Last Night Felt Like 2010's "He Dropped The Ball" Game

Every World Series champion goes through a slump at some point in the season and the 2009 New York Yankees were no exception. In the middle of June, the Yankees looked like they were going to have it rough after they lost three three straight at Boston and fell 2 games behind the Red Sox. The Mets came into town and on Friday, June 12. The Yankees, desperately needing a win, were up 7-6 in the 7th when Phil Coke blew the lead and then fell behind in the 8th when Mariano Rivera gave up an RBI double to David Wright. With two outs and Derek Jeter at 2nd, the Mets elected to intentionally walk Mark Teixeira (remember Red Sox Owner John Henry's BS about the Mark Teixeira curse--dubbed the "MT Curse"?) and have Francisco Rodriguez go after Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod had a 3-1 count but on the 5th pitched he popped the ball up to second and the game looked over...

Crawford made the third out at third base--a cardinal sin (St. Pete Times)

...until Luis Castillo, trying to casually catch the ball with one hand, dropped the ball. A heads-up Mark Teixeira raced around the bases from first and scored on the play.  "HE DROPPED THE BALL!" was a play that Yankees fans would remember the rest of the season and the Yankee win seemed to be a big turning point.

The Yankees would lose 9 of 13 during this stretch but a win on a miscue helped to make sure the bleeding wasn't worse.

Last night felt a lot like the "he dropped the ball" game. A back-and-forth affair in a high-scoring, "must-win game" that ended on a cardinal sin. Castillo's was that he didn't use two hands to catch the ball and it fell. Last night, Carl Crawford made the final out at 3rd base on a laser beam of a throw from Greg Golson. One of the most exciting plays in baseball (a fast runner vs. an outfielder's arm) ended the game and propelled the Yankees back into 1st place.

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The Yankee Clipper: The Outfield

As the All-Star break comes to a close, it feels like a good time to review the season so far. We'll try to roll a different one of these out for the next week reviewing the Yankees different positional groups to see how they've performed so far this season. We'll also be reviewing this to see where weaknesses are before the July 31st non-waiver trade deadline. Let's start out with the outfield:

1. Brett Gardner. One of my favorite players coming into this season has rewarded the Yankees' faith in making him an everyday player. He's hitting a robust .309/.396/.415 and at his current pace would finish the season with 10 HR and almost 50 SB. He's 10th in the AL in runs (56), 5th in OBP (.396), and 4th in SB (25). Baseball-Reference has his defense in left rated as tops in the American League. In my opinion, the best thing about his game is the amount of pitches he sees. He averages 4.58 P/PA which would be the highest average since Rickey Henderson had 4.55 in 1997 (and if you want to read up on the correlation of P/PA and production, I found this Hardball Times piece from 2005). Better yet, FanGraphs says that only 5 players in the Majors swing at less balls outside the strike zone than Gardner--then again, he's also swung at the least amount of pitches inside the strike zone in the Majors and overall meaning he only swings 31.3% of the time (but he makes contact at balls inside the strike zone a league-leading 98.1% of the time when he does swing). FanGraphs tracks Gardner's Wins Above Replacement number at 2.3 which already surpasses his 2009 value and puts him in the top 15 among American League outfielders and Baseball-Reference has Gardner's WAR at 3.4 with would be tied for 6th among all AL positional players (with Carl Crawford and Kevin Youkilis). Whether it's "Gardner Planted One" (for his Inside-the-Park home run), "Gardy Goes Yardy" (his regular home run call), or "Brett The Jet" (his stolen base call), Gardner has not only turned into an important Yankee regular, but he may be a reason the Yankees second-guess giving big money to Carl Crawford in the off-season. Best Month: June .383/.472/.533.
2. Nick Swisher. I will repeat: the Yankees acquired Nick Swisher for Wilson Betemit. Wow. Swisher came into camp this year in even better shape than last year and it has showed. The Yankees starting rightfielder is having his best Major League season with career highs at every slash (.298/.377/.524) as well as his Weighted On Base Average (wOBA) of .391 (only Robinson Cano has a better mark. He's projected to have 28 HR, 93 RBI and 72 XBH. And although UZR rates him as a negative defender, he's shown definite improvement in right with both his arm and his glove. His 2.7 WAR in both FanGraphs and Baseball-Reference means that he's on pace to greatly surpass last year's output. And as shown by his recent All-Star Final Ballot selection, he's having a lot of fun doing it, bringing a loose atmosphere to the clubhouse that the Yankees needed after guys like Johnny Damon and Jason Giambi left. Swisher has moved around in the lineup a lot, hitting 2nd some games and anywhere from 4th to 8th in others--but wherever he's hit in the lineup, he's produced. Although he hasn't walked as much in 2010 (mostly due to who he's had hitting behind him), Swisher has still taken over 18% of his at bats to a full count and done damage when he's gotten there (.554 OBP). Swish has been extra Swishalicous in 2010 and the Yankees can control him for cheap through 2012 (according to Cot's Contracts, signed for bargains of  $6.75 M this year, $9 M in 2011 and a $10.25 M club option in 2012 with a $1 M buyout). Best Month: May .374/.441/.670 with 7 HR. Picture from the New York Daily News

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