Tag Archives: new york yankees

Yankees on the threshold

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After last night’s win, the Yankees are just one win away from another World Series. I’ll be posting my regular October updates in the next few days but this particular position really required an additional few lines.
The trio of starters that we have HAD to depend on through the playoffs have seen us through. Sabathia, Burnett and Pettitte have been solid and, at best, outstanding. The bullpen has been both a great strength and a great weakness. Rivera has been everything we know that he is. Hughes such a dependable presence during the regular season has been quite dreadful.
There have been sterling performances from Jeter, Rodriguez, Damon, Posada and little wrong elsewhere.

I think it’ll go to six games but the Phillies will have to be tremendous to turn it around now.

September in the Bronx – Part 2 – The Pitchers

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The Yankees have benefited from some great pitching performances and some consistent pitchers this year. Who were the main heroes and the late season culprits?

New York Yankees – Pitching – Month – September
Name GP GS GF IP H RA ER BB SO W L Sv ERA OBA
Coke, Phil 10 0 2 5.2 1 1 0 2 5 0 0 1 0.00 .059
Robertson, David 4 0 0 3.2 1 0 0 2 6 0 0 0 0.00 .083
Kennedy, Ian 1 0 0 1.0 0 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 0.00 .000
Sabathia, CC 5 5 0 35.0 20 6 5 13 36 4 0 0 1.29 .167
Hughes, Phil 12 0 2 12.2 6 3 2 3 16 3 0 2 1.42 .143
Rivera, Mariano 11 0 11 10.2 8 2 2 3 10 2 1 7 1.69 .211
Albaladejo, Jonathan 9 0 2 7.1 9 3 2 3 3 1 0 0 2.45 .310
Aceves, Alfredo 7 0 1 14.1 11 5 4 4 13 1 0 0 2.51 .208
Bruney, Brian 11 0 1 8.2 8 3 3 6 7 1 0 0 3.12 .242
Towers, Josh 2 0 2 5.1 6 3 2 1 2 0 0 0 3.38 .273
Gaudin, Chad 5 5 0 26.2 27 11 11 10 18 1 0 0 3.71 .265
Burnett, AJ 6 6 0 37.1 39 18 17 16 39 2 1 0 4.10 .262
Pettitte, Andy 4 4 0 23.0 21 12 12 13 15 2 1 0 4.70 .244
Melancon, Mark 4 0 0 5.0 6 3 3 4 3 0 0 0 5.40 .300
Dunn, Michael 4 0 3 4.0 3 3 3 5 5 0 0 0 6.75 .200
Chamberlain, Joba 6 6 0 22.2 31 19 18 11 17 1 2 0 7.15 .320
Ramirez, Edwar 5 0 2 4.2 7 4 4 3 6 0 0 0 7.71 .350
Marte, Damaso 10 0 1 5.0 6 5 5 2 4 1 2 0 9.00 .300
Mitre, Sergio 4 2 1 15.0 21 18 16 4 12 0 2 0 9.60 .309
120 28 28 247.2 231 119 109 107 218 19 9 10 3.96 .244

Positives

Phil Coke. Coke has not looked the pitcher who made his entry on to the major league stage in 2008. He has, however, usually provided an adequate performance and has frequently been better than that. In September, he started to look again like the pitcher we had seen back in the previous season and when he wasn’t that good, he looked like the luckiest pitcher in the major leagues. It is not a bad combination if you can pull it off.

C.C. Sabathia. With the expection of an abysmal performance against Tampa Bay in the last few days of the season (which fell in October), Sabathia looked every bit a 20-game winner. That defeat left him stuck on 19. Four of those came in September and a 1.29 ERA over 35 innings is quite an achievement.

Phil Hughes. Hughes has become a consummate relief pitcher in 2009 which is why the Yankees are thinking of converting him into a starter in 2010!! Less than 2 runs every nine innings, less than 1 walk every four innings. Great performances.

Alfredo Aceves. Aceves has had a great time of it in 2009. He was left off the opening day roster but since he made it, there has been no looking back and September was as good as every other  month of the season.

Negatives

Sergio Mitre. Mitre was the fifth starter for the last few months of the season. His performance in September was so bad that he took away any chance he had of making the playoff roster. A 9.60 ERA for the month, a visible lack of confidence and the highest OBA on the side. Great finish!

