A minor trade, and when do we hear about German? Also, it’s early, but a look at the HOF tracker.

Last week, with the official signing of Gerrit Cole, the Yankees designated Chance Adams for assignment.

Today they traded Adams to KC for a minor league infielder, Cristian Perez.

Perez, 21, is primarily a SS who has played a little at 2B and 3B. The righty hitter was at High-A Wilmington last season and hit .252-0-42 in 117 games. He stole 5 bases but was caught 10x.

Adams had some nice minor league seasons in 2016 and 2017 but had arm surgery and in the past two seasons hasn’t been the same. In 33 MLB IP (2018-2019) he is 1-2 with a ghastly 8.18 ERA (ERA+ 55).

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So, when will MLB finally decide on German’s punishment for the domestic abuse incident? It’s taking long enough, isn’t it?

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Only 50 ballots are known so far in the HOF vote, and I do see some surprises.

Now 50 is just 12.4% of ballots known, but neither Jason Giambi (an MVP, 440 HR) nor Paul Konerko (439 HR) have received a vote so far. I can see Giambi being snubbed due to BALCO and the steroids, but Konerko?

Raul Ibanez and Adam Dunn (462 HR) also have not received a vote so far, either.

Neither has Cliff Lee, or Alfonso Soriano (412 HR) for that matter.

Bobby Abreu is at 7.8%, Andy Pettitte 13.7%, enough as of now, to keep them on the ballot.

Andruw Jones (434 hr) 21.6%, Gary Sheffield (509 hr) 29.4%.

Showing that a lot of HR doesn’t matter to the voters anymore. 400 or 500 HR isn’t automatic anymore.

Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds are just shy of the 75%, both at 74.5%. Usually the votes that are NOT known about bring Clemens and Bonds further down.

As of now, and it’s still EARLY (vote announced 1/21), the three that WOULD get in are Derek Jeter (at 100% so far), Larry Walker (86.3) and Curt Schilling (82.4).

Yanks introduce Cole; DFA Adams; Numbers Game.

The Yankees had their introductory press conference for Gerrit Cole today. Cole will don #45, and Luke Voit, who had the number, will switch to #59.

Voit explains that his brother was a captain on the Army football team recently, and wore #59, so…

To make room on the 40-man roster for Cole, Chance Adams was DFA’d. Adams, a top minor league prospect a few years ago, has regressed. He was 0-1, 7.04 in 7 2/3 IP for the Yanks in 2018 and 1-1, 8.53 in 25 1/3 IP in 2019. Total Yankees’ career: 1-2, 8.18, ERA+55 in 33 innings. He’s 25, so still young, but we’ll see what his future holds.

Game 160. Yanks blast 6 HR in 14-7 win. Overtake Twins. Will play Twins in ALDS.

With a nickname like the Bronx Bombers, you would expect the Yankees to be proud of the team HR record they had for years (240 in 1961 stood a long time) and regained last year with 267. You would expect they would want to keep it in house.

It appears they came out pretty mad after two games of offensive ineptitude against the Rays, where they scored just one HR (a Maybin HR) in 21 innings.

Last night the Yankees (103-57) hit 6 HR in a 14-7 win over Texas, and in this season where the ball seems like an oversized golf ball, overtook the Twins 305-303 in the race to see who sets the new record.

The Yanks also found out that with Houston beating the Angels last night, that they are locked into the #2 seed in the AL and will be facing those Twins in the ALDS. Houston will be the #1 seed. The Yanks will have Games 1 and 2 at Yankee Stadium next Friday and Saturday. Game 3 will be in Minnesota Monday. Game 4, if necessary, in Minnesota on Tuesday and Game 5, if necessary, will be back in the Bronx on Thursday, Oct. 10.

With two games left in the season, if the Yanks do make the WS, the Yanks are one game behind the Dodgers (the NL’s best team). The Yanks do hold the tiebreaker if both teams finish in a tie.

Giancarlo Stanton got things started with a HR (3) in the top of the first. It was the Yankees’ 300th HR of the season.

James Paxton gave up a two-run HR in the bottom of the first and left after one inning with a tight left glute. He says he could have continued but that he was pulled for precautionary reasons. Hopefully he is OK, since his next start will most likely be Game 1 or 2 of the ALDS.

The Yanks came right back in the second when Cameron Maybin tied it with his 11th HR of the season.

The Yanks got three in the fourth and didn’t look back. Brett Gardner led off the inning with his 28th HR of the season. Gio Urshela doubled and was forced at second by Maybin. Mike Ford then forced Maybin at second. D.J. LeMahieu doubled Ford to third and both runners scored on a single by Stanton. 5-2 Yanks.

The Yanks got three in the sixth when Urshela led off the inning with his 21st HR of the year. After a walk to Maybin, Ford hit his 12th HR. 8-2 Yankees.

