Phillies’ Andrew McCutchen disses Yankees’ hair policy

Andrew McCutchen thinks the Yankees should cut their hair policy.

“I definitely do think it takes away from our individualism as players and as people,” McCutchen told Jensen Karp on “The Sports Bubble” podcast. “We express ourselves in different ways.”....

“I feel like maybe there should be some change there in the future — who knows when — but it’s just one of the many things in this game that I feel that there just needs ... it needs to be talked about, and to be addressed,” said McCutchen, who took a three-year, $50-million deal from Philadelphia following his stint with the Yankees.

Of course, McCutchen’s stay with the Yankees wasn’t all bad. In fact, he called the organization “great.” He said he felt a little more “powerful” wearing the pinstripes.

Yankees’ Masahiro Tanaka hit in head by Giancarlo Stanton line drive

Just minutes after the Yankees opened spring training 2.0 Saturday in The Bronx, Masahiro Tanaka suffered a frightening injury when he took a line drive to the right side of his head off the bat of Giancarlo Stanton.

Tanaka immediately fell on the mound and action stopped as trainers rushed to check on him. He stayed down for approximately five minutes before sitting up. He was helped to his feet and walked off the field with the assistance of two trainers.

The Yankees later announced that Tanaka was “alert, responsive and walking under his own power.” He is being sent to NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital for further evaluation and testing.

63 Years Later, a Confession in a Legendary Yankees Scandal

Joey Silvestri didn’t see all those Yankees file into the Copacabana that night. There were six of them, including Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, and Hank Bauer, plus their wives, all out celebrating Billy Martin’s 29th birthday. It was their third stop of the evening, and they were already well on their way to sloshed. ...

Judge unseals letter from MLB commissioner Rob Manfred to Yankees regarding sign-stealing, per report

Major League Baseball and the Players Association may be continuing their back-and-forth regarding a potentially modified season in light of the spread of the novel coronavirus, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing else interesting going on in the sport. For instance, consider that on Friday U.S. District Court judge Jed S. Rakoff ordered that a letter sent from commissioner Rob Manfred to the New York Yankees concerning a 2017 investigation into sign-stealing be unsealed, according to Brendan Kuty of NJ.com.

Rakoff has given the Yankees and MLB until Monday at noon to submit a version of the letter that is “minimally redacted” to protect “privacy interests” of the individuals involved. The Yankees, predictably, are not pleased with the ruling. “There is no justification for public disclosure of the letter,” team attorney Jonathan Schiller said as part of a statement. The Yankees requested a delay so they could submit an appeal.

Judge Rakoff unsealed the letter as part of a class action case brought against the league, the Houston Astros, and the Boston Red Sox by DraftKings players.

Remembering Bob Watson as an Astros legend

Former Astros great Bob Watson died Thursday at the age of 74 after a long battle with kidney disease.

Watson, who made his big league debut in Houston at 20 years old in 1966, played 14 of his 19 big league seasons with the Astros. His best seasons in Houston came in 1973 and 1975 when he hit .312 with 16 home runs and .324 with 18 home runs, respectively.

Watson, who was known as “Bull” for his 6-foot, 201-pound frame, went on to become the Astros general manager from 1993 to 1995 before leaving to take the same job with the New York Yankees where he became the first African-American general manager to win a World Series title.

Fauci, Leading Fight Against Coronavirus, Misses Baseball, Too

Today in Baseball History: Yankees trade for Hideki Irabu

Before George Steinbrenner would, cruelly, give him a different nickname which we’ll get to in a minute, Hideki Irabu was known as “the Japanese Nolan Ryan.” He sort of looked like the Japanese Roger Clemens, actually. He was 6’4″ and 250 pounds and pitched at a time when most Japanese pitchers were slighter guys whose games were more about finesse than power. That wasn’t Irabu’s game. He was a hard-thrower, leading NPB’s Pacific League in wins in 1994, in ERA in 1995 and 1996, and in strikeouts in 1994 and 1995. He was a pretty damn big deal.

And he wanted to a big deal in America. Which, at the time was not exactly an easy thing to do for a Japanese player.

