Does Three Weeks A Bad Season Make?
Looking at the Yankees results this season, to date, in terms of turns of their starting rotation, I see that their bad record this season is the result of three bad patches:
April 20th to April 27th (one off day therein)
May 10th to May 18th (two off days therein)
May 26th to June 2nd (one off day therein)
During those three weeks, the Yankees went 4-18. Outside of those three weeks, the Yankees have gone 20-13.
So, what happened in those three bad weeks?
In the first one, the Yankees faced a hot Boston team four times. In the second one, the Yankees had to play 7 road games. In the last one, the Yankees bats (for the most part) went south.
Two out of three here suggest that it’s the breaks of the schedule that hurt the Yankees. Note I say “suggest.” It’s an interesting idea. If the Yankees do play better over the next month or so, perhaps then we can say there’s something to this theory. In the meantime, it’s just an excuse – but one worth looking back on as the season moves forward.
DeSalvo and Thompson down, Sean Henn and Chris Basak up. Pavano moved to 60 day DL after undergoing TJ surgery.
off topic here sorry but…
why was britton sent to the minors in the first place? was his spring numers bad? he had a good year last year with baltimore…
If you see these weekly (not 7 day weeks) trends then by your reasoning:
1. The Yankees will be terrible on every road trip greater than 5 days unless there’s at least one day off. Lots more of those to come.
2. The Yankees will be terrible if they face a hot team. Lots more of those to come.
3. The Yankees will be terrible if their bats let them down. Lots more of those to come.
Seems to me as if you’re trying to ‘back in’ to a reason for the team’s problems.
I thought Cashman’s confidence in Igawa and Pavano was where you were placing the blame.
Maybe it has to do with the fact that this roster hasn’t played well in any month starting with an “A” or “M”?
Why make it difficult? The team hasn’t played well
often enough to have a good record.
Not relevant to this post….
…however…
If Derek Jeter hits into ONE MORE Double Play today, or tomorrow, I’m going to have to scream. I’m going to send him a bill, fining him $200,000 for pissing me off.
Steve, I hope you don’t too annoyed since I’m basically copying myself over here but I thought of this when you were talking about breaks in the schedule.
“They’ve got 108 games left against 17 total teams but there’s a significant number of games (53) left against teams that at the beginning of the season, you would expect the Yankees to beat up on: 15 against Baltimore (.474), 14 against Toronto (.482) , 14 against Tampa Bay (.426) and 10 against Kansas City (.368).”
pretty small sample size….
Poor pitching, poor offense, poor scouting, poor GM & offseason transactions, poor performance.
I like this team and baseball has it’s ups and downs. So be it.
If The Yankees make the playoffs it will be a season to remember. If not I am not really surprised.
I’m not sure exactly how many of the bad transactions like Pavano that Cashman was the major factor in. But if he does get canned I sure do like Omar Minaya.
It s one thing to be GM when the the money is already spent versus being there when the money is about to be spent.
“If The Yankees make the playoffs it will be a season to remember. If not I am not really surprised.”
“zgveritas”, Before the season began you didn’t pick/expect the Yankees to at least make the playoffs? I’m impressed.
~~~Seems to me as if you’re trying to ‘back in’ to a reason for the team’s problems.~~~
There’s a reason for everything in life. I’m just trying to figure out the reason for the Yankees issues.
~~~They’ve got 108 games left against 17 total teams but there’s a significant number of games (53) left against teams that at the beginning of the season, you would expect the Yankees to beat up on~~~
IIRC, Boston still has 19 games to go with TB too.
DeSalvo and Thompson down, Sean Henn and Chris Basak up. Pavano moved to 60 day DL after undergoing TJ surgery.
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I’d rather have Henn in place of Villone, but I guess this’ll do for now.
Guess Basak fills Cairo’s role, and Cairo is the starting 1b now?
ruh-roh!
RICH,
To be totally honest with you I didn’t think the Yankees season was in the bag this year. I thought Toronto was going to be much better than they are as well as the Orioles and Devil Rays(who were a real pain last season). Boston always seems to play .500 ball over the course of a season versus the Yankees so that would be a wash. But given the lopsided schedule against divisional opponents and the quality of Detroit last year I never considered the Yankees a gimme for the playoffs this season. I knew the Angels were a major nemesis to this ballclub and I got the sense they’d be strong in a weak division this year. I also beleived Cleveland was a realistic wildcard contender so I was not totally confident the Yanks were a sure thing.
I was very impressed with Rasner, Karstens & Bruney last season and was hopeful they would continue where they left off last season. I was psyched to have some homegrown talent to shut up the anti-Yank contingent when they mentioned how much the Yankees payroll was. Or a successful scouting pickup like Bruney to explain that the wins were from a good organization rather than cash.
I didn’t expect Hughes to have an impact on the club this season primarily because I expected the Yankees to continue grooming him in the minors for most of the season.
I didn’t expect much from Rico Bergman because Lombardi convinced me he was a below average offensive 1B. Based on this I actually favored playing Phelps over Rico for the majority of the time. Given Rico’s performance I think he has surpassed expectations so far although I still wonder if Phelps is the better choice.
With the loss of Sheffield to Detroit I wondered whether the Yankee batters would have the lineup protection they had last year and how that would impact Cano and Cabrera who had the good fortune to bat in a stacked lineup last year.
Jorge has had an amazing season but I thought his age would begin to take a toll. One of my first priorities remains getting a decent catching prospect. I hoped we could snag one of the younger Molinas who terrorized us as LA Angels.