Throughout April, those critics felt pretty great about themselves, as Greene was magnificent with a 0.39 ERA over his first three starts. Despite a couple poor outings at the end of the month, the deal still appeared to be quite lopsided; Gregorius had a nightmarish April, batting .206/.261/.238 while also appearing to be completely lost in the field. Acclaimed as a talented defensive shortstop, he made mental miscues left and right, even if not all of them were scored as errors. So not only were the Yankees down a good, healthy starter (an absence made particularly glaring by Masahiro Tanaka’s DL stint), but they also had a complete nothing at shortstop. Time for Brian Cashman to hand in his resignation and leave Yankee Stadium in a gorilla suit, right?

Fortunately for the Yankees, seasons shockingly don’t end after just one month! Otherwise, Chris Shelton would be an MVP, Vernon Wells would be a 2013 All-Star, and this delightful ditty wouldn’t exist. Those last two starts in April were sadly a precursor of what was to come for Greene–since April 24th, he has had an appallingly awful 8.60 ERA and .993 OPS against in 10 starts, collapsing so badly that he was ultimately demoted to Triple-A Toledo. More importantly for the Yankees, Gregorius has played much closer to the player the Yankees thought they acquired back in December.

Since the calendar flipped from April to May, Gregorius has hit .250/.303/.379 with four homers in 43 games, a 16-homer pace over 162 that would be considered quite good for a shortstop. Further cherry-picking stats since May 15th makes him look even better: .272/.315/.437 in 111 plate appearances, Obviously, the post-April triple slash still isn’t stellar, but that’s the state of shortstops these days. Gone is the era of Jeter, NOMAH, and the Trout-like version of A-Rod. In 2000, shortstops combined to hit .264/.331/.399. So far in 2015, shortstops are hitting .247/.297/.355, a 78-point difference in OPS, and the post-April Gregorius is ahead of the curve.

One could dismiss the all-encompassing shortstop triple slash for including even non-starters in the figures, but compared to his fellow starters, Gregorius fares well. No, he’s never going to be Troy Tulowitzki or even Jhonny Peralta out there, but the .676 OPS since April would put him right in the middle of the pack of 22 qualifying starting shortstops. The careless mistakes in the field have really ceased to exist as well, and instead, fans have been seeing far more superb plays like this one:

Credit: @PSA_GIFs

Can fans trust that the post-April Didi is the real one though? It’s not like his BABIP is out of control–the .274 figure since May 1st is right in line with his career average. An ugly trend that appeared to plague Gregorius in the season’s first month was a series of too many vicious cuts that simply led to lazy fly balls. In-game analysts perceived that Gregorius was swinging too hard, acting like a power hitter when that wasn’t his game at all.

The statistics back that up, as he flew out on 21.7% of his plate appearances. Since April, he’s only flown out on 12.1% of his times up. Gregorius can pop the occasional long ball or double, but he’s at his best when he rips the ball on the ground all over the field. The aforementioned reasonable BABIP indicates that the hits haven’t been grounders simply finding holes either, as he’s been notching a number of sharp singles in front of outfielders.

Didi’s April was unfortunate, but it still must be counted with his full numbers, so his .237/.289/.333 triple slash with a shaky .239 TAv don’t seem that sharp. However, he is trending in the right direction, and the post-April Gregorius appears to be the more legitimate one. There is still plenty of time for Gregorius to shift his overall season in either direction, but Yankees fans should be encouraged by his recent results.

(Photo: Kelly L Cox-USA Today Sports)

There are few parts of a baseball game more enjoyable than watching a hitter square a pitch up and absolutely destroy the ball. That’s what makes Giancarlo Stanton one of the game’s most exciting players–he’s just a man who can hit baseballs ridiculous distances. When the Yankees’ top position player prospect Aaron Judge was drafted out of Fresno St. two years ago, the Stanton comps were immediately thrown around. Obviously that’s not quite fair since at Judge’s age, Stanton was already in the majors crushing bombs, but like Stanton, Judge is a menacing presence in the batter’s box, stepping in at 6’7″ and 275 lbs. He towers over his teammates and he’s given minor league pitchers headaches ever since he played his first game in 2014.

As Wittman noted in the quote above, Judge’s power is remarkable. Not all analysts agree of course, but when the lowest grade used is about 60, it’s a good sign that the prospect is a remarkable talent. Last year, Judge hit .308/.419/.486 between Low-A Charleston and High-A Tampa, slugging 17 homers in 131 games. The challenge of the more advanced Double-A pitching slowed his pace somewhat, but nonetheless, he is batting .283/.350/.500 with 10 homers already in 57 games, a pace that would put him ahead of last year despite playing half his games in the pitcher’s paradise of Arm & Hammer Park in Trenton.

Sometimes, it can be difficult tracking footage of prospects, regardless of their skill sets or futures, so it seemed like a fun idea to give readers an idea of Judge’s power. Excuse the occasional graininess due to minor league cameras. There’s no doubt about it–the dude can mash with the minors’ best prospects.

Opening Day

Video

In one of his few at-bats above A-ball, Judge made his presence felt. He went down to get this pitch and demolished it to the distant reaches of Erie’s Jerry Uht Park, over 20 feet above the home run fence, which is already about 365 feet away on its own. It’s hard to see the baseball in this GIF, but here’s where it hit:

Yikes. Now imagine how far that would have gone if Erie Insurance Arena wasn’t sitting behind the fence.