They scored three more in the seventh to make it 11-2. With one out, Gardner singled. After Urshela struck out for the second out, Maybin singled Gardner to third, the Ford walked to load the bases. LeMahieu cleared the bases with a double and was thrown out trying for three. The three RBI put LeMahieu over 100 RBI for the season, at 102.

Gary Sanchez came off the IL, played, didn’t do too well at the plate, but said he felt fine. Edwin Encarnacion was on the bench, but didn’t play. He probably will today.

Update: Encarnacion probably not back until the postseason.

Texas got an unearned run in the eighth off of Mike King, who was making his MLB debut to make it 11-3.

The Yanks got three more runs in the top of the ninth. Austin Romine led off the inning with his 8th HR of the season. Clint Frazier walked and was forced at second by Urshela. Maybin singled. Ford doubled in both runs. 14-3.

Chance Adams continued to disappoint, giving up two HR and four runs in the bottom of the ninth to make it 14-7.

LeMahieu 3 hits, 3 RBI. Now at .331-26-102.
Stanton 3 for 3, 2 walks. Solo HR (3).
Torres 2 hits.
Voit 0 for 5, 3 strikeouts. SEE BELOW.
Sanchez 0 for 3, 3 strikeouts in return from IL.
Romine solo HR (8)
Gardner 2 hits, solo HR (28)
Urshela 2 hits, solo HR (21)  .316-21-74
Maybin 3 hits, solo HR (11)
Ford 2 hits, 4 RBI HR (12)

Voit is 1 for his last 30 and in danger of losing a postseason roster spot to Ford.

Paxton 1 IP, 2 R, 3 H, 0 W, 1 K. Gave up 1 HR.  3.82
Heller 1 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 W, 1 K.  1.42
Tarpley (W, 1-0, 6.93) 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 2 K.
Loaisiga (H, 1) 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 W, 1 K.  4.55
Gearrin (H, 14) 1 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 W, 1 K.  4.14
Lyons 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 2 K.  6.75
King 2 IP, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 W, 1 K.  0.00   MLB DEBUT
Adams 1/3 IP, 4 R, 4 H, 0 W, 1 K. Gave up 2 HR.  8.53
Cortes, Jr.  2/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 0 K.  5.45

Win #103 matches the 2009 squad. To find a year where the Yanks had more, you have to go back to 1998 (114).

NOTE: I WILL NOT HAVE A RECAP OF SATURDAY’S GAME #161. I WILL BE OUT OF TOWN ATTENDING A NIECE’S WEDDING AND STAYING IN A HOTEL OVERNIGHT, AND WON’T BE BACK IN TOWN UNTIL LATER SUNDAY AND THEN HAVE A HIGH SCHOOL REUNION TO ATTEND SUNDAY. BUSY WEEKEND.

Game 152. Successful Seve return as Yanks shutout Angels, 8-0. Betances tears Achilles, done for season. Torres hits #38; Magic # 1.

Good and bad news healthwise. Stanton to be activated today or Thursday. Encarnacion feels like he’ll be back. Now, no news yet on Sanchez, but

tonight, Luis Severino finally came back off of injury and in his season debut pitched four scoreless innings as the Yanks (99-53) beat the Angels, 8-0.

We’ll see how he feels tomorrow and how he comes through this. But very encouraging.

The magic # is 1 to make the playoffs, and also is 1 to win the AL East. Houston won so the Yanks remain tied with Houston for best record in the AL (Houston has the tiebreaker). The Dodgers are one game behind both the Yanks and Houston (Yanks hold tiebreaker over LA). The Yanks have a 10 game lead over Tampa Bay in the AL East with 10 games to go.

The bad news is that Dellin Betances is done for the year with a partially torn Achilles tendon.  He is a free agent after the season, and a bad year to miss the whole year. We’ll see what happens in the wintertime.

The Yanks got two runs in the second inning when Gleyber Torres singled and Luke Voit walked. One out later, Gio Urshela singled in one run and then Cameron Maybin doubled in another to put the Yanks up 2-0.

They broke the game open with six runs in the fourth. With one out, Urshela singled. Cameron Maybin singled, then after another out, all six runs scored with one out. D.J. LeMahieu singled in a run to make it 3-0. Aaron Judge walked to load the bases. Didi Gregorius doubled in two runs to make it 5-0. Torres then hit a 3-run HR (38) to cap things off at 8-0.

LeMahieu 2 hits, RBI  .329
Gregorius 2 RBI
Torres 2 hits, 3 RBI; 3-run HR (38)
Urshela 2 hits, RBI.  .328
Maybin 2 hits, RBI

Severino 4 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 2 W, 4 K.  0.00
Loaisiga (W, 2-1, 4.23) 2 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 W, 3 K
Tarpley 1 1/3 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 0 W, 4 K.  7.71
Gearrin 2/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 0 K.  4.18
Adams 1 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 1 W, 2 K.  7.20

In the race for the new team MLB record, the Twins have 289, the Yankees 287. The Twins have played one less game.