While we’re all basically familiar with the posting system which controls how Japanese players come to the American big leagues, but such a process didn’t yet exist in 1997. In its absence existed two options: (a) playing ten years in Japan and becoming a true free agent, like Hideo Nomo had done; or (b) having your team make a side deal with a U.S. team and basically selling your rights to them. In Irabu’s case, the San Diego Padres entered into a an agreement with Irabu’s team in Japan, the Chiba Lotte Marines, guaranteeing the Padres exclusive rights to the ace. This angered a number of major league teams that wanted to bid for him and that anger eventually led to the posting system, but for Irabu it was the Padres or nothing.

Or maybe not.

The story of a player and a team- not a particularly uplifting one, I must admit…..

Could George Costanza have made it in the big leagues?

I know what you’re thinking. Nick, are you really so starved for content that you’re plumbing these depths? And yeah, it’s been a while since we’ve had a lot to write about. But on some level, this is a matter that’s been burning at the edges of your psyche for years now. Don’t deny it. No, don’t walk away. Come back. I’m not going to hurt you.

Look, it’s okay. You’re among friends. You can admit it. You have, in fact, watched the Seinfeld clip of George Costanza teaching Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams how to hit and wondered if the small Jason Alexander-shaped man could consistently hit in a big league lineup.

Some context may be necessary here. One of the running gags of this episode is that George has become a genius as a result of abstaining from sex. It’s that sudden brain power that enables George to both understand the physics of hitting and do that mental calculation in his head as the pitch is being delivered. Any theoretical competitive success George would have depends on him remaining abstinent.

With that in mind, let’s consider George the baseball player. Despite the fact that he can suddenly hit, Costanza is still Costanza. He’s a small barrel-shaped man. Jason Alexander comes in at 5’5″, or an inch shorter than Jose Altuve‘s listed height. George has no known athletic abilities prior to his brain-blast. Being smarter might help him track balls off the bat, but they’re not going to help his range or throwing arm. That means George would strictly be a designated hitter. And as he says, hitting is not about muscle.

A consideration of a sitcom character and his brief mastery over hitting.

Hank Steinbrenner, Yankees co-owner, dead at 63

Condolences to the Steinbrenner family.

Today in Baseball History: The Yankees become The Yankees

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how the Cubs became the Cubs. In the course of that post I talked about how fluid and casual team nicknaming was in the early 20th century. Sometimes the press named a team, informally, and it stuck. Sometimes the team’s owner switched the name back and forth multiple times. It was sort of all over the place.

That was true, too, of baseball’s most storied and, let’s be honest, stuffy organization, the New York Yankees. Rather than proclaim, from on high, what their name — what their brand — would be, they got their name through the same haphazard way so many other teams did. But, on this date in 1913, they became the Yankees for good. Let’s talk about how they finally got there.

They didn’t start in New York, actually. They started in Baltimore, as the Orioles. But they weren’t even the original Baltimore Orioles. That ream was a National League club — led by John McGraw — that the National League contracted along with the Cleveland Spiders following the 1899 season. McGraw cooled his heels in St. Louis In 1900 but then, the following year, the upstart Western League, led by Ban Johnson, upgraded itself to self-proclaimed major league status and reformed as the American League. They put a team in Baltimore, called itself the Orioles and brought John McGraw back via the offering of an ownership stake.

Ban Johnson and McGraw didn’t get along too well and they were in pretty constant dispute. Johnson also didn’t think too much of Baltimore as an AL city and wanted to move the team to New York — Manhattan, specifically — to compete head-to-head with the New York Giants. McGraw, seeing the writing on the wall, but not wanting to let Johnson tell him where to go, left the Orioles in the middle of the 1902 season and joined the New York Giants as their manager and part-owner. Ever the pain-in-the butt, he gave his ownership interest in the Orioles to the Giants, which was a problem given that they were a member of the rival league which wanted to see the AL crushed and eliminated. Add that to the list of many AL-NL disagreements bubbling up at the time.

The story of how the Evil Empire came to be- albeit with elements that I’ve seen contested elsewhere…..

Yankees, NYCFC organize $1.4M relief fund

TAMPA, Fla.—The Yankees and the New York City Football Club announced on Thursday that they have created the New York Yankees COVID-19 Disaster Relief Program, a $1.4 million distress fund for Yankee Stadium employees impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The needs-based grant initiative has been created to provide assistance for eligible full-time and part-time game day staff, including those working for the Yankees, Legends Hospitality and the New York City Football Club (NYCFC). The grants are intended to ease the burden caused by the pandemic associated with essential expenses such as food, medical care, shelter and other basic needs.

