The Yankees Injury Bug

Author: Zachary Patlin

Editor: Brian Symons

The Yankees have been on a roll lately, winning 7 of their last 10 games and coming off of a sweep of the team with the best record in the AL prior to the series, the Chicago White Sox. The Yankees rotation the last time through has not given up a run. Yes, you read that right. Their last five starts have seen 35 scoreless innings pitched from their starters, including the no hitter by Kluber and three 7 inning shutout outings by Montgomery, German, and Cole.

The bats are still missing a key couple of pieces, however they seem to be doing just fine as of late. Giancarlo Stanton is due back on Tuesday May 25 after going on the IL due to tightness in his left quad. Aaron Hicks on the other hand has elected to take surgery on his right wrist, which could potentially keep him out for the entirety of the season. Voit will join the IL with a grade two oblique strain, a lingering injury that can keep him sidelined for an extended period of time.

On the pitching side of the ball, Darren O’Day has begun a throwing program and can be brought back to the team in the next couple of weeks. He adds a lethal righty arm out of the pen to pair with all the flamethrowers the Yankees throw into the game in big innings. Also, Zack Britton has begun a rehab assignment and the Yankees look forward to slotting him right back into the setup man role in the 8th inning. An injury to Corey Kluber on Tuesday will also shut him down for 4 weeks. It is determined that the injury is a subscap strain.

The biggest injury the Yankees have faced thus far has been losing Luis Severino to Tommy John surgery. Severino had in fact started a throwing program and had begun to face live hitters at the Yankees facility. They would love to have him fully built up and back by mid summer to a lot into the number two spot of their very good rotation following Gerrit Cole.

The Yankees did not start this season off the way they would have liked by any stretch of the imagination. After falling to 5-10, they have won 22 of their last 30 games and they look to be the team everyone thought they would be. And I think they can be better. They have yet to hit their power stride on offense, which may be scary to the opposing teams. Let’s see if they can get some key players back, keep the pitching going the way it has been, and get the bat production up to what everyone knows this team can do. That would be one scary combination for other teams!

SPORTS ARE OUR UNIVERSE

Yankees Offseason Recap

Author: Nick Cammarano

Editor: Brian Symons

The New York Yankees will start the 2021 season with the same goal they had last year, win the World Series, and anything less will be deemed a failure. General Manager Brian Cashman and the front office had a terrific offseason. They kicked off the winter by acquiring Jameson Taillon in exchange for prospects RHP Michael Yajure, RHP Roansy Contreras, SS Maikol Escotto, and LF Canaan Smith. Tallion who is 29 has two years left on his contract before he hits free agency. Although Taillon is young it is hard to ignore his rather lengthy injury history:

2014: Tommy John Surgery

2015: Sports Hernia

2017: Testicular Cancer

2019: Tommy John Surgery

Aside from his injury history, Taillon does have a rather significant upside he has a career 3.67 ERA, 3.55 FIP, and a SIERA of 4.38 in 466.0 innings pitched. His fastball tops out around 95 mph and has a great arsenal of off-speed pitches which makes him a great asset.

Following the acquisition of Tallion, the Yankees added more rotation depth with the signing of free-agent pitcher of two-time CY Young award winner Corey Kluber to a one-year 11 million dollar deal. Kluber 34 who’s last full season was in 2018 has only pitched 36.2 innings from 2019-2020 due to a fractured arm and strained oblique. Many people seem to forget that at his peak Kluber was one of the best in the league posting a 2.85 ERA, 2.83 FIP, and a 5.31 K/BB spanning from 2014-2018. Despite his age, Kluber is a great veteran pick-up for the Yankees and will help to strengthen their rotation.

Key Resignings

The biggest move the Yankees made was the resigning of second basemen D.J. LeMahieu to a 6 year deal with an AAV of $15 million. LeMahieu slashed .312/.360/.492 as well wOBA of .362 and a wRC+ of 122. (Stats from 2018-2020) The MVP finalist has been a very consistent hitter for the Yankees and he has been a guy they could rely on to be clutch. In addition to the LeMahieu resigning the Yankees also resigned veteran outfielder Brett Gardner to a 2 year $5.15 million contract. Gardner will be a great depth player in the Yankees outfield on top of being a lefty bat off of the bench. The lifelong Yankee had a solid 2020 slashing .223/.354/.392 and posted a .332 wOBA and 110 wRC+.

Bullpen Additions

It’s no secret that the Yankees bullpen has had their fair share of struggles as well as lack of depth and this offseason the front office made two nice acquisitions in Darren O’Day and Justin Wilson. O’Day is coming off of a great 2020 season in which he posted a 1.10 ERA, 2.76 FIP, and a 3.05 SIERA in 16.6 innings pitched. The veteran will add some much-needed security to the bullpen. Justin Wilson signed a 2-year deal worth $5.15 million. Wilson had a mediocre 2020 with the Mets wherein 19.2 innings of work he had a 3.66 ERA, 3.04 FIP, and 3.92 SIERA.

Overall the Yankees had a great offseason by adding some nice depth pieces to solidify both their rotation and their bullpen. A fully healthy Bronx Bombers team is easily top five in the league as far as true talent goes and are certainly the favorites to come out of the American League on top. On the contrary, it will be a long season and the Yankees as a whole have a history of injuries, it is imperative that they stay off of the IL in order to have a shot and raising the commissioner’s trophy in October.

SPORTS ARE OUR UNIVERSE

Battle of the Sluggers in the Big Apple

Author: Steven Chase

Editor: Mark Awadallah

Playing baseball in New York, the largest sports market in the world, warrants a great deal of criticism as well as comparisons to your cross-town counterparts. This is extremely relevant amongst the two first basemen in NYC, Pete Alonso and Luke Voit, where people ask, who is the best in New York? After the 2019 season, the answer to this was obvious: Pete Alonso. But after a huge power surge by Voit in 2020, notching 22 home runs in 56 games, and a somewhat down year for Alonso, the answer was not as clear.

Defensively, Alonso has the upper hand. Over his two-year career he has posted a 0 UZR and -7 DRS, while Voit has posted a measly -3.8 UZR and -23 DRS over the past three years. Evidently, neither are known for their defense, and since they both play first base this should not be taken too far into consideration. Voit has been in the league since 2017, but his first two years saw little action, therefore it is only a small sample size. Because of this, to compare the two we will use their stats from 2019-2020.

2019 was a historic year for Pete Alonso. After a stellar performance in Spring Training Brodie Van Wagenen, the Mets General Manager at the time, gave Alonso the call to come play first base for the Mets. Alonso blossomed in the new role. He posted a slash line of .260/.358/.583, a .941 OPS, 147 OPS+, 120 RBIs, and most notably 53 home runs. He also took home some hardware, winning the T-Mobile Home Run Derby and Rookie of the Year, as well as setting the Mets franchise and all-time rookie record for home runs in a single season. While Voit had a solid season, he was nowhere close to Alonso in the 2019 season. Voit posted a .263/.378/.464, a .842 OPS, a 123 OPS+, and 21 home runs. When evaluating the players, 2019 is the most important season to look at since it is the most recent full season. But we also cannot ignore 2020.

This was a down year for Alonso, posting a .231/.326/.490, .817 OPS, and a 123 OPS+. Even in a down year Alonso still posted very solid numbers, just not as good of numbers we hoped for. Voit on the other hand broke out in 2020, putting up .237/.338/.610, .948 OPS, and a 156 OPS+. If you combine the two years, one may presume that this is a very close call, which it is, but there are a few confounding variables that one must point out. Firstly, age is a key factor. Alonso is 26, meaning that these numbers he posted were from his developmental period and he has not yet entered his prime. As a result, it’s likely Alonso will only get better. Voit is turning 30 on February 16th, meaning that he has most likely peaked. Therefore, he will most likely not be getting any better. The second confounding variable is the 60-game season.

In Voit’s best season, he did not endure the stress on his body that most would throughout a full 162 game season. Alonso played 161 out of the 162 games in 2019, and still maintained very comparable numbers to what Voit did in 2020.

Finally, the sophomore season for MLB players is often the worst year. Alonso was a subject of this, as he did not achieve the success that he did the year before. This conveys that 2020 could have been somewhat of a fluke for Voit. This is not to say that Voit is not good, but that he cannot be compared to Alonso just because of an elite 60 game stretch. If Voit continues the success that he had in 2020 throughout 2021, then he could possibly be as good, if not better than Alonso. Unfortunately for Yankees fans however, this is not likely. All in all, Alonso is the best first basemen in New York right now, and it is likely that he will keep this up for years to come.

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