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Steven Tarpley

New York Yankees: The Man Behind A Lot Of The Bullpen Success

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New York Yankees, Chad Green

The New York Yankees have had a dominant bullpen this year, and a lot of the success is attributed to a man that we barely know. Meet Tommy Phelps, the pitching coach for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Railriders.

Phelps has had an enormous impact on the Yankees bullpen this year. He has worked with Nestor Cortes Jr., David Hale, and Steven Tarpley and all three have pitched great in the majors.

Cortes Jr. has pitched 37 and 1/3 innings for the Yankees this year, and has a 4.34 ERA and a 3-0 record. He has often seen several innings of work in bullpen games to transition from the starter (Chad Green) to high leverage guys.

Speaking of Green, Phelps also fixed Chad Green after an awful start to the season. After an ERA of over 16.00 at the end of April, Green has bounced back and has only given up two runs since the end of May.

David Hale has had a breakout season in 2019, and has even seen some high leverage situations. He is also 3-0, and his ERA is just 2.23 over 32 and 1/3 innings.

Stephen Tarpley has an ERA over 7.00, but has emerged as a cheat code to lefties. Lefties have just a .059 average against Tarpley, while righties bat almost .400 against him. Pitching to righties needs to improve, but Tarpley dominates against lefty-heavy lineups.

Jonathan Holder also got off to an awful start to 2019, and is currently in AAA to get fixed like did. He has pitched well of late for the Railriders, and we may see Holder back in the Yankee bullpen soon.

Tommy Phelps has done a fantastic job with pitchers in AAA this season, and his impact has been significantly felt on the Yankees this year.

New York Yankees Play Poorly In Andujar’s Return, Lose 7-3 To Twins

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New York Yankees, Miguel Andujar

The New York Yankees had an overall poor game-the pitching staff struggled as well as having a limited offense, losing 7-3 to the Twins.

Nobody had it

No Yankee pitcher really seemed to have anything going on Saturday. With the extended use of the bullpen on Friday, Aaron Boone was forced to use the younger, low-leverage guys and it didn’t pan out after JA Happ struggled.

Happ gave up seven hits and four runs over 5 and 2/3 innings of work. He got three strikeouts, walking one and giving up two home runs. Both home runs came off of relatively high fastballs.

Happ got seven ground-balls and six fly-balls, getting eight swings and misses. He threw 81 pitches and 51 strikes.

After Happ, Joe Harvey, Steven Tarpley, and Jake Barrett each pitched, giving up one run each.

It was just one of those days where nobody had it.

Welcome back, Miggy

Miguel Andujar returned from the IL on Saturday, and picked up a hit while batting fourth. That was the only positive; in the field he had two errors-one fielding and one throwing.

But, it was DJ LeMahieu who led the Yankees with two hits, missing the last three games with a knee contusion.

Gary Sanchez hit his 11th home run of the season, now tied for first in the AL. That is extremely impressive since he was hurt for two weeks, and catchers generally rest once every five or six days.

The other Yankee to score was Brett Gardner on a wild pitch, and it seems that that is how a lot of the Yankee runs have been scoring of late.

Torres, Gardner, and Maybin each had base-hits. Defensively, Cameron Maybin robbed Jonathan Schoop of a three-run home run in the fourth. It’s easily the play of the year thus far for the Yankees.

Luke Voit didn’t get on base for the first time all year, ending his streak at 42 games. A very impressive streak for an up-and-coming player.

With weather in the area, Sunday’s rubber-match has been pushed back to a 4:05PM start, still on MLB Network, YES, and Fox Sports Go. Domingo German gets the ball for the Yankees against former Yankee Michael Pineda of the Twins. After everything Pineda went through, it will be nice to see him on a mound again in New York, and he should receive a nice hand.

 

 

New York Yankees: Tanaka’s Rough Start Ends Win Streak At Six

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New York Yankees, Masahiro Tanaka

New York Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka gave up two fifth inning home runs, as the Angels climbed out of a 4-0 deficit to win 11-5.

Couldn’t keep it down

Tanaka had a lot of trouble keeping the ball on the ground on Thursday. Along with the home runs, hitters got nine fly-balls off of him, to just five ground-balls. He also only struck out two, which isn’t normal for him. Tanaka is usually good for at least six strikeouts.

He was also quite wild, walking three and throwing balls 38% of the time. Tanaka only got one swing and miss on the game.

Tanaka gave up six runs (five earned) over 5 and 2/3 innings, allowing six hits.

So overall, Tanaka was just off a bit on Thursday. It’s gonna happen to all pitchers, and you just have to live with it. He’ll bounce back on Wednesday at Arizona. Let’s just hope he doesn’t hurt himself running the bases this year.

Boone didn’t handle his bullpen right

The way that Yankees skipper Aaron Boone handled the bullpen on Thursday left a lot of people asking questions.

He had Jonathan Holder get just one out, before Stephen Tarpley and Joe Harvey gave up a combined five runs in the seventh inning. Before the runs scored, the Yankees only trailed by two.

Once the game seemed out of reach, he put in Tommy Kahnle, who has an ERA under two.

