Yankees News: James Paxton Hoping to Avoid “Yankee Curse”

Recently acquired Yankee starter James Paxton made his spring training debut on February 25th and looked extremely crisp in the process. Despite throwing primarily fastballs, Paxton was able to strike out two across two innings while flashing his above-average command. Paxton’s two walks are a deceptive stat as he was just barely missing off the corners in both at-bats.

In line to start today’s game, Yankee fans get another chance to scout their new front of the rotation starter as he likely opens up his pitching arsenal a bit more in this go-round. Considering it is still only Paxton’s second start of spring training, look for him to once again throw mostly fastballs with a few changeups mixed in. This time of spring training is much more so about getting the feel of the game back as opposed to generating on the field results.

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James Paxton Set to Make Second Spring Training Yankee Start

Paxton is scheduled to take this hill at 6:35 pm EST on Friday as the Yankees play host to the Baltimore Orioles. In facing the Orioles, this makes the second AL East opponent that Paxton will have seen in as many starts. One minor critique from his first start is that although Paxton avoided giving up anything hit too hard, he wasn’t able to induce many groundouts. Hitters usually reign supreme this time of year, but that is going to be an area Paxton will want to focus on rectifying as spring training moves forward.

Yankee Stadium is a bandbox and Paxton will find himself in Sonny Gray‘s exact situation should he be unable to force hitters to roll over on the ball. Sonny Gray was another ground ball specialist who unfortunately fell victim to the “Yankee Curse” and was subsequently traded for a minor leaguer this offseason.

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James Paxton Trying to Avoid the “Yankee Curse”

Speaking of Sonny Gray, James Paxton has come out and publicly addressed the so-called “Yankee Curse”, where big-name pitchers struggle tremendously under the bright lights of New York. Before Gray, it was A.J. Burnettt and before Burnett, it was Carl Pavano. Seemingly every few years, the Yankees invest heavily in a front line starter who cannot put it together on the mound.

Paxton went as far to tell the New York Post about Sonny Gray and the curse:

“I watched it happen, I don’t have a whole lot of information on how that all went down for him. I don’t know him. I don’t know what it was, but I’m just trying to do the best I can — talk to guys who had success here, what they did to help [beat] it. I’m just learning from my teammates to help prepare for that.”

Paxton has been working extensively with veteran C.C. Sabathia as well as Yankee legend (and now special advisor) Andy Pettite, in particular, to prepare himself for the rigors of pitching in New York. Talking about his new understudy, Sabathia told the Post, “I think Pax will be fine.”

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