05/06: Yanks' Woes
Posted by: Seamus
Well I guess I can't begin talking about the Yankees without acknowledging their struggles early on this season. After tonight's loss (their 3rd consecutive against the Devil Rays), the Yankees are now 11-18 and tied with Tampa Bay for last place in the AL East. In fact, the only two teams in baseball at the moment with worse records than the Yankees are the 7-21 Royals and 6-19 Rockies. They are also in a virtual tie with the 10-17 Reds.
Typically at this point in the season you'd be more likely to see the Yankees at 18-11 and in first place, not 11-18 and tied for last. So what has been the Yankees problem so far? Well if there was only one problem, the Yanks would not be where they are right now. There are a number of issues. You are obviously going to run into trouble when you have rookie call-ups pitching on consecutive days. The worst thing that could possibly happen while trying to break out of a slump is for Randy Johnson to have to miss a start. Of course the Yankees' pitching woes cannot be simply attributed to injury. Performance has also been an issue. Jaret Wright was pitching awful before he got hurt. Moose gets the job done but has not shown enough consistency. Kevin Brown might be the worst pitcher in baseball so far this season, especially in the first inning or two. Also, although this hasn't seemed to be a problem so far, Mariano Rivera needs work. It's not Torre's fault, but I don't think it's good for a closer to be going a week at a time without an appearance because there aren't any leads for him to hold on to.
Pitching obviously hasn't been the only problem for the Yankees. You can't blame Randy Johnson for a 2-0 loss to Toronto. Some say that the problem with the Yankees' lineup so far has been a lack of consistency this season, evidenced by a 12-3 win over the Angels followed by a 5-1 loss. I don't think it's consistency. I think it's overall performance. The Yankees have only 3 hitters who have been getting the job done at all this season (Jeter, Sheffield, and Rodriguez). Those three guys all hit in the top half of the order (Rodriguez being the exception, who bats 5th). The games in which the Yankees score a lot of runs tend mostly to be games in which one of these three hitters, or all of them hit so well where their performance alone has been enough to put them in the "W" column, such as A-Rod's three-homer, 10 RBI game against Tampa Bay. That's not to say that there isn't the occasional game where one of the other players steps up, but Jason Giambi, Tino Martinez, and Bernie Williams are hitting .208, .257 and .247 respectively. It is so bad at the moment where it's almost as if the Yankees only have 6 innings to score as many runs as the opponent, because there have been so many 1-2-3 innings when the 6-9 part of the order were up.
I do believe that the Yankees can and will eventually turn things around. Hideki Matsui is obviously much better than .236 and 3 homers through 29 games. Jorge Posada has shown some good signs recently. The Yanks still have the best pitcher in the game as well as the best closer. It's only a matter of time before they start coming around.
Typically at this point in the season you'd be more likely to see the Yankees at 18-11 and in first place, not 11-18 and tied for last. So what has been the Yankees problem so far? Well if there was only one problem, the Yanks would not be where they are right now. There are a number of issues. You are obviously going to run into trouble when you have rookie call-ups pitching on consecutive days. The worst thing that could possibly happen while trying to break out of a slump is for Randy Johnson to have to miss a start. Of course the Yankees' pitching woes cannot be simply attributed to injury. Performance has also been an issue. Jaret Wright was pitching awful before he got hurt. Moose gets the job done but has not shown enough consistency. Kevin Brown might be the worst pitcher in baseball so far this season, especially in the first inning or two. Also, although this hasn't seemed to be a problem so far, Mariano Rivera needs work. It's not Torre's fault, but I don't think it's good for a closer to be going a week at a time without an appearance because there aren't any leads for him to hold on to.
Pitching obviously hasn't been the only problem for the Yankees. You can't blame Randy Johnson for a 2-0 loss to Toronto. Some say that the problem with the Yankees' lineup so far has been a lack of consistency this season, evidenced by a 12-3 win over the Angels followed by a 5-1 loss. I don't think it's consistency. I think it's overall performance. The Yankees have only 3 hitters who have been getting the job done at all this season (Jeter, Sheffield, and Rodriguez). Those three guys all hit in the top half of the order (Rodriguez being the exception, who bats 5th). The games in which the Yankees score a lot of runs tend mostly to be games in which one of these three hitters, or all of them hit so well where their performance alone has been enough to put them in the "W" column, such as A-Rod's three-homer, 10 RBI game against Tampa Bay. That's not to say that there isn't the occasional game where one of the other players steps up, but Jason Giambi, Tino Martinez, and Bernie Williams are hitting .208, .257 and .247 respectively. It is so bad at the moment where it's almost as if the Yankees only have 6 innings to score as many runs as the opponent, because there have been so many 1-2-3 innings when the 6-9 part of the order were up.
I do believe that the Yankees can and will eventually turn things around. Hideki Matsui is obviously much better than .236 and 3 homers through 29 games. Jorge Posada has shown some good signs recently. The Yanks still have the best pitcher in the game as well as the best closer. It's only a matter of time before they start coming around.
