When the only bright light in your starting rotation during the last weeks of the season and the playoffs is Andy Pettitte and then Andy Pettitte decides to retire then it is hard to be optimistic:
The post-season and the end of the season were a grim time for New York Yankees fans. First of all some dubious decisions from Joe Girardi saw us blow the American League East title and left us qualifying by Spring Training and then a great series against Minnesota in the ALDS (3-0) was eclipsed by a 4 games to 2 defeat against Texas in the American League Championship Series. Here’s how the batters performed over the last few games of the regular season and those two contrasting post-season series:
Somewhere along the line life became too busy and my opportunities for posting here became too infrequent. Consequently, I never got to post last season’s Yankees October and post-season reports here (and I’m secretly glad that some of you noticed) and didn’t get to award my TWiD player of the season prizes. Over the next few days I am definitely going to rectify that before posting about Spring Training and the 2011 season.
And September was the month when Mariano Rivera went into meltdown when in the year until then he had produced his best ever ERA. How was it really for him and the rest of the pitching staff?
September was the month that finally saw the Yankees falter. At the start of the month, they had the best record in baseball and leadership of the American League East. By the end they were hanging on at 3rd best in the majors and the wild card was their route into the post-season. Despite the general lack of cohesion and direction during these final weeks, some lesser players came up with the goods. Let’s begin with those guys swinging the bat:
The story of the Yankees bullpen in August was Kerry Wood. The finest player on the team was C.C. Sabathia. It is fair to say the pitching had a good month.
The Yankees have maintained their record of being the best team in the majors. In August, one additional factor fell into place – the bullpen. The bullpen which had been previously erratic and with roles constantly changing fell into place with the arrival of Kerry Wood. But before we get to that let’s attempt an overview of the batters – those who were strong, those were weak and those who were just plain confusing……..
Releasing Chan Ho Park and signing Kerry Wood looks like a good piece of business for the Yankees right now but before that happened there was July. July when Andy Pettitte went down injured. July when Phil Hughes was relying on high-levels of run support to gain his wins. What was good, bad and indifferent before Park was released?
| New York Yankees – Pitching – Month – July | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Name | GP | GS | GF | IP | H | RA | ER | BB | SO | W | L | Sv | ERA | OBA | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Marte, Damaso | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | .000 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Rivera, Mariano | 10 | 0 | 8 | 9.1 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0.96 | .206 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Logan, Boone | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.80 | .211 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Burnett, A.J. | 5 | 5 | 0 | 27.0 | 24 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 20 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2.00 | .242 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sabathia, C.C. | 6 | 6 | 0 | 43.0 | 46 | 16 | 11 | 17 | 35 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2.30 | .282 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Robertson, David | 11 | 0 | 2 | 11.2 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 15 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3.09 | .200 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Moseley, Dustin | 5 | 1 | 2 | 16.2 | 11 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3.24 | .200 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Vazquez, Javier | 5 | 5 | 0 | 32.1 | 28 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 18 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3.34 | .237 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Albaladejo, Jonathan | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2.2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.38 | .222 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Park, Chan Ho | 9 | 0 | 7 | 10.1 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3.48 | .225 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Pettitte, Andy | 3 | 3 | 0 | 16.1 | 16 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 16 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3.86 | .258 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Gaudin, Chad | 4 | 0 | 2 | 9.0 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5.00 | .286 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Hughes, Phil | 5 | 5 | 0 | 29.1 | 31 | 18 | 18 | 7 | 21 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5.52 | .270 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Chamberlain, Joba | 11 | 0 | 3 | 12.2 | 15 | 9 | 9 | 4 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6.39 | .288 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Mitre, Sergio | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6.1 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7.11 | .308 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 86 | 26 | 26 | 234.0 | 219 | 99 | 90 | 77 | 183 | 19 | 7 | 5 | 3.46 | .251 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Good
C.C. Sabathia. Sabathia is rolling towards twenty wins and very little is getting in his way and when something does 90% of the time he finds a way to get the win regardless. His 2.30 ERA on the month was good enough but his resilience shows up in the Wins column where he added four more.
A.J. Burnett. A.J. Burnett had his best month of the season, finishing ahead of Sabathia in ERA and OBA. He still is unlucky in not getting the run support he needs but this month managed to pull in 3 wins
Mariano Rivera. Mo gave up one run this month and that is high by his standards.When the meltdowns come, they are not pretty but they are so very few and far between as he continues to make his way through an amazing and seemingly never-ending career.
