Remember April? Man, we had some heated arguments back then. Cano wasn’t hitting, Giambi wasn’t hitting, Damon was on and off, Jeter wasn’t off to the hot start we saw the past two years. Two guys in particular, though, took the brunt of the offensive criticism: Giambi and Cano. Each time they came to the plate and failed, people were clamoring for them to find a seat on the bench. There was even a contingency of Yanks fans who wanted to see Giambi released.

Good thing they didn’t get their way.

On the month of May, Giambi is hitting .339/.481/.726. That is absolutely insane. Each of those three numbers represents the top spot on the Yankees for the month. On the season, he’s at .244/.393/.556, a more than respectable line that, if nothing else, shows the effects of his abysmal April.

Before the season started and during the first few weeks, some Yankees fans were up in arms about Giambi. DFA him! He won’t be able to help this team! Even as we got into May and the Giambino started hitting a bit better, especially for power, the detractors were still out. At this point, though, to rail against Giambi seems a bit foolish, eh?

(Then again, guys like Jamal looked the fool when he continually defended Giambi in the early going. Baseball’s a funny game like that.)

The thing is, we’ve seen this before. I present to you the year 2005. Giambi was coming off a 2004 defined by a stomach parasite and a benign pituitary tumor. But he was healthy in the spring, and was ready to get back into the game. Problem was, he was no good early on.

Prior to June 15, he had just three home runs. On May 22, he was hitting .215/.368/.346. Yankees fans wanted him out, and wanted him out fast. Even as we moved into late June and his OBP rose to over .400, people still weren’t happy with Giambi. The stigma of steroids still surrounded him, and I heard many a person talk about how he can’t compete without the juice.

Then a funny thing happened in July. He started hitting balls out of the park. Two against the Orioles on the 4th of July. One the next day. After an off-day, one on the day after that. One against Boston on July 14, in an 8-6 win. Two on July 20, two on July 21. By the end of the year, that Giambi who had a slugging percentage under .350 on May 22 finished with a line of .271/.440/.535. The complainers had shut up.

(He hit .282/.463/.655 from July on in 05. Just disgusting numbers.)

This year, it appears his resurgence is coming along a bit quicker. He’s been one of the drivers of the Yankees offense, which is finally starting to look like we expected from the get go. And, most importantly, he’s hitting well enough to compensate for his poor defense at first base. There are no guarantees that he keeps it up — as I said, baseball is a funny game like that — but Giambi has shown that he can in fact contribute to the 2008 Yankees.

Hopefully, Girardi’s veteran rotation will help keep Giambi — as well as Matsui and Damon — fresh throughout the year. Matsui and Giambi in particular have been integral in molding the offense. With A-Rod back and Jorge on the way, maybe we can start to put up some more crooked numbers.

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Franz Lidz wrote up a short profile of Jason Giambi in this month’s Portfolio. It starts with quite the story about the G Man:

Jason Giambi has a deep, dark secret. Deeper than his compulsion to sleep on the side of the bed nearest the door, and darker than his dream of growing up to be a heavy-metal musician.

The deepest, darkest secret harbored by the New York Yankees first baseman is that whenever he is in a prolonged hitting funk, he wears a gold lamé, tiger-stripe thong under his uniform. “I only put it on when I’m desperate to get out of a big slump,” he confides.

Over Giambi’s checkered career in the Bronx, he has left the “golden thong” in the lockers of slumping teammates Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Johnny Damon, Robin Ventura, and Robinson Cano. “All of them wore it and got hits,” he reports. “The thong works every time.”

So, yeah. Between Kyle Farnsworth’s peanut butter cookies and Jason Giambi’s underwear, I think I know more about the Yankees than I ever wanted to.

Meanwhile, says Giambi of his retirement: “After A-Rod retires, he wants to be a real estate mogul, the next Donald Trump. I could care less. As long as I can have a fast boat and a margarita machine and can light my hair on fire, I’ll be just fine.”

Jason Giambi, lighting his hair on fire. I have no words.

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Via BBTF comes a good piece from the New York Observer about Jason Giambi’s 2008 campaign. Giambi, 37, is trying to make a move few his age make with much success: He is trying to move to the field after being a full-time DH.

Giambi, according to Medgal, discovered running this off-season and with it, he hopes, a Fountain of Youth:

Since signing a seven-year, $120 million contract with the New York Yankees prior to the 2002 season, Giambi has been an increasingly irregular presence in the lineup, and seeing him in the field has been an even greater rarity. In his first two seasons with the Yankees, Giambi played in 313 of a possible 324 games, 97 percent, including 177 at first base. But in the past four seasons, Giambi played just 441 of 648 games, and just 211 of those at first base. Last year, Giambi appeared in just 18 games at first base, and often was replaced in the late innings for defense…

“I’d get hurt all the time, and I just took it as part of getting older,” Giambi said as he stood near his locker before yesterday’s game against Toronto, a bat leaning against his leg. “But when I worked toward getting back from the plantar fasciitis, I worked with a new doctor, who deals with—well—ballet dancers. And he told me that I had really high arches. I got these inserts”—he gestured toward prescription orthotics in his cleats—“and suddenly it didn’t hurt to run anymore.”

Giambi suffered knee and back pain so quickly, along with “dead legs,” when running in the past that it was never part of his offseason regimen. But this winter, he said, he ran every day. Giambi found a track near his Las Vegas home and learned how to run without pain for the first time, 60 yards at a time.

