Trivia Tuesday: RBIs aplenty

It's a little late in the day, but better late than never to revive one of NYaT's longest traditions...

Going into the 2011 season, the Yankees' lineup seemed old and primed for a dropoff in production, while the Red Sox (having added Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford) were expected to be an offensive juggernaut.  Alas, we have seen a very different story over the last five weeks.  There are 5 Yankees ranked in the Top 20 American League RBI producers (Cano, Martin, A-Rod, Granderson, and Teixeira) while the Red Sox have just one (Gonzalez).

Way back in 1961, Roger Maris led the AL with 142 RBIs.  Who was the next Yankees player to lead the league in RBIs?

Bonus: In what year did he do it, and how many did he drive in?

Bonus No. 2: Who was the most recent Yankee to lead the AL in RBIs?

Put your answers in the comments below and later tonight I'll reveal the correct answers!

Random Thoughts: Super Bowl, 'Melo, Yankees' Signings, and Cano

I had my first experience taking transportation other than a car to or from Boston this weekend and I can tell you it's not so much fun. But while I flew there, I'm taking Megabus on my way back and being blessed with spotty WiFi, I felt it a good time to blog. I know I've been absent from the blog for a while but I've been transitioning to a new [day] job and haven't had the time I would like to pump out great blog posts for the NYaT audience. So here's a bunch of random sports thoughts as I figure out how to get this guy's job as a ticket broker (H/T Zack):

I'm rooting with the rest of the Cheeseheads for Aaron Rodgers (NYP)

My Super Bowl Team

I don't think I'm alone rooting for the Packers tonight in the Super Bowl. I think while most of the time people root for a team, this battle is a battle of quarterback personalities. While Big Ben has become a hard-to-root-for quarterback with his off-the-field issues, Aaron Rodgers is about as easy to root for as a QB can be. He sat on the bench and didn't complain while Brett Favre did his annual retirement dance and the year that Favre had his personal downfall as a person and player, Rodgers is about to assert himself among the best QBs in the NFL. And if you look at the past 5 Super Bowls, the better story always won, though none will top the Drew Brees taking the post-Katrina Saints all the way last year. I think the Packers are going to win but I'm truly just rooting for an entertaining game.

Carmelo Anthony

I've been pretty adamantly against the Knicks double paying for 'Melo (in prospects and then in money) knowing that he's probably going to sign with the Knicks no matter what in the off-season. But after the Cliff Lee saga, I know that something like that is never certain and if the latest rumored offer (Knicks only giving up Wilson Chandler, Anthony Randolph, and Eddy Curry's obese corpse) is really true, I say go for it. They could go small and have a starting 5 of Amare, Raymond Felton, Landry Fields, Gallo, and 'Melo or move Fields to a super 6th man and start Ronny Turiaf or The Mozgov Cocktail in his place. Carmelo may not make the Knicks that much better (he plays even less defense), but for three players who won't be here next year, I think it's a steal. 'Melo has used his leverage and now the Knickerbockers need to take advantage of it.

Yankees' Latest Signings

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Hot Stove Coal: Would You Trade Robinson Cano for King Felix?

Felix Hernandez for Robinson Cano and others? This is just a hypothetical, but if Felix Hernandez was available, would you, as a Yankee fan, trade Robinson Cano in a package for him? That was the debate my dad and I just had and I figured I'd open it up to blog discussion.

Should the Yanks give up Cano for King Felix & his Cy? (Seattle Times)

Cano had his best season in 2010 as he vied for the American League MVP award and established himself as one of the top players in baseball and with Chase Utley and Dustin Pedroia, among the top echelon of second baseman in the Major Leagues. He backed up that offense with very good defense and has seemed to really find his own as the #5 hitter in the lineup and as a good teammate in the clubhouse. He hit .319/.381/.534 last season with 29 HR and 109 RBIs and put up a career high 6.4 fWAR.

Felix Hernandez is a unique power pitcher with durability. Young and already incredibly accomplished with a Cy Young (and a second place finish) and to his name, Hernandez is one of the top pitchers in baseball. Besides maybe the Phillies, there is no rotation in baseball where King Felix would not join and be the ace. Over the past two seasons he is 32-17 with a 2.38 ERA, with 8 complete games, 34 starts each season, and an average of 244 innings and 224 strikeouts per season and a 3.18 SO/BB ratio. He has led the league in hits per 9 innings each of the past two seasons. He's put up a total of 13.0 fWAR over the past two seasons.

So that sets up the scenario: would you trade Cano in a package for King Felix? It would probably take Cano plus a few other prospects to get a deal done and all signs point to the fact that Hernandez isn't available, but would you trade the Ribbies from Robby for the Ks from the King? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below?

If you say yes, what would be the maximum package you would be OK with? Would Cano plus Jesus Montero be too much for you? Would Cano plus Montero plus a Killer B be too much? Or would you only do the deal if it was Cano straight up for King Felix? This is a hypothetical so give us your hypothetical in the comments.

