Texas Rangers “Eye on the Enemy”: 3 Yankees storylines worth watching

In exhilarating fashion, the Texas Rangers were able to pull out a victory against Gerrit Cole and the New York Yankees during game one of this week’s four-game series. The Rangers bats came to life early against Cole (who exiting the game after allowing a season-high four runs to cross the plate), and Texas starter Jordan Lyles secured his second victory of the 2021 campaign.

It was a promising nine innings of baseball, and it puts the Rangers in good position to either split the series with New York, or even steal the series in its entirety.

Previewing the rest of the Texas Rangers series against NYY.

With that said, I checked in with our friends over at “Yanks Go Yard” to see if there were any specific players and/or storylines worth keeping an eye on over the next three games.

Here’s what they had to say:

Stanton injury/shaky outfield depth.

The first major point of emphasis was placed on the impact of not having Giancarlo Stanton this week, and the overall lack of outfield depth that follows.

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Stanton has a long history of battling injuries since making the switch from Miami to New York, and the Yankees undoubtedly miss him every time he departs the lineup with an IL stint. Aaron Boone went with Gary Sanchez as the team’s designated hitter in place of Stanton on Monday night, a move that saw Sanchez go 0-4 with three runners on base.

Additionally, center fielder Aaron Hicks is also on the injured list at the moment, leaving the Yankees’ outfield depth in a rather precarious position.

Brett Gardner and Clint Frazier are the next men up when it comes to filling out the outfield, and both players are currently batting sub-.200.

Look for the Texas Rangers pitching staff to continue navigating around guys like Aaron Judge and DJ LeMahieu to instead face the likes of Sanchez, Frazier, and Gardner.

Can Jameson Taillon bounce back?

Acquired to help solidify the back-end of the Yankees rotation, former Pirates RHP Jameson Taillon hasn’t been able to consistently produce above average results this season. His ERA sits north of 5.00, and he’s only managed to pitch past the fifth inning on one occasion.

However, as pointed out by Yanks Go Yard, some of Tailon’s more advanced numbers paint the picture of someone primed to break through any moment now.

Right off the bat, both of Tailon’s xERA (expected ERA) and SIERA (skill interactive ERA) sit in the low 3.00s, which signals that Taillon is actually pitching rather well, and has just been somewhat unlucky on the mound thus far.

Additionally, some of Tailon’s numbers on Baseball Savant also describe him as someone who should be having more success than a 5.40 ERA. His spin rates, K%, expected batting average, and BB% all rank in the 80th percentile or higher.

These are not numbers that a “bad” pitcher would possess.

Set to take the mound tonight against the likes of Mike Foltynewicz (who’s had his own respective struggles this season), I definitely wouldn’t view this as an “easy” matchup for the Rangers. Even coming off an impressive outing against Gerrit Cole, Taillon is bound to breakout eventually.

Let’s just hope it’s not tonight.