The Yankees have four hitters in their starting lineup who, by OPS+, are below league average. (Here's a link with a very simple, easy to understand definition of OPS+.) Martin, Gardner, Jeter, and Posada are the four offenders. Posada is just awful at this point, and there's not much else to say about him. The other three, though, have had explosive weeks or months at a time, which has some value. Martin and Gardner have also defended well, Gardner exceptionally so as usual. A-Rod and Teixeira have underperformed a bit but have still been productive. Granderson and Cano have obviously carried the offense and hopefully will continue to do so.
The Yankees have just one regular starting pitcher (of their five) who has an ERA+ (definition) under 116. We don't need to sully this blog by typing his name again. I'd have immediately signed up for this performance from the rotation prior to the season, and Brian Cashman deserves a ton of credit for finding hidden, cheap gems in Colon and Garcia. Ivan Nova has been excellent, which many people were surprised by, but not me! I predicted 17 wins and a 3.85 ERA this year from the rookie. CC has been his usual self, a workhorse, stopper, etc.
The bullpen has been expectedly brilliant despite Soriano being the biggest waste of money since
Joe Girardi is still a dumbass, despite our early excitement over his potential usage of advanced stats in The Binder. I'm sure he'll do something inexplicable to cost the Yankees a game during the playoffs.
Posteason success will come down to consistent production from the offense and hopefully squeezing another few good starts out of Colon and Garcia.
Soriano post-DL really has been quite good, but his early season numbers were so bad his season line is still pretty poor. Logan had a stretch in august where he was great but I agree with you. Curious to see what they do with Hughes and if they put him in the pen after today to get him ready for the playoffs. I still think they should have tried Burnett in the pen, his first two times through a lineup are typically pretty dominant, and then the wheels fall off. I hadn't seen this blog before skrap, looking forward to reading it more.
ReplyDeleteGood point about Soriano's post-DL line, Tommy. That's the danger of posting opinions without researching thoroughly, I guess. Agreed on the other pitchers too.
ReplyDelete