Kuzul

We are here with our third installment of the Clint Eastwood crusade regarding the New York Yankees. If you missed the first installment, click here .

Second installment? Click here .

The Yankees record is 25-14, three games behind the American League East leading Tampa Bay Rays. And the Yankees are home against Tampa for the next few games, then have a short road trip (across the river) to face the New York Mets for three games, and then on to Minnesota.

While the Yankees did not get into first place after Tampa’s dominant nine-game West Coast road trip earlier in the month, they have a chance to make up two games quickly.

After the Yankees, the Rays head to Houston where they luck out against the worst team in baseball.

THE GOOD

Brett Gardner

He has been really good in his time as a starter . Gardner has put up a line of .280 BA/.345 OBP/.380 SLG/.725 OPS with two doubles, a homer, 3 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. He also scored 10 runs. In February, Yankee fans would have signed on the bottom line for those slash numbers for the entire 2010 season. Currently at .321/.399/.412/.811, Gardy has surpassed all of our expectations.

Alex Rodriguez 

After there was talk about his lack of power, he comes up and wins one game with a grand slam , and ties another with a two-run shot in the bottom of the 9th. Even if he wasn’t hitting home runs, I remember lots of stinging line drives ripped all over the field. His OPS is 1.064 over the last two weeks.

Mark Teixeira

The three and four hitters are finally cranking. Tex has raised his season average to .219 with a two-week spurt of .300/.375/.640/1.015 OPS with five homers and 16 RBI. Although, during the last two Yankee losses, he has come up in the last inning with runners on base and made out both times.

Francisco Cervelli

A total pleasure to watch play the game. No HR’s so far (tied with Ben Zobrist in that category). Enthusiasm, ability to call a game, sets up hitters well, and really comes through with RISP. He slashes .647/700/.882/1.582 in that situation with 15 RBI.

I like his aggressive hacks at pitches in the strike zone. Good to see that aggressive nature in this take a pitch down the middle world we live in.

Juan Miranda

Huh? Why? Well, despite his .231 average, Miranda has a .872 OPS with a long double and booming home run. I love the way he attacks the baseball, looking to hit. But while he is aggressive, he does not swing at too many bad pitches.

I have noticed his tendency of being pull happy, trying to pull fastballs on the outside corner. Even the HR he hit last night was on an outside fastball, but he did try and pull a similar pitch in the 9th inning, too.

He must only like the pitch over the plate because he takes too many fastballs on the inner half.

I truly believe the Nick Johnson signing was a waste of $5 million, when Damon or Miranda could have been had for about the same money.

Young pitchers

Because of injuries to Chan Ho Park and Alfredo Aceves, the Yankees had the Chris Britton memorial shuttle to Scranton working overtime. They needed arms and brought up Romulo Sanchez and Ivan Nova to the majors.

Both players responded very well, combining for 6.2 innings of no run ball, allowing five hits, a walk while striking out four.

Nick Swisher

I was not a huge fan of the trade for Swisher , not because of his talent, but when the Yankees got him they had a glut of 1B/DH/RF types already on the roster.

But since the injuries to Curtis Granderson and now Swisher, you really see how Swisher’s presence is missed in the lineup and in the outfield. His new mentality in the batters box really lengthened the Yankee lineup.

Phil Hughes

Despite the not so bad start Monday, Hughes still had a good two weeks. He made three starts, going 2-0 with a 3.32 ERA and 1.105 WHIP. He only walked three batters in 19 IP, a very impressive number.

Andy Pettitte

One start after being skipped and it was more of the same from Andy. 6.1 IP, no runs, good stuff and his fifth victory.

Javy Vazquez

He is moving up the charts quicker than a Taylor Swift single. He was impressive in his two outings, one a start, and one a relief appearance. He pitched seven solid innings in Detroit (but lost a tough one), and entered Monday night’s game to face Kevin Youkilis, and got him swinging with two men on.

