Champs let Sawx, Rays know who’s still in charge 
ST. PETERSBURG – When you are on top, every one attempts to chase and bring you down from behind.
The Yankees are the defending world champions. Looking down, they see the Red Sox and Rays as worthy competitors, rounding out three of the best four teams in baseball.
Many members of the (drive by) media have selected either one of these teams to unseat the Yankees atop the American League East. Early in the season, these first six games were to be a proving ground that these two would be worthy competitors.
Final votes will not be in until later this season, but this much we can judge after one week in this season…
Beating the Yankees is going to be tall order.
Andy Pettitte showed there plenty of good innings remaining in that left arm of his, slowing the Red Sox down for six innings.
After an average outing for AJ Burnett on Tuesday, he responded with a great effort for seven innings to help the Yankees win the rubber match of the three game series.
CC Sabathia shrugged off a rough end to his last start on Opening Night and came within four outs of a no-hitter on Saturday against Tampa Bay.
Having these three pitchers as your frontline puts you one-step ahead of most teams going into battle. That is before you account for the imposing offense and stellar defense that the team has displayed early on.
Two series and six games totaled four wins for the world champions, despite losing the first game of each series. It was a great way to begin the year.
Some of the good things from the early part of the year:
1. Curtis Granderson has fit in tremendously with new club.
Talk about not needing an adjustment period. In his first at-bat as a Yankee, he took a Josh Beckett fastball into the right field bleachers for a home run.
Wednesday in extra innings, he turned around a Jonathan Papelbon fastball and hit a game winning homerun to beat the Red Sox and win two of three at Fenway Park.
At 8-for-26 (.348), he continued to hit against the Rays this past weekend. Also, his defense in centerfield has been very good even with an occasional misread.
His best performance came on Sunday when he showed off his prowess in centerfield making a great catch on a line drive by Dioner Navarro in the fifth inning and was able to show his arm strength doubling up Pat Burrell at first.
Prior to that, he worked a lengthy at-bat against Rays starter James Shields before lining an RBI double into the right field corner to tie the game at two. In the sixth inning, he displayed even more of his talent after stroking a single to center. Granderson stole second, moved to third on a ground out and scored on a wild pitch.
While some will look at him to hit 30 homeruns with the dimensions of Yankee Stadium, it is his all-around game that on this team that will finally receive notoriety.
2. The defense does not rest
While the Red Sox openly promote “run prevention”, the Yankees went about it a different way.
Many clamored for them to sign a left fielder that would be more productive than Brett Gardner would offensively. However, on a team projected to score over 900 runs, why add additional offense when you can prevent the other team from scoring on defense?
The combination of Gardner in left and Granderson in center has allowed the Yankees to cover more ground in the outfield, allowing their fly ball pitchers to make hitters put the ball in play.
You can make the case the Yankees possess a Gold Glove player at every position on the infield. Balls in play are sucked up like a vacuum. It gives the pitcher more confidence to throw whatever they want, knowing the defense will be there to protect them.
3. Burnett-Posada marriage counseling
AJ Burnett made a point to a reporter in the postgame last Wednesday when asked about his relationship with Jorge Posada by saying that it would be the last time he would ever talk about it.
Good for him.
The never-ending soap opera between the two was annoying at worst and pointless at best. All one had to do was watch the playoff games to figure this out. Even without Posada, Burnett still struggled through two of the games. Having Jose Molina out there was not a full proof plan to avoid “Bad AJ” from making an appearance.
Against the Red Sox on Wednesday, his pitch count rose and trailed 3-1 after Victor Martinez took him deep. Last year in this same situation, the percentages are high that he mentally would break. However, with Posada behind the plate, the duo battled and Burnett was able to get through five innings with no further damage.
On Sunday, Tampa Bay scored the first two runs of the game and had Burnett on the ropes, but could not push across any more runs.
In the sixth, the Yankees rallied to take a 4-2 lead and the game was in his hands to carry it the rest of the way. With two outs, Ben Zobrist singled and then Evan Longoria hit a high pop fly that hit the catwalk and the umpires ruled it a hit. Carlos Pena walked to load the bases and the Rays had their chance to strike and get back into the game.
