Kuzul

I realize that A-Rod is a great player and has hit a ton of home runs over his career. Rodriguez strikes fear into the hearts of opposing pitchers.

But he is in his mid 30’s now, possibly the twilight of his prime, and he just hasn’t had the same power stroke this year.

Should someone else bat fourth in the Yankee lineup? I say yes.

The question is, who can do a better job than A-Rod? Not Teixeira with his struggles right now. Possibly Swisher. But Nick seems inconsistent year in and year out.

Robinson Cano, who has done quite well batting fifth for the Yanks this year, is the only possible option I see.

Many worried about Cano’s struggles with runners in scoring position. But he seems to have solved those problems. Cano is batting .333, with three home runs and 29 RBI, with RISP this season.

He also leads the Yankees with 10 home runs, 37 RBI, and a .359 average. Cano leads the league in hits, with 69, heading into Sunday’s game.

A-Rod has been solid this year, with 35 RBI and six home runs, but has only batted .286 this season. His .368 on-base percentage is Rodriguez’s worst since 1999.

Cano is a more well-rounded player in every category, and has been impressive at the plate this season. I think he deserves a shot at the clean up spot.

If not clean-up, then he needs to switch places with Teixeira, who is hitting a lowly .217 out of the three hole,. This might be A-Rod’s problem, there’s no one getting on base in front of him.

Either way, a lineup shift might be looming for the Yanks and Cano could be on the rise in the batting order.

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The Yankees got what they were looking for, they scored in double digits for the first time in almost two weeks. But Sabathia couldn’t tame the tribe and Joba got scalped out of the bullpen.

When the Indians hang 13 runs on you it’s time to make some changes, and it starts by moving Joba out of the set up roll ASAP, he now has an ERA of 5.84 and has three losses to his name.

The heir apparent to Mo might not be that apparent any more.

The problem with moving Joba out of his roll is that the Yankees would have to find somebody else, and I don’t think any pitcher out there in the bullpen can fill that roll right now.

That means it’s time to send some people down, lets start with Robertson and Park, who can’t get a hitter out to save their lives any way so it wouldn’t hurt for them to get themselves back together down at AAA.

Who should replace them? Mark Melancon deserves another shot and Jonathan Albaledejo has been lights out this season, so bring them up and at least give them an opportunity. They can’t do any worse than what the guys up here now are doing.

The offense was the only positive from Saturday, as it looks like Derek Jeter has come out of his slump and Teixeira is seeing the ball better, but Nick Swisher and Robinson Cano are heating up for the Yanks. And they will need every run they can get if they can’t solve their pitching issues soon.

The panic button hasn’t been pushed yet, but changes need to happen for this club to be successful moving forward, no team should give up 13 to the Indians, certainly not a team as talented as the Yankees are (or can be).

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The Yankees have had some of the greatest players in Major League Baseball history. This list ranks the top 10 of those legends who wore the pinstripes very proudly during their stay in the Bronx.

To rank the players I used their individual stats while with the Yankees and their success in the postseason. I also took into consideration military service and career-threatening injuries.

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The Yankees apparently have a “plan” for Phil Hughes that will take effect in the coming months, allowing him to stay within his pitching limits this season, in other words the Joba Rules turned Hughes Rules.

Joe Girardi and Dave Eiland have it set up so that they could give Hughes an extra two weeks of days off over the next two months.

The Yanks do have four scheduled days off in June, and an additional five off in July. Add the All-Star break on top of that, then yes, the Yankees plan does schedule out correctly.

That is, of course, if everything is smooth sailing in the rotation and with the team in general from here on out. But any person who has been around baseball will tell you “smooth sailing” is just a dream to Managers and GM’s.

To this point in the season Phil Hughes has been one of the most reliable pitchers in the rotation, and the Yanks are going to need him to continue to be strong every time out if they want to make the playoffs this year.

And who’s to say another starter won’t get hurt? Andy Pettitte has been great, but he is 37 years old. AJ Burnett has had shoulder trouble in the past, and Javy Vazquez is not that young himself. Whatever the case may be, the Yankees would need Hughes more than ever if one of the other starters missed time.

Tweaking his scheduled starts could potentially disrupt his rythm that he has finally found this year, so why would you try and fix something that’s not broke?

This plan is similar to the Joba Rules, and we all know how those turned out. But a similar plan was instituted by the Detroit Tigers last year with their young pitcher Rick Porcello that seemed to work.

Granted, Porcello did pitch better after his pitching plan, going 6-3 with a 3.76 ERA after the All-Star break, compared to 8-6 with a 4.14 ERA before the break. But you did notice the Tigers were not in the playoffs last year, after their collapse in the second half of the season.

The Yankees have a lot more resources at their disposal than the Tigers had, and are a better team, but one can only wonder if Porcello had pitched more games last season. Maybe the Tigers would have won the division, instead of losing a tie-breaker, if they could have had just one more win.

