IMPORTANT BLOG ANNOUNCEMENT

PLEASE CHANGE YOUR BOOKMARKS AND FEEDS TO THE NEW URL, YANKEEANALYSTS.COM. TYU IS IN NO WAY AFFILIATED WITH THE NEW YORK YANKEES OR YANKEES UNIVERSE.

Creating Lineups

Posted by Matt Imbrogno at 1:00 pm 3 Responses »
Jan 242011

We pretty much know what the 25 man roster is going to be at this point, so let’s see what the different lineups will be. Using the latest round of CAIRO Projections from RLYW.net, I’ll put the player’s projected wOBA vs. RHP/LHP next to his name/position.

These projections are a combination of what I think the lineups WILL be:

vs. RHP

1. Jeter, SS .334
2. Swisher, RF .353
3. Teixeira, 1B .381
4. Rodriguez, 3B .382
5. Cano, 2B .379
6. Posada, DH .352
7. Granderson, CF .363
8. Martin, C .333
9. Gardner, LF .336

So against RHP, everyone projects to be at least average, with the middle of the lineup solidly above that mark. The median wOBA is .353. Let’s see what they could do versus LHP; there are a few ways this could go.

Option 1 vs. LHP (Granderson sits, Gardner to CF, Jones to LF)

1. Jeter, SS .364
2. Swisher, RF .367
3. Teixeira, 1B .393
4. Rodriguez, 3B .392
5. Cano, 2B .354
6. Posada, C .358
7. Jones, LF .332
8. Martin, C .357
9. Gardner, CF .310

The median wOBA here is .358. That’s not much of a change from the vs. RHP lineup, but it’s still a slight uptick. If we replace Gardner with Curtis Granderson (and his .297 projected wOBA vs. LHP), the median wOBA stays the same, since his would then be the lowest wOBA instead of Gardner’s. So, quickly, that tells us no matter which lefty outfielder is replaced, there won’t be much of a difference in the lineup. I suspect Joe Girardi will just keep the hot hand in there until he cools. All three outfielders in that shuffle–Granderson, Gardner, and Jones, are good enough at what they do that neither will leave an extraordinarily huge hole when absent from the lineup.

Just about everyone, myself included, sees a bounce back for Derek Jeter. After all, how could we not? Last year was the worst year of his career and there’s almost no way he can be that bad again. I wonder, though, if his slide continues, will Girardi pull him from the leadoff spot? If he does, who takes his place? I say it’s one of Gardner or Swisher. Gardner could work because he sees a ton of pitches, walks, and can steal bases. Swisher could take it because he’s a switch hitter with no drastic platoon split and provides a little more power, which would be useful for those batting behind him. He does strike out a bit more, though, but he showed in 2010 that he can cut back on them.

The rest of the lineup is just fine if you ask me. You could switch Tex/A-Rod if you wanted to, but the difference would probably be negligible. If anything, this lineup gives me confidence that the Yankees can still make the playoffs. Any lineup that features those hitters has more than a puncher’s chance at making it to October. Making it through October with that (current) pitching staff would be a challenge, but this team can definitely make it there. And once you’re there, anything can happen.

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,

Expectations

Posted by Matt Imbrogno at 3:00 pm 5 Responses »
Jan 032011

A new year is upon us and soon, a new baseball season will be upon us. We’re going to have expectations with certain players, as we always do. We have to think of realistic expectations, though. For this post, I’m going to look at each player still on the Yankees from the 2010 team, examine his 2010 wOBA and see if that’s a reasonable expectation for 2011.

Robinson Cano, .389 wOBA

Last year was a career year for Robinson. He ripped the cover off the ball and everything seemed to click for him on offense. He ripped righties and lambasted lefties. He hit for a high average. He hit for power. Expecting another year like that would be unfair, but, Cano is in his age-based-prime and clearly has an incredible talent for hitting. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see a .389 wOBA from him again. Somewhere in the .375-.385 range seems right for Robinson.

