Mmmmm…….. Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez for Kyle Farnsworth. Girardi described it as robbing Peter to pay Paul. Too true. The last two months are the first time that I’ve been glad to see Farnsworth on the Yankees roster sheet and now he is gone. Pudge is not the player he once was but he seems to have matured as a person. So I guess this one hangs in the balance and may do until late September. July was a very mixed month for the Bronx Bombers. Here is how it played out on the offensive side of the account (I’ve included the stats for actual Yankees appearances for the incoming players):
New York Yankees – Batting – Month – July
Name AB R H RBI 2B 3B HR BB SO SH SF SB BA SLG
Mussina, Mike 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .500 .500
Christian, Justin 10 2 4 3 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 3 .400 .500
Rodriguez, Alex 95 20 32 21 6 0 7 9 20 0 1 4 .337 .621
Rodriguez, Ivan 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 .333 .333
Sexson, Richie 15 1 5 2 0 0 0 4 5 0 1 0 .333 .333
Cano, Robinson 101 11 33 17 6 1 3 3 9 1 0 0 .327 .495
Damon, Johnny 54 11 17 11 4 0 1 7 6 0 0 2 .315 .444
Abreu, Bobby 97 21 29 20 11 0 4 14 15 0 0 2 .299 .536
Jeter, Derek 100 14 28 14 8 0 2 10 16 0 0 1 .280 .420
Nady, Xavier 18 6 5 4 2 0 2 2 4 0 0 0 .278 .722
Cabrera, Melky 92 11 25 3 3 1 1 2 13 1 0 2 .272 .359
Giambi, Jason 64 7 15 16 1 0 3 14 18 0 1 0 .234 .391
Molina, Jose 50 8 11 1 2 0 0 5 9 1 0 0 .220 .260
Betemit, Wilson 46 4 10 3 1 0 0 3 15 1 0 0 .217 .239
Posada, Jorge 42 5 9 2 2 0 0 8 14 0 0 0 .214 .262
Gardner, Brett 56 8 9 7 1 0 0 5 16 2 1 4 .161 .179
Moeller, Chad 12 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 .083 .083
Gonzalez, Alberto 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .000 .000
Pluses
Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod continues to be consistent and impress. Of the players who have been on the roster all month he leads in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging average, home runs, and is tied for lead in stolen bases.
Robinson Cano. Having begun to turn things around before the All-Star break, he was red-hot immediately after the restart. A swollen hand saw him dip again at the end of the month and then drop out of the lineup in early August.
Bobby Abreu. .299 in July with 11 doubles and 4 home runs. It’s the nearest he’s come to his previous from during this season.
Minuses
Alberto Gonzalez. Gonzalez looked a good prospect at the beginning of the season. He was only given 1 at bat in July, leaving him at .173 batting average and .212 slugging for the season. Not surprisingly, he was traded at the deadline for anything we could get.
Jason Giambi. 3 home runs and .234 batting average. Giambi is busy turning a comeback year into nothing special.
Chad Moeller. 1 hit in 12 at bats for Moeller and third string catcher gave us enough reasons to be sure that a Molina-Moeller tandem was never going to cover Posada’s absence. So Moeller is gone and Pudge is in but we have had to give up Farnsworth to achieve this.
Surprises
Wilson Betemit. Betemit was poor for the part of the season, massively improved for the second and hit the skids again shortly after. Defensively he’s been okay but poor offense has let him down – somehow we think Sexson is going to be an improvement.
Justin Christian. Christian was called up ahead of Brett Gardner. Gardner seemed to settle more quickly and the edge in speed on the bases. But Christian has persevered and whilst Gardner’s confidence seemed to fail as July progressed (resulting in him being sent back to Scranton), Justin produced 4 hits in 10 at bats. He’s going to see more bench time than playing time but he’s earned his spot
Richie Sexson. Five hits in his first fifteen at bats. No home runs. No extra base hits. Not sure what to make of this but it certainly wasn’t what was expected.
twilightdawning 