Yankees’ Aaron Judge Is Out for Opening Day With Rib Fracture

After nearly a dozen tests of several parts of Judge’s body, a CT scan this week finally pinpointed the culprit. But the diagnosis raised more questions about the Yankees’ handling of injuries, particularly because Judge’s dates to last season.

In right field on Sept. 18, Judge made a diving attempt on a fly ball. He grimaced when he got up, and the team later said that Judge had jammed his shoulder. He kept playing through the American League Championship Series.

Yankees’ injuries continue to pile up as Gary Sanchez dealing with back soreness

The Yankees won 103 games a season ago, but in some ways their success was overshadowed by the absurd number of injuries they suffered. Unfortunately for the colossus in the Bronx, the run-up to the 2020 season hasn’t brought measurably improved fortunes.

To recap, lefty James Paxton is sidelined until at least May after undergoing back surgery. Tommy John surgery has put right-hander Luis Severino out for all of 2020, and outfielders Giancarlo Stanton (calf) and Aaron Judge (ribs) are in doubt for Opening Day. As well, outfielder Aaron Hicks is still out after having Tommy John surgery last October.

Now you can add slugging catcher Gary Sanchez to the ledger. It doesn’t sound serious, but Sanchez was scratched from taking batting practice on Saturday because of a sore back.

So, when did it turn out that everyone on the Yankees was made out of Waterford crystal?

Judge, Stanton likely to miss Opening Day

Well, it looks like this is becoming an annual tradition among the Yankees:

TAMPA, Fla.—The Yankees will be without two of their most prominent sluggers to begin the season. Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton are both considered unlikely to appear in the Yankees’ Opening Day lineup, general manager Brian Cashman said on Tuesday at George M. Steinbrenner Field.

Judge is continuing to undergo a battery of tests to determine the cause of the discomfort in his right pectoral muscle, and though Cashman said that Judge has been responding well to treatment over the last 48 hours, there has been no diagnosis or set date for him to resume on-field activities. The Yankees are scheduled to open the regular season on March 26 at Baltimore.

“I don’t see him ready by Opening Day because of the time frame,” Cashman said. “It’s 3 1/2 weeks, and just then the healing and then having to have a Spring Training.”

Stanton is recovering from a Grade 1 right calf strain sustained while performing defensive drills on Feb. 25. Cashman said that he believes Stanton will be ready to play sometime in April, setting the recovery time at four to six weeks from the date of injury.

Giancarlo Stanton likely out for start of Yankees season with injury

When Giancarlo Stanton slid out of the machine Wednesday he was diagnosed with a Grade 1 strain of the right calf. Stanton, who wasn’t included in the batting practice groups before the day’s Yankees-Nationals game at George M. Steinbrenner Field, suffered the injury near the end of Tuesday’s fielding practice.

“He basically has a Grade 1 calf strain,’’ manager Aaron Boone said following an 8-2 Yankees win in a game shortened to 4 ½ innings because of rain. “He will be down for a little bit.’’

And possibly in jeopardy of opening the season on the injured list, where he spent a big chunk of last year due to a left biceps strain, a left calf strain and a right knee sprain that limited him to 18 regular-season games.

Yankees’ Luis Severino headed for Tommy John surgery

It looks like the worst-case scenario for Luis Severino and the Yankees.

Yankees GM Brian Cashman said on Tuesday that team doctors have recommended Tommy John surgery for the 26-year-old right-hander.

Severino was shut down last week after feeling soreness in his forearm when throwing changeups, with the issue dating back to his final postseason start last year against the Astros. He was sent back to New York for a battery of tests, which revealed the extent of the troubling issue.

Severino (forearm) shut down, to be evaluated

TAMPA, Fla.—As Luis Severino recovered from his start in Game 3 of last year’s American League Championship Series against the Astros, the Yankees right-hander mentioned soreness in his right forearm, a comment that general manager Brian Cashman said that he disregarded when the issue seemed to dissipate.

