The Yankee Clipper: 1926

If you're wondering why I put 1926 in the title, it's because 1926 was the last time the Yankees won their first four series before this year. That Yankees team led by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig would go on to win another series (their 5th in a row to begin the season) on their way to winning the American League pennant. The following year was the most famous as the 1927 Yankees went 110-44, but the 1926 Yankees may have had a hotter start. Let's get to the top 5:

1. The Yankees now head out West and Javier Vazquez looks for his first win tonight. 0-2 with a 9.82 ERA and a ton of boos was not the way that Javy wanted to start his second go-around with the Yankees. The good part for Vazquez is that he now gets two starts on the road before he needs to pitch again in front of the Yankee Stadium crowd. The bad part for Vazquez is that he needs to pitch well in these starts before he pitches again the White Sox next week or it won't be pretty.
2. Vazquez is the only Yankee starter not to win a game--the rest of the Yankees staff looks great. It's only three starts in (for the top 3), but let's just say that none of their top 3 looked this good last season and the Yankees won 103 games. CC Sabathia is 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA, 0.737 WHIP, and has struck out 18 (to only 4 walks), A.J. Burnett is 2-0 with a 2.37 ERA and has struck out 13, and Andy Pettitte looks great with a 2-0 record, 1.35 ERA, 14 Ks and a team-high 20 IP. With Phil Hughes pitching well in his first start as well, this is a great start for a rotation that came in with some question marks. In ESPN's Cy Young Predictor (not really looking at the award, but more for the factors that go into this), the top 3 are all in the top-7 of AL starters and only Matt Garza tops Pettitte.
3. The lineup as a whole, has been on a roll, too. If you figure that a good hitter will have a wOBA above .350, then the Yankees are chock full of good hitters early on according to FanGraphs. Jorge Posada leads all regulars with a .505 wOBA (Marcus Thames and Francisco Cervelli are a bit higher in more limited playing time) and Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Robinson Cano, Alex Rodriguez, and Brett Gardner are all over .400. The Yankees middle of their defense--Posada (.378/.465/.730, 3 HR), Cano (.340 average, 4 HR, 10 RBI), Jeter (.380/.404/.600 3 HR), and Granderson (.311/.380/.578, 2 HR, 4 SB)--are off to great starts. Even Brett Gardner is looking like Ichiro with infield hits and 7 stolen bases and guys like Cervelli, Thames and Pena are coming off the bench and getting big hits for the Yankees.
4. Even their struggling players have silver linings. Nick Johnson is struggling to get hits with a .158 average but leads the AL in walks with 14 and has a .407 OBP. Nick Swisher has struggled a bit early on but has seen 4.16 P/PA which is 7th in the AL. A-Rod's power hasn't taken off yet, but he's batting .295/.415/.523 and has a .406 wOBA. Mark Teixeira is having another atrocious April at the bat but he's flashing the leather yet again. And when they all start hitting, this lineup is going to be treacherous to navigate.
   

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The Best of New York Baseball Bracket Challenge: Narrowing Down The Candidates

Last night the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament ended but we're still finishing up with our New York Baseball Bracket Challenge. We're going to pit the best against each other so you can declare the best in New York. We'll list all the candidates this round, have you pick three and then we'll list arguments for those three players and have you vote for the top baseball player in New York (Mets or Yankees) history.

I decided to cheat a little and forgo the outfield vote. The Yankees own the three best outfielders in Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Joe DiMaggio. Just missed includes: Charlie Keller, Roger Maris, Dave Winfield, Tommy Henrich, Bobby Murcer, Earle Combs, and Darryl Strawberry. But we're just going to go ahead and put the Yankees top three into the finals.

So here's the list (click on the link to find their original argument):

• Catcher: Yogi Berra
• First Base: Lou Gehrig
• Middle Infielder: Derek Jeter
• Third Base (results below): Alex Rodriguez
• Outfield: Babe Ruth (picture from Babe Ruth.com)
• Outfield: Joe DiMaggio
• Outfield: Mickey Mantle
• Righthanded Starter: Tom Seaver
• Lefthanded Starter: Whitey Ford
• Closer: Mariano Rivera

Remember, on the right side, pick your top 3 New York baseball players and we'll pit the top 3 all together head-to-head, to see who is the best baseball player in New York history. And let us know why you chose the way you did in the comments below!

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The Babe Ruth Guide For Surviving Spring Training

Last night I was perusing through Google's great archives on old newspaper articles, reading up on Babe Ruth. I felt like the baseball players of today could learn from some of the lessons of Babe Ruth's day and take some advice from the Bambino (who spent spring training for much of his career in St. Petersburg as shown on the right by a photo from the St. Petersburg Times). So after compiling articles on different topics relating to Major League Baseball spring training, I would like to present you with "The Babe Ruth's Guide For Surviving Spring Training":

Cold Weather

As a MLB player, you may be arriving to Florida to find cold weather, especially this year when you may have even seen snow! Fear not, for no one actually expects you to play in these types of conditions. And if you can get a group together to boycott the practices, even better. So what should you do instead? Play golf! According to the March 1, 1920 New York Times, six Yankees (including Babe Ruth) decided it was too cold to practice so they decided to go play golf instead (all articles may be clicked on to expand):

Hot Weather

Well once the cold weather passes, you know what's next, don't you? Yes, hot weather. And sometimes that Florida heat can get mighty hot. So how do you keep cool when this happens? According to Babe Ruth, the way to do it is to follow his slogan: "Keep cool with cabbage." Nothing says baseball quite like iced cabbage leafs wrapped around your head, does it? A 1927 New York Times "Sports of the Times" teaches one how to keep cool with cabbage, Ruth-style:

 

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Stat of the Day -- Old Guys and RBIs

From Baseball-Reference.com (and why you don't sign guys past 33 to long-term deals...). An interesting list to say the least. You have two of the most famous players in the history of the game (the Babe and Stan the Man), two mid-90s warriors (O'Neill and Galarraga), two steroid players (Palmeiro and Sheffield), and now Raul Ibanez (who is working on his best season currently). A-Rod just reached 33, but as a Yankee fan, I hope he too is on this list in a few years.

Just 7 players have gotten at least 100 RBI in each season at ages 34, 35, and 36:

                   From  To   Ages Seasons Link to Individual Seasons
+-----------------+----+----+-----+-------+------------------------------+
 Raul Ibanez       2006 2008 34-36       3 Ind. Seasons
 Gary Sheffield    2003 2005 34-36       3 Ind. Seasons
 Rafael Palmeiro   1999 2001 34-36       3 Ind. Seasons
 Paul O'Neill      1997 1999 34-36       3 Ind. Seasons
 Andres Galarraga  1995 1997 34-36       3 Ind. Seasons
 Stan Musial       1955 1957 34-36       3 Ind. Seasons
 Babe Ruth         1929 1931 34-36       3 Ind. Seasons