River Avenue Blues

Game Nine: Finish the Sweep

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(Rob Carr/Getty)

Even though it kinda sorta feels like the Yankees are barely staying afloat this season, they go into this afternoon’s series finale against the Orioles with a chance to win their third straight game and sweep the series. Considering all the injuries and sloppy play, I’ll take it.

“We gave away too many outs tonight, defensively and on the bases,” Aaron Boone said to George King following last night’s win. “One thing our guys do well is compete, and we did that really well … Lot of good things, but definitely little small things, especially when it is a little hard right now, you have to be on top of.”

The bullpen is a bit taxed today (here’s our Bullpen Workload page) so it sure would be nice to see Domingo German pitch deep into the game. Will it happen? Probably not given German’s track record. I reckon Luis Cessa will get a few innings worth of action this afternoon. Here are today’s lineups:

New York Yankees
1. CF Brett Gardner
2. RF Aaron Judge
3. 1B Luke Voit
4. DH Gary Sanchez
5. SS Gleyber Torres
6. 2B DJ LeMahieu
7. LF Clint Frazier
8. 3B Gio Urshela
9. C Austin Romine

RHP Domingo German

Baltimore Orioles
1. CF Cedric Mullins
2. LF Dwight Smith Jr.
3. SS Jonathan Villar
4. RF Trey Mancini
5. 3B Rio Ruiz
6. DH Renato Nunez
7. 1B Chris Davis
8. C Jesus Sucre
9. 2B Hanser Alberto

RHP David Hess

It is a spectacular day in New York and an overcast day in Baltimore. There’s no rain in the forecast though and that’s all I care about. Today’s series finale will begin at 1:05pm ET and the YES Network will have the broadcast. Enjoy the game.

Injury Updates: Giancarlo Stanton (biceps) is seven days into his ten-day shutdown period. He’ll be reevaluated following the Astros series and could start swinging at bat when the Yankees return to New York at the end of the week … Miguel Andujar (shoulder) is doing strengthening exercises and the next step for him is throwing. Given the nature of his injury, throwing will be the biggest test, not swinging a bat … CC Sabathia (knee, heart) is making a minor league rehab start with High-A Tampa this afternoon. If all goes well, he’s expected to join the Yankees next weekend.

Yankees 6, Orioles 4: Frazier’s late home run helps Yankees overcome way too many mistakes

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It took an annoyingly stressful game against the Orioles, but the Yankees have their first series win and their first back-to-back wins of 2019. Their record is back even at 4-4 following Saturday’s 6-4 win in Baltimore. The Yankees had to overcome way too many mistakes to nail this one down.

(Presswire)

All Rise, Then All Rise Again
The Aaron Judge vs. J.A. Happ race for the American League home run crown is off and running. Happ took an early lead with two homers allowed in his first start last week, but Judge cut into that lead Saturday night. He clocked his first home run of the season in the first inning, sending a 92 mph 2-2 fastball out to dead center field for a quick 1-0 lead. Between the swing on the homer and the way he spit on two two-strike non-fastballs in the dirt earlier in the at-bat, I wonder if Judge had Dylan Bundy’s pitches. Maybe he was tipping? Dunno.

In the third inning Judge hit his second homer of the game and his second homer of the season. Brett Gardner blooped a double inside the left field foul line as the previous batter, then Bundy left a spinning full count slider up and out over the plate, and Judge did what Judge tends to do with pitches like that. Bundy didn’t have to be tipping his pitches for this ball to be hit a mile:

Notice anything about that homer? Besides catcher Pedro Severino’s reaction? It was in a two-strike count and Judge did not use the no-stride swing. Same thing with the first homer. Took a normal stride with two strikes. Here’s the video if you don’t believe me. We spent all Spring Training talking about the no-stride swing, and, ten days into the regular season, it’s gone. I don’t know why we talk about anything in Spring Training. March is full of lies, man. Anyway, Judge has eight career two-homer games. Four against the Orioles and four against everyone else.

As usual, Bundy did not pitch deep into the game against the Yankees. He never does. Look at his last five starts against the Yankees:

  • September 4th, 2017: 4 innings on 98 pitches (five runs)
  • July 11th, 2018: 4 innings on 91 pitches (five runs)
  • August 26th, 2018: 5 innings on 100 pitches (four runs)
  • March 31st, 2019: 3.2 innings on 93 pitches (three runs)
  • April 5th, 2019: 3.2 innings on 85 pitches (thee runs)

That is a lot of pitches for not a lot of innings. Bundy averaged five pitches per batter on the nose Saturday night. The Yankees really wear this kid down. I mean, everyone wears Bundy down (5.45 ERA and 5.17 FIP last year), but the Yankees put him through the grinder each time out. Last week his problem was control (five walks). This week it was hard contact (95.0 mph average exit velocity).

