The Yankee Clipper: Burnett, Gardner, Jeter, Granderson and Cashman

That's the list of subjects for today. After a 4-game split with the Red Sox, the Yankees head to Texas to face the 1st place Texas Rangers. Let's set up the situation:

Curtis Granderson has had a rough go of it against LHP (NYDN)

1. Curtis Granderson needs to platoon. It's pretty simple. Granderson has been awful against lefties and since this is a trend that has followed him from Detroit, it's time to stop the experiment. I agree with Joe from River Ave Blues: platoon Granderson. Although the Yankees were oh-for-9 with runners in scoring position yesterday, the most frustrating of them was when Granderson faced Lester with the bases loaded and struck out. It wasn't necessarily him striking out (Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher would do the same thing in the following ABs against Daniel Bard), but the fact he was batting at all. Granderson sucks big time against lefties and while there was no perfect replacement on the bench  with both Austin Kearns and Marcus Thames starting, Brett Gardner (as Jay Jaffe of Baseball Prospectus pointed out, Gardner, while a lefty himself, has a .375 OBP of better vs.. LHP the past two seasons) or Lance Berkman would have been better options. But Girardi has stuck with Granderson through thick and thin against lefties and while I understand it at times (the Yankees have a long-term investment in Granderson and need to see if he can be more than a platoon player), going forward the Yankees need to worry about winnings games and not The Grandy Man's feelings. The New York Post's Joel Sherman says that Granderson should be glad that The Big Stein is not around because the pressure could be a lot higher.
2. Brett Gardner needs to run more. Gardner has been in a horrendous slump recently, but even worse than his slump has been his hesitancy on the basepaths. Yesterday was a prime example. As Jaffe writes: "Girardi pulled [A-Rod] for the pinch-running Gardner, who drew four pickoff attempts from Bard but didn't attempt to steal against Martinez despite the Boston backstop's 19 percent success rate in throwing out would-be thieves. Gardner finally lit for second on a hit-and-run as Cano grounded to second, something of a wasted opportunity for the speedster." As Ben from River Ave Blues writes "In an ideal world, Gardner would be the Jacoby Ellsbury of the Yankees. The speed is there, but Gardner doesn’t have the instincts or daring of Ellsbury." I usually don't try to get into the psyche of a player, but that seems to be an extremely true statement. Gardner is one of the fastest white men around yet he seems too scared about getting caught. While stealing efficiency is important, he needs to go in those type of situations. Yesterday, Brett the Jet was grounded.
3. A.J. Burnett needs to be more consistent. ESPN Stats and Info has an amazing blog post about how consistent Burnett has been in his inconsistencies. The lowest ERA in wins and the highest ERA in losses. Nothing in between. "Amazingly, in every single one of his starts, he has given the Yankees at least a 69 percent chance of winning OR less than a 34 percent chance. Not one start in between." Wow. "When it rains, it pours" with A.J. this season and this is something that Girardi has to closely monitor. If Burnett is bad early in games, he needs to be yanked immediately. Since he doesn't seem to correct as he goes along, the Yankees are just digging themselves quite a hole leaving him out there when "Bad A.J." shows up.
4. Derek Jeter needs to keep on hitting. I was planning a blog post to critique the awful play of El Capitan so far in 2010 when I saw Rebecca Glass of This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes post one titled "What's it like to have a lead off hitter? I forget" about a week ago. Well I'm thankful Rebecca wrote it and not me because all of a sudden, Jeter finally remembered that he was an elite hitter. Since July 21st (a span of 19 games) Jeter has hit .329/.391/.443, had 8 multi-hit games (out of his 40 for the season), and put up some big at-bats like he did against Jonanthan Papelbon in both of the Yankee losses this past week. All the talk of Jeter's demise seems to be premature (for now) and as Ben Jedlovec writes for ESPN (Insider needed), Jeter really is a shortstop for life because his value in other positions is much lower. Eventually he'll have to DH a few days a week, but right now, he's a valuable member of the Yankees at shortstop (the third best everyday SS bat behind Hanley Ramirez and Alex Gonzalez)--though not as valuable as his near-MVP 2009. 
5. Brian Cashman needs to keep on making good moves. The jury is still out on Curtis Granderson, but it looks pretty bad right now.  I like the Lance Berkman move, but despite this really cool article from YES' Jack Curry, it's still not a win (though the three hits at the game I was at was awesome). The Yankees have been pretty good at acquiring guys like Nick Swisher and Marcus Thames and dumping guys like Randy Winn when they've proved useless, but as I wrote in the previous post, it's been 3 years since they got a waiver claim on Kei Igawa and instead of giving up on him, he's still floating around Triple A. Most of the Yankee prospects they've traded haven't turned into much, but then again, they haven't developed a lot of good players in recent years outside of Robinson Cano, Brett Gardner and a few pitchers. Javier Vazquez, Kerry Wood, Austin Kearns, and the other 2010 acquisitions have been good--but the results the rest of the season will judge how their 2010 has really gone. NoMass points out that letting Hideki Matsui go was the right move. Dustin Moseley had no one believe in him but Moseley himself according to NYP's Joel Sherman but Cashman believed in him and it has worked out so far. You win some, you lose some, but you hope that Cashmoney comes out on top. 2009 was a win, but 2010 is still very much left up in the air.

A split coming into the series seemed fine but yesterday's loss was tough to take. 0-9 with RISP and just a general lack of hitting has doomed the Yanks. They had chances in the last few innings but failed to convert on a chance to bury the Red Sox 8 games out. The Yankees head to Texas for two games of what could be an ALDS or ALCS preview. A battle of the initials tonight as A.J. (Burnett) battles C.J. (Wilson)--the latter of which has been a pleasant surprise for the Rangers. Tomorrow, Javier Vazquez battles Cliff Lee in what could be a matchup of a 2010 Yankee vs a 2011 Yankee. Unfortunately, the Yankees will be without their hottest hitter--Mark Teixeira--who is staying home for the birth of his child according to Marc Carig of The Star-Ledger. So the rest of the Yankee bats will need to carry them in this short series in Tex's absence. The quest for 28 continues tonight.

A few others links:

• Ben from River Ave Blues on WCBS Ratings for Yankee games (and the angry comments that followed)
• Joe Posnanski of SI on whether or not we should be so upset by steroid use in baseball
• Dave Cameron of the Wall Street Journal on how it's not really "The Year of the Pitcher"
• A Q&A of ESPN's Buster Olney from Alex Abrami of the Burlington Free Press
• NY Mag's Will Leitch defending/feeling for the umpires
• Bob Nightengale from USA Today and Deadspin on the crazy Rangers bankruptcy resolution