Who would have guessed that a Chris Young steal of home would be the difference? You can't predict baseb...ok, stop throwing tomatoes.

Much like most of the season, the Yankees offense went through a long stretch of doing nothing today. It's just that before they did that, they managed to pull a three-run inning out of who knows where. Shane Greene was impressive early, but the Orioles would mount a comeback. In the end, the three runs managed to hold up and the Yankees came away with a 3-2 win.

The Yankees more than doubled their offensive production from all of yesterday in the second inning. With one out in the second, Brian McCann hit a golf shot home run over the right field wall. Mark Teixeira followed that by drawing a walk, which put runners on for the best part of the lineup. Not really, but maybe. Anyway, Chris Young then doubled moving Teixeira to third. Antoan Richardson then added a single, scoring Teixeira. Zelous Wheeler came up next, but he struck out, bringing Jacoby Ellsbury to the plate. During Ellsbury's at bat, the Yankees ran the Vernon Wells play. Richardson attempted to steal second, drawing the throw. After the throw was made, Young ran home. Richardson beat the tag and no throw came home. Young scored and the Yankees now had a 3-0 lead.

Greene had gotten in some slight trouble in the second, but managed to wriggle out of it. He wasn't able to do the same in the third as the Orioles got on the board. Nick Markakis led off the inning with a single. Two batters later, he moved to second when Adam Jones grounded out. Nelson Cruz then singled to score Markakis and make it 3-1. Steve Pearce then added a double, putting two runs in scoring position. However, Greene would get J.J. Hardy to ground out to end the inning.

After that, Greene settled down and started to really look impressive. However, that one run would not be all the Orioles would get off him. In the sixth inning, Pearce hit a one-out, solo home run to cut the Yankees' lead to one run. And with his pitch count up to 112, that would be it for him. Greene went 5.1 innings, allowing two runs on seven hits and a walk, while striking out nine. Esmil Rogers came in for Greene and got two easy outs to finish the sixth.

Rogers came back out in the seventh, but after a walk to Ryan Flaherty and a sacrifice bunt by Caleb Joseph, he was taken out. Josh Outman came in and got two outs to strand the runner and keep the Yankees in front.

After the Yankees couldn't add to their lead in the top of the eighth, Shawn Kelley came in to pitch the bottom half. Jones led of the inning with a single. After that, Cruz came to the plate. Cruz took one deep to center field. With the ways things have been going for the Yankees, I think most of us figured it was going out. But the ball died right at the wall and Brett Gardner caught it for the first out. The next two outs were much quieter and the Yankees headed to the ninth with a lead.

David Robertson came in to try and get the save after the Yankees still couldn't add to their lead in the top of the ninth. The inning didn't get off to the best start when Jimmy Paredes dropped a single into center field. Flaherty then bunted, moving Paredes into scoring position. Delmon Young would then ground out, but Paredes moved to third and was now just 90 feet away from tying the game. Robertson would get Markakis to ground out to end the game. It got tense in the last couple innings, but the Yankees came away with a win. For at least one day, the rot has stopped.

The Yankees and Orioles will play again tomorrow at 8:05 eastern. The starting pitchers will be Hiroki Kuroda and Chris Tillman.

Box score.

The O's doubled the Yankees in hits, but runs wins games. And the O's came up just a tad bit short in that.

For eight innings today, the Yankees looked like the oldest team in Major League Baseball. Miguel Gonzales didn't allow a hit for the last 16 batters he saw, and only allowed three hits over 6.0 innings. But while Yanks had only four hits, they bunched three of them in one inning to score the three runs they would need for the 3-2 win.

The game started off full of promise. MiGo needed just five pitches to get through a clean first inning, and while the Orioles didn't score in the first inning, they extracted 19 pitches out of starter Shane Greene in the process. Nick Markakis' leadoff single was wiped out by Alejandro De Aza's GIDP, and after Adam Jones used an "excuse me!" swing to somehow dump a ball into RF for a double, Nelson Cruz then struck out mightily. Because that's the only way he strikes out. Jones was stranded, but it seemed the O's would break out any time.

So, for those keeping track, that's five pitches for MiGo after one inning, and 19 for the guy starting for the team that burned through all their good relievers yesterday.

Then came the second inning. And, 36 pitches later, the Yankees had scored three runs. First up was a home run by Brian McCann, on a 9-iron shot on a pitch so low Vlad Guerrero is stroking his beard, nodding his head and saying "Not bad, kid" in Spanish somewhere in the Dominican Republic. Mark Teixeira then walked.

Fox analyst Tom Verducci made the point that the Yankees roster is full of pull hitters who only use one side of the field. Caleb Joseph must have noted that, too, because the catcher called for four straight pitches outside to begin the at-bat against Chris Young. The last pitch of the at-bat was inside, not outside, after MiGo had apparently shaken off his young catcher, and Young laced it down the LF line for a double. Tex lumbered to third base (because that's the verb you are legally required to use when describing his attempts to run), and Young stood at second base.

Antoan Richardson sent a pitch to RF to score Tex and the Yanks found themselves with a 2-0 lead with runners at the corners. Zelous Wheeler looked quite bad while striking out, and suddenly, MiGo was one pitch away from getting out of the inning with a manageable 2-0 deficit.

Didn't happen.

Jacoby Ellsbury came to bat with two outs and those runners on the corners, and the Yankees made the decision to attempt a steal of second base against the catcher with the highest caught stealing percentage in the league. Richardson got a great jump, and although Joseph had a high fastball to get a better start, sailed the throw just a tad high, allowing Richardson to steal second. Which wouldn't have been so bad in and of itself, except that Chris Young started towards home before Joseph even released the ball. So, no out at 2B, the run scores, and although Ellsbury popped up behind home plate to end the threat, the Yanks had themselves a 3-0 lead.

And, at this point, I raise a practical question: Tom Verducci made a point concerning the elimination of the "Fake to 3B, throw to 1B" tactic for pitchers. Since that's not an option, why the throw down to 2B? Why not do a fake throw to a middle infielder and throw back home, or, alternately, just don't throw down to 2B? Feel free to discuss in the comments.

Shane Green has good stuff, and while he didn't have it for very many batters in a row or even pitch to pitch, he did enough to last 5.1 IP. He was at 46 pitches after 2 innings, 71 pitches after 3 innings, and 90 after 4 innings. But the O's could never quite get enough hits together to score. They left runners stranded in the first three innings, and could only manage a RBI single by Nelson Cruz in the 3rd inning and a home run by Steve Pearce on Greene's 113th pitch of the day in the 6th inning. Inning after inning, the O's would get a base runner, but just couldn't bring them in.

The Yanks brought in Esmil Rogers to finish the 6th and start the 7th, lefty specialist Josh Outman (great name for a pitcher) did his job getting Nick Markakis and de Aza to finish the 7th, Shawn Kelley handled the 8th and David Robertson (whom FOX had told us all game was most definitely not available) closed out the 9th. The O's gave the home fans a bit of hope with a 9th inning leadoff single to Jimmy Paredes. Ryan Flaherty bunted him to second base on a kind of crappy bunt that died in the wet grass, but did move the runner to second base. Alas, pinch hitter Delmon Young couldn't beat out a weak lollipop Derek Jeter throw on a Baltimore chop, and Nick Markakis grounded out to the second baseman to end the game.

Since Stupid Toronto (CITO STILL SUCKS!) decided they wanted to win a game today, the O's magic number is still Brooks Robinson. The American League East lead is a robust 10.5 games, and are still seven games ahead of the teams in the second AL Wild Card spot. So, today's game was kinda bleh, but ultimately, we're another day closer to the goal. Now if we all can just get through tomorrow night and that last JEETAH game in Baltimore and an ESPN broadcast...

New York Daily News | Bill Madden: Joe Torre's brother Frank passed away at the age of 82 on Saturday.

LoHud | Chad Jennings:Chase Headley talks about getting hit in the face with a ball.

Newsday | David Lennon: Chris Young has been good, but he can't carry the Yankees on his back.

NJ.com | Mike Vorkunov:Mets manager Terry Collins is happy that Chris Young is finding success with the Yankees.

It's About the Money | William Tasker: Part of Mark Teixeira's struggles can be attributed to the fact that he takes too many first-pitch strikes.

Pinstriped Pundits | Jed Weisberger: The Yankees need to let Bryan Mitchell pitch for the rest of the season so they can evaluate him.

NJ.com | Brendan Kuty: Chase Headley will wear a face guard when he returns.

Tex's 2014 has not been pleasant health-wise or performance-wise, but at 34 years old it's not going to change anytime soon.

The 2014 MLB season has not been kind to Mark Teixeira. After suffering from an injury abbreviated 2013 in which he only played in fifteen total games, the Yankees first baseman has followed it up with the worst season of his career. While he has managed to play in 112 games this year, Teixeira has continued a troubling trend of struggling with numerous nagging injuries. Earlier this week, Teixeira spoke to media about his season long struggles with this to say:

"Look, this year was not a year, health-wise, that I was happy about," he said. "So (a full offseason training program) will keep me healthier and that's going to improve performance, no doubt."

