When the New York Yankees should be winning games and continuing their torrid pace to get to the top of the AL East, they are now doing the opposite, siding further back in the standings losing six of their last seven games.
The Rays have the Yankees’ number
Yesterday in the Bronx, the Tampa Bay Rays showed that they are the better team thus far in the season. The Rays beat the Yankees yet again 3-1. The Yankees are now 3-7 against the Rays this season, and they have to face them 3 more times this week. It always hasn’t been this way. In the 2000s, the Yankees were 114-64; in the 2010s, the Yankees only bested by Rays by 7 games. Now in the 2020s, the Rays have won 18 of 25 games against the New York Yankees.
The simple answer to all of this is that the Rays ARE the better team. They are better organized, better managed, and as a team, more cohesive, and they do it on an $82 million payroll compared to the Yankees’ $210 million. They know the Yankees’ soft spots, and they exploit them, something the Yankees have not been able to take advantage of. The Yankees must find a way to beat the Rays if they don’t want to lose the East to them again this season.
Baseball celebrates Lou Gehrig
Tomorrow June 2nd, all baseball, including the New York Yankees, will celebrate Lou Gehrig Day. The Yankees will do it at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx; they will celebrate his life and his baseball career, one of the best in baseball history.
Wednesday will be Lou Gehrig Day at New York Yankee Stadium, celebrating the great Yankee’s first baseman that died from ALS. The inaugural “Lou Gehrig Day†will be celebrated league-wide this June 2nd. June 2, 1925, began his record-breaking consecutive games streak — 2,130 in total over 14 years — and later, the day the “Iron Horse†died in 1941 at age 37 from “Lou Gehrig’s disease.†The day celebrates his life and baseball career but is also to bring attention to the debilitating disease.
Should Giancarlo Stanton be booed?
New York Yankees fans sometimes have long memories, yet at other times very short memories. Getting off to a somewhat slow start to the season, Giancarlo Stanton showed signs of his 2017 season when he was the NLÂ MVP. Before going on the IL, he had become the team’s best player carrying the team on his back with the most home runs and most RBI’s.
Fast-forwarding to his return to the team after his stint on the IL, he has been stone cold. He has no hits in 12 plate appearances. Yesterday, after his last at-bat, a strikeout, he was loudly booed at the Stadium. Was it warranted, no it wasn’t? Stanton’s only problem since he has been with the Yankees is all the injuries. When he is healthy, he performs and will again. Save the boos for those that deserve it.
Boone’s “everything will be fine” shows his complacency
Manager Aaron Boone needs to lead the team with a fervor that leads to winning. Unfortunately, he doesn’t do that. He keeps saying that we have a great team and everything will be fine. What he says behind closed clubhouse doors, I don’t know, but whatever it is, it’s not working. It’s time for some urgency; it’s time to shake up the team and turn things around. The team will only respond as its manager does.
Time to move on from Marcus Thames?
There are calls from fans to remove manager Aaron Boone and hitting coach Marcus Thames. Boone’s contract isn’t up until the end of the year, and he won’t be going anyplace before that. Marcus Thames is another subject; the team, on the whole, is not hitting and causing them to lose game after game. I can’t tell you what Marcus Thames is doing about it, but whatever it is, it’s surely not working. I am usually not in favor of dumping coaches, but this lack of hitting has become a serious situation that doesn’t seem to change.
The good news about Luis Severino
Previous New York Yankees co-ace Luis Severino was 33-14 between 2017 and 2018. Then in 2019, he required Tommy John surgery. Since then, he has been working back to form. There is good news to report; he is close to a return to bolster the starting lineup. He has pitched a three-inning simulated game and will have his first rehab game this coming weekend. It appears that after a few more, he will be ready to return, hopefully shortly before the All-Star break.
Will the Yankees be trading sooner or later?
There is a move the Yankees need to make and make right away. They repair a mistake they made at the beginning of the season, send Mike Ford down, and bring up Chris Gittens to replace him at first base. Gittens is the superior player and hits for power.
The Yankees can no longer go without production from first base, center field, and left field. Bringing up Gittens will solve one of those problems until Luke Voit can return to the team. Leftfield may improve by itself. Both Clint Frazier and Miguel Andujar show promise and could improve in the short term.
The big problem now is that the Yankees have no permanent center fielder. Since the trade of Mike Tauchman, they are left with just Brett Gardner and Tyler Wade after it was announced that Aaron Hicks would miss the rest of the season. The answer is a trade, don’t look for a blockbuster type trade that will take them over the luxury tax threshold, but look for a trade to improve the team that may happen before the trade deadline.
Joey Gallo of the Texas Rangers could be a good addition to the team. He is basically a right-fielder but has played adequately in center and is a left-handed bat badly needed in the Yankee lineup. This season he is hitting just .216 but with 9 homers and 25 RBI’s, which is better than anything the Yankees have right now and would be a ($6M) low-cost addition.
An even cheaper addition would be Delino DeShields Jr., who was hitting .383 in 12 games at Triple-A, with the Rangers. The Yankee might also want to look at Ketel Marte of the Arizona Diamondbacks for a friendly contract. Marte, the 27-year-old switch hitter, would be a great addition and would only charge $4.8 million toward the tax threshold. Marte has a better batting average (.328) than any Yankee player and is an experienced centerfielder. There are more options out there, including Bryan Reynolds of the Pirates, Starling Marte of the Marlins, or if they want to spend some money, Jackey Bradley Jr., that the Yankees are very familiar with.
Domingo German to face the Ray’s Tyler Glasnow
After losing the Memorial Day matinee to the Tampa Bay Rays yesterday, the New York Yankees will have an uphill battle tonight, winning a game against the Ray’s ace Tyler Glasnow. Glasnow this year has pitched to an ERA of 1.75 against the Yankees. Glasnow will face Domingo German. If German is on, he can be lights out. Even if German is best, he will need the Yankee lineup to support beating Glasnow, and the good hitting Rays will be a challenge.
Glasnow is 4–2, 2.57 ERA, 98 SO, German is 4–3, 3.06 ERA, 47 SO. The game will be at Yankee Stadium and broadcast on Bally Sun Sports and in the New York Area on the YES Network.