Phil Hughes is young at just 23 years old, but has a substantial amount of pitching experience under his belt, certainly more than Porcello had when he made his debut last season.

So just let him pitch. 

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The Yankees have gotten a great effort from Brett Gardner in center field, in place of the injured Curtis Granderson.

But Curtis has completed his rehab stint and is ready to return to his old spot in the Yankees’ outfield. And he couldn’t have picked a better time to come back.

The Bronx (Bomber-less) Bombers have had little production from the offense recently, and Gardner seems to be one of the many players in a slump at the moment. They never seem to have the proverbial “perfect storm.”

When one hitter has started to heat up, another one goes cold. Such is the case with Teixeira and A-Rod this season, two hitters that the Yanks desperately need to get back to the World Series this year. But both have had prolonged slumps this season, which is costing the Yanks right now.

Now with Granderson back, he may be able to key all the hitters together. He will certainly need to pick up his own numbers—his average stands at a lowly .225 and he has only gone deep twice, while driving in seven runs.

I know he has been a disappointment thus far, but if he can recapture his power stroke and start driving the balls out, then he could be just the one thing the Yankees offense is missing.

The Yanks should be able to get their offense jump-started this weekend. Coming off of a series victory in Minnesota, the Yankees welcome the Cleveland Indians to town for four games, then get the perennial bottom-feeders of the AL East, the Orioles, for three.

It’s time to break out the lumber, but will Granderson become the player they traded for in the offseason, or will his numbers continue to nose dive?

Only time will tell.

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Eduardo Nunez is not really a common name among Yankee fans, but it soon could be.

While Derek Jeter has not had the best start to the 2010 season, Nunez has had a brilliant start down in AAA Scranton.

He is currently hitting .328 with two home runs and 21 RBI, he also has 12 steals and has scored 19 runs. Basically, he can do it all, except for fielding.

Nunez committed 33 errors last season at AA, making him a major liability on defense. It’s not that he doesn’t have the arm, in fact he has a cannon of an arm. So good of one that the Yankees wanted to turn him into a pitcher one year that he was struggling.

He just doesn’t know how to control his throws. The problem seems to stem from his foot work.

But there is no denying that he has the offensive tools to get the job done at the big league level as he has climbed up the organizational latter very quickly, considering he is only 22 years old.

As a young short stop in the Yankees’ farm system all he has to do is supplant Derek Jeter. But maybe, just maybe, the Yanks give him that opportunity, considering Jeter is at the end of his contract, and really hasn’t performed as well this season as he has in years past.

By no means am I saying Jeter’s career is over and the Yankees shouldn’t resign him. I think Jeter can still perform at a high level and could do so for another five to seven years, so I think the Yanks would be making a big mistake if they did not resign him after this year.

All I’m saying is that there is a chance that Nunez might be taking over at short for the Yankees in the coming years as Jeter enters his late 30’s.

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The Yankees got a twin killing yesterday against the Twins, giving them exactly what they needed, as the division begins to tighten up a bit.

Every win is starting to mean more and more, now that the Red Sox are back into the swing of things, and the Tigers and Blue Jays remain in contention for the Wild Card spot.

But the Yankees have gotten some help from other teams so far this week (with the suddenly hot Red Sox sweeping the Rays, and the Angels beating the Blue Jays), allowing the Yankees to gain some ground on Tampa, and put some distance between themselves and the other Wild Card contenders.

After winning the first two games of the series in Minnesota, the Yanks have a chance for a much needed sweep.

This should serve as a good test for Javy Vazquez, who is coming off arguably his best start of the season.

Of course his last start apparently means nothing to some people since he was pitching against the Mets, a National League team. The way he pitched in that game, he would have dominated against any team.

In fact, he has had two straight solid starts, and may have his pitching confidence back. And the way Target field is playing, he should be fine tonight.

The offense has yet to have a bust out game, but the pitching of Andy Pettitte and A.J. Burnett have the Yanks back to their winning ways. 

Yankee fans can only hope that Javy can put up a similar performance (to his most recent start) tonight, and that the Yankees will break out the broom, heading into a weekend series versus the Tribe in the Bronx.  

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The Yankees send their ace to the mound, looking for a strong start to get them back on track yet they got the opposite of what they expected.

After surrendering six runs on ten hits, over five innings, CC Sabathia was pulled. So much for the duel of the decade between Santana, and Sabathia.

Now six games out of first, and with the Blue Jays and Tigers clawing at their back, the Yanks will now have to face the always tough Twins in Minnesota.

Even though the Yankees swept the season series against the Twins last year, Minnesota has a renewed confidence against the Yanks. Considering they got their first win in New York in over a year after a grand slam off of Mo.

The Yanks need this series victory now more than ever, and to beat the Twins or anyone else, the offense has to break out, and score some runs.

