Derek Jeter will retire after this season!

On his Facebook page Derek Jeter announced that he will be retiring after this season. Obviously we will be getting more information but this is his statement as of right now. So we have another epic feels season after wishing Mariano goodbye last year. This will be the last season of the core four, lets make it a good one.

Woe but for an infield

Can Gladus here play shortstop?

Via Ken Rosenthal the Yankees signed Brendan Ryan to a 2-year deal worthy around $5 million with an odd option that basically adds another year. On top of that they are still pursuing Stephen Drew and were pursuing Jhonny Peralta until he signed with the Cardinals, via Jon Morosi. This is all with Derek Jeter being under contract for this coming season, but as the Yankees have already noted they will be looking for a new starting shortstop so Jeter may be viewed as more of a DH. At this point right now the Yankees infield is putrid, especially because we do not know what will happen with Robinson Cano, as after him there is only Mark Teixeira in the infield. Obviously there are tiers of free agents and someone like Brendan Ryan ranks toward the bottom,which makes giving him two years very odd, but unfortunately players like David Adams, Corban Joseph and Eduardo Nunez rank lower than him as Ryan is an amazing fielder but a very poor hitter while Eduardo Nunez is a below average to an average hitter and a poor fielder even if he isn't throwing the ball into the stands anymore. I don't expect that Ryan will be the starting shortstop but it does remain a possibility and a strong one at that. As of right now though we have no starting second baseman or third baseman (well technically A-rod is still on the roster) and yes the Yankees are likely to resign Robinson Cano but that still leaves them with a gaping hole at third and everybody else in the infield is over 30 which does not bode well for the health of that infield and there are not any young guys looking to steal somebodies job and not many good free agent targets so we are looking at another stopgap 1-year veteran at third and hoping that Tex does not get injured again. There are no prospects at any of the infield positions that are anywhere close to the majors and so the Yankees are going to be stuck with a lot of one year contract veterans because their big money infielders are getting old, hurt and ineffective; all the while still being owed a ridiculous amount of money. The Yankees have always been good at finding talent on 1-year veteran deals, but we saw last year how that as your entire off season strategy can go very badly and with no solution on the left side of the infield that is exactly what they Yankees will need to do for the foreseeable future.

Jeter resigned to a one-year deal

Instead of exercising his $9.5 million player option, the Yankees re-signed  Derek Jeter to a one-year deal 
worth $12MM. Somehow this has actually saved them money. According to MLBtrade rumors by agreeing to a new deal, Jeter is no longer on his old contract, the average annual value (AAV) of which counted against the luxury tax. Had he exercised his player option, Jeter would've added $6.5MM to the AAV of his three-year, $51MM contract ($3MM of the option was guaranteed in the form of a buyout). Doing so would have raised his AAV to $14.375MM. Instead, his $12MM contract will be the number that counts against the luxury tax, thereby actually saving the Yankees $2.375MM relative to the luxury tax. If you feel confused don’t worry everybody does, either way Jeter is definitely in the fold for next season and we will just have to wait and see if it will be as a shortstop, a DH or an injured former star who plays less than 40 games. The Yankees off-season will dictate the role for Jeter next season so we will just have to wait and see.

