Spanish Harlem – It has not a been a good start to the season for the New York Yankees, to say the least.
Trust me… I know its the beginning of the season and baseball is a marathon, not a sprint. Still, it leaves me and many fans – like me – with a bad taste in the mouth. Let’s look under the hood…
…starting with the team’s greatest strength.
Offense
This is the Yanks’ most feared component. Power at almost every point in the lineup, with guys that can do a lot of damage when everything is clicking. The thing is… nobody is hitting, not only that but the at bats are awful. They lead the league in double plays and can’t sustain any offense with men on base. Aaron Judge is their best hitter right now but when you look up and down that lineup there is not one person you can trust right now to get the big hit. Things will change and it will get better but this group will still strike out a bunch.
Pitching
Probably, a bigger problem than the offense. Gerrit Cole being the exception, guys are not putting up zeros. To make matter worse, they are surrendering crooked numbers every game. I’m not here telling you that they have to throw shut outs but keeping the game scoreless for more than 3 innings is not a lot to ask for when you consider the amount of good starters they have on the squad. Corey Kluber and Jameson Tallion figure to have some rust coming back from injuries but they are looking downright bad. At least with the hitting, you know that things will eventually come around. The same can not be said about the pitching. Luis Severino should be back at some point this season but the questions still remain with what you can get out of him, considering he is also coming back from Tommy John surgery.
Defense
What can I say about Gleyber Torres that hasn’t already been said? He may turn out to be a good shortstop some day but the way he is playing, you can easily see that he is not comfortable. The mental part of the game may be getting to him because you see him shaking his head way too often. I like the kid and think he is a special talent, hopefully he can understand that he has to make the easy plays and not try too hard to make up for mistakes. It doesn’t help that Jay Bruce looks out of position at first as well. Anything in the dirt is not getting scoped. Some plays may be harder than others but he is not helping his teammates with his play. At this point, he makes Luke Voit look like an elite defender.
That’s it for now, I’m done complaining, come back tomorrow for Different Matt, who as the first Yankee fan to write for this site, feels my pain.
Until Next Time…
