The Pinstriped Baseball Lane

With the possible return of baseball, later this spring/summer, many Yankee milestones could possible be put into gear.  On Saturday, May 16, the governor of New York State said there will ultimately be “minimal risk” of the Yankees and Mets playing in the state.  With that being the plan for New York baseball, some of the Yankee athletes will finally get the chance to add some more momentous contributions to the baseball records.  As a Yankee fan, I can’t wait to see another historic Yankee season unfold.

Let’s take a look at a few of the milestones that they will be in route for:

The Cole Train- On Track To Compile 1,500 Ks & 100 Ws

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJsDZ4brnwc. In the video link to the left, you will get a glimpse of what Gerrit Cole will be bring to the Yankees’ mound in the Bronx

The New York Yankees fortify their starting rotation in the off-season by securing Gerrit Cole as their ace. You could argue that the biggest milestone of all, had the 2020 season began as scheduled, would have been Gerrit Cole’s Yankee debut on Opening Day.

If the season had began as planned, fans would have seen the new pinstriped ace at work.  The Yankees, a team built on a championship filled history, matched themselves with the best pitcher on the planet.
  Pitching stud, Gerrit Cole, presently has a total of 1,336 strikeouts and 94 wins across seven big-league seasons.  Based off his 2019 performance – with 20 wins and 326 strikeouts (to lead all hurlers) – he’ll have absolutely no problem clearing these statistical benchmarks the next time he takes a major league mound. 

As a side note, just to put Cole’s numbers into perspective, I am going to compare his numbers to CC Sabathia’s.  Sabathia retired in 2019, as the Yankees’ southpaw, with 251 wins and 3,093 punch outs.  He managed to accumulate exactly 100 victories and 1,142 Ks after his first seven campaigns.  I  believe Cole seems to be on a similar route to a historic career.

Is it crazy to think that the Yankees acquired the last piece of the puzzle that could put them on the World Series stage?  I would like to think not, especially since history is on our side.  After all, Sabathia was apart of the 2009 World Series club and now the Yankee have a another potential Cy Young contender to lead their starting rotation.  So, in my opinion, I don’t think the idea is far fetched.

Brett Gardner- Brett The Jet Will Look To Throw Throw Another Gardy Party Filled Season

Brett Gardner has made himself a household name in the Yankees fan-base, even though he may not grab the attention of millennial fans of the game today.  The game of baseball is meant to be played with passion. To me, this is a guy who steps onto the field everyday wearing his heart on his sleeve.  The veteran Yankee outfielder is just an old-school athlete in an updated game.

Gardner is the longest tenured player on New York’s roster and he just needs one more game to reach 1,500 career appearances in pinstripes.  There is no doubt that he won’t play his 1,500th game, but he’s not getting any younger.  Like I explain in my Brett Gardner blog post, the guy is seen as “an under the radar guy”, and that is what make him my current favorite player.  The veteran outfielder turns 37 years old this summer and he has proven his worth to the Yankee ball-club by showing that he still has production in the tank, but even I have to admit that he can’t play forever.

Gardner’s played in 12 seasons so far – averaging 125 games per season.  With that being said, if he can reach 1,786 (287 seasons), he’ll pass Don Mattingly and enter the top-ten in games played in Yankees franchise history. Honestly, knowing that Gardy plays with grit and passion, I think he can take that place in the team’s history. 

Dominate From Start To Finish

Every ball-club needs to have strong ace to head their starting rotation, but the team needs to know they have a pitching staff that can start strong and end strong.  The Yankees are equipped with that from the head of the pitching staff to the very end of their bullpen.  With the Yankees’ pitching staff, it is pretty clear that they are set to dominant.  The phrase that I like  to use to describe the Yankees’ pitching staff is,  “Start  stronger, End Strong”.  At the head of the starting rotation, it is headed by the deception of Gerrit Cole, meanwhile the tail end of of the ball-club is held down by a flame throwing closer.

To be honest, I won’t want to be in the batter’s box when Cole is the starting pitcher, and I sure as hell do not want to face that 105 mph thrown by Aroldis Chapman .  The flame throwing  closer currently sits comfortably at 273 saves. That means he’s 27 shy of eclipsing the 300 mark, something only exactly 30 other hurlers have done in MLB history.

  Over Chapman’s eight seasons as a full-time closer, he’s tallied more than 27 saves all but once (he had just 22 in his first full season with the Bombers in 2017.  Dellin Betances had 10 saves of his own).

  If the novel coronavirus pandemic never occurred, this would have been the left-hander’s age-32 season and 11th in the big leagues. 

  With the wear and tear of throwing as hard as he does, it’s hard to envision Chapman pitching for as long as someone like Mariano Rivera did.  Certainly there’s no chance Chapman can rival Rivera’s record of 652 saves, as it is a reminder of how impressive that feat is.  Nevertheless, Chapman is keeping fit in quarantine and will be ready for another championship run.

Gleyber Torres Is On Track For 100 HRs

So far, I told you about the veteran presence in the game and their gritty, but what about the youth on the team?  

  The Yankees went from having the iconic name of Derek Jeter at shortstop to replacing him with Didi Gregorius , and now they are banking on the production of a stellar youth.

Torres clobbered a total 62 dingers thus far in his two seasons in the majors (across 267 games played).  With that being said, the new Yankees’ shortstop is just shy of 38 long balls of making it to triple digits.
  It is pretty obvious that he has the hot bat to smash those 38 homers, maybe he can even hit more than that, as two shy of 40 was the exact number of homers he hit this past season. There’s no question Torres is on pace for a special, historic career that possibly put him in the conversation for MVP talks again. 

