Major League Baseball

Yankees regressing? Fuggedabowdit!

Published Mar. 10, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

The Yankees have a $200 million payroll and a few warts on their roster. Cliff Lee isn’t pitching for them. The middle relief looks thin. Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez are all 35 years old or older.

And yet, this is far from the mediocre outfit that its harshest critics would have you believe. It’s absurd to call the Yankees an underdog in the American League East, Monopoly, Guitar Hero, foursquare, or any game of skill and chance.

The Yankees are one of the favorites. The Yankees are always one of the favorites.

The rival Red Sox have been widely (and appropriately) credited for their productive offseason. But while Adrian Gonzalez has yet to take an at-bat this spring – his right shoulder is still getting some post-op TLC – the Yankees have accomplished plenty amid minimal hoopla, at least by their standards.

And hey, who needs a $142 million left fielder when you can have one for less than $1 million? Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, for one, is quite comfortable with the tradeoff. When asked Thursday about the inexpensive and improving Brett Gardner, the GM said, “I think he’s a young Carl Crawford.”

Crawford is 29. Gardner is 27. But you get the idea. Younger is cheaper, and cheaper is good.

Cashman believes Gardner, who has a .268 career batting average, could develop into a .300 hitter. Chalk it up to spring optimism if you wish, but I’ve always found Cashman to be a realist. In this case, he’s simply acknowledging the talent he has in camp.

The same is true for the early (encouraging) returns in the Yankees’ rotation derby. Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia, Sergio Mitre and Ivan Nova have each started at least one game in the competition to fill the final two starting spots.

Through 24 innings, they are 3-0 with a 1.13 ERA.

Contrary to the belief in some precincts, the Yankees seem to have moved beyond the disappointment of not signing Lee … or Andy Pettitte. And given what we know now, do you really think trading for Zack Greinke would have been a good idea?

“It’s not how we drew it up, but there’s a lot of ways to skin the cat,” Cashman said. “We brought in some low-risk, high-reward (types) who are fighting hard to make the club. They’re pitching real well.”

“You can see the numbers,” said Robinson Cano, the All-Star second baseman. “They’ve been great. It’s going to be a tough decision for the manager.”

For all the guffaws that followed the signing of Colon, he’s hitting 92 and 93 miles per hour with his fastball. The long-ago Cy Young Award winner leads all AL pitchers with 12 strikeouts this spring.

Cashman said Colon still possesses “great stuff.” Garcia doesn’t, but that’s been the case for some time. Fortunately for the Yankees, he knows how to pitch. Nova, 24, looks more confident than one year ago.

Meanwhile, No. 3 starter A.J. Burnett has made it through two spring starts without issuing a walk. That counts for something, right?

Let’s not forget that the Yankees came within two wins of the World Series last year with effectively the same everyday lineup and rotation, excepting Pettitte. The Yankees led the majors with 859 runs last year, the sort of thing that can paper over an average pitching staff … at least until the trade deadline, or the debut of stud prospect Manuel Banuelos. (When asked if he thinks Banuelos, who turns 20 on Sunday, will pitch in the majors this year, Cano smiled and said, “I wish.”)

The Yankees’ lineup could hit the 900-run mark this year, as they did in winning the World Series two seasons ago. Rodriguez is batting .421 this spring. Jeter should bounce back, at least a little bit. Posada is embracing his role as the team’s designated hitter.

But a good share of the team’s horsepower will come from the slightly less-famous collection of hitters born after the election of Ronald Reagan: Cano, Gardner, Curtis Granderson and Nick Swisher.

And that’s actually a good thing.

“I wouldn’t say it’s become ‘their team,’ as much as they’ve become big-time contributors,” Cashman said, when asked about the younger group. “There’s more to us than some of the big names we’ve got. Whether it’s Cano, Swisher – they’re pushing their names up the marquee. That’s what you want.”

Granderson, in particular, is a good candidate for a breakthrough season. He missed a month last year because of a groin strain and then fell into a slump, necessitating a midseason swing workshop with hitting coach Kevin Long.

Then he changed his mechanics and began hitting for more power. That should continue.

“It’s not like, ‘All right, you guys get out, here come the new guys,’” Granderson said, of the team’s evolution. “Those (veterans) have been in as they get toward the end, and the newer guys get toward their peak.”

Translation: The cast is changing slowly, but the Yankees aren’t going anywhere.
 

share

Get more from Major League Baseball Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

Major League Baseball