When is a long slump cause for alarm?

The Yankees' 14-7 start to the season has been well-rounded. ESPN reports that the team's pitching staff is in the top 3 in the AL in ERA, WHIP and BAA while its hitters lead the junior circuit in OBP and SLG, and therefore OPS. In light of these numbers, the strong April should not come as a surprise. The team is playing great on both sides of the ball.

But if the component parts of the offense, or defense, are analyzed independently it become fairly surprising that the team is playing so well. Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Nick Johnson and Curtis Granderson are all slumping. The non-Mariano edition of the bullpen has been shaky. Javier Vazquez has underperformed the already low bar many Yankee fans set for him, and so on.

It is not surprising that a team with a top 3 offense and defense is one of the best in baseball. That is to be expected. What is surprising is that a team with so many gears grinding is still fielding a top 3 offense and defense.

The Yankees have been playing well as a team because many of the non-slumping Bombers are exceeding expectations, and Robinson Cano has turned into a walking Wheaties commercial. The conventional wisdom that has emerged from this is that when players like Andy Pettitte or Jorge Posada start slumping, other players like Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez will be ready to pick up the slack ... right?

Through 21 games this season Tex is batting .139/.292/.266. Tex's many defenders argue that he's a habitual slow starter so this is nothing to worry about because come season's end the numbers will be there.

Tex did get off to a bad start last year, but his 2009 April struggles highlight just how awful he has been this year. Last season through the 22 games the team played in April Tex hit .200/.367/.371. That's not worth Mark's $20-plus million annual salary, but across the board it is better than what he's done this April.

In fact, unless Tex gets 3 or 4 hits tonight, he will open the 2010 season with the worst month of his career, by far. Only April 2003, his first month as a pro, even comes close, and that season he hit for more power out of the gate. Of particular concern this season are his 18 strikeouts. That's six worse than last April, in one fewer games so far.

In Tex's defense, April isn't an on/off switch for him. Calendar months are not clean cut points in baseball. His total April performance in 2009 was bad, but there were moments in the month when his numbers were entering respectability. His slump actually worsened at the end of the month, and he continued to struggle into early May.

When A-Rod returned after the first week of May, Tex's average and OPS had fallen from where they were at the end of April to .192 and .720, respectively. This means that even though Tex has put himself in a deep hole to start this season he still has plenty of time to turn it on.

Speaking of A-Rod, he's mired in an 0-19 slump. About a week ago his OPS was over 1.000. Today he's batting .250/.340/.438. I'd take that as Tex's line in a New York minute, but the relative strength obscures the fact somewhat that A-Rod is also off to a bad start. Again, measuring ballplayers with calendar months is arbitrary, but it warrants mentioning that in all probability A-Rod will finish April with only 2 home runs. He hit more than 2 homers in every single month last season. He posted better than a .340 OBP every month last season as well.

In fact, A-Rod has had more than two homers in every single calendar month of his entire career once he became an everyday player in 1996. That includes his sophomore slump 1997 season when he managed only 23 bombs.

None of this is cause for alarm just yet. There is ample evidence to argue that the Yankees' two big bats will be right where they need to be come mid-season.

In Tex's case the slower April will be completely meaningless if he repeats his lights-out performance from May 2009. As for A-Rod, while the homer total is low, he has had comparably bad months in many otherwise extraordinary seasons (just not in April). In May 2007, for example, Alex hit only .235/.361/.422 and that was his best season ever.

It is truly impressive that the Yankees are one of the best teams in baseball even though their two best hitters are not performing. As April turns into May the team's continued success may very well depend upon just how quickly the bombers' 3-4 hitters get going.

Yankees vs. White Sox in the unbalanced schedule era

I've been enjoying taking a look back at how the Yanks have historically fared against their opponents (hopefully you have too) and so I thought I'd take a look at the Yanks' record vs. the White Sox in the unbalanced schedule era given that Ozzie Guillen's group of underachievers comes to the Bronx for a three-game set this weekend. I don't have anything against Chicago as a team per se, although I think Ozzie Guillen is ridiculous and wouldn't mind seeing the Yanks not only beat the ChiSox this weekend but also embarrass them.

In case you missed our previous installments, here are some links for your Friday reading pleasure:

Yankees vs. Orioles in the unbalanced schedule era [4.27.10]
How the Yankees have fared against the Red Sox at home since 2003 [4.02.10]
How the Yankees have fared at Fenway Park since 2003 [4.01.10]

And here's the Yanks vs. the White Sox since 2001:












As you can see, there's obviously not as much history between these two teams as the Yanks have with the Red Sox and O's. The Yanks have handled the ChiSox pretty well, and haven't lost the season series since 2003.

They've also swept 'em at home three times in the past nine seasons; would love to see another one this weekend.

It's Robbie Cano's world

We all just live in it, apparently. After two more home runs and a double, Robinson Cano's season line is an utterly scorching .407/.444/.790, good for the highest OPS in the American League (and second-highest in baseball behind St. Louis' Colby Rasmus), a 233 OPS+ and a Major League-leading .510(!!) wOBA. Even if Cano takes an 0-fer tonight, as Jack Curry mentioned on YES's postgame show last night, Cano is an absolute lock for American League Player of the Month for April. Paul Konerko and his 10 home runs may get some consideration, but Konerko's not batting over .400 on the month.

Oh yeah, and the Yankees beat Baltimore 4-0 last night, on the backs of the Robinson Cano show and eight shutout innings from A.J. Burnett. I was only able to catch the ninth inning so I can't offer much analysis, but there doesn't appear to be a ton to analyze other than that Cano has to be putting the fear of god into American League pitchers right now.

Scanning the boxscore, Tex apparently picked up a hit, but A-Rod and Granderson remained ice cold, even if Alex did hit another sac fly RBI. Oh, and Marcus Thames unexpectedly continues to rake in limited duty, going 3-3 to push his OPS to 1.591, albeit in a mere 17 at-bats. The team also only took one walk for the second straight game, which would be more irritating if Burnett didn't administer the thorough beatdown to the O's lineup that he did. Despite the low walk totals the Yankees are still leading baseball in OBP, but I'd really like to see them get that total at least 0.01 points higher than everyone else.

With Burnett lowering his ERA to 2.43 (3.38 FIP), the Yanks' big three starters are all in the top 20 in the American League in ERA (and Phil Hughes would be 6th in the league if he had enough innings to qualify), giving the Yankees one of the most formidable rotations they've had in what seems like forever. Right now outside of Javy Vazquez the Yankees are sending someone to the mound every day who gives the team a chance to win in every single start, and that's a damn good feeling.

Would the Yanks consider Josh Willingham?

I know I'm getting ahead of myself here, but given my obsession with walks I couldn't help but notice that Josh Willingham is tied for second in the National League in bases on balls, with 19.

RAB touched on the (unlikely) possibility of a trade for Willingham as a left field solution back over the winter, and concluded that unless the Nationals were blown away they really had no reason to trade him, given that he's under team control at a relatively cheap price through the end of the 2011 season.

However, Willingham's strong performance thus far in 2010 (.286/.446/.471; .423(!) wOBA, good for 9th-best in the National League) got me thinking about whether the Yankees might prefer to work out a deal of some kind with the Nationals after the season than overpay for Carl Crawford.

While Crawford's certainly come out of the gate playing like a man in the last year of his contract (.313/.374/.500; .381 wOBA), there has already been plenty of speculation over whether Crawford is worth whatever ridiculous contract his agent is sure to ask for.

Both Willingham and Crawford will cool off considerably by season's end, although ZIPS's updated projection now has Willingham wOBAing an impressive .379 for the rest of the way, finishing the year at a career-best .387 wOBA; while Crawford is projected to wOBA .358 for the remainder of the season, ending the year at .362, which would actually only be the 4th-best mark of his career.

