When I last posted a week ago, the Yankees were in great shape. They were a game up in the AL east and were about to take on the Red Sox at home. A week later, the Yankee season is on the verge of falling apart.
Yes, I know they are only two and a half games out with plenty of games to go, but the injuries just keep piling up. After getting beaned, blasted, beaten and swept by the Red Sox, the Yankees also lost some key players. Joba Chamberlain is out until mid 2012 leaving the Yankee bullpen in a state of desperation. With Rafael Soriano, Damaso Marte and Pedro Feliciano all months away from actually throwing a pitch, David Robertson has become the most important Yankee reliever. With Bartolo Colon injured, the Yankee rotation is as shaky as its been since 2004.
The Yankees are in trouble and eventually this all has to go back to Brian Cashman. Now I understand he tried to get Cliff Lee and failed, but since 2003 he has failed over and over to put together a good rotation that stays in place.
If I were C.C. Sabathia, I would leave after this year, the Yankees are going to have a hard time finding anyone to upgrade this rotation anytime soon and eventually might have to give up a good hitter like Cano in order to get the all important second ace. With all that said, here is my take on the week:
How bad of a Job did Cashman do managing Joba? Why didn’t they just stick to the plan of keeping him in the rotation? Let him go through the growing pains and by now he could have blossomed into an ace. Instead, he is banished to the bullpen where a couple bad outings a year overshadow his great peripheral stats. The good thing is after Tommy John surgery he should come back throwing harder.
Robertson isn’t the ideal guy to be pitching the eighth inning. He allows way too many base runners. I really like him in the getting-out-of-jam role that he’s done so well.
The Yankees need to find some upgrades over Freddy Garcia and Ivan Nova. While they can get by against bad teams, teams like the Red Sox and Rangers are going to destroy them come October.
I actually like the idea of the new MLB league format. I think it will bring the fire back into the regular season. It will also make Yankees-Red Sox games much more exciting.
With Derek Jeter’s injury, hopefully he can still get 3,000 hits on the next home stand.
The Yankees have a tough series ahead versus the Rangers. They really need to hope the Red Sox will cool off soon or this could become a one-team race in the AL East. We hear so much about the Yankees minor league teams doing well and producing players, well let’s see how good they really are. With all these injuries we might as well give some kids a chance. Who knows, maybe the next Robinson Cano or Chien-Ming Wang is at Triple-A right now.
Enjoy some more interleague play. Hopefully the Yankees can make up some ground this week.
