fbpx

Yankees

BlogsKTTC ClassicsYankees

Yankees Fans Should Be Worried About the Rays This Season, Not the Red Sox

Yankees fans shouldn’t root for the Red Sox to beat the Rays yet, but eventually we will. The Rays are the team to worry in 2019.

I wasn’t upset when the Yankees lost on Thursday night, destroying the momentum they built with a two-game sweep of the Red Sox and falling to 3-7 at home against the Orioles, Tigers, White Sox and Royals. As I wrote on Thursday, I have tempered my expectations when it comes to these Yankees, and it’s hard to expect much, let alone winning streaks, until some combination of Gary Sanchez, Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Hicks, Miguel Andujar and Didi Gregorius return to the lineup.

Thankfully, the Orioles were able to beat the Rays in extra innings and being swept by Tampa Bay to keep the Yankees at 5 1/2 games back in the division. I don’t expect the Yankees to go on any sort of extended run while they continue to bat four Triple-A to major-league-backup-at-best players in their lineup each day. The most important thing they can do right now is avoid being buried in the division race before their real everyday players return.

I don’t know what to expect from the Yankees for the rest of this four-game series against the Royals. I would like to think even these Yankees could easily handle this Royals team, but it’s hard to know which Yankees will show up on a given night? Will it be the Yankees who can’t hit Homer Bailey or Ivan Nova or will it be the Yankees who had a lead against Justin Verlander, beat Chris Sale and ruined Ryan Brasier?

The Yankees are now 8-10, but if I were to pick a time for these Yankees to play with some consistency and “turn Aaron Boone’s corner” for even three games, it would be this weekend. Because while the Yankees are hosting a very, vey bad Royals team, at the same time down in Tampa, the Rays are playing the Red Sox. There is potential for ground to be made up on the Rays or further separation from the Red Sox to occur in the standings with a winning weekend from the Yankees.

The question for Yankees fans is who to root for in Tampa? The answer is just no sweep. If the Yankees can win three straight, and there isn’t a sweep in Tampa, they will gain ground on Tampa and continue to create separation from Boston. No sweep, short starts and a lot of outs needed from both bullpens to poorly set them up for after this series. That would be the ideal weekend.

Eventually, we are going to need other teams to beat the Rays. The Red Sox? They’ll beat themselves. The Rays are the team I’m worried about in the division this season, not the Red Sox. If the Yankees are to end their division-winning drought and avoid the wild-card game for the fourth time in five years, they are going to have to beat the Rays to do so.

The Red Sox aren’t the Yankees’ biggest threat in 2019. They are who I believed them to be in 2018 before they put together an improbable season, winning 108 games and easily handling the Yankees, Astros and Dodgers in the postseason. The Red Sox have a built-in excuse for this season after winning the World Series last year and they are playing like it. There’s no 17-2 start, no weekly magical six-run, ninth-inning comebacks and there’s running away and hiding with the division.

Chris Sale, the most dominant pitcher against the Yankees other than Cliff Lee (at least to me), has to be hurt; David Price is his usual inconsistent self; Rick Porcello, the worst Cy Young winner in history, is once again pitching like the guy the Tigers gave up on; Nathan Eovaldi has reverted back to the Nathan Eovaldi who is on his fifth team despite being 29 years old and able to throw 101 mph; Eduardo Rodriguez continues to prove the Red Sox should have gotten more than they did for Andrew Miller.

J.D. Martinez still scares me, Xander Bogaerts is solid and Rafael Devers is very good for 22; Mookie Betts, for as great as he is, is no longer playing like Mike Trout; Steve Pearce is a few big games against the Yankees and a good week against the Dodgers from being out of baseball and hopefully sentimentality will continue to waste a roster spot and at-bats for the Red Sox; Eduardo Nunez sucks; Andrew Benintendi is hurt; Mitch Moreland isn’t an everyday player; Christian Vazquez only hits at Yankee Stadium and Sandy Leon wasn’t good enough to be on the Opening Day roster.

The 2018 Red Sox bullpen featured the second-best closer in history, but the bridge to him was so untrustworthy the starting rotation became the bullpen in the postseason. The Red Sox returned to the same bullpen this season minus its only valuable piece.

It’s no surprise the Red Sox aren’t any good. They just lost to a Yankees team missing their starting catcher, left fielder/designated hitter, center fielder, shortstop, third baseman, ace and best reliever. They certainly aren’t .316 winning percentage bad, but they aren’t 108-win good either. It took every below-average- and average player playing well, every good player playing great and every great player playing at an MVP level for their 2018 season to happen and they all did in what was one ridiculously improbable parlay that couldn’t be stopped. Screw the 1967 Red Sox. The 2018 Red Sox were the Impossible Dream.