On the defensive end of things, I can't say I've seen much of Willingham in the field, but he appears to be able to play a somewhat passable left field (-7.6 career UZR), although he can't touch Crawford (101.9 career UZR).

Willingham will also be 32 next season, while Crawford will be entering his age 29 season. And again, Washington is unlikely to trade away one of its top three hitters unless it receives a package it can't say no to, and I'm not even sure what kind of package the Yankees could put together that makes sense.

Still, Willingham would clearly represent a far cheaper alternative to yet another huge contract, and while we've all been pleasantly surprised with what we've seen from Brett Gardner thus far, he certainly won't be a .374 wOBA player for the rest of the season (ZIPS Update has him finishing at .327) and it'd be great to get some power out of left field.

Robbie's real test comes next month

It wasn't necessary, but this morning I went to Baseball Prospectus to confirm my suspicion that Robinson Cano has been the Yankees' best player so far this season. BP provides a list of a team's players, highlighting their VORP contributions from best to worst. My thoughts on VORP aside, Robbie sits atop the list, right where I thought he'd be. In fact, he's already contributed 15.3 runs above replacement to the team, nearly twice the contribution of Jorge Posada, the Yankees' next best player thus far.

Cano's numbers have been nothing short of superhuman. His offensive stats are .390/.430/.701 with 6 homers and 15 RBI. Those are Bonds-style numbers. If Cano were to continue his current pace for a full season he'd have 243 hits, 49 bombs, 122 RBI and a record 6,129 "he'll win a batting title someday" comments from the mainstream media.

Beginning in 2007, Robbie earned a reputation as a slow starter. Cano put together an excellent season in 2007, but he got off to a bad start. His April OPS was .657 and his pre-All Star break line was .274/.314/.427. His .943 post-All Star OPS rocketed his season to respectability.

He reinforced his reputation as a slow starter in 2008, putting up a Mark Teixeira-esque .151/.211/.236 in April. Although his post-All Star break line was .307/.333/.482, the slow start killed his stats for the season.

In 2009, Cano vowed to get off to a quick start (Tex, take some notes). He worked with Kevin Long during the offseason and exploded out of the gate. Last April he hit .366/.400/.581, with 5 homers and 16 RBI in 22 games. He even managed six walks, which, for Robbie, is incredible.

Unfortunately, the surge didn't last. Cano slumped in May and June, batting .272/.297/.465 and .270/.308/.410, respectively. Without his April surge his first half numbers would have been terrible. He didn't turn it on again until the second half, when he hit .336/.365/.557 (love the isolated discipline, by the way).

While Robinson has already exceeded his April 2009 output, in many ways we've seen this before. His numbers are an improvement this year, to be sure (which is phenomenal), but Cano proved he can bust out of the gate last season. The real test begins on Saturday, when April is officially in the rearview mirror. The difference between Cano's typical May/June output and his career averages this season could be that elusive batting title, particularly if he once again surges in the second half.

More like it

The Yankees jumped on Jeremy Guthrie right off the bat, picking up two quick runs in the top of the first and never looking back en route to an 8-3 win over the Orioles on Wednesday night.

The Yankees would pick up seven runs off Guthrie (six earned), more than enough for starter CC Sabathia. Sabathia went 7 2/3 innings, striking out five and giving up three runs, all of which felt fairly cheap and may not have even been plated had Sabathia not had such a big lead to work with.

Seriously, was there anyone who thought the outcome of this game was in doubt once the Yanks jumped to a 5-0 lead in the second with their ace on the hill? As per RAB, their win percentage was already at 87.3% after Nick Swisher's two-run triple. While nothing in baseball is set in stone, you have to like your chances for a victory with CC Sabathia on the hill staked to a five-run lead.

The Yankees pounded out a season-high 15 hits, paced by the bottom of the order, as Curtis Granderson picked up two much-needed hits, Swisher had a second consecutive three-hit day and Brett Gardner added two hits of his own. Robinson Cano continued his torrid hitting, and in picking up two more hits (including his team-leading 6th home run of the season) he raised his Major League-leading batting average to .390. Damn, Robbie.

Nick the Stick had an RBI base hit and a walk (surprisingly, this was the Yankees' only base on balls of the game -- the Orioles actually had two walks. I'd gripe about wanting the team to show more patience, although it's silly to complain about walks when the offense is pounding out 15 hits), but also struck out looking twice. I know Stick will come around, but it'd really be great to see him pick up a multi-hit game.

Derek Jeter led the game off with a double and picked up another hit, but had a fairly quiet rest of the game. I know Jeter loves swinging away, but would it kill the Captain to take a few more pitches and walk his way on base a few more times? Derek only has three walks this season, and an OBP of .333 -- that's venturing near Jimmy Rollins territory, and not what I want to see out of the leadoff spot.

Mark Teixeira continues to struggle, although he did pick up a late hit and hit another ball hard but right at the left fielder. Tex is statistically on his way to the worst April of his career, although if there's anything Yankee fans can take solace in is that he has the second-lowest BABIP in all of baseball. We know that won't hold up.

Alex Rodriguez continued his quiet slump. No one seems to be talking about Rod (oddly enough) but after getting his numbers up to where they should be a week ago he has cooled off considerably. He's been hitting some balls on the screws--always a good sign--but I am a touch
concerned at the lack of power thus far. I know the power hasn't actually gone anywhere, but Alex had 7 bombs through 20 games last year compared to just two this year.

In fact, the entire top four batters in the Yankee lineup are significantly underperforming, at least when compared to their numbers through their first 20 games of 2009:

Derek Jeter through the first 20 games of 2009: .294/.355/.482
Derek Jeter through the first 20 games of 2010: .306/.333/.459

Nick Johnson through the first 20 games of 2009: .333/.407/.444
Nick Johnson through the first 20 games of 2010: .143/.385/.232

Mark Teixeira through the first 20 games of 2009: .206/.363/.381
Mark Teixeira through the first 20 games of 2010: .133/.293/.253

Alex Rodriguez through his first 20 games of 2009: .257/.409/.614
Alex Rodriguez through the first 20 games of 2010: .260/.356/.455

With the exception of Jeter, those are some uncharacteristically ugly slugging percentages right there. Nick the Walk's OBP is nice, but all of these guys are not getting on as frequently as we'd like.

The fact that the team is 13-7 while getting relatively minimal production from the top four slots in the lineup is crazy, and also terrible news for the rest of the league.

Zen blogging

On Monday morning TYU's Moshe Mandel and I had an interesting back-and-forth that began on Twitter and spilled over to e-mail. The crux of our discussion was Moshe's initial contention that Greg Cohen of Sliding Into Home "probably shouldn't be blogging" for his "gutless bitch" comment re: Javy Vazquez, which ended up getting a fair amount of attention (thereby supporting Greg's reasoning for writing it in the first place).

This got me thinking somewhat about my own reasons for blogging about the Yankees, and the level of difficulty a passionate blogger can face when trying to check his or her emotions at the door while writing about the team they've loved for their entire life.

I've greatly enjoyed authoring Yankeeist since last fall. I don't get any monetary compensation out of doing so; this is strictly a labor of love. Quite simply, I've found that I love chronicling my experience watching the Yankees, and if others enjoy what I have to say about them, then it makes it that much more fun. Of course, the idea that I might be able to connect with a larger audience of like-minded fans has always been very appealing, but with so many options for the average Yankee fan to choose from, it's hard to grow our readership base past the few dedicated folks who like to come here every day. Especially when there are already so many excellent Yankee blogs providing wall-to-wall daily coverage of the team. It's an overly saturated market, and that can make it tempting to try to say something outlandish every now and then in an attempt to lure visitors. I'd actually never read Sliding Into Home prior to Monday, and have no idea if the "gutless bitch" comment is the kind of thing that Greg routinely does, or if it was just a momentary lapse of better judgment.