It does not need to be said that any injury; especially those that tend to linger, can greatly affect an athlete’s performance. Sadly, Teixeira’s comments ring hollow as he appears to be ignoring the fact that he has suffered from a multitude of chronic injuries and ailments over the last three years. In 2012 alone he suffered from a months-long chronic cough that was later diagnosed as nerve damage in his vocal cords, left wrist pain, and a strained calf muscle that cost him several weeks on the disabled list. In 2013, the aforementioned damaged tendon sheath in his right wrist was the issue. So far this year, the Yankees first baseman has either missed time or has been impaired with soreness in the surgically repaired wrist, knee pain, dizziness, as well as a strained oblique muscle and hamstring strain. The answer to most problems are usually the simplest and in this case the simplest answer to Teixeira’s issues in regards to both his injuries and performance is that he is simply an old player that is breaking down.

Since his debut in 2003, Mark Teixeira has played in 1624 regular season games, and has accumulated a grand total of 7087 plate appearances. The sheer amount of mileage he has put onto his body is incalculable and at thirty-four years of age, Tex’s body is no longer able to recover as quickly from the rigors of the season as he did when he was in his twenties. To his credit, Tex has always been dedicated to physical health and nutrition, which are two things that can help stave off Father Time. Unfortunately, as we have seen so far with CC Sabathia, once the body has decided to give out, no amount of work is going to stop it from occurring.

The Yankees do not play the Orioles till 8PM tonight on ESPN. Use this as your other baseball & football open thread for today.

Comment of the Game

NoMahbles wins the COTG award with this wonderful quote from our very own John Sterling. Here's hoping he gets the help he needs.

Best GIF of the Recap

The BGOTR award goes to Blanky for her dancing Flubber GIF. Dancing Flubber is always awesome! Look at that Flubber jiggle!

Honorable Mod Mention

Very sad news about Frank Torre's death. I remember when the news broke in '96. We were all grateful that his heart transplant was a success. I'm sure he was happy to see his brother Joe's successful run in the Bronx very soon afterwards. R.I.P. Frank Torre.

Best Comments of the Day

With the combination of it being a Saturday and the Yankees not playing well, it was an understandably light day in terms of comments. Today might pick up, but more likely because of football than anything the Yankees do.

• What do you think Shane Greene needs to improve on, if anything?
• If you do watch football, what team do you root for and why?

It was raining yesterday at Camden Yards, so I thought of this song. As always link us you song of the day!

go yankees go baseball

Although it won't count for anything this year, the Bronx right-hander has broken out in a meaningful way.

Let's start with the obvious: The New York Yankees will, almost definitely, not make the playoffs. According to FanGraphs, they currently have the lowest wild card odds of any team not eliminated. Their offseason spending spree won't pay off, and as an Orioles fan, I couldn't be happier.

With that said, they do have some interesting pieces in place for 2015 and beyond — particularly on the pitching side. Masahiro Tanaka should return to full strength, as could Ivan Nova, Michael Pineda, and CC Sabathia (although the latter has a much lower probability of doing so, given his age and the severity of his injury). If they impress in spring training, Bryan Mitchell and Manny Banuelos may make the leap from AAA. And of course, there's the ever-reliable Hiroki Kuroda, who will probably continue to chug along; hopefully, he'll do so in pinstripes.

But in my view, the most intriguing member of the Yankees' staff is none of these men. No, that distinction belongs to Shane Greene, the 25-year-old right-hander whose debut season has turned some heads. In 68.1 innings this year, he owns an xFIP 11% better than the MLB average; if he had enough innings to qualify, that would come in at 21st in the majors— right around the level of Johnny Cueto, Cole Hamels, and Adam Wainwright. That's some pretty spectacular company to keep.

Greene's humble beginnings make his present excellence even more incredible. Not only did he never make a top prospect list, he never made a top Yankee prospect list. Before the season, prospect evaluators had him as the 27th-best in New York's system; even though that doesn't seem like an impressive ranking, he actually shot up from the year prior, in which he went outside the top 30. Suffice to say, he started from the bottom.

So how has Greene succeeded? At 8.0%, his walk rate is subpar, and it should probably be even worse — Mike Podhorzer's xBB% equation thinks it'll regress to 9.2%. Fortunately, his 23.3% strikeout rate more than makes up for any free passes he gives out; plus, he hasn't attained that one as the result of luck, as Podhorzer's xK% equation pins it at 23.3%. And, of course, a 50.5% ground ball rate doesn't hurt.

Since those formulas give expected numbers based on peripherals, they can determine the causes of said numbers as well. Greene has predicated his hegemony on punchouts, and with two main skills: looking and swinging strikes. His rates of both (29.9% and 17.7% of strikes, respectively) sit well above the major-league averages of 27.5% and 16.2%, respectively. PITCHf/x confirms the legitimacy of these: Sustained over ~100 more innings, his 59.6% Z-Swing rate would rank ninth in baseball, while his 77.0% Contact% would be 12th.

Greene's repertoire raises some eyebrows too. According to Brooks, he has thrown two pitches more than any others in his rookie campaign: the sinking fastball, and the slider. Because both of these generally have large platoon splits, you'd expect the same to be true of Greene, but it really isn't. On the season, opposite-handed hitters have a .340 wOBA against him, compared to .310 for same-handed hitters; the 1.10 platoon ratio that this produces doesn't diverge much from the MLB average of 1.05 for righties.

How has Greene defied his peripherals? Well, he has approached right-handed and left-handed batters in the same manner overall — heavily down and away:

However, Greene has dominated hitters in different ways based on handedness. Once the lefties have grown accustomed to pitches outside, he's hit them with some inside stuff — and that's where he's really beaten them:

On the flip side, this means they've made contact more often on outside pitches; nonetheless, this contact hasn't hurt Greene that much, as most of it hasn't gone airborne:

And as for righties: Greene's ample supply of pitches away to them has also deceived them well...

...and when it hasn't, most of their balls in play have stayed grounded:

Now, for the pitches themselves. Aside from the aforementioned sinker-slider combination, Greene throws a cutter and four-seam fastball. Each of these has a usage rate of 13.2% or higher, and with one exception, all of these collect grounders at an above-average rate:

Only Greene's cutter lags behind, which makes you wonder why he relies on it so heavily (22.1% of the time). The answer lies in Greene's other area of expertise: whiffs, which the cutter provides in spades:

Above-average GB% and SwStr% courtesy of Jeff Zimmerman.

Depending on his cutter for swings-and-misses and on his other three pitches for grounders, Greene appears to have achieved a rather harmonious pitch balance, to which his results can testify.

2014 won't go down as a banner year in the illustrious history of the Bronx Bombers. 2015 could, though, and if it does, Greene will probably have something to do with it. From a 15th-round draft pick to a no-name prospect to a genuine major-league starter, he has traveled a winding road, but the payoff will be sweet.

. . .

All data courtesy of FanGraphs, Baseball-Reference, and Brooks Baseball, as of Sunday, September 14th, 2014.

Ryan Romano is an editor for Beyond the Box Score. He also writes about the Orioles on Birds Watcherand on Camden Chat that one time. Follow him on Twitter at @triple_r_ if you enjoy angry tweets about Maryland sports.

This afternoon we continue our farm system review project with the Washington Nationals. Tomorrow we will examine the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers. Remember, this is the PRE-SEASON LIST. This is not a new list. These are pre-season grades and rankings. This is a review of 2014, not a preview of 2015.

This list was originally posted April 16, 2014

1) Lucas Giolito, RHP, Grade A-: Proved he was healthy from Tommy John recovery, 2.20 ERA with 110/28 K/BB in 98 innings for Low-A Hagerstown, 70 hits. All systems look go from here. Age 20.

2) A.J. Cole, RHP, Grade B: Borderline B+. Effective in both Double-A and Triple-A, combined 3.16 ERA with 111/32 K/BB in 134 innings. Ready for a trial next year. Age 22.

3) Brian Goodwin, OF, Grade B: Hit .219/.342/.328 with 50 walks, 95 strikeouts in 274 at-bats for Triple-A Syracuse. Disappointing and injury-plagued season, still draws notice for tools but needs to boost bat. Age 23.

4) Matt Skole, 1B-3B, Grade B-: Hit .241/.352/.399 with 14 homers, 78 walks, 127 strikeouts in 461 at-bats for Double-A Harrisburg, shaking off injury rust after missing almost all of ’13 with wrist injury. Disappointing with power but need to study detailed reports before commenting further. Age 25.

5) Drew Ward, 3B, Grade B-: Hit .269/.341/.413 with 10 homers, 42 walks, 121 strikeouts in 431 at-bats in Low-A. Age 19. I think he will improve.

6) Michael Taylor, OF, Grade B-: Hit combined .304/.390/.526 with 23 homers, 37 steals, 57 walks, 144 strikeouts in 428 at-bats between Double-A and Triple-A. 3-for-19 in the majors. Power/speed skills have blossomed and the tools were always here. Age 23.

7) Steven Souza, OF, Grade B-: Hit .350/.432/.590 with 18 homers, 26 steals, 52 walks, 75 strikeouts in 346 at-bats in Triple-A. 1-for-14 in the majors. Older at age 25 but tools are sound and skills have developed nicely.

8) Felipe Rivero, LHP, Grade B-: 4.12 ERA with 38/18 K/BB in 44 innings for Harrisburg, had injuries but finished well. Age 23.

9) Tony Renda, 2B, Grade B-: Hit .307/.381/.377 with 19 steals, 43 walks, 59 strikeouts in 414 at-bats for High-A Potomac. Lacks power but an efficient OBP player, age 23.

10) Drew Vettleson, OF, Grade C+: Another injury case, hit .246/.275/.423 with eight homers, 11 walks, 73 strikeouts in 248 at-bats for Harrisburg. Age 23, looks like a tweener unless he can develop more power or enhanced OBP skills.

