The Magic Carpet

By Matthew Storey

When last we spoke, we'd looked at 2009 New York Yankee games through Game #98.

At that point, the Yankees were 60-38, a record they've added to by going 13-5 in Games 99-116, which break down as follows:

Game 99 - @ Tampa Bay Rays W 11-4
Game 100 - @ Tampa Bay Rays L 6-2
Game 101 - @ Tampa Bay Rays W 6-2 (New York leads Season Series 6-5)
Game 102 - @ Chicago White Sox L 3-2
Game 103 - @ Chicago White Sox L 10-5
Game 104 - @ Chicago White Sox L 14-4
Game 105 - @ Chicago White Sox W 8-5 (Chicago leads Season Series 3-1)
Game 106 - @ Toronto Blue Jays W 5-3
Game 107 - @ Toronto Blue Jays W 8-4 (New York leads Season Series 7-2
Game 108 - Boston Red Sox W 13-6
Game 109 - Boston Red Sox W 2-0
Game 110 - Boston Red Sox W 5-0
Game 111 - Boston Red Sox W 5-2 (Boston leads Season Series 4-8)
Game 112 - Toronto Blue Jays L 5-4
Game 113 - Toronto Blue Jays W 7-5
Game 114 - Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 (New York leads Season Series 9-3)
Game 115 - @ Seattle Mariners W 11-1
Game 116 - @ Seattle Mariners W 4-2

Through 98 Games - Yankees 60-38 (.612)
Games 99-116 Yankees 13-5 (.722)

Leaving them at 73-43 (.629/1st Place/AL East 6.5 Games over Boston Red Sox)

They are on a pace to finish at 102-60. They have gone 22-6 (.786) in the Second Half and 35-11 (.761) since losing the 1st of 3 against the Atlanta Braves on June 23. They've won 38 come-from-behind games, lost only one game they were leading after the 7th Inning. They lead MLB in Runs, HR, RBI, Slugging Percentage, On-Base Percentage and are 2nd in Batting Average. Since Phil Hughes went into the Bullpen, the Pen has an ERA of 2.06.

What Has NOT Gone Well...

Chien-Ming Wang is done for this year and next and may never again be in Pinstripes, a sickening blow to lose a Pitcher in his prime who came into this year 54-20.

Mike Mussina, retired, after rejuvenating his career with a 20-9 2008 Season and discovering a way to dominate with control and change of speed.

Jason Giambi and Bobby Abreu, who combined for 52 HR and 196 RBI were let go.
Xavier Nady blew out his elbow in week one, ending his Yankee career.

Damaso Marte, who came with Nady in a 2008, trading deadline deal with Pittsburgh which cost the Yankees prime OF prospect, Jose Tabata, signed a 3 year offseason deal with the Yankees, then blew out his arm in the World Baseball Classic and looks like he may be done.

Brian Bruney, who suffered the same 2008 broken Lisfranc injury to his foot that ruined Wang, has also gone through dramatic reduction in effectiveness and two protracted stints on the Disabled List, forcing the Yankees to move Phil Hughes and Alfredo Aceves to the Bullpen, and thus leaving the Yankees with retread arms, Sergio Mitre and Chad Gaudin in the 5th slot in the rotation and as spot-starters for use when Joba Chamberlain is skipped a turn to keep him under a pre-established Innings Limit. Aceves and Hughes have been dominant in the Bullpen, Mitre and Gaudin represent the Yankees Achilles Heel in the Rotation.

Alex Rodriguez had Hip Surgery and has been playing at 2/3 of function all season and has only two HR (albeit critical game-winning types in the recent Red Sox series) in the last month.

What HAS Gone Well...

The Glory of the Middle Infield

In 2006, Derek Jeter hit .343 and Robinson Cano hit .342 and the Yankees used an August sweep to blow past the Red Sox on their way to a runaway in the AL East. In 2009, both are hitting .318, and have combined for 32 HR and 110 RBI with Derek Hitting leadoff. Defensively, Jeter has 6 Errors and Cano 4, playing middle infield every day with six weeks left in the Season. Jeter also has 20 Stolen Bases.

Beaten Up Outfielders on the Final Year of Big Deals...

4 years ago, the Yankees signed 30 year old Johnny Damon to be their CF and resigned 29 year old LF Hideki Matsui to identical 4 year/52M contracts. Both have hit consistently well throughout the ensuing years, but Matsui has been injured in every season and required knee surgery after both 2007 and 2008, which reduces him to a full-time DH Role. For his part, Damon lost the starting CF job to Melky Cabrera in 2006 and has played LF/DH since, and has seen both his Stolen Base and Defensive Ball Tracking skills go from elite to mediocre in 2009.

