NEW YORK – Your team must be very good when you can have the best record in the league and still say the following:
“They can do better.”
Yes, this possible. You may not understand how this can be, but it is. After 81 games, the world champions are 50-31, still atop the AL East, meaning they are still the best team in the league.
The standings may show that teams like Texas and San Diego are within close range of the Yankees, but often numbers can lie.
Make no mistake that while the Yankees are halfway towards 100 wins, there is still plenty of room for improvement. October does not begin for another three months, but the remaining 81 games are a time to tie up all of the current loose ends in preparation for a successful championship defense.
In a year that has been dominated by pitching throughout the league, it is the Yankees starting pitching that have carried them in the first half as they fight through inconsistencies scoring runs and finding the right combination of relievers in the bullpen as numerous injuries have zapped the team of depth in very specific areas.
With CC Sabathia (10-3), Andy Petttitte (10-2) and Phil Hughes (10-2) each halfway toward 20 wins, they have carried the staff as (early on) Javier Vazquez and (recently) AJ Burnett have experienced inconsistencies.
You look ahead and attempt to project what your playoff rotation and after Sabathia, the question becomes who starts Game 2?
Joe Girardi would clearly like to place Burnett into that spot as a matter of keeping him away from the hostility of pitching on the road and also allowing Pettitte to start the usually pivotal Game 3 (he was 2-0 last year in those games). After that, who do you select in Game 4? Hughes through the first half has earned that chance to start in the playoffs, but will the current innings limit the Yankees have placed on him this year prevent him from starting in October?
If that is so, then the Yankees are taking an extreme risk by placing both Burnett and Vazquez, two men known for their ability to be mentally combustible on the mound in spots to blow up a chance for back-to-back championships.
One of them? Yes. Both of them? No.
In the bullpen, the bridge to Mariano Rivera still has yet to form. With the injuries to Alfredo Aceves and Sergio Mitre, no long man currently exists. This has created problems this year when a starter has not pitched at least six innings.
Luckily, this has not been the case this season.
Late in the game, Joba Chamberlain has been a mystery. His aggregate numbers would tell you he is having a good year with the amount of times he has pitched a scoreless inning this season. However, he has had several instances this year where when he has been bad, he has been terrible, costing the Yankees several victories this season.
When he is right, the Yankees have the best 8-9 combination in the league. Girardi will rarely force Rivera into games prior to the ninth inning unless the right situation presents itself, so it is incumbent on Chamberlain to right himself.
The last thing the Yankees want to have is worrying if Chamberlain will self-destruct in the postseason.
On offense, the numbers show that they are second in the league in scoring runs. However, watch them day-to-day and you see the struggles the team has had scoring runs in comparison to prior years.
Of course, an argument can be made that offense is down all over the league and the Yankees are simply a byproduct of this. However, that does not explain the early season struggles of Mark Teixeira, the early lack of production of by Alex Rodriguez or Curtis Granderson’s inability to improve his average against left handed pitching.
Change those three things around and the Yankees would be a juggernaut, but you cannot have everything. The make up for this has been great first halves by Brett Gardner, Nick Swisher and (what should be the MVP) Robinson Cano.
Nagging injuries to Jorge Posada have had him in and out of the lineup, but his presence cannot go understated. He made the bottom half of the lineup whole and prevents having Francisco Cervelli (despite his early hot start) in there on a consistent basis.
When Nick Johnson returns is anyone’s guess and the Yankees should have seen this coming based on his history. One can only hope that is he will he healthy by the time the playoffs come so his patience can be a factor in the number two slot in the lineup.
Having Derek Jeter and Johnson at one-two followed by Teixeira, Rodriguez and Cano in the three-four-five is what the blueprint before the year was. Posada, Granderson, Swisher and Gardner six-through-nine make the “playoff lineup”.
The only question is whether they get there healthy.
Tampa Bay and Boston have made it a three team race in the AL East for the two playoff spots. One of them will not make it.
The Yankees have the consistency in the starters and the ability to improve on offense to get there comfortably.
Now, it is just a matter of getting it done.