His curve appears to have that good break and location, but he needs to keep the fastball on the corners, not in the middle of the plate.

THE BAD

Robinson Cano

He is beginning to swing at non-hittable pitches, getting himself out in the process. His last two weeks have produced .239/.327/.326/.653 OPS with six strikeouts.

CC Sabathia

Three starts, no wins, 5.09 ERA. I know he was ripped off by the bullpen last night and should have gotten the win in Boston before the rain fell, but he is the ace and he can not go three straight starts without a victory.

If I were him, I would sit down with Joe Girardi and tell him, “Unless I am getting knocked around, I want to go eight or nine innings every start. No more of this seven inning garbage.”

AJ Burnett

Two starts, 0-1 record and 8.18 ERA. He is back to Bad AJ, issuing seven free passes and 16 hits in two starts. Almost Ugly. If he has no control of the curveball, he is useless.

David Robertson  

He is improving, but he still walks too many. Six walks in five plus innings, but seven whiffs. He should throw his curveball more for strikes early in the count. No one swings at it and if they do, it isn’t a hittable pitch.

Marcus Thames  

I really would not care if this guy hit five game winning home runs last week, he stinks. The only reason he is not part of the ugly group is the one game-winning home run.

He obviously can’t field, can’t throw and can’t hit righties. He is the ultimate one-dimensional player.

And with a team beset by injuries, that is the worst type of position player to have on the roster.

THE UGLY

Derek Jeter

If I see one corpuscle of blood come across the hall…I mean one more weak ground ball to short, I am going to freak out. FREAK OUT!  

Last night, I had more confidence in Juan Miranda coming through in the ninth inning than I would have if Randy Winn got on base and Jeter came up with a chance to win the game.

He takes too many fastball strikes, can’t hit with authority with the ones he does swing at, and flails at WAY TOO MANY breaking pitches outside the zone.

Jorge Posada

He needs to play or go on the DL. It is a waste to have him on the roster without using him.

If a limping Kirk Gibson can go to the plate in the 1988 World Series against Dennis Eckersley, then Posada could have pinch hit for Winn in last night’s game.

Posada is showing his age with all the nagging injuries. As I said, either DL him or play him.

Boone Logan  

Boone Logan stinks. Why is Girardi the only one who does not see this? In 6.1 innings this season, Logan has allowed ten runners! Lefties are hitting .357 off him with a .500 slugging percentage.

Send him out and bring up a versatile position player like Kevin Russo, who is now playing outfield in Scranton.

Joba Chamberlain

Whew! Not much to say, we all saw the two games.

Joe Girardi

I pretty much said a couple things about Joe already, but for him to need another pitcher by sending down a speedy outfielder like Greg Golson when Nick Swisher is unavailable, this might be the dumbest move I have seen all year. 

Except when Girardi brings Logan into a game.

Girardi has this penchant for resting certain guys as DH’s, giving them a half day off. That is stupid. Either give them the full day or play them in the field. Have a set DH.

The revolving DH has pushed the Yankees into a non-DH situation three times recently where the pitcher would need to hit, one which was Monday night when there were no bench players left. If the game went into extra innings, then Vazquez would have had to hit.

And if Posada can not play, then Cervelli is the only catcher with Ramiro Pena as the back-up. But when Pena was removed from the game the other day (Alex went in), the DH was lost and not only did the Yankees have no one to pinch hit, they had no backup catcher at all!

Girardi needs to have much better roster management. With too many guys unavailable, but still on the roster, they need versatile guys and a set DH.

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No outs, the tying run is on second base, and the Yankees are down by a single run.

Before I continue, I’ll set the scene. 

One night earlier, Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon blew a save in devastating fashion, allowing a game-tying two-run homer to Alex Rodriguez, and a walk-off bomb to journeyman OF Marcus Thames.

Papelbon’s back on the mound, and his shortstop immediately lets him down. Rodriguez, leading off the ninth inning and facing the fiery right-hander for the second consecutive game, grounds one in the hole to Marco Scutaro.