Last season, Burnett with Posada catching him would not have been able to coexist and battle their way through adversity. Instead, making good on their promise to change, he induced B.J Upton into a pop out to Mark Teixeira to end the inning.
After giving up two runs to start, Burnett slammed the door, holding Tampa Bay scoreless through his remaining six innings.
After all that made between him and Posada last year, it is good to see them working together and getting positive results early on.
4. Robinson Cano is a beast
Who knows how long this will last, but if Cano can keep his head on straight for the entire season as he has pledged to do, there should be no reason why is isn’t a candidate for the MVP award at the end.
With the departure of Hideki Matsui, the responsibility fell on Cano moving up to the fifth spot in the lineup to protect Alex Rodriguez.
ST. PETERSBURG – When you are on top, every one attempts to chase and bring you down from behind.
The Yankees are the defending world champions. Looking down, they see the Red Sox and Rays as worthy competitors, rounding out three of the best four teams in baseball.
Many members of the (drive by) media have selected either one of these teams to unseat the Yankees atop the American League East. Early in the season, these first six games were to be a proving ground that these two would be worthy competitors.
Final votes will not be in until later this season, but this much we can judge after one week in this season…
Beating the Yankees is going to be tall order.
Andy Pettitte showed there plenty of good innings remaining in that left arm of his, slowing the Red Sox down for six innings.
After an average outing for AJ Burnett on Tuesday, he responded with a great effort for seven innings to help the Yankees win the rubber match of the three game series.
CC Sabathia shrugged off a rough end to his last start on Opening Night and came within four outs of a no-hitter on Saturday against Tampa Bay.
Having these three pitchers as your frontline puts you one-step ahead of most teams going into battle. That is before you account for the imposing offense and stellar defense that the team has displayed early on.
Two series and six games totaled four wins for the world champions, despite losing the first game of each series. It was a great way to begin the year.
Some of the good things from the early part of the year:
1. Curtis Granderson has fit in tremendously with new club.
Talk about not needing an adjustment period. In his first at-bat as a Yankee, he took a Josh Beckett fastball into the right field bleachers for a home run.
Wednesday in extra innings, he turned around a Jonathan Papelbon fastball and hit a game winning homerun to beat the Red Sox and win two of three at Fenway Park.
At 8-for-26 (.348), he continued to hit against the Rays this past weekend. Also, his defense in centerfield has been very good even with an occasional misread.
His best performance came on Sunday when he showed off his prowess in centerfield making a great catch on a line drive by Dioner Navarro in the fifth inning and was able to show his arm strength doubling up Pat Burrell at first.
Prior to that, he worked a lengthy at-bat against Rays starter James Shields before lining an RBI double into the right field corner to tie the game at two. In the sixth inning, he displayed even more of his talent after stroking a single to center. Granderson stole second, moved to third on a ground out and scored on a wild pitch.
While some will look at him to hit 30 homeruns with the dimensions of Yankee Stadium, it is his all-around game that on this team that will finally receive notoriety.
2. The defense does not rest
While the Red Sox openly promote “run prevention”, the Yankees went about it a different way.
Many clamored for them to sign a left fielder that would be more productive than Brett Gardner would offensively. However, on a team projected to score over 900 runs, why add additional offense when you can prevent the other team from scoring on defense?
The combination of Gardner in left and Granderson in center has allowed the Yankees to cover more ground in the outfield, allowing their fly ball pitchers to make hitters put the ball in play.
You can make the case the Yankees possess a Gold Glove player at every position on the infield. Balls in play are sucked up like a vacuum. It gives the pitcher more confidence to throw whatever they want, knowing the defense will be there to protect them.
3. Burnett-Posada marriage counseling
AJ Burnett made a point to a reporter in the postgame last Wednesday when asked about his relationship with Jorge Posada by saying that it would be the last time he would ever talk about it.