The Rays won 90 games last year and didn’t need anything extraordinary to post that win total. They revolutionized the way a starter is used and a bullpen is managed with their “opener” strategy. They added Charlie Morton and have Tyler Glasnow for a full season to go along with the reigning Cy Young winner in Blake Snell and a pair of openers in Ryne Stanek and Yanni Chirinos, who have the ability to dominate for two-plus innings. Their lineup lacks any household name and it would take a miracle for the Rays to be represented in the All-Star Game by a position player. Their offense consists of .240 and .250 hitters up and down the order, who seemingly only gets hits with runners in scoring position and only hit home runs when there are men on. Their offense is centered around situational hitting and creating runs, not launch angles and exit velocity. The Rays are built on the postseason success blueprint of pitching and timely hitting, and everyone expects one of the two to fall off at some point, but they didn’t last year, and they haven’t this year. This isn’t just a 19-game sample size for the 14-5 Rays. This is now a 181-game sample size, and the Rays are 104-77 since the start of 2018.

I will be rooting for the Yankees to win all three from the Royals this weekend and for no sweep in Tampa. For now, Yankees fans don’t have to root for the Red Sox, but eventually we will.

***

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

Read More

BlogsKTTC ClassicsYankees

These Yankees Have Different Expectations

These Yankees are confusing. Not the 2019 Yankees, but the replacement players filling in for the 2019 Yankees.

For the second straight game, I didn’t have to look back and wish the game had been postponed due to inclement April weather, rescheduled for later in the season when Gary Sanchez, Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Hicks, Miguel Andujar, Didi Gregorius, Luis Severino or Dellin Betances might be back. Tuesday and Wednesday’s wins over the Red Sox felt like I was watching the Yankees.

Aaron Boone didn’t have to spend his postgame press conference trying to find the positive in yet another loss. He didn’t have to give some bullshit cliche about how he feels his team is close to getting in a groove and that their focus and energy are in the right place. He didn’t refer to “the corner” he has frequently mentioned his team “turning” at some point.

I didn’t think the Yankees’ first home series win would come in their fourth home series — a two-game set — against the Red Sox after having dropped two of three to the Orioles, Tigers and White Sox. I didn’t think they would find a way to beat Chris Sale, given his career against the Yankees, and win a game started by J.A. Happ, given what he has done since Game 1 of the ALDS. I didn’t think Mike Tauchman was capable of hitting a ball as far as he did on Tuesday night and I didn’t think Brett Gardner had the ability to turn around a 97 mph fastball on 0-2 for a grand slam on Wednesday night.

These Yankees are confusing. Not the 2019 Yankees, but the team filling in for the 2019 Yankees. There are nights when they look listless at the plate, leaving you to wonder if they will ever get a hit with runners in scoring position, and lost in the field, appearing as though the beverages in the dugout are being kept in brown paper bags. Then there are nights when you forget they are missing their starting catcher, left fielder/designated hitter, third baseman, shortstop, center fielder, ace and best reliever because they play as if they aren’t missing anyone.

I have tempered my expectations for the time being with the current roster. I accept Gardner is going to bat leadoff until Hicks is back. I realize some combination of Austin Romine, Kyle Higashioka, Mike Tauchman, Gio Urshela, Tyler Wade and now Mike Ford are going to be in the lineup every night. I recognize there isn’t a guaranteed win every five days the way there is when Severino is in the rotation. I understand close games are going to feel even closer with Betances unavailable in the bullpen. I have come to accept these Yankees aren’t good enough to fulfill the preseason requirement of ending the soon-to-be-decade-long World Series drought. For now, I have adjusted my nightly expectations to grinding out wins in an attempt to stay afloat and within striking distance until the All-Star injured list returns.

Maybe these Yankees have “turned the corner” in that they won’t look completely overmatched at the plate and make careless mistakes on the basepaths and on defense. It’s quite possible the rotation will contribute more than four to five innings per night moving forward and the bullpen will serve as the trustworthy strength everyone anticipated it would be. But the corner won’t really be turned for good until the Yankees, the real Yankees return.

***

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

Read More

BlogsYankees

That’s the James Paxton the Yankees Traded For

I didn’t know what to expect from James Paxton on Tuesday night. After Paxton had trouble against the Orioles and got roughed up by the Astros, expectations weren’t high.