Joba Chamberlain. Chamberlain, at times, has looked like he was growing into a great starter. For most of September, he didn’t look like he should ever be allowed to start again. At times, he looked like he couldn’t throw strikes and when he did manage one, it generally ended up in a gap in the outfield. Back to Plan A, I think.

Edwar Ramirez. At the start of the year, Ramirez looked like a fixture in the 2009 Yankees bullpen. By mid-season, he was gone. At the roster expansion point, he returned. He didn’t look any better and his time with the Yankees should be at an end now.

Damaso Marte. He looked a much better possibility after returning from injury than he had before he was injured. Second in the pecking order amongst left-handed specialists – behind Coke but looking more reliable than late season call-up, Mike Dunn – Marte, suddenly fell apart again late in the month.

Surprises

Ian Kennedy. I don’t know what was more surprising. Was it that Kennedy made it back to the Majors in 2009? Or was it that he got out of his one appearance with a 0.00 ERA. Put simply, he was awful in that game.

David Robertson. Robertson was another pitcher who managed to get ahead of the timetable and return to the team before season’s end. That was where the similarity with Kennedy ended. He threw well. He threw strikes. He occasionally got in to a jam but he usually managed to get himself out of the problems. Sadly, because of Chamberlain’s redirection to the bullpen, he is unlikely to get many innings in the playoffs.

Brian Bruney. He had a good month, on the whole, in September, and it was somewhat surprising that he didn’t make the roster for the first round of the playoffs. He pitched with conviction but his uneven season was too much for him to overcome.

Chad Gaudin. If the Yankees need a 4th starter in the playoffs, it is likely to be Gaudin which in and of itself suggests how much of a surprise Gaudin has been over the last few weeks. He has shown a gritty determination to keep the Bombers in the game and produced some goos innings without ever been overpowering.

September in the Bronx – part 1- the Batters

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Well, here we are in October, the R/Sox crashed out of the playoffs in three straight games and I still haven’t published my summary of September for the Yankees.
As I anticipated the two L.A. teams are going to be the ones that the Yankees need to worry about – what ammunition do they have to overcome them, once they have dispensed with the Twins?

New York Yankees – Batting – Month – September
Name G AB R H RBI 2B 3B HR BB SO SH SF SB BA SLG OBP
Cervelli, Francisco 14 14 3 7 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .500 .571 .500
Cano, Robinson 28 100 15 35 13 9 0 4 7 15 0 2 1 .350 .560 .391
Teixeira, Mark 26 102 21 35 20 8 3 7 8 23 0 2 0 .343 .686 .395
Jeter, Derek 26 100 13 34 6 2 0 1 19 22 2 0 7 .340 .390 .450
Posada, Jorge 18 59 11 20 18 3 0 5 10 17 0 0 0 .339 .644 .435
Rodriguez, Alex 25 89 14 30 23 5 0 5 10 19 0 2 5 .337 .562 .396
Miranda, Juan 5 6 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 .333 .333 .333
Matsui, Hideki 24 80 13 26 18 0 0 5 14 13 0 0 0 .325 .513 .426
Pena, Ramiro 13 17 3 5 2 1 0 1 0 3 0 0 1 .294 .529 .294
Cabrera, Melky 28 87 10 25 18 5 0 2 7 8 0 0 2 .287 .414 .361
Swisher, Nick 24 88 19 23 12 7 0 7 15 19 0 0 0 .261 .580 .369
Gardner, Brett 20 41 9 10 3 2 0 0 2 8 1 0 4 .244 .293 .295
Damon, Johnny 22 81 13 19 5 4 0 0 14 16 1 0 2 .235 .284 .347
Duncan, Shelley 8 13 1 3 1 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 .231 .231 .231
Hinske, Eric 15 28 4 6 4 0 0 2 4 7 0 1 1 .214 .429 .303
Molina, Jose 15 35 1 6 2 0 0 0 5 6 0 0 0 .171 .171 .275
Hairston Jr., Jerry 18 28 4 4 1 2 0 0 4 3 1 0 0 .143 .214 .250
Guzman, Freddy 7 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 .000 .000 .000
970 154 290 151 49 3 39 119 186 5 8 25 .299 .476 .377

Positives

Robinson Cano. As I mentioned in the reports of the individual games, Cano has made tremendous progress this season. No longer the guy who was lazy in the field last season or the guy with the lacklustre batting average. He led the team in September in hits and doubles and defensively having him and Teixeira in the field means that we compare with anyone on that side of the park.

