Pinstripe Alley 7 hours ago
The all-time Yankees closed out their “Show” seven-game series in style
Gleyber Torres led the all-time Yankees in home runs and hits in their series sweep. If you didn’t tune into watching the first two games of my all-time Yankees vs. all-time White Sox, then check it out here. I went up 2-0 after some great pitching performances and good enough hitting, led by Lou Gehrig and Andrew Velazquez. In Games 3 and 4, the formula was very similar, but with some new players adding significant production. The lineups changed a bit this time around. The White Sox needed a little bit of offensive help, so they called in some wringers. During the off-days...
Pinstripe Alley 9 hours ago
25 Smartest Moves of the Past 25 Years: The Bobby Abreu trade
Photo by Chris McGrath/ The Yankees committed highway robbery when they acquired Abreu in 2006. The 2006 Yankees lineup was quite deep. Of the seven players who made at least 500 plate appearances, only one had an OPS+ below the league average 100. They had the reigning AL MVP in Álex Rodríguez, and a guy who came very close to winning MVP (and arguably should’ve) that season in Derek Jeter. That’s not to say there weren’t holes, however. Due to injuries and a lack of production in general, one of those holes was in right field. As it just so happened, a pretty...
Pinstripe Alley 11 hours ago
Who were Scranton’s best players to fall short of the Bronx since 2016?
Photo by Joshua Bessex/ These players may not have made the leap from Scranton to the Bronx, but they still put together a good show for RailRiders fans. Good players very rarely spend a lot of time on the Scranton RailRiders — by design, of course, as its primary purpose as the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate is to develop players and get them to the Bronx as soon as possible. Even so, between veterans on minor league deals and low-level prospects blocked at the Major League level, there are still players who put together strong performances with the RailRiders but did...
Pinstripe Alley 13 hours ago
A lineup of Yankees position players pitching
Photo by Al Messerschmidt/ Let’s remember some non-pitchers pitching! Position players pitching is usually a fairly amusing occurrence when it happens. Typically, a team does it when they’re down big and don’t want to risk using an actual pitcher in a blowout. We get to watch the backup right fielder or whoever it is throw up meatballs for an inning knowing that they can’t do any real damage, and maybe we get to see him strike someone out. It’s also an occurrence that’s been happening more frequently over recent years. As a result of that, let’s make an...
Pinstripe Alley 15 hours ago
Today on Pinstripe Alley - 1/28/22
Photo by Jim McIsaac/ Happy final Friday of January. It’s the last Friday of January, which means that we’re theoretically closer to the regular season, though the MLB owners will still be the judges of that fact. All we can do right now is cross our fingers and hope for the best. Fun, right? Anyway, on we go to the latest content. Today on the site, Matt will create a lineup of Yankees position players pitching, John will look back at the best players since 2016 to play for the Triple-A Scranton RailRiders without appearing in the majors, and Matt will return to...
Pinstripe Alley 21 hours ago
NYY news: Wagner shoots down A-Rod’s HoF case
Weeks after Yankees hire Rachel Balkovec, Red Sox also make history; Wagner shoots down A-Rod’s Hall of Fame case; Options at closer with Chapman’s looming free agency MLB.com | Ian Browne: Earlier this month, the Yankees tabbed Rachel Balkovec as the manager of the Low-A Tampa Tarpons, making her the first woman manager in affiliated baseball history. This week, the Red Sox named Katie Krall player development coach at Double-A Portland, meaning Boston is the first organization to employ more than one woman coach. That it’s historic to see a club hire even two women...
Pinstripe Alley Jan 27, 2022
Yankees History: Lou Gehrig breaks record, Yanks break themselves
Lineup protection can be pretty valuable sometimes... When you think of the 1927 Yankees. you almost certainly first think of the powerful “Murderers’ Row” offense. Led by the likes of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, the ‘27 Yankees averaged over six runs per game, which was nearly a full run better than any other MLB team. Even in the game this post is about, which will highlight a disappointingly bad performance, they still put up 11 runs. That is what makes their complete inability to bring Gehrig home on September 5th of the year so very bizarre. While they hadn’t done...