Boston’s coaching staff has Scutaro positioned perfectly. That precise positioning goes for naught, as Scutaro boots the grounder en route to his second error of the evening. 

2B Robinson Cano follows up with an opposite-field double. Rodriguez comes around to score, and Papelbon – once again – is in a world of trouble.

Up comes burgeoning fan favorite Francisco Cervelli. The young back-up catcher is hitting .375 with 15 RBI in limited time. If those numbers aren’t impressive enough, Cervelli is hitting .647 with runners in scoring position.

.647. Seriously.

So we’re back to where we started: no outs, the tying run is on second base, the Yankees are down by a single run, a haunted closer has the fresh memory of a heart-wrenching loss on his mind, and New York has a guy with a .647 batting average with RISP at the plate.

Red Sox fans can only be thinking one thing, “Here we go again, and how many times have I thought this in my life?”

Papelbon is feeling the pressure, even if he isn’t showing it. He’s struggling to get outs. His confidence isn’t where it normally is. He’s questioning his ability to get these Yankees hitters out.

So what does Joe Girardi decide?

To give Papelbon a free out, of course. Girardi calls for the sacrifice bunt, taking the bat out of the hands of his best clutch hitter to this point in the season, and giving away a freebie to Paps and his teammates.

There’s a pitcher out there who is desperate for an out, scratching and clawing to find his groove, and you bunt with a guy who is hitting .647 with RISP? You bunt when the tying run is already in scoring position?

Now this play would make sense if Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Rodriguez, or Cano were batting behind Cervelli, but they obviously weren’t. The surefire Hall of Famers, Thames, Juan Miranda, and Randy Winn were set to follow Cervelli in the order.

Really think about what Girardi opted for here. Not only does he take the bat out of the hands of the best contact hitter of the foursome (Cervelli), he also gives Boston an out, and puts all the pressure on arguably the worst three positioned players on the Yankees roster. 

Sure Thames came through the night before, but wouldn’t you rather have three cracks at an RBI as opposed to two? Wouldn’t a single by Cervelli likely score the run from second base anyway?

Generally speaking, sabermetricians hate the sacrifice bunt; and though I don’t agree with all of their cutting-edge strategies, I do agree that the sac bunt is an illogical and mathematically unsound play. Some situations definitely call for it (a pitcher in the batter’s box), but the Cervelli situation was not one of them.

Girardi blew that potential comeback, and there’s no convincing me otherwise. He left the game in Winn’s hands, a man who is batting .136 with runners in scoring position.

I guess Cervelli’s .647 wasn’t good enough for Joe.

(John Frascella is the author of Theo-logy: How a Boy Wonder Led the Red Sox to the Promised Land, the first and only book centered on Boston’s GM Theo Epstein. Check it out on Amazon or follow John’s Twitter @RedSoxAuthor).

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Last night’s loss to the Boston Red Sox has to leave a bad taste in the Yankees mouths. With a 5-0 lead after seven innings and Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera lurking in the bullpen, the Yankees likely thought this game was over and they would sweep the short two game series.

Think again. For the second straight night, the Yankees bullpen blew a fairly comfortable lead against the Red Sox. It was not just on the pitchers however. There is plenty of blame that can be tossed around after this game.

Joba Chamberlain

Joba entered the game to start the eighth inning after starter CC Sabathia battled through seven scoreless innings of work. With a 5-0 lead, Chamberlain promptly gave up four runs on four hits to allow the Red Sox to get back in the game. Three of the four runs were earned. He did not strike out a single batter in his inning of work. Five run lead or not, Joba needs to pitch better than this. He needs to learn to treat each game like its a one run game.

