SANCHEZ IS MIAMI BOUND & LOGAN MORRISON THROWS A FIT

(June 24, 2017 - Source: Adam Hunger/Getty Images North America)

By now you have probably heard the big story that Logan Morrison is mad that he didn't get an invite to play in the home run derby next week. He is having a good season, actually his best. He's never had the home run production he has this year. Back in 2011 he has 23 home runs for the entire season and here we are half way through the season and he has already topped that. Some may say he's All-Star worthy and he had a good point until he called out Gary Sanchez.

(June 17, 2017 - Source: Leon Halip/Getty Images North America)

I get it.

When you have a good year you want to be recognized for it. For a minute, I was actually on Morrison's side. He's tied for third with the most home runs in the AL and got snubbed. It sucks, on paper it says he should get an invite when you compare it to Sanchez and his 13 home runs after missing April with an injury. Aaron Judge got his invitation, and George Springer who is number two in home runs got an invite and turned it down. Then Mike Moustakas the guy he is tied for third got an invite....but Morrison did not.

Photo: Getty Images

Is it fair? No. But is it also fair to attack Sanchez? NO. Like I said, for a minute I completely understood his point until he spoke about it saying "Gary shouldn't be there. Gary's a great player, but he shouldn't be in the Home Run Derby. I remember when I had 14 home runs, that was a month and a half ago." This is where logic goes out the window....this guy JUST DOESN'T GET IT. He makes it sound like he is a consistent home run hitter and he's not. If you average all of his home runs from 2011-2016 he hasn't even hit 20 per season. It's not an insult, it's the truth.

Yes Morrison, you have more home runs then Sanchez does so far this season....congratulations. However, what you don't seem to remember is those 14 home runs come with extensive missed time at the beginning of the season AND those homers come AFTER the Yankees called him up last season on August 3rd and he hit 20 home runs in 52 games. THAT is what people also remember. Sanchez actually tied a major league record for reaching 20 home runs faster than anybody. Rookie sensation Cody Bellinger has since broken that record and he is also playing in the Home Run Derby. Those are numbers that you just can't deny and people get excited about!

(June 5, 2017 - Source: Brian Blanco/Getty Images North America)

Morrison has a point, he deserved an invite but he misses the bigger picture. The Home Run Derby is about more than just hitting home runs. It's a way for MLB to get people to tune in and watch on a night where the game schedule is non-existent. Other sports are dead for the most part too.

MLB wants to make sure the derby has high attendance at the stadium and gets TV ratings (shocker!) so that means you need star caliber players. That's why you have Giancarlo Stanton returning in his own stadium to defend his title and you have two young Yankees competing too. The youth movement has taken over and not just for the Yankees....again look at Bellinger! The Home Run Derby is not worth watching if the most popular players aren't involved. That's why the Yankees have two representatives and why Morrison on a low-market team is not.

Photo: Getty Images

It's not personal.....but Morrison is a not a star player that people are going to tune in and watch. “I’m not disappointed. It’s par for the course. I play for the Rays. I get it. They can’t even get my picture right. When they put my name up there they put Corey Dickerson’s picture up there on MLB Network. When they put up the home run leaders they put Corey’s swing on there, not mine” read that HERE. It sure doesn't sound like he gets it.

(May 31, 2017 - Source: Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images North America)

But one person who does get it is Sanchez. "What can I say? That's something I have no control of. It's not my fault he didn't get selected" and he is right, and that's the only answer he needed to give. Maybe Morrison will figure it out when he is watching everyone else play in the derby.

Keep it classy, Morrison.




--Jeana Bellezza

BYB Managing Editor 
Follow me on Twitter: @NYPrincessJ

THINKING BIG ABOUT AARON JUDGE

Photo: Getty Images

I know it's early, but Aaron Judge is doing big things...and that inspires some pretty big dreams and some may even say fantasies. April's American League Rookie of the Month award was just the beginning.

It's amazing how the last week of Spring Training we weren't even sure if Judge was going to be on the big league roster. Now here we are at the end of May watching Judge sit at or near the top of the leader boards in several categories including runs scored and home runs, you can see more HERE.