Walk-off winner

Video

This was Trenton’s first home game of the season and the first chance most local Yankees fans had to see the 23-year-old slugger. He did not disappoint. The Thunder rallied to tie their game against the Portland Sea Dogs in the ninth, and Judge stepped up with a chance to win it all in extras. After one long blast over 400 feet into the Trenton night onto Route 29, it was over. “I got that one,” said Judge to Rolling Thunder. “It was one of those where you hit and it doesn’t even feel like it touched the bat, so I knew.” It’s awesome that he just knows these things instantly.

Up & in & out

Video

This Judge homer was simply impressive plate coverage. The pitch appeared to come into the strike zone up and in, and yet he still had the power drove it out to left-center a little under 400 feet and off the videoboard next to the “Maine Monster” in Portland. This was an especially fun game, as fellow hard-hitting prospect Greg Bird followed with a long blast to center field of his own. Yankees prospect fans will undoubtedly be dreaming of that back-to-back combo in the lineup.

To the Delaware

Video

Any decent power hitter can pull long homers, but it takes an awesome one to know what to do with a pitch toward the further half of the strike zone. Judge took this outside fastball to the opposite field, all the way into the Delaware River outside Arm & Hammer Park, well beyond the 330 foot marker down the right field line. Gracious.

Off-speed blast

Video

Yes, this pitch was definitely a hanger. It’s still positive that Judge could sense the off-speed offering coming and set himself up to crush it. The big bashers in the lineup have to take advantage of mistakes, and Judge certainly did with this dinger:

Aaron Judge (@TheJudge44) launched his 9th HR of the season last night in Harrisburg… Here’s where it landed: pic.twitter.com/by4QxtXK3k

— Trenton Thunder (@TrentonThunder) June 13, 2015

The Harrisburg Judge show continued a couple days later when Judge reached double digits in homers on the season with a monstrous clout almost to the same exact spot in the GIF above… except this time, it went further and out of the park.

Judge is currently second in the Eastern League in homers with 10, and the only person ahead of him isn’t really a prospect. He still has some work to do improving his plate discipline and approach to more complicated pitches before he’s ready for another promotion to Triple-A Scranton, let alone the big leagues. However, his prodigious power has been quite apparent early on. It’s been quite awhile since the Yankees developed a true power hitter, but Judge might just be that special someone.

(Photo: Kim Klement-USA Today Sports)

It’s easy to forget just how much prospect analysts loved Williams when he was in the low minors. The Yankees signed him as a fourth round pick in the 2010 Draft and gave him the largest bonus of all their draftees that year to lure him away from playing at South Carolina–$1.45 million. Williams hit the ground running in 2011 with short-season Staten Island, where he exploded onto the scene with a .349/.395/.468 triple slash, 28 steals, and a .317 TAv in 68 games. It was enough for then-BP prospect head Kevin Goldstein to dub him “the most exciting player in the system,” which was pretty lofty praise considering a pre-Tommy John Manny Banuelos was still around.

Williams followed his breakout 2011 with a solid 2012 split between Low-A Charleston and High-A Tampa, where he combined to hit .298/.346/.474, notching 107 hits in 91 games, mostly with the RiverDogs. For a 20-year-old playing his first year of full-season ball, that was quite impressive, and Jason Parks put him second overall in the Yankees’ system, praising his awesome defense and contact abilities. Going into the 2013 season, Baseball Prospectus ranked him 51st in the game, ahead of some notable names, like George Springer, Nolan Arenado, and Michael Wacha.

So after a little more time in Tampa, it would be a smooth road to the majors, right? Well… he did something stupid from the get-go with an April DUI, and he badly slumped on the field with Tampa, batting just .261/.327/.350 with a .245 TAv. His swing mechanics got all out of whack and questions about his makeup emerged. Scouts were concerned about how angry he got whenever he made an out, and how unlike other infamously intense players like Paul O’Neill, he let failures affect his performance on the field for the rest of the game.

As if 2013 wasn’t enough of a nightmare, 2014 was even worse. He completely fell off the prospect radar with a second straight dismal season, this time a step up at the Double-A level. He slipped to a .223/.290/.304 batting line with a jarringly poor .216 TAv. When BP’s Tucker Blair saw him in August, he unleashed one of his harshest reports of the year:

Williams showed nothing in my viewing. His bat was extremely inconsistent and he failed to produce the same swing throughout an entire series. The defense is not going to carry him through the minors. The most concerning part about Williams’ game was the effort. I did not get the impression that he cared, and it often felt like he had already lost or failed before he stepped up to bat.

Rough. Williams was so poor in 2014 that there was some debate whether or not he was even the worth the 40-man spot required to protect him in the Rule 5 Draft. Nonetheless, the Yankees chose to keep him, and Williams entered 2015 with possibly the lowest expectations of his baseball life. Then out nowhere, he began the season red-hot, batting .323/.403/.355 with eight stolen bases in April alone. The cliches are what they are, but for whatever they’re worth, he did do an interview that month with Trenton Thunder beat writer Dan Pfeiffer, during which he noted that he had a “rigorous” off-season of workouts which he believed help him prepare for the season.

Williams eventually reached .317/.407/.375 in Trenton before earning a promotion to Triple-A Scranton that coincided with Heathcott’s jump to the majors. The advance did not slow his pace much; in fact, he has hit for a little more power with the RailRiders. During his first two weeks of Triple-A ball, Williams has hit .288/.344/.407 with already almost as many extra-base hits as he had in 34 games with Trenton. If he keeps this up, it’s going to be very difficult for the Yankees to demote him once Ramon Flores and/or Heathcott must return to Scranton.

