With the All-Star game less than a week away, the season has almost reached its halfway point, and we have reached a good point to evaluate our 2008 New York Yankees. First the obvious, the Yankees are 49-42, 7 games above .500, 6.5 games out of first and 4.5 games out of the wildcard. The good news with regard to their record is that they are trailing Tampa Bay and Boston, respectively, they have plenty of games left against both teams and will have an opportunity to make up ground. This was evidenced this past weekend when the Bombers split a 4 game series with Boston, then took 2 from Tampa (of course, as I write this the Yanks are down 2-0 to the freakin' Pirates - aaaaargggggghhhhh!).
Now let to let the bloodletting begin. This is a maddeningly inconsistent team. The offense has been disappointing to say the least. It would be easy to say that some of this is bad luck, after all, Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Jorge Posada and Alex Rodriguez have all made extended trips to the disabled list. However, luck is the residue of design, and going into the season everyone knew that this was an old Yankee team. And the one thing we all know about the elderly is that they break down, so it is hardly shocking that 4 expected starters, all in their thirties, missed time with injuries. Age may also be a contributing factor to Bobby Abreu's sudden inability to discern the strike zone. Abreu's On Base Percentage is a lowly .345, he stopped hitting homers a couple of years ago, if he stops walking, he's pretty much useless. (Abreu just tied up the game, but it was with a single - not a walk or homer - the trend continues.) Robinson Cano was simply atrocious in the first half, however, he seems to have rediscovered his stroke of late and his defense is spectacular.
Perhaps the two biggest turds in the lineup are Melky Cabrera and dare I say it, the Captain. First, the Captain. I have no doubt that Derek Jeter will turn things around, for fuck's sake he's hitting .280 and having his worst season ever, but he has been terrible lately. Like Abreu, Jeter has stopped hitting for power and stopped walking - not a good pairing. Furthermore, teams are shading their right fielders down the line to take away Jeter's ability to slice the ball the other way - hopefully he will adjust. The reality with Melky is that he is simply not that good. So far Melky has demonstrated, in quite spectacular fashion, that there is no pitch, no matter how high over his head, that he will not swing at, and that he cannot bunt, no matter how hard he tries. El Leche is young enough to turn it around, but he needs to stop approaching every at bat as if he were Vlad Guererro, he simply does not have that kind of plate coverage.
There are bright spots of course. Jason "the Stache" Giambi has been a beast. Useless the first month of the season, Giambi is now slugging .534 with a .394 on base percentage, his 18 homers are tied with A-Rod for the team lead and his 54 RBIs are 3 behind Abreu. Left for dead at the beginning of the season, Giambi is now making a convincing argument for the team to re-sign him. A-Rod is doing his usual thing, giving opposing pitcher's bad dreams, hitting balls to un-Godly heights, stealing with abandon and generally knocking the crap out of the ball. The final bright spot in the line up has been Johnny Damon who, like his pal Giambi, was showing that he wasn't quite done, before heading to the DL.
The bench has not been good. Shelly Duncan flamed out, Morgan Ensberg was dropped, somehow Jose Molina is starting (more on that over the weekend) and Wilson Betemit hasn't exactly been lighting the world on fire either. The two latest call ups are Brett Gardner and Justin Christian - Christian is your standard Quadruple A player and has no business being on the team. Gardner is interesting - he is really fast and had a good eye in the minors, while he's demonstrated the wheels, he has struggled to get on base in the bigs. Given the injuries this team has suffered, it would have been nice to have some young blood behind the old horses.
Over the weekend - the pitchers and what we think of Joe Girardi so far.