11) Jake Johansen, RHP, Grade C+: Age 23, posted 5.19 ERA with 89/55 K/BB in 101 innings in Low-A, 120 hits. Upper-90s fastball but weak secondaries and shaky command hamper him.

12) Eury Perez, OF, Grade C+: Hit .311/.372/.406 with 20 steals in 57 games, 212 at-bats for Syracuse. Very fast, good glove, lacks power, age 24.

13) Zach Walters, INF, Grade C+: Traded to Cleveland Indians, hit .310/.361/.619 with 17 homers, 20 walks, 67 strikeouts in 268 at-bats in Triple-A, .175/.238/.417 with nine homers, nine walks, 46 strikeouts in 120 at-bats in the majors. Power stands out, versatile glove, strikes out a lot, shaky on-base skills, age 25.

14) Aaron Barrett, RHP, Grade C+: Solid year in major league bullpen, 2.87 ERA with 48/19 K/BB in 38 innings. Should be effective middle man going forward.

Aaron Barrett    photo by Mitchell Layton, Getty Images

15) Rafael Bautista, OF, Grade C+:Hit .290/.341/.382 with five homers, 69 steals, 33 walks, 72 strikeouts in 487 at-bats in Low-A. Fine campaign, power still developing but speedy, age 21.

16) Sammy Solis, LHP, Grade C+: Still hampered by health problems, pitched just 18 innings at four levels.

17) Blake Treinen, RHP, Grade C: Borderline C+:Solid big league season, 2.18 ERA with 26/11 K/BB in 41 innings, 2.33 GO/AO. Age 26, should take a larger role going forward.

18) Jefry Rodriguez, RHP, Grade C: Borderline C+: 20 year old projectable prospect, pitched 33 innings between Hagerstown and short-season Auburn, 4.86 ERA with 20/9 K/BB, 43 hits. Didn’t pitch after July 1^st, need to research this one.

19) Randy Encarnacion, OF, Grade C: Borderline C+: Age 20, hit .216/.272/.311 in 74 at-bats in the Gulf Coast League but hit .349/.437/.523 at the same level in 2013. Another one for the research list.

20) Osvaldo Abreu, SS, Grade C: Borderline C+: Age 20, hit .229/.279/.305 with 10 steals, nine walks, 41 strikeouts in 210 at-bats for Auburn. I thought he was a breakout candidate but it didn’t happen. Good tools but bat is currently weak.

The most important news for the Nationals farm system in 2014: Lucas Giolito showed what he can do when he’s healthy. Other positives include valuable big league pitching contributions from Aaron Barrett and Blake Treinen, outstanding performance in the upper minors from outfield prospects Michael Taylor and Steven Souza, and the emergence of pitching prospect Austin Voth (rated as a sleeper pre-season, he posted a 2.77 ERA with a 133/38 K/BB in 127 innings at three levels) as one of the rapid risers from the 2013 draft.

22-year-old infielder Wilmer Difo had a fine season in Low-A, hitting .315/.360/.470 with 14 homers and 49 steals, taking some of the sting out of weak seasons from Randy Encarnacion and Osvaldo Abreu. Another positive came from toolsy outfielder Destin Hood, who has tempted scouts for years and finally came through with a .298/.348/.460 season between Syracuse and Harrisburg.

The 2014 draft class adds UNLV right-hander Erick Fedde, who hopes to duplicate what Giolito did recovering from Tommy John, and highly-regarded catching prospect Jakson Reetz.

On the negative side, there were several key injuries as noted above. Brian Goodwin did not have a good season. Matt Purke has gone the opposite direction from Giolito with his health issues.

Pre-season, the farm system ranked slightly below average at number 22, clearly in a transitional phase. I think enough positive things occurred to move them up into the middle ranks, although we’ll have to see where things stand after full analysis of all systems during the winter.

This game was moved to 8 p.m. so that the entire country could worship Derek Jeter in prime time. Hopefully while they're doing that they will also see the Orioles kick the crap out of the Yankees.

I know it's considered an honor or a sign that your team is good or whatever to be on ESPN's broadcast of Sunday Night Baseball, but I'm not a fan. I don't want to be up that late on a school night! And I don't want longer commercial breaks! And I don't want to listen to the ESPN announcers act like the Yankees are the ones in contention and not the Orioles! And I DO want Gary Thorne and Jim Palmer! OK, I got that out of my system.

The Orioles are looking to take three of four in this series against the Yankees with a win tonight. The pitching match up is #StaffAce Chris Tilman vs Hiroki Kuroda.

Tillman can still say that he hasn't given up more than three earned runs since June 5th, but his last few starts haven't been the strongest of the season. In two of the last three he's only gone five innings, and in the third he went just six. The Orioles won all of those game, and in fact haven't lost a game started by Tillman in his last nine starts. This will be Tillman's fourth start against the Yankees this season, and he's done pretty well against them. Twice he's pitched seven innings, and one six and two-thirds, giving up a total of just five runs. He did walk four in one start but somehow didn't allow any runs at all.

Tillman sits at 187.2 innings for the season and is looking to top 200 for the second straight season. If he pitches every fifth game until the end of the season he'll have three more starts including tonight's. That gives him a very good shot to reach 200, but once the Orioles clinch it's possible Tillman won't get that third start.

At 39 years old, Hiroki Kuroda is having his worst season since coming to the MLB. But that's not to say he's having a terrible season, because he isn't. His 3.91 ERA is just a touch below league average and he's managed to stay healthy for the entire season, unlike his younger teammates who started the season with him. Kuroda has faced the Orioles three times this season and gave up just two runs in each start.

Most of the Orioles have had very little success against Kiroda. In fact, the only two current O's who have hit him well (although in limited exposure) are newcomers Alejandro De Aza (6-for-15, 2B, HR, BB) and Kelly Johnson (8-for-25, 2 2B, HR, BB).

The man of the hour, Derek Jeter, has gone 0-for-7 in the series so far and hasn't had a hit in his last 20 at bats.

You expecting something different?

This series ended the same way it started: the Yankees blowing a late lead after taking one in the top half of the inning. This time, it was David Robertson on the mound with a chance to close out a win. But with Robertson pitching for the third straight day, it wasn't meant to be. Kelly Johnson, of all people, got a walk-off hit as the Orioles won 3-2.

The Yankees got a bit of offense going early in the second inning. After the top of the lineup went down in order in the first, Martin Prado led off the second with a home run. The Yankees then threatened to add more when Brian McCann doubled and Mark Teixeira singled. However, the offense took us back to out comfort zone as Chris Young, Stephen Drew and Antoan Richardson went down in order to keep the lead at just one run.

Kuroda kept the Orioles off the board for quite a while after that, but while that was happening, the Yankees were failing to get any more offense going. And shockingly, one run wouldn't be enough because in the bottom of the sixth inning, the Orioles were able to get a rally going. With one out in the inning, Alejandro De Aza singled. Adam Jones then hit one towards Prado at third. Prado had to jump to get it and did manage to get a glove on it. But he couldn't catch it and was deflected it into foul territory. That allowed Jones to go to second and De Aza to come all the way around and score the tying run. After Nelson Cruz grounded out, Steve Pearce reached on a single after Drew made a nice play to keep the ball in the infield to save a run. Kuroda would get J.J. Hardy to pop up to end the inning, keeping the game tied at one.

That would be the only flaw in Kuroda's outing. After another scoreless inning in the seventh, his day would be done. He went seven innings, allowing one run on six hits and no walks, while striking out five. But as it seems to always happen, the Yankees' offense failed him and the game was still tied after seven innings.

Dellin Betances came in and pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning. In the process, he struck out two and tied Mariano Rivera for the single season record for strikeouts by a Yankee reliever.

The phrase "the heart of the order is due up" hasn't meant much for the Yankees this season. But in the top of the ninth, it did. After Prado struck out, McCann came to the plate. McCann made good contact on a ball that flew towards the wall in right. With the way right fielder Nick Markakis was playing it, it looked like he might have a read on the ball. But it kept carrying and the ball eventually went over the right field wall for a home run. Suddenly, the Yankees were back in front 2-1. After the Yankees couldn't add any insurance runs, it was time for Robertson.

The ninth inning got off to a poor start when Nelson Cruz led off the inning with a double. It then got worse when Steve Pearce doubled to score Cruz. Just like that, the game was tied again. Hardy then flew out to right, but Ichiro Suzuki, who had come in off the bench, kept Pearce at second with a strong throw. It wouldn't matter though as Kelly Johnson would hit a single on the very next pitch. Pearce scored and the Yankees lost 3-2.

The Yankees will now head to Florida to take on the Rays in a series starting tomorrow. The starters for Monday's game will be Chris Capuano and Alex Colome.

Box score.

An RBI double from Kelly Johnson in the bottom of the ninth inning gave the Orioles a 3-2 win against the Yankees on national TV.

Tonight was Derek Jeter night in Baltimore and the classless Orioles completely ruined it. First the pitchers actually tried to get Jeter out instead of letting him reach base, and the living legend went 0-for-4 on the night. Then they rudely scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to win the game and send Jeter and his Yankees home sad, having lost three out of four games in the series. Did no one tell the Birds that this was Derek Jeter's special day?

Seriously, though, this was one heck of a game that looked like it wouldn't end up in the O's favor. But then, all of the sudden, it did. Both Chris Tillman and Hiroki Kuroda pitched a heck of a game, limiting the opposing team to just one run. It ended up being a game decided with relief pitchers on the mound, and while both made mistakes, the O's got the last laugh.

