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Yankee Season Turning Sour

It’s amazing how fast milk spoils.

Yeah, the Rays are good–young, talented, athletic, deep rostered, on pace to win 118 ball games. But the Yanks, who just two or three weeks ago looked like a super efficient winning machine, are also, at the moment bad–old, lineup padded with mediocrity (Randy Winn, Juan Miranda, Marcus Thames,etc), stone-handed, and thin-rostered (calling Chad Moeller and Kevin Russo). The Yanks have lost 6 of their last 10 and three in a row.  And the injuries have turned the bottom of the Yankee lineup from a deep and dangerous one to a walk down Easy Street for opposing pitchers. The Yankees season is fizzling like the 2009-2010 stock market rally.

In truth, however, it’s not the lineup but the pitching and defense that have hurt the Yanks most of all during this stretch when they’ll have to play short. Over the past 7 games the team has hit at a .316 clip and scored 47 runs–an average of  6.7 runs per game. That’s plenty of offense.

But over that same stretch the team ERA is 5.71. Yankee pitchers have coughed up 17  homers and batters are hitting .307 against Yankee pitching. The bullpen has been bad of course–Joba has been old Joba, Rivera has been human, and bringing in Chan Ho Park has been like pouring water on a drowning man. But the starting pitching has been bad as well. Yankee hopes for surviving the second quarter of the season which they will play without their catcher, DH, and center fielder must rest on the pitching, where, to date the roster is injury-free. Starters and relievers both have to be able to stifle opponents and lock down games because this Yankee roster doesn’t have the thunder in the lineup that an AL team need to mount late comebacks from big deficits.

Right now the Yankees are a game out of third place and headed in the wrong direction. Let’s hope the can make hay during a weekend series against perhaps the one team in baseball going worse at the moment.

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By Jason Chervokas
May 21, 2010

View Comments

  • Posada's diva-like turn in last night's game puts a sour note on a
    solid career. May 15, 2011 - Kenny Rogers imprinted the cultural lines of
    knowing when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em, when to walk away and when to
    run. ...
  • When things turn sour, they slide. Tech entered the regular season's final weeks having failed to put together a winning streak — three or more straight victories — since defeating Albany, Niagara and UTEP in late November. .
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  • JasonChervokas
    I don't think even the Yanks thought Granderson was a better CFer than Gardner, they just didn't want to ask him to change positions. But I agree, Gardner is better.
  • Tom K
    I agree, they didn't think it, and there was some talk about switching which, as I recall, came down to leaving Granderson in CF because they didn't want to move him between CF and LF when Gardner sat (presumably, against lefties.) The thing is, if either of them should sit against lefties, it's increasingly obvious that it shouldn't be Gardner.

    So there was a little more thought behind it than I suggested initially, but it still comes down to, who plays CF as between the two depends more on their offense than their defense, which is silly but pretty typical.
  • Tom K
    I disagree on just one point: the Yankees aren't missing their centerfielder, his name is Brett Gardner and he's doing just fine.

    Because he's hitting, only now -- following a dopey, unspoken, time-honored tradition -- will the Yanks acknowledge that he's a much better defender than Granderson, and leave him in CF when Grandy gets back. Or at least I hope they will.

    Nothing against Granderson, he's a fine player who might even hit LHP someday, and plays an adequate CF. But no baseball man worth his salt could really start him in CF with Garder in LF over a full season . . . unless, of couse, Gardy stops hitting, in which case everyone will agree to pretent that Granderson's the better fielder again, after all.
  • tomwatson
    Granderson's a good player, I wouldn't say he's fine - he hasn't, for
    example, had Jeff Francoeur's career and he's quite a bit older - Grandy's a
    slight "plus" outfielder as the tired, hackneyed Yankee broadcasters Leiter
    and O'Neill would say. To compare him to Johnny Damon is a raw insult to
    Damon. What a horrendous off-season the Yanks had - boneheaded move after
    boneheaded move - yet their talent's still very deep and they'll be WC faves
    all summer....
  • JasonChervokas
    Granderson hasn't had Damon's career, but he's had at least as good a career as Francoeur.

    Similar totals actually in similar service time. Grandy's are slightly better actually--higher career BA, more HR, fewer RBIs since Grandy was hitting leadoff, but Grandy w/ more SBs and R. Granderson is 3 years older.

    In terms of the three, its instructive to compare 162 game averages:

    Francouer: .268, 20 HR, 91 RBI, 80 R, 4 SB
    Granderson: .271, 24 HR, 71 RBI, 103 R, 17 SB
    Damon: .288, 16 HR, 76 RBI, 112 R, 28 SB

    Damon's obviously a champion, clutch, hits righties and lefties, capable of wearing a pitcher out with tough at bats--the other two players haven't done those things. But Interesting career averages. Damon and Granderson's are very similar--though Damon's average HR numbers are below either of the other guys'. Francouer, hitting lower in the order, has been a better RBI man but otherwise is behind the other two in all categories.
  • tomwatson
    Well I might take the vastly superior RBI numbers over the SBs, but they're
    essentially the same player - Frenchy's got a better arm than Grandy and is
    three years younger, but Grandy's faster. Their BA is three points apart.
    Both prone to long slumps and hot streaks, too. They're basically above
    average outfielders, "plus" guys in the Yankee broadcasting parlance. I
    maintain it's almost clinically insane how the Yanks overrated Granderson's
    ability, though. He's good, will never be great, and will soon be 30 - a
    productive part to a big payroll team. And Damon was - is - a champion
    player, totally clutch.
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