CHAPMAN COMPLETES THE ULTIMATE YANKEE PEN

Welcome to the Yankees, Aroldis Chapman! As BYB announced yesterday - AROLDIS CHAPMAN'S HEADED TO THE BRONX – the Yankees pulled the trigger on a trade that sends pitchers Caleb Cotham and Rookie Davis, third baseman Eric Jagielo, and second baseman Tony Renda to Cincinnati in return for the man who led the National League in strikeouts for a reliever.

This trade is huge, giving the Yankees Chapman, Dellin Betances, and Andrew Miller as what is arguably the best back end of the bullpen in all of baseball. The best part of the trade is the Yankees did not give up any top-ranked “untouchable” rookies in the process.

Top 3 K/9.0IP Ratios by Relievers in 2015: 1. @AChapman_105 (15.74) 2. @a_miller48 (14.59) 3. @DBetances50 (14.04)

— Yankees PR Dept. (@YankeesPR) December 28, 2015

Chapman has had a phenomenal 6-year career so far. Batters facing him over the course of his career are hitting .154, and in no single season have they hit above .200 against him. Last year, he led the majors in K/9 with 15.74. Going back over the last 3 seasons, that number is 16.34.

He leads the majors over that period, with Andrew Miller coming in second and Dellin Betances third. Over the last two years, he has given up a home run once every 30 innings. The numbers are incredible. When you think about what the end of game scenario looks like for the Yankees, it should be lights out. It’s ironic that we spoke about this scenario last December - COULD WE SNAG AROLDIS CHAPMAN NOW THAT DROB'S GONE? – and we were soundly ridiculed for suggesting it as a possibility. Now the dream scenario has become reality.

Yanks get Chapman and don't give away #ChosenOnes. Nothing bad about this deal. Great move. #BYB was mocked when we said this could happen

— Robert Casey (@BleednYankeeBlu) December 29, 2015

The Yankees gave up 4 good, but not great, rookie prospects. Starting pitcher Rookie Davis was the most highly ranked - #6 on Baseball America’s New York Yankees Top 10 Prospects List. He made it to AA Trenton last year, where he had an ERA of 4.32 and a WHIP of 1.38. Those numbers were comparable to his minor league career numbers. Third baseman Eric Jagielo had a higher ranking last year but has since dropped after reaching AA Trenton. He recorded a batting average of .288 and an OPS of .842, but a .883 fielding percentage dampened the view on him.

Caleb Cotham was a September call up by the Yankees where he amassed a 6.52 ERA and a WHIP of 1.552 and notched his first major league win.  Tony Renda is a second baseman at the AA level who hit .269 last year but became expendable with the Starlin Castro acquisition. We wish all these kids the best of luck, but I am not crying over any of their departures. You shouldn’t either.

There are certainly bumps in the road on this one. Many are talking about his domestic violence incident last October, and with baseball’s new domestic violence policy, he could begin the season on suspension. Under no circumstances do I or do any of our writers condone such actions, and we expect baseball to do the right thing. Once it is settled, we expect this to be about baseball.

You have to applaud Brian Cashman, who has been largely silent this off season on major acquisitions, for pulling this off. The team still has gaps to fill, but we’re in a better position now.

--Ike Dimitriadis, BYB Senior Staff Writer
Twitter: @KingAgamemnon







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AROLDIS CHAPMAN'S HEADED TO THE BRONX

I just want to put this out there, to get Bleeding Yankee Blue on record to let our audience know that the Reds' Aroldis Chapman has been traded to the New York Yankees for 4 prospects.  Those prospects are Eric Jagielo, Caleb Cotham, Rookie Davis and Tony Renda.  You can read USA Today for more.

We have a huge piece coming out early tomorrow morning by BYB Senior Writer Ike Dimitriadis.  I'm not here to take the thunder away from Ike's piece.  I just wanted to report the news about the trade this evening... and put this story right here...

COULD WE SNAG AROLDIS CHAPMAN NOW THAT DROB'S GONE?

That was written in December 2014.  The first line of the post is this: "Andew Miller, Dellin Betances, Aroldis Chapman. Think about it."

The Yankees did think about it... and the Yankee Bridge just got longer and a helluva lot nastier. 

More with Ike tomorrow... look for it here on BYB.


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JOE GIRARDI LOST THAT GAME FOR THE YANKEES

It's been well established at this point.  The Toronto Blue Jays are full of life and showed us last night just how important their surge is.  The Yankees have the ability, but when a manager over thinks his team, he often gets stung and brings the ship down with him.  Now let me be clear; It's not Joe Girardi's fault all the time.  There are plenty of match-ups he chooses that work in our favor.

But last night, with what was considered one of the most important games of the year, and a brilliant pitching performance by Ivan Nova happening previous, he pulled Nova as part of a "freak out" moment, and chose rookie pitcher Caleb Cotham to handle the pressure of Toronto fans.  I saw the tragedy unfolding before it happened... and tweeted it:

If we lose this one, it's on Joe. I normally don't blame him, but pulling Nova was silly. This is a must win game. Nova was dominant 2nite

— Robert Casey (@BleednYankeeBlu) September 24, 2015

I'm right on this one ladies and gentlemen.  This was a must win situation.  I'm not sure, in the Toronto atmosphere is was important to "try" something, handing the ball to a rookie with lack of experience and expect us to hold the Jays.  Sure... make an argument that the pen is tired.  Tell me that Caleb was happy to be handed the ball in that competition... he wanted the challenge.

