The official Twitter account of Donnie Collins, sports columnist at The Scranton Times-Tribune. RailRiders baseball, PSU football and local sports issues.
Boston is better than the Yankees right now in every facet. Better offense. Better defense. Better pitching. Better managing. But two months to go. Judge and Sanchez will be back in the lineup. This is still a likely playoff team. Anything can happen.
But this series was a mess
In fairness to Chance, Boone has done nothing but throw him into impossible spots. A start at Fenway and a keep-it-close relief appearance tonight, just after getting called up, when he hasn’t relieved in years. Just a terrible job with this kid by the manager.
Pretty cool that, w/ Aaron Judge's 100th career HR last night, 2 of 3 fastest players ever to reach that number (w/ Gary Sanchez) are Yanks.
Even more amazing: SWB had all of the top 3 on their way to the majors. Former Red Barons 1B Ryan Howard was the fastest.
@swbrailriders
Love this breakdown. But…I thought you weren’t allowed to appeal after calling a timeout?
If you are, I want my Avoca Little League championship trophy from 1989, please and thank you.
Someday this year, the Yankees will begin to get their injured back, and when that happens, the players who were supposed to spend the season in AAA will be back with them.
Clint Frazier, though, will not be among them. He’s where he’s going to stay.
I've seen SWB win a lot of division titles. That was the craziest one of them all. You'd have bet your house an hour ago the season was over. But...RailRiders came back from down 7-1 and 13-6 (in the eighth) to win. Hard to imagine. Suzyn, you can not predict baseball.
Just a pet peeve of mine: Yanks go to the defensive lineup too early, too often. Two-run lead in the 9th and you want to put Wade in? Fine. But two up in the 7th? Don’t you kinda want to have Voit in for another AB if possible?
Does anyone understand how difficult it is to make a 4-team playoff field four years running? Or 5 of the last 7 seasons? Or 10 of 13? Or 14 of the last 20 seasons?
That’s how lucky Scranton/Wilkes-Barre fans have been.
Scary moment for the RailRiders in Rochester. Franchy Cordero, playing at first tonight, took a one hopper off the head. 97.8 mph smash. Looked like it hit him in the left side of the head. He's coming out of the game. Walking off on his own.
.
@swbrailriders
are bringing back the interlocking SWB. Maybe the best logo in franchise history. Will be on road caps and alternate jerseys. Will also be featured on promo items and merch at team store.
You’d swear Brian Cashman didn’t trade a guy 99.9% of Yankees fans had never heard of before to get Edwin Encarnación this year. But since he didn’t make a trade on a particular day, he’s viewed as dead at the wheel.
Sean Boyle has done it. He has completed a 7-inning no-hitter, getting Connor Wong to line out softly to Socrates Brito in right. What a performance. Second RailRiders no-hitter in last 29 days.
Here’s the thing: Yanks interviewed 5 guys for manager’s job, waited, then brought in a 6th. After the 6th guy interviews, “clear front runner” emerges?
I mean, I’d assume the 6th guy is the clear frontrunner. But we shall see.
I see lots of names being thrown out to replace Larry Rothschild. But I’d be surprised if Tommy Phelps isn’t in the mix with the pitchers somehow at the big league level next year. Been around the system for a while. The kids love him. And, that formula worked w/ Thames/PJ.
Frazier saves the RailRiders' bacon again. Throws AJ Reed out at the plate on a perfect throw from left on a single by Tilson. Reed was trying to score from second.
Assuming Castro is in the deal, Yankees could start Ronald Torreyes at 2B to open the season if they don't feel Gleyber Torres is ready. But I'd expect Gleyber to be given every chance to win that job in the spring.
IL named Mike King it’s Player of the Month for August. He was 3-0, 1.09 for the month.
Rare for a SWB pitcher to earn the honor. Last was Brandon Duckworth for the Red Barons in 2001.
5/5 ...to trade the man who beat Romine out a few months earlier, Murphy, to Minnesota for Aaron Hicks. Kinda cool to remember Romine’s 2015 season with the RailRiders today, what it has meant for his career and what it indirectly meant for Hicks’.
RailRiders added four players to their roster today: Chance Adams, Stephen Tarpley, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.
I covered this franchise for many, many years and still follow them daily. I think this is the first time I laughed when I saw the list of players coming in.
COLUMN: As
@LCFalconsFB
DL Savion Williams
@50reazons
heads to Arizona for the El Toro Bowl on Saturday, he does so as a dominant force but, more importantly, a changed student.
A look at the Lackawanna turnaround for the future
@Vol_Football
prospect.
This is just awesome. So happy for McBroom. In a year where pretty much everyone who deserved a shot got one, he didn’t. Now, he has it. He’ll be a nice fit there.