UPDATE: Breyvic Valera was DFA’d.

UPDATE 2: From the NY Post.

The Yankees have let go of five minor league staff members.

According to minor league head Kevin Reese, the team didn’t renew the contracts of hitting coordinator Edwar Gonzalez, field coordinator Jody Reed, pitching coordinator Scott Aldred, Trenton hitting coach Ty Hawkins and Charleston hitting coach Greg Colbrunn.

Aldred’s departure follows the departure of fellow pitching coordinator Danny Burrell, who left to take the pitching coach job at Georgia Tech.

Hate seeing Aldred go.

Game 146. Yanks pitching disappoints. They hit 6 HR, but lose a 12-11 slugfest to Tigers.

Well, we know which pitchers should NOT be on the postseason roster. If this was an audition to see who makes it, a lot failed.

Despite holding a 6-0 lead over the team with the worst record in baseball (yes, worse than Baltimore), the pitchers used could not hold it, and the Yanks (95-61) lost to the Tigers, 12-11, despite hitting SIX homers.

The six HR put the Yanks in a tie with the Twins at 276, which is the most in a season by a team. We’ll see who comes out on top.

They remain in a tie with the Astros (Houston has the tiebreaker) for the best record in baseball, one game ahead of the Dodgers (the Yanks own the tiebreaker over the Dodgers). The AL East lead is 8 over Tampa Bay. The magic # to clinch the East remains 9. The magic # to just make the playoffs remains at 7.

Ugly. Terrible pitching. The fielding left something to be desired also. Errors, missing cutoff men…. The LF tonight was Frazier, the RF Wade.

The Yanks got a run in the first when Brett Gardner hit a HR (22), giving him a new season high.

Second inning: Yanks score five runs, go up 6-0 on the worst team in baseball, and you think this game is over. Didn’t turn out that way.

Gio Urshela led off with a double and Luke Voit singled him home. 2-0. Clint Frazier singled. Tyler Wade tripled home two runs, 4-0. Gardner homered AGAIN (23) and it was 6-0.

Nestor Cortes, who had pitched two scoreless innings to start the game, lost it in the third as Detroit tied the game with six runs, four of them unearned because of an error by Gleyber Torres.

Torres homered in the fourth (36) to put the Yanks up 7-6.

Fifth inning. Didi Gregorius homers (15) and Yanks go up 8-6.

Detroit gets a HR in the bottom of the fifth to cut it to 8-7.

Detroit gets three in the sixth. They take a 10-8 lead. Yanks did not hold a lead, again, to the worst team in baseball.

With two out in the seventh, Gary Sanchez singles and Edwin Encarnacion hits a HR (33) to tie the game. Edwin and Didi go back-to-back as Didi hits his second HR of the game (16) to put the Yanks up 11-10.

Once again, they could not hold a lead to the worst team in baseball. I hate to drum that home, but facts are facts. This was an ugly loss. Remember that if the Yanks lose home field advantage to Houston and/or the Dodgers. You can’t lose these types of games if you want home field advantage.

With two out in the bottom of the seventh and a man on, a passed ball and a single enable Detroit to tie the game.

Tommy Kahnle wasn’t available (wrist tendonitis). Chance Adams was in there for the ninth. I would have preferred John Quincy Adams. Chance Adams loses the game.

Torres solo HR (36)
Gardner 2 hits, both HR (23) 3 RBI
Encarnacion 2-run (33)
Gregorius 2 hits, both Solo HR (16)
Wade 2 RBI

Cortes, Jr. 2 1/3 IP, 4 R, 2 ER, 6 H, 1 W, 2 K.  5.23
Cessa 2 2/3 IP, 3 R, 1 ER, 3 H, 0 W, 0 K. Gave up 1 HR.  3.81
Gearrin (H, 13) 1/3 IP, 2 R, 2 H, 0 W, 0 K.  4.35
Loaisiga (BS, 1) 1/3 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 2 W, 0 K.  4.94
Dull 1/3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 0 K.   13.06
Ottavino (BS, 6) 1 IP, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 W, 3 K.  1.73
Britton 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 W, 1 K.   2.04
Adams (L, 1-1, 7.50) 1/3 IP, 1 R, 2 H, 0 W, 1 K.

We can only assume that Cortes, Cessa(???), Gearrin, Loaisiga, Dull and Adams will all NOT be on the postseason roster. I mean, if you do that poorly, and can’t hold a lead  against the worst team in baseball, why should you be on a POSTSEASON roster?