Only One Homer This Time
The good news: J.A. Happ was better Saturday night than he was against these same Orioles in his first start of the new season last week. The bad news: Happ still wasn’t all that good. Judge hit the home run in the top of the first to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead, and Happ gave it right back in the bottom half. Trey Mancini hit an opposite field solo homer. Happ currently leads Judge in the homer race 3-2.

Although he did not go full Sonny Gray and completely melt down after the early homer, it’s hard to say Happ settled down. He allowed at least one baserunner in every inning and needed 88 pitches against the Orioles — the 2019 Orioles! — to throw four innings plus one out. Eighty-eight pitches to put seven runners on base and get 13 outs against the worst and least talented team in baseball? Come on now.

Happ was not removed because he hit an early season pitch limit. He was removed because there were two runners on base and Aaron Boone didn’t want him facing Mancini a third time. In his first two at-bats, Mancini hit a 104.5 mph homer and a 100.5 mph double. Removing Happ was a matchup decision. Jonathan Holder allowed one of the inherited runners to score before closing out the fifth inning and preserving a 3-2 lead.

Happ’s line: 4.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 K, 1 HR on 88 pitches. Not good, in other words. Not good considering the team he faced. Happ struggled to put hitters away — eleven of the 20 batters he faced saw at least five pitches — and he definitely got away with some mistakes out over the plate. I mean, look at this:

A better lineup probably doesn’t foul away or swing through that many pitches in the heart of the strike zone. Happ didn’t face a better lineup though. He faced the Orioles and he got away with those middle-middle pitches. Happ had a bad Spring Training and his first two regular season starts haven’t been good. At age 36, I can’t help but worry about age-related decline. Let’s see what happens though. Hopefully Happ will get locked in next time out.

The Big Blown Opportunity
Immediately after Happ and Holder combined to give the Orioles their second run of the game in the fifth inning, the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth inning. Gary Sanchez was hit by a pitch, Gleyber Torres shot a single to center, and DJ LeMahieu pulled a ground ball through the left side for another single. LeMahieu has a .579 BABIP this season and he’s hitting .727 (8-for-11) on ground balls. Hey, put the ball in play and good things can happen.

Anyway, the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs and did not score. Sanchez was inexcusably picked off third base for the first out. This can’t happen and I have no idea how it did happen. Sanchez got picked off second base Thursday, remember. Also, Pedro Severino, the Orioles catcher, is the same catcher who threw down to third base on the Miguel Andujar injury play last week. The bases were loaded with no outs on that play too.

Is no one paying attention here? Where is Sanchez going? Does no one on the Yankees think to say, “hey, no need to take a big lead here, you’ve already been picked off once this series and this catcher likes to throw to third?” No, no one? There was a pitching change following the LeMahieu single to load the bases. Plenty of time to talk and get a message to Gary there. Truly inexcusable all around. Some win probability numbers:

  • Bases loaded and no outs: 83.3%
  • Runners on first and second with one out (after pickoff): 69.1%

Woof. The Yankees are up to an MLB high six outs on the bases through eight games. After the Sanchez pickoff, pinch-hitter Clint Frazier struck out and pinch-hitter Gio Urshela hit a weak little ground ball back up to the middle to the perfectly positioned O’s defender. Inning over, rally killed.

A Blown Lead, A Lead Regained
It seems like Aaron Boone got dumber immediately following last year’s Wild Card Game and hasn’t recovered. He had a terrible ALDS and his first few weeks this season haven’t been good. I get that Zack Britton wasn’t available due to his recent workload (even after the off-day Friday), but geez, I’m not sure how you screw up managing this bullpen, but Boone tried his best. Let’s annotate the play-by-play of that seventh inning.

(1) Why in the world did Holder go back out to start the seventh inning after already getting five outs? Five outs and 28 pitches. Even with the inherited runner scoring in the fifth inning, that’s a good night’s work for Holder. Pat him on the butt and bring in the next reliever. But nope, Holder remained in, allowed back-to-back singles to start the inning, then was removed. I don’t understand. My tombstone will read, “Here lies Mike, dead from all those times managers went batter-to-batter instead of letting a fresh reliever start the inning clean.”

