Some Quick Yankees Thoughts

I don't have a lot of time to blog and I hate it. I love blogging, but unfortunately it doesn't pay the bills. So it's a rare occasion I can sit back and blog. But watching the Yankees beat up on the White Sox tonight made me feel like it was time for a post. A bunch of short-sweet thoughts:

It's not just Tex Messages for the Yankees offense (Reuters)

Alex O wrote a post yesterday which said "why not the Yankees?" And I've been meaning to write that for weeks. Here's the American League in my mind: the Red Sox, the Yankees, and everyone else. 

And if you think the Yankees have some pitching questions, check out the rest of the American League:

• The Red Sox have Josh Beckett and Jon Lester and then a whole lot of question marks (and Josh Beckett, in my mind, still has to be a question mark because of his past health issues). 
• The Texas Rangers made some great bullpen moves, but the rotation is unintimidating--at best (there is no Cliff Lee). The White Sox have a really good rotation on paper but they've all shown to be less than stellar.
• Between the Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians, there is maybe 3 top-line starters combined--and that's including the acquisition of Ubaldo Jiminez
• The Tampa Bay Rays have David Price and a revived James Shields and the Angels have Jered Weaver and Dan Haren--and that's about all that's reliable between those teams.
• So in the end, I'll take CC Sabathia and X, especially if that X is a dealing Bartolo Colon (I can't believe I'm saying that). This is not the National League with deep pitching staffs in Atlanta, Philly, San Fran, and Los Angeles. It's not great by any means, but I'll take CC and The Misfits.

The Yankees lead the Majors with a +168 run differential. The Red Sox at +142, Phillies at +118, and Rangers at +88 are the only teams at more than +50 in all of baseball. The Yankees are only one down in the division and could go up 8 in the Wild Card if the Angels score holds tonight. Again, why not them?

A lot of people complained about the lack of activity for the Yankees at the trade deadline. But short of Jiminez, what was out there that would help them? Their starting 9 is set and if they replace DH or catcher (or backup catcher), it's probably because Jesus is rising--from Triple-A. Eric Chavez is hitting .298/.375/.421 off the bench and Eduardo Nunez is as good a utility infielder as the Yankees are going to find. Andruw Jones looks like a shell of his former self, but this is not a team with a spot for an open spot for a full-time outfielder anyways. I still think they have more utility having Chris Dickerson (hitting .321/.367/.393 and playing excellent defense) instead of Jones, but the former Brave is showing some signs of life as of late and the Yankees need a righty off the bench right now.  When A-Rod comes back, though...

Speaking of which, I was sitting at work today when frequent blog commentator, Tropers, sent me an e-mail with the subject "A-Roid". I thought the worst until I finally saw the article and realized that it was just A-Rod being A-Rod--meaning his name was again involved in something controversial. Whether it's his doctor or his cousin or steroids or who he's dating or what stripper he's hanging out with, Alex Rodriguez has been tied to something controversial every year with the Yankees. I guess poker is this year's edition. I hope the suspension is not large if it comes since the Yankees can always use him back, despite Chavez's play in his absence.

And getting back to the Yankees team, where is the only place they can make some improvements: bullpen. I think the back-end of the Yankees bullpen with Mariano Rivera and David Robertson is the best in baseball. But in front of that is a lot of question marks: Corey Wade, Hector Noesi, and Luis Ayala have been great stories (and have all been awesome) and Boone Logan has turned it around after his early season struggles made him a target of Yankee fans ire, but none of those 4 really stand out as guys you would go to in big situations (and we'll probably see a few of those guys this weekend in Boston, so see how you feel when they come in from the bullpen). But the Yankees biggest deadline acquisition may have been a healthy Rafael Soriano who could be a huge addition to an already solid bullpen. If he can pitch anywhere close to where he was at last year, the Yankees may have shored up that hole. And, if not, the Yankees have Manny Banuelos down at Triple-A and he would look mighty nice as a bullpen arm down the stretch.

The issue for me is who loses their job is you call up guys like Banuelos or Montero? Well I think that when the Yankees finally go back down to a 5-man rotation, that Montero comes up as another bat off the bench. And the first bullpen arm to falter (and Noesi has to have the target on his back) leads to Banuelos or a long man like George Kontos to be called up.

Final thought of the night: when this offense is on like it was tonight, there aren't any holes. 56 runs in their last 6 games. When things click for this team, they make pitchers look really bad. The key for the Yankees is that it's not just Curtis Granderson or Mark Teixeira hitting. Russell Martin's bat has woken back up, Nick Swisher has recovered from early-season woes, and Derek Jeter--with another 5-hit game tonight--is hitting .280. So much for him being done. So why not the Yanks?