A Daily look at a summary of News and Rumors of interest for New York Yankees fans!
SPRING TRAINING: The YES Network has released the Spring Training television schedule for this coming season. Spring training is just around the corner and fans are looking forward to watching baseball again after a long offseason that saw the New York Yankees acquire former Astro, Gerrit Cole, to lead the starting rotation.
The first spring training game will be on Saturday, February 22, and will be televised from George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida. The first game will feature the Yankees playing against the Toronto Blue Jays. Altogether the YES Network will televise eleven games during the month-long spring season. A game on March 3rd against the Boston Red Sox will be nationally broadcast on ESPN. During spring training, the Yankees will not face the Houston Astros. Here is a full list of the spring training games. Â
MINI ASTRO TRASH CANS: Amid the Astros sign-stealing scandal, the Yankees are showing that they still have a sense of humor. The Yankee affiliate Staten Island Yankees will be epically giving out mini Astro trash cans to the first 500 attendees at a game this coming September. Before the release of Commissioner Manfred’s report documenting the 2017 Astros electronic sign-stealing scheme, the Yankees have long taught that the Astros used various methods to steal signs including whistling and banging of trashcans. The now-fired Astros manager had been known for laughing at the sign-stealing accusations. He is no longer laughing! The Yankees are indeed trolling the Astros with the trashcan promotion.
GOLD GLOVE WINNER JUDGE: Back in November, Rawlings handed out their Gold Glove awards for each position. In right field, Aaron Judge tied for the award with Jason Heyward and George Springer, but Judge got the nod as he spent more time on the field than the other two.
MLB’s Matt Kelly has unveiled Statcast’s new infield defense metric and has taken a fresh look at the best defenseman at each position. The new parameter is based on 2019 outs above average (OAA). Judge, despite his hulking size, was cited as being faster, having excellent instincts and a powerful arm. Kelly also mentioned that he showed off his all-around skill with a dazzling double play in Game 1 of last fall’s American League Championship Series. But the 2020 projections show Boston’s Mookie Betts grabbing back the title. Betts had the league-leading 135 runs.
Second is Christian Yelich of the Brewers, who had a .329 average while hitting 44 home runs. Judge in the projections came in third. The new projected rankings are based on player performance over the last two seasons, numerous offensive and defensive metrics, both advanced data and traditional numbers and analysis by the MLB Network research team. Using this formula, it appears that Aaron’s time off the field due to injuries in the last two seasons is the leading cause for the projection.