Great to get back on track. Not saying we're a lock to win the World Series or anything like that (let the Blue Jays deal with that pressure) BUT we're definitely good enough to compete for a chance to win one, just like the Blue Jays or any other team in the hunt for a playoff spot and that's all you can ask for.

For all Joe doesn't get quite right at times, I thought he was PERFECT yesterday. Love the no challenge on that play early on at 2B -- the play wasn't conclusive and by not challenging there, he was banking on Tanaka getting out of that inning unscathed facing one of their weaker hitters and that's exactly what happened. I liked how we knew we could question the Bird shot off the 2nd deck facade w/o using a challenge too (what a SHOT btw, huh? WOW. Just a matter of time for this kid. Glad to see him get that first knock outta the way a few innings later -- you can tell he looks a tad nervous out there. Hopefully Birdy settles down now a little bit. Maybe there's more playing time available for him than I realized...Again, BRAVO Cash for holding onto all these good young prospects. To me, it all but guarantees 2 things: lasting success for years to come and salary flexibility to add to the good young nucleus when the time is right, as opposed to blowing our load now and not being able to either call up any help or go out and get any on the open market) and I loved how he stuck with Tanaka and let him finish the game yesterday. Now we have a rested, recharged bullpen ready to go. I thought Joe was on top of his game yesterday and wanna give him credit...

Time to get greedy and return the favor for the sweep we suffered last weekend. It's hard to win at home sometimes. There's a lot of pressure--50,000+ people all expecting you to win, field level seats going for 12k a pop, etc.. Let the Jays take a turn dealing with it...We need to come out loose, focused, hungry and confident today. I like the kid Severino in this spot -- 2 starts under his belt, the Jays haven't seen him, great stuff and it's true--he really is very poised for a youngster, beyond his years. Hopefully the Jays start pressing now a little having dropped these first two games esp. if we can get out to an early lead with Severino throwing up some zeros on the board -- I could see this Toronto club getting tight. I love how Jose Bautista hasn't had jack to say this series too btw -- due ran his mouth pretty good a week ago... Already a huge victory going in there getting 2 out of 3 -- gotta get greedy now and get this last one! GO YANKS!!!

I still say Refsnyder should get called back up. As much as I love Bird, Ref is the more ML-ready talent at this time imo and he fills a bigger need (production at 2B). Kinda feel like we're jerking him around a little bit.. He could only further enhance the team. I'm sorry but Rob Refsynder > Brendan Ryan by a MILE, it's not even close...You wanna tell me Drew's the better player and worth keeping over Ryan--I'll buy that. Slightly younger, more power, just as versatile, he's gotten hot at the right time, makes more than double the money therefore a little harder to just up & cut loose I suppose -- but Refsnyder over Ryan is an absolute no-brainer and will continue to be a no-brainer until we see this kid back up with the big club again. I mean Ref survived the trade deadline. So glad we didn't trade him. He continues to hit and appears more comfortable at 2B every day (go check out his Milb page and click on his video link--mostly hitting highlights of him lining shots all over the ballpark but there are a couple of dynamite plays he's made right around the 2B bag that you really have to see)...No reason in the world he shouldn't be at least in a platoon role at 2B right now with Drew. He should get called up soon regardless--thought I heard someone saying there's only about 2 weeks left in the RailRiders' season. Why wait 2 weeks though?? That's 2 weeks we could give Ref to get reacclimated to playing in the show..I don't know what it is they think they owe Ryan. Absolutely nothing...Wanna see them make one final move to improve the club and this one is it.

Simmons is a heck of a SS..Man he can play the position..

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/30/sports/baseball/shortstops-andrelton-simmons-and-didi-gregorious-share-journey-small-island-to-big-leagues.html?ref=sports

ATLANTA — The first time Andrelton Simmons set eyes on Didi Gregorius, what he noticed was not Gregorius’s strong throwing arm, his fleet feet or anything he did with a bat in his hands. They were, after all, only 5 years old.

“It was the green shirt,” Simmons said with a laugh.

The reason it stood out is because it was long-sleeved, and in Curaçao, the Caribbean island where they grew up, the weather was so warm that all year round there was rarely a reason to wear a shirt with short sleeves, let alone long ones. So the new kid, who had just moved from the Dutch mainland to the island, an autonomous Dutch territory, stood out.