Nick Swisher, .377 wOBA

Cutting the fat, yeah, I think this is definitely do-able. His 2009 wOBA was .375, just two points off of last year’s career high mark. He had basically the same year production-wise, he just did it differently. I’m confident that Swisher can definitely put up a .370+ woBA again in 2011. What I’m not sure of is if it will look more like 2009 with a lot of walks and a lot of power or if it will look like 2010, with similar-but-slightly-diminished-power and a higher average.

Mark Teixeira, .367 wOBA

I have no problem saying this: Mark Teixeira will have a wOBA higher than .367 in 2011.

Alex Rodriguez, .363 wOBA

I have no problem saying this: Alex Rodriguez will have a wOBA higher than .363 in 2011.

Brett Gardner, .358 wOBA

This is the most interesting case. Obviously, Gardner proved himself in 2010. He survived the entire year and hit much better than we all expected him to. His super-plus defense made him a huge value for the team . Part of me thinks that Gardner can do it again. Part of me doesn’t. If I’m setting an over/under for Gardner’s wOBA, I’m going to say .340.

Jorge Posada, .357 wOBA

Posada’s another catch-22 of sorts. In one way, we should expect equal or worse performance from Posada in 2011 because he’s getting old. Older players, especially catchers, tend not to hit at .357 wOBAs with regularity. On the other hand, Posada is a good hitter who’s stayed above average in terms of offense for a while. As a full time DH, he’ll be without the physical burden of catching. Because of that, we could see a rise in offense from Jorge. I think .357 is a fair over/under and I think Jorge will be over. I may be in the minority there.

Curtis Granderson, .346 wOBA

Curtis Granderson’s season was a bit odd, wasn’t it? There were some good things–10% walk rate, .221 IsoP–but some bad things as well (most of the season against LHP). All together, it added up to an above average, but not spectacular, .346 wOBA. Call me an optimist, but Granderson will out do that .346 wOBA. I’ll put the over/under at .355 and take the over.

Derek Jeter, .320 wOBA

I have no problem saying this: Derek Jeter will have a higher wOBA than .320 in 2011. Jeter may be getting older and 2010 may’ve been a career worst year, but there’s no way he can hit that poorly again. At least, I hope there’s no way he can hit that poorly again.

Francisco Cervelli, .315 wOBA

This is fair and I expect him to do that again. If he does, with less playing time, I’ll be happy.

Russell Martin, .306 wOBA

His 2009 wOBA was .307 after a .351 wOBA in 2008. Martin’s bat seems to be trending downwards, which is troubling. Despite a super low wOBA though, he was able to put up over 2 fWAR in 2010, thanks to his defense. In the last two years, Martin has had a low BABIP despite relatively high LD%s, so maybe 2011 is when he gets a BABIP rebound. That would definitely cause a wOBA rebound. Given the last two years, I think we should expect around a .310-.315 wOBA for Martin, but he could easily out perform that.

Ramiro Pena, .233 wOBA

Same as Cervelli.

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,

What failing to sign Teixeira cost the Red Sox

Posted by Steve S. at 10:30 am 11 Responses »
Dec 052010

In the winter of 2008, Brian Cashman sold ownership on expanding their budget to include enough room to sign free agent 1B Mark Teixeira. Tex was close to signing with the Red Sox, and part of the rationale Cashman used at the time was that the signing would be pivotal for both franchises. It would allow the Yanks to move Nick Swisher to his natural position in RF, use their financial muscle to acquire a long term fix at 1B for just money and draft picks. From the Red Sox side, they would be looking at making trades to fill at 1B/C, depleting their farm system and forcing them to use their trade chips to fill a need, as opposed to a positional upgrade in CF or SS. Once those trade chips are spent, they obviously can’t be used when other trades present themselves and won’t be available if someone on your 25 man roster gets hurt and you’re looking fill the spot internally.

Taking all of this into account, I wanted to look at what the Red Sox gave up for Victor Martinez and Adrian Gonzalez, and see how it impacted the franchise.

