Bombs Away

With Tex missing two games in a row with a sore wrist, and CC, ARod, and Andy all still on the DL the Yankees  still managed a good homestand against the Rangers and Red Sox, which will conclude tomorrow night against Boston.

Swisher’s bat really came alive against Boston. Friday night he went 2 for 3 with two home runs one from each side of the plate, the 12th time in his career, he is now one behind Tex on the all time list.  On Saturday he was 3 for 4.  During this homestand Swisher has gone 10 for 24 with four home runs and 11 RBIs.

Derek Jeter had a historic weekend as well tying Graig Nettles at ninth place of all time Yankees. He also became the fourth player in major league history to hit 250 home runs, have 300 stolen bases, and 3000 hits.  Another historic night for a true baseball gentleman!

The Yankees will complete their homestand tomorrow night against the Red Sox.

With pitching struggles continuing and CC back on the DL for a short stint most Yankee fans including myself are chomping at the bit for the return of Andy Pettite.  The Yankees however are being very “cautious” with the return of their aging ace, especially after Pettite had a set back in the recovery of his ankle while doing stair climbs in rehab.

The Yankees are a cautious team when it comes to injuries because from the outset of the season they include October automatically in their baseball plans.  Anymore set backs for Andy would mean the possibility of missing playoff baseball, if the pitcher with the most wins in playoff history can’t throw in October, then Pettite’s return from retirement would be pointless to say the least.

“I know now that if I have another setback, that we’ve got serious problems and my season’s probably over,” Pettitte told the New York Times on Tuesday. “Now we’re probably going to be overcautious and try to figure out what we can do, just to make sure I’m back, and what I need to get ready.”

With Hughes and Nova struggling, getting Pettite and CC back is what the Yankees need in order to be ready for playoff baseball.  Pettite is in week 7 of the 6-8 week projection for his return, however mid September is now looking like a more likely time line for Andy to get back on the mound.

The new Yankee stadium is an enormous shrine to the dynasty, a technological marvel, and a small culinary mecca in a city already boasting some of the world’s best restaurants.  A hot dog and a beer are no longer affordable, ($9 for a budlight, no thanks) and that is if you are able to resist the influx of real restaurants with cooked-on-site, made-to-order food. Parm serves staples from owners Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi’s Nolita Sandwich Shop.  Lobel’s of New York serves fresh made, hand carved, steak sandwiches, and there’s even a Brother Jimmy’s. The July 2012 GQ went as far as saying that Yankee stadium is the best place to eat right now in the east, and described a Parm sandwich at Yankee stadium as a “picture-perfect summer evening. Under the lights. America.”

Yes America, ball parks, good food, and beer.  A fundamental essence of the American dream, taking your family to a ball game.  But should you have to take out a second mortgage to afford seats out of the bleachers?  Or sacrifice a weeks worth of food shopping budget to afford $20 sandwiches with $10 drinks?  In the quest for more and more everywhere we go, and combining everything we like into one place, have we sold the right to go to a ballgame to the elite?

Yankee tickets are expensive.  The “Legends Suite” tickets start at $1225 and go up to $2500.  Of course with these tickets you can have a bottle of champagne, sushi, an 18 yr scotch, and probably anything else you want from the concierge, and wait team assigned to you.  For the sake of this discussion however, I would like to try and keep the numbers in the realm of possibility for people who are not flying in a helicopter to East Hampton after the game. So there are tickets available to this Tuesday’s game against the Rangers.  To the back right of home plate in section 118 just above field level you can get tickets off of Ticketmaster for $311.90.  Now ticket master does charge a fee, after all they do allow you to print the tickets at home, so for the sake of argument lets call the tickets an even $350.  So if a family of four goes to Tuesday night’s game, tickets in this area will run you about $1400. Of course your kids will want a hand carved steak sandwich, so family dinner at $20 a sandwich and 4 $4 sodas is around another $100, you do have to tip it is a restaurant stand after all.  Now you are obviously going to need to drink four or five of those $9 bud lights in an attempt to cope with all this spending so tack on an extra $50.  So for $1550 you can go to a Yankee game, with your family, and everyone can have a nice meal.

But every ballpark is not built to cater to the mega rich.  There are other options for the same budget.  Just one example is going to Chicago to see the Yankees play the White Sox.  Tickets in the same section in Chicago go for $90 a piece. If all four of you make the trip that’s $360 for the tickets.  This game is Tuesday August 21.  On Expedia if you book right now flights with hotel for four to Chicago will run you $1517 all fees included.  The total is $1877.  I realize that this does not factor in a gourmet meal like you will get at Yankee stadium, but Chicago is no slouch in the world of foodie cities.

One day at Yankee stadium with food, beer, and good seats for a family of four will conservatively speaking run about $1550.  A three day vacation to Chicago with a Yankee game thrown in, same seats, but food not included will cost $1887.  That is an extra $84.25 per person.  We are in a sad place in the history of the greatest baseball franchise, when its more reasonable to fly to another city and stay for three days, than it is to have decent, not even the best, seats to one Yankee game.

Eric Chavez has really played well filling the role left void by Alex Rodriguez’s injury.  There was never a doubt as to the veterans ability to play, however he is aging and injury prone and there was a concern whether or not he would be able to last physically.

Before becoming a Yankee Chavez had played only 64 games in three seasons, but prior to that he had won six consecutive gold gloves at third base.  Back, neck and shoulder injuries caused Chavez to undergo five surgeries which had him thinking retirement before realizing the interest the Yankees had in picking him up as a back up.

