Surveying the Damage to the Yankee Season...
We've already discussed the injury...Alex is hurt and he MUST have the surgery, he is the Franchise player and has eight more years after 2009 - that Hip won't heal itself, there is nothing to discuss.
Go have the operation. Rehab. Rest. Get ready. Return, but only when READY to be Alex.
(he has announced a modified procedure that is slated to have him on the field around Memorial Day and will involve a follow-up surgery in the off-season.)
The Yankees will survive.
But how?
Cody Ransom is a solid player, he will make all the plays and contribute. He is a lot like Brandon Inge of the Detroit Tigers, a superior athlete who pays rigorous attention to his craft. He will hold the place at 3B and hit 9th. It seems that Alex will likely miss Four Months - April, May, June, July - 100-110 Games worth, which means there will be 400 or so At-Bats for Ransom and any others covering for Alex.
A BEST-case scenario for Ransom would be something on the order of .275/10/50, which puts the Yankees, even in the rosiest view, in the position of replacing 50 runs, or a half-a-run per game.
That is tough, as they learned when Jorge Posada was, essentially, lost in the opening week last season. Jose Molina led MLB in throwing out runners trying to steal and is a beloved figure to the Pitching staff for his Defensive wizardry, but his anemic production created a vacuum in the bottom third of the order, where Melky was in a season-long slump and Robinson was lost for the first-half, when the Yankees lost the essential ground they could not recover.
Ransom will hit more than Molina, but not enough to make up for Alex. Nobody can do that.
The lineup that makes the most sense is this one:
DH Johnny Damon LH
SS Derek Jeter RH
2B Robinson Cano LH
1B Mark Teixeira SH
C Jorge Posada SH
LF Nick Swisher SH
RF Xavier Nady RH
CF Melky Cabrera SH
3B Cody Ransom RH
Cano is, despite last season's first-half struggles, the Yankees best 'pure' hitter. He has terrific power and line to line plate coverage, Damon and Jeter live on-base and Cano will see good pitches in front of Tex. It will be asking him to take responsibility for his vast talent, but this is his 5th year and his ability dictates such a step. I saw one analysis that dismissed him with 'coming off a bad season, he is unlikely to recover' - huh? T-A-L-E-N-T doesn't disappear, Cano is the only one who has the all-around Offensive game to step into the #3 hole and Tex is the only logical #4.
With Alex out, the RH power is reduced, but with F-O-U-R Switch-Hitters in the lineup mix, the Yankees will still see RH production from Tex, Swisher and Posada. Both Melky and Brett Gardner have tools that help the team and, had Alex been healthy, there might have been opportunities to play both of them and create opportunities Defensively and on the base-paths. Without Alex, it is likely that the Yankees need Swisher in the lineup for his Power and the kids will have to platoon.
Matsui and Damon are both LH hitters, Damon should sit when Gardner plays, since Brett is an ideal leadoff type with that speed. They can almost pair off Damon/Melky/Swisher and then shift to Swisher/Gardner/Matsui, and Posada will need lots of rest time from Catching, so he will get DH At-Bats also.
The real problem is that bottom 3rd of the order. If Posada is sitting and Molina is playing, and Melky struggles, they are right back to last season's struggles with Melky/Molina/Ransom scaring NOBODY in that 7-8-9 zone.
The antidote, however, is good pitching and the Yankees are LOADED, not only with the marquee Free Agent signings (CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett) but with a healthy Chien-MIng Wang and Joba Chamberlain and the sterling work of Hughes, Alceves, Coke behind Andy Pettitte if anyone is injured, they've gone from being three starters DOWN to being three starters backing up. The Bullpen is loaded to the gills from both sides and the MInor League System that had the best overall record of any MLB team, won Championships at AAA and AA and saw AA Trenton Thunder win their second successive MiLB Franchise of the year is bursting with Pitchers and Catchers.
Ironically, the one place they are NOT deep (due to the nature of the big-league team with a quartet of long-term fixtures in the Infield) is where Alex plays - on the Left Side. That is why Ransom, like Molina - an great type to have as a backup, is forced into full-time play that will expose his limitations as a hitter. As long as he plays the sort of Defense we have seen from him, the overall Defense should be strong, with Nady replacing Abreu and Swisher in LF, Teixeira at 1B and the two wizards in CF. Jeter is healthy and feeling good and Cano has led the AL in chances by a WIDE margin in each of the past two seasons at 2B.
They will pitch it and they will catch it.
They will need to make sure they score enough runs to make it matter.
We shall see.
