Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Monthly Review: April

The New York Yankees, with one of the most potent line ups ever, are sitting in last lace with the worst opening month since 1984.
They have had wild finishes with clutch hitting, but when playing in their division, they are a miserable 3-11 with two wins against Tampa Bay and a lone win against Boston.
Their pitching has meet the disabled list with all but one starter making the trip. They have used nine different starters including four minor league call-ups to fill in for the injured pitchers. The bullpen is worse than
last year ruining quality starts and suffering losses in games which they would have normally won. Mariano Rivera's ERA is in double digits as he collapsed against the Red Sox twice taking the loss in both games.
The Yankees are in a position that Would make King George begin with the firing and hiring, but with age and the support of players, he will not take any actions, yet. Torre nearly lost his job last year after a first round loss to the Tigers in the playoffs sent them home early for the seventh year in a row, but was saved by General Manager Brian Cashman, who may lose his job with Torre is things do not head upward.
The first week was the toughest, especially for the gloves. The Yankees committed six errors in the first game with Derek Jeter accounting for half of them. Notice how I said Jeter, not A-Rod.The infield was improved a lot overall in defense and the offense is slowly peeking around the corner.
If the Yankees want to march back in first, the starting pitching needs to remain healthy and pitcher at least six full innings and the bullpen needs to shut down the opposing bats, not give the game away.
There is no problem with the line up as the Yankees continue to lead the majors in runs scored with A-Rod and Bobby Abreu leading the way.
One item on the Yankees checklist come July 31 trading deadline is pitching. And when that time comes, I will give my recommendations on who should be signed and who should be in trade talks.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Labels: Alex Rodriguez, April, fielding, offense, pitching, review, Yankees


Posted by Steve Kenul at 7:40 PM

Friday, April 06, 2007
Woe is Us
After three games into the season, a lot of questions have been replaced by new questions.
What happened to the defense?
What happened to the pitching?
What happened to A-Rod? -Wait, that's the same one as before...
So far the Yankees lead the majors in errors with six , three in back-to-back games, the first time since 1926.
Gold Glove shortstop Derek Jeter is responsible for three errors including two tonight in a loss against the Orioles. The other three were split among A-Rod, Meinty, and Josh Phelps.
Wether it is the cold air swooping down from Canada, the moisture in the air, or the Yankees failed to realize the season started, something needs to be done.
The Yankees pitching answers seemed to have solved with the signing of Pettitte and the return of Pavano, but that was the opposite.
No Yankees pitcher this season has yet to reach the five inning mark and all three starters so far have allowed more than 4 runs each.
Mariano Rivera has lead the team in strike outs with three that he earned on the season opener while pitching one inning. Mussina passed that mark today with a fourth K.
So the question is raised again, how are the Yankees going to solve their pitching problems if their starters can't go past four innings?
The middle relief is so-so with Luis Vizcaino garning the only win only to suffer a loss in his next outing.
Kyle Farnsworth has so far made a impression in his outings not allowing any runs.
Alex, Alex, Alex. You hit a home run on Opening Day, got a standing O, but it was not clutch. Last night you had two chances to win the game including a bases-loaded situation in which a base hit would have won the game, but instead you pop out.
Tonight, with two men on and two outs, same thing, same results.
I am not going to put the full blame on A-Rod, since there are 24 other players on the team who are equally responsible in the Yankees recent failures.
Week one has come and gone, three games have passed, and the Yankees are not fully aware of their surroundings. It's the regular season, time to play ball.
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Labels: Alex Rodriguez, fielding, hitting, pitching, questions, Yankees



Posted by Steve Kenul at 10:52 PM
