Yankee Rundown

The Yankees just completed a 7 game road trip in Kansas City and Minnesota, two places where they historically have had great success and this road trip was no different. After nearly sweeping KC (actually took 2/3) the Yankees took 3/4 from Minnesota in 4 very one sided games. It was not only great to keep pace with Boston and maintain the lead in the division, but nice to see the Yankees return to form individually with a lot of good praise to go around. Quick round of praise, haze, and flop.

Praise:

Curtis Granderson has been absolutely sensational this season as he continues to be the front runner for AL MVP. He continued his torrid success in the 7 game road trip going 10 for 26 (.384 avg) with 2 HRs (one of them being an inside the park HR in a crucial situation in the road trip finale) 7 runs scored, 6 BBs, and 2 SBs. Granderson still strikes out too many times for my liking but you cannot deny what this man has done at the dish and he was very much the reason for our 5-2 roadtrip.

Derek Jeter has been red hot since coming off the DL on July 4th and was even better the past week improving his avg to .292 for the season. Jeter went 14 for 31 (.451) on the road trip with 5 runs scored and 5 RBIs. Jeter has provided the extra punch this offense had been lacking earlier in the season and with him and Granderson at the top of the lineup, the Yankees will continue to put pitchers in jams early and often.

Phil Hughes looks like the old phil of the future that the Yankees foresaw in 2004 when they drafted him to be a dominant starter. Hughes had his fourth consecutive quality start and his best outing of the season going 7 2/3 innings while allowing only 2 hits. If Hughes can maintain this success, the Yankees are looking at a nice #2 starter for the playoffs and beyond (what was expected of him back in April).

Mariano Rivera never really needs praise but I'm going to give it to him. Rivera had been struggling mightily at the start of this month and it brought on a wave of questioning his age, his location, his effectiveness, and whether he was the same Mo. I didn't buy into the crap because every pitcher goes through a mini skid here and there and Mo just reminded us he is human. Rivera this week reminded us of why he is 2nd all time in career saves and considered the best of all time. Mariano pitched 3 shutout innings en route to 3 saves in 3/5 Yankees wins last week. Rivera did not allow a baserunner and had 5 strikeouts, was hitting 94 on the gun, his cutter moved as much as it ever has, and location was pin point. Typical Mo but nonetheless deserving of praise.

Robinson Cano has also entered the category of constantly deserving praise for he earns it on a regular basis. Cano had a hit in every game last week to continue his hit streak (now at 13) including a 3-run HR in a win over KC. Cano also has no reservations about flashing the leather and made a few sensational defensive plays as we've come to expect. The best part about Cano this week was his plate discipline. Cano was working 2-2 and full counts all week and came back from 0-2 to have a 13 pitch ab that led to his HR, the best ab from him this season. Cano continues to amaze and astound and scares me how good he really is as an all around player.

Russell Martin has struggled this year at times offensively and has lots of trouble hitting off speed pitches. This last week however Martin exploded for 3 HRs, two of which were bombs and had 7 hits in the week providing a nice boost for the Yankees. Not to mention he caught 6/7 games and threw out multiple runners, something he's done a lot this year. He plays every day and he plays with a defense first mentality. You gotta love the Russell signing and he's the only reason Montero isn't on this roster.

Haze:

Alex Rodriguez returned from a 6 week DL stint where he was recovering from a torn meniscus. A-rod was supposed to return Thursday but it got pushed back to Sunday. A-rod went 0-5 in his debut yesterday so we haven't seen the Arod we are accustomed to yet but just having him back in the lineup beefs up the offense and makes the lineup more cyclical.

Ivan Nova had arguably his worst start of the year on Tuesday against Kansas city and the offense bailed him out. Yesterday he had arguably his best start of the season and bailed the offense out. It was good to see him bounced back and after struggling so much on Tuesday, he looked very confident and strong on Sunday. He even overcame a rare fielding blunder from Swisher/Granderson and struck out 2 batters in a row with a man on third and no one out. Nova went 2-0 last week despite the bad start.

Dave Robertson pitched 4 shutout innings during the road trip so it's hard to find this hazy and not worthy of praise, but we've come to expect that from Robertson. What we haven't come to expect at least lately is him walking batters. Robertson has at times struggled with his control but he had gone his last 10 innings without a walk before issuing one this week en route to loading the bases before getting a fly ball to end the inning. It's great to throw up scoreless innings, I just hope he can do it without putting men on each time.

Flops:

AJ Burnett it seems is pitching for his job. There is enough material in the last few weeks about AJ to fill up a dictionary but I'll keep it simple. The man has serious control problems, mental issues, and he has become insubordinate with his manager. Neither of these problems can be tolerated and he only has a job while Garcia is hurt. Once we are again staring at the 6 man rotation dilemma he will find himself out quite quickly. The 16.5 million dollars he is being paid per year does not seem to be enough of a force to keep him in the rotation when he doesn't give the Yankees the best chance to win. This last week he went 1-1 but did so with two very poor performances and was not even able to finish 2 innings in his last start. I hope for his sake and the Yankees sake he has a good start or two to finish this month because he will not be on the playoff roster if he struggles this badly to end the season.

Eric Chavez earned the everyday DH role from Jorge Posada and upon doing so went 0-11 this week on the road. Not that a little skid offensively means you should lose your job, but when you get a newly appointed position and out of the gate struggle it's not good. Not to mention Andruw Jones is fighting for the spot as well and he was torrid this week hitting 2 very long HRs and batting over .300 in the last month. Chavez may find himself only hitting off righties as a DH.

Freddy Garcia is now on the DL with finger injury. Freddy cut his throwing hand while cutting in the kitchen and can't pitch until it heals up. He'll miss a few weeks and hopefully that's it. Let's hope this little cut and break will not affect our guy because he's been nothing short of sensational as a Yankee and has really aleviated all starting woes through his and Colon's rejuvinated performances this season.

The Yankees now return home and should be able to prey on a weak Oakland team for three games before heading back on the road to take on the Orioles over the weekend. Let's take 5/6 please? Yankees are red hot and shouldn't have a problem winning these next 2 series.