The Yankees

I love the Yankees and despite how they're doing i felt like i needed to devote a little time to them. This year may be the first year since 1994 (strike shortened year in which they would have made the playoffs) in which they haven't made the playoffs. This doesn't upset me as much as the fact that they've played so poorly at times. You'd like to pinpoint one problem as the cause of their troubles this season but you really can't. Earlier in the season they had injuries to the pitching staff so it was in shambles and right now they're just not hitting very well. It seems like if one part of their game is going well, another will fall apart.

Yet through all of this one of the oddest occurrences has been the correlation between Bobby Abreu's success and the Yankees success. coming into today when Bobby Abreu knocks in even one run the Yankees are 20-7. Now i wish the explanation was as simple as he's one of their key hitters so of course when he hits they have a better chance of winning. However two nights ago Abreu hits a monster shot, it's the only run of the game he scored or drove in and Clemens goes out and pitches amazingly and they win 5-1. All Abreu seems to need to do is drive in one run and the rest of the team magically plays well. So it seems the Yankees will only go as far as Abreu takes them and being that he's a .260 hitter right now... that's not a comforting thought.

Another oddity to this season has been the struggles of Robinson Cano. Last year he hit around .340. This year he's hitting around 270 and quite frankly looking pretty awful doing it. He's never been a selective hitter, allergic to walks apparently. This season however, he's been even less selective swinging at anything within the area code of the plate. Much the way the Yankees success depends on Abreu it will lie with Cano as well. The Yankees are only 14-10 when Cano drives in a run, so success seems to lay more with Abreu than Cano.

Other notes from the season so far:
A-rod is a beast.
Jeter is as solid as ever
Wang and Pettitte have been solid, Pettitte has had awful luck so far though.
If Andy Phillips can hit around 270 with any kind of power it will be a blessing for the Yankees, since he plays a pretty good first base and Miguel Cairo should really be a utility player.