I can not believe that Labor Day is just 5 short days away.  I am heading back to work in just 6 short days.  I feel like summer just started.

Steve Lombardi expected the Yankees to have am 18-11 record for the month of August.

August Record: 16-13 (@ TB, 0-1; vs. TOR, 1-2; vs. BOS, 2-1; @ TEX, 1-1; @ KC, 2-2; vs. DET, 3-1; vs. SEA, 2-1; @ TOR, 1-2; @ CWS, 2-1; vs. OAK, 2-0)

Season Standings: New York (82-50),  Tampa Bay (81-51),  Boston (74-58),  Toronto (69-63),  Baltimore (49-83)

Team Offense: .794 OPS

The Good:

• Mark Teixeira-After having an abysmal April, and an awful May, Teixeira has bounced back with a vengeance.  His July was spectacular, and for the month of August, he has posted an OPS of .983.  A lot of that coming from his .629 slugging percentage that stems from 15 extra base hits including 9 home runs.  Part of me wants to argue that Teixeira has been the Yankees MVP for the 2010 season, but I’m not sure if one can realistically make that case if he didn’t perform for the first 8-10 weeks of the season.
• Marcus Thames-Arod’s loss is Thames’ gain.  He has been an absolute beast this August.  He has a .344 batting average and seems to be homering every day.  Okay, so a ball he has hit only cleared the fence 7 times this month, but he has homered at least once in 5 of his last 7 games.

The Bad:

• Derek Jeter-This is easily Jeter’s worst year of his career.  I doubt very much it’ll effect his payday coming this offseason (my guess, Jeter never sees free agency and gets 4 years $80M), but it is certainly hurting the 2010 offense…at least the top of the offense.  With the way Teixeira and Cano have been hitting, I wonder how many RBIs they would have right now if Jeter was getting on base at a clip close to his career norms.  For August, he is batting .239/.318/.333.  At least his slugging is higher than his OBP?
• Brett Gardner-For the month of August, Gardner only has a .677 OPS.  He also has 25 strikeouts in 29 games.  I will say, however, that he seems to have come around as the month came to a close.  Since August 25, Gardner has a .400 batting average and an OPS of 1.021.

The Injured

• Lance Berkman was hanging out on the DL after spraining his ankle while tripping over first base.  I suppose this has been a rather disappointing trade so far.

The Call Ups

• September 1 marks the time of year when rosters expand.  The offensive players who have been added to the roster for the remainder of the year are Greg Golson, a center fielder, and Chad Moeller, a catcher.

Team Pitching: 3.98 ERA

The Good:

• CC Sabathia-For the month of August, Sabathia managed to go 5-1 with a 3.12 ERA.  He has also overtaken the league lead for wins and currently has 18 for the season.  Back in the July Edition I said that Sabathia would be vying for the Cy Young award this year if it wasn’t The Year of the Pitcher.  Well now for the month of August, I have decided that his numbers are damn good this year and he could possibly win it anyway.  For the year he has a 3.14 ERA.  According to ESPN’s Cy Predictor, Sabathia is the leader for the award by a good 20 points (though, I readily admit I don’t know how accurate this predictor has been in the past, but it is still fun to look at).
• Joba Chamberlain-Joba had a very good August, though my Joba standards may be down based on how he has pitched for the first half of the 2010 season.  For August, however, Chamberlain’s ERA is 2.25.  He only had one bad outing on August 28 where he went .1 innings and gave up 2 earned runs.
• Kerry Wood-Unlike Lance Berkman, this was an excellent upgrade at the July trade deadline.  For the Yankees, Wood has appeared in 11 games and only allowed a run in one of them.  Overall, his ERA is 0.71.  And in actuality, I think the bullpen has finally stabilized itself and is once again a strength for the Yankees.  I believe that Kerry Wood has a lot to do with that stabilization.
• David Robertson-He did have an atrocious outing on August 28 when he couldn’t record even 1 out, but other than that he had a spectacular August posting a 2.70 ERA.  He has also taken hold of the set up man role, though Joba may have taken it back, I’m not too positive.

The Bad:

• AJ Burnett-Burnett’s bounce back July may have been an optical illusion.  He wasn’t June bad, but he was bad enough.  Burnett posted a 7.80 ERA and had an 0-4 record.  The Yankees lost all 5 games he started for the month.  Teams are batting well over .300 against him.  Hopefully a new month will mean a new Burnett?
• Javier Vazquez-Vazquez had an ERA of 5.96 this month.  He also lost his starting job in favor of Nova (who has been good, but I chose not to include him because it was only for 2 starts).  I do feel the need to point out however, that Vazquez’s last 2 appearances have been in the long relief variety and he performed admirably in both.  He is getting his starting spot back on Saturday.