So, there was little reason to believe these two players would produce much Offensively in the final year of contracts, with beaten-up bodies. Damon, with the weak arm and reduced ball tracking ability is a part-time OF at best and a full-time DH in waiting. Matsui is one knee from Retirement.

Here is what they have done Offensively:

Damon .286 Average/ .367 On-Base/ .526 Slugging 22 HR/67 RBI/ 8-8 Stolen Bases

Matsui .266 / .361/ .509/ 19 HR/58 RBI

These old men can flat out RAKE!

At 35, Damon is on a path to 3,000 hits once someone signs him to another long term deal as DH/Parttime OF/Fultime WINNER. You can never say enough about this guy and, while it still seems unlikely the Yankees would keep him, given Melky/Gardner/Jackson and Damon's Defensive liabilities, what he brings Offensively and in the clubhouse is going to be extremely hard to replace.

Also 35, Matsui's Physical limitations make his retirement seem a certainty.

But, even with TWO bad knees, his Power, Plate Discipline, Baseball IQ and ability to perform in the Clutch are all still at Elite levels. If there is ANY player I wish I could have seen in his prime, it is Matsui, whose ability at this stage and career in Japan make is clear he would have been a Hall of Famer if he had played his whole career in MLB. A great, great player and a sayonara reminiscent of Mussina's glorious goodbye in 2008.

The New-Style Yankee Kids...

For decades, the Yankee system has consistently produced one-dimensional Power Hitters, who played OF/1B/DH and whose Defense and Base Running was secondary and below-par. Players like Steve 'Bye-Bye' Balboni, Hensley Dan Pasqua, 'Bam-Bam' Meulens, Kevin 'No' Maas, Shane Spencer, Shelley Duncan come immediately to mind, as does that big Power Hitting they traded to the Reds, who was traded to the Red Sox who was traded to the Nationals, who had as much Power as ANYONE ever has and had so little else to offer, I can't remember his name!!!! (Wily Mo Pena!).

This is NOT to dismiss the top level talents they have produced, Don Mattingly, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Bernie Williams, Alfonso Soriano, Robinson Cano...only to note, that when they swung big, they overemphasized raw power. Jeter was can't-miss, Posada is driven, Soriano and Cano are freaks overlooked by scouts who are seduced by false hustle and showy athletes and miss the natural flow of perfect motion. The same scouts, in another era, missed on a player named Joe DiMaggio.

Watch BJ Upton move after a fly ball and you don't need to look at his statistics. - you know what he can do to you. And yet scouts and many media and fans have been doubting these players half decades into their careers, while celebrating lesser lights with grunting styles. What we New Yorkers saw in the Mid '80s when the absurd debate about who was superior between FBHOF Rickey Henderson and wall-charging, chaw dipping, roid raging good ole boy, Lenny Dykstra, like Dustin, the plucky lil' fella got himself an MVP and a WS run. Rickey was MVP back in Oakland, and won a WS there, then went to Toronto and did it there, then played another decade ending it first ALL-TIME in Walks, first ALL-TIME in RUNS SCORED and first ALL-TIME in Stolen Bases, by 500 or so.

The Yankees, in the days they were developing the Bashers who moved like Glaciers of the World, sent Rickey away in his prime to get those HR, SB, RUNS, WALKS elsewhere and win World Series elsewhere.

And Yankee fans, like Guru, said...what if we KEPT THE TRANSCENDENT TALENTS, kept the instinctual types who excel on Defense and situational baseball and signed players in their prime who had the ability, work ethic and desire for NYC that would not be denied.

2009 is that year.

Melky Cabrera, 25, is a switch-hitter with a huge arm who plays Gold Glove caliber Defense at all three OF positions, has hit for the Cycle, and .350 after the 7th Inning. Ramiro Pena, 23, is a switch-hitter who plays Gold Glove caliber Defense at SS and solid at 3B and 2B, Francisco Cervelli, 23, is a Catcher, who plays Gold Glove caliber Defense and handles the bat like a veteran (think Kurt Suzuki, Jason Kendall). Injured 25 year old OF, Brett Gardner, has Carl Crawford speed, hits .280 and catches everything hit.

These are not transformational players, the Yankees have those all over the field. But they are young, agile, smart, fundamentally sound on both sides of the ball and do the things that teams need to win.

Run. Throw. Catch. Think. Compete. Speedster, Gunslinger, Utility Infielder/Switch-hitter, Utility Outfielder/Switch-hitter. Backup Catcher with complete Defensive game.

Unlike the machismo and random efforts of the past, these are precise, surgical moves to fill holes and complete a diverse roster that can win. Cano is a star, Melky is a role player, but their contributions are equal on this team. That is scouting, that is development, that is planning.