Trade: The Yankees have traded INF Ryan McBroom to Kansas City in exchange for international signing bonus pool money and a player to be named later or cash considerations.
Seen my share of guys coming up whose attitude wasn’t great. Frazier wasn’t one of them. And I never thought he was particularly arrogant either. Fun guy. Loved to play and knew he could. Nothing wrong with that.
I always get a lot of negative comments about Frazier and it’s usually about his “attitude” and “arrogance.” I think his style is perfect for New York and playing with that type of confidence is a necessity.
Either way, Adam Rippon, the Clarks Summit kid who didn't start skating until he was 10 years old and had to travel nearly three hours for weekend lessons in Philly to get his start, is going to finish in the top 10 at the
#WinterOlympics
. That's pretty amazing.
Rehab assignment of Giancarlo Stanton has been moved to the RailRiders. Also, Aaron Judge will begin a rehab assignment with the RailRiders tonight.
Instant analysis: The top of the RailRiders batting order will be difficult for the Durham Bulls to navigate.
1/5 In 2015 the Yankees designated Austin Romine for assignment, and not many people batted an eye. John Ryan Murphy was an up-and-coming prospect at the time, and he frankly beat Romine out. Romine was a top prospect himself once, but nobody thought him worth a waiver claim.
Take the "World Series or failure" thing for what you will. But Yanks made it their brand; and to be part of that at their ballpark, they charge championship prices, year round. Then they kind of shrug, because they see playoffs as a crapshoot and wonder why fans don't.
Disagree that fans are “spoiled.” Their expectations are bigger because that is what the Yankees promise every year and they fail to meet those expectations. They sell tickets, food, etc. based on these promises and fans are tired of the false promises.
Garcia gets tough. 3-2 count on AJ Reed, and he gets a well-located fastball that Reed turns over. 4-5-3 DP. Scoreless heading to B2.
31 pitches for Garcia.
First, it's a great -- GREAT -- move for Bryan Mitchell. He has outstanding stuff. Has needed a change of scenery for a few years. He'll do very well in that park, and the Padres will give him a long look as a starter. Can win 10-15 games for them.
Tomas is making $15.5 million this year. Kind of feel like him beating Ford is like Globo Gym beating Average Joes and tearing down the building to put in the parking lot.
John Altobelli managed the Brewster Whitecaps of the Cape Cod League for 3 seasons (2012-14). Former RailRiders OF Aaron Judge was on that team. (I believe Michael Conforto and Jeff McNeil were too.) Altobelli’s successor at Brewster: Keystone College coach Jamie Shevchik.
Pirates have wanted Gleyber Torres in a Gerrit Cole deal. Can’t see yanks giving GT up. Frazier a more likely centerpiece, but would need to be more than 1 for 1. Perhaps andujar or Adams could be 2nd piece. Still negotiating.
Michael Kay makes a good point. with all these OF injuries (Judge just left game) they really miss Ellsbury. One small saving grace: NYY gets 75 pct back in insurance $ on Ellsbury as long as he stays injured.
Ok, so how is everyone else listening to this game? Just muting the ESPN crew and going with Sterling? I avoid the Sunday night games because of this crew but figured I could deal with it for the 5 hours this game is going to take to get played. Alas, I was wrong.
And then there goes Frazier, getting to third on a groundball to third. Looked him back, threw to first and he was gone on the throw. So aggressive and smart on the bases.
Two thoughts on BIrd, now that he's playing:
1. He's covering the plate very well. The single T1 came on a pretty good pitch from Justin Haley, on the outside corner. Got good wood on it.
2. He's got to be really, really close if they're playing him today.
A classic soundbite from Paul Mainieri on the MLB Draft.
Christian Cairo was ready to be an
#LSU
Tiger Tuesday. Then the Cleveland Indians called.
A million dollars beats going to class I guess.
@Jomboy_
Having covered him coming up through the Yankees system, if you told me Melancon tried to make a hype video, I'd have thought it would be exactly this.
I totally agree. You can't play the Astros with 24. There was a clear opportunity to use Wade on the bases in Game 2. And as much as I like Stanton, he's a guy who hasn't played much. I'm not sure he's pinch hitting for anyone besides Hicks, and I know he isn't playing OF. So...
Like we said on the show, if Stanton isn’t going to play then they have to replace him off the roster with Wade or Voit. No reason to waste a spot when you only have 3 bench players to begin with.
Rangers and Diamondbacks 174 combined regular season wins is the fewest in a World Series matchup in MLB history aside from shortened seasons
(via
@ktsharp
)
Albert Abreu is pretty good.
Take that one game against Tampa where he couldn't get anybody out and was forced to stay in there out of the mix: 1.85 ERA, 0.822 WHIP, 9.4 K/9. Just 11 hits in 24.1 ip.