“Nobody wears long sleeves at home,” Simmons said. “I guess it was cold in the Netherlands.”
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Just as Simmons cackled when recounting the story in the home clubhouse at Turner Field, Gregorius chuckled when it was relayed to him in the visitors’ clubhouse. He still wears long sleeves, even earlier this summer when the weather was sweltering during a visit to Texas.
Photo
Didi Gregorius has begun to fulfill his considerable promise in his first season with the Yankees. Credit Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press

When Gregorius and Simmons reunite, old stories are not all that they share. There is also the satisfaction of the journey they have taken coming from an island of 154,000 — about three-fourths the population of Yonkers — to establish themselves as starting shortstops in the major leagues.

Simmons, who has won two Gold Gloves with the Atlanta Braves and is widely considered the best defensive shortstop in baseball, and Gregorius, who has begun to fulfill his considerable promise in his first season with the Yankees, formed a double-play combination on most of the youth teams they played on while growing up.

“I mean, it’s crazy,” Simmons said. “The guy right next to you, we’re right here together.”

It was with a point of pride that Gregorius interrupted an interview to scroll through his phone to find an old newspaper clipping that he had photographed and posted on his Twitter account a couple of years ago. It is a list of the top hitters in their youth league, with their batting averages, from 1998, when the boys were 8. It also includes Jonathan Schoop, now with the Baltimore Orioles. They also played with Dodgers reliever Kenley Jansen and the former major league pitcher Jair Jurrjens.

“For me, it’s awesome, because we’ve been playing with each other since we were little,” said Gregorius, who, like Simmons, is 25. “The same thing when I see Jonathan Schoop. We see how hard we worked to get here, so it’s always great to see each other and talk a little before the game and during the game.”
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There was plenty for Gregorius to talk about Friday night, when he drove in a career-high six runs with four hits, including a three-run home run, in the Yankees’ 15-4 victory.

It was the latest sign that Gregorius could be blossoming into the type of shortstop that the Cincinnati Reds envisioned when they signed him as a 17-year-old, or that the Arizona Diamondbacks did when they gave up pitcher Trevor Bauer in a three-way deal to land him.

Simmons remembered seeing Gregorius when they were working out last December, the day after the Yankees landed him in a three-way trade with Detroit and Arizona. “Everybody was all over him,” Simmons said.

The scrutiny would not stop, of course, when he arrived in spring training as the shortstop who was replacing Derek Jeter. Gregorius made a base-running blunder on opening day, hovered around .200 for the first two months and looked uncertain in the field.

“Anybody that would have been in his shoes, that would have had to replace Derek Jeter, would have had a rough start,” Simmons said. “All eyes are on you, and you’re trying to impress, so you’re going to press a little bit.”

A newspaper clipping listed the top hitters in Simmons’s and Gregorius’s league in 1998, when they were 8.

Simmons called Gregorius at one point to chat.

It was an easy conversation. Each player says the other has changed little since the days when they alternated pitching and playing shortstop. (Gregorius played second base when neither was pitching.) They were both passionate about other sports in high school — basketball for Gregorius and soccer for Simmons. They are also both bowlegged, Simmons pointed out.

Simmons, who weighed 140 pounds when he finished high school and said he could barely hit the ball out of the infield at the time, did not draw any interest from scouts until he moved to the United States and attended junior college.

His ascent since then has been rapid.

“Everything he does now, he did when he was young,” Gregorius said of Simmons. “Since we were 6 years old, all the guys always said if you hit a ground ball to short, it’s an automatic out. Right now, guys are saying the same thing. He hasn’t changed.”

That was the message Simmons delivered to Gregorius.

Don’t do too much. Play your game. Everything will get better.

It may not have been much different from what his teammates and coaches were telling Gregorius. But there was some comfort in hearing it from someone who knew him so well — all the way back to that green long-sleeved shirt.
Correction: August 30, 2015

An earlier version of the headline with this article misspelled the surname of the Yankees’ shortstop. He is Didi Gregorius, not Gregorious.

jrodmc wrote:Can we just play the Braves every day?

I'll take the wild card and build for a better tomorrow.