When the New York Yankees signed C.C. Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, and A.J. Burnett in the offseason, everyone expected the Bronx Bombers to cruise to another division crown and more than likely their 27th World Championship. The Yankees have a payroll of 201,449,189 million dollars, and are still not playing their best baseball.
Well this team hasn't been all it's made out to be. The Yankees are sitting in a tie for 2nd with the Toronto Blue Jays at a respectable 38-32, but are 5 GB of the Boston Red Sox. Alex Rodriguez was forced to miss nearly 2 months with an injury, and is back and playing, but was recently benched for two games, due to his "fatigue", settling in. Let's just be blunt Joe Giradi, he's SLUMPING. Following an 0 for 4 night Tuesday night vs. Atlanta, A-Rod is now flirting with the "Mendoza line," as his average has fallen to .207. He's also hitting a horrendous .143 (9 for 63) in June. When A-Rod claimed he was "lost" all throughout the 2006 season, his average never sank below .274 after mid-May.
Newly acquired Mark Teixeira, got off to a horrific start batting just .200 in the month of April, with 3 home runs and 10 RBI's. He has since straightened it out and is hitting .308 since May 1, with 17 HR's and 46 RBI's. That brought his totals up to .282 AVG., 20 HR's and 56 RBI's. With those numbers and his studly defensive play, he is definitely earning his paycheck.
C.C. Sabathia has struggled at times but has been everything the Yankees expected to be. He's pitched a lot better than his numbers show, as he sits at 6-4 with a 3.71 ERA, with 70 strikeouts over 102 innings. One thing that is severely under looked by everyone is how he's gone 7 or more innings in 10 of his 15 starts. That's including his most recent start where he was pulled after 1 1/3 innings due to tightness in his left bicep. He will throw 20-25 pitches today in his bullpen session to see how it feels, and if he will have to miss a start or make a stop on the DL. If he goes onto the DL, the Yanks will feel pressure as there as been holes in the rotation. A.J. Burnett has also done his part to keep the Yankees in 2nd place, though his numbers don't show it either. He sits at 5-4, with an ERA of 4.24 with 82 strikeouts in 87 innings.
With this high powered offense that the Yankees have, and with home runs flying out of the little league field they play on, there's no reason the Yankees should be blowing teams out left and right. They have now been shutout in 3 games this month. They were shutout by the Boston Red Sox (respectable), the WASHINGTON NATIONALS(ARE YOU SERIOUS!?), and last night by ROOKIE Tommy Hansen and the Atlanta Braves. Granted, Tommy Hansen is a future #1 pitcher, it doesn't matter. This guy is a rookie, and when you have Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Nick Swisher, Jorge Posada, Robinson Cano, Derek Jeter, and Hideki Matsui, there is no excuse, NO EXCUSE, that the New York Yankees EVER get shutout.
With all this being said and the possibility of C.C being out for an extended time, one has to wonder, can the Yankees turn it around and pass the Red Sox up and win another division title, but more important, another World Series?
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