With Jorge Posada back from the DL, the Yankees have a circular lineup again. Through Tuesday’s victor over the Orioles the Yankees have been busting out the following lineup:
That’s a solid order from start to finish, but some players are better than others. Here’s a closer look at how everyone on the team has been swinging the bat.
The Good
Robbie continues to be the Yankees’ best player. As of this writing he ranks 2nd in the AL in BA, 8th in HR, 3rd in RBI, 2nd in R, 5th in OBP, 4th in SLG and 4th in OPS. He’s getting it done in the field as well. According to Fangraphs, he’s posting a positive UZR so far on the season.
The safest thing to do with Cano is smile, applaud and move along. After he broke out in April the entire baseball world circled around him like vultures. He slumped immediately afterwards. I’d prefer for his hot hitting to remain as far below the radar of the MSM as possible. I’d also like for Robbie to take a walk. His IsoD on the season is now .040, converging with his career mark of .033.
Swisher’s putting up the line the team expected to get from Mark Teixeira. His discipline is down a bit this year, but his average is way up.
The YES commentators are quick to credit Kevin Long for the turnaround. Nick has busted out a new swing, and looks more calm in the box. Whether or not the new swing is the explanation remains to be seen.
Two things are different this season from other years in Nick’s career. His BABIP has jumped up to an absurd .366. His career BABIP is .281. He’s also hitting a lot more line drives, at a rate of 25.9%, versus 19% for his career.
In all likelihood this will play out one of two ways for Nick. If the improved production is luck, there’ll be a correction, and a slump. If, however, the new swing is allowing him to hit the ball better then he may perform this way for the season. The increase in line drives points to the latter.
Gardner continues to exceed expectations. After slumping when Joe Girardi first moved him to the 2nd spot in the batting order Brett has exploded since being moved back to the bottom of the order. Over the last seven days he’s hitting .462/.556/1.000. He’s on pace to steal 59 bases, and his success rate of 83% is definitely helping his team.
Brett has been one of the surprises of the season. I’d stated earlier that I would’ve been thrilled with any line that included an OBP of about .350. Everything he gives the team above that is gravy.
The Bad
Put simply, Alex isn’t driving the ball. Many of his numbers are down from his career norms, but not to the extent one might expect. For example, his OBP is down a bit from recent years, but his walk rate of 10.2% is just a touch below his career rate of 11%.
The major difference between Rodriguez’s line this year and in years prior is that he’s just not hitting as many home runs. It pretty much explains all the other discrepancies. A quick glance at his batted ball data shows that while he is hitting more grounders and fewer balls in the air, the major change, the one that really stands out, is that only 12.3% of his fly balls are carrying for homers — far and away the lowest mark of his career. Not surprisingly Alex is on pace to hit 41 doubles, the most in his career since 1996.
Expect a more complete picture from Alex by the end of the month. His depressed numbers are due more to April than anything else, when he hit a weak .250/.337/.440. In May he beefed up his stats to the tune of .330/.408/.534. The major difference between this season and a typical A-Rod line is one of those crazy weeks when he explodes for four homers. I’ve heard many analysts argue that Alex looks just about set to do that, but he hasn’t yet. Hopefully the explosion comes in June.
Derek has had a strange season so far. Here are his splits for each month, including June:
His numbers appear to be normalizing toward his career line of .317/.387/.458. So far in June he’s hitting for more pop than usual, with a lower average, but his IsoD is mostly in line with his career for the first time this season.
The real question is what to expect from Derek moving forward. He’s been a roller coaster in 2010. He was on fire in April, which was good, but was walking less than Cano, which was bad. He then slumped terribly until the end of May, when he caught fire.
Derek fits firmly in the camp with A-Rod: it’s too early to tell. Hopefully he’ll get some hits against the Orioles and Astros while continuing to walk at his career rate. If that happens then he too will be in line with historical trends at the end of the month.
Jorge has already had to sit this year for two different injuries. Although his season numbers are great, he’s hitting .167/.286/.167 since returning from the DL. Hopefully he leaves that line north of the border.
Ever the princess, Jorge has grumbled about playing as the DH since his return even though the aging catcher’s injuries this season are both in his lower bod
y, one directly a result of playing his position. No matter how you slice it, as Jorge ages he will need to get more reps in as a DH. Now is a time for him to embrace that role because the Yankees don’t have a regular DH yet.
y, one directly a result of playing his position. No matter how you slice it, as Jorge ages he will need to get more reps in as a DH. Now is a time for him to embrace that role because the Yankees don’t have a regular DH yet.
Frankie is doing his best to make Jorge’s point. He was on fire in April. He was solid in May. In June he’s batting .059/.273/.059. Ouch.
Despite the recent slump, no one should fault Cervelli. He wasn’t meant to be an everyday catcher, but he’s stepped into the role brilliantly this season. We all knew he wasn’t going to hit .365 for the entire year. Hopefully he doesn’t ride the slump too long.
Curtis is the only player who could have gone into either the “Good” or “Bad” categories. Overall his numbers are below what they should be, but that’s only because he was mired in an awful slump when he went down.
He played poorly in Toronto but appears to have left his bad swings in Canada. His Grand Slam last night was the game’s most important hit.
The Ugly
Tex can’t catch a break. He got off to as bad a start in June as he had in April, batting only .125/.222/.167 entering last night’s game. It really is a testament to the rest of the team that the Yankees are playing so well when their primary run producer from 2009 has frequently posted an OPS below .700.
No comparisons to seasons past can be made for Tex anymore. This is unprecedented for his entire career, even including his mediocre rookie season when he hit .259/.331/.480, and in that season his best two months were May and June.
Prior to Tuesday’s game Mark had gotten 261 PAs this year, versus 707 all of last season. Just to put this slow start into perspective, if he gets the same number of PAs this year and hits .300/.400/.550 the rest of the season, his final line will come to roughly, .267/.373/.481, which wouldn’t be bad, but would hardly represent a return on the Yankees’ investment. Now that Javier Vazquez appears to be coming around Tex is the one piece of the puzzle the Yankees are missing.
* Photo Source: NY Post
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