Derek Jeter: How I was right all along

RAY STUBBLEBINE/REUTERS

In May I wrote The End of Derek Jeter? I wrote about how expecting him to come back and really play shortstop at all was just wrong. I said that at 39 and coming off a broken ankle he just would not be able to do it and unfortunately I was right. Derek Jeters season ended yesterday and he managed 17 games, 12 hits and had four stints on the DL if you include this one and the one he had coming into the season. I was at both of the first two Jeter returns to Yankee stadium games and in those I managed to see a quarter of his hits on the season, including his only Homerus which just so happened to be four rows in front of where I was sitting. Both those games were fun but even in those games he looked like such a shell of himself and the only time a ball with any authority was when he had his Home run and it was a Yankee stadium dinger. Jeter didn't officially miss the season but really he did and now going into this off season the Yankees are going to have to look at a plan for Shortstop that isn't Derek Jeter. I said before that I though Jeter would be a 100 game DH if they wanted to play him for a full season and now the idea of Jeter playing 50 games in the field seems like wishful thinking. This is on top of the idea that Jeter might very well not play for the Yankees ever again, imagine if Jeter comes into the off season and wants a new contract? The Yankees and Yankees fans love Derek Jeter but if he thinks that the Steinbrenners will open their checkbooks and give him a big new deal then he is nuts.Remember Jeter was overpaid in his last contract and Jeter was upset that he did not get more money. In terms of career accomplishments Jeters resume is littered with them and he currently ranks 10th all time in total hits with 3,316, that's a huge accomplishment and nothing else needs to be said about it. If  Jeter played next year at anything resembling a major league hitter he would probably move above Cap Anson at 6th overall with 3,445 career hits and I guess it really comes down to if he views moving higher and higher on the all time hit list as reason enough to come back next year.
This season really isn't something you can truly blame Jeter for, but his drive to get back on the field as soon as possible likely hurt him more than anything else. He wanted to be ready for opening day, but at 39 he just wasn't physically capable of it and pushing to get back as soon as possible only served to aggravate his injury further which is why he never looked like he was really ready to be back at any point in his brief 17 game season. That push though is who Jeter is and without it you don't really know if he ever could have accomplished what he did in his career. I said it in May and I will say it again you can shut the book on Jeter as an everyday Shortstop and now what it really comes down to is does Jeter want to continue on in his Major League career if he is no longer a star caliber player? Can he accept being a mostly Full time DH? Can he accept having a bench role and getting paid a lot less money to do so? We have seen some players whose desire to play, no matter what, is so strong that former super stars will play in the minors or go oversees to keep playing, but is that what Jeter wants to do? Its not a criticism of his either way or any kind of judgment on him as a player or person but that is what the outlook for the rest of his career is. Either way Derek Jeter is one of the all time greatest Yankees and if his career is over tomorrow then it was an amazing experience for all of us as fans and if not then we all get more Derek Jeter.

Derek Jeter activated today

Derek Jeter will be activated for today's game according to Ken Rosenthal and is expected to be in the lineup. Jeter has been rehabbing for less than a week and many expected that he would be activated on friday, but no he has been activated today. During his rehab assignment, the Captain went 1 for 9 with a single and four walks. He also committed an throwing error while playing shortstop. The Yankees will obviously ease him back into this but I expect he will DH a lot as Nunez has played well and Travis Hafner has not.

Who's at Short?

Photo Credit: Leon Haslip, Getty Images

As I wrote in an earlier article we may be looking at the end of Derek Jeter and almost definitely looking at the end of Jeter at shortstop. The Yankees came into the year with Eduardo Nunez as the starting shortstop and while he was improved on defense his offensive production left a lot to be desired with a paltry .200/.290/.275 in 95 Plate appearances. A player would need to be an elite defender for those numbers to be acceptable and unfortunately Jayson Nix really has not been much better, Nix has been exactly replacement level while Nunez is almost a full win below replacement level. Recently Brian Cashman said that he doesn't plan on making a larger  acquisition at shortstop and so he is apparently putting all his eggs into the Derek Jeter basket which is very likely a mistake. The real problem is that that Jeter is most likely done as anything more than a part time shortstop and that may be being generous. As I have said before 38 year olds are not supposed to play short stop and I do not think that Jeter can physically play on that ankle more than once in a while, Jeter has already exceeded expectations for his age and expecting the same production is borderline insane.
The other half of the problem is that quality short stops are not in an abundance, especially since the Yankees would need to bring in someone as a long term answer and there just aren't any available unless they want to give a long term deal to Stephen Drew this off season and he still looks bad since his terrible ANKLE INJURY and from which he has never regained his previous form.
The trade market doesn't look much better as the only potentially available quality short stop is the White Sox  Alexi Ramirez and he is 31 so he would not be more than a stopgap. Ramirez has done well in his career hitting .275/.315/.404 and is considered a good defender. Jimmy Rollins presents another possibility but he would be even more of a stopgap as his is 34 and only under contract for one more season, he has had a much better career than Ramirez but at this point they are very similar players as Rollins has posted a slash line this year of .264/.329/.403. But what really prevents me from saying that the Yankees should trade for Rollins or Ramirez is that I expect that they will be traded at the deadline and even worse is that I expect the Yankees could make a good offer to the Phillies or White Sox and end up really helping the team but I do not think that the Yankees or Brian Cashman will do it. So for the foreseeable future it looks like Idontknow will be playing Short stop for the Yankees because the only true Short stop they have is Eduardo Nunez and exactly no prospects in the minors at short unless you consider Cito Culver still a prospect and you really shouldn't.

The end of Derek Jeter?

