Marcus Stroman does the Yankees business



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Doing nothing can not be an option.

No option can be considered a slam-dunk, a situation not to be missed, blame the gods of baseball if it does not work.

This is the vise in which the Yankees are in the run-up to the July 31 deadline, knowing that their launch requires an upgrade. This vise shot Sunday in an interesting way, if nothing else, when they saw Marcus Stroman pass a hellish audition right in front of them.

Stroman is not 2017 Justin Verlander, nor 2014 Jon Lester, nor 2008 CC Sabathia, to name three newbie pitchers of the last vintage, who have changed mid-season and have excelled. Yet, the right-hand man, from Long Island, must now be considered by the Yankees as extremely serious because of these two important assets: he has a high potential, and embraces the stage and the present moment. .

"I know I can compete with everyone," Stroman said after losing the Yankees 4-2 to the Yankee Stadium at Yankee Stadium. "I would give myself the ball in any difficult situation."

In his first appearance since June 29, after being sidelined by a cramp in the pecs of the left shoulder, Stroman gave three points and seven hits to the solid range of the Yankees. That does not tell the whole story, though. The seven moves were divided as follows: six singles, four on the floor and one double. The Yankees failed to hit the wall against Stroman, nor to throw a flying ball on the alert trail. The ground ball specialist (a quality the Yankees love) lost on a wild pitch in the fifth inning that his receiver Danny Jansen found in time to score Gio Urshela at home, then scratched the tag.

Stroman's fastball, averaging 92.7 mph before Sunday (thanks, FanGraphs), averaging over 93 mph and reaching 95.5 mph (thanks, Brooks Baseball Pitchf / x). His slider looked particularly mean, while the Yankees lost 14 and missed six.

"I sincerely believe that I'm getting stronger over the years," said Stroman, whose EER has actually climbed to 3.25. "I've always been a pitcher in the second half. I think I'm going to have a pretty special second half. My body feels good. My arm feels good. "

(Survey: Yes, Stroman now has an average of 3.37 in the second period, compared to 4.14 in the first half.)

As recently explained Joel Sherman of The Post, the risk of "adaptation" is whether Stroman, who can be flamboyant and has detractors, would be too trapped by the noise that reigns here.

The Yankees will not naturally take this important decision in a vacuum. Scouts from the Phillies, Cubs, Braves, Padres and Red Sox have witnessed Stroman's efforts. And the Yankees will surely continue to engage throwers such as Indians Trevor Bauer and Diamondbacks Robbie Ray as well as Stroman; Madison Bumgarner, legend of the Giants, did not seem interested.

The Blue Jays, with a strong core of players in position, would prefer to get shots in exchange for their plays such as Stroman, Ken Giles, closer, and Freddy Galvis. Most of the best seed of the Yankees are at the lower levels of the minor leagues, which should not be a problem for the Jays, who see the year 2020 as a new season of reconstruction.

After a strong and victorious start to Masahiro Tanaka, Aaron Boone strongly defended his starting rotation during his post-match press conference.

"I feel that this has been underestimated all year and under-appreciated," said the Yankees official.

Although nothing has hurt us to say that, we all know the pitfalls of the current quintet and we have no guarantee as to the last attempt of return of Luis Severino, which must start Monday with a game of catch. The Yankees need more options to reach their goal.

They will soon do something to loosen the grip of the vise. However, it will take another three months to get out completely. Stroman seems to be as good a bet as anyone else to get there.

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