The Yankees did a lot worse in this last week compared to the previous week, which sort of negated the effort. The Toronto Blue Jays took 3 of 4 from the Yankees and really, they were only in it for 2 of those games. Randy Johnson also lost a 3-2 game with the Mariners, before they got to Toronto which means that apart from Wang, the starting rotation went through without getting a win.
Principal among that problem has been the 5th starter hole, currently occupied by Sir Sidney Ponson, he who was picked up off the waivers. He has now put together 1 okay outing and 1 crap outing. In the crap outing, he was followed up by Kris Wilson and Shawn Chacon who added kerosene onto the fire he started to let the scoreline bloat out to 13-5.
Shawn Chacon who was last year's saviour is this year's colostomy bag. It's a shame, but he needs to find how to throw his curve ball for strikes again. Aaron Small too is last year's news, as he has been DFA'ed; but will there be pitching help coming? Pretty unlikely. Most of the trade rumours surrounding the Yankes involve outfield help to plug he respective holes of Matsui and Sheffield. Dare I say it, but they're effectively waiting for Carl Pavano and Octavio Dotel. Don't like that, no siree.
The hitting hasn't been much better either, as the Yankee lineup collectively delivered a line that wouldn't look wrong on Tony Womack's baseball card.
It's not really a newsflash that the Yankees have stunk over their last five games. On July 18, after winning nine of ten games, the Yankees were .5 games out of first place and seemingly surging. Since then, they've lost four of five games, culminating in today's 15-3 13-5 thrashing at the hands of the Blue Jays, and have dropped two more games in the standing.Ugh.
I realize that the popular opinion among many is to blame this all on Alex Rodriguez, who had a horrendous week (particularly defensively), but looking at the five game stats shows an entire team in a slump.
So the whole team is hitting like RLYW's favorite whipping boy Tony Womack right now. Derek Jeter is hitting decently, but when the team is struggling to get any offense, I really wish he'd eschew the stupid bunts that he is so fond of, especially when there is no one else on the team that is hitting. I've been touting Andy Phillips due to his minor league performance and his glove, but his offense has gotten to the point where he is hurting the team, regardless of his glove being an upgrade over Giambi. I don't think the team can afford to keep running him out there at this point. He's not a passable first baseman right now. I don't know that Carlos Pena is any great bet, but I'd have to think he'd outperform Phillips right now, and I was not very confident in that before.
Other thoughts:
Every time I see Ted Lilly, I think, that's a guy the Yankees definitely did not need to trade. The Lilly trade brought in Jeff Weaver, who then got flipped for Kevin Brown and we know how those two gents went. And there he s being a serviceable No.2 in Toronto. He need only have been a No.3 or No. 4 in the current Yankee rotation and he would've ben a good enough replacement for the departed Andy Pettitte.
A-Rod hit his 450th Homer and then has stopped hitting for the last 10ABs. Thank goodness this wasn't going down in NYC. Could you imagine the booing? What do these fans want? For him to fail? Weird. I still like A-Rod and love having him play 3B for the Yanks. It could be better with him playing SS, but you know how it is.
Here's an interesting little chat with Reggie Jackson.
"This is his chance," Reggie Jackson said on Friday, "to be a real Yankee."Amen.
Jackson has had a bad month himself, down with a bad back for much of it. But he watches the games. And he can still talk.
"I hear people say (A-Rod) might not be tough enough for this," Jackson said. "He's more than tough enough. You don't do what he's done in this game without being tough enough. I see it on his face every night. I see that he knows what every player knows, whether they're as great as he is or not: What a hard, humbling game this really is. You know why he'll play through this? Because he has to. He'll do what he's always done, and show up every day and go to work with a toolbox that has more in it than anybody else playing. More than (Albert) Pujols, more than anybody else you want to talk about.
"I signed the biggest contract once, and I knew when I did what I was taking on. And you better believe I knew that it was one more thing that I was going to have to carry up the hill with me. Alex is going up that same hill now. And it's like I just said: He'll make it because he has to, because we've got more than 60 home runs and 200 RBI on the bench (Matsui, Sheffield) and because he's as great as he is and because he just has to.
"It's like I told Jeter that time when he was 0-for-32: Figure it out because you ain't going anywhere. There ain't no place to hide. You never get hurt. You're not sitting down. You're gonna be there every day and you're Derek Jeter. Same way with Alex. He's Alex Rodriguez.
He'll figure it out, too."
Jackson was asked about the boos.
"I wish they didn't boo him," he said. "I wish they didn't boo me. But I always respect the fans and love them and in the end, they aren't really a part of this, even if you know they want to love him. This isn't about whether you think the boos are justified or unjustified. It isn't about the media. This is about him. The guy has all that talent.
"You take on a lot of things when you take the money and come here and tough times are part of it. He'll get through this and he'll be better for it."
Reggie, who didn't think he would make it through the summer of 1977, who finished with three home runs on three swings in Game 6, finished by saying this:
"It's only July," Mr. October said.
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