Pride. Power. Pinstripes: New York Yankees Dynasty (MLB 15 The Show)

[DJeterFan2]

Game: MLB 15 The Show
System: PS4
Sliders: TNK
Rosters: OSFM

My MLBTS story: I'm going to do my best to keep it as realistic as possible. From trades, to the sliders I use in game (going with TNK for now), to the amount of money I throw at free agents in the offseason.

I'm going to limit myself to two QFA signings per offseason.

In '14 the show, I played 3 seasons of my franchise. I won 2 world series, and got ousted by the A's in 7 games in the LCS in my last year. I honestly have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed playing that 'chise. Even though I couldn't 3-peat it, that series with the A's was the most memorable set of games I've played in my 5 years of playing the show. Never have I showed more joy, frustration, and anger all at once.

[DJeterFan2]

Season Preview: New York Yankees

By: Mitch Connor |ESPNNewYork.com [April 6, 2015 at 1:27 pm CDT]



Opening Day has arrived in New York and while there's a loose set of 25 ballplayers in the Yankees clubhouse, the same cannot be said for their fanbase. With the retirement of one of the greatest shortstops in franchise history, the dynamic of this ballclub has changed dramatically.

Young dutchmen has consistently told reporters that he is only looking to make his mark on this ballclub. Not by replacing Jeter or becoming the next Jeter, but by playing to his strengths to help this ballclub get back to the postseason.



October hasn't been the same without the Yankees. Love them or hate them, they bring a certain aura to the playoffs that has been missed for two straight seasons. Much to the ire of their fans. Yankees fans are optimistic about their future. With prospects such as Luis Severino, Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, and Rob Refsnyder to name a few, waiting in the wings, help and prosperity may be on the way for this franchise. However, as it stands, the Yankees are projected to miss the playoffs yet again this season.

Per the PECOTA projects, the Yankees are looking to be an 80-win team this season. Even with the improved defense up the middle, the question marks with respect to their rotation and older lineup leaves baseball analysts wondering about how far this team can go. With the injury concerns surrounding their ace, Masahiro Tanaka, the Yankee organization can only hold their breath each time Tanaka takes the mound.

Going forward the Yankees will look to do what they can to improve the ballclub with under-the-radar moves as they have done over the past couple of years. With acquisitions such as Brandon McCarthy in years past, it is possible for this organization to make something out of nothing.

Yankees first baseman, Mark Teixeira believes the Yankees have what it takes to contend this season. "Projections are just what they are...projections. All that goes out the window when you're in the midst of a 162-game season. I don't like projections, I don't pay attention to them at all. You can't project chemistry, win streaks, injuries, and a number of other factors that affect a ballclub. We as a team have to adapt and overcome the obstacles that are commonplace in a baseball season. I believe that our 1-2 punch at the top of our rotation can be great. Our bullpen is fantastic. If we all can come together as a cohesive unit for about 7 months, we'll be just fine."



The Yankees will need providence on their side this season to contend. As always, they do have the resources to make a splash if necessary during the season, however, with a different philosophy in leadership, it will be interesting to see how far the Yankees' FO will go to remain in contention. In addition, if the Yankees want to contend, they will need contributions from players who need to bounce back. Alex Rodriguez, Brian McCann, and Mark Teixeira will all need to step up at the plate if this team wants to play baseball in October.

[DJeterFan2]

Yankees to Promote Rob Refsnyder

By: Jack Ross|ESPNNewYork.com [April 6, 2015 at 3:08 pm CDT]





The new youth movement is well underway in the Bronx as the Yankees have decided to call up their young middle infield prospect. He is expected to split duties with Stephen Drew at second base this season. It has been well noted that Refsnyder's defense could use some seasoning, however, with his hitting prowess, GM Brian Cashman decided it was time.

"Of course we want him to develop as quickly and gracefully as possible. However, we felt as if he could do so at the big league level. We have veterans in our clubhouse who are great with the glove. We feel as if that type of influence would bode well for him going forward.", Cashman told reporters.

Refsnyder turned heads this spring by batting an impressive .325 with an OBP of .374, 2 home runs, and 13 RBI. It is believed that Refsnyder is the best pure hitter in the Yankees system. He will get a chance to prove the pundits and analysts right. Refsnyder is expected to get the start on opening day against Knuckleball specialist R.A. Dickey.

When asked about his forthcoming debut Refsnyder did his best to remain humble. "I feel blessed for this opportunity. Just being a member of the Yankees organization has been a blast. I'm excited to do what I can to contribute to this ballclub. I'm trying not to focus on expectations that may have been set, rather the goals I've set forth for myself as a professional.", said Refsnyder.

