RAB Thoughts

October 27th, 2020: LeMahieu, Arm Angles, Undrafted Free Agents

I’m finally catching up on some reading and I just got to Marly Rivera’s piece on Gerrit Cole and Kyle Higashioka. The Yankees drafted...

October, 23rd, 2020: Tanaka, Torres, Kim, Mailbag

Some news: I’ve decided to put together an Offseason Plan post. Here are my 2016-17, 2020-10-23 13:09:17 +0000 UTC View Post

October 20th, 2020: Arbitration Projections, 40-Man Roster, 2021 Draft, Bold Predictions

In a 60-game season with a 16-team postseason field ripe for weird and random stuff, the two No. 1 seeds will meet in the World Series. Go figure. First time that's happened since 2013. Lifelong Dodgers fan here. Go Mookie & Co. Beat them Rays. Now here are today’s thoughts as the 2020-10-20 14:10:52 +0000 UTC View Post

October 16th, 2020: Payroll, Ottavino, Qualifying Offers, Mailbag

Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman held their annual end-of-season press conferences earlier this week and, as usual, Cashman’s comments boiled down to “we’re going to evaluate our options.” Gary Sanchez at catcher next year? We’re going to evaluate our options. Gleyber Torres moving off sho...

October 13th, 2020: Offseason, Sanchez, Sawyer, Minors, Stanton

How terrible is this ALCS? I badly want both teams to lose. I've concluded the best outcome is the Astros beating the Rays, preferably in soul-crushing fashion, then the Astros losing the World Series again, also preferably in soul-crushing fashion. Tampa winning is the worst case scenario becaus...

Thoughts following ALDS Game 5

A fitting end to one of the least enjoyable Yankees season of my lifetime (to be fair, a lot of the non-baseball stuff factors into that). The Yankees are going home early (again) because their closer gave up a back-breaking homer (again) and because they were outmaneuvered by the opposing team (...

Thoughts following ALDS Game 4

The Yankees live to play another day. They outlasted the Rays in Game 4 last night to force a winner-take-all Game 5 tonight. If you didn't watch, the game was definitely closer than the 5-1 final score would lead you to believe. It wasn't until late that the Yankees started to pull away, and the...

Thoughts following ALDS Game 3

The 2020 Yankees really have perfected the art of responding to adversity in the least inspiring way possible. They followed all the pitching hullabaloo of Game 2 with a thud in Game 3, and now they're on the brink of elimination. They have three wins in 13 tries against the Rays this year and mu...

Thoughts following ALDS Game 2

If there is anything we've learned about the 2020 Yankees 64 games into the season, it's that when they win, they look like they're never going to lose again, and when they lose, they look like they're never going to win again. The Yankees were never going to go through the postseason undefeated ...

Thoughts following ALDS Game 1

Three games, three wins this postseason. Usually that means an ALDS sweep, or maybe a 2-0 ALDS lead after a Wild Card Game win, but this year it means a 1-0 ALDS lead after a Wild Card Series sweep. I'll take it, whatever it is, especially since the Yankees are playing their best baseball of the ...

Thoughts prior to ALDS Game 1

UPDATE: The Yankees have announced their ALDS roster. No. 1 has been updated below.

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The ALDS has finally arrived. It feels like the Yankees ousted Cleveland just yesterday, and it also feels like the Yankees haven't played in a month, somehow. Four days between ...

October 3rd, 2020: ALDS Roster, Cessa, Frazier, Voit, Mailbag

The Wild Card Series is over and MLB has three spicy LDS matchups coming up: Yankees vs. Rays, Astros vs. Athletics, and Dodgers vs. Padres. Three series featuring teams that do not like each other at a...

Thoughts following Wild Card Series Game 2

Y'all enjoy that game last night? Nothing like a casual Wednesday night game that ends six hours after its scheduled start time. At four hours and 50 minutes, it was the longest nine-inning game in ...

Thoughts following Wild Card Series Game 1

Things went so well for the Yankees in Game 1 of the Wild Card Series last night that Josh Naylor went 4 for 4 with two doubles and a home run, and Cleveland still lost by nine. Gerrit Cole dominated, the offense was relentless, and the Yankees now have two chances to win one game to advance to t...

Thoughts prior to Wild Card Series Game 1

UPDATE: Finally had a chance to add thoughts on the Wild Card Series roster. Item No. 1 below has been updated.

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The Yankees open the best-of-three Wild Card Series in Cleveland later tonight. It is their fifth ever meeting in the postseason. The Yankees won the ...

