Jonah Keri, on the Yankees, via ESPN.com Page 2 -
With the offense weakened, that puts pressure on the pitching staff to win games, and I don’t see enough there for that to happen. Phil Hughes looks like he’s not ready, Ian Kennedy never had that much upside to begin with and you can’t feel 100 percent safe about Andy Pettitte’s elbow or Mike Mussina’s performance holding up. Moving Joba Chamberlain to the rotation would solve a lot, but the Yankees are being way too conservative on that front, and that’s going to cost them games between now and the time it finally happens.
As is, a lot has to fall into place for the Yankees to make the playoffs. If it takes well more than 90 wins to get the wild card this year, I don’t know if they can do it. As is, they’ll need to make at least one significant trade and catch a big break elsewhere — the rest of the bullpen stepping up big if/when Joba becomes a starter, Hughes, Kennedy or Darrell Rasner panning out this season, or some other helpful event — for the team to succeed.
One significant trade?
You mean like the Santana deal? Oh, never mind…
21 Responses to “Keri: To Win, Yanks Need Trade, Breaks & Pen To Step Up”
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May 20th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
File this one under “zzzzzzzzzzzzz.”
May 20th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
Steve, I don’t think even Santana can fix the Yankees hitting problems.
Wang should be credited with atleast two other victories already if it weren’t for absmal hitting. I think Pettitte missed out on a few as well.
May 20th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
You mean like the Santana deal? Oh, never mind…
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Whatever. You’re sound more and more like Hanky by the day.
May 20th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Given the lack of run support, and Santana being good but not great, he might have a losing record.
May 20th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
So wait, you’re saying that if players play better, the team will win games? Who knew…
May 20th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
On second thought, they need something to shake them out of this stupor.
May 20th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Steve, I really hope you aren’t at the game tonight.
May 20th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Nah, one of the few ‘perks’ of unemployment…not having the $75 to pay for a ticket to a game like this one!
May 20th, 2008 at 10:26 pm
I wouldn’t go to a game right now if someone paid for the tickets, dinner, and a limo.
May 20th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
The Bronx is burning.
May 20th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
That’s OK Don – no one is there. It’s the new Yankee Stadium ritual. Leave in the 6th inning because you know they’re going to lose.
May 20th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
Still, it was pretty funny to see the announced attendance @ 51k, when you could tell that there probably wasn’t 1/2 that there tonight.
May 20th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Leave in the 6th inning because you know they’re going to lose.
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To be fair, the weather was miserable all day and it was empty from the first inning.
May 20th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Weather, yeah, that “helped.” But, we see it now, a lot, on other days when the weather is not a factor.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:19 am
Let’s all take a moment to chill. Have we not seen this movie before?
May 21st, 2008 at 1:15 am
Let’s all take a moment to chill. Have we not seen this movie before?
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I think the extreme offensive futility is harder to watch because it can you feel that there is no chance to win if they fall behind by > 3 runs.
May 21st, 2008 at 8:51 am
Let’s all take a moment to chill. Have we not seen this movie before?
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Their win projection according to coolstandings.com (season simulation based on run differential) is 73.
Baseball Prospectus has their win projection at 80 – before last night’s disaster.
MLB.com has their expected wins exactly where they are – 20-25.
I know last season they were underperforming their pythag. In the years they had poor starts, have they ever been right where they ‘deserve’ to be before?
May 21st, 2008 at 9:13 am
This team will still score 900+ runs. There is way too much talent. The guys will get close to or match the back of their baseball cards.
Things swing back to equilibrium. Hang in there. Someone’s gonna pay.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:40 pm
This team will still score 900+ runs. There is way too much talent. The guys will get close to or match the back of their baseball cards.
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That’s one rosy scenario, I must say. They currently project to score 652 runs, so that requires that they score 250 “extra” runs over the remaining 117 games, or 2.1 more runs per game. They are averaging 4.0 runs per game, so that means the target is a little over 6.0 runs per game.
Last year’s team averaged just under 6 runs per game overall (5.97). So this team is going to outperform last year’s team over the remaining games, when last year’s scoring required the extraordinary contributions of A-Rod and Jorge?
I’m not saying there’s no possible way it will happen, but it seems like a very long shot. If every regular on the roster manages to improve to “get close to or match the back of their baseball cards” then maybe. But that doesn’t look too likely, IMHO.
May 21st, 2008 at 12:44 pm
One other thing – the Red Sox lead the league in scoring by a comfortable margin. But they only project to 837 runs.
And the Yankees will score 900 after trailing so badly after 1/4+ of the season?
You might want to reconfigure your projections for what is clearly a lesser-scoring league.
May 21st, 2008 at 2:32 pm
–so that requires that they score 250 “extra” runs over the remaining 117 games, or 2.1 more runs per game. They are averaging 4.0 runs per game, so that means the target is a little over 6.0 runs per game.–
Sounds about right.