Game 42: May 17th, a charmed date on the Bombers’ calendar (NYY 5, TOR 0)
Game Notes:
- Hiroki Kuroda, he of the usual 1st inning troubles, gave up a leadoff double to Melky…and then didn’t allow another hit until the 7th
- Conversely, Brett Gardner led off the Yankee 1st with a triple, and came around to score
- After adding a run in the 5th, New York effectively broke the game open in the 6th with contributions from the young (David Adams, Austin Romine) and old (bunt single, run scored by Ichiro!)
- Preston Claiborne finished the shutout for Hiroki (8 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 5 K, 109 pitches, 1.99 season ERA)
- Toronto was shut down despite scoring 33 runs in their previous three games
- With the loss, Mark Buehrle is now 1-10 lifetime vs. the Yankees, with a 6.28 ERA

My9 Player of the Game: Hiroki Kuroda (.442 WPA)
Our Player of the Game: Hiroki Kuroda (.442 WPA)

Game 43: Cano KOs Jays, Yanks win second straight over Toronto (NYY 7, TOR 2)
Game Notes:
- David Phelps went a career-long seven innings, striking out eight and allowing only one run
- xFIP doesn’t support this, but Phelps seems much more comfortable this year as a starter than as a reliever
- The presence of Phelps, Vidal Nuno, and possibly Michael Pineda could make for some very interesting decisions this summer regarding Phil Hughes and Ivan Nova. Competition is good.
- Oh yeah, Robinson Cano hit a Yankee Stadium HR and a decidedly non-Yankee Stadium HR
- Welcome back Pronk! Travis Hafner struck a two-run HR in the 8th to give Mariano another day off

YES Player of the Game: Robinson Cano (.283 WPA)
Our Player of the Game: Robinson Cano (.283 WPA)

Sunday’s game was rained out, making this an abbreviated two-game Yankee sweep. They are now 8-1 against the Blue Jays so far this year. Concerning the Jays: as the Yankees learned in their 2009 season series with the Red Sox, you can stay afloat in the playoff race if you beat everybody else while struggling against a division opponent. But Toronto hasn’t even been able to do that yet. As for the Yanks, they head to Baltimore to start a three-game set with the O’s on Monday night.

– Covering May 13th through May 19th games –

Pitcher
Rafael De Paula, 22, RHP, A
6 IP, 11 K, 1 BB, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 HR
Notable: 23 Ks over last 2 starts (12 IP)

This is the Rafael’s De Paula’s 2nd MLPW of the season, and he would have won last week if not for the performance of High-A Tampa’s Shane Greene.

De Paula’s numbers to date read like a video game: 69 K in 39.1 IP / 23 K over his last 2 starts (12 IP) / 43.4% K Rate

He leads the SAL by huge margins in K rate and K/9 (15.79), and is second in FIP (1.88).

The international free-agent signing, who had a variety of visa and age falsification issues (read here), will reportedly not be pushed quickly by the Yankees due to his lack of competitive baseball experience.

Hitter:
Peter O’Brien, 22, RHB C, A
.409/.552/.818 in 29 PA
Notable: Walked 7 times on the week

Like his teammate Rafael De Paula, Charleston’s Peter O’Brien already took home an MLPW this season and is quickly becoming another valuable Yankee catching prospect.

Drafted out of Miami (transferred there and played 1 year), O’Brien is hitting a spectacular .325/.381/.573, ranking 6th in the SAL in OPS and tied for 5th in wRC+ (164).

One level above O’Brien (2012 2nd round draft pick) is the much-hyped Gary Sanchez, and it will be interesting to watch how the Yankees handle them both, especially if O’Brien continues this hitting pace. Sanchez is two and a half years younger than O’Brien and is having a solid season at High-A Tampa (read below). Together with JR Murphy, the club has three catchers having fine MiLB campaigns.

Honorable Mentions:

Scottie Allen, 21, RHP, A+
6 IP, 7 K, 0 BB, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 HR
2.77 FIP, 8th best in the FSL

Charlie Short, 24, RHP, A+
4 IP, 6 K, 0 BB, 3 H, 0 ER
Has only allowed 1 ER in 17.2 IP between Low-A/High-A

Dietrich Enns, 22, LHP, A
5.2 IP, 7 K, 2 BB, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 HR
2012 19th round draft pick, 15.15 K/9

Jeremy Bleich, 25, LHP, AA
3.2 IP, 5 K, 0 BB, 0 H, 0 ER
Good week, but lousy 14 K / 13 BB on the season

Jose Ramirez, 23, RHP, AA
5 IP, 7 K, 1 BB, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 HR
27 K / 4 BB in 20 IP in 4 starts

Greg Bird, 20, RHB 1B, A
.333/.454/.815 in 33 PA
3 HRs on the week, first 3 HRs of the season

Jake Cave, 20, LHB CF, A
.343/.400/.563 in 35 PA
5 doubles on the week

Dante Bichette Jr, 21, RHB 3B, A
.291/.393/.542 in 28 PA
A great week in an otherwise miserable second go-around in Low-A: .191/.257/.287

Angelo Gumbs, 20, RHB 2B, A+
.350/.350/.500 in 20 PA
His first week back from injury (sprained finger)

Reymond Nunez, 22, RHB 1B, A
.286/.310/.536 in 29 PA
2 HR on the week, .300/.364/.563 on the season

Gary Sanchez, 20, RHB C, A+
.304/.400/.478 in 25 PA
.273/.351/.473 on the season

Slade Heathcott, 22, LHB CF, AA
.304/.304/.522 in 23 PA
HR and triple on week, but hitting a very disappointing .221/283/.328 to date

While the Yankees continue to win games, it’s certainly not because of their offense. As show by the chart below, their on-base percentage has fallen off a cliff.