Victor Martinez deal-Bryan Price (minors), Nick Hagadone (minors) and Justin Masterson.

Masterson was the centerpiece of this deal, and he hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire in the past 2 seasons for the tribe. His WAR has been -0.1 and -0.8 in 2009 and 2010, respectively. But his best work has always been as a reliever, and the Sox bullpen needed all the help it could get last year. Nick Hagadone has stumbled as a 24 year old in AA, where it appears more the advanced hitters took advantage of his spotty control. Bryan Price is a serviceable minor league reliever, with hittable stuff but good control. Big win on the deal for the Sox unless Masterson somehow morphs into Kevin Brown, but the fact they had to make the deal means these chips weren’t available to be used elsewhere. The benefit of having V-Mart on the MLB squad certainly outweighed that, but just picture the Sox having Tex at 1B AND V-Mart behind the dish, the balance of power in the AL East shifts dramatically. The roles could be reversed and the Yanks could be the ones dealing Montero and one of the Killer Bs right now for A-Gon.

Adrian Gonzalez deal-Casey Kelly, Anthony Rizzo, Reymond Fuentes and PTBNL

The ink is barely dry on this trade, but we can already say a few things about it. The Sox gave up 3 of the top 6 prospects in their system. Kelly leads the pack, and while he’s still relatively new to pitching full-time his vast array of tools have wowed scouts for years. Rizzo hasn’t garnered nearly enough attention, he slugged 25 HRs as a 20 year old in High A/AA last year, 20 of them in AA. Strikes out too much, but who doesn’t these days. Fuentes was the Sox 1st round pick in 2009 (28th overall) and is still a baby at 19 years old.

No trade can be fully analyzed until years later, when you know whether these prospects have panned out or not. But clearly some of last year’s Red Sox injury issues could have been alleviated with Masterson in the fold as a swing man. He couldn’t have been much worse than the 43 year old Tim Wakefield, who made 19 starts to a 5.34 ERA. Further, the Sox could have employed Masterson as a reliever (where he’s been far more effective) to aid their sagging bullpen. Or they could have used Masterson, Hagadone, Kelly, Rizzo or Fuentes in another package to find an outfielder (or two). As an 89 win team in 2010 that was battered with injuries, they needed all the help they could get. Brian Cashman was right, the deal had enormous ramifications for both franchises.

Tagged with: ,

Jeter, Teixeira, and Cano Win Gold Gloves

Posted by Moshe Mandel at 5:00 pm 6 Responses »
Nov 092010

The results are in, and somehow Jeter steals another Gold Glove:

C: Joe Mauer (3rd award)
1B: Mark Teixeira (4th)
2B: Robinson Cano (1st)
3B: Evan Longoria (2nd)
SS: Derek Jeter (5th)
OF: Carl Crawford (1st)
OF: Franklin Gutierrez (1st)
OF: Ichiro Suzuki (10th)

I fully support the Cano and Teixeira selections, despite the fact that the advanced metrics are mixed on them. Taken as a whole, the metrics see both as somewhere above average, and combining that with strong scouting reports and personal observation makes me comfortable with them receiving Gold Gloves. I feel the same about Brett Gardner failing to win: he was definitely in the conversation, but the three winning outfielders were deserving as well.

Jeter’s selection, on the other hand, is a travesty. He was likely one of the 2 or 3 worst shortstops in the AL this season. The metrics, scouts, and most fans agree that he is mediocre at best, and atrocious at worst. He won because of his reputation as a hitter, which is incredibly silly but quite unsurprising. As a Yankee fan, I wish we could just forget it ever happened.

Tagged with: , , , , ,

Season in Review: Mark Teixeira

Posted by Matt Imbrogno at 1:00 pm No Responses »
Nov 012010

This is the second in a series comparing the player’s projections to his results. I’m going to try to vary the format each time so this doesn’t get too stale.