(May 16, 2017 - Source: Jamie Squire/Getty Images North America)

The leader board looks impressive and when you are included on it with other big names like Mike Trout, Corey Dickerson and Evan Longoria. You have to be doing a lot of things right when you are in company with veteran hitters like that and when you look at Judge now compared to 2016 you can see that a lot has changed.

(May 13, 2017 - Source: Elsa/Getty Images North America)

Watching Judge it is easy to see that he has made a lot of adjustments to his swing. The strikeouts are down from 50% to 30% and he is not chasing pitches outside of the strike zone. He spent time in the off season working with hitting coaches Alan Cockrell and Marcus Thames and watched video of some of his favorite hitters like Miguel Cabrera and Giancarlo Stanton. Judge is very much a student of the game....and all of that hard work is paying off.

It's early but I can't even stop thinking about the great possibilities that could be ahead for Judge. Last year we had hopes that Gary Sanchez would be the 9th Yankee to become Rookie of the Year after Derek Jeter, Dave Righetti, Thurman Munson, Stan Bahnsen, Tom Tresh, Tony Kubek, Gil McDougald, and Bob Grim. This year I have high hopes for Judge.

The possibilities for Judge are endless but at the rate Judge is going my mind is running on all four cylinders and I know I am not alone. There's already talk out there of Judge and his 15 home runs playing in the home run derby this year and playing as a starter on the All Star team. It's fun to buy into the hype. We've all been waiting for this for so long. Maybe it goes even beyond a Rookie of the Year award.

(May 20, 2017 - Source: Brian Blanco/Getty Images North America)

The bigger fantasy here would be the possibility of Judge as both Rookie of the Year AND Most Valuable Player something that has only been done twice by Fred Lynn of the Red Sox in 1975 and Ichiro Suzuki of the Mariners back in 2001. Could it happen?

It's early....and it's definitely a big fantasy but there's nothing wrong with thinking big, right? After all,  the possibilities with this team are endless.

--Jeana Bellezza
BYB Managing Editor
Follow me on Twitter: @NYPrincessJ

JUDGE & TORRES MADE GIANT LEAPS SUNDAY

Photo: Chris O'Meara / Associated Press

As exciting as the newest crop of young Yankees can be between the lines, some of their patter outside them can leave a lot to be desired.

Take Aaron Judge, who is a leading contender to unseat  Joe Girardi from his long reign as the team's Crash Davis Baseball Cliche King.

Judge's latest bid for the title: Following  Sunday's Rays series finale, he was asked by reporters to assign a grade to his mind-boggling 6th-inning play that iced the razor-thin one-run winning margin.

If you haven't seen it or heard it about it, you will and for some time to come too,  I imagine.




Simply put, he sprinted toward the warning track between right and center  to intercept  a rifle shot off the bat of Evan Longoria before it landed;  leaped and airmailed his outstretched horizontal 6' 7" frame the final dozen feet or so to make up the final distance and complete the catch; and then after crash-landing into the turf calmly proceeded to double up Corey Dickerson  (who was about to round third with the tying run) off first base;  neatly erasing from the base paths what could very easily have become the tying and winning runs.

"How would I grade it?" Judge replied to the question afterward with a grin. "Good catch."

Photo: Getty Images

Good enough to help the Yankees avert a sweep. Good enough to maintain a half game division lead.

It's what you wanted, eh Aaron?

But according to Statcast, it was actually substantially better than good.  Much, much better. It had the lowest probability of being caught of any catch attempted by a Yankee outfielder this year -- and to even reach it Judge had to actually hit higher speeds and cover more ground faster -- 28.5 feet per second to be exact -- than either Ellsbury or Gardner have covered in their fastest bursts this season -- 27.3 feet per second and 26.6 feet per second, respectively.

Photo: USA Today Sports

Gardner, for one, didn't think Judge had a chance.

'I thought it was in the gap,' Gardner said. "' thought it was an RBI double, and when he dives, the double can turn into a triple. That's the difference in the ballgame. That's a tie game, and Longoria is standing on second or third with no outs.'

Judge's final burst of speed to close the gap with the ball took Longoria by surprise as well.

'I thought it was going to fall,' Longoria said. 'It just seemed like the last 10 or 15 feet, he covered a ton of ground, and, I mean, there's not much you can do other than tip your hat. It was a great play and ended up saving the game for them. … It was impressive, man. We'll be watching that one … for a while.'