The Injured

• Andy Pettitte through a bullpen session today where he threw 55 pitches.  He is expected back in the middle of September.  Hopefully when he returns he will be just as good as when he left.

The Call Ups

• Jonathan Albaladejo is the sole Yankee pitcher who was called up when rosters expanded today.  He has had an excellent year as the closer in Scranton.  Hopefully his time with the Yankees this stint will be better than his previous ones.

Highlight/Lowlight

Highlight-August 4, 2010. After what seemed like forever, Alex Rodriguez hits his 600th home run.

Lowlight-August 20, 2010. I can’t remember a game that was particularly heartbreaking, but losing 6-0 against the Mariners was not fun.

The July Edition

The June Edition

The May Edition

The April Edition

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This story, courtesy of the NY Times, is somewhat puzzling to me.  Why would the Yankees be entertaining the possibility of selling a share of their High-A, Florida State League affiliate Tampa Yankees to a group of investors?  Why would they be interested in moving the team to Orlando when they already play at the gorgeous (and luxurious, by minor league standards) George M. Steinbrenner Field?

Are the Yanks no longer enjoying the same market dominance now that the Tampa Bay Rays have improved their on-field product?  Is Orlando a more suitable baseball market during the summer months?  Do Hank and Hal Steinbrenner see this move as the first in a series of divestitures relating to the Yankee organization which they inherited from their now-deceased father?

Interesting…and bears monitoring.

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As I’ve got two bits of content and, as neither could make it as stand-alone postings, I figured I’d just combine them into one column.

First, Jim Callis of Baseball America fielded a Yankee-related prospect question during his weekly chat:

[Q]: Is it conceivable that Montero, Betances, Banuelos, Brackman, Romine, and Sanchez could all end up in the Top 100 List this year? All minus Romine are enjoying very good (Montero) or breakout seasons (the rest). As a follow up, which if any of these prospects do you believe to have All-Star caliber potential? Thanks for your time!

[Jim Callis]: Conceivable, yes. This time of year, I get a lot of questions about who will make the Top 100 and where various farm systems rank compared to other systems, and I’ll be honest—it’s hard to give precise answers without spending hours sorting through every organization. Montero is the easiest guy in that group to label a future all-star. I can say the other guys have that potential, but I want to see Romine perform better in the minors, whether Banuelos can maintain his improved velocity, whether Betances and Brackman can stay healthy and keep throwing strikes, and how Sanchez produces against better pitching. But yes, you can dream on all those guys.

Second, John Sickels provided a retrospective on his September 2008 write-up of then-prospect Brett Gardner, where he concludes:

Overall, Gardner has turned out a bit better than I anticipated two years ago, at least this year.

Anyway, just thought I’d share…

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Courtesy of Baseball America, the 2010 Arizona Fall League rosters have been announced.  The following Yankee farmhands will be participating as members of the Phoenix Desert Dogs:

RHP Craig Heyer (High-A, Tampa Yankees)
RHP George Kontos (Double-A, Trenton Thunder)
C Austin Romine (Double-A, Trenton Thunder)
2B Corban Joseph (Double-A, Trenton Thunder)
3B Brandon Laird (Triple-A, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees)

Craig Heyer is too old to be considered a prospect at this point and Kontos, due to injury, had his star dim over the past year.  The other three should be familiar names around these parts, especially Romine, who is considered a potential heir apparent to Jorge Posada and Brandon Laird, whose monstrous power display in 2010 has turned him into one of the Yankees’ best trade chips for the upcoming season.

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Throughout the 2010 season, most Yankee fans have noticed that Derek Jeter’s approach at the plate has been markedly different.  He’s swinging at an inordinate amount of first pitches and, as a result, he’s not working the deep counts that tend to lead to more productive at-bats.  This is reflected in the 3.59 pitches per plate appearance he is seeing in 2010, down from 3.84 last year and a career average 3.74 beginning in2002 when ESPN began tracking such things.  Along the same vein, Jeter is swinging at a career-high percentage of balls (28.5% O-Swing% vs. 20.3% career) and, as a result, is making more contact on these non-strikes (69.4% O-Contact% vs. 60.0% career).