The Yankees currently have a team OBP of .315, which ranks 10th out of 15 American League teams. This is very uncharacteristic of a team that led the major leagues with an OBP over .350 for the time period from 2000-2012. During that same time period, the worst OBP was by the Pirates and they still managed to post a .320 OBP.

Behind two HRs by Robinson Cano and seven innings of one-run ball by David Phelps, the Bombers topped the Blue Jays 7-2 and improved to an outstanding 27-16 (how does this compare to other seasons?)

Robbie shook the Jays to their bones

With the loss, Toronto drops to 17-26. The preseason AL East favorite now possesses a run differential of -45, which is tied for second-worst in the league (tied with LAA, Houston the worst at -89).

Hal Steinbrenner on Cano:

“Anybody would get a little nervous if you get into a seven or eight-year deal,” Steinbrenner said. “It depends on the age of the player, too, I guess. Give an eight-year contract to a 34-year old — you probably wouldn’t do that, right?“

Hmmm.

MYSTERY SOLVED: BEN FRANCISCO HAS NAKED PICTURES OF BRIAN CA$HMAN

Cashman on Francisco said with a laugh: “In terms of your fans’ comments section, just say, ‘I’m holding on to him to piss everyone off,”+

— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) May 18, 2013

Cashman (2 of 2) on Francisco: If you are dealing with the feedback, ‘Why is this guy here?’ Just tell them that, just to shut them up.”

— Andrew Marchand (@AndrewMarchand) May 18, 2013

Cashman joked that he was holding onto Francisco “to piss everybody off.” He knows Francisco’s popularity with the fan base.

— Lohud Yankees Blog (@LoHudYankees) May 18, 2013

On May 17th…

1996: Mariano Rivera records his first career save vs. California/Anaheim/Los Angeles of Anaheim (W 8-5)
1998: David Wells’ perfect game vs. Minnesota (W 4-0)
2002: Jason Giambi’s “true Yankee” moment, 14th-inning walkoff grand slam vs. Minnesota (W 13-12)
2005: Carl Pavano complete-game shutout vs. Seattle (YES, THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED — W 6-0)
2009: 10th-inning, game-winning HR by Johnny Damon (the “walkoff weekend” vs. Minnesota)
2010: Marcus Thames walkoff HR off Jonathan Papelbon (W 11-9 vs. Boston)

So you might be bumming about Andy Pettitte’s latest injury, or Chris Stewart coming up lame, or most importantly, the Yankees losing two out of three at home to the Mariners.

But it’s not all bad!

The Yankees’ 25-16 record after 41 games is tied for their best record at the quarter point of the season in the Joe Girardi era. Considering all the injuries, this is a universally unexpected result that has Girardi taking the early clubhouse lead for AL Manager of the Year (despite continuing to give playing time to Ben Francisco). Take a look since 2008, from best to worst record…

2010, 2013: 25-16
2009: 24-17
2011: 22-19
2012: 21-20
2008: 20-21

Going a little further back, here’s the team’s best 41-game records since 1993, when the Yankees’ current string of winning seasons began…

1998 (of course): 31-10
1994: 28-13
2003: 27-14
2002: 26-15
1996, 2010, 2013: 25-16

In recent memory, the worst Yankee record at this point was the 1995 edition, which stood at 16-25 after 41 games. For those of you who recall, that team (in a 144-game season) was fairly underwhelming until a 25-6 stretch run carried them to the playoffs. So obviously, 41 games does not a season make. The 2008 Yankees didn’t make the playoffs with a quarter-year record around .500, while the 2007 squad did after posting an 18-23 opening mark — and that particular team would regress to 21-29 before the infamous A-Rod “HA!” game in Toronto. Generally, though, a start this good is a positive sign.

Game 39: Furbush gets waxed, Yanks beat Seattle (NYY 4, SEA 2)
Game Notes:
- CC Sabathia vs Felix Hernandez would be a great postseason pitching matchup, but since King Felix plays for the Mariners, we’ll all have to settle for plain old regular season games like this
- Raul Ibanez returned to the Bronx and homered in the 6th inning
- Robinson Cano went 2-3, including a game tying double in the 7th inning
- Curtis Granderson played his first game of the season and went 0-4 with a strikeout and a GIDP. Clearly the Yankees are better off without him

YES Player of the Game: Robinson Cano (.361 WPA)
Our Player of the Game: Robinson Cano (.361 WPA)

Game 40: Phil gets whacked (SEA 12, NYY 2)
Game Notes:
- Phil Hughes got Michael Saunders to fly out to start the game, and everything went down hill from there – he allowed 7 runs in just 0.2 IP
- Raul Ibanez hit two home runs, including a grand slam
- Seattle reached double digit runs for the first time all year
- The two Yankee runs came on solo shots from Vernon Wells and Chris Stewart
- Yes, this game actually happened

YES Player of the Game: Raul Ibanez (.170 WPA)
Our Player of the Game: Phil Hughes (-.441 WPA)

Game 41: Punchless Yankees drop game, series to Mariners (SEA 3, NYY 2)
Game Notes:
- Andy Pettitte exited after 4.2 innings with tightness in his back
- Jayson Nix hit second again because Joe Girardi hates Yankees fans
- Curtis Granderson went 3-4 and stole a base
- The Yankees finally found Raul Ibanez’s horcrux and the Dark Lord went 0-4 with 3 strike outs
- Seriously, why is Nix hitting second?

YES Player of the Game: Michael Morse (.194 WPA)
Our Player of the Game: Carter Capps (.253 WPA)

The Yankees dropped two out of three to Seattle after taking the first game. This team has not lost three games in a row all season, and they’ll look to keep that streak in tact on Friday when they start a three game set against the Toronto Blue Jays.