Let the Lance Lynn Era begin.  SU predicts this will last for one start.  Lynn will get rocked and Gray will come in and will pitch lights out.   You just know it and then you are back to square one.  OR with Happ on the DL with his disease, both Lynn and Gray will be in the rotation.

When you stack up this rotation against Houston or Cleveland, it doesn’t give you the warm fuzzies.  As Joe Girardi likes to say, “It’s not what you want.”  Nope.

Sonny Gray is taking a beating this morning from all sides following yesterday’s bad outing.  The fans are demanding that Lance Lynn be put into the rotation and Gray sent packing.  Even Aaron Boone seemed to be hinting that a change was coming in his post-game remarks.  SU is not on board with the move:

• OK, Gray was bad yesterday but he was decent in his last few starts.  Plus what else are you going to do with this guy?  He does not pitch out of the bullpen – has always been a starter.  SU says keep him in the rotation but with a short leash.
• I am telling you that Lance Lynn is not the answer.  He was good yesterday but he has not been good for several years.  SU says have both Gray and Lynn both warm up for the next start and have one of them on call throughout the first part of the game.  The reality is that neither of these guys is the answer or can be trusted.
• Gleyber Torres made two mental errors yesterday.  His head was not in the game.  But he is still only 21 and these things happen.  He also hit 2 home runs and is probably your best hitter right now.  Give him a pep talk but do not discipline him.
• The injuries call out for Stanton to do something, anything.  He struck out with the bases loaded early and then struck out on 3 pitches in the 9th inning.  Clearly, not feeling generational in the heat yesterday.  SU says let’s see what he’s got this weekend.  But they should move him down to clean-up.  What’s the point of him batting 2nd when your 8th and 9th hitters are Romine and Robinson?  And tell me why Robinson is playing again?  Better off having Walker as the DH and putting Stanton in the field.

Things do not look great heading into Boston but baseball is not a momentum type sport.  Anything can happen here.  Look for Bird to hit at least two home runs over the Green Monster – he seems to be finding a left field stroke.  Sale is out and the Red Sox are not putting out any Hall of Famers this weekend.  SU will take a series split and move on.

Will Urban Meyer have to step down?  SU says no way.  Ohio State has no track record of doing the right thing (see Republican Rep. Jim Jordan and his history as an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State).  SU says winning trumps all else.  He will be suspended the first two games of the season against bad teams and will then return in all his glory.  But perhaps, perhaps, it puts him one step closer to the NFL for his next move.

Wait a minute, the Nationals just scored again vs. the Mets.  The score is now 500 – 4.  What an embarrassment.  They need to show some pride.  This is a big moment for Callaway who does not want to be a one and done manager.

But moving on.  SU has been monitoring the Yankees’ moves over the past week.  My thoughts:

• Lance Lynn: SU is not a fan.  He hasn’t been good for several years.  Hard thrower but his fastball is very straight.  He reminds me of Joba Chamberlain.  And not in a good way.  But… maybe he will be like Phil Hughes and when used out of the bullpen, his speed goes up into the high 90s.  Can’t see him as a starter.  I guess he is the Tommy Kahnle replacement.  And what happened to him?  SU suspects his pitch speed never returned this year and that is why he is languishing in the minor leagues.
• JA Happ: they gave up nothing basically other than Drury who also didn’t have a position.  No downside here – even if he’s a rental which is likely the case.  Andujar is the future and SU is glad they kept him.  If Happ can produce, good move given what you gave up.
• Adam Warren: He’s a nice guy and a good soldier.  His stats seemed to look better than he actually pitched this year.  I think the Yankees think he is brittle and can’t stay healthy.  SU does not have a problem moving him out.  It clears room for Justus Sheffield to be brought up.
• Zach Britton:  Good move.  He will settle in and be a factor down the stretch and in October.  SU predicts he will get more prime time activity late in games and very soon – starting this weekend.
• Loss of Tyler Austin: let’s face it: he was never going to get a real shot as he didn’t have a position.  This should be good for his career and SU hopes he can take advantage of it.

OK, big series on tap now in Boston.  No Judge, no Sanchez.  This is the time your true generational players step up and show everyone that they are the man and need to be feared.  Will Giancarlo Stanton do that?  SU says it’s highly doubtful but is ready to be proven wrong.  Let’s speak plainly: when you are paid $30 million a year, these are the games when you are expected to produce.  A-Rod often struggled in these games – especially in October.  Stanton likely has little experience with this given that the Marlins rarely contended.  Of course, I would love to see him come through.  Just not feeling it.

