THE STRANGEST "PLAN B" FOR THE YANKEES THAT YOU'D NEVER GUESS

Maybe you are like me and asking...."what happened to Plan A?"  Nothing has changed there. This year for Christmas, Yankee fans all want a new deal for DJ LeMahieu all wrapped up in a big pinstriped bow. He's still on the market and I really do think the Yankees are going to sign him. I'm not thinking about "Plan B yet", but Buster Olney has some insights on what that could look like.

Anyone else scratching your head? I never considered an outfielder to be "Plan B" to getting DJ back. Not at all. I mean, we've already talked about other infield options for the Yankees in case we don't get DJ back. Shouldn't a "Plan B" involve finding an actual shortstop so we can move Gleyber Torres back to second base? So that could mean signing someone like Didi Gregorius or Andreltonn Simmons.

But Buster Olney says Michael Brantley is "Plan B." Interesting. I'm not saying I wouldn't like his left handed bat. We could definitely use one especially if Brett Gardner is not coming back. He has a great swing, is one of the best left handed hitters in the game and has been a four time All-Star. There's a lot to like but....where does he fit WITHOUT a trade?

He doesn't. If the Yankees were to sign him he's not playing center field, he's playing a corner outfield position which means someone has to be dealt. What if that someone is Clint Frazier? More trade speculation for the player that never fit in until now after a break out season. Why deal him instead of seeing if he can finally produce in a full season?

And if you do deal Frazier I am killing the "Frazier for Francisco Lindor" idea right now. The Yankees would be crazy to trade Frazier with all of that team control and after the season he just had for one year of Lindor. That would be a bad move for us but the Indians would definitely like that trade once the Yankees sweetened that trade even more. If there is no extension, it makes no sense. Oh and, Frazier alone also won't bring us a number two or three type starting pitcher in case you were thinking about that instead. 

I like rumor season, it gives us all something to talk about but "Plan A" is still getting DJ back. "Plan B" doesn't make a lot of sense right now. We have more pressing needs than Brantley in our outfield....you know, like quality starting pitching. Unless Brantley pitches now....he should be more like Plan L-ish.

You don't just walk away from talent like DJ, and then piece together a random strategy. Sorry Buster, but we still need to be all-in on "Plan A." We want and need DJ back on this team right now, he's the priority....let's focus on that instead of Brantley "Plan B."

  --Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

     BYB Managing Editor

    Twitter: @nyprincessj

LOOK WHO’S DOMINANT NOW!

(Associated Press/Sue Ogrocki)

The first game of the ALCS is in the books, and what a performance we saw by the Yankees! The starter, the bullpen, the hitting, the defense – just about everything went the Yankees way tonight. Perhaps what makes it all the more gratifying is the way most coverage has focused on how dominant the Astros are expected to be in this series. How the Yankees had to win at least one game in Houston to have a chance. Yes, mathematically the Yankees had to win at least one game in Houston to win the series. But if you believed what you heard on TV and on the radio, you would have thought winning last night or tonight were both longshots. Well, you find out how dominant you are when you face another dominant team. Last night, the Houston Astros and their fans found out.

(Associated Press/Matt Slocum)

After the first 3 innings, both Masahiro Tanaka and Zack Greinke had faced the minimum 9 batters. Both had given up a hit and benefited from a double play. Then Gleyber Torres lit it up; first with a double in the 4th scoring DJ Lemahieu from second. Then, he hit a solo homer in the 6th. followed by a 2-rbi single in the 7th. He finished them off with an infield dribbler to score Lemahieu from third.  Add to that solo home runs by Giancarlo Stanton and Gio Urshela, and the Yankees lived up to their hitting reputation with 7 runs on the board.

(Associated Press/Eric Gay)

When I look at the other side of my scorecard, it’s pretty clean. Tanaka went 6 innings and faced the minimum number of 18 batters. You probably heard the announcers talk about that repeatedly. What they didn’t mention as much was that by the end of the game, Yankees pitchers only faced 2 batters over the minimum. In other words, the domination continued up to the final out. There were a few other indicators of domination. Like the fact that the Astros had a runner on third for a grand total of one pitch! That was right after Gleyber Torres and Didi Gregorius let a Jose Altuve grounder roll through the infield for a “single” that put Michael Brantley on third. One pitch and one replay review later, and Alex Bregman had hit into an inning-ending double play. That's it.

(Associated Press/Eric Gay)

I cannot say enough about how well Masahiro Tanaka pitched. Unless you’re counting foul balls, Kyle Tucker’s single in the 3rd was not only the first hit, it was the first time in the game that a Houston hitter hit the ball out of the infield. That feat would only be repeated two more times, once when Brantley flied out to Stanton in left in the 4th and once when Yordan Alvarez flied out to Aaron Judge in right in the 5th. He had outstanding control, allowing only one hit, one walk, and only got to ball 3 with three hitters. Against an offense touted to score 20 runs per game, that was almost superhuman.