I say this... Caleb Cotham is not battle tested. Plain and simple.  He should have never been out there. The Blue Jays scored 1 off Cotham, and that was enough, but it didn't have to be. Why? Well, the dominoes fell after that.

Joe Girardi lost that game for the Yankees. After being down 1-0 with the Cotham decision, he pulled the hottest bat on the Yankees in Carlos Beltran. Dumb. Why? Because Beltran would have been up again. If the Yankees were to have any life, and got men on base, having Beltran come up to bat again would have been a significant match up. And guess what. It happened in the 9th.  ARod doubled, and then, when Slade Heathcott came up in Beltran's place... a strike out.

Nice work Joe.  Imagine what could have happened if Beltran was there.  We'll never know... but I put my money on an experienced, battle tested veteran in that spot any day of the week.

In the end, Andrew Bailey, another guy who should have never been out there allowed the Blue Jays to stomp on us, and the Yankees lost the most important game of their season. A chance to make ground on the red hot Blue Jays.  And so... we wake up with a loss, and unnecessary loss. Unfortunate.  Stupid.  Ridiculous.

Yankees lose. No... Yankees shut out... and Joe Girardi needs to own this one, bottom line.

Final: Blue Jays 4 - Yankees 0 




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HERE COME THE KIDS

Quick note. According to YESNetwork.com, the following youngsters will be added to the active roster today.  It's the September call up season.  Here are the kids:

· INF/OF Dustin Ackley
· RHP Andrew Bailey
· RHP Caleb Cotham
· INF Rob Refsnyder
· C Austin Romine

· OF Rico Noel
· LHP James Pazos
· INF Jose Pirela

I'm happy to see these kids up.  I'm disappointed Aaron Judge is not up.  And I'm looking forward to seeing lefty James Pazos.  You remember BYB writer Steve Skinner wrote about him recently in NOW IS OUR SEPTEMBER! He wrote:

"Scranton has a 24-year-old left-handed reliever by the name of James Pazos who carries a 1.35 ERA and has struck out 28 in 26 innings over 16 games.  He was promoted from Trenton where he had thrown for a 1.86 ERA.  Clearly he’s on the fast track.  Why not bring him up where he’ll offer more of an option for manager Joe Girardi..."

I like when we have it right.

Anyway... let's play ball!

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THE BLOODY WALK OFF

There are a million ways to get to a win.  Sometimes you get homers and sometimes there is just clean cut pitching and solid plays.  Sometimes you also get an error to help you out.  A lot happened last night, including Bryan Mitchell getting a comebacker in the face... blood everywhere, you know the drill.

It was scary.  In the end though the Yankees came together and got the win.  And it was an important win... in fact, right about now, they all are.

Bryan Mitchell started for the Yanks.  He went 1.2 innings giving up 4 hits and a run and then a comebacker to the face.  He's now on the DL with a small nasal injury and a scare that surprised us all.  He was replaced by a cast of Yankee pitching that did their best to hold the Twins at bay.  But it was no easy task. Caleb Cotham gave up 4 runs.  Shreve gave up another and so did Justin Wilson.  Our pitching then settled down and when the bridge took effect, Andrew Miller was able to shut them down in the end for the win.

The Yankee run scoring went like this:

Brian McCann started things off with a 3 run homer in the first.  That was followed by the Twins scoring 4 runs. By the bottom of the third, with the score 4-3, it was McCann again, this time singling in 2.

The Twins came back with 3 runs, 1 in each inning after that. 

Then, in the bottom of the 6th, Carlos Beltran hit a 2 run homer knocking in Greg Bird.

It was quiet until the 10th.  With the bases loaded, Chase Headley up and Brendan Ryan pinch running at third base, a hard grounder to Twins shortstop Eduardo Nunez... bobbled, recovered and thrown to first to get Headley out, but with that bobble, Ryan scores going hard to home and the Yankees win.

It wasn't clean cut, some of it was ugly.  But a win's a win... and that was a win.

Final: Yankees 8 - Twins 7






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WHAT ARE THE YANKEES DOING?

So yeah, by now you've heard the news.  Dustin Ackley is going to the DL.  According to several sources, but we'll go with the New York Post on this one...

"Dustin Ackley, acquired by the Yankees just last week in a trade with the Mariners, was placed on the 15-day DL on Tuesday with a right lumbar strain.

The utility played hadn’t started a game with his new team, but was 0-for-3 while stepping in during the Yankees’ two blowout wins over the White Sox this past weekend."

As you and I both know... this doesn't look good for the Yankees as well as Ackley.  The Yankees did nothing but get Ackley by the trade deadline.  Now it just looks like a big freaking waste of time.

The Yankees in the meantime have brought up Caleb Cotham, the righty pitcher from Triple A.

Get well soon Ackley.  Bad start my friend. 

I kind of wish we never designated Garrett Jones for assignment... you know what I mean?



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