Derek Jeter’s 2012 season cannot be undersold he was absolutely amazing, I don’t think anybody thought that at age 38 he would possibly hit as well as he did, I did not even realize until I saw the stats but his 216 hits in the 2012 season was the second most in his career as in only once in his 18 year Major League baseball career did he have more hits than in 2012 and that was way back in 1999 when he had 219. That being said everything changed when Jeter broke his ankle in the ALCS, let’s be clear this happened because he played through the pain his ankle had been bothering him all September and instead of resting he got a cortisone shot to keep playing because the Yankees needed him too. Derek said he would be back by opening day and that seemed unlikely because he was coming off a BROKEN ANKLE, and sure enough despite the possibility being raised during spring training Derek wasn’t ready. Then it turned out that he had fractured his ankle in his attempt to be ready and now will be out until at least the all-star break but no return date has been set.

 There are a huge number of problems with this injury beyond the fact that Derek Jeter is not playing with the Yankees and they really could use his bat right now. The biggest problem that comes up is “Can he play Short stop?” I mean Derek hasn’t had good range in years and it’s been especially bad the last three years and now he has a broken ankle on top of that. It would be one thing if Nunez was still throwing the ball away every other play, but his fielding has been pretty good and if we are being honest definitely better than Jeter’s. It’s a monument to Jeter that he has been able to play Short stop for 18 years and it’s the only place he has ever fielded, but I honestly do not think that he can play there on that ankle. The Yankees will probably try him out at Short a bit but I expect that he will mostly DH when he returns, but what about next year? I don’t know if Derek will pick up his player option for next season and it is technically possible that Derek could retire at the end of the year, I expect that he will want to play more after the season and what if he doesn’t want to DH 100 games or if the Yankees say he needs to change positions and he won’t do it, what happens then?  In 2014 the Yankees cannot have the left side of their infield feature a shortstop with a broken ankle and a 3^rd baseman who has had two hip surgeries and both Jeter and A-Rod will likely need to DH frequently anyway. Also Jeter’s speed will likely be completely gone, it happens to most people who break an ankle and it does make me wonder how well Jeter will be in taking the extra base, I expect that he will push himself to do it but it’s very possible that he just won’t be able to anymore.  As of right now this doesn’t impact the Yankees as they need to actually be close to getting The Captain back before we can truly wonder where he will play and what his impact will be, but it’s still in the back of my mind.This off season contract negotiations could end up being a lot more stressful than the one that caused so much controversy in the 2010 off season.

Jeter reinjures Ankle

Well the Yankees woes against left handed pitching are likely to continue as Derek Jeter has a new fracture in his ankle and will be out until at least the allstar break, the good news is that he wont need surgery again. Brian Cashman said that Jeter, should be able to resume his rehabilitation when the new crack heals, in about four to eight weeks. The statement from Cashman says that Jeter did nothing wrong in terms of his rehab stating:
"He was cleared to play. This is the third CT scan he's had. His prior two CT scans showed the healing and 100 percent healing. He wasn't cleared for the baseball activities and cleared to play until he had 100 percent healing, so this is a new fracture, but a small one. That's I guess the only good part. They kept saying the word 'small.'"
Remeber originally Jeter wanted to be back for opening day and I have mentioned that that seemed very ambitious considering he was coming back from severe ankle surgery. I also have a hard time believing that this new injury has nothing to do with Jeter pushing himself, that's what he does its how he broke his ankle in the ALCS he needed to rest but he got a cortisone shot to power through it. At 38 you just aren't able to do that and while we hear all about these athletes coming back from injuries in record time, thats not practical and a player runs the risk of re injuring themselves just as Derek did here. Its very possible at this point that Eduardo Nunez will be the Yankees everyday shortstop for most of the year, so let that sink in.

The Steinbrenners problem with $189 million

The problem for many people who have a lot of fame and money is that sometimes they can convince themselves of anything and they have the resources to ignore reality and believe these things. It doesn't matter if everyone thinks the idea is insane or wrong, they have people who will tell them that they are right and I think that Hank and Hal Steinbrenner are in this situation, obviously not to the extent that the boss was, they want to be more frugal but I honestly think that they have not wrapped their heads around what that will mean. $189 million would still be one of the top payrolls in the MLB, but it would also require the Yankees to be smarter about how they spend their money and I do not think that this is something they know how to do. In the offseason fans can convince themselves that a team or a player will do something or be something that they are not based on a hot streak which most of the time amounts to nothing. Owners who are dumb, see something like this and respond with an underseved contract or lets key players walk because some other player hit well over 100 PA. This is what Royals owner David Glass did with Bruce Chen and Jeff Francoeur and unfortunately what the Steinbrenners did with Ichiro Suzuki.
According to Joel Sherman the new two year deal $13 million for Ichiro came from "top of the Yankees hierarchy" following "a strong Division Series and adoration from the fans." As you all remember Ichiro had a great two months with the Yankees but had been disappointing most of the last two seasons. At the time I did not understand the deal as it did not seem to be a move that made sense with the austerity plan and frankly it doesn't make sense, Ichiro could hit well this season but he hasn't so far and when Granderson comes back he could wind up spending a lot of time on the bench and he is still under contract for next season. This could be an issue in the future as the Steinbrenners have always insisted that they will put a championship caliber club on the field, but if they want to they cannot do stupid things like this, it doesn't work. I also need to see the Yankees abandon this policy of not extending players as free agency is starting to dry up as more and more teams are holding onto their talent and I for one do not want to risk losing Cano to some team that wants to give 10 years to Robbie. Its also going to effect their negotiations with Derek Jeter, Jeter has not made any indication that he feels as though he is winding down and what do the Steinbrenners do if he want a new deal? Would they really be able to let Derek walk to keep the budget after not being able to let Ichiro go after 2 months? We will have to see what happens as decision time will come this off season.