I didn’t know what to expect from James Paxton on Tuesday night. I didn’t expect much. After Paxton couldn’t hold a lead in his Yankees debut against the Orioles, put 10 runners on in 5 1/3 innings against the same Orioles five days later and then had 11 baserunners in four innings in a loss to the Astros, expectations weren’t high.

Before his introduction into the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, Paxton had been unable to give the Yankees six innings in any of his first three starts. His line for those three starts: 15 IP, 20 H, 11 R, 10 ER, 6 BB, 19 K, 3 HR, 6.00 ERA, 1.733 WHIP.

Last year at the trade deadline, I called James Paxton “blah” and in the same category as Chris Archer and Michael Fulmer, pitchers who I didn’t think were worth trading for since they wouldn’t really make the Yankees that much better and certainly worth giving up high-end prospects for. It was hard to find anyone who shared my perspective. His raw stuff wasn’t the reason I referred to him as “blah”, it was his combination of injuries and inconsistency. When Paxton was on, he was among the best pitchers in the world, but he was rarely on in consecutive starts or for any reasonable stretch of time.

My biggest problem with the Yankees acquiring Paxton was the fact he has never pitched more than 160 1/3 innings in a single season and is good for at least one injured list trip per season. I wasn’t necessarily worried about his overall performance since I knew he would dominate at times and also lay some eggs at times. I was worried about his health. But after his performance against the lowly Orioles, and then the Astros — a team he owned last season, going 4-0 in four starts and allowing six earned runs in 26 1/3 innings (2.05 ERA) — I now had to worry about his performance.

I was worried entering Paxton’s start on Tuesday night. I could see Chris Sale doing his usual thing against the Yankees, diminished velocity and all, and Paxton laboring through another five innings in an eventual loss to finally kickstart the Red Sox season and send them on an extended winning streak.

Paxton began the game by striking out Mookie Betts and getting Xander Boegarts and J.D. Martinez to line out. In the second, he struck out the side, all swinging, setting down Steve Pearce, Mitch Moreland and Eduardo Nunez in order.

Paxton failed to record a strikeout in the third, but it was yet another 1-2-3 inning with a pair of groundouts and soft liner to second.

The Yankees gave Paxton a 2-0 lead with some two-out magic — something I didn’t think the Yankees were capable of — in the bottom of the third. Right away, it looked like Paxton was going to give it back.

A six-pitch walk to Mookie Betts to begin the fourth was followed by a Bogaerts double off the top of the wall, which was unsuccessfully reviewed for a home run. Second and third and no outs and the Red Sox’ scariest hitter in Martinez due up with Pearce, who is apparently on a mission to single-handedly beat the Yankees every game he plays agains them, on deck.

Martinez flew out on an 0-1 pitch and the threat of Aaron Judge’s arm held the runners. Pearce lined out to Judge on an 0-2 pitch, and once again the runners held. The inning ended with Paxton striking out Moreland swinging, resulting in an emotional release from the Yankees’ left-handed as he walked off the mound. It was unknown at the time, but that would be the last time the Red Sox’ would threaten for the rest of the game.

Paxton pitched around a one-out hit-by-pitch in the fifth and put up another 1-2-3 inning in the sixth, striking out Martinez to end the frame. After the Martinez strikeout, Paxton would strike out Pearce then Moreland then Nunez then Devers then Leon. It wasn’t until a meaningless Jackie Bradley Jr. double in the eighth that Paxton’s six-batter strikeout streak would end.

The last pitch Paxton threw — his 110th of the game — resulted in a weak fly ball off the bat of Betts to right field. Paxton’s final line: 8 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 12 K.

I expected big things out of Big Maple upon his arrival in the Bronx. I can’t say I ever envisioned that kind of performance against the Red Sox.

After the game, Paxton, who prior to the season talked about accepting and welcoming the pressure that comes with playing for the Yankees, said something which made me smile regarding the Yankees for the first time since Opening Day and really made me smile for the first time regarding the Yankees since Aaron Judge’s first-inning home run in the wild-card game. 

“We want to beat Boston every time.”

I certainly don’t have to worry about Paxton’s mindset, and after Tuesday’s start, I don’t have to worry about his performance, knowing he has that level of dominance in him.

***

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

Read More

BlogsKTTC ClassicsYankees

Yankees Fans Need to Keep Their Mouths Shut When It Comes to the Red Sox

Until the Yankees win the World Series, no fan, player or person associated with the team should comment on the Red Sox.