Not that we as bloggers necessarily need to be held to such lofty standards -- everyone gets into it for their own reasons, and oftentimes the anger/joking tack makes it far easier to digest a loss. I'm certainly guilty as charged. While I do try to be as objective and measured as possible in my write-ups and analysis (and I think I did a reasonable job of this during the 2009 playoffs, which is obviously the hardest time of the year to stay objective and measured), I've always been an intensely passionate Yankee fan, and will from time-to-time succumb to negative, stereotypical spoiled Yankee fan tropes myself.

I don't think anyone is necessarily immune to this. Ben, Joe and Mike at River Ave. Blues do an exceptional job at remaining semi-objective while providing well-reasoned thoughts and detailed analysis on their favorite team, which is likely a big reason why they've been able to generate the impressive following that they have and become the go-to Yankee blog. But I think they're more the exception than the rule. While many of the Yankee blogs I read every day (see the afore-linked sites above) are very measured and seldom revert to "the sky-is-falling" panic and/or blatant homerism, at the end of the day we're people with an insane and unconditional love of the New York Yankees, and there's still going to be the occasional frustrated comment or post popping up every so often.

I think it's near-impossible to be a Yankee fan, follow the team on a daily basis 365 days a year and want to write about the team without letting emotion come into play from time to time. And I also think that's a good thing. You can't write about the Yankees and not actively root for them or be annoyed by their failures unless you're a beat writer. If Yankee bloggers were writing about the team and providing completely dry accounts, what are we adding to the conversation that the people who get paid to cover the team aren't already providing?

None of this is to say that I am advocating comments like Greg's, just that I understand where that comes from. People read Yankee blogs to share the joy of a great win and the pain of a tough loss -- and they also read Yankee blogs for some perspective. Before I started Yankeeist I knew the likes of RAB, Bronx Banter and RLYW would calm me down after a bad loss and make me realize I was likely overreacting.

I also think the hand-wringing on the parts of some Yankee bloggers in the early going of the 2010 season is due to the fact that the Yankees, in addition to winning it all last year, spoiled Yankee fans even further by getting off to an uncharacteristically terrific start this season. As I mentioned to Moshe on Monday, not being used to excellent play in April has, to a certain extent, made their losses sting perhaps even moreso than they ordinarily would.

Ultimately, given our collective passion for the team, it can be hard to keep our emotions in check, but I do believe it's very important to try our best to do so. This is also easier to do when one takes a little time to properly digest and analyze a given game. Last night's loss to the O's probably rubbed some people pretty poorly, but as I took the time to think about it, I found I wasn't as upset about it as I might have been had I written about it immediately afterward, and I was pleased with the calm manner in which my recap reads (I also figured the O's would win at least one of the current three-game set, so that certainly contributed to my acceptance of the loss).

Yankee fans look to Yankee blogs for rational, even-keeled analysis, and I've long admired how the guys from RAB (Ben K. inspired the title of this blog post), TYU and many others prevent their emotions from getting the better of them when discussing the team. It's a tough act to follow, and I'm happy to be called out if I ever come across as less-than-rational. We all need a reality check every now and then.

Bats, bullpen and baserunning betray Yanks in alliterative 5-4 loss to O's

It's pretty hard to win a game in the American League when you score only two runs (at least, through the first eight innings of a game), although the Yankees seemed poised to do just that after Phil Hughes threw 5 2/3 innings of wild yet ultimately effective one-run ball.

With Hughes in line for the win after setting Matt Wieters and Miguel Tejada down to get the first two outs of the sixth, Joe Girardi went to Boone Logan to get lefty Luke Scott and preserve the Yanks' 2-1 lead. Logan couldn't get the job done, walking Scott. Girardi then went to the mis-/under-used and ineffective-of-late David Robertson, who then hit Ty Wigginton to put runners on 1st and 2nd, and proceeded to give up three straight hits culminating in Cesar Izturis' -- the number nine hitter -- third RBI of the night. After the damage was done, the O's led 4-2 and the bullpen vultured what would have been Hughes' 3rd win in three tries.

Of course, two runs in theory didn't seem insurmountable against the team with one of the worst bullpens in the Majors in the early going (which became three runs after the O's tacked on a big unearned insurance run off Alfredo Aceves in the 8th due in part to a horrendous throw down to second base by Jorge Posada). Unfortunately the Yankee lineup outside of Robbie Cano (three more hits!), Nick Swisher (also with three hits) and Posada (solo bomb in the 4th, and a walk) apparently forgot they were playing a baseball game until the 9th inning, when an exciting two-out really brought the Yankees within one. Sadly the O's were shaded up the middle for A-Rod and had him played perfectly on what looked like a potential game-tying base hit off the bat, preserving the 5-4 O's victory.

About that offense--the top of the lineup was dreadful this game, as the 1-4 hitters combined to go 1-18(!). I love Derek Jeter, but he really needs to start slowing his approach. He seemed to be taking a few more pitches this game (to the Yankees' credit, they did manage to make O's starter Kevin Millwood throw 100 pitches through 5 innings), but still wound up grounding out seemingly every at-bat. Where are Michael Kay's Jeterian liners to right field?

Mark Teixeira actually had two walks and a hit in this game, although I'm still not loving some of the hacks he's taking. And Alex had one scorcher in the third that may have gone for extra bases had it not been hit right at Tejada, but otherwise had a pretty lousy night at the plate, included the weakest hack he's taken all year on what would have been ball 4 and ended up being strike 3, getting Millwood out of trouble in the 5th inning.

The Yankees also made a couple of baserunning blunders, perhaps none worse than Posada overrunning second on a misplay by Tejada and getting gunned out. Useless Randy Winn shockingly managed to pick up a base hit but also had the ugliest throw of the year (I know he lost his footing, but given that his sole purpose is defense, it was still pretty heinous) during the Orioles' rally in the 6th.

Ultimately, credit has to go to the Birds--they pitched extremely well and strung together base hits when they needed to. They basically out-Yankeed the Yankees. Also, while Baltimore does have some problems, they do have talent, and are pretty clearly not as bad as their record might indicate. Baltimore put together a lot of patient at-bats (although -- and not that this absolves his wildness by any stretch -- Hughes seemed to be getting pretty badly squeezed on some close calls again, at least in the 2nd inning. Unfortunately it appears that Brooks Baseball is down and so I can't provide you with a sweet strikezone plot a la RAB) and their bullpen got the job done, although I don't know if that's moreso because the 'pen suddenly figured it out or that the Yankees' bats sucked last night.

The Yankees have now lost four of their last 5 games and look to right the ship behind their ace tonight, who faces Jeremy Guthrie. I'm a little concerned -- I know the Yankees have had some success against Guthrie in the past (mostly last year), but he's also capable of shutting them down (pretty much all of 2008), and given the way the offense has been scuffling of late, I'm not really sure what to expect tonight.

In particular, Curtis Granderson has cooled off significantly and is mired in a terrible slump (1 for his last 19). Thankfully he's been mostly flying under the radar which I would guess is primarily due to Tex's struggles, and it would be great to see Curtis (and of course Tex) get back on track sooner rather than later.

Yankees vs. Orioles in the unbalanced schedule era

In light of the Red Sox's dominance of the Orioles this decade (Sunday night's loss to Baltimore aside) and the fact that the Yankees embark on the first of 18 against their fellow AL East rival and Boston's favorite punching bag tonight, I wanted to see how the Yankees had fared against the O's in the unbalanced schedule era. I figured they'd done well, although I assumed it wasn't quite Boston-level ownage.












