The LoHud Yankees Blog

19 Responses to “$205 million doesn’t buy what it used to”

1. Christina April 13th, 2008 at 2:08 am

   The fact they are that close to the giants is quite scary. That offense on that team is horrific.

   Then again though, everyone predicted Detriot to be amazing, and by the look of the first 2 weeks, things arent panning out to how people thought. I guess thats why there are 162 games and not 12.

   If you look at it this way, as of right now, Baltimore (whatttt??)and the Marlins are in first place. So that 17 million (or 20, whatever it is) has bought them first place for about a week?

2. #9 April 13th, 2008 at 2:13 am

   The Yank’s average with RISP is below .200 – but it’s a veteran lineup… the bats will get hot as the temps rise.

3. EY April 13th, 2008 at 2:26 am

   This shows how well our pitching staff is holding up the team – especially the bullpen looks phenomenal.

   This team will have a very good run as soon as the bats warm up.

4. Dave April 13th, 2008 at 2:26 am

   These last two games have improved the Yankees’ Team OPS. I’m not exactly sure but I believe they were OPSin’ .678 which at the time had them 29th best in baseball. They now sit in 22nd place with an OPS of .700.

   Sure they aren’t hitting but they are also not walking. 24th in OBP (.310) 23rd in BB (28 BB) (!). The approach isn’t there.

5. PAT M. April 13th, 2008 at 2:48 am

   And yet they’re 6-6…..With 150 games to go…..

6. Yeah! April 13th, 2008 at 2:58 am

   The yankees will be fine people…..am kinda of drunk but still…. they’ll fine people…..we’ll make the playoff and beat the stupid red sox. So many people are going to feel so stupid with so many prediction and this and that. the funny thing is they say Yankees won’t make the playoff and than they don’t know where to buried their heads because they feel so stupid and embarrassed.

7. Tim April 13th, 2008 at 3:23 am

   It comes down to:

   A. No leadoff hitter, Damon is hitting what, .211 or so? You can’t score many runs when your tablesetter can’t get on base, and when he does, won’t try to steal a base. What happened with trying to bunt your way on, or is that only if you’re not an AARP member.

   2. Facing tough, tough pitching. Let’s see they’ve faced Halladay, (plus #2, and #3 pitchers for Toronto), Beckett, Greinke, Bucholtz (who according to some is the next coming of Sandy Koufax), Bannister, etc. Say what you will but they have faced some strong pitching so far.

   3. Injuries, ie, Jeter, Giambi, and Posada which has meant more ab’s for non-starters like Gonzalez, Molina, Ensberg and Betemit. Gonzalez and Molina have hit well but both Jeter and Posada have more power than the players replacing them.

   4. Where is the stolen base? For some reason the hype was that Girardi was going to play the NL style and he has to some extent, but the running game is non existent, there were times he could have squeezed that he didn’t etc.

   5. Horrible starts by the over the hill gang, ie, Posada, Damon and Giambi who are definitely on the steady decline of their careers. Cause may be the weather conditions which has been cold and colder, and may affect older players more.

   6. Horrible starts by young supposedly in their prime players but very undisciplined hitters like Cano and Betemit. Betemit in my mind is on the verge of being DFA’d. He is a walking strikeout.

   7. Maybe the young heralded hitting coach is not as good as we were let to believe last season. They did hit well in ST but maybe his advice is falling on deaf ears. They also had a backup hitting coach last year in Donny Baseball and he is now fighting his wife in divorce court. Is he missed more than we think? Also Torre was a great hitter and who knows maybe his hitting expertise is missed. Girardi was not a great hitter and either was his bench coach. And really none of the current coaching staff were great hitters when they played. How much does that factor in to the equation? Maybe they need another bench coach or coach that has had hitting success to bounce ideas off of. Something to think about.

   This hopefully will end, and getting Jeter back will help, and the warming weather will also help, and facing more #4 and #5 pitchers will also help, but the good news is there are some sick offensive numbers being put up by Shelly and Gardner down in Scranton which may preclude them being brought up to the Bronx to help kick start this offense.

8. Tim April 13th, 2008 at 3:34 am

   One other thing, during the radio interview with M&MD Friday with Girardi, Fatso mentioned the fact that this current Yankee team just takes awhile to get going for whatever reason. The last 2-3 seasons they take awhile to get their motor started, or get their mojo working as Muddy Waters used to say. I really think it boils down to the fact some of the key players are not in their prime anymore and that includes their leadoff hitter and that they have faced some really tough pitchers. The fact is this may only be a 800-850 run per seaon team and if so it could be a long season.

9. Tim April 13th, 2008 at 3:34 am

   One other thing, during the radio interview with M&MD Friday with Girardi, Fatso mentioned the fact that this current Yankee team just takes awhile to get going for whatever reason. The last 2-3 seasons they take awhile to get their motor started, or get their mojo working as Muddy Waters used to say. I really think it boils down to the fact some of the key players are not in their prime anymore and that includes their leadoff hitter and that they have faced some really tough pitchers. The fact is this may only be a 800-850 run per seaon team and if so it could be a long season.

10. Richard April 13th, 2008 at 5:14 am

    The batting will come around. But Pete you failed to mention that the team’s pitching overall stats are ranked in the top ten in the ML with and ERA of 3.51 and a WHIP of 1.19. Also they rank in the bottom 1/3 of BB’s (31) and while the sox are ranked 2nd allowing 54 BB’s.

11. Annie Savoy April 13th, 2008 at 6:30 am

    And, Alex Rodriguez strikes out again and again…..

12. GoYankees April 13th, 2008 at 8:25 am

    Have to mention the miserable weather and lousy umpire-ing (half the world is anti-Yankee, or are they just boosting the strike zone for the star pitchers we’ve faced?).

13. V April 13th, 2008 at 8:27 am

    Tim – I am extremely confident in saying that your worrying will be all for naught come midseason.

    A – Damon is batting .211. That’s .111 in his first 5 games and .350 since. I’m -not- worried.

    4 – The Yankees are playing in the cold weather. I’d rather wait for the weather to warm up than give some of our players injuries.

    The season is -young-. The Yankees have been playing in horrible weather. They’ve faced top notch pitching (check out Edwin Jackson’s second outing – crappy pitcher indeed – he’s a former top prospect). Things will be -fine-.

    I’m going to Thursday night’s game – weather looks like it’ll be improving…

14. Kent April 13th, 2008 at 9:08 am

    It’s 3 or FEWER runs!!! Actually, three runs or fewer is even better.

15. ADave April 13th, 2008 at 11:59 am

    Giambi has been terrible. I can make justifications for all of the other players. But Giambi needs to go back to taking some more steroids to get back on track. Does it really matter if he gets caught at this point? He’s already made his $126M.

16. RJPinstripes April 13th, 2008 at 12:06 pm

    For sure some of our huge payroll guys are not earning their money!

17. mike April 13th, 2008 at 1:30 pm

    losing jeter no posada giambi hitting under 100 leads to a lack of runs

18. TheKiid April 13th, 2008 at 3:03 pm

    good lord. its 12 games in… pete, how about some substance?

19. jon April 13th, 2008 at 5:29 pm

    Why, why, WHY? Why even take the time to write this? Why not tell us about the joke that Melky told to Cano on the trip to Boston? Or what Girardi had for breakfast? Or…anything that means anything???