Yankees Opening day Roster

Well tonight is officially opening night for Baseball and the Texas Rangers will take on the Houston Astros. I mean seriously of all the good pitching match ups that they could have put on, the MLB wanted to feature Matt Harrison versus Bud Norris. Tomorrow though there are a number of interesting games including CC Sabathia facing Jon Lester as the Red Sox take on the Yankees in the Bronx. Obviously the Yankees roster had a lot of turnover after the off season and then even more after all of the injuries so the opening day roster looks very different then it will likely look after the Disabled List clears up a little bit.

Rotation:
CC Sabathia, Hiroki Kuroda, Andy Pettitte, Ivan Nova and David Phelps
one of the only places that isn't terribly different than we expected as Hughes got off to a late start and will miss his first start or two.The Yankees are going to need the top of this rotation to be outstanding if they want to survive until the wounded come back. Don't forget Pineada waits in the wings too.

Bullpen:
Mariano Rivera, David Robetson, Joba Chamberlain, Boone Logan, Cody Eppley, Adam Warren and Shawn Kelley.
Its was a surprise when the Yankees DFA David Aardsma especially because of how bad Eppley has been this spring. It was an even bigger surprise when the Yankees DFA Clay Rapada and it likely means that his shoulder bursitis was very bad. Warren will get sent down when Hughes gets back and Phelps will move back to the bullpen. Eppley and Kelley both have options so either could get sent down when Rapada gets back and I would bet that if Mark Montgomery is lights out in Scranton he will be up with the big league club before too long. Girardi typically puts together great bullpens and I have no reason to suspect that this year will be any different.

Catchers:
Francisco Cervelli, Chris Stewart.
There was really no chance of not these two guys, there was some ideas that Romine could make the club but Brian Cashman said that he was going to take these two. Stewart will catch CC on opening day but I expect that Cervelli will be the primary catcher. It wont make much of a difference, the Yankees will not be getting much production out of the catching spot.

Outfielders:
Vernon Wells, Brett Gardner, Ichiro Suzuki, Ben Francisco and Brennan Boesch.
Wells, Gardner and Ichiro will be the starters until Granderson comes back, with Francisco and Boesch being the backups. If I had to take a guess I would bet that Francisco will get some time at DH against lefties so he very well might be the opening day DH with Lester on the mound. Neither Francisco or Boesch were on the roster at the start of Spring training and its doubtful that they will last the whole year as the Yankees don't typically carry five outfielders and when Granderson comes back there likely wont be any space for either of them. Yankees are banking a lot on Francisco, Boesch, Wells and Ichiro boucing backfrom bad 2012s. I know Ichiro was good with the Yankees but his last two years in Seattle were awful.

Infielders:
Lyle Overbay, Robinson Cano, Eduardo Nunez, Kevin Youkillis, Jayson Nix, Travis Hafner.
It looked like Juan Rivera would be the everyday 1st baseman until Tex came back but the Yankees picked up Overbay just a few days ago and cut Rivera. Because Overbay is a left handed batter I expect that Nix will start at third and Youkillis at first base against lefties, but its possible Overbay will need to play against lefties. Nunez was going to need to play for Jeter quite a bit anyway, but now he will need to be the starting Shortstop until Jeter returns and we have no idea when that will be. Hafner is the DH and will not play the field at all, but even then we have to hope he will stay healthy because they are really screwed if he goes down early.

Well there you have it the Yankees opening day roster and as I said in my earlier post there will be a lot of fluidity in this roster for probably the entire season. Lets see what a new Yankee season has in store!

