Mike and were chatting about the Yanks, and we thought it might be interesting to bring the conversation over to the blog.Mike: You know what's not great, the Yankees' play lately.
Larry: I'm trying to remind myself that as frustrating as they've been, (a) It's still only May; (b) They're missing 1/3 of their starting lineup; and (c) the pitchers, while due for a regression, have all been atrocious and aren't this bad.
MJR: Yeah, but Alex Rodriguez has a SLG below .500. Derek Jeter is terrible. And Mark Teixeira is still hitting .200.
LK: Those are also problems.
MJR: And Brett Gardner is regressing, too.
LK: I think the bigger concern is Tex right now.
MJR: I've been saying this.
LK: Rod's been putting some good swings/at-bats together. Tex just looks lost out there.
MJR: I believe that with A-Rod the numbers will be there by the end of the month. I believe Tex may have serious problems with his approach right now.
LK: As fun as the .400 wOBA verson of Gardner was, we were deluding ourselves to think that he was actually that level of player.
MJR: You're absolutely right
LK: As I said yesterday, Carl Crawford definitely has his house wired for sound to play the cash register noise with each BG out.
MJR: Well, maybe I'm eating my words come year end.
LK: I mean it's valid to have concerns. The team is in fairly rough shape right now.
MJR: They're playing bad baseball.
LK: But all it takes is rattling off a few wins to get everyone feeling good again.
MJR: However, they did this last year too, but it came in June.
LK: Yeah man.
MJR: Remember when we lost two out of three to the Nats?
LK: Of course.
MJR: A-Rod was benched. And so on.
LK: The low point of the season was the following series against the Braves, when the Yanks fell to only six games over .500. After that they were never that low again.
MJR: Exactly
LK: I know we as Yankee fans expect the world and freak out when they start sucking.
MJR: I try not to.
LK: But I think we need to give until at least July before we start pressing the panic button.
MJR: When a team will be as good as often as the Yanks its important to accept the bad.
LK: Well, yes.
MJR: Tex does worry me, though. He started surging in early May, and then he stopped hitting altogether. How long until he gets moved down in the order?
LK: I agree, that's a big problem right now. Last night on Twitter Rebecca from This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes asked Jack Curry whether Girardi might consider dropping Tex. Curry said he didn't think so, and that Girardi would prefer that he hit his way out of it.
MJR: Which is Girardi's style
LK: Problem with that is, he's basically an automatic out every time until he does start hitting.
MJR: Yeah. He's not drawing walks or anything.
LK: Between Tex's slump, the bottom of the order doing its best NL impression, and even the guys who you expect to get hits all sucking at the same time, it's actually kind of amazing they've even scored any runs.
MJR: I've been saying this for a while.
LK: Although it also helps explain why they've been doing such little damage in innings 1-7
and then staging these mini-rallies in the 8th and 9th.
MJR: Yeah, they've been playing games backward.
LK: Well they've been facing superior pitching.
MJR: That's true
LK: The Yanks' MO has always been to wear the starter down and get to the bullpen, only now when they get to the bullpen, their own starter has been putting 'em in a four- or five-run hole, and they don't have the depth to climb out.
MJR: It was naive to think that all the pitchers would have sub-2 ERAs
LK: I mean, yeah. No one thought that. It was nice for a few weeks there
MJR: But no one analyzed how the team was winning so much either. As you said, they bust out a few wins in a row and all this is ancient history.
LK: They were getting a series of historically great starts. At least, historical in the sense that none of those pitchers had ever performed that well before; not historical in the context of all of baseball.
I feel that the Yankees 2010 successes and struggles are related to starting pitching and their schedule: their April was pretty brutal. I don't feel like the Yankees have gone on a west coast trip in April in... well... ever. Then in May, it looks like they only had 2 scheduled days off and were lucky to get a 3rd during the rain out in Detroit, but then they had to play a double header the next day, so not much help there. The Mets are really the only bad team the Yankees have lost to this year, and for some reason, the Mets have the best home record of any team in the National League (16-9) and are third in home wins so far this year in MLB behind the Rangers and As (tied at 18)
ReplyDeleteSo have things been bad since the Yankees won the series in Boston? Yeah, besides beating the Twins at home, I would say they've been very bad. But, despite what ESPN said on Sunday night baseball, it sounds like Aceves could be back as early as this weekend, as could Granderson, and that's a lot of help.
I don't worry too much about the guys who are struggling; they're all good players, and good players will eventually get their act together - unless you think they're finished, and I dont think Jeter or Teix are finished. The injuries (which I think are, in some small part, a product of the schedule) make impossible to give a guy like Teix a breather... There's a snow ball effect that I think explains the Yankees bad play over the last 2 wks or so. But with an off day and the Yankees continued good play against the Twins, maybe things will turn around. and check out their June schedule:
team/games
Baltimore/6
Tor/3 (i still don't believe these guys are for real)
Houston/3
Phi/3
Mets/3 (at yankee stadium!)
Ari/3
LA Dodgers/3
seatle/2
i think there is an opportunity for the yankees to fatten up there... come all star break, if they're still struggling, I will panic, no question. Like Homer in those Simpsons flashbacks when Marge tells him she's pregnant and he tears the hair out of his head.
The schedule is about to break in the Yankees favor and we're about to get some players back. Hopefully that can rejuvenate the team a bit.
ReplyDeleteIt's also important to note that the Yankees lost three straight games in which they scored 6 runs. If you put up 6 runs against the Rays you need to win that game. The pitching has been the largest culprit over these past few weeks.
Right, and the pitchers get the most rest... but then, this is typically the 'dead arm period' during the early part of the season, i believe...
ReplyDeleteGreat points, Jamie -- I didn't even realize the Mets had the best home record in the NL.
ReplyDeleteIts hard to believe that 'Mets' and 'best' can be in the same sentence, but there you go! For whatever reason, they're good at home - like the Red Sox (56-25) and Yankees (57-24) last year. Tornoto's home/road spilts are 11-11/16-9 - and the Yankees are playing them in Toronto next month.
ReplyDelete