Critics of the Yanks often tag them as an aging team, one prone to breaking down and unable to weather the marathon that is a Baseball season. But does this really hold up to any scrutiny? Let’s start out by looking at the opening day ages of the Yanks starters, regardless of who’s currently on the DL.
Starting Position Players
C-Jorge Posada-37
1B-Mark Tiexiera-29
2B-Robinson Cano-26
SS-Derek Jeter-34
3B-Alex Rodriguez-33
RF-Nick Swisher 28/Xavier Nady-30
CF-Melky Cabrera-24/Brett Gardner-25
LF-Johnny Damon-35
DH-Hideki Matsui-34
Opening Day Rotation
CC Sabathia-28
Chien Ming Wang-29
AJ Burnett-32
Andy Pettitte-36
Joba Chamberlain-23
For typical Baseball players, 33 is a good cutoff age for players no longer being in their prime and their skills beginning to decline. In the rotation, only Andy Pettitte is above that age and he’s a proven workhorse who’s spent very little time on the DL in recent years. Of the Yanks starting fielders, 3 of the 8 are past that age and Damon and Posada occupy positions that you can get away with a player losing a step or two. DH is irrelevant, as long as the player can still swing the bat. Only Jeter, playing the most demanding and athletic position on the diamond, is a serious concern for age related decline defensively. The recent winning streak has shown that the Yanks can survive and even thrive in Posada’s absence, something the 08 team could not.
Now lets look at who’s been hurt so far this year. Here’s the Yanks that have spent time on the DL:
Brian Bruney-27
Alex Rodriguez-33
Jose Molina-34
Xavier Nady-30
Chien Ming Wang-29
Jorge Posada-37
Damaso Marte-34
Cody Ransom-32
5 of the 8 are 33 or younger, so age doesn’t appear to be a determining factor here as well.
Finally, we often hear about how the Red Sox have done such a tremendous job of developing young talent, wheras the Yanks have not. Let’s compare the average age of the two rosters.
Average age of Yankees roster-28.3
Average age of Red Sox roster-28.4
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0 Responses to Is Age Really an Issue for the Yanks?
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TIQ IQ
Amazing how this is NEVER brought up by the media. The RS are no younger then the Yankees. And some of their “young players” are not as good as the Yankee young players either. It’s still puzzling that Youkilis (who is 30) is referred to as a “kid”.
Really who would you take Ellsbury or Melky? Melky’s younger and the better player
Pedroia or Cano? Pedroia won an MVP. but doesn’t mean he’s the better player. I’ve also notice few give credit to the Yankees for developing an all star close to winning a battle title type of player in Cano.
If Cano was on the Sox we would here how great a job the Sox organization has done with player development.
The RS have no youngsters in their every day lineup outside of Pedroia and overrated Ellsbury.
As far as the rotation goes they have 1 in Lester. Everyone else is from another organization/Japan.
Bull pen they have Masterson and a couple of other guys who haven’t really proven themselves.
The media loves to hype the RS as an organization. And take subtle shots at the Yankees. Anyone with a clue and is un-bias knows the Yankees are not that far behind the RS in fact they’re neck n neck with them IMO.
I agree that Boston’s youngsters are more hyped, but consider this:
1) They’ve done a much better job in the draft, as most Yanks kids come from international signigns (Cano, Melky and Wang)
2) I’d take this decade Boston homegrown group before the Yankees on anyday. Compare them:
NY: Cano, Melky, Wang, Joba, Hughes, IPK, Gardner, Melancon, Cervelli, Peña
BOS: Pedroia, Ellsbury, Lester, Paps, Bucholz, DelCarmen, Masterson, Bowden, Bard, Lowri and count Youk too.
3) Their system has contributed to more key players the last 2 years
4) last year was a black hole for the Yankees youth movement, with regression to Cano and Melky, injuries to Wang and the big 3 and the Cole situation.
I agree one hundred percent that the Red Sox have the same “age issues” that we have – did anybody watch Big Stinkapi lately?! – but citing the average age as proof of that is a bit misleading. The Sux’s average is skewed by Tim Wakefield and John Smoltz, who’re both over 40, whereas I think the Yanks have more important players to their team ages 33-37 than Boston does.
I also think the media disregards the Yanks’ player developement ability because of what chofo said above “4) last year was a black hole for the Yankees youth movement, with regression to Cano and Melky, injuries to Wang and the big 3 and the Cole situation.” The disaster that was “The Just Hand a Rotation Spot to Hughes and IPK Experiment” last season gives the Yankee-hatin media all the “proof” they need.
I mean, besides not giving the Yanks any credit for the developement of Wang and Cano (whenever someone tries to tell that to Francesa he replies with “no, we’re talking over the last couple years,” oh so we’re only talkin since Pedroia came up, Mike? Pompous punk-ass.), can ANYBODY in the media pls give Cashman credit to the youngsters that have greatly contributed to the Yanks season so far?! All these players have been key pieces since A-Rod has been on the DL, Posada and Molina have gone down, and Wang lost us 3 games single-handedly:
Joba
Hughesie
Cano
Melky
Pena
Da Italian Mobster aka Francisco Cervelli
But NOOOOBODY bothers mentioning how valuable these kids have been over the past 2 months.