Hot Stove Coal: Reviewing Yankees Worst Case Scenarios from 2010

I figured today was a good day to revisit a depressing topic. Last winter we launched into a series looking at the Yankees worst-case scenarios for the 2010 season. I didn't expect it to be as popular as it was but it was copied on Yankees blogs, national baseball blogs and even Red Sox blogs. Our three-part series went into what it would look like if everything went wrong. Well, despite winning the Wild Card and making the American League Championship Series, some of these worst-case scenarios actually came to fruition. Let's look at each of them again and see how close we go to predicting the worst-case scenario, starting with Part 1, "The Starting Lineup":

Jeter smiles but the Cold War was predicted back in February (CBC)

Jorge Posada 
What I said worst-case would look like: "Basically 2008 redux. He played in only 51 games, garnering a measly 195 PAs. The Yankees don't need him to get 545 (a number he reached from 2000-2007) but they need him to hit the mid 400s...Jorgie can't get hurt"

What actually happened: Posada played in 120 games and got 451 PAs which was more than he had logged since 2007. The problem was that he hit like 2008 when he played, putting up a .248/.357/.454 line. He also had injury issues like 2008 with a fractured foot in mid-May and a Baker Cyst behind his knee which kept him from crouching. Worse than his offense was his defense which was so bad the Yankees have informed him he is a designated hitter in 2011. 

Mark Teixeira 
What I said worst-case would look like: "The beginning of [2009]. He can't hit and he's killing the team out there..on May 2nd of [2009], Tex was hitting .182/.354/.338 through 99 PAs"

What actually happened: Well, through 99 PAs in 2010 Tex hit .136/.300/.259 and it took him longer to get out of his slump. He still finished with very good numbers but he didn't come close to hitting his 2009 totals. And an injury during the ALCS ended his playoffs and seemed to deflate the entire Yankees' offense. Teixeira still played great defense and got on base during his slump but it took a while for him to come around while he killed the Yankees from the #3 slot.

Robinson Cano

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"Was It Over When the Germans Bombed Pearl Harbor?"

The truth about playoff baseball is that it's all about staying alive. I'm sure there is a good deal of momentum and confidence involved in winning a seven-games series, but the truth is that most of the time, momentum--in the words of Earl Weaver--is the next day's starting pitcher. I can see what Cliff Corcoran of Pinstriped Bible means when he writes that Game 5's win feels like it's only delaying the inevitable (a lot of fans in the stands seemed to feel the same way), but I also can see a path to winning this series because of what's happened in the past. Here's what I'm hanging my head on:

Cano and Swisher hope to fuel the Yanks to 2 more wins (Gothamist)

From the time the Yankees won the 2000 American League Championship Series against the Mariners to the time they won the 2009 American League Championship Series against the Angels, there have been 10 best-of-seven series than have gone to a 6th game. In a 6th game, one team is up 3-2 in the series and the other is facing elimination--so 10 teams were in the spot that they needed to win to fight another day. But in all but one case (the 2005 NLCS), the series went to a 7th game. In the 2001 World Series, the 2002 World Series, the 2003 NLCS, the 2004 ALCS, and the 2007 ALCS, the team that was behind 3-2 in Game 6 won Game 7. The other 3 years (2003 ALCS, 2006 NLCS and the 2008 ALCS) the team that forced Game 7 eventually lost that game. Put otherwise, in those 10 series that reached a 6th game, 6 of those teams who were behind 3-2 ended up winning.

That 2007 ALCS won by the Red Sox is the ones that Joe Pawlikowski of River Ave Blues equates to the one the Yankees are currently in. Down 3-1 in the series, the Red Sox climbed back and won. Of course, the Red Sox didn't have to face Cliff Lee in a potential Game 7 (sorry, Nick), but as Neil Paine of the New York Times writes about, Lee would be no sure thing if this series got to a Game 7. Matt Warden of Yankeeist goes through some other notable postseason comebacks.

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Yankees Chasing Numbers: The Hitters

A few of the Yankees chasing special milestone numbers in the last weeks of the season (thanks to Baseball-Reference's Play Index for a lot of the help on this):

Robinson Cano can join some impressive company in 2010 (ESPN)

Robinson Cano (.323, 99 runs, 187 hits, 28 HR, 102 RBI, 13 IBB).

If Cano reaches 100 runs, 200 hits, 30 HR and 110 RBIs (and he's on pace for each mark), he would become the third Yankee to do so after Lou Gehrig (7 times), Babe Ruth (3 times), Don Mattingly (twice) and Joe DiMaggio (once). Cano would also become only the third Yankee middle infielder to hit 30 HR after Alfonso Soriano (twice) and Joe Gordon (once). The only Yankees with an average of at least .323 and 30 HR: Babe Ruth (11 times), Lou Gehrig (9 times), Joe DiMaggio (5 times), Don Mattingly (3 times), and Mickey Mantle (twice). Cano's 13 intentional walks are tied for 9th best for a Yankee, one more ties him for 6th, two more ties him for 5th and 4 more would tie him for 4th. A 200-hit season would make him the first Yankee second baseman with more than one 200-hit season and would join Derek Jeter as the only other Yankee middle infielder with multiple 200-hit seasons..

Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher, Alex Rodriguez, Curtis Granderson (30 HR, 28 HR, 26 HR, 25 HR, and 21 HR respectively)

If somehow 4 players finishes with 30 home runs, it would be the first time that 4 Yankees have hit 30 HR in the same year. The Yankees have had 3 players hit 30+ HR in one season 4 different times: 1941 and 2003, 2004 and 2005. Right now the Yankees have 4 players with 25 HR, tying them for second on the all-time list with the 1938 Yankees. If Granderson can hit 4 more home runs, they would tie the 2009 team which also had 5 players hit 25+ HR.

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The Yankee Clipper: Going For A Sweep (and Poll Results)

The Yankees have notched 5 Ws in a row and going for a 4-game sweep of the lowly Oakland Athletics today at the Stadium. Since the beginning of July, the Yankees have only lost 3 series (two vs. Toronto and one vs. Tampa) and the Yankees now sit by themselves in 1st place, a season-high 33 games over .500 at 83-50. How did we get here and where do the Yankees go from here?

Jorge Posada's strike out from last night looked a bit outside (BrooksBaseball)

1. The Yankees rotation concerns are really nothing new. Mike Axisa of River Ave Blues wrote a whole post about it, but I've been saying it for weeks: the 2010 team looks a lot like 2009. This statement was true for both 2009 and 2010: A.J. Burnett went 0-4 in August with an ugly ERA and questions were raised about his ability to pitch in October. Well last night we saw Good A.J., also known as the guy who won every Game 2 for the Yankees last year. So the Yankees will have to hope for a Good A.J. the rest of the way, a healthy Andy Pettitte, and someone else (Ivan Nova, Phil Hughes, or Javier Vazquez) step up and contribute. This is not to say that the rotation shouldn't be a concern for the Yankees, but just that the Yankees had the same issues and much less depth last year and they figure out how to bring home a World Series. Moshe Mandel at TYU takes an early gander at the postseason rotation. I think a lot of that will be in flux as September performances take shape. Brien @ IIATMS takes stock of the rotation.
2. Robinson Cano: MVP? We'll have to look at this a bit more, but I wanted to throw it out there. Josh Hamilton is kicking Cano's ass in WAR on FanGraphs, but leads all AL hitters in WAR in Baseball-Reference. As ESPN Stats and Info blog wrote yesterday, Cano's best time of year is just starting so te best may be yet to come (though it's hard to imagine him being better than his ridiculous April). YES' Jack Curry writes that Cano is showing the maturity and talent of an MVP. Detroit has fallen off so Miguel Cabrera will be hard-pressed to win (unless he miraculously takes the AL Triple Crown) and Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria and Carl Crawford will probably split votes for their teams. The Yankees' other two of NoMass' Three Amigos (Mark Teixeira and Nick Swisher) don't figure to take away too many votes from Cano. I think it comes down to Hamilton and Cano and Cano's position may make it a close race.
3. What will be the price tag on Derek Jeter?

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Quick Hits: FanGraphs Event, Yankee Bullpen, Mets, Cervelli, CC, Granderson, and Other Baseball Thoughts

It's time to play some catch-up on the blog. A little of a lot here on a Monday. Some quick hits for you:

- The FanGraphs Live event last Saturday in Manhattan was awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed the conference and the panels were all extremely engaging. Amanda Rykoff has a great review of the whole event at The OCD Chick, and Dave Cameron and Carson Cistulli of FanGraphs both have great recaps. A few observations/conclusions from the panel:

The FanGraphs live event was awesome

• I may be a nerd (Amanda did label this a "mini-dorkapalooza")
• Ben Kabak of River Ave Blues dislikes Francisco Cervelli as much on Twitter as he does in real life (and Jay Jaffe of Pinstriped Bible dishes out some dislike as well)
• Mike Axisa of River Ave Blues argues that the strength of the AL East pushes each team to get better
• Reporting on Twitter discourages analysis and makes it more about a personal brand
• The Wall Street Journal has a great formula for their sports section: smart, funny and analytical
• The game story is slowly leaving the papers (and with it, the need for the box score as well as Tim Kurkjian wrote on ESPN)
• Bloomberg Sports has an awesome fantasy sports tool that can even show video of Jeff Francouer drawing multiple walks
• Statistics are now for a wider audience than just nerds (though Tim Marchman of SI looks at the problems with defensive stats)
• The biggest myth in sports (according to one panelists) is that the pitcher stopping his windup mid-motion has led to a lot of injuries 
• I now own a FanGraphs t-shirt
• "Accept randomness"
• It was nice to finally meet in person people like Ben and Amanda who were, until now, just Twitter avatars and bylines on blog posts. This type of thing should occur more often.

- Joel Sherman of the New York Post asked today (re: the Yankees bullpen): "Do you believe in this group?" At one point the answer would most certainly have been no, but Joba Chamberlain, David Robertson, Boone Logan and Kerry Wood have joined together to form a nice "Bridge to Mariano". The Yankees bullpen in August is 1-1 (the one loss came from Mariano Rivera) with a 1.02 ERA in 35.1 innings and has a WHIP of 0.991. Since July 2nd, they've only allowed 16% of inherited runners to score (which was a bugaboo for a while with this team as they were at 30% at that point). With Andy Pettitte coming back (forcing Dustin Moseley back to the bullpen), and Alfredo Aceves and Damaso Marte on the mend, this is looking like a pretty good group. And despite his latest glitch, Mariano Rivera is pretty great/probably the greatest ever. The Yankees are 62-0 when leading after 8.