Will he?

Given the injuries, SU says a 2-2 split would be a victory this weekend in Boston.  You really can’t hope for more than that.  Actually, a couple of early inning rain delays would work in the Yankees’ favor where the starter can’t return.  That would be ideal with the new bullpen which is loaded.  Also worried Severino will get lit up again.  His slider has disappeared and he can’t win with his fastball alone.

The really good teams don’t make a big deal about injuries – they play through it and view the situation as an opportunity for a bench player to make his mark.  SU says that over the years, the Yankees have adopted that approach.  There is no hysteria, no gnashing of the teeth.  The Red Sox usually do it the opposite way and focus on their bad luck.

The injury to Aaron Judge is bad but could have been worse.  It sounds like a minimum of 3 weeks but likely longer as he will need time to to rehab a bit.  So, what are the options for the Yankees?

• Timing is everything.  Clint Frazier is the obvious choice but he is in another concussion protocol.  Bad luck for this dude.  Not sure how long he is out for but he just started this latest one last week.
• Next up would be Billy McKinney but they just traded him for Happ yesterday afternoon.  Can you believe that?
• Then there is Jacoby Ellsbury who has still not resumed baseball activities down in Tampa.  SU suspects that they have him mowing the practice fields down there and putting the baselines down each morning.  He is not an option.
• Tyler Wade can play the outfield but he is still over-powered by Major League pitching.
• They added this guy Shane Robinson to the roster yesterday.  He will probably get some at bats.

Bottom line: with both Judge and Sanchez out now, this is no longer a home run hitting machine.  They need to hit and run, move runners along and hit against the shifts.  It will be interesting to see how they adjust.

SU liked the Happ trade.  Drury will likely become an every day player in Toronto but he was blocked in NY.  McKinney has a lot of power but doesn’t hit for average and he never would have made it up here.  Happ is a rental and has good career numbers against the Red Sox.  SU doesn’t love him but you didn’t give up anything so worth the risk.  Clearly better than Cole Hamels.  That would have been a disaster.

We will see if the Yankees’ generational player, Stanton, now rises to the occasion and becomes “the man.”  SU will be curious on that front.  Sonny Gray was good again and you have to hope his thumb is ok.  He is emerging now as hoped for when they got him last year.  Btw, German was taken out of his minor league start yesterday and was holding the same spot on his arm where he had surgery previously.  That’s too bad.  But as they say, “next man up.”

SU liked the trade for Zach Britton.  It accomplished two goals:

1. First, he is probably the best pitcher that is truly available to the Yankees right now.  Ideally, they would have acquired a starter but other than deGrom, no one out there is worth the prospects it would take.  None of the guys included in this deal are considered to be top prospects and let’s face it, the Yankees are not great at developing their own pitching prospects who will become starters.  True, Severino is a stud but Sheffield came via Cleveland and the others are not sure things.
2. Equally important, the trade for Britton prevented the Red Sox and Houston from getting him.  They both need a top line reliever and the Yankees have taken Britton off the market.

It also provides some insurance for Chapman whose knee has to be a concern down the stretch.

Now, consider this: if Tommy Kahnle can somehow regain his form, would the Yankees ever consider doing a Tampa Bay and lining up all of their relievers in a key playoff game?  They almost have enough of them now to throw out a top group of pitchers.  The reality is that they are likely better than most of their starters.  Just a thought for October.

Look for Cashman to pick up a catcher in the coming week as well.  Romine is certainly serviceable but Sanchez is supposed to be out “several weeks” and there is no way they bring him back too soon again.  If Romine gets hurt, they are really short at this position right now.

The return of Torres is huge.  He can actually put the ball in play.  What a concept.  Big game today – cannot lose another series to the Rays.

OK, the Yankees just announced that Sanchez re-aggravated his groin injury and was placed back on the DL.  It’s not clear if he re-injured himself not hustling after the passed ball in the 1st inning, not hustling down to 1st base in the top of the 9th or having Severino chase after him around the clubhouse after game.  Either way, you won’t have Gary Sanchez to kick around for a number of weeks.

Too bad.  It’s good to have some controversy in a feel good season.  We will never know what would have happened here with Aaron Boone.  Clearly, he came back too soon.  The question is how did the Mets’ medical team get involved for that to happen?