For the first 18 years of my life, I enjoyed the fact no Red Sox fan could say anything to me regarding the rivalry with the Yankees. Nothing. Not one word.

That all changed in October 2004 in a week, a series, a month, a season, a calendar year I wish I could permanently erase from my memory. The comical “Yankees suck” chants suddenly had meaning as the “1918” were gone forever. The world, not just the baseball world, felt weird, in a bad way.

I will never get over what happened nearly 15 years ago. Never. But I certainly didn’t want new a memory like that. I didn’t want the Yankees to play the Red Sox in the 2018 playoffs, for the fear of a new memory like the traumatizing old one to be created. I wrote about it prior to the start of the ALDS.

***

I won’t feel well walking into Fenway Park on Friday night. Even though I have been to countless Yankees-Red Sox games since it happened, this is different. It being Monday, Oct. 18, 2004.

Over the last nearly 14 years when I enter Fenway Park, I glance over toward the Pesky Pole, where I sat on that miserable night, and the memories come rushing back. I can still see Bernie Williams’ solo home run clearing the wall in right field and Derek Jeter’s bases-loaded, bases-clearing double rattle around in the corner. I see David Ortiz’s solo home run flying over the Green Monster and Dave Roberts tagging up to score on Jason Varitek’s sacrifice fly to center. I can see the old left-center field scoreboard to the right of the Green Monster at Fenway Park that would display both team’s lineups and it would place an asterisk next to the batter that was up in the game and I can see the asterisk changing places a sI counted how many names the asterisk had to go before reaching “Manny Ramirez” and “David Ortiz” in extra innings. I can see Tony Clark’s should-have-been go-ahead double bouncing over the fence right in front of me and Ruben Sierra being forced to hold up at third. And of course, I can see David Ortiz’s walk-off line drive floating in the air towards center field wondering if Williams will get to it in time.

Sometimes I like to think about what the baseball world would be like if Joe Torre had brought in Mariano Rivera for a two-inning save rather than waiting to use him until after Tom Gordon had already ruined the game. Would I enter Fenway Park and glance over toward the Pesky Pole and have memories of watching the Yankees celebrate the American League pennant on the field rather than the memories I do have? Would the Red Sox still be without a championship? Would “1918” T-shirts still be relevant? Would this October be the 100th anniversary of the Red Sox’ last World Series title?

After Alex Rodriguez’s retirement in 2016 and Ortiz’s in 2017, no one from either team remains from that game and that series. No one on either team has any connection to the worst collapse or greatest comeback, depending on how you look at it, in postseason history. No one but the fans. This is a new era of Yankees-Red Sox on the field. In the two cities and in homes around the Tri-State area and New England though, it’s a continuation of the storied rivalry and just the next chapter in a history that took a 14-year hiatus.

After Wednesday’s easy AL Wild-Card Game win, I’m unusually confident about the ALDS. I know it’s not wise to be, but I am. Since before the season started and all season long, I have felt that when both teams are healthy, the Yankees are better than the Red Sox.

Unfortunately, during the most important series of the season, the Yankees weren’t healthy. They were without Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez for the four-game series in Boston in August and newly-acquired J.A. Happ, who the Yankees traded for mainly because of his AL East resume and his success against the Red Sox, was unavailable to pitch due to a rare illness. The Yankees were swept in four games, and the division race was over.

But now the Yankees are completely healthy with their full lineup, rotation and bullpen available. Judge is back, Sanchez is back (though really just physically present and not back as the best offensive catcher in baseball) and Happ is lined up to start Game 1 and a potential Game 5. The team is coming off their season-saving win on Wednesday, while the Red Sox haven’t played since Sunday and haven’t played a meaningful game in over a month. The Yankees couldn’t be better set up to not only steal a game in Boston this weekend, but to steal a series against a team that is trying to not be the latest regular-season success story to not get the job done.

The Yankees will see Chris Sale in Game 1 and David Price in Game 2, and those two pitchers will see a lineup that boasts eight right-handed hitters with Didi Gregorius being the lone lefty. The Red Sox traded for Sale to win games like Friday’s and they gave Price the biggest free-agent contract for a pitcher in history win games like Saturday’s. The two have combined for zero postseason wins despite their regular-season accomplishments. Last season, Sale lost as the team’s Game 1 starter and took the loss as a reliever in Game 4, responsible for his team’s elimination, while Price, wasn’t even a member of his team’s rotation, pitching out of the bullpen against the Astros. The amount of pressure on the two this weekend in Boston can’t be described. The team’s best pitcher and the team’s highest-paid player have to prevent the Yankees from winning one of the first two games in Boston.