-CC Sabathia is getting less strikeouts as David Golebiewski of FanGraphs pointed out today and Dave Cameron pointed out last week. Here's my theory: from 2005 to 2010, Sabathia's thrown more innings than anyone in baseball. Maybe he's resting his arm a bit knowing he has plenty of years left to pitch in baseball. While strikeouts are the surest way to prevent outs, groundouts are usually a good way as well and they usually require less pitches. That's probably a good thing for someone who will have over 20,000 pitches in a 6-year span. Like Girardi told Chad Jennings of LoHud: "we don't want to wear the big guy down."

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The Yankee Clipper: The Infield

Yesterday we looked at the Yankees' outfield at the All-Star Break. Today we'll check out the Yankees infield and see how they've been fairing so far in 2010. We'll leave out the catchers for now, but we'll make sure to get back to them later. We'll also examine any places of weaknesses to see where the Yankees could make some strikes before July 31st:

1. Alex Rodriguez. We'll work our way around the diamond but start first with A-Rod. In what's been his least controversial year (so far), A-Rod's bat hasn't been producing either. His .269/.345/.481 line would all be his worst mark since 1995 and his 27 home run pace would his worst since 1997 (and his first time not hitting 30 since then). The one thing that A-Rod is still doing offensively is driving in runs and his 70 RBI are 3rd in the American League--and puts him on pace for 133 which would be the 4th highest mark of his career. He's also hitting doubles and triples at a high pace and his projected total of 42 non-HR XBH would be his highest since 1997. Now that could mean that he's just had bad luck and some of his flyballs haven't left the park this year--and the numbers support that. Only 11.2% of A-Rod's flyballs have left the park which would be his lowest mark since 1995 and way under his 18.5% career mark and his BABIP of .281 is way under his career mark of .320. So what does this mean for the man who is about to hit 600 home runs? There's probably some sort of correction coming (especially since he's also been battling a bad hip). I would assume he ends the season with higher slash lines and his regular 30+ HR and 100+ RBI power numbers (though his steals have gone down from 24 in 2007 to 18 in 2008 to 14 in 2009 to only 2 so far in 2010). The weirdest part of A-Rod's stats: he hits righties at a much better clip (175 points higher in OPS) than he hits lefties. This mostly seems to be because his inability to hit lefties cutters and it is a small sample size--but it is strange (as was his All-Star Game exclusion). His UZR number is actually his best since 2005 so despite his bad hip, he's still about average defensively. The key for A-Rod is finding a good backup so the Yankees feel comfortable sitting or DH'ing him once every week to 10 days. Right now, I don't think they have confidence in any one of the backups (and we'll get to that later) and need to hope for more A-Bombs from A-Rod. Best Month: May .330/.408/.534 with 5 HR and 27 RBI.
2. Derek Jeter. "El Capitan" had one of the best years of his career last season. This year has been a little rougher on the aging shortstop. A free agent in the off-season, he's at least made the Yankees think twice about giving him too many years. .274/.340/.392 would amazing all be the lowest marks of his entire career. He's on pace for 112 runs, 32 2B, 15 HR, 80 RBI and 17 SB so the production is still there, but he's certainly fallen off of his 2009 mark (and this is all with his HR/FB % the highest of his career). There is still hope for Jeter, though. He's typically a better second half player with his three best months of July, August and September (in ascending order). In many ways this season looks a lot like 2008 when Jeter had a horrible first half but raised his OPS 75 points in the second half. The Yankees need to keep their fingers crossed that Jeter can do the same in 2010 (or they need to move Brett Gardner to the leadoff spot to get a high OBP player in front of Jetes. You also hope that maybe playing for the memory of George Steinbrenner will propel Jeter to greatness in the second half of the season. Here's one big issue: Jeter can't hit righties. He's hitting .323/.372/.504 vs. lefties and an atrocious .248/.323/.332 vs. righties. If Jeter can turn that around, it will go a long way in helping his overall numbers. If not (and RotoGraphs thinks his days of being a .300 hitter may be behind him), the Yankees need to think long and hard about how many years to give an aging shortstop this off-season. Best Month: April .330/.354/.521 with 4 HR, 18 RBI and 3 SB.

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Robinson Cano's troubling decision to participate in the 2010 Home Run Derby

MLB recently announced that the Yankees' All-Star second baseman, Robinson Cano, will be participating in the 2010 Home Run Derby.  He will be joined by Miguel Cabrera (20 HRs), Corey Hart (19 HRs), Vernon Wells (19 HRs), David Ortiz (17 HRs), and Matt Holliday (11 HRs).  In case you're wondering, Cano is currently 10th in the AL with 16 homers.

I am concerned about Cano's decision to participate, and I'm not the only one who feels this way.  Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News agrees with me, and so does Yankees' hitting coach Kevin Long.