What Does Reaching These Milestones Mean For The Yankees?

In my opinion, these are the studs that called be called, “The New Core Four”.  Don’t get me wrong, everyone on the roster is an asset, but if these four guys are performing well in each game they are needed in, a World Series is sure to be in the Yankees’ future.
 

These four guys provide a good mix of productivity.  Gardy provides grit and veteran leadership.  Gerrit Cole and Aroldis Chapman are two of the best at their craft and they have experience of performing in big moments.  Last, but definitely not least is Gleyber Torres, who is one of the many injections of stellar youth.  With these guys striving to reach their goals, it surely will bring the best out in them and the entire team.  

 

 

 

 

The 2020 baseball season has been delayed and may not even get underway this year.  Although that may be the case, players are making use of their new found quarantined lifestyle.

New York Yankees‘ closer Aroldis Chapman is making the most of his quarantined time by committing to body building.

Throughout the quarantine, the Yankees’ closer frequently takes to Instagram to post his workout regiments.  In his recent post, Chapman took to Instagram to show off his boxing skills, which resulted from his body building that came from using his home gym.

  Whenever baseball returns, Aroldis Chapman will most likely have extra sharpness on his fastball, which already has an electric speed of 105.1 mph.  This is currently the fastest pitch speed in MLB.  Which is, practically one of the reason I am anxiously awaiting the return of baseball.
  I mean can you imagine any of the Yankees’ oppositions having a lot of success against their clicking offense that follows a “pass the baton” routine to get men in scoring position. Then they have to deal with some of the games elite pitchers, from the starting pitchers to the bullpen.

  In a sport like baseball, teams have to be able to start games strong and close out games with even more dominance.  That would means, the entire pitching staff needs to work as a well-oiled machine in order to prevent the opposition from tacking on runs.  With the Yankees’ acquiring Cole and Yankees’ getting some reassurance of a healing Luis Severino, I can’t wait to see the three All-Stars whiff their pitches pass the batters.

  Honestly though, with all due respect to every Yankee player, I will be paying extra attention to how the Yankee closer performs whenever the season gets underway.  We seen him carry the Chicago Cubs to a World Series, we have seen him close out the 2019 All-Star game where he guaranteed the American League their seven straight win against the National League and we have seen The Cuban Missile shut down bats in close-scoring regular season games.

  The star Yankees closer looks swollen as ever in a picture and video he shares on Instagram.  Again, I am saying that I have respect for all of the Yankees’ ball players, but Chapman took over a role that was held by Hall of Fame pitcher Mariano Rivera.  So for that reason and Chapman’s previous success, now that the Yanks have what is believed to be a complete team, I want to see the Yankees go all in on their 28th championship run.  That being said, for Chapman, who has been long regarded as one of MLB’s best athletes — and not just because of his hulk-like muscles. 

  A baseball insider once told The Post’s George King that the 6-foot-4, 215-pound Chapman beat speedster center fielder Billy Hamilton, who stands 6 feet and 160 pounds, in a 100-yard dash while the two were with the Cincinnati Reds in the mid-2010s.  In 2017, YES Network shared video of Chapman doing impressive 1,000-pound leg presses.

  Honestly, I believe Aroldis Chapman, a.k.a Chappy/ “The Cuban Missile” has Hall of Fame stuff and is able to replicate his World Series performance with Chicago.  I can’t to see him at the end of the Yankees’ bullpen in his elite form, slamming the door on the opposition and giving the ball club a chance to put a victory in their record books.

Hal Steinbrenner took ownership of the team in 2010 and up until the signing of Gerrit Cole, he has been running the Yankees’ ball-club differently from his father.  For a few seasons now, under the Hal Steinbrenner’s administration, the Yankee organization steered away from signing big free agent contracts.  Under the new ownership, the Yankees are stock piling on prospect and building the team from within.  Yankee fans have been waiting a while to see a big splash, especially one that can help the starting rotation.  It would seem that the saying, “father-like-son” applies to Hal Steinbrenner’s recent acquisition.  He took a page out of his father’s book, to tip the world series’ odds in the Yankees favor for the 2020 season.  He did so, as his father once did with so many big names in the baseball world, by signing them to big money contracts for multiple seasons.

As all Yankee fans know by now, the Yankees have locked up Gerrit Cole to a nine year, $324 million contract.”   Baseball fans in New York will finally get a chance to see baseball once again and the crosstown rivalry between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets  will have an extra flare to it, as fans have long awaited the battle of the aces.
 

It has been long awaited by the two New York baseball fanbases to see Gerrit Cole and Jacob DeGrom toe the slab against each other.  I can’t wait to see, what I imagine to be the most elite and lethal pitching artists go up against each other, as New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo believes there could be a possible return of Yankees and Mets baseball.  As the governor put it on Saturday, May 16, there will ultimately be “minimal risk” of the Yankees and Mets playing in the state.

Cuomo had expressed that sports could resume without fans. As leagues embrace the idea out of necessity, it seems he has as well.  So once all the fine details get hammered and finalized, we shall be seeing baseball action as early as the beginning of July.

According to MLB Network, back in early February when it released its annual Top 100 Right Now list, Gerrit Cole was ranked above has  Jacob DeGrom.  Cole was placed at the number seven spot, while DeGrom came in at number eight

Now that the governor of New York is giving the green light for a possible return of America’s Pastime, we can find out the answer to the question of  “who is the true ace in New York?”  Obviously, taking my Yankee bias into account, I am backing Cole.