The 24-year old second baseman will have plenty of resource to learn and grow as a player. The Yankees' fan base is excited for the debut of Refsnyder, while remaining cautiously optimistic. There will be some growing pains, however, the organization believes that Refsnyder can be a stalwart for many years to come.

[Braeden]

Interesting, hope Refsnyder produces well at bat and in the field!

Following

[DJeterFan2]

Opening Day is officially upon us in the. It's the revamped and rejuvenated Jays versus their AL East rivals the Yankees.

Spoiler

Game 1: Rookie Second Baseman Rob Refsnyder backs Tanaka's strong Opening Day start.

Toronto Blue Jays at New York Yankees
Apr 6, 2015	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Toronto (0-1)	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	7	1
New York (1-0)	0	0	0	3	1	2	1	0	0	7	8	0
W: Masahiro Tanaka (1-0) L: R.A. Dickey (0-1) S: N/A

Scoring Summary
SCORING DETAILS			TOR	NYY
TOR	1	Encarnacion hits a sacrifice fly to left. Reyes scores. (F8)	1	0
NYY	4	Ellsbury homers to right.	1	1
NYY	4	Teixeira doubles to left. Gardner scores	1	2
NYY	4	McCann singles to center. Teixeira scores	1	3
NYY	5	Refsnyder homers to left.	1	4
NYY	6	Refsnyder doubles to left. Teixeira scores. Rodriguez scores.	1	6
TOR	7	Gardner singles to center. Ellsbury advances home on throwing error (E4)	1	7

Toronto Blue Jays
HITTERS	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	HR	AVG
TEAM TOTALS	33	1	7	1	1	9	0
BATTING: RBI: Encarnacion SAC: Encarnacion
FIELDING: E: Travis

New York Yankees
HITTERS	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	HR	AVG
TEAM TOTALS	33	7	8	6	2	9	2
BATTING: 2B: Rodriguez, Refsnyder HR: Ellsbury, Refsnyder RBI: Ellsbury, Teixeira, McCann, Refsnyder (3)
BASERUNNING: SB: Ellsbury

Toronto Blue Jays
PITCHERS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Dickey, R.A. (L, 0-1)	5.0	4	4	4	1	5	2	7.2
Cecil, B	1.0	3	2	2	0	1	0	18.00
Loup, A	1.0	1	1	0	1	2	0	0.00
Redmond, T	1.0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0.00
TEAM TOTALS	8.0	9	7	6	2	9	2

New York Yankees
PITCHERS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Tanaka, M (W, 1-0)	7.2	5	1	1	1	8	0	1.17
Rogers, E	1.1	2	0	0	0	1	0	0.00
TEAM TOTALS	9.0	7	1	1	1	9	0

If there were any jitters regarding officially becoming the ace of the staff, or injury concerns, they were not present today. The Yankees staff anchor Tanaka was on his game in this one. "I wanted to ignore it all and just pitch. Elbow concerns, pitch counts, it didn't matter to me today. I trusted whatever felt good at the time. My splitter wasn't where I wanted it to be today, so I had to rely on my slider and change up while throwing them for strikes.", Tanaka told our reporters through an interpreter.

The early portion of the game was a pitchers duel featuring R.A. Dickey and Tanaka. The Yankee batters were admittedly frustrated with the Knuckleball early on. "It's like he threw it 90% of the time. The movement of the pitch had our swings off-line by just enough early on. Fortunately, we kept putting the ball in play and was able to get it going towards the middle innings of the game.", Ellsbury told reporters in the clubhouse. Ellsbury got the scoring started for the Yankees with a home run to right in the 4th inning.


Refsnyder celebrates his first big league home run with teammate Didi Gregorius.

Even with the strong performance of Tanaka, it was slightly overshadowed by recent call-up, Rob Refsnyder. Refsnyder clubbed his first career home run in today's ball game. "I was ecstatic, I didn't want to stop round the bases. It's definitely great to get #1 out of the way. I wanted swing hard the ball for sure, given the dynamics of Dickey's curveball. Fortunately, it was up a bit and I got ahold of it."

The early call-up of Refsnyder has paid early dividends as he went 2-4 with a HR and 3 RBIs. The Yankees added on plenty of insurance runs in the 6th and 7th innings. Esmil Rogers pitched in the 8th and the 9th for the final for outs to seal the 7-1 victory over the Jays. In tomorrow's matchup, Michael Pineda will tow the rubber against veteran left-hander Mark Buehrle.