I should be able to sit back, relax and enjoy this series knowing that the Yankees are the true underdog in the series, facing the best Red Sox team in regular-season history with their 107 wins. But because it’s Yankees-Red Sox, there is no sitting back or relaxing and the only enjoyment will be if the Yankees are still playing baseball next Saturday in either Houston or Cleveland.

When I enter Fenway Park on Friday and Saturday, I will glance over to the Pesky Pole and all the visions of 14 Octobers ago will come back. Next season, when I enter Fenway Park and look around I want to envision the moments from this October, from this series and I want the memories to be winning ones.

***

My worst fear came true. The Yankees were set up to win the series after stealing home-field advantage, and instead were run out of their own building, suffering the worst postseason loss in team history coupled with the worst two-game bullpen management performance baseball has ever seen.

The Yankees suck right now and so do the Red Sox. I keep hearing how the Yankees have an excuse with all their injuries, but the healthy Red Sox have no excuse. What?! The Red Sox have the biggest built-in excuse of all time. They won 108 games last year, won the division, embarrassed the Yankees in the ALDS, crushed the Astros in the ALCS and made everyone question if the National League should even get to play in the World Series after what they did to the Dodgers in five games. The Red Sox can suck all they want. They are the defending world champions.

The amount of laughter and sarcasm from Yankees fans at the Red Sox’ poor start to the season is sickening and the amount of mentions of the Red Sox’ record by YES is humiliating. The next time any Yankees fan, Yankees player or any person or entity associated with the team should comment on the state of the Red Sox is when the Yankees either beat them in the playoffs or win the World Series.

***

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

Read More

BlogsOff Day DreamingYankees

Off Day Dreaming: When Are the Yankees Going to ‘Turn the Corner’ Aaron Boone Keeps Talking About?

Injuries are the main reason for the Yankees’ start, but poor managing, an inability to hit with runners in scoring position, bad starting pitching and an inconsistent bullpen have helped.

Another step forward, another two steps backs for the Yankees. It’s now a pattern and a pattern of a losing team.

Yes, the injuries are the main reason for the Yankees’ disappointing start against the worst teams in the American League, but injuries aren’t the only reason. Poor managing, an inability to hit with runners in scoring position, bad starting pitching, unacceptable defense and an inconsistent bullpen have helped.

There’s only been three games since the last Yankees off day, which I’m sure upset the front office and Aaron Boone as they were hoping to give the few remaining regulars a scheduled off day in between.

Here are seven thoughts on the Yankees on this off day.

1. How would you feel if you were the manager of the Yankees in the middle of their championship window, and regardless of injuries, your team was 6-9, 0-3 in home series against the Orioles, Tigers and White Sox and despite having the lead in 14 of your team’s 15 games, you were three games under .500? I can’t imagine anyone would feel remotely good about all of that, let alone trying to spin it into a positive at every available opportunity. But when it comes to Aaron Boone, everything is sunshine, rainbows and butterflies for the 2019 Yankees.

“I really do think we’re in a sound place as far as our focus, our energy, our expectation when we walk through those doors.”

That’s what Boone said following Sunday’s atrocious 5-2 loss to the White Sox, in which the Yankees blew yet another lead. Meanwhile, both the Rays (who most Yankees fans are foolishly not worried about) and the Red Sox (who most Yankees fans are laughing at even though they beat the Yankees in the ALDS, won the World Series and basically have the same record as the Yankees right now) both won.

It might be time for Boone to realize 6-9, three games under .500 and getting shut down by mediocre starting pitching isn’t a “sound place” and his team might want to change their “focus” and “energy” since I have no idea what their “expectation” is each game.

2. For as bad as Boone sounded after Sunday’s loss, he might have sounded worse after Friday’s disaster.

Friday’s game began in the rain and with the weather only expected to get worse, there was a good chance a lead after five innings would mean a win. The Yankees had a 4-1 lead through three and a 5-3 lead to begin the fifth.

Through four innings, Happ had allowed four three earned runs on five hits and two walks. Three of those hits had been doubles. And to finish the fourth inning, he went walk, strikeout, walk, double, flyout. The Yankees had just had the day prior off and with a downpour on the way to the Stadium, it made all the sense in the world to try to protect the two-run lead in the fifth.

Boone stayed with Happ. Jose Abreu singled and Yonder Alonso homered to begin the inning. 5-5. Tie game. But the back-to-back line drives weren’t enough to convince Boone to remove Happ, so he let him stay in the game to give up another single to Yoan Moncada. It was that single from Moncada, which finally forced Boone to take his laboring starter out of the game.