SU just stumbled across this trade rumor on http://www.mlb.com:

Proposal No. 4 (via @lou_sigillo)
Yankees get: Right-hander Lance Lynn
Twins get: Right-hander Sonny Gray

This is an interesting thought for both teams to consider and one that could make sense if the Yankees think Lynn gives them a better chance than Gray to win a World Series title this season. Gray is under control through 2019, making him more attractive to the Twins than Lynn, who is set to become a free agent in a few months. Both pitchers’ numbers seem similar at first glance, but Lynn has looked much better over his past 10 starts (4.30 ERA).

Who says no? The Yankees. While Lynn has pitched better of late, the difference between him and Gray isn’t significant enough for New York to give up Gray’s remaining year of control. The Yanks can always trade Gray in the offseason if things don’t turn around, and they should be able to find a team that thinks Gray can rebound if he gets away from Yankee Stadium, where he has posted a lifetime 6.55 ERA in 15 starts.

SU says absolutely not!!  Lance Lynn is over the hill – on the downside of his career.  And as SU has said before, Sonny Gray is your game #2 starter come October.  Get over it and get used to it.  I do not like the Sonny Gray rumors.  He is definitely coming around now.  The bottom line is that the trade deadline market for starters is really mediocre.  Cashman should not deal just to make a deal.  SU says hold tight and focus on having your catcher run to first base.  Btw, no love for Sanchez on the comments today.  No way is he getting sent down to Scranton.

SU commented about Gary Sanchez yesterday and clearly this must have had some impact on him in last night’s game.  In the first inning, he doesn’t hustle after a passed ball which was really a mix-up in signs with Severino.  Literally does a slow jog after the ball and the runner scores from 2nd base.

Then in the 9th inning, he doesn’t run hard to 1st base with the bases loaded and 2 outs and cost the team another run that would have tied the game.  SU says good to see that he learned from the incident in the 1st inning.  If you saw his post-game comments, he felt badly and said he would learn from this.  Aaron Boone said he hadn’t looked at the video of either play as of yet.  Hmmm.

Here is what you need to know:

1. Joe Girardi got fired, in part, for not being able to get through to Sanchez.  Lacked the communication and motivation skills to take him to the next level (or block balls behind the plate).
2. Sanchez has a history of not hustling and bad behavior going back to his minor league days with the Yankees.  He was suspended for some games and talked to on several occasions during his minor league career.
3. He is hitting .187 this year and is clearly frustrated at the plate.  He leads the major with 10 passed balls
4. When you say, “I will learn from this” SU says that is what you say in 3rd grade when you didn’t hustle down to 1st base.  Sanchez is a major leaguer who clearly knows better.  But no doubt he is a graduate of the Robinson Cano school that teaches players that it’s really too much effort to run hard to 1st base 4 times a game.

He needs to watch tape of Derek Jeter running hard to 1st base for 20 years.  So, what’s going to happen now?  Boone is supposed to be the great communicator and with a record that has been stellar for much of the season, not much to communicate about except “keep it up!”  He did try his hand at actually game managing last night and had Didi bunt in the 9th with runners on 1st and 2nd and no one out.  Bad move as you knew the Rays would walk Stanton, the Yankees’ hottest hitter right now (gulp, ok, I said it).  Hicks, who is from the Brett Gardner school of being red hot or ice cold, is in the cold phase and he grounded out which left it up to Sanchez.  It was just a bad managerial decision.

Last year, Sanchez would hit to right field with power.  He is strictly a pull hitter right now.  Teams over-shift and thus his average is .187.

Who will talk to Sanchez?  CC could but pitchers tend not to be the ones who play that role.  SU says A-Rod needs to get on a plane and have lunch with him today.  Bring J-Lo too.  They seem to have a relationship.  Boone should sit him tonight; no catching and no DH.  SU says he won’t do it though which is a mistake.

All of a sudden, the Yankees’ wild card lead is 7 games.  Severino has had a few bad starts in a row and as SU said recently, they need to watch his innings and give him longer periods between starts.  It’s no time to panic but there is no way you win the division if you can’t win in Tampa.  Time for Aaron Boone to earn his keep.  Let’s see how he does.

SU was disappointed by the Yankee game rainout last night but there was a surprising silver lining.  I stumbled across the new show on Showtime, “Who is America?”, which was laugh out loud funny.  It pushes the word “stupid” to a new level but SU must admit that parts of it were hilarious.