Well, for all my griping about the O's being an automatic win for the Red Sox, it turns out the Yankees have actually performed even better than Boston against Baltimore this decade, going 109-57 since 2001, compared to Boston's 107-59.

That's right, the Orioles have played .343 ball against the Yankees during the last nine seasons. The closest the O's came to taking the season series was in 2007, when they managed to split their 18 contests. Other than that it's been double-digit wins for the Yanks in every season. That's pretty ridiculous.

Home Run Javy continues to party like it's 2004 as Yankees drop first series of the season

The Yankees lost for the third time in four games yesterday, falling to the Angels 8-4. Things started out well enough, and dreams of a 4-2 west coast road trip (along with a 4-2 record vs. the Los Annoying Annoyings of Annoyanceland) started dancing in my head after the Yankees jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the early going.

Of course, as he has been wont to do for the most part this young season, Home Run Javy Vazquez gave it all back and then some, failing the Yankees yet again. While I don't believe you can bury a guy after four starts, it would seem that something is wrong with Vazquez--while
some inconsistency is to be expected, Vazquez really isn't this bad (at least one would hope).

I tend to take Yankee losses harder than I should, though I'm trying to readjust my expectations after the torrid start, and so I didn't quite feel crushed by Sunday's game--the Angels are a great team, and the Yankees have a history of playing like shit in Anaheim.

That being said, I hate seeing winnable games get flushed down the toilet. While 3-0 is by no means insurmountable, I find it incredibly frustrating when the team loses a game it held a lead in, even if the lead was early in the ballgame.

The Yankees have actually held a lead in every single game they've played this year except for two, which means that hypothetically they could be 16-2 had their pitching not betrayed them. For as much as I was ragging on the offense last week, the only games the bats have not put the team in a position to win this season was last Thursday's loss to Baby Braden and Pineiro's first outing against the team back at the Stadium.

I was out to dinner during the Morales-Marte showdown, so I didn't see the at-bat but read about the intentional walk fiasco. I'm not going to get terribly up in arms over it given that those extra runs didn't end up mattering, but I imagine Marte and Cervelli got their asses torched by Girardi for that debacle.

Overall, another lousy performance from Home Run Javy dropped the Bombers to 12-6 on the year and also destroyed the team's chances of winning its first six series of the season for the first time in franchise history.

About the only good thing to come out of yesterday was that a gaggle of flying pigs was seen passing over the Citgo sign at Fenway Park late yesterday afternoon after the Orioles shockingly put an end to their 10-game losing streak vs. Boston (although in tue Orioles-Red Sox fashion, they almost blew it again). Baltimore is now 3-18 vs. Boston during the last two seasons. Bravo, gentlemen. Bravo.

The other bonus relating to the Oriole victory is that they now won't be "due" for one as the Yanks head down to Baltimore for a three-game set against the worst team in the Majors. As bad as the O's have been, they feature a lineup that should, on paper, score some runs (what's going on with Luke Scott, Adam Jones and Noland Reimold thus far?). Of course, the pitching has been rather abhorrent (13th in the AL). So even though the Yankees should sweep the O's, I wouldn't be shocked to see Baltimore steal a win. However, anything less than two wins will qualify the series as an absolute disaster and question my faith in humanity.

Taking inventory, offense edition

Before I get started, a quick analysis of the pitching is in order. The team ERA is 3.43 and the team WHIP is 1.20. Those are good enough for 4th and 1st in the majors respectively. If Javier Vazquez comes around then all five starters will be performing at or above expectations, at least to start the season.

The offense is no slouch either. The team ranks somewhere between 1st and 3rd place in the majors in Avg, Runs, OBP, SLG, OPS and Steals. Tampa Bay is as good as advertised, or the Yankees would have a 2.5 game lead in the AL East.

Despite that, I'm concerned about the offense. The team's recent run drought didn't surprise me one bit, not when our two best offensive players, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez, have combined for only 4 home runs. So far the opposite has surprised me. I'm pleasantly surprised the team is producing so many runs when it's 2 and 3 hitters are both well shy of the Mendoza Line.

Without further ado, here's a position by position breakdown:

C

Jorge Posada - .320/.393/.580

Francisco Cervelli - .500/.571/.583

Rumors of Jorge's demise have been exaggerated, and how! Posada is off to a quick start, quicker than last season's April line of .275/.366/.493. Furthermore, the performance appears sustainable. Jorge's April numbers are up, but they're not dramatically higher than his .285/.363/.522 line for all of 2009. Keep it up Jorge!

Joe Girardi seems set to give a fair number of starts to Jorge's backup, Frankie Cervelli. I've always believed that Girardi platoons as often as he does because he himself was a career backup and he wants to give players he sympathizes with a shot. Who knew Cervelli would step up so much with the bat? He's come up with big hits in two of the games so far this year. He won't continue his great start, but it's encouraging to see him force pitchers to get him out. It means that even when Girardi puts up something other than the A-team opposing pitchers don't get to thrive on a dead spot in our lineup.

1B

Mark Teixeira - .123/.269/.262

Oh, wait, there's that dead spot. It's best not to look at Tex's line directly. We all know that Tex is a slow starter. The way the Yankee press corps beats a hackneyed memo to death we all may be hearing about how Tex is a slow starter until he hangs 'em up and starts announcing. This, however, is a slow start even by Tex's standards. Through 17 games last year Tex was hitting .235 with an OPS of .854.

Ol' .123 is under-performing badly. I'm now officially concerned that the numbers won't be there at the end of the season. I'm hoping for that breakout game, something akin to a 2 homer performance that will mean the team's All-Star first basemen is back. I'm concerned it will be a while coming.

2B

Robinson Cano - .369/.411/.646

Did you know that Robinson Cano is going to win a batting title some day? Cano earned himself a reputation as a slow starter because he got off to such poor starts in 2007 and 2008, and also because he's been the best 2nd half hitter in baseball the past few seasons.

Last season Robinson vowed to get off to a quick start, and he did, batting .366/.400/.581 in April. That line is eerily similar to his 2009 April start, which may not be a good thing. In May and June of 2009 Cano's OPS's were .762 and .718 respectively. Let's hope the offense's number 1 weapon doesn't have a slump looming on the horizon.

3B

Alex Rodriguez - .313/.421/.547

I'm not sure what to make of A-Rod's start. The slash line is great, something I'd take from a full season of Alex in a heartbeat. The problem is his relative lack of power. It's not that the extra base hits aren't there - that's a higher slugging than he had in all of 2009 - but that the homers aren't there.

I myself have pointed out that A-Rod came one wall shot in Boston and one wall shot in Tampa shy of starting the season with 4 dingers, and another warning track shot in Oakland away from having 5. It very well may be that he got unlucky recently and the power numbers will be there once the season is more mature. Until they come I can't help but be concerned that our biggest bat isn't playing to his strengths.

SS

Derek Jeter - .333/.368/.500

So far, Derek is proving the baseball prognosticators who annually predict his demise wrong, at least for one more month. Derek is off to a solid start, and had 2 hits yesterday. The discipline numbers, however, are concerning.

Larry already pointed this out, that Derek has only drawn 3 walks on the season. Usually when his average is this high his OBP is above .400. Fortunately, this appears only to be a case of impatience. Derek's BABIP currently sits at .333. For his career he's a BABIP .360 hitter, so there is no reason to believe the batting average is artificially high. Hey Captain, I know you're swinging the bat well, but do us all a favor and take a pitch.

LF

Brett Gardner - .340/.436/.404

Wow! I'm speechless. I know it's early in the season, but no one predicted this. Gardner is off to a great start, entirely due to hustle. I forget which, but in a recent game he had 3 infield singles, none of them gimmies. The dude can flat out run, and it's helping him keep his OBP numbers high. Getting on base is allowing him to lead the league in steals, with 9, and rack up the runs, with 12.

