Well, as most logical baseball fans have sensed for months the New York Yankees reign on the American League East title is over. There are thirty one games remaining and New York trails the well balanced division leading Boston Red Sox by seven and one half games. This is not the nineteen seventy-eight New York Yankees.
Although New York leads MLB in many offensive categories their pitching is in the middle of the pack.
Andy Pettitte has been all the Yankees have asked of him with all but three or four bad starts. With a decent bullpen, early on, he would more than likely be among the league leader in wins. After Pettitte and more often than not, Chien-Meng Wang, it is a real #### shoot.
Roger Clemens, playing half a season, has given them innings but at forty-five years of age is not the Clemens of previous years. Still it is amazing how well he pitches at times.
Mike Mussina has been more awful than respectable. He will throw a gem every eighth or so start. His velocity is down, again, and he needs to be almost perfect with his location to be effective. Not an easy task given the diverse strike zone of many umpires. Add to that equation how Mike shows his arrogance and displeasure when an umpire squeezes his strike zone. Not mister public relations along those lines. Umpires are turning into stage performers, but I digress, that is for a future article.
Phil Hughes is poised for a twenty-one year old but is still a rookie with little experience and will make rookie mistakes. This year, with injuries, has been hard but helpful for this future front line starter.
The procession of raw rookie starters that paraded through the Yankee rotation early was not impressive, at all, at this level. With more minor league development they will thrive given their talent. The Yankee farm system has never been stacked with this quality of young gifted arms. This seems to be the trend for many quality franchises to develop their own young talented arms.
The bullpen has been erratic to dreadful, at best, for most of the season.
Luis Vizcaino, Scott Proctor, Brian Bruney and Kyle Farnsworth were basically the same type of pitchers and were having the same kind of problems. Location, location, location. They walked everybody and gave up a ton of extra base hits. So did the likes of Ron Villone, and Mike Myers.
Mariano Rivera, due to lack of work early, has shown signs of age and inactivity. His velocity is down a notch. He really is only a one inning pitcher but unlike Farsworth can pitch on multiple days and still be effective. He still is among the elite in MLB as a closer.
The bench was weak and shallow.
Given that assessment the Yankees have improved both the bullpen and bench dramatically in the past five weeks. With the addition of Joba Chamberlain and Edwar Ramirez, the resurgence of Vizcaino, the bullpen has a more balanced and diverse feel for Torre.
The bench has been shored up with power defense and diversity. The acquisitions of Jose Molina, and Wilson Betemit proved to be wise. The promotion of Andy Phillips and Shelley Duncan ads some power and energy to the mix.
Back to basics. The Yankees are awful in one run and extra inning games. They do not play consistently well against the better teams in the league. They play bad on the road. On the plus side, they play well at home (excluding Baltimore) and have beaten up on the lesser teams in the AL.
Losing to a Sheffied-less Detroit on Friday night/ Saturday morning and again on Sunday was telling and painful. Derek Jeter was hurt and was hitting into many double plays lately. If he were healthy perhaps they win those two games. Perhaps.
Seattle has ten of it's next thirteen games against playoff contending teams. Will they crack? I thought they would a month ago. I was wrong, again. They are a legitimate club, with good hitting, pitching and a good bullpen.
The Yankees need to approach and play each game as a potential seventh game playoff. I am not crazy, this is what they need to do thanks to the enormous hole they dug themselves early on.
With Mussina going tonight there is a chance that the Yankees will be eight games behind the Red Sox when they meet at home on Tuesday. A sweep of Boston, while not impossible, is mandatory.
The Yankees are chasing two teams, well, really only one. The Red Sox are not going to fold with that pitching staff and their momentum.
More than likely the Yankees need to play .650 ball to advance into the playoffs as the wild card. Even that is not a given with Seattle playing superb baseball.
The Yankees play Boston six times Seattle three times and Baltimore (ouch) six times in the remaining thirty-one games. With tonights game against the Tigers that is more than half their remaining games against teams who will play them tough. Not an impossible task but not one favoring the Yankees given their season's history.
Watching the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim consistently feast off the New York Yankees is a work of art. How this team has not won more championships is more about timing than anything else. They have been a solid, if not an elite, team in MLB for more years than W. has been president.
Their pitching has always had quality starters and the bullpen, not so much this year, has been among the best in baseball. K-Rod is a quality closer despite his quirky mechanics. He has managed to stay healthy and consistent ever since his promotion several years ago.
Power has not been a mainstay for this Mike Scioscia managed team but don't let that fool you. They play situational baseball as well as any team in baseball and they score runs.
Base stealing, which they lead all teams in MLB, bunting, taking the extra base and challenging the defense is a characteristic part of their game. They are well managed and coached. There is only one player who swings wildly 100% of the time and that is Vladimir Guerrero. All he does is hit thirty plus home runs and drive in 120 RBI's on a yearly basis. By the way, his career batting average is .324. So swing away Vlad. Imagine A-Rod in this lineup.
Okay, that said, The Yankees continue to put up good offensive numbers 90% of the time but their pitching, still is their Achilles heal. Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens give them good quality starts and innings. So does Chien-Ming Wang, although he has slumped in his last four starts.
Mike Mussina is a huge question mark and not that reliable. He certainly will not get them innings and the bull pen has to be rested for his starts. Mike's performance can be a product of the home plate umpire. If the ump is liberal with his strike zone Mussina can have a good game. If not, it will be a short game for Mike and a long one for the Yankees and their bullpen.
Phil Hughes is going to be a solid pitcher and his mound presence is very stoic for a lad of twenty one. It would have been interesting to see how this staff would have performed if Hughes were not injured early on.
The bullpen looks different now than it did three weeks ago. The addition of Joba Chamberlain and Edwar Ramirez have given Joe Torre a diversity that was not there earlier this season. Joba throws strikes and has good velocity and a quality sinker. Ramirez has a career changing change up. Prior to these two young arms in the pen Joe was stuck with power pitching relievers with poor location, as the bullpen led the Majors in walks.
Luis Vizcaino, after a rough couple of months, has been much improved. Although the ability for Torre to overuse and abuse him still exists.
Then there is Mariano Rivera. Nothing needs to be mentioned here.
The rest of the bullpen is just awful. Kyle Farnsworth is a head case, Sean Henn is inexperienced and unpredictable and Ron Villone is the left hander no one else wants. Nothing to hang your hat on here.
The Yankees, with their injuries and inexperienced young rookie pitching replacements, early on, dug themselves a huge hole to climb out of. Add to that absolutely no offence, other than A-Rod and Posada, for the first two months and you have a formula for the possibility of no post season for New York. It is a realistic scenario.
This two week stretch where the Yankees play Anaheim, Detroit, Boston and Seattle is the make or break part of the season. So far the only thing predictable is their inconsistency. That won't make it. The Yankees need to win more than they lose. .500 baseball will not cut it for a chance at the playoffs.
Boston and Seattle continue to win. These are the teams who the Yankees are chasing. Seattle has surprised everyone. Their season is about to get harder though, as they come east to play the quality teams from both the East and Central divisions. Boston has too much pitching for them to fold. Unless they let Eric Gagne close all of their games.
It should be interesting. My guess? The Yankees make it into the playoffs as the wild card. I like this scenario as it puts less pressure on A-Rod and the Yankees to be the team to beat.