Honestly, who could blame them?  Baseball history is rife with players whose power numbers dropped off dramatically after trying their best to purposely crush homer after homer in this exhibition contest.  Two of the best known examples of this phenomenon are players we know quite well.  Bobby Abreu launched a record-setting 41 home runs in 2005.  Before the Derby he had hit 18 HRs.  Afterwards, he hit only 6 homers the rest of the way.  In 2006, David Wright hit 20 homers before launching 22 in the Derby.  Then, like Abreu, he hit only 6 more in the second half.  (Photo Credit: NY Daily News)

Sure, there are players who kept their swing intact after the Derby.  Ryan Howard won the 2006 Derby with 23 dingers, but still managed to revert back to his old plate approach once the regular season resumed.  In fact, Howard hit more homers in the second half (30) than he did in the first half (28).  But there is a real risk that Cano might not be so fortunate.  His own teammate, A-Rod, participated in 3 Derbys (1998, 2001, 2002) and says he has declined invitations since then, believing that his participation took a toll.  "The effect in the second half might be more mechanics and potentially developing bad habits," A-Rod stated.

I just don't see what Cano has to win.  A trophy and some national attention?  Come on.  The guy is already an All-Star, he's 4th in the AL with a .337 BA, 5th in the AL with a .948 OPS, and 2nd in the AL with 110 hits.  People know he's a stud having a career year.  So clearly, he has a lot to lose.  His average has already dropped from .371 to .342 in his last 15 games.  Does he really want to take the (real, tangible) risk of declining further?

My All-Star Team: American League Hitters

The Major League Baseball All-Star Game in baseball is probably not a game that should count and sometimes the fans seem to get the wrong players elected--but then again, that doesn't make it different than any other form of democracy. And sometimes, people certainly get picked for the wrong reasons as The Common Man showed  last week. In the end, the Mid-Summer Classic is all about being an exhibition of baseball's best players. So I'm going to take only the best players, rule-about-taking-one-player-per-team be damned! Here's my list of the best candidates for the All-Star Game starting with the AL guys who will be swinging the bat (all stats min 100 PAs):

Catcher: Jorge Posada, Victor Martinez, and Joe Mauer. Mauer is the leading vote getter for all of Major League Baseball so he's in without a doubt. But if you were picking a player on pure stats, this wouldn't be the year to take Mauer at first glance (his numbers perfectly mirror his 2007 output). But when you drill down, Mauer has still had a pretty great season and is worth of an All-Star nod. Although not as adept defensively, Posada and Martinez may beat Mauer with the bat this year. Although he's been battling injuries (and therefore spent quite a bit of time at DH as well as only racked up 171 PAs), Posada leads all the catchers in OPS (slash lines of .287/.398/.538) and wOBA (.406 to Martinez's .363 and Mauer's .356). Martinez leads all catchers with 29 XBH so far this season. Amazingly (considering his lack of speed), one stat that favors Jorge this season is GIDP: Mauer has 14, Martinez 9 and Posada 1. "Counting" stats: Mauer .304 avg, 3 HR, 21 RBI; Martinez .291 avg, 9 HR, 37 RBI; Posada .287 avg, 9 HR, 25 RBI. Honorable Mentions: John Buck (.271/.309/.532, .356 wOBA, 12 HR, 38 RBI) and Mike Napoli (.251/.329/.478, .354 wOBA, 11 HR, 27 RBI). Picture from The Star-Ledger.

Firstbase: Justin Morneau, Miguel Cabrera and Kevin Youkilis. All three players are having monster years and all three are early candidates for MVP. Morneau's numbers are off the charts (almost Mauer like) with a ridiculous slash line of .340/.448/.622 and a wOBA of .452 to go along with 15 HR and 47 RBI. That wOBA is the highest (among all players who have qualified for the batting title) in the Majors. Second is Youk (.440) and third is Cabrera (.437). Mourneau's OPS of 1.070 leads all 1Bs trailed by Cabrera (1.041) and Youkilis (1.026). The WAR numbers tell the difference thus far though. Due to extremely positive fielding numbers, Morneau takes the lead with 4.3, Youkilis is seen about even and Cabrera is marked down for his defense. Cabrera leads in the counting stats while Youkilis has been hitting the tar out of the ball recently for the surging Red Sox. Morneau has the lead and should start but the other two should be named replacements on the team. Counting stats: Morneau .340 avg, 15 HR, 47 RBI; Cabrera .328 avg, 19 HR, 60 RBI; Youkilis .312 avg, 14 HR, 47 RBI. Honorable Mentions: Paul Konerko (.296/.396/.574, 17 HR, 51 RBI, .413 wOBA) and Billy Butler (.330/.383/.491, 7 HR, 37 RBI, .381 wOBA). Picture from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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Yankees Finding Ways To Utilize Open DH Spot

I don't think the Yankees planned to have Nick Johnson miss time. I don't think they got him thinking "hey, he'll probably get injured and open up the DH slot." But while Nick Johnson's injury isn't a good thing for the Yankees, the vacancy in the DH spot has been a positive point at times for the Yankees. With an older team and injuries to key players, the Yankees have needed to use the DH spot to ease players back in the lineup (as they did last night with Alex Rodriguez). Let's take a look at how the DH spot has gone for the Yankees this season.