Jeter received a Cortison shot for ankle

Well this is a great way to get going for Jeter, after playing in only 5 games he has been scratched from two games and had now received a cortisone shot for the mild inflammation in his left ankle today. The Captains day to day and there is a chance that he will not be ready now for opening day, in which case Eduardo Nunez would be the starting shortstop. In order for Jeter to be ready he will need to play a full 9 innings and play in back to back games, there are only 12 days left in spring training so it will be cutting it close. 

Top 5 things the Yankees need to do this offseason

A big part of the Yankees offseason

The baseball season is just about over and unfortunately it is not ending with a New York Yankees World Series win. In fact the Yankees blew their best chance to win the series since 2009 by having their bats disappear in the postseason and now they need to retool for next season. Here are the top 5 things the Yankees need to do for next season .

1. Resign Hiroki Kuroda
This is by far the most critical part of the offseason and if the Yankees want to bounce back from their poor performance they will need to resign Hiroki Kuroda. He transitioned to the AL by having the best season of his career and that's in Yankee stadium. Kuroda was the number two pitcher the Yankees have been looking for, for a long time and if they need to give him a two year deal they absolutely should in order to bring back Hiroki.

2. Right Field
The Yankees have any number of possibilities for Right Field next season and while Nick Swisher is by far the best solution, it seems unlikely that the Yankees will bring him back next season due to his price tag. For all the complaints about Swishers struggles in the postseason the Yankees really need his switch hitting bat and it will be a lot cheaper to give Swisher 3-4 years than try and sign Curtis Granderson after he hits free agency. If the Yankees let Swisher and Granderson walk then they may need to fill two Outfield spots after next season  and we do not even know if they will be able to fill one spot internally. To me the most likely scenario is that the Yankees bring back Ichiro Suzuki or they trade for an Outfielder as there are not many free agent options for the Yankees who want to stay in their budget for 2014. Bringing Ichiro wouldn't be the worst scenario, but he would be 39 and while he may be able to flash a little more power he will be 39. The Yankees would also need to count on Ichiro's resurgence into next year and hope the hot month he had with the Yankees wasn't a fluke.

3. Catcher
This one is very straight forward. The Yankees are going to need to bring back Russel Martin because the free agent and trade market for catchers is pretty barren. Napoli isn't really a catcher, AJ Piezynski is a jerk/old and Olivio is terrible. Martin is the best option and if they don't bring him back then they will need to platoon Cervelli and Stewart and they don't want to do that. Its pretty much Martin or bust for the Yankees.

4. Resign Andy Pettitte
Some may balk that this is 4th, but really this may be a little high for Pettitte. I did initially ponder putting this with Kuroda, but really its much less important for Pettitte to return as it is for Kuroda. Pettitte surprised everybody with his comeback and made a big impact, we just don't know what he will be able to contribute next season. That being said the Yankees want him back, Pettitte just needs to decide if he wants to come back.

5. Bench
The bench doesn't seem like a huge thing but it is going to be very important next season as well in the foreseeable future because of the age of the Yankees roster. The Yankees do not know how many how many games Jeter or ARod will be able to play in the field next season so a good bench is critical. Recently Brian Cashman said that they want Eduardo Nunez to play everyday at short stop and he could potentially play short 60-70 games next season and possibly even more next season depending on Jeters recovery from his surgery. If they don't want Nunez to do that then they will need to acquire somebody who can play short stop frequently as Jeter is defiantly going to need to have a lot of rest, especially at the beginning of the season. Despite his abysmal postseason ARod is going to be okay and is going to be the primary 3rd baseman, but he and Jeter will probably be the primary DH's so somebody will need to be able to step in as the 3rd baseman frequently. If Eric Chavez returns I expect that he will fill that role, but that is in no way a certainty and he has frequently said that his previous injuries have made playing very painful for him. If Chavez does not return then there is a good chance that the bench spot would be filled internally by Corban Jospeh or David Adams both of whom are probably major league ready. The backup catcher will probably be Chris Stewart again  but after that their bench will depend on what their answer in Right Field will be.

I was initially going to include signing both Hughes and Cano to extensions and while I do believe that these are important they do not affect 2013. In Cano's case I feel that he will wait until he hits free agency as he will want a big deal and there is a very real chance that the Los Angeles Dodgers will outbid the Yankees for Cano. In Hughes's case the Yankees should sign him to an extension but it is not critical to the 2013 team. That being said I will have a post up about Phil Hughes and extension possibilities.

