yankees228

Well the move worked. Some nice pitches, but a wide strike zone aided Hendrickson.

Not sure I really understand the intentional walk here. If you're the opposing team you're probably just as scared of Cano right now as you are of A-Rod, not more scared. Additionally, why put more potential runs on base?

Nice play all around by Lugo.

Wow, that was odd. What a terrible decision by Tejada, although I guess he held it because he didn't want to throw to the second basemen on the run. This is the nice thing about playing the O's I guess.

Considering how Ripken really tailed off in the second half of his career, I don't think he's in the conversation.

Ugh, Andy just missed on the 3-2, but a nice recovery to get Tatum.

And Swisher just misses one. Awful inning.

Alright, early chance offensively to break out and really take a firm hold of this game. EDIT: What a horrible send by Rob Thompson with no one out, even though he might have been safe. No reason to take that risk. EDIT 2: Good call, he was out.

Al Leiter says LeBron is coming to the Knicks. From his lips to God's ears.

Nice beginning from Andy so far, but he's been the beneficiary of two nice plays from Cano (grounder in third, DP turn in the second).

It was Orioles' pitching coach Rick Kranitz.

One of his coaches got tossed, probably for arguing balls and strikes.

I've got a hard time including Ozzie Smith in this discussion, because as good as he was defensively, he was actually a detriment to his club offensively (career 87 OPS+). Also, while I agree with Keeper that you can't just take a pure slash line and use it for cross-generation comparisons, there are stats (that grade you relative to your peers), such as OPS+, that are pretty good for those things. Thing is, it's hard to bring defense into the comparison when we have no idea how good guys like Wagner were defensively. Using what we know, I'd say Wagner is the clear number one, with Arky Vaughan, Derek Jeter, and Bobby Doerr following in some order. EDIT: Actually, probably in that order. EDIT 2: And that's not including players like A-Rod and Ernie Banks who spent significant time at other positions.

Very well said. Couldn't agree more on all counts.

Really nice to see Nick Johnson finally do something. Hopefully that'll get him going.

If I made it seem like the Yankees success is directly linked to A-Rod success, than I overstated my position. My only claim is that he is the most important player on the Yankees, and that the Yankees seem to play their best, for the most part, when he is producing. Obviously, as you've shown, this doesn't always hold up, but I'm talking in an overall sense. Either way, the initial discussion was what made the difference for the Yankees last year, and I would say the number one thing that turned their season around was A-Rod returning, and later heating up.

Haha, those are reserved for Captain Calm Eyes. On a serious note, just because of the stuff I mentioned, that I feel like, for whatever unquantifiable reason, the Yankees go as A-Rod goes.

A lot of things went wrong at the beginning of 2007, and I think everyone would agree that he completely carried them that year. As for 2008, I'm pretty sure their record when he was on the DL was below .500, and if they played to the same winning percentage over that time as they did when he was healthy, I think they would have made the playoffs (or come extremely close). I agree with the last part, although I do believe A-Rod to the Yankees is a special case.

Well, part of A-Rod's low WAR is the time he missed, coupled with the fact that he did struggle coming back from the injury. However (and I know you can't eliminate any time), he was a very different player after Girardi sat him for those first two games in Florida. If you go back to the second game of the Atlanta series, he finally appeared to be fully healthy, and he was really great from that point forward. And that brings me back to my initial point. I'm not talking about exactly what the numbers say, but when A-Rod is producing, the Yankees are almost always winning. It's not something that can necessarily be quantified, but it's a trend I've noticed. Last year is a perfect example. A-Rod missed the first 28 games, and the Yankees started out 13-15. When he came back, he wasn't hitting for a great average, but he hit his share of home runs, and the Yankees went on a nice little run. However, around the beginning of inter-league play, A-Rod was really scuffling, eventually leading to those two days off in Florida. In my opinion, not only can you pinpoint the turnaround of the Yankees season to one game, you can pinpoint it to one moment, or one hit to be more exact. Second game of the Atlanta series, sixth inning, score tied 1-1, bases loaded for an ice cold A-Rod. A-Rod singles in two runs, the Yankees win the game, and then A-Rod suddenly starts really hitting. Furthermore, right when A-Rod turned his season around, the Yankees went on an absolute tear for the entire rest of the season (amazingly, almost having zero blips on the radar, besides the sweep out in Anaheim right before the ASB). A-Rod had his common cold patches during the rest of the year, but, for the most part, he was his old self and the Yankees were winning. Then, for the first time since he's been a Yankee, A-Rod hits for the entire postseason, and the Yankees win the World Series. Obviously there are times when the Yankees have won, and A-Rod hasn't been playing well, and vice-versa, but this has been a pretty solid trend, especially over the past couple years. Is A-Rod to the Yankees tantamount to LeBron James to the Cavs? Absolutely not. However, for whatever reason, the Yankees seem to play well when A-Rod is playing well, and that's why I think A-Rod coming back last season was a bigger lift to the club than people realize (especially when just looking at his pure numbers).

As Jacko said, another really good start from a Yankees' pitcher, and I'm very happy to see back to back solid outings from Joba. He has maintained a consistent velocity of 95-96 MPH the last two nights, and the slider was good. As for the offense, I'm obviously still waiting for Teixeira and A-Rod to really hit their strides, but in the meantime, it's nice to be carried by some unlikely guys (Winn last night, Cervelli tonight). I'm not going crazy and advocating that Cervelli start over Posada, and I expect Cervelli to cool off at the plate, but I have to admit that I don't mind at all when he starts. Besides the fact that he has been playing well, I enjoy watching the energy that he brings every game. He was asked by Kim Jones on the post game show if he was going to enjoy this victory, and he said he does every time. It's always nice to hear things like that. Anyway, good win, and they go for the sweep tomorrow afternoon.

Not to mention that through 28 games last year the Yankees were actually two games below .500. Difference is, the Yankees had a pretty key piece waiting for them in game number 29.