If healthy, and if you are taking 13 pitchers, you most likely will see:

Paxton
Tanaka
Happ (surprisingly)
Severino
Green
German
CC
Kahnle
Ottavino
Britton
Chapman
Update: Betances

That is 12. (Had 11 before, forgot Betances).

The question is will there be another? Will the Yanks go with 12 or 13 pitchers? It’s too bad Hale is out. He pitched well for the Yanks this year (3-0, 2.89). Could Montgomery sneak in here?  How about Ben Heller (see below). I still am not sold on Cessa, but he may still make it.

I really wonder if the Yanks would chance Deivi Garcia.

The Yanks DFA’d Adonis Rosa to bring up Ben Heller.

Sigh. If the Yanks lose home field by a game and have to play a deciding game in Houston or LA, this is the loss I’ll remember and regret.

 

 

Game 142. Yanks’ offense dormant in 6-1 loss.

The Yankees only got 3 hits and one run in losing to Boston, 6-1, on Friday night. The only run came on Brett Gardner’s 21st HR of the season, tying his career high.

Domingo German started strong, but with two out in the fourth, couldn’t get out of the inning. He gave up a leadoff double, got two outs, but then a walk, RBI single and 3-run HR and there were four runs.

Gardner hit his HR in the top of the fifth to make it 4-1, but Boston got two in the bottom half to make it 6-1.

The Yanks struck out 13x tonight.

This expanded roster B.S. (that thankfully, MLB is cutting back on next year) is ridiculous. Boston had 17 pitchers and used 7 tonight to navigate a 9-inning game.

With the loss, the Yanks fall to 92-50 (looking at the rest of the schedule, I anticipate the Yanks to finish at 104 or 105 wins. The magic # remains 12. The lead over the Rays is 8 1/2 with 20 games to go.)

But they are now tied with Houston for best record in the AL (Houston holds the tiebreaker). We’ll have to see where they stand against the Dodgers (playing as I write this).

Gardner 2 hits (of the 3 the Yanks had). Solo HR (21).

German (L, 17-4, 4.21) 4 1/3 IP, 5 R, 3 H, 4 W, 5 K. Gave up 1 HR.
Cortes, Jr. 2/3 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 2 W, 1 K.  5.13.
Lyons 1 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 W, 1 K.   9.00
Gearrin 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 W, 0 K.  4.10
Adams 1 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 0 W, 1 K.   7.23.

After the past few outings, I do not expect Cortes to be on the postseason roster.

Game 138. Back to back HR’s in 9th tie, then win game for Yanks, 5-4.

What a game to be at (as I was)! and what a finish!

The Yanks (90-48) became the first team this year to 90 wins with a thrilling come-from-behind victory over Oakland on Sunday. They maintain their 10 game lead over Tampa Bay in the AL East as the magic number is now 15 to clinch the division outright.

The win also keeps the Yanks one game ahead of Houston for both the best record in the AL and best record in the majors for home field advantage. Houston won yesterday as Justin Verlander tossed his third career no-hitter.

The Yankees and A’s were scoreless through six innings, as J.A. Happ, who has struggled all year long, had a good outing. In the bottom of the fifth, with the bases loaded and two out, A’s 1B Matt Olson made a great play on Mike Tauchman to save two runs.

But the Yanks were limited as to who to replace Happ. Having used a lot of pitchers in Saturday’s extra inning win, and with Zach Britton having a calf problem (it cramped in Saturday’s game), the Yanks were forced to use a couple of callups. Since yesterday (Sunday) was September 1, you had roster expansion. Some callups were OF/DH Clint Frazier, and pitchers Ryan Dull, Tyler Lyons and Chance Adams.

So Dull (who came from Oakland, for whom he pitched 2015-2019) came in for the seventh, making his Yankees’ debut, and gave up three runs. Adams gave up a HR in the eighth, and through 7 1/2 innings, the Yanks were down 4-0.

They got back into the game with three runs in the bottom of the eighth. Tauchman led off the inning with a walk, then D.J. LeMahieu singled. Aaron Judge walked to load the bases. Gleyber Torres moved up all the runners with a SF. 4-1. After Gary Sanchez popped up, Didi Gregorius singled in two runs to make it 4-3.

In the bottom of the ninth, Brett Gardner led off the inning with a HR (19) to tie the game, then Mike Ford PH for Clint Frazier and Ford’s 10th HR of the year won it.

LeMahieu 2 hits  .335
Gregorius 2 RBI
Gardner game-tying solo HR (19)
Ford game-winning PH solo HR (10)

Happ 6 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 4 W, 5 K.  5.34
Dull 1 IP, 3 R, 2 H, 2 W, 1 K.  13.50
Adams 1 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 0 W, 2 K.  7.54  Gave up 1 HR
Ottavino (W, 6-4, 1.69) 1 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 W, 1 K.