Rather than give Jonathan Holder, Boone’s first choice out of the bullpen, a two-run lead to work with or even a clean inning, Boone brings him into the rainy game to face top prospect Eloy Jimenez, who quickly greeted Holder with his first career home run. 7-5, game over.

After the game, Boone was asked if he thought about treating the fifth inning like the end of the game and going to his elite arms. Boone admitted he “thought about” it. However, he talked to Ted Barrett, who said he thought the rain was letting up, so he decided against it.

Who is Barrett, you might ask? A meteorologist? A weather expert? The head groundskeeper? Someone the Yankees employ to strictly advise them on the weather? Nope. Barrett is an umpire. Boone let the umpire’s feel for the weather determine how to manage a game anyone with a weather app or access to the Internet knew would be rain-shortened.

3. Happ better fix whatever is wrong and fast. He has yet to pitch five full innings in three starts with all three of those starts coming against what will be last-place teams. He’s hasn’t just been, he’s been unwatchable, allowed 19 hits, 12 earned runs and four home runs in 12 1/3 innings. Happ’s next start is against the Red Sox — the team he historically dominated leading to the Yankees signing of him. The last time Happ pitched against Boston, he was getting pulled early in Game 1 of the ALDS after giving up a three-run home run in the first inning to J.D. Martinez.

I wish Happ didn’t pitch well for the Yankees after the midseason trade last year. If he doesn’t pitch well, the Yankees either fall to the second wild card or miss the playoffs completely. If they become the second wild card, they have to go to Oakland and most likely lose to the A’s and don’t face the Red Sox in the ALDS. Or they miss the playoffs completely and don’t play the Red Sox in the playoffs. Falling to the second wild card or missing the playoffs would have caused more fans to turn on Boone, potentially putting him on the hot seat for 2019, and the ALDS embarrassment never happens. Then if the Happ experiment in New York had been a failure, they wouldn’t have signed him to a three-year deal this offseason. 

It was never the best idea to give a 36-year-old who relies on his fastball a three-year contract, but the Yankees did, and now they are stuck with him. He better turn it around.

4. The Yankees skipped Domingo German’s most recent start because of the off days and CC Sabathia’s return to the rotation. Outside of Tanaka (prior to Sunday), German has been the team’s best starter. Maybe skip J.A. Happ’s start? The 36-year-old could use the extra rest and time to prepare, so he can get more than 13 outs against the Orioles and White Sox. Let German pitch. He’s earned it. Small sample size or not. Then again, I forgot money owed and seniority are more important to playing time than actual performance for the Yankees. It’s been that way forever.

5. Former frustrating Yankee Ivan Nova started for the White Sox on Saturday, and prior to the game, I tweeted the following:

Ivan Nova is starting today. Ivan Nova is an ex-Yankee.  What does that mean?

6.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 K.

What was Nova’s final line? 6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K.

How did I know Nova would pitch so well? Sadly, I know the Yankees too well, and unfortunately, ever ex-Yankee performs well against them. Just look at Hideki Matsui, Russell Martin, Robinson Cano, Eduardo Nunez, Steve Pearce, Nathan Eovaldi and the list goes on and on and on.

The Yankees did win Saturday’s game, keeping the White Sox off the board until Nova was removed and they could score against the bullpen. The win was exhausting, like all but one Yankees wins have been this season. I felt like I just worked out for nearly three hours and I was only watching the game.

6. Tyler Wade physically looks like Jacoby Ellsbury. He swings like Ellsbury. He grounds out to the right side like Ellsbury. He runs like Ellsbury. He sucks like Ellsbury.

It’s laughable to think back a few weeks ago when Wade complained about not being on the Opening Day roster and getting sent down to begin the season. Maybe get a hit once in a while or do anything productive at the plate more than once a month and fans will accept your complaint when you aren’t part of the team.

7. I’m a little worried Aaron Hicks isn’t going to be ready for his April 1 return date. That’s not a typo. The Yankees said during spring training, Hicks might be ready for Opening Day, but would most likely be held out until the first game of the second series of the season against the Tigers on April 1. That game was two weeks ago.

Prior to the season, in my individual Yankees over/under blog, I set the amount of games Hicks would play this season at 145, allowing him to miss 17 games. He has already missed 15. Unless he’s in the lineup on Wednesday night against the Red Sox, the under will already be clinched.

***

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

Read More