Good for him.
The never-ending soap opera between the two was annoying at worst and pointless at best. All one had to do was watch the playoff games to figure this out. Even without Posada, Burnett still struggled through two of the games. Having Jose Molina out there was not a full proof plan to avoid “Bad AJ” from making an appearance.
Against the Red Sox on Wednesday, his pitch count rose and trailed 3-1 after Victor Martinez took him deep. Last year in this same situation, the percentages are high that he mentally would break. However, with Posada behind the plate, the duo battled and Burnett was able to get through five innings with no further damage.
On Sunday, Tampa Bay scored the first two runs of the game and had Burnett on the ropes, but could not push across any more runs.
In the sixth, the Yankees rallied to take a 4-2 lead and the game was in his hands to carry it the rest of the way. With two outs, Ben Zobrist singled and then Evan Longoria hit a high pop fly that hit the catwalk and the umpires ruled it a hit. Carlos Pena walked to load the bases and the Rays had their chance to strike and get back into the game.
Last season, Burnett with Posada catching him would not have been able to coexist and battle their way through adversity. Instead, making good on their promise to change, he induced B.J Upton into a pop out to Mark Teixeira to end the inning.
After giving up two runs to start, Burnett slammed the door, holding Tampa Bay scoreless through his remaining six innings.
After all that made between him and Posada last year, it is good to see them working together and getting positive results early on.
4. Robinson Cano is a beast
Who knows how long this will last, but if Cano can keep his head on straight for the entire season as he has pledged to do, there should be no reason why is isn’t a candidate for the MVP award at the end.
With the departure of Hideki Matsui, the responsibility fell on Cano moving up to the fifth spot in the lineup to protect Alex Rodriguez.
However, the thought has always been that Cano was too liberal of hitter and did not have the approach that would serve him well in situations where he would come out with runners in scoring position.
Last year he hit .207 in those spots. It was astounding for a player of his caliber to hit so poorly. Cano’s tendency to expand his hitting zone and being too overly aggressive played against him as pitchers knew he would go up to the plate hacking.
This spring, Cano took the approach to swinging at strikes and being aggressive, while allowing the game to come to him. With the help of Rodriguez to change his approach in run-scoring situations, telling him to attack and not be “content”, a different Cano has emerged so far.
The ball has jumped off his bat over the first games and the results have been positive (9-for-25, 2 HR). Yet the question still lingers whether he will be patient enough to wait for his pitch over a significant length of time? Or, is he simply going through one of his hot streaks?
As I said before the season, if he could draw 50 walks this season to go along with his above .300 prowess at the plate, he would be an MVP candidate. Just the ability to work the count and eventually draw a base-on-balls is enough to propel him into a different level of player.
Let’s see if it continues.
Now, time for the first Random Yankee Thoughts of the season…
At least Brett Gardner has shown the ability not to be a hole in the ninth spot in the lineup can only be a positive development.
I know it’s only two games, but I would prefer Marcus Thames never to play left field again.
Something I noticed about Nick Swisher at the plate…
He rarely is beat by a fastball from a pitcher. When he swings through, usually an off-speed pitch fools him. Andy Sonnanstine tried to sneak a fastball by in the eighth inning on Sunday and Swisher responded by depositing it deep into the right field seats.
The more you watch Teixeira on defense, the more you marvel at his incredible ability.
In the seventh inning with CC Sabathia pitching a no-hitter, he made a great diving stab on a line drive to take away a would-be single that would have broken up the bid.
There are very few two-way players like him. Tino Martinez was a great defender, but Teixeira is very close to making me draw the conclusion that he is the best Yankee defensive first baseman since Don Mattingly.
Now, if he could at least hit In April (3-for-29), everything would be fine.
After starting out 0-for-19 to begin the year, Teixeira got two hits on Saturday to welcome himself to the season.
No one really knows the cause for the first baseman’s early year struggles, but if he could ever figure it out, he would be an even greater monster when you consider he led the AL in homeruns and RBI despite hitting under .200 for the first six weeks of the season.