Boone Logan. With the injury to Damaso Marte, Logan has become the left-handed specialist out of the bullpen and he is carrying that weight very well. In a very good month for the pitching staff, he was third in ERA.
Bad
Sergio Mitre. Mitre looked like one of the obvious candidates when Pettitte went down with a groin strain but he failed to take his chance and Moseley is now the guy just about hanging on to that slot. His one start was a primary cause of his ERA ballooning to 7.11 this month.
Chad Gaudin. Gaudin continues to be persistently ordinary. He eats up two innings per appearance – mainly in games that the team has already lost but his OBA on the month was only saved from being the highest on the team by Mitre’s disastrous start and his ERA was once more in the five run region.
Phil Hughes. It is hard to call Hughes bad but it really is only the run support he gets from the team that is making the outcomes less ugly. Whilst he managed to have a 2-2 month, his ERA for the month was 5.52 and he rarely manages more than five innings per start.
Joba Chamberlain. It seems so long ago now that he was going to be the next young phenom on the team. It hasn’t worked out that way and July 2010 was a particular low point and if the rumours are to be believed the month when the Yankees almost gave up on him and traded him away.
Surprises
David Robertson. Robertson has regained whatever it was he lost in the early months of the season and has managed 18 strikeouts in his last 11 innings pitched. The increasing stability in the bullpen is largely down to him.
Dustin Moseley. Moseley produced a good first start for the team and some quality outings as a reliever. He lacks consistency but with Aceves, Marte and Pettitte out, we’ll take one good game in two at this stage of the season.
Damaso Marte. Marte only managed three games on the month before being added to the disabled list but let’s not overlook the fact that they were all good performances. He has not had a smooth time with the Yankees. He’s had times when he looked like he couldn’t pitch and too many injuries but I’m not going to be slow pointing up the good stuff.
Jonathan Albaladejo. Albaladejo has had an outstanding season at Scranton and looked like he was finally to be rewarded when he was called up. Whilst it wasn’t the smoothest outing, he recovered but was sent back to the minors the very next day. There are better candidates for reassignment who are still on the roster.
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……
| New York Yankees – Batting – Month – July | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Name | G | AB | R | H | RBI | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | SO | SH | SF | SB | BA | SLG | OBP | ||||||||||||||||||
| Teixeira, Mark | 26 | 96 | 25 | 33 | 26 | 10 | 0 | 8 | 20 | 12 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .344 | .698 | .462 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Thames, Marcus | 9 | 18 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .333 | .500 | .381 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Swisher, Nick | 25 | 102 | 20 | 33 | 16 | 10 | 0 | 7 | 10 | 23 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .324 | .627 | .384 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Cano, Robinson | 25 | 98 | 17 | 27 | 18 | 8 | 2 | 6 | 12 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .276 | .582 | .351 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Pena, Ramiro | 15 | 26 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .269 | .269 | .269 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Miranda, Juan | 10 | 15 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .267 | .467 | .313 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Granderson, Curtis | 26 | 94 | 17 | 25 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 21 | 2 | 1 | 2 | .266 | .436 | .314 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Rodriguez, Alex | 26 | 105 | 9 | 26 | 31 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 9 | 18 | 0 | 3 | 0 | .248 | .467 | .305 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Posada, Jorge | 21 | 73 | 7 | 18 | 10 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .247 | .438 | .360 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Jeter, Derek | 26 | 106 | 22 | 26 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 3 | .245 | .311 | .310 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Curtis, Colin | 15 | 34 | 7 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .235 | .353 | .297 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Gardner, Brett | 25 | 77 | 16 | 17 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 18 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 6 | .221 | .338 | .375 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Cervelli, Francisco | 14 | 42 | 3 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 1 | .214 | .238 | .267 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Huffman, Chad | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .250 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Russo, Kevin | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Berkman, Lance | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | ||||||||||||||||||
| 894 | 150 | 239 | 148 | 53 | 4 | 38 | 105 | 174 | 8 | 7 | 13 | .267 | .463 | .347 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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.