(2) Pinch-hitter Chris Davis, huh? It seemed like Orioles manager Brandon Hyde was doing the Yankees a great big favor there, but then Davis pulled a grounder to first base, Greg Bird muffed it, and his throw home was late. Didn’t step on first base for the force out either. Tying run scored and the O’s still had runners on first and second with no outs. Just terrible all around. For a guy who has a .346 OBP, Bird has impressively low-impact this year.

(3) Why did the Yankees not challenge the play at home? Replays showed Cedric Mullins may not have actually touched home plate. He slid in, his foot popped up, and appeared to pass over the base. It’s the seventh inning and it was the tying run. What are they saving the challenge for? The Yankees have been among the most conservative instant replay teams since the system was put in place — they’ve regularly ranked near the bottom of the league in total challenges, under both Joe Girardi and Boone — and geez, I hate it. Shoot your shot on a play like that. (The Yankees never used their challenge this game. Saved it for nothing.)

(4) Runners are 6-for-6 stealing bases against Sanchez this year. Not counting one disaster inning where the Blue Jays stole four bases against the extremely stolen base prone Dellin Betances, runners did not even attempt their sixth stolen base against Sanchez until his 22nd game at catcher this year. They’re 6-for-6 through seven games this year. Hmmm. Between the throwing errors last week and runners attempting six steals in seven games with Sanchez behind the plate, Gary’s throwing is something to watch. Anyway, the steal of third set up the go-ahead sac fly, which I thought looked gone off the bat. Fortunately it stayed in the park.

Unnecessarily sticking with Holder and the derpy defense cost the Yankees the lead in the bottom of the seventh. The offense picked everyone up in the next half inning. Torres worked a two-out walk, LeMahieu served a two-out single to right, and Frazier banged a two-out, two-strike, three-run go-ahead home run to left field. It was glorious. Clint, do the damn thing:

That is no less than the fourth time this series the Orioles catcher reacted that way to a Yankees’ home run. Severino did it this game and Jesus Sucre did it in the series opener. It’s funny to watch, I know, but it’s also kinda not cool to do that over and over? This isn’t flipping your bat after a homer or pumping your fist after a strikeout. That dude on the mound is your teammate! I reckon those homer reactions will wear thin in short order.

Anyway, yay Clint! That homer surpassed Gleyber’s three-run go-ahead homer from the previous game as the biggest hit of the young season. Win probability added certainly agrees (+.583 vs. +.410). The Yankees blew the lead in stupid fashion in the previous inning, then bam, two-out rally and a 6-4 lead. Everyone was redeemed.

For whatever reason Adam Ottavino was sent back out to start the eighth inning, and a walk and two outs later, Chad Green was on to pitch. I get the sense the Yankees really did not want to use Green tonight. He would up hitting Mullins with an 0-2 pitch — it grazed his jersey more than hit him — and LeMahieu bobbled Jonathan Villar’s would-be inning-ending ground out to load the bases. Argh. Fortunately Davis ground out to first to end the threat. I legitimately feel bad for Davis at this point. The guy is in an 0-for-40 skid dating back to last year.

A+ photo. (Presswire)

Leftovers
The Yankees made so many dumb mistakes this game. Sanchez got picked off third with the bases loaded and no outs. Bird didn’t step on first base after fumbling a grounder. Torres didn’t retouch second base as he returned to first on a LeMahieu deep fly ball. LeMahieu fumbled the grounder in the eighth. Happ slid to field a weak chopper and flipped it to no one at first base because Bird went after the ball too. I feel like I’m missing other mistakes too. Either way, the Yankees played some sloppy baseball in this game. They have been all year, really.

Tyler Wade turned in the Yankees’ best defensive play of the young season in the first inning. He ranged behind second base to make a diving grab, and was still able to throw out the speedy Joey Rickard at first base. Here’s video from Twitter since MLB.com never bothered to make one. I have no idea whether Wade will ever hit, but damn can he run and play defense.

Two homers for Judge, three singles for LeMahieu, a single and a walk for Luke Voit, and a single and two walks for Torres. The Yankees put 14 men on base in nine innings and went 3-for-6 with runners in scoring position. Two of the three hits were home runs. Hooray dingers. Long live dingers.

And finally, Aroldis Chapman pitched around a one-out single in the ninth inning for his second save. His fastball averaged 96.9 mph and topped out at 98.6 mph. It’s only April 6th, but Chapman’s max velocity has plateaued. He’s topped out at 98-point-something in his last four appearances.