The Yankees were anxious to call last night’s game as deGrom was pitching and with a rain delay, the team plane would not get to Tampa until about 6 am Monday morning.  SU is on board with that.  The game Friday night was unwatchable and 3 hours and 50 minutes of just boring baseball.  Saturday was better although Chapman’s meltdown has to be of concern to the Yankees.  SU says the Yankees’ record, in any other normal season, is off the charts great but right now you get the sense that the wheels are falling off a bit.  German was sent down to work on his mechanics (read: he will be traded for a starting pitcher in the next week), and no starter can go past 5 innings.  This is a formula for a gassed bullpen come September.  You can see this coming.  It’s great to have 4 top relievers but if you are winning a lot of games, you use them almost every day and they will burn out.

Special props to Chasen Shreve who had a massive save on Saturday for Chapman.  He was on the brink of being DFA’d just a few weeks ago but SU gives credit to Boone who does stick with his players.  No way Girardi would have done that.

The Mets showed total chaos with Mickey Calloway’s media session before Saturday’s game and the confusion around Cespedes and if he needs season ending surgery on his feet.  SU thought it was interesting that Michael Kay blasted them on Twitter before the game but then did not even mention it during the game.  If you watch the games this year, he is much less likely to say anything negative about the Yankees on the broadcasts than in past years, they rarely give stats on a player’s slump and he really seems to be pulling his punches.  SU prefers the honest picture – say what you think.  Plus there is so much down time between the strikeouts and home runs, the fans need to be entertained.

Great British Open final round yesterday as Tiger Woods was front and center along with many of the game’s major stars.  SU must say that there seemed to be an unusually large number of commercials although they did show the action during some of them.

SU is still waiting for the trade for a pitcher although I am not interested in any of the usual suspects.  Here’s a thought: trade Gary Sanchez.  I do not see him getting any better defensively and if you are sticking with Stanton who is really a DH, over time you will need to upgrade the catcher position defensively and then where does Sanchez go?  This is going to show up in spades in October as Sanchez will allow a passed ball or drop a throw at the plate in a big spot.  He is a big guy who does not move well behind the plate.  I know he is a better hitter than his .188 average but he just seems to be going through the motions out there.  The point is he would bring a young pitcher in return.  Thoughts?

SU is a long-time Djokovic fan.  The last 2 years have been pretty dismal.  First, the “personal issues” event – we all know what those are typically (see Tiger Woods).  Then, consistent elbow issues and a mysterious “surgical procedure” early this year.  He never took the required time off to recuperate and his road back to top form has been slow.  He fired his entire support team and tried out Andre Agassi for a while but that didn’t take.  He smartly brought back his coach and team and is back on track now.

If you watch him in the post-match interviews with the media, he is a really smart guy.  Very cerebral.  SU watched those interviews for both Nadal and him.  Nadal’s English is not great (even after all these years, his English is pretty choppy) and he struggles to communicate this thoughts.  But it’s clear he is singularly focused on winning.  He doesn’t give that much thought about career legacy, rivalries, etc.  Of course, no one plays more fiercely and he never takes a point off.  Great competitor.  Djokovic looks at things more holistically and SU believes is probably as good an interview for the media as anyone.  He shares a lot about his motivation, life journey, etc.

Andy Murray was doing TV commentary for the BBC at Wimbledon and correctly forecast that Djokovic had a great shot at winning the tournament early on.  SU saw it as well.  It’s impressive that he has won Wimbledon 4 times now on a surface that is not his best.  He is a great player on all surfaces.  If Murray can return, the US Open should be a great event on the men’s side.

The Yankee bullpen failed again on this recent road trip as Boone let Green throw 40 pitches in the 8th inning despite the fact that he had a fairly rested bullpen and the All-Star break coming up.  It was odd that he did not take him out there.  A split vs. Cleveland on the road is fine and if it wasn’t for Boston’s crazy record, you would take that.  They are 4.5 games out now.  They still play Boston 10 times and things happen as we all know.  But SU says the reality is this: even with Torres and Sanchez back, they struggle to score runs not via the home run.  Come playoff time, this is not a formula for success.  SU says that Boone has a half season now to start putting runners in motion, hitting and running and not waiting all the time for the home run.

The latest rumors have the Yankees making a deal with the Angels for a pitcher as their GM was once the Yankees Director of Player Personnel and knows the prospects well in the system.  The Angels should be sellers soon enough – makes sense.

Watch for Joe Girardi to get the Cardinals’ open managerial job.  That would be a great fit for both.  SU says he deserves another shot and that is a stable franchise and he played there after leaving the Yankees so there is some history.