Time for another edition of Yankee Random Thoughts
No previous seasons World Series winner that has won 50 games after 81 games has ever won the championship in that season.
Hmmm....
Just in case any of you did not think Mariano Rivera is not human, he shows that he is.Saturday afternoon, Rivera blew only his second save of the season when he allowed the game-tying run in the ninth inning in a game the Yankees would eventually win in the tenth 7-6.
The three hits came on a ground ball single through the right side, another single through the middle that got past the leg of Rivera, and the bleeding two-out single into shallow center by DeWayne Wise.
So as you see all of these other closers out there blowing games, Rivera still stands alone, even if he has the occasional hiccup.
I have withheld my opinion on The Underachiever due in part because much like an extremely hot woman that has many flaws except her beauty, you are willing to put up with it.
Suffice it to say that on Friday when he pitch 6 2-3 scoreless innings against the Blue Jays, that is the reason why I put up with him.
Poor Mental Patient.
For the moment, Vazquez has relinquished his nickname of “Mental Patient” to Burnett, “The Underachiever”.
In three of his six losses this season, the Yankees offense has scored a grand total of zero runs.
As Sterling says, “You can’t win if you don’t score.”
It is safe to say that Chan “No No” Park needs to get off my screen immediately.
Ok, we get it. I understand he is bad and was not a good fit for the team as I thought he would be before the year started. But damn, it has gotten to the point where I cannot take it anymore.
I only want to see No No in the game if the lead is winning or losing by at least five runs. It has become obvious that he is incapable to pitching with the game relatively in the balance.
The velocity seems to be the there, but unlike last season in Philadelphia, he has just been bad.
No more please.
How great was Cliff Lee on Tuesday night?
Listen, he has the Yankees number. This is no longer up for debate.
Over three years and six starts, Lee is 5-1 with a 2.65 ERA. Eight of the runs he has allowed have come in which he already had a six run lead, which would lower the number to 1.98.
Safe to say the Seattle Mariners will not trade him to any team within the AL West. Since the AL East competitors Boston and Tampa Bay each have strong five man staffs. That leaves only Detroit and Minnesota as the two teams in the AL that would be potential suitors.
Seeing that the Yankees likely would face a team from the AL Central in the Division Series, you would hope that Lee does not end up there.
Message to Seattle: Trade him to the National League.
Thank you.
I can understand not hitting against the likes of Lee and Felix Hernandez. But how about the two games they had against Ryan Rowland-Smith and Brett Cecil?
At least things changed against Ricky Romero on Saturday and to a lesser extent, Brandon Morrow on Sunday.
By the way, where does the Brett Gardner grand slam on Saturday rank on the improbability scale?
I keep thinking of the scene from Major League when Lou Brown tells Willie Mays Hayes that if he puts one in the air, he will have to do 20 pushups.
He tried swinging for the fence on the first pitch and that immediately had me saying “WTF are you doing?”
Turns out, he was right all along.
Adding to it, the very next day, he came up with an inside-the-park homerun.
The kid can do it all.
My ideal scenario would be to trade Granderson at the end of the season, sign Carl Crawford and move Gardner over the center field.
Not sure if I’ll get that.
Interesting to note the numbers of Phil “The Franchise” Hughes have been in decline ever since his great start to the year.
Of course, unless your name is Halladay, Johnson or Jimenez, who can perform to such lofty standards?
After beginning the year 5-0 with a 1.38 ERA, Hughes has not been the same. After Seattle lit him up for six runs in the Mariners 7-4 win on Tuesday night, he is still 5-2, but with a bloated 5.51 ERA, over four runs above his early season average.
Yikes!
The real Franchise is somewhere in the middle of Bob Gibson and 2005 Randy Johnson. Where the middle is, we are not sure.
This is what happens when a pitcher has one terrible start? We all get a bit uneasy and irrational.
It is just how we are.
Teixeira really made joining the season now as he appears to be on a mini hot streak.
Keep it going Tex.
Nick Swisher is among the final five players up for voting for the final addition to the American League roster.
Help send Swish to Anaheim.
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