After a moribund 3-3 week, the Yankees wen 3-2 this week. They ended up dropping that series in Florida and went on to lose the first game in Atlanta. During this time, A-Rod sat out to rest his hip. The loss in Atlanta was particularly galling because Chien-Ming Wang actually pitched all right but the bats went quiet.
After that, A-Rod came back and the Yankees won the next two in Atlanta and trundled back in to NYC to play the Mets again,this time at Citifield. The Mets obligingly committed 3 errors in an inning and the Yankees steam-rolled them for a 9-1 win. The problem with this is that Jeter and Damon are now out with the flu,
It either looks like the Yankees turned it around or they are a streaky team with bad patches. In any case they are 4 behind the Red Sox.
Brett Gardner Is Back
Just as Melky Cabrera faded back to Melky-ness Brett Gardner has found himself back in Centerfield. After his 5-for-6 haul with 1 HR, and in 170PAs, he is hitting .303/.374/.441. He's at about 18 batting runs above an Average CF, and 34 batting runs above replacement level across a 650PA season.
Most encouraging to me is that Gardner's strikeout rate is much lower than projected. Gardner was projected to strike out in about 20% of his PAs based on his MLEs. He's striking out 12% of the time. He was projected to walk in about 10.5% of his PAs, and he's walking in 9.7% of them, so his BB rate hasn't suffered all that much from any change in approach he may have made to cut down on his Ks.
Like most statheads, I harp on sample size. 170 PAs are not enough to definitively say Gardner's going to be a starting caliber MLB CF. Still, part of the concerns about Gardner's game translating to the majors were based on his supposed physical limitations, particularly in the area of power, and his high strikeout rate. So far this season, we are seeing at least some evidence that those concerns may have been overblown and Gardner's game may be able to play at the major league level, so let's enjoy it while it lasts.
Makes plenty of sense to me. Brett Gardner is hitting .387 in his last 27 games. That .374 OBP means he's a decent threat to pitchers and once he's on base, he steals bases at a very high percentage. He may yet turn into a Mickey Rivers/Kenny Lofton type of player, which is very useful.
His BABIP is .336 which is actually not as high as you would think. As a player who normally has about a 050 - .070 gap between his BABIP and BA, he's arguably been unlucky for his usual play style. That is to say, he could actually get a higher BABIP and with it his average may actually rise. I know, it's a bit bullish, but I don't think super-fast guys sport a BABIP of .336. (For example, Jeter's career rate is .360.)
A closer look at his BABIP reveals that hi LD% is 21.9 this season, up 4.9% from his 2008 figure. This is pretty good, and an added reason fro optimism.
Xavier Nady's Injury Woes
Nady, on his way back to the big club through rehab assignments has re-injured his elbow. It's looking like a second Tommy John surgery for him, which is both rare and sad. He was in his contract walk year so this affects him greatly. If he goes under the knife now, he won't be back until 2011. He'll essentially be doing his entire rehab as a free agent.
I don't know what the Yankees are going to do when all is said and done but it's unlikey he's going to be back. If you work back from the results, that trade to the Pirates hasn't worked out well at all, given that the Yankees missed out on the post-season last year and Damaso Marte hs been largely missing with injury as well this year.
Jeter and Matsui Turned 35
Added to the fact that Michael Jackson just died at age 50, I don't think I recognise the world any more!
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