Box Score, WPA Graph & Standings
MLB.com has the box score and video highlights, ESPN has the updated standings, and we have a Bullpen Workload page. Here’s the win probability graph:


Source: FanGraphs

Up Next
Despite their best efforts, the Yankees have a chance to sweep this dang series Sunday afternoon. That is a 1:05pm ET start. Domingo German and David Hess are the scheduled starters. Not-so-bold prediction: Runs will be scored.

DotF: Garcia goes deep, Otto returns in Tampa’s win

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I forgot to link to this yesterday, but here’s video of RHP Clarke Schmidt’s nine strikeouts from Opening Day. He threw five innings and did not allow a hit or a walk, though there were two errors made behind him, so it wasn’t a perfect outing.

Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (10-8 loss to Buffalo)

  • RF Trey Amburgey: 4-5, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI — 8-for-14 (.571) with two doubles in his first three Triple-A games
  • 1B Mike Ford: 1-4, 1 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 E (fielding)
  • DH Ryan McBroom: 0-5, 2 K
  • C Ryan Lavarnway: 0-4, 1 R, 1 BB
  • 2B Gosuke Katoh: 1-3, 1 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K — first Triple-A hit is his first Triple-A homer
  • RHP Chance Adams: 3 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 5 K, 2 HR, 4/2 GB/FB — 41 of 80 pitches were strikes (51%) … not a good start to year three in Triple-A
  • LHP Rex Brothers: 2.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1/1 GB/FB, 1 E (pickoff) — 24 of 41 pitches were strikes (59%) … he’s my pick for the “random minor league signing who makes 10+ appearances for the MLB team” player

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Game Eight: Beat the Birds

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(Getty)

All the home opener nonsense is over. The Yankees are through the celebratory portion of their schedule and can now, finally, begin the daily grind that is the regular season. They’ve had a bumpy start to the season, to be sure, but they won Thursday and tonight they have a chance to win back-to-game games for the first time this year.

“Had a little bump in the road on our opening homestand and getting hit obviously with injuries here early, but such is the nature of the big league season,” Aaron Boone said to George King on Thursday. “We just happened to get hit with a little bit early. We will be better for having gone through this and we will come storming out of this.”

Tonight J.A. Happ will make his second start of the season and his second start against the Orioles, and gosh, it sure it would be nice to see him keep the ball in the park. He’s allowed eight homers — eight! — in 15.1 innings this year between Spring Training and the regular season. Here are today’s lineups:

New York Yankees
1. CF Brett Gardner
2. RF Aaron Judge
3. DH Luke Voit
4. 1B Greg Bird
5. C Gary Sanchez
6. SS Gleyber Torres
7. 3B DJ LeMahieu
8. LF Mike Tauchman
9. 2B Tyler Wade

LHP J.A. Happ

Baltimore Orioles
1. 2B Jonathan Villar
2. RF Joey Rickard
3. 1B Trey Mancini
4. DH Renato Nunez
5. LF Dwight Smith Jr.
6. 3B Hanser Alberto
7. C Pedro Severino
8. SS Richie Martin
9. CF Cedric Mullins

RHP Dylan Bundy

After raining all day yesterday, it is partly cloudy and mild in Baltimore today. There’s no more rain in the forecast and that’s the most important thing. Today’s game will begin at 7:05pm ET and the YES Network will have the broadcast. Enjoy the game.

Injury Updates: CC Sabathia (knee, heart) will make a rehab start for High-A Tampa tomorrow, and as long as he makes it through okay, he will join the Yankees next weekend. He’s eligible to be activated off the injured list Saturday … Luis Severino (shoulder) is still long-tossing and is getting closer to throwing off a mound. He’s throwing at distances greater than 120 feet … Dellin Betances (shoulder) will face hitters Monday for the first time since being shut down. I’m assuming it’ll be live batting practice or a simulated game rather than a minor league rehab appearance … Aaron Hicks (back) is progressing with his throwing program and will begin swinging a bat in the coming days … Miguel Andujar (shoulder) is taking grounders. He has not swung a bat or thrown yet, which are the big tests.

Rotation Update: Domingo German starts tomorrow, then it’ll be Masahiro Tanaka, Jonathan Loaisiga, and James Paxton in Houston in that order. The Yankees flipped Tanaka and Loaisiga, though Tanaka will still make that start with one extra day of rest. Thursday’s an off-day, which sets Happ up to start Friday’s series opener against the White Sox and Sabathia to take German’s spot Saturday. Or it could be that German stays in the rotation and Loaisiga goes back to Triple-A. We’ll find out soon enough.