Mark Teixeira. Speaking of Teixeira, another great month for him. It’s interesting that the press still like to talk about his standard of offensive performance in April, attributing it to the lack of A-Rod’s threat behind him in the lineup which is nonsensical. Better to concentrate on the fact that since then he has been so consistent and always put up great stats and been a leader in clutch situations. In September, he led the team in at bats, runs, RBIs, triples, home runs and slugging. I think he’s done enough to gain credit in his own right.

Derek Jeter. In September, Jeter had another .340 month and led the team in walks. He has not had a down period all year. He is also much improved in the field – although I don’t think he deserved a large part of the negative criticism he took last year.

Alex Rodriguez. Rodriguez continues to get into his stride and this has, so far, continued into the post-season. It has been a slow progression for him but he’s finally got there.

Negatives

Jerry Hairston, jr. Hairston has, by contrast, been cooling down each week since since he arrived in the Bronx. On one hand, this makes it very easy to decide who to choose to start at third base but leaves us going into the post-season without having anyone on the bench that we would particularly want to call on to fill that spot in an emergency. Ramiro Pena has been a consistent and capable utility guy for the other infield spots but first, Ransom and now Hairston and Hinske have offered very little offensively and played only adequately in the third base corner.

Jose Molina. If I was to choose a Yankee catcher on the basis of power and experience, I would go with Posada. If my choice was guided by defensive ability and the need to grow through more playing time then Cervelli is my guy. Molina’s .171 with no power in September means that Molina might count himself lucky to be on the post-season roster. If it wasn’t for the questions about the Burnett-Posada tandem then I would have left him off and given Cervelli the extra time.

Eric Hinske. See the comments on Hairston. Hinske brings the potential for a little more sporadic power but not much else.

Shelley Duncan. Duncan’s great season at Scranton gave him one more chance in the majors for the Yankees ………. and he didn’t even begin to take it. 13 at bats, 3 hits is not too bad but you’re looking for this guy to hit for power and he just hasn’t done it in this limited role. The Yankees can either choose to give him the option to become a career minor leaguer or release him to try his fortune elsewhere.

Surprises

Johnny Damon. Damon needs to finish hot if he is to persuade the Yankees to let him return in 2010. He is a sub-par left-fielder and really needs to keep up his average if he is to be back in that role next year. A mere .235 with no home runs was not the way he wanted to go in September. He needs a big post-season.

Freddy Guzman. Guzman was a surprise addition to the roster in late August and immediately, Girardi was talking about him having a role in the playoffs. He didn’t make the first round of the playoffs and a series against the Angels would seem to offer him the best chance of a call up. But to be honest is baserunning in late September was predictable and too often he found himself in problems.

Brett Gardner. Gardner didn’t really deliver in September. He is significantly behind Cabrera for the centrefield starting role and his baserunning hasn’t been as aggressive and Jeter and Guzman have looked the main threats in that category. Given that he went into the season as the favoured man for CF and that Girardi said he had no plans to platoon, this must be regarded as a severe setback for him.

Francisco Cervelli. Cervelli has proved himself again and again this season. He is a capable guy with the tools of ignorance but it is ability to hit for average at the major league level that is the big surprise and which is the big lift for him and which is beginning to look like it is no fluke. Mostly as a late innings replacement in September, not an easy role, he has managed six singles and a double in fourteen at-bats which for me means that he should see a big increase in opportunities next year and that he should move up the pecking order for the catching role, even if that means saying goodbye to Molina who has served us well over the last few years.

In New York – Third Game

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September 30th 2009
Yankees Vs Kansas City Royals
@ Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York

Joba rules! We’ve lived with them for the last two seasons. Designed to ensure that the young pitcher of the New York Yankees develops into the star we all KNOW that he can be. Mmmm…….  Tonight after lots of late season restrictions the training wheels came off and Chamberlain was given his head to show what he could do in a game on which nothing depended. And we all sat there and squirmed……. And hoped that this was just another off night and tried to avoid the conclusion that they’ll never make a starter out of this guy. But, trust me, this was dreadful.