The End of the 2012 Yankees

Jeter after suffering his ankle injury

Well the Yankees wasted their best opportunity to win the World series since 2009 and lost in four games to the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS. Normally a team would probably be happy with advancing to the second round of the playoffs, but these are the New York Yankees and its World Series or bust every year. The thing that made this so hard was, as we talked about in the podcast, the Yankees were clearly better than the Tigers but the offense mailed it in for the first series against the Orioles and completely didn't show up for the Tigers series. I mean they managed six runs in four games and when you eliminate the 9th inning of game one they scored two runs in games 2-4. Of course what makes this all worse is that Derek Jeter fractured his ankle is game one and we don't know how he will come back next season as a 38 year old Shortstop.
Playoffs make people crazy and so the ARod, Nick Swisher and Curtis Granderson hate trains were overflowing all playoffs long. Its not that they did not deserve to be criticized for their poor performance, its just that people start thinking that a player is worthless all together if he struggles in the postseason. Curtis Granderson hit 43 Home Runs, the idea that they should turn down his option is ridiculous. Some people try and say that the Yankees should never have acquired Nick Swisher because of his struggles in the post season and criticizing the ARod contract is valid but also having the benefit of hindsight.
The Yankees season ended in a way none of us would have liked but the only thing that we can do now is wait until next season as the Yankees retool for a World series run in 2013.

Jeter will likely need Ankle Surgery

Following his fractured ankle in game one, The Yankees have confirmed that Derek Jeter will need Ankle surgery.Via Wally Matthews: Derek Jeter will “likely” need surgery to repair ligament damage in his fractured left ankle. The Cap’n underwent a battery of tests to confirm the break yesterday, and now he’ll head to North Carolina to see Dr. Robert Anderson, a foot and ankle specialist. Its unclear if this will increase his recovery time, but obviously we hope he can be ready for spring training.

Derek Jeter leaves game with injured Ankle

Update 11:12pm Apparently it is actually a bone bruise on his ankle and Jeter will try and play tomorrow, probably as the DH. So potentially not that bad.

Update 10:38pm Its reportedly a sprained Ankle. I have no idea what the time table for that is but it shouldn't be too long.

Derek Jeter hurt his ankle when he grounded into a double play in the 8th inning. Bryan Hoch reports that it is an ankle injury. No word on the severity of the injury yet and Jeter was replaced by Jayson Nix at short stop in the bottom of the 8th inning.

Derek Jeter's 3,000th hit

It happened and it happened in the possibly the best way it possibly could have. With no men on Derek Jeter hit his first Home Run at Yankee stadium of the year for his 3,000 hit to tie the game against the Rays on a full count against one of the best pitchers in the game David Price of the Tampa Bay Rays. Jeter followed that up with 3 more hits and went 5-5 in the 3rd career 5 hit game. Christian Lopez caught Jeters 3,000 hit and he received a package of Champion seats for tomorrows game, Legendary suit tickets for every game for the rest of the season and a package of autographed memorabilia and of course he met Jeter after the game. I think what was even better was the fact that Jeter later hit the go ahead hit in the 8th and just overall had a game that even if he had not been close to 3,000 we would have all said how great a game Jeter had. Now we all want to see how far Jeter will go in his definite hall of fame career, I doubt he will surpass Pete Rose or Ty Cobb but I think that getting around 3,500 hits is within his reach and that would mean moving into the top 5 all time hits leaders. I am very happy that I got to see this event live and it made me think of all the milestones that we have gotten to see in the last few years; A-Rod's 600th, Jeter's become the Yankees all time hits leader and of course him getting 3,000. Then we have to look forward to A-Rod getting to 700 Home Runs, getting 3,000 hits and Mariano Rivera becoming the all time saves leader. We are getting to see a great period in individual Yankee accomplishments and we still have some to look forward to. Congratulations  Derek Jeter, I hope that you have many more games like this one. For all of you who missed the hit here it is.

Price's reaction is dare i say it....Priceless

Groans, Facepalms and Everything that has Yankee fans Wondering "What the Hell?"

So first off, for any regular readers, I am not Nick. I am his girlfriend and he has asked me to write a piece here because I, as he is, am an enormous yankee fan.

One would be hard pressed to find a Yankee fan who hasn't, for a greater part of this season, been on the edge of their seat (and not in the positive "THESE GAMES ARE SO CLOSE BUT WILL PROBABLY END IN OUR FAVOR" kind of way.) Between sometimes shaky pitching from the back end of the lineup, barring Bartolo Colon, to offense who has seemingly forgotten that if you have a runner on third with less than 2 outs, just about any in play ball will bring in a run, Yankee fans are finding themselves scouring scouting reports of their own to see what our chances are to win a game or series. However, one may wonder who is at fault here; is it the management? the players? pitching? defense? offense? Why is it that with a team of heavy hitting, strong players are we having such issues? Here is my breakdown.