Can Crazy Legs sustain this performance? Gardner doesn't have a long big league resume to look at for evidence of a trend in either direction. His BABIP is .381. Some of that may be luck and some of that may also be because he recently out ran a cheetah on his way to buy groceries.

These numbers are probably higher than where they'll be at season's end, but maybe not by that much. Gardner's minor league numbers have BABIP around there as well. Last season it was .311. The truth is probably somewhere in between, but that means he is in a position to help the team. And his defense rocks.

Carl Crawford is currently batting .319/.372/.536 with 7 steals. Those numbers are good, but they're not as good as Gardner's, particularly in the Yankee lineup where a speed guy doesn't need too much power. I'll return to this story throughout the season, but I'm not sold on Crawford. So far Gardner is proving that we can get comparable production for a fraction the price.

CF

Curtis Granderson - .259/.358/.466

Curtis is mired in an awful slump after busting out of the gate. Over the last 7 days he's hitting .067/.333/.067. Ouch. The higher OBP tells me that he may just be getting unlucky. So far the slump hasn't hurt the team.

Color me impressed one month into the Curtis Granderson experience. He hits for power. He runs out ground balls. He plays excellent center field. The only knock on his game is that he appears to be streaky, but this is a really small sample. He drew 2 walks yesterday. Hopefully he's about to pull out of it.

RF

Nick Swisher - .236/.354/.455

Speaking of coming out of slumps, Nick appears to have righted himself after struggling a bit during the homestand. For the season his OPS+ is at 124, versus 129 last year. It'd be nice if the average were a bit higher, but I'd be happy with a full year of OPS+ 124 baseball from Swish.

DH

Nick Johsnon - .135/.375/.231

Nick the Walk is torturing me. I love the OBP. I LOVE IT! I salivate thinking about the point in the season when his troubles are behind him and he's stroking a sweet .275 with an OBP up around .415. I know he can do it. I want him to do it. But he's not doing it.

Johnson's BABIP is .182 so far in 2010 versus .309 for his career. (For fun, Mark Teixeira's BABIP is .128 so far in 2010 versus .306 for his career.) This means that there is compelling evidence to suggest that Johnson will break out of it (and Tex too). The question is when.

For my part, I believe that BABIP is a great way to know if good performance is overly due to luck (Austin Jackson) but not so much bad performance. When a player gets a hit on a ball in play it could be because he smoked a line drive or it could be because a fly ball fell in between the fielders. The latter isn't sustainable, but it counts towards a higher BABIP.

When the BABIP is bad, however, it could be because hits are going right to the defenders, or because the hitter is consistently making weak contact. In this case, the latter could pose a problem. I'm seeing a lot of both with Tex and Johnson. Johnson's Ground Ball - Fly Ball ratio is 0.73 this season, versus 1.27 for his career. My impression is that he's popping out a lot. The question is why. Is it timing? Is it because he's not seeing the ball well? Is his back hurt? It may take a while for any one of these issues to be resolved.

Moving to Tex, his Ground Ball - Fly Ball ratio is 1.16 this year versus 0.99 for his career. Once again I'm not surprised. He seems to rolling over a lot of pitches weakly, but he also appears to have hit some rockets right at opposing defenders. I don't have data to support this, but he appeared to do something similar during his slow start last season.

These two guys are the missing pieces (A-Rod's power numbers might not end up in the 40's, but I believe that by the end of May no one will be concerned about how many homers Alex will have - I keep telling myself). If Tex and Johnson come around the Yankees will be unstoppable. I don't believe the question is if they come around, but I do believe the question is when.

What's up now, Pineiro?

Apparently the Yankees have their own version of Roy Halladay in Andy Pettitte, who tossed a fourth straight gem in hurling 8 innings of one-run ball in the Yankees' 7-1 win over the Halos in the Saturday afternoon Fox Game of Death.

I only saw bits and pieces of the game but did manage to catch Frankie Cervelli's big two-out two-run base hit in the fourth. Robbie Cano's torrid hitting continued and the offense finally busted out of its mini three-game slump, tagging Joel Pineiro for six runs -- this was particularly sweet, especially after getting owned by the journeyman scrub two weeks ago.

But the story of the game was another ridiculous start from the apparently ageless Andy Pettitte. In picking up his third victory of the year, Pettitte lowered his ERA to an AL-leading 1.29.

Here are Pettitte's numbers on the season so far:
1.29 ERA, 22 Ks, 1.07 WHIP, 2.51 FIP, 3.63 xFIP

And just for fun, here are Halladay's season numbers in Quadruple A:
0.82 ERA, 28 Ks, 0.88 WHIP, 1.98 FIP, 2.45 xFIP

While no one expects Pettitte to continue pitching this well, it has been an absolute treat to get results like this from the veteran lefty thus far.

In minor news, Nick the Walk apparently aggravated his back, although is expected back in the lineup at Baltimore on Tuesday. I never thought I'd say this, but given NJ's struggles with the bat of late, a day or two off probably isn't the worst thing in the world.

The Yanks try for their sixth-straight series win this afternoon in Anaheim behind Home Run Javy. The Yanks get to face Scott Kazmir, who they very enjoyably lit up last time around.

And in the least shocking development in American history, the Orioles blew a 3-1 lead in the 7th inning to fall to the Red Sox for the 10th(!) straight time, by a final score of 7-6. You don't need Biff Tannen's Sports Almanac to know that the Sox will be completing the sweep this afternoon.

Offensive hibernation continues as Yankees drop second straight

Friday night's game against the Angels looked as though it might get out of hand quickly, as A.J. Burnett had almost nothing in the early going, but ultimately managed to somewhat limit the damage, tossing 6 1/3 innings of four-run ball. While not an ideal outing from Burnett, the Yankees still managed four runs of their own (although they were unable to grant my wish). Unfortunately, the team apparently forgot how to hit after the fourth inning, going hitless for the remainder of the evening and ultimately losing a winnable game to the Angels 6-4.

As always, the Angels played a tough game and were seemingly on base in every inning. Kendry Morales was the star of the night, going 3-3 with a huge go-ahead two-run home run off Joba Chamberlain, who looked flat-out awful in the eighth inning. Speaking of Joba, what the hell is going on with him? He's been anything but a sure thing in the 'pen thus far this season, and Joe Girardi is crazy if Joba is indeed his eighth inning guy despite h not having pitched worth a damn yet in 2010.

Bad pitching and another night of mediocre, impatient offense (only three walks drawn, a day after somehow managing only one against the A's) makes for a toxic combination, as the Yankees drop two in a row for the first time this season. The Yankees are now 11-5 and need to win the next two games to win their first six series of the year. Oh, and Boston obviously beat Baltimore, although we already knew that was going to happen before a single pitch was thrown tonight.

If I had one wish this Christmas, it would be for the Yankees to drop at least six runs on the Halos tonight

Enough of this three and two run National League crap.

Tonight's lineup is brought to you in part by The Queen, c/o Subway Douchery, my new favorite website.


















As you wish, your highness.

Don't think the lineup's been posted anywhere yet, but here's what the Yankees trotted out last week against Ervin Santana in the home opener win:

SS Jeter
DH Johnson
1B Teixeira
3B A-Rod
2B Cano
C Posada
CF Granderson
RF Swisher
LF Gardner

And A.J. Burnett (2.37 ERA; 4.42 xFIP) will be on the hill.

Oh f%$#, Boston gets three games against the O's?

Cheer up Boston fans, the Sox will be starting a three-game winning streak tonight.