Let's start with Tillman. After an easy first inning, Martin Prado led off the second with a home run to left field. Replays showed that Alejandro De Aza probably should have made the catch. The ball landed in the first row as it sailed right next to De Aza's glove. John Lackey would call that a Camden Yards home run. It looked like the wheels might fall off for Tillman after that, but he got it together. Two batters after the home run the Yankees had runners on the corners with no outs thanks to two singles and a throwing error by De Aza (it was not the best inning he's ever had). But Tillman didn't allow another run to come in, sandwiching two strikeouts around a pop up to strand the runners.

Tillman cruised through the next four innings, allowing just two baserunners. In the fifth inning, Stephen Drew hit an infield single against the shift, and in the sixth inning Prado singled on a ground ball that just evaded second baseman Jonathan Schoop. The Yankees just were not getting solid hits against him. Tillman hasn't been much of a strikeout pitcher this season, but he got six tonight, all of which were swinging. He definitely had the curve ball walking tonight.

Unfortunately, Kuroda was matching Tillman pitch for pitch. Through the first four innings, the Orioles had just one baserunner thanks to a J.J. Hardy double. Their second baserunner was also Hardy, who reached on an infield single in the fifth. With two outs, Nick Hundley blooped a single into right field, but Jonathan Schoop grounded out to strand them.

Finally in the sixth inning, the Orioles got on the board. De Aza singled to center and then came in to score all the way from first on a double down the left field line by Adam Jones. Pearce also reached base in the inning but one run was all they got.

Tillman started the seventh inning and issued his very first walk of the game with one out. He walked Chris Young on a full count and then threw an absurd wild pitch that bounced way in front of the plate. Young went to second base, then to third on a ground out. Tillman looked pooped, and Buck Showalter pulled him in favor of Andrew Miller. Miller came in to face pinch hitter Carlos Beltran. Miller should have struck Beltran out looking on three pitches, but the umpire was so busy flinching at the nasty movement on Miller's slider that he missed the call. No matter, Miller just got Beltran out swinging on the very next pitch.

After Miller pitched an equally nasty top of the eighth, the Yankees countered with their own excellent relief pitcher. Dellin Betances came in to pitch in relief of Kuroda, and the Orioles couldn't do anything with him. Betances struck out both Nick Markakis and Adam Jones and got a fly ball out from De Aza. Betances looked outstanding, but thank goodness for the Orioles, Joe Girardi's binder says that David Robertson pitches the ninth inning.

Both Zach Britton and Darren O'Day were warming up as the tie ballgame went into the ninth inning. It was O'Day who got the call, and it turns out that was maybe the wrong decision. He did strike out Prado, but then gave up a home run to Brian McCann. That gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead and made me sad. O'Day also looked sad, but he got out of the inning without any more trouble.

The great thing about this team is that they're not out of the game until the 27th out is made. And the lucky thing for the Orioles was that Girardi pulled Betances for closer David Robertson, who had already pitched on the previous two days. Robertson looked like he was going to walk Nelson Cruz, but on a 3-1 count Cruz went to left field with a leadoff double. Quintin Berry replaced Cruz at second, then Steve Pearce hit a double of his own. Cruz probably could have scored on that, but it's fun to see Berry run really fast.

With the game tied, J.J. Hardy tried to move the runner up but failed, hitting a fly ball out to right field that Pearce could not advance on. But that's OK, J.J., because Kelly Johnson has your back! Johnson launched a ball into the right-center field gap that easily scored Steve Pearce. The O's ran out onto the field to mob Pearce at home plate and Johnson in the field. O's win! O's win!

Never count this team out, guys. Tomorrow the Blue Jays come to town for a three-game set. If the Orioles can win the series, they'll clinch the American League East. I love baseball.

Bronx Pinstripes | Michael Gwizdala: With Derek Jeter having a tough last year, here's a look at how other great Yankees, like Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio, exited the game.

Beyond the Box Score | Ryan Romano: A look at how Shane Greene has pitched his way into the Yankees' 2015 plans.

LoHud | Chad Jennings:Chris Young has dominated the September call-ups, but Bryan Mitchell and Rich Hill have also stood out.

Times-Tribune | Donnie Collins: A report card for the 2014 RailRiders that includes Manny Banuelos, Tyler Webb, Rob Refsnyder, Kyle Roller, and others.

Newsday | David Lennon: It's time to stop worrying about the batting order and just sit back and watch Derek Jeter play his last few games.

I haven't done one of these in a while, I like looking back at posts from the past.

Two years ago:

I wondered if Brett Lawrie could learn from his mistakes, in "The Ballad of Brett Lawrie".

Brett had had a tough game the night before and I didn't like the answers he gave to questions asked him by John Lott. And I must have been in a bad mood.

In the top of the fifth, with two out, Mauro Gomez hit a routine ground ball to Brett. Instead of throwing to first, Brett decided to try to tag Aviles running from first to second. Aviles did a spin when Lawrie lunged at him and then ran on to third. It was a bad choice. The reason you make the throw to first is because first base can't avoid the tag. But if you are going for the runner you have to get in front of him, then if he dodges around you he'll be off the base path and you'll get the out. Lunging for him and missing put Brett off the base path and, well, you saw.

Lott asked him why he didn't throw to first and he said:

"Out of the corner of my eye, he's running full speed at me, so I figure I can just go tag him and just run right into the dugout. I wasn't thinking too much about it," Lawrie said.

Too much of the time "I wasn't thinking too much" explains a lot about Brett Lawrie.

Later in the same game:

Right after that Yunel hit a ground ball to short, right in front of Lawrie. The rule is 'don't try to move up if the ball is in front of you'. Well, Brett did and was put out easy.

Asked if he regretted that one, Brett said"

"No, because Escobar ended up getting on first base and then got to second on a passed ball so it's the exact same thing," Lawrie said after the game.

Which, of course wasn't the exact same thing.

Anyway, I think that Lawrie has learned, he is a much smarter baseball player, well, when he plays.

The problem now is that he's been injured far too much. I'm not sure that is a problem that he can get over.

Four Years Ago

Kyle Drabek made his MLB debut. Hugo did the recap (I loved how Hugo used lyrics from songs I never heard of in his post titles). About Drabek, Hugo said:

Kyle Drabek showed good and bad in his debut, but I was encouraged. Drabek walked 3 in 6 innings and made a few mistake pitches, some of which leading to the 9 hits against him, but he also struck out 5 and induced 11 ground balls while only 3 were of the aerial variety. The O's don't have the best team in the world, but he made it through 6 innings in his pro debut and that's good.

It's four years later and Drabek has pitched in 39 games, making 30 starts. In 172.1 innings, he's walked 111 batters. His future doesn't look as bright as it did back then.

Five Years Ago

The Jays beat the Yankees 10-4.Travis Snider had 2 home runs, Roy Halladay pitched 6 innings. But, none of that is the reason I remember that game. This is:

In the top of the 8th inning Aaron Hill was hit with a pitch, before that Encarnacion was hit with a pitch. Likely neither was intentional, but the Jays have been hit a ton lately. And you'll likely remember the Yankees hit Randy Ruiz in the face their last series together. Jays have been hit something like 15 times so far this month. In the bottom of the inning Jesse Carlson threw behind Jorge Posada. Posada wasn't happy. I'm not a big fan of hitting one of them because they hit one of yours but we've been hit so much lately it really was time someone stood up for our hitters.

Anyway, Posada walked and came around to score. After he scored he brushed past Carlson. He was ejected right there and then. But he came running back at Carlson and the benches emptied. They fought for quite a while. Even Cito almost took a swing at someone. Carlson came out of it with a large bump on his head. I'd imagine there will be suspensions. Posada for sure. Carlson maybe. I'll admit I admire Carlson more after this. Posada, not so much. Posada has been playing for years, he knows what was going on and he didn't get hit. He knew Hill got hit in the ribs. Maybe he could act like a veteran. Maybe.

Apparently, according to Jordan Bastian, writers following the Yankees say that John MacDonald punched Yankee manager Joe Girardi. I kind of doubt it, but Girardi looked to have the start of a shiner.

It was an interesting game.

The next day I wrote a 'thank you' post to Jorge Posada for "reminding my why I hate the Yankees".

If anyone ever needed to wonder why I dislike the Yankees so much, Jorge Posada gave a perfect demonstration of what I dislike about them. The sense of entitlement. In the four game series last week in Toronto, Yankee pitchers hit 6 Jays, including Randy Ruiz in the face. Yesterday Edwin Encarnacion hits a homer, his next time up to bat he is hit with a pitch. In the 8th Aaron Hill is drilled in the ribs with a pitch. In the bottom of the inning Jesse Carlson throws behind Posada. Behind him. The ball's about thigh level, not head level, not rib cage level, not even shin high. Right at the level you throw to make a point, without the worry of injuring someone.

And Posada throws a temper tantrum. How dare they throw towards me? A Yankee? Just cause we are using your players for target practice? "You don't want to do that", he yells at Carlson. Now I could understand that reaction, if say the pitch was at his head. Or even at his ribs. Or perhaps, if it were in retaliation for a homer hit in the last at bat. But no, that reaction was just because he is a Yankee and God forbid you come close to hitting one of those. You would think that Posada having been in the league for years would know that if you hit half a dozen or so of the other team's players, intentional or not, sooner or later a pitch will come towards you. Take it like a man.