Offense:
This is an obvious problem; they're not hitting when they need to be. It seems that we can get all the hits in the world when we're winning 15-0 but if the game is close and we're not scoring via long ball, our offense stands at the plate and perverbially scratches their asses waiting for the pitcher whose on the mound to do something (also known as throwing a pitch they can hit). Unfortunately, when we're down or up by only a run or two, we can't see the ball or are focusing too much on "we can't lose again" and end up making rookie mistakes.

One huge culprit of this is Robby Cano. Robby is a fantastic player, don't get me wrong, but for whatever reason he cannot seem to get his swing together as of late. Although he carries one of the teams highest batting averages at .273, he keeps swinging at pitches out of the zone, using a long lazy swing that has developed into a lot of groundouts or high pop-ups or just not swinging at the type of pitches he can hit for contact. All batters slump and he certainly isn't the only one in the line up that is doing it right now, but for a guy who is considered to be our best hitter, he isn't showing his stuff right now and instead of being a difficult out at the plate, he has become the exact opposite in the last few games.

It is also difficult to build a solid offense when certain members of the line up are going several games without a hit. These members are Jorge Posada and Nick Swisher. I have been a huge Posada fan for the entire time I've liked the Yankees and I have come to really like Swisher. However, these are two holes in the batting order that are causing some serious problems. With Posada hitting only .178 and Swisher plummeting from .270 last season to .206 this season there are basically two guaranteed outs when they come to bat. This is obviously a problem. Although one would immediately think to either bench them for a while or move them down in the line up, that has proven to be more difficult than it seems. With Posada being a long time Yankee and already irked that he had to give up his position as catcher, moving to 9th in the line up was not something that thrilled him. Although after the "Posadagate" incident in May Posada admitted that he was not hitting the way he should be and that he wasn't contributing much to the team offensively (which is all he can do, because he's the DH!) he still said that he felt disrespected by the Yankees. With ego's like that at work, it is difficult to make any moves or changes. Swisher, on the other hand, has not spoken much about his slump other than to say that he is working with Kevin Long and hopes to improve soon.

Basically, we need a new line up order. The one that we have right now is coming to bite us in the ass. Although Derek Jeter is improving (and then not improving, and the improving again) he is no longer effective in the lead off spot. We should have someone like Gardner batting lead off, Granderson following, Teixeira, Cano, Roderiguez, Martin, Jeter, Swisher, Posada. With a line up like this we would have a better shot at producing runs early and keeping leads. Unforunately, the management is afraid of hurting the feelings of integral Yankee players such as Jeter and Posada. Although Jeter is certainly far from useless, he is no longer (as I said before) effective where he is and until/when/if he improves he should be moved to a part of the line up that reflects his offensive contribution, not his time vested in the team. As far as Posada goes, he needs to take an enormous chill-pill and realize that if he wants to benefit the team he loves so much, he needs to take one for the team and bat 9th. Changes can always be made as players stats change, but for right now, a line up change would help incredibly. Other teams have had no problems moving strong players to lower batting slots in they weren't performing well. For example (and as much as it pains me to say it), Francona and the Red Sox had no problem moving Carl Crawford from the 3rd slot to the bottom of the order when he wasn't performing as he should. Again, I hate to say it, but that is good management. Although loyalty to players is something of a Yankee tradition, Joe Girardi needs to pull his head out of his ass and instead of babying the bullpen and starting pitchers do something about his fledgling offense.

Furthermore, the offense needs to learn the power of contact hitting. Although home runs are great, and they are certainly not a cheap way of scoring runs but they are not the ONLY way. Everyone wants to be the hero so when we have runners in scoring position, instead of taking the sacrifice (in a tight game just to tie the score or gain insurance runs) or trying to just loop the ball into the outfield, everyone starts swinging for the fences. In the process, they miss pitches, get out and we strand our runners. Working on manufacturing runs and playing small-ball will increase our chances of winning more games and make us a more solid team.

