Written by Greg Fertel
|
19 May 2008
Good friend Moshe over at The Bronx Block wrote
this post yesterday. His premise is basically that the Yankees need their manager Joe Girardi to light a fire under his team. The lack of passion is the reason that the Yankees are losing.
This is complete and utter fluff. The Yankees aren't losing because of some nebulous lack of "fire", but because the team that they are fielding just isn't all that good right now. Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada went down, and their replacement players are playing much worse than replacement level. You can't take arguably the two best players at their respective positions in the American League and replace them with one catcher who is hitting .207/.224/.317 and a strange combination of Morgan Ensberg, Wilson Betemit, and Alberto Gonzalez that can't give you an OPS of .550.
Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Melky Cabrera, and Bobby Abreu have looked good by comparison, but they have given us at best average production at their combined positions. Derek Jeter has given us a small competitive advance at shortstop, before defense, but nothing special. Jason Giambi has probably been an average 1st baseman. Still, we've got gaping black holes at 3 positions, an imbalance of lefties and righties, and a back end of the rotation that hasn't gotten the job done.
Its amazing that the Yankees are where they are right now. The Yankees need to get healthy, effective, and corrected fast, or else they can kiss this season goodbye. The Rays are the real deal, and the Red Sox are again one of baseball's best. This team doesn't need a manager blowing a gasket every other game in order to get out of its collective slump. That's the kind of thing that a bad beat reporter writes when he doesn't have a story.
The team has shown a remarkable ability to warm up with the weather and play .700 baseball after a slow start. However, that has always happened when we had the players capable of doing so. Injuries happen, and they may prevent the team from winning this year. The key is not to start calling for the heads of Derek Jeter, Joe Girardi, Brian Cashman, Hank Steinbrenner, or whomever irrationally. ESPN has already started questioning Derek Jeter's status once his contract runs up. They're trying to create controversy where none exists.
This team has a bright long term future, but only if we have patience. For now, two of our best hitters are injured, and we lack adequate replacements. That's the explanation for our losses.