1. Jorge Posada

2010 was a down year for Mark Teixeira. His slow start went a little longer than we normally expected and his year wasn’t quite the “back of the baseball card” year we’ve come to expect from Tex, though he did end up with a .367 wOBA and 3.5 fWAR.

BA: Projected: .280 low, .300 high. Actual: .256.
BABIP: Projected: .303 low, .320 high. Actual: .268.
OBP: Projected: .369 low, .395 high. Actual: .365.
IsoD: Projected: .088 low, .095 high. Actual: .099.
SLG: Projected: .505 low, .565 high. Actual: .481.
IsoP: Projected: .225 low, .268 high. Actual: .225.
wOBA: Projected: .381 low, .406 high. Actual: .367.
HR: Projected: 29 low, 36 high. Actual: 33.

Basically, Tex fell short of everything except his peripherals and his home runs. Like Posada to a certain extent, we can see BABIP as a bit of a culprit here, but again, it’s also mostly the player’s fault.

What’s to blame in Tex’s big BABIP drop (career .303) is the infield flyball. Tex’s IFFB% was a crazy high 13.6%, the 14th highest in the American League. Tex also saw his HR/FB% drop to a career low 15% (18.3 average, 17.8 in ’09, 15.9% previous career low in 2006).

Two month long periods–April and September/October–really killed Tex’s season. In April, he had a .559 OPS. In Sept/Oct, it was .694. In May-August, it was .944.

2010 was a year that, despite being good for most players, was sub-standard by Mark Teixeira standards. I’d be willing to be that 2011 will see Tex at his normal career levels.

Tagged with: ,

Looking for More Game Two Magic

Posted by Matt Imbrogno at 11:00 am No Responses »
Oct 072010

The 2009 post-season run by the Yankees was obviously fantastic. They swept the Twins ALDS, beat the Angels 4-2 in the ALCS, and then beat the Phillies 4-2 in the World Series. Somehow, it didn’t hit me until last night while watching Game One of the ALDS versus the Twins (moving to the bottom of the seventh as I type this): each Game Two in the playoffs last year had something special.

ALDS Game Two

We all remember this one. The David Robertson escape act. The A-Rod homer against Nathan to tie the game in the ninth. Mark Teixeira’s walk off homer. This was a perfect back and forth playoff game and the Yankees came out on top.

ALCS Game Two.

Another back and forth game, and another game with David Robertson getting the win, and another big homer from Alex Rodriguez. I’ll never forget that homer–down 0-2, to the opposite field, in the rain. I still don’t know why Brian Fuentes put the ball where he did, but I’m not going to complain. The same sentiment goes for Macier Izturis throwing the ball to second on a Melky Cabrera ground ball when he had no shot, which allowed Jerry Hairston to score the winning run.

World Series Game Two

The previous Game Two’s were big, but the Yankees had the luxury of being up one game to zero in those games. There was no such luxury for Game Two of the World Series. The Yankees had just been dominated by Cliff Lee and were in danger of going to Philadelphia down two games to none. They fell behind after an RBI single from Matt Stairs. Teixeira tied the game with a homer off of Pedro Martinez in the sixth inning and Hideki Matsui gave the bombers the lead in the sixth with a dinger of his own. That’s all A.J. Burnett would need as he was brilliant, tossing 7 innings, allowing just 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 9.

Tonight, the Yankees will look to their lineup and Andy Pettitte to give them yet another memorable Game Two.

The current Twins have hit relatively well off of Pettitte with a .284 average and a .325 on base percentage, but they haven’t hit for much power against him (.405 SLG, .121 IsoP). Pettitte pitched two games against the Twins this season, winning both times.

Game One

In this game, Andy attacked the Twins with mostly fastballs, mixing his four seamer, two seamer, and cutter well. He threw in the occasional curve and dropped two changeups as well. Andy only had two strikeouts in the game, and did walk three hitters, but he allowed just two hits so it’s clear he was keeping Minnesota off balance.

