Tonight the New York Yankees will make history with the first intrasquad televised game of the 2020 summer camp. Yankee fans have been waiting for the boys of summer to take to the field ever since MLB shut down operations back in March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
This whole season will undeniably go down in baseball history, some positive, most negative. After the shutdown, the sides made an agreement to allow players full payment based on the season that would be half as long as normal. No one knew at the time that the season would be even shorter and the owners wanted the players to share in the losses that would be suffered due to no players in the stands or no concession sales.
That was not to be had by the players in contentious negotiations that dragged on for months. Finally, Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred imposed a 60 game season in 66 games at full prorated play for the players. Now that that is settled and all the safety protocols are in place to protect players, summer camp has started.
Last night the YES Network announced that the New York Yankees would have two exhibition intrasquad games this week, one tonight and one on Tuesday night that would allow Yankee fans to see their new pitching ace Gerrit Cole start in the game.
Tonight’s game at 7 pm on the network will feature J.A. Happ’s Yankee squad facing Clarke Schmidt’s squad. The game will likely not go the full normal nine innings and other pitchers will most likely see action as the game progresses.
DJ LeMahieu and Luis Cessa will not be in the games as they have both tested positive for the coronavirus and are quarantined at home.
New York Yankee fans are chomping at the bit to see their New York Yankee players on the field even if it’s just an intrasquad game. The Yankees have chosen two of their best performing pitchers from spring training 1.0 to face each other in this long-awaited test for both pitchers.
J.A. Happ was 12-8 last season with an elevated 4.91 ERA, however, the Yankees went 20-11 in games that Happ started. In spring training 1.0, Happ had the best record for any Yankee pitcher that pitched at least ten innings. In 4 games, all starts, Happ went 2-0 with a tiny ERA of just 1.38 across 13 innings.
After Clarke Schmidt missing the first year of his professional career to Tommy John surgery, Schmidt looked sharp in the first spring training. He went 0-0 in 4 games and seven innings with a very respectable 2.57 ERA. Presently Jordan Montgomery is slated to be the fifth starter in a short season that is going to miss Domingo German and Luis Severino for the entire season. Should Montgomery falter Clarke Schmidt and Jonathan Loaisiga would be next in line to take over those duties.
No matter what the outcome of tonight’s friendly game, Yankee baseball is back, and Yankee fans couldn’t be happier.