Why not go with Kahnle earlier on, or other high leverage guys like Zack Britton. It was unlikely that Chapman would of pitched on Thursday, as he pitched two of the prior three games.

Also, Boone could of went with Holder, who is beginning to improve from the beginning of the season. Situations like Thursday make you wish more and more that Chad Green wasn’t struggling and that Dellin Betances wasn’t injured.

Luke’s gettin’ hot

After a slowish start to the season, Luke Voit is red hot. He went 3-for-5 last night, and his average now sits at .255. Voit has reached base the last 36 games, and has gotten a hit in the last 12.

DJ LeMahieu also added two hits and drove in a run. Gardner, Torres, Urshela, and Wade each had hits in the game.

Urshela’s hit left the yard for his first Yankee home run, and his average now sits at .283. Tyler Wade has been contributing well to the Yankees, playing solid defense and getting on base.

Early in Thursday’s game, Wade singled then stole second and third on back-to-back pitches. The next pitch scored Wade on a single by LeMahieu.

The Yankees now head up to San Francisco for their first interleague series of the season. Game time is at 10:15PM (ET) on Friday on YES and Fox Sports Go. James Paxton gets the ball for the Yankees against Madison Bumgarner of the Giants.

 

New York Yankees: Chad Green Struggles as The Yankees Lose 6-3

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New York Yankees reliever Chad Green gave up three runs in the eighth inning as the Yankees lost to the Astros 6-3. The sad part is that they led 3-2, blowing their second lead in as many days.

Bullpen struggles

In five pitched innings on Tuesday, the Yankee bullpen gave up three runs off seven hits. Jonathan Loaisiga only pitched three innings, giving up two runs. He was removed due to throwing 71 pitches in the three innings.

Steven Tarpley relieved Loaisiga and gave up a hit, but threw just nine pitches in the scoreless inning. Luis Cessa got five outs without a score, before the ball was turned over to Jonathan Holder.

With the Yankees up 3-2, Holder gave up a double to new Astro Michael Brantley before being pulled. After, Chad Green came in and got hammered in the eighth, giving up three runs and the Astros took a 6-3 lead.

Again, the Yankees couldn’t recover and went down 1-2-3 in the ninth

Sanchez keeps cookin’

Gary Sanchez kept up his strong play on Tuesday, going 2-for-4 and knocking in two runs on a sixth inning double to put the Yankees up 3-2. His other hit was a single that beat the shift, as the Astros placed three men on the left side.

Luke Voit was responsible for the other run, mashing a solo home run to center field in the first. That was his only hit in four at-bats.

Aaron Judge and Austin Romine were each responsible for a base hit.

Red hot Clint Frazier went hitless on Tuesday night. Not just that, he had a few problems in the field. He dropped a ball on a diving catch attempt, then misplayed a ball a little later.

Brett Gardner also went hitless on Tuesday including being doubled up on a bunt attempt that he didn’t run out. This killed a rally with runners on first and second early in the game.

The Yankees try to salvage the series with the Astros on Wednesday before returning home. Gametime is at 7:40PM (ET) on YES Network and FOX Sports Go. James Paxton gets the ball for the Yankees against Collin McHugh of the Astros.

 

New York Yankees Smack Seven Home Runs to Beat Orioles

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The New York Yankees came out swinging on a sunny Sunday in the DMV, hitting seven home runs to beat the Orioles 15-3.

Scary Gary

Gary Sanchez led the New York Yankees by smacking three home runs, while just missing a fourth in the final inning. Two of his long balls came off a fastball, one first pitch, and the third was off a slider.

Clint Frazier built off of Saturday’s game by going 4-for-5 with two home runs and an RBI single. Gleyber Torres went 2-for-5 with a home run, and Austin Romine mashed a home run in the ninth.

New Yankee Giovanny Urshela added an RBI while going 2-for-3 as well as playing a good third base.

The Yankees accumulated 15 hits while drawing nine walks during the game, with Gardner drawing three. Aaron Judge went 0-for-4, but didn’t strikeout at all.

Luke Voit went 1-for-5, and despite him having a .182 average, he has reached safely in all but two games thus far.

Dominant Domingo

Domingo German was dominant on Sunday in possibly his best start yet. He pitched 6+ innings, allowing two hits and two runs. German actually had a no-hitter going through 5 1/3 innings. In the seventh inning, he gave up a hit and a walk before he was pulled.

Once pulled, Steven Tarpley came in and allowed both runs to score, as well as one of his own runs as he struggled to make it through the seventh.

Luis Cessa came in for the eighth and ninth, giving up just one hit. Cessa is looking better and better each time out, and we are finally starting to see why Brian Cashman thinks so highly of him.

Speaking of Brian Cashman, the Yankees won their 2,000th game with Cashman as the GM. What an accomplishment for one of the best general managers in all of sports.

The Yankees now travel down to Houston to take on the Astros in a three game series. Masahiro Tanaka gets the ball for the Yankees against Houston ace Justin Verlander. First pitch is set at 7:00PM (ET) on ESPN, Watch ESPN, YES Network, and FOX Sports Go.