The graph below from Baseball-Reference shows all the people that have spent time at DH this season for the Yanks:

	Age	G
Nick Johnson	31	19
Jorge Posada	38	14
Juan Miranda	27	7
Marcus Thames	33	7
Mark Teixeira	30	5
Alex Rodriguez	34	4
Derek Jeter	36	3
Nick Swisher	29	2
Robinson Cano	27	1

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 6/17/2010.

Jorge Posada has played the most games besides Johnson on this list and for good reason. The 38-year-old would have probably spent a good deal of time at DH anyways due the fact that he can't squat for 162 games, but his foot injury kept him from being the Yankees catcher for quite longer than expected. Posada has historically been a better hitter when he catches and 2010 is no different. A caveat though, Posada's time at DH was spent while he was still pretty injured so the results may have also been hindered by the fact he was not always healthy while DH'ing. His .229/.362/.438 splits in 58 PAs out of the DH slot is not bad as it contains 3 HR in his 11 hits. Joe from FanGraphs wrote about catchers who are good enough to DH back on June 1st, and Posada has given the Yankees a great option of using the better defensive player (Francisco Cervelli) at catcher and preserve Jorge's body while DH'ing. Even now that he's returned behind the plate, I expect that quite a few of Jorge's ABs will come with the other half of the day off.

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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.

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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.

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Robinson Cano Is Showing He Can Handle #5

It's time to issue a mea culpa: I was dead wrong about Robinson Cano's hitting ability in the 5th spot of the lineup and I apologize for it. Now can we move on? No? Ok, well let's review. I railed against how the Yankees constructed their lineup when Cano was hitting 5th in mid-June, and a week later, I was still on the task, with some data to back it up. I called it "inexplicable", suggested they hit him *gulp* lead-off,  and threw up a "Hallelujah!" when they moved Cano out of the 5th spot. I wasn't the only one. I look back on those posts now and cringe. Why? Because I was dead wrong, as so far this season, Cano is proving to be one of the better hitters in baseball.

And for a guy who began his career as a slow starter (.293/.327/.451 in 1st half vs .329/.360/.533 in 2nd half--and that includes this April), he's on one hell of an April tear. He leads the majors in runs, hits, batting average, slugging percentage, wOBA, OPS+ and total bases, and leads the AL in OPS. Cano has hit in 8 straight games (where he is hitting .531), is 16 for his last 24, went 17 for 34 on the road trip, went 8 for 13 in the last series with 3 homeruns, and has played (in general) very good defense at 2nd including a Web Gem last night (shown to the right). He leads the Yankees with 8 home runsAnd there's this from ESPN New York's Andrew Marchand: "If he keeps his average above .400 on Friday night, [Cano] will finish this month with eight homers and a .400 batting average. No Yankee has ever done that, according to Elias. The last major leaguer to hit .400 with at least eight April home runs was Barry Bonds six years ago." River Ave Blues writes: "I know it’s April, but that’s utterly insane. If the Yankees didn’t already contractually control his rights through 2013, I’d suggest that they lock him up before he hits the open market." And the Posts' Joel Sherman writes "Cano has the look of someone who has graduated from a very good player to something more special than that."

Now, before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let's throw out a few caveats. First, it is still just April. And Cano still isn't that much more disciplined at the plate. According to FanGraphs, Cano has the highest BB% of his career so far with 6.7%, but he's also striking out 12.3% which would be his highest mark since 2008. And Cano is a streaky player and has been beating up on some bad teams so the fun may only last until the next slump or the next good pitching team. Yankeeist points out that the real test may come next month for Robbie.

But this is the Robinson Cano that Yankee fans have waited for for a long time now. We've seen him have streaks of brilliance, but for some reason, he seemed to lose the focus needed to put it all together for an MVP-type season. 2010 may be the year. Now some had suggested that maybe Cano would play worse this season without his buddy, Melky Cabrera, on the team. But rumor (and internet pictures) has it that Cano and Melky partied a lot together and maybe without the distraction of Melky, Cano can be a more focused baseball player. Regardless of what the reason is, Cano seems to be clicking on all cylinders through the month of April. He looks slick in the field and smooth at the bat. Again, it's still early, but this is a great start for Robinson Cano, don't ya know!

The Yankee Clipper: Disappointing Loss

There are games that you should win, and last night was certainly one of those for the Yankees. So why did they come out on the short end? While This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes looks for some rays of sunshine, let's take a look (with A-Rod looking absolutely ridiculous Presidential on the right from ESPN.com):