Mason’s bat might still not be quite enough to lift him up to the role of big league regular that so many had forecasted of him just a couple years ago. However, he has done considerable work already this year to force himself back onto the prospect radar. The Yankees may extract value out of him yet, and that possibility alone is exciting given where he was just a few months ago. Here’s hoping he keeps up the good work.

(Photo: Kim Klement-USA Today Sports)

Carpenter’s performance has been maddening in 2015. When the Yankees acquired him and Chasen Shreve in the Manny Banuelos off-season deal, they expected him to give the bullpen a real shot in the arm after pitching very well for the Braves. He recorded a 2.63 ERA, a 10.0 K/9, and a 2.6 BB/9 during his two years in Atlanta, so no need to worry, right? Unfortunately, he has pitched nothing like that guy during his first 20 games as a Yankee, and last night was a vintage example of his struggles. Following a fielder’s choice turned on a bunt, Marcus Semien smashed a grounder too hard through the left side to load the bases, and Ben Zobrist untied the game by walking with the bases loaded. Carpenter really needed a strikeout of Billy Butler, but the Oakland DH lifted it to center for a sacrifice fly, making the score 5-3. That was all for Carpenter and Shreve entered to end the mess on a pop-up.

While the game’s outcome would have been frustrating anyway, Carpenter’s appearance made it all the more irritating. No, the Yankees didn’t have their best arms rested to help, but Carpenter has done very little this year to merit a higher spot on the pecking order. Not a single reliever on the team has a worse DRA than Carpenter’s 4.77 in 18 innings. Pitching rookie Jacob Lindgren would have been a possibility, even though it would have been a tough situation to throw him in for his second career game. However, it’s hard to justify Carpenter’s continued usage over Shreve, who while holding a platoon disadvantage has pitched far better. He has a 4.07 DRA in 19 1/3 frames, striking out almost a batter an inning with a lower walk rate, and after Carpenter’s implosion, Oakland went down in order against him.

At this point, one can only wonder how much longer the Yankees are going to wait around crossing their fingers that the Carpenter of 2013-14 shows up again. Perhaps his poor performance shouldn’t be such a surprise. After a stellar 1.78 ERA, 2.63 DRA, and 6.2 H/9 in 2013, which was by far the best season of his five-year career, he slipped to a 3.54 ERA, 3.93 DRA, and 9.0 H/9 in 2014. He did post similar strikeout and walk totals, but he was far more hittable thanks to his BABIP stabilizing after a career-best .263 in 2013.

Although expecting a fall this precipitous probably would have been too much, it’s difficult to look at his numbers and hope they improve. There’s the aforementioned 4.77 DRA, the 5.00 ERA, the 1.444 WHIP, and pretty much no positive to draw. Hell, it’s not like this is any BABIP-caused weirdness either, as the .281 mark is much better than last year’s .333. The walks and homers are up, the strikeouts are down, and patience is running thin. Remember, this is a 29-year-old who only had 1.7 career WARP and one standout season entering 2015. The other four years have merely been average or subpar.

Ace starter Masahiro Tanaka appears ready to come off the disabled list and enter the rotation on Tuesday or Wednesday night of next week. Reliever Chris Martin, who pitched well in April before going on the DL with elbow tendinitis, is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment in Triple-A on Saturday and could rejoin the team before too long as well. So the Yankees will likely have some roster move decisions to make very soon.

Maybe one of Chris Capuano or Esmil Rogers departs for Tanaka since he would be bumping someone from the rotation into a long relief role, but it doesn’t seem justified for Lindgren to lose his spot. This isn’t an overreaction to his one game pitched, either–He’s just already a big league-caliber arm, and the Yankees knew that it would not take him long to reach that point either when they drafted him with their top pick just last year. He has serious potential that it’s hard to really see out of a guy like Carpenter. It’s difficult to definitively say that Carpenter would be better than one of the other intriguing arms in Triple-A either, like Branden Pinder or Nick Rumbelow.

It’s almost June and Carpenter has offered basically nothing. It already looks like Shreve was a solid enough addition from the Banuelos trade. It’s not too soon at all to cut bait on Carpenter, and his days as a Yankee should be numbered. With such a bevy of talent waiting in the wings, Girardi doesn’t need to be rolling the dice on a comeback for much longer.

(Photo: Kim Klement-USA Today Sports)

Heathcott made his MLB debut pinch-running for Mark Teixeira late in Wednesday’s loss to the Nationals, but his first time at bat would have to wait until Friday night. He started in center and hit ninth against Rangers starter Colby Lewis. It only took him one at-bat to make an impact:

Heathcott later added an infield single in the seventh, giving him a 2-for-3 night overall. In the long history of the Yankees, only 22 players had ever registered a multi-hit game in his first career start. It might not seem like much, but keep in mind how much pressure a young prospect must feel on such a big stage. Future stars Derek Jeter, Don Mattingly, and Robinson Cano all went hitless in their first starts.

