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riveraveblues.com Matt Linder To conclude the final installment of my look back at the 2017 New York Yankees season, here is part two of the bullpen review.  In addition to the relief pitchers who spent all of 2017 in pinstripes, there were also important contributors who were members of the team for only part of the season.  Kathy Willens/AP Let’s start with one of the two guys who was on the Yankees opening day roster, but did not make it to the end of the season with the team: Tyler Clippard.  Coming into 2017, he was expected to be the team’s seventh inning guy.  Like his fellow late inning relievers, he put together a productive April and May.  Through the first two months, he had an ERA of 1.64 with 29 strikeouts in 22 innings.  However, you could see signs that his early-season success might be fluky.  In May, he walked seven batters in only 12.1 innings.  As an extreme fly...

Elsa/Getty Images Matt Linder Let’s close the 2017 Yankees Year in Review the same way the Yankees close their games… with the bullpen.  The relief pitching came into and ended the season as the team’s greatest strength.  However, there were rough patches along the way.  It took major trade deadline acquisitions to get the unit back on track.  In addition to the deadline moves, there were unexpected breakouts, game saving performances and heartbreaking meltdowns.  Since there were nine guys who appeared in a significant number of games, I am going to break up the bullpen review into two parts.  This first installment with look back at the performances of the relievers who spent the vast majority of 2017 in the Yankees ‘pen. nydailynews.com In keeping with the tradition of my previous posts, let’s begin the review with the bullpen’s best performer…Chad Green.  He was not only the Yankees best reliever, he was also o...