Yeah, it sort of looks like I was inviting the trolls that came along. I still think Carlson did the right thing, your team gets hit a bunch, sooner or later you have to throw at one of their guys. And Posada was being a jerk.

Six Years Ago

Hugo answered 5 questions that Richard Griffin asked in a column in the Star and did a very nice job of it. Back in the day we seemed to have a thing for pointing out when Griffin was being less than less than bright (did you know he was one the PR guy for the Expos?). As Hugo said:

By the way, I know Griffin was trying to stick to questions that would be answered during this season (although he was unable to stick to just those), but these questions were terrible.

Yankees vice-president of baseball operations Mark Newman is set to retire after 26 seasons with the Yankees. Twenty years ago, Sterling Hitchcock had a complaint for Yankees player development that still applies.

I planned today's quotable before the news came down that Yankees vice-president of baseball operations Mark Newman is set to retire after 15 seasons in his current position and 26 seasons with the Yankees overall. During that time he rose from "Coordinator of Instruction" to Director of Player Development and Scouting to his current position. Sometimes during those years the Yankees developed some very good players. Mostly, deprived of first-round picks due to their extensive free-agent commitments, they didn't.

Much of the credit, or lack thereof, for that must be shared with scouting director Damon Oppenheimer, who has been in his position since 2005. The organizational incoherence that generally afflicts the Yankees makes it hard to know who is responsible for what at times, but first-round reaches such as C.J. Henry (2005), Andrew Brackman (2007), and Cito Culver (2010) all suggest the obvious, that you cannot develop what you do not have. Nonetheless, this report by the New York Post's George A. King III suggests that Newman did not so much jump out of the organization as he was pushed.

"Damon Oppenheimer's recent amateur drafts have been solid, and he is believed to be safe," King says. We shall see. The problem with making a judgment based on two recent drafts while ignoring the evidence of the 10 prior drafts is you won't know if you were wrong until a couple more blown drafts have gone by. Certainly players such as Aaron Judge, Ian Clarkin, and Eric Jagielo (all 2013) look promising, and 2014 second-rounder (the team's top pick) lefty Jacob Lindgren, wiped out 17.3 batters per nine innings in his 25-inning professional debut as a reliever.

Aaron Judge, 32nd-overall pick in the 2013 draft, and 6-foot-7 of .308/.419/.486 this year (Getty Images).

Still, Yankees prospects have a way of dying once they reach Double-A... And in many cases the organization won't use them anyway. For example, 2012 5^th-rounder Rob Refsnyder, a second baseman, probably could have helped out at second base once Brian Roberts' career predictably proved to be over -- he hit .318/.387/.497 in a season split about evenly between Double- and Triple-A. He wasn't called; the organization preferred to try the 31-year-old Stephen Drew, a move that has really, really not worked out.

That brings us to full circle to what Hitchcock said 20 years ago. He was then a Yankees pitching prospect (twice ranked in the Baseball America top 100, including that spring). He said the above in an organization-angering interview with the New York Daily News in March, 1994. Drafted in 1989, he had had cups of coffee in 1992 and 1993, but hadn't stuck. Thus, the spring of '94 represented his third try at the big leagues. His full comment:

"You hear a lot about our young guys, but then there's no slot for us... It's, ‘Go back to Columbus and have a great year, and thanks for coming.' It's frustrating because you look at other teams around the big leagues and you see you pitched against them in the minors. You say to yourself, `Geez, how does this guy have this job?' If the Orioles' Ben McDonald was in the Yankees organization, he'd probably be in Double-A this year, Triple-A at the highest.

"It's going to take dedication from this ballclub to be willing to give a guy 20-25-30 starts to realize what they've got. I mean, Tom Glavine wasn't a stud his first year. He lost 15 or 16 games. Glavine was 7- 17 in 1988 . But it takes dedication to be willing to stay with that guy. From past history, I doubt that will ever happen. As far as I can remember, it's been give a guy six-seven starts, and if he doesn't do anything, then get him out of here and bring in Dave LaPoint."

Just to refresh your memory on the names in question if you weren't around back then, Ben McDonald was the first overall pick of the 1989 draft, the same one in which Hitchcock was selected. A more or less finished product out of LSU, McDonald made it to the majors that same season and by the time 1994 had rolled around he was in his sixth big-league campaign. He evolved into a pretty good pitcher, went to the Brewers as a free agent; rotator-cuff miseries set in at that point and he was done at 29.

Dave LaPoint, 1982 World Series (Getty Images).

Dave LaPoint didn't deserve what Hitchcock gave him, but the younger man still had a point. A lefty who was in the big leagues from 1980 through 1991, LaPoint was the kind of junk-throwing pitcher who the Yankees tended to use in the 1980s and early 1990s because between forfeited draft picks, dumbass trades, and collusion they couldn't get anybody better. Don Mattingly has talked about how those teams asked fortysomething pitchers like Phil Niekro and Tommy John to be No. 1 pitchers when they should have been No. 4s or 5s at that stage of their careers, but at least they had Hall of Fame or borderline Hall of Fame track records. LaPoint and many others like him (Andy Hawkins, Richard Dotson, and so on) were context-dependent pitchers who looked great when, say, pitching with Ozzie Smith behind them.

The Yankees didn't have Ozzie Smith, they had Bobby Meacham. LaPoint, signed by the Yankees as a free agent in the winter of 1988, posted an 83 ERA+ in two seasons with the Yankees and moved on. In truth, he wasn't as bad as that number makes him seem, he just wasn't good, wasn't ever going to be good so long as he was expected to be more than a back-of-rotation piece.

Obviously, by the time Hitchcock had a microphone to talk into the Yankees were on the cusp of getting better, though the aborted 1994 postseason and a shattering October loss to the Mariners in 1995 delayed the arrival of the good times until 1996. BY then, the Yankees had traded Hitchcock to the Mariners as part of a package for Tino Martinez, Jeff Nelson, and Jim Mecir, a move that can hardly be criticized. Hitchcock had a 13-year-career in the majors, a tour which included a two years and change back with the Yankees. With a 4.80 career ERA, he proved to be roughly the kind of pitcher he had complained about.

Still, he had a point, and he still has a point. He didn't know that Andy Pettitte was about to break through as one of the best homegrown pitchers in team history, one who would (with the exception of a brief sojourn to Houston so the Astros could pay for the arm breakdown the Yankees had seen coming for years) stick around instead of being traded for Ken Phelps, Joe Niekro, or a return engagement for Mike Stanley. After Pettitte, though... Well, it's a short list. Here are the team's top homegrown starters by games started from the moment Hitchcock spoke to the present, excluding pitchers who were acquired as veterans of other leagues, such as Orlando Hernandez or Masahiro Tanaka:

1.      Andy Pettitte (438 games started)

2.      Phil Hughes (132)

3.      Chien-Ming Wang (104; pitched in Taiwan but signed at 20, so what the heck.)

4.      Ivan Nova (86)

5.      Ramiro Mendoza (57)

6.      Sterling Hitchcock (44)

7.      Joba Chamberlain (43)

8.      David Phelps (40)

9.      Scott Kamieniecki (37)

10.  Vidal Nuno (17; drafted by the Indians but spent more time in the Yankees system.)

11.  Chase Whitely (12)

12.  Ian Kennedy (12)

Shane Greene will have tied Whitley and Kennedy by the time you read this, and I'm stopping before we get to Randy Keisler, career ERA of 6.63. That's it for 20 years. The actual leader list is populated by Mike Mussina, Roger Clemens, CC Sabathia, David Cone, El Duque, David Wells, A.J. Burnett, and so on. It's not that many of those pitchers weren't great, it's that it just goes to Hitchcock's point and to the point about Newman's tenure: You can't develop what you don't have, or what you don't choose to develop. Since they so rarely were inclined to the latter, we'll never know how much impact that decision might have had, if they could have made more out of the arms that they did draft. The bullpen at least, with David Robertson and Dellin Betances, demonstrates that time and patience sometimes does yield outsized rewards.

You can't fault Newman for so many of the arms on the list above falling off. That's just something that happens.

But for the brief flourishing of the Yankees farm system that brought Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, and a few others, no doubt the position player list is just as sparsely populated. You're almost certainly never going to see Cito Culver in the Bronx, or Dante Bichette, and probably not Slade Heathcott either. It will be fascinating to see what the Yankees do if their current players keep developing, because the major league team is tied into declining old-guy contracts through the end of time and there has always been a reluctance to call a sunk cost what it is and move on, but more importantly, to trust.

One of George Steinbrenner's most oft-quoted lines was a 1978 question to a young infielder: "What the hell were you doing last night? Jesus Christ! You looked like a monkey trying to fuck a football out there!"

George is dead now, but the perception of rookies as football-fucking monkeys lives on, and thus Alex Rodriguez will still be paid through 2017, Mark Teixeira through 2016, and on and on. Newman is going, Hitchcock is long gone, Steinbrenner is dead, but everything else is the same.

All future MLB stars have to start somewhere. Which Baby Bombers made the biggest impact in the Gulf Coast League?

The Yankees appear destined to miss the playoffs for the second straight year, but one area of the team which has been much different than last year is the minor league system. In 2013, it seemed like anything that could go wrong did go wrong for the Yankees' minor leaguers, with the exception of a handful of players. This year though was a better year for the system, and over the next week, Tanya and I are going to do write-ups of each team in the organization discussing the Baby Bombers' biggest stories throughout 2014. It begins with the rawest talent in the system: the Gulf Coast League Yankees of Rookie Ball.

