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?

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.

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?

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.