Joba Chamberlain pitched 3 and 2/3 innings for 3 runs, and even more worryingly 7 hits and 4 walks. He couldn’t find the strike zone and I would have to say that he was lucky to get off so lightly. He was replaced before the end of the 4th inning by Alfredo Aceves. Now this guy didn’t make the rotation back on opening day and has never really been considered as an option for the starting rotation in 2009 but tonight he looked like twice the pitcher that Joba appeared to be. Aceves pitched two innings and if it wasn’t for the fact that the Yankees’ bats had gone to sleep, we would have been right back in it.

Of the batters, only Jeter produced anything of note. Two hits, one a home run and also a walk before he was lifted for Jerry Hairston in the late innings for a game the Yankees didn’t seem to think they could win but in which they were only one run behind.

The late innings relievers, Phil Hughes and Mariano Rivera were as overpowering and untouchable as they have been for most of the season but the Royals’ bullpen was just as effective and the Yankees ran out losers, 4-3.

So the last home game of the stand raised more questions than answers and Chamberlain hoping that he could some way edge onto the post-season roster and re-gain some of the ground he has lost.

In New York – 2nd Game

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September 29th 2009
Yankees Vs Kansas City Royals
@ Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York

The Yankees are paying AJ Burnett an awful lot of money. After this game he was giving a rousing round of applause for 6 and a 1/3 innings during which he only gave up one earned run. The problem is that from where I was sitting he looked lucky. I kept waiting for the moment when there would be a series of hits and Kansas would then take him apart but it never came. I don’t know why. The problem is that I don’t think it was because Burnett was overpowering so much as that Kansas are a weak hitting side.

The post-season is at hand and the Yankees biggest flaw is their starting pitching – the one thing they spent most of last off-season trying to fix. Sabathia has been consistent (although I wasn’t know to know at this point he was only a couple of days away from one of his worst starts of the season). Burnett has had a poor second half after a solid opening to the season. Pettitte has been good for one good performance in every two. Chamberlain has spent half the time looking like a starter who would make a good reliever which is ironic since he is a good reliever who we are trying to make into a good starter. It is good that we don’t need a fifth starter in the playoffs.

We’ll see what comes. We could be brilliant, we could be embarrassing.

Tonight, we got away with it.

In relief, Phil Coke pitched reasonably well but made some bizarre decisions in fielding and dealing with runners on base – leading to the unearned run that was credited to Burnett. David Robertson looked as good as anyone coming back from injury at this point of season could have done. Brian Bruney removed 4 of the last 6 batters (1 hit, 1 walk) and has been busy playing himself back into contention for a playoff roster spot.

Offensively, we didn’t have much to offer. Teixeira carried us and fan-favourite Nick Swisher added a home run which was just enough for a 4-3 win.

Before the game I visited the Yankees museum (which is excellent) and Monument Park (which, ironically, in this more spacious ballpark is a little too compact). I really must do this more often.

In New York – 1st Game

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September 28th 2009
Yankees Vs Kansas City Royals
@ Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York

Last time I arrived in New York, the newspapers were full of stories about how Yankees manager, Joe Girardi, had benched secondbaseman Robinson Cano. Cano had failed to show sufficent effort in his fielding work resulting in Girardi subsituting him immmediately and deciding not to select him for the next game.

This time, Cano fielded like the guy we also knew he could become and hit a grand slam home run to add the power  the Yankees needed to gain their insurance runs.

Oh and all this happened in a completely different stadium.

What else was notable?

Before our journey if I’d have predicted which game I was sure the Yankees would win during our visit, then I’d have gone for the game of the 29th. Burnett looked a possible winner, Chamberlain (due to start on the 30th) can be brilliant on his day. I’m still not sure why we signed Chad Gaudin (who was scheduled to start tonight). We had Sergio Mitre to be an indifferent fifth starter, why did we need another?

At least, the Yankees rule against beards meant that Gaudin couldn’t re-grow that thing he used to sport on his chin when he was with the Cubs. But beyond that I’ve found it hard to think of anything that has come out of him joining the Yankees up until this point. Tonight, he pitched 6 2/3 innings for 4 hits and 2 runs. Now he wasn’t outstanding but he held his ground and kept the Yankees in the lead. I don’t expect to see him on the post-season roster or back in the Bronx in 2010 but he’s good enough to get a job elsewhere.