The Yankees actually fielded two GCL teams, as they've had so many international additions and young draft picks sign with them that to get them all playing time, it has made sense to have an extra team. Both played at the Yankees' spring training home at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, and it was common to see players switching to the other team at various points during the year. This led to some amusement at the end of the season, when both GCL teams won their respective divisions and they met in the GCL playoffs for the ultimate rivalry: GCL Yankees 1 (38-22) vs. GCL Yankees 2 (35-25). The first GCL team prevailed, though they went on to lose to the GCL Red Sox in the three-game Finals. Alas.

Top Prospects

One player stood out as the most promising prospect of the bunch: 19-year-old Dominican shortstop Jorge Mateo. An international signing from 2012, this was Mateo's first time playing outside of the Dominican Summer League, where he had mashed to a .281/.379/.438 triple slash over the past couple seasons. Aside from missing the power that led to seven homers in 64 games last year compared to none this year, Mateo didn't appear to miss a beat on the field. Although his season was limited to 15 games due to injury, he hit .276/.354/.397 with a 119 wRC+, impressing scouts enough that MLB.com ranked him 18th on their midseason Yankees Top 20 Prospects list, a difficult feat for someone in Rookie Ball who had so little stateside action. They also did a video on him that provides a good sampler regarding his skills:

The report on the team's site says his speed is his biggest calling card, which makes sense since he swiped 11 bags in just 15 games, and that he covers a lot of ground at shortstop with an arm that's just getting better. That line in the video at the end about a club official saying Mateo has the highest ceiling of any Yankees middle infielder since Derek Jeter is pretty heady stuff, though they've been searching for Jeter's successor for years now. Mateo is still a long, long way off and he needs more than just 15 GCL games to his record for me to get that excited about him, but he'll be someone to keep a close eye on, whether he's back in Rookie Ball or above.

The other GCL prospect to crack the Yankees' midseason top 20 was their third-round draft pick from this year and with apologies to Jacob Lindgren and his approximately billion strikeouts in relief, probably the most exciting member of the team's 2014 draft class: 19-year-old righthander Austin DeCarr. Surprisingly undrafted out of high school last year, DeCarr spent the past school year with the prep school Salisbury in Connecticut and won so many fans with his improved strength, max-96 mph fastball, and hard curveball that the Yankees had to offer him above-slot money to convince him to sign with them rather than go to Clemson, where had had a commitment.

A cool $1 million bonus won them DeCarr, and in 11 games (eight starts), he pitched to a 4.63 ERA and 3.68 FIP in 23 1/3 innings while fanning 9.3 batters per nine and surrendering just one homer. His walk rate was good at 2.7 BB/9, though he did drill six batters while throwing three wild pitches. He still has plenty to work on, though MLB.com's short video feature on him did offer some nice words about what might come in his future, be it in Staten Island or wherever:

Due to the inexperience and extremely young ages of the guys in the GCL, it can be tricky properly evaluating them at this level, as great statistical seasons often seem to create a mirage about a player's ability (see 2011 Dante Bichette Jr. and 2013 Gosuke Katoh, both of whom had to make serious adjustments upon reaching Low-A Charleston the next year). Working on tools is often more important than pure statistics in the minors, especially at the Rookie Ball level, where Derek Jeter hit a mere .202/.296/.312 as an 18-year-old. Take that with a grain of salt when considering GCL stats.

For instance, outfielder Leonardo Molina (no relation to the catching Molina brothers) was outlandishly young, as he was only 16 until July 31st of this year, and while he struggled with the bat at .193/.267/.260 with just one homer in 53 games, he was about three to four years younger than the average GCL player. The aforementioned talented Mateo was still playing in the Dominican Summer League at that age. Molina was one of the top international free agent signings of 2013, and it would shock no one to see him make a Mateo-like leap in prominence next year.

Names to Watch

A couple players who provided fine years in the GCL were shortstop Angel Aguilar and outfielder Alex Palma. Both turning 19 in 2014, the Venezuelan-born players were in Molina's international free agent class of 2013 and spent last year in the Dominican Summer League. They moved stateside in 2014 and Palma hit .305/.318/.451 with a 118 wRC+ and 20 extra-base hits in 52 games for one GCL team while Aguilar countered on the other team with a .311/.373/.536 and a 159 wRC+ in 39 games. Aguilar not only played the more demanding position in the field, but he also performed better at the plate, demonstrating far more plate discipline while also belting seven homers to show more power. Nonetheless, both deserve some attention next year.

Another guy who could really catch people's eyes next year is 2012 first rounder Ty Hensley, who was finally healthy again after being limited to 12 innings during his first two professional seasons due to various injuries, including a preexisting hip impingement. Hensley struck out 23 batters in 19 innings over seven games (six starts) with a 2.37 ERA and earned a bump up to Staten Island for the final month. There's a reason he was a first-round draft pick and having just turned 21 on July 30th, he has plenty of time to bounce back.

Note: Video is from when Hensley was ranked on MLB.com's preseason top 20 Yankees prospects in 2013.

The most consistent GCL player all year turned out to be 20-year-old Dominican shortstop Bryan Cuevas, a 2012 international signing who hit .356/.405/.564 who had a 174 wRC+ and 19 extra-base hits over 40 games this year. It was a clear step up from the .273/.328/.393 he finished with last year in Rookie Ball, and one that should earn him another step up somewhere in the system, though it wouldn't be surprising to see the higher-ceiling Mateo get preference.

The most famous son of a big leaguer selected in the 2014 MLB Draft was Mariano Rivera, son of some other guy you may know. However, the younger Mo did not sign with the Yankees, opting to return to college. Instead, the Yankees received attention-worthy production from another son of a former Yankee: Dominic Jose. A 24th round pick in this year's draft, Jose is the son of 1991 NL All-Star Felix Jose, who played 11 years in the majors and 20 games with the 2000 Yankees toward the end of his career. A fellow outfielder and graduate of the Stanford baseball program, Dominic quickly made it evident that he most likely would not have to repeat Rookie Ball next year, as he hit .300/.359/.462 with 16 extra-base hits and a 136 wRC+ in 42 games. Not too shabby.

Southpaw 16th round draft pick Derek Callahan also made strides after being selected in June. A Gonzaga product, the Washington native pitched in 33 2/3 innings of Rookie Ball, making seven starts and three relief outings while notching a 2.94 ERA and a 3.90 FIP. The peripheral numbers weren't as good, though a walk rate of 3.5 BB/9 is fine for a first professional season. He even made a spot start for the High-A Tampa Yankees on August 1st, though he's most likely to move up to Staten Island next year.

On the mound, the GCL Yankees' best pitcher was probably Venezuelan righty Luis Cedeno, who pitched to a 1.12 ERA and 2.36 FIP in 16 games (six starts) and 40 innings. A two-year Dominican Summer League player, Cedeno became a 20-year-old on July 14th and put up some solid numbers, including a 0.725 WHIP, though his somewhat-small 5'11" frame might make it a challenge for him to maintain this performance as he goes through the minors. A trio of 21-year olds, Simon De la Rosa, Reynaldo Polanco, and Christopher Cabrera also showed signs of intrigue throughout the season, all notching very nice strikeout rates (11.2 K/9 in 42 2/3 innings for the mostly-starter De la Rosa, 8.2 K/9 for the reliever Polanco, and 10.0 K/9 for the reliever Cabrera). However, De la Rosa and Cabrera also walked more than their fair share of hitters, and they're all a tad old for still being in Rookie Ball. Maybe they'll turn into something, but more likely than not, they're just organizational guys.

The GCL kids are the youngest of the bunch and thus the most difficult to project forward since they are so many years away from the majors. With intriguing guys like Mateo and DeCarr there this year though, the GCL Yankees certainly made an impression on scouts in 2014. Just wait until next year, when some of the huge crop of highly-regarded international free agents the Yankees signed this summer reaches Rookie Ball.

This morning we turn to the New York Yankees in our series of 2014 farm system reviews. Remember, this is the PRE-SEASON list. This is not a new list. These are pre-season rankings and grades. This is a review of 2014, not a preview of 2015.

This list was originally published March 12, 2014

1) Masahiro Tanaka, RHP, Grade A.12-4, 2.51 in 18 starts for the Yankees, 135/19 K/BB in 129 innings. Obviously outstanding before the elbow injury.

2) Gary Sanchez, C, Grade B+: Hit .270/.338/.406 with 13 homers, 43 walks, 91 strikeouts in 429 at-bats for Double-A Trenton, threw out 39% of runners although error rate remains high. Not a bad year at age 21 but not dominant either.

3) Greg Bird, 1B, Grade B: Hit .277/.375/.442 in 274 at-bats for High-A Tampa, then .253/.379/.558 in 95 at-bats for Double-A Trenton. Still profiles as low-batting average hitter with good OBP and power.

4) Eric Jagielo, 3B, Grade B: Hit .259/.354/.460 in 309 at-bats for Tampa, 16 homers, 38 walks, 93 strikeouts. Defense was rough and he had to fight injuries but finished strong. Like Bird, a low-average hitter with power and hopefully OBP. Age 22.

5) Slade Heathcott, OF, Grade B-: Played just nine games due to knee injury.

6) J. R. Murphy, C, Grade B-: Hit .246/.292/.397 in 196 at-bats in Triple-A, .292/.311/.375 in 74 at-bats in the majors. Seems likely to have a career as a role player. Age 23.

