SANCHEZ SURVIVES YANKEES FIRST CUT

Source: Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post

If you have not heard the news, the Yankees parted ways with Clint Frazier, Tyler Wade and Rougned Odor on Friday. But somehow, Gary Sanchez was spared. Yet as the New York Post points out, "The Yankees clearly recognize they need to mix up their pool of position players, with Miguel Andujar and Luke Voit joining Sanchez on the endangered species list between now and the Dec. 2 non-tender deadline. Sanchez stands out because, as a catcher, he is the hardest to replace." Will the Yankees part ways with Sanchez? I hope so, but if not him than who?

Here is an interesting and innovative way to address the problem: What if the Yankees take the opener strategy in pitching and apply it to catching; meaning why not have an arsenal of catchers, well not an arsenal but carry three or four, who can play other positions as well. This idea is not that far off base.

"The thin free-agent group of catchers includes Roberto Perez, who performed poorly for Cleveland last season, and old pal Austin Romine, whose health and performance struggles the past two seasons validated the Yankees’ decision to keep Kyle Higashioka over him. Romine might have to settle for a minor league deal. The Yankees should make Higashioka a co-starter behind the plate and deploy their trademark arbitrage skills that just last summer unearthed Nestor Cortes Jr., Clay Holmes and Lucas Luetge to locate the other co-starter, be it one of the aforementioned free agents or someone else," reports the Post.

Source: Associated Press

Interesting. Right? Co-catchers which might give the Yankees more confidence in moving away from Sanchez slowly. Also part of the free agency is Yan Gomes from the Oakland A's who on paper is not much better and in some cases worse than Sanchez. "Gomes, 34, tallied a .723 OPS, seven points lower than Sanchez, as he split his 2021 season between the Nationals and A’s. His July (1.078) actually topped Sanchez’s June, if with far fewer plate appearances. More to the point, while his April (.556) ranked lower than any of Sanchez’s months, he exceeded .694 in three of the six months, adding a fourth (.646 in August) that surpassed Sanchez’s third-best month, April," reported the Post. 

Source: NJ.com

The most important takeaway from the Gary Sanchez saga or experiment is this: The Yankees need to pledge more of their resources toward player development than trying to fix a deficit that was clearly theirs. Home growing your players is the best bang for your buck and if you can't do that well, consistently than you will continue to "buy" your way into the playoffs, or just be ok with how things have been. 

The Yankees lack of synergy, athleticism and chemistry has been their undoing. So really this conversation isn't about who Sanchez has become but rather it's about who he could have been had the Yankees dedicated the time and resources necessary to help him realize his potential. Now we are left with platooning him with two or three other catchers and see what fits. 

--Suzie Pinstripe
BYB Senior Managing Editor
Twitter: @suzieprof

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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OFF DAY IN CLEVELAND

You can't win them all. Not even Masahiro Tanaka can.

Last night he had a rare, rough outing.  No biggie... don't let it happen again.

The Indians had 10 hits and scored 5 runs off of the Golden child, who just didn't seem right all night.  He went 6.2 innings, only had 5 strikeouts and was relieved by Matt Thornton and Shawn Kelley who did a pretty good job at least keeping the Yankees in the game. The problem though, and this has been a problem all along, was out offense coming back and winning.

The Yankees had 4 hits in Cleveland last night.  We started out like this... Mark Teixeira singled after the ball deflected off of Chris Dickerson's glove. Brett Gardner scored.  Then, Brian McCann struck out, but when there was a throwing error by Yan Gomes, Jacoby Ellsbury came around to score. In the second, Gardy grounded out, but Ichiro scored.

Then came the bottom of the 6th. It was that inning that Nick Swisher homered and put the Indians ahead 4-3.  They would score 1 more.  I like seeing Swish... but not like that.

Not a great game at all for the Yanks.

Final: Indians 5 - Yankees 3 

Whatever. Try to forget it and move on...

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