Marcus Thames

Yes he had the game winning hit the night before, but last night Thames was one of the big reasons the Yankees lost. Playing right field because the team is short on outfielders right now and Nick Swisher remains day-to-day with an injury. With Mariano Rivera on the mound in the ninth inning, Thames and second baseman Robinson Cano converged on a short fly ball. Thames called off Cano, but while doing so he took his eye off the ball. When he looked back up, the ball was in his lap. The error cost the Yankees and allowed the inning to continue.

Continue this story and see who else can be blamed, visit Double G Sports.

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In the midst of their worst offensive slump of the season and having loss four of five, the Yankees return home to open up a seven-game, three-team homestand against the American League Central-leading Minnesota Twins.

The Yanks and Twins enter their three-game set with identical 22-12 records, good for second best in the Majors behind the Rays and tied with the Padres.

Like New York, Minnesota has done it with a mix of good hitting and solid pitching. The Twins lead the AL with a .277 batting average and are second with a 3.51 ERA.

But the Bombers have dominated the Twins of late, winning all 10 meetings last year, including a three-game sweep in the AL Division Series, and Minnesota has dropped eight straight in the Bronx.

Let’s take a look at the pitching matchups.

Friday, May 14—A.J. Burnett (4-1, 3.40) vs. Scott Baker (4-2, 4.57)

Burnett allowed almost as many earned runs in his last start against the Red Sox (eight) as he did in his first six games combined (nine).

After his worst appearance of the season, the right-hander will look to bounce versus the Twins, a team against which he is 2-1 with a 3.72 ERA in six career starts.

Jim Thome (7-for-30, .233, 11 K’s), Michael Cuddyer (2-for-13, .154, 6 K’s), Brendan Harris (2-for-12, .167) and Nick Punto (1-for-11, .091) all struggle when facing Burnett.

Not surprisingly, Joe Mauer (5-for-13, .385) does not.

Baker is coming off back-to-back wins over the Tigers and Orioles, and while he is 2-1 with a 4.20 ERA in three lifetime starts against the Yankees (1-0, 1.80 in the Bronx), the current Bombers lineup hits .319 and slugs .623 off him.

Marcus Thames is batting just .231 against righties this year, but he has to be in the lineup on Friday because he’s 8-for-26 (.308) with four homers and six RBIs versus Baker.

Mark Teixeira is also 4-for-7 (.571) with a homer, but Alex Rodriguez is 0-for-7 with four strikeouts.

Saturday, May 15—Andy Pettitte (4-0, 2.08) vs. Francisco Liriano (4-1, 2.36)

Pettitte returns from his overly-cautious, one-start removal from the rotation and hopefully the long layoff won’t affect the great start he’s had.

The veteran southpaw is 9-5 with a 3.70 ERA in 19 career starts against Minnesota, but the current Twins roster hits .358 off him.

Brendan Harris is 8-for-17 (.471), Cuddyer is 5-for-14 (.357) with a homer, Delmon Young is a ridiculous 9-for-14 (.643), and Mauer and Justin Morneau are each 4-for-10 (.400). Thome, however, is 6-for-28 (.214) with 10 K’s.

Liriano suffered his first loss of the season on Saturday, surrendering five runs on 10 hits over six innings versus Baltimore.

The left-hander is 0-1 with a 2.77 ERA in three games (two starts) against New York, and he gave up one run in six frames in his only appearance at Yankee Stadium.

Facing Liriano, Teixeira is 1-for-9 (.111) with an incredible seven strikeouts, but that one hit was a home run.

Thames is an easy start in this one as he is 4-for-9 with three homers against the southpaw.

Sunday, May 16—Sergio Mitre (0-1, 3.86) vs. Nick Blackburn (3-1, 4.76)

As of Friday afternoon, the Yankees haven’t announced a starter for Sunday, but it will probably be Mitre thanks to a rainout-induced doubleheader on Wednesday that would force either Javier Vazquez or Phil Hughes to work on short rest if they were to start on Sunday.

I’d prefer Hughes on three-days’ rest over Mitre on steroids, but Joe Girardi probably isn’t going to want to push the young right-hander too hard in his first full season as a starter.