The Newbies

Mark Teixeira has been Alex Rodriguez in a year that Alex is hurt and cannot carry the Yankees. He is a switch-hitting, Gold Glove, HR hitting, clutch machine who plays like a man on fire and dreams in Pinstripes.

CC Sabathia has been a Horse, a LH power pitching, 98 MPH, devastating slider, a knee-breaking change-up, deep in games, low-hit, dominant-in-big-games, instant charisma, zero drama, team leader.

AJ Burnett has been a dominating, intimidating, strikeout inducing, deep game pitching, Yankee loving, Pie in the face breath of fresh air in the rotation and clubhouse.

Nick Swisher has been a switch-hiting, power hitting, league leading walk getting, charismatic, Yankee loving, clubhouse transforming, good guy goofball just happy to be a Yankee.

Jerry Hairston, Jr. came over at the 2009 Trading Deadline, he plays 3B and LF, runs well, hits well, knows the game. An ideal Utility veteran.

Jose Molina and power hitter, Eric Hinske are both honorable Veterans with good, solid games (Molina is a Defensive catcher with a gun for an arm, Hinske hit 5 HR in his 1st 20 at-bats. But Pena/Hairston/Cervelli/Gardner is an ideal, versatile, athletic bench and inter-changeable, versatile pieces like Melky Cabrera and Nick Swisher back up both OF slots and 1B. That should be your playoff bench.

Oh, by the way, the Yankees Pitching Staff, has more strikeouts than any other and, since 6/1 the best Batting Average against, most saves, lowest ERA of any Bullpen.

A team managed by and led by players with multiple rings who were on a 113 win team in 1998.

A team that is on its way to a strong postseason.

Take a bow, Brian.

Wow!

Wang, a healthy Alex, Nady, Marte, Bruney...would have made this one of the greatest teams in Baseball history.

Without that, they are on their way to a Division title, with the best record in Baseball.

Quite a season, thus far.

The Arms from the Farm...

Joba Chamberlain is 23, he gets a lot of press because of the variety of rules associated with his development. The Joba Rules are always fodder for debate. Joba dominated in the Bullpen, he has been the Yankees best Starter in his first two years in the rotation. But he hurt his arm last August and seemed to sag in June. Verlander was 101 and dominant in his 2nd year, 2007, and was 91-92 in 2008 before bouncing back to his previous form this season. The Yankees have good reason and the effect is he will miss 3 of his last 9 starts on a team in comfortable position. Non-story. Like the one that USED to follow Joba, something about the Bullpen? (97 MPH)

Phil Hughes turned 23 in June, in the Pen through no fault of his own as Chien-Ming Wang moved his .700 ass back in. Phil had put 8 innings and zero runs on the Twins just ten days earlier. He went into the pen, has thrown (97 MPH) and has a 1.35 ERA two months later. Rotation in 2010 for the as long as his arm is healthy.

Phil Coke is a bit of kid, he gets too pumped up, follows up strings of strikeouts with fat strikes that get smacked.
But...he is a power LH (95 MPH), strikeout machine, low batting average against, strike thrower who can go multiple innings or be a LH specialist, and is 26.

David Robertson is 24, he has the best Strikeouts Per 9 Innings of ANY MLB PITCHER in 2009. He is inexperienced, walks too many and is a work in progress, but his ERA is 3.24 and those 47 K's in 33 Innings are a nice way to start a career in Pinstripes (95 MPH).

Alfredo Alceves, 25, the one Bullpen stalwart who does NOT possess a big arm. All Aceves can do is start, long relieve, short relieve, close, strike people out, get double plays, pop people up, throw strike in every situation, keep hitters off balance. A gem, a find, a long term solution.

Then, there are the FREAKS!

Jorge Posada is 38 on Monday, has been a regular catcher since 1997, playoffs every year from 1996-2007. He was lost early in 2008 to Shoulder Surgery (the same Surgery that Chien-Ming Wang has just had, one year after having the same surgery as Brian Bruney). He has 15 HR/50 RBI, hits .285, slugs .500, throws runners out. Leads.

Andy Pettitte, 37, was the kid LH star of the '96 World Series, yesterday he struck out 10 Mariners and has a 2.04 ERA in the Second Half. He just became the all-time MLB pickoff leader. He will be a rotation regular somewhere as long as he wishes, possibly back in The Bronx.

Mariano Rivera will turn 40 during Thanksgiving football. He has saved 73 of 75 opportunities the past two seasons, has a CAREER WHIP of 1.02, has 132 Strikeouts and 13 Walks (10/1) last two years, over 120.1 Innings.