Pinstripe Alley Jan 27, 2022
Alex Rodriguez and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad ALDS
Photo by Corey Sipkin/NY Daily News Archive via What happened in that 2006 series with the Tigers? Yesterday, I wrote about the Alex Rodriguez trade, and I don’t think you can discuss his legacy without including a conversation about his playoff performances, and indeed, the multi-year failure of the Yankees to recapture their late-90s postseason dominance. It’s not entirely A-Rod’s fault — in the series I’m about to talk about, the Yankees started Literally Jaret Wright in an elimination game — but as the best player, and highest paid, he was expected to...
Pinstripe Alley Jan 27, 2022
25 Smartest Moves of the Past 25 Years: Johnny Damon signed
Photo by Rob Tringali/Sportschrome/ Sorry Bubba Crosby, but bringing in Johnny Damon was absolutely the right call. After the 2005 season, the Yankees were in dire need of a center fielder. Now entering his age-37 season, Bernie Williams was no longer capable of manning the position on an everyday basis, as his 85 OPS+ and 12 home runs both represented career lows. Over the course of the season, the Yankees had used Bubba Crosby (career 47 OPS+ in 173 plate appearances over three seasons), left fielder Hideki Matsui (who had manned the position in 2003 when Williams was...
Pinstripe Alley Jan 27, 2022
A reason for optimism about Luke Voit
Photo by Jonathan Daniel/ If Luke Voit has changed his weight room philosophy, that could be a sign of good things to come. Luke Voit recently shared a short video of part of his workout, which in and of itself is far from newsworthy. Athletes and non-athletes alike commonly like to let everyone know what they’re up to in the gym (for reasons I personally can’t quite understand.) That said, Voit’s video had a few details that caught my attention, and at the risk of writing with more than a glass half-full of optimism, I think the details were good signs with...
Pinstripe Alley Jan 27, 2022
Today on Pinstripe Alley - 1/27/22
Photo by Adam Hunger/ Thursday’s rundown. For at least a few days, the MLB offseason sprung to life, with the Hall of Fame announcement coming Tuesday and news of talks between MLB and the MLBPA coming earlier in the week. Things have calmed down again, but winter at least seems to have a bit of life now. On the site today, Matt breaks down an interesting day in the career of Lou Gehrig, and Peter analyzes the most recent reporting on the negotiations between the league and the players. We’ll also see the latest entry in our Yankees Smartest Moves series, the Johnny...
Pinstripe Alley Jan 27, 2022
NYY news: “Hit strikes hard”
Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports Yankees’ hitting coach talks about philosophy and forecasts an exciting season for the offense; Roger Clemens’ impressions after latest Hall snub; How will voters evaluate Carlos Beltran’s case for Cooperstown? MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: Yankees hitting coach Dillon Lawson is known for his “hit strikes hard” philosophy, but he took some time to fully explain what he means with the phrase. “When we swing at strikes, we’re likely to make more contact. When we make more contact, we’re likely to hit the ball harder. When we make...
Pinstripe Alley Jan 26, 2022
Creating my own personal Franken-Yankee
Jonathan Dyer-USA TODAY Sports In which I set out to stitch together the greatest Yankee of all-time from the best attributes of former and current Yankees. In Basketball and Other Things, author Shea Serrano has a section called, “Who’s Your Frankenplayer Made Out Of?” in which he sets out to create the greatest basketball player of all-time by stitching together a bunch of different physical attributes and abilities from a bunch of different players throughout the years. The lockout is killing me and the Hall of Fame has made me irrationally angry yet again,...
Newsday Jan 26, 2022
Yankees take different path than Mets with hitting coach Dillon Lawson
Dillon Lawson says big-league playing experience isn't the most important thing in a hitting coach.
Pinstripe Alley Jan 26, 2022
25 Smartest Moves of the Past 25 Years: The A-Rod trade
Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via As it turns out, it’s a good idea to add the best player in baseball. Sometimes, landing the game’s best player is hard. You have to identify something in a college or high school bat that’s just different, or you have to find a way to mold a raw international free agent into a complete product. And then, sometimes, landing the game’s best player is easy — swoop in after a deal collapses and ... Trade Details: Alex Rodriguez and cash to Yankees; Alfonso Soriano and a player to be named later (Joaquin Arias) to...