When Severino’s complaints resurfaced during the offseason, the Yankees were concerned enough to have the hurler travel to New York on two occasions, though their MRIs and CT scans did not reveal any significant findings. Severino believed he was in the clear, but a new recurrence of that forearm discomfort has prompted the club to shut him down indefinitely.

“There’s an unknown right now,” Cashman said. “It could be small and a timing issue or it could be more significant than that, because we haven’t determined what we’re dealing with yet.”

Severino had been scheduled to celebrate his 26th birthday by throwing a bullpen session on Thursday at George M. Steinbrenner Field, but he is instead expected to travel to Orlando, Fla., for further examination by team physician Dr. Christopher Ahmad. That evaluation is expected to take place on Friday.

Well, it looks like it will be one of those seasons for the Yankees again…..

Cole starts Yankees tenure with questions about Astros

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — On the day of his first formal workout with the New York Yankees, Gerrit Cole talked about what he did and did not know about the Houston Astros.

Houston was disciplined by Major League Baseball for breaking rules by using a video camera to steal signs during its run to the 2017 title and again during the 2018 season, the first after Cole was acquired from Pittsburgh.

New York lost to Houston in the AL Championship Series in both 2017 and against last year. Cole is ready to discuss the Astros if his new teammates inquire.

“I’ll just give them an honest answer, which is I had no idea of any of it going on and I didn’t see any of it,” Cole said. “So, I really don’t think I have much to apologize for.”

Will he at least explain why he got out of the Astros uniform the minute he could, and if there was any broader meaning to that?

Boo the Astros at Angel Stadium? Yankees fans to join thousands of Dodgers fans

The Angels are projected to set a record for payroll this season, so every bit of increased revenue helps. And, as an unforeseen consequence to the cheating ways of the Houston Astros, fans of the Dodgers are here to help fund the Angels.

Last month a Dodgers fan group purchased 800 tickets to the Angels’ home opener on Friday, April 3, against the Astros. The Astros are not scheduled to play the Dodgers this season, so Pantone 294 figured a trip to Anaheim would be in order.

The Astros were convicted of cheating in 2017, the year they beat the Dodgers in the World Series. For fans that might have been deprived of the first Dodgers championship parade since 1988, booing the Houston team could serve as an outlet for their frustration.

We come today to tell you demand is so high that Pantone 294 now has secured 2,727 tickets to the game.

We aren’t about to witness European-style hooliganism, are we?

Yankees add competition in job for backup catcher

NEW YORK (AP) — The Yankees now have more competition in the job for backup catcher, with Erik Kratz, Josh Thole and Chris Iannetta agreeing to minor league contracts Monday.

Austin Romine, Gary Sánchez’s backup the last three seasons, became a free agent and agreed to a $4.15 million, one-year contract with Detroit.

Kyle Higashioka is the only other catcher on New York’s 40-man roster. He hit .214 with three homers and 11 RBIs in 57 plate appearances with the Yankees last year and batted .278 with 20 homers and 56 RBIs at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

The 39-year-old Kratz was signed to a minor league deal by the Yankees last June following his release by Tampa Bay and hit .299 with seven homers and 31 RBIs at Scranton. He played for the U.S. team that failed in November to qualify for the Olympics.

I assume that they’ve already ruled out a College of Catchers.

Ten Questions for the Unofficial Start of Baseball Season

The most important moment of the Super Bowl had nothing to do with football. When the game clock hit zero, baseball season began.

Sure, there’s plenty of time to get mad in March while watching college basketball, but nothing gets us through the final weeks of winter quite like the anticipation of baseball. We’ve got 10 big questions leading up to the 2020 season.

1. Will the Yankees run away with the AL East?
The Yankees signed Gerrit Cole at the winter meetings and immediately became World Series favorites. Giving $324 million to the best pitcher on the planet is the most Yankees way to fix their rotation, and their lineup should be as good, if not better than it was last season.

Still, the AL East isn’t an easy division to win. The Rays have mastered winning on a small budget and should be good again this year. The Blue Jays should be better in their second season of Vlad Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and Cavan Biggio. And the Red Sox will still be a threat as long as they don’t trade Mookie Betts (more on that later).

So, what questions do you have that aren’t asked here?