As expected, Mitre lasted just 4 1/3 innings and gave up four runs in a loss at Detroit on Monday.

He has never faced the Twins, but four men on their roster have batted against him. Orlando Hudson is 3-for-9 (.333) with a home run and Thome is 3-for-4 (.750) with a double, but Harris and Young are a combined 0-for-6.

After a rocky first four starts, Blackburn earned a complete-game win over the Tigers and followed that up with seven scoreless innings against the Orioles in another victory on Sunday.

The right-hander is 0-1 with a 5.89 ERA in four starts versus the Bombers, and he allowed four earned runs in 7 2/3 innings in his only start at the new Yankee Stadium last year.

A-Rod is 3-for-9 (.333) and a homer off Blackburn, Derek Jeter is 3-for-7 (.429) with a blast and Teixeira is a remarkable 6-for-6 with five RBIs and a walk. Robinson Cano, however, is 0-for-8.

Follow me on Twitter at JordanHarrison .

Jordan Schwartz is one of Bleacher Report’s New York Yankees and College Basketball Featured Columnists. His book Memoirs of the Unaccomplished Man is available at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and authorhouse.com.

Jordan can be reached at jordanschwartz2003@yahoo.com

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On a windy day in Detroit, the Yankees were shut out for the second time in the past three games as Justin Verlander dominated them in a 6-0 loss on Thursday.

The Tigers ace allowed just four hits and struck out four in 6.2 scoreless innings as he outdueled CC Sabathia, who was touched up for six runs on nine hits in six frames.

New York’s offense has gone silent over the past week. Outside of a six-run ninth on Wednesday, the Bombers have scored just nine runs in their last five games, losing four of them.

Is it injuries, an expected slump, or the wrong people being slotted in the lineup?

Let’s take a look at the grades from the series finale at Comerica Park.

Joe Girardi, Manager: (C-) The bottom third of the Yanks’ order on Thursday resembled a Spring Training lineup. Juan Miranda, who was making his season debut after 19 career at-bats the previous two years, hit seventh; Randy Winn, who entered the game batting .219, hit eighth; and Greg Golson, who picked up his first big league hit on Wednesday, hit ninth.

Part of the problem is injuries: Curtis Granderson and Nick Johnson are both on the disabled list (although neither of them were exactly tearing the cover off the ball when they were healthy). And Nick Swisher sat out due to soreness in his bicep.

I don’t have a huge problem giving Swisher a day to rest because he’s 7-for-38 (.184) with 14 strikeouts in his career against Verlander anyway, but starting Miranda, Winn and Golson on the same day against the Tigers’ best pitcher gave the Yanks very little chance to score runs.

I thought Francisco Cervelli (.408 average, .276 vs. RHP), Marcus Thames (.341 average, although he does hit only .231 vs. RHP) or Ramiro Pena (2-for-3 vs. Verlander) would’ve all been better starts than Miranda and Golson.

Most importantly, the Yankees need to figure out a way to get Cervelli into the lineup more, especially with Granderson and Johnson out. They should call up a third catcher, so Cervelli and Posada can DH when they are not catching and there’s no risk to running out of catchers in case one of them gets hurt. This is a more valuable position to have on the roster than a fifth outfielder (Golson) or a sixth infielder (Miranda).

Derek Jeter, SS: (C-) The captain continued his recent slide by going 1-for-4 with a strikeout. He is now 8-for-51 (.157) in May, or as I like to call it, the anti-Teixeira.

Brett Gardner, CF: (D) I love Gardner in the No. 2 hole and hope he remains there even after Johnson returns, but the center fielder had a rough game on Thursday, going 1-for-5 to drop to 5 for his last 20 (.250).

Mark Teixeira, DH: (D+) A lifetime .366 hitter as a DH, Teixeira went 0-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.

