The New York Yankees went into July in a strong position but during the month they allowed both Tampa Bay Rays and, for a while, Boston Red Sox to close the gap. They addressed some of the problems we’re going to highlight in this review with a group of trades at the end of the month which brought in Lance Berkman, Austin Kearns and Kerry Wood whilst giving up not a lot in return. This has particularly patched the gap left by Nick Johnson’s long and predictable injury. But before all that happened, there was most of the month of July to unfold……

Good

Mark Teixeira. Teixeira finally hit his stride in July and produced form which emulated his 2009 season offensively. This year whilst he has been consistently strong in defense, he has just not shown up at the plate. Now all that has begun to change. In July, he led the team in ERA, OBA and Slugging percentage. His 8 home runs were also ahead of the rest whilst his RBI total was second only to A-Rod.

Marcus Thames. Marcus has continued to impress against left-handed pitchers whilst his figures against righties were significantly better in July too. He will continue to be very much a back-up player and in that role 6 hits in 18 at bats will do very nicely indeed.

Nick Swisher. Nick Swisher is another player that has grown beyond recognition since he arrived in New York and this streakiest of players seems to be settling into a nice routine. Going into the season he looked like one of the potential weaknesses in an outfield that was going to over-rely on Granderson. As the season has developed, Swisher has become the guy who is first pencilled in of those in an outfield role. His .324 and increased patience at the plate (we could still use a few more walks from him) were highlights of a strong July.

Ramiro Pena. Pena had his best offensive month of the season and this coincided with Russo being the guy to be sent to the minors when changes were made early in the month. He still has a long, long way to go – no extra base hits and, more alarmingly, no walks on the month – but this was an advance.

Bad

Francisco Cervelli. I think Cervelli is over thinking at the plate and whatever hits he was producing last year and in the early months of the season are drying up fast. This is particularly bad timing for a slump with Posada’s on-going problems meaning that the team must depend on him and .214 on the month with one double simply does not cut it.

Colin Curtis. Curtis lost his back-up spot this month and forced the Yankees into making a move for Kearns and he has no-one to blame but himself. His 8 hits in 34 at-bats simply were too poor to be sustainable as things got tight at the top.

Derek Jeter. Jeter’s worst month at the plate in nearly two seasons in the midst of a season that is all the more noticeable poor because of his heroics in the championship winning season.

Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod’s preoccupation with himself and his tendency to concentrate on his own goals rather than the teams became so obvious with the horrible slump that occurred in the run-up to his 600th home run and ruined his July figures.

Surprises

Brett Gardner. Gardner became the player he was in 2009 in July and consequently, he produced by far his worst month’s figures of 2010. His .221 month means that when Kearns settles in, Gardner will begin to lose playing time.

Juan Miranda. Miranda finally settled into a rhythm in July — which resulted him being reassigned to Scranton. His .267 with one homer didn’t set the world alight but the choice of Berkman – who has never had to play DH – to replace him is an odd one.

Kevin Russo. Like so many other players on the Yankees roster this season a bright start when first called up soon became a gloomy outlook for Russo and whereas he was once getting more playing time than Pena, he now finds his future at Triple-A.

Jorge Posada. Things are not right with Posada. He needs more rest and the fact that he is being used mainly as a DH and that his batting figures are still so poor says everything.