The Yankee Clipper: World Series Rematch Preview

It's been a while since the Yankee Clipper has sailed so I figured it was time to get some Yankee thoughts out there. Today's post come after my astonishment that the Yankees once had a mascot named Dandy as the Wall Street Journal talked about today (and where that picture on the right comes from). Looking at those pictures, I think the Yankees are much better without a mascot. On to the top 5:

1. One thing the Yankees aren't better without is CC Sabathia. Despite Sabathia's struggles, he's still their ace. Make no mistake about that one. When the Yankees needed wins down the stretch and in the playoffs last year, they gave CC the ball and, most of the time, they won. And, despite that fact that many are discounting it, ESPN New York's Andrew Marchand pointed out that his numbers from this year after 13 starts are pretty similar to his numbers through 13 starts from last season. True his numbers on the Yankees weren't as good as his numbers pre-Yankees as ESPN's Rob Neyer points out, but I don't think that's enough to worry about for CC. He still is racking up the wins and even though he's doing it quite a bit against teams like the Orioles which concerns the New York Posts' Joel Sherman, good teams (and good pitchers) are supposed to beat up on bad teams HarballTalk's Craig Calcaterra writes and if he looks good in those starts (as ESPN's TMI blog points out he did against the Os), it doesn't matter much to me. Would I love to see the dominant CC from last summer show up again? Sure. But since it took a while for him to show up in 2009 and the results were pretty damn good, I'm willing to have patience in 2010 as well.
2. Even with Sabathia struggling, the Yankees have been the best team in baseball. They're tied for the best record, have the best run differential in baseball (+103), the most runs scored in baseball (355), the best home record in baseball (22-7), and ESPN Power Rankings has them at #1 (which is probably the kiss of death). This is also without a productive Mark Teixeira, a powerful Alex Rodriguez, a healthy Nick Johnson, a catching Jorge Posada, or a dominant bullpen. 
3. Phil Hughes has been a big part of the past year. As ESPN's TMI blog points out, Hughes was demoted to the bullpen last season on June 14th and in the year since has gone 16-2 with a 2.36 ERA, 122 IP, only 6 HR allowed and 133 K to 33 BB. He wasn't spectacular in his last start but still found a way to win. While Stephen at TYU argues that the birthday boy Andy Pettitte is no All-Star (and I disagree with him, but that's for another post), there's no doubting that Hughes should be heading to Anaheim (close to his hometown) for the Midsummer Classic.
4. And Robinson Cano has been another big part. Heck, NoMass may be right and there may be a correction coming, but we can all enjoy this while it lasts. Even Baseball Tonight's John Kruk says he's for real and building into the Yankees' best hitter and maybe an MVP. And it's not just his bat, Marc Carig of The Star-Ledger pointed out today that Cano has been doing with his glove as well (and WasWatching's Steve Lombardi points out that others are noticing it too). Cano was always one of those players that everyone could see would be fantastic if he could put together a full season of what some have seen in spurts. This year seems to be that year.
5. I don't understand how Cliff Lee fits into the Yankees plans. It's been written about quite a bit lately and I just don't get it (Andrew Marchand took aim at it last and caused me to insert this point on here). The Yankees have shown an unwillingness to double pay for a pitcher in the past (in prospects and then in salary) so it would seem very strange to stray from that precedent now. Why? Because the Yankees have 5 quality starters. In 2007 it would have made sense when starting pitching was not the team's strength. In 2008 it would make sense where they were handing over the ball to guys like Sidney Ponson and praying for rain. In 2009 it would have made sense when the Yankees had no 5th starter and after the Joba rules were enacted, no 4th starter as well. But in 2010? And with the trade value of Cliff Lee? Could the Yankees sign him this off-season when Vazquez and Pettitte are free agents to pair him with his buddies Sabathia and AJ Burnett as SI's Jon Heyman writes? Sure. But why now? Would they trade someone like Javier Vazquez for prospects and flip them around to get Lee? Probably not since that would not be enough to get Lee. It seems like a longshot and attaching the Yankee name to it just seems to be a ploy to drive up interest. 

Tonight the Yankees head for a World Series rematch with the Philadelphia Phillies (whom the Yankees are currently 7 games up on). Tonight's match-up features Sabathia against an old foe: Roy Halladay. Halladay has dominated the Yankees as of late but it will be interesting to see how he deals with this hot lineup in the new Yankees Stadium. From ESPN's TMI blog: "Roy Halladay has a 2.84 career ERA against the Yankees and -- at 18-6 -- has the third best winning percentage against the Bombers among pitchers with at least 20 decisions. A big reason is his neutralization of Derek Jeter, who has more strikeouts (24) against Halladay than any other pitcher he’s faced. A lifetime .242 hitter against Halladay, Jeter has just five hits in his last 43 at-bats against him, a .116 batting average."

But Jeter has other ideas. Mark Simon of ESPN wrote on Buster Olney's blog this morning that Jeter ranks as one of the best hitters in the history of the game in the first inning: 1st in average (.350), 1st in OBP (.398), 2nd in SLG (.536) and 2nd in OPS (.934).  This has the makings of a classic battle. Matt at Fack Youk took a look today at other World Series rematches for the Yankees. It is sure to provide the same fireworks as the other ones on that list. The quest for 28 continues tonight.