That one and a bunch of others, Evan. The big guy's gonna need his own highlights DVD before this season's over.

Photo: Presswire

Meanwhile, making a newsworthy leap of a different sort Sunday was MLB's number two prospect (and number one in your Yankee hearts and prospect list) Gleyber Torres, who got promoted on Sunday to the Triple A Scranton RailRiders after just 31 games playing for the Double A Trenton Thunder.

He started the season there slow but, per Sports Illustrated's Jay Jaffe,  after missing "10 days in April due to rotator cuff tendinitis​, he made short work of Double A, hitting .273/.367/.496 with five homers and five steals in 32 games and 139 plate appearances. Four of those homers came in a five-game span earlier this week, boosting his slugging percentage from .396. Via Baseball America, Yankees farm director Gary Denbo said, “Ever since we’ve gotten him in the organization, he’s shown the ability to give quality at-bats every single day… He’s shown some power, he’s played some exceptional defense for us, his throwing has been accurate and he’s getting better and better on the base paths. So all the things that we want him to check off on the way to major league player, he’s been doing it for us.”

A natural shortstop, Torres has been getting some experience playing second base and a little at third with Didi doing well and under team control through 2020.

He played mostly second and DH in the Arizona Fall League where he won MVP honors and has five more starts at second and  six  at third in Trenton under his belt.

Tyler Wade, the RailRiders' current shortstop, is being prepped for a super-utility role so it's likely Torres will take over at his position and continue a program of alternating reps at second and third  so he can be better prepared to step in defensively in the Bronx in case of injury at any of those three infield positions.

Photo: Getty Images

Chase has been in a bit of a slump of late, but there's little chance the Yankees would bench him in favor of a rookie with little to no experience at the position and start his service clock in the bargain.  If a serious injury (or *gasp*  trade) were to befall Chase, the greater likelihood would be the hot corner would fall to Torreyes in a caretaker role until progress reports from Scranton gave Gleyber the  green light.

But that green light may come sooner than later and third base may well be Gleyber's logical long-term destination with Chase appearing to regress to his former struggles with both  lumber and leather, and his contract expiring next season, as Jaffe surmises: "Some talent evaluators have voiced concerns about Torres’s lateral range, viewing him as more likely to be an above-average defender at third or second."

Photo: New York Daily News

Brian's already said he wants to see Gleyber get to the Bigs as soon as possible, but not before showing he can perform in  Double A and Triple A first.

You can cross Double A off that to-do list. He's just a dink, a doink, a couple of dingers and a phone call away from the show now.

 --Barry Millman
BYB Writer
Twitter: @nyyankeefanfore

THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF WINNING

The Yankees are on a streak, and now with them being 1 game behind the Tigers and Orioles in the Wild Card, the last thing they can do right now is stop winning.  No pressure right?

Yankeeland is happy. The idea that these young players can put on a show like they've been doing is just so incredible. Last night it was Rob Refsnyder and Gary Sanchez.

Mix in a veteran named Mark Teixeira and suddenly we have a group of guys, young and old that are gelling at the right time.  Again though... we need to keep moving here.  It's an incredible run and it has woken up the Yankee fan base.

Michael Pineda was a mixed bag last night.  He gets way to emotional out there and there are times where he just needs to dig deep and pitch.  He's better than he's been pitching.  But he kept us in the game for as long as he could and to be honest, I didn't have a problem with him being removed with men on first and third.  At the time it was 7-2 and it was the third time around in the batting order for the Rays.  We all know what happens to Pineda the third time around.  And so, GI Joe did what he should have done, he pulled him for the pen, ultimately removing him from getting a Win.  That pissed of Big Mike, and you know what? Tough. Joe managed that game like a playoff last night and I applaud that.  He didn't over think it, but he did make the right move.

Most impressive last night was Sanchez, from the knees throwing down to second base to pick off the runner.  Corey Dickerson was not only too far off, he was in utter shock as Sanchez threw down, clocked at 84.1 mph.  It was incredible.  As Sanchez said of the play: "There's a plan between us... If they see [on the bench] that the runner's taking a big lead, there's a sign. They'll let me know, and I'll make the throw."

The Yankee streak is now at 6.  Keeping rolling gentlemen... we love this!

Final: Yankees 7 - Rays 5