7) Tyler Austin, OF, Grade B-: Hit .275/.336/.419 with nine homers, 36 walks, 80 strikeouts in 396 at-bats for Trenton. Production slightly above league norms at 110 wRC+. He had a bad wrist last year and it may have still been bothering him early this season; he had a slow start but hit .336/.397/.557 in his last month of action. Age 23, needs to get his momentum back in ’15.

8) Aaron Judge, OF, Grade B-: Hit .333/.428/.530 with nine homers for Low-A Charleston in 234 at-bats, then .283/.441/.442 with eight homers in 233 at-bats for Tampa. Combined for 89 walks, 131 strikeouts. Did a good job with power, only stole one base despite projecting as a steal threat pre-season. Age 22. Stock up.

9) Luis Severino, RHP, Grade B-: Dominant season in Low-A, High-A, Double-A, combined for 2.46 ERA, 127/27 K/BB in 113 innings, 93 hits. Scouting reports are as good as the numbers; this breakthrough candidate broke through. Age 20, at least a B+ at this point.

10) Ian Clarkin, LHP, Grade B-: Successful full-season debut for 2013 first-rounder, posted, 3.12 ERA with 75/23 K/BB in 75 innings for Charleston and Tampa, 71 hits. Age 19.

11) Gosuke Katoh, 2B, Grade B-: Hit .222/.345/.326 with three homers, 71 walks, 142 strikeouts, 20 steals in 383 at-bats for Charleston. Good patience, but lacks power at this point. Age 19.

12) Mason Williams, OF, Grade C+: Hit .223/.290/.304 with 21 steals, 47 walks, 68 strikeouts in 507 at-bats for Trenton. Second-straight disappointing season, reports remain good on glove but has made no progress with the hitting and is now 23. Stock declining.

13) Jose Ramirez, RHP, Grade C+: 5.40 ERA in 10 big league innings, 10/7 K/BB. Sent down to Scranton in July and went on the DL almost immediately. Good arm, can still be a good reliever if he stays healthy and improves his command. Age 24.

14) Dellin Betances, RHP, Grade C+: Incredible season in Yankees bullpen, 1.37 ERA with 128/23 K//BB in 86 innings, just 42 hits allowed. He’s found his niche.

15) Manny Banuelos, LHP, Grade C+: Tommy John recovery season, pitched High-A, Double-A, Triple-A combining for 4.11 ERA, 71/31 K/BB in 77 innings, 64 hits. Age 23, now needs to show how he handles larger workload next year.

16) Rafael De Paula, RHP, Grade C+: Traded to San Diego Padres, posted 4.92 ERA with 145/55 K/BB in 132 innings between Tampa and Lake Elsinore in the California League, 135 hits. Age 23, no question about the arm strength but still working on consistency.

17) Luis Torrens, C, Grade C+: Hit .270/.327/.405 with two homers, 14 walks, 41 strikeouts in 185 at-bats for Staten Island in the New York-Penn League. Threw out 42% of runners but gave up 14 passed balls in 39 games. Age 18, good reports on his defensive potential.

18) Jose Campos, RHP, Grade C+: Missed season with Tommy John surgery.

19) Miguel Andujar, 3B, Grade C+: Borderline C. Hit .267/.318/.397 with 10 homers, 35 walks, 83 strikeouts in 484 at-bats for Charleston. League-average production from a 19 year old, but hit .319/.367/.456 in second half of the season; breakthrough candidate for 2015.

20) Nik Turley, LHP, Grade C+: Borderline C. 4.62 ERA with 44/43 K/BB in 60 innings for Scranton, 55 hits. Disappointing slippage in K/BB ratio with increase in walks and decline in strikeouts compared to his previous standards. Age 25.

This is a farm system in a transitional phase, both in terms of talent turnover and imminent changes in the Yankees front office. While the farm system has been criticized frequently over the years, the fact is that several key members of the pitching staff are home-grown, including bullpen stalwart David Robertson, Adam Warren, David Phelps, rookie relief sensation Dellin Betances, and a pair of 15^th round rookie sleepers who’ve proved useful in Shane Greene and Chase Whitley. The organization has shown the ability to find useable pitchers in later rounds of the draft and that’s a good skill to have.

Shane Greene, photo by Jim McIsaac, Getty Images

Pitching is also present on the farm, with Ian Clarkin and Luis Severino solidifying their standing among the better pitching prospects in all of baseball. Manny Banuelos and Bryan Mitchell could be ready for larger roles next year. Austin DeCarr and Jacob Lindgren from the 2014 draft add additional depth.

Lack of impact bats is an issue. The "future stars" outfield trio of Tyler Austin, Slade Heathcott, and Mason Williams that got so much hype a couple of years ago disintegrated due to injuries and general ineffectiveness in Double-A. They could still be role players, but the strongest hopes for regular bats now rest on Greg Bird, Eric Jagielo, and Aaron Judge. Jake Cave and Robert Refsnyder are also moving up the prospect lists quickly. There are no certain stars in that group, either, but this summer’s massive investment in Latin American talent may change that in a few years.

The Yankees ranked 21^st among the 30 farm systems for me pre-season. That could improve quickly over the next few campaigns if the ’14 international class lives up to expectations.

Chase Headley could be able to start today; David Robertson pitched three days in a row despite feeling soreness.

After being hit by a pitch in the chin in Thursday night's game, Chase Headley somehow walked away almost completely unscathed, aside from needing two stitches. X-rays and neurological tests came back clean, and Joe Girardi said he thought Headley would have been available to pinch hit in last night's game, and could be available to start today.

Francisco Cervelli has not played over the past two weeks, after experiencing a series of cluster migraines. The good news is that they were not concussion-related. However, the team wants to be sure that they aren't being triggered by physical activity, so they're monitoring that. At this point, it almost doesn't matter if he returns, since they have John Ryan Murphy and Austin Romine both up, and the playoffs are a pipe dream.

Even though it isn't an injury, it's worth pointing out that David Robertson not only pitched three days in a row, but was experiencing soreness in his shoulder, side and hamstring on Saturday. He threw 35 pitches Friday, and felt sore warming up before going into Saturday's game. Apparently he told Girardi and Larry Rothschild that he could lock down an inning on Saturday, even though he knew he didn't have great command. When asked how sore he would have had to feel to tell the coaching staff that he couldn't pitch in Saturday's game, he said, "Unable to get the ball to the catcher to not come in there today." The fact that he was put into the game on Sunday, after pitching the previous two days, and after feeling sore is beyond me. He shouldn't have been available in the first place. That's on Girardi.

Carlos Beltran somewhat surprisingly made it into last night's game, after the possibility of shutting him down for the season was discussed earlier in the week. His elbow must be feeling better. Speaking of elbows, Masahiro Tanaka is set to throw a simulated game of about 60 pitches today. How he feels during and after will decide the next steps in his rehab. The goal is still to have him rejoin the team and pitch before the season ends.

Former Yankee Kelly Johnson provided the walk-off win for the O's, pretty much putting the exclamation point on this dismal season. The Yankees play the Rays tonight. Woo.

Comment of the Game

Our COTG winner is Q-TDSK for somewhat calling the Martin Prado home run. It wasn't officially "callin' it" but it was close enough to earn him the victory.

Best GIF of the Recap

I think Andrew summed it up best in the Recap Thread with this GIF. Pretty much my thoughts as well. He wins the BGOTR award.

Honorable Mod Mention

Pretty sure Harlan speaks for all of us with his message to Curt Schilling. Easy choice for the HMM award.

Best Comments of the Day

It was Blanky's birthday yesterday. While the Yankees did not compliment her with a win, the PSA Open Thread made sure to wish her a happy birthday, proving we provide more offense than the Yankees do.

After that birthday stream, Blanky won herself a COTD award with this priceless mention of the Broncos performance in last year's Super Bowl. Bravo.

Finally, LTL wins a COTD award with this wonderful jab at Steinbrenner Face.

• Construct your ideal Yankee lineup for 2015!
• Favorite cereal?

Pretty much this for the remaining two weeks. As always link us you song of the day!

go yankees go baseball

Let's not kill the closer

Last night David Robertson pitched in his third game in a row, something Joe Girardi has not allowed him to do all season. Robertson recently complained about shoulder fatigue and general soreness, however he was still brought in and proceeded to pitch poorly. Regardless of whether or not last night's struggles stemmed from fatigue, the Yankees should not be overworking David Robertson at this point in the season.

It's possible that Joe Girardi decided to go with Robertson last night in order to avoid having to put Adam Warren in to finish off the game again. If that were the case, why not use Shawn Kelley or let Dellin Betances pitch two innings? For a manager as meticulous and careful as Girardi is, especially with resting his relievers, it seems like an odd time to start ignoring his own rules. The Yankees could have decided that soon-to-be free agent David Robertson can now be sent out as fodder or maybe this is Joe's idea of going into "win-now mode." Whatever the reason is, it's the wrong reason.

First of all, the Yankees shouldn't be deciding in mid-September that they're better off without their closer, because they're not. And if they did decide this already, they should have tried to trade him while they could get something for him. If this is all Girardi's doing, he needs to realize that this team isn't going to make the playoffs and instead of making a big show by pulling out all the stops, he needs to push the brakes. Instead of pushing Robertson hard, use him less, pitch him every few days if you want to, but don't put strain on him. If the team actually had a shot then it would make sense to push everyone, not just the closer, but it's too little too late now.

