top of that, he’s the 25th man on the roster and has no actual value to the Yankees this season or in future seasons. In a game which eventually ended 19-3, Cessa should be in until the game ends, whether it takes him 18 pitches or 81 pitches to get the remaining outs. Boone has done a lot of idiotic things in his short time as Yankees manager, but that decision is right near the top.

8. I have zero confidence in Zack Britton and if Dellin Betances doesn’t come back this season, I don’t know how I’m going to survive the eighth inning of playoff games.

Britton is going to receive special treatment for his name and not his performance and he’s going to pitch in the eighth inning or other high-leverage spots two months from now when the Yankees can’t afford to have him walking the park and failing to miss bats. If Betances doesn’t pitch this season, Boone is going to keep giving the ball to Britton in crucial spots because of his career resume, not his season resume, and because of what he once was, and not was he currently is.

Britton isn’t good let alone trustworthy at this point, and this is now going back to when the Yankees traded for him a year ago. I thought the more removed he was from his return from his Achilles injury the better he would be, but it’s been the opposite.

9. I don’t see how Clint Frazier could possibly still be a Yankee after 4 p.m. on Wednesday. He was passed over for Mike Tauchman when Giancarlo Stanton got hurt and passed over again for Cameron Maybin when Brett Gardner got hurt. There has been the need for a starting left fielder and plenty of at-bats for Frazier and the Yankees didn’t call him up. They can no longer use the excuse that he needs to play every day since he would be playing every day in the majors right now, so it’s clear it’s more than that and he has fallen out of favor with the organization for off-the-field issues.

It’s going to suck to see Frazier traded and get an everyday chance with another organization for the rest of this season and future seasons. What’s the team’s plan for 2020? Make Tauchman the starter? No. Bring back Gardner? Please no.

Maybe there’s a small chance Frazier survives the deadline once again and survives offseason trade rumors once again, but that’s quite the parlay that would need to hit. On June 18, I wrote Clint Frazier Doesn’t Have a Yankees Future, and it looks his tenure is close to ending.

10. Today is the Yankees’ first non-All-Star Game off day since July 1, the day after the London games. They have an off day again on Thursday and after that they won’t have one again until August 19. Starting tomorrow, the Yankees will play 21 games in 21 days, even with Thursday’s off day, thanks to a pair of doubleheaders (August 3 against Boston and August 12 against Baltimore).

Back on July 1, my July expected record for the Yankees (by expected record, I mean a record I would be content with them having) was 13-12. They are currently 13-10 with two games against the Diamondbacks remaining in the month. The Yankees can do no worse than my expected record. Next month, the Yankees have 11 straight games against the Orioles and Blue Jays and another three against the Mariners. August is when the Yankees’ can truly get fat again from an easy schedule.

The Yankees have the following things to do this season in this order:

1. Upgrade the rotation at the trade deadline
2. Get Luis Severino, Dellin Betances and Giancarlo Stanton back
3. Win the No. 1 overall seed to get home-field advantage throughout the playoffs
4. Stay healthy

The Yankees are going to the playoffs and everything they do between now and the last out of Game 162 is to prepare for the playoffs. That starts with Wednesday’s trade deadline.

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My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is available!

The first half of the season is over and the Yankees have already clinched the division. I forgot what it felt like to win the division so early in the season and it feels even better than I remember it feeling.

The Yankees are off until Friday when they will begin the second half. They have 74 games remaining and will play their next 38 games with only two off days in between. Thankfully, they won’t be chasing any team for the rest of the season.

Here are 10 thoughts on the Yankees on this off day as usual.

1. The first “half” is over and the Yankees are 57-31. Last year, through 88 games, they were 58-30, so they are one game worse than they were last year. But because the Red Sox aren’t having the most improbable, fluky season in the history of baseball, the Yankees aren’t 2 1/2 games back in the division like they were in 2018. Instead, they have an eight-game lead over the Rays in the loss column and a 10-game lead over the Red Sox in the loss column.

Despite losing their last two games of the first half to the Rays, the Yankees did what I wanted them to do: win at least two games in Tampa. If the Yankees play .500 baseball against the Rays and Red Sox the rest of the way, they won’t lose any ground and will take a huge portion of games off the schedule.

However, it would be nice if the Yankees didn’t play like they have already won the division. Yes, I believe they already have, but that doesn’t mean they should be giving as many players days off as possible in the first week in July. This isn’t the last week of September. The lineup Sunday at the Trop was ridiculous. The Yankees had three days off surrounding the London trip and have four days off this week. Yet, they still gave their All-Star position players Sunday off because they will play a few innings on Tuesday. Sure enough, the Yankees lost by one run. The unnecessary rest will never end.

2. Masahiro Tanaka said he was surprised to be an All-Star and there can’t be a baseball fan who wasn’t surprised. Tanaka has a 3.86 ERA, 7.7 strikeouts per nine and 2.1 walks per nine. There’s nothing he’s doing that’s All-Star caliber, unless you count having one disastrous inning per start, which he’s been the best at. This is the second-worst season of Tanaka’s six-year career and somehow he’s an All-Star. I love that he’s part of the game, whether he pitches or not, because it means more Yankees are on the American League roster, I just have no idea how or why he was picked.

