The Yankee Clipper: 5 April Surprises

Another series, another series win for the New York Yankees. The Yankees had a chance to sweep this series, but lost the rubber game behind another weak outing from Javier Vazquez (and BP's Jay Jaffe does a great job of breaking down Javy's troubles so far). But they bounced back last night in the rubber game and beat the White Sox 12-3 behind another strong pitching performance from Phil Hughes and some big games from their surprise bats. Let's take a look at some of those early-season surpises so far as we turn the calendar from April to May:

1. Brett Gardner - Patience was a virtue for this gritty, gutsy outfielder. Many fans were clamoring for Johnny Damon, Matt Holliday or Jason Bay to come to the Bronx to play left but the Yankees stuck with Brett Gardner and the results have been excellent so far. And while I thought that Gardner would be fine in leftfield because of his glove (UZR of +20.8 for his career) and his speed, he's so far been showing that given enough playing time, Gardner can impress with his bat. Gardner is 6th in the American League in batting average at .342, 10th in OBP at .415, 9th in runs scored at 18, tied for 9th in wOBA at .411, and 1st in stolen bases at 11 (which leads the Majors and is great in comparison to his one caught stealing). He is now on pace for 80 steals for the season. As the New York Times writes, the most important play in Sunday's win may have been Brett Gardner's infield hit in the second inning which drove in the game's first run. As a bonus, the little guy hit a home run too. Gardner, a slow starter at all levels over his professional career, has come on strong this season with his selectivity with the bat, seeing 4.43 P/PA good for 3rd in the AL. Oh, and those who thought that Gardner should face a strict platoon to guard him against lefties are looking off so far: he's hitting .409 against lefties so far this season. The one cause of concern? Gardner's .381 BAbip may be unsustainable (even with his speed). But so far, it's been a great start for the man who replaced Johnny Damon in left...and now Curtis Granderson in center.
2. Phil Hughes - I want to repeat: my preference of Joba Chamberlain being a starter had nothing to do with Phil Hughes' ability; I really though, eventually, he'd be a solid starter...but even I didn't see this coming. Hughes is becoming everything that the Yankees thought he would when they refused to package him in a deal to get Johan Santana. And after their starts yesterday, the Yankees look somewhat justified--a place that no one thought they'd be after Hughes' dismal 2008. Well he's showed them so far. He's 3-0 so far and looked like an ace. Hughes is 2nd in the AL in ERA (1.44), 3rd in wins (3), 2nd in WHIP (.880), 1st in H/9 (3.600), 9th in K/9 (8.640), 8th in HR/9 (.360), and first--in the majors--with a .122 BA against. Although his FIP (3.13) and xFIP (4.24) show that maybe he's been the bearer of some good luck, Hughes has looked as good as he did in the bullpen last season. You hope that players take bullpen assignments like that as motivation to trust in their stuff and use their fastball to get ahead and Hughes is certainly doing just that so far in 2010.
3. Robinson Cano - What else can we say? Cano was the AL MVP for April. He finished the month at exactly .400 and now sits at a Major League-leading .387 with 9 HR (tied for 2nd in the majors), and a .495 wOBA (first in the majors). He's second in the AL in OBP (.433), 2nd in SLG (.763), 2nd in OPS (1.196), 1st in runs (23), 2nd in hits (36), 1st in total bases (71, which leads the majors), 3rd in ISO (.376) and 4th in RBI (21). He's on a ridiculous pace right now (243 hits, 61 HR, 142 RBI) and is sure to slow down some, though his .365 BAbip suggests that it may not be as big of a drop as many expect. Right now, Cano is flying high as one of the majors best players.
4. Andy Pettitte - The old man has something left in the tank it seems. After Pettitte won all three clinching games for the Yankees during last year's postseason run, many wondered if he'd come back. Well Pettitte not only came back, but he came back with authority. He's 3-0 so far on the young season and is 8th in ERA (2.12), 4th in HR/9 (.265), and has battled through a few tough starts to get big wins for the Yankees. He's currently on pace to throw 230 innings for the first time since 1997, so the Yankees may want to slow him down and try not to risk the injuries that come along with that type of output, but right now, Andy has been dandy and has given them no reason for concern.
5. Marcus Thames/Francisco Cervelli - A lot of the second half of the Yankees off-season was spent with great consternation about the makeup of the Yankees bench. Well, so far Cervelli and Thames have been stellar. Cervelli showed he could catch last year, but his handling of the bat so far in 2010 has been something the Yankees didn't seem to expect. He's batting .346 (with a .433 OBP) and he's shown a real confidence and defensive ability in his catching. Thames, while not blessed with defensive ability, has made up for that by his batting against lefties. His .458/.552/.708 line and .542 wOBA have been tremendous for a team still waiting for big bats like Nick Johnson, A-Rod and Mark Teixeira to wake up. And against lefties he's been even more ridiculous (.500/.583/.800 and .587 wOBA). The fear is that playing these guys close to everyday (which is what could happen if Posada stays injured or Thames goes into the outfield in Granderson's absence, could expose them more. But so far, they've been able to provide Yankees with one of their best benches in years.

Go to the right and vote for who you think has had the most surprising start so far for the Yankees. The Yankees take on the Orioles starting tonight at the Stadium. The Orioles are about as red-hot as they can be after sweeping the reeling Red Sox. The Yankees hope to fare much better. Tickets are as low as $1 tonight on Stubhub due to the threat of rain so it should be easy to find your way out there tonight to see the hefty lefty, CC Sabathia, take the mound and try to start off this series in the right direction. The quest for 28 continues tonight.

Picture from The Star-Ledger