Game Two

Just 11 days later, Pettitte faced the Twins again, this time in Minnesota. Again, Andy didn’t have the strikeout pitch working with just four strikeouts in eight innings while allowing eight hits, but he didn’t walk a batter. In his second time out, he used his changeup more (ten times as opposed to two) and his cutter less. This makes sense as he was facing the team for the second time in less than two weeks. Andy made adjustments and was able to beat the Twins twice in a short amount of time. He hasn’t faced the Twins since then and he’s had a few days to prepare now. I’m very confident in Andy Pettitte to make even more adjustments to prepare himself to beat the Twins.

Tagged with: , , , , , ,

The 100 RBI Club

Posted by Matt Imbrogno at 11:00 am No Responses »
Sep 202010

Over the weekend, Robinson Cano eclipsed the 100 RBI mark for the first time in his career. Chances are we’re going to see Robbie do this multiple times over the course of his career, but since it was his first time, I wanted to examine his RBI numbers against his peers.

Not counting Sunday’s game, Cano has 101 RBI. That’s good for 7th in the league behind Miguel Cabrera (118), Jose Bautista (114), Alex Rodriguez (111), Vladimir Guerrero (107), Paul Konerko (105), and Delmon Young (102). He was tied with Mark Teixeira. What I’m going to do is use the B-R pages of these players, find their RBIs/base runners on and see who was tops in terms of driving in runs in terms of percentage of runners driven in.

Before going any further, let’s clear the air: I’m not a fan of the RBI statistic. It’s very incomplete and is very dependent on the players in front of the batter. If you don’t get up with a lot of guys in front of you, you’re not going to knock in a lot of runs. As for this piece, I’ll be examining runners on, which includes runners on first. It’s obviously very hard to knock in runs from first, unless you hit a homer or a triple. So, some of this needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Still, I think it’s worth looking at since raw RBI is not great. This also doesn’t take into account hit type or if the player got on base some other way; it only tells us how many runners he drove in.

Let’s start from the top:
Miguel Cabrera: 118 RBI in 608 PA. Average MLer w/608 PAs: 66. Actual runners on base: 454. Avg. runners on base: 376. So, Miggy has had a lot more runners on than average. Given those numbers, the average percentage would be 17.55% of runners driven in. Miggy’s at 25.99%, so we’ll call it 26%. So, he’s doing more with more runners.

Jose Bautista: 113 RBI in 616 PA. Avg in 616 PA: 68. Act. Runners: 335. Avg. Runners: 383. Bautista, in the Toronto lineup, has had fewer runners on than the average player could expect. He’s driven in a much higher percentage–33.73–than the average–17.75. This is what happens when you unexpectedly belt over 45 homers.

Alex Rodriguez: 111 RBI, 529 PA. Avg: 58. Act. Runners: 392. Avg. Runners: 327. Shockingly enough, Alex Rodriguez has had many more RBI chances than the average player. He plays on the Yankees. Anyway, his percentage is 28.32% vs the average of 17.74%.

Vladimir Guerrero: 107 in 587. Avg: 64. Act. runners: 420. Avg: 363. Like A-Rod and Miggy, Vlad has had a good deal more runners to knock in than the average. His percentage: 25.48. Average: 17.63.

Paul Konerko: 105 in 584. Avg: 64. Act. runners: 358. Avg. Runners: 361. Konerko’s had a few fewer runners than we could expect, but has excelled in driving them in anyway. Average for 584 PAs is 17.73 (starting to see the pattern here). Konerko’s is 29.33.

I was actually pretty surprised that Delmon Young was on this list. Let’s see how he stacks up: 102 RBI in 553 PA. Average: 60. Actual runners: 417. Average runners: 342. DY%: 24.46. Avg: 17.54. Like everyone else on the list so far, he’s been better than average.

Robinson Cano: 101 in 628 PAs. Average: 69. Actual runners: 426. Average runners: 389. Percentage: 23.71. Average: 17.74.

Mark Teixeira: 101 RBI in 649 PA. Avg: 71. Actual runners: 440. Average runners: 402. Percentage: 22.95. Average: 17.66.