Disgraceful Yankees lose disgracefully

I didn't see a minute of the third and final game between the Yankees and A's this afternoon and I'm glad I didn't have to waste my time, as the A's snapped the Yankees' six-game win streak with a 4-2 win. This game had foregone conclusion written all over it after the first inning, between the Yankees going down 1-2-3 in the span of what seemed like six seconds on Gameday and CC Sabathia getting tagged for a three-run bomb by Kurt "John Flaherty and Ken Singleton want to make babies with my defense" Suzuki.

I don't know what it is about Oakland, but CC Sabathia just doesn't seem comfortable pitching in the Bay Area. Sabath apparently settled down and gave the Yankees 8 innings of 4-run ball, but that wasn't good enough as the offense's wretchedness carried over into this afternoon's affair, with the Yankees failing to plate three runs in a game for the first time all season. I admit I don't know much about Dallas Braden, but he seems like a scrub the Yankees should eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner, which I suppose is why the team could only muster up two runs off the soft-tosser.

Big Tex finally apparently began to remove his head from his ass with a solo home run, Marcus Thames also had a bomb of his own and the Yankees turned a triple play for the first time since 1968, but who cares because they still got beat by a pitiful offensive team that they should have swept the crap out of and now they have to go face an actual good team in the most annoying ballpark in front of the most annoying fans in the world.

The Yankees also only worked one walk, and the game somehow ended in an incredibly un-Yankee-like two hours and seven minutes. I don't know where the entire team is going to dinner tonight, but it better be freaking amazing.

Almost an historic night at the Coliseum

I had the tremendous pleasure of attending last night's Yankee game in Oakland. After the Bombers hit in the 5th inning I took a look at the scoreboard, to see how many hits they had, and the zeroes for Oakland were staring right back at me.

I struggle to pay as close attention to the mechanics of games I attend versus those I watch on television. I'm certain Michael Kay would have let the cat out of the bag sooner had I been sitting on my couch in Brooklyn. Sitting in the stands in Oakland, that was the first time I or anyone else in my section (entirely populated by Yankee fans, by the way - more on that later) realized Phil Hughes was throwing a no-hitter.

After that, it was on. As Phil continued to make the A's look like a beer league softball team I kept on thinking of Joe Girardi. Not two weeks after he insisted that he would have removed CC Sabathia, no-hitter or not, the last thing the manager wanted to see was his youngest pitcher throwing a no-hitter of his own.

Others in the stands watched a maestro do his thing. I watched the pitch count and Phil's velocity. My Dad made a point I agreed with. If Hughes could get through the 7th, we felt that the no-hitter was gonna be his.

Hughes had thrown 78 pitches entering the 7th inning, an inning that proved to be perhaps his strongest. He put down the A's 1-2-3, and did it on only 8 pitches. Having thrown only 86 pitches through 7, Phil was in a position to go the distance.

Unfortunately, fate wasn't on his side. The remaining pieces of Eric Chavez hit a quick dribbler up the middle to start the 8th. The ball hit Hughes, who immediately looked up ... and kept looking up as he struggled to find the ball. Chavez took 1st. The play was ruled a hit. Destiny would have to wait for another night.

This may be sacrilege, but Hughes slowed after that. His fastball stopped hitting 93-94 on the Oakland gun and fell down to around 90-91. He struggled to find the zone as easily. Perhaps his adrenaline broke. Joe Girardi took him out for Joba Chamberlain at just around 100 pitches.

Phil Hughes' flirtation with a no-no is the main story of the game, but a distant second would have to be how close Ben Sheets kept it. The Yankees came out swinging. Derek Jeter put the first pitch of the game in shallow center, and then Nick Johnson drew a walk (I was stunned, by the way). Tex struck out looking (stunned again) as Jeter was thrown out at 3rd on an ill-advised double steal. A-Rod came up, and gave off the impression he believed he could jack Sheets the minute he stepped into the box.

He came about a foot and some wind shy. After working a 3-1 count, I turned to my Dad and told him to look for a fastball. Alex was thinking the same thing. So was Sheets, and A-Rod crushed it to deep center. The forecast had called for strong winds all night, and a clear crosswind moving from left field to right field killed the ball on the warning track. (Kurt Suzuki put a pitch in the exact same spot, so the winds later worked in the Yankees' favor.)

Both pitchers went to work after that. The next fireworks didn't come until the 4th, when A-Rod came up again and lined a triple to right (more on Alex in a second). Cano followed with a triple in the exact same spot and the Yankees were on the board. Jorge grounded out to first, but it was enough to get Robinson home.

That would be all Hughes would need, who, as we've established, came one head jerk shy of advancing a no-hitter through more than 7.1 innings. Chamberlain allowed an inherited run to score after that, and the crowd at Yankee Stadium ... sorry, the Oakland Coliseum suddenly realized it was still a mighty close game.

Phil Hughes' final line was a brilliant 7.1 innings pitched, 1 ER, 2 BBs and 10 Ks. He was also incredibly efficient, throwing 101 pitches, 70 of them for strikes. The juxtaposition of Hughes with Joba was jarring. Joba got 2 outs on 10 pitches himself, which wasn't too shabby, but next to Hughes' flirtation with immortality Chamberlain looked pedestrian. Speaking as a firm believer that Joba should start, it was disappointing to see.

In the top of the 9th Brett Gardner hit what I swear is the first ball he's put out of the infield all season to get home a much-needed insurance run. After that, Girardi gave the ball to Mariano Rivera, who wasn't sharp, but got the job done. He gave up a hit and hit a batter before ending the game.

On the subject of A-Rod, he's officially arrived this year. His slash line now stands at .320/.452/.620. Much is being made of a so-called power outage, but that's simply not true. He had a rough first week to the season. In the last 7 days he's hit 2 homers - came close to having a 3rd - and is batting a crazy .467/.667/1.067. When a batter's slugging is over 1.000 he's locked in.

Meanwhile, Tex and Nick Johnson have officially worn out my patience. Johnson gets more of a pass for all the walks he draws, but Tex has no excuse. It's time to get it going boys. There will come a time when players like Jorge, Robbie and A-Rod start slumping and the team will need its 2-3 hitters to be above the Mendoza line.

A few notes on the Oakland Coliseum and the Athletics experience:

- Watching an A's game feels a bit like going to see a minor league club play. I've enjoyed the experience every time, but the stadium is small. They don't open all the seats. The fairways are too crowded. My father contemplated committing a felony to get our concession line moving quicker. You get the idea.

- There are at least as many Yankee fans at a Yankees-A's game in Oakland as there are A's fans, and the Yankee fans are louder. I was surrounded by Yankee fans, literally surrounded, which was neat, but it's not the experience I was hoping for.

I asked one such fan what the deal was and he responded, defensively, that it has been that way since he was 12 (I'd peg him at 40 today). Then he added that his father and grandfather were both Yankee fans. I came within an inch of asking if they were front runners too, but the crowded fairway wouldn't have given me any place to run.

- The Bay Area-based Yankee fans are annoying. They don't seem genuine. It could be that I'm biased, because I'm a home team kind of guy. If I wasn't raised a Yankee fan I'd most certainly be a Met fan (now seems like a good time to thank god I'm a Yankee fan). But it's also that these West Coast Yankee fans lack general knowledge about the team. They mispronounce players' names. They confuse nicknames. I heard a "hear we go Yankees, hear we go" chant, which is as odd as it sounds. And so on.

If I were running this in reverse, say if I decided since I'm from Brooklyn that it was the Dodgers or bust, I would make a point of knowing everything about the team. I would work that much harder to prove that I was a legitimate fan. Most of the West Coast Yankee fans, especially the couple sitting directly in front of me, failed the test. It's called the Internet, guys -- use it.

- A's fans, on the other hand, know their baseball. As far as opposing fans go, they're not so bad. But they were also rooting for the no-hitter. We didn't get our first "Yankees Suck" chant until after it had been broken up.

