Baseball America’s look into each league’s top 20 prospects hit the South Atlantic League today, and disappointingly (is that a word?) only two Yanks’ prospects made the list: Jesus Montero & Austin Romine at numbers 7 and 8, respectively. No Betances is surprising, but what can you do. The Florida State and Eastern Leagues will be posted next Monday and Tuesday,
Fixing a 90-win team
It’s not unreasonable to expect a 90-win team from the third-place Yankees this year, but no matter how anyone tries to spin it, for a team expected to win the World Series each year, 90 wins is hardly a plateau to celebrate. To that end, everyone and their mothers will offer up their takes on fixing the Yankees. We start with Joe Sheehan’s free column on Baseball Prospectus.
Here’s what the Yankee fan suggests:
- Sign Mark Teixeira
- Bring back Bobby Abreu
- Avoid the Pitchers (except for maybe Sabathia)
- Put Joba in the rotation and leave him alone
- Re-sign Mussina or Pettitte
- Pick up Carl Pavano’s option
- Don’t touch the bullpen
On the surface, Sheehan’s suggestions make sense, and we’ll spend some time over the next few weeks delving more in depth on these issues. But there are a few problems. Sheehan would again have the Yanks head into the season with Hughes and Kennedy expected to play a big role on the team. Since Joba won’t be able to make 34 starts next year, someone else will have to, and it would fall on the other two members of the erstwhile Big Three to pick up the slack.
The Carl Pavano move makes some financial sense. For $11 million ($13 million less than the $2 million buyout), the Yanks can have insurance better than Darrell Rasner and Sidney Ponson.
The rest of the argument rests on the realization that, this year, the Yanks’ problem was their offense and not their pitching. Considering that Ponson finished third in innings pitched on this team, it’s a hard idea to grasp, but he’s on the money. Had the Yanks come close to approaching their projected runs scored totals this year, the team would be playoff-bound. Instead, they’ve scored nearly 200 fewer runs this year than last, and they’ll be going home when the season ends this weekend. Convincing the pitching-obsessed team of this reality may be a bit tougher.
Heyman: Yanks want answers on Cash’s future
With the ball firmly in his court, Brian Cashman has a decision to make. Will he stay or will he go? No matter the outcome, though, the Yankees want this resolved soon. Sports Illustrated’s Jon Heyman reported last night that the Steinbrenner want a firm answer from Cashman by next week. I don’t blame the team owners for toeing the line here. The Yanks face a busy off-season, and they need to have a leadership structure in place well before the free agent filing period begins. My money’s still on Cashman’s coming back, but we’ll know for sure next week.
Yanks’ October dreams die, but 20 for Moose still in sight
Fifteen years ago, I was ten years old. I was in fifth grade, and while I had been going to Yankee Stadiums since I was three, never had the Yanks made the playoffs during my lifetime.
The next year — 1994 — it seemed like baseball life would change. As August rolled around, the Yanks had a sizable lead in the AL East and were just 3.5 games worse than the MLB-best Montreal Expos. When the strike hit and the season ended, I experienced my first bout of baseball disappointment. It would be more shocking than in 1995 when the Yanks blew a 2-0 lead to fall to Seattle in the ALDS. In 1995, I was just happy to get there.
Since then, in October, I’ve seen, at the Stadium and at home, the Yankees win a World Series, lose a Divisional Series in heart-breaking fashion, win three more World Series, come oh-so-close to an emotional World Series victory, lose to the Angels, lose to the Marlins, lose to the Red Sox, lose to the Angels again, lose to the Tigers and lose to the Indians. For all the joys of victory, there is nothing more agonizing that the elimination game. As the outs fall off the board, that pit in your stomach just grows and grows until you don’t want to be around anyone else and you just want to wallow in your baseball-induced pity.
Tonight, while a regular season, was like that. While the Yankees and Mike Mussina were well on their way to defeating the Blue Jays, 540 miles away, the Indians couldn’t stop the Boston Red Sox from clinching. The Yanks scored just three runs tonight en route to a win, but for all that, they could have scored 300. It wouldn’t matter. For the first time since 1993 — for the first time since the Internet became a way of life and the iPod hit the scene — the Yanks will not playing baseball in October. It hurts.
What hurts even more, though, is that the Yankees are now the fifth best AL team but just 0.5 games behind the White Sox. As the Twins and White Sox battle it out, the Yankees could wind up the fourth best team in the American League. That’s not bad for a team missing its future Hall of Fame catcher, its All Star starting pitcher, and its regular DH for much of the season. That’s not bad for a team that witnessed a near worst-case scenario emerge in regards to its young pitchers, center fielder and second baseman. When these players make good on their abilities, when the Yanks put the right other pieces in place around them, the future will look very bright.
We can look forward to that future, but for now, we have a storyline to follow over the last five games of the season. Through five innings tonight, Mike Mussina was utterly brilliant, and he walked away from the game with his 19th victory of the season. It is the first time since 1996 when a 27-year-old Mussina won 19 games that Moose has reached that level. When he starts the final game of the season, all eyes will be on Moose as the old dog tries for one last new trick.
The improbable remains impossible
Sadly, in Boston, the Red Sox downed the Indians. For the first time since 1993, the Yankees will not be going to the playoffs. While I had been steeling myself for this for a while, it still stings. A lot.
Game 157: Down But Not Out
There’s nuttin’ but six Game 7’s left for the Yanks this year; if they win out while the Sox lose out, we’re looking at a one game playoff to decide to Wildcard team. It sounds impossible, but it’s not. Just improbable.
The ghosts seems to be back for last joyride, maybe they’ll bring us a little September magic.
1. Damon, LF Gardner, CF
2. Jeter, SS Damon, LF
3. Abreu, RF
4. A-Rod, 3B
5. Giambi, 1B
6. Nady, DH
7. Cano, 2B
8. Molina, C Ransom, SS
9. Gardner, CF Molina, C
And looking for his third career 19-win season, and first since 1996, Mikey Mussina.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that the Yanks have one more thing on their side tonight. I’ll be stuck at work mad late, and I forgot to set my DVR. That means only one thing: Moose will finally add that perfect game to his already sterling resume.
Update (6:38pm): Lineup change, the Cap’n’s hand is bothering him, presumably from the HBP the other night. Explains Sunday’s 0-for-5er too.
Stealing from the stadium
Prior to Sunday evening’s game, the Yankees announced stringent security measures in place for would-be vandals. Today, the AP reported that 18 fans were arrested for taking pieces of the Stadium on Sunday night. All things considered, 18 arrests out of over 54,000 fans reflects well on the crowd. Despite the circumstances, Yankee fans were remarkably well behaved on Sunday night.