So, we can see that league average is right around 18%, usually coming in just a little less. Let’s re-rank the players, this time in terms of percentage of runners driven in:

1. Jose Bautista: 33.73%
2. Paul Konerko: 29.33%
3. Alex Rodriguez: 28.32%
4. Miguel Cabrera: 25.99%
5. Vladimir Guerrero: 25.48%
6. Delmon Young: 24.46
7. Robinson Cano: 23.71
8. Mark Teixeira: 22.95

We see that the guys who’ve had fewer runners on than expected–but still driven a lot in–are the ones at the top of the percentage list. This makes sense as they’ve done “more” with “less.” Tex has the most PAs and has the smallest RBI total (tied w/Robbie) so it makes sense that he’s on the bottom. Bautista’s homer barrage this year also helps him compensate for the lack of runners on, while Tex’s slow start hurt him. Tex’s slow start–and Alex Rodriguez’s absence–probably hurt Cano a bit, too. Regardless, each one of these guys has been well above the average player in terms of batting runs in. They’ve been given opportunities to drive runs in and they’ve come through. While we may not love RBI as a stat, the runs still do count and having guys who can drive a lot of runs in is always helpful. I’ll end this thought on RBI like I do with wins: most of the times, you’re not a good player because you drive in a lot of runs. You drive in a lot of runs because you’re a good player.

Tagged with: , ,

Second Half Things I've Liked and Disliked

Posted by Matt Imbrogno at 3:00 pm 2 Responses »
Aug 122010

I don’t like that…

–Nick Swisher, not including last night’s game which is still going on, has a walk rate under 6% in the second half and has walked just six times. That ~8% jump in O-Swing% may be starting to catch up with him.

–Brett Gardner has a .501 OPS in the second half. That’s just icky. As Steve pointed out in the RAB comments last night, that could be a hangover effect from the thumb injury.

–Alex Rodriguez’s OBP in the second half is .306. In a similar vein, Curtis Granderson’s is .298.

–Phil Hughes has had just two quality starts since the All-Star Break. He’s also averaged almost 19 pitches per inning in that time.

–CC Sabathia has a 1.629 WHIP in the second half.

–This is an all year thing, but it’s funny anyway: in 148 more plate appearances, Francisco Cervelli has five fewer walks than Nick Johnson.

Now, let’s go to things that I like…

–Despite the low OBPs, both Granderson and Rodriguez have IsoPs around .200 in the second half.

–Robinson Cano has a .975 OPS in the second half.

–Robinson Cano’s non-last night-inclusive second half non intentional walk rate is 10.10. With IBBs, it’s up to 14.14. Love this so much.

–Mark Teixeira has a 1.038 OPS in the second half, including a .118 IsoD and a .368 IsoP.

–Kerry Wood, not including last night, has seven strikeouts in 4.1 innings.

–Jesus Montero’s July and August wOBAs: .442 and .568. Haha. Wow.

Any oddities/factoids you guys have noticed? Please share.

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Grading the Yankees

Posted by Matt Imbrogno at 3:00 pm 2 Responses »
Jul 162010

Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News ran a piece today in which he graded the Yankees. I’m going to tell you which ones I agree and disagree with.

Let’s just get the ones I agree with out of the way. I agree with Mo’s, Andy’s, Gardner’s, CC’s, Marte’s, Rodriguez’s, Thames’s, Vazquez’s, Burnett’s, Tex’s, Robertson’s, and Joba’s. I agree with the first four because they’re having great seasons. With Gardner, he’s exceeding expectations. Marte’s doing his job, as is Thames; A-Rod is doing okay considering his possibly health scenario, but he could be better, the same goes for Tex even with a recent hot streak. Burnett and Javy have been up and down, as have Robertson and Joba. Lastly, I agree with Derek Jeter. I was going to knock him down a bit ’cause of his lack of hitting–it’d be nice to see more patience and power–but his fielding has stayed hot. Anyway, onto the fun part: the disagreements.