- The Coliseum aspires to be Shea Stadium when it grows up one day.

- You can get Fat Tire, Sierra Nevada and Sam Adams beer, and that's only what I saw. I'm far from a beer snob, but when I'm paying $8-$10 for beer I'd rather have a Fat Tire than a Bud.

For the record, it's wild seeing the Yankees on the road. Everything has an eerie, deja-vu feeling. They wear the road uniforms. They bat first. They're not in Yankee Stadium. The only thing that felt familiar was the stands, where apparently it's always Yankee Stadium.

Huuuuuuuuuuughes

I promised Mike the regular game recap, since he's out in the Bay Area and was at last night's game, but he just texted me that his Internet is down and won't have a post up until midday, so here are my stray observations from last night's Phil Hughes gem, bullet-point style:

- This was probably the best I've ever seen Phil Hughes pitch. We all fondly remember his flirtation with a no-no in Texas in the second Major League start of his career in 2007, which ended with a pulled hamstring after 6 1/3 innings. Last night he was absolutely, utterly, ridiculously dominant in tossing seven no-hit innings. He started a ton of guys off with first pitch strikes, and seemed to run to an 0-2 count on nearly everyone before quickly putting them away. Before the 8th inning, I believe he only went to 3 balls on one one hitter, and that was Daric Barton in the first inning.

- What a change a start makes. After expending 108 pitches to get through five-plus in his first start, Hughes was absolutely cruising last night. One of my biggest concern's with Phil as a starter has been pitch economy, and while he's not going to get to the 8th having thrown only 85-90 pitches every outing, last night should be a huge step in the right direction and give him the confidence to blow hitters away.

- Speaking of blowing hitters away, how about that fastball? I don't know if I've ever seen Hughes with such pinpoint control and speed. It seemed like every time he needed to get a strike with a fastball he got it. Even the pitches he missed on were perilously close to the strike zone.

- Hughes finally gave up a hit after 7 innings of no-hit ball to Zombie Eric Chavez in the 8th, and even though it was hit fairly hard right back up the middle Hughes still might have been able to make a play on it had he seen where the ball went. Kind of a tough way to lose the no-no, but better that than in in the ninth.

- Hughes had 10 strikeouts!

- Here's Hughes' line for the game: 7.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 10 K. The outing brought his season ERA down to to 2.74.

- This wouldn't have been possible had we not saved Phil Hughes.

- As great as Hughes was, Ben Sheets wasn't all that bad himself. Aside from the back-to-back triples that got the Yankees on the board, he pretty much had his way with the Yankee offense, tossing six innings of four-hit, two-run ball.

- The problem with only scoring two runs is that once Hughes came out there was a chance the bullpen could vulture the win. Thankfully Joba Chamberlain pitched into and out of trouble in the eighth. Mariano seemed to labor a bit in collecting his three outs in the ninth, but he was able to lock it down, picking up his sixth save and securing the Yanks' sixth straight victory.

- The offense outside of A-Rod and Robinson Cano for the most part was actually fairly wretched in this game. Derek Jeter seems to have little interest in working counts this year and annoyingly swung at the first pitch in more than one at-bat, and also continued to ground out at an alarmingly high rate. Although he did work his second walk of the season! Brett Gardner actually picked up a huge two-out insurance RBI base hit in the ninth, so good on him.

- Both Big Tex and Nick the Walk continue to struggle, at least hitting-wise. Tex went 0-4 and looked pretty lousy in all four trips to the plate. NJ at least picked two more walks up for his troubles, and hit a couple of balls somewhat deep to the outfield but unfortunately right at outfielders. Of course, their BABIPs continue to remain unsustainably low, at .185 for Johnson and .135 for Teixeira (second-lowest in all of baseball!), so we know a correction is coming.

- The Yankees won their fifth straight series to open the season, which matches the team's 1926 franchise record.

Something is off if Robbie Cano has five times as many walks as you do

I know he's batting .345 and all, which is of course wonderful, but has anyone else noticed that the Captain only has one walk on the season thus far?

Grettings from the Bay

Larry mentioned in his post this morning that I'm currently in the Bay Area. I have family here and we have a tradition of getting together when the Yankees play the A's. I'm going to the game tonight, and I was in a position to watch all of last night's game, on Comcast Sports net, the A's regional sports channel (I refuse to call it a network). Here are a few observations, about the game and the viewing experience.

- The A's announcers were excellent, and had stunning knowledge of the Yankees' players. They knew about Nick Johnson. They knew about Javier Vazquez. They knew how we took pitches. They knew about our relievers. I'm not sure they knew as much about the A's players, but their knowledge of the Yankees was impressive.

- There may have been more Yankee fans than A's fans at the game. I'm expecting this at the game tonight, but I was stunned to hear "Hip-hip Jorge" coming through the television, clearly. How does that make an A's player feel?

- Comcast wasn't broadcasting the game in HD.

- Vazquez pitched better than the box score will show. He worked into and out of trouble in the first few innings, which drove up his pitch count. By the middle of the game, however, he was cruising. He struck out the first batter he faced in the 6th on three pitches. He hadn't thrown a ball when a routine pop-up dropped between Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson. No one put leather on it, so it wasn't recorded as an error, but it absolutely should have been caught. Kurt Suzuki put the next pitch in Sacramento, but the whole scenario never should have happened.

- Comcast broadcast a montage of Mariano Rivera footage, including pinstripes, Enter Sandman, and custom graphics when Rivera was brought into the game. The music woke my Dad up momentarily. He turned to me and asked, "Are we watching this on YES?" We were not. I had my suspicions before, but after that segway I am now convinced that there are more Yankee than A's fans in the Bay Area.

- On a final note, the A's channel may show Yankee footage, but the fans aren't quite there yet. I remember from last year's game I was sitting in front of a family, all of whom were wearing Mariano Rivera jerseys. The husband seemed to know his baseball, but his wife only called our closer Manny. I'm undecided if she thought that was his nickname or if she was confused and actually thought she was watching the Dodgers.

Yanks continue to roll; beat A's 7-3

I ended up staying up for more of last night's game than I had expected to; opting to get some shuteye near the midway point. Once A-Rod hit that no-doubt three-run blast to put the Yankees up 6-0 in the fifth I felt pretty good about the team's chances of pulling out a win.

Thankfully I was right, as the Yanks took the first game of their current road trip 7-3 over the Athletics.

Javier Vazquez pitched reasonably well, at least from what I saw, although apparently Home Run Javy reared his ugly head after I went to bed, yielding two home runs to one of the least-proficient home run-hitting teams in the league. He also continued to struggle with velocity, barely touching 90. I'm sure he'll get stronger as the season progresses, and I'm OK with the three runs surrendered (though would have been less so had those runs tied the game), but Vazquez really needs to start pitching deeper into games.

On the A's side, I know Mike A. was unsurprised that the Yanks got to Gio Gonzalez the way they did, but I was fairly impressed with his outing, and if not for a first inning error that was ruled a hit, this game may have turned out a bit differently. He was changing speeds effectively and working quickly--it was somewhat reminiscent of watching John Lackey work two weeks ago, except Gonzalez throws much harder and Lackey is obviously better.

Of course, this being the Yankees, Gonzalez still threw around 35 pitches in the first inning despite having good stuff, and his primary mistake was a fastball that caught too much of the plate to a slumping Nick Swisher, who picked up a much-needed two-out RBI base hit. Gonzalez was able to mostly right himself from that point on before running into trouble again around the 100-pitch mark in the 5th.

I'll say it again: There's no greater pleasure than watching the Yankees work an opposing starter for a 30-plus pitch inning. Even if they only end up getting one run out of it, you know the dam's gonna burst at some point. It must be incredibly frustrating being an opposing manager facing the Yankees, pretty much knowing your starter's gonna be burned out by the 5th inning.