(Associated Press/Matt Slocum)

The big takeaway, especially for the Astros, is that if they thought that all they had to do was show up, they found out how good the Yankees are. Just like we’ve been hearing about how good Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole are and what it will take to beat them, the same goes both ways. Houston is going to have to work hard and they’ll need to catch a few breaks to beat the Yankees. Suffice to say, I expect most of the coverage today to be about whether Houston will recover from last night’s beating, whether the Yankees can keep the momentum going, and about how critical Verlander’s start is tonight. Personally, I think the Yankees are gonna sweep the series. But we’ll see. In any case, the ALCS is living up to its billing of being an awesome series. Let’s go Yankees!

--Ike Dimitriadis
BYB Contributor

Twitter: @KingAgamemnon 

GARDNER RANKED 9TH ACCORDING TO MLB NETWORK!

(Aug. 1, 2016 - Source: Rich Schultz/Getty Images North America)    

Not that this is a major deal, but it makes me feel good that Brett Gardner is getting some love.  So many people want to hammer this guy suggesting it's over for him and saying he should be shipped out or traded for something else.  The fact is he's doing his job.  He's a ferocious player, very hungry and he works hard. 

MLB Network ranks players as we get closer to the 2017 baseball season.  With that, they shared this with us here at BYB... and I wanted to share it with you:

(July 19, 2016 - Source: Al Bello/Getty Images North America)

"New York Yankees left fielder Brett Gardner was ranked 9th on MLB Network’s Top 10 Left Fielders Right Now! program...

Taking into account player performance over several seasons with an emphasis on 2016, a number of offensive and defensive metrics both advanced and traditional, and projected performance for the upcoming season, MLB Network’s Top 10 Right Now! series ranks the top players at each position heading into the 2017 season.

The complete ranking of left fielders is listed below, and an embeddable video recap on Gardner can be seen here:

Top 10 Left Fielders Right Now!

Photo: Cespedes / Getty Images

1.    Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers

2.    Yoenis Cespedes, New York Mets

3.    Starling Marte, Pittsburgh Pirates

4.    Khris Davis, Oakland Athletics

5.    Michael Brantley, Cleveland Indians

6.    Randal Grichuk, St. Louis Cardinals

7.    Justin Upton, Detroit Tigers

8.    Carlos Beltran, Houston Astros

9.    Brett Gardner, New York Yankees

10.  Adam Duvall, Cincinnati Reds"

Interesting list. I don't agree with some of it, but whatever, glad the dude's in the top 10.

Happy Monday.

A SHOOTOUT ENDS THE STREAK

The Yankees bats finally broke out in a frenzy of hits, striking first with a 3-run home run off the bat of Brian McCann. In their first 5 at-bats, the scored more runs than in any Yankees 9-inning game over the last week. They scored more runs in the first inning than in any of the prior 63. Yeah, it's been that bad.

The scoring didn't stop in the first inning. Stephen Drew hit his 15th home run of the season in the top of the 2nd to put the Yankees up 4-0. Drew doubled in the loop of the 4th to score Didi Gregorius for the Yankees 5th run. Brett Gardner followed with a double to score Drew. In the 6th inning, again it was Gardner scoring Drew, this time on a base hit up the middle.

It's a good thing the Yankees kept scoring because the Indians kept scoring too. Down 4-0 in the bottom of the 2nd, Michael Brantley scored Giovanny Urshela on a sacrifice fly and Carlos Santana singled in Jose Ramirez to cut the lead in half. In the 6th inning, with the Yankees leading 7-2, back to back doubles by Yan Gomes and Abraham Almonte followed by a Lonnie Chisenhall single made it 7-4. They tacked on another run on a wild pitch by Dellin Betances. They were like those pesky midges that wouldn't go away. Yeah, I know. It is in Cleveland after all.

By the time we reached the bottom of the ninth, the Indians scored to make it 8-6 and to bring the tying run to the plate. Thankfully, Andrew Miller returned to form after his last outing. Miller Time got his 25th save on a called third strike, ending the Yankees losing streak.

Results were mixed on Nathan Eovaldi. He improved to 12-2 as he recorded his 6th consecutive win on the road. He did a decent job but reached 100 pitches in the 6th inning. Honorable mention goes to Brian McCann, who hit his 20th home run of the season. He, Yogi Berra, and Mike Piazza are the only catchers to have done it 8 or more consecutive years now. Honorable mention goes to Stephen Drew - mark the day in the calendar - for scoring four times tonight. That's a career high for him.

Finally, Greg Bird got his major league debut tonight. It was a little less momentous than he or the rest of us hoped. He went 0 for 5 with 2 strikeouts leaving four men on base, one of them in scoring position. Still, he's up and that's a sign that the future is on its way.

So, hopefully, this marks the end of the dark times. The Yankees are a very good team, and this could turn the page for them. The Blue Jays also won tonight, so the Yankees are still a half game out of first. But they're still one ahead of them in the loss column.

