At the beginning of the 2005 season if someone heard that the Cleveland Indians would be better than the Yankees, that person would be laughing their head off. But no one on the Yankees is laughing now, seeing as that has come true. But it’s not really something that the players can fix. Guys like Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter have had amazing seasons but that’s not enough to put the Yankees in the playoffs.Of course it doesn’t help that the Red Sox keep piling on runs, and have had something like 19 wins in their last 21 games at Fenway. But the Yankees don’t quite have the offense that Boston possesses and after Mike Mussina got tendonitis in his right elbow, Boston’s pitching is far superior to New York’s.
While Mussina will probably miss one or two starts it still sets the Yankees back in a big way. Once again he has been the rock for this Yankee rotation. When everyone else was getting hurt early in the season and even late in the season with Randy Johnson’s back, the Moose was the constant on the team. When New York’s offense hit a slight snag Mussina was there to pick them up.
That coupled with their overworked bullpen (i.e. last night’s 2/3 of an inning, 6 run outing by Al Leiter) and a very tired Tanyon Sturtze, the Yanks have no fresh arms.
They have called up Ramiro Mendoza who pitched along with Mike Stanton from 96′-2002′. Also called up was Jorge De Paula who gave up 6 earned runs in 5.1 innings last night against Oakland, after coming in for Leiter.
Don’t expect these pitchers to put on a performance like Shawn Chacon or Aaron Small. Erasing Chacon’s last start and the two had a combined ERA under 3.00, and Small had gone 5-0.
De Paula and Mendoza cannot equal that performance; they are simply filling in until Mussina can pitch again.
Even if those two don’t pitch well, Wayne Franklin looks to be someone the Yankees can count on anytime in a ballgame. He won’t put up stellar numbers, but along with Sturtze, they can be the bridge to Gordon and Rivera in the eighth and ninth.
Indians are now better than the Yankees
Cleveland’s pitching staff looks like a bunch of Cy Young winners next to New York’s. Cliff Lee, Jake Westbrook, C.C. Sabathia and Kevin Millwood are very consistent pitchers which is all the Indians need. Westbrook and Sabathia’s ERA’s are well over four but they each have twelve or more wins. Their bullpen is great with Fernando Cabrera, Scott Sauerbeck and Bob Wickman all putting up very good numbers with Wickman in the running for the 2005 Comeback Player of the Year Award.
The Indians have a good defense as well, maybe not quite as solid as New York’s but with much more speed. They still have a few players learning the field but with people like Grady Sizemore who can get around the field, Cleveland should be fine going into October.
Their offense is the typical Tribe offense. Contact and speed, with one or two big guys in the middle. Travis Hafner has been the big guy in the lineup and a driving force for Cleveland. All though he was injured for a few weeks this season (taking a pitch right in the face), he rebounded quickly and has batted in 82 and batting .310.
As long as the Indians can get runners on base which should be no problem with Coco Crisp and Sizemore, they will be scoring enough runs per game to keep rolling past the Yankees.
New York’s bats compared to Cleveland
Two radically different types of offenses right off the bat. While the Indians have speed and contact, the Yankees rely much more on the homerun. Over a short period of time that type of offense is fine but in the playoffs good pitching shuts down good hitting so New York will have to find other ways of manufacturing runs.
The heart of the Yankee lineup consists of three players:
A-Rod and Gary Sheffield have a combined 68 homers and 206 RBI, hitting in the three and four spots in the order. When the Yankees needed hits this year it has been Sheffield and Rodriguez who have jumpstarted the offense.
Jason Giambi has been one of the most valuable players at the plate for the Yankees, because he is always on base. When he’s not crushing the balls out of the park, he is drawing walks and finding other ways to get on. He went 0-2 last night against the A’s but he drew a walk and leads the American League in on-base-percentage (.443).
The Yankees have better speed than most people think. Derek Jeter and Tony Womack are undoubtedly the fastest on the team. A-Rod has very good speed along with Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield.
It still won’t be enough
When the Yanks don’t have pitching and are fighting for a playoff birth against the best teams in the league, their bats won’t be enough. After this weekend New York doesn’t have any games against teams with good pitching but with 6 games against the A.L. East-leading Red Sox, look to see the Yankees falling back in the Wild Card race.
For more stories by Kent Summer, check out 3rdand10.com
7 replies on “No laughing matter for the Yanks”
just to let you know jake Westbrook is 13-13 this season. Those aren’t “stellar” numbers.
And the Yankees are still better than the Indians coz they have a team full of allstars.
is it just me…. or is he cutting down on the comas? i read another one of his articles from like a month ago and there were a hellofalot of comas. a good grammar guide is very helpful for those things.
AND…
cleveland’s pitchers do NOT look like cy young candidates next to new yorks. they’re good but not that good
Kent.. Not only are you not that great, but you’re in my face about it. Please be good before you tell me what the deal is.
But but… I’m not sure what the bold headers are supposed to be doing, but currently they create bizarre divisions in your article that don’t belong. For example, your “New York bats compared to Cleveland” section doesn’t mention a single Cleveland bat… which is what defines a comparison. You do, mention it in a previous paragraph, however briefly.
Stop starting 18 sentences with ‘But’. OK, I exaggerate… seriously though, you start 3 sentences with ‘but’ in the first two paragraphs. I’m not an anal-retentive grammar fiend to the point where I jump on people for starting sentences with ‘but’ (in fact, I enjoy starting sentences with it), but you’re really over-doing it. For that matter, you need to stop overusing the word ‘but’ in general. I think you use the word 11 times in the article with ‘however’ making no appearances whatsoever. You used ‘all though’ once, which is fine, but it’s ‘although.’
I’d add more, but the remaining criticism is mainly stylistic – if you fix the ‘but’ issue, the article may already seem better, and so I’ll withhold for now.
there is a huge difference between all though and ALTHOUGH. you call yourself a respected sportswriter and u dont even get that right.
Aside from that and i agree with russian bear on
everything
he said, its a pretty good article.
I think the indians are better the yankees, Jhonny Peralta is just as good as Derek Jeter, you might think he’s not but take a look at his numbers. Anyways the way Victor Martinez and Travis hafner are hitting the ball i’d rather have them than Gary Sheffeild right now.
just doesn’t add up Alot of stuff just makes no sense. Mike Stanton isn’t on the team anymore. Mendoza doesn’t have to replace Mussina, he’s not starting, he’s mopping up.