Speaking of Sabathia and his no-hitter…
Rarely will you ever see a “clean no hitter”. The meaning behind that is you never see just routine plays. During these types of games, you get a lucky bounce on a ball or your defenders make outstanding plays.
On Saturday, there were three tremendous plays that gave me the impression Sabathia would actually do it.
First, the Teixeira play. Second, Rodriguez made a great diving play and used his strong arm to gun down BJ Upton at first to finish the seventh inning. Third, in the eighth, Sabathia nearly snared a ball with his bare hands, but it bounced off him. Cano charged, fielded and fired to first in time to nail Willy Aybar for the out.
Unfortunately, Kelly Shoppach broke up the bid on a solid single to left.
Let’s be clear about this, no matter what Joe Girardi says, there is no way in the world he was going to take out Sabathia with a no-hitter in tact going into the ninth inning.
Yes, his pitch count was nearing the point where a legitimate discussion was in play. In only the second start of the season, where do you draw the line? Arms are not built up yet, and many starters are on pitch counts. Why would you stress him, throwing 130 plus pitches when you are trying to preserve him for the long haul?
That would have been an interesting conversation between the two of them.
Last year he hit .207 in those spots. It was astounding for a player of his caliber to hit so poorly. Cano’s tendency to expand his hitting zone and being too overly aggressive played against him as pitchers knew he would go up to the plate hacking.
This spring, Cano took the approach to swinging at strikes and being aggressive, while allowing the game to come to him. With the help of Rodriguez to change his approach in run-scoring situations, telling him to attack and not be “content”, a different Cano has emerged so far.
The ball has jumped off his bat over the first games and the results have been positive (9-for-25, 2 HR). Yet the question still lingers whether he will be patient enough to wait for his pitch over a significant length of time? Or, is he simply going through one of his hot streaks?
As I said before the season, if he could draw 50 walks this season to go along with his above .300 prowess at the plate, he would be an MVP candidate. Just the ability to work the count and eventually draw a base-on-balls is enough to propel him into a different level of player.
Let’s see if it continues.
Now, time for the first Random Yankee Thoughts of the season…
At least Brett Gardner has shown the ability not to be a hole in the ninth spot in the lineup can only be a positive development.
I know it’s only two games, but I would prefer Marcus Thames never to play left field again.
Something I noticed about Nick Swisher at the plate…
He rarely is beat by a fastball from a pitcher. When he swings through, usually an off-speed pitch fools him. Andy Sonnanstine tried to sneak a fastball by in the eighth inning on Sunday and Swisher responded by depositing it deep into the right field seats.
The more you watch Teixeira on defense, the more you marvel at his incredible ability.
In the seventh inning with CC Sabathia pitching a no-hitter, he made a great diving stab on a line drive to take away a would-be single that would have broken up the bid.
There are very few two-way players like him. Tino Martinez was a great defender, but Teixeira is very close to making me draw the conclusion that he is the best Yankee defensive first baseman since Don Mattingly.
Now, if he could at least hit In April (3-for-29), everything would be fine.
After starting out 0-for-19 to begin the year, Teixeira got two hits on Saturday to welcome himself to the season.
No one really knows the cause for the first baseman’s early year struggles, but if he could ever figure it out, he would be an even greater monster when you consider he led the AL in homeruns and RBI despite hitting under .200 for the first six weeks of the season.
Speaking of Sabathia and his no-hitter…
Rarely will you ever see a “clean no hitter”. The meaning behind that is you never see just routine plays. During these types of games, you get a lucky bounce on a ball or your defenders make outstanding plays.
On Saturday, there were three tremendous plays that gave me the impression Sabathia would actually do it.
First, the Teixeira play. Second, Rodriguez made a great diving play and used his strong arm to gun down BJ Upton at first to finish the seventh inning. Third, in the eighth, Sabathia nearly snared a ball with his bare hands, but it bounced off him. Cano charged, fielded and fired to first in time to nail Willy Aybar for the out.