Alex Rodriguez, 3B: (D) A-Rod wasn’t very patient at the plate, seeing just eight pitches en route to an 0-for-4 performance, but he did make a nice spinning play on a Magglio Ordonez grounder in the first.

Robinson Cano, 2B: (D+) Cano was 0-for-3 with a walk to drop to 5-for-28 (.179) since May 5.

Jorge Posada, DH: (A-) Posada was the only Yankees batter to pick up two hits or an extra-base knock, but in typical Posada fashion, he had a passed ball and let another pitch bounce off his glove when no one was on base.

Sabathia has a 2.50 ERA in 36 innings pitching to Cervelli. He has a 6.23 ERA in 17 1/3 innings with Posada.

New York would be best served with Cervelli catching three out of every five games, and Posada catching the other two, with both of them in the lineup at least as the DH every day.

Juan Miranda, 1B: (D+) Miranda was 0-for-3 with a walk.

Randy Winn, LF-RF: (C) I’ll give credit to Winn for fouling off a lot of pitches against Verlander and working up his pitch count, so that he had to exit in the seventh. However, the Yankees couldn’t do anything against the Tigers’ bullpen either. Winn saw 28 pitches in four plate appearances.

Greg Golson, RF: (F) I imagine I’d look exactly the same as Golson did facing those first two breaking balls from Verlander in the second inning. Then again, I’m not a Major Leaguer.

Marcus Thames, PH-LF: (C+) Despite his poor batting average against right-handers, Thames did work a walk against Verlander in the seventh before striking out against Joel Zumaya in the ninth.

CC Sabathia, SP: (F) The big lefty turned in his worst start of the season and was really done in by back-to-back homers by Miguel Cabrera and Brennan Boesch in the fourth.

Ivan Nova, RP: (A) The one bright spot in this game was the Major League debut of Nova, who struck out one and allowed just two hits in a pair of scoreless innings. But much like Romulo Sanchez, who pitched a solid 3.2 innings the other day, Nova should be headed back to Triple-A shortly.

Yankees Overall Grade: (F) The Bombers managed just four hits, going 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and stranding 11 baserunners. It was only their second lost series of the season, though, and those have both come on the road against teams that will be in the hunt for the playoffs. The Yankees face four different teams over the next eight days, all without leaving New York City.

Follow me on Twitter at JordanHarrison .

Jordan Schwartz is one of Bleacher Report’s New York Yankees and College Basketball Featured Columnists. His book Memoirs of the Unaccomplished Man is available at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and authorhouse.com.

Jordan can be reached at jordanschwartz2003@yahoo.com

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

WhatIfSports.com utilizes its award-winning baseball simulation engine to present the most comprehensive and unbiased ranking possible of all 30 teams in baseball each Monday during the regular season. To come up with the rankings, using only their statistical performance to date this season, each team is simulated against every other team 100 times (50 at home and 50 away) so that all five pitchers in the current rotation start ten times at each location.

(Note: If a pitcher who was in the rotation was recently put on the DL, he will not be included in the simulations.

Teams Ranked by Winning Percentage
(everyone plays everyone 100 times)

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Brett Gardner continues to have a big impact for the New York Yankees.

Last night the Yankees came from behind to beat the Chicago White Sox 6-4. Derek Jeter was the hero of the game as he had a single, a two run homer and a two run triple. Jeter drove in four runs and scored another.

But Gardner was critical too. Gardner went 2-3 with a stolen base. And two of the runs Jeter drove in were Gardner crossing the plate.

Gardner finished the game hitting .323. It is hard to imagine that manager Joe Girardi will continue to platoon Gardner if he continues to hit this way.

Thus far this year Girardi has shown a reluctance to start Gardner against left handed pitchers but Gardner is making it harder and harder for Girardi to make that choice.

Marcus Thames had 10 hits in 17 at bats in his platoon role so he gives justification to Girardi’s platoon strategy. But Gardner deserves to play every day and should not be taken from the lineup as long as he is producing.

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