1. The Yankees bullpen and defense didn't perform. Boone Logan and David Robertson (and to a lesser extent, Alfredo Aceves) just didn't get the job done. Phil Hughes struggled but got through 5 2/3 with a 2-1 lead and turned the ball over to Boone Logan with the lefty, Luke Scott, up at the plate. Logan promptly walked him. Robertson came on to face Wigginton who he hit (on an 0-2 pitch). He then allowed three straight RBI singles to Rhyne Hughes (rookie), Nolan Reimold (struggling), and Caesar Izturis (just bad) before finally striking out Adam Jones.  As the Post's Joel Sherman writes, the Yankees bullpen is a little bit of a mess in front of Mo. Ben from River Ave Blues breaks down the Boone Logan decision.
2. The bullpen was bad, but the Yankees' defense didn't help them out. Aceves' run could have been prevented but bad defense by Derek Jeter (error to lead off inning) and Jorge Posada (who sailed a throw down to second into CF) but Caesar Izturis (Yankee killer) made it 5-2. Randy Winn also had a chance to throw out Luke Scott at the plate in the 6th but ended up throwing the ball straight into the ground (a la Todd Zeile in the 1996 ALCS).
3. The Yankees base-running was atrocious--and hurt them. Jorge Posada hit a home run but had a tough game defensively and running the bases. In the 6th inning, Posada was caught straying too far off second base (where the heck was he going) and Miguel Tejada easily threw over to get Jorge. Posada is not a good baserunner and this is not the first time a base-running gaffe of his hurt the Yankees.  Another bad baserunner on the Yankees is Robinson Cano who somehow thinks he's a base stealer just because he's a middle infielder. Well Cano got caught at second and ended a potential rally. NoMass has a memo to Cano to stop attempting steals.

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The Yankee Clipper: The Quest for 108 (and 28)

I didn't pick 108 just because it's a LOST number. I picked it because it would be the win total if the Yankees continue to win 2 out of every 3 games this season. 108-54. Now while I don't think the Yankees will win every series for the rest of the year (nor is every series 3 games) and while I don't put a lot of stock into games that occur before Memorial Day, it is big to take series in April against the Angels, Red Sox, and Rays who may be the top 3 teams besides the Yankees in the American League (definitely up for debate, but arguable). Wins now help out when the inevitable slumps happen later. By the aforementioned Memorial Day, the Yankees will have probably played every single contender in the American League--and some more than once. So while I don't put a lot of stock into early season success propelling a team to the playoffs, this is one case where early season failures could definitely keep the Yankees out. Good start so far. Now to the list on the week the Yankees got their rings (picture to the right from the Daily News article)

1. Stop booing Javy...for now. It's been two series since we've done a Yankee Clipper and in that time, we've seen only two losses, both by Javier Vazquez. During the last one (in Yankee Stadium), Vazquez was mercilessly booed. While I'm a big supporter of "you paid for your ticket, you can boo who you want" (I did it to A-Rod at times), I think this is quite unwarranted and, maybe a little classless. We just won a World Series, people. Vazquez has been back for only a few months. Vazquez's first stint in the Bronx featured him having a great first half and then getting injured. Instead of "pulling a Carl Pavano", he pitched through it. The results weren't pretty (and we can argue about whether he's just as guilty for pitching through the pain) and his part in the Game 7 collapse leaves a scar on a lot of us. But give the guy a break. Booing him this early into his 2nd Yankee go-around won't help the cause at all. I felt this with Jose Contreras, Jeff Weaver and some of the other fragile personalities who got booed in the Bronx--just cheer the heck out of the guy for a few months and see what that does. Especially if you're going to give a standing ovation to Hideki Matsui after he hits a home run. I appreciate what the guy did in Pinstripes, but I reserve my standing Os for those wearing Pinstripes--or at least those who spent more than 6 years here. Let's not confuse this guy for Don Mattingly.
2. I was never a fan of the move, but I think that Robinson Cano may fit fine into the 5th slot in the lineup. As Paul mentioned to me today, this is a turn around from my previous stance on Cano. There are some guys that can't hack it with runners on base and there are some that just seem like they can't hack it because of bad luck. I was worried that Cano fell into the latter category and his unusually low BAbip made me feel that maybe last year's failures were a fluke. I'm still not convinced, but with Jorge Posada the only other viable option, I'm OK with Robby. As Chad Jennings writes, he's been terrific in that spot. He's batting .395 with a 1.216 OPS. But here's my reason to be concerned: Robinson is not a patient hitter by any means. Although he's shown a slight uptick in pitches per PA (up to 3.43 this season), he has a grand total of one walk. There may be times where we'll miss Hideki Matsui or Jorge Posada in that spot when we need a grind-it-out RBI AB, but I think overall Cano may be fine. Though I want to reserve judgment until he's played a bit more
   

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The Yankee Clipper: Game 2

I have to admit, most of my time was spent last night watching LOST and some of my sports watching was split between the Yankees/Red Sox and the Rangers. But that doesn't mean I can't give you a Yankee Clipper for Game 2:

1. I'm sure you've heard by now of Big Papi's big, expletive-laced tirade. Gordon Edes of ESPN Boston has some more information. Matt at Fack Youk thinks he may have justifiably been upset since we are two games into the season and he's already getting questions about his production. Craig Calcaterra at HardballTalk agrees with Matt. I'm OK with Papi being upset about being questioned this early in the season, but the dude is playing in one of the biggest baseball media markets and reaped a lot of good will form the writers when his career was going well. He can't now turn to the same people and mouth off just because they have to fill a newspaper column. That's unfair.
2. Also unfair is claiming that Joba Chamberlain has been magically healed by the bullpen gods because he pitched well last night and pumped his fist (*cough* Wallace Matthews). We'll never know now if he could have done this as a starter in the rotation, but those same people weren't texting me on Sunday night and saying that Joba's "bullpen mentality" wasn't working that night. I'm rooting for him to do well in this role--I really am--but I'm not going to engage in selective celebrations of success. We can collectively fist pump if Phil Hughes pitches well in the 5th role and the Yankees get to the playoffs at the end of the year. I can't say I didn't love the fist pump (I did one at home), but let's all settle down a bit (picture to the right from the ESPN New York article)
3. Nick Johnson's walk. Sometimes the biggest hit of the game is not a hit at all. If you want to see a reason we got Nick Johnson, that was it. Like Giambi, because of his eye Johnson is one of those guys who is sometimes does more damage with a walk than with a hit. It's not the most fun baseball, but it's what puts runs on the board and marks in the win column. As Mike from River Ave Blues wrote, Nick Johnson's biggest swing came with the bat on his shoulder.
4. Nick Swisher's patience. Pitchers will hate both of the "Nicks" in the Yankees lineup of 2010. Swishalicous saw 30 pitches last night. The best AB was 8 pitches against Manny Delcarmen. He doubled at the end of the at-bat and even though he didn't score, the amount of pitches he saw effects the game and the rest of the series. Maybe Delcarmen is unavailable tonight because of the toll he took last night. That's a victory in and of itself.
5. Robinson Cano's power. When Cano is on with the bat, he has such a sweet swing. This is a guy who could win a batting title and maybe vie for an MVP award if he kept focused all season. His blast to rightfield last night continued to show that. Focus, Robby, focus.

Final Thoughts: Other aspects I didn't talk about? Jorge and AJ doing fine as battery mates (we can stop that chatter for now), Alfredo Aceves doing really well out of the bullpen (I think that will be a big factor), and Marco Scutaro's error (is their a Red Sox curse for not resigning Orlando Cabrera?). 1-1 record and going for the series win tonight. Good start to the season. I just love having baseball back as the weather continues to get nicer.

Should We Read More Into Today's Yankees Starting Lineup?

Brett Gardner in center. Nick Johnson hitting 2nd. Robinson Cano hitting 5th. Nick Swisher hitting 8th. A while back we debated the Yankees starting lineup but now it seems to be coming to some sort of conclusion. As Chad Jennings of The LoHud Yankees Blog wrote, today's lineup looks like the expected Opening Day lineup:

1. Derek Jeter SS
2. Nick Johnson DH
3. Mark Teixeira 1B
4. Alex Rodriguez 3B
5. Robinson Cano 2B
6. Jorge Posada C
7. Curtis Granderson LF
8. Nick Swisher RF
9. Brett Gardner CF

Two big observations there: the Yankees have faith in Cano turning around his putrid RISP numbers from last year (and, let's all admit, it might just have been bad luck) and the Yankees have more faith in Gardner playing center than Granderson. As I've said, I don't usually put a lot of stock in what goes on in Spring Training but when Ben pointed out to me that Granderson looked awful in CF, it worried me a bit. Maybe it worried the Yankees too. Leftfield at Yankee Stadium is a hard position to man so having Granderson play there is not a large knock on his abilities. And if the small sample size we have of Brett Gardner holds, this will actually make the Yankees (marginally) better defensively.

Nick Johnson hitting in the two-hole is not a surprise. Although some feel that he will "clog up the bases", I rather a guy clog up the bases by getting on base 4 out of 10 times than one who speeds through the bases 3 out of ten times. If Johnson can stay healthy, the top 4 of that lineup is probably the best in baseball. I thought that Swisher may hit a little higher in the lineup, but I don't think his hitting 8th is truly a reflection of his ability. I think, rather, it's a reflection of how deep the Yankees lineup is. I wonder if, by season's end, the Yankees will have moved him up a bit, though.

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Yankees Over/Under: Starting 9 Hitters

I thought it would be fun to do Over/Under for the Yankees to see where people predict people will end up by the end of the year. So I'll put out a list of over/under numbers and you'll put your predictions in the comments below. Let's start out with the Yankee starting 9 hitters:

1. Curtis Granderson - 30 HR (his career high set last year)
2. Jorge Posada - 111 games (the amount he played in last season)
3. Mark Teixeira - 35 HR, 114 RBI (his career average)
4. Robinson Cano - .365 OBP (career high set in 2006)
5. Derek Jeter - 200 hits (a benchmark we seem to have for him every season)
6. Alex Rodriguez - 30 HR and 100 RBI (numbers he's hit every year since 1998)
7. Nick Swisher - 8 HR at home (his odd number from last season)
8. Brett Gardner - 39 SB (his career SB total)
9. Nick Johnson - 438 PAs (his average plate appearances since he left New York)

And now a few non-stat related ones:

10. Nick Johnson - 1.5 trips to the disabled list
11. Kate Hudson - 0.5 times on TV at a Yankee game this season rooting on A-Rod
12. Derek Jeter - 0.5 pies in the face after game-winning hit (he had none last year)
13. Jorge Posada - 25 games caught for his buddy, A.J. Burnett
14. Derek Jeter - 0.5 engagements
15. Nick Swisher - 2 hairstyles 

So what do you think? Put your answers in the comments below and pick an over/under for whichever ones you want. The next group we'll go with are the pitchers so stay tuned.

Picture from the New York Daily News