 The problem with diminishing plate discipline is that we just can’t tell why a batter’s approach has changed so dramatically.  Former scout-turned-baseball blogger Frankie Piliere has one theory on what has happened to Jeter in 2010 and it’s not a pretty assessment.  According to Piliere, the problems Jeter has experience in 2010 have been due to a decline in raw skill which have led to a change in his approach at the plate.

Not only are the results not the same, but the way he approaches his at-bats has changed as well. And, whether it is subconscious or not, he has changed his approach to compensate for raw ability that may no longer be there.

Only Jeter knows why he is committing to pitches just a bit earlier this season. And if it’s fixable, you can bet he’ll figure it out. If it’s not, and he truly is compensating for raw tools that are no longer there, this is more along the lines of the player Jeter will be from here on out. Right now, he’s a hitter lacking the quickness in his hands to let pitches track deep so he can read them. And rather than producing those classic inside-out swings, it’s likely that he’ll continue to be tied up inside like a mere mortal hitter.

 Right now, the swing is just a little too long and the hands just a bit too sluggish for him to resemble the Jeter of old. You can certainly argue that it’s simply a prolonged mechanical slump, but the potential root of those problems have to at least make you pause and wonder if age is catching up with the Yankee captain.

Jeter’s 2008 campaign sparked some similar discussions on whether the Captain was washed up and, as we saw in 2009, #2 rebounded to have one of the strongest seasons of his career.  Unforunately, I don’t recall if any scouting highlighted similar concerns in 2008 as Piliere is pointing out right now.

What I want to know, however, is why or how Jeter and hitting coach Kevin Long aren’t making a noticeable and concerted effort to fix these issues.  Even older players can hide some of their flaws but, at present, it looks like all of Jeter’s flaws are right there on the surface for all to see.

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Via John Harper today -

All along it has been thought that hammering out a new deal would be a relatively smooth process because the brass understands it will be paying more for what [Derek[ Jeter has meant to the franchise than for what he will actually be worth as a shortstop who turns 37 next season.

But what if he finishes out the season without putting together any kind of extended hot streak, and winds up a singles hitter who manages, say, .270 with a .335 on-base percentage?

Under ordinary circumstances the drop-off from a typical Jeter season would be significant enough to make management reassess what it should pay him. Obviously Jeter is an extraordinary case, but how extraordinary?

Complicating matters is the Alex Rodriguez contract, which has another seven years worth $209 million, plus those potential milestone home-run bonuses.

Jeter may be the ultimate team guy, but two former teammates believe that when it comes to getting paid, his pride will demand that he get something approaching A-Rod money, regardless of what he hits this season.

“It’s up to (the Yankees),” one former player said. “Knowing Jeet, he’s not going to let an off-year, if it turns out to be an off-year, play a role in what he thinks he should get paid. He just doesn’t think like that. He’ll be more convinced than ever that he’ll come back and hit .330 next year.”

The second former teammate essentially agreed.

“The question is whether (Brian) Cashman and the others think this is the start of a decline,” he said. “And if so, are they going to factor it into the negotiations or just pay him for being the face of the franchise all these years? Knowing Derek, he’ll say all the right things, but he won’t give an inch based on his numbers this season.”

Obviously the Yankees won’t want to go to war with Jeter, knowing it likely would be a PR nightmare.

“They’re in a tough spot,” one prominent agent said Tuesday. “Because the way he’s hitting, the gap between his true value as an old shortstop without power and his Yankee-legend value is so enormous, I’m not sure how you bridge that gap without causing some hard feelings.”

I still have a feeling that this is out of Cashman’s hands and that it will be Randy Levine, Lonn Trost and the Steinbrenner boys who work on the next deal with Jeter. A-Rod didn’t work out his new deal with Cashman – he went straight to Hank Stein. In a way, maybe Cashman would be happy with that? It’s really going to be an uncomfortable task – given the way that Jeter has played this season.

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So, the Yankees wake up and find themselves in first place this September 1st, one game over the Tampa Bay Rays. How does this compare to some recent September 1st resting places for the Yankees? Here’s the list:

2009: First place, up by 6 1/2 games.
2008: Third place, 12 1/2 games out of first.
2007: Second place, 5 games out of first.
2006: First place, up by 8 games.
2005: Second place, 2 1/2 games out of first.
2004: First place, up by 3 1/2 games.
2003: First place, up by 5 1/2 games.
2002: First place, up by 8 1/2 games.
2001: First place, up by 7 games.
2000: First place, up by 5 games.
1999: First place, up by 7 1/2 games.
1998: First place, up by 18 games.
1997: Second place, 6 1/2 games out of first.
1996: First place, up by 4 games.