Some more nuggets about Heathcott’s exciting first start and Yankees debuts in general:

• Amusingly, two of those aforementioned 22 games occurred last year, when now-Rakuten Golden Eagle Zelous Wheeler singled and homered in his big league debut on July 3rd and Heathcott’s current teammate Jose Pirela smacked a triple and a single on September 22nd.
• A similarly low number of Yankees had ever notched an extra-base hit in his first career start–just 23 in total. None had doubled since outfielder Justin Christian on June 24, 2008.
• Future Hall of Famers with hits in their first career starts: Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Tony Lazzeri, and… two guys who made the Hall of Fame in another sport, George Halas and Deion Sanders.
• The most hits in a Yankees debut? That title belongs to none of those icons, but instead a random player from the 1930s named Russ Van Atta. On April 25, 1933 against the Washington Senators, Van Atta became one of just seven players in league history to kick off his career with a four-hit game thanks to four singles in a 16-0 blowout victory. In his seven-year career, Van Atta hit a dismal .228/.246/.306. The kicker? He was a pitcher.
• Speaking of pitchers, a tip of the cap to Chase Whitley, Brandon Claussen, Tyler Clippard, and the late Brad Halsey. None of these four players had swung a bat in years until forced into interleague action in National League parks for their first career starts. All got hits, and the future All-Star reliever Clippard even doubled!
• Someone please explain to me how lumbering first baseman Steve Balboni tripled in his debut. One can only assume that the outfielders all either fell down or peaced out on the game to go watch Wagner’s full Ring Cycle instead.

Sure, there’s certainly a chance that Heathcott joins the ranks of forgotten names like Johnny Johnson, Vito Tamulis, Truck Hannah (all real people, I promise), who had fun debuts only to fizzle out shortly thereafter. Nonetheless, Heathcott remains a fascinating prospect who will certainly be worth watching as he tries to build on his strong start going forward. It’s not every day that the Yankees get to infuse youth into their lineup, and until Ellsbury recovers, we will probably be seeing a decent amount of #SladeRunner. Best of luck to him.

…

…what?

…

…OKAY FINE, HERE’S YOUR MARCUS THAMES GIF:

Still glorious.

(Photo: Reinhold Matay-USA Today Sports)

After an off-day on April 16th, the Yankees were scheduled to play 30 games in 31 days, with just the lone off-day on April 30th for them to catch their breath. It would have been difficult anyway, but the situation looked all the more bleak when they stumbled to a 3-6 start out of the gate, dropping each of their first three series. Not only would the Yankees face pressure to rebound from their demanding fans; they would also have to do so during an uncharacteristically exhausting slate of games.

Fortunately, the Yankees surprised with some pretty terrific baseball, the likes of which hadn’t been seen in the Bronx in a couple years. They won five consecutive series from the 17th through May 3rd, dispatching the Rays twice, a couple of then-red hot teams in the Tigers and Mets, and the Red Sox before dropping two out of three in Toronto. They rebounded to capture three of four from the Orioles in Baltimore before running out of steam at the end against Tampa and the Royals. The trip ended with a 19-11 record, which would be considered a fine month.

Although the 31-day sojourn did not end well with the team dropping five of six games, it’s important to consider the big picture. Teams do not often play so many games early on, and particularly by the series in Kansas City, the Yankees’ offense looked quite weary. That’s not a fault on Joe Girardi either, as even Joe McCarthy would have had difficulty sitting his sizzling hitters when they were performing so well without much of a bench behind them. During the first nine games of the season, the only people who were really performing in the Yankees’ lineup were Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira. They understandably cooled down somewhat (with an emphasis on somewhat), but almost everyone else saw improvement:

The Yankees’ offense looked shaky after the 3-6 start, but basically no one was hitting. The past month of play has allowed the statistics to adjust to the larger sample size, and plenty of the Yankees’ hitters’ numbers have returned to a much more normal letter. Beltran might be on the downswing of his career, but he wasn’t going to have a .496 OPS all year. McCann might be frustrating at times, but he wasn’t suddenly J.P. Arencibia at bat. Hell, while Drew and Gregorius struggled, they still improved at the plate, even though the high percent change for Gregorius is more a byproduct of just how dreadful he was beforehand in the even smaller sample size.

Much of the credit for the improved offense has to go to Ellsbury. He and the consistently solid Gardner formed an aggravating one-two punch for opposing pitchers, who immediately had to face them at the start of nearly every game. Ellsbury hit .369/.435/.427 in the 25 games between April 17th and May 14th before suffering a hitless series in Kansas City that knocked him down a peg. He set the table for the rest of the order, and the resurgent lineup often capitalized. The fact that he and Gardner combined for 21 steals didn’t hurt matters, either.

There’s still obviously plenty of room for improvement. If Headley hadn’t notched 7 hits in his previous 23 at-bats, his numbers would be under-the-radar disappointing due to a .237 TAv. Hopefully he’s on the rebound, and the Yankees will also just have to pray that Drew and Gregorius aren’t quite as bad as they’ve been overall. No one’s asking them to be vintage Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano, but it would be lovely if they weren’t being outperformed by Alexi Amarista.

The regulars will receive full days off today and Thursday bookending a mini two-game set in D.C. against the Nationals. Following that will be 13 games in a row, including seven on the West Coast. Fans will just have to cross their fingers that the rest rejuvenates the offense somewhat because with uncertainties in the rotation right now in CC Sabathia (despite his past couple starts), Adam Warren, and Chris Capuano, they might need a bit more offensive support than normal. Thankfully, the everyday players can at least comfort themselves with the fact that perhaps the toughest stretch of the season is behind them.

