We are three games into the season and I'm already floating on air and throwing sunshine laced with rainbows at everyone I see. Baseball is back and it has treated me to a focused Yankees' team in April. The feeling of April baseball for a Yankees' fan is something nobody understands. Granted, Royals, Pirates, Nationals and many other fan bases know what it feels like to watch teams play poorly often, to have its hopes up only to see failure in the end and have suffered through bad baseball. I'm not trying to take away from those fans or come off as spoiled and bratty.
But it's an entirely different feeling when the team you have rooted for all of your baseball-viewing life is the Yankees, is expected to win every year, has a target everywhere it plays and notoriously bites the big one in the same month of every season. Being as consistently good as the Yankees have been since I started following them full-time in the strike-shortened 1994 season, and yet always looking so bad to start the year is a feeling only Yankees fans my age can relate. We would never admit it, but I dread the beginning of the year because I know the Sox will be better, I know the Yankees will have countless hating articles about how this is the year they're terrible, how they're a waste of money and the ultimate panic to follow before they straighten out in May or June.
So you can imagine my feelings when I first found out New York was going to face Boston, Tampa and LA, arguably the three best teams besides the Yankees in the league, to start the season. Furthermore, you can probably understand how I felt about starting the season in Fenway and having to play all the division games on the road during a time when the team is supposed to struggle anyway.
Now I've done a complete 180...But you've all been fairly warned, if Tampa sweeps New York or they take two out of three and then the Angels make the Yankees look bad, I'm subject to a 180 in the other direction. It comes with the territory of being skeptical about a team in a certain situation. Let it also be known, regardless of how the Yankees perform to open the year, it won't mean a damn thing come October.
New York and Boston have played relative to six quarters of a basketball season or 90 minutes of hockey, so the results, in terms of long-term, don't mean much.
Nevertheless, first impressions can be noteworthy and this opening series had a lot of them.
- By winning last night after being tied through seven innings, the Yankees are now 17 of their last 17 in games when tied after seven innings. That is a Major League Baseball modern day record (not done since 1906). Score one for the Yankees' bullpen, and obviously, Mariano Rivera. The relentless offense doesn't hurt either.
- Robinson Cano has now hit safely in 16 consecutive games against the Red Sox. For those keeping score at home, he was 5/12 with a home run and three RBI out of the five hole, which is roughly twice his entire 2009 production from that spot.
- Here's the frightening thing about Nick Swisher and especially Nick Johnson. Swisher was 4/11 with a clutch game-tying single against flamer, Daniel Bard, and obviously he has performed very well thus far. Nick Johnson was hitless in the entire series (as was Teixeira even though the Yankees scored 16 runs), yet managed a bases loaded walk and a .400 OBP. The most frightening stat of all? In three games the two combined to see 130 pitches (Johnson -66, Swisher -64). That's roughly 43 pitches per game just from two spots in the order and that's with no hitting production whatsoever from Johnson. There is a reason Yankees games take so long (we'll get to that a little later) and this is a big one. I stick by my prediction that less than 16 starters will pitch 7 innings or more against the Yankees this entire season.
- Curtis Granderson in his first three games as a Yankee? 4/12 with two home runs and two RBI.
- Marco Scutaro, Mike Cameron and Adrian Beltre combined? 10/31 with no home runs and three RBI.
- The Yankees are now 11-2 against the Red Sox (4-2 at Fenway) since August 6th, 2009, after starting that season 0-8.
- Just to measure the patience of the two teams:
Red Sox' relievers pitches per inning:
Bard: 14.4
Papelbon: 16.29
Atchinson: 16.00
Okajima: 27.6
Schoenweis: 13.8
Delcarmen: 20.00
Ramirez: 33.00
218 pitches in 12.1 innings, or 17.67 per inning as a bullpen.
Yankees' relievers pitches per inning:
Park: 15.82
Aceves: 11.50
Chamberlain: 21.00
Rivera: 13.50
Robertson: 15.00
Marte: 27.00
169 pitches in 10.2 innings, or 16.57 per inning as a bullpen.
- Does David Ortiz have to be beloved to be successful? It's a chicken and egg theory to me, but it seems like Ortiz only performs well if he's not facing any scrutiny. Did he get a clutch hit last night because he was due, the crowd was outwardly behind him in response to the media, or because the media pissed him off? Ortiz seems generally just moody by nature. When he was going good he was a solid ambassador and always smiling, when he struggled he's short and has a temper. You would think more players would be like this, but they tend to either be emotionless about their struggles (Jeter), never content (Youkilis) or always pissed off (someone like Paul O'Neill). It's weird to think about.
- This Yankees' bullpen has the potential to be the best in all of baseball.
It has thrown eight consecutive shutout innings since shaking the rust off on Opening Day, and Yankees' pitching overall surrendered just one run in the final 12 innings of the series (get used to the sudden power outages Red Sox fans, when Kevin Youkilis and Victor Martinez are the only guys anyone has the least hint of fear in out of your entire lineup when its in a hitter's park and at home, you're going to go through lulls).
But seriously?
If we saw the real Chan Ho Park last night than he seems to be a second Alfredo Aceves, or, a guy who can eat up wins in relief by pitching any number of innings in any number of situations. If Damaso Marte ever shows his playoff self in the regular season, the Yankees have one of the better lefty specialists in the game (and insurance in Boone Logan and Royce Ring in the minors). David Robertson would appear to be the mirror of Marte, a guy who can neutralize anybody, particularly righties, with a big strike out. Then there's Joba who will more than likely transform into the adrenaline junky with unhittable stuff in the eighth inning like he once was (he already was hitting 96 in his last appearance), and of course, the greatest closer to ever exist in Mariano Rivera at the end.
If Rivera isn't available. Joba can close. If Joba isn't available, Robertson can set up. If Robertson isn't available, Aceves or Park can pitch, if one of them is not available, the other one can step in. The flexibility in this Yankees' bullpen is unmatched, and it doesn't even include the depth waiting for a chance in the minors (Logan and Melancon are MLB ready and simply could not find a spot out of Spring Training). It's going to pose a lot of problems for a lot of teams if this group can stay healthy, and none of that even included the upside of Sergio Mitre in his second year after a major surgery, coming off a solid spring.
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