My friend and former colleague weighed in on the Yankees' past, present, and future in the following post. Thanks and take it away Otto!
Well, my Friends!
All good things have to come to an end. But let's face it the Yankees are a team in transition whether Torre stayed or not. This is a team that has serious issues that need resolution. They can be competitive and they can make the playoffs but it is highly unlikely that they can advance to the world series and win it. Consider for a moment the 1998-2000 Yankees (I know it's not fair to compare any team to that team but it will illustrate a point). Every player in that lineup and you know them well: Girardi, Martinez, Knoblauch, Jeter, Brosius, Curtis, Spencer, Williams, O'Neil, Davis and Justice could hit, field and run the bases intelligently. Today I see a lineup that top to bottom has defects. I'm not asking for 9 DiMaggios but the late 90s squad did everything right - not spectacular but right. In short they played fundamentally sound baseball which I have not seen from this team since 2001. Consider:
Catcher: Posada - great year but definitely aging, can't run bases at all and can't catch up to hard fast balls especially late in the year.
1st Base: Mientkiewicz - great fielding can't hit for average or power but good bunter. Giambi - steroids, injury, no fielding and I'm being generous.
2nd Base: Cano - great hitter but God almighty has there ever been a 2nd baseman who "just misses" ground balls like this guy. Am I the only one who noticed this. His range seems to be good enough to just miss balls. On top of that he makes many errors and sometimes plays too nonchalantly.
SS: Jeter: great hitter - but let's face it ZERO range at shortstop, especially to his left and since 2002 his playoff performances have left a lot to be desired.
3B: A-Rod - no point in discussing - the stat machine is a head case in October. Maybe leaving NY is best for him.
OF: - Matsui: solid hitter and fielder, Cabrera: good field - no hitting, Abreu patient at the plate, good arm but slow in the field and virtually no power from a power position and Damon - solid but aging.
And I did not address patient hitting (taking balls and swinging at strikes). Not swinging at every pitch may have been a death-penalty offense where Cano and Cabrera are from and Jeter strikes out way too much for a 2 or 3 hitter.
The Yankees have a lot to address and the most serious has to be defense up the middle. I wonder if Jeter is at the beginning of the end of his time at SS. If his range decreases any more it's something that has to be considered. Cano may simply be too big to be a second baseman. His "just misses" may be a product of being unable to get down fast enough for some of these hot grounders. But the Yankees are building for the future with one of the finest crops of young pitchers I have ever seen: Hughes, Joba, Kennedy and other in the minors. And if they are building on pitching then they need defense, especially up the middle. They need to get better defense and they need consistent hitters who don't get streaky. I'd rather have a consistent .280 25 HR hitter than a streaky .320 54 HR hitter (anyone we know?). And now there is the question of Mariano. Do we keep him? Who do we have who could close? The Yanks have some work to do so let's hope for the best.
Otto
Written by Otto and Posted by the Tank in NY.