3. I had two friends text me on Saturday night when Aaron Hicks hit a game-tying home run in the ninth inning asking me if he would receive “Ladies and gentlemen” immunity for the home run. The answer was no. The immunity standards haven’t fallen like the All-Star selection standards have. With such a big lead in the division race, Hicks is going to have to do something in the postseason to be immunity-worthy and given his history against teams like the Astros, Indians, Red Sox and the postseason as a whole, it would be nice if he did anything in the postseason.

I don’t know what it’s going to take for Hicks to removed from the top or middle of the order, but I have no idea how for a second straight season he continues to bat ahead of better and more established bats. How is Gary Sanchez batting behind him and how is Gleyber Torres hitting four and five spots behind him? Like I said last week, everything between now and Game 162 is to get ready for the postseason or not, and even without Luke Voit and Giancarlo Stanton in the lineup, it’s time for Hicks to find a home at the bottom of the order because that’s what where he better be hitting come Game 1 of the ALDS.

4. What’s left to say about Luis Cessa that I haven’t already said in nearly every Off Day Dreaming blog this season? I don’t care that he’s the last man in the bullpen or the 25th man on the roster. His most recent appearance, on July 4, led to him nearly blowing a five-run lead in the 10th inning. All he had to do was get three outs before giving up five runs and he came dangerously close to not doing so after he allowed two hits and two walks in the inning. If Cessa can’t be trusted to get three outs before giving up five runs, there’s no place for him on this team, or any major league team for that matter. We are way past the time to give someone else a chance to be the last man in the bullpen, I’m just not sure if it will ever happen. Considering he has a 5.93 ERA since April 30, there might be nothing he can do to pitch himself off the roster and out of the organization.

5. Every time I watch Charlie Morton pitch, I can’t help but think that the Yankees could have and should have had signed him. The Rays gave Morton a two-year, $30 million deal. The Yankees gave J.A. Happ $4 million more and a vesting option for 2021. Morton is 10-2 with a 2.32 ERA and 142 strikeouts in 112 2/3 innings. Happ is lucky if he gets through five innings each start.

Morton is the kind of power pitch the Yankees always go after and with the way he pitched in Houston and pitched against the Yankees in Houston, his 35 years of age shouldn’t have mattered to the Yankees in free agency since Happ’s 36 years of age clearly didn’t.

Morton beat the Yankees in Game 7 of the 2017 ALCS and I have a bad feeling they could be seeing him in Game 1 of the 2019 ALDS, and then again in Game 5, if the series were to go that far.

6. Dallas Keuchel has now made four starts for the Braves after two mediocre starts, he’s pitched seven innings and and 7 1/3 innings in back-to-back starts, allowing two earned runs in both. The Yankees could have had him for only money and now they will instead have to further dismantle their farm system to acquire starting pitching this month.

7. We are just under three weeks until the trade deadline and I have been under the impression all along the Yankees will trade for either Marcus Stroman or Madison Bumgarner. The Blue Jays showed last year at the deadline they could care less about trading with the Yankees and within the division with the Happ deal, so I don’t see there being an issue with Stroman, except that he’s currently injured. Prior to the injury, I thought Stroman was the unanimous choice for the Yankees to land, but now it seems and feels like Bumgarner. If both were healthy, I would prefer Bumgarner, not because I think he’s still the same pitcher he was five years ago like some do, but because I think a postseason run with the Yankees could revitalize his career the same way it did for Justin Verlander in 2017. Bumgarner hasn’t pitched in a postseason game since 2016, is on a last-place team this season, was on a 73-win team last season and a 64-win team in 2017. It’s impossible to know if that’s contributed to his career downswing after four straight All-Star Game appearance from 2013-16, but how could it not? Reaching the majors at 19, throwing 1,750 regular-season innings and another 102 1/3 postseason innings is what’s mainly responsible for diminished numbers, as it would be with any pitcher, though pitching in meaningless games for three straight seasons has to be part of it as well.

The Yankees won’t be getting 2016 Stroman or 2016 Bumgarner if they trade for them, but both 2019 versions are still better than most of the starting options they have now.

8. I did some math and the least amount of games the Yankees will win this season is 96, and that’s a very low number. The Yankees would have to go 39-35 in the second half to win 96 games, and that’s with a lot of games remaining against the Orioles and Blue Jays.

If the Yankees were to win 96 games and play only .527 baseball for the rest of the season, the Rays would have to go 44-27 and the Red Sox would have to go 47-25 just to tie them. So despite everyone getting upset with me last week for calling the division over after the London games, the division is over.

9. Aside from the Yankees’ already big division lead and their rather easy August schedule, the 10 games remaining between the Rays and Red Sox might be the Yankees’ greatest advantage to winning the AL East. At the same time the Rays and Red Sox play a four-game series at the end of September, the Yankees will be playing the Blue Jays, who are on pace to lose more than 100 games and will be a week away from the offseason and vacation.

10. My expected record for the Yankees for July is 13-12, and they are off to a 3-3 start, so they are right on pace. Again, that might not seem like a good record given the way the team has played through the first 88 games, but August is when they can get fat again with 13 games against the Orioles, Blue Jays and Mariners.

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My book The Next Yankees Era: My Transition from the Core Four to the Baby Bombers is available!