With the injury to A-Rod, and the Yankees in the midst of a slump, losing eight straight one run games, Chavez helped propel the team to their first one run win since the all star break.  Trailing 3-2 going into the eighth inning Chavez and Teixeira hit back to back solo home runs for the tie, then the go-ahead run.  Chavez’s solo shot was against the Tigers stud set up man Joaquin Benoit. Up until last night Chavez told Newsday he has been “terrible” against Benoit, 3 for 15 with four strikeouts.

That wasn’t the case last night though and its great to see Chavez pulling his weight physically and statistically.

He is batting .289 with a .347 on base percentage and slugging .526 with 12 home runs.

The Yankees are now only 4.5 games ahead of the Orioles after dropping 12 of the last 18.  There has been some talk that the injuries are finally slowing the Yankees down, especially with A-Rod being out of the lineup.  A-Rod’s stats are not the only ones that are stagnant right now, and because of the lack of offense this mid-summer slump could be deeper than it appears on the surface.

The Yankee M.O. of staging late game comebacks with ninth inning bats statistically has not changed much. According to the NY Post with A-Rod in the lineup the Yankees averaged 4.81 runs per game, while with him injured they are averaging 4.85.  Pitching is also to blame as this seems like a team problem.  Phil Hughes roller coaster season continues as he is on another low, failing to put batters away, or go deep into games, but CC and Kuroda are pitching well.

Curtis Granderson’s slump is a big part of the overall picture.  Last night a ninth inning rally was abruptly ended and another Yankee loss was confirmed to the Tigers when Granderson popped out making him 2 for 20 with six strikeouts over the last week.

“I am just not putting the ball in play the way I want to”, Granderson told the NY Post. “I am still getting pitches to hit. It doesn’t make a difference if you are hitting first, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth or ninth, when you are not hitting you are not hitting.  I am getting balls around the middle of the plate and not being able to do what I want to.”

The sky is not falling yet though.  A 4.5 game lead is still substantial, and with CC and Kuroda starting the next two games things will turn around.  Getting the slumps and losing streaks out of the way in August may just be a prelude to turning it on in October and making a run at another championship.  If the Orioles end up in first place, then we can all start worrying!

In this post we are going to take a look at Derek Jeter, to see where he ranks among the greatest Yankees of all time. Jeter is a Yankee lifer, so lets take a look at how he ranks among the best of one of the most esteemed franchises in sports history. There are also a ton of Jeter haters out there, who definitely don’t want to read another article like this. But I think the haters even like him a little bit.

Now I realize that we are talking about a franchise with players in it’s history like Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Yogi Berra, and Joe DiMaggio.  Statistically speaking, Jeter may not even be considered a greater Yankee than Mariano Rivera or Andy Pettite. But to me comparing a short stop to pitchers is apples and oranges. I don’t think that a definitive rank can be made among these baseball legends.  It is difficult to compare people from different eras, especially when thinking about facts like African Americans couldn’t play during Babe Ruth’s time, and the juice scandals of the modern baseball era.  We can however look at some of the categories Jeter has excelled in.

Jeter’s career started off with a bang. In 1996 he was the Yankees opening day short stop, the first rookie to open at short stop since Tom Tresh in 1962.  In his first game he hit his first major league home run.  During Jeter’s rookie season he had a .314 average, 10 home runs, 78 RBIs, and 14 steals according to derekjeter.com.  He was named the AL rookie of the year, and batted .361 in the postseason, an intricate part of leading the Yankees to their first World Series win since 1978.

That World Series ring in his rookie year would set a tone of winning as the Captain has five to date.

Jeter puts up consistent numbers. He has 3,225 hits, and was the fourth youngest member of the 3,000 hit club, a group of only 23 people.  He is a 12 time all star, with five gold gloves but the Captain really shines where it counts, in the post season.

In post season play Jeter holds the MLB records for hits, games played, extra base hits,  and runs scored.(derekjeter.com)

These are just areas where he is statistically superior.  The intangibles are an area that must be considered when discussing Derek Jeter.

According to mlb.com in the Derek Jeter biography section, commissioner Bud Selig wrote Jeter a letter in 2009 which he said “[You are] Major League Baseball’s foremost champion and ambassador. You embody all the best of Major League Baseball. … You have represented the sport magnificently throughout your Hall of Fame career. On and off the field, you are a man of great integrity, and you have my admiration.”

It’s easy to see why people outside of the Yankee’s world hate Derek Jeter.  You have to make up rumors about a guy who consistently wins, stays out of the tabloids (despite being single in New York City), never seems to say the wrong thing or make a mistake in front of the camera, and receives gushing praise from the Commissioner himself. My favorite of the Jeter rumors is the most recent. Hackers got into official Yankee Twitter accounts and tweeted that Jeter would be benched for the rest of the season because he is having a sex change.

I’m sure the Captain can take comfort knowing he is doing something right when the only rumors the haters can make up about him are fake sex change articles.  In the media frenzied world we live in, its not hard to dig up dirt on someone, unless there apparently is no dirt to dig.

In the final minutes of the trade deadline the Yankees made a move for a third baseman as a temporary replacement for the injured Alex Rodriguez.

The Yankees traded Chad Qualls to the Pirates for Casey McGehee, an infielder who can play first or third, both positions the Yankees currently need temporary replacement at, and also a solid right handed bat who can be a DH.

Although this trade wasn’t a huge blockbuster by any means, you have to give Cashman credit for filling a role that needed some help at third, and also getting $250,000 for Qualls who has not done much while in pinstripes.

Cashman new what he was doing as he told the Daily Post “McGehee can obviously be a righthanded bat off the bench, he can play first base, he can play third base, he can DH. So it gives Joe some flexibility as he matches up whether it’s to put a starting lineup together or to matchup later in the game.”

Qualls has not been a huge factor in the pitching lineup this season, and the fact that Joba Chamberlain would be returning to the rotation after his trampoline ankle injury made this deal a no brainer.