Misc. Notes: In case you missed it earlier, the Yankees called up Gio Urshela and sent down Thairo Estrada. “(Urshela’s) a guy — with our roster situation right now — is going to play. He’ll play a lot of third base for us. Probably in there tomorrow. I would say he’ll be in there quite a bit while he’s here,” Aaron Boone said to Bryan Hoch. That presumably means LeMahieu goes to second base and Wade goes to the bench.

Yankees send Thairo Estrada to Triple-A, call up Gio Urshela

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Urshela. (Presswire)

The Yankees have changed up their infield. Gio Urshela has been called up and Thairo Estrada has been sent down to Triple-A Scranton, the Yankees announced. Didi Gregorius was transferred to the 60-day injured list to clear a 40-man spot for Urshela. I thought this would be the move Thursday when Troy Tulowitzki got hurt. Close enough.

It seems the Yankees called up Estrada, who was already on the 40-man roster, following the Tulowitzki injury on Wednesday because it was the easiest move. That got them through Thursday, then the Yankees used yesterday’s off-day to reevaluate things and make a more long-term decision, which led to them summoning Urshela.

Estrada, 23, did not play Thursday and he really needs regular at-bats after missing most of last year to various injuries. Sitting on the big league bench and playing maybe twice a week isn’t what he needs at this point. Estrada has to play and play every single day. Triple-A Scranton is the best place for that.

The 27-year-old Urshela is a career .225/.274/.315 (57 wRC+) hitter in 499 big league plate appearances — he is 4-for-9 and two doubles in two Triple-A this year — but he’s an excellent third base defender who can play shortstop as well. The Yankees can sit him for days at a time and not worry about it.

My guess is Urshela and Tyler Wade will platoon for the time being. Urshela will play third base against lefties and Wade will play second base against righties, with DJ LeMahieu moving between second and third as necessary. That seems like the best way to maximize the personnel on the roster.

Urshela is out of minor league options, and because he is relatively young and can play the left side of the infield well, he’s a candidate to be lost on waivers when the time comes. I wonder if that means Wade is going to Triple-A when Tulowitzki returns? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s see Tulowitzki get healthy first.

Gregorius joins Ben Heller and Jordan Montgomery on the 60-day injured list. All three are rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. Jacoby Ellsbury is likely a 60-day injured list candidate at this point, so he’ll be the next move when a 40-man spot is needed. Miguel Andujar would be a 60-day injured list candidate should he need season-ending shoulder surgery.

It’s Time For Gleyber Torres to Hit Leadoff

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(Presswire)

The 2019 Yankees have suffered a full season’s worth of injuries despite the fact that the new campaign is barely a week old. The injuries are significant: with four starting position players, the rotation ace and the bullpen ace on the IL, that adds up to roughly 25 WAR in 2018, using FanGraphs for the batters and Baseball-Reference for the pitchers. The depleted state of the roster gives new urgency to early April games, as the Yankees cannot afford to dig themselves too deep a hole in the early going before returning to full strength in (hopefully) May.

The good news is that the rival Red Sox have started the season even worse than the Yanks: they’re 2-7, having been thoroughly embarrassed in Arizona last night, and they’ve seen their playoff odds drop all the way to 70 percent, per FanGraphs. The Sox are healthy (with the possible exception of Chris Sale, who has yet to garner a swing and miss on a fastball) and will surely bounce back soon, but the Yankees have to be thanking their lucky stars that Boston has scuttled out of the gate. Truthfully, Yankee fans should be, too – imagine the takes if the Sox started 2019 like they did 2018.

In any case, the Yankees cannot rely on their competition playing below expectations. The team won’t be healthy for a while and simply needs to not bury themselves early. They should be up to the task, but it starts with giving their best hitters the most at-bats. That means Aaron Boone should hit Gleyber Torres leadoff, at least until Aaron Hicks returns.

The case for Gleyber is pretty straightforward. Let’s get right into it, starting with what the typical leadoff man has done recently.

What’s The Average Leadoff Hitter Like?

 First, let’s look at how leadoff hitters stack up compared to the rest of their competition. The following table shows the triple-slash and walk/strikeout rate for leadoff batters in the AL and NL, with the third row reserved for the league average in 2018, all per FanGraphs:

There are clear takeaways here, all of which were fairly predictable: the average leadoff batter hits for a higher average, gets on base more, hits for power and strikes out less than the average player in the league, though they walk at virtually the same clip. Leadoff hitters tend to be better, obviously.