This winter was the first time in his career that Giambi went through a running program, and the Yanks are hoping that Giambi’s legs will stay fresher for it this year. While Giambi talks about regaining quickness, his apparent injury yesterday bodes ill for his legs.

Right now, the Yanks have to hope that this supposedly new and improved Jason Giambi is also willing to let himself heal. But at 37, it’s hard to roll back the baseball clock as it keeps on ticking ever forward.

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Tyler Kepner tells us that Jason Giambi asked out of the Yanks’ trip to St. Petersburg today, citing a minor lower back issue. The Giambino has been known to aggravate his back in the past, especially when manning first base. He’s been doing this a lot during the spring. Hopefully, a day or so of rest gets him back on track.

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Via Pinstripes PA, Getty Images has the “photo day” pics available. You should definitely check ‘em out, but here are the highlights:

• Joba must have that Thinner disease. Dude’s downright skinny.
• Jason Giambi definitely avoided the In-N-Out burgers this winter. Wait, didn’t he say that a few years back?
• Here are your top two position prospects.
• Jesus!
• Andrew Brackman is one big dude.
• Brian Bruney lost a ton of weight. Hopefully he practiced throwing strikes with the empty cans of Slim Fast.
• The Fat Relievers™ aren’t so fat anymore; I’d say … husky.
• Check out Ross Ohlendorf. Tell me that kid doesn’t look like he was born to wear pinstripes.

Make sure you take a look at all the photos. Good stuff. Some of ‘em remind me of yearbook picture day.

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Is it just me, or has the first few days of Spring Training set the expectations for the Yankees rather high? Sure, many of us can see through the media spin on the events of the past week or so. But even at that point, we’re seeing players do things, rather than just saying them. It’s a careful balance that the Yankees have executed perfectly so far. And I have to say, it has me more excited about this season than I have been in any year I can remember — though I’m fairly certain I say that every year.

First, we heard about the pitchers who showed up early. Joba, Phil, and IPK in particular were there before they required to, which is always reassuring. We also heard about Shelley Duncan showing up to work on his first base skills with Tino Martinez. And, Cap’n Jetes was there early, too. But he resides in Tampa, so it only makes sense for him to be around.

Then we heard about Brian Bruney losing weight. Good news, for sure. If anything, it shows that he’s at least a bit motivated. It’s certainly better than him showing up in the same physical shape as last year, and spouting off lines about his determination to make the team. PeteAbe also noted that Mike Mussina checked in lighter, which spoke to his off-season conditioning. We also heard about Kyle Farnsworth being less bulky, but then it was revealed that he dealt with a rather nasty staph infection last month.

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Peter Abraham reports that Jason Giambi is supposedly in great shape and ready to play this year. Why? Well, because it’s his walk year, of course. Giambi, who’s had three and a half good years and two and a half terrible years on the Yanks, is playing out his age 37 season and could sign another two-year deal with some team if he proves he can still hit this year. While he probably won’t be in the Bronx in 2009, I’ll take a good 2008 from him.

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Not much time to talk today. Feel sympathy for me, please: I have a rehearsal dinner tonight which happens to basically run the length of the Yanks game. The groom is a huge Yanks fan, so I’m hoping he’s accommodated for this. I’m not banking on it, though.

There’s not much to talk about from last night. Wang was terrible, leaving balls up in the zone all night. Ohlendorf didn’t help. Hughes might have pitched his way into a Game 4 start (solo homer or not, that was the best he’s looked since returning from the DL). Matsui and Jorge failed in huge spots, and A-Rod didn’t really get a chance until the game was out of hand (yes, I realize that he popped up with Abreu on first in the third). But all of this was pretty clear; it’s not like anything subtle caused the Yanks to lose last night.

As Ben says, it’s a must-win today. I can definitely see this one going in the Yanks’ favor. And then it’s all up to Clemens and Mussina/Hughes. The Yanks will put themselves in the best position to win the game if they sit Hideki (thereby giving him another two full days off) and starting Giambi at DH. This is so obvious that I expect Torre not to do it.

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I think we’re missing an important aspect of the Giambi discussion that’s occurring in this thread (beyond the anecdotal nature of defensive abilities). How well do you think Giambi would hit if he was given regular time?

He’s not 29 anymore, and won’t contend for any MVPs. We don’t have much to go on him from this season, since he’s spent mos of it hurt or not playing regularly. Can he still muster .260/.400/.550? If so, I’d clearly play him. However, I’m just not sure that those are the numbers we’ll see from him in September and hopefully October.

But I suppose we should expect it from him until he proves he can’t. Or should we?

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Johnny Damon before July 1: .250/.335/.359
Johnny Damon since July 1: .287/.383/.427

Since the calendar turned July, Damon has been an impeccable leadoff hitter. He’s completely hit his way into the lineup every day, and he’s been a real boost at the top of the order.

This is a tougher comp, since he began his ascension before July 1 and had a terrible first couple of months.

Melky Cabrera before July 1: .259/.320/.371
Melky Cabrera since July 1: .332/.374/.500

With those numbers, Melky can slot into a number of lineup spots. Nine seems to be his home, though his OBP is surely good enough for the No. 2 spot.

This leaves us with Jason Giambi, who is seemingly the odd man out. Given his monster April — .322/.404/.517 — no one really could have seen that coming. Many were down on him in May, but his cold hitting turned out to be related to a serious injury.

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