The dust from the trade deadline has settled and the one move the Yankees made was to acquire Dustin Ackley. In case you missed it, we did a trade deadline podcast on Friday. In that episode we broke down all the news and rumors at the deadline and discussed the starting rotation issue the Yankees have right now. After we recorded that episode it was announced that Luis Severino would be called up and make his next start in the Bronx vs the Red Sox on Wednesday. Finally, some good news!
Scott and I break down Severino’s minor league season thus far, which has been phenomenal. He is 7-0 with a sub-2 ERA and a sub-1 WHIP. All signs point to him being a stud, so there is a lot of excitement in Yankees land right now. There is some pressure on Cashman and the baseball operations however. If Severino is a bust, they will face a lot of heat for hyping him up and making him untouchable. Let’s just hope he is not another Ian Kennedy…or Joba…or Hughes.
During the week the Yankees lead shrunk a bit in the division and Toronto overhauled their team to get a lot better. After winning the series last weekend in Minnesota, they split the 4 game series in Texas — a weird series. Games 1 and 2 were highlighted by the Yankees offense. The 21 outburst in game 2 was one of the weirder games I’ve ever seen. They scored 21 unanswered runs after falling behind 5-0 early, and scored 11 runs in the second without hitting a HR. That is good news for this team because, as we know, they rely on the HR quite a bit. Games 3 and 4 of the series saw Tanaka and CC struggle. Scott and I try and figure out (again) what to do with CC and if the Yankees have an issue with their rotation heading into the playoffs.
The Yankees won another series in Chicago this weekend. Didi and Teixeira stayed hot with the bats and Ivan Nova had a bounce-back start on Sunday. If they keep focusing on winning series this team will coast to the playoffs. They have a lot of games in the AL East in September, and 13 vs Toronto between now and the end of the season, so riding series wins and momentum will be huge.
We finished the episode by answering a voicemail from Alex in California. If you want to get involved with the show you can submit mailbag questions, comments, rants, etc. HERE. Or call the voice mail line at 646-480-0342. You can also hit us up on @BronxPinstripes, #YankeesChat, and Instagram with questions.
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