The pitching has regressed, but no one could have thought they would continue at the rate of success they were having. Thus putting even more emphasis, and depending on the offense to heat things up.

There is help on the way, but Curtis Granderson can’t solve all the offensive woes the Yanks have right now. Espescially since Curtis wasn’t hitting very well before the injury.

The off day on Monday will help, but the Yanks will still have to overcome injuries to Posada and Johnson, and need to start putting some runs up on the board or else they might just find themselves out of the playoffs.

I know it’s still early, but how the Yankees perform over the next month and a half may very well decide their ultimate fate.  

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The look on Mark Teixeira’s face tells it all.

The Yankees are mired in a slump to beat all slumps. Not only has the lights-out pitching from early in the year disappeared, but the offense is sputtering right now as well.

Which is not a good combination.

I’d say the slump started with the Detroit series, which was won by the Tigers three games to one. Then it looked like the Yankees dominance over the Twins would never end, that is until Jason Kubel proved that Mo was in fact human by hitting a grand slam—the first ever slam given up by Mo at Yankee Stadium.

The split with Boston, then came the Rays, who absolutely crushed the Yanks in their abbreviated sweep.

The emergence of Teixeira’s offense has taken a step back toward April. After a hitless and 3 K game tonight against the Mets, he is now hitting .204. Even a bigger surprise is Derek Jeter, who no one has really talked about, but he is just hitting .264 this season after going 0-4 at the plate tonight.

Even Brett Gardner’s hot start is fading away. Also hitless tonight, his average has dropped to .304. A-Rod and Cano seem to be the only reliable guys at the plate right now. And you can’t win ball games with just two hitters.

Throw in Johnson’s surgery and Posada’s injury, which will keep him out for at least a month, and the Yankees are in trouble right now.

But don’t despair, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

The Yankees will conclude a stretch of 17 games in as many days against the Mets on Sunday night, where CC will look to give the Yankees the series win.

After a much needed day off on Monday, the Yankees open a four game slate with the Twins, who the Yanks, traditionally, dominate. But there are no guarantees, as we learned from the Kubel blast.

After the series in Minnesota, the Yankees schedule looks easy, at least on paper. They play four against the Indians, three with the Orioles, three in Toronto, another three against Baltimore, and three with the Astros in the Bronx—certainly a few teams the Yankees can get healthy against.

Speaking of healthy, Curtis Granderson is set to begin his rehab assignment in Scranton and could be ready by the end of this week. And Alfredo Aceves will begin to throw in Tampa on Monday, but still has no time specified for his return.

So the Yanks will be getting an opportunity to gain some ground on Tampa soon, the question is will they take advantage of it?

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It usually isn’t a surprise to see the left side of the Yankee infield in the All-Star game; Derek Jeter has 10 All-Star games under his belt and Alex Rodriguez has 12.

But this year’s All-Star Game in Anaheim, California could see Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano accompanying A-Rod and Jeter.

Cano is probably having the best year of the lot, batting .338 with nine home runs and 28 RBI heading into tonight’s game. So his numbers should speak for themselves, and I believe he will be a starter.

A-Rod isn’t having an A-Rod-esque year, with only six home runs and hitting only .288, but he does have 32 RBI which is good for fifth best in the AL. Plus his superstar status garners him more votes than others.

A-Rod should be a reserve, considering Evan Longoria is hitting .323 with 37 RBI, which is second best in the AL, and Jose Bautista brings his 33 RBI and 12 home runs to the table.

Mark Teixeira will have a shot, but if I had to choose the player that has the least chance of going to Anaheim, it would be ‘Tex’.

The slow month of April continued to hamper Teixeira in 2010, as it has in years past, but he has picked up the slack in May. He came out of April hitting sub .200 and now is hitting .214, but has seven home runs and 30 RBI.

The problem for him though is that there are probably four guys that would be ahead of him right now. Namely Miguel Cabrera, Kendry Morales, Paul Konerko, and Justin Morneau.

Tex would have to really go on a tear to beat his competition out by the numbers, not that he isn’t capable of doing so, but it would be a suprise if he makes the squad.

And that brings us to the face of baseball, one of the most respected and popular players in the game today.

The one, the only, Derek Jeter.

Now Jeter has been in a slump recently that has his average at a lowly .275 and he has struck out 25 times. But he does have 25 RBI out of the lead-off spot this season, which is very impressive.

He is also perennially one of the top vote getters for the All-Star Game, and no real competition has emerged, so Jeter will most likely be in Anaheim this July to take part in his 11th career All-Star game.

All four of the infielders have one thing in common going for them, Joe Girardi, who is the manager this year and has his personal picks of who joins the squad.

It’s unlikely, but don’t be surprised to see the Yankee Pinstripes dotting the infield of Angel Stadium throughout the 2010 All-Star Game. 

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