Yankees overhaul training staff after setting injury record

NEW YORK (AP) — Eric Cressey thinks some injuries can be prevented. After a season in which medical updates overshadowed scouting reports, the New York Yankees hope so.

Cressey was hired by the Yankees in the new role of director of player health and performance, a move made after New York had 30 players make a combined 39 trips to the injured list last year. New York set a big league record for sidelined players, topping the 28 on the 2016 Los Angeles Dodgers.

“You always want to separate bad processes from bad outcomes,” Cressey said during a conference call Tuesday. “Players are going to be hit by pitches, but there are definitely things that we can do on the processes side of things to provide a level of individualization in the way that we assess players, in the way that we listen to players and solicit their feedback on what’s worked for them.”

The 38-year-old founded Cressey Sports Performance in 2007 and will continue as president of the company, which specializes in kinesiology and biomechanics and maintains facilities in Hudson, Massachusetts, and Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. His clients have included Washington Nationals ace Max Scherzer, New York Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard and other major leaguers.

Something of interest to follow for the coming season, to see if this works, and, if so, to what degree….

East 161st street in the Bronx to be renamed ‘Jeter Street’: report

There’s not much more to be said about what Derek Jeter means to the Bronx. Now the borough wants to rename part of East 161st street, from Yankee Stadium eastbound, after the former Yankee captain, according to amNewYork Metro.

Two Bronx councilwomen, Vanessa Gibson and Diana Ayala, plan to introduce legislation to rename part of E. 161st street as “Jeter Street,” in the report released Tuesday.

The plan is for “Jeter Street” to intersect “Rivera Avenue” — renamed after fellow Yankee legend Mariano Rivera last year when he became the first unanimous inductee into the Hall of Fame.

The next class of Hall of Famers will be announced on Jan. 21. Jeter is Cooperstown bound, but it’s unclear if he’ll be able to match Rivera’s perfect ballot.

In bizarre lawsuit, Yankees’ failed prospect says Derek Jeter ruined his career

Well, here’s something you don’t see every day:

In a rambling, conspiracy-laced lawsuit, a failed prospect, who never played above High-A and had a career batting average of .244, sued the Yankees for $34 million and blamed Yankees legend Derek Jeter for derailing his career as a shortstop, presumably because the soon-to-be Hall of Famer was afraid of the competition.

It was a wild swing and a miss.

In the lawsuit, dismissed by a judge in May, Garrison Lassiter used letters, newspaper clippings and scouting reports to weave a strange tale of conspiracy that he said was launched against him “to protect the career of Derek Jeter.” He alleged that it was “blantanly (sic) obvious” that Jeter controlled the Yankees organization, and he insisted Yankees employees libeled and slandered him to other teams, preventing him from reaching the major leagues.

The reason? “To protect the career of Derek Jeter.”

Jim Kaat: Will we finally get The Real Deal?

Kaat Said: Orientalism.

A couple of short stories about Asian pitchers and Irabu: I was announcing Yankee games in the mid-90s when I said over the air, “I wonder if we’ll ever see an Oriental position player in the Major Leagues?” Dion James was playing for the Yankees at the time, and told me about an exciting 19-year old named Ichiro Suzuki who had a chance to be the first. We all know that story. Big fan of Bernie Williams from watching Yankee games in Japan. Wears number 51 because of that.

So, I get a letter about a week later from an Asian baseball fan. Not a malicious letter but scolding me gently for referring to Asian players as “Oriental.” He said, “Noodles and rugs are Oriental, not people. We are Asians.” Fortunately for me, he put his phone number in the letter, so I called him.

We had a pleasant conversation and I told him I certainly didn’t intentionally say “Oriental’ as a slur or condescending remark. It was said innocently out of ignorance. He understood. I asked him if he would be watching the next game we televised. He said he would. He was a huge baseball fan and was complimentary of our telecasts on the MSG Network. I asked if he would please watch and listen in the top of the 4th inning. He said he would.  I took the opportunity to clear up the Oriental/Asian situation.

...So, I’lll be keeping a close eye on Yu Darvish and see if he is finally the one to be able to challenge and dominate our bigger, more powerful big league hitters. For his and the Rangers’ sake, I hope he does. It will be good for the game and the Rangers profit and loss statement!