[Armor and Sword]

Yankees hit some road bumps post A.S. break but the young guns have arrived!

August 10th 1987 - The NY Yankees were sitting in first place at the All-Star break in year one. However things began to unravel right after the summer classic. It all started with 3B Mike Pagliarulo tearing his shoulder which would shelve him for the season. It was a big blow as he was having a great season. The Yankees went ahead and signed free agent 3B John Castino. John is a 30 year old "B" potential 3B who was curiously available. The Yankees inked him to a 3 year contract for a modest 500K per year. Castino has responded and is currently hitting .295 and providing some very solid defense in Pags place.

Then long time veteran 2B Willie Randolph tore his calf running out a ground ball to first. Willie will also miss the rest of the season. That was followed by Gary Ward shredding his knee and then releif pitcher Rich Bordi who was a rock in middle relief going down with a sprained elbow (for the year). To make matters worse surprise Pete Filson a big left handed long relief pitcher in his first year in the Show tore his rotator cuff. So GM Michael Sword was reeling and the team went cold as well.


Sword was on the phones and did make a splash at the trade deadline. The Yankees sent SP's Brad Arsnberg, Dave Eiland and RP Pat Clements to the Indians in exchange for SS Jay Bell and SP Rod Nichols both 21 year old "B" prospects and expeced to make impacts as early as this season. It did not take long for Bell to be inserted into the starting lineup and platoon with Bobby Meecham and Wayne Tollison. So the Yankees sent some good prospects but feel they got back a SS in Jay Bell who will be a rock there for the next decade. In Rod Nichols they get one of the hottest SP in double A ball and they also called him up to provide long relief and spot starts.

As far as the Yankees rotation Ron Guidry and Rick Rhoden continue to be the horses. Charles Hudson has been up and down and after a womderful start Dennis Rasmussen has been sent down to AAA. Now Al Leiter and Bob Tewksbury have been asked to pitch earlier than thought. But things have gotten much better in August as they have won 7 of their last 8 games and sit just 4.5 games back of front running Boston. They are tied with the Royals for 1st in the wild card chase.

The phone rang again though after the trading deadline as the Orioles came calling. They offered SP "B" prospect Ben McDonald who is a horse for future slugging star RF Jay Buhner. Looking at the minor league pipeline for starting pitching and knowing Guidry and Rhoden are on their last legs (along with Tommy John who has fallen out of the rotation) Sword pulled the trigger and reeled in Big Ben. A huge trade for the pinstripes.


A full August recap show is forth coming (if Twitch does not mute my audio like they did on July's show sorry about that I have no control over that garbage). If they don't let the audio happen I will make sure you get great visuals of all the team stat's, league leaders and pennant races.

The Yankees have high hopes for Big Ben to anchor their rotation in the coming years

Sword thinks this throw-in in the Jay Bell trade will be a shining star in the future

Jay Bell is a nice pick up for the Yankees future at SS

John has been a great pick up filling in for Pags