Thoughts following the 2020 regular season

The 2020 regular season is over and it took all 60 games to determine the Yankees will go to Cleveland for the Wild Card Series. It'll be Gerrit Cole vs Shane Bieber in Game 1. Must-see television. Here...

September 25th, 2020: Wild Card Series, Cole & Higashioka, Judge, Awards, German, Mailbag

Big news on this week's R2C2 podcast: CC Sabathia admitted his feud with Jackie Bradley Jr. was made up and partially inspired by Aaron Boone. Sabathia says he picked a guy on the other team to hate to...

September 22nd, 2020: Happ, Homefield Advantage, Gardner, Hicks, Chapman, Dominguez

UPDATE: Made a bad copy and paste error that accidentally chopped out a chunk of today's post without realizing it before I published. My bad. It's fixed now.

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The Yankees have clinched a postseason spot and maybe it's just me, but it doesn't resonate the same wa...

September 18th, 2020: Postseason Schedule & Roster, Frazier, Mailbag

Two weeks from today the Yankees will either be picking up the pieces following an early postseason exit, or they'll be on their way to the Southern California bubble for the ALDS. The magic number to clinch a postseason spot is four. Could happen before the next post. Let's get to today's though...

September 14th, 2020: Paxton, Roster Moves, Tauchman, Postseason, Chapman

Thanks to this weekend's sweep over the Orioles (and no thanks to the Mets), the Yankees go into tomorrow's three-game series opener with the Blue Jays a half-game b...

September 10th, 2020: Garcia, Chapman, Frazier, Judge, Stanton, Mailbag

Tomorrow the Yankees will begin their most important series of the season and, as we all expected, it's against ... the Orioles? The Orioles. 2020 sucks, man. Anyway, here are Friday morning's thoughts Thursday evening since the Yankees were rained out tonight and there's no reason to wait.

September 8th, 2020: Rock Bottom, Sanchez, Schmidt, Voit

With 14 losses in their last 19 games, the Yankees are in the middle of their worst 19-game stretch since a 5-14 span in June 2017. Their lead over the Orioles for the No. 8 seed is down to 1.5 games and FanGraph...

September 4th, 2020: Shakeup, Rays, Urshela, Andujar, Catchers, What We've Missed, Mailbag

Know what's weird? The regular season ends in three weeks and two days. It feels like it just started! Because it did just start, obviously. The Yankees have played 36 games and they only have 24 more games to go. I hope we never experience another season like this for many reasons. Let's get to ...

September 1st, 2020: Cole, Garcia, Florial, Waiver Candidates, Yajure, Avilan

Am I the only one who found the Yankees losing on a walk-off home run in Yankee Stadium so absurd that I couldn't even be mad about it? Only in 2020. Sarah Langs says the Yankees were the first t...

Thoughts following the 2020 trade deadline

With all due respect to Addison Russ, the trade deadline came and went Monday without the Yankees making a notable addition. Second straight year the Yankees did nothing at the deadline, though at least last year they ...

August 27th, 2020: Judge, Offense, Trade Deadline, Happ, Brantly, Garcia, Mailbag

How's everyone doing? I hope you're all well. The Yankees are mired in a 13.5-game losing streak but I dunno, feels kinda insignificant right now. Since they have yet another off-day today, here are Friday morning's thoughts Thursday night. Thanks as always as the support. (Enough people asked fo...

August 25th, 2020: New Schedule, Paxton, Tauchman, Russ

Couple stray trade rumors have appeared within the last 24 hours. Andy Martino reports the Yankees have been in touch with the Ind...

Thoughts after the Yankees lose James Paxton and Gleyber Torres to injuries

The Yankees are not playing this weekend because the Mets are dealing with two positive COVID-19 cases, yet the team still managed to make news. Yesterday the Yankees announced three players will be put on the injured list:

• Luis Avilan (shoulder inflammation)
• James Paxton (Gr...
  2020-08-22 14:57:10 +0000 UTC View Post

August 21st, 2020: Rays, Britton, Torres, Paxton, Subway Series, Voit, LeMahieu, Mercer, Mailbag

The trade deadline is 10 days away and it is extremely weird there have been no rumors at all. I don't just mean the Yankees either. It's quiet with all 30 teams. MLB Trade Rumors has become MLB Injury Update. I hope the acti...

August 18th, 2020: Judge, LeMahieu, Paxton, Trade Targets, Alternate Site

Ten wins in 10 games at Yankee Stadium this year -- that ties 1951 and 1987 for the longest unbeaten streak at Yankee Stadium to begin a season in franchise history -- and 10 straight wins (and 15 wins in the last 16 games) against the Red Sox. Man are they bad. The rivalry has not been this one-...