Final: Yankees 8 - Indians 6

--Ike Dimitriadis, BYB Senior Staff Writer
Twitter: @KingAgamemnon
My blog is: Shots from Murderer's Row






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GRANDERSON CRANKS 200TH & YANKEES WIN SERIES IN CLEVELAND

Freddy Garcia was fairly good today. All we needed from him was to be good and he did that. He continues to do the job for the Yankees and that's what we love about Freddy.  His line looked like this:4.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R and 6 Strikeouts!

The Yankees struck first in the 3rd as Eric Chavez started it off with a base hit and Raul Ibanez followed with a walk. Ichiro Suzuki scored Chavez with an RBI single off of Ubaldo Jiminez's glove.  Chris Stewart did his job by moving over the runners with a beauty bunt Jeter followed with an RBI ground out and Swisher made it 3-0 with an RBI single.

The Indians threatened in the bottom half of the 3rd but Garcia got Santana to pop out with the bases loaded. Garcia worked a 1-2-3 4th inning to stay on a roll. The Indians got on the scoreboard in the 5th by a double by Kipnis and Cabrera would be hit by Garcia's pitch. Shin Soo Choo walked and then Santana hit a 2 RBI single that would end Freddy's day. Boone Logan came in and got Michael Brantley to pop out.

Granderson in the top half of the 6th hit his 200th career home run to make it 4-2 Yankees. Congrats Grandy! Nick Swisher started the 7th inning off with a double but the Yankees would strand him there. Logan and Robertson combined for a scoreless 7th and Yankees didn't get anything done in the 8th. DRob struck-out Carlos Santana and Casey Kotchman and nearly have up a 2 run home run that would of tied the game but Ichiro caught it at the track. Yankees threatened in the 9th but Jeter hit into an inning ending double play. Rafael Soriano worked a scoreless 9th and the Yankees escape Cleveland with a series win.

Keys of the Game: The bullpen; the Yankees bullpen did the job working 4 and 1/3 innings this afternoon.

Final: Yankees 4 - Indians 2
W: Logan (5-2) L: Jiminez (9-13) S: Soriano (33)

--Sam Thaler, BYB Contributor
Twitter: @samt1836





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YANKEES SEARCH FOR RISP ANSWERS IN CLEVELAND

The New York Yankees entered Saturday night fresh off a game that felt like a big win.  The Yankees had squeaked out a 3-1 win over the Indians on Friday as CC Sabathia made his return from the disabled list.  Yankee fans were hoping that the normally reliable Hiroki Kuroda could keep things rolling for the Yanks as they looked to build a modest two-game win streak.

Things went badly for New York right from the first inning.  Kuroda hit Indians lead-off hitter, Jason Kipnis.  One batter later, he walked Shin-Soo Choo to put two Indians on base ahead of Michael Brantley.  Brantley made the Yankees pay, dearly.  He drilled a three-run HR to right field to stake the Indians to a 3-0 lead.  It would be all that they needed.

The Yankee offense did not muster a hit until the fourth inning.  Robinson Cano doubled to left with two outs, but he was left stranded by a Mark Teixeira strike-out.  The noteworthy Yankee futility stat of the game occurred in that fourth inning.  Derek Jeter struck out to start the fourth, and in so doing, he became the Yankee franchise career leader in strikeouts.  He passed Mickey Mantle to become the Yankees' new whiff master.

The Yankees mounted a mini-threat in the fifth as Eric Chavez and Russell Martin singled but were stranded by a Raul Ibanez ground out to the pitcher and Ichiro's fly-out to center.  Suzuki had been 6 for his last 12 with runners in scoring position before that key failure.  Somehow the Yankees managed to load the bases twice in the sixth inning but scored only a single run.  Jeter scored the only New York run of the game on a sacrifice fly by Teixeira that cut the Cleveland lead to 3-1.  

After a Curtis Granderson walk re-loaded the bases, Chavez lined out to third and Martin's fly ball out to right ended the sixth inning and the most legitimate Yankee threat of the night.

The Yankees put two more runners on base in the seventh, but Cleveland starter Justin Masterson got capable relief help from Vinnie Pestano as he induced a pop fly out off Teixeira's bat to end that threat.  Masterson dominated the Yankees with his 6.2 inning 106-pitch effort.  Kuroda rallied himself to finish the game for the Yankees, allowing only four hits, two walks, and two hit batsmen on the night.  It would not be enough however, as the Yankee offense reverted to its season-long futility with runners in scoring position.

Cleveland closer Chris Perez dominated the Yankees in the ninth inning, retiring Ibanez, Suzuki, and Jeter in succession.  The Yankees' record falls to 21-20 since the All-Star Game, a long stretch of mediocre baseball.  The Indians raised their post All-Star Game ledger to a meager 11-30, as they evened the score with the Yanks in this series with a 3-1 win of their own. 

Again, Final: Indians 3 - Yankees 1.  Time to win the series Yankees... Geez!

--Frank Gentry, BYB Writer

Twitter: @yankeefrank23



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