Analysis

Yankees: Pinstripe Pride Twitter Roundup 4/9/19

The Pinstripe Pride roundup is a semi-occasional look at our favorite Yankees related tweets. 

Last week we discussed overreactions to begin the season after the Yankees started 1-2. This week, after 10 games, the Yankees are 5-5 and seemed to have figured out how to at least beat the Baltimore Orioles. Unfortunately, the Yankees have also lost more players to injury. A .500 record seems about right.

Bronx Bombers

With another home run on Monday night, the Yankees have hit 21 home runs through their first 10 games. This team is shaping up to be a boom and bust offense.

El Gary is Back

in 2017 Gary Sanchez was the best offensive catcher in baseball, but in 2018 he took a huge step backward in an injury-riddled season. This year, the Kraken seems to be healthy and is swinging the bat with a ton of power.

With his three-homer game on Sunday, Sanchez joined Bill Dickey and Mike Stanley as the third catcher in Yankees history to have three home runs in one game.

Here Comes The Judge

Speaking of multi-home run games, Aaron Judge got on the board with his first two of the season and then followed up with his third of the season against Justin Verlander on Monday. After 10 games, Judge is slashing .289/.426/.553 and is on pace for 48 home runs. I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up with numbers similar to these for the entire season.

Gleyber Good (at Camden)

Though he’s just 22 years old, Gleyber is already building a reputation as thorn in the Orioles side. The sky is the limit for this kid. His approach at the plate seems to have improved, albeit in a small sample size, compared to last year as he’s increased his BB% and lowered his K%. Gleyber is sporting a nice 1.036 OPS, and after last year’s .820 OPS, I wouldn’t be surprised if he settled somewhere close to .900 OPS this season.

Your 2019 O’s

I hope Pedro Severino catches every Yankees vs. Orioles game this year…

Sevy Status

It wasn’t all good news this week, however. It looks like the Yankees ace won’t be back anytime soon. Shoulder issues tend to be tricky and not easily resolved. With the Yankees having just invested long term in their budding #1, look for them to take it very slow. This latest setback could mean Severino is out for several more months rather than weeks.

Injuries mounting

Yikes. That is a long injured list. The good thing is the Yankees are a very deep team, which made them one of the best on paper to start the season. The bad thing is that Severino, Hicks, Stanton, Andujar, Gregorius, Betances, and Sabathia were all incredibly important during the 2018 campaign, and now it looks like Stanton and Sabathia will be the only ones of that group who are back any time soon. Fans had high hopes for Tulowitzki after he wowed in spring training, but perhaps it was inevitable that he would end up injured during the first week of the season.

Downtown Goes Frazier (twice!)

With the long list of injured players, comes opportunity for others. Clint Frazier is taking advantage of that opportunity. Fans who wanted him traded at the deadline and during the offseason are happy the Yankees chose to hang on to the young outfielder and Clint is happy to still be in pinstripes.

Maybe the Yankees did have too many outfielders…

Sure Bryce is off to a hot start with the 7-2 Phillies, but who needs him when we’ve got Red Thunder?

Tanaka Time

Is Masahiro Tanaka the real ace of this Yankees staff? Through three starts this year he’s thrown 18.1 Innings with 15 strikeouts and a 1.47 ERA. In the past he’s shown an affinity for the longball, however. Let’s see if he can learn to minimize the damage from home runs and jump to the next level.

Boone and Bust

If the Yankees win, it’s in spite of Boone’s bullpen management. If they lose, it’s because of his bullpen management.

Kidding.

Sort of.

Even with Dellin Betances out, the Yankees bullpen is supposed to be the best in the game. Realistically, Boone should be able to turn to any one of 4 or 5 solid relievers for a big out. My one complaint with his style since taking over as Manager is that he does not seem to have a feel for when a reliever doesn’t have “it” on any given night. On the other hand, giving a quick hook to a reliever and not letting them work out of a jam could cause the player to become spiteful. It’s a fine line. It does seem though that, sometimes, Booney would rather not upset his players than make sure he locks up a game.

In an uber-competitive AL East, the Yankees cannot afford to lose games when leading after their starter exits the game, and indeed they are built to shut down offenses with their vaunted bullpen. Hopefully, Monday’s loss to the Astros does not become a trend.

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