[DJeterFan2]

Game 2: Pineda's solid effort not enough as Yankees drop a close Game 2



As was the case in Spring Training and most of 2014, Michael Pineda pitched a solid game, however, did not get much in the way of run support. Pineda worked 6 innings while giving up 2 runs on one mistake to Blue Jays RF Jose Bautista. "It was a mistake for sure. I wanted to get the fastball away from him. I couldn't get it out far enough and it caught enough of the plate where he could get a hold of it.", Pineda said dejectedly. Bautista's home run was another back-breaking home run that he has belted against the Yankees. In his last 40 at-bats at Yankee Stadium, Bautista has batted .325 with a .488 on-base percentage, with 5 home runs and 12 RBIs. Good for a 1.269 slugging percentage.

"He's a beast, it seems as if playing against us brings out the best in him. You're not going to contain his bat for an entire series. You just have to hope that our guys could find ways to win despite his great hitting against us.", Girardi told reporters after the game. "In tonight's game, Mikey pitched well enough for the win, but we just couldn't get it going until it was too late. I'm glad we did show some fight in the later innings of the ballgame.", he added.

The Yankees rallied for 2 runs in the seventh to tie the game. However, in the 10th inning, the Jays were able to tack on 2 runs for a 4-2 lead heading into the bottom of the 10th. The Yankees were able to score a run in the bottom of the 10th inning, however Didi Gregorius flied out to LF withe bases loaded to end the game. The Yankees did have their opportunities to win this ballgame, however, they were not able to cash in with RISP. An issue that has plagued the Yankees for the past few seasons. The Bombers will look to take the finale of this opening 3-game series as Adam Warren takes the hill against Jays up-and-comer Aaron Sanchez.

[DJeterFan2]

Game 3: Warren twirls seven inning gem in nail-biting Yankees victory.



The Yankees got an unexpected gem from their starter Adam Warren who provided seven shut out innings for his ballclub. He also added 4 punchouts while scattering only 3 hits. Going into the season, Warren was expected to be the fifth starter for the Yankees. However, with a strong spring showing, Manager Joe Girardi felt as if he deserved to be in the middle of the rotation. "We feel as if Warren has always had the right stuff to be an impact starter. We just needed for him to have a defined role early on and let him establish his credibility in that role.", Girardi told reporters during the postgame presser. Warren pitched well to contact all through out the game, getting mostly ground ball outs all throughout the game.

On the other side of the ball, the Yankees were again victims of good Blue Jays pitching. Blue Jays starter Aaron Sanchez held the Yankee lineup at bay for the first 6 innings. He struck out 9 Yankee batters in the process while seemingly working at a higher level with RISP. "His curveball and changeup were spot on. It really kept us off balance all game. When we started to figure out his breaking pitches during the second time through the lineup, he started featuring his fastball a little bit more. He did a really great job of using his repertoire of pitches. Heck, he got me to strike out 2 times on pitches that he wanted to throw.", Beltran said after the game. Fortunately for the Yankees, they were able to rally for 2 runs in the seventh inning. Both of which came with two outs. In the seventh, DH Garrett Jones was able to work a 1-out walk. After a Didi Gregorious strikeout, the Yankees were looking at another inning of disappointment after getting some sort of rally started. With the way both starters were pitching, a 2-out error constituted a rally.


Drew connects on his go-ahead RBI double in the 7th.

After taking a few tough pitches and fouling a couple more off, Stephen Drew got a changeup low in the zone that he was able to rifle in the left field power alley for a 2-out RBI double. "I was looking for his offspeed stuff during the entire at bat. While I was late on the fastballs, I knew he was keeping that pitch in his back pocket. Once he tried to get the change-up over for strike three, I was able to get some good wood on it and drive it in the gap.", Drew said. Jacoby Ellsbury added an insurance run on a 2-out single up the middle, chasing Sanchez from the game. David Carpenter and Andrew Miller pitched the 8th and 9th inning respectively for the hold, save, and opening series victory.

The Yankees will host their long time rivals, the Boston Red Sox for a three game set starting on Friday night. For game 1 CC Sabathia will take the mound against Justin Masterson.

[DJeterFan2]

One of the best rivalries in baseball gets underway in the
Bronx. Yankees. RedSox.

Spoiler

Games 1 and 2 were simulated due to time constraints. Like 12 hour shifts back to back at work type constraints. CC was terrible. I don't plan on having CC be more than a 4th starter for the rest of his contract. Tanaka will get the ball in Game 3, which I played.

Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees April 10-11, 2015
DATE	OPPONENT	RESULT
Apr 10	vs Boston Red Sox	Lost, 8-3
Apr 11	vs Boston Red Sox	Won, 6-5