Cano picked up his 49th double and 26th home run. Jorge Posada got to first base safely in every one of four plate appearance.

Oh and the Yankees collected their 101st win of the season.

This is all the more oustanding because it was their 59th win since the All-Star break. Amazing!

So a 8-2 win for this game, roll on tomorrow

Back in the U.K.!

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Well, this time it was a bit of a flying, compact visit to New York but it was well worth the travelling time and the jetlag I’m now suffering back in London. During the time we were there we spent time in four of the five boroughs and attended three games at the new Yankee Stadium. It was a painful experience to see the old Stadium closed up, fenced off and derelict but some people struggle to respect history. Strange to think the last time I was there was in the frivolity and joy of the last game ever held there – now the life has moved across the road into a site which has more comfort, more space but lacks the originality of architecture and atmosphere and the ghosts of great games gone by. Where the new stadium has true class is where it has chosen to echo the old. Let’s just say it’s nice and I’ll get used to it and leave it at that.
Over the next few days I’ll be posting some thoughts about the games we saw and then a summary of September and what I thinks the Yankees chances are in the post-season.

The greatest relief pitcher ever

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Last night, at Yankee Stadium, Mariano Rivera reached 40 saves for the season.

Here’s a few facts:

Rivera has 79 saves in 81 opportunities in the last two seasons.

His ERA for this season is 1.69. Unless he has a terrible second half of September, this will be the sixth time in the last seven seasons he has delivered an ERA of less than 2.

In total, he has 9 seasons with an ERA of less than 2.

He has pitched over a 1000 innings for the Yankees in a 15 season career and delivered 522 saves over that period.

His ERA in 31 division series games for the Yankees is a minuscule 0.38

His ERA in 25 championship series games for the Yankees is 0.93

His ERA in 20 World Series games is 1.16

He has 34 post-season saves

He has played 8 times for the American League All-Star team. His ERA for them is 0.00

His OBA for the post-season has only once exceeded .250

Since he became a reliever, his OBA for the Yankees in regular season games has never exceeded .300

He has struck out 998 opponents in regular season play

He has ranked in the top 10 save earners in the American League every year since 1997

Mariano Rivera is certainly the best relief pitcher I have ever seen and I would argue that he is the best relief pitcher ever to grace a baseball diamond.

August in the Bronx – #2 – the Pitchers

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And so on to the pitchers:

New York Yankees – Pitching – Month – August
Name GP GS GF CG IP H RA ER BB SO W L Sv ERA OBA
Melancon, Mark 2 0 1 0 2.0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0.00 .000
Marte, Damaso 3 0 1 0 2.1 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0.00 .000
Rivera, Mariano 11 0 9 0 11.1 9 1 1 4 12 0 0 8 0.79 .209
Bruney, Brian 9 0 2 0 10.1 10 1 1 7 5 1 0 0 0.87 .250
Hughes, Phil 11 0 0 0 10.1 7 2 2 4 16 1 0 0 1.74 .189
Pettitte, Andy 6 6 0 0 39.2 29 13 11 12 39 4 0 0 2.50 .207
Sabathia, CC 6 6 0 0 44.1 36 14 13 6 49 5 0 0 2.64 .221
Robertson, David 11 0 4 0 9.2 11 3 3 4 17 1 0 0 2.79 .268
Gaudin, Chad 5 1 3 0 14.0 13 5 5 10 14 1 0 0 3.21 .232
Mitre, Sergio 5 4 1 0 23.0 26 14 11 6 14 2 1 0 4.30 .280
Aceves, Alfredo 8 0 2 0 19.0 17 10 10 1 15 3 0 0 4.74 .236
Burnett, AJ 6 6 0 1 37.1 38 25 25 17 40 0 4 0 6.03 .266
Chamberlain, Joba 5 5 0 0 23.0 31 21 21 15 18 1 2 0 8.22 .323
Coke, Phil 12 0 3 0 9.2 12 12 12 4 7 2 0 0 11.17 .308
Claggett, Anthony 1 0 1 0 1.0 2 2 2 2 1 0 0 0 18.00 .400
101 28 27 1 257.0 241 123 117 94 251 21 7 8 4.10 .246

Positives

C.C. Sabathia. Sabathia has become easily the Yankees most consistent starter. That was after all what they signed him for and what they pay him enormous amounts of money for. But the Yankees have signed big name pitchers in the past and they have failed to adapt to life in New York. No such problem for C.C.. He’s averaging over 7 innings a start in recent games and in his last 6 starts, he has 5 wins and 1 no decision.

