Just Because

Look, I would love to go on and on about how I hate the Yankees. The bottom line though is that it would take way too long to write and no one would read it. I understand my audience. At least fifty percent of you are Yankee fans. In any event, I might as well just write about the 2007 edition of this storied franchise (in a negative light).

For the past six or seven seasons, the Yankees have had the highest payroll in baseball. This year is no different. They not only have the highest payroll, but they are ahead of the second place Boston Red Sox by about $30 million. I know that all the Yankees are doing is playing by the rules that are agreed upon by the owners and the player union, but I would remissed not to mention their extremely high payroll when discussing this team. It is just a fact in Major League Baseball today that payroll disparity is everywhere. The Yankees though are in at a level of their own when it comes to payroll. While they have lowered it by about $20 million from a couple years ago, they are still far and away the highest paid team in the sport.

When you look at this Yankee roster there are big names all over the place. You have Derek Jeter at shortstop, Alex Rodriguez at third, Johnny Damon in center field, Mariano Rivera in the bullpen, and so on. Their offensive firepower is tremendous and their pitching staff is filled with high paid veterans, while they have hard throwing youngsters waiting in the minors. If you had to pick one real baseball team to be you fantasy baseball team, the Yankees would without a doubt be the number one pick.

As we all know though, baseball is not played on paper (it's played on on grass, stupid). When I look at this ballclub, they have a couple of glaring weaknesses. While I understand that every team in baseball has its weaknesses, I believe that the Yankee weaknesses are going to be most apparent in later in the season and more specifically in October. In addition, these are the same weaknesses that the Yankees have had the past few years and have failed to address.

1. Defense. The Yankees are not a good defensive team. Their outfielders have worst arms of any outfield in baseball. Matsui is a below average left fielder at this point in his career. Johnny Damon still can cover some ground in center, but his arm is probably the worst in all of baseball. Abreu is an average right fielder, with an above average arm and is known to have mental lapses in the field. In the infield, as I have stated in a prior post, Jeter is a good defensive shortstop. His range leaves much to be desired, but he makes all the routine plays and has possibly the best arm of any shortstop in the AL. AROD at third has all the ability, but over the last couple of seasons has had a propensity to botch the routine grounder. Cano is similar at second, but has exceptional range. The Yankees will play a few different guys at first, with Meintkevitz being the best by far. The problem is though that the Yankees continue to try to play Giambi at first, which is a major mistake. Hopefully they will keep him atDH for the year (if so it only took them six years to figure this out).

Why does this mean so much? Well, the Yankee pitchng staff (especially starters) are guys that have the ball put in play (Wang, Mussina, Pavano, etc). They do not have one starter who is known as a strikeout pitcher/hardthrower. The more balls that are put in play, the more this defense has a chance to be exposed. At least the bullpen has some power arms.

2. Age. The Yanks have worked on improving on this. The fact remains though that their everyday line-up though is filled with guys over 30 with the exception of Robbie Cano. While over the course of the season they will still hit, injuries will be a factor. This was very evident last season when Matsui and Sheffield were out much of the year.

What is possibly more troubling though is their inability over the past few postseasons to hit power pitching. The stereotype in many older players is that they need to cheat a bit on the fastball. They can get away with hitting off of softer throwers, but the hard throwers will give them trouble (the Yanks have done nothing to disprove this in the past six postseasons). This would be especially evident at the end of a season when players are more worn down. Dispute this if you want but look at the pitchers that have shut them down over the past few postseasons...Josh Beckett, Curt Schilling, Ervin Santana, Joel Zumaya, and Jeremy Bonderman. There is a clear pattern there.

3. AROD. The guy is possibly the most talented player in all of baseball. He is also may be the most mentally fragile. I honestly can not tell you how he will perform this season, but I can tell you that he will be the center of a media circus. With AROD on the Yankees it is like a cloud hanging over them on a day to day basis. I think it effects the team in a negative way and guys like Torre and Jeter hate dealing with it. Everyday, the players and coaches have to answer questions not only about the team or their personal performance but about AROD as well. He doesn't help matters by continuing to say dumb things to reporters. I would be shocked if he did not opt out of his contract at the end of the season.

I want to kill the Yankees for keeping him, but I understand the catch 22 that they were in. He is the only power righthanded hitter in this lineup. After getting rid of Sheffield (who was a major distraction in his own right), they could not afford to be without at least one bigtime righthanded power hitter. I still think that they will not win with him, and so far he has shown nothing to disprove that to me. I am not saying he has to perform in October change his reputation with the fans and media, but if he is not a distraction in August and is an MVP candidate then that is enough for me. Look at Carlos Beltran last year with the Mets. He was horrible in 2005, booed the first week of the season in 2006 and then became a fan favorite by just playing and performing. AROD has performed in the regular season for the Yanks in the past, but has also always been a distraction in various ways.


I honestly feel that with their money and the trading pieces they had last year, the Yankees could have fixed these problems. The bottom line though is that any team is going to have weaknesses. My problem is that the Yankees have the same ones that they have had for the past few seasons. I do not see a change. The only difference this year is the young arms that they have in the minors. By trading Randy Johnson and Gary Sheffield, the Yankees acquired young, power arms to go with the phenom they already had (Phil Hughes). This bodes well for their future, but I see this season ending the same way the past six have ended, as long as the team is similar to the way it is constructed now (Roger Clemens, Phil Hughes, acquire a quick bat).

What I would have done top change the Yanks...

1. Trade Carl Pavano in a package for Todd Helton. I have heard rumor about the Rockies being interested in Pavano, and they also would love to get Heltons' contract off of their books.

2. Trade AROD. Pick your team and you could get a monster package for him.

3. Keep Sheffield or sign Soriano.

4. Trade Matsui. I am sorry about I think he is a DH at this point in his career and the Yanks already have one in Giambi. By doing this, Sheff or Abreu would move to left and the arms/defense would be upgraded.

5. Continue to keep your top prospects. THey are already doing this and it is going to help them a ton in the next few years.

Remember that with these trades they would have filled a few holes and any not filled they could have taken care of in free agency.

Remember, I hate the Yankees, so I am gunna view them as negative. Bring the Ice Cold hate comments on! Who will be first, Bocker or Relaxo........I got Relaxo at -4.

STKAFI