That brings me to our next problem, Management:
I do not like Joe Girardi. I feel I need to clear this up now, because I don't think I have many nice things to say about him.
A manager should listen to his players, which Girardi does so I give him that, but he is also supposed to make tactical decisions about problems that players may be biased on. That is what a manager does and that's what they're paying him for. Instead, he over or undermanages different aspects of the team to the point where they become ineffective. Although he does well with the bullpen and makes sure that they stay fresh and ready, he needs to understand what to do with a starting pitcher. Someone like CC Sabathia is easy to manage; he's a workhorse and rarely falters beyond his ability to fix so there aren't too many problems there. Unfortunately, not every pitcher is CC Sabathia. Guys like AJ Burnett are more difficult. Last season I was ready to overthrow the Yankee higher-ups and fire him myself because he was useless, but despite everything, Burnett has come back this season as a reliable pitcher. However, someone needs to deliver the message to Girardi that when he starts to lose the plate in the 6th inning and he has an upwards of 80-90 pitches, he rarely comes back from it without letting a run or two go. It's not entirely his fault, he's not 25 anymore and when he gets tired, as with any pitcher, he gets sloppy. Even though this has been shown time after time, Girardi chooses to rest on his laurels and wait for the score to be tied or give the other team he go-ahead-run before he makes the call to the bullpen. I don't know if he is just trying to give the bullpen time to warm or if he is waiting to see if Burnett will discover the plate again but he waits way too long (not just with Burnett, but with just about every starting pitcher) and it costs the team runs and games. Furthermore, he also has the opposite problem which consists of taking a starter out too early when they're dealing. For example, on April 24, Freddy Garcia was pitching against the Orioles and he was dealing. Of course, Girardi decides to take him out a little early. You could even seen Garcia saying that he was fine and wanted to go back out, but Girardi insisted. The bullpen came in and ended up blowing the lead and tying the game forcing it into extra innings. Although we won, it is possible that if Garcia had come back out it wouldn't have gone on that long. This is an example of his over/undermanaging style. He either makes too many or too few moves and it can render the team in a losing position.

To remedy this situation, Girardi really just needs to pay more attention and take his head out of his special little binder and watch the damned game. He seems to misread signs from the pitchers and overall just waits way too long to make a move when needed and sometimes moves to early when things are "too good to be true". Maybe he should take a him from himself and listen to his pitchers, if they say their tired than it may be time to do something, but if a guy is showing no signs of slowing down and says he can pitch, give him a shot. You can always bring someone in from the bullpen if they prove to be unable to make the outs. Or, there is another option (my personal favorite), fire Girardi's ass and employ Billy Martin's corpse to do the managing.

Finally, we have magically adapted a problem with our defense:
One thing you could always say about the Yankees was that they were solid defensvively, until recently. For some unknown reason (therefore I'm calling in laziness) we have adopted errors, and lots of them.
Robby Cano (sorry to pick on him again, but it's true), a former gold glove second basemen is losing track of the ball and making more errors through this part of this season (5) than he had all of last season (3). He wasn't always a great fielder, but you expect when someone makes advances that they will stick with them instead of regressing.
That coupled with some sloppy infield playing at times is causing some problems for us defensively. Hopefully this is just a phase and they'll come out of it.

This is just a matter of better communication among the infield. They need to decide where to play, how shallow/deep and they need to pay better attention to their signs. Also, our gold glove, silver slugger second basemen needs to wake the fuck up and smell the baseball. It's time to stop playing lazy like you're in little league and play to your full extent. We have the talent and potential to overtake and pull away in the AL East, but if we keep doing nothing with RISP, experiencing shit management and dealing with a sloppy defense, we'll be waiting and watching come post season.

Good and Bad News 3/30/11

                Today is the last day before Opening day and the Yankees have announced some good news and some bad news.

Good news:

For one baseball will start tomorrow at 1:05 pm at Yankee stadium and that is great news. Curtis Granderson is not only ok but he will be starting tomorrow, this is great news and I’m sure that he is fully healthy as I doubt the Yankees would start him tomorrow if he was not. Also  the Yankees have been able to add Luis Ayala, Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia to the 40-man roster without releasing anyone which leads to the bad news.

Bad news:

Colin Curtis, Reggie Corona and Damaso Marte are all starting the season on the 60 day disabled list and Francisco Cervelli and Pedro Feliciano will start the season on the 15 day disabled list. Cervelli is recovering from his broken foot so that was expected. Feliciano on the other hand went from a sore tricep to being diagnosed with a rotator cuff strain. That’s very unfortunate especially since Feliciano was signed due to his ability to be a workhorse and he has never been on the disabled list before. Hopefully Feliciano recovers soon he has been shut down for at least 10 days.

Other news:

The Yankees made it official and Gustavo Molina will start the year as the backup catcher for the Yankees until Cervelli comes back. Also if you haven’t heard Brett Gardner will bat leadoff tomorrow with Jeter in the 2 hole and I guarantee you that Michael Kay will talk about Jeter in the 2^nd spot for the entire game tomorrow.