Around the Empire: Yankees news - 6/13/17

New York Post | George A King III: There’s a reason the Yankees are also known as the Bombers. They love their dingers, and this season is no exception. In fact, this year’s club is currently on pace to shatter their franchise home run record as well as MLB’s. They currently have six regulars who have double digit home runs. In other words, the Yankees are hitting too many homers again and need to start bunting so they can win the right way.

Newsday | Erik Boland: James Kaprielian was in the clubhouse yesterday. Kaprielian stopped by and talked about his decision to undergo Tommy John surgery and how everyday he thinks about how he could’ve been in the majors this year. Kaprielian also said that he believed that this will help in the long run and that he’s keeping a positive mindset.

New York Post | Dan Martin: The Yankees are back on top. Both in the standings and in attendance. After it was reported the Yankees ticket sales had been down the last few years, the Yankees are now leading the American League in average attendance. Funny what winning and having likable players can do for a team and despite Dylan Dellin Betances’ best efforts to keep people out of the seats. Randy Levine said there was a lot of “fake news” about the Yankees’ attendance, because of course he did.

Newsday | Steven Marcus: The Yankees began their first West Coast trip last night in Anaheim. Aaron Judge, you may have heard of him, is one Yankee who is particularly excited for this trip. Judge was raised in California, so he’s excited to go him and see his parents along with the rest of his family and friends and share his amazing season with them.

New York Post | Steve Serby: A Q&A with Yankees’ radio play-by-play announcer John Sterling. Sterling talks about some of his favorite home run calls, what calls he might have had for some of the legendary Yankees, and how he deals with the criticism he faces for his style of announcing. Sterling also talks about Yankee players both past and present and the respect he has for other announcers in the game.

Baseball America | Michael Lananna: With their first pick in the MLB Draft, the Yankees selected Clarke Schmidt, a RHP from the University of South Carolina. This BA profile on him and his family is from back in April, but I felt it was worth sharing again. Their family has been through a lot with his brother Clate, a prospect currently in the Tigers’ organization, having battled cancer but thankfully survived. Now Clarke is recovering and rehabbing from Tommy John surgery.

Welcome to New York

On a related note, The MLB Draft was officially started last night and as always Tanya Bondurant and Jason Cohen will be bringing you extensive draft coverage so please be sure to send them all the pizza and tacos you can.

Didi Victory Tweet

Nice and simple, but Didi needs to give himself some love too, right?