Watching last night's game and reading the Yankee fans tweets on my Twitter feed, I get this excitement from Yankee fans and from the Yankee team. And this after the team just traded Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller and Carlos Beltran. Something my generation of Yankee fans, have never witness.
When Luis Severino struck out Michael Conforto in the seventh, I was pumped. I got excited like if the Yankees were tied in the A.L. East for first place and this was a must win game. And sure, it's a must-win - every time - against the Mets, and sure the Yankees are still in the Wild Card hunt. But like I said, this team sold the three best players.
Not only the fans are excited, but the players are as well.
There's a rejuvenated feel around this Yankee club, right now. It feels like a brand new team. And there isn't much changes to lineup, than Gary Sanchez being promoted and Beltran being traded. But I think they know that Sanchez will help, they sense Aaron Judge on his way up soon and they are more of versatile, speeder team.
Throughout this season, the Yankees have had a stagnate offense. They have players who are getting older and can only hit homeruns to one side, causing the opposing team to shift to one side. Then some of these older players can't run from first to third or second to home.
Now the Yankees have versatile players who can play everyday like Aaron Hicks, who can run from first to home on a double in the gap, or young hitters like Rob Refsnyder who can hit the ball to all fields and has outstanding contact with the bat and not worry about a defensive shift.
Someone like Brian McCann can hurt this team with the shifts they play on him and
The main reason why McCann has struggled with the Yankees or hasn't been that player he was with the Atlanta Braves, is because of that short in right in Yankee Stadium.
The short porch can be McCann's best friend or worst, worst enemy. Because he'll try to hit a homerun in every at-bat it seems, instead of going the other way or being short with his swing. I think in other ballparks he hits better, but in Yankee Stadium that right field looks so tempting to him, he'll pull an outside pitch and hit a weak ground ball.
Even though Mark Teixeira had a great and interesting game last night, when he's slumping, like McCann, can become stagnate offensively.
That's when the Yankees started to become boring. Pull the ball to right, pull the ball to right, then when they do sneak one pass the shift, they can only move from base to base. That's not good baseball in 2016.
As for Brett Gardner, he's not a pull hitter; he can slap the ball the other way at times, but I just think he's run out of gas.
But I think Gardner, like McCann, Yankee Stadium has hurt him. Gardner isn't terrible, but when he's playing in Yankee Stadium I think he gets caught in between in being a slap hitter or a power hitter. When he gets a good pitch to hit, he can really hit out in Yankee Stadium, but he's not that type of hitter. But when he does go hit a couple homeruns he tends to get long with the bat, causing him to hit ground ball outs, instead of getting on base to steal.
Then when he gets on base, he's not a base stealing threat. Combine with the fact that he's not hitting or getting on base, Gardner becomes useless. Although his defense is top notch, every single night. Gardner gives 100% every single game in left field. His defense never goes on a slump.
He's the second longest tenured Yankee next to Alex Rodriguez. Gardner has been on the Yankees for nine seasons. That's a pretty successful career with the Yankees, considering that the Yankees never keep their homegrown players.
Refsnyder could replace Gardner next season, if the Yankees decide to move Gardner.
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