Around the Empire: Yankees news - 8/24/17

Around the Empire

New York Daily News | Mike Mazzeo: GREG BIRD! Greg Bird is still doing well in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on his rehab assignment. Bird will be evaluated after his games on Wednesday and Thursday. If everything goes well, we could see Bird fly back to the Bronx and rejoin the Yankees on Star Wars night. One hopes that he will. Those Yankees’ Darth Vader knit caps will only be available to the first 18,000 guests. Bird doesn’t want to miss that.

Newsday | Erik Boland: Clint Frazier did some light running and took some dry swings in the batting cages yesterday. This is the first amount of baseball activities he’s done since being placed on the DL in the beginning of August. Frazier was excited by that and he’s hoping to get back sooner, rather than later. There is no timetable on Red Thunder’s return. Heal fast, Frazier.

Fangraphs | Eno Sarris: Aroldis Chapman is currently not the Yankees’ closer. This is due to Chapman not pitching all that well lately. This article takes a look at why and it’s not very promising. While he can still throw it 100+MPH, the spin rate on the fastball and the location of said fastball is not ideal. The lack of control is apparent and not getting much better. Whether Chapman can adjust to this will be determined at a later date.

New York Daily News | Mike Mazzeo: Finally, a touching story about newest Yankee Todd Frazier. Every time he hits a home run, he points to the sky, towards his cousin Kim Beresh. Frazier’s cousin passed away in 2010. The two of them were very close, bonding over their love of sports. You should give this a read.

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