Other positive aspects were a double by Tex and another walk from Nick the Stick. Stick actually looked uncharacteristically bad in his first two at bats of the night, and incredibly swung at the first pitch he saw in the first inning. I love the Stick and of course love the walks, but would also like to see some hits soon.

In any event, the whole "best pitching in the AL after two weeks" vs. best offense meme was unsurprisingly overblown, and the A's really don't even look like they should be sharing the same field as the Yankees.

Interesting match-up tonight, as Phil Hughes takes on Ben Sheets. Hopefully Hughes continues to build on the positives from his last outing, and can actually make it through 5 innings with less than 100 pitches. Mike is actually in Oakland and will be at the game tonight; looking forward to hearing about his experience watching a game in enemy territory.

If the A's were really smart, they'd start Chad Gaudin tonight

It occurred to me that the last time the Yankees were in Oakland they kicked their series off against old friend Brett Tomko, who was none too happy about being DFA'd by the team a month earlier.

I remember cackling with glee at the thought of the Yankees getting to tee off on Tomko the starter, who had been horrendously ineffective as a Yankee reliever. And of course, Tomko rewarded my enthusiasm by throwing five scoreless innings en route to a 3-0 Oakland shutout.

So far Oakland has only used Gaudin out of the bullpen, and I haven't read any stories of discontent on his part since being cut loose from New York, but given what happened for Oakland the last time the A's trotted out an ex-Yankee to start a game against his former team while carrying a huge chip on his shoulder, I'd be interested to see what Gaudin does against the Yanks.

Fun with small sample sizes, part III

Here's our latest roundup of where the Yankees' offense stands, this time after 12 games:














Posada continues to lead all regulars, while Jeter has jumped up from a .315 wOBA a week ago to .446. A-Rod also had a nice week, leaping from .322 to a much more A-Rod-like .406.

Unsurprisingly, Nick Swisher has seen the biggest decline, falling from .440 to .330. And Big Tex still has some work to do.

Taking inventory

It came early this year. Usually I get emails about the Yankees later in the season, sometimes as late as July. Today I got the first inside joke email of the year about the Yankees. My buddy ended it, "PS: The Yankees are on pace to win 121.5 games." I responded appropriately: "Only 121.5?"

There has been something seriously right with the 2010 Yankees. For years now the team has looked great on paper, and then stumbled out of the gate. Something has felt different about 2010, pretty much since 2009 ended. The Bombers are right where we left them.

This seems like an excellent time to throw up some casual observations about the season. The following thoughts are in no particular order.

- Andy Pettitte is pitching out of his mind. He's off the charts in every stat this year. His ERA is 1.35. He's pitched 20 innings in three games. Hitters are batting only .211 against him. He's leaping tall buildings in a single bound. Pettitte started well last year also, but his numbers weren't this good. Given that Pettitte usually tires mid-season, the strong start is important. It could easily carry his numbers through a bad stretch or two.

- Speaking of the pitching, only mother nature could stop CC Sabathia on Friday. He struck out nine in only 6 innings of work. And we all remember his start before that. This is huge. Last season in April CC's ERA was 4.73. So far this year he's looked solid in all three of his starts. His WHIP is a crazy 0.74. That's Mariano territory. Nothing is better than watching CC work when he's on his game.

- A.J. Burnett has also looked brilliant so far this year. Most important, Burnett has only walked six so far this season. Keeping it under control could be the difference between a good or great year for A.J.

- The Yankees haven't committed an error in their last 10 games. The Texas Rangers have showed us all firsthand that good defense helps keeps runs off the board. (Although, for the record, the team has benefited from some suspect home park rulings, particularly the ball Jeter booted in the 1st on Friday.)

- Nick Johnson should be awarded first base twice every game. It'd be easier on the pitchers.

- Brett Gardner's slash line is .333/.444/.333. He's on pace to steal 112 bases.

- After Robinson Cano's sacrifice today, his batting average was actually higher than his OBP for two at-bats until he walked later in the game. Bravo Robinson, bravo. I knew you had it in you.

- The Yankees have scored 69 runs and allowed only 44. That translates to 5.75 runs scored and 3.67 allowed per game. Last season those numbers were 5.65 and 4.65, respectively. So, yeah, the team is playing better this April.

- Boston is 4-8 and has allowed 13 more runs than its scored.

- Never mind only one home run, A-Rod's slash line is .295/.415/.523. In the last 7 days it's .350/.480/.650. Does anyone else get the feeling that A-Rod is on the runway, and he just gunned the engines?

- Tex finally got into one yesterday, and he hit the ball hard in his last at-bat. While he's hitting far worse this year (.114/.291/.205) than he was through 12 games last year (.222/.345/.467), I believe he's getting close.

- Mariano Rivera is still Mariano Rivera.

The Yankees are 9-3 and they've gotten subpar performances from Nick the Walking Stick, Tex, A-Rod, and recently Nick Swisher. This ... feels pretty good.

You can't stop the bum rush

The unstoppable force that is the 2010 Yankees continued to lay waste to all comers on Sunday afternoon, dumping Texas 5-2 and completing their first sweep of the year.

Andy Pettitte had a third straight strong outing to open up the year, holding the Rangers to four hits over eight innings of two-run ball. Big Tex finally got on the home run board, and Ramiro Pena picked up a big two-out base hit in the 3rd inning to give the Yankees a lead they wouldn't relinquish.

When the team plays this crisply and effectively, there really isn't that much to discuss. The pitching has, for the most part, been absurdly good, and the offense has been an absolute joy to watch. Nothing beats watching the Yankees obliterate the opposing starter's pitch count, and this game was no different, as Rich Harden needed 94(!) pitches just to get through 3 2/3 innings.

If there's anything to gripe about after a wonderful 9-3 start, you could point to Tex's and Nick the Stick's sub-.200 batting averages, and Nick Swisher has fallen into a somewhat disconcerting slump as well, but they'll each come around soon enough. That the team is averaging 5.75 runs per game without the offense firing on all cylinders is rather mind-boggling.

Should be interesting to see (well, at least read about the next morning -- damn west coast night games) what the Yankees can do against Oakland, who's currently fielding the best pitching staff in the AL on this young season, leading the league in both ERA (2.58) and xFIP (3.93) as of this writing.

Game 12 | Texas at Yankees | Sunday, April 18, 2010

I saw very little of Friday night's game, but was of course thrilled to be able to get a six-inning "complete" game victory from Sabathia. Additionally, nine Ks? I guess someone forgot to tell Sabathia that it's still April.

I watched most of yesterday's game while bed-ridden with what was probably the worst stomach ailment I've ever had in my entire life. I don't know whether I got food poisoning or some sort of crazy 24-hour bug, but I woke up at 5am Saturday morning and proceeded to throw up on an hourly basis until around 2:30pm. Even after I was finally done throwing up, I was in terrible shape the rest of the day and could barely leave my room.

Thankfully I had the Yankees to cheer me up, on the strength of seven shutout innings from A.J. and more relentless offense. Also, loved seeing A-Rod finally get on the home run board. Additionally, I was wondering when the last time was that the Yankees won their first four series of the season, and thankfully RAB tells us that it was 1926(!)

The Yanks go for their first sweep of the young season this afternoon behind Andy Pettitte and his 0.75 ERA. It's almost surreal how well the team has started out so far, and the fact that the Yankees are beating up on the best teams in the AL while still getting considerably less-than-optimal production from their 2-3-4 hitters (Nick the Walk is hitting .176/.429/.324, although I'm obviously loving that OBP; Tex's line is an atrocious .100/.280/.125; and A-Rod is starting to get closer to where he should be, at .279/.367/.512) is just insane.