That’s not breaking any new ground, and that is how it should be: the top spot in the lineup got 22,631 plate appearances in 2018: that’s 500 more than batters hitting 2nd, 2,000 more than the 5th spot in the order and 4,000 more than the “second leadoff” hitter batting 9th. In other words, teams give more at-bats to better players. Simple enough.

That’s particularly relevant to the Yankees, though, who have often used either D.J. LeMahieu or Brett Gardner in the spot this year—and as much as I think DJLM got short shrift from fans or how much I love Gardner, it’s pretty hard to argue that those two deserve to get the most at-bats in April. They’re not the Yankees best hitters, even among the depleted lineup. Given their scuttling rivals and own struggles, the Yanks simply cannot afford to waste any opportunity to maximize their production. These games are important now, despite the rainy spring weather. 

How does Gleyber Stack Up?

Things brings us to Gleyber. As we all know, Torres was generally the 9th hitter for the Yanks last year and lived primarily in the bottom third of the order. A look at the data clearly shows that it’s time for that to change. Let’s bump that same chart from above here, this time replacing the final row (average hitters) with Gleyber’s 2018 production:

It’s important to remember that Torres was a 21-year-old rookie last year, thrust into a playoff race fresh off a truncated 2017 MiLB season: those numbers show that the kid can play. While he strikes out more than average for the spot, that’s more than made up by the rest of the line: Gleyber hit for higher average, got on base more regularly and hit for significantly more power than the normal leadoff hitter.

A deeper dive suggests that Torres is ready for more plate appearances, too. Torres made contact with 82% of all strikes he swung at (higher than Judge) and swung at balls out of the zone only 30% of the time (about the same as Judge) in 2018. Making contact with balls in the zone and taking the bad stuff is prototypical leadoff material and is the sign of a patient hitter; Torres saw 4.03 pitches per plate appearance last year, backing up that assertion.

Folks, Gleyber Torres is The Real Deal. Turns out there was a reason he was such a highly-touted prospect for so long.

Don’t Waste His Talent Now

But the Yankees and Aaron Boone have not properly used their young stud. In fact, they’re actively wasting his talent so far in 2019. Consider Thursday’s game at Camden Yards. Torres saved the game, slugging two home runs and injecting new life into a struggling Yankee offense. The problem? He was hitting 7th, ahead of Clint Frazier and Tyler Wade—not setting the table for Judge, Voit and Sanchez.

A guy who can change the outcome of a game with one or two swings shouldn’t waste away at the bottom of the lineup, especially now. It’s one thing when the lineup is fully healthy and the Yankees return to their rightful place as one of the league’s most feared offensive juggernaut, but it’s another altogether when Wade, Tauchman, and others are getting significant playing time. Stacking the best hitters at the top of the lineup simply makes sense: think of Boston last year, who masked a poor bottom third of the lineup with a truly fearsome top half. That’s what the Yankees need to do right now.

Again, the Yankees need to tread water (at the very least) before returning to full strength, and the best way to do that is to ensure that the very best hitters on the team get the most opportunities. If Aaron Boone is smart, he will adjust his lineup to reflect the fact that Gleyber Torres has proven that he is more than just a prospect, and he will give Torres the opportunity to do his part to keep the Yankees afloat during the rough waters of early 2019.

DotF: Stowers, Sauer, and Semple shine in Charleston’s win

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Baseball America posted a list of the youngest players in each league. Most notably, 2B Gleyber Torres is the second youngest player (and youngest position player) in the American League and RHP Deivi Garcia is the third youngest player (and youngest pitcher) in the High-A Florida State League.

Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (6-1 win over Buffalo)

  • LF Trey Amburgey: 1-5, 1 2B
  • 3B Gio Urshela: 3-5, 2 R, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 K — 4-for-9 with two doubles in two games
  • 1B Ryan McBroom: 1-5, 1 R, 3 K
  • C Kyle Higashioka: 0-4, 1 K
  • SS Cliff Pennington: 1-3, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 K —signed this afternoon and he was in the lineup tonight
  • LHP Nestor Cortes: 5.2 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, 3/3 GB/FB — 56 of 75 pitches were strikes (75%) … this dude has been pitching basically non-stop since last March … he’s gone from Spring Training to the regular season to the postseason to winter ball to Spring Training to the regular season again
  • RHP Joe Harvey: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 0/2 GB/FB — 11 of 16 pitches were strikes (69%) … I’m setting the over/under on his MLB debut at July 1st … he’s on the 40-man roster, remember

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