(Photo: Denny Medley-USA Today Sports)

Of course, “Big Mike” did the Rocket one better, tying a franchise record for strikeouts by a righthanded pitcher. Not even a loaded Baltimore lineup that led the majors in slugging percentage entering today with a .446 mark had much hope against this slider:

It’s too bad that Pineda’s pitch count was high and that given his injury history, it would have been difficult justifying leaving him in. A mere six men since 1900 have matched 16 strikeouts in a maximum seven innings of work. He was only two away from the franchise record and (no pun intended) within striking distance of the major league mark of 20. As it stands, he joined a prestigious club anyway, as only three other Yankees have ever fanned 16 men in a game, and all three were borderline Hall of Famers.

David Cone: June 23, 1997 vs. Tigers (16)

For some reason, I get the impression that most fans who didn’t grow up watching much Cone, save for the end of his career, have this image in their mind of him as a wily veteran scraping along by throwing pretty much everything and the kitchen sink at hitters. However, that’s not fair to Coney’s true talent, as while he was a smart pitcher, he also had electric stuff on the mound, as was most apparent during his famous 1999 perfect game:

Cone struck out 10 Expos during his perfecto, but two years before, he had an even bigger strikeout performance in Detroit. This was the righty record that Pineda tied on Sunday, as Cone struck out 16 Tigers over eight innings that night, utilizing what writer John Giannone called the next day “a vicious splitter, an overwhelming fastball, and a slick slider.” Tigers manager Buddy Bell said that Cone looked as good as Clemens did the year before when he tied his own record with 20 strikeouts.

The stone-faced starter was in such a zone that he didn’t even realize he had struck out 16 until teammate Andy Pettitte let him know after the eighth. Both Curtis Pride and Travis Fryman str He had thrown 127 pitches and the Yankees had the greatest closer of all time ready to preserve the 5-2 lead, so Cone departed. What’s amazing about Cone is that for most pitchers, this would be a career-best outing, and yet Cone also had the perfect game and a then-NL record 19-strikeout game with the Mets. Giannone had probably the best line when he ended his column with manager Joe Torre’s quote about how “it’s a manager’s day off when David Cone pitches.”

Giannone followed with “As well as the opposition’s.” /drops mic/

David Wells, July 30, 1997 vs. A’s

Another terrific pitcher from the ’90s dynasty known more for his perfect game, “Boomer” was a control artist who simply had everything working on this Wednesday afternoon. In over 10 big league seasons, he had never exceeded even 11 Ks in a game, but he blew past all personal marks and set a career-high with 16 punch-outs of the A’s. Unfortunately like with Cone, there is no readily available footage of that game, but based off his finest pitches from other outings, we can imagine how good his curve looked that day:

Wells had a rubber arm that could probably still produce some pretty curves today if called upon in a pinch. He pitched 21 years in the majors and was still productive at age 44 with a dazzling curveball despite an infamous lifestyle that led to many booze-filled adventures. (Wells still insists that he pitched his perfect game while hung over.)

As Wells dialed up the strikeout total, the Yankee Stadium faithful got into the spirit as well, denoting every K with “crudely drawn beer mugs” and (after they ran out), “flattened plastic cups” affixed to the upper deck facade. Wells of course loved it, remarking “I’ve been in the game a long time, and I’ve never seen anything like that. The fans are creative. They have a good sense of humor. You need that. This is your home crowd. They’re rebels up there. You’ve got to like that… I could have used a beer myself. I was getting pooped out there.”

John Hirschbeck’s big strike zone reportedly helped him out, as eight A’s went down looking during the three-hit, 138-pitch shutout, which combined with the strikeouts gave Wells one of the highest Game Scores in team history, an outstanding 94. Future teammate Scott Brosius struck out twice, and Mark Bellhorn led the way with four strikeouts. Amusingly, Joe Girardi has been involved in all three 16-K games to ever occur for the Yankees, as he caught both of Wells and Cone’s games, and then managed Pineda’s outing. The franchise went 94 years with just one game of at least 16 strikeouts, and then they notched two more within about a month of each other. Sounds about right.

Ron Guidry, June 17, 1978 vs. Angels (18)

Easily the most famous high-strikeout game in Yankees history, the record still belongs to the “Louisiana Lightning man,” as Phil Rizzuto called him. A crowd of 33,162 was in attendance that night in the middle of Guidry’s unbelievable 1978 season, which featured a 1.74 ERA, a 2.16 FIP, a 2.29 DRA, 248 strikeouts, and 9 shutouts. It was one of the best pitching years to ever come from the Yankees, if not the best. This was by far the top performance, even in that fantastic season:

This game has been very well-documented, and MLB Video has multiple features on it with player interviews and footage. The poor Angels had no hope with Guidry’s devastating slider at its peak. That slider had been perfected thanks to his relationship with closer Sparky Lyle, who employed a similar wipeout slider that just disappeared from the strike zone. Lyle himself had learned because while young with the Red Sox, Ted Williams told him it was the one pitch he felt he could never hit.

The Angels could surely relate to Teddy Ballgame on this night, as everyone in their lineup fanned at least once with DH Ike Hampton whiffing three times and right fielder Joe Rudi leading with four strikeouts in four plate appearances. A Yankee Stadium tradition was introduced that night, as any time “Gator” reached two strikes on a hitter, the crowd stood and clapped in eager anticipation of another one. More often than not, Guidry delivered. Like Wells, Guidry threw a crazy pitch count, 138 pitches in a four-hit shutout. Forget the Yankees, no lefthander in AL history had ever struck out 18 batters, a mark that stood until Randy Johnson surpassed him.

Just imagine–Guidry was only two years removed from threatening to leave baseball in frustration to getting sent down again. George Steinbrenner even wanted him back in the minors to start the ’77 season. Thankfully, GM Gabe Paul and manager Billy Martin supported Guidry, so he went north with the team in ’77, had a solid year, and the next season, he went bananas.

