Admittedly, the middle of the month in the middle of the year is a weird time to do a post like this, but you never know when inspiration hits you. In this case, inspiration came while browsing Baseball Reference the other day and looking at the pages for players born on a given day.

On Baseball Reference, you can look at a page for every day of the year and find a list of players who have that birthday. You can even sort them by various stats to see, for example, who is the best ever player you share a birthday with. (For me, on June 27th, it’s Jim Edmonds.)

Just browsing day through day got me thinking about what months have historically produced the best Yankees. There’s only one way to do that: go through each month and make a lineup. Starting in this post with August, we are going to start a series where upon each new month, we will look at the best possible Yankee team of players born in that month and see who comes out on top. Let’s begin.

Also, just to note: I’m going to base this on “best Yankees” as opposed to “best players who happened to play for the Yankees.” In plenty of cases, the players in those categories would be the same, but not always.

I gave that note, because immediately we have to make a distinction. The best pitcher born in August who played for the Yankees is Roger Clemens. He also would be a perfectly fine choice for this team as it is, as he won the 2001 AL Cy Young with the Yankees and helped them to two World Series titles. However, Guidry was the better, and more beloved, Yankee, and also he’s my mom’s all-time favorite player and she would kill me.

August would have a pretty decent rotation if we built out a whole roster, as Don Larsen would be another perfectly solid choice had the other two not shared a birth month.

No qualms here. Posada is one of the best catchers in Yankees’ history, and by far the best born in August.

First Base: Anthony Rizzo

His last two seasons in the Bronx didn’t go great, as a concussion and seemingly the after effects of it doomed Rizzo to two below par seasons. However, his first two years with the Yankees still carried him to above average hitting marks as a Bronx Bomber.

Second Base: Andy Stankiewicz

Middle infield is by far the weakest area of the August Yankees, as the backup for these two would be Jayson Nix, so not a ton to work with.

Third Base: Graig Nettles

Maybe we could shoehorn a third baseman into the middle infield, as August produced two very good Yankees in Nettles and Scott Brosius, but we’ll give Nettles the starting nod.

Left Field: Gene Woodling

Center Field: Brett Gardner

Right Field: Melky Cabrera

There are no absolute superstars in August’s outfield, but that’s not a bad trio. Gardner’s arguably a “Hall of Very Good”-er, Woodling had a 124 OPS+ in six years as a Yankee, and Cabrera was an ‘09 champion. If you don’t want to account for any coherent positioning, you could put Lou Pinella in for Cabrera and maybe shift things around a bit. Beyond them, there’s Gerald Williams, Deion Sanders, and Jay Buhner.

Designated Hitter: Ken Phelps

Speaking of Buhner, that’s right, we’re putting the man they traded him for/part of pop culture lore, Ken Phelps. The issue with Phelps’ acquisition wasn’t that he didn’t produce offense when he played, it’s that he wasn’t needed with what that Yankees’ roster already had and also Buhner turned into a very good player in Seattle.

In the coming months, we’ll put together more teams, but for now there’s August. If you have any substitutions you’d make, feel free to let us know in the comments!