I disagree with Phil Hughes’ ranking of an A-. He started off hot, but has cooled off a bit. Plus, his general lack of mixing pitches knocks him down to a B in my eyes. He’s doing well, but we need to recognize his flaws, too.

Cano and Swisher should both get A’s. Cano hit out of his mind for most of the first half and Nick Swisher’s commitment to improving himself as a batter should get him kudos. There’s chance for both of them to drop back down a bit in the second half, but they’re both talented enough to compensate.

I’m bumping Jorge up to a B. He’s hit quite well, but he has had injuries. Maybe I should keep him at a B-. But, it’s worth noting that among catchers with at least 100 PA in the AL, Posada’s .369 wOBA ranks second in the league to uber-rookie Carlos Santana’s .428 mark.

I include Nick Johnson, Sergio Mitre, and Alfredo Aceves in the “incomplete” category. Moving on…

I think Francisco Cervelli should be busted down to a C+. I’ll give him credit for his hot streak and for playing more than he’d been expected to, but he hasn’t hit for almost two months and his defense hasn’t been as great as it was last year.

Ramiro Pena is a C at best. His fielding has been okay, but his hitting is just non existent.

Curtis Granderson’s C- is harsh, so I’ll give him a C. The results haven’t been what I’d wanted, but I think that injury really tripped him up. I’ll be an easy grader for this one.

Chad Gaudin needs a D. He’s done barely anything useful this season.

And, wrapping it up, Chan Ho Park should be the lone “F” on the team. He’s really been a sunken cost this year.

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What I'd Like to See After the All-Star Break

Posted by Matt Imbrogno at 3:00 pm 1 Response »
Jul 142010

As you all know, All-Star Week is a pretty slow week for baseball news and with the passing of The Boss, there’s not a whole lot worth talking about in terms of baseball/the Yankees. Instead of going real in depth, I’m just gonna run through the Yankee players and say what I’d like to see them do after the break is over:

Jorge Posada: Stay healthy. The Yankee backstop has been banged up a few times, including a 15 day DL trip, but has produced (.369 wOBA) when he’s been on the field. The more he can play behind the plate and stay in the lineup, the better.

Francisco Cervelli: Keep the walk rate respectable. Frankie’s been really cold of late, but his walk rate has managed to stay pretty decent. If it can stay at 8.2%, and hopefully get better, he won’t be a no-pop auto out at the plate anymore.

Mark Teixeira: Stay hot. Tex’s numbers are getting back to where they should be (.254/.360/.465/.825, .361 wOBA for the season) and in his last 30 games, Tex has hit .322/.406/.626/1.032.

Robinson Cano: Keep it up. He’s been pretty consistent all year. It’s probably asking a lot for him to keep up this career year, but if he can just hit at his current pace the rest of the way, he could win MVP.

Alex Rodriguez: Get hot. We haven’t seen him get really hot this year and I think we’re all waiting for him to unleash the fury. Hopefully, it comes soon.

Derek Jeter: More power. Jeter’s SLG is at .392 right now and his IsoP is at .118.

Brett Gardner: Like Cano, keep it up. What he’s doing is beyond anything we could’ve expected.

Curtis Granderson: Find a groove. Curtis has been unable to find a groove all season and his numbers reflect that. Hopefully, Curtis comes out of the break swinging a hot bat.

Nick Swisher: Also, keep it up. He’s having a career year. Keep doin’ what you’re doin’.

CC Sabathia/Andy Pettitte: Continue to be anchors.
Phil Hughes: Mix your pitches more.
A.J. Burnett: Watch tapes of Game Two of the 2009 World Series and repeat.
Javy Vazquez: I’d love to see him get some damn run support for once!

Bullpen (non-Mo Division): Do your usual second half thing. I’d like to see Jonathan Albaladejo and Romulo Sanchez get extended looks while saying goodbye to Chad Gaudin and Chan Ho Park.

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Older Entries
© 2011 TYU Suffusion theme by Sayontan Sinha