The Yankees’ pitching has not been predictable this season. The performances have certainly not been like they were expected to be pre-season. Joba Chamberlain and A.J. Burnett have failed, so far, to live up to their top billing. But also, the appearances of April have not gelled into full season trends with Javier Vazquez particularly overcoming his early season problems. How did it all look during June?
| New York Yankees – Pitching – Month – June | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Name | GP | GS | GF | IP | H | RA | ER | BB | SO | W | L | Sv | ERA | OBA | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Mitre, Sergio | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | .167 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Rivera, Mariano | 11 | 0 | 11 | 13.0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 16 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 0.00 | .093 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Robertson, David | 9 | 0 | 2 | 9.0 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.00 | .250 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sabathia, C.C. | 5 | 5 | 0 | 37.0 | 25 | 9 | 9 | 12 | 35 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2.19 | .191 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Logan, Boone | 4 | 0 | 1 | 7.2 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2.35 | .250 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Pettitte, Andy | 5 | 5 | 0 | 34.0 | 29 | 15 | 12 | 12 | 33 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3.18 | .232 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Vazquez, Javier | 6 | 6 | 0 | 39.0 | 26 | 14 | 14 | 12 | 35 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 3.23 | .187 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Chamberlain, Joba | 12 | 0 | 0 | 10.2 | 11 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.22 | .275 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Gaudin, Chad | 7 | 0 | 6 | 12.2 | 12 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4.97 | .267 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Hughes, Phil | 5 | 5 | 0 | 31.1 | 37 | 19 | 18 | 8 | 24 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5.17 | .303 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Park, Chan Ho | 9 | 0 | 5 | 11.2 | 11 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5.40 | .250 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Marte, Damaso | 8 | 0 | 0 | 5.1 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6.75 | .125 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Burnett, A.J. | 5 | 5 | 0 | 23.0 | 35 | 29 | 29 | 17 | 19 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 11.35 | .357 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 87 | 26 | 26 | 236.1 | 208 | 112 | 108 | 93 | 211 | 16 | 10 | 7 | 4.11 | .239 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Good
Mariano Rivera. Rivera suffered one or two hiccups in May but his long career show that those occasional problems are nothing more than that and he finds it amazingly easy to get back in the groove. In 11 appearance in June, he only allowed six players to get on base and none of them resulted in runs given up. He continues to astound.
C.C. Sabathia. Sabathia took 5 wins in 5 starts after a largely indifferent start to the season. He is hitting his stride excellently as the season reaches its midpoint and a 20 win season looks well within his reach.
Andy Pettitte. Another solid month for Pettitte who is supposed to be aging and consequently fading. Without last year’s self-inflicted burden on his shoulders, he is looking more intimidating, more confident and simply a better pitcher. True growth isn’t found in pills or serum or injection but in overcoming adversity using those natural God-given resources.
Javier Vazquez. And now Vazquez is giving the Yankees the innings and solid pitching that he has delivered for every other team that he has represented but that he has struggled to match in the Bronx. In June, he kept his OBA below 2 and delivered six and a half innings, on average, each outing. That will do very nicely. Thank you.
Sergio Mitre. Mitre must be truly disappointed to be on the disabled list. That’s always a difficult experience but even more so when everything is coming right for you. His final appearance before the injury was as good as anything he has produced for the Pinstripes.
Bad
A.J. Burnett. Burnett got lost in June but there are already signs that his time in the wilderness might be coming to an end. But June saw him deliver a lousy 11.35 ERA and put more batters per innings on base than any other Yankees pitcher. Let’s hope those better days come thick and fast.
Joba Chamberlain. When he’s good, he’s good. But when he’s bad, he is simply awful. And the bad days are outnumbering the good. They failed to make a starter of him and he isn’t the reliever he was. Sometimes you tamper at your peril.
Chan Ho Park. There was a time when Park was a dominating starter. There was a time when Park was a dominating reliever. At the moment he is not pitching well, his mechanics seem all over the place and he is being hit all over the park.
Chad Gaudin. Having released this guy in Spring Training, I do not understand why we brought him back. Having brought him back when there was a number of injuries around, I don’t understand why he is still around now we have more options. He is ordinary when he is at his best.
Surprises
David Robertson. And in June, the 2009 David Robertson reappeared on the roster of the Bronx Bombers. Only time will tell whether the career of Mr Robertson will be more like this guy or whether the pitcher from the previous two months of this season will return. Certainly, this guy is the better one for the Yankees. He gave up one run and averaged a strikeout per innings. He still allowed too many men to get on base but this was a surprising return to form.
Boone Logan. Logan had a good month in June – which resulted in reassignment and another trip to the minors. The need to make a space on the roster for Dustin Moseley was obviously the core reason for this but Logan does bring something to the roster which will be missed. On the other side of the coin, it could be argued that there were times in June when Logan escaped lightly, having put several men on base but managing to get the final out when in difficult straits. There were also times when he was fortunate that others were able to come in and right the ship for him.
Phil Hughes. Hughes won four games in June – but you don’t have to look far to realise that this was mostly down to a very high level of run support. He may still be winning but he is not pitching as well as he was earlier in the year.
twilightdawning 