Phil Hughes. Hughes has found a role to suit his undoubted ability and we’re no longer surprised that month-by-month, he is one of the Yankees most used relievers and gives up few hits and less runs.

Andy Pettitte. Pettitte had an uneven month but his last start of August was his best in the pinstripes for some considerable time . I wouldn’t expect him to maintain that standard but he has been a solid part of the rotation.

Mariano Rivera. Another 8 saves during the month. Again only 1 run in the month. A walk every 3 innings. More than a strikeout per innings. He wasn’t quite as good as he was in July but this guy is in a field of one and he is a phenomenon.

Negatives

Anthony Claggett. Claggett’s performances at triple-A seem to make an obvious candidate for promotion. He arrives in the majors and he falls apart. So bad that both times he has been added to the roster, he is gone so quickly that he doesn’t seem likely to get two consecutive appearances at this level.

Phil Coke. Coke has seldom looked like the pitcher he was in 2008. August was probably his worst month of the year so far. He gives up too many home runs and on the month his ERA was over eleven. Fortunately for him the Yankees have had few left-handed options out of the bullpen so he is still on the roster at the September expansion.

Joba Chamberlain. Chamberlain had a poor month but indecision amongst management and coaches about how they should keep from over-tiring him did not help him. At one point he had an eight day break between starts. That was a disaster. So on his next appearance, he made a 3 innings start. That was better but not much. Where does he go from here?

AJ Burnett. Burnett’s season has hit a serious decline. The Yankees need to get him out of this funk if he is going to be a meaningful contributor in the post-season. He is giving up more than a hit per inning and gifts the opposition more walks than any other starter on the team.

Surprises

Damaso Marte. I’m surprised to even see Marte back on the roster as early as August. I’m even more surprised that he has managed to bring his ERA on the season to below ten. In the few performances he has made since his return from the DL, he looks like a different pitcher than he has had at anytime since he joined the Yankees last season.

Brian Bruney. Bruney’s figures are much, much improved on what they were a couple of months ago but I have a feeling that at the moment he is riding his luck and that on a few occasions a wise decision by Girardi to get him off the mound – and an inspired substitution as seen him through. We’ll see how long it can last……

Sergio Mitre. Mitre’s most recent appearance was a revelation. Prior to that I’d been hoping that he could get the Yankees through to the end of the fifth and keep the scores even. In his last game, he looked much stronger….. and then he was hit by a batted ball and you wonder whether that moment will ever come again.

Alfredo Aceves. Aceves has looked very wobbly at times recently. Somehow he keeps coming good when the Yankees really need him. He now has 9 wins in relief. Very peculiar.

August in the Bronx – #1 – the Batters

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So, August has come and gone and within its spread, the Yankees rose to the head of the pack in Major League Baseball and looked confidently towards the post-season. September will involve the expansion of rosters and will provide me with plenty of time to absorb the sights and sounds of the new Yankee Stadium as I make my first visit to New York this year. Let’s see who came up with goods in the heat of Summer and who came up sadly lacking. Batters first:

New York Yankees – Batting – Month – August
Name G AB R H RBI 2B 3B HR BB SO SH SF SB BA SLG OBP
Jeter, Derek 28 122 27 46 17 6 0 6 5 14 1 1 4 .377 .574 .403
Pena, Ramiro 7 8 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .375 .375 .375
Cano, Robinson 28 118 19 41 16 13 0 5 2 13 0 0 0 .347 .585 .358
Damon, Johnny 24 98 21 32 16 8 0 7 7 14 0 0 2 .327 .622 .371
Rodriguez, Alex 25 92 19 29 12 3 1 4 18 23 0 0 1 .315 .500 .442
Teixeira, Mark 28 109 17 32 26 7 0 6 17 19 0 1 1 .294 .523 .391
Hairston Jr., Jerry 24 41 10 12 10 3 0 2 6 5 1 1 0 .293 .512 .388
Matsui, Hideki 24 89 16 25 25 2 1 8 6 11 0 0 0 .281 .596 .333
Posada, Jorge 20 75 9 21 16 7 0 4 8 24 0 1 0 .280 .533 .345
Swisher, Nick 25 94 14 26 16 6 0 5 17 24 1 1 0 .277 .500 .384
Cabrera, Melky 27 103 13 23 13 5 1 2 5 12 1 1 3 .223 .350 .264
Molina, Jose 14 40 5 8 3 0 0 0 5 9 0 1 0 .200 .200 .283
Hinske, Eric 14 29 3 5 2 3 0 0 4 10 0 1 0 .172 .276 .265
Ransom, Cody 2 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 .000 .000 .000
1022 175 303 172 63 3 49 100 181 4 8 11 .296 .508 .361

Positives

Derek Jeter. First in the line-up and first on my list. The captain has had a simply outstanding season and he has even managed to improve as the year has gone along. He added 12 extra base hits to his .377 BA on the month, his defense is better and as always he has the perfect demeanour to give the team the lead and example they need.

Robinson Cano. Cano has had some problems in the field but there is no taking away from his offensive production. He’s had his best ever year for power production and has continued to hit for average and he is a great singles hitter. Unfortunately, his patience at the plate has suffered, resulting in too few walks, as his ability to gain singles has increased but all-in-all, it’s still been a good year for him.

Johnny Damon. Damon had his best month of the year and gave the Yankees something to think about when they think about leftfield for 2010. No question that they could improve defensively but in extra base hits he is second only to Cano, on the month.

Alex Rodriguez. Rodriguez also achieved his best month of the year – which to be fair wasn’t difficult but still bodes well after his early season surgery. 2009 will still be a year he wants to forget for all kinds of reasons but that .442 OBP is a bright indicator of good things to come.

Negatives

Cody Ransom. At the beginning of the year, Ransom, who has seen some limited time in the majors before, seemed to have his best chance of making the grade. From April to July, he messed up every opportunity he was given and in August, his inability to hit a single finally saw him demoted to Triple-A and more significantly removed from the 40 man roster. He struck out three times in the four at-bats he was given in the early days of the month which really shows his problems.

Eric Hinske. Of the pairing of Hinske and Hairston who were brought in when Gardner headed to the DL, Hinske has been the poorer. He achieved a meagre 5 hits in August – 2 singles and 3 doubles. If it wasn’t September (which brings with it extra spaces on the roster) it would be difficult to justify keeping him around.

Jose Molina. Molina vs Cervelli – Posada’s days of playing 7 out of 7 were always going to be limited but they’re now behind him. This means that the backup catcher is going to get significant playing time. Youth vs experience. The Yankees went with experience and in some ways that has paid off but it is Molina’s lack of production in the hits column which suggest that youth might have been the better choice.

Melky Cabrera. Since the night, he hit for the cycle, Cabrera’s batting production has slumped to the kind of problems he had in 2008. It has been a rollercoaster year for him but he needs to turn it around one more time before the post-season.

Surprises

Hideki Matsui. Matsui who looked like he was on his last legs (pun intended) just a few weeks ago, had some fluid drained and had a flush of power as the month came to its conclusion. He led the team in home runs for August including a couple of nights when he encouraged the ball to leave the stadium on more than one occasion.

Jerry Hairston Jr. Aside from the error he made during Pettitte’s most recent outing – when Andy looked like he might have a stab at a perfect game – this has been a very good move for Mr Hairston. .293 BA and .512 slugging percentage are both significant markups on his numbers prior to joining the Yankees.

Ramiro Pena. Ramiro’s name is very near the top of the above list which is sorted by batting average. He’s proven himself to be more than capable in the infield (the team’s hope that he would also develop skills in the outfield doesn’t seem to have really worked out). Somehow, when a roster move requires someone to make the dusty bus trip back to Scranton, his name comes to the top of that list as well, too often.

Nick Swisher. Swisher has proved that he can be a good clubhouse presence and a threat to produce home runs. His ability to produce a good batting average has not been so consistent. This month he bucked the trend and hit .277 which is still below the team average for the month but a marked improvement.