Even if the Yankees ultimately decide not to bring their closer back, they shouldn't be running him ragged out there in the next few weeks. Not only is it not fair to him, but it also narrows their options. For all we know, Betances could get hurt in the offseason, and if the Yankees already damaged Robertson's arm at that point then the team is in trouble. They're better off just shutting him down for the next few days, give him some rest and make sure he's not overworked because the Yankees are better off with him than without him and everyone is better off with a healthy D-Rob than a hurt one.

The tall righty's stock has gone up in 2014. What market can he expect this offseason?

Brandon McCarthy has become a very intriguing potential signing for teams in need of pitching. After a career of ups-and-downs, he is having a strong finish to the 2014 season and the two-year contract. Once a top prospect, then a disappointment, then a feel-good story: what happens next for the right-hander?

Where he's been

One could write an interesting book based on Brandon McCarthy's career. A highly-touted call-up prospect in 2005, McCarthy struggled to blossom his potential, due to mediocre performances (4.92 FIP from 2005 to 2009) and shoulder injuries.

In 2011, after some transformation in approach, the righty emerged as one of the best starters of the American League. In 2011 and 2012 combined, McCarthy combined for a 6.3 fWAR with an excellent 4.0 strikeouts per walk. And there could be a chapter written about the unfortunate incident that raised awareness in pitchers' safety on the mound.

In the 2012-2013 offseason, McCarthy signed a two-year, $15.5 million contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks. In a season-and-a-half with the Diamondbacks, McCarthy did not reach people's expectations (5-11, 4.53 ERA in 2013, 3-10, 5.01 ERA in 2014 in Arizona), even though his peripherals suggested that he was better than his ERAs indicated (3.75 and 3.80 FIP respectively).

Where he is now

After coming over to the Yankees, the righty got one of his weapons back and defied expectations. In 12 starts, McCarthy pitched to a 2.54 ERA with 78.0 innings pitched with a 5.8 strikeout-to-walks ratio, improving his overall season record to 9-14 with 3.98 ERA.

That ERA number alone would net the righty a solid contract. Consider that and the fact that he spent half of of the season without one of his top pitching weapons. His agent will certainly receive some calls this winter.

After spending his pre-Athletics days as a fly-ball pitcher, McCarthy started to rely on two-seamer and cutter more to induce grounders. So far, the approach has worked out well. After allowing 1.3 home runs per 9 innings from 2005 to 2009, he reduced the figure to 0.8. His strikeouts-per-walk ratio has improved from 1.77 to 4.26 as well.

Even though he has had some ups-and-downs in performances in past two years, there is no denying that he can be a very serviceable number-two-or-three starter in a major league rotation.

Another plus on McCarthy is that, even in his age-31 season, he has not shown a sign of decline in stuff. Per PITCHf/x, his fastball averages at 92.9 mph in 2014, which is the highest of the career by 2.0 mph. His strikeout rate is also trending in the right way. If he maintains a 7.8 K/9 rate, it would be the highest of his career.

His 1.5 BB/9 is not the lowest of career, but it is still quite excellent. His 3.2 fWAR is ahead of the pitchers like Sonny Gray (2.8), Scott Kazmir (2.8), Tanner Roark (2.7) and Yordano Ventura (2.5). So, yes: a very good major league starter.

Injury history is the major knock on his stock. He has never thrown more than 187.2 innings in his career (that, by the way, is from this year), and he was shelved in the disabled list as recently as 2013 with, wait for it, a shoulder injury.

Even though McCarthy is a valuable pitcher, the recurring shoulder problem is a concern. A lot of teams look for a starter that can fill out 180 to 210 innings pitched consistently to throw some serious money. McCarthy is just having his second 180-plus innings pitched season in the pros (first being 186.1 in 2005).

Where he is going

I can see two cases for McCarthy.  He will either go to a 1) team that can afford to throw some bucks for their number 2 or 3 slot in rotation or 2) team that is not willing to shell out mega-millions to Lester or Scherzer and wants to turn to cheaper options for a top-line starter.

He is pretty much a starter that can be very effective... when healthy. Of course, he has not been haunted by the injury bug as much since his time in Oakland, but he has not been able to avoid a few trips to the disabled list either.

There has not been much reported on the possibility of an extension with the Yankees. The team has to be quite happy with McCarthy's contribution so far, and the odds are that they will make an offer -- it is up to the front office to determine how much.

The Yankees started the 2014 season with a Sabathia-Kuroda-Tanaka-Nova-Pineda rotation and only one of them has stayed healthy for the entire year. Even for next season, it is unclear if Tanaka will be fully recovered from a partial UCL tear on elbow, if Sabathia will be back fully healthy, or if Kuroda will part his ways with the Bombers. The Yankees are already committed to $170 million in payroll next year, and it will be interesting to see if they will invest much in bringing McCarthy back.

Another team that I can see being in on contract talks is the Phillies. Cliff Lee has run into some health problem this season, it is unclear whether A.J. Burnett will stay and the other starters that are in the rotation besides Cole Hamels are not that inspiring.

After years of poor performance, 2015 could be the year that the Baby Bombers make people take notice.

It’s well known that the Yankees have failed to produce position players in recent years. Over the past couple of seasons the team has added Mike Quade, James Rowson, Jody Reed, and Trey Hillman to spur improved hitting, fielding, and base running fundamentals. Hal Steinbrenner further invested in fixing the issue by going on a spending spree in the 2014 international free agency period, signing 12 of the top 30 players. This could all begin to pay off, with the continued development of players such as Aaron Judge and Robert Refsnyder. Let’s take a look at 10 position prospects to watch in 2015.

Aaron Judge

Keith Law of ESPN Insider ranked Judge #45 on his midseason top 50 prospects list, saying that Judge, "Could be the middle-of-the-order bat the Yankees have tried to develop for years."

At 6’7" tall, he is an imposing figure on the baseball field with massive power potential. He finished the season with High-A Tampa where he batted .308, clubbed 17 home runs and had an OPS of .905. Judge should start next year with the Double-A Trenton Thunder, where he could put himself into the Yankees outfield mix in 2016.

Gary Sanchez

Sanchez’s stock has taken a hit in 2014. Makeup concerns reared their ugly head again, as Sanchez was benched for almost a week for an unknown reason. His bat also showed little improvement while repeating Double-A, putting up similar numbers with a slightly higher batting average.  After two stagnant seasons in Trenton, I still expect the Yankees to promote him to Triple-A, or possibly deal him this offseason.

Robert Refsnyder

The converted outfielder forced the front office to take notice this season. Arguably the farm system’s best all around hitter, he has forced his way into the second base discussion for next season. Refsnyder doesn’t profile well elsewhere on the field, so he’ll have to show improvement on defense. At the very least, he will start next season in Triple-A Scranton, with an outside shot at making the team in spring training.

Eric Jagielo

The 2013 first rounder spent over a month sidelined due to an oblique injury. While he won’t win any Gold Gloves, his defense should be serviceable. Jagielo showed big power at Tampa with 16 homers and a batting line of.259/.354/460. He should begin next season at Double-A Trenton.

Luis Torrens

Torrens was aggressively pushed to Low-A, where he struggled to begin the season. He then suffered a shoulder injury which cost him two months of development time. Upon returning, he was assigned to Short-Season-A Staten Island, where he put up a line of .270/.327/.405. Praised for his game awareness and solid all-around game, he very well could become the best catcher in the system. Torrens should start next year with Low-A Charleston.

Greg Bird

With Mark Teixeira struggling and often injured, Bird, now at Double-A Trenton, is moving into the Yankees' first base picture. For the year, Bird hit .271/.376/.472 with 14 homers. Defensively, he will be adequate at best, due to a lack of instincts and athleticism. He missed a month due to a back injury, which is worth keeping an eye on in the future as they usually don’t go away. A repeat of last season should put him at Triple-A Scranton by the end of 2015, with a shot at the Bronx in 2016.

Jorge Mateo

Jim Callis of mlb.com had this to say about Mateo in the 2014 Prospect Watch:

"In addition to his speed and defense, Mateo has more upside at the plate than most shortstops. He's wiry strong, and he already shows signs of being able to hit for average and provide double-digit home run totals down the line. Mateo is still just 19 and is six levels removed from the big leagues, but one club official said the organization hasn't had a middle infielder with a ceiling higher than his sinceDerek Jeter."

The future looks bright for Mateo, but he still has a long way to go to make it. He’ll probably be assigned to Pulaski or Staten Island to begin 2015.

Tyler Austin

After being hampered by a wrist injury last year, Austin started hitting like he did in 2012 late in the season. Austin is a right fielder who can hit for average and has a little pop. With a strong start in 2015, he could become the right-handed outfield option that the Yankees sorely need.

Abiatal Avelino

Avelino is the top shortstop prospect in the organization. He suffered a quad injury that caused him to miss nearly two months and struggled mightily upon returning. Considered a gifted player, he has speed, plus defensive ability, and a solid offensive game. I believe he will return to Charleston because of lost time, but a move to Tampa could be possible.

Miguel Andujar

A sleeper prospect in the system, Andujar had a solid season for Low-A Charleston. He doesn’t have the hype surrounding him, but he put up a nice batting line of .267/.318/.397, with 10 homers. Defensively, there’s still worked to be done as he committed 26 errors in 120 games. When Jagielo heads to Trenton, I would expect him to be promoted to High-A Tampa.

The Yankees have solid talent in their system.  The front office needs to use their financial power to surround these players with the best instructors, evaluators and coaches.  I fully expect that 2015 will be the year that the minor league system makes their mark.