Say what you want about Joe Torre. But, seeing this, it’s safe to say when he had the Yankees in first on September 1st, he usually had them there with a pretty good cushion.

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On April 26th, 2008, Jorge Posada hit the ninth triple of his career.  28 months later, Jorge Posada finally got to the nice round number “10″ with a first inning three-bagger that drove in the third run in an eventual 9-3 destruction of the A’s.  Why do I bring up Posada’s triple?  Because there’s something just so funny about seeing one of the slowest people in baseball legging out a three-base hit that it just set the tone for a fun night of Yankee baseball.

The game wasn’t all peaches and cream, however.  Phil Hughes (5 4 2 2 5 1) was once again unable to pitch a quality start and struggled with his command throughout his five labor-intensive innings.  With his innings limit thought to be right around 180 IP, Hughes would only have about 30 or so innings left in his arm to correct whatever flaws have led him to walk 10 batters over his past 8.2 innings.

Also, a shout-out to Mark Teixeira, Nick Swisher and Curtis Granderson for each going deep last night.  For Teixeira, last night’s three-run blast was his 30th of the season, making it the seventh consecutive season of his career with 30+ HR.  With five more runs batted in, Teixeira will also have seven straight 30/100 campaigns, a very healthy line item in any eventual Hall of Fame resume.

Now at 82-50, the Yankees not only secured the 88th winning season in their 109-year history as an American League ballclub, but, thanks to Toronto and Baltimore beating Tampa and Boston, respectively, they reclaimed sole possession of first place for the first time in nine games and moved eight games ahead of the Red Sox.

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Via Joel Sherman -

Alex Rodriguez turned 35 in July and limped onto the disabled list in August, and the correlation feels obvious — except not to A-Rod.

Rodriguez does not believe his left calf strain is related to age. An injury is sometimes just an injury, he believes, and not a reflection of your birth certificate or an ominous symbol of a looming decrepitude.

“Not at all,” Rodriguez told The Post last night as he rode an exercise bicycle before the middle game against the A’s. “I feel my best baseball is ahead of me, and my body feels great.”

Is that ego talking? Is it just extreme confidence? Is it delusion?

Rodriguez is due to come off the DL on Sunday, and he sees no reason why he wouldn’t since his rehab is going so well. And A-Rod and [Kevin] Long are confident that he can recapture his best swing and be fresh and an impact player the rest of the way.

“What do I expect?” Long said. “I’m expecting an MVP-caliber player. He’s going to be a huge factor.”

“I have the utmost confidence that I can do what is necessary to not only help the team win, but to maintain myself at a high level,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez was talking not just about for the final month plus the playoffs this year, but also into the near future as he climbs into his upper 30s. For now, Rodriguez definitely has the power of positive thinking. We will see if his plain old power really does defy the aging process, as well.

At times like this, I always think of what an aging Lefty Gomez once said: “I’m throwing as hard as I ever did, but the ball is just not getting there as fast.”

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I missed doing the review for July last month. So, I’m going to use this one as a catch-up.

Oh, what the heck, let’s just look at the whole shebang to date. Here it is:

• April 2010: – I expected a record of 13-9 and the Yankees actually went 15-7.
• May 2010: – I expected a record of 17-12 and the Yankees actually went 16-13.
• June 2010: – I expected a record of 15-11 and the Yankees actually went 16-10.
• July 2010: – I expected a record of 16-10 and the Yankees actually went 19-7.
• August 2010: – I expected a record of 18-11 and the Yankees actually went 16-13.

So, today, the Yankees record is 82-50 compared to an expected record of 79-53 at this junction.

Therefore, in my opinion, the Yankees have performed, so far this season, three wins better than what could be reasonably expected. Considering some of the player performance issues that they’ve encountered this season at various times, that’s pretty darn good. Let’s just hope they can keep it up in September and anything that follows.

Add on: For those interested, the Yankees Pythagorean W-L record sits at 83-49 today. Another sign that they’re pretty much meeting expectations, for some, I suppose…

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Ben Nicholson-Smith has the story.

Well, I have to give Brian Cashman an “E” for this one…

Not for “error,” but, rather for “effort.”  At least he tired.  Nothing he could do about the Dodgers pulling him back.  And, it’s nice to see that Cash realizes he could use another SP who can be trusted.

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