Pineda has tremendous company in Yankees strikeout lore now. It was a game for the ages that no Yankees fan who saw it will ever forget.

Photo Credit: Adam Hunger-USA Today Sports

It was officially the first time there had ever been a Major League Baseball game with a listed attendance of zero (or “not given.”) However, Yankees fans should be well aware of another time in recent memory when the Orioles played before an essentially vacant crowd. By the official records, the Yankees and Orioles played before 29,093 people on September 18, 2003, but this is what it actually looked like:

AP Photo/Gail Burton

There were reportedly only a couple thousand people in the stands at best during this game, which was notoriously played immediately before a tropical storm hit the Charm City. Entering the day’s action, the Yankees were a solid 5 1/2 games ahead of the Red Sox, en route to their sixth consecutive AL East title with only 10 games left to play. The city of Baltimore was almost entirely shut down with Hurricane Isabel mere hours away from wreaking havoc.

The sole reason for the teams playing in such bizarre conditions? A money grab. The Orioles were in the middle of their disastrous stretch of 14 consecutive losing seasons and owner Peter Angelos was pretty much determined to reap as much profit possible from their 81-game home schedule. Baltimore was a nightmarish 68-83 entering that chaotic Thursday, and any profits from that game would only be redeemed by the O’s if they were at Camden Yards. The start time was moved up from 7:05 to 12:35 to try to beat the storm, and throughout it all, the Yankees were understandably furious that they had to play baseball while a friggin’ hurricane prepared to hit Baltimore.

Mariano Rivera
“I was like, ‘What are we doing?’ They didn’t care about you; that’s what they showed me. They really didn’t care about us. They just wanted to play the game even though there were like 20 or 30 people here.”
Derek Jeter
They’re canceling everything around here—schools are canceled, the government left, the Navy’s pulling out, and the Orioles and Yankees are playing baseball.
George Steinbrenner
Steinbrenner issued a statement that said the commissioner’s office showed “terrible judgment and overall stupidity” in proceeding with the game. “Schools, businesses, athletic events—virtually everything—was called off. And for them to proceed was stupidity at its worst.”

Even the players’ association was a little confused as to why there was a game played. Gene Ozra, the second-ranked official, chimed in that “the state government and the city government had concluded it was not business as usual,” and that they should have cancelled the game while working out “some monetary compensation” for the Orioles.

Nonetheless, the weirdness commenced in front of a scant number of desperate fans for just one hour and 27 minutes. Borderline Hall of Fame pitcher Mike Mussina, both a Yankees and Orioles great who had dubbed it a “foolish decision” to play that afternoon went for his 200th win that afternoon against an Orioles lineup that looked like just the quintessential mid-2000s Orioles lineup:

Brian Roberts – 2B
Luis Matos – CF
Larry Bigbie – RF
Tony Batista – 3B
Jay Gibbons – DH
B.J. Surhoff – 1B
Deivi Cruz – SS
Pedro Swann – LF
Robert Machado – C
Pat Hentgen – SP

Goodness. I’m certain that the Cespedes Family Barbecue guys could write an entire post on that lineup alone. Any time Larry Bigbie bats third, you know a team is in dire straits.

The Yankees wasted a chance to put some runs on the board quickly in the first, as Alfonso Soriano led off the game with a double to left and Nick Johnson was drilled. The former Cy Young Award winner Hentgen didn’t have many starts left in his career, but he found a couple strikeouts in his bag of tricks, whiffing a couple MVP caliber hitters in Derek Jeter and Jason Giambi before inducing a comebacker from Bernie Williams to end the frame. He wouldn’t be as lucky two innings later, when Giambi belted an RBI double to left, bringing home the OBP machine Johnson (who had walked) with the first run of the game. Give credit to Hentgen though; he struck out Bernie and induced a pop-up from future ALCS hero Aaron Boone to limit the damage.

“The whole city shuts down. The government shuts down. And we’re playing. Figure that out.” – David Wells

Mussina held his former team hitless the first time through the lineup, but amid the building 35 mph winds and rain, Roberts and Matos smacked back-to-back doubles, with Matos’ coming on a bloop down the left field line. In the bottom of the fifth, Mike Hargrove’s group had one last shot to get on top and win the game with it about to become official for the home team. Swann, a no-name outfielder who played 17 years in the minors but only managed four hits in 30 career plate appearances in the pros, notched the only double of his career with a smash down the right field line.

Regrettably for the dedicated O’s fans who braved the conditions. Swann didn’t have much support behind him. The third-string catcher Machado, a far cry from Manny, fanned out quickly on a two-strike foul bunt. However, Roberts was up next, and he was one of the few bright spots in a very dark era in Baltimore. He lined a base hit down the left field line, a huge opportunity for the Orioles to take a 2-1 lead. Then, the 2000s Orioles… well… 2000s Oriole’d:
Roberts then singled to left, and Orioles third base coach Tom Trebelhorn initially waved Swann home. Trebelhorn then put up the stop sign – too late for Swann to make it back to third. He was tagged out in a rundown, and Matos followed with a groundout.
That was all she wrote for the actual game. By this point, the rain was clearly causing a mess and home plate umpire Rob Drake told the grounds crew to go ahead and put the tarp on the field. The Yankees bolted to the buses to skip town, and that was that. To date, it remains the last tie in franchise history.