Unfortunately, Kelly Shoppach broke up the bid on a solid single to left.
Let’s be clear about this, no matter what Joe Girardi says, there is no way in the world he was going to take out Sabathia with a no-hitter in tact going into the ninth inning.
Yes, his pitch count was nearing the point where a legitimate discussion was in play. In only the second start of the season, where do you draw the line? Arms are not built up yet, and many starters are on pitch counts. Why would you stress him, throwing 130 plus pitches when you are trying to preserve him for the long haul?
That would have been an interesting conversation between the two of them.
I know that it is only one start, but you could not help to be somewhat puzzled by return debut of Javier Vazquez in road gray.
Many watching upon first glance could only think of 2004, and changing his number to “31” was not going to make that go away.
For three innings, he was fabulous. Suddenly, with a 2-0 lead, everything fell apart.
Vazquez hung a fastball that Carlos Pena belted for a home run. Marcus Thames misplayed a ball into a two-run triple, and then Willie Aybar drilled a homerun in the sixth inning to extend the Rays lead.
The final stats were ugly: 5 2/3 innings, eight runs, eight hits.
Welcome back to the American League. No longer are the Nationals, Mets and the 7-8-9 hitters in a lineup available to kick around.
Now, while I feel this is nothing more than a simple blip and still win at least 15 games, it was not a good second impression on a fan base whose lasting memory of you is seeing Johnny Damon crush a grand slam in Game 7.
Please get better soon.
The fickle nature of baseball is to beat down players who do not perform, and praise them when they do well.
This brings us to Chan Ho Park.
Before the season, I lauded that Park would be the best $1.2 millionthe Yankees will have spent this season. In his first game against the Red Sox nursing a two-run lead, he promptly gave up three runs as Boston rallied to win.
This led to me undergoing a minor anger management scenario saying “Chan Ho = no, no, no”.
Two days later, Girardi elected to bring Park back into a game with the score tied in the seventh inning.
Park rewarded him by hurling three scoreless innings, saving the bullpen as the Yankees came back to win 3-1 in 10 innings.
On this night, Park was a hero and re-earned my good graces.
I keep reminding myself of an old quote Super Bowl champion Head Coach Jimmy Johnson once said:
“I love you when you are making plays. The moment you stop making plays, I don’t love you anymore.”
It’s become my new baseball adage.
For better or worse.
Many watching upon first glance could only think of 2004, and changing his number to “31” was not going to make that go away.
For three innings, he was fabulous. Suddenly, with a 2-0 lead, everything fell apart.
Vazquez hung a fastball that Carlos Pena belted for a home run. Marcus Thames misplayed a ball into a two-run triple, and then Willie Aybar drilled a homerun in the sixth inning to extend the Rays lead.
The final stats were ugly: 5 2/3 innings, eight runs, eight hits.
Welcome back to the American League. No longer are the Nationals, Mets and the 7-8-9 hitters in a lineup available to kick around.
Now, while I feel this is nothing more than a simple blip and still win at least 15 games, it was not a good second impression on a fan base whose lasting memory of you is seeing Johnny Damon crush a grand slam in Game 7.
Please get better soon.
The fickle nature of baseball is to beat down players who do not perform, and praise them when they do well.
This brings us to Chan Ho Park.
Before the season, I lauded that Park would be the best $1.2 millionthe Yankees will have spent this season. In his first game against the Red Sox nursing a two-run lead, he promptly gave up three runs as Boston rallied to win.
This led to me undergoing a minor anger management scenario saying “Chan Ho = no, no, no”.
Two days later, Girardi elected to bring Park back into a game with the score tied in the seventh inning.
Park rewarded him by hurling three scoreless innings, saving the bullpen as the Yankees came back to win 3-1 in 10 innings.
On this night, Park was a hero and re-earned my good graces.
I keep reminding myself of an old quote Super Bowl champion Head Coach Jimmy Johnson once said:
“I love you when you are making plays. The moment you stop making plays, I don’t love you anymore.”
It’s become my new baseball adage.
For better or worse.
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