Trouble Brewing

Yanks head into  the Break  with a 5-3 loss, and another series failure.. Our heroes  are 8 games under  .500 over the last 56 Games..

You Are what Your Record Says

Since starting 21-9, the Yankees have posted a 24-32 record–including a 7-18 slide that  started  after  the high-water mark of 38-23.

The Yanks haven’t won back-to-back games since June 11-12.

The last 8 series 0-7-1

The Bad

Tanaka

Tanaka’s final line: 4.1 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 5 SO, 1 BB, 83 pitches.

The Yankees No. 1 starter will enter the second half of the season with a 5.47 ERA in 18 starts, the fourth-worst mark among all qualified pitchers in the American League. Tanaka’s ERA in six daytime starts this season 14.37.

You can get a AAA starter  to put up  that number, why pay $23M for it…?

The hope now: he has a really good 2nd half, then opts out of his remaining 3 yr’s $67M

No Clutch

While the Saber Metric world continues to  denounce RBI’s as a viable stat, the Bomber offense went 1 for 16 with RISP.. We understand it’s a stat that  relies on your teammates  getting on base, and where you hit in the line-up so it’s more of a team credit then a singular accomplishment but what  separates the A from  the B list players is the ability to plate those runners when these opportunities arise..

Yankees RISP: 1-16 (Sánchez 0-3, Headley 1-2, Choi 0-1, Gregorius 0-4, Frazier 0-2, Wade 0-1, Ellsbury 0-1, Judge 0-1, Gardner 0-1)
Team LOB: 10

When Chase Headley is the only player on the Yanks to knock in a run, and Sanchez and Gregorius your 3 and 4 hitters are 0 for 7  combined you’re not gonna win many games

Less time begging for All Star  votes, more concentration on playing the game fellas….

There is definitely Trouble Brewing

“Still nobody could have predicted the decline across the first half of this season for each end of the battery”

Really?

Sanchez had a 2 month  sample size to his Career before 2017, the 2nd month in September 2016 wasn’t very good, so he had a 1 month showing of greatness, and spurts in 2017,  das it..

Sanchez rolls into Monday night’s Home Run Derby and Tuesday’s All-Star Game in Miami without a home run in 47 at-bats and an 8-for-40 slump on his back. He is hitting .276 with 13 homers and 40 RBIs. In addition, he has seven passed balls (tied with four others for second in MLB), and scouts have noticed Sanchez having trouble shifting to block balls. 

The Yanks have gone 2-6 in July and Sanchez batting in either the 3 or 4 spot in the line-up

.226  BA / .273 OB% / .258 Slg / .531 OPS

Yesterday SanBino  was 1-4 with  3 K’s and a walk, he ended the game as the tying run at the plate and went down like Carlos Beltran in the 06 Playoffs, Window Shopping

Time to move the SanBino  back to  the 6 hole ?

Tanaka  was good in 2016, but he hasn’t been the same pitcher since his elbow tear, and he’s hit the gutter in 2017…He’s game to  game, day to  day, pitch  to pitch….Maybe the media created something that didn’t exist, but had potential

 

The Good

Clint Frazier has morphed into Aaron Judge over the last two games.. For some reason yesterday he was the player  you wanted to see up in a crucial  situation?

Judge has at least 1 hit in 7 of the 8 games in July, he’s 10  for 28 with  6 singles, 1 double,  3 HR’s and a 7 game hitting streak, pretty great…Unfortunately he’s been punched out 13 times in 31 PA’s (42%) and a bunch of those strike outs have come in high leverage spots

Frazier hit the shot heard around the world on Saturday, yesterday his 1 hit, a 2 run  HR to  right center field made it a game at  4-3… Much  to our chagrin he did have another shot to be the hero in the 8th  but he was punched out with  a man on 2nd base, so no  cigar..

Not even  the Red Headed Woodpecker could save the sinking Yankee Clipper yesterday, but Frazier is still  a young player you want to  see play regularly. The Yanks will have two more weeks of Frazier, once Hicks gets back there is nowhere for him to play, unless Hicks or Gardner are traded?

The bull pen sans Shreve who  allowed an inherited run was great

Sonny In The Toll Booth

Three of the first Four batters of the game

MASAHIRO TANAKA PITCHING FOR NEW YORK

Villar singled to right center.

Thames singled to right, Villar to third.

Santana struck out swinging.

Shaw homered to right (449 feet), Villar and Thames scored. 3-0 Breweres

The Bob Steele

From NJ.com

“Girardi removing Tanaka with one out in the fifth for Shreve. The Yankees ace had been on a good run and removed him for a lesser pitcher. At only 83 pitchers, Tanaka likely had an inning–or two–left in the tank”.

While we agree  with NJ.com on inserting an inferior pitcher after the Bombers had clawed their way back to  4-3 in the 4th, we’re not sure about how much more Tanaka  had in his tank?

After being smacked around for 4 runs on a pair of HR’s over the first  two innings, Tanaka struck out the side in the 3rd, sandwiched around a  BB and a HBP.. He worked a 1-2-3 4th before giving up  back to  back  one out  singles in the 5th… With the red hot Travis Shaw, (not Barry Bonds) coming up, Joey Buttons opted for the lefty match up..

Binder-nomics

By the book if you’re a LOOGY-ologist which I’m not ( unless you’re inserting Andrew Miller) Psycho Joe made the right call, but based on Shreve’s last month and 3 games in July,  Shreve has been treated like a top  gun, but he’s morphed into  a water pistol

FWIW In 4 PA’s Shaw was 0-3  with a BB and a strike out vs Shreve..

Shreve’s splits

Shaw’s Splits 

vs LHP .250 / .313 /.487 / .800

vs RHP .312 / .381 /.587 /.968

But

Shreve after a decent 2 months had a rough June pitching to  a 7.02 ERA, .290 BAA, 9 hits in  7.2 innings, with 4 BB, 10 K’s

He’s My Left Hand Guy, so  eat  shit

On  Friday night Shreve faced 4 batters, all RHB, and  he coughed up  a double, an RBI single, and a walk before getting out of the inning on a fielders choice.. Yesterday he threw 4 pitches to Shaw and gave up  an inherited run on an RBI single, and was yanked

Adam Warren  punched out both batters he faced relieving Shreve.. Warren’s splits vs LHB .200 /.260 /.244 /.504 certainly dominate enough to  have pitched to Shaw…

If the Yanks continue to  want a dominant LHP out of  the pen, then Cashman needs to  upgrade…

As we’ve seen with Clippard,  Joey Claps will continue to manage to his formula, if that’s the case the Yanks are in trouble with how Cashman has currently constructed his reliever corp.. The Circle of trust Re: Clippard and Shreve or insisting on using fringe prospects in middle relief will not pan out moving forward..

The Yanks have better prospects, get them  up here, and for the love of Mike, upgrade your LH specialist, or go home

the Whole 9

the YES men

Enjoy the All Star Break