In 1968, the New York Yankees won 83 games and lost 79, which is a .512 winning percentage. They finished in fifth place, 20 games behind the first place Detroit Tigers and 17 ½ game ahead of the 10th place Washington Senators. In 2006, the St. Louis Cardinals won 83 games and lost 78, which is a .516 winning percentage. They won the National League Central Division title, the pennant and the World Series. The 1968 Yankees were considered a mediocre team, which was an accurate assessment. They had won ...
While the New York Yankees began their 2012 regular season Friday, Andy Pettitte has begun his spring training.The 39-year-old announced he was coming out of retirement in mid-March, which was already a month through spring training, so it was pretty well known Pettitte wasn't going to start out with the Yankees in April.Pettitte pitched in Monday night's Class A game for the Tampa Yankees against Clearwater, the Class A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. Pettitte pitched three innings, allowed one run on two hits and struck out two. He also ...
The New York Yankees were able to stop the bleeding after going 0-3 by beating the Baltimore Orioles Monday night, 6-2.Derek Jeter led the Yankees to their first win of the 2012 season by going 4-for-4 with four hits.Starting pitcher Ivan Nova had a solid outing in his first start of the season, striking out seven with no walks and giving up a home run in the second inning to Matt Wieters.Jeter stepped up to the plate leading off in the first inning hitting a single and scored on an ...
The last time the Yankees got off to an 0-3 start was 1998, a season in which they won the World Series. The magical thing about baseball is that there are 162 games in a season, and plenty of time to make a turnaround.On Monday night, the Yankees picked up their first win against the Baltimore Orioles; Nova went seven strong, Mariano closed it out and Jeter went four-for-four. It is way too early to make any bold predictions, but these performances showed us three different things.Begin Slideshow
It's easy for the Hiroki Kuroda doubters to come out in full force after his shaky debut with the New York Yankees, but realistically, you can take very little from any starter's first outing of the season. If first starts were everything, CC Sabathia wouldn't be that good. New York's No. 2 starter went 5.2 innings, allowing six runs (four earned) on eight hits with fours walks and two strikeouts. Right off the bat, Kuroda got into trouble thanks to predictably shaky fielding from Eduardo Nunez. The young infielder booted the ...
When the Yankees traded top prospect Jesus Montero for Michael Pineda this winter, many overlooked the fact that there were two other young pitchers involved in the deal. The Yankees sent right-hander Hector Noesi to the Mariners, and they received 21-year-old flamethrower Jose Campos in return.Noesi is already a member of the Mariners' rotation this season and will likely give the club around 150 quality innings. If he were still a Yankee, he'd be nothing more than a long reliever because of the club's pitching depth.Campos, on the other hand, ...
It was the first inning of the first game of the season. The Tampa Bay Rays had runners on second and third with two outs. When the right-handed batting Sean Rodriguez stepped into the batter’s box, Joe Girardi ordered C. C. Sabathia to walk him. It was the first inning of the first game of the season. Girardi couldn’t have mistaken Sean Rodriguez for Alex Rodriguez or even Pudge Rodriguez. No, it was clearly Sean Rodriguez, the same Sean Rodriguez that batted .223/.323/.357 with eight home runs and 36 RBIs ...
Despite the Yankees' pitching rotation enduring many blows this offseason—the departure of A.J. Burnett, Joba Chamberlain hurting his ankle on a trampoline, and Michael Pineda landing on the DL to start the season—the Yankees have the deepest batting lineup in the entire league.Finishing first in the American League East last season, the Yankees suffered a loss in the Division Series to the Detroit Tigers. In New York, anything short of a World Series is considered a failed season, and the Yankees are looking to have a successful one in 2012.A ...
According to Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News, early in March, YES president Tracy Dolgin proudly announced that YES is "a homer network." Dolgin explained that a "homer" is the antithesis of an objective announcer. “When you’re watching a game (on YES),” Dolgin told Newsday (h/t New York Daily News), “I’m very proud to say we’re rooting for the home team on our air.” If Dolgin had reflected just a little, he might have realized that if YES announcers always rooted for the home team, they would be ...
New York Yankees legendary closer Mariano Rivera blew his first save opportunity in the Opening Day game against the Tampa Bay Rays, but there is no need to be concerned.The Yankees were quickly down by four runs in the first inning, but Raul Ibanez proved his worth with a three-run home run blast in the third inning.Reliever David Robertson, a likely candidate to become the full-time closer after Rivera retires, walked one and gave up one single, putting runners on the corners, and then struck out three batters in the ...