Although the game counted in the standings, the two teams made it up anyway in doubleheader on September 26th, one of the final days of the regular season. Thus, this strange tie did lead to one quirk. Hideki Matsui holds the record for most games played in a season in Yankees history with 163 since he was in the middle of his consecutive games played streak that dated back to his days in Japan.

So on behalf of “Godzilla,” thanks for that I guess, Peter Angelos. May uncomfortable games like this hurricane-shortened tie and the eerily empty Orioles/White Sox affair the other day never happen again.

Photo credit: Bob DiChiara-USA Today Sports

Catcher

Brian McCann: 71 PA, .266/.319/.453, 2 HR, 110 wRC+

Those who were not enthused with McCann’s Yankee debut in 2014 quickly became irked by a slow first couple weeks, but through the magic of small sample size, McCann has picked up the pace since then and it shows in his stat line. His defense has been solid as usual and his wRC+ ranks in the top half of 24 catchers with at least 50 PA. For $17 million, there will always be a legion of fans demanding more, but at the same time, Buster Posey and Russell Martin are roughly similar with a .273/.345/.403 and .186/.347/.390, respectively, all for around the same average annual value.

Justified Annoyance Scale: 2*
*Scale is 1-5 with 1 being not at all and 5 being extremely justified.

Second base

Stephen Drew: 74 PA, .177/.274/.419, 4 HR, 88 wRC+

Drew’s number one problem is in that first column. Deserved or not, there are many who will just never be satisfied with someone hitting under .200. What’s weird about Drew so far is that he’s demonstrated among the best plate discipline in his career so far with a 12.2 percent walk rate while also maintaining a career-low line-drive rate (12.8 percent). There’s potential for more, even though he almost certainly won’t become the 20-homer threat his current dinger pace suggests.

As it stands, his wRC+ ranks around the middle of the pack in baseball while the Yankees’ last two active second basemen, Martin Prado and Robinson Cano, aren’t doing much better. Cano’s sluggish start won’t last, but if Drew’s offense can balance out at around a low-90s wRC+ for most of the season, that would stay right about average for MLB second basemen. Add in shortstop-quality defense that couldn’t be offered by Jose Pirela (ultimately a bench bat) or Rob Refsnyder (still figuring out second), and Drew’s been fine so far, though a few more knocks definitely couldn’t hurt.

Justified Annoyance Scale: 3

Shortstop

Didi Gregorius: 69 PA, .206/.261/.238, 0 HR, 40 wRC+

The new shortstop has exactly two extra-base hits all year and just seems to be swinging after every pitch he sees. There might be fewer grumbles with Shane Greene going through a rocky stretch in Detroit, but Gregorius can’t bat like this forever. He shouldn’t either, as last year he at least had a .244 True Average whereas in 2015, he’s pulling up a sub-.200 TAv. Nonetheless, it’s easy to be bummed by Didi’s play to date, as even on defense he’s gone through ups and downs. If anyone really needs a hot month to win over some fans, it’s Didi. With no internal solutions due to the difficulty of growing a shortstop, the Yankees had to deal from a strength to give a young, talented defender a shot. Only a couple regular shortstops have been worse than Gregorius. That must change.

Justified Annoyance Scale: 4

Right field

Carlos Beltran: 69 PA, .159/.217/.270, 0 HR, 27 wRC+

It’s difficult to watch once-extremely talented players rapidly age before your eyes, but that’s pretty much the story of the Carlos Beltran Era in Yankees history. Just a couple years ago, the switch-hitting outfielder slugged .491 with a .289 TAv for a pennant-winning Cardinals team. That all seems like a distant memory. Hell, even his middling .258 TAv from last year while battling a bone spur in his elbow all season looks Ruthian compared to his .174 TAv to date. If you’re looking for the right fielder with the lowest wRC+ in baseball with at least 50 PA, look no further. It’s Beltran. Meanwhile, he’s owed at least $27 million from now through the end of next season. That’s an uncomfortable financial commitment, but the leash cannot be too long if the Yankees fancy themselves contenders. They can only cross their fingers and hope for a recovery for so long.

Justified Annoyance Scale: 5

Photo Credit: Kim Klement/USA Today Sports

PED controversy or not, it is still quite amazing to see a player amass so many homers before turning 40. The 2014 suspension obviously slowed down his pace, but he will reach 660 homers roughly around the same age Barry Bonds did:

*current age

As A-Rod approaches this remarkable figure, it’s worth looking back on the previous home run milestones he’s reached throughout his 21-year career. For as much fun as it would be to see him march to 700, this very well could be the last one he ever achieves depending on how he ages and how long the Yankees want to keep him around.

#1
June 12, 1995

A wunderkind who was the first overall pick in the 1993 Draft, A-Rod actually came up in 1994 at age 18, shortly before his 19th birthday, and he played about a month without any homers. Perhaps his first career dinger could have come in a September call-up appearance, but of course September baseball never arrived for the ’94 campaign. (A-Rod is the last player remaining who went on strike.) So the best prospect in baseball’s first homer would have to wait until June 1995. A-Rod spent a lot of time shuttling back and forth between the Mariners and Triple-A Tacoma that season, but while his overall numbers left something to be desired, he did slug .408 with five homers in 48 games.

Number one came at home against the Royals in the homer-happy Kingdome, a fourth inning clout off future relief ace Tom Gordon with no one on base. A-Rod was still just 19. Although the Ken Griffey-less lineup surprised with nine runs scored that day despite batting Doug Strange of all players fifth, Chris Bosio got knocked around and the M’s lost, 10-9. Fortunately for A-Rod, they came from behind to stun the Angels and win the AL West, and when Griffey scored his unforgettable winning run in Game 5 of the ALDS, Seattle’s future star was the first person to mob Junior at the plate. What an introduction.

#100
August 12, 1998

So much changed for A-Rod between his inaugural trot around the bases and the century mark. The same year he turned 21, he became a superstar, an absurdly talented all-around threat both at the plate and in the field. He had three straight All-Star seasons, won the ’96 batting title with a .358/.414/.631 triple slash, and was the consensus top shortstop in the game, even ahead of East Coast favorites Derek Jeter and Nomar Garciaparra.

The ’98 season was another thrilling year for A-Rod as he became the third member of the 40/40 Club and crushed his 100th dinger, a two-run bomb to left off the Blue Jays’ Nerio Rodriguez, the winning pitcher against an otherwise-reeling Seattle club. Although there is unfortunately no easily accessible footage of number 100, please behold the horror of nearby number 93, a homer on the horrendously conceived “Turn Ahead the Clock Night.”

#200
May 12, 2001

The popular A-Rod who broke out in Seattle was publicly viewed in a different light after signing his staggering 10-year, $240 million deal with the Rangers. Of course, he remained one of the game’s greatest power threats in one of the most unforgettable seasons in baseball history. His 11th homer of the year and 200th career shot was a two-run blast to left-center against Jon Garland and kicked off a 16-6 shellacking of the White Sox. This was a huge game for A-Rod, as he also notched number 201 while driving in six runs and recording nine of his career-high 393 total bases. Not a bad Saturday night in Chicago.

#300
April 2, 2003

Remarkably, it took A-Rod under two years to hit 100 more dingers to clinch number 300. That what a pair of 50-homer seasons will do, including a career-high of 57 in 2002, setting the single-season record for a shortstop. It was thus only the Rangers’ third game of the season when A-Rod walloped his 300th homer against Ramon Ortiz, an absolutely monstrous shot to center field in Anaheim’s “Bo Jackson territory.” Texas fell to the defending champion Angels by a score of 11-5, setting the tone for the season; A-Rod’s first MVP would come with a last-place team, making him one of only a handful of players to achieve that somewhat dubious feat.

#400
June 6, 2005

Two years and one tiny sport-altering trade later, A-Rod was on the Yankees in the midst of another MVP season. Only in the world of truly elite players could a 36-homer, .888 OPS season be considered an “off-year,” but that’s how some Yankee fans perceived his 2004. If he felt like he had anything to prove, he responded in a big way with a 48-homer, .321/.421/.610 season.

Sunday was the anniversary of A-A-Rod’s unforgettable three-homer, 10 RBI game, but June 8th in Miller Park wasn’t half-bad, either. First, he belted a two-run homer to left against now-current teammate Chris Capuano for number 399 and an early 2-0 lead. Then with the game out of hand in the eighth, A-Rod crushed his 400th homer on an opposite field blast off Jorge De La Rosa. The Yankees won in a 12-3 rout, en route to their eighth straight AL East crown.

#500
August 4, 2007

A-Rod continued his biennial trend of milestone homers in MVP seasons with perhaps his most iconic one to date. While knocking on the door of the highly esteemed 500 Home Run Club, he fell into a 3-for-27 slump, as many players often do while chasing legendary round numbers. (Even Jeter stumbled before his 3,000th hit.) With the pressure mounting, the chase finally came to an end on a hot August afternoon at Yankee Stadium.

Again facing a future teammate (albeit briefly) in the Royals’ Kyle Davies, A-Rod popped a long, arcing drive to left. As everyone, including the men in uniform at home plate, watched the ball sail toward the foul pole, YES broadcaster Ken Singleton brilliantly captured the crowd’s emotions with his call: “First pitch is hit high in the air deep to left field. If this is fair, it could be–It is! Number 500 for Alex Rodriguez!”

The 363 foot drive was the 36th of 54 homers that season by A-Rod, an incredible mark that will likely long stand as the Yankees record for a righthanded batter. When he touched home, his teammates mobbed the 32-year-old who was the fastest in baseball history to ever reach 500 homers.

#600
August 4, 2010

Exactly three years to the day of number 500, A-Rod concluded another memorable pursuit of a milestone in his attempt to become just the seventh man in baseball history to slug 600 homers. He was likely around the peak of his popularity among Yankees fans, as the previous October, he shed his previous pinstripe playoff slumps to become their postseason hitting hero on the way to the franchise’s 27th title and at long last after 16 years, the first of his career.

It was another humid day in the Bronx, though across the street at the new Yankee Stadium. Again, A-Rod was in a bit of a skid (8-for-45 since number 599), but he took care of business in the first, with the Blue Jays’ Shaun Marcum on the hill. There was no question of fair or foul this time; number 600 was a 417 foot bomb to dead center in Monument Park. It was his 17th of a 30-homer season, the 14th and seemingly final time he would reach that plateau. Again, his teammates converged at home plate to laud their slugging star.

It would be some time before that would happen again. Thanks to the controversial five years since then, no one is sure what the fan reaction will be when A-Rod ties and eclipses Mays. However, Mays has said he’s happy to see it happen. I know I’ll be excited, and I have a good feeling that given his popularity in the clubhouse, his teammates will once